While Coulson and Nick Fury quietly plotted over comms, the U.S. military officially entered the fight against the Molten-Blood Demon.
Ground forces arriving one after another established defensive lines along the surrounding streets, and all manner of heavy weaponry was brought into position.
However, under orders from a certain American general, none of those weapons opened fire immediately.
“Demon ahead, you are surrounded! Cooperate with our instructions and your life will not be in danger. Refuse, and you will be destroyed! I repeat—”
A U.S. military helicopter flew over the perimeter and began circling a few dozen yards above the Molten-Blood Demon, blasting the warning through a loudspeaker.
Faced with the sheer number of American troops, along with all those unfamiliar machines that plainly looked capable of inflicting serious damage, the rampaging Molten-Blood Demon gradually ceased its attacks.
It drove its cloven hooves heavily into the ground and roared, “Very well, insignificant humans! How, then, do you intend to treat one as mighty as I?”
Something resembling mockery appeared on its demonic face.
The military stopped firing as well.
Meanwhile, helicopters from major news networks began appearing in the surrounding airspace.
Even with the temporary ceasefire, none of the soldiers dared approach the Molten-Blood Demon recklessly.
The two sides entered an uneasy standoff.
Even the military helicopter overhead slowed its circling somewhat.
Seeing that, the Molten-Blood Demon actually seemed to smile.
Before long, a corridor opened through one side of the military cordon.
A uniformed officer walked slowly down the passage.
Judging by the insignia on his shoulders, he was a lieutenant colonel.
“Listen up, you demon! If you surrender peacefully, fine. Otherwise, I swear I’ll put my boot so far up your—”
“DIE!”
The lieutenant colonel never got to finish.
The Magma Whip shot out like a striking serpent and tore straight through his waist, cutting him in half.
Splurt!
Splurt!
At almost the exact same moment, Magma Pillars erupted beneath most of the military’s heavy ground units.
In an instant, the majority of them were destroyed.
“AAAAAGH!”
A chorus of screams immediately drowned out even the bubbling roar of flowing magma.
“And you irritating flies!”
The Molten-Blood Demon looked up at the helicopters circling overhead.
The Magma Whip in its hand rapidly swelled in size.
Then it began whipping the enormous molten lash around wildly.
Countless globs of magma were flung into the sky like blazing meteors, creating wave after wave of fiery projectiles that tore toward the hovering helicopters.
“Oh, SHIT!”
The pilot of one military helicopter felt every hair on the back of his neck stand on end as the barrage came screaming toward him.
He desperately threw the controls over, trying to get clear.
Too late.
In moments, the entire battle turned on its head.
Aside from the two fighter jets flying faster and at far higher altitude, the rest of the American forces suffered devastating losses.
Two media helicopters were caught in the attack as well, spiraling downward amid the screams of the reporters inside.
From the cameras aboard several more distant news helicopters, the Molten-Blood Demon looked like some infernal god of destruction.
It stood amid more than a dozen towering Magma Pillars, each one spewing molten rock into the air, while it swung its enormous Magma Whip in a frenzy.
The sight was terrifying.
Some of the surviving soldiers broke completely and fled toward the rear, screaming as they ran.
“Motherfucker! What kind of power even is that?!”
Watching from a distance, Coulson felt like his jaw was about to hit the pavement.
He had even started borrowing his boss’s favorite vocabulary.
“Director, I think we may want to pull back. Most of the civilians nearby have already been evacuated anyway.”
Even as Coulson spoke, his feet were already unconsciously carrying him backward.
“Motherfucker, request gra— Wait! Coulson, look at the demon!”
“I’m looking, sir. Something seems to have restrained it.”
Coulson stopped backing away.
Then, after a moment’s hesitation, he even crept forward a little to get a better look.
The Molten-Blood Demon had just been about to continue its rampage when several Magma Chains suddenly shot out of the fissure from which it had first emerged.
The chains wrapped around its limbs and began dragging it straight back toward the crack.
“Hmph! Humans!”
The Molten-Blood Demon roared as it struggled against the chains.
“Remember me! When the rift opens once more, we shall meet again!”
“Hahahahaha!”
With that, the Molten-Blood Demon kicked off with both hooves and willingly leaped into the fissure.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Queens, 23 Prince Avenue.
[Emotion Points from Passerby A: +0.1]
[Emotion Points from Passerby B: +0.1]
[Emotion Points from Tony Stark: +100]
[Emotion Points from Nick Fury: +90]
[Emotion Points from…]
[Emotion Points: 90,241.3]
Evan Mercer could barely contain his delight as he watched the numbers on the System interface climb like crazy.
An ordinary passerby could generally provide around 0.1 Emotion Points at a time.
The more important someone was to the story, and the greater their influence on the Marvel universe, the more Emotion Points they could generate.
Once Evan decided the Molten-Blood Demon had caused enough damage, he used the System to recall it.
“The Molten-Blood Demon performed pretty damn well this time. But it also got lucky with the timing. There weren’t any superheroes on-site. If even a few had been there, it wouldn’t have been able to run wild nearly so easily.”
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“I should probably watch the civilian casualties going forward, too. That little appearance alone caused over a thousand casualties.”
Evan paused, then muttered with a grin.
“Sure, they’re people from the Marvel universe, and I’m not exactly going to lose sleep over Americans getting killed… but there’s still such a thing as sustainable development.”
He chuckled quietly to himself.
Thanos was still a long way off.
For now, Evan had food, money, safety, and absolutely no need to work himself to death.
It was practically the life he had dreamed of in his previous world.
“There’s another issue, too. People get numb to stimulation. If I overdo it and they stop producing Emotion Points, that’d be a waste.”
He looked at his balance again.
“I’ve already got almost a hundred thousand. Give it another couple of days and things should settle down. Then I can see what kind of chests I can pull.”
Evan’s grin widened.
“Another round of entertainment.”
“Hahahahaha…”
While Evan sat at home laughing like an idiot, the military and S.H.I.E.L.D. were having a furious argument outside Stark Tower.
“You goddamn agents allowed a monster like that to appear in the middle of the city! You are going to answer for this!”
The military officer’s intent to dump responsibility on S.H.I.E.L.D. was painfully obvious.
Coulson, however, remained perfectly calm.
“Hey, come on. That’s not exactly fair. We lost plenty of people too.”
Seeing Coulson’s relaxed attitude only made the military commander, who had arrived embarrassingly late, angrier.
Today’s disaster had cost the military dearly.
Worse still, there was a very real chance that he might end up answering for it in a court-martial.
“Isn’t dealing with supernatural crap like this supposed to be your damn job?! Don’t think I don’t know what your people do!”
Coulson’s expression cooled.
He had been willing to remain polite.
That patience had now expired.
“I’ll report this incident to my own superior. You do not have the authority to demand that I answer to you.”
His voice hardened.
“Whatever losses your people suffered are your problem.”
Coulson gave him a final look.
“Listen, pal. This conversation is over.”
With that, he turned around and walked away without looking back, leaving the military commander behind to continue raging by himself.
Coulson gathered several agents and slowly approached the fissure from which the Molten-Blood Demon had first emerged.
Even now, magma continued bubbling far below the opening.
The harsh stench of sulfur rose from the depths, relentlessly assaulting Coulson’s nose.