With just a little bit of intelligence.
Ian quickly discovered the reason for the stitched-up Homelander's shutdown behind its neck—it truly was "out of battery." A micro-reactor, now dim, was embedded in Homelander's hollowed-out neck.
Perhaps the energy was completely depleted.
Or perhaps the energy supply was remotely cut off.
"Black technology!"
Ian deftly removed the thumb-sized reactor and slipped it into his pocket. Just the faint "Stark Industries" lettering on the surface told him this was a good find.
"What a perfect body! Please! Let me experience this body! I'll do anything you want!" The demon head was still obsessed with the stitched-up Homelander's physique.
Its aesthetic taste clearly had issues.
One could only say it was extremely Hellish.
"You'll do anything? Including betraying Trigon?" Ian sensed the demon head's impatience and curiously opened the door to negotiation.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
The demon head's reaction was intense. "My father served Trigon, my grandfather also served Trigon, and my great-grandfather was one of Trigon's most capable demons!"
"It is a family tradition! I must also be eternally loyal to the great Trigon! Not even death can shake my loyalty!" Its will and stance were firm.
"Well, you're just great then."
Ian curled his lip, offering a listless compliment. He looked at the motionless stitched-up Homelander, then raised his foot and kicked it onto the ground.
"Ultimately, the Son of Superman defeated the counterfeit Superman and defended the glory of the Father God. A tragic and heroic feat. I think this accomplishment is worthy of me creating another 'Ancestor-Man' alter ego in the future."
Ian's action might be taking advantage of the "monster's" current state, but a win is a win, right? In America, all that matters is winning. Before Ian crossed over, the true Eternal Sun, the Supreme Tax Emperor—a far more dazzling light than MacArthur—had already taught him the American Way of Life.
"Don't! Don't spit on this body!"
The demon head, glancing up with its eyes, saw Ian's mouth moving and assumed he was "brewing" an attack. Greatly traumatized, it quickly spoke up to stop him.
"While I won't betray Trigon, I can betray other demons in Hell! I can help you summon my brethren or even a demon lord. This body can sustain me in casting such a spell."
The demon laid out its bottom line, begging subserviently.
It must be said.
Ian was slightly tempted.
"Worthy of a demon skilled in adaptation. You actually hit my soft spot. I'll give you credit for this one." Ian weighed his options and finally walked toward the fallen stitched-up Homelander.
"Hiss~"
He strained to rip off Homelander's head, but Heaven knows what kind of stitching material those Marvel fakes used. His strength, about twenty times that of an average person, still couldn't destroy the patched-up structure.
The boy was a little embarrassed.
But fortunately, he had his ace in the hole.
"Close your eyes first. I'm going to spit. I promise, just a little bit, just locally applied." Ian directly plastered the demon's eyes with two clods of dirt.
He tried another method first.
It proved that his most powerful natural human weapon was also not very effective.
...
On the other side.
After completing their respawn.
Gwen led her team back to the fountain square.
Gazing at the scene in the square.
Gwen, who had considered at least twenty possibilities, was still stunned. The soldiers were also a bit restless, but good military discipline kept them from being as agitated as Gwen.
"What are you doing now? Again!?"
Gwen's voice reached at least an F3 pitch.
Her hands were shaking.
"Huh?"
Ian, who was foraging in the square, didn't turn around. He just responded while meticulously selecting materials. "I'm assembling a Gundam. No, a doomsday Evangelion."
He picked up a strong arm from the ground.
"Yes! That's right! I am the Evangelion! This is perfect art!" The demon's voice was full of excitement. Its head was finally able to rotate 360 degrees like a normal demon's.
"I feel great."
It flexed its three heads, six arms, and eight legs, praising Ian sincerely, a sight that made the expendable Gwen and the group of expendable soldiers' eyelids twitch wildly.
"How could you destroy Homelander's steel body?" Gwen snapped back to reality, rushed forward, and before the Bull-Headed Demon could react, she tore it off.
Forgive Ian's spit for only containing the corrosive effect of evil energy.
It didn't have super glue mixed in.
"No!"
The demon head let out a miserable shriek and was disgustedly tossed back to Ian by Gwen—Ian wanted to kick it away too, but he had the soccer skills of the national Chinese team from his previous life.
He missed.
However, this didn't prevent him from conveniently stepping on the demon head.
"We still have use for this body; we can't let you spoil or take it." Gwen spoke with great seriousness, instructing the soldiers to begin recovering the remains and detached limbs of Homelander and the Hulk.
"Are you planning to have this body snap its fingers?" Ian guessed that Gwen was testing the strength of this good-corpse-fighting set earlier. He remembered the information he learned the last time he was in this world.
AI Tony wanted to use the Infinity Stones to bring this world back to normal operation.
"No."
Gwen hesitated for a moment but still gave Ian an answer, as he had S.H.I.E.L.D. clearance. "See that truly big guy in the sky?"
"If he falls down, it will be no less than another asteroid collision with Earth." The girl's tone carried a hint of worry, but Ian's focus was on a different aspect.
"He? Not *He*? Is the invincible Galactus so lacking in respect now?" Ian was very astonished. In his view, Galactus was one of the Five Great Deities of the Marvel Universe, no matter what.
Little Gwen.
Dares to despise a deity?
"That's not important!"
Gwen rolled her eyes. "In short, we need the residual power within the bodies of the superheroes to hold him up. He can't collapse, at least not before the last Infinity Stone is transported back to Earth."
"Due to Galactus's inherent status, even though only his remains are left, our time-slowing device won't last much longer." Gwen sighed worriedly.
Listening to her words.
Ian was immediately enlightened.
"So it's you guys... I was wondering why he hadn't fallen over and let me touch him after all this time..." He was very emotional. It seemed it wasn't that Galactus, even in death, was unwilling to share his power with him.
"..."
Gwen looked utterly bewildered after hearing Ian's comment.
After a long while.
"Tony wants to see you. I beg you, please act a little more normal." Seeing the soldiers loading the experiment subject's parts onto tricycles, Gwen gestured for Ian to climb into one of them.
"I am normal. You are the ones who aren't smart enough and lack some comprehension skills." Ian picked up the demon head from the ground, hung it on his waist, and then clambered onto the vehicle.
"So, do your parents understand you? In that era when everything was still wonderful." Gwen pedaled hard at the front, abruptly asking a random question.
"Are you talking about my alcoholic mother and my father who wears his underwear outside his clothes? Of course, they also think I'm very normal." Ian answered while looking around at the soldiers also using human-powered tricycles.
"..."
Gwen fell silent.
She seemed to feel that everything suddenly made sense.
Soon.
The group returned to the manhole cover, traversed the underground passage, and arrived at the base entrance. This time, Gwen used her own identity information to scan open the base door.
She acted quickly.
Denying Ian the chance to say, "Let me do it."
Entering the familiar main hall again, Ian was still stunned by AI Tony's massive mainframe. He couldn't even calculate how much money these components would sell for as scrap metal if they were transported back to the DC Universe.
"Can I get you something to drink?"
The digital face of Tony appeared.
And just at that moment.
The demon head, secretly sensing everything around it, let out a startled cry.
"This place!! This place!! What in the world is this place!!" The Bull-Head sensed an aura emanating from Digital Tony's mainframe that should not be sensed.
"Not even one universe should have so many souls!"
Its tone was filled with fear of the unknown and disbelief. For a moment, it couldn't distinguish whether Tony or Ian was the true Dimension Lord who reigned supreme here.
***
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