Just as the descending Angel was caught in shock by the violent fluctuations of the Spirit World, a golden ring of sparks quietly swirled open between He and the Avengers.
A figure wearing simple yellow robes stepped out from the portal.
Sorcerer Ancient One.
As soon as she appeared, the deathly pressure that could turn Hulk back into Banner and extinguish the Ghost Rider's flames was blocked outside, as if hitting an invisible warm wall.
"Hello, this is Earth, and I am its Guardian." The Ancient One's voice was steady, but the existence occupying Cassandra's body became serious for the first time. In He's perception, the mortal woman before him was more threatening than all those ants combined.
The Ancient One didn't look at He again, but scanned the surroundings. Her gaze swept over the trembling Johnny and Banner, glanced at the guarded Russell and Tony, and finally stopped on the cold corpse, letting out a sigh.
She pressed her hands together and chanted softly, "In the name of Vishanti..."
A warm and holy white light spread from her, enveloping everyone present. The fear in Johnny and Banner's hearts vanished instantly, and they stood up straight again.
"I noticed your attempt to invade a long time ago," the Ancient One's gaze returned to the Angel, "but you are not welcome here. Besides, the two groups of people hunting you will likely find you soon."
She raised her hand, and the Eye of Agamotto around her neck slowly opened, revealing the emerald Time Stone inside.
"As for this power you've left here... don't bother leaving with it."
The Ancient One activated the Time Stone, and green light immediately enveloped her and the Angel. The space around them folded and looped in an incomprehensible way, and finally, both of them vanished from the spot as if they had never been there.
With the pressure gone, the battlefield returned to a deathly silence.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft slowly flew over.
"Lin..."
Tony Stark was the first to move. He stumbled to the side of the corpse, his knees buckling as he knelt down. He reached out his hand but stopped halfway, as if afraid to touch the body that had lost its warmth.
"He... he's just..." Tony's voice was incredibly hoarse, "He's just joking, right? Like he usually does, with those... magic... little tricks..."
But when his trembling hand was placed on Lin Huai's neck, the cold, pulse-less sensation shattered all his self-deceiving thoughts.
This habitually cynical genius now held Lin Huai's body, and for the first time, that face always filled with confidence and Pride was covered in tears.
"You bastard! You promised me! We were going to study that damn mysticism together!" He remembered Lin Huai's mystical appearance when they first met in the Underground Room, and those nights in the lab where one talked science and the other spoke of "rules"... That guy, in the most unscientific way, had become the only person he could call "brother." He also remembered Lin Huai's profound manner when he first handed him the Hanged Man tarot cards, "Sometimes, sacrifice is to gain a new perspective."... But who the hell asked you to make this sacrifice!
Natasha stood quietly to the side, her eyes, usually as sharp as a hawk's, rarely showing a hint of confusion. She remembered after the battle in Harlem, Lin Huai had told her: "Miss Agent, don't try to analyze me, you'll go crazy." She originally thought it was just a joke, but now, this person whose background she couldn't uncover even with all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources was dead. Dead like a... true hero.
Phil Coulson took off his sunglasses, this usually steady and reliable senior Agent's expression now filled with deep sorrow. He remembered Lin Huai's mystical and frighteningly accurate divination when searching for Captain America's remains, and that sentence: "Some things are more important than the legend itself." Coulson once thought he was talking about the Tesseract, but now he understood that Lin Huai might have been talking about this kind of protection at any cost from the very beginning.
Bruce Banner slowly walked over, looking at the corpse in Tony's arms with a complex gaze. He remembered Lin Huai saying to him, "The key to healing lies in the call of the Lady in Red." At that time, he only thought it was some mystical nonsense. But now, this person who saw through his inner pain had died right before his eyes. Banner's sadness couldn't explode like Hulk's anger, but instead weighed on his heart like a giant boulder.
Johnny Blaze also came to his senses. Looking at this scene, his face was full of pain and self-reproach. The root of everything was himself. And the person who tried to save him time and again, and finally died for him, he had never even had a proper conversation with, didn't even know his name, only that his surname was Lin.
"No... this isn't real, I don't believe it, he was always so confident." Stark was trembling all over. "Right, right, he still has that god of the Fool. Jarvis, quickly send me the recording of his prayer, I'm going to find Mr. Fool to save him!"
...Above the grayish-white boundless mist, Lin Huai opened his eyes.
He found himself sitting on a High-backed chair in a towering, ancient palace. This was the meeting place of the Tarot Club, and he was sitting in the lowermost chair representing the participants.
Opposite him, on the seat belonging to "The Fool," a well-dressed black-haired young man was sleeping soundly, as if he had been like this since ancient times.
Suddenly, Lin Huai sensed something. The gray mist in front of him dispersed on its own, revealing a clear image—the Nevada desert, Tony crying while holding his corpse, Natasha silently turning her head away, Banner in tears, Johnny painfully striking the ground... Those sorrowful memories, along with the most sincere friendship and regret, turned into streams of pure, unadulterated warmth, crossing the boundary between reality and illusion, slowly but firmly pouring into the depths of his soul.
At that moment, the corner of the sleeping black-haired young man's mouth in the chair opposite him seemed to curl up slightly, as if He had seen something in His dreams that made Him happy.
The scene before Lin Huai changed, and the perspective was instantly pulled back to a corner of the Spirit World.
In a dilapidated, illusory castle shrouded in Darkness, a great battle was unfolding.
A nun in simple robes and bare feet, teamed up with an old man in black-and-red clerical robes with five Dark Holy Emblems on his chest, was fighting a brown-haired knight with a crazed expression.
The knight was surrounded by the aura of death and decay, with countless Wraiths and Zombies crawling out of the ground to form an undead army, madly charging at His enemies. Wherever His gaze fell, all life withered and ended rapidly.
However, His opponents were equally powerful.
The old man calmly spread his hands, and a deep, serene night spread out with him at the center. This night pushed out the Angel's domain of decay, and the undead's movements became sluggish in this night, the soul fires in their eyes slowly dimming.
The other nun was even more lethal; she seemed to always stand in the shadows, yet also seemed to be everywhere. She never attacked head-on, but occasionally raised her hand, causing large portions of the Angel's undead army to fall asleep and dissipate in "sweet dreams." Every time she acted, she plunged the Angel into a brief "night," stripping away the five senses and sending the spirit into a chaotic nightmare.
In just a few rounds, the nun's seemingly delicate palm lightly touched the knight's forehead.
"Slumber."
All the knight's movements froze instantly, and he fell straight back into a deep sleep. But even in his dreams, his facial expression remained distorted and hideous, as if he were seeing something indescribably terrifying.
At this moment, the nun seemed to sense something. She slowly turned around, facing Lin Huai's gaze, and bowed slightly in a solemn church salute... Side Story:
Black Heart Demon reopened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was his father's hideous face.
"I heard you got stabbed by someone. How embarrassing. It has always been us stabbing others in the back." Mephisto had a look of deep sorrow.
"It seems you're not fit to be the Prince of Hell. I can't let you lose my face. I'll transform you into a princess right now and find an opportunity to marry you off. We'll just say Black Heart Demon is dead. That way, the other demon gods won't know about this." Mephisto nodded as he spoke.
Mephisto walked towards Black Heart Demon with a hideous expression.
"No, Father, you can't do this. No, don't pull at my pants!"