Chapter 435: The Red Eyes in the Sealed Space

Chapter 435: Chapter 435: The Red Eyes in the Sealed Space

Aside from a very few people, almost no one in the HYDRA Base knew Old Steve’s true identity.

Even if he walked around the Base openly with that face, he didn’t need to worry about being recognized.

Compared to Captain America, his face looked more like a candidate running for President, posing no risk of exposing his identity at all.

After a period of covert investigation, Old Steve gradually figured out some of HYDRA’s background.

But the more deeply he understood, the more his back felt chilled.

He had already tried to imagine it as extravagantly as possible beforehand, but after truly coming into contact with the inside story, he found that his previous estimations were still too conservative.

HYDRA in this World was completely on a different order of magnitude compared to the organization in his cognition.

HYDRA in his original World compared to this one was simply like children playing house.

First, let’s talk about the high-level architecture.

Zemo was the Prime Minister of Sokovia, handling all domestic affairs big and small, and his status in Sokovia could be described as below one person and above ten thousand people.

Pierce was responsible for HYDRA’s personnel management while concurrently managing ideological education, which simply put was brainwashing.

Strucker commanded the entire scientific research team, gathering a batch of the top-most scientific researchers under his command.

Among this group of scientists, quite a few were talents brought in from outside through various channels, such as Dr. Maya, who developed the Extremis, being one of them.

Even Dr. Lizard, whom Darian captured back then, Dr. Lizard Conners, had been quietly transferred over from S.H.I.E.L.D.’s special prison.

The research team specially developed a corresponding antidote to clear out the residual lizard genes in Conners’ body, restoring him to a normal human state.

When Conners first heard that he was going to serve HYDRA, his instinct was to want to refuse.

But unfortunately HYDRA promised to use Extremis to heal his severed arm, allocated him a huge amount of research funding, allowed him to research whatever projects he wanted without any restrictions, and also equipped him with the top-most laboratory on Earth for his use.

Conners immediately stated with a serious face that benefits and the like didn’t matter at all, and he mainly wanted to contribute to human progress, decisively joining HYDRA’s research team.

Scientific researchers like him were not a small minority.

There was no other way, who made HYDRA’s benefits simply so good.

The funding was outrageously sufficient, there were no laymen leaders pointing fingers on the side, nor were there any hard metrics pressing down to meet standards, allowing them to research however they wanted; for anyone doing scientific research, this environment was simply the heaven of their dreams.

Speaking of combat units.

Among hero-level figures, just stationed permanently in the Base were the brother and sister duo Wanda and Pietro.

Moving down were elite-tier Interstellar Warriors, like Extremis Soldiers, and the weakened version of Super Soldiers; casually pulling any of these people out could make them minor bosses outside, but in HYDRA they could only be considered mook-level.

What made Old Steve even more alarmed was HYDRA’s external penetration and layout.

The institution S.H.I.E.L.D. was nominally an international organization maintaining World security, but behind the scenes, it had completely fallen under HYDRA’s control, becoming HYDRA’s overt intelligence-gathering and executive institution.

Taking advantage of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s prestigious signboard, HYDRA could openly operate on the surface; anyway, if any problems arose, they could just let S.H.I.E.L.D. take the blame.

And Wakanda.

Their current king, Killmonger, was likewise a member of HYDRA.

Killmonger acted as an undercover agent in Wakanda, providing the organization with Vibranium and various cutting-edge resources, and even specially carved out a territory to establish a HYDRA branch.

Now the entire Wakanda was under HYDRA’s control both overtly and covertly.

And all of this was merely that portion of HYDRA’s strength displayed on Earth’s surface.

It was said that HYDRA also had branches in outer space, and more than one.

Their tentacles had already probed deep into the Universe, contacting different alien civilizations, collecting interstellar technology, and even building sizable outpost Bases in certain regions.

This kind of scale had completely crushed any country on Earth.

Now Old Steve had dispelled the thought of notifying the Avengers.

Given the Avengers’ meager strength at the present stage, if they really collided with HYDRA head-on, they would probably be kicked away directly like a stray dog on the roadside.

Wanting to oppose such HYDRA, at the very least they would have to assemble that lineup from back then when dealing with Thanos, otherwise it wouldn’t be secure enough at all.

Especially those mages of Kamar-Taj.

Back when dealing with Thanos’ army, they were the absolute main force, stubbornly holding off most of the firepower of Thanos’ army.

If they could obtain their support, the success rate of fighting HYDRA would greatly increase.

However, according to Old Steve’s memory, that Doctor Strange of Kamar-Taj had not yet been born; wanting to contact the other party, he probably had to wait a while longer.

Before that, he could only continue to lurk under the identity of Captain HYDRA.

Not to mention, after this period of time, shouting "Hail HYDRA" was becoming increasingly smooth for him.

However, what Steve didn’t know was that those calculations in his heart had long been thoroughly probed by Wanda, who turned around and reported all of it to Darian.

After listening, Darian couldn’t help but be amused: "Making Kamar-Taj deal with HYDRA, this Old Steve is truly a genius."

He was the Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj, making Kamar-Taj deal with HYDRA, what difference did this have from the left hand hitting the right hand?

As for Old Steve’s idea of making him enjoy Thanos’s equivalent treatment, that was even more impossible.

Over half of the personnel in that lineup were his people; as long as he gave a single word of command, they would immediately turn around and treat Old Steve as Thanos, launching a righteous group beating.

Of course, Darian didn’t intend to expose Old Steve’s thoughts either.

After all, how could pranking one Steve be as interesting as pranking two Steves?

Wanda hesitated for a moment, but still couldn’t help asking: "Darian, are all those memories of his true? If there were no you, would the World really become like that?"

When she probed into Steve’s memories, she saw many events, and also saw her own ending in another World.

In that World without Darian’s intervention, that Wanda’s experiences could only be described as miserable.

Her younger brother was gone, her hometown was gone, and in the end she became a loner; just imagining it felt terrifying.

Darian calmly said: "You’re overthinking it. Without me, the direction of some things’ development might look similar, but it definitely wouldn’t be completely the same. Old Steve’s World is just a parallel Universe, not a predetermined future; there are still huge differences between the two Worlds."

As early as when he met Wade, he discovered that this server did not strictly follow the plot of any Marvel work.

Some events could match up, while others completely didn’t, and even the appearances and experiences of some characters had quite a bit of discrepancy.

If one had to say, this World was more like a hodgepodge blending Marvel’s comics and movies/TV shows together.

Presumably, the game officials considered the fan Bases on both sides before creating such a stitched monster Universe.

Precisely because of this, Darian had never treated the set of plots he knew as a fixed future, only as a guide for reference only.

Wanda breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this: "I knew it, the Wanda in this Captain America’s memory only looks a few parts similar to me, and how could I be as crazy as her? She must be a special case."

What made her particularly hard to accept was that that Wanda actually found a Mind Stone mount named Vision.

Not asking you to pick any zodiac signs, but at least find something made of flesh, right? At the very least that piece has to be made of flesh.

One can only say, humans cannot even empathize with themselves.

Darian chuckled: "Then you’re really overthinking it. As far as I know, most Wanda in parallel Universes are quite crazy, and their emotions are extremely unstable. Together with Jean Gray, they are known as the strongest lunatic duo, and they’ll lose control of their abilities at the slightest carelessness."

"In a certain parallel Universe, you even wiped out ninety-five percent of your compatriots with a single sentence, not even super villains can kill as many as you."

Wanda: "..."

"Don’t talk nonsense, oh, watch out I’ll sue you for defamation."

Darian suddenly changed the subject: "Right, how is your training in Chaos Magic going?"

Wanda casually said: "Not bad, last time I hooked a big fish, and my magic suddenly surged by a large chunk."

"What is this supposed to be, a fishing training method?"

"Right on cue, I need you to help me with a favor."

Darian pulled out the magic white robe, pointing at the sealing runes on it: "Is there any way to control this thing?"

What he pointed at was precisely Parallax.

This fellow truly lived up to being the embodiment of fear; after various methods over this period of time, the curves were almost bent straight by him, yet there wasn’t even the slightest intention of submission.

Since coming hard didn’t work, Darian could only seek other methods, and thus thought of Wanda’s Chaos Magic.

Chaos Magic could modify reality, perhaps it could produce a good effect.

Wanda sensed Parallax inside the sealing runes, and couldn’t help being startled: "What kind of monster is this?"

Darian was concise and comprehensive: "Embodiment of fear, can you handle it?"

Wanda hesitated for a few seconds, but ultimately nodded: "I’ll try."

As she spoke, a layer of red ripples surfaced on her hands, surging toward the magic white robe, pouring into the interior of the sealed space, and slowly approaching Parallax behind the bars.

Parallax watched the sealed space gradually being dyed red, thinking Darian was stirring up some new tricks again, its eyes full of disdain.

But the next second, it felt a terrifying magic fluctuation strike; two huge blood-red eyes slowly condensed out in the void above, staring at it with a strong sense of oppression.

Is this Shari... Ah no, it’s Chaos Magic!

Parallax’s expression changed drastically: "What kind of ability is this!?"

The red light rapidly spread in the sealed space, winding toward Parallax like countless slender silk threads.

Parallax began to struggle violently; materialized yellow energy of fear poured out crazily from its body, attempting to block the Chaos Magic outside.

But it was in a weakened state itself, coupled with the suppression of the sealed space, the Chaos Magic quickly broke through the fear energy, penetrating into Parallax’s body and activating the ability to rewrite reality.

Darian watched from the side, slightly raising an eyebrow.

Chaos Magic was truly awesome; this kind of correction ability pointing directly at the reality level precisely restrained a conceptual entity like Parallax.

Parallax felt its consciousness and body being continuously modified by the Chaos Magic.

If this continued, it would be completely broken and turned into someone else’s shape.

"Bastard! I won’t let you have an easy time either!"

Parallax let out a hoarse roar, simply giving up defense, and channeled the fear energy along the surrounding red chains, carrying rich fear emotions to surge backward toward Wanda.

Affected by the fear emotions, Wanda’s forehead began to seep cold sweat, and her breathing also became somewhat hurried.

Darian instantly noticed Wanda’s abnormality, flipping his hand to pull out a uniquely shaped red canister, with a pointer embedded on the canister body.

[Item: Emotional Energy Cylinder (Can absorb others’ emotions; after reaching the limit, it cannot continue absorbing and can only be reused after consuming them on its own)]

He pointed the pointer of the Emotional Energy Cylinder at Wanda.

The moment it was activated, those fear emotions surging from Parallax’s side were instantly pulled by a powerful suction force and poured into the cylinder.

Wanda’s tightly knitted brows gradually relaxed a bit; seizing this breathing opportunity, she clenched her teeth and pushed the output of Chaos Magic to the limit.

In the sealed space, the red energy, like countless invisible giant hands, treated Parallax as a piece of material to be kneaded at will, and began to wantonly reshape its form.

Parallax let out a crazy roar, desperately pouring the fear energy within its body toward Wanda, attempting to make a final struggle.

The pointer of the Emotional Energy Cylinder spun rapidly, the cylinder emitted a low humming sound, and the indicator in the middle soared all the way, hitting the tail end in the blink of an eye, having already reached the absorption limit.

Right at this moment, the red light suddenly surged, and the entire sealed space was reflected into a deep red.

Parallax let out a shrill roar, then completely fell silent.

The entire space returned to quietness.

Seeing this scene, Darian impatiently picked up the magic white robe and put it on his body.

At this moment, he could sense that Parallax inside the sealed space had been completely modified, just like a nuclear power plant, which could both continuously absorb external fear emotions, convert them into pure fear energy, and wait to be called upon at any time.

It’s just that with the barrier of the sealed space in between, the absorption efficiency was far inferior to Parallax’s main body, but being able to achieve this degree was already very good.

Darian tried to mobilize the fear energy inside the magic white robe.

The next moment, a stream of yellow energy surged out from the seal following his will, rapidly spreading along the magic white robe.

In the blink of an eye, the entire white robe seemed to be dyed, turning from top to bottom into a bright yellow, as if draped with a coat woven from fear energy.

Under this form, Darian could freely manipulate Parallax’s fear energy, just like Hal, being able to materialize anything.

"Not bad, not bad."

Darian was very satisfied with this.

In this way, he also had his own emotional spectrum battery.

Darian turned his head and said: "Wanda, well done..."

He was just about to praise Wanda a few words, but found something wasn’t quite right.

At this time, the Chaos Magic surrounding Wanda did not dissipate, but instead grew increasingly intense.

[Status: Emotions Out of Control]

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