Chapter 98 Put Your Tears on the Screen
"Did it work?"
Hovering in midair, Iron Man's thrusters holding him steady, Tony Stark looked down at the black kitten encased in ice with the earth itself frozen beneath it. He let out a sigh of relief—only for his pupils to shrink sharply.
Crack!
The thick layer of ice around the black cat suddenly split with deep fractures, crisscrossing like a shattered mirror. The frozen ground around it burst apart as well—then a black beastly shadow erupted upward, leaping sky-high!
"Come on then!"
Tony gritted his teeth, raising his right arm, releasing another burst of gas.
But the next moment, the three-in-one Xi Nian slammed into him, sending him flying!
Iron Man tumbled at tremendous speed under the force of the impact, crashing toward the distant city outskirts.
Midair, his instincts kicked in. Tony raised his left arm, a device snapping open on his wrist, blasting a stream of high-temperature flame forward!
The fire ignited the dense cloud of gas that had just been released. In an instant, a massive inferno swallowed the black kitten whole.
If freezing didn't work—then he would try fire!
…
Boom!
The four remaining members of Task Force X stood silently as they watched Iron Man crash onto the hard asphalt road nearby, his armor sparking as it scraped across the ground.
Covered in scorch marks and damage, Iron Man struggled back to his feet. He gave the squad a brief glance, then reignited his thrusters and shot back toward the battlefield.
…
Over the ruins of Jotunheim, the fire still raged like a massive burning sphere. From within it, a melting silhouette dropped to the ground.
From fifty meters in the air, Iron Man peered downward. The black cat's body was dripping, the dark surface seeming to melt, oozing black liquid like tar.
"This time… did it really work?" Tony muttered, though unease stirred in his chest.
On the ground, Xi Nian's three-in-one form suddenly snapped his eyes open wide. His pupils turned blank and pale, devoid of all emotion. The symbiote-like black liquid coating his body boiled violently, like a burning black flame!
Overusing the power of the three-in-one state had finally pushed him past his limits. Humanity collapsed, swallowed by the abyss. A palpable aura of darkness and malevolence rose from his body.
Any normal symbiote would have been crippled by that fire.
But Xi Nian's symbiote form was immune to the usual weaknesses—flames, sound waves, all useless. Of course, the dormant Venom symbiote inside him had still suffered from the flames, a collateral victim…
The three-in-one state was nearing its end—but now it revealed its true face.
If control was gone—then there was no need for restraint. Only indulgence.
The black cat looked up with a villain's grin. His hollow white eyes locked on Iron Man in the air. The black liquid dripping from his body twisted into countless razor-sharp tendrils that pierced the air, launching upward in dense volleys toward the hovering suit.
Startled, Tony pushed his engines to maximum output. The Anti-Black Flash armor streaked away like a white bolt of lightning, dodging the first few tendrils.
But more came, multiplying like a geometric nightmare, branching endlessly.
There were thousands.
Despair clawed at him. He couldn't dodge them all. He tried to escape upward—but at a hundred meters, the tendrils caught him, wrapping tightly around the Anti-Black Flash armor.
"Damn." Tony muttered helplessly.
He and the suit were yanked downward, slammed into the ruins below. Debris and steel burst outward with the impact.
Dust rained down.
Half-buried in rubble, the armor was scratched, cracked, its iron mask shattered to reveal Tony's bearded face.
"Lost again?" he whispered, the glow fading from the arc reactor in his chest and the suit's eyes.
Then Jarvis's urgent voice rang in his ear. "Do not give up, sir!"
"Of course I can't give up. I'm Iron Man! I don't go down like this!" Tony's eyes blazed again. With a roar, he ordered, "Jarvis—activate Backup Protocol Two!"
…
High above the island nation of Corto Maltese, tens of thousands of meters in orbit—
A small Stark Industries satellite floated silently in space.
Suddenly, two golden-red metallic cubes detached from its hull, engines flaring as they hurtled down toward Earth.
They pierced the atmosphere, precisely targeted.
One cube split apart midair, its components accelerating downward.
Clang!
A thick steel pillar slammed into the ground before the rampaging Xi Nian, embedding half a meter deep into the earth to block his path.
More pillars followed, surrounding the black kitten-like figure in a circle.
Then, a massive steel casing dropped from above, locking together with the pillars into a sealed prison.
The second cube streaked straight toward the buried Iron Man.
But Xi Nian's claws tore through the steel casing imprisoning him. With brute force, he ripped open a gaping hole.
Still, the delay was enough.
From the ruins, Iron Man rose once more—his armor replaced by a new form.
Towering at nearly three meters, broad, heavy, painted in red and gold—
The Hulkbuster.
Its first appearance.
Tony strode forward in the bulky suit, each step thunderous. He swung a massive steel fist down at the black cat.
To Xi Nian, it looked almost laughably slow. He could easily dodge.
But in his frenzied state, he didn't bother.
Grinning savagely, he raised his own massive black paw and threw a punch.
Fist met fist.
It was like a bomb detonated. The air itself cracked apart, shockwaves and gales blasting outward.
Tony's eyes widened in shock. Even with the Hulkbuster, the sheer force of Xi Nian's blow drove him back a step.
Even this armor, designed to counter the Hulk, had lost—just slightly—in raw power.
Before Tony could recover, the black cat pounced.
He bit viciously, his razor teeth shredding layer after layer of reinforced plating. The advanced alloy was chewed apart like candy, swallowed into the abyss of his throat.
To Xi Nian—these weapons were nothing but toys.
Tony's composure broke.
Two strategic-level armors destroyed in a row. For the first time, he wondered if science itself had failed him.
[Please give powerstones if you're enjoying the story.
500 stones = 1 extra chapter
patreon com/GuessMyName33 for advanced chapters]