S.H.I.E.L.D.
Base.
Nick Fury had already dispatched a team of scientists to Stark Tower at top speed, but he was still on the line with Coulson.
“Listen to me, Coulson. Forget the military and every other agency sniffing around this thing. I want you to find out where it came from, how it got here, and why it came here, and I want it done as fast as possible.”
“Understood, Director.”
After hearing Coulson’s reply, Fury rose from his chair and walked to the window.
He stared out at the distant sky.
The idea of assembling the Avengers had never felt more necessary.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Elsewhere in the same S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, one of HYDRA’s leaders, Alexander Pierce, was engaged in a quiet conspiracy of his own with Crossbones.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Stark Mansion.
The moment Happy and Pepper had hauled Tony into the car, they had driven straight back to his home.
“J.A.R.V.I.S., what was that thing?”
“Based on morphological analysis, sir, the creature most closely resembles a demon.”
“Great. Actual demons. Because terrorists in caves apparently weren’t enough.”
Tony paced across the room.
“J.A.R.V.I.S., book me appointments with a few experts on that sort of thing. And order the following materials for me…”
“Of course, sir.”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kamar-Taj.
The Ancient One released the Eye of Agamotto and let out a long sigh.
Not long ago, she had sensed something wrong with the flow of time in this universe and had used the Eye of Agamotto to investigate.
What she discovered was deeply troubling.
The future had become utterly chaotic.
Sometimes she could see a single timeline.
Sometimes there were two.
At other moments, for brief intervals, there seemed to be nothing at all.
And just moments ago, she had lost the ability to observe the future entirely.
The timelines visible through the Eye of Agamotto had completely collapsed into disorder.
Countless possibilities tangled together like an enormous ball of knotted yarn, overlapping and twisting so densely that there was no clear place to even begin unraveling them.
“What in the world happened…?”
The Ancient One frowned.
“What could possibly cause the timeline to change this drastically?”
Unwilling to give up, she activated the Eye of Agamotto once more.
With something like this happening, the retirement she had been preparing for was clearly no longer an option.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
As news of the incident continued to spread, most people across the United States eventually saw footage of the Molten-Blood Demon slaughtering its way through the military.
The images frightened plenty of Americans.
Most, however, remained skeptical.
Fake stories designed to farm clicks and views were everywhere these days.
If they hadn’t witnessed a demon with their own eyes, who could say whether the footage was real?
Besides, compared to some supposed demon attack, Stark shutting down his weapons division had a much more immediate impact on their lives.
A demon probably wasn’t going to kill them anytime soon.
Stark Industries shutting down weapons development, on the other hand?
That was definitely going to hit their wallets.
While every major organization was frantically investigating the Molten-Blood Demon, Evan Mercer spent the next several days at home doing little more than eating and sleeping.
“System, status panel~”
[Emotion Points: 248,632.7]
Evan lay stretched out on a recliner, sunbathing as he studied the System interface.
Seeing more than two hundred thousand Emotion Points sitting there put him in an excellent mood.
“Let’s start with one Yellow-Tier (𝐈) Chest. See how lucky I’m feeling today.”
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained: 3 Star Card ×2, 2 Star Card ×2.]
━━━━━ 🃏 Card ━━━━━
⭐⭐⭐ Crimson Mystic Sword
Originates from a cultivation world.
Flame like patterns coil across its blade, and the entire sword is crimson red.
It provides a considerable amplification to fire attribute techniques.
━━━
⭐⭐⭐ Cursed Heart
A heart saturated with an evil aura and possessing a degree of corruptive power.
It can transform humans into dark creatures such as werewolves and ghouls.
(Fusible)
━━━
⭐⭐ Necromancer’s Soul Phylactery
Originates from a Western fantasy world.
A brilliant necromancer, proficient in most forms of necromancy, created an artifact nearly identical to a true lich’s phylactery.
It was only one step short of becoming the real thing.
Due to an oversight, however, his soul became trapped within it and has known no peace for tens of thousands of years.
(Fusible)
━━━
⭐⭐ Dreamscape Bubble Machine
An entertainment device created by a mysterious civilization.
The machine can construct a scene inside a bubble.
When the bubble bursts, an extremely lifelike projection of the prepared scene manifests.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
“Looks like my luck’s pretty good today. One Yellow-Tier (𝐈) Chest and I pulled two 3 Star Cards.”
Evan’s already cheerful mood improved even further.
The System’s treasure chests were divided into eight tiers: Cosmos (𝐕𝐈𝐈𝐈), Universe (𝐕𝐈𝐈), Primordial (𝐕𝐈), Desolate (𝐕), Heaven (𝐈𝐕), Earth (𝐈𝐈𝐈), Mystic (𝐈𝐈), Yellow (𝐈).
They corresponded to cards ranging from 3 Star all the way up to 10 Star.
Exactly what came out of a chest was still down to luck, but each tier had a hard upper limit.
A Yellow-Tier (𝐈) Chest, for example, could produce at most a 3 Star Card.
It could never drop a 4 Star Card.
Yellow-Tier (𝐈) Chest cost 10,000 Emotion Points.
Mystic-Tier (𝐈𝐈) Chest cost 100,000 Emotion Points.
And so on.
Each tier cost ten times as much as the one below it.
“Well, if today’s my lucky day… might as well try a Mystic-Tier (𝐈𝐈) Chest too.”
Before his luck could run out, Evan decisively opened another chest.
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained: 4 Star Card ×2, 3 Star Card ×1.]
━━━━━ 🃏 Card ━━━━━
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fragment of Cthulhu’s Tentacle
A minute fragment of a tentacle belonging to the Great Old One Cthulhu.
It possesses powerful corruptive properties and immense physical power, with particularly high compatibility with marine life.
(Fusible)
━━━
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Mystic Sword Flame-Control Divine Art
A sword cultivation technique originating from a cultivation world.
At its highest level, its wielder may draw a sword to boil the seas and swing a blade to set the heavens ablaze.
Upon fusion, the technique can be mastered directly.
Its actual strength will depend on the other fused cards.
(Fusible)
━━━
⭐⭐⭐ Gawain, Knight of the Sun
Origin: TYPE-MOON Universe
Wielder of the sacred sword of the sun, Excalibur Galatine, sister sword to King Arthur’s Excalibur.
Blessed by the sun, Gawain’s power increases during daylight hours.
Between 9:00 a.m. and noon, and again from 3:00 p.m. until sunset, his strength rises to three times its normal level.
Due to the properties of the card, he can manifest in a physical body while maintaining a constant and abundant supply of magical energy.
🔥 Rating: Surface Tier (𝐈𝐈𝐈)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
“Whoa. Two 4 Star Cards again.”
Evan stared at the results with obvious temptation in his eyes.
“I’m seriously getting the urge to blow every last Emotion Point I have.”
He shook his head vigorously.
“Nope. No, no, no. Control yourself. A Mystic-Tier (𝐈𝐈) Chest already gave me this kind of haul. I’ll save up for an Earth-Tier (𝐈𝐈𝐈) Chest and test the waters with that instead.”
His attention shifted to his existing cards.
“First, let’s fuse whatever makes sense.”
The System interface changed.
A massive furnace appeared again, with every Fusible card floating around it.
[Fusible Cards]
[⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fragment of Cthulhu’s Tentacle]
[⭐⭐⭐⭐ Mystic Sword Flame-Control Divine Art]
[⭐⭐⭐ Fallen Storm Dragon’s Head]
[⭐⭐⭐ Cursed Heart]
[⭐⭐ Necromancer’s Soul Phylactery]
“Hmm… Cthulhu’s tentacle has way too much potential for a big event. Better save that one.”
Evan glanced at the next card.
“And the Mystic Sword Flame-Control Divine Art doesn’t look compatible with any of these either, so I’ll hold onto that too.”
He studied the remaining three.
“Yeah. Fuse these.”
At Evan’s command, the Fallen Storm Dragon’s Head, Cursed Heart, and Necromancer’s Soul Phylactery flew directly into the furnace.
Endless divine flames surged around them.
The three cards melted into streams of liquid energy and began merging together.
A moment later, a brand-new Fusion Card emerged from the furnace.
[Fusion successful.]
━━━━━ 🃏 Card ━━━━━
⭐⭐⭐ Fallen Dragon Necromancer (Fusion Card)
A powerful card created through the fusion of Fallen Storm Dragon’s Head, Cursed Heart, and Necromancer’s Soul Phylactery.
🔥 Rating: Surface Tier (𝐈𝐈𝐈)
━━━
War Shroud: The Fallen Dragon Necromancer can summon a vast cloud formation several hundred kilometers across, saturated with death energy.
Undead creatures beneath the cloud receive tremendous enhancements, while dead organisms are rapidly transformed into undead.
Necromancy Mastery: The Fallen Dragon Necromancer is proficient in most forms of necromancy and can continuously learn new necromantic spells.
Profane Ritual: The Fallen Dragon Necromancer can transform humans into evil creatures such as werewolves and vampires.
Fallen Dragon Breath: The Fallen Dragon Necromancer can unleash a breath attack saturated with death and corruptive energy, possessing tremendous destructive power.