"That's what I thought too," Strange confirmed Loki's guess. He said:" Shiller once told me that he was not a person who stopped at nothing to achieve his goals, or rather, he had a disdain for such people. Because once a person is driven to such a state, it proves that they have been forced to a point of no return. But Shiller always had an alternative."
"Even if it's necessary to uproot these malicious seeds on Earth that have yet to grow into big trees before mankind steps into the cosmos, the situation is not that urgent. Even if they came one by one, there would still be enough time. It is not necessary to provoke Stark, make him explode, and then finish off everything in one go."
"In terms of human civilization, Stark is more important," Loki made such a judgment. From the perspective of an outsider, he could see more clearly. He said, "Not because he can become the Iron Demon God, but simply because of his wisdom and vision."
"So it's more likely that, Stark's explosion, his extermination of the earth's Demon Gods, allowing magical power to spread to lower-level organizations, is actually just a secondary goal, it's incidental," Strange stroked his chin, his brows furrowed, thinking hard.
"...then what is the main target?" Strange asked this question without expecting Loki to answer it. But to his surprise, Loki offered a different train of thought.
"In the whole chain of this incident, there is only one thing that is still shrouded in fog and not clear."
Loki sounds a prolonged note, the two exchange a glance, and Strange says, "...the secret of how the Egyptian Gods could resurrect their followers."
Unlike the quiet atmosphere for thinking in the Sanctuary Reception Room, the Earth at this moment is already in chaos.
Of course, in most orderly countries, this has nothing to do with the civilians. It's all about the official organizations dealing with the Demon Gods who suddenly broke through the seal. Although there is no large-scale war, local battles are fierce.
The Avengers, who are staying at the Deao Border, are thinking about how to calm Stark down. Steve's phone suddenly rings. He picks it up and hears Nick's voice on the other side.
"Captain, deploy Avenger Alliance Squad members to return for defense, 12 states in America have encountered situations where Demon Gods break the seal, we lack manpower!"
Steve took a deep breath and said, "Alright, I'll send people back."
After hanging up the call, he looked at Matt and said, "Matt, you take the others and go back. S.H.I.E.L.D. needs your support."
With the situation so urgent right now, Matt didn't say much and only asked, "What about you?"
"I have to stay here. On the one hand, I need to ensure Stark doesn't lose control and harm the Earth. On the other hand..." Steve turned to look at the body of Shiller lying on the cold ground. He didn't say anything, but everyone got his meaning. So Matt signaled the others and turned to leave.
Spider-Man kept looking back as if he didn't want to go at all. Matt pulled him along while telling him about the likelihood that ordinary people would be harmed by the outbreak of the Demon Gods. After tug-and-war for quite some time, they finally got into the car.
After all the others had left, Steve finally showed a tired expression, his sorrow flowed up along the rain lines and crawled into his eyes.
The instincts of a soldier returning from the battlefield did not allow him to show his grief about the sacrifice in front of his teammates, because this might cause despair in others. But after everyone else left, Steve couldn't control himself anymore.
He went over to Shiller's body and kneeled down, placing the Shield on Shiller's chest to cover the large wound. Even so, this couldn't hide the fact that this was indeed a corpse.
Steve forcefully closed his eyes, the knuckles on his hands jutted out from the pressure of his grip. The soil in his grasp mixed with rainwater and blood.
Steve never thought he'd be uncomfortable with the smell of blood again, but at the moment, even if the blood had been diluted by rainwater, Steve still felt the overly pronounced smell, making his head spin now and then.
His chest was heaving violently, and he began to hyperventilate again. He covered one of his eyes with the tip of his palm, struggling to resist the flooding memories.
Suddenly, he sensed a shadow falling in front of him, Steve looked up and saw a figure standing before him in the flickering rainline, and for a moment, he thought he was hallucinating, because standing before him was Stark without his battlesuit.
He just stared blankly at Stark. But Stark also kneeled down, he stared at Shiller's face, and then said, "You can't believe he's really dead, can you? Me neither."
"But..." Steve could only release a single syllable before he fell silent, and the two sat in silence for half a minute. Then Stark said, "Jarvis and Strange have both told me that Shiller has died."
"He indeed..."
No, I have one last way to confirm this."
"What is it?" Steve looked into Stark's eyes. It was a long time since he had last waited for an answer from Stark.
Stark extended his hand and pointed to his temple, saying:
"Remember? In his own conscious world, Shiller had a giant tower. If we can find this tower in the dream world, it means that his soul still exists, and then, the death of the physical body will not be a problem."
Steve thought about it, then his eyes gradually lit up, he said: "You're right, we can go find Professor X, he might be able to find Shiller's existence in the dream world!"
"No." Stark denied this method, the muscles at the corner of his mouth twitched a bit, then he said:
"I'll go by myself."
Steve looked at him. He was not sure if he saw guilt in Stark's eyes. But he stood up, looked at the real sun just appearing on the horizon, and said:
"I will go with you."
It was the first time that Stark did not refuse Steve's proposal or mocked him as usual. Standing up, he pursed his lips, saying, "I'm not a psychologist, nor have I done any research in this field. The consciousness and dream world are very dangerous. You'd better not..."
"Tony Stark, do you really think that I'm the kind of person who would run away in this situation?" Steve looked into Stark's eyes and asked.
Stark had never heard Steve ask so earnestly before, and at the moment he heard this question, the answer that appeared in Stark's heart made him say: "...You just need to sleep and dream. I'll use my magical powers to pull you over."
Stark glanced at Shiller's body lying on the ground and slowly said:
"Have a good dream."