diskusbooks Chapter 321 The Eye of Agamotto
Chapter 321 The Eye of Agamotto
Chapter 321 The Eye of Agamotto
The first punch was a vision of the universe being destroyed.
With his second punch, he observed a battle between two different worlds: the undead devouring all goodwill, and the blazing sun and thunder tearing apart the entire sky.
With the third punch, Joey saw the Six-Self Demon, shrouded in the deepest evil of humanity, tear open the gates of hell, and crimson blood and fire flowed across the mortal land he trodden upon.
The fourth punch —
Joey slowed his punches as he began to hesitate. He didn't know if the phantoms were real or not, but without a doubt, each one pointed to a terrible consequence that Joey could not bear.
"What have you done?!"
Joey, who had stopped, grabbed Doctor Doom by the collar and roared, "Are these illusions the future?!"
Doctor Doom observed all of Joey's changes, and most importantly, Doctor Doom had no idea what Joey was saying:
"You've never had the courage to face the future and take action, but I'm different!"
The Doctor of Illusion Destruction, whom Joey mentioned, had no idea what was going on. The reason he mentioned Joey's deceased adoptive parents was simply to make the other party lose his temper and calm down, so that his little tricks would not be discovered.
And now he has prepared his little tricks:
"The future is in my hands, not in the hands of someone like you!"
Doctor Doom activated the spell in his hand, and the green chains representing the light of the Time Stone reappeared from his body, connecting to a place outside the Mirror Dimension.
Since the Ancient One was able to use the Time Stone to establish a causal connection between herself and the past, and forcibly grasp her own body, then she could also use this advantage.
Noticing Doctor Doom's unusual behavior, Joey no longer hesitated. He put all the illusions aside, gathered his strength, and prepared to deliver another punch to completely knock out this one-sided octagonal cage fight.
But Doctor Doom was one step ahead. The time chains swirled, and in an instant, the past and future shifted, and the person who had been pinned against the wall by Joey was transformed into Tony Stark.
"A generous gift of crab!"
Completely bewildered, Tony couldn't help but gasp in surprise. Only heaven knows how Tony's emotions were going up and down like a rollercoaster at that moment.
After defusing the bomb, he was on his way back to Batman, ready to boast about his genius and settle scores with him later, holding Batman accountable for hacking into his Iron Man suit.
Then, the next second, Tony's vision blurred, and he saw a Superman with bloodshot eyes and murderous intent throwing a fatal punch at him.
He had never seen Joey go all out or even go crazy like this before. Upon first seeing him, the oppressive feeling made Tony's heart rate rise rapidly, even faster than when he faced the bomb.
Fortunately, Joey reacted quickly enough to deflect his fist and smash it into the Vishanti Shield behind Tony, shattering one corner of the cramped octagon.
The escaping force of the punches forced Tony's Amager Core to activate its automatic defense to prevent injury to Tony, the pilot, from being struck by such an impact.
After shattering the theoretically indestructible Shield of Vishanti with a single punch, Joey instantly understood what had happened. Without bothering to explain to Tony, he quickly grabbed him and flew towards the Ancient One.
"He ran away!"
The Time Stone appeared in the Ancient One's hand. Following the stone's trajectory, she initiated a tracking operation to find that Doctor Doom and Tony had switched places. Without a doubt, they would now be in the real world outside the mirror dimension.
The defeated Doctor Doom, clutching his chest, appeared before Batman.
Superman's three punches from the farmer almost killed him. Luckily, his suit was strong enough and engraved with many defensive spells, otherwise he would have been killed on the spot by that Kansas farmer.
"!"
Batman, who was prepared to remain silent and play dead in response to Tony's questioning, did not expect that Tony, who was about to confront him, would suddenly change his tune.
He immediately jumped back and defensively threw several batarangs at Doctor Doom.
The cyborg Tony, on the other hand, was much more direct than Batman. Seeing his opponent, who had easily defeated him twice, he was naturally filled with hatred for his former enemy.
He connected with Jarvis, aimed everything in the workshop that could be fired at the Destroyer, and unleashed full firepower without hesitation:
"You're going to die!"
The cyborg Iron Man naturally harbored nothing but hatred for Doctor Doom, who appeared out of nowhere, despite the vast difference in their strength.
In just this short period of time since their arrival, the enemy has destroyed a space carrier with at least tens of thousands of permanent personnel and killed Doctor Strange. There may be even more bloodshed in places he didn't see.
The world was already teetering on the brink of collapse. After this battle, the Earth was almost powerless to resist attacks from the outside world. How could Tony, who had lost his conscience, his friends, and most of his body for the sake of the Earth and was now almost penniless, accept this?
After casually casting a protective spell to block the attack coming at him, Doctor Doom quickly prepared to leave.
At this moment, only the cyborg Iron Man and Batman were present. Iron Man was not a threat, and Batman didn't seem to have any intention of revealing his trump card, so he wouldn't get in his way.
The rift in the sky opened again, and Doctor Doom abandoned even the Doom robots lost in the Mirror Dimension, heading straight for the outer boundary.
Those destructive robots might still be able to hold back Superman now, but with an opponent like the Ancient One added, they become completely useless.
As for the fact that this universe has not yet been annihilated, it doesn't matter. All universes will eventually perish, it's just a matter of sooner or later. Unfortunately, no one can understand his foresight. Just as he was thinking about how to improve the robot again and strengthen its power to make a comeback after this escape, Doctor Doom flashed during his flight, blurred for a moment, and avoided Superman's flying elbow.
With the Ancient One around, Doctor Doom's magical tricks that could be used were extremely limited. If it were in the past, Superman would have been trapped in the Mirror Dimension with Tony for a long time, just like before, and would definitely not have been able to catch up so quickly.
Joey, who was brought out of the mirror space by the Ancient One, missed his target and immediately turned around, projecting his maximum-powered heat vision at the spacetime rift in the sky.
Rather than engaging in a physical battle with an unpredictable spellcaster like Doctor Doom, it's better to try cutting off his escape route first, and then trap him.
Seeing this, Doctor Doom could no longer use his intangibility to avoid the attack and had to summon a small number of robots to form a shield to withstand the impact.
Golden lightning bolts shot out from his hand, leaping several times before striking Joey. The immense impact from the Destruction Domain caused Joey to tumble, but fortunately, he had already withstood similar attacks before, and after the impact, Joey was still unharmed.
"You, yes, even you! Stop right there!"
Tony, who had also escaped from the mirror dimension, also activated his Iron Man suit and gave chase:
"You must take responsibility for the universe you destroyed, and for the countless lives lost!"
He had too many questions that needed to be answered.
Why did my future self become such a cold-blooded and ruthless monster?
This is the annihilation of an entire universe, not just turning off a light bulb. Why can the other party do it without any burden?
In his anger, Tony was completely unaware that he had overstepped his bounds and entered Doctor Doom's attack range.
In a flash, Doctor Doom reached out and grabbed Tony by the neck. With a slight exertion, he ripped Tony's soul from his body and simultaneously shut down all the systems of the Iron Man suit.
The suit, now out of control, had become a metal can, plummeting rapidly with Tony inside. Joey had no choice but to abandon the pursuit and catch Tony first, lest his body be turned into a pulp.
Tony, now a spirit, was held captive by Doctor Doom.
"Responsible?"
Doctor Doom felt that of everyone present, the least qualified to utter those two words was former arms dealer Tony Stark:
"How many innocent people have been killed by the weapons you personally designed and manufactured? Aren't you responsible for that?"
The person who knows your weaknesses best is always yourself, and this statement is clearly very applicable to Tony.
The weapons Stark Industries sold to the North American military have always been a moral stain on Tony's conscience. Long ago, he could comfort himself with the lie that "the weapons are used to attack enemy forces and are not targeted at civilians."
But when a missile manufactured by Stark Industries landed on Tony's head, his long-held illusions were shattered.
Weapons are weapons. Once you sell them, they will always end up in the hands of Tony Stark, soldiers, civilians, the elderly, women, children—anyone.
After his deepest sore spot was touched, even in his spiritual form, he disregarded his physical body and immediately began to incoherently defend himself:
"That was my fault, but I'm trying to make the world a better place!"
"Haha." Doctor Doom chuckled dryly upon hearing this answer, and immediately retorted with the same words to Tony:
"After all this is over, I will work even harder to make the new world a better place—just like you!"
If Tony can erase the blood debt by creating a better world after killing thousands of civilians in war zones, then why can't he?
Moreover, Tony is nothing now, while Doctor Doom has already reached the second half of his journey.
A beautiful new world is just around the corner, and soon he will be the supreme and perfect king of that world, a god who reigns supreme over all.
Are such achievements not enough to offset the karmic debts accumulated along the way?
With Tony's soul in Doctor Doom's hands, the close contact between two identical souls allowed Tony to vaguely sense Doctor Doom's thoughts.
This thought sent a chill down Tony's spine:
"Even if you are me in the future, I still want to say—you are a truly arrogant and paranoid person, a complete madman."
Who would have thought that just ten minutes ago, he was saying that Batman was a complete madman?
Joey, who had left Tony's physical body on the rooftop, saw Doctor Doom holding Tony's spirit body and was at a loss for what to do.
If they don't attack, Doctor Doom could escape at any moment; if they attack, who knows if Tony will be annihilated?
The idiom "to throw a stone at a rat for fear of breaking the vase" perfectly describes the current situation.
"Back off!"
Just when Joey was worrying, the Ancient One finally made her move:
"The Eye of Agamotto!"
Time seemed to stand still around her, freezing the entire skies above New York City.
This is a powerful artifact left behind by the ancient sorcerer Agamotto, which indiscriminately froze the surrounding spacetime, even immobilizing Joey for the time being.
Gu Yi flew forward, grabbed Doctor Doom's other hand, and with a flick of her finger, Tony's spirit was sent towards Joey's direction, along with the Time Stone she held in her hand.
Seeing the spell light up in the Ancient One's hand, Doctor Doom, though unable to move, still mustered all his strength to utter his last words:
"You'll regret this!"