Chapter 779

Steve gasped from exhaustion as he took a step away. He knew that Bucky was just being controlled by Hydra, and that was why he couldn’t let Tony kill Bucky! 

“What do we do now?” Vision said as he looked at both Steve and Tony. 

“Just leave him here! We shouldn’t temper this timeline too much, but what do you think, Tony?” Steve said as he turned his attention to Tony. But Tony said nothing as he just walked away from the unconscious Bucky. 

Steve just stared before he smiled a little bit. Nevertheless, Steve was pretty ashamed of himself as he knew that he had almost died here today! His costume was all dirty and crumpled up, and the injury on his back hasn’t closed up yet. Fortunately, this injury wasn’t too serious, so Tony simply sprayed something that immediately stopped the bleeding. 

Then Tony, Steve, and Vision immediately returned to the rendezvous point, where Scott and Luci were already waiting.

“How is it going?” Scott asked as he saw Tony and the rest arrived. Then he noticed that Steve was pretty beaten up, so he was quite concerned.

“Are you seriously injured?” Scott asked as he walked toward Steve.

“A little bit injured, but none too serious,” Steve said with a scepter in his hand. 

“How did that happen?” Scott asked as he knew how capable Steve was. According to the plan, Steve should avoid all suspicion, take the Scepter and leave, but it seemed they encountered some problems along the way.

“Remember the communication snail that we mentioned before?” Steve said with a sigh.

“No, I am pretty sure the Steve and Natasha of this time were unconscious at that time. They wouldn’t be able to pass any information in that state, would they?” Scott said unsurely. They already planned for all details, including the Communication Snails that the Avenger of this time had. And that was why Scott had to incapacitate the Steve of this time to make sure Dio wasn’t suspicious.

“No, it’s Natasha! When I took the Scepter, it seems Natasha has already regained consciousness.” Steve said with an exasperated sigh. Scott also remembered that Natasha was the one who woke up first, and he immediately noticed where he had made an error. 

“Uh, yeah! Sorry, I didn’t expect Natasha to wake up so soon!” Scott said embarrassedly. 

“It’s not your fault, Scott. We are just unlucky, but we do manage to secure the Mind Stone regardless.” Steve said with a smile on his face. Steve wasn’t a person who would throw blame around, although Scott’s performance in this mission was indeed a little bit questionable.

But then Scott immediately remembered the scene of the goddess from earlier and turned his attention to Luci.

“The huge, uhh, Butterfly earlier, is that your transformation?” Steve asked curiously.

“Yes, it’s me! it’s not an ordinary butterfly, it was a form of mythological creature, the goddess of light.” Luci said while nodding her head.

“Butterfly goddess of light? Did Dio know about this transformation of yours?” Steve asked curiously.

“He knows, I was in that form when we first met. At that time, I was fighting against an enemy of mine. If it weren’t for Dio’s help, I would’ve died already by now. Later, when the planet exploded, Dio rescued me! Otherwise, my race would be completely extinct!” Luci said with a smile on her face as she reminisced the past.

“Wait a minute, a race? are you saying that there is more of you that can transform into the butterfly goddess?” Scott asked worriedly.

“Why would everyone transform into the goddess of light?” Luci asked confusedly. 

“Well, I am just curious, that’s all!” Scott said with a relieved grin as he was certain that there were not that many people who could transform into a monster like Luci, but his happiness didn’t last long.

“I am the only one who could transform into the butterfly goddess, but the others could transform into their own mythological creatures, such as golden lions, unicorns, and such.” Luci said with a proud smile on her face.

“Are you saying that your entire race has the ability to transform, but their transformation is different?” Tony asked curiously.

“Yes, that is exactly the case,” Luci said with a smile on her face.

“Are they also big, like your transformation?” Tony asked.

“Well, it depends! A few people could transform even bigger than I am.” Luci said while nodding her head. Tony immediately frowned as he heard Luci’s explanation. He was jealous that Luci’s race could perform a miraculous feat from birth while he was here trying to make one himself.

“But our people’s population is always quite scarce. At most, there are only a few hundred people alive.” Luci suddenly sounded dejected. She felt sad as she knew that she was probably the sole survivor of her race.

Tony nodded as he understood what Luci was saying. Otherwise, Luci’s race would’ve already conquered the entire universe on their own if they had a huge population.

“Is there any restriction on your transformation? How long can you maintain that form?” Steve asked curiously. 

“No, there is no real restriction. The duration of the transformation depends on the energy consumption. In normal combat, I can stay in that form for an hour, but while outside combat, I can keep it up forever if I conserve the energy and consume some food to replenish my energy.” Luci explained. 

“So, did you use your transformation often?” Steve asked.

“Well, I trained almost every day with my clansmen,” Luci said with a shrug. Steve immediately thought of huge beast-like monsters fighting against each other. 

“Well, enough of that! I think we need a backup plan! Dio might have begun to doubt our identity, so the plan to take the Cube might not work!” Tony said as he returned the group’s focus back on track.

“That makes sense, but we have to know more about Luci’s ability to devise a more detailed plan,” Steve said as he looked at Luci for a while.