Chapter 283: Hellbat Armor VS Anti-Phoenix Armor
Du Wa's real interest was the Phoenix Force; otherwise, he wouldn't have made a move at this particular juncture.
To put it bluntly, Du Wa didn't care how the Scarlet Witch went on a rampage, whether she would trigger the House of M event and erase almost all Mutants, or whether she would create a virtual world to overwrite reality.
He could even ignore Chaos Magic.
But he had to pay attention to the Phoenix Force. Its power level was simply too high, its origin too astonishing.
"The Phoenix Force... This might be a key. A long time from now, if I don't die, I will definitely transcend the Omniverse and explore higher worlds, perceiving every mystery. In the future, it will be necessary to deal with the Phoenix Force, so I might as well act now."
Du Wa had thought it through clearly.
It was impossible for him to stop at the multiversal level. Although his current strength and the unique nature of a concept God allowed him to thrive in both the Marvel and DC worlds, enabling him to live on happily without end—watching the earnest struggles of the superheroes in the Marvel world and observing the spectacular displays of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman in the DC world.
If one world was about to end, he could immediately hide in the other to ride out the storm, returning only after the dust had settled. For a special concept God like Du Wa, this was effortless.
If he truly wanted to just give up and live a carefree life, Du Wa possessed a superiority that placed him above all multiversal gods.
But this clearly did not align with Du Wa's ambitions.
After transcending the Omniverse, he would still need to cross the Beyond Realm and enter the sub-top layer where the White Hot Room and the Abyss reside. Du Wa would have to face the Phoenix Force directly.
Speaking of which, at this current stage, the fact that this Phoenix Force had inexplicably appeared in the Main Universe, ignored all other planets, and charged straight for Earth already indicated that this thing had a clear purpose.
As the Phoenix Force, a convergence of the emotions of all living beings, it was conceptually similar to the emotional spectrum of DC Comics, but it was clearly more unique. It could genuinely engage in a degree of "thought," at least not to the extent of needing specific entities to represent the meaning of each spectrum, like the Emotional Spectrum does.
"This Phoenix, if I recall correctly, should be the one Jean Grey threw out from the White Hot Room..."
Du Wa looked up slightly. As expected, he couldn't see anything. The main part of his perspective was the current Multiverse. Only by relying on a few Xenomorphs he had tossed Outside the Multiverse could he extend his vision beyond it.
But looking further out, there was only the Endless Void. He couldn't even glimpse the entirety of the Megaverse, let alone discern any truth about what the Omniverse actually was.
Swish!
Du Wa's giant hand clenched tightly around the Phoenix Force. His posture didn't look like he was receiving a gift from the great Phoenix Force at all; rather, it was as if he were crushing a struggling sparrow.
"This Phoenix Force is far too weak... Whether it's the White Phoenix or the Dark Phoenix, using this level of the Phoenix Force, the strength they could unleash would be just so-so."
As soon as Du Wa got his hands on it, he manhandled the firebird for a moment and figured out its basic condition. Of course, this was only a superficial understanding of its energy intensity. He couldn't see the deeper secrets at all. To do that, Du Wa would need to enter and decipher the mystery of the White Hot Room to truly master the complete Phoenix Force.
The Phoenix Force was utterly enraged. It struggled desperately, simultaneously creating balls of sacred flames to burn Du Wa, but all its actions were futile.
Du Wa looked up again, lost in thought.
Hmm, he didn't feel the Phoenix Force's strength increasing because it was in a predicament. This meant that Jean Grey, inside the White Hot Room, was also extremely limited in what she could do.
That made sense. Jean Grey, the mutant who had long been dead in the eyes of the people in the Main Universe, had once slaughtered over a billion people worldwide during her time as the Dark Phoenix. When she ostensibly died, the vast majority probably cheered with joy.
But Jean Grey hadn't truly died. Her soul and consciousness had luckily entered the White Hot Room, arriving at the Phoenix Force's place of origin. She was still the Phoenix Force's most beloved host.
"There will be no more Phoenix Five. Everything comes to an abrupt end in my hands."
Du Wa put away the Phoenix Force with a clear conscience.
The golden flames that had nearly incinerated the entire Earth vanished in an instant. This terrifying scene made everyone looking up into Space feel as if they had been plunged into an icy abyss.
This was especially true for the superheroes; they knew better than anyone how terrifying the Phoenix Force was.
"I've never seen such a docile Phoenix. It gives me the illusion that we are the real culprits behind the Phoenix Force's constant rampages. It's because we're too weak—so weak that for the Phoenix Force to even listen to our nonsense is a humiliating act," Tony said, dumbfounded. He watched the scene, completely unable to analyze anything useful from it.
On his helmet's electronic screen, a stream of question marks floated by. Nothing could be detected.
He felt overwhelmed. He had to pilot the Anti-Cul Armor to fight Cul to the death, and could only watch helplessly as the Phoenix Force was captured so easily by Du Wa.
"It's just that Du Wa acted faster! If it weren't for Cul, I would have had a way to deal with the Phoenix too!" Tony grumbled.
Yes, Tony had of course prepared an Anti-Phoenix Armor. According to his calculations, it was fully capable of dispelling most of the Phoenix Force, at most allowing a weakened Phoenix to enter Earth to find a host.
He had also prepared an Anti-Magneto Armor, planning ahead and mentally preparing for a confrontation with the X-Men long ago.
But now, it all seemed to be for nothing. However, Tony was not one to give up.
He glared at the somewhat crazed Cul. "Shut up, you damned green meat-worm! You should thank Du Wa for enslaving you, otherwise you would have personally experienced what it feels like to be beaten to death by me!"
Tony had already discarded the Anti-Cul Armor. He summoned an even larger armor that exuded a noble aura.
"I originally planned to name it the Anti-Phoenix Armor or the Anti-Chaos Armor, but now I have to change the name on the spot. Let's call it the Anti-Alien Armor."
Tony's voice spread across the Earth, and powerful energy carried this information into Outer Space.
The others were not to be outdone. At this critical moment, they all brought out their full strength, preparing for a life-or-death struggle against Du Wa.
Magneto, for example. The shape of a magnetic field was reflected in the old man's eyes. He had taken complete control of Earth's entire magnetic field and was poised to strike, attempting to land a devastating blow on Du Wa.
Professor X hid in a Safe Zone, wearing Cerebro, ready to strike Du Wa at a critical moment. He didn't expect to kill Du Wa, but at least he could distract the God of Xenomorphs for a moment to create an opportunity for the others.
There were many others like them, and all sorts of means were employed. Doctor Strange went so far as to set up a summoning ritual, wanting to see if he could pull some capable fighters over from the Multiverse.
Everyone looked up, no longer sparing a glance for Cul in his Serpent form. All of them stared intently at Du Wa.
Even the Scarlet Witch stopped her rampage. Her vacant eyes stared at Du Wa, but Du Wa could clearly see the mocking gaze of Chthon from the depths of her eyes.
God of Xenomorphs, what do you plan to do in this situation? Are you really going to ignore everything and take control of the Main Universe? This is the most extreme—
"The Main Universe... it certainly has a lot of impressive individuals, and Omega Level Mutants too."
Du Wa sized up the likes of Iceman and Psylocke.
Omega meant an immortal soul and infinite potential. In Other Universes, there were far too many so-called Omega Level Mutants who died uneventfully, but the Omega Level Mutants of the Main Universe had overall strength and potential that were clearly more astonishing.
Cul flew before Du Wa, his enormous body appearing incredibly small and humble, like a grain of sand.
Doctor Strange had been closing his eyes to communicate with Demon Gods from an Other Dimension, but after stating his request, he was met with a volley of curses.
"You cunning Strange, this time you... want me to go to the Main Universe to help in a fight? And not to ensure your own smooth escape? Are you f*cking crazy?! Has your brain been corrupted by Shuma-Gorath, or have you already taken the form of a Xenomorph? I suspect you're conspiring with Du Wa to harm me!"
"Get lost, Strange! Your request this time is simply too much!"
"Chthon has been patiently enduring all this time, leading to the near-total annihilation of the Black Magicians. Gaea fled in a hurry with the Main Universe's Thor, ignoring the fall of Asgard. Even if you searched the entire Multiverse, who would stand up to help you?"
Doctor Strange opened his eyes, his face pale. Facing the hopeful expressions of the others, he reluctantly revealed the truth—the situation couldn't get any worse anyway. This time, they could truly only rely on themselves.
"What? Asgard has already fallen? Other World has also been plunged into war?"
Swish!
Clad in the Anti-Phoenix Armor, Tony was dazzling at this moment. He was the first to take flight, directly confronting Du Wa, who made countless living beings tremble in fear. "Then it looks like I'll have to be the one to step up. I have an idea. We can take advantage of that Du Wa fellow's arrogance."
As long as he could make contact with the Phoenix Force and apply its empowerment to his armor, everything would be set.
"Even on an island of despair, there will be no shortage of brave souls who build canoes to challenge the sea. Tony Stark, you are impressive. Your courage has caught my eye. But aside from that, you possess no other talent that impresses me," said Du Wa.
"Oh, is that so? I hope you can still say that after you've been defeated. We've beaten many seemingly invincible enemies. The final victory always belongs to us!" Tony retorted.
"Of course, you have won many times. But for various reasons, you have absolutely no memory of the times you were utterly defeated."
Several Multiverses have been eliminated, and there have been even more reboots. Of course, these superheroes would have no memory of it.
Facing the aggressive Tony and the others assisting him with various means, Du Wa simply waved his hand. "I thought of something fun. You should like this opponent. It's just a toy that was about to be scrapped anyway."
Space-Time cracked open, and a completely unfamiliar armor appeared in the view of the Main Universe's heroes.
It was predominantly black and red, exuding an ominous aura that stood in stark contrast to Tony's red and gold. There were also obvious signs of repair.
This was an armor that the natives of the Main Universe had never seen or heard of before.
"Heh, I didn't expect you to have me make a move at this time... I thought you'd have Hal Stark deal with this Tony Stark," a voice said from within the armor.
Du Wa said slowly, "The Steel Lantern's home turf is on the other side. There's no need for him to fight a difficult battle at this stage, on a side that lacks the emotional spectrum. Compared to him, you are more suitable."
Dark Claw, a hybrid of Wolverine and Batman, was now piloting the Hellbat Armor from DC Comics' New 52 Earth to face the Main Universe Earth's Iron Man in his Anti-Phoenix Armor. This could be an interesting experiment.
Dark Claw desperately wanted a cigar. Forcing down his craving, he charged toward Tony.
The two armored figures began to fight. The moment they made contact, Tony was shocked by the power of this armor!
"Such powerful output, using a large amount of completely unknown metal! It's not Vibranium, not Adamantium, not Uru metal or Carbonadium... Are these rare materials from Other Universes? So many types of advanced metal that don't even exist in the Main Universe?" Tony's instinct told him something was wrong. This was completely illogical. But facing the ferocious Dark Claw, he braced himself to respond.
"Damn it, I didn't expect your creation to be so commendable. Finally met a Stark who plays with metal instead of emotion," Dark Claw cursed. After firing a few blasts from his energy cannon, his iron hands twitched, and to Tony's dumbfounded gaze, several claws extended.
"Wolverine's claws? And are they Vibranium claws, not Beta Adamantium claws?" An even greater confusion grew in Tony's mind. He felt that everything about this guy was dissonant, like a mongrel pieced together from things both familiar and unfamiliar to him.
He used his AI program to try and hack into the Hellbat Armor, but was astonished to discover that the program within this mysterious armor was not particularly advanced in terms of intelligence. This meant that how much strength the armor could display depended mainly on its user!
But, if the person inside the armor was a Parallel Universe version of Wolverine, could he actually pilot this armor with that guy's intelligence?
But he was ridiculously strong. This unknown individual, piloting a mysterious suit of armor with an unknown origin, was beating him so badly he couldn't even lift his head at times.
The clash of the armors was exceptionally fierce, and for the time being, the outcome could not be determined.
The others also met their own opponents. For example, Doctor Strangefate directly approached Doctor Strange, persuading him not to waste time calling upon Deities, as no one would help at a time like this.
Du Wa had no need to deal with these so-called superheroes himself. He had come only for the Phoenix Force, fresh from the White Hot Room, and for the Main Universe itself. Now, half of his objective was accomplished. Next, he just needed to complete the other half step-by-step.
"Those few Creator Gods still haven't reacted. It seems my actions haven't touched Their bottom line yet... The trouble is Oblivion and Infinity. Eternity and Death aren't the key to the problem."
Du Wa descended upon the Main Universe in force, and the Xenomorphs began to blossom and bear fruit in this World.
(end of chapter)