Steve's body jerked violently. He looked down at his stomach, where that hideous claw had pierced straight through. Blood flowed down Black Heart Demon's arm, quickly soaking through his uniform.
"Captain!"
Lin Huai's voice exploded over the comms channel. He couldn't care less about suppressing the Spirit Guide; his figure blurred as he rushed to catch Steve before he collapsed.
"Russell! Take my position!" he roared into the comms. "Pin down that Spirit Guide, don't let her escape!"
He knelt down, carefully laying Steve flat on the sand. There was a terrifying gash on Steve's stomach, the flesh torn open, and his writhing organs were even visible beneath. An injury like this would cause an ordinary person to bleed out in seconds.
Lin Huai tore a piece from his relatively clean hem and pressed down on the wound with all his might, but the blood simply wouldn't stop. It soaked through the fabric instantly, gushing frantically through his fingers.
He pressed hard on the wound and snarled into his communicator, "Fury! I need medical support! Now! Immediately! The Captain is heavily wounded! Repeat, Captain America is critically injured and in danger!"
The flames burning in Johnny's eye sockets flickered, and the pale light controlling his will extinguished. After a brief moment of confusion, the memories of his enslavement exploded in his mind—he had been manipulated like a Puppet, blasting Hellfire at a legend, and finally, Captain America had used himself as bait to smash that damned Skull, letting Black Heart Demon's claws pierce his stomach.
"Roar—!!!"
A roar full of rage and regret erupted from deep within the Ghost Rider's throat. He no longer cared about the Hulk in front of him; the flaming Skull snapped toward the culprit—Black Heart Demon.
"Sinner..."
Hellfire erupted with unprecedented intensity. Johnny was like an orange meteor, the chains in his hands ablaze with a fierce fire and a heat capable of melting steel as he lashed out at Black Heart Demon. The burning chains made a piercing whistle as they cut through the air. Black Heart Demon didn't dodge; black energy swirled around his arm as he caught the chain barehanded! The high temperature scorched his palm with a sizzling sound, but he didn't care. His other hand had already condensed a blade of dark energy, stabbing straight at Johnny's face. Johnny was forced to release the chain, rolling backward to dodge the attack, and the chain flew back into his hand automatically.
Black Heart Demon and Johnny continued their chaotic brawl.
"Copy that," Nick Fury's voice came rapidly over the comms. "Black Widow and the medical team have been on standby at the edge of the battlefield. They'll be above you in one minute. Hold your coordinates!"
"Hulk, stall that bastard!" Tony's voice followed immediately on the channel. "Don't let him get near anyone else! Russell and Lin Huai, it's time for the three of us to give that lady a lesson!"
Before the words finished, a quinjet had already pierced through the edge of the Mirror Dimension, hovering to one side of the battlefield. The hatch slid open, and Natasha rushed down with the paramedics.
"We'll take over!" Natasha quickly replaced Lin Huai in applying pressure to the wound. The paramedics immediately used medical gel and life-support equipment to provide emergency treatment to Steve.
Lin Huai and Natasha worked together to lift Steve, who was secured on a stretcher, into the jet.
The hatch closed, and the quinjet rapidly climbed, disappearing into the horizon.
With two tireless Monsters like Johnny and Hulk restraining Black Heart Demon head-on, the battlefield was immediately divided. Although Black Heart Demon could constantly regenerate, he couldn't gain an advantage against the furious spirit of vengeance and pure physical destructive power.
On the other side, the Spirit Guide Cassandra's situation took a sharp turn for the worse.
"Don't let her escape; there won't be another chance this good," Lin Huai warned as he returned to the battlefield.
"She won't get the chance," Tony snorted. The Repulsors on his hands fired alternately like two whips of light, precisely sealing off Cassandra's evasion space to the left and right. Cassandra was forced to summon two illusory spirits to block her, but they were instantly vaporized by the Repulsors.
"Russell, right above her!" Tony shouted.
Without needing further reminder, Mage Russell had already drawn a circle with both hands. A crimson magic circle expanded above Cassandra's head, and mana transformed into physical pressure, causing her figure to jerk as she tried to dodge upward. Almost simultaneously, Lin Huai's figure appeared behind her like a ghost, several cards whistling through the air as they aimed for the back of her neck.
Attacks from the front, back, left, right, and above formed a perfect encirclement in an instant.
"Black Heart Demon! Retreat!" Under the immense pressure, Cassandra finally let out a shrill cry. "Find a way out of here!"
Black Heart Demon forced Johnny back with a punch, and his body exploded into a mass of thick black mist, rolling toward the Spirit Guide as if intending to wrap around her and force a breakthrough.
The mages maintaining the barrier immediately increased their energy output, and the boundaries of the Mirror Dimension became more stable. However, none of them noticed that this was just a diversion. At the moment the black mist drew everyone's attention, a group of illusory ghosts suddenly lunged from the Spirit Guide's shadow, pouncing on the four mages on the other side who were putting all their effort into sealing the skull artifact!
The mages were caught off guard, their formation broke, and the sealing spell loosened for a moment. A sharp glint flashed in the Spirit Guide's eyes. She pointed her staff from a distance, and the pale skull, which had been tightly bound by energy cords, turned into a streak of light and flew back into her hand.
"Not good! She got the controller back!" Stark realized something was wrong immediately and roared into the channel, "Johnny! Get out of there! Get away from her!"
Black Heart Demon reformed his body. Looking at the unharmed Johnny and the poised Avengers in the distance, an arrogant smile hung on his face.
"So what if you saved that knight?" He spread his arms, his face full of disdain. "You can't hurt me at all! I can stay here and fight you for three days and three nights!"
Suddenly, Black Heart Demon's arrogant laughter choked.
He looked down in disbelief to see a pale dagger protruding from his chest. The dagger looked as if it had been ground from an entire spinal column.
He snapped his head back, meeting the Spirit Guide's crazed and burning eyes.
"Sorry, ally," she whispered into Black Heart Demon's ear in a voice only the two of them could hear. "I have a way to win, so... I'll borrow your power for a bit. Anyway, if you die in the human realm, you'll just be resurrected in Hell."
She looked up, meeting Black Heart Demon's shocked and confused gaze, and revealed a weird smile.
"Also, although I've already introduced myself, I'll say it again: my name is Cassandra. By the way, my Lord's evaluation of you isn't very good. He said... you don't act much like a Demon. You're too unprofessional. For a Demon, even after being warned it was a trap, you still stepped right in. I can't take it anymore. Goodbye!"