Marvel: The Alchemist Just Wants a Peaceful Life

The moment Sherlock saw flames appearing behind and beneath Obadiah, who hadn't even landed yet, he understood Obadiah's meaning and sneered at him from a distance with a mocking smile.

As Sherlock finished speaking, he slammed both of his hands hard onto the ground.

"Alchemy: Transformation of Matter – Five Dragons Reincarnate!"

Crimson lightning flashed, and five enormous hexagonal prisms, each nearly twice the size of two people's embrace, rose from the ground beside Sherlock, like five giant dragons, and charged towards Obadiah, who had just taken off.

Meanwhile, Obadiah, who had just taken off, saw this scene and his face behind the mask was contorted with rage. Without any hesitation, he controlled Iron Monger to unleash almost all of its ammunition at the five dragon-like giant stone pillars.

It is obvious that whether it is bullets, shells, or even missiles, it is a pipe dream to try to stop those stone pillars that look like five giant dragons with these things, and they cannot even delay them.

Obadiah, who had just taken off, was knocked down by the five stone pillars with almost no chance to resist.

Boom!

As Obadiah's Iron Monger landed, its immense weight smashed into the ground, kicking up clouds of dust. The five dragon-like stone pillars, however, did not let Obadiah off the hook and charged toward the Iron Monger's massive body.

When the smoke and dust cleared, the Iron King was firmly fixed to the ground in a large "X" shape by five stone pillars.

Unexpectedly, the five stone pillars did not harm the Iron King; they merely held it in place by their own weight and flexibility.

Nevertheless, it was enough to drive Obadiah, hiding inside the Iron Monger, to despair.

Obadiah roared inside the Iron Monger, frantically maneuvering the joystick, trying to break free from Sherlock's control. But it was clear that all efforts were in vain; Sherlock's alchemy was something the Iron Monger could not break free from.

"Don't bother. Whether it's weight or material, these five giant pillars can be changed at will by my alchemy. In other words, your armor will never escape my grasp!"

Just as Obadiah was struggling frantically, Sherlock's voice appeared beside him at some point, and it was only then that Obadiah was surprised to find that Sherlock was standing on top of his Iron Monger chest.

"What...what are you going to do? Sherlock! I was wrong! I surrender! I give up! You can't kill me! I surrender!"

In a fit of immense terror, Obadiah almost screamed at Sherlock. His voice, amplified by the machine's loudspeakers, was exceptionally hoarse, yet it was insufficient to elicit any sympathy from Sherlock.

Sherlock squatted down and patted the Iron Monger's tightly closed scalpel with a smile, saying...

“No, Obadiah, you don’t recognize your mistakes, nor do you have any intention of surrendering. You just know that you are going to die.”

Chapter 55 Execution

Sherlock's words did not elicit a response from Obadiah, who at this point resembled a stray dog, constantly howling from inside the Iron Monger.

Tony, who was originally determined to kill him, has now become Obadiah's only lifeline. Seeing that Sherlock's murderous intent remains unchanged and he looks like he is going to kill him, Obadiah doesn't dare to open his mask and can only keep pleading with Tony through the megaphone.

"Tony, I was wrong, please save me, stop this madman! I'm willing to leave Stark Industries, I'll agree to anything you want, please, Tony, save me, for the sake of my good relationship with your father!"

Listening to Obadiah's roars echoing across the battlefield, Tony, who had witnessed from beginning to end how Sherlock defeated Obadiah, wanted to speak up to stop Sherlock, but after several attempts, he couldn't utter a single word.

Sherlock had already explained the reason when he presented Obadiah with the evidence of his parents' murder; no matter how you look at it, this was a personal feud between Sherlock and Obadiah.

Not only Tony, but even the SHIELD agents in black suits ignored Obadiah's roars. Under Coulson's orders, they even quietly expanded the cordon to prevent anyone from hearing Obadiah's screams.

If S.H.I.E.L.D., which has nothing to do with Sherlock, operates in this way, let alone Tony, who is legally Sherlock's father.

In the end, Tony could only sigh helplessly and did not respond to Obadiah's roar. Instead, he turned and walked towards Pepper Potts, who was waiting outside the battlefield.

Sherlock's attention had actually been partially diverted to Tony the whole time. Seeing that Tony finally gave up on Obadiah, a smile appeared on Sherlock's lips. He stared at the Iron Monger at his feet, which had never been opened, and casually picked up the Spear of Longinus from his back.

With the tip of his spear pointed at the Iron Monger at his feet, Sherlock's face was full of eerie smiles.

"Stop howling. I'll tell you a secret: Tony has already left the battlefield. In other words, no one will come to save you."

Sherlock's eerie yet murderous smile was fully displayed to Obadiah through the Iron Monger's image capture system. At this moment, Obadiah even began to resent the AI ​​display function he had added in pursuit of perfection.

Obadiah tried to beg for mercy, but Sherlock didn't give him the chance. The spearhead of the Spear of Longinus pierced through the Iron Monger's thick metal shell as easily as piercing a thin sheet of paper, and was embedded in Obadiah's body.

Intense pain shot through Obadiah's abdomen. He tried to struggle, but his limbs were firmly held in place by the armor, and he couldn't even scream.

Human transmutation!

The four words, spoken lightly by Sherlock, represented an absolute taboo in alchemy.

As a burst of red lightning erupted from the point where the Spear of Longinus touched the Iron Monger, Obadiah's roar instantly resounded through the heavens.

In just a few breaths, Obadiah's screams came to an abrupt halt, and even Iron Monger's struggles stopped in that instant. Only Sherlock's smile grew increasingly sinister.

With a wave of his hand, Sherlock made the stone pillars that were holding the Iron Monger disappear. The Iron Monger, now free of his restraints, did not struggle. Instead, with the Spear of Longinus still stuck in his stomach, he slowly stood up.

Seeing this, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents responsible for the evacuation not far away, as well as Tony who had just exchanged a few words with Pepper Potts, tensed up instantly.

But Sherlock, standing in front of the Iron Monger, showed no sign of tension.

He reached out and pulled out the Spear of Longinus that was stuck in the Iron Monger's body, and with a sweeping motion, he sliced ​​through the Iron Monger's scalpel.

The empty cockpit of the Iron Monger proved one thing to everyone: Obadiah had disappeared. Apart from the young man standing in front of the Iron Monger, probably no one knew where Obadiah, who was hiding under the armor, had gone.

Seeing that the Iron Monger had lost its driver, the scene relaxed. However, even after Sherlock proved that the Iron Monger was not in any danger, he still did not let go of the Iron Monger and continued to cut its parts with his spear.

It was as if he were handling a work of art, examining it meticulously, bit by bit, starting from the outer shell, then the internal wiring, and finally the metal supporting frame. Sherlock swung his spear faster and faster, but no one stepped forward to stop him.

Almost everyone believed that Sherlock's actions were an act of revenge. After all, Obadiah had killed Obadiah's parents, and it was understandable that Iron Monger would destroy the only evidence Obadiah left in the world.

In their view, this was nothing special, and even S.H.I.E.L.D. had no particular attachment to keeping the Iron Monger as a weapon, since compared to Tony's armor, the Iron Monger had no advantages whatsoever.

That's why Sherlock was able to reduce the Iron Monger to a skeleton without anyone stopping him.

But only Sherlock knew that Obadiah was not dead at this moment.

Or rather, at this point, Obadiah had completely merged with the Iron Monger through Sherlock's human transmutation.

It wasn't the kind of fusion where the soul was sealed onto the armor, but a true, complete integration where the nerves, soul, and body became one with the Iron Monarch.

To put it simply, after the human transmutation was activated, Obadiah had already become the Iron Monger, and the Iron Monger was Obadiah!

Most importantly, Sherlock retained his nervous system, which means that Obadiah, who transformed into the Iron Monger, actually felt pain. However, because he lost his controller, Obadiah, or rather the Iron Monger, could only watch helplessly as Sherlock inflicted extreme torture on him in front of everyone.

Obadiah was in excruciating pain from beginning to end, and he couldn't even die until Sherlock destroyed the miniature reactor in his chest.

He could only remain silent, unable to move, watching helplessly as Sherlock slowly peeled away his 'flesh', and in his unbearable pain, he watched as Sherlock tore apart his 'blood vessels' one by one, until he finally turned into a skeleton.

Pain gnawed at Obadiah, who was trapped in the armor by Sherlock, like ants, preventing him from even fainting.

This 'execution song' is Sherlock's 'funeral' for Obadiah, and also a 'ritual' for the original owner.

Chapter 56 The matter is settled

Of course, the execution song was only the beginning. Sherlock could feel that the anger in his heart did not decrease with the execution of Obadiah; on the contrary, the feeling of resentment grew stronger.

Just as Sherlock was pondering how to solve the problem, Tony's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Stop playing around, Sherlock, Obadiah is dead."

Hearing Tony's words, Sherlock turned around and saw Pepper looking at him with a loving expression. Tony, through his unfolded visor, gave him a wink.

It's obvious that Tony has already told Pepper everything.

Little Pepper clearly misunderstood Sherlock's act of "whipping the corpse." Her eyes were full of affection as she looked at Sherlock, almost as if she wanted to tell him to come into her mother's arms.

Under Pepper's gaze, Sherlock abandoned his plan to turn Obadiah's soul into the Philosopher's Stone and casually thrust his gun directly into the Iron Monger's miniature reactor, which was now just bones.

With the activation of the alchemy, Obadiah's suffering finally ended along with the miniature reactor he had stolen from Tony.

If Obadiah's soul could speak, he would undoubtedly agree with the classic line from many movies: "Death is nothing more than the most beautiful luxury."

To Sherlock's utter surprise, with Obadiah's death, the anger in his heart vanished without a trace in an instant, replaced by a strange sense of satisfied emptiness.

This feeling is so wonderful that it's indescribable. It's hard to imagine that two different emotions could exist in one person at the same time.

Sherlock hadn't expected this either.

However, when this feeling arose, Sherlock genuinely felt the benefits.

As that feeling subsided, a sense of clarity spread throughout Sherlock's body in an instant. Some of the difficulties in alchemy, and even some points that he had never been able to understand, all became clear in that instant.

Not only that, Sherlock could even feel that his control over his body had become more agile. The intricate runes that were difficult to complete when he was carving runes in alchemical works in the past, Sherlock now felt that he could complete them with ease.

This feeling filled Sherlock with joy, but also a touch of nostalgia.

Because only Sherlock knew that the true soul, Sherlock Flamel, had vanished.

While Sherlock was still feeling melancholy, Pepper Potts had already come up to him and hugged him tightly without saying a word. After a while, she let go of Sherlock and said to him with a worried look on her face.

"Are you alright, Sherlock?"

Hearing Pepper's concern, Sherlock smiled and said to her.

"Of course, Pepper, believe me, I've never felt this good before!"

Upon hearing Sherlock's answer, Pepper's face relaxed, but the worry between her brows remained. After thinking for a moment, she gave Sherlock some instructions.

"If you have any problems, be sure to talk to me or Tony, Sherlock. You can have any ideas you have."

It was obvious that Pepper was worried that Sherlock might have some kind of psychological problem, but Sherlock himself knew that he didn't have any psychological problems at all.

However, he still smiled and nodded at Little Chili, speaking in a way that was more obedient than ever before.

"I understand, Pepper."

Hearing Sherlock's words, Pepper Potts finally showed a relieved expression. Little did she know that Tony had been standing behind her the whole time, not only rolling his eyes to the sky, but also making all sorts of facial expressions as he awkwardly mimicked Sherlock's words with his mouth.

Sherlock, of course, wouldn't tolerate Tony's behavior. When Pepper couldn't see, he silently gave Tony the middle finger as a response.

Seeing that Pepper seemed to want to say something more, Tony quickly stepped in to separate Pepper and Sherlock, and said to them in a nonchalant manner.

"I'm starving after such a big fight! I know a really good pizza place nearby, how about we go grab a late-night snack together!"

Although Pepper knew Tony was trying to change the subject, she could only smile helplessly and roll her eyes at him, but she didn't object to his suggestion.

Seeing that Pepper didn't object, Tony then gave Sherlock a victorious look, leaving Sherlock dumbfounded and his mouth twitching.

Honestly, Sherlock was starting to wonder if he was part of some strange game between the two of them.

Of course, Sherlock didn't refuse Tony's suggestion. After all, the physical transmutation he had just undergone was extremely physically demanding. To be honest, if Sherlock hadn't possessed the Philosopher's Stone, he probably wouldn't have been able to complete such a physical transmutation at all.

Of course, Tony received no shortage of eye-rolls.

After saying goodbye to Coulson, the unlucky guy in charge of cleaning up the mess, the three borrowed a Cadillac from S.H.I.E.L.D. and left the battlefield.

Even when it came to borrowing the car, it was Pepper Potts who went to Coulson.

As for why Sherlock and Tony, the two main characters, didn't go to Coulson, the reason is simple: the two were busy arguing at the moment.

"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, never underestimate a young man's potential? Seriously, Sherlock, you should look at fewer of those animated pictures."

"Heh, I'll say the same to you, Tony. You should look at those animated pictures more often; maybe they'll give you more inspiration for your tin cans! God, you know when I first came here, you and that old man were fighting worse than elementary school kids!"