Hearing Maguire's cryptic line, Doctor Doom's face flickered with surprise. In the next second he lunged straight at him—only for Maguire's figure to blur, reappearing a few meters away and slipping past the strike.
Maguire eyed him, bored. "Impressive. Now make your speed a hundred times faster, your strength a hundred times higher, and give yourself a better weapon. Maybe then I'd almost get hurt. So scary."
He slowly raised his right hand. A blazing crimson pillar of fire lanced at Doom's head.
Doom sneered. "Is that it? Heat near the sun's surface can't melt my body. And you—"
A headless corpse stood where Doom had been.
The beam's unimaginable heat and impact had vaporized his head to gas in an instant. The body remained upright for a beat, then wavered.
Everyone stared, dumbstruck. Natasha's brow tightened. "Just like Nick Fury said—he keeps getting stronger. He's using a heat-ray now. I've never seen him do that before."
Up in the sky, the Human Torch gaped. My flames measure at the sun's surface—and they couldn't touch that guy. The Hellblood Demon decapitated him with one column of fire. Terrifying.
Fear curled through every heart on the scene.
Maguire spoke as if to himself. "Doctor Doom shouldn't be some small fry. At least a mid-boss, right? Turns out you're a puppet."
The moment he arrived he'd noticed—this "Doom" had no soul. Doom, in his last life's memory, was on par with Thanos; no way he'd die so easily. This one had only been a remotely controlled shell.
Elsewhere, in a hidden mountain, a dim chamber flickered. A figure in a black robe rose. "He's stronger than I expected. He even sensed me—and that the Doom here was just a puppet. Interesting."
Back in New York, Maguire glanced at the corpse. "Thought I'd farm a big wave of Bully Points. Just a small fry after all." His gaze slid to Sue and Natasha; an idea popped. He vanished.
"Hey!" both women flinched with a sharp gasp.
Sue scowled. "What the—who just touched me there?"
Natasha muttered inwardly, You two take forever; I've wrapped it up and come back already. Pack your things—don't forget the time tomorrow. What an incorrigible man.
Less than a minute later, Maguire was home. His phone rang—Garfield.
"Hey, Maguire—incident in the Twelfth District. You going?"
Expressionless, Maguire said nothing and hung up.
Night fell. At S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, in a large briefing room, Nick Fury faced Natasha, face grave. "So the Hellblood Demon showed a new ability?"
Natasha nodded. "A heat-ray—extremely powerful. Far hotter than ordinary flame."
Fury's frown deepened. "He's growing without stopping—and his methods… If I had to put it in one line: he's an evil with terrifying power."
Elsewhere, in Stark Tower, Tony tinkered with his armor. Pepper hurried in. "Tony—the Hellblood Demon moved again today."
Tony's eyebrow ticked. "What happened? Any new abilities?"
Pepper brought up the surveillance. On the holo-screen, Johnny's solar-level flames left the metal man untouched. Tony thought, That's not ordinary metal. Then the clip of Maguire's heat-ray decapitation rolled. Tony immediately called Nick Fury.
"What is it, Tony?" Fury's voice was calm.
"That metal body—S.H.I.E.L.D. has it, right?"
"Yes. You want it? We've started studying it, but nothing can cut it."
"Then send it to me."
They hung up. On Tony's side screen, a project folder glowed: [Anti-Demon Armor Project].
Maguire sprawled on his bed, checking his newly earned 400 Bully Points. Looks like it's time to start the Asgard plan. Plenty of Frost Giants there—prime for harvesting a big wave of points.
By the next day, it was time to set out on the trip.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810