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"None of you seems to understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with *ME*!"
- Rorschach (Watchmen)
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<(Omniscient POV)>
"What the...?" Natasha Romanoff, who was currently under the alias of Natalia Romanova, couldn't help but blurt out with wide-open eyes as she stared at the scene in front of her with disbelief written all over her face.
She had seen a lot of stuff in all her years of working as a spy and secret agent. From aliens and super soldiers to magicians and mutants, she had met a lot of beings who weren't exactly ordinary humans. She even knew Atem, Thor, and Loki, who were all supposedly gods from mythologies. However, despite all that, this was the first time she had seen a demon. No, even if it was just a single demon or a couple of demons, Natalia could have easily controlled her reaction but what she was seeing in front of her right now was what could easily be called a goddamn army of thousands of demons, maybe even tens of thousands calmly standing in the middle of a desert covered with barren red sand.
Hell, there were so many demons that Natasha couldn't even see an end to them. To her, it was akin to seeing a sea of inhuman creatures within an ocean of red sand. She was so taken by the scene in front of her that she didn't even realize the sky above them no longer had its normal blue color. No, the sky in Hell was purple with thin, veiny patterns running through as if the sky here was the roof of some tall, mysterious cave and not just empty space like it is on Earth.
"Hey Victor, I thought this "ritual" to challenge Mephisto was supposed to be some grand secret that very few people knew about. But when were you going to tell us that almost every demon in Hell already knows about this solstice challenge thing?" Atem inquired while surveying the hordes of demons, who had hungry looks in their eyes and appeared to be patiently waiting for something.
"It is indeed a tightly kept secret that only a handful of human sorcerers and practitioners of the mystic arts on Earth know about. As a matter of fact, Mephisto himself does his best to keep it a secret from most of his demons as well. And considering that there are said to be hundreds of billions of demons in the dimension of Hell, Doom has to admit he is doing a very good job at it. However, there are no actual secrets in this world. Mephisto might have been able to hide it from most of the demons under his rule, but even for him, it's impossible to keep this information hidden away from the higher demons who desire to take his place. It's inevitable that some of them find out about this every year and challenge him.
So, the Lord of Hell gladly takes this opportunity to pit his enemies against each other before killing the final survivors himself at the end of the day. This way, not only do his enemies get tired on their own before they fight him, but also Mephisto himself doesn't have to worry about fighting too many strong enemies at once." Victor answered his voice laced with bitter scorn, making it clear that this was one of the prime reasons why he had been losing every year regardless of how much he prepared, "Doom has even heard rumors that Mephisto has started using this event as a form of entertainment and a strategy to get rid of ambitious demons who covet his position. Sometimes, he leaks the information about the Solstice ritual to his enemies himself so that he has an excuse to get rid of them... although I agree this year, the number of demons seems to be a little more than normal."
"Mephisto is no doubt the most cunning of all the Hell Lords, one of the prime reasons why he has been able to maintain his position for so long without losing it even once in so many years. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't think I have ever heard him go all out against an enemy. He has never needed to. He prefers to ruin his opponents using his cunning and tricks rather than defeat them with absolute power like the rest of us. And as for the opponents against whom he can never even hope to win, he just escapes." Hela threw in her own two cents as well.
"Anyway, it's starting, and it is going to be a long battle. So, we should prepare ourselves... I don't suppose you will be joining us, will you, Miss Hela Odindottir?" Victor Von Doom asked the question that was in all of their minds.
"Of course not. As one of the current Hell Lords, this is beneath me. When you are a lord of a dimension, you challenge other dimension lords whenever you feel like it, not when you think the opponent is weak. If I wanted this Hell for myself, I would have started a full conquest against Mephisto and his dimension after announcing my intentions, I would have staged a war worthy of gods." She proudly answered, not aware that each of her words was like arrows to Atem's weak heart, since she was basically unknowingly calling him and Doom weak.
'Well, I guess she is as proud as her father, though I don't agree with her words since to me, a victory is a victory, no matter how it is achieved. Furthermore, strategies and planning are part of how people win battles. Feeling proud of achieving a victory because you only used your raw muscle power to bash someone's head in like a brute is, honestly, very stupid.' I silently thought to myself.
"I see." Doom also didn't seem to agree with the Asgardian Goddess of Death, though he wisely kept his thoughts to himself. The Latverian ruler seemed to be on the edge due to the huge number of demons we would have to face soon, so he was probably busy preparing spells in his mind. "Atem, as soon as the sky darkens, focus on surviving instead of eliminating the demons. The demons around us might look uninterested in us right now, but they are just trying to deceive us. Doom has faced this situation countless times. As soon as the battle starts, they will do their best to wipe out the weakest ones first, and it is no secret that they consider humans weaker than even the weakest demons." He almost whispered his instructions to prevent anyone else from overhearing his words. "And keep close to Doom. Doom has done this before, so..."
Unfortunately for Doom, he did not have the opportunity to complete his sentence, as the sky had already transformed from its purple hue into an inky shade of jet black, and as soon as it did, all hell broke loose, pun fully intended.
As soon as the sky had changed its color, demons who were standing and even conversing with each other like old friends drew their weapons and began stabbing each other, while some used various demonic abilities and magic to take out multiple opponents at once. The smell of rotting flesh and blood-curdling demonic screams began to fill the air as everyone started killing each other with bloodlust clearly visible on their faces.
Victor who was keeping his eyes trained on a few red-skinned high demons that were steadily making their way toward them while killing everything in their paths raised his hands to wipe them out with a few mystical blasts from his armor before expressing, "Doom believes that the key to winning this battle while conserving our energy will be your healing ability, Atem. So..." Once again, Doom was unable to finish his words, but this time, it wasn't because of the changing color of the skies but because of a sudden temperature change that Victor could sense from behind him.
Even from under his armor, Victor Von Doom began to feel a heat enveloping his body as the moisture in the air decreased drastically and a deep shade of warm yellow light began to spread everywhere around him.
"Release Ryujin Jakka," he heard Atem mutter from behind him, and in an instant, a tsunami of wild spiritual fire spread throughout the battlefield, consuming every demon in sight The fire spread so rapidly that most demons couldn't react in time, and even those who were able to perceive it beforehand were just as equally helpless as their strong bodies and any barriers or shields they had managed to conjure within the split second were all completely incinerated like mere paper.
The fire was so intense that not only did it immediately incinerate all the demons in the vicinity, but also dried up every single drop of demon blood that had drenched into the ground within seconds. The smell of burnt flesh gradually replaced the stench of decomposing demon bodies that had previously permeated the battlefield, while the molten red sand quickly transformed into what resembled ruby-red glass covering the entire battlefield like some sort of beautiful hand-crafted structure.
In all honesty, this wasn't even a slaughter anymore. It was a mass cremation.
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