As the hellfire erupting from Ghost Rider's remains condensed into a massive fireball over five meters in diameter, Richard wasn't the only one who recognized the Spirit of Vengeance's intentions—the Invisible Woman and Human Torch quickly reached the same conclusion.
The stubborn onlookers who had refused to evacuate, determined to witness the spectacle firsthand, froze for a moment as they processed the developing scene. Then, as one, they fled in blind panic.
Though they didn't understand what Ghost Rider or the Spirit of Vengeance truly were, they weren't fools. After seeing the Thing—whose rocky form had withstood countless threats—burned to charcoal by the hellfire, they understood these flames were far from ordinary. And the enormous fireball now forming before their eyes was obviously something far more dangerous.
The onlookers weren't alone in their retreat. New York police officers stationed around the perimeter also began abandoning their posts. Their reasoning was simple: a few thousand dollars a month wasn't worth risking their lives.
As civilians and law enforcement scattered, the Invisible Woman and her two companions struggled to evacuate with the injured Thing. Despite their powers, moving a man whose body was literally made of stone proved challenging. None of them possessed abilities particularly suited for rapidly transporting such a massive weight.
Seeing the fireball growing increasingly brilliant, the Invisible Woman immediately generated a defensive force field, enveloping herself, Mr. Fantastic, and their teammates.
BOOM!
Within seconds, the massive fireball exploded like a miniature nuclear bomb. The detonation echoed throughout Brooklyn and reached the ears of residents across several other New York boroughs.
The shockwave radiated outward with terrifying force, covering one to two kilometers in an instant. A golden mushroom cloud rose into the night sky, the explosion's brilliance transforming the darkness to daylight. The ground trembled violently as though struck by an earthquake.
Richard, positioned closest to the explosion's epicenter, made no attempt to retreat. Though the Spirit of Vengeance's "self-destruct" attack packed tremendous power, it posed no real threat to him.
Before the fireball detonated, he had channeled his energy absorption ability at maximum capacity, creating a 360-degree shield around himself. He'd never tested the limits of his energy absorption before, but he wasn't concerned about sustaining injury. His enhanced Alpha-level ability, combined with his durability and accelerated healing, made him practically invulnerable to the attack.
The blinding light and devastating shockwave lasted only seconds before dissipating. Yet the dust cloud and golden mushroom formation lingered in the sky.
Richard ignored these atmospheric effects, using his telepathy to locate the regenerating Ghost Rider. The explosion's shockwave had scattered Ghost Rider's remains widely—the same force that had reduced surrounding reinforced concrete buildings to rubble. Though the fragments had been dispersed to unknown locations, this didn't impede Ghost Rider's recovery.
At the center of the golden mushroom cloud, hellfire rapidly coalesced into a humanoid shape. Within this fiery outline, Ghost Rider's skeletal structure began to reassemble piece by piece.
Compared to earlier, Ghost Rider's regeneration had slowed dramatically. It took nearly ten seconds for his complete skeletal form to materialize. The leather jacket and jeans he'd previously worn were gone—the Spirit of Vengeance, having expended vast amounts of energy, no longer concerned itself with the host's appearance. Being reduced to bare bones rendered clothing irrelevant anyway.
After using its remaining energy to restore its host, the Spirit of Vengeance took direct control of Ghost Rider's body, preparing to flee and temporarily abandoning any thoughts of judging Richard.
However, as the Spirit-controlled Ghost Rider emerged from the golden mushroom cloud, it found Richard waiting—holding two swords, one long and one short, regarding it with evident satisfaction.
The moment it saw Richard, the Spirit of Vengeance experienced a profound premonition of death—a sensation it had felt only once before, six thousand years ago when it had first descended to Earth as a rain of fire. Back then, before it had begun devouring its own kind to perfect itself, it had been far less powerful than its current form.
During conflicts with others of its kind, it had occasionally sensed its own mortality, but never as intensely as now. Though it couldn't comprehend why Richard triggered such a powerful death intuition, the Spirit chose to trust its instincts. It immediately channeled its remaining meager energy reserves—causing the hellfire surrounding Ghost Rider to burn even more fiercely.
Under the Spirit's wary gaze, Richard raised the Yamato Blade.
Without further delay, Richard flashed forward, appearing instantly before Ghost Rider. He swung the blade in his right hand with lightning speed.
"Separation!"
The Yamato encountered no resistance, passing through Ghost Rider's body as though slicing through empty air. On the surface, his attack appeared to cause no damage.
But the Spirit of Vengeance possessing Ghost Rider experienced something entirely different.
The Spirit, which had fully merged with its host's soul, felt a powerful separating force unlike anything it had encountered before. This strange, overwhelming ability forcibly severed the fusion between Spirit and host, violently extracting the Spirit from the body it inhabited.
For ordinary beings, separating the Spirit of Vengeance from its merged host would prove nearly impossible. For Richard, however, it presented no challenge.
In fact, methods for separating the Spirit of Vengeance from hosts weren't uncommon in the Marvel Universe. Comics had featured several: sacred weapons forged from the paving stones of Heaven, the Hand's dark magic rituals, Mephisto's arcane spells, and more. With the right approach, severing the connection between Spirit and host was relatively straightforward.
Under Richard's watchful gaze, a fist-sized orb of golden light emerged from Ghost Rider's body. As the luminous sphere departed, the hellfire engulfing Ghost Rider instantly vanished. His skeletal form reverted to normal flesh and blood.
Who is this guy?
As Ghost Rider reverted to his human form, Richard frowned slightly.
He had expected this Ghost Rider to be one of the first, second, or third generations from the comics. Instead, he found himself mistaken. The man before him was Black, appearing to be in his thirties or forties.
While the comics had featured Black Ghost Riders before—such as Caleb, who bore the Spirit during the American Civil War—the middle-aged man before him clearly wasn't Caleb.
Though uncertain of this Ghost Rider's identity, Richard didn't hesitate. He swung the Masamune in his left hand with lightning speed. Whoever this world's Ghost Rider might be, Richard had no intention of showing mercy. The confrontation had progressed too far to simply let his opponent walk away.
The Spirit of Vengeance must die—and so must its host.
Slash!
As the Masamune cut through the air, the middle-aged man's head sailed upward like a basketball.
After dispatching the unfamiliar host, Richard turned his attention to the golden orb of light—the Spirit of Vengeance itself. Having separated from its host, the Spirit attempted to flee.
It quickly realized its mistake.
"Magnetic Field Lock!"
The moment the Spirit had been separated, Richard had used his magnetic field manipulation to create an ultra-high intensity field, invisible to the naked eye, that now ensnared the Spirit of Vengeance.
After reintegrating the Yamato with the Masamune, Richard extended his right hand and directly grasped the Spirit's essence.
"Energy Absorption!"
Upon contact, the already limited energy within the Spirit of Vengeance was rapidly drained. After just two or three seconds, the Spirit's luminescence dimmed completely, and its size shrank from that of a fist to merely an egg.
Despite the Spirit's depleted state, Richard continued the absorption process. After another five or six seconds, the egg-sized Spirit diminished to the size of a grain of sand before disappearing entirely.
"Plunder!"
Having drained the Spirit of Vengeance completely, Richard immediately activated his Omega-level Plunder ability.
[Gain new ability: Hellfire!]
[Hellfire: A supernatural flame originating from the depths of hell, not restricted by natural laws, with the ability to demonize, materialize, restore, burn souls, and transform into evil spirits.]
After reading the system's description, Richard smiled with satisfaction. Unlike X-gene mutant powers, Hellfire wasn't categorized by specific levels or integrated with similar abilities. But this was a minor detail.
Closing the information panel, Richard turned to glance at the Fantastic Four. The Spirit of Vengeance's self-destruction had indeed been powerful, but the Invisible Woman's defensive force field had proven equally impressive. Though her barrier had shown signs of collapse, none of the four had sustained injuries from the attack.
The civilian onlookers and NYPD officers hadn't been so fortunate. With a casual telepathic scan, Richard confirmed that two to three hundred people had perished in the Spirit's final desperate act.
Under the watchful eyes of the Fantastic Four, Richard simply teleported away, returning to the hotel entrance where he'd left his car.
"Where do you live?" he asked Nina, who sat waiting in the passenger seat.
What?
Nina had mentally prepared herself to return home alone that night. She looked at Richard with surprise. Though she'd remained in the car, she'd watched the livestream of his battle with Ghost Rider. When the broadcast had suddenly cut off, she'd worried Richard might have been injured.
She'd assumed that after such a battle, Richard wouldn't be in the mood for their planned evening together. Yet here he was, asking for her address as his first question upon returning.
Though surprised, Nina immediately provided the location of her apartment. Then she took out her phone and texted her sister, telling her to get ready.
Noon the following day. Nina's apartment.
Richard gently removed the limbs of the two Nina sisters from his body, rose from the bed, and located his clothes scattered across the floor.
"Are you leaving?" Nina asked with sleepy eyes, her voice tinged with reluctance.
"Yes," Richard nodded.
Hearing his answer, Nina first displayed disappointment, then quickly stood and approached him, assisting him with his clothes like an attentive maid.
Once dressed, Richard teleported from the apartment under Nina's gaze, reappearing in the underground garage. He drove his vintage Aston Martin toward his manor.
Though he hadn't returned home the previous night, he'd texted Emma Frost before his evening with the Quinn sisters to ensure she wouldn't assume Ghost Rider had killed him.
What Richard didn't yet realize was that he had become the target of New York's outrage—condemned as a mass murderer by the public.
Early that morning, the executives of major television stations and newspapers across New York had received official calls. Along with these calls came precise casualty figures from the previous night's incident: 276 dead and 851 injured.
Though the economic damage hadn't yet been calculated, that wasn't the government's primary concern. At official request, New York's major media outlets had reported Richard's battle with Ghost Rider with remarkable "fairness."
And thus, overnight, Richard had become a universally condemned killer.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion Headquarters. Director's Office.
"What are those people in the White House thinking? Have they lost their minds, or are they so arrogant they believe they can manipulate Richard at will?" Natasha demanded, her tight black uniform accentuating her curves as she sat across from Nick Fury. "They're having the media deliberately mislead the public and blame him. Aren't they afraid he'll pay them a personal visit?"
"They're neither stupid nor arrogant," Fury replied slowly. "As for whether Richard will visit them... that depends on whether he's prepared to make the entire world his enemy."
Natasha studied Fury with confusion. Though his words were cryptic, a realization immediately crossed her mind.
"I don't know what you've prepared," she said, "but my intuition tells me Richard won't be as easy to deal with as you think. Whatever your plans, Banner and I won't be involved."
With that, Natasha stood and walked out without waiting for Fury's response.
Fury wasn't bothered by her attitude. When he'd recruited her into S.H.I.E.L.D., he'd known Natasha would never be a blindly obedient subordinate.
As Natasha left the office, Fury pulled out his phone and dialed the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s New York branch. The call connected quickly.
"From now on, give me hourly updates," he ordered. "I want to know everything Richard Wesley does. I want to know everywhere he goes, everyone he meets, and everything he eats."
Nick Fury's tone left no room for misunderstanding. The situation had become deadly serious.
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Marvel : The God Of Punishment System
I Am Raditz
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