Chapter 365: Radiance

Wakanda, a pearl standing alone on the African continent. On this land that has not yet faded its wildness and barbarism, such a beautiful city shows the determination of human civilization to transform nature and build its own home.

The geographical environment of Wakanda is not superior. Like all tropical countries, Wakanda, located in the northeast of Africa, is dry and hot all year round. Its land area is very small, and even in the fragmented map of Africa, it is considered a small country among small countries.

The natural environment is not very good, and the human environment is even worse. Although the several countries in East Africa are considered promising in Africa, the overall situation is not very good. The Wakanda that emerged suddenly has almost no communication with surrounding countries, whether it is the technological level or the level of education, they have nothing to talk about with their neighbors, let alone doing business or something.

But Wakanda's civilization is very developed. Using the adjective "very" is not exaggerated at all. For example, Wakanda conquered cancer many years ago, and the average life expectancy of the people of Wakanda is the longest in the world. They will wear a monitoring bracelet from birth to monitor their physical health. Once there is any disease, they will get free medical treatment.

At the same time, their spy agency is even more outrageous. Not only can they wrestle with the CIA, but they have even formulated a set of plans to defend against Galactus.

Hard technology strength goes without saying. They are the only country on Earth that possesses a complete fleet of spaceships. Although their spaceship fleet cannot be compared with the Kree's spaceships at all, and they still use the most basic chemical fuel, it is still a powerful military force in the Solar System.

At the same time. They are also a civilization where technology and magic go hand in hand. In addition to the most famous Heart-Shaped Herb, they can obtain the power of animal nature from sacrificing beast gods. Their Royal Guard and the female guard exclusive to the King all possess power that transcends ordinary people.

The combination of these conditions constitutes Wakanda. In the eyes of outsiders, this is simply a paradise standing on the African continent. Even in New York, many people feel that it is simply a paradise. Thanks to the work ability of their powerful intelligence agency, Wakanda has a great advantage in the international public opinion field.

Even putting aside political correctness, most Wakandan citizens are also respected internationally, because their national welfare is really too good, and the level of education per capita is also outrageously high. There are Wakandans in every world-class university.

Their national quality is high, and they are good at making friends, and they are committed to anti-skin color discrimination, and their reputation in the international community is quite good.

But such a country that is like a paradise in reports is not without troubles. Only after personal contact can one understand the helplessness of Wakanda.

Just like all high-welfare countries, the reason why their political system can be stable depends on the welfare system, and once welfare is reduced, turmoil follows.

What's more fatal is that the high-welfare countries in Northern Europe are a complete country, but Wakanda is a tribal alliance. Once something similar happens, the situation will only be worse.

"Erik... cough cough..." T'Challa covered his chest, half-leaning against the wall, blood flowing from between his fingers. The entire room was filled with the smell of blood. His lips began to turn blue, and his eyes were a bit scattered. Obviously, excessive blood loss had brought him to the edge of death.

"T'Challa, you should repent." Another black man stood in front of him. The light from the window projected into the room and shone on his figure, making his shadow cover T'Challa, like a black beast waiting to devour people.

Erik said to T'Challa in Wakandan: "The person who should have become the King of Wakanda was me! You took opportunistic advantages in the duel and violated the honor code of Wakandan warriors!"

T'Challa's face was calm. He cast his gaze on the spear Erik was holding. The tip of the spear flashed with the kind of luster unique to Vibranium, but at the same time, there was also some dark energy that T'Challa had never seen before.

"Erik, you have returned to the evil god and betrayed our Panther God. You have disappointed me too much, cough cough..."

"You don't understand at all." Erik squeezed the spear in his hand tightly and said: "You are trapped in this small country, trapped in this damn continent that cannot be saved. You don't understand at all how vast the world is, and how powerful the power is that can be used by me..."

"You control such precious resources as Vibranium, but only use it for some irrelevant experiments, and even cooperate with that group of Americans. Stupid, short-sighted!"

T'Challa tilted his head back, seeming to be able to get more oxygen this way. The self-healing ability brought to him by the Heart-Shaped Herb seemed to be suppressed by some unknown power, which made his injury more and more serious.

"Stupid is you, Erik! Do you think I don't know the little actions you made? Do you dare to hold the weapon your father left you, like a Wakandan warrior, and swear to me that you didn't cooperate with those evil forces, didn't cooperate with the Americans?"

"Shut up! What right do you have to ask me to do this?! And I am different from you, I am for a greater cause..."

T'Challa revealed an extremely mocking expression on his face. He closed his mouth, seeming not to want to talk to Erik anymore. Erik was very annoyed by his attitude. He raised the spear high.

His Adam's apple kept trembling, seeming to still have some hesitation and fear, but soon, he seemed to think of something, his expression became more and more fierce. He exerted force on the muscles of his arms. In an instant, he stabbed down fiercely at the air and shouted at the same time: "Hydra!"

"BANG!!!!"

The spear was blocked by a rich energy. The reaction force sent Erik flying directly.

T'Challa had already closed his eyes, preparing to welcome death, but suddenly, he found a familiar power surrounding him. He said suspiciously: "Panther God Bast, is it you? How did you..."

He covered his chest, trying to climb up from the ground, and at this time, a familiar voice came: "If I were you, I wouldn't move around. Do you think you haven't bled enough, T'Challa?"

T'Challa widened his eyes and said: "Tony? Tony, is it you?"

Just when he turned his head, wanting to find Stark's figure, a strangely shaped portal suddenly appeared in the air, and a few figures walked out from inside, including Stark wearing armor.

Of course, not only figures came out from inside, but also a cat shadow, or a black panther about the same size as an ordinary leopard, walked out from the portal. After his tail tip left the portal, the portal closed.

Feeling that divine power, T'Challa coughed heavily twice and said: "It really is Bast, why are you at this time..."

No one paid attention to him, because one of the people in a trench coat turned to look at Strange and said: "What did that person shout just now? I didn't hear it wrong, right?"

"What... Hydra? Who is Hydra?" Strange was also very confused. Just now Erik's posture was like wanting to summon a demon to descend. Strange had already prepared defensive magic in his hands, but he just shouted a slogan and then stopped.

Schiller frowned, his expression a bit serious. He said to Strange, "Open a portal to pick up Steve. If Peter is also there, call him over too."

Looking at Schiller's somewhat solemn expression, Strange also knew that now was not the time to joke, so he opened the portal directly and left.

Stark turned to look at Erik. He said in a low voice: "... Hydra? Hell..."

Schiller gave him a look, and the two spoiler-party members instantly had a tacit understanding and did not talk about this topic again.

At this time, that black panther had already pressed his claws on T'Challa's chest. With a rich white power poured into T'Challa's body, his complexion began to improve significantly.

However, there was always a strand of black energy surrounding the deepest wound. The leopard tried several times, but only dispelled a part of it. The remaining ones were like bone-attached maggots, constantly prying open T'Challa's wound.

T'Challa pressed the leopard's claws with his hand. He looked at Bast and said: "Thank you, Your Majesty, it's enough."

The leopard's face revealed a very human-like expression of disapproval. He looked a bit irritable, but this could not be blamed on him.

Why these people appeared here with the Panther God Bast, has to start from when they intended to enter the Panther God dimension earlier.

Nick Fury after Christmas was rarely quiet. This period until the beginning of next year is a time when he doesn't have to consider the funding problem. Therefore, when he received Schiller's invitation to go and negotiate with the Panther God, he agreed very readily and said that if this leopard was willing to help him solve next year's funding, then he would be a firm animal protectionist.

The combination of Half-Batman and Nick Fury had a great effect. These two black creatures taught the Panther God Bast a truth, that is, black is also divided into levels. You can be black, but you can't be too black, and you can't be black in both face and heart...

The two entered the Panther God dimension for a while, and were thrown out. Bast agreed for the first time to let people of other skin colors enter his dimension, and then, Schiller went in...

Of course, Schiller knew that saving people was urgent, so he dragged Strange to promote the membership package to the Panther God for two hours, and then explained his intention, asking Bast to go and save T'Challa.

But fortunately, the time flow in the dimension where the Panther God is located is different from the outside, so only more than ten seconds passed in reality.

And Erik, who attacked T'Challa, happened to belong to the type of villain who talks too much. After making T'Challa seriously injured, he didn't pursue the victory, but sprayed on the spot, so the rescue team just caught up with the moment he did it.

The Panther God was originally studying the strand of dark energy on T'Challa's chest, but T'Challa had already stood up. The Panther God turned his head and saw the spear that was bounced away by his defensive power.

On the tip of the spear, a strand of ominous dark energy flickered, and the top seemed to be flashing with strange brilliance, just like being poisoned.

The Panther God walked over, sniffed the spear, and revealed a confused expression. Just at this moment, with a "thump," T'Challa, who had just stood up, fell to the ground again.

"Hahahaha, he's dead! I smeared poison on it, no one can save him!" Erik shouted.

Stark revealed a disdainful expression. At this time, the Panther God had already rushed to T'Challa's side, and he poured that strange power into T'Challa's body again, but after a while, the Panther God lowered his head in confusion and glanced at his claws.

Seeing the Panther God's action, Stark realized that something was wrong. He walked over, knelt on one knee, and checked T'Challa's situation.

Because T'Challa is dark-skinned, the state of his skin could not be seen. Stark opened the arm device of the armor, inserted a probe into T'Challa's body, and turned on the scanner with the other hand.

As soon as the scanner was turned on, Jarvis issued a warning: "Warning! Warning! Life is in danger, unknown toxin cracking... unable to crack..."

"Collect blood for analysis."

"Analyzing... no result." Jarvis explained: "From the data, this is not any toxin known to humans. Its composition is unknown, and the cracking of the composition is blocked by a mysterious power. Perhaps higher power equipment support is needed..."

At this time, Jarvis issued two more warnings, saying: "Please take treatment as soon as possible, otherwise the other party may die immediately..."

Stark hammered the floor, he stood up, reached out and was about to pull out the energy core on his chest, changing it to a higher power core to forcibly crack the composition.

At this time, the Panther God flicked his tail, T'Challa disappeared directly, and then he patted the ground with his claws, and several people returned to his dimension. Schiller lowered his head and glanced at the surroundings, looked at the Panther God and said: "You stopped time here?"

The Panther God roared low, then walked to T'Challa's side, and that leopard face revealed an expression of thinking very similar to humans.

"It seems to be another matter of mysticism." Stark tilted his head. Schiller said to Stark: "You should have heard what that person was shouting just now, right?... Hydra."

Stark turned his head and looked into the distance. There was an endless grassland. A horn sound of wild atmosphere came from the distance, and the light and shadow on this ancient land rolled before his eyes.

Stark said in a low voice: "Above the universe, it is not omniscient and omnipotent, but in the countless stories I have seen, this name has been mentioned countless times, like cancer attached to the Earth."

"I haven't asked you that question before, because I think since you chose an attitude, it proves that you should already have an answer, but now I still have to ask, whether you have seen your parents'..."

"I saw it." Stark answered this question positively for the first time. He continued: "... But not just my parents, when countless stories come to an end, there are thousands of parents who died in an instant."

Stark's voice became lower and lower, like the wind blowing over the wilderness at low altitude.

"They didn't leave huge wealth, didn't leave any means for their children to survive, and just disappeared silently."

Stark was somewhat dazed, as if recalling those scenes. He said, "... no last words, no keepsakes, not even a cause of death, and there will be no one to explain to those children why their parents died..."

Stark squinted against the glaring sunlight of the grassland. In his field of vision, the light became blurred. He said, "It sounds absurd, but it was these tragedies that stopped me."

"In the instant I was about to become the only one, I saw the truth of Howard's death. At that moment, I wanted to solidify that state and then destroy everyone involved. I knew that if I did that, no one could escape..."

"But soon, the endings of these stories flooded into my mind, completely crushing that momentary rage of mine. I felt despair because of it."

Stark closed his eyes, and several deep furrows appeared between his brows, making his expression look somewhat pained.

"Feeling layers upon layers, an endless, irredeemable tragedy in an instant almost made me collapse."

"So, you chose to..."

"No." Stark took another deep breath. His chest heaved once, then returned to calm. He said, "Do you remember those questions you asked Jarvis and me before?"

"In that moment of choice, I thought, if Howard saw all this, what would he do?"

"... He was a total scumbag, not a good father, but he would definitely spare no cost to stop all of this," Stark said, almost through gritted teeth.

"This is who we are; this is Stark."

Shiler looked into Stark's eyes, and he saw a special kind of radiance there. Unlike other superheroes, there was no humility, simplicity, or kindness there, only a pride bordering on arrogance.

Shiler patted his shoulder and said, "If Stark could remain indifferent after seeing all this, and not hesitate to add another straw of civil war to the situation of humanity's peril, then you wouldn't be you."

"However, you could also change your perspective," Shiler still intended to fulfill his duty, saying, "You have also suffered the same situation. It was clearly the military that started the war; you were just a weapon seller. To take a step back, even if there were arms dealers who started wars to get rich, that wasn't you, but in the end, you were the one who bore all the infamy."

"Just like what I said when you were about to close the weapons department: don't blame a gun. Even if you want to judge the gun, you must first take down the person holding it. Otherwise, how do you know if he won't take the gun and shoot you again?"

Shiler fixed his gaze on T'Challa, who was unconscious and on the verge of death. Stark also looked over following his line of sight. His gaze began to grow deeper and deeper. He said, "Perhaps... you are right."

"Now, they have fired another shot, and they pulled the trigger right in front of me. I almost lost another important friend because of it..."

After speaking, Stark turned and walked toward the portal he had entered through. As he walked, he said, "This taught me a lesson: if I don't take action, their bullets will be endless."

On this fictional grassland, the light was always intense. When it shone on Stark's armor, it made the metal reflect a dazzling light, but Shiler preferred to believe that it was Stark himself who was shining, because of his innate sense of mission and responsibility.

And because of the extraordinary radiance that these people, called heroes, have tempered from all the ordinary joys and sorrows of life.

---Author's Note---

The major event is over, but not entirely over.