The quinjet circled over the ruins of Sokovia and landed in an open space.
The hatch opened, and Lin Huai stepped down.
The atmosphere in the command center was oppressive. Tony Stark, with dark circles under his eyes, paced irritably in front of a holographic screen. Steve Rogers sat in a corner, wiping his shield over and over in silence.
"What's the situation?" Lin Huai asked directly.
"Bad," Tony stopped in his tracks and pulled up a surveillance video. "Bucky was taken by those twins. That girl named Wanda, her ability can directly attack the mind. I got hit and experienced the wormhole over New York all over again."
He pointed to the damaged portable armor on his body.
"That boy named Pietro is terrifyingly fast; even Jarvis can't track his movements. They've disappeared into the ruins of Sokovia, and the global surveillance network can't find them."
Steve stood up, his voice raspy. "We've used all our resources, and we still can't find them."
Lin Huai nodded, walked to the center of the command room, and closed his eyes.
He needed a beacon.
When he had given the [Judgement] card to Bucky, he hadn't expected that the tarot cards, originally intended as carriers for blessings, would be used to find people several times. As long as the distance wasn't too great, he could sense it.
Sinking his consciousness into the gray fog, Lin Huai concentrated on sensing the location of that card.
There was almost no interference with spirituality in this World, and Lin Huai easily discovered a faint, flickering connection.
This connection was blurry, but it truly existed.
Lin Huai snapped his eyes open and pointed to a spot on the holographic map. "They're over there."
Tony and Steve immediately crowded around. It was an Orthodox church that had been mostly destroyed by bombing.
"Let's go." Steve picked up his shield... Meanwhile, in an ancient Monastery in Eastern Europe.
Dr. Banner and Johnny Blaze had temporarily settled Nadia and Danny, the mother and son.
But the atmosphere in the Monastery was not friendly.
From the conversation between Lin Huai and Nadia, Dean Daniel and the monks learned that Danny, a child of five or six, actually possessed the bloodline of the Hell Lord Mephisto, and everyone showed fear and rejection.
They placed the mother and son in the most remote, damp stone room of the Monastery under the guise of 'quarantine observation,' but in reality, they sent two warrior monks to guard the door and monitor them.
Nadia held her son, sitting on the cold stone bed. The undisguised disgust and fear from the monks outside chilled her heart more than facing cultists. Nadia began to mimic the chest gestures of the lady in black who had saved her; perhaps this could bring her some peace of mind.
Night fell.
The alarm bell suddenly rang.
"Enemy attack!"
Banner and Johnny rushed out of the room to see dozens of black-robed cultists emerging from the mountain forest, frantically storming the Monastery gates.
Their goal was clear: to seize the child.
"Roar!" Johnny transformed directly into Ghost Rider, Hellfire erupting from his body.
Banner also took a deep breath and transformed into the Hulk amidst a roar.
Father Moreau and a dozen warrior monks armed with long staves rushed out to stand with them.
The battle broke out instantly.
Ghost Rider's Hellfire happened to counter these cultists. Every swing of his burning chain ignited three or four cultists, turning them to ash amidst screams.
Hulk was even more direct, charging through with his massive body, knocking away a large group of enemies with every punch.
But the cultists were fearless; even as their comrades fell beside them, they continued to charge forward with bloodshot eyes.
In the chaos, a High Priest chanted an incantation, and a ball of black magic energy whistled toward the defensive line.
Two young warrior monks couldn't dodge in time and were hit head-on by the energy ball; their bodies rapidly shriveled, turning into two black mummified corpses.
"No!" Father Moreau roared.
The battle lasted for nearly half an hour. Relying on the power of Hulk and Ghost Rider, the cultists were eventually repelled, leaving behind more than a dozen bodies on the ground.
The Monastery was temporarily safe, but the atmosphere became even more somber.
Dean Daniel looked at the corpses of the two young warrior monks, his body trembling uncontrollably. He suddenly turned his head and stared fixedly at Banner, his eyes bloodshot.
Then he turned his gaze toward the room where Nadia and Danny were, muttering something under his breath.
Banner and Johnny exchanged a look, their hearts sinking... Sokovia, the abandoned Orthodox church.
Lin Huai, Tony, and Steve slipped in silently.
The interior of the church was a mess, with collapsed icons and shattered glass everywhere.
They saw the twins in an open space beneath the dome.
"We mean no harm," Steve spoke first, his tone very sincere. "We just want to talk."
"There's nothing to talk about," Wanda said coldly, scarlet energy dancing at her fingertips.
"Hey, little Witch, don't be nervous," Tony tried to ease the atmosphere with his usual tone. "I know you have issues with me, but we have a common enemy now, don't we?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a silver shadow flashed past him.
Tony felt his wrist loosen; the activation bracelet for his portable armor had already been stripped off and thrown on the ground by Pietro.
"You!" Tony's expression changed.
At the same time, another mental shock struck.
Steve's vision blurred, and he seemed to return to the battlefields of World War II, with artillery fire everywhere and comrades falling one by one before him; he even saw the scene of Bucky falling from the train again.
Tony's vision was worse; he once again experienced floating alone in deep space, facing the shock of the nuclear explosion, and in a daze, he seemed to see his parents.
"Retreat!"
Lin Huai shouted low, his own spirituality spreading toward Wanda and Pietro, but just as he was about to grasp their Spirit Thread, he gave up.
Lin Huai turned and threw out several tarot cards, which exploded into a ball of fire in the air, temporarily blocking the twins' vision. With one hand pulling Steve and the other grabbing Tony, he activated [Flame Leap] and vanished instantly from the spot.
Two minutes later, the three of them appeared outside the church several hundred meters away.
Tony and Steve were both gasping for breath, their faces pale.
"That girl's ability is too tricky," Tony said with lingering fear. "She can directly pull out the deepest fears in a person's heart."
"Their hatred runs too deep," Steve looked toward the church, his expression complex.
Lin Huai shook his head and said calmly, "Although I could control them directly, it won't be of much use unless the hatred is eliminated. They are also victims and haven't done anything truly evil; their crimes aren't worthy of death."
"Pietro's speed counters close combat, while Wanda's mental attacks prevent us from concentrating. To deal with them, we must start from a psychological angle and find a way to dismantle their defenses first. At least get them to be willing to talk."