Gawain and Blackheart collided head on once again.
But this time, Blackheart noticed something that left him utterly stunned.
The moment sunlight fell upon Gawain, the knight’s presence abruptly surged to nearly three times its previous strength.
The discovery shocked Blackheart to his core.
Tony and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were equally astonished.
This was the first time they had ever seen Gawain bathed in brilliant golden light like this.
They were shocked by the demon’s terrifying power, but even more shocked that Gawain, a human, possessed strength every bit as monstrous.
[Emotion Points from Blackheart +150]
[Emotion Points from Tony Stark +210]
[Emotion Points from Nick Fury +180]
[Emotion Points from Phil Coulson +130]
[Emotion Points from Natasha Romanoff +160]
[Emotion Points from S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent +0.2]
[…]
There were far more spectators watching this battle than anyone on the farm realized.
Several U.S. intelligence agencies and military branches had become an audience to the confrontation.
Every collision between Blackheart and Gawain sent another shock through the hearts of senior officials across the country.
A demon being this powerful was one thing.
But a human possessing this kind of strength?
That was something else entirely.
Empowered to three times his normal strength, Gawain exploded forward and sent Blackheart flying with a single sword strike.
Then he immediately charged after him.
Blackheart almost felt cold sweat running down his back.
Almost.
Demons didn’t exactly sweat.
Despite falling into a disadvantage, Blackheart had spent countless years fighting and slaughtering his way through Hell.
That experience wasn’t something Gawain could overcome easily.
“Human! Negotiate! We can negotiate!” Blackheart shouted.
“Let me return to Hell, and I swear I will never come back!”
What Blackheart was actually thinking, however, was very different.
Once the Ancient One is gone, I’ll descend in my true body and personally tear this arrogant human apart.
Gawain snorted.
“Only a fool trusts the word of a demon. I have no interest in negotiating.”
His gaze hardened.
“I don’t negotiate. I pass judgment, and I hereby sentence this body of yours to die here.”
His attacks immediately became even fiercer.
Excalibur Galatine blazed with golden radiance as Gawain swung it in a relentless storm of strikes, hammering Blackheart from every direction.
Under such a ferocious assault, Blackheart could barely defend himself.
He had no opportunity to counterattack at all.
Being beaten this badly by a mere human only made his fury burn hotter.
If he weren’t wary of the Ancient One and the magical formation maintained by Earth’s three Sanctums, he would have descended personally and taught this insolent mortal exactly what happened to those who disrespected him.
Seeing that Blackheart was completely suppressed, Gawain spotted an opening.
Golden light erupted from Excalibur Galatine.
The sword slammed heavily into Blackheart’s chest.
Once again, the demon was sent flying.
Black blood sprayed from the wound across his chest, and it was obvious that the strike had severely injured him.
Before the fallen Blackheart could recover, several of Tony’s missiles slammed into him, followed by a barrage of Holy Water Grenades from the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
That finally shattered the last of his restraint.
“AAAAARGH! YOU’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!” Blackheart’s roar shook the sky.
A massive portal to Hell materialized over the farm, so solid it almost seemed tangible.
Billowing black mist surged upward and transformed into dark clouds that swallowed the sky.
Gawain charged again, only to be forced back by an overwhelming wave of demonic mist.
Dark demonic markings spread across Blackheart’s body.
A pair of hideous, fleshy wings tore from his back, while the horns atop his head twisted outward in spiraling growth.
At that exact moment, the magical formation linking Earth’s three Sanctums erupted with a thunderous boom.
Blackheart had been attempting to project even more of his power into this world.
The formation forcibly stopped him.
No matter how hard he tried, he could send no more power through.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The Ancient One, still resisting Dormammu’s intrusion, frowned deeply.
Damn it.
Was Blackheart acting on his own?
Or was this Mephisto’s intention?
Dormammu immediately noticed the Ancient One’s distraction.
His gaze extended toward the farm on the outskirts of New York.
The moment he saw what was happening there, Dormammu burst out laughing.
“Ancient One! If you don’t hurry back, your New York Sanctum may not exist much longer!”
The Ancient One was considering whether to dispatch Earth’s sorcerers to reinforce the battlefield when the situation below suddenly changed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Unable to endure Blackheart’s ever growing spiritual pressure, Tony and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had already retreated.
Only Gawain remained where he stood, facing Blackheart alone.
Gawain drew a deep breath.
He gripped Excalibur Galatine in both hands and raised it high above his head.
Then he began to chant.
“This sword is the embodiment of the sun!”
At those words, sunlight pierced through the black clouds.
“The final light that remains upon the earth!”
With the second line, raging solar power converged upon the blade of Excalibur Galatine.
Blackheart immediately sensed the enormous amount of energy gathering there.
It was more than enough to annihilate the body he was possessing.
With a furious roar, Blackheart attacked first.
The surrounding black mist condensed into a massive torrent and shot toward Gawain.
“EXCALIBUR GALATINE!” Gawain completed the invocation.
Boundless solar power erupted from his sword, transforming into a colossal blade of golden light that descended straight toward Blackheart.
Nothing could stand before it.
The black clouds filling the sky—
The surging torrent of demonic mist—
Neither managed to slow it in the slightest.
They vanished the instant the golden blade touched them, melting away like snow beneath the blazing sun.
“NOOOOO!” As the blade of light reached him, Blackheart screamed in despair.
His screams changed nothing.
The body he inhabited melted like butter beneath a red hot knife.
A few moments later, nothing remained.
[Emotion Points from Blackheart +360]
[Emotion Points from the Ancient One +280]
[Emotion Points from Dormammu +340]
[Emotion Points from Mephisto +320]
[Emotion Points from Odin +340]
[Emotion Points from General Ross +102]
[…]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Watching massive amounts of Emotion Points flood across the system interface, Evan Mercer was already in an excellent mood.
He’d just witnessed a battle that made Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters look pathetic by comparison.
Now he was even happier.
This incident had caused a much bigger stir than he’d expected.
It had actually caught the attention of so many major players.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Still facing Dormammu, the Ancient One gave him a faint smile.
“It seems you’ll be disappointed. The New York Sanctum isn’t going anywhere.”
Dormammu snorted coldly.
“So what? Sooner or later, I’ll kill you and destroy every last Sanctum!”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Far away in Hell, Mephisto was equally stunned by what he had witnessed.
Blackheart had actually been defeated on Earth by some previously unknown nobody.
Mephisto’s brow furrowed.
Just how many humans like that were hiding on Earth?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Inside the palace of Asgard, Odin was no less shocked.
For a moment, he found himself wondering whether sending Thor to Midgard for his coming trial was truly a good idea.
But then he remembered how little time he had left.
His hesitation disappeared.
If necessary, he would simply keep a close eye on Thor throughout the entire ordeal.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
General Ross had also found a way to observe the battle.
After witnessing it, his desire for the Hulk’s power only intensified.
He was interested in Gawain as well, of course.
Unfortunately for Ross, Nick Fury had already joined forces with Alexander Pierce to put pressure on him, forcing the general to temporarily abandon any plans he had regarding Gawain’s power.
Countless other organizations were watching through their own methods as well, steadily contributing more Emotion Points to Evan’s growing total.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Tony and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at the scene knew nothing about any of that.
They had already been shocked numb by Gawain’s power.
That enormous golden blade of light, seemingly capable of tearing heaven and earth apart, had burned itself permanently into their memories.
“J.A.R.V.I.S., tell me you got that.”
“Yes, sir. The event was recorded in full. However, I am unable to calculate the energy output.”
The black mist was gone.
The portal to Hell had disappeared.
So had the phantom lakes of magma.
Only one thing remained as proof of the terrifying battle that had just taken place.
A colossal sword scar carved deep into the earth.