[Draul St. Cross POV]
I've been searching for a way to stop whatever summoning they were going to perform but I haven't even seen anything that would suggest that the summoning was coming from our side, which meant that whatever they did behind the scenes that hid them from the watchful eyes of the Sanctum made it fully autonomous or somehow gave the remote control to someone from the dark dimension.
The more time passed, the more unease I felt. Dormammu was already the height of trouble we could get if he was ever freed and found his way to Earth, but now it wasn't just Dormammu that we had to worry about.
Even now I could feel sorcerers being wiped out in droves and with my spatial abilities I was attacking different places at the same time. If only I could just blow up the planet, save us a lot of trouble in the process of extermination.
Rather than fighting demons who had no way of protecting themselves against me, I focused more of my attention in unraveling their connection to the ley lines. The ley lines of Earth had already been tainted with the demonic essence of hell and that would have normally captured the attention of any magically attuned person on the planet but they somehow managed to hide it effects, no not hide per se, but halted the effects of such a thing and it was when they were ready, having captured different spots, did they finally let all of them loose which in turn alerted the Sanctums but unfortunately the damage was already growing to a global scale.
Despite all that, something still didn't make sense. Even if the metaphorical remote was not our side of reality, for a remote to work there had to be a receiver of some kind. Something that will react on Earth whenever they push the button and proceed to fuse the Earth with the dark dimension. If I could find that then I could make their remote obsolete.
But the problem was what counted as the receiver? Was it the ley lines? If it was and I destabilized it, I would be weakening the magical flow of Earth which was not a very good choice in my opinion.
This was why I hated magic so much. Even with my powers, which exceeded Earth by light years, some demons fucking with magic was all it took to make me stumble. If I had the Reality Stone then this would have been so much different as I could just erase the effects of their demonic essence in the ley lines and make it as if it was never corrupted. Not even the Power Stone was of any use.
Tempering with the ley lines was a very dangerous thing as it could be easily corrupted or crippled and it was obvious that the demons didn't care about either.
I might be able to suppress the effects of the corruption but that is all I would be doing. I needed either the remote or the receiver to understand how what they were going to do worked. I'll start with the lines first and see what I can pick from there.
Overlapping three different locations on Earth together, I shot out destructive beams that obliterated everything in those three-in-one places before I stepped into it.
Spreading out my sense into the ground, I began traveling along its lines to all those that were connected to it in a similar fashion, i.e. Possessing demonic essence.
What I saw was expertly veiled circles within hexagonal matrices stretching from city to city and from continents to continents, slowly wrapping its way around the world in a way that was independent from each other and yet still closely knit together.
The way it was structured was similar to how a building was wired, which meant that there had to be a mother box that would transfer the bulk of the power to the different ley lines unit. What I was looking for was a spot, or spots, that could act as the congregation of the magical energy from the marked lines without it experiencing an influx.
"The three Sanctums."
I appeared at the intersecting point underneath one of the Sanctums, London's to be exact, and looked at it from a main ley line point of view.
"This is taking 'hiding in plain sight' to another level." Looking at the way the lines crossed and intersected at one of the three pivotal places on Earth, I understood that the magical matrices around the world was functioning in a way that left the three Sanctums untouched, giving the sorcerers a false sense of security and this folly would only be realized when the huge ass portal was activated and in order to stabilize the excess energy needed for it, they would then run it through the ley lines underneath the Sanctums, taking the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj by a last minute surprise that they couldn't react to quickly enough which confirmed my suspicions that someone helped them with this, someone from Kamar-Taj most likely.
"But still, even if they plan to run it through the Sanctums, they still need the hundreds of receivers here on Earth to run on something, don't they? It is a basic knowledge after all that the greater the spell, the greater the sacrifice… So that's it, huh? Can't say I'm actually surprised."
I left the Sanctum's underground and teleported to where the Ancient One was. "Did you figure anything out, Mr. Cross?" She asked as I made my presence known.
"Yeah, though I'm sure you're not gonna like it."
She shook her head at my words. "I already don't like it, and I already expect it to be worse."
"Okay good news first. Not only do we have two Hell Lords coming after us but they also plan to use the Sanctums to regulate the energy needed to sustain the portal to Earth. And we don't have any way to stop it since they can activate the spell from their side." I briefly explained.
"That's some… news. As baleful as it is to hear that, I don't see the reason why you would need to classify that as good news when we'll be hard pressed to stop it, that's if we can, before they activate their spell. Pray tell, what then is the bad news." The only expression I could read from her was that brief pause and raised brow, meaning she expected this, or at least some part of it.
"The bad news is that all the locations are hotspots for the spell. In other words, sacrificial altars. They are expendable batteries needed to sustain the portal for a bit of time before the Sanctum regulates the excess energy. Once the spell activates, everyone in that location, both the demons, the cultists and the sorcerers will all be sacrificed to the altars."
No one, and I mean absolutely no one, with a logical mind would side with demons because demons operate on a different logic and morality than us flesh and blood beings. It was also the reason why the spawns of hell were always stronger since they never abandoned the paw of the jungle. For eons they had been living in strife, war and death, living mostly on instincts. Empathy was not something a demon could feel, it was nigh-impossible for them.
"That is bad news. Do we have a way of preventing them from starting the sacrifice?" Her words were cut short as a magic circle appeared before us with Strange walking through it. "I heard." Was all he said as he stood before us, all bloodied, mostly from his enemies.
"I could try shifting the Earth into a separate dimension but with doing that, I'll have to sacrifice something. Either I will transport everyone on Earth, including the demons and sorcerers, to another dimension for the duration of the spell, robbing them of their sacrificial lambs until the spell fails but that would also mean causing a global panic and risk even opening the eyes of normal humans to the magical society which they are not yet ready for, not to talk to of the current situation."
Strange had already started sporting white hair at his sides since this morning and I think what I just said aged him by a few years. "No easy way out, huh? Not like I wasn't expecting something like that. What's the second way, Draul?"
"The second way which I wouldn't recommend if not for the current situation will be shifting the ley lines of the Earth either into another dimension or rearrange it which would break the spell in and of itself. But the repercussions of doing something like that would mean crippling the Earth's ley lines and making the mystical community obsolete in a single day. We can put the ley lines back into their original position after we are done but the damage would have already been done and it would take at the very least, decades, before magic will flow freely through the Earth once again." Both options were grim but they were the only things I could come up with that were guaranteed to stop plans without wasting the lives of the sorcerers.
With my electromagnetic abilities, coupled with the Space Stone, shifting the ley lines was an easy thing and so was repairing it, though the later would be magnitudes harder. But the thing was that shifting the ley lines would not just mean disrupting magic on Earth, or at least the universal energy flowing through Earth which would make the practitioners of that school almost powerless as they would have to rely on relics which were even rarer to obtain.
Magic won't end on Earth as it could still be performed but would have to be done through different methods like contract with magical beings, gods, or things that held magical power in them. And not only that, shifting the ley lines also meant that most of Earth's natural resources would be lost. Oil wells would dry up, rivers would flow out, rainforests will slowly die out and even deposits of precious minerals like gold, silver and diamonds will be destroyed. The ley lines were an important part of any planet if they wished to thrive in abundance of natural resources.
"I'm afraid I can't choose any of those choices you presented us with, Mr. Cross." This was the first time I've ever seen the Ancient One's face look so grave. "We will fight to the bitter end, and regardless of the loss we suffer, we will never give up."
"Knew you would say something like that. Not even I am crazy enough to choose any of the choices I offered." I said.
"Then why did you bother with giving us the options?" Strange asked exasperatedly.
"Because you asked for it, duh. I called the others, so that should help alleviate the pressure the sorcerers are facing. Which conversely means we have to wait until the portal opens before we can do anything, ergo fighting two Hell Lords." Not even the words coming from my mouth helped alleviate the tension in the air. If the Hell Lords so much as manage to fuse a portion of the Earth to their domain, we'll be up for fighting in a literal Hell Mode.
At least Bucky, Steve, Nat, Yelena and Ororo were already helping out and getting the workout they actually needed.
Each of them volunteered to go separate locations which I didn't think much about since they were actually that strong. It was an opportunity for them to spill the blood they haven't managed to spill for a while now, which was apparent in Yelena's case. I actually pity any demon that is unlucky to fight them, not really.
There was nothing we could do to stop the emergence except try and kill as many as we could to reduce the body count on our side and even if we did kill them, it would still count as a sacrifice since their blood was spilled on the altar. This was a perfect checkmate if I've ever seen one.
[Bucky Barnes POV]
How the times have truly changed. If someone was to tell me five years ago that I would be on the level where I would have to fight not only Gods but also demons from hell, the only reason I would have believed them was if I was brainwashed to.
It was times like these that I truly understood how the quack felt when he would say that 99.99% of the world couldn't experience the things he had. If they could live half of what we've lived through in these past few years, their entire worldview would be shattered and reformed and after that reformation, they would find out just how truly disconnected from the rest of the world they were. Only a select few on Earth were on the level we were and that made it even more lonely.
When the quack had told us about what was currently happening which may or may not have contained something about our reality being destroyed, I don't know because it somehow didn't sound that important, it really didn't take me by surprise.
Finding out that two kings of hell were trying to conquer Earth was nothing more than another Tuesday for us at this point, but I will have to admit that this was on a whole different scale than annihilating galactic tyrants on beating up young Gods. They were actually spreading around the Earth which was impressive as they managed to do that without stepping on anyone's tail.
"Having a device which can teleport you to different locations on the planet sure is handy." I muttered as I stepped through the swirling blue portal which was the effect of the device I had on me, courtesy of Draul.
"73 in total. Light work, should be done in record time." It was still a trippy experience whenever I used my powers but it didn't feel as weird as it once was when I first got it, which was hours ago, Draul sure had perfect timing or the worst timing.
The demons and cultists present were already aware of my intrusion as I could feel the ground tremble as they rushed to my location. Time was of the essence so I couldn't dawdle.
Power flowed through my veins uninterrupted. "I could get used to this feeling." Blood obstructed my perfect vision as I ripped the first person I came across, a human, into two. I didn't ease up and neither did they even after their comrade died.
Their unrelenting fervor however wouldn't change the expected outcome. I dove into the thick of the fray in a semi gaseous form and started a carnage that even made the bravest demon amongst them pale in fright.
I will be the first to admit that I am not okay. Trained as an assassin and world class martial artist, I always went for efficiency and precision; always going for the silent kill. But that all changed since that fateful day I woke up and tried to attack Draul.
What changed? Rather than the assassin I once was, now I was nothing more than a rampaging intellectual monster. The abilities I had gotten increased this factor by a hundred fold when it became apparent that I was a small gap short of becoming the ultimate soldier. Oh how HYDRA would have cremated their pants at the prospect of having such a weapon under them.
A cultist fired a spell at me which did nothing more than send a slight jolt up my nerves, a tickle. I hate tickles.
My hand morphed into a black blade as I slashed at him, dissecting him from his right shoulder to his left waist side. Not stopping there, beams shot out from my hands, compressed sound waves, which shredded the people in the direction of my hands, bursting them into small stomps of meat.
A whip was wrapped around my neck which was followed by a tug that felt nothing more than the tap of a child. Grabbing the whip which emitted black wisps, I tugged on it and the demon came flying towards me only for it to be separated towards the four cardinal paths.
"Time's up." My torso, from the neck down to the waist, gained a smoldering red color, a few shades lighter than Draul's red, and from my front and back grew long sharp flat edged red constructs like the blades of a fan. Before they could jump back to avoid whatever it was that I wanted to do, the blades immediately extended to a few meters, covering everyone before me in its radius.
A second later, denied of any respite not like they deserved one in any way, the fans spun at blinding speed and shredded them into red mist like a blender.
Seeing the red that filtered into the surroundings reminded me of Nat. "I wonder how she's doing. Probably steamrolling these fuckers." Why I will admit it would be somehow hot to see her pulverize her enemies into red paste, unfortunately I was still in business mode. Work first, pleasure later.
Next stop, the outskirts of Angola.
I recalibrated the device and pinged in on one of the locations on the holographic globe it projected, one of the brighter red ones. Well what can I say? I have a new thing for red.
Space rippled before me and I once again stepped through the blue portal. The place I was in was very close to the city which meant that in the likely scenario that the fight spilled out, civilians would be casualties of battle.
Reading the situation, a plan of attack was already laid out in my mind. The next moment, I rushed at the camp of demons in flashing speed, grabbing the first person by the leg, a woman, before she had the chance to react and dragged her along the rough ground, leaving a trail of blood and grated flesh on the ground.
I flung her stomp with a great force against her comrades, turning the two people she collided against into watermelons.
The enemies this time seemed a little wiser as they halted their press the moment they saw three of their members killed in a moment faster than their eyes could see.
I wanted to attack them since they were actually stupid enough to look at me like that but had to pause my steps as I saw a tall demon, massively overshadowing the others, standing at an impressive 8ft making his way through the demon congregation as they made open a path for him.
"Human~ A quite strong one." The hellspawn's raspy voice fizzled in between hisses. He had two pairs of curved horns on the side of his head and held a triple-serrated black broadsword that looked like it was forged from the bones of tortured souls if the constant screams and faces on the body of the hellish contraption were given any credit.
That was some dangerous level of instinct this guy was making me feel. While I haven't fought a demon as strong as this one, I didn't actually feel enough of a danger threat from him for me to be thoroughly cautious.
The blades started leaking thick black blobs and fell off its body to the ground, causing the ground to sizzle as whatever that black thing was completely ate through it.
"Some weapon you got there, big fella. Mind telling me what the hell that black dripping thing falling off of its body is? No? Well I guess I have to use it on you to find out."
The demon roared and ran towards me, reaching me with only a quick, almost imperceptible, blur of his movements and swinging down his blade. Not wanting to find out first hand what that obviously sinister weapon could do, I dodged to the sides but the demon immediately went after me, flaunting his speed in a way that appeared almost teasingly to me.
Seeing the demon's unrelenting strides, I dodged towards where his group was standing and due to him being likely over arrogant and lost in whatever rage he was feeling, or maybe he simply didn't care, he couldn't stop himself on time when one of his comrades fell into his line of execution.
He cleaved cleanly through the stunned cultist and that was when I understood what it was that the blade did. Looking at the quickly shriveling corpse and how it emitted some wisp that the blade seems to absorb, and also the small new face that appeared among the sea of faces on each part of the blade, it didn't take me long to realize that the blade somehow absorbed the life and soul that was fading away from the dead guy and used it to empower the demon.
The demon rushed at me with reinvigorated fervor but despite its little strength increase, I reacted to it with barely restrained ease, parrying its blade with my hands taking on the properties of Vibranium.
Seeing me being able to keep up with it despite its empowerment, he started attacking everywhere around him rabidly, killing any unfortunate demon or human who was within its striking radius and using their death to empower himself.
"Fuck!" This demon was already strong, using the life force of his allies to strengthen himself would make him a lot harder to deal with. I rushed at him to get him to refocus his attention on me but before I reached him, a huge explosion knocked me back, sending me flying into the main highway road. "Oh crap!"
Before I could even tell the people coming out of their car to check the cause of the disturbance to run away, a huge energy blast came from within the bushes and impacted my location, turning everything around me to debris and fire.
The demon landed in front of me with changed forms. His horns were longer and they were double coiled and he now had three pairs of eyes. The sword was somewhat bigger to match his increased size and the screams coming from it were more pronounced.
I could hear the screams of terror around me but I couldn't keep my focus on them, not risking the chance of letting this demon out of my sight.
My body took on a matte black color as it rushed at me, sword a swinging, but I just stood there even as the blade impacted me, sending an air blast to the area behind me. I could feel the force from the strike empowering me and small trickles of purple shone through my all black form.
"How about that?" He swung his sword a couple of times at me but I just tanked each of his attacks, building up large units of energy in my body. He backpedaled a couple of steps as soon as he realized that none of his attacks were causing me damage but instead the opposite.
Not letting it go on one of its angry fits, the first expulsion of power was directly into his face, pulverizing his eyes as they did his ears, nose and mouth. The second was to his throat, reducing his face to more outpour of blood.
The third and last, also most powerful, were to its scrotum, which it definitely had, shattering everything there into mush. He still at the final impact, as if he was frozen down to his heartbeat.
I held his kneeling form by the neck while my right hand took on a blurry shade as it crackled with lightning. I reached for his heart, completely bypassing his thickened skin, and grabbed it slowly before yanking it out and causing his body to spasm for a moment before it stilled once again.
"Quite a nifty trick." I mused before reducing the slimy heart in my hand to black soot. The fight had spilled out due to a blindside attack that threw me off for a moment, causing unnecessary casualties. Well, there's nothing I can really do about this. I should get on with killing these pieces of shits than worrying about what kind of impact this would have on the neighboring people.
.
.
.
Read up to 35 chapters ahead at patreon*com/Draul_TheOminous.