Chapter 21: An Unexpected Great Battle

Suddenly, everyone, himself included, instinctively tilted their heads upward. Through the window, they witnessed a scene outside the warehouse reminiscent of a comet crashing to earth.

Effortlessly piercing the atmosphere, a figure wreathed in crimson appeared as though the entire humanoid form had been ignited by intense heat. Trails of blue jet flames stretched behind him, as this steel-clad silhouette slowly descended from the dawn-lit sky.

It was obvious he was coming straight for them.

Moments later, a second figure hurtled in from the opposite direction. Equally swift, yet he appeared both human and not—his face was a metallic maroon, his body clad in a blue suit, and a cape billowed fiercely behind him in the wind.

“I am Tony Stark, authorized by the United Nations—” Hovering dozens of meters above the ground in his Iron Man armor, Tony was interrupted as the world spun violently around him.

A flurry of alarms flooded his display screen.

“Alert! Alert! High-energy reaction! Target is launching an unknown attack against you.”

Below, a figure marked as the target—Kaecilius—was rotating a small golden magical array, warping the space all around.

“Whoa!” Before Tony could attack, Vision struck first.

Vision—created by Ultron to combat the Avengers, fashioned from the body of the WWII hero, the original Human Torch, and awakened by the brainwaves of the mighty Wonder Man—was a synthetic being. After repeated clashes with the Avengers, Vision was moved by their humanity, betrayed Ultron, and joined their ranks.

Embedded in his forehead was one of the Infinity Stones—the Mind Stone—granting him immense power.

Sensing danger, Vision unleashed a golden laser directly from his brow.

This was the outskirts of London; at least ten thousand people witnessed the spectacle firsthand.

For the entire sky was ignited with golden light—

A beam of gold slanted down from three hundred meters above, slicing through the dense, milky morning fog and stirring a wild gale.

That golden line cut across the heavens, as if piercing the night and ushering in daylight. The turbulent atmosphere whirled into a vortex around its origin.

The golden ray struck with unerring precision, heading straight for Kaecilius as he cast his spell.

Dormammu’s chief agent on Earth instinctively retreated.

Had Kaecilius been given two more seconds, he might have twisted space to slaughter the meddling Iron Man in midair. But before that could happen, he would perish.

A deep sense of unease enveloped him—a feeling all too familiar. Not long ago, he had battled his master, the Ancient One, after stealing forbidden texts.

It was the sensation of teetering on the brink of death.

The Ancient One’s ability to shatter space, collapse buildings and earth alike, had nearly left him crippled, and only a timely portal had allowed him to escape.

He hadn’t expected this bizarre synthetic being to possess methods capable of threatening him!

He had no choice but to retreat.

His left hand formed a sword gesture, index and middle fingers upright; his right hand traced a circle, conjuring a spark-laden magic array out of thin air.

In the span of a tenth of a second, a circular portal sprang open in front of the golden beam. Vision’s attack narrowly missed.

Iron Man was upon him.

Kaecilius’s followers flung semi-transparent, mysterious magical blades at Iron Man. Impossible to discern with the naked eye.

But Iron Man’s armor, equipped with the most advanced scanning systems, allowed Tony to just barely track the incoming attacks.

A dazzling sequence of rapid Z-shaped maneuvers brought Iron Man ever closer to Kaecilius.

“Hmph!” As the boss, Kaecilius’s temper was considerable.

With a single reverse motion, he conjured a shield of light—nearly half a basketball court in size—fifty meters ahead, directly blocking Iron Man’s charge.

Yet Tony cursed under his breath, “Again?!”

The predominantly crimson Iron Man executed a breathtaking 180-degree turn within barely a meter of space. Several jet nozzles fired in reverse toward the shield, using powerful thrust to halt his advance and avoid smashing headlong into it.

At that moment—

“Ah—!” Kaecilius, about to make another move, suddenly let out a scream of utter agony. His burly frame sagged, and his entire left arm went limp.

He spun around in shock, only to see Vision in midair, dodging magical attacks from Kaecilius’s followers while twisting his hands in a motion reminiscent of wringing out a garment.

Few knew that besides his dynamic laser, Vision’s signature ability was density control. Just now, Vision directly altered the density of the air beside Kaecilius.

The sensation was akin to countless snakes, constricting like pythons around his left arm, squeezing it tight.

Just as Vision and Iron Man prepared to finish him off, a multitude of golden whip-like serpents emerged from the void around them, throwing the pair into chaos.

In the blink of an eye, Kaecilius, spellcasting with his right hand, opened a portal to who-knows-where. He and his followers dove in, one after another.

The two superheroes tried to stop them, but were too late.

“Tony, did you notice?”

“Mm.”

“These guys remind you of a certain bastard, don’t they?”

Tony Stark lifted his Iron Man mask, revealing his charismatic, handsome face. He shook his head. “Not his people.”

After a moment’s thought, Tony added, “These are sorcerers. The wars of the sorcerer world aren’t ours to meddle in. We’ve got plenty of troubles already. If that bastard can’t handle it, he’ll come looking for us. Let’s go.”

“All right!”

A battle that should have shaken the earth ended rather anticlimactically.

Back to the present: after hearing of Kaecilius’s injury, Mei Mumu quickly found a video on YouTuber showing Iron Man and Vision fiercely confronting Kaecilius.

This was an age of hyper-connected networks; in any densely populated area, everything superheroes did could be captured on a smartphone.

Seeing this, Mei Mumu felt a surge of delight.

He had feigned weakness precisely to trap Kaecilius.

Serves you right, big boss, for leaving your lair early to bully a rookie like me. What were you thinking?

At this point in time, Kaecilius was formidable, but before receiving Dormammu’s direct infusion of dark power, he wasn’t outrageously strong.