"What is this now… debt collection, right at the doorstep?"
Hadn't the Ancient One said it was nearly impossible to cross the dimensional barrier?
Then how had these hellish demons crossed over to Earth en masse?
Aron didn't know what price they had to pay to break through, but he knew one thing, his "creditors" had come. The only question was, would they ever leave?
Want to collect a debt?
Well, they'll first have to be strong enough.
If necessary, Aron could simply activate an exorcism circle and send them back.
"But then again…"
"Since they've come this far… maybe I should be a gracious host?"
Aron thought, stroking his chin.
Maybe it was time to use the opportunity and get in contact with some demons he hadn't yet made deals with.
The demonic aura coming from the direction of the city was growing more intense.
In it, he felt the presence of an extremely powerful entity.
Nine out of ten chances, it was one of the Hell Lords the Ancient One had told him about.
"Worth going to take a look. And if it doesn't go well, I'll just send them all back where they came from."
Aron shrugged.
He wasn't too worried. These demons hadn't come for him, they were after Mordo, the guy who used demonic power.
And him?
Aron used the power of shadow.
No connection to that.
Having made up his mind, Aron put on the teleportation ring and opened a portal.
This time, instead of using demonic energy, he used the power of shadow.
But the familiar golden portal circle didn't appear.
He thought the attempt had failed.
Suddenly, a dark circle appeared beneath his feet.
A black hole, resembling an abyss, swallowed him without a trace.
---
A second later…
The dark circle opened in the middle of ruined New York.
Surrounded by black smoke, Aron slowly rose from the shadowy abyss.
"By the way… did this even work?"
He looked around. The streets were in total chaos.
All around were ruins, smoke, and scorched ground.
Only a few familiar buildings in the distance told him he was still in New York.
Otherwise, he'd have thought he'd been teleported to a war zone somewhere in the Middle East.
"Well, I guess I won't be having breakfast tomorrow…"
The breakfast restaurant he'd been to that morning was now just a demolished pile of concrete and steel.
Fortunately, there were no dead bodies.
It looked like the owner, an elderly Chinese woman, had managed to evacuate in time.
"That's good… real Chinese food isn't easy to find around here."
Aron didn't want anything bad to happen to her.
---
"Rik--!"
"Human! Another human!"
Two winged demonic creatures spotted Aron and immediately rushed to attack.
"Human?"
Aron sensed their pitiful demonic energy.
Together, they didn't even have a tenth of his power.
He used pure shadow force, infused with demonic essence.
Compared to them, he was closer to a demon than they were.
Swish! Swish!
With a single hand movement, the shadows of the collapsed building next to him distorted and formed two black spears.
In a second, they pierced the winged demons and pinned them to a distant concrete wall.
One strike, the end.
Aron was also a wielder of demonic power.
Aron knew very well just how weak these hellish demons actually were.
"Oh, now that's a serious battle…"
After eliminating the two stray demons, he heard a powerful explosion in the distance.
He looked up.
Three F-22 jets flew across the sky.
"I can't believe this tin can dance is still effective, and without a drop of fuel."
Just as he finished saying those words,
a blade formed from hellfire flashed and…
BOOM!
The three F-22s exploded in sequence, vanishing in flames and smoke, no trace of metal left behind.
"I hadn't even finished the sentence."
---
"You parasites!"
"Can't you even fall at the right time!?"
Tony Stark dragged himself out of the rubble, his armor crumpled and dusty.
The missile he had launched was aimed at Belath, but he dodged at the last second.
The result?
Tony ruined his own day.
"Sir, Mark 15 has been hit and destroyed."
Jarvis' voice continued in the background.
"Mark 39 – Gemini, destroyed."
"Mark 33 – Silver Centurion, destroyed."
"Mark 35 – Red Snapper… Mark 37 – Hammerhead… Mark 38 – Igor…"
Each Jarvis report meant another suit worth hundreds of millions of dollars turned into fireworks.
Tony didn't care.
He had activated the Party Protocol, and all available suits under Jarvis' command were engaged in battle.
But even that didn't change the outcome.
Belath was too powerful.
---
BOOM!
Hulk fell from the air.
His green body was full of wounds and gashes.
Belath's saber wasn't a divine artifact like Mjolnir or Odin's Spear…
But even Hulk's skin couldn't withstand it.
"I got him…!"
"No! I didn't…"
Steve Rogers, supported by two autonomous suits under Jarvis' control, attempted an attack.
But…
Another swing of Belath's saber.
Captain America flew off like a ragdoll.
His shield nearly shattered from the blow.
"No… this can't be won!"
Natasha spat out blood.
She couldn't even handle the lowest demonic beings, let alone Belath.
The power gap was insurmountable.
Military support? Useless.
No weapons, no plan.
You can't win, period.
---
In a moment of complete despair, a golden circular portal opened in the middle of the battlefield.
Out of the portal stepped a bald man in a traditional Kamar-Taj monk's robe.
Daniel Drumm.
One of the guardians of the sacred temples, in charge of the temple in New York.
"I'll try to hold him. You wait for your chance to strike!"
Immediately upon arrival, he activated protective talismans.
Golden light enveloped all present Avengers.
In an instant, their bodies became lighter, reactions faster.
Even their jumps now reached ten meters high.
For those who couldn't fly, this was a necessary enhancement.
"Wait… am I going crazy…"
"…or did this guy just cast a spell like some cartoon wizard?"
Tony Stark's logic base had just suffered another collapse.