Low Earth orbit.
Chen Xiao had barely had a chance to catch his breath after dealing with that whole mess at Kamar-Taj in the Himalayas before an enthusiastic Tony dragged him straight into outer space a few days later.
Four hundred kilometers above sea level, there was no wind and no sound. Only an endless sea of distant stars and the enormous blue sphere beneath their feet.
A massive suit of dark-gold heavy armor floated in the vacuum. Dragon-scale patterns covered its outer plates, stamped from abyssal adamant. The Transdimensional Annihilation Matrix on its back emitted eerie blue high-frequency pulses, while the energy core in its chest, modified from the Dark Elf Star Core, swallowed and released light like a miniature black hole.
Inside the armor, Tony stared fixedly at the waterfall of data racing down his holographic display and took three heavy breaths in succession.
The oxygen circulation pump hummed.
"Anti-magic coating degradation at zero point three percent. Star Core output holding steady at four hundred percent. This ancient adamantine is ridiculously heavy, but its resistance to dark energy and higher-dimensional death energy is downright absurd." Tony's voice came over the private channel through the bone-conduction communicator.
Thirty meters directly ahead of him, Chen Xiao floated in the void without so much as a spacesuit, wearing only a thin trench coat, his hands tucked into his pockets.
A layer of pure white lightning formed an exceedingly thin Repulsion Barrier that flowed over his skin, effortlessly shutting out absolute zero and cosmic radiation.
Chen Xiao yawned and picked at his ear.
"The defense and firepower are decent. It's just too clunky."
He pointed at the Demon Slayer, which loomed like an iron tower.
"This iron tortoise has eighty-three mechanical hydraulic locks, plus six inner layers of anti-magic metal mesh. Back