The moment Tony saw Obadiah on the surveillance feed, he thought back to the traces left behind by the people who had broken Ivan out of prison.
He quickly realized this situation might already be beyond anything he could handle alone.
With that thought, Tony immediately looked toward Gawain, who was sitting cross legged on the sofa with his eyes closed.
Tony Stark might be arrogant, but nobody had ever accused him of being stupid.
Going in alone under circumstances like these would cross that line.
“Gawain, looks like we’ve got another problem to deal with. You good to go?”
Gawain opened his eyes and looked at Tony.
“The reason I accompany you is precisely to deal with problems like this. Of course I’m ready.”
Several days had passed since his battle with Blackheart, and that fight hadn’t actually drained Gawain very much in the first place.
By now, he was back at full strength.
“Great. I’ll call our favorite government spooks too. Cleanup is what they’re best at, and it’d be a crime to let that much professional talent go to waste.”
Tony immediately contacted Nick Fury.
Fury had been paying close attention to Obadiah’s disappearance as well.
After all, the months long series of demon incidents had only begun after Obadiah was broken out of custody.
Those incidents had tied up an enormous amount of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s resources and attention.
As far as Nick Fury was concerned, the sooner this problem was put down for good, the better.
It wasn’t long before a strike team was assembled from Tony, Gawain, and S.H.I.E.L.D.
On S.H.I.E.L.D.’s side, Barton and Natasha personally led the field agents into the operation.
Coulson remained behind to pull strings, smooth things over, and minimize the political fallout that would come from directly taking down Justin Hammer.
For something involving nothing more than Hammer Industries, the lineup was absurdly excessive.
Under Tony’s lead, the strike team soon arrived near one of Hammer Industries’ production facilities.
The facility was heavily guarded, so the group stopped some distance away.
Using the surveillance feeds Tony had already hacked, Natasha and Barton quickly drew up a comprehensive assault plan.
Then Gawain spoke.
“There are at least thirty Lesser Demonspawn inside. Two of them possess noticeably greater strength than the others. You should account for them as well.”
Natasha and Barton immediately had to revise their plan.
Lesser Demonspawn might not pose much of a threat to Gawain, but against ordinary S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, they could inflict catastrophic casualties.
A new plan was soon finalized.
Several agents slipped toward the Hammer Industries facility.
After silently taking out the guards stationed around the perimeter, S.H.I.E.L.D. and Tony simultaneously launched a massive cyberattack against the production base.
Chaos immediately erupted inside.
Countless possibilities flashed through Justin Hammer’s mind, but he quickly realized the worst case scenario.
His demonic identity might have been exposed.
He immediately ordered more than a dozen men to gather around himself and Obadiah, preparing to cover their retreat.
As for Ivan Vanko?
Ivan had always been disposable.
They had rescued him specifically so they could throw him out there and cause trouble.
Besides, Ivan had already modified several robots.
If Tony really was the one attacking them, leaving Ivan behind might buy some time.
But just as the bodyguards swarmed around Justin and Obadiah—
BOOM!
The entire ceiling shook violently.
Then S.H.I.E.L.D. agents began sending Holy Water Bombs through the openings using every method they had available.
Holy Water Bombs rained into the room.
Obadiah’s face changed instantly.
He grabbed two bodyguards and yanked them in front of himself as shields.
Justin did almost exactly the same thing.
The bombs detonated.
Holy water sprayed across a huge section of the room.
Several bodyguards were reduced directly to ash, while more than a dozen others screamed as their disguises collapsed and they transformed into their demonic forms.
Obadiah and Justin, however, had shielded themselves quickly enough to avoid being splashed.
The moment the first Holy Water Bombs went off, even more guards began rushing toward the area.
That was exactly what S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted.
More Demonspawn were caught in ambushes along the way, falling one after another before they could reach the main chamber.
Once the bombardment ended, Tony flew straight through the hole in the ceiling.
He had barely entered before Ivan Vanko intercepted him.
Ivan launched himself bodily at Tony, tackling him into a cluster of modified robots.
The machines immediately opened fire.
A dense storm of metal rounds engulfed Tony’s Iron Man Armor.
The bullets couldn’t penetrate his shields, but they were rapidly draining the suit’s energy reserves.
Tony recovered from the surprise attack and immediately exploited his greatest advantage, mobility.
He shot away at high speed.
The machines Ivan had hastily modified suffered badly when it came to movement.
Within moments, Tony was running circles around them.
He looked rather less than dignified doing it, but destroying the machines while fighting on the move was only a matter of time.
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Gawain entered immediately after Tony.
Instead of following him toward Ivan, he moved directly to block Obadiah and Justin’s escape route.
With their retreat cut off, the two men had no choice but to grit their teeth and fight.
Both transformed into their demonic forms and led their subordinates straight at Gawain.
Gawain handled the assault with ease.
He slipped between several attacks and casually thrust his sword several times.
The golden blade immediately cut down multiple demons.
Lesser Demonspawn of this level couldn’t survive even a handful of strikes from him.
Once Gawain’s sword touched them, death followed.
A gigantic wave of magma surged toward him.
Demonspawn might not fear molten rock, but Gawain certainly wasn’t immune to it.
He rolled several times, breaking free of the surrounding Demonspawn, then swept his sword through a rapid series of arcs.
The flashing blade became an almost continuous barrier, keeping the surging magma away from him.
But just as Gawain was holding back the molten wave, something unexpected happened.
One of the Lesser Demonspawn suddenly exploded.
From within its shattered body, an enormous Magma Whip erupted and lashed violently toward Gawain.
Gawain immediately raised his sword to block.
He had underestimated the force behind the attack.
BANG!
The Magma Whip sent Gawain flying.
The sight stunned both the arriving S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Tony, who was still fighting on the other side of the facility.
Only a few days ago, even a monster like Blackheart hadn’t managed to put Gawain in such an awkward position.
Yet this suddenly appearing Magma Whip had actually knocked him away.
Then they saw the remains of the exploded Demonspawn begin to distort.
Magma twisted and swelled around the corpse.
Within seconds, the enormous figure of the Molten-Blood Demon appeared before everyone.
“Ashen Council filth!” The Molten-Blood Demon’s thunderous voice shook the facility.
“The coming of my kind cannot be stopped! This world shall inevitably be conquered by the great Lord of Sin!”
It immediately hurled a massive Magma Sphere toward Gawain.
Before the projectile could reach him, a Repulsor Blast struck it from the side.
The sphere exploded in midair.
Gawain quickly shifted position and avoided the blast.
Ivan Vanko had stopped attacking entirely.
He stared at the Molten-Blood Demon in disbelief.
“What… is that?”
Seeing Gawain evade the attack, the Molten-Blood Demon gave a cold snort.
It swung its Magma Whip again, sending the blazing weapon lashing toward him.
This time, Gawain was ready.
His sword knocked the Magma Whip aside before coming down in a vicious slash.
To everyone’s surprise, Gawain actually severed a section of the whip.
The Molten-Blood Demon didn’t care.
It knew perfectly well that it wasn’t Gawain’s match.
It hadn’t come here to defeat him.
Its only purpose was to keep Gawain occupied long enough for the others to escape.
Trading a few blows with him was merely a bonus.
After all, they both worked for the same master.
Why would it risk its life over this?
But since its master had ordered it to save these two humans— then save them it would.