"I am."
Renzo swung the spear, and its sharp tip nearly touched Wanda's nose, leaving behind a tiny cut.
The important thing was that the small wound actually drew blood.
Renzo was overjoyed when he saw it. "It seems you're not completely invulnerable."
He had originally thought Wanda would be like Sithorn, constantly replenishing herself with the surrounding Chaos energy to maintain a perfectly stable state.
But judging from the current situation, Wanda had not yet mastered that ability.
This also allowed Renzo to breathe a sigh of relief. If Wanda could recover without restrictions like Sithorn, capturing her would be practically impossible. Renzo had personally experienced how terrifying that man was. If he had not escaped quickly enough, he probably would have ended up paying for it with his life.
The upper limit of Chaos Magic was terrifying, but so was its lower limit. Even an ordinary person who became slightly contaminated by Chaos Magic could already surpass at least half of the superheroes present.
Wanda's level had already surpassed the realm of the Heavenly Father. Even if Odin and the Ancient One were resurrected, they might not be able to gain an advantage against her.
However, Renzo still believed that the two of them working together should at least be capable of taking Wanda down.
The spear in his hand moved like a swimming dragon, disrupting the airflow within the scarlet space. It hissed as the energy climbed along the shaft like a poisonous snake, only to transform into blood in an instant and merge with the spear.
Within a few seconds, several bright crimson patterns inexplicably appeared across the pitch-black weapon. They seemed ready to emerge from the surface at any moment, lifelike and sinister.
The power of the Black Lantern Ring was no weaker than Chaos. The power contained within Renzo's spear, both in quality and quantity, was far greater than the scattered energy drifting through the surroundings.
It was like a game of big fish eating small fish.
The stronger devoured the weaker.
It was only natural.
Wanda also realized that allowing the surrounding Chaos energy to remain would only strengthen her enemy for no reason. She waved her hand, dispersing the Chaos energy wandering through the space and reinforcing the sealing spell.
Then she parted her red lips slightly.
"Fall!"
This move again!
Renzo responded indifferently.
Words capable of altering reality had no effect on him at all. That kind of power could barely touch him, let alone influence him.
Renzo leaned forward, preparing to eliminate Wanda in one decisive attack.
High attack but low defense was a common weakness among mages, and even Wanda was no exception.
Boom!
A tremendous sound suddenly came from above.
Renzo was slightly startled.
In the next instant, he felt something heavy pressing down on his back, as though a thousand-ton boulder had fallen on him and pinned him in place.
In fact, it was a boulder roughly the size of a bus.
"Damn it! When did she send the rock into the space?"
Renzo was somewhat surprised.
Wanda had clearly realized that her words had no effect on Renzo, so she had chosen to manipulate other things instead—objects that could not be directly touched by human hands.
It was like encountering a hot iron pot. If you could not touch the pot itself, simply attach a wooden handle to it.
Although Renzo had used the Space Stone to create an isolated battlefield where no one else could interfere, he did not actually possess exclusive authority over the space.
To put it simply, it was like building a public restroom. You could use it, but that did not mean you were the only person with the right to enter.
Wanda had realized this as well.
She opened another space within the space, then used her reality-altering magic to create weapons that belonged exclusively to her.
Faced with this kind of recursive trick, Renzo could only shout his approval.
"Smart girl."
Renzo could not help admiring her. She had gathered so much information during such a short confrontation.
Wanda's combat intelligence was no lower than Steve's.
"Looks like I need to get more serious."
Renzo spoke to himself.
Black light gradually emerged from his dark body. This time, even his facial features were covered and disappeared completely.
If Wanda wanted to analyze the battle by watching his expression, she would no longer have that option.
The purple patterns unique to the Egyptian God of Death slowly emerged against the dark background, while the aura surrounding Renzo grew increasingly cold.
It was an unnatural cold, stronger than the chill of a refrigerator.
The spear in his hand decomposed and transformed into a long sword.
The blade was pitch-black, while crocodile and jackal-head carvings adorned the hilt. The sword itself completely followed the appearance of the legendary Sword in the Stone.
During his time in this universe, Renzo had already absorbed all the information he could obtain about the superheroes here.
Recreating a sword with the exact same appearance was not difficult.
Renzo struck straight ahead, and the distance between him and Wanda seemed to disappear.
The woman was stunned for only a moment.
That did not mean she would simply stand there and let someone cut her down.
Wanda thrust both hands forward, and a shield formed from Chaos Magic suddenly appeared before her face.
But this level of defense could not stop the Black Death Sword.
In the blink of an eye, the shield shattered.
Seeing the blade getting closer and closer, Wanda fired a burst of Chaos Magic with her other hand, striking the sword and deflecting Renzo's attack by several centimeters.
The blade grazed her shoulder, shaving away a thin layer of flesh.
"He really wants to kill me! Doesn't he recognize my face?"
Wanda was shocked.
According to the memories in her mind, the daily life she and Renzo had shared had been warm and sweet. They should have been deeply in love.
Why...?
Wanda did not understand how men could be so fickle.
In reality, Renzo was being influenced by the Black Death within the Lantern Ring, and his consciousness had been flooded with countless things that did not originally belong to him.
The sheer volume of information had pushed Renzo's mind to the verge of collapse, making it almost comparable to a supercomputer.
Only his combat instructions were still being executed perfectly.
Everything else had been buried beneath an enormous amount of irrelevant information.
Even Wanda's face had been lost within that vast, dark sea.
This was not merely a battle between Renzo and Wanda.
It was also a battle between the hidden forces standing behind them.
The Black Death and Sithorn supported their respective vessels, but what their ultimate purposes were...
That remained unknown.
Renzo and Wanda exchanged several blows.
Although Renzo's physical abilities surpassed Wanda's in every aspect, the sheer intensity of Chaos Magic could not be overcome so easily.
Wanda could not alter Renzo's reality directly, but she could continuously alter the reality surrounding him and use it to interfere with him.
It was not particularly powerful, but it was extremely troublesome.
Renzo dodged the meteorites, cars, airplanes, Deadpools, and other objects that continuously came flying toward him.
Wait.
Had something strange gotten mixed in?
For a time, the two fought without either gaining the upper hand, their strength evenly matched.
---
Meanwhile, outside the isolated battlefield...
With Eric's large-scale clearing of the infected, the heroes' counterattack gradually began producing results.
Peter lay on the ground, surrounded by densely packed corpses of infected.
His red-and-blue Spider-Man suit was stained with foul blood, which clung to his face and made him feel sick.
Killing was still too difficult for Peter to accept.
The name Spider-Man was never supposed to be associated with killing.
If Peter had to kill someone, he would almost rather hope that the Sinister Six killed him first. The chances of that happening were probably higher.
But he had still done it.
It went against everything Aunt May had taught him about protecting life.
He was moving farther and farther away from the ideal of refusing to become a killer.
The young boy's numb eyes stared toward the sky.
No matter how extraordinary his strength was, it was almost completely exhausted.
What infected?
What superhero?
What Spider-Man?
At that moment, Peter simply wanted to lie quietly on the ground and rest.
Maybe some crazed infected would come along and cut off his head.
"I'm sorry... Aunt May. I couldn't do what you told me."
A tear quietly slipped from the corner of Peter's eye.
"With great power comes great responsibility."
Before today, Peter had deeply engraved those words into his mind as his life's guiding principle.
But now...
He wished he could forget them as quickly as possible.
They lingered in his mind like a cruel taunt.
"Kid! Cheer up! Don't get yourself killed."
Moon Knight Mark threw a crescent dart, piercing the chest of an infected who had been trying to sneak up on Peter.
The boy acted as though he had not even noticed.
He continued lying on the ground like a corpse.
If Mark had not sensed Peter's strong vital signs, he would have genuinely thought the kid had died.
To be honest, Mark did not want him to die.
Peter was a simple and kind-hearted boy. He could be a little talkative at times, but overall, he was an exceptionally good person.
Even among superheroes like them, finding someone more upright and kind than Peter would have been extremely difficult.
Mark casually flipped a Mr. Negative aside, then ran over to Peter and reached down to pull him up.
"Don't worry about me. I don't have any strength left. Let me rest for a while..."
Peter spoke weakly, his chest rising and falling slightly to prove that he was still alive.
"At this level, you're getting a little weak. Be careful, or your little girlfriend might run off with someone else."
Mark joked, trying to make Peter smile and regain some energy.
But apparently, his plan had failed.
Peter continued lying on the ground listlessly, the light gradually fading from his bright eyes.
"Seriously..."
Mark wanted nothing more than to punch the young man in the face and knock some sense into him.
This was war!
It was not some game they had played on the streets.
People were going to die!
"Steven... it's your turn."
Steven's personality emerged, and the Moon Knight state changed into the Moon Knight Gentleman state.
He held two short batons in his hands.
"Huh... huh..."
Steven looked around in horror.
"Why did you call me out in a place this dangerous? I don't want to die!"
The man clutched his head and crouched down in fear.
This was the first time he had seen such a brutal scene.
Although he and Mark had reconciled their personalities, both could see what was happening outside whenever the other controlled the body.
Still, some things were easier to avoid.
Steven usually hid deep within Mark's mind.
He chatted, told jokes, watched Mark pick up women, and occasionally did a little of it himself.
But when it came to fighting, Steven hid even deeper.
Out of sight, out of mind.
He was not suited for this kind of activity.
It was better to leave everything to Mark.
Steven hesitated for a moment, looked at the tragic scene around him, then cautiously approached Peter and lay down beside him.
From a distance, the two thin men looked like a pair of stray dogs, one white and one red, sprawled across the ground.
Mark was furious.
*I told you to persuade him to get back up, not to fool around with him!*
He wanted to switch back immediately.
But Steven refused.
Although the battle raged outside, it was at least being kept beyond the defensive perimeter.
The two of them were still in a relatively safe position.
They had finally come out for some fresh air.
Steven was unwilling to switch back to Mark.
Scott slowly pushed Charles's small yellow car through the sea of infected.
The optic blasts from his eyes shattered and melted every infected creature that came too close to Charles. Broken flesh fell to the ground and became pools of foul-smelling pus.
The man unleashed his anger without restraint, his blue eyes blazing as he stared into the sea of infected, wanting to burn away everything in his path.
He could not forget the way Jean had died in front of him.
The girl's long hair had flown around her, burning like the sun, like a setting star that was about to disappear.
That beautiful golden light had illuminated the man's chest, while the wounds across his abdomen leaked deep-red blood.
It flowed down his body and dripped onto Scott's legs.
The flames gradually faded from the girl's eyes.
Along with her dazzling red hair, the light in her eyes gradually disappeared before everyone.
That had been the angriest Scott had ever been.
He hated that the Phoenix had been parasitizing Jean's body.
He hated that Logan had killed Jean.
Logan's claws had still been dripping with Jean's blood.
Scott hated this unfair world.
Why had it taken Jean from him?
Why should someone as good as Jean suffer such a fate?
She had been so good.
She had been the hope of all mutants...
Scott transformed all the anger and grief he had received from Jean into the strength driving him through this battle.
He raised his head and looked toward the narrow crack in the sky.
A faint red aura overflowed from within.
Scott's eyes swept across it, but the optic blast was blocked and reflected back into the crowd.
The two ancient gods would never allow anyone else to interfere in the battle between their chosen successors.
Surrounded by the Avengers, most of the hundreds of thousands of infected were eliminated within four hours.
Yet tens of thousands still struggled on.
Aside from a few particularly powerful figures such as Eric and Balder, almost everyone else was nearing exhaustion.
"Why have they been fighting for so long? If you don't know how to handle things, just meet fire with fire and get it over with."
Deadpool casually severed an infected head and continued talking as though nothing were wrong.
His immortal body allowed him to throw himself into the middle of the infected without fear of injury.
Even if they tore him to pieces, he could return to his original form in the blink of an eye...
Wait a minute.
"Fuck! Wade! When did you get infected?!"
The Thing, Ben, shouted, drawing the attention of everyone nearby.
No wonder Wade had been strolling so casually through the infected.
And none of them had attacked him.
"Want to try it? It feels pretty good. So cool!"
Wade raised his arms and shouted, laughing hysterically.
Everyone on Earth knew Deadpool's insane personality.
No matter how hard anyone tried, they could not kill him.
So nobody paid much attention to him. They simply let him do whatever he wanted.
He enjoyed the sensation of Chaos eroding his body.
It felt like drinking three kilograms of paraquat before having mercury poured into his skull, then having his bones smashed apart and dancing across the edge of a charcoal grill.
The more absurd it became, the more excited he was.
Ben was speechless and abandoned his urge to slap Wade into pieces.
The man as stubborn as stone also looked toward the crack in the sky.
He was not the only one.
Many people glanced upward at the same time.
They felt that...
The battle up there...
seemed to have quieted down.
__________________________________________
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