Black Heart Demon looked down at the Bone Blade protruding from his chest, his eyes filled with incomprehensible betrayal and absurdity. He felt his life, dark energy, and his power as a (pseudo) Lord of Hell being frantically and greedily drained away along that Pale Dagger.
"I... you..." He only had time to utter a single word before his body could no longer maintain its form, exploding into a torrent of the purest dark energy, all of which was sucked into Cassandra's body.
"Watch out! Stop her!" Lin Huai's roar exploded in the communication channel, his voice nearly cracking.
Tony's repulsor cannons instantly pivoted, Mage Russell followed by urgently constructing a Binding Array, while Hulk roared and charged at Cassandra immediately.
Cassandra's body suddenly erupted with a burst of energy, the Skull in her hand let out a dry laugh, and a wall composed of necromantic spirits and Wraiths rose from the ground, shielding her tightly.
Black Heart Demon's power poured entirely into her body; Cassandra's form couldn't withstand this massive energy and shook uncontrollably. Without a moment's pause, she used her own spirituality as a pen and the newly absorbed dark energy as ink, quickly drawing a twisted and complex altar on the sand beneath her feet.
She held the spinal dagger high and plunged it into the center of the altar, then knelt on both knees, chanting her Master's honorable name in a tone mixed with fanaticism and awe:
"Drifter of the River of Eternal Darkness... Archon of the Throne of the God of Death... Watcher of the Spirit World's Shadows..."
As the last syllable fell, the sky—the Mirrored Firmament constructed by magic—cracked open.
An indescribable and unwatchable indifferent gaze cast down from behind the rift.
Under this gaze, the Mirrored Barrier shattered with a "boom" like a popped soap bubble. The Kamar-Taj mages maintaining the barrier bled from their seven orifices simultaneously and collapsed straight down without even a groan.
At that very moment, in Kamar-Taj.
The Sorcerer Ancient One, who had been leisurely sipping tea, put down her cup. Across the empty stone table in front of her, space distorted slightly, and a blurry figure appeared faintly.
"You were right," the Sorcerer Ancient One said softly, looking at the being opposite her with a "finally waited for it" smile. "The real fish has finally taken the bait. Give my regards to your faith; after all, I cannot pray to Him directly."
As she spoke, spark-filled rings silently swirled open beneath the fallen Kamar-Taj mages, swallowing them and teleporting them back to Nepal.
From the blurry figure opposite the Ancient One, a hand reached out and put down a teacup. An ancient Holy Emblem hung from the wrist. It was a Circular Red Moon with a blindingly bright star embedded in its center... On the battlefield, the focus of that gaze finally landed on Cassandra at the center of the altar. Her body was instantly lifted into the air by an invisible force, the mortal madness and struggle fading from her eyes, leaving only a deathly and divine indifference.
An indescribable pressure descended.
This pressure came from the peak of the Death Pathway, carrying the authority of deathly pallor and finality.
The Hellfire burning fiercely on Johnny Blaze was extinguished instantly as if doused by a bucket of ice water. Facing this pure and high-level authority of death, he instinctively let out a roar of fear. Johnny screamed as his transformation was forcibly dispelled. He stared fixedly at the being before him, his whole body shaking uncontrollably, yet he kept trying to stand up again.
"This time, I will absolutely never bow my head again!"
"Roar... No!" Hulk also felt this soul-shivering and incomprehensible fear. The endless rage that supported his existence seemed to be instantly frozen and stripped away. His massive green body shrank rapidly, finally turning back into a bare-chested Bruce Banner, who was equally paralyzed with fright on the ground, amidst a painful wail.
This newly arrived being simply raised its head and scanned the field.
Lin Huai's heart sank. He realized this wasn't an enemy any plan could handle. He took a deep breath, placed his hands in a prayer position before his chest, his lips moving as he prepared to chant that honorable name etched into his DNA for a final attempt.
"Jarvis, analyze that thing! I need data!" Tony Stark shouted inside his armor, but only static electricity answered him. All his high-tech equipment failed when that gaze swept over. However, the armor's built-in vital signs monitoring system captured Lin Huai's strange posture and his movement to speak.
Tony instantly made a judgment—Lin Huai was preparing some kind of ultimate killing move that required channeling time!
"Hey! You role-playing guy! Look over here!" Tony exhaled sharply, overcoming his fear, and activated the miniature repulsor cannon on his wrist, firing a negligible beam toward the altar.
This childish attack failed to even touch the opponent, annihilating halfway.
But it successfully attracted the being's attention.
The indifferent gaze turned toward this noisy tin can. He raised a finger and pointed casually at Tony.
Lin Huai's movements stopped. He understood Stark's intention and knew what that finger pointing represented.
He gave up the chanting.
He lunged off the ground, his body rushing out in a Joker-style roll that defied physical common sense. At this critical juncture, he blocked the way in front of Tony, using his own body to face that directional concept of death head-on.
Lin Huai's body froze. A bitter smile still hung on his face, but the light in his eyes vanished. Then, like a Puppet with its strings cut, he fell limply from the air, hitting the sand with a "thud," silent and lifeless.
A whole corpse, but with no signs of life... Above the grayish-white, boundless mist, a towering Ancient Palace stood quietly.
Suddenly, the eternally unchanging gray mist, like a lake struck by a giant boulder, churned violently, frantically crashing in all directions, the entire space trembling under this inexpressible riot.
A moment later, The churning gray fog gradually subsided., It restored its ancient tranquility....In the desert, The angel who possessed Cassandra's body, Just as I was about to look away, I wouldn't even glance at the dead ants again..
But just then, He suddenly froze. He snapped His head up, and for the first time, an emotion akin to horror appeared in those divine and indifferent eyes.
He felt that in that very instant, the entire Spirit World—the vast domain that constructed the foundation of the World—sent out an incredibly violent ripple... like... something was wailing.
His gaze snapped back, fixed firmly on the cold corpse on the ground. In His non-human mind, there was nothing but incomprehensible confusion and disbelief.
"The Spirit World... is fluctuating... no, it's grieving? Why... because of him?"