Chapter 107 107- Avengers (13)

Atop Stark Tower, Reed had been installing a secondary machine he had built in a hurry, while Doom was working on breaking out of his prison.

However, as that figure appeared in the sky, Doom suddenly felt the barrier surrounding him, as well as the one around the Tesseract Accelerator, vanish on their own.

He glanced in Reed’s direction first, rage building in his chest, thinking his rival had succeeded, when he realized that Reed remained unaware, still working on his assuredly flawed machine.

So this had to be Loki’s doing. Doom had already fallen once in the Asgardian’s trap, and once bitten, twice shy. But the Tesseract, and by extension Doom’s true goal, the Space Stone, were right in front of him.

With a thought, the mechanical system in the lower back of his armor activated, the pistons erasing a glyph and inscribing another. The enchantment on the armor went from an all-around empowerment to a pure increase in speed.

Then, before Reed could even realize what had happened, Doom reached into the machine. He still expected some form of resistance, yet Doom easily grabbed onto the Tesseract and yanked it out of the accelerator.

By suddenly losing its power source, the portal in the sky collapsed onto itself, and most of the energy was swallowed into the other side, effectively working like a bomb for them. The caution of the others only further cemented their inferiority in Doom’s mind as they failed to understand such a basic spatial notion.

The small amount of energy trapped on this side of the portal only formed a small explosion of energy into the sky, doing nothing more than creating a small shockwave.

And now, finally, Doom had the Tesseract in hand. The supreme power over space in this universe. With a thought, Doom could teleport anywhere in the universe or to other dimensions attached to it, such as the hellish dimensions.One step closer to his goal.

Unfortunately, Doom could not simply leave with it. Not because of a misplaced feeling of responsibility, but because Doom did not run.

Clutching onto the cube, Doom was about to crush it when his mind was suddenly attacked.

Doom’s automatic defences instantly reacted. The psychic shield surrounding his mind fought back, while another glyph was printed onto his armor for a similar purpose.

But the assault was unlike anything he had ever experienced. The attacker’s mind attached itself to his mental shield and started consuming it, effectively burning a hole into it by the time Doom managed to react.

The armor finished switching glyphs, and a more potent psychic shield manifested around Doom, isolating him from that presence. But the attack had still been enough to distract Doom, which was precisely when the alien flying down landed.

It was a female humanoid of an unknown race, her eyes white and devoid of irises. A cowl covered her hairless head, and she was dressed in a long grey robe, with a white cloak floating gently behind her, unaffected by the strong wind.

She was almost gentle when she reached out for the Tesseract, but she actually moved astonishingly fast, and before Doom could properly react, she simply snatched it out of his hand.

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Even Doom was taken aback by his own utter lack of responsibility, before his face grew grave, and he inspected his own mind. There, he realized the problem.

The gap in their psychic prowess was even greater than Doom had initially thought. She had made him believe he had erased her attack with his defences, when in fact a small seed of psychic energy had been dropped onto his mind and germinated to take control of him.

And it was not getting better. Doom found his own body betraying him, paralyzed. Even worse, his mind was turning sluggish, the influence of that seed strengthening by the second.

The female alien ignored him, holding the Tesseract with a grin. From the corner of his vision, Doom noticed that Richards stood frozen too.

"So the little Asgardian was not completely useless after all. Foolish, but useful. Father shall be pleased."

She glided over to Doom, her feet hovering right above the floor, and gently caressed Doom’s mask. "I never expected to find such a delicacy on this backward world. What secrets you hold, what things you’ve done."

Doom reached out to his demonic patrons, the accursed Hazareth Three, but they remained silent, either because Doom failed to reach them, or they enjoyed his current predicament.

A formless rage started brewing in his chest and found his Chi. His life energy erupted inward, and for a moment, the spread of the psychic seed was halted.

"Oh, are you resisting your mistress? I feel your pride, your anger. Do you think you can stand before Supergiant?"

The female alien, Supergiant, flicked his mask before turning around as Mason landed on top of the tower.

Supergiant grinned, about to say something, but then her face froze, and the smile was turned upside down. Mason ignored her in his usual exasperating disregard for those beyond his condition, and teased, "Victor, you truly make for a fantastic statue."

Doom abhorred it when Mason did this. Because Mason was not just calling him by his first name; he was laying out his advantage over Doom plainly. It worked as a constant reminder that he was the one seeking guidance from Mason.

Mason was not the first teacher Doom had, but he certainly was the most insufferable. But there was a reason Doom put up with this insolent man-child who would think of making wordplay while facing a holder of an Infinity Stone.

"I hope you like it too, because that’s what all you’ll ever be if you don’t pull your head out of your ass. Have you learned nothing, you slow-witted, sorry excuse for a cultivator? Stop relying on magic, on the power of others. You don’t ask, you take. The Dao is everywhere, yet you can’t see it."

Doom’s rage intensified, but this time, he chose not to control it. He chose to embrace it. And finally, his body started answering. Just his eyes, at first. But as he stared at Supergiant’s back, it was like adding oil to a fire.

And all that rage, all that pride, they were funneled by his Divine Sense into the Dao. The Dao of Sovereignty.

Doom thought he would never experience a power like that of the magic the Hazareth Three granted him. But in that moment, as the power of the Dao was channeled through Doom, the psychic seed was erased from his mind. Not simply slowed down or regressed, but vanished, as it had never been there.

With a swipe of his hand, his connection to the Hazareth Three was recovered, but to the power he had once revered, he mostly felt disgust now. However disgusting that power may be, Doom did not discard it, because it remained power. And now, Doom felt more in control than he ever had.

Mason laughed, and with a pat, he freed Richards too, who took deep, hurried breaths and said, his voice cracked, "Don’t let her get to that kid!"

Doom narrowed his eyes at the obvious ploy, and reasoned that Richards must have been confident Supergiant had not gone deep enough to get to Loki. Considering the surface-level attack he got hit with himself, Doom was pretty confident Supergiant could not have dug what he thought of Loki’s plan either, since it had not entered his mind during the possession.

If it was only surface-level thoughts, then…

"Do not presume to give me orders, Richards. The child is safe."

He clenched his fist, and a mystical beam was fired at Supergiant. She ignored him, however, with her body becoming half-translucent as the beam passed through her harmlessly.

"Density manipulation," commented Richards.

Mason looked over his shoulder at the streets below and said, "Not to be that guy, but we do have a nuke about to blow us up. Doom, would you be so kind?"

Doom ascended and looked towards the direction the missile came from. He tried to create a portal, but found the space surrounding him to have been turned immutable.

"I could not have found a more fitting end if I had tried. To be wiped out by your own weapon, how utterly pathetic."

Mason’s looked down, hesitating about something, before his face eased with relief. Behind, over the horizon, a bright blue light of lightning exploded, followed by the sound of an explosion.

"Now I’m gonna fuck you up."