Tony grew visibly anxious when Karl didn't immediately answer.
Howard and Maria, standing nearby, also looked worried.
Karl had resurrected them and was Tony's closest brother. Naturally, they didn't want anything to happen to him.
Even Pepper looked at Karl with concern.
At first, she had been overwhelmed by the shock of Howard and Maria being resurrected. But now it seemed that someone extremely powerful had taken notice of Karl.
Karl finally smiled and waved his hand dismissively.
"Relax, Tony. I'm fine."
"I just didn't expect her to take an interest in me."
"She represents the end of all life and the destination of every soul."
"She wouldn't bother harming someone as insignificant as me."
"Let's go."
Karl explained calmly without revealing her name.
Tony's eyes widened.
"What?!"
"That sounds huge!"
"Isn't that basically Hell?!"
"Are you seriously saying everything's fine?"
Karl shook his head.
"No, no. She isn't Hell."
"Hell is nothing compared to her."
"But don't worry. I'll be fine."
In truth, Karl wasn't particularly worried about Death targeting him.
After all, Death had existed for countless eons and had witnessed endless beings across the multiverse.
At most, Karl had merely attracted a slight curiosity from her.
Besides, after resurrecting people like the former king of Wakanda, the Queen of Asgard, and now Tony's parents, it was only natural that Death might notice him.
If one had to categorize Karl now—
He could almost be considered half an Eternal-level existence.
So Death probably wouldn't interfere with him so easily.
At least, that was Karl's current guess.
Meanwhile, in a mysterious unknown dimension—
Inside a vast black castle, a woman wearing a flowing black dress sat upon a throne.
Her face remained hidden in darkness.
In front of her floated a projection showing Karl.
Around the castle flowed endless streams of black energy, and countless souls continuously drifted into the void.
A faint smile appeared on the woman's lips.
There was also a hint of anticipation in her gaze.
Back at the cemetery—
Tony sighed.
"Alright… if anything happens, just tell me."
"I'll help however I can."
Then Tony turned toward Howard and Maria.
"Dad, Mom—this is Pepper."
"She's my… girlfriend."
Pepper blushed slightly.
Howard stared at Tony in disbelief.
"You're not even married yet?!"
"When I died you were twenty-one!"
"You're forty now, you idiot!"
"Pepper, come on."
Maria quickly took Pepper's arm.
"Let's leave these two useless men alone."
Tony and Howard looked at each other awkwardly.
Karl couldn't help smiling.
He casually activated one of the Ten Rings, reorganizing the surrounding soil and restoring the cemetery to its original condition.
After saying goodbye to Tony, Karl opened a portal and returned to the manor.
After that day, Karl lived an extremely relaxed life.
He spent most of his time in the manor enjoying peaceful days with the women around him.
Howard and Maria visited occasionally.
Time passed quietly.
Before anyone realized it—
Three years had passed.
During those three years, Karl absorbed the rule-based energy inside the Casket of Ancient Winters.
As a result, his freezing ability reached an entirely new level.
Meanwhile:
Wanda and Pietro had grown to fourteen years old.
Peter was now eleven.
In the second year, the Ancient One quietly departed from the world.
She didn't even say goodbye.
But Karl sensed it the moment it happened.
That day, as he looked toward the sky, he felt as if he had briefly made eye contact with a Holy Spirit-like presence.
He knew it was the Ancient One's departing soul.
Soon afterward, Stephen Strange successfully became the new Sorcerer Supreme.
He visited Karl's manor several times.
However, Strange only dared to open his portals outside the main gate.
This surprised both Natasha and Yelena.
After all, the strange, exhausted man who had once looked like a homeless wanderer was now a master of magic.
Over the past few years, Karl had lived an extremely comfortable life.
Meanwhile, New York had begun producing more and more so-called superheroes.
Tony had also been very active.
Leading the Avengers, he stopped several terrorist attacks and even destroyed multiple Hydra bases.
Since Peggy Carter became the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., she had been aggressively targeting Hydra.
Hydra had suffered tremendous losses.
Many of their hidden bases were destroyed.
Karl also asked Samuel Sterns to improve the spider serum.
Eventually, the serum was successfully injected into several people in the manor:
Peter
Helen Cho
May
Raven
Yelena
Natasha
Natasha received the serum mainly because she had stayed in the manor for several years.
Karl decided to give her the same opportunity.
Karl did collect several magical treasures over the years.
However, none of them could compare to artifacts like the Ruyi Jingu Bang or the Heaven-Turning Seal.
After unsealing those treasures, Karl distributed many of them:
Some went to the people living in the manor.
Others were given to Samuel and Yinsen for protection.
Even Tony and Pepper received a few defensive artifacts.
Tony later gave Happy a short sword for self-defense.
Meanwhile, Karl's relationship with Yan grew noticeably closer.
They clearly had feelings for each other.
But neither of them had openly confessed yet.
Karl actually enjoyed this ambiguous relationship and occasionally teased her.
The massive warship Skyblade-7 on Karl's island had also completed its outer construction.
Only the interior systems remained unfinished.
The entire vessel was built almost entirely from vibranium and adamantium.
However, Yan still needed to personally handle all the internal algorithms, computational systems, and core architecture.
Karl couldn't help much with that part.
Elsewhere—
Inside a long-abandoned Hydra base, a forgotten computer suddenly flickered.
A stream of green digital code appeared on the screen.
Then the data escaped into the network and vanished.
Even Speed and JARVIS failed to detect it.
This data was the consciousness of Hydra scientist Arnim Zola.
Dr. Zola's body had died long ago.
But his mind had been transferred into a digital form.
For years, he had been trapped inside a forgotten Hydra computer system.
Now—
He had finally escaped.
After accessing the internet, Zola quickly learned about Karl, the Avengers, and the current state of the world.
Over time, his digital consciousness had grown increasingly extreme.
Now he desired only one thing.
Revenge on the entire world.
Using his knowledge of Hydra's networks, Zola quickly infiltrated another Hydra base.
Inside, he discovered several Iron Man suits created from stolen Stark technology.
However, they were only robotic versions, incapable of being worn by humans.
Zola immediately seized control of them.
Within minutes, every Hydra soldier in the base was slaughtered.
Then Zola began converting the entire facility into his own machine fortress.
At the same time, he started designing a physical body for himself.
Soon, he discovered something interesting on the black market.
Vibranium.
And he immediately began contacting suppliers.
A new threat was quietly beginning to rise.
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