Sitting atop the Hellcycle, Cassius let it carry him along.
In one hand, he held Iron Monger’s heart.
With his other hand pointed at the heart, using Hellfire as ink and his finger as a pen, he traced a heptagram magic circle in the air.
The moment the heptagram circle took shape, Iron Monger’s heart burst into flames, ignited by the infernal Hellfire.
A thin thread shot out from the heart and darted straight between Cassius’s brows.
An exact location instantly flashed into his mind.
*Bang!*
He crushed Iron Monger’s heart in his grip, popping it like a balloon.
Cassius condensed Hellfire into a heavy chain and lashed it forward, instantly tearing open the space ahead.
Under his magic, the tear morphed into a dimensional portal.
Riding the Hellcycle, Cassius plunged straight into the fiery rift.
To an outside observer, no more than two seconds had passed from start to finish.
…
An unknown ruin—bleak and desolate, under a pitch-black sky and over greyish-white earth.
Only crumbled walls and broken pillars hinted that this place had once been a grand manor or a cathedral.
A dimensional portal formed of Hellfire opened above the ruins, and Cassius rode his Hellcycle out onto a floating path of roaring flames.
“Blackheart!”
Cassius roared, and the chain in his hand instantly dissolved into thousands of Hellfire grenades that rained down upon the ruins.
A thunderous barrage echoed across the wasteland.
The brilliant blaze lit up the dark sky.
Amidst the relentless carpet bombing, a black humanoid demon covered in spikes flew out from the inferno.
He looked remarkably textbook—demonic horns and a demonic tail.
A pity he wasn’t red and had no wings, or he would have been the ultimate cliche demon.
“Cassius!”
Blackheart’s voice boomed with sheer venom.
He loathed Cassius to his very core.
It was bad enough that Cassius had killed him multiple times and managed to throw off his own father’s control on his own merits.
A few years ago, Cassius had even snatched San Venganza right out of his hands, severing his chance to escape his father’s domain forever.
Why?!
Cassius was nothing more than an ordinary human!
The Spirit of Vengeance was just a hound serving Hell!
How dare a mere human throw off the grasp of a Hell Lord?!
From that day forward, Blackheart had sworn an oath of eternal hatred against Cassius!
When enemies met, blood boiled.
Blackheart lunged forward, extending razor-sharp claws, but Cassius calmly raised a hand.
In an instant, Hellfire coalesced into an enchanted triple-barreled shotgun in Cassius’s grip.
Every Ghost Rider possessed their own unique ability, and Cassius was no exception.
His ability was to use Hellfire to infinitely generate metal enchanted by his infernal flames.
He could freely manipulate this metal, shifting it between solid, liquid, and gas at will, or forging it into various metallic creations.
He could even choose whether his metallic creations were permanent or temporary.
Regardless of the form, as long as Cassius created it, he retained absolute control over it.
On top of that, due to his unique nature, Cassius had also inherited the special ability of the previous Ghost Rider—Johnny Blaze of this universe.
As the distance closed, Cassius pulled the trigger of his Hellfire-enchanted Adamantium shotgun.
*Bang!*
The Hellfire-infused Adamantium rounds tore out of the barrels, moving too fast to track, leaving only blinding flashes of muzzle fire.
The impact blasted Blackheart into wisps of black smoke on the spot.
On the floating path of Hellfire, Cassius yanked his handlebars, drifting into a sharp U-turn.
Bringing the Hellcycle to a halt, Cassius cast a glance at the blasted remains of Blackheart, calculating in his mind:
*This should take Blackheart at least a few months to regenerate from.*
It wasn’t that Cassius didn’t want to eliminate Blackheart permanently—he simply couldn’t, perhaps due to the peculiar laws of this universe.
The Blackheart of this universe was uniquely troublesome.
First, the guy had no soul, so Hellfire couldn’t inflict significant lasting damage on him.
The Penance Stare was completely useless against him.
Furthermore, Cassius had tried sealing him away, even seeking guidance from his master, the previous Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze.
The result was that seals couldn’t hold him at all.
Instead, being sealed allowed Blackheart—who drew power from sin and dark energies—to build up strength until he burst forth stronger than before.
After a serious discussion, Cassius and Johnny Blaze had reached a definitive conclusion:
As long as sin existed in the world, Blackheart could never be truly destroyed.
The only option was to kill him repeatedly, preventing him from ever accumulating power.
Cassius waited on the spot for two hours, firing a few more shots at the lingering wisps of smoke to thoroughly disperse them before opening a portal to depart.
Two hours after Cassius left, a middle-aged man with long hair, dressed in a sharp black suit, crawled out from a pile of dirt in a blast crater.
Standing up and dusting off his suit, the long-haired man put on a top hat and stared darkly in the direction Cassius had vanished.
“Johnny Blaze…
Cassius Parker…
just you wait.
You won’t get away with—”
*Swoosh…
Clang!*
“Surprise!”
Before the middle-aged man could finish his sentence, chains ablaze with Hellfire tore through space, binding him tightly.
Following the chains was a sly, easygoing voice.
The middle-aged man’s expression immediately darkened as he spun around.
There sat Cassius on his Hellcycle, chain in hand, peering at him through the open dimensional portal.
The man opened his mouth to say something more, but a golden ankh slammed into his chest, siphoning his power at incredible speed.
Knowing his fate was sealed, the middle-aged man didn’t bother struggling, merely glaring venomously at Cassius.
His form dissolved into Hellfire and was swallowed whole into the ankh.
Stepping out of the portal, Cassius picked up the golden ankh from the ground.
“Goodnight, Mr.
Mephisto.
I’ll be taking the power from this avatar of yours.”
Cassius absorbed Mephisto’s power from the ankh right then and there.
Once finished, he cracked his neck in every direction, stowed the ankh away, turned, and walked back through the portal.
At that exact moment, sitting on his infernal throne in Hell, Mephisto snapped his eyes open.
A piercing, screeching roar echoed across the entire Hell dimension:
“Cassius Parker!!!”
…
How to describe a morning in New York?
Lively, perfectly showcasing the vibrant vitality of New Yorkers.
Loud, sharp police sirens wailed on schedule in Queens.
Gaia sat up in bed, eyes groggy with sleep.
Little Gaia hopped onto the bed and greeted him:
“Morning, pal.”
“Morning, pal.
Morning, New York.
You know what?
Last night I dreamt I was riding a motorcycle and flying through the sky.
What a weird dream.”
Gaia cracked his neck in every direction, casually turned on the TV, got up, and walked into the bathroom.
Even though he didn’t quite know why he felt like doing it, he just felt like doing it.
*Hmm, Peter isn’t home.
In that case, I’ll just head straight to the club to eat.*
*After working out, I can go straight with Wanda to attend the charity gala hosted by Mr.
Fisk, the famous New York philanthropist.*
Just as Gaia finished getting ready and was about to leave, a news report flashed on the TV announcing an emergency press conference hosted by Stark Industries.
Little Gaia scratched his head.
“A Stark Industries press conference?
Tony didn’t spar with Iron Monger in public in this universe, so why is there still a press conference?”
Curious, Gaia sat back down on the edge of the bed with Little Gaia, just in time to hear what Tony was about to say.
Only to hear Tony’s voice booming through the speaker:
“I am Iron Man!”
Gaia: (☉_☉)
Little Gaia: (=ﾟДﾟ=)
Gaia watched the entire conference in shock, then called Tony to ask what happened.
Only then did he learn that Obadiah Stane, purely to get revenge on Tony and stir up trouble for him, had sent a message to his secretary right before dying, instructing them to expose that while Tony had shut down the weapons division, he had secretly built a suit of armor.