New York, S.H.I.E.L.D. Trident Headquarters, inside a highly classified laboratory not open to the public.
The cold scent of disinfectant mixed with metal filled the air. Nick Fury and Coulson stood before a massive one-way mirror, staring at the scene on the other side. On the dissection table in the center of the room lay the eerie sacrificial offerings belonging to the Sons of Baphomet recovered from Austria.
"Officer," Coulson reported, "we've discovered that these things produce continuous negative interference with the surrounding biological magnetic fields. Researchers in long-term contact with them have shown varying degrees of irritability, irascibility, and increased aggression. It's as if... something is quietly amplifying the negative emotions in their hearts."
The alloy door slid open silently, and Tony Stark burst in impetuously, followed by Dr. Banner, whose expression was as gentle as ever, and a calm-looking Lin Huai.
"Nick, you better really have something huge!" Tony shouted as he walked. "I was just about to go to Monaco to do a few laps in my race car and enjoy the sun and the roar of the engine when you called me!"
"Then you should be glad, Stark." Fury turned around, pointing at the pile of things behind the glass. "Because the trouble we're facing might turn your race car into a bumper car in Hell."
Before he finished speaking, familiar rings of orange-yellow sparks suddenly rippled in the air in the center of the lab, quickly expanding into a rotating circle of light. Mage Russell, dressed in simple linen robes, stepped out from within.
To Fury, this scene was nothing but an eyesore.
"Hey, Mr. Mage," Tony simply curled his lip, "could you just open the door directly to my house next time? It would save a lot of time."
"It was the coordinates provided by Your Excellency Lin Huai." Russell nodded slightly to everyone as a greeting, then walked straight to Lin Huai and bowed respectfully. His gaze swept over the sacrificial offerings in the glass room, and his expression instantly became extremely grave.
"It's the aura of Hell... thick, corrupt, and full of chaos." Russell's voice became exceptionally serious. "This isn't Mephisto. This primal, sulfur-scented violent power points to another Hell Lord—the Black Heart Demon."
"Black Heart Demon?" Fury narrowed his single eye.
"Mephisto's son, an ambitious man who desires to prove himself and even overthrow his father's rule," Lin Huai explained. "He is more direct than his father, more keen on pure violence and corruption. These cultists calling themselves the 'Sons of Baphomet' seem to be the pawns he has placed in the human world."
Russell nodded and continued, "These sacrificial offerings are mental anchor points. They are using human negative emotions as a trigger and human souls as fuel, attempting to tear open a stable rift to Earth."
"How do we find these followers of the Demon?" Fury went straight to the point.
"magic can solve the problems of magic," Russell replied confidently. "There are traces of rituals left on these sacrificial offerings. I can use them as a medium to track the location of their lair."
"Wait! I have an idea," Tony suddenly interjected, his eyes flashing with the characteristic fanatical glow of a genius scientist. "Pure magic tracking is too inefficient! Remember my 'mysticism translator'? Mr. Mage, if you can convert your 'mana' into a stable frequency that we can detect, I can use the global Stark satellite network to amplify your tracking signal a thousand times! We can hunt down those bastards' lair just like locating a cell phone!"
Russell looked in surprise at this mortal full of "scientific vocabulary," then glanced at Lin Huai. Seeing the latter nod, he agreed, "It's worth a try."
Stark and Russell extended their hands, chanting ancient incantations, drawing strands of black mist from above the sacrificial offerings. Meanwhile, Tony loudly directed his AI, using a brand-new device—based on the same "compass" principle used to catch the octopus under the sea but with several technological iterations—to capture and analyze the "energy spectrum" and "spatial curvature waveform" of that black mist.
Finally, with Jarvis's assistance, a "scientifically amplified" magic tracking signal was successfully locked.
"Found it!" Tony clapped his hands excitedly. On the holographic screen, an abandoned church in the Queens district of New York was marked with a red circle. "The target is in... Hell's Kitchen, New York, an abandoned church. Ha, Hell's Kitchen? Those followers of the Demon certainly know how to pick a place. They haven't learned the style of a Hell Lord, but they've learned how to save on rent."
While Tony was still snarkily complaining, Russell's expression suddenly changed.
"Energy fluctuations are increasing sharply! They are performing a sacrifice!" Without the slightest hesitation, Russell swept his hands in front of his chest. A familiar ring of orange-yellow sparks instantly bloomed out of thin air, forming a violently rotating portal. "Quick!"
Behind the door were dim candlelight, frenzied chanting, and the whistle of daggers piercing the air!
With almost no time to think, Lin Huai was the first to rush in, followed closely by Banner.
"Fuck! I haven't even had time to suit up yet!" Tony's roar was cut off inside the lab by the sound of the portal closing.
Inside the abandoned church in Hell's Kitchen.
The scene before them was exactly as Russell had sensed. A tall cult leader held high a pitch-black dagger, stabbing toward the heart of a bound vagrant on the altar.
In the blink of an eye, Lin Huai's figure flickered out like a ghost. He didn't even draw his gun; with a flick of his wrist, several tarot cards he had been fiddling with in his hand flew out.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
The four specially made tarot cards carved through the air in trajectories difficult for the naked eye to track. With a sharp sound like cutting metal, they precisely slit the throats of the four black-robed cultists closest to the altar. Blood sprayed out, and the four didn't even manage a groan. With regret over their excessive heavy metal intake, they clutched their throats and collapsed.
This sudden turn of events stunned all the cultists.
At that moment, Dr. Banner had already taken off his glasses and tossed them aside. With an uncontrollable roar, his body began to expand rapidly.
"Hulk—!"
The green giant roared at the sky. He didn't even rush over; he simply slammed his two fan-like palms together in front of his chest!
Boom!!
A visible Impact erupted outward with Hulk as the center. The terrifying airwave instantly sent the remaining ten cultists flying like ragdolls, slamming them hard against the church walls and stone pillars.
However, it was still a step too late.
Just before being hit by the Impact, the cult leader, seeing that the situation was hopeless, used all his strength to plunge the dagger deep into his own heart, making himself the sacrifice.
Blood splattered across the entire altar.
Lacking the guidance of the cult leader, the sacrificial ritual was partially completed.
On the ground in the center of the altar, dark red blood quickly outlined an eerie magic circle. The space at the center of the circle seemed to be torn open by an invisible giant hand, and a pitch-black rift emitting a sulfurous scent, just wide enough for two people to pass through, slowly opened.
A Devil wrapped in gales, appearing as if made of whirlwinds, was the first to step out of the rift. Following closely, a mysterious woman dressed in magnificent dark purple Warlock robes and holding a bone staff stepped into the church with elegant strides.
At that moment, a flash of fire appeared at the other end of the church, and a red-and-gold suit of armor finally flew in, landing steadily.
"Alright, I'm read—" Tony's voice came from under the faceplate, but when he saw the confrontation before him and the unconscious enemies littering the floor, his words came to a halt. "...Okay, looks like it's halftime."