In the tenth floor of the Thought Palace, in the ward of an insane asylum, young Shiller and the towering Khonsu were sitting side by side on the edge of the bed. Shiller was trying to fit a ring component from Khonsu's wand onto his wrist, while Khonsu was busy repairing his wand with a pile of ring components.
Khonsu held his half-repaired wand, extended his arm, and looked at it from a distance. He found some details unsatisfactory, so he brought it back for further repair. Meanwhile, young Shiller was fiddling with the ring component, seemingly trying to figure out why it could glow.
Suddenly, the room in the Thought Palace slightly trembled, and some old wall plaster fell to the ground. Khonsu looked around in confusion but didn't notice anything unusual. However, young Shiller immediately stood up,
Under Khonsu's startled gaze, a black umbrella appeared in his hand. Following that, a pointed knife sprang out from the tip of the umbrella with a "zing".
"What's wrong? Where are you going?" Khonsu stood up and asked.
Young Shiller didn't answer him. Instead, he briskly walked out of the ward with the umbrella knife in his hand, and his icy words echoed in the room:
"I'm off to kill."
In the real world, Steve, sitting between two hospital beds, was reading a magazine.
He was somewhat tired. He had previously experienced a great emotional upheaval and had carried out various deductions, which had heavily taxed his brain. However, his anxiety disorder had not yet healed, so the more nervous he became, the less he could sleep. He could only pass the time with a magazine given by the nurse.
Through the edge of the magazine, he saw Shiller, who was sleeping in bed, stir. Steve immediately put away the magazine, preparing to go over to talk to Shiller. But suddenly, he noticed a change in Shiller's expression.
At the moment when Shiller opened his eyes, his cold and cruel gaze told Steve that it was not the gentle psychiatrist who had returned, but a killer with an antisocial personality.
Shiller sat up from the bed with somewhat mechanical movements. Meanwhile, Stark in the adjacent bed also woke up. Steve turned around and saw Stark sit up and shake his head before leaping out of bed with a "swish".
He stretched out his hands and said to Shiller across from him, "Shiller, calm down, listen to my explanation, there's a huge misunderstanding here. I didn't do it on purpose…"
When Steve turned his head back, he saw Shiller's clothes turn silver at the corners, and the light outside the window suddenly dimmed. Steve saw the sun gradually being covered by the shadow of an eclipse, and the horizon was a fluctuating yellow, as if night was about to fall.
"Click—"
The Iron Armor equipped itself onto Stark, and the sound of a jet engine filled the room, creating a huge airflow. Steve shielded his eyes with his arms, and when he lowered his arms, Stark had smashed through the window and flown out with a "bang".
The splashing glass shards made Steve retreat a few steps. He turned around, and at that moment, an umbrella knife appeared in Shiller's hand with a "whoosh". With a "swish", he darted past Steve and sent him spinning.
It wasn't until the two men flew out of the hospital and began a desperate chase in the New York skyline that Steve exhaled. He walked to the window, placed his hands on his hips, and looked out at the scene.
Steve had anticipated that Stark might not be able to persuade Shiller. He had lived through that era and knew how unbending those people could be. However, it was clearly more than just a disagreement now.
Steve was a bit puzzled because he couldn't rule out the possibility that Stark would attack Shiller. If the two didn't negotiate properly and emotions flared up, they might start a fight.
Stark had entered Shiller's Thought Palace, and no one could defeat Shiller in his dream. If he couldn't win in the dream, then of course, he must escape. Once Stark retreats, Shiller will definitely pursue. But why did the one who emerged to chase look like the killer Shiller who previously wiped out Baron Zemo?
Just how furious had Stark made Shiller to make him release such a dangerous personality to hunt him down???
At this thought, Steve's conscience didn't allow him to stand by and do nothing. He too jumped out of the window and caught up with the two men who were in the midst of their chase.
Generally speaking, Shiller fights by turning into a gray mist and using the mist's inherent properties to besiege his opponents. After all, no matter how skilled a fighter is, they can't hit a cloud of mist, but are instead easily surrounded by it.
Shiller's combat style mainly revolves around subduing his opponents, who often haven't had a chance to react before they're made unconscious.
Steve, a master of combat, knew this was Shiller's way of compensating for his lack of fighting skills. It showed his strength and hid his weakness. After all, a person who has never learned to fight, even if armed with a large machete, might not be able to accurately harm others, and is more likely to hurt himself.
The advantage of the mist's properties was so strong that merely showing its form could solve most problems. Hence, Steve and Stark always thought that this was Shiller's way of fighting.
As a result, the hundreds of countermeasure plans in Stark's mech were all designed to counter this approach, including the giant vacuum cleaner he had once brought out.
Theoretically, as long as it was powerful enough and had a large enough volume, the vacuum cleaner could be effective against anything. This includes a variety of celestial bodies in the cosmos and even Shiller's mist form.
However, this time, Shiller showed no intention of transforming. Holding his umbrella knife and employing the power of the Moon God Khonsu, he repeatedly attacked, the massive blasts from his knife blocking Stark's flight path and forcing him to stop and confront Shiller head-on.
"Jarvis, quickly record his movement trajectory, analyze his fighting habits, and carry out route calculation…"
"Recording in progress, sir, but currently the data is insufficient. The best combat advice to offer now is to replace the magical energy source and activate the magic shield…"
"But the magical energy is very limited!" Stark said with a headache.
While manually controlling the mecha, dodging deadly knife light, he also had to calculate energy distribution in his mind, while at the same time opening the speaker, trying to persuade Shiller not to fall into crazy fantasy.
Because Stark had never seen death from beginning to end. From his perspective, suddenly, the scale originally placed in the middle of the table cracked and flattened like a giant invisible hand had crushed it. After being stunned for a moment, Shiller's face suddenly became very grim and mad.
As a result, the whole floor began to shake a bit. If it wasn't for Stark's quick reaction, he wouldn't have had the chance to return to the real world.
Stark's battlesuit has a comprehensive protective system, including an energy shield attached to the surface of the armor, and a force field based on the principles of magnetic force. But Moonlight Shiller with his umbrella knife had truly demonstrated what precision and lethality meant.
Right now, the arc reactor in Stark's chest was very close to being an infinite energy source. But due to output limitations, energy shields need time to cover the whole body. If Shiller strikes a weak part of the energy shield, extracting energy from the core and conducting it to this part would take a few seconds of delay.
Using this advantage, Moonlight Shiller attacked the joints of the battlesuit ferociously while Jarvis had not yet gathered enough information to figure out his attack methods.
Suddenly, the energy shield was under attack from all sides. In the case of multiple attacks, the joints in secondary pathways couldn't restore their shields in time.
For example, when the energy shields at the shoulder and elbow were attacked simultaneously, energy transferred would prioritize the shoulder over the elbow. Therefore, at that moment, the elbow would be without defense. Shiller cut in, sparking a "zip" sound, and Stark quickly retreated.
He looked at his own elbow. A large crack had appeared on the armor of the entire forearm. The inside of the wires were even faintly visible. Alarms from the battlesuit were ringing non-stop, and Jarvis' pop-ups nearly drowned Stark.
But Shiller was not satisfied with only attacking Stark's limbs. He was well aware that soon Jarvis would analyze his methods of combat and offer effective counter strategies. By then, it would become difficult to inflict damage.
Therefore, the counter to this level of AI was quick attacks. In the time it takes for him to collect enough data, he would need to deal a sufficient amount of damage. By the time they had enough data on a software level, the hardware would be damaged to the point of incapable of continuing the battle.
Obviously, Steve, whom had just caught up, also saw through Shiller's intentions. Looking at Stark, who was surrounded by knife light, he yelled: "Dodge! Don't let him hit you!"
"I know!" Stark yelled back. But he was also very worried. This was the New York sky, the most densely populated Brooklyn Area. Everyone had stopped and was watching the aerial battle between these two supermen.
As the two of them are battling in the sky, the ground hadn't yet been affected. Shiller's knife light comes from Kong Su's power. After being swung around, it gradually disperses, much like moonlight.
However, if Stark were to initiate his heavy artillery, just the shrapnel falling down would cause havoc to people on the ground.
Being unable to cover with firepower, half of Iron Man's attacks were useless. Stark, without having ascended to his Iron Demon God form, could only rely on the drones he previously modified to disrupt Shiller's movements.
The eclipse phenomenon in the sky had not yet dissipated. The sun's rays were blocked, and the glow of the moon arrived as expected. The junction of the earth, the warm colors of twilight, and the cold light of the moon formed a strange and dreamy atmosphere of terror.
Against the backdrop of the sun gradually being devoured, the two flying figures in the sky continue their fervent clash.
On the ground, countless ordinary people took out their phones, photographers carried cameras, reporters flocked to the scene. The crew of the latest variety show urgently mobilized all their scouts and employees to start live broadcasting this war between superheroes.
Sparks flying off Stark's leg once again, he finally couldn't bear it any longer. He controlled his suit to quickly retreat, speedily moving away from Shiller. He spun and flew into the distance like a missile torpedo. During the process, he said to Jarvis: "Switch to magical energy!"
"Switching energy ... switching completed ... do you want to activate the Demon God Form?"
"Is there still enough energy?"
"After activating the Demon God Form, you can only last at most 4 and a half minutes. You consumed too much energy last time, and it hasn't been replenished yet."
Stark looked back at Shiller, who was relentlessly pursuing him. The moonlight flickering on his body was a physical manifestation of Moon God Kong Su's power. Shiller had never been controlled. They were cooperation partners from start to finish.
Even though the amount of magical energy Stark possessed wasn't small, compared to the mature Egyptian God Kong Su, he was at a disadvantage. After all, Stark was human, while Kong Su was a true Demon God. Under these circumstances, he couldn't wage a war of attrition with the Demon God.
If Shiller were truly an enemy, Stark could have climbed directly to the peak of the individual universe and crushed him with one hand. However, Shiller was not.
Shiller was merely mad from the collapse of his faith. Stark could only subdue him, not kill him. So, Stark said:
"Do not switch to Demon God Form, just use the Magic Combat System."
"The Magic Combat System is still in debugging. Many areas aren't perfect yet. Are you sure you want to activate it?"
"Activate!"