(I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone for the gifts. The system doesn't allow for bulk thank-yous, so thank you very much, my benefactors.)
"Shit!"
Tony Stark slammed his fist onto the workbench in anger.
With a dull thud, the heavy alloy surface vibrated violently but remained unmoved. Instead, Tony himself hissed in pain, sharply shaking his reddened fist as a burning sensation immediately radiated from the back of his hand.
This physical pain of helplessness only made the fire of frustration and grievance in his heart burn more intensely.
This was more maddening to him than losing the reactor itself.
That reactor was just a tampered bait, a piece of scrap metal he could detonate at any time. But in that box was all his analytical data on the whispering leech ash, as well as all the remaining samples!
He had poured countless efforts into trying to use science to analyze that irrational "idealistic" creation. Now, these precious research results, along with the dangerous "source of pollution" itself, had fallen into the hands of an unknown, hostile enemy.
This felt terrible.
Tony paced irritably back and forth in the lab before finally grabbing his encrypted phone and calling Lin Huai.
"There's been a slight accident with my plan."
The moment the call connected, Tony got straight to the point, his voice suppressed with a hint of annoyance.
"Obadiah's people took the bait, but they also helped themselves to another box I had sitting nearby. The one containing... containing those 'ashes' you gave me and all the reports."
Silence hung on the other end of the line for a few seconds.
"I see," Lin Huai's voice remained calm, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.
"Just 'I see'?" Tony raised his voice. "You know better than anyone how dangerous that stuff is! Now it's in the hands of an old Lunatic ready to revolt. God knows what he'll do with it!"
"Calm down, Tony," Lin Huai's voice was like a bucket of cold water. "This might not be a bad thing."
"Not a bad thing?" Tony nearly laughed in anger.
"It will make a Lunatic even more insane, and it will expose the Beast's claws more completely," Lin Huai said slowly. "Get ready for the final battle. Leave the rest to me."
With that, Lin Huai hung up... In the dim room, Lin Huai put down his phone, and the calm he had deliberately maintained during the call vanished instantly.
His brow furrowed tightly, and his gaze became incredibly solemn.
He naturally knew what that unexpected "gift" meant.
According to his previous communication with Tony, the core characteristic of whispering leech ash was 'Probability Mist'—a type of 'Cognitive Interference Field' that could severely disrupt precision electronic targeting systems.
This thing had little effect on flesh and blood, but for a technological creation that relied on data streams, radar locks, and intelligent auxiliary systems, it was practically a natural enemy!
Obadiah's iron monger armor was already a hunk of steel piled with various equipment; its performance was far inferior to the Mark series, with its only advantages being brute force and firepower. If he integrated the 'Probability Mist' into the armor... it would be an absolute nightmare for the mark armor, which highly relied on the Jarvis auxiliary system and various high-tech weapons. Tony's radar would fail, missiles would veer off course, and the accuracy of his palm cannons would drop significantly.
The technological advantage he took pride in would be drastically weakened on the battlefield by a completely irrational 'mystical' power.
Lin Huai slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.
His plan had gained a fatal variable because of a mercenary's opportunistic theft.
Time was running out.
He had to complete his preparations before Obadiah could digest this 'unexpected gift'.
He needed to advance.
Before the final battle, he had to become a true Seer!
Lin Huai walked into the room he had arranged as a prayer room and closed the door. In the center of the room, on a simple altar drawn with chalk and spiritual materials, sat only a dim holy emblem.
He sat cross-legged, hands folded, and began to chant that familiar and sacred honorific name in a low voice.
"The Fool that doesn't belong to this era;"
"The mysterious ruler above the gray mist;"
"The king of yellow and black who wields good luck."
"I pray for your gaze; I pray for you to reveal the whereabouts of the star crystal to me."
As he chanted, his spirituality was pulled infinitely high, his consciousness seemingly detaching from his physical shell and rising into a vast, grayish-white mist.
The next second, fragments of chaotic yet information-rich images rushed into his mind like a bursting flood!
It was the roof of a skyscraper, with the city's lights below, but the roof had a huge, hideous "crater"—it was the base of the main arc reactor atop Stark Tower!
Then, the scene shifted, and a "heart" radiating blue light was held high—it was the 'Mortal Pseudo-Heart', the arc reactor!
Boom!
A massive, dazzling pillar of energy that defied description shot up from the reactor base, as if it were the 'Wrath Falling from the Sky', striking that "heart" with savage force!
Destruction, purification, rebirth!
As the light dissipated, a brilliant crystal that seemed to condense the starlight of the entire galaxy slowly emerged amidst the messy ruins.
Lin Huai's mind shook violently.
The revelation for the advancement ritual had never been so clear!
"With the Wrath Falling from the Sky as the anvil..."
"With the Mortal Pseudo-Heart as the furnace..."
"With the mortal's resolute will as the hammer..."
The anvil was the Earths core crater, and the furnace was the arc reactor. This perfectly corresponded to the upcoming final battlefield between Tony and Obadiah!
But what was the "hammer"?
Who was the mortal with the "resolute will" who would strike the "hammer"?
The reactor that Tony sent out, the one he tampered with, could serve as a trump card, but it didn't fit the description of "resolute will." That was a trap, a deception, not a "choice" made by a "person"!
Lin Huai forcibly suppressed the throbbing in his heart and pulled out the set of tarot cards he had rubbed smooth from his pocket.
He didn't divine the ritual itself again, but instead changed the question.
— "In this war, who is the key to victory?"
He skillfully shuffled and cut the cards, then drew one from the deck.
The moment the card was flipped over, Lin Huai's pupils shrank suddenly.
It was the Lovers.
A blurred, slender female figure emerged.
Her form was shrouded in a soft halo, her face unclear, but that characteristic, capable stride and the data terminal she gripped tightly in her hand... Lin Huai recognized her.
Pepper Potts!
It was her!
Lin Huai instantly connected all the clues.
The command to overload the main reactor and release that "Wrath Falling from the Sky" couldn't come from the armor system itself!
The person who would ultimately press the button, the one who, with a mortal body, would decide the life and death of the two steel giants and strike the final hammer... could only be her!
"So that's how it is..."
Lin Huai whispered to himself, his eyes flashing with the light of realization.
The final battle between Obadiah and Tony was the ritual stage for his advancement to Seer.
In this fight, Tony couldn't lose, Obadiah had to die according to the "script," and Pepper Potts had to make the most resolute choice at the most critical moment.
Not a single link could go wrong.
The accident with the "leech ash" had abruptly increased the difficulty of the ritual, adding massive risk to Tony's "performance."
But now, he had also found the most critical "hammer" that could strike the final note.