Chapter 15 – Combat Armor
The next morning.
Still wrapped in his robe, Tony stumbled forward unsteadily. One hand kept rubbing his temple, his head pounding from last night's brutal hangover, while his body sluggishly rode the automatic escalator that connected the two mansions. Eventually, he arrived at Blake Thorne's residence.
By then, Blake had already finished his morning training. He had just stepped out of the gravity training room.
From Tony's perspective, the design principle behind the gravity training room itself wasn't all that complicated.
Two years ago, after Blake helped Tony reform Stark Industries, Tony repaid the favor by personally designing a specialized gravity training room just for him.
The room was built in the basement of Blake's house in Queens and was capable of generating gravity up to one hundred times that of Earth.
Thanks to this device, Blake's strength had grown at an astonishing pace over the past two years—reaching a Power Level of 250,000 points.
— — —
When Tony caught sight of the eye-catching number displayed on the control panel outside the training room, he sharply sucked in a breath.
One hundred times Earth's gravity!
As the chief designer of the room, Tony understood better than anyone just how insane that number really was.
At first, he had assumed Blake would only need a maximum of ten to twenty times gravity. But Blake had insisted, and in the end, Tony had agreed to push the upper limit all the way to one hundred times.
Even the power supply had to be upgraded—three Arc Reactors instead of one—just to sustain that load.
What shocked Tony the most was that Blake wasn't just capable of enduring that extreme gravity.
He was actually using it. Casually.
Watching the young man step out of the training room wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, his body still glistening with sweat, Tony could only stare at him as if he were looking at some kind of monster.
Unable to hold it in any longer, Tony blurted out, "Blake… just what kind of creature are you, anyway?!"
Blake rolled his eyes, clearly too lazy to respond properly. He simply grabbed a white towel and strolled toward the bathroom.
"Tony, when you've got time, upgrade the gravity room again. A hundred times doesn't really do much for me anymore. Show me everything you've got. The heavier, the better…"
After saying that, Blake closed the glass door of the bathroom—thankfully, it wasn't transparent.
There was no perfect way to describe what Tony was feeling right now. But if it had to be summed up in one word, it would be this: speechless.
Meanwhile, behind the shower curtain, Blake scrubbed his body as his thoughts drifted inward.
The human body in this world… developed far too slowly compared to the Saiyan race. Back when he was seventeen in the Dragon Ball world, just how strong had he been at that age?
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that across the entirety of Universe 7, there had been almost no one who could stand as his equal.
Even so, in the Marvel world, a Power Level of 250,000 was already enough to deal with most powerful characters—including the Avengers' so-called final boss, Thanos, who likely wouldn't survive more than a few direct hits.
But the power system in this world was far more complex.
At the very least, there existed the Five World-Creating Entities of Marvel: Galactus, Eternity, Infinity, Oblivion, and Death.
On top of that, there was the Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme, as well as Dormammu, ruler of the Dark Dimension.
In Blake's view, within Marvel comic lore, the strength of these entities was comparable to the Grand Priest of the Dragon Ball world—some could even be measured against Zeno in terms of level and authority.
That said, according to Dragon God Zalama, Zeno still stood above them all in absolute power.
This difference was clearly reflected in the very structure of power within the Marvel world.
Here, power was distributed across countless systems and foundational rules. Multiple forms of energy and primordial forces coexisted and evolved side by side.
In contrast, the Dragon Ball world's power system was pure and singular.
One sentence summed it up perfectly: Absolute Power Gives Birth to Absolute Destruction.
Even divine states like Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego were rooted in that fundamental principle.
And at the source of all those phenomena stood Zeno and the Dragon God Zalama.
In the Marvel world, however, there was no single power that truly dominated the entire universe. Everything developed in parallel, each force governed by its own system and laws. None of them could be called the "mainstream."
From this alone, Blake concluded that Zeno still sat at the very top of the pyramid of existence.
Even so, as a mortal being in this world, Blake was keenly aware that he was in no position to underestimate Marvel's highest entities.
A short while later, after stepping out of the bathroom, Blake saw Tony already waiting for him, tablet in hand, striding quickly in his direction.
"Hey… Blake. Those two green-skinned monsters that went on a rampage on Broadway last night," Tony said, squinting at him. "You were the one who dealt with them, right?"
Blake had no intention of hiding it. He simply nodded.
Tony's eyes lit up with curiosity. "If I wore my new armor, do you think… I could take down those two monsters?"
Blake shook his head and replied calmly, his tone steady and matter-of-fact.
"Unfortunately, no. The Abomination I killed last night… you might be able to defeat him with your armor. But Hulk? With your current armor, he'd tear it apart like wet paper."
"And honestly, it's not just you. The true power hidden inside Hulk's body… even I'm not completely confident I could defeat him at his peak."
"Anyway, forget about that for now. But you, Tony… don't you feel like there's something wrong with your body?"
As he said that, Blake suddenly pulled open Tony's robe.
One second later, he snapped it shut again at lightning speed.
"Ugh—damn it! Tony! Seriously?! You're not wearing any underwear?!"
That sight… was pure visual torture. Even Blake's old soul—one that had lived through countless lives—nearly collapsed under the sheer psychic damage.
Tony simply raised his hands in surrender. "I've felt kinda weird lately too. I was just about to go see a doctor…"
With his eyes shut tight and one hand pressed to his face, Blake desperately tried to erase that traumatic image from his mind.
"Tony… you're suffering from palladium poisoning. And the cause is the Arc Reactor in your chest."
"If you want to fix this problem, then you need to—"
Blake didn't wait for some villain to appear or for the plot to reach its dramatic climax like usual.
He gave the solution straight away—the exam answers, handed over before the questions even appeared.
— — —
About a week later, Tony—using the "sandbox" blueprints left behind by his father—successfully upgraded the Arc Reactor in his chest, completely resolving the palladium poisoning that had been eating away at his body.
And he didn't stop there.
He also finished perfecting his newest armor.
Brimming with renewed confidence, Tony put the armor on and immediately went to find Blake.
Without any small talk, he declared his desire to duel him head-on. Even though he knew his chances of winning were close to zero, Tony wanted to personally measure just how vast the gap in power between them really was.
Someone came looking to get beaten up?
Of course Blake didn't mind.
Calmly, Blake placed a hand on Tony's armored shoulder and activated Instant Transmission. In the blink of an eye, they were standing in the heart of Earth's largest desert—the Sahara.
Even though this wasn't Tony's first time experiencing Instant Transmission, he was still awestruck by how the world around him changed in an instant.
What an unbelievable ability…
Unfortunately, there was absolutely no way for him to learn it.
The moment they arrived, the duel began without wasting a second.
Naturally, Blake wasn't fighting seriously at all. He treated it as a live training session, using the opportunity to test and observe Tony's latest armor while offering real-time feedback. From time to time, he even gave technical suggestions for improvements.
In a sense, Blake had become the personal beta tester for the next-generation Iron Man armor.
Tony, fully suited up, immediately launched long-range attacks—energy cannons, micro-munitions, and mini-missiles unleashed in a single overwhelming barrage of explosions and blinding light.
But close combat?
No. Not even for a moment did that idea cross his mind.
Fighting Blake at close range?
Even with his strongest armor, Tony was convinced that a single punch from Blake would spill his guts—along with last night's dinner.
And that was only if Blake was feeling generous and holding back…
— — —
One hour later.
Blake returned to their mansion, dragging a battered Tony along with one hand, while carrying the tattered remains of the Iron Man armor in the other.
The duel had ended, unmistakably, in Blake's absolute victory.
Yet through this fight, Blake had discovered a major weakness of his own…
His human body could not survive in outer space. He couldn't fight in the vacuum of the cosmos.
Tony, clever as ever, had realized this beforehand. That was why he had modified his armor to support his biological functions for several minutes outside the atmosphere.
Unfortunately for him, Blake saw through the plan.
When Tony tried to escape into space to test the armor's limits, Blake fired a Ki Blast from long range, forcing Iron Man to crash-land back into the sands of the Sahara.
Tony could only accept his defeat.
They had clearly agreed beforehand that Blake wouldn't use Instant Transmission, and wouldn't exceed the armor's maximum speed.
But Tony hadn't expected Blake to still be hiding one more ability.
Energy attacks launched directly from the palm of his hand.
And shockingly enough, their power was anything but trivial.
— — —
"Tony," Blake said once everything was over, "it looks like I need to revise my initial opinion. If you have the time… make a set of armor for me too."
"I don't need many features. Just something durable, practical, and capable of keeping me alive in outer space."
As a true friend, Tony naturally didn't refuse such a simple request.
In just one week, Blake's custom armor was completed.
Since it didn't require weapon systems or flight capabilities, Tony was able to simplify the physical structure and mechanical systems down to their most efficient form.
The armor could be folded into a belt and worn around the waist.
When needed, the user only had to press a small button on the belt, and the armor would automatically envelop Blake's entire body.
Due to capacity limitations, however, the internal oxygen supply was only enough for about one hour of activity in space.
Even so, for someone like Blake—who possessed Instant Transmission—that was more than sufficient.
If he ever found himself in real danger out in space, he could return to Earth with a single thought.
This armor was created primarily as support for battles against extraterrestrial enemies, and also to protect his identity.
Its design was entirely black—solid, imposing, and wrapped in an air of mystery. Minimalist in function, yet undeniably cool in appearance.
Blake was extremely satisfied with Tony's work.
— — —
And then, the very next day after he received the armor…
A mysterious, completely unexpected man appeared at the front door of Blake's house.
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