Mark-2-Devil Edition's Side Effects

Chen Tian and Yinsen watched helplessly as Tony flew out through the huge hole in the ceiling wearing the Mark-2-Devil Edition armor.

After Tony left, Chen Tian and Yinsen stared at each other for a moment before Chen Tian hurriedly shouted into the air, "JARVIS! Put the live feed on the main screen!"

The holographic projection in the middle of the lab suddenly flickered. A first-person view from the Devil Armor appeared alongside a piercing roar of wind—Tony was tearing through the clouds at Mach 4, sulfurous flames trailing hundreds of meters behind him.

"JARVIS! Vital signs!" Chen Tian shouted into the air.

The hologram immediately split off an area displaying Tony's physiological data—heart rate 180, blood pressure off the charts, adrenaline levels twenty times higher than a normal human's.

"That's impossible..." The cross in Yinsen's hand clattered to the floor. "The human body under this kind of G-force would have already—"

"Turned into mush?" Chen Tian grimly finished. "Looks like this armor definitely did something to Tony."

Chen Tian's eyes grew increasingly furious. Diablo had been involved in this armor, which meant that cunning demon god was influencing Tony.

"Sure enough, no matter how cringey or unreliable they are, demons are still demons."

Chen Tian slammed his hand heavily onto the table. This time, he wasn't going to use that cringey chant to summon her. He was clearly the summoner, so why should he listen to his summon?

"Diablo! Get your ass out here!"

Chen Tian suddenly roared, startling Yinsen. "Uh... Chen Tian, can you summon that guy like this too?"

Sure enough, Diablo did not appear in the lab, but a thick smell of sulfur spread through the room, even more pungent than the sulfur emitted by Tony's armor.

"I knew it! There was no need to shout such embarrassing lines for her to be summoned!" Chen Tian grew even angrier. The shame of chanting the slogan and the fury of being toyed with by Diablo made him want to beat her up right now.

"Get out here now! Diablo!" Chen Tian roared again.

Flames and lava appeared out of thin air, forming a vortex. A female figure emerged from it, and Leah, in a red leather jacket and with short hair, stepped out with an awkward smile.

"Um... my lord..."

"Shut up! I ask, you answer!" Chen Tian cut Diablo off.

"What's going on with Tony's armor?" Chen Tian pointed at the abnormal data in the holographic display.

"Uh... this armor fused with my Power of Fear. That mortal had a hard time enduring it, so..." Diablo pointed at the runes surrounding the reactor on Tony's chest.

"I gave his body a slight enhancement." Diablo made a gesture like a Korean man having a breakdown.

"Fuck..." Chen Tian's head hurt. Enhancing the armor was one thing, but she had enhanced Tony's body too? Was this novel seriously making Tony invincible right from the start?

I'm the protagonist here, damn it!

"And why can you enhance Tony? Why not enhance me?" Chen Tian said indignantly.

Yinsen was speechless too... Was this really the time to ask that? Shouldn't they be worrying about Tony?

Diablo's mouth twitched. "Um... it's not that I can't enhance you. It's just that there are some side effects, and you might have better ways to enhance yourself in the future. There's no need to use my method."

"Side effects?" Chen Tian and Yinsen said in unison.

Diablo nodded, then pointed to the holographic display and motioned for them to look. "There~ You'll understand if you watch."

Chen Tian and Yinsen looked at the display.

In the holographic projection, Tony's armor crashed into the center of the village like a meteor. The shockwave overturned three pickup trucks, sending Ten Rings members flying through the air like rag dolls.

When the dust settled, the Devil Armor slowly straightened up—the terrifying image of the armor made every terrorist's legs go weak, and even the civilians were terrified.

"First question." Tony's voice was hoarse, as though scorched by Hellfire, as he seized the nearest terrorist by the throat. "Where's Abu?"

The terrorist pointed fearfully toward the north side of the village. The next second, his body suddenly burst into flames, turning into charcoal amid screams. Tony shook the sparks from his hand. "Thanks for your cooperation."

Tony looked at the remaining terrorists as an evil laugh rang out from the armor. "I told you, God won't punish you, but demons will!"

"JARVIS, play my killing playlist." Tony snapped his fingers, and Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" immediately blared from the armor's external speakers.

Before the Ten Rings members could recover from the shock of the BGM, the Devil Armor's mechanical wings suddenly split into six barbed tentacles.

The terrorist at the front had barely raised his AK-47 when a tentacle wrapped around his ankle and swung him like a human flail—Bang! Bang! Bang! In an instant, he smashed seven or eight of his comrades flat.

"Eco-friendly combat." Tony whistled. "Zero ammunition expenditure."

One bold fellow hefted an RPG and launched a sneak attack. The rocket screamed into the armor's back—then was directly vaporized by sulfurous flames.

When Tony turned around, his faceplate suddenly split open to reveal a mouth full of sharp teeth. "Surprised?" A repulsor blast hit the terrorist point-blank, blowing him apart like a tomato shoved into a microwave.

"Sir, there are women and children at three o'clock," JARVIS reminded him.

"Copy." Tony shook the ketchup-covered armor on his arm, then suddenly slid on one knee in front of the civilians. As if performing a magic trick, lollipops popped out from the gaps in his armor. "Strawberry or blueberry?"

The children stared blankly behind him—one terrorist who had tried to sneak up on him was hanging upside down from the armor's spiked tail, lava flowing through it.

"Looks like the kids prefer barbecue flavor." Tony shrugged, then suddenly spotted a familiar figure trembling behind a wall in a nearby house. "Aha! Got you, little rat!"

Abu leaned against the wall with his eyes closed in prayer. Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced his chest. He looked down and saw a demonic claw passing through his chest, its palm clutching his heart.

Then a tremendous force dragged him out from behind the wall and lifted him high overhead.

The Devil Armor held him up before its face with one hand. "Ha, Abu, hello. Do you still recognize me? The great Tony Stark!"

Abu coughed violently, spraying blood across the faceplate. Tony's voice sounded like a demon god eagerly awaiting a sinful soul.

"Hey, buddy, you got my armor dirty. Well~ I seem to be enjoying it."

The repulsor blast suddenly erupted with flames, and Abu was burned to ashes in Tony's hand.

Tony was very satisfied with what he had done. He shook off the ashes in his hand, slowly flew into the air, and looked down at the civilians he had saved.

"No need to thank me. Umm~ do you speak English?" Tony tilted his head.

"Forget it, whatever. Just thank me in your hearts."

Boom! Flames erupted beneath the armor's feet, carrying Tony into the sky at high speed.

Boom—!

An armor-piercing shell struck Tony precisely in midair. The explosion's shockwave knocked him down like a baseball. The Devil Armor plowed a trench over thirty meters long through the ground, crashing through three mud walls before stopping.

"Sir, the left-side armor has sustained 12% damage." JARVIS's voice was laced with static. "Detecting a heavy armored heat signature."

Tony slowly rose from the ruins. Blood-red damage warnings flashed across his faceplate display. His eyes were bloodshot, filled with nothing but madness and excitement.

"Ha... hahahaha..." An inhuman laugh came from inside the armor. Tony suddenly burst forward, his foot stamping spiderweb cracks into the ground.

He leaped onto the tank like a cannonball, his claws plunging directly into the seams of its armor.

Screech—!

The sound of tearing metal set teeth on edge. Tony ripped open the twenty-ton tank with his bare hands as if opening a can, revealing the two terrified terrorists inside, both of whom had pissed themselves.

"Guess what game I'm going to play with you?" Tony's voice split into a double tone. "A. Human fire wheels. B. Flesh fireworks. C. All of the above?"

Before they could answer, the mechanical tentacles behind the armor suddenly stabbed into the tank's ammunition compartment. Hellfire flowed through the tentacles and into the shells, instantly turning the entire tank into a swelling fireball—and Tony stood at the center of the explosion, letting the flames lick over his armor as if enjoying a hellish sauna.

"This... this is... To... Tony?" Yinsen was full of disbelief.

In Yinsen's impression, Tony had a sharp tongue and a carefree attitude, but deep down, he still possessed a strong sense of justice. But...

The Tony in the display was enjoying the process of slaughtering terrorists, and even Yinsen felt chills down his spine.

Chen Tian gritted his teeth, turned around, and grabbed Diablo by the collar. Diablo was currently in Leah's form, wearing a red jacket.

"This is the side effect you were talking about?!"

"Heh... heh... heh, my lord, you know, it's Purgatory~ Amplifying negative emotions is perfectly normal~ It can't be as righteous and radiant as Heaven~" Diablo's mouth kept twitching.

With a wave of Chen Tian's hand, First Kitetsu appeared in his grip. He drew the blade and held it to Diablo's neck.

"Talk! How do we remove it?" Chen Tian pressed the blade closer to Diablo's throat.

"Uh... when he comes back, I... probably... maybe... can remove those negative emotions..." Diablo answered uncertainly.

"What do you mean probably, maybe?! You can't remove it either?!" Chen Tian pulled Diablo's face close and furiously sprayed her with spit.

Diablo wiped the saliva from her face. "Heh... heh... I should be able to fix it... but it's hard to say. After all, we demons only handle doing bad things. We never think about cleaning up afterward. If it were those winged bird people... maybe they could..."

"Fuck!" Chen Tian shoved Diablo away and pointed at her nose. "Just wait until I put you in solitary confinement! I'll never summon you again!"

"Nooo~~~ my lord~~~" Diablo dropped to her knees. "It's so boring in your Summoning Space~ All I can do is count stars or sleep~"

"Get lost!" Chen Tian kicked her away.

Tony sat atop a small mountain of terrorists. Within thirty meters around him, even the ground had been licked shiny by sulfurous flames, as if it had been polished by giant sandpaper.

"Ah~ That's taken care of~ Time to go home. Oh, right, JARVIS, notify Happy. I'm throwing a party, and the theme is, ummm..." Tony looked over the severed limbs and mangled bodies around him, then snapped his fingers.

"JARVIS, the party theme will be 'Hell's Kitchen: Michelin Three-Star Barbecue Night'!" Tony snapped his fingers from his throne of human flesh, and several clusters of sulfurous flame suddenly spurted from the gaps in his armor as mood lighting. "Remember to have Happy prepare some demon horn headbands—the limited edition kind. And get Chef Dogdan to come over and grill at my place."

As the armor shot into the sky, Tony suddenly seemed to remember something and braked sharply in midair, nearly turning the Vulture following behind him into grilled chicken wings.

"Oh, right! Order a three-layer lava cake too!" He gestured in the air. "On top, I want a chocolate monument with 'I saved countless idiots' written on it in icing!"

The villagers on the ground stared in stunned silence at the steel demon, who hummed "Devil's Dance" while drawing heart-shaped flight trails across the sky.

One brave child suddenly raised and waved the lollipop Tony had given him, only for a small flame to burst from the candy stick with a pop—even the candy had been infused with Hellfire flavor.

"Sir, are you sure you want to hold this kind of party at the mansion?" JARVIS's voice carried a hint of helplessness. "Miss Potts put your copy of The Key of Solomon through a shredder last week."

Tony performed a barrel roll to avoid a commercial airliner. A section of censored surveillance footage flashed across his faceplate. "Then say it's a cosplay theme! Isn't Pepper into that Hazbin Hotel cartoon lately?"

The Devil Armor flew at incredible speed, and Tony thoroughly enjoyed the sensation of flight. He did not even notice that he had already entered a U.S. military no-fly zone.

"Warning! AN/APG-77 radar lock!" JARVIS's alarm tore through Tony's rock music as tactical markers for two F-22s suddenly appeared on the holographic interface.

Tony performed a ballet-like spin, the armor's exhaust tracing a wine-red spiral through the clouds.

"Relax, JARVIS~" Tony said with a wicked grin. "Let me put on a show for those little Air Force kids..." Before he could finish, two missiles came screaming toward him trailing white smoke.

Boom! Boom!

The shockwave sent Tony tumbling through the air more than a dozen times. The faceplate display flashed wildly as demonic runes and green military radar waves clashed violently across the screen.

"Sir, I recommend deploying flares immediately!" JARVIS had barely finished speaking when the armor's shoulder plates automatically split open—what they released, however, was a fire tornado made of Hellfire.

The two missiles vaporized directly in the flames, not even having time to explode.

"Whoa!" Tony looked at his smoking palm. "That's way more exciting than Stark Industries decoy flares!"

The pilot's pupils shrank sharply behind his helmet. "Command! The target is releasing some kind of plasma flame!" His finger hovered above the weapons safety switch. "Request permission to use the cannon!"

"Shoot down that bastard who dared provoke the Air Force!"

"Yes, sir!" The pilot was just about to press the cannon fire button.

AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" suddenly played through the jet's communications. The pilot froze, then saw the demonic humanoid flying object ahead draw a heart-shaped trail through the air.

"Hahahahaha, bye-bye!" Tony blew a kiss at the fighter jet from midair.

A pair of mechanical demon wings suddenly unfolded behind him. The thrusters on his hands and feet erupted with flames, and countless yellow jets of fire blocked the pilots' vision.

The pilots heard only several loud impacts.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

By the time they could see clearly again, the Devil Armor had disappeared, leaving behind only clouds blasted apart by the shockwaves of breaking the sound barrier.