Yinsen realized at once that the man in front of them couldn’t understand what the two Ten Rings members were saying, so he hurriedly translated.
“Sir, they’re asking you to let them go. Otherwise, they’ll kill Tony and me, then kill themselves.”
Kez swept his gaze around the chamber and noticed a bronze mirror standing behind the two gunmen.
It was nearly as tall as a person.
He didn’t bother responding to Yinsen.
Instead, he simply took a step backward and disappeared into the curtain of water surrounding him.
A second later, Kez emerged silently from the bronze mirror behind the two Ten Rings members.
They were still staring wide-eyed at the spot where he had vanished when two bolts of magic struck them from behind.
Boom!
Boom!
The blasts exploded against their backs.
Both men collapsed instantly, dead before either had a chance to pull the trigger.
“All right, gentlemen. You’re safe now.”
Tony and Yinsen turned around and looked at the two fallen gunmen, finally allowing themselves to relax.
Yinsen stared at Kez in amazement.
“I can’t believe superpowers are actually real. This is incredible.”
Everything he had witnessed tonight had overturned his understanding of the world.
The curtain of water orbiting Kez, the way he had disappeared only to emerge from a mirror behind his enemies, and the magic he had used to kill them all belonged to a world Yinsen had never imagined truly existed.
“Are you some kind of American super-soldier?”
Tony was much calmer.
Unlike Yinsen, he had already been mentally prepared for something extraordinary.
This was a Blessed of the mysterious Fool, after all.
It only made sense that both his entrance and his abilities would be steeped in the supernatural.
Kez gave Yinsen a flat look.
“I’m definitely not some super-soldier cooked up in a laboratory.”
Tony stepped forward.
“Thank you for coming. Are you one of Mr. Fool’s Blessed?”
Yinsen glanced at Tony in surprise.
He hadn’t expected a billionaire industrialist like Tony Stark to have connections to anything remotely resembling this.
Kez nodded.
“I came at Mr. Fool’s request to get you out of here.”
As he spoke, his attention shifted to the glowing device embedded in Tony’s chest.
Tony hadn’t completed the Mark I armor, but he had already succeeded in building the miniature Arc Reactor.
“Also, your assistant, Pepper Potts, and your bodyguard, Happy Hogan, came to my office. They hired me to divine whether you were alive and then asked me to rescue you.”
He paused.
“The second commission still hasn’t been paid in full.”
Kez made no attempt to hide the fact that he had accepted another payment for the same rescue.
His gaze then dropped from the miniature Arc Reactor to the translucent ice-blue, brain-shaped object in Tony’s left hand.
‘A Savant Beyonder Characteristic.
What are the odds?’
Tony didn’t seem remotely bothered.
He looked at Kez.
“What should I call you?”
Tony had no idea that the outstanding payment wasn’t money at all.
Kez had asked Pepper and Happy for three Beyonder Characteristics.
“Kez Merlin.”
Tony extended his hand.
“Tony Stark. Thanks for saving my life.”
He gestured toward the man beside him.
“And this is Yinsen.”
Kez shook Tony’s hand and nodded.
“Part of the job.”
Yinsen immediately stepped forward and shook Kez’s hand as well.
“Thank you. You saved my life too. I’m Yinsen.”
Kez gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
“You’re both safe now.”
His attention returned to the object in Tony’s hand.
“You got very lucky. What you found here is a Sequence 9 Savant Beyonder Characteristic from the Paragon Pathway.”
He glanced at the way Tony was simply carrying it around.
“Though holding it in your hand isn’t how you’re supposed to use it.”
Tony raised the translucent blue object and stared at it.
“A Sequence 9 Savant Beyonder Characteristic from the Paragon Pathway?”
He frowned.
“What exactly does that mean?”
As he asked the question, Tony remembered the Tarot card he had drawn during the gathering—the High Priestess—and how the Fool had also mentioned the Paragon Pathway.
Kez didn’t answer immediately.
“How about we discuss that somewhere else? I’ve dealt with everyone currently inside this cave, but there’s no guarantee reinforcements won’t show up.”
Tony let the matter drop.
“Good point. I don’t want to spend another minute in this place.”
He immediately started toward the exit without even looking back.
Aside from the Savant Beyonder Characteristic in his hand, he clearly had no intention of taking anything else with him.
Yinsen seemed to feel exactly the same way.
Neither of them gave a single thought to the blueprints for the unfinished Mark I.
Kez glanced toward the work area.
“Nothing you want to bring with you?”
Tony stopped and shook his head.
“I’ve been trapped in this cave long enough. Right now, all I want is a shower and a really big cheeseburger.”
Noticing Kez looking toward the blueprints scattered across the workbench, Tony waved dismissively.
“Without this thing in my chest, those drawings are just scrap paper.”
He tapped the Arc Reactor.
“Give these people another fifty years and they still wouldn’t get anywhere with them.”
Tony genuinely didn’t care about leaving the Mark I designs behind. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Without an appropriate power source, the armor would amount to little more than a bulky metal coffin.
Forget using it as a weapon—it would barely be able to move.
Kez shrugged.
He didn’t care much about the Mark I plans either.
Without Tony ever completing and demonstrating the Mark I, whether the Iron Monger would even come into existence later was another question entirely.
“Then let’s get out of here.”
The three of them left the cave.
The moment Tony stepped outside, he stopped dead.
“Whoa.”
He stared at the enormous steel eagle waiting beyond the entrance.
“What the hell is that?”
He looked it over again.
“An iron bird?”
Tony’s eyes widened.
“Buddy, don’t tell me you flew here on that thing.”
Kez snapped his fingers and grinned.
“Correct. Your prize is getting to experience it yourself.”
He jumped onto the steel eagle’s back and looked down at Tony and Yinsen.
“Come on. I’ll get both of you out of here.”
Tony and Yinsen exchanged a glance before climbing aboard.
Fortunately, the steel eagle was enormous, so even with all three of them seated on its back, there was plenty of room.
“Hold on to the handles. We’re taking off.”
Tony and Yinsen grabbed the handholds built into its back.
A moment later, the steel eagle spread its wings and launched itself into the air.
Wind tore past them as they climbed, forcing both men to tighten their grip.
Tony, meanwhile, couldn’t stop studying the creature beneath him.
He was already certain that this wasn’t some advanced machine.
Whatever the steel eagle was, it belonged squarely to the supernatural side of the world.
There was so much about reality that Tony Stark had never known existed.
And he found that absolutely fascinating.
Using the darkness as cover, the steel eagle carried the three of them across the desert until they reached a highway, where it descended beside the road.
Tony climbed off somewhat unsteadily, while both he and Yinsen had their hair blown into complete disasters by the flight.
Tony ran a hand through his windblown hair.
“Flying without anything resembling a cockpit is definitely one way to experience aviation at its most extreme.”
Then, under Tony’s astonished gaze, the enormous steel eagle abruptly collapsed back into a photograph.
Kez picked it up and slipped it into his backpack.
Tony stared.
“That… okay, that’s incredible.”
He looked at Kez with open fascination.
“That ability is ridiculously useful.”
Yinsen could only shake his head in amazement.
“I don’t even know whether I can trust my own eyes anymore. This world is completely insane.”