章 680: Hierophant Green

War was a huge pit of death, and it was the truth as it just devoured people's lives like it was nothing. This was why the European countries that had the history of going into war in every age wrote a rule that stated to spare those who have surrendered. However, the current situation of war was highly different as Thanos wouldn't stick to the human norm! His view on the universe was simple yet cruel as there was no such thing as surrender. It was either win or lose!

"You have to find a way to close those portals!" Steve shouted as he was struggling to defeat a number of enemies at the same time. This kind of battle would take its toll on the heroes. Their stamina would be depleted long before the enemy was gone.

Furthermore, if the information about the enemy's suicide bombing were known before the battle, the Avengers and the Wakanda's Army would have a better strategy to approach this war! They wouldn't have foolishly charged forward as they did earlier. But now, it was all too late, as the enemy would take momentum and defeat them all if they retreated!

Theoretically, the enemy wouldn't have enough soldiers to perform such heavy battle resources like this. Their soldiers would die out eventually, plus the portal could be closed, leading to heavier damage to the enemy's force.

But the question still remained, how could they close the portals right now? They didn't know how the portal worked, so they couldn't figure out any way to close it! They speculated that the sorcerer who stood beside the portal might have been the key to close the portal. Therefore, they speculated if they somehow knocked those sorcerers out, the portal would immediately close!

To be honest, if that really were the case here, Steve would be able to do it alone! The thing that occupied their mind right now was the fact that they couldn't just leave them to death as the sorcerers were once their allies!

So, in desperation, Tony, Sam, and Rhodey began to strike the portal, hurling bombs to the other side in the hope of slowing down the enemy unit, forcing the portal to be closed for a while. They knew that they had to think about the safety of the sorcerers, and this was the only way they could think of at the moment. They knew that it wasn't exactly perfect for the safety of those sorcerers, but there was nothing else they could do!

War was surely a cruel place!

On the other side, the battle between Dio and Duck was intense! Judging from the scene before them, the Avengers knew that they couldn't do anything to help Dio as they would just become a hindrance. At the same time, Dio finally realised where the woman was hiding the third Infinity Stone! The Reality Stone that was nowhere to be seen was actually still on its Aether's form and merged with the woman's body!

Dio didn't understand why she let something like the Aether control her as it was a toxic substance that would finally take her life! Did this woman have physical potential that exceeded Malakith? It sure wasn't impossible as the universe was vast! The other good news that Dio noticed was that even if the woman had potential and could even control three Infinity Stones at the same time, she was fragile! Her combat prowess was close to none! This was the woman's biggest weakness that Dio had found.

To put it bluntly, she was like a sorcerer that focused on their magic and neglected their body to achieve greatness! This type of enemy sure was annoying, but if Dio could find one single opportunity, the woman wouldn't be able to retaliate!

So, after driving the woman away from Stephen Strange's body, Dio immediately went beside Stephen's body and checked his condition with the [The World]! He wanted to see whether he could revive him or not because it'd be Dio's mistake if Stephen couldn't be revived, and he had to take responsibility for it!

Dio immediately used the Reality Overwrite and restored Stephen's body back to normal and then immediately tried to resurrect him back to life! [The World] had already consumed a large amount of [Soul] when it resurrected Carol earlier, so there wasn't much left in the tank for now. Because of that reason, Dio failed to resurrect Stephen for now!

When Dio used the [The World]'s ability, the woman didn't try to attack him as it was obvious that she was extremely wary of the [The World] that Dio summoned. Dio himself knew that the woman had the information about his weakness, which was the [Life Sharing] attribute that every Stand possessed. That was a weakness as Dio would also receive the same damage that the Stand received!

Once again, Dio had to be wary of the woman, especially because she had the Mind Stone with her this time. But Dio didn't have the [Life Sharing] attribute with a temporary Stand, so he could use it to distract the woman while working on Stephen.

Dio threw the [Hierophant Green] temporary card to the ground to summon it, and as it was summoned to the world, it immediately weaved through the ground towards the woman! With its sensing thread, the woman wouldn't be able to use her stealth, and of course, it would be a perfect distraction!

But the woman immediately used the power of the Time Stone to seize the upper hand once more. "Time Rewind!" The woman shouted, and the thread that weaved through the ground immediately returned back, and the [The World] was also affected as its hand was wrapped by the Aether, and it could no longer use its Reality Overwrite ability to revive Stephen!

Dio was too late to react as the woman was too far away from him. Furthermore, the woman was protected by the Time Stone's ability, so she wouldn't be affected by the Time Rewind ability of the Time Stone!

But there was still something that Dio could do! He immediately called [The World] back for now and ordered the [Hierophant Green] to stand in front of him, taking any attack that the woman threw in his place. Then, the [Hierophant Green] began to glow bright green as it began to inflate like a balloon that was about to explode!

The [Hierophant Green] immediately burst out and attacked the woman with its signature ability Emerald Burst! Obviously, the woman was taken by surprise as she didn't expect such an attack. Although the Aether showed itself and blocked most of the [Hierophant Green]'s attack, some of it still hit her on her lower abdomen and legs. Some of it even scrapped her face and almost got her on her head!

She then shot a powerful blast of energy towards [Hierophant Green], melting the Temporary Stand without anything left, but she was still surprised as she expected Dio to melt away with it. But as she confirmed that by looking at Dio, he was still alive and well!

She already knew that the weird being that Dio summoned was connected to him, and once she attacked the weird being, the damage it received would be inflicted on Dio as well! So, was it the effect of summoning a special weird being? Or was it something else?

She couldn't figure out Dio's ability for now, and as she didn't have any more plan to attack or defence against Dio's ability, she had to retreat while under the protection of the Aether.