The jeep stopped a kilometer away from the factory.
The abandoned factory was pitch black at night, its rusted iron sheets creaking as they were blown by the wind. The air was thick with the smell of rust, engine oil, and an indescribable scent of decay.
The four of them got out of the car and surveyed the factory before them by the moonlight.
"This is the place." Father Moreau lowered his voice, his brow furrowed. "I can feel a heavy scent of sulfur; those Demon worshippers are inside."
Sparks were already dancing in Johnny Blaze's eye sockets as he clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's charge in and wring those scumbags' heads off one by one!"
"Don't be impulsive, Johnny." Dr. Banner stopped him, saying calmly, "We know nothing about the situation inside. Charging in blindly could lead us into a trap. Besides, don't forget, the real trouble isn't those cultists."
As he spoke, he looked toward Lin Huai.
Lin Huai didn't speak; he simply stood in the Darkness, closing his eyes slightly to activate his Spirit Vision.
In his field of vision, the physical structure of the factory blurred, leaving only the energy forms clearly visible. At the center of the factory, there was a dense aura of evil, swirling like a black vortex. At the center of the vortex were two very weak points of life-light, looking as if they could be extinguished at any moment.
That was the Mother and son.
Around the vortex, there were over thirty foul-smelling points of light—the cultists. Among them, four points of light were particularly bright, burning with black-red Hellfire, much stronger than the others.
"Let's go, we'll enter from the side." Lin Huai opened his eyes; his Spirit Vision had also discovered that the factory's side defenses were the weakest, right where a damaged ventilation duct opening was located. "There are about thirty cultists inside performing a ritual. The Mother and son are tied up at the center of the ritual; they're still alive."
"Good news: Mephisto hasn't arrived yet," Lin Huai said.
Johnny and Banner exchanged a look, both seeing the gravity in each other's eyes.
Under the cover of night, the four of them quietly crept to the side of the factory.
The massive ventilation duct was covered in rust. Johnny reached out and pulled, tearing the outer grate right off.
The duct was full of dust and cobwebs. The four of them bent over and crawled in one by one... Inside a temporary command center, Tony Stark was staring at the rapidly scrolling data on the screen, his expression grim.
"How is it?" Steve Rogers walked over, holding a cup of coffee.
"Not great." Tony rubbed his temples and pulled up an analysis report. "Jarvis analyzed the energy fluctuations recorded when we fought that girl. Her ability... isn't a physical phenomenon I can understand."
There was a sense of frustration in Tony's tone when facing the unknown, which reminded him of how he felt when he first studied the whispering leech ash Lin Huai had given him.
"She is forcibly altering reality with her own will. Look here," he pointed to a simulation animation on the screen, "my Repulsor Cannon energy flowed backward because she used an invisible force to push the energy right back! It's just like Lin Huai's mysticism stuff—it makes no sense at all!"
He pulled up another set of data.
Steve looked at the complex data and frowned. "Psychic power... like you said before, she can move things with her thoughts and even get inside your head to make you see what you fear most."
"Exactly. Telekinesis, mind control, energy manipulation... we are facing an enemy who can change reality with a thought." Tony's tone became very heavy.
"I checked their backgrounds." Steve projected a file onto the screen. "Wanda Maximoff and Pietro Maximoff, Sokovians. Their parents died in a shelling."
He paused and pointed to a photo of a shell fragment in the file.
On the photo, the Stark Industries logo was clearly visible.
Tony's pupils contracted. He stared at the photo for a long time without speaking... Inside the factory.
Lin Huai and the other three followed the ventilation duct and crawled above the factory's main workshop.
Looking down through the gaps in the grate, the scene in the workshop made their hearts sink.
In the middle of the wide workshop, a distorted magic circle was drawn with blood and unknown bone meal. Over thirty cultists in black robes surrounded the formation, chanting prayers in dry, hoarse voices.
At the very center of the formation, the Mother and son were tied to two separate crosses. Their mouths were gagged with black cloth, their faces streaked with tears, and their eyes filled with the gray of despair.
"Those damn scumbags!" Johnny's teeth ground together with a clicking sound.
"Wait, something's not right." Lin Huai suddenly held back Johnny, who was preparing to jump down.
He pointed around the magic circle.
On the outer perimeter of the cultists stood four people in blood-red robes. They weren't chanting; they simply stood at the four corners like statues, the evil aura emanating from them far stronger than the others.
"They are Mephisto's High Priests." Father Moreau's voice was laced with hatred.
Just then, the ritual below seemed to reach a critical moment.
The leading blood-robed priest raised a dagger made of human bone high, aiming it at the Mother tied to the cross.
"We can't wait any longer!"
Johnny roared, crashing directly through the ventilation grate and descending from the ceiling.
"Do it!" Lin Huai immediately ordered.
Dr. Banner took a deep breath, his body beginning to swell and his skin rapidly turning green.
Father Moreau pulled two silver handguns engraved with holy runes from his coat.
Boom!
Johnny slammed heavily onto the ground like a burning meteorite, Hellfire spreading outward and instantly igniting several nearby cultists.
"Roar!"
Hulk's massive body followed, slamming his fist into the ground. A massive Impact sent over a dozen cultists flying.
Father Moreau jumped from the heights, firing both pistols. The silver bullets, carrying holy light, were aimed precisely at the four blood-robed priests.
Lin Huai's figure landed silently beside the Mother and son. A deck of playing cards had appeared in his hand at some point; with a flick of his fingers, several cards flew out like blades, severing the ropes binding the pair.
"Go! Don't look back!" He pushed the two toward the factory's back door.
The battle erupted instantly.
Hulk and Ghost Rider charged into the crowd; the ordinary cultists were no match for them at all.
However, the four blood-robed priests proved difficult to deal with.
Thick black mist surged from their bodies. When Father Moreau's holy light bullets hit the mist, there was no reaction. Countless pale arms reached out from the black mist, grabbing at Hulk and Johnny.
Johnny's Hellfire could burn these arms away, but once destroyed, they would immediately regrow from the black mist.
Hulk roared in anger, using brute force to tear at the arms, but they grew more numerous, wrapping around his limbs like vines and preventing him from breaking free for the moment.
Just as the battle reached a stalemate,
A voice filled with amusement suddenly echoed throughout the factory. It sounded like it didn't belong to this World.
"Oh? Messenger of an unknown deity, it's been a long time."
"Welcome to my descent ritual. I don't know what your connection is to that one with the monocle, but the outcome is good, isn't it? Go, capture that bitch and my vessel. Go now!"
As soon as the words fell, the black mist on the four blood-robed priests surged violently. Their bodies began to distort and fuse, eventually transforming into a massive Monster over five meters tall, composed of countless wailing souls and pale arms.