In Hill's eyes, that ray of light was like the coming of a savior.
She did not believe in gods, but gods did exist in this world, even if many of them were merely aliens who had come to Earth in ancient times, living longer lives and wielding greater power.
But now, something like a god had truly come to her, with a golden cloak and golden eyes...
Renzo rescued Hill and took a closer look at the strong woman. He found that she looked exactly the same as the Hill from his own universe. It seemed this universe should also be a branch of the movie universe.
"Are you okay..." Renzo easily pushed away the boulder pressing down on Hill's legs, took her hand, and pulled her up from the ground.
Hill's palm was not as soft and smooth as Wanda's delicate, pale hand. A strong woman and super agent like her faced life-or-death disasters almost every week. Her palm was not gentle like Wanda's, but covered with thick calluses, likely the result of long-term firearms training.
She had suffered greatly and had nearly died in front of others countless times, but she had survived through sheer will.
It was not that the world could not turn without her, but without her, some people's lives would lose their color, even if there were only a few of them...
Renzo used the light of the Mind Stone to protect Hill and prevent her from being eroded by the surrounding red mist.
Golden light flashed on his forehead, and Renzo seemed to sense something. He looked toward a nearby shop and saw a furry blue claw stretch out from the shop's glass window.
"Hank?" Renzo knew who the animal-like claw belonged to the moment he saw it. At the same time, the Mind Stone also issued a warning, telling him not to approach.
"Roar..." A low growl lingered in their ears. The blue beast opened his scarlet pupils, and the murderous intent unique to the jungle was vividly revealed. Hank's eyes stared at the two of them, like a starving lion that had finally seen food after waiting for a long time, and a cruel smile appeared on his lips.
"Roar!" With a furious roar, Hank relied on his extraordinary jumping ability and pounced toward Renzo.
Click!
Boom!
The first sound was Hank biting Renzo's body. The second was Hank biting Renzo's body and breaking two of his own teeth.
"I'm sorry, brother. I came too late." Renzo could not bear to kill Hank. They had spent several months together in the X-Men universe. Although Renzo had usually acted together with Erik and Charles, he had also interacted with Hank quite a lot.
He had once fought side by side with the X-Men against Apocalypse, and Hank had examined his body. Unfortunately, at that time, they had not been able to find adamantium.
This gentlemanly young master had left Renzo with a good impression. He was easy to get along with, highly skilled professionally, and a handsome man who was easy to talk to.
To describe him in one sentence...
Quiet as a maiden, swift as a rabbit!
Golden light filled Renzo's palm, and he slowly touched Hank's head.
The next moment, Hank's body softened, the light faded from his scarlet pupils, and he collapsed limply to the ground.
"You killed him?!" Hill shouted from the side, her tone full of disbelief. "You could clearly save him!"
"I can't save him. He was already infected." Renzo laid Hank's body flat on the ground, gently touched Hank's eyes with his palm, and closed his eyelids. This was the last thing he could do.
"I can't save the infected. I can only save those who have inhaled the red mist but haven't fully turned yet." Renzo pointed in one direction. "Go that way. There are no infected people there." Then he continued deeper into the red mist.
"Have you met Sam and the others?" Hill ignored Renzo's words, picked up the pistol from the ground, and aimed it at him.
She could not truly be blamed for repaying kindness with hostility. This was the preparation a professional and excellent agent had to make. She could not be certain whether the man in front of her was friend or enemy. She had never seen him before, and even in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s superhero records, there was no trace of this man.
It was as if he had appeared out of nowhere.
"Who are you? Where are you from? Which organization do you belong to? What is your purpose in coming here?"
"This is why I hate you people so much!" Renzo could not bear it anymore and shouted at Hill. "I saved your life, and you don't even say thank you. Instead, you accuse me and interrogate me. Is this how S.H.I.E.L.D. treats people?"
Renzo recalled the time when he had first crossed over. When he opened his eyes and woke up from the experimental chamber, he had passionately wanted to join the Avengers, punish evil, and promote good.
But their cold-blooded, suspicious eyes had cracked his confidence. Even after the Sokovia incident, when he came back from the Spider-Man universe, Tony Stark still had not regarded him as one of their own. Instead, he had suspected him, questioning where he had gone during the year he had disappeared.
It had made him doubt whether he should have appeared in that universe at all. Maybe Vision could bear all of that, but Renzo could not.
He was not Vision, who had emotions extremely close to those of a human being. Renzo was human. A young man in his early twenties. A young shut-in who had only just stepped into society, lying at home eating and waiting for life to pass him by. A youth whose passion had not yet been buried by the world.
He was a man of flesh, blood, and rich emotions.
"Are you superheroes always so self-righteous? Do you think it's only natural for others to save you? Do you think you're the protagonists of the world, always showing off your sense of existence?" Renzo sneered and strode over to Hill. Standing in front of her, he grabbed the hand holding her gun and pulled the trigger.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The bullets struck Renzo but left no trace on his body.
The pistol warped in Renzo's palm, then was thrown to the ground and crushed to pieces.
"Don't be stupid, girl. There are no reinforcements outside. There are only a bunch of idiots who volunteered to come in here, and that includes you!"
Renzo cursed with hatred. "They gave up on you!"
The words struck a chord in Hill's heart.
"Ha. I really am not as good as Nick Fury." Renzo had originally thought those words would make Hill feel disheartened, then walk dejectedly out of the red mist under the protection of the Mind Stone's light.
He had not expected her to have such an expression.
"That's the best choice. Fury would not give up many people who could still be saved for the sake of a few people whose survival is uncertain. That goes against S.H.I.E.L.D.'s way of doing things."
Hill calmed down and spoke slowly. "If it were me, I might not be able to stand by and watch. Maybe I would send a search team to look for traces of survivors, but the risk would be too great, and the probability too small. They might be torn apart by the infected before even finding survivors, or they might become one of the lunatics after inhaling too much red mist."
"The possibility of finding survivors and rescuing them is extremely slim. Instead, innocent lives would be lost."
Renzo fell silent. He had not expected this woman to think like that. He had thought she would feel sorrow because she had been abandoned, but he had not expected...
"You agents really don't think like normal people!" Renzo scolded, then could not help smiling faintly. This approach was indeed very Nick Fury-like.
"You don't have to worry about the others. I met Sam and Wong and put a protective shield on them. They should have escaped by now."
"I won't leave. I want to keep going deeper!" Hill said stubbornly, her gray-stained face unexpectedly firm.
"Are you crazy? You have such a good chance to escape, but instead of taking it, you want to stay here and wait to die?"
Renzo felt that this woman's mind had to be abnormal. No, no... the people who could join S.H.I.E.L.D. were either liars or paranoid people suffering from persecution complexes, a group of lunatics who did not even care about their own lives.
"I'm crazy. You're crazy too. Everyone who stays in the red mist is crazy. That's an established fact." Hill nodded and counted the bullets left on her body. Only two remained.
Renzo had no way to refute her, because she was right. Those who dared to enter the red mist were all madmen, a group of brave and reckless madmen.
"Then follow me. But let me say this in advance: if we meet another infected person, I won't take care of you!" Renzo deliberately frightened her, trying his best to scare her away.
"No need. I can protect myself." Hill said it casually. In their line of work, life and death had long since been disregarded. Those afraid of death could never become Nick Fury's right hand, and they could not even enter the gates of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Renzo was helpless. This stubborn woman could not be persuaded no matter what he said. She was insane. The whole world was insane...
The two walked together and continued deeper into the center of the red mist.
They met no other infected people along the way, only a few infected cats and dogs, which were scared away by the psychic fluctuations Renzo released.
But the look in this woman's eyes...
The corners of Renzo's eyes twitched. Along the way, Hill openly examined his body, carefully studying every detail, and even reached out to touch it.
"Careful. A woman can go crazy..." Renzo complained, avoiding Hill's dangerous hands.
"Are you an alien wearing a layer of armor? Or are you an alien inside a suit of armor? Why does your skin feel so cold?" Hill pretended to ask curiously, while in reality, she turned on the recording device on her belt, preparing to record Renzo's information and hand it over to Nick Fury if she returned alive.
Even if she could not survive, it did not matter. She would do her best to end her own life and leave an intact body behind. S.H.I.E.L.D. would find her when recovering the body, then check the equipment on her. With Nick Fury's cautious, suspicious, sinister, and cunning personality, he would definitely personally inspect Hill's belongings and discover the contents of the recording.
"I'm human!" Renzo replied with a dark expression, then added, "Synthetic..."
Hill ignored him and stopped.
It was not that she did not want to move, but that she could no longer walk. Her feet felt as if they were stuck to the ground.
The closer they got to the center of the red mist, the heavier her body became. The red mist clung to Hill's body in a sticky layer, as thick as plasma, like hot wax poured over her, making her unable to move.
"Disgusting feeling!"
Renzo applied another psychic shield over Hill. Golden light and red light interacted, competing against each other.
The red, wax-like layer seemed to be exposed to sunlight. Under the warm glow, the scarlet slowly melted. Hill panted heavily, and the desire to live showed in her eyes.
She could die, but not in such an unclear way.
"Do you regret it? But it's too late for regret now. There's no turning back..." Renzo joked. There was no road in front of them, only a wall made entirely of scarlet chaos blocking their path.
Hill slowly approached the wall and touched it lightly.
In an instant, dozens of miserable, wailing souls poured out from the wall, carrying countless resentments and hatred, their cries like crows. Black-and-red mist transformed into ghostly shadows and wrapped around the two of them.
The ghosts let out seductive, mocking laughter, cursing and ridiculing them by their ears... stabbing at their hearts with the most vicious words in the world. The sharp blades easily peeled open the heart, and thick, foul-smelling blood gushed out.
"Ah... ah..." Hill could not speak. She could only groan and ask Renzo for help. As a super agent living in the modern world, she had never seen such a fantastical scene.
Ghosts flew all over the sky. Black mist enveloped the heavens, and the scarlet bloody wall gave off a strong, nauseating stench as it stood thickly across the street.
It seemed that a great horror was hidden behind the wall...
"Such deep resentment..." Renzo could not help taking a few steps back at the horrifying scene. It had a great impact on him.
The first time the concept of ghosts had appeared was on Wanda's home field. A group of black-robed ghosts that looked like gods of death had resented and cursed Strange, only to be turned into a pair of wings by the sorcerer. They had even restrained Wanda for a while during the final battle, so their strength could not be considered weak.
The number of ghosts in front of them had far exceeded the ones wandering atop the snowy mountain in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. A rough estimate placed them at more than fifty.
People could not simply become ghosts after death. Among a large number of dead, only one or two might occasionally turn into spirits. Such an astonishing number... The red mist had taken at least thousands of lives.
"You stay here."
"No. I want to go in!" Renzo could not defeat this stubborn woman. He felt that her mind was full of unyielding fearlessness, as if even when facing a huge number of ghosts, she was only looking at a pile of popsicles stuck in the ground.
"Crazy woman..." Renzo cursed under his breath.
"Are you scolding me?"
"I'm not."
"I heard you."
"..."
Renzo was speechless and walked slowly to the stinking wall. Crimson energy flowed over the wall like quicksand, as if it were alive, gently writhing.
Hum!
Renzo immediately withdrew his palm, and the wall began to flicker as if under stress.
Scarlet light scattered over the two people's faces, and the hard wall suddenly became soft, rolling back and forth like a belly. The ghosts in the sky screamed, and the harsh hissing sound nearly shattered Hill's eardrums.
"This thing is alive!"
Renzo shouted, instantly picked up Hill beside him, and left the spot before the next pulse of the wall.
Rumble!
The wall let out a violent thunderclap, like a water-filled balloon being detonated. Scarlet energy suddenly exploded and spread in all directions.
The ghosts screamed with anger and pain. Renzo heard fear in their wails, but there was even more hatred, endless hatred...
"Is the culprit behind the wall?" Renzo used the Space Stone to block the scattered chaos magic. The true mastermind hidden behind the scenes was about to be revealed.
The ghosts lingering in the air, refusing to disperse, seemed to have seen their enemies. Their mysterious laughter, cries, curses, and roars... almost covered a ten-mile radius as they all flew toward the wall with resentment. Their light bodies made people wonder if they would vanish as soon as the wind blew.
"Let's go!" Renzo no longer asked whether Hill was following. No matter what he said, he could not shake that stubborn will of hers.
The two disappeared beyond the wall along with the black smoke-like ghosts.
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