Chapter 26: Judgement Day

In which the end is nigh.

Tony hadn't felt irony this bitter since he had seen his own name on the missile that nearly killed him.

They needed to get the teleporter to Inferno if they wanted to stop him. Well, here he was! Except the teleporter was still hidden beneath the magic barrier.

Oh, and since Inferno was here, this meant he had already gathered all the life-energy Dormammu needed. Which also meant that the moment the portal opened, the demon would be able to break free.

No pressure, huh?

Tony would also really like to know how the hell he had managed to teleport here in the first place. Inferno hadn't shown any abilities even remotely similar to teleportation, and if either Mordo or Dormammu could teleport, why the hell did they even bother attacking the demonstration in the first place instead of just teleporting in, grabbing the device, and teleporting out?

Although it might have something to do with the whole stealing life-energy shtick. If Dormammu was the one who granted Inferno this power, there might be a connection between them–

Inferno sharply slashed his arm through the air, and Tony was forced to dodge an arc of flames.

…Right. Fight now, theorize later.

Well, Rhodey had told him that despite Inferno's insane regenerative abilities, blasting the magic gem out of his chest worked well enough as a temporary measure, so that was what Tony did.

Immediately, Inferno collapsed into a grotesque pile of charred limbs. But before Tony could do anything else, he felt Dormammu's telekinetic grip on him once more.

He braced against the pull, trying to counter it with repulsors, but Dormammu could shift his grip much faster than Tony could react. And since the demon was a total asshole, he sent Tony crashing straight into the stalactites above.

Straight into the sharp points of the stalactites above.

And sure, his armor could take a lot of punishment, but whether by accident or because Dormammu's aim was just that good, one of these points was driven straight between the armor plates on his right shoulder into the delicate circuitry beneath.

Tony winced, both at the pain and the warnings flashing on his HUD. The damage wasn't critical, but it did hit unpleasantly close to the main power line leading from the arc reactor to the repulsor on his right hand. Just a little more damage, and he would lose the ability to use it.

Dormammu dropped him unceremoniously, and Tony heard Carnage's cat-like yowl as they were tossed around with another pulse of telekinesis. (Which meant that the demon could only focus on one target at a time. That was something, at least.)

And, of course, Inferno (or rather, the magic gem puppeteering his body) used that time to pull himself back together.

"Destroy these pests, Inferno!" the demon commanded.

Fire blazed around him – and then burst out in every direction.

Tony quickly backpedaled, hurrying to put some distance between them, but the cave was small and empty enough that there really wasn't anywhere to hide. More warnings assaulted his vision: cooling system this time as it struggled to counter the unbearable heat.

He worriedly glanced at Carnage, but thankfully, Mordo's barrier had provided enough cover for them. With a hollow sound of breaking glass, new cracks ran through the shield as the torrent of flames washed over it.

"Enough!" Dormammu shouted. "You will damage the machine!"

The fire cut off.

"Make up… your fucking… mind!" Inferno hissed.

He had one arm wrapped around his chest, and he used the other to keep himself upright, leaning heavily on the demon's transmission crystal. One of the bones in his forearm – ulna or radius, it was a bit hard to tell – fell down, splintering into pieces.

Tony immediately blasted him back. "What's the matter, Little Matchstick Boy? You're not looking so hot over there."

Inferno collapsed against the wall of the cave with a strained laugh. The fire around him flared erratically, then drew inwards. The gem in his chest glowed brightly.

The fire exploded.

The second blast was even worse than the first one. Carnage cringed behind the magic barrier, trying to make themselves as small as possible. It protected them from the fire – barely – but they still felt ready to pass out.

Klyntar biomass dripped off their human body, unable to maintain cohesion in the unbearable heat. They took gasping breaths, struggling to draw air into their lungs, but it felt like there was no air left, only fire, fire, fire, fire–

And then it was over, the flames dissipating almost as suddenly as they appeared.

The magic barrier shattered a second later. Mordo collapsed on the floor, unconscious: holding up that shield had clearly taken every drop of energy he had.

Good. That meant one enemy less to fight.

Carnage forced themselves to move even though they felt ready to drop unconscious themselves. They had to grab the teleporter and finally end this nightmare–

A new barrier shimmered around it.

This one was much smaller, only covering the device itself. It also looked different: swaying static instead of solid walls and burning red instead of green. They hit it with a bladed tendril, and the translucent dome bent slightly at the impact point, before immediately bouncing back.

"There is one saying you humans have that I agree with," Dormammu said darkly.

Mordo's body was enveloped in a similar red glow that pulled him upright like a puppet on mismatched strings. He floated up into the air, still unconscious.

Then his eyes snapped open, bloodshot and glowing. His face stretched into a hideous grin, skin shifting like a rubber mask pulled by invisible fingers.

"If you want something done right," he said in Dormammu's voice, "you have to do it yourself."

Demonic possession, huh?

Normally, Tony would consider it extremely unlikely, since the demon in question was still trapped in another dimension, but he had removed the word "impossible" from his vocabulary for a reason.

The weirdest crap just kept happening around him.

Tony shot Mordo with a repulsor, but the possessed wizard grabbed the edge of his cape and used it to shield himself with a smug smirk. The energy blasts impacted the fabric – and disappeared without a trace.

Neat trick. Too fast and seamless to be energy absorption, so pocket dimension? Folded space? Was it an active spell to be constantly maintained or a passive enchantment on the cape itself?

Either way, there had to be limits.

Tony shot Mordo again, quickly shifting his aim in the hopes of hitting a part of his body that wasn't covered by the cape. The wizard caught every blast, only for Carnage to sneak up behind him and kick him in the back strongly enough to send him flying.

Tony immediately used the provided opening to slam Mordo into the wall with another repulsor blast. Then he turned his attention to the new barrier around the teleporter.

Judging by the size and flickering texture, it was weaker than the previous one… or it was merely created by a different spell. Tony really didn't know enough to tell, especially when taking into account all the differences between human and demon magic.

Ultimately, it didn't matter. He needed to bring it down either way.

Tony readied the unibeam, but before he could unleash it, a fireball hit him from behind. It looked like Inferno was back in the game.

Hauling around an unconscious body of a grown-ass human wasn't exactly easy, but Frances could cope. Keeping her hostage unconscious was a bit harder, forcing Frances to carefully modulate her voice so that knocked out didn't turn into dead from brain aneurism.

After all, a dead hostage was a useless hostage.

Fortunately, even though she hadn't had the opportunity to hone her abilities in a long, long while, her powerset included an instinctive knowledge of how much was too much.

Dormammu had told her that time was of essence, and for once, Frances was inclined to believe him. She could no longer see the distant flames, so something was clearly going down. So she shoved her hostage into the car and drove where the demon told her to.

The streets of New York City were crowded and packed with traffic, but Dormammu directed her towards some secret underground tunnel. It was dark with a low ceiling, but just large enough for her car to fit in.

Good enough in her book.

Frances floored the gas pedal and raced towards the wizard's lair, hoping that she wasn't making a terrible mistake.

The moment it became clear where Inferno had disappeared to, War Machine had rushed off, but this time Peter was ready. He webbed himself to War Machine's armor, grabbed startled Venom, and allowed them both to be pulled along.

Time was precious and Mordo's lair was far enough that it would take them too long to get there under their own power.

It was the most uncomfortable flight Peter had ever experienced. At least when he was web-slinging, he could still control his movements. Being dragged through the air like this was just plain terrible, worse even than hitching a ride on the Vulture's back while the villain in question was actively trying to kill him. And for all that War Machine kept his flight somewhat steady, Peter still felt ready to hurl when they had finally landed.

"I'm starting to think that this was a bad idea," Peter groaned, almost collapsing on the roof of a shabby warehouse.

A roof that already had a hole punched through it with what looked like an energy blast. Iron Man's repulsors, no doubt.

They definitely got the right place then.

"When have you ever let it stop you?" Venom asked.

"…I'm gonna take that as a compliment."

After taking a few seconds to get his bearings and make sure that his knees wouldn't give out under him, Peter jumped inside the warehouse. A quick glance around showed him a set of elevator doors that had been carved into pieces, which had to be Carnage's handiwork.

Well, at least finding the other team would be easy: they just had to follow the trail of destruction.

Dark clouds swirled between stalactites, raining down glowing sparks that ate away at anything they touched. The Rains of Raggadorr, Dormammu had called it when he had used this spell.

Carnage had covered themselves in defensive scales, which would've protected them against regular acid, but the magic had burned through the crystallized biomass, forcing them to shed it before the corrosion could reach their human skin.

Fortunately, while the clouds stretched over the entire cave, the rain only fell in small patches: Dormammu either didn't have enough power available to make the rain constant or he didn't want to damage his own barrier that hid the teleporter.

Which meant that the barrier might be the only safe place from the rain.

Carnage jumped on top of the magic dome, feeling it buzz faintly beneath their feet like static electricity. They clawed at it, desperate to rip it apart before the teleporter was fully charged: despite being personally involved, Dormammu was still feeding it with magic.

And speak of the devil…

Carnage felt Dormammu's invisible grip close around them. They knew that fighting against something they couldn't even touch was useless, so instead they tried to get a few more hits in before the demon threw them into a wall.

The impact rattled their bones, but they were durable enough against simple physical attacks. They dug their claws into the wall and grabbed the closest stalactite, shearing it off with a strike of one of their many blades.

Then they hefted the heavy pointed rock like a spear and threw it towards the possessed demon-wizard.

With a flourish of his cape, Dormammu– Mordo– whoever made it disappear (was there a black hole in there or something?), but Iron Man used the momentary distraction to attack them himself.

Carnage leapt off the wall and bounced between stalactites, carefully avoiding touching the magic clouds: if the rain they produced was this nasty, the clouds themselves were probably far worse. Then with a few precise strikes, they sawed off the stalactites hanging right above the teleporter.

The sharp rocks fell down and hit the magic dome. It bent and rippled, but didn't break.

Before they could attack the barrier with their own claws once again, Carnage saw Inferno pulling himself back together from the corner of their eye. They cringed slightly and ripped off another stalactite to use as ammo against him, even though they knew it would only buy them a few seconds at best.

What the hell was it going to take before Inferno went down and stayed down?

Both gold and titanium were highly resistant to corrosion, but of course, you could never be sure of anything when dealing with magic. The Rains of Raggadorr had stripped the red paint off his armor and left its surface pitted and pockmarked. Worse, the corrosive magic had eaten through the exposed circuitry in his right shoulder, and now Tony could no longer use the repulsor in his right hand. It was a good thing that he was ambidextrous.

Admittedly, his enemies weren't in a very good shape either.

It was taking Inferno longer and longer to reassemble himself. Several of his bones had turned to ash and didn't regenerate, so he had clearly hit some limit of what his body could take. Even the flames he threw around, while still dangerous, tended to miss the target and die down too quickly.

And Dormammu's possession was doing quite a number on Mordo. Blood dripped from his nose and down his chin, staining his green costume in red, and his skin was sickly grey and oddly wrinkled, as if he had aged a decade in the span of minutes.

There was a reason why most demons preferred to psychologically manipulate their pawns instead of assuming direct control like this. Baseline humans simply weren't built to channel so much energy.

Of course, that didn't make them any less dangerous. The burnout wasn't progressing fast enough to remove either Mordo or Inferno from the equation, and Dormammu still had plenty of tricks up his sleeves.

"I summon the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak," Dormammu intoned, the ribbons of red mist forming on his fingertips.

Oh shit, Tony actually knew what this spell did!

He directed all energy to the repulsors in his boots, trying to put as much distance between himself and the demon as he could. The red ribbons flowed through the air, chasing after him. Tony didn't even try to shoot them down – the damn things were supposed to be nigh-indestructible – but if he remembered it right…

"Out the way!" Tony shouted as he rushed past Carnage.

They somersaulted away, thankfully without argument, creating enough distance that the spell didn't lock onto them.

Inferno was far closer.

Tony didn't flinch when Inferno threw a fireball right in his face, no matter how much it strained his cooling systems. He rushed straight through the flames and swerved away at the last second.

The Crimson Bands weren't so maneuverable. They locked onto the closest target and wrapped tightly around Inferno, completely immobilizing him. He snarled in response, fire flaring brighter between the stifling bands.

"Not a fan of bondage, huh?" Tony quipped and bolted away, blasting at the shield around the teleporter. It flickered, growing a little fuzzier.

The Crimson Bands faded away with a wave of Dormammu's hand, freeing Inferno. The demon bared his teeth in a grimace of rage, "You think that your measly tricks will save you?! The Vipers of Valtorr will feast on your bones!"

Two huge burning red serpents materialized from thin air and coiled around the demon, rearing over his shoulders in a way that resembled cobras more than vipers. Tony took aim – and a repulsor blast that wasn't his slammed into the snakes.

Tony turned around and grinned. The cavalry had arrived!

Rhodey would be the first to admit that he didn't know all that much about magic. Tony had offered him a few grimoires to study before, but after struggling through page after page of impenetrable mystical jargon, Rhodey had given up and called it quits.

Still, it didn't take a genius to recognize the glowing snakes as hostile energy constructs, the translucent dome around the teleporter as a defensive barrier, and the dark mist above as something nasty that shouldn't be touched.

Rhodey shot the construct snakes and then lobbed his last grenade across the cave. The explosion tossed Inferno into a wall, knocked Carnage off the stalactite they were hanging on (not what Rhodey intended, but it shouldn't have hurt them much), and coated the entire cave in fire-suppression foam.

The magic snakes reared up and flew towards him. One lunged at him directly, attempting to bite him, and the other circled around trying to trap him in its coils.

Rhodey didn't really want to test the structural integrity of his armor against an unknown spell, so he blasted one of the snakes away and grabbed the other by the tail. Despite its size, the construct felt nearly weightless, so he spun it around and tossed it upwards.

The red serpent hit the dark mist that churned above. It writhed and thrashed, its burning glow dimming as it quickly corroded away, decaying into nothingness piece by piece. The mist itself thinned out, leaving a hole right where the energy construct had hit it.

Then Rhodey felt something invisible shove at him strongly enough to send him flying directly into the mist himself and then hold him there. The dark mist swirled aggressively around him, and Rhodey could see it starting to eat away at the paint on his armor.

Shit. He had to get out before it corroded the metal itself! Rhodey strained his repulsors against the invisible grip, struggling to break free–

And then it abruptly let go.

The sudden lack of opposition sent him spinning out of control, but thankfully away from the mist. Rhodey quickly stabilized his flight and saw Tony exchanging energy blasts with Mordo.

So the wizard couldn't use telekinesis when distracted? Made sense.

Now, while Tony fought Mordo and the rest of their allies kept Inferno busy, Rhodey had to get to the teleporter–

With an enraged hiss, the second serpent lunged at him.

Venom rushed straight past Mordo, completely ignoring the wizard. Iron Man and War Machine could deal with him without their help, and they refused to leave Carnage to fight Inferno alone.

The undead monster was still regenerating, though Venom knew he would recover soon. But until he reignited…

Venom threw a nitrogen grenade at the fiery gem, freezing it briefly. Then they webbed up a piece of Inferno's spine and tossed it across the cave. Scattering his bones would at least make it marginally harder for him to regenerate.

"Should've grabbed… some of those… ourselves," Carnage huffed.

They were crouched on the ground on all fours, panting like a dog. Red biomass dripped off their body like blood in a way that couldn't have meant anything good for their health.

Venom winced inwardly. There was a limited number of grenades available, so only the team sent after Inferno had them. No one expected that Carnage would have to face that monster again, but… Well. Best laid plans and all that.

Spider-Man leapt towards them and scattered a few more fragments of Inferno's broken body. "Hey, glad to see you're in one piece. By the way, what's up with those clouds?"

"Don't touch them!" Carnage yelped. "It's acid rain!"

…Really now? Venom grabbed a charred rib and experimentally tossed it upwards.

The dark mist swirled around it, corroding the bone into splinters. The pieces ignited into flames, warding off the mist for a second. They flew back towards the gem, but crumbled to ash before they could reach it.

Venom grinned. Well, then… There were only so many bones in a human body. They would see how many they needed to destroy before Inferno couldn't function anymore.

Frances could no longer see Dormammu, she could barely even hear his voice, but the tunnel was straightforward enough. So here she was now, standing behind a one-way illusion that hid the secret entrance, but allowed her to see into the cave.

And she hated what she saw.

She couldn't give less of a fuck about Mordo, but her dear husband was in a three-on-one fight against Spider-Man and the two aliens. She could see his powers faltering, flames flickering in and out, as his enemies tried to tear him limb from limb.

Frances bared her teeth. Not if she had anything to say about it!

She held up the limp body of her hostage in front of her and pressed the gun she had taken from her to the little brat's temple. If the damn aliens cared about her as much as Dormammu claimed, this should stop them in their tracks. And if the demon was right about sound being their weakness…

Frances was done staying on the sidelines and it was about time she introduced herself.

She stepped through the illusory wall, inhaled deeply, and screamed.

Pain, pain, pain!

The horrible sound felt like a knife through the gut, like fire on their skin, only worse, worse, so much worse! It was everywhere, echoing off the cave walls to reflect and return, building up endlessly until there was nowhere to hide and nowhere to run.

Carnage thrashed on the ground, unable to fight back, unable to even stand. They could only scream at the all-consuming pain that felt like razorblades across their nerves, severing connections one by one and pulling them apart.

Their minds split back, the mental links severed (cold, cold, so cold and alone), yet still they clung to each other, desperate to stay together. Human hands clutched onto Klyntar biomass that writhed in their grasp, trying to worm back under the skin.

They couldn't melt, couldn't seep between cells (everything was wrong, wrong, wrong), but still they tried to regain the connection they lost. Strands of red cut through the skin and wormed deeper into human flesh (no, wrong, they were just hurting him more!), but the sound made them seize and lash out of control, violently tearing back out and taking pieces of skin with them, blood and biomass impossible to distinguish.

Somebody, please, make it stop!

The sound burned, awful and paralyzing. The fear was worse, the terrible memories of being torn apart and abandoned and alone coursing through them and leaving them shaking in terror.

V forced themselves to push through and ignore the pain and the fear, ignore every instinct that demanded them to burrow deeper into their host lest they be pulled apart. They seized and thrashed uncontrollably, the sound forcing them to separate against their will, but they couldn't cling and dig in: it would only hurt Eddie when they couldn't even control their movements.

It felt like an eternity of pain and sound so loud, it drowned out the entire world… And then it stopped, just as suddenly as it began.

V reared up, ready to attack the source of their pain… and then froze in horror.

No-no-no, she was supposed to be safe!

Shriek was there and she was holding Leslie.

Sonic attacks weren't as terrible for Peter as they were for the symbiotes, but they were still hell on his enhanced senses.

Fortunately, while Shriek's voice was vertigo-inducing and mind-rendingly loud, she still needed to breathe. Unfortunately, even when she paused to take a breath, there was nothing Peter could do, not when she was holding a gun to Leslie's head.

"Now that I got your attention… Make one wrong move, and I'll blow her brains out!" Shriek threatened. Then she called out, "Cletus? Are you alright?"

Inferno laughed, leaning against the cave wall as the magic gem pulled his bones together, "Ah, my angel… As always, you are swooping down to save me in my hour of need."

This was bad… Peter quickly glanced at his allies. He wasn't fast enough to yank the gun out of Shriek's hand before she could pull the trigger, but if someone could just distract her for a few seconds…

Except both Venom and Carnage looked barely conscious from the sonic attack, Mordo was holding Iron Man down with telekinesis, and War Machine was trapped in the coils of a huge glowing serpent.

"How predictable," Mordo sneered in Dormammu's voice. "Love is nothing but a weakness. Nothing but a herald of your downfall."

Behind him, the teleporter whirred to life.

The coils of the construct snake tightened more and more around Rhodey. Its fangs scraped against the metal of his forearm that he had shoved between its jaws when it tried to bite his head off.

This was fine. His armor was still holding, and so long as the snake focused on constricting him and stopped thrashing around and throwing off his aim…

He hated hostage situations. That didn't mean he couldn't handle them.

Rhodey didn't call himself War Machine for nothing. Repulsors might be his most efficient weapons, but they were hardly the only ones in his arsenal. Others were simply a little more situational.

The armor plates on his shoulder slid apart, revealing a small barrel of a short-range but very precise gun. Its aiming system formed crosshairs on his HUD.

Rhodey locked the target on Shriek's hand and fired.

The bullet hit Shriek's hand, pushing the gun away from Leslie's temple. Venom immediately sprang into action, webbing up Leslie's limp body and pulling her towards them. In the same second, Spider-Man pulled the gun out of Shriek's bleeding hand.

Shriek's pained cry warped into another sonic attack. Venom fell to their knees as the horrible sound once again tried to rip them apart. They refused to give in when Leslie's life was in their hands, but it was nigh-impossible to move under the unrelenting assault.

Her mistake was focusing only on them, and now that Shriek had no hostages left, Spider-Man quickly webbed her mouth shut and stuck her to a wall.

Inferno snarled in rage, fire flaring all around him, only for Carnage to throw a stalactite at him, throwing off his aim and damaging his half-assembled body further.

Carnage swayed on their feet and almost collapsed, still shaking after the sonic attack. Venom quickly webbed them up and pulled them closer before Inferno could retaliate with another blast of flames.

Spider-Man tossed a foam grenade at Inferno, the explosion knocking him back, while Venom leapt across the cave, taking the kids away from that psychopath before he regenerated.

Something invisible froze them in their tracks.

"And where do you think you are going?" Mordo hissed. "After all the trouble you have caused me–"

Iron Man promptly shot him in the back, and Venom felt the invisible grip vanish. "Man, do you ever shut up?" The arc reactor in his chest glowed brightly. "For a supposedly all-knowing demon, you're kind of an idiot."

Then Iron Man turned around and blasted the magic dome, shattering it into pieces.

The teleporter wasn't shielded anymore!

Peter hurried towards it, watching with dread as a burning red portal started to form mid-air. He had to reprogram the damn thing before–

In a rush of flames and scattered bones, Inferno's half-formed body was dragged closer to the portal.

"Let me go, you fucking bastard!" Inferno snarled. He swiped a broken arm in a half-circle, sending an arc of flames towards Mordo. The possessed wizard flinched back, releasing his telekinetic grip, and Inferno scrambled towards trapped Shriek. "Angel…"

"We had a deal," Dormammu intoned darkly. "And you will fulfill it."

Inferno collapsed and screamed in pain. His bones fractured and his fire flared erratically as dozens of pale glowing lights were ripped out of his body and vanished into the portal.

Peter landed next to the teleporter, but before he could press a single button, the device turned off on its own.

But the portal remained.

And kept growing.

A shadow moved beyond the burning hole in reality. It drew closer, taking the shape of an almost-human hand. The fingers moved and twitched unnaturally, as if all the bones and muscles in them were connected the wrong way.

Then the hand tensed, fingers twisting like claws, and Peter found himself unable to move, completely paralyzed by demonic magic.

Another hand appeared. Its fingertips delicately brushed the edge of the portal. Then the palm hit its side with a sharp strike, and with a ripping sound that Peter could feel in his bones, the portal was torn wider.

It was no longer circular. Instead, jagged tears ran from the portal in every direction as if the air was nothing but fraying cloth. The tears stretched wider and wider like a gaping maw of a beast, the fabric of reality straining under the demon's power.

Another gesture – and the walls of the cave rippled like water. They stretched and shifted, the ceiling moving up and up and up to accommodate the ever-growing portal.

The shadow within it grew larger still. The hands grabbed onto the border between dimensions.

Peter felt an invisible force twisting his limbs. He strained against it, but even his enhanced strength couldn't cope with it. His knees hit the ground as he was pushed down against his will.

Allies and enemies alike were forced to kneel and bow, helpless to stop the monster clawing his way into reality.

And for the first time in millennia, Dormammu walked freely upon the Earth.