Doctor Doom suddenly appeared beside the falling Raina. Pointing his armored finger, she hovered in mid-air, halting her rapid descent.
Seeing the sudden appearance of Doctor Doom, the crowd immediately realized that Sebastian's words were true all along. Raina was indeed a member of the Shadow Council. This meant that the previous events were most likely a carefully orchestrated conspiracy of the Shadow Council.
In reality, the Shadow Council's scheme was relatively simple: they exploited the Avengers' trust in each other and their deep responsibility to protect the people of Earth.
The Avengers were hesitant to gamble on whether Sebastian would become a demon, especially after Raina's predictions repeatedly came true and she had used drugs to strengthen Carol and Medusa's trust in her.
Finally, Banner's violent outburst was the final straw, forcing them to seriously consider whether Sebastian would become a demon. Even though some of them had doubts, they could not abandon their investigation into the matter.
Sebastian could not possibly have been imprisoned with them peacefully. The Shadow Council exploited the Avengers' trust, suspicion, fear, and responsibility, using Raina as their leverage to completely split the once close-knit Avengers, leading to this civil war.
Furthermore, S.H.I.E.L.D. was at fault as well. Their main supporter, Carol, had returned specifically to guard against Sebastian and other powerful members of the Illuminati. From the very beginning, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Carol were wary and cautious, leading them to view everything they saw with suspicion, gradually targeting both Carol and the Illuminati.
All of this was cleverly exploited by the Shadow Council through Raina, ultimately leading to the current situation!
"Not quite there yet, Raina, you disappoint me," Doctor Doom said coldly.
Looking at Doctor Doom, Raina reached out to pull off her hood and cape, only to reveal her spiky, hideous body. She shed her outer skin as rapidly as a venomous snake molting. Grasping at the cracks in her transformed face, she slowly peeled back the outer layer, revealing Raina's stunningly beautiful face, transformed by her second Terrigenesis.
Reaching out to take the cloak handed over by Doctor Doom and putting it on, Raina said to him, "It is unreasonable to put all the pressure on me for this plan. Although I can predict the future and have used the experimental drugs created by MODOK and his team at A.I.M., you should know that these methods of mine are not worth mentioning in front of the famous dark wizard Sebastian Shaw."
Glancing at Raina who was deliberately trying to appear seductive, Doctor Doom remained calm and did not care about such manipulation at all. "Forget it, anyway, the initial plan has been successful enough.
After this incident, neither the Avengers nor the Illuminati can continue to work together smoothly, and Medusa the queen of the Inhumans has lost trust. The Inhumans' status within the Avengers will be difficult to elevate now.
As for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain Marvel, she will undoubtedly leave the Avengers completely, significantly reducing their overall power. Most of the people we need to be wary of are only superficially aligned with the Avengers now, and that is more than enough!"
There was one more thing Doctor Doom left unsaid. The subsequent plan had failed. The Avengers and the Illuminati did not truly engage in a life-or-death struggle, which completely thwarted the Shadow Council's plan to attack them during their weakened state and profit from their losses. For Doctor Doom himself, it also meant he could not seize the Zatanos consciousness within Sebastian to strike a deal with Mephisto.
Doctor Doom had initially thought he would be furious or frustrated if his plan failed, but to his surprise, not only did he not feel that way, he actually felt relieved!
Because this meant he had not actually harmed Sebastian, nor had he been forced to make the deal with Mephisto. He could still go to Sebastian for tea and conversation as usual. He had not lost this friend. Although Doctor Doom knew that even if he had captured Zatanos and made a deal with Mephisto, Sebastian would most likely not truly break their friendship completely.
"Once this is over, I will go to Sebastian and explain everything about Mephisto and Zatanos to him.
As for my mother's soul trapped in hell, I will have to rescue her myself. As for the culprit Mephisto, I will not let him get away with what he has done. He will pay the price!" Doctor Doom thought to himself.
Looking at the dark clouds and thunder gathering around them, Doctor Doom changed his immediate plan, nodded respectfully to Sebastian, and vanished into the air with Raina using his technology.
As Doctor Doom left with Raina, Sebastian's patronus finished absorbing the photon energy released by Carol. With a faint glow of imminent transformation, it transformed into a mist of light and returned to Sebastian's wand.
At this moment, Sebastian could sense that something was different about his magical core. After all, the Patronus was essentially the other side of the wizard's soul. The Patronus had absorbed a large amount of Carol's photon energy, and naturally Sebastian had received some feedback from it, but it was not the right time to explore it just yet.
Sebastian looked at Carol, who looked utterly incredulous at what had happened, but he ignored her. He simply dispersed the storm clouds, obliterated the remaining floating ground pieces, and returned to the surface below.
Seeing the look of utter collapse and devastation on Medusa's face, Sebastian opened a portal, connecting directly to Attilan.
"Black Bolt, take Medusa back home. This incident is not her fault; she was simply bewitched by Raina's manipulation."
Black Bolt nodded to Sebastian in acknowledgment and walked over to Medusa, gently pulling her through the portal back to Attilan. Simultaneously, through their telepathic connection, he spoke to Sebastian, "The Inhuman Nation will send two new representatives to join the Avengers soon.
A small number of Inhumans from Jiaying's afterlife faction have secretly left Attilan recently. Their names will be given to you along with the new Inhumans joining the Avengers. From now on, they are considered traitors to the Inhuman Nation, and anyone can arrest them at will."
Those Inhumans who left were likely loyal to Jiaying from the afterlife community. Although Jiaying was currently imprisoned on the deep-sea prison raft, Sebastian felt she had likely been rescued by now.
Black Bolt's message was clearly stating that those individuals were already traitors to the Inhuman Nation, and their future actions would have nothing to do with the Inhumans. However, Sebastian did not know if this was actually the complete truth.
In short, as long as the Illuminati maintained the upper hand in power, the traitorous Inhumans would definitely have no connection with the Inhuman Nation. This was the proper awareness of a national leader and a leader of an entire race, and Sebastian was not particularly disgusted by this political maneuvering.
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