"Leave it to me~"
The voice that was originally in the earpiece suddenly rang out in reality, startling even Shield, the person involved.
He subconsciously turned his head to look.
There, standing beside him without him realizing, was Luca.
At this moment, Luca was clad in his "Ascension Demon Armor," with only the helmet removed to reveal his face.
On the wall behind him, a circular, inky black dot just tall enough for a person had appeared.
Clearly, he had walked out of this ink-colored portal.
"Young... Young Master..."
"ROAR~~"
Shield had just opened his mouth when he was interrupted by the roar of the black-clad Daredevil opposite them.
Obviously, with Luca's grand entrance, even Daredevil—whose rationality had been largely consumed by the demon within—couldn't remain indifferent.
However, just as his aura surged again and he was about to attack Luca...
Luca suddenly raised his hand and threw a punch.
In an instant.
A spherical deceleration field filled with gear patterns enveloped the area around Daredevil.
The black-clad Daredevil's lightning-fast charge instantly turned into an old man's stroll.
But in fact, being able to maintain even that "stride frequency" inside the deceleration field showed just how terrifying his original speed was.
Even Luca had to give a compliment.
"Mm, the Time Stop Hand is really useful!"
Well, okay, he was complimenting himself.
But talking didn't delay Luca's actions.
Looking at Lawyer Matt's mouth, which was wide open from his twisted roar, a thought flashed through Luca's mind.
On a whim, instead of following his original plan of pulling out the [Dehydration Gun] to end the fight instantly...
He reached for a square box at his waist, pinched out an object, took two steps forward, and quickly tossed it into the opponent's mouth.
This should work, right?
He threw an uppercut to the jaw, forcing Daredevil to swallow the capsule.
Seeing the enemy about to "rush" out of the deceleration field's range, Luca hurriedly retreated, shamelessly hiding behind Shield.
Although he was fused with his Demon Mecha, he had seen the opponent's extreme speed and power earlier.
If his "whimsical idea" failed, it was better not to get beaten up.
Fortunately, the moment the deceleration field vanished...
Matt Murdock, who had looked ferocious just a moment ago, suddenly let out a shrill scream.
Then, he clutched his chest in agony, and his body began to shrink rapidly and uncontrollably.
At the same time, as Lawyer Matt grew shorter, massive amounts of purple-black mist began to pour out from around him.
After surging out of his body, this purple-black mist quickly condensed beside him into a beast head that looked part human, part demon.
"NO——!!"
A low, raspy roar came from the semi-transparent demon head.
Instead of fear, Luca showed a look of pleasant surprise.
"Holy crap! It can even expel a possessing demon?! This really is concept-level 'foreign object expulsion'!!"
Yes, what Luca had stuffed into Lawyer Matt's mouth was none other than the APTX4869 manufactured by Sherry.
Just now, Luca had a sudden inspiration. Recalling Sherry's explanation and Tony's reaction to eating APTX4869, he decisively abandoned the quick kill and decided to test the limits of this drug.
Anyway, Luca was confident that even if the drug failed, he had other means to deal with this fallen Daredevil.
Besides, after taking APTX4869, the shrinking process would act as a "hard crowd control," followed by a continuous "all-stats reduction debuff." No matter how you looked at it, it was a win.
Who would have thought that the thing actually worked just as he guessed? While turning Lawyer Matt into a seven-year-old kid...
It "incidentally" expelled the demon "The Beast" possessing him straight out of his body.
Of course, since the "drug efficacy" was unexpectedly amazing, Luca didn't sit idle.
Before the roaring demon head could pounce on him, he pulled out four small metal spheres and tossed them into the air.
The four spheres burst open rapidly, positioning themselves around the demon head. They extended four triangular energy barriers, forming a triangular pyramid energy field that trapped the indignant demon head inside this "Sci-Fi Version" of the Tri-Prism Seal.
"Just right. This demon seems pretty strong. Maybe I can use it as the main soul for Pandora's Box~"
Luca tapped the energy barrier of the seal casually, as if teasing a goldfish in a bowl.
Only when he saw the demon inside frantically bashing against the barrier, causing only slight ripples without any hope of escape, did he stop paying attention to it.
He turned to look at Lawyer Matt Murdock, who had been unconscious on the ground ever since being shrunk by APTX4869.
"This guy's reaction seems a bit severe, huh? Is it a drug allergy? Or is his body weak from the demon possession?"
While Luca muttered about Daredevil's frailty...
Shield, seeing his Young Master dispatch the monster so easily, walked up quickly.
"Young Master!"
"Mm. Shield, carry Lawyer Matt. Let's go down and check on the Dragon Bones."
On the other side, Thresh, who had also been punched flying by the Fallen Daredevil earlier, hurried over to Luca.
Luca merely glanced at the unconscious Kate slung over Thresh's shoulder and paid her no further mind.
"Second Generation Hawkeye? Whatever, nothing to do with me. I'll dump her on S.H.I.E.L.D. later. Clint should like her."
For a superhero with such middling strength, Luca didn't even have much interest in investigating her origins.
It was just another parallel universe visitor. He wasn't surprised by such things anymore.
It was only because Hawkeye, Clint Barton, was one of the few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Luca had a decent relationship with that he bothered to bring along his parallel universe successor at all.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered.
Deepest part of the underground cavern.
Upon arriving here, the first thing that caught their eyes was the incredibly eerie sacrificial altar in the center of the vast, empty space.
Around the altar lay a heap of Hand ninja corpses.
Aside from these corpses that had clearly been sacrificed, Luca also saw quite a few guys who seemed to be high-ranking Hand members. They had died just as miserably, twisted and broken. Some were even embedded into the walls by extreme force, their blood and gore filling the underground space.
Clearly, "The Beast" they had summoned by sacrificing numerous lives didn't give them the return they wanted.
These people racked their brains trying to "Strive Hard" (paint a grand picture), but in the end, they only achieved "Painting the Wall" (with their blood).
"A bunch of idiots."
After dropping a casual, disdainful comment, Luca didn't spare another glance at these losers.
Stepping through the blood-soaked ground, he walked straight to the stone wall covered in strange text.
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