Chapter 531: The Plot Takes Another Strange Turn (Part 1) (Patreon)

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On the tenth level of the Temple of Thought, inside the hospital room of the Asylum, young Schiller and the towering Khonshu sat side by side on the bedside. Schiller was placing a circular piece from Khonshu's staff onto his wrist, while Khonshu was fixing his staff using a pile of circular components.

Holding his partially repaired staff, Khonshu extended his arm, taking the staff further away to examine it. Finding certain details unsatisfactory, he brought it back to continue the repairs. Young Schiller had been playing with the circular piece all this while, seemingly studying why it emitted light.

Suddenly, the room in the Temple of Thought trembled gently. Some of the worn-out walls shed bits of plaster onto the floor. Khonshu, perplexed, looked around, but he didn't notice anything amiss. However, young Schiller immediately stood up.

In the midst of Khonshu's slightly alarmed expression, a black umbrella appeared in Schiller's hand, and right after, the tip of the umbrella "twanged," revealing a hidden blade.

"What's going on? Where are you headed?" Khonshu stood up and asked.

Young Schiller didn't respond; he simply strode out of the hospital room, clutching the umbrella blade. His chilling words lingered in the room:

"I'm going to kill."

In the real world, Steve sat between the two beds, engrossed in a magazine.

Initially tired, he had experienced intense emotional fluctuations earlier and engaged in various reasoning, which had consumed a great deal of mental energy. However, due to his ongoing anxiety, the more nervous he felt, the harder it became for him to sleep. Instead, he occupied himself with the magazine the nurses had brought him.

Through the edges of the magazine, he noticed Schiller, who had been lying on the bed, make a slight movement. Steve immediately put away the magazine, ready to approach Schiller and talk to him. But all of a sudden, he realized that Schiller's demeanor had changed.

In a moment, Schiller's eyes opened, and his icy, ruthless gaze communicated to Steve that the person who had returned wasn't the gentle psychologist but a cold-blooded killer with an anti-society personality.

With somewhat mechanical movements, Schiller sat up on the bed. Meanwhile, Stark on the neighboring bed also woke up. Steve turned around and saw Stark sitting on the bed, shaking his head, and then suddenly springing up.

Stark extended his hands toward Schiller, trying to calm him down, saying, "Schiller, calm down. Listen to me and let me explain. There's a huge misunderstanding here. I didn't mean to..."

As Steve turned his head back, he noticed that Schiller's clothes were tinged with silver. The light outside the window dimmed suddenly, and Steve saw the sun gradually being covered by the shadow of an eclipse. The horizon wavered with a dusky hue, as if night was impending.

"Katcha—"

Stark's steel combat suit adorned his body, and the sound of propulsion filled the room, creating a significant gust of air. Steve shielded his eyes with his arms. When he lowered his arms, he saw Stark break through the window with a "bang" and fly out.

The shattering glass made Steve take a few steps back. He turned around, but at that moment, with a "whoosh," Schiller wielded an umbrella blade. With a "swish," he dashed past Steve and spun him around.

Once the two had flown out of the hospital and began a frantic chase across New York's skyline, Steve finally breathed a sigh of relief. He approached the window, his hands on his hips, gazing at the scene outside.

Steve wasn't necessarily expecting Stark to persuade Schiller; he had anticipated it. Having experienced that era, he understood how unyielding that group of people could be. However, now it seemed like the matter wasn't about persuasion anymore.

Steve was puzzled. He couldn't entirely rule out the possibility that Stark might resort to violence against Schiller. Once their conversation broke down and anger surged, they might very well come to blows.

Stark had entered Schiller's Temple of Thought. It was impossible for anyone to defeat Schiller within his own dream; if Stark couldn't win within the dream, he would naturally retreat. As Stark fled, Schiller would surely give chase. But why did it seem like the killer version of Schiller, the one who had taken down Baron Zemo earlier, was the one pursuing Stark?

Stark has really pushed Schiller's buttons to make him release such a dangerous persona in pursuit of him.

Thinking this, Steve's conscience wouldn't allow him to stand idly by. He jumped out of the window and followed the two who were in pursuit.

Generally, Schiller's way of attacking involved dispersing into Grey Mist, then using the advantageous nature of Grey Mist to subdue the opponent. After all, even the strongest melee warrior couldn't hit a mist, and they could easily be enveloped by the pervasive mist.

Schiller's fighting style primarily revolved around subduing the opponent. Often, by the time the opponent realized what was happening, they were already knocked out.

Steve, skilled in combat, knew that this was a combat strategy Schiller employed to cover up his lack of fighting skills. It was a way of playing to his strengths, as someone who had never learned to fight might not accurately injure an opponent even with a large blade, and might even hurt themselves more easily.

The advantage of Grey Mist's nature was so strong that it only needed to take shape to deal with most problems. So, both Steve and Stark had always thought that this was Schiller's combat style.

Consequently, the hundreds of countermeasures within Stark's Mech armor were all designed to counter this particular approach, including the gigantic vacuum cleaner he had previously pulled out.

In theory, as long as the size and power were sufficient, the vacuum cleaner could be effective against anything, including various celestial bodies in space and even Grey Mist in its mist form.

However, this time Schiller showed no intention of changing forms. He wielded the umbrella blade, utilizing the power of the Moon God Khonshu. Swing after swing, immense blade flashes blocked Stark's flight trajectory, forcing Stark to come to a halt and confront him face to face.

"JARVIS, quickly record his movement trajectory, analyze his fighting habits, and calculate his route..."

"Recording in progress, sir. However, the data is currently insufficient. The recommended combat strategy we can offer at the moment is to switch to magic energy and activate a magic shield..."

"But magic energy is quite limited!" Stark said, somewhat frustrated.

He manually controlled the Mech armor, evading the lethal blade flashes, while also mentally calculating energy distribution. Meanwhile, he had to activate the speakers and try to reason with Schiller, urging him not to fall into a delusional frenzy.

Because, from Stark's perspective, he had never seen Death. Suddenly, the Balance that had been placed in the center of the table "clunked" and broke apart, as if an invisible giant hand had flattened it. The tray shattered into pieces. After a momentary pause, Schiller's expression transformed into something incredibly grim and insane.

Subsequently, the entire floor began to tremble. If Stark hadn't reacted quickly and dashed away, he might not have had the chance to return to the real world...

Stark's combat suit had comprehensive protective systems, including an energy shield attached to the surface of the armor and a repulsion mechanism based on magnetic field principles. But the moonlit Schiller, wielding the umbrella blade, vividly illustrated what precision and lethality meant.

Now, the Ark reactor in Stark's chest was close to infinite energy, but it was still subject to output limitations. The energy shield had to cover his entire body and required some time to deploy. If any part of the suit was struck hard by Schiller, the shield in that area would weaken, and there would be a several-second delay in extracting energy from the core to transmit to that section.

Exploiting this, the moonlit Schiller, capitalizing on the fact that JARVIS hadn't yet collected sufficient data and hadn't figured out his attack patterns, targeted the joints of the combat suit with his blade.

Instantly, the energy shield was overwhelmed. With multiple points of impact, some joints in secondary pathways couldn't be shielded in time.

For example, if both the shoulder and elbow energy shields were attacked simultaneously, the energy would initially be diverted to the shoulder. At that moment, the elbow would be virtually defenseless. Schiller's blade struck, causing sparks to fly, and Stark rapidly retreated.

He glanced at his own elbow, where a massive crack had formed on the armplate, revealing the internal wiring structure. The combat suit's alarms were blaring incessantly, and JARVIS' pop-up notifications nearly drowned Stark.

However, Schiller wasn't content to only attack Stark's limbs. He knew very well that in a short time, JARVIS would analyze his combat strategy and provide effective countermeasures. When that happened, inflicting damage would become difficult.

Therefore, the strategy to counter this super AI is to engage in rapid attacks, causing enough damage before it gathers sufficient data. By the time they have software data, the hardware would be damaged to a point where it can't support continued combat.

Clearly, Steve, who had just caught up, also grasped Schiller's intentions. He shouted to Stark, who was surrounded by the blade flashes, "Evade! Don't let him hit you!"

"I know!" Stark shouted back, equally loud. However, he was quite concerned; they were over the skies of New York, specifically the densely populated Brooklyn area. Everyone had stopped and was looking up, witnessing the showdown between the two superhumans in the sky.

Because they were battling in the high sky, there was no impact on the ground below. Schiller's blade flashes were powered by the Moon God Khonshu. Once swung, they gradually dissipated, resembling moonlight.

However, if Stark were to activate heavy weapons firepower, the falling debris alone would be enough to cause significant harm to ordinary people.

Without the option of firepower coverage, a significant portion of Iron Man's attack methods became unusable. Stark, who hadn't upgraded to the Iron Sorcerer state, now had to rely on the drone swarm he had previously developed to interfere with Schiller's movements.

In the sky, the solar eclipse phenomenon persisted. The sun's light was obstructed, and the moon's radiance shone as expected. The border between land and sky was caught between the warm colors of dusk and the cold light of the moon, creating a eerie and dreamlike atmosphere of terror.

As the sun gradually succumbed to the eclipse, two figures flying in the sky were locked in fierce combat.

On the ground, countless ordinary people took out their mobile phones, photographers raised their cameras, journalists flocked to the scene, and the production team of the latest reality show urgently assembled all their scouts and employees to begin live-streaming this war between superheroes.

Stark, who had been struck on the calf by the blade, couldn't hold back any longer. He rapidly commanded the combat suit to retreat, swiftly moving away from Schiller. He spun and flew towards the distance, much like a guided missile. In the process, he said to JARVIS, "Switch to magic energy!"

"Energy switch in progress... Switch complete... Would you like to activate the demon gods form?"

"Do we have enough energy?"

"Using the demon gods form can be sustained for a maximum of 4 minutes and 30 seconds. The energy consumed during the previous usage was extensive, and we haven't had time to replenish it."

Stark glanced back, observing Schiller relentlessly chasing him. Moonlight seemed to ripple around him. Stark knew that it was the power of the Moon God Khonshu. From start to finish, Schiller hadn't been controlled; theirs was a cooperative relationship.

Although Stark had a considerable amount of magic energy, he still couldn't compare to the established Egypt God Khonshu. After all, Stark was a human, whereas Khonshu was a genuine demon god. In this situation, he couldn't engage in a drawn-out battle with a demon god.

If Schiller were truly an enemy, Stark could directly ascend to the pinnacle of individual space and crush him with ease. But unfortunately, Schiller wasn't an enemy.

Schiller was going mad due to the collapse of his beliefs. Stark could only subdue him, not kill him. Thus, he spoke:

"Do not switch to the demon gods form. Use the magic combat system."

"The magic combat system is still in the process of debugging. Many aspects are not yet perfected. Are you sure you want to activate it?"

"Activate it!"

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