With a flash of silver light, Shiller lunged forward. Stark's battlesuit alarm blared, yet he didn't retreat. The umbrella knife was raised high and at the moment it descended, a splendid magical brilliance radiated from Stark's battlesuit.
The "screech" of friction was piercingly sharp. When the knife point collided with the battlesuit, a series of sparks flew off.
With a "bang", the two separated. Stark clutched the damaged area of his battlesuit over his chest.
He hesitated again and asked Shiller, "…Are you really not being controlled?"
His response came in the form of another attack.
Two points of light, one gold and one silver, blinked incessantly in mid-air. The radiance from the blade and the hand cannon lit up again and again. In less than a minute, both of them were covered in wounds.
Nevertheless, in reality, neither had been seriously hurt. Stark's battlesuit was merely scratched, while Shiller's outerwear was damaged by the energy beam of Stark's magic hand cannon.
Yet, this was just the prelude to the battle. As both began to exert force, the fight truly ignited.
Stark accelerated into a headlong charge and Shiller stood firm with his umbrella. The moment they clashed, amid the swirling airflow, the umbrella knife flicked up, cleaving through the armor on Stark's arm. Fresh blood gushed out, while at the same time, the light beamed from the cannon on Stark's battlesuit shoulder, grazing past Shiller's arm, leaving behind a charred trail.
The moment both hit the ground, they landed right in the middle of the battlefield between Captain America and Hydra. When Stark crashed to the ground, like a shell hitting the surface, a "boom" resounded. Stark emerged, kneeling before Steve.
Steve clearly saw the fresh blood seeping from the wound on Stark's battlesuit. He then turned around and saw Shiller clutching his arm. For a moment, he didn't know who to help.
"Subdue him, Steve!" It was the first time Stark had asked for Steve's help on the battlefield. He said, "Shiller might be under some kind of control, subdue him quickly!"
Steve raised his shield and charged at Shiller. The shimmering magic-imbued knife point couldn't pierce Captain America's shield.
At this point, Shiller altered tactics. He opened the umbrella directly. The peculiar patterns on the snake-skin surface disoriented Steve, making his movements sluggish.
Blocking the umbrella knife, Steve retreated by two steps, shook his head, and then plunged back into the battle. Spider-Man and a few others joined in the attack on Shiller.
Shiller, who simultaneously controlled magical power and martial arts, was invincible for a time. Captain America and Spider-Man, no matter how fast they were, couldn't match Flash. No matter how high their defensive power was, they couldn't block a blade imbued with magical power.
The only problem was, although Shiller could easily fend off the group assault, he was unable to defeat them.
Simply put, he was unable to break through Captain America's defense. The shield, with a rather anomalous presence, appeared wherever it was needed, showing an incredible resistance.
When the blade touched the shield, it could only produce a cacophony of noise and a series of sparks. There was no magic defense on the shield, but somehow, the power of magic couldn't penetrate it.
However, Shiller didn't change tactics. He mechanically raised his knife to attack, was parried back, and then attacked again. This lackadaisical and pattern-less approach made Stark and Steve more suspicious that he was being controlled by something.
While all the attention was on the two battlegrounds, no one noticed that Arthur, Amit's disciple, had quietly disappeared from the backseat of the car that Mark had driven.
With Stark and Shiller landing near Steve, the two battlefields fused completely. Yet, it didn't impede anyone, since mages and gods were fighting in the sky while the remaining humans were battling on the ground.
The battle had reached a point where clear sides no longer existed. The Egyptian Gods wanted to attack Khonsu, yet the mages wanted to attack the Gods, thus Khonsu and the mages had ended up on the same side.
But at the same time, The Avengers wanted to subdue Shiller and Jack, who were using Khonsu's power, and The Avengers and the mages were on the same side...
In the midst of this chaos, it was clear that the Egyptian Gods were in constant retreat since they were the ones taking the most beating.
The more there were, the larger the target. Their chosen agents were not as strong as Shiller or Jack. Some of them didn't even know how to fight. They could easily crush ordinary people, but with this group of wise and brave mages and superheroes, they came off as rather incompetent.
Just then, a stunning arc of light rose in the skyline. Both sides in battle paused for a moment, turning their heads towards the horizon.
As the light brightened, the light points that rose with it gave off an eerie purple glow that reflected bizarrely upon the entire sky.
One of the Egyptian Gods was the first to cry out in surprise, saying, "In the direction of the pyramid...it's Amit! Amit has broken free!"
"How did he break through the seal?!" Someone asked, but no one could answer. They could only watch powerlessly as this force descended upon them.
Unlike the rest of the Egyptian Gods, whose true forms were still in the Celestial Realm and only their power projections had descended, Amit, having broken free, was here in his true form, which was within Earth itself. Thus, he did not have to break through the Earth's Magical Defense Network, and in a blink of an eye, he was above the battlefield.
The creature was a monster with a human body and the head of a crocodile. Its eyes gleamed with an evil purple light. It wasn't big, but the rich power emanating from it signaled its difference from these mere power projections.
Appearing underneath Amit was a returned Arthur. He was pale-faced, brooding, and staring at Shiller with a sinister gaze.
"My most devout follower, you have awakened me, returned me to my realm! Therefore, I will grant you power, dispel your internal fears. Go, go and judge this irredeemable sinner, this will bring you ultimate glory!"
With Amit's shout, Arthur trembled as he raised his scepter with both hands and walked towards Shiller.
The figure of Khonsu also appeared behind Shiller, but he kept silent. Amit mocked him: "Khonsu, you are afraid, because you are always an indecisive coward!"
"You never use your full power on these damned sinners, you just keep forgiving them, allowing evil to roam the human world, and now, you are one of them!"
"Watch, my follower will judge them, I am the representative of justice and fairness in the human world, the only Judge!"
With Amit's roar, Arthur raised his scepter. A dazzling purple light shot towards the sky, covering it. Then, two purple thunderbolts targeted Shiller and Jack.
At that moment, a silver flash appeared on the two men, but contrary to all spectators' expectations, at the instant the thunderclap fell, the power from Khonsu in them disappeared.
The thunderbolt, full of intent to kill and threatening to stop one's heartbeat, pierced both their bodies, leaving a charred hole in their chests.
The knuckles loosened involuntarily, and the umbrella fell to the ground. It hit a puddle, splashing numerous tiny droplets.
The Avengers saw that Shiller's breathing had stopped, his gaze scattered, just like an ordinary person at death. He slowly fell to the ground.