Chapter 360: Radiance (Patreon)

In DC World With Marvel Chat Group : Table of Content/Chapter List

XXX-----XXX-----XXX-----XXX

Wakanda, a hidden gem on the African continent, stands as a beautiful city in a land that has not yet shed its wildness and barbarism. It symbolizes humanity's determination to transform nature and build its own home.

The geographical environment of Wakanda is not superior. Like all tropical countries, Wakanda is hot and dry all year round, and its land area is very small. Even in the fragmented map of Africa, it is considered one of the smallest countries.

The natural environment is not great, and the cultural environment is even worse. Although several East African countries are still relatively competitive in Africa, Wakanda, which has emerged as a rising power, has almost no communication with neighboring countries, whether in terms of technological level or education. They have nothing to talk about with their neighbors, let alone doing business.

However, Wakanda's civilization is highly developed, and using the adjective "very" is not an exaggeration. For example, Wakanda had already conquered cancer many years ago, and the average life expectancy of Wakandans is the longest in the world. They wear a monitoring bracelet from birth to monitor their health, and if there is any illness, they will receive free medical treatment.

At the same time, their spy agency is incredibly strong, not only able to compete with the CIA but also once developed a plan to defend against the planet-eating Galactus.

Their hard technological strength is even more impressive. They are the only country on Earth with a formal fleet of spacecraft. Although their spacecraft fleet cannot compare with the Kree's spacecraft and still uses the most basic chemical fuel, they are still a powerful military force in the Solar System.

At the same time, they are a civilization that combines technology and magic. In addition to the most famous heart-shaped herb, they can obtain the power of beasts from the worship of the Beast God. Their palace guards and the king's exclusive female guards all have powers beyond ordinary people.

Combining these conditions, Wakanda is like a paradise on the African continent in the eyes of outsiders. Even in New York, many people think it is heaven. Thanks to the powerful work of their intelligence agency, Wakanda has a significant advantage in the international public opinion arena.

Even if we set aside political correctness, most Wakandans are highly respected internationally because their country's welfare benefits are too good, and their education level is incredibly high. There are Wakandans in every top university in the world.

Their citizens have high quality, are good at making friends, and are committed to fighting against skin color discrimination, making them well-respected internationally.

But this country, which seems like heaven in the media, also has troubles. Only after personal contact can one understand Wakanda's helplessness.

Like all high-welfare countries, their political system relies on the welfare system to maintain stability, and once the welfare is reduced, unrest follows.

What's even more deadly is that the high-welfare countries in Northern Europe are complete countries, but Wakanda is a tribal alliance, and once similar things happen, the situation will only get worse.

"Erik... cough..." T'Challa held his chest, leaning against the wall, blood flowing from his fingers. The whole room was filled with the smell of blood, his lips began to turn blue, and his eyes were a bit dull. Obviously, he was on the brink of death due to excessive blood loss.

"T'Challa, you should repent." Another black man stood in front of him, and the light from outside the window projected onto his figure, casting his shadow over T'Challa like a black beast ready to devour him.

Erik spoke to T'Challa in Wakandan, "The chance of becoming the king of Wakanda should have been mine! You cheated in the duel, violating the honor code of Wakandan warriors!"

T'Challa's face remained calm as he looked at the spear in Erik's hand. The tip of the spear blinked with the unique luster of Vibranium, but there was also some dark energy that T'Challa had never seen before.

"Erik, you have turned to the evil gods and betrayed our Black Panther God. You have disappointed me," T'Challa said.

"You don't understand," Erik tightly held the spear in his hand and said. "You are trapped in this small country, trapped on this damn and hopeless continent. You don't understand how vast the world is, and how powerful the forces that can be used for me are."

"You control such a precious resource as Vibranium, but only use it for some insignificant experiments, and even cooperate with those Americans. How foolish and shortsighted!"

T'Challa tilted his head back, seemingly struggling to breathe. The self-healing ability brought by the heart-shaped herb seemed to be suppressed by an unknown force, making his injuries more severe.

"It's you who are foolish, Erik! Do you think I don't know what you're up to? Do you dare to swear to me, like a Wakandan warrior, that you haven't cooperated with those evil forces?"

"Shut up! What right do you have to demand that I do that? And I am different from you. I am working for a greater cause," Erik retorted.

T'Challa's face showed an extremely mocking expression, and he closed his mouth, seeming to not want to talk to Erik anymore. Erik was extremely annoyed by his attitude, and he raised the spear high.

His Adam's apple kept trembling, seeming to be hesitant and fearful, but soon, he seemed to have thought of something, and his expression became more and more ferocious. He exerted force on his arm, and in an instant, he fiercely stabbed into the air, shouting, "Hydra!"

Suddenly, the spear was blocked by a thick energy, and the recoil sent Erik flying out. T'Challa had already closed his eyes, ready to face death, but suddenly he felt a familiar power surrounding him. He said in confusion, "Panther God Bast? Is it you? Why..."

He held his chest and tried to get up from the ground. At this moment, a familiar voice came, "If I were you, I wouldn't move. Do you want to bleed more, T'Challa?"

T'Challa widened his eyes and said, "Tony? Tony, is it you?"

As he turned his head to look for Stark's figure, a strange-shaped portal suddenly appeared in mid-air, and several figures walked out of it, including Stark in his armor.

Of course, it wasn't just people who came out of it, there was also a cat shadow, or rather a panther shadow. A black panther about the size of an ordinary panther walked out of the portal. When the tip of its tail left the portal, the portal closed.

Feeling the divine power, T'Challa coughed heavily and said, "It really is Panther God Bast. Why are you here at this time?"

But no one paid attention to him, because one of the people in a coat turned to Strange and said, "What did that guy shout? Did I hear it wrong?"

"What...Hydra? Who is Hydra?" Strange was also puzzled. Erik's posture just now seemed like he was summoning demon gods to descend. Strange had already prepared defensive magic in his hand, but he just shouted a slogan and then collapsed.

Schiller frowned, his expression serious. He said to Strange, "Open a portal to bring Steve over. If Peter is also there, bring him over too."

Seeing Schiller's serious expression, Strange also knew that this was not a joking matter. He opened the portal and left.

Stark turned to Erik and whispered, "Hydra? Damn..."

Schiller gave him a look, and the two spoiler fans instantly had a tacit understanding and didn't talk about this topic again.

At this time, the Black Panther had already placed its paw on T'Challa's chest. With a thick white energy pouring into T'Challa's body, his complexion began to improve significantly.

However, there was always a black energy surrounding the deepest wound, and the panther tried several times to dispel it but only managed to dissipate a part of it. The rest was like a festering sore, constantly reopening T'Challa's wound.

T'Challa pressed the panther's paw with his hand and said to Bast, "Thank you, Your Majesty. It's enough."

The panther's face showed a very human-like expression of disagreement. It looked a bit irritable, but it couldn't be blamed.

Why did this group of people appear here with the Panther God Bast? It all started when they planned to enter the Panther God dimension earlier.

After Christmas, Nick Fury had a rare moment of peace. This period until the beginning of next year was a rare time when he didn't have to worry about funding. Therefore, when he received Schiller's invitation to negotiate with the Panther God, he readily agreed and said that if this panther was willing to help him solve next year's funding, he would be a staunch animal protectionist.

The combination of half-Batman and Nick Fury was excellent. These two black creatures taught Panther God Bast a lesson, that black also has different levels. You can be black, but you can't be too black, and you can't be black in both face and heart...

The two of them had only been in the Panther God dimension for a short while when they were thrown out. Panther God Bast agreed for the first time to let people of other skin colors enter his dimension, and then Schiller went in...

Of course, Schiller knew that saving people was the top priority, so after he and Strange had been pushing the Panther God's membership package for two hours, he explained his intentions and asked Bast to save T'Challa.

Fortunately, in the dimension where Panther God was located, the flow of time was different from the outside world, so only a dozen seconds had passed in reality.

And Erik, who attacked T'Challa, happened to belong to the type of villain who died from talking too much. After he seriously injured T'Challa, he did not pursue his victory but instead stayed in place and talked. So the rescue team arrived just as he was about to attack again.

Panther God was originally studying the dark energy on T'Challa's chest, but T'Challa had already stood up. When Panther God turned his head, he saw the spear that had been bounced away by his defensive power.

There was a hint of ominous dark energy blinking on the tip of the spear, and at the very top, there seemed to be a strange light shining, as if it had been poisoned.

Panther God walked over and sniffed the spear with his nose. He showed a puzzled expression. Just then, with a "plop," T'Challa, who had just stood up, fell to the ground again.

"Hahaha, he's doomed! I smeared it with poison, and no one can save him!" Erik shouted.

Stark showed a disdainful expression. At this time, Panther God had already rushed to T'Challa's side. He used his unique power to merge into T'Challa's body. But soon, Panther God lowered his head in confusion and looked at his own paw.

Seeing Panther God's actions, Stark realized that something was wrong. He quickly walked over, half-knelt down, and checked T'Challa's condition.

Because T'Challa had dark skin, the status of his skin couldn't be seen. Stark opened the arm device of his armor and inserted a probe into T'Challa's body while using another hand to activate the scanner.

As soon as the scanner was turned on, JARVIS sounded the alarm, "Warning! Warning! Life is in danger, unknown toxin being decrypted... Unable to decrypt..."

"Collect blood for analysis."

"Analysis in progress... No results." JARVIS explained, "From the data, this is not any known toxin to humans. Its composition is unknown, and the decryption of its composition is blocked by a mysterious force. Perhaps higher power equipment is needed to support it..."

At this time, JARVIS sounded two more alarms, saying, "Please administer immediate treatment; otherwise, the other party may die immediately..."

Stark pounded the floor and stood up. He reached out to pull out the energy core from his chest and replaced it with a higher power core to forcibly decrypt the composition.

At this moment, Panther God shook his tail, and T'Challa disappeared directly. Then he used his paw to pat the ground, and the group returned to his dimension. Schiller looked around and asked Panther God, "Did you freeze time here?"

Panther God let out a low roar, then walked to T'Challa's side. The panther's face showed a very human-like expression of thought.

"It seems to be something related to mysticism," Stark tilted his head. Schiller said to Stark, "Did you hear what that person was shouting just now?... Hydra."

Stark turned his head and looked into the distance. There was an endless grassland, and a horn sound with a barbaric atmosphere came from afar. The light and shadow on this ancient land rolled in front of him.

Stark's voice became lower and lower, like the sound of wind passing low over the wilderness.

"Above Space, it is not omniscient. But in the countless stories I have seen, this name has been mentioned countless times, like a cancer attached to Earth."

"I didn't ask you that question before because I thought that since you had chosen an attitude, it meant that you already had an answer. But now I have to ask, have you seen your parents'..."

"I saw it." Stark answered this question positively for the first time. He continued, "...But not only my parents, when several stories came to an end, thousands of parents died in an instant."

Stark's voice became heavier, like the sound of wind passing low over the wilderness.

"They didn't leave behind huge wealth, didn't leave anything for their children to survive on, and disappeared silently."

Stark was a little stunned and absent-minded, as if recalling those scenes. He said, "...No last words, no relics, not even a cause of death. And no one will explain to those children why their parents died..."

The dazzling sunlight on the grassland made Stark squint. In his vision, the light became blurred. He said, "It sounds absurd, but these tragedies stopped me."

"At the moment when I was about to become the only one, I saw the truth of Howard's death. At that moment, I wanted to freeze that state forever and then destroy everything related to it. I knew that as long as I did that, no one could escape..."

"But soon, the endings of these stories flooded into my mind and completely crushed my momentary anger. I felt desperate because of it."

Stark closed his eyes, and several deep folds appeared between his eyebrows, making his expression look painful.

"Feeling the layers upon layers, endless and irreversible tragedies in an instant almost made me collapse."

"So, you chose..."

"No." Stark took another deep breath. His chest rose and fell, and then returned to calm. He said, "Do you remember the questions you asked JARVIS and me before?"

"At that moment of decision, I thought, if Howard saw all of this, what would he do?"

"...He was a thoroughly bad person, not a good father, but he would spare no effort to stop all of this." Stark almost gritted his teeth.

"This is us, this is Stark."

Schiller looked into Stark's eyes and saw a special light there. Unlike other superheroes, there was no humility, simplicity, or kindness. There was only an almost arrogant pride.

Schiller patted his shoulder and said, "If Stark can remain indifferent after seeing all of this and add another straw to the situation of human peril, then he wouldn't be who he is."

"However, you can also think about it in another way." Schiller still planned to fulfill his duty and said, "You have also experienced the same situation. The military started the war, and you were just a weapons dealer. Even if there are arms dealers who start wars for profit, it's not you. But in the end, all the blame falls on you."

"Just like when you wanted to close the weapons department, I said, don't blame the gun. Even if you want to judge the gun, you have to kill the person holding the gun first. Otherwise, how do you know if he will shoot you again?"

Schiller's gaze fell on T'Challa, who was unconscious and on the brink of death. Stark followed his gaze, and his eyes began to deepen. He said, "Maybe... you're right."

"Now, they have fired another shot, and they pulled the trigger in front of me. I almost lost another important friend because of this..."

After speaking, Stark turned and walked towards the teleportation door he came in from. He said as he walked, "This tells me one thing: if I don't take action, their bullets are endless."

On this fictional grassland, the light is always strong. When it shines on Stark's armor, the metal reflects a dazzling light. But Schiller prefers to believe that it is Stark himself who is shining because of his innate sense of mission and responsibility.

It is also because of these people called heroes that they have experienced extraordinary brilliance from all the ordinary joys and sorrows.

The big event is over, but not completely over.

[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, without ads and support the work.]

XXX-----XXX-----XXX-----XXX

Next Chapter>>Chapter 361: The Strange Plot Twist