Three days later, the medical hall was quiet for the first time in a while.
Soren sat alone inside, letting the silence settle around him. Johnny and Nadya had taken Danny back to their new home, because of Soren's arrangements, Osborn had personally come down to the street, bought a house, and settled the mother and son there.
Nadya now had stable work, and Johnny newly freed, newly reborn, had gone off to prepare.
He planned to stay in New York from now on. Danny's guardian rider. His shield until the boy grew into what he was meant to be.
Soren was content with that… but he wasn't free yet.
Not even close.
There was something he absolutely had to do before he could focus on teaching Danny, travel to the Abyssal Plane and fulfill the promise he had made.
Mephisto had to be dealt with… completely, finally, permanently.
The Abyssal Plane was vast. Not as wide as a full solar system, but far larger than Earth, an endless expanse of scorched, blackened flatland.
It wasn't a planet in any traditional sense, it was a realm. A world of jagged horizons, blood-red skies, and ancient firestorms that collapsed and rebuilt themselves without end.
And contrary to mortal rumors, Mephisto did not rule it like an undisputed god.
Yes, he was called the Lord of the Abyss because he was the strongest among many Abyss Lords. But Abyssal creatures were selfish, treacherous, born from flame, pain, and ambition.
Demons obeyed only when they feared. They followed Mephisto not out of loyalty, but because opposing him hurt… a lot.
It was why he coveted the human world so badly.
A realm he could actually control.
Deep within the blazing territory of the Flame, the landscape was nothing but molten chaos, vast oceans of magma boiling beneath an airless sky. In those infernal depths lived Mephisto's kin, demons birthed from fire and bound to magma.
Their abilities revolved entirely around flame, and Mephisto purest of their kind, had evolved beyond them. His Abyssal fire had become something far more terrible, the Hellfire itself.
But on this day, the magma sea began to shake.
Chaotic spatial distortions ripped open the air above the molten plains.
The magma surged upward like a crimson hurricane, exploding in pillars that clawed toward the sky. It looked like the end of the world… violent, merciless, apocalyptic.
Several flame demons patrolling the region were instantly torn apart by the spatial turbulence, incinerated before they even realized what killed them.
The news reached Mephisto almost immediately.
He arrived in his true form, cloak whipping violently in the rising heat.
His fury was already boiling from earlier events, his projection in the mortal world had been destroyed three separate times, the ritual interrupted, the contract with Ghost Rider shattered.
Not only had he lost control over Johnny Blaze… he couldn't even reclaim the power he had granted him.
Unacceptable.
Insulting.
Humiliating.
During the last few days, Mephisto had turned into a walking catastrophe.
His rage was so terrible that entire Abyssal clans fled their territories just to avoid being caught in the storm. Any demon that displeased him,even slightly, was burned alive.
And now, someone dared to cause spatial turmoil directly above his domain?
"What foolish creature…"
"…dares step into my realm?"
Among Abyssal demons, strength is the only law. Every creature born in the Abyss is violent, bloodthirsty, and hungry for war. Becoming the Lord of the Abyss requires only one thing… kill every challenger.
Stand alone at the end.
Countless ages ago, Mephisto did exactly that.
He crushed every contender beneath his heel, painting the plains of magma with the ashes of would-be usurpers. For years, centuries, challenges came endlessly.
One demon after another tried their luck, and all of them fell beneath Mephisto's power. Their defeats carved his name into legend and fear alike.
But after so long a reign, challenges grew fewer.
Demons watched from the shadows.
Some stirred, restless and whispered treason.
And Mephisto, already raging from recent failures in the mortal world, was in no mood for the faintest hint of rebellion.
So the moment he received the report, chaotic spatial tremors above his territory, he came in person.
A roar rolled up from beneath the molten sea.
Magma surged as Mephisto's massive form rose out of it, climbing from the depths as though emerging from the womb of the Abyss itself. The molten rock poured over his skin and doing absolutely nothing to him.
Here, in this infernal environment, he wasn't merely strong.
He was empowered.
If Mephisto stepped into the human world, he appeared man-sized.
Here he was titanic.
In human terms, he was as tall as a moving skyscraper.
Hellfire burned inside his eyes like two colossal beacons, lighting the magma fields for miles. Twin demon horns, each nearly thirty meters long, curved behind his head like spiraling blades of volcanic bone.
Countless sharp bone spurs lined his limbs and spine, glowing brighter as magma washed over them.
His very presence made the magma ocean riot for ten kilometers around.
But when Mephisto stared into the center of the spatial disturbance… his expression shifted.
No demonic aura and no challenger's killing intent.
Just a pocket of untouched space trembling violently… cracks forming and sealing in rapid succession. This wasn't rebellion.
A foreign scent leaked out.
Not of the Abyss.
And Mephisto's eyes narrowed.
"…Earth."
The word ground out of his throat like an avalanche, and Hellfire exploded from his gaze.
A wave of power blasted upward, splitting the sky of the Abyss in molten streaks.
Only one being, on all of Earth, possessed the strength to forcibly tear through realities and storm the Abyss itself.
His worst enemy.
The one who had destroyed his projections.
The one who had severed his contract with the Rider.
Soren.
A thunderous roar tore from Mephisto's chest as he confirmed the aura.
Spatial cracks burst open, more and more widening into ragged tears.
The magma sea rose in towering columns, only to be dragged upward and swallowed into the rifts, vanishing into the void.
And with every second, the scent of Earth grew clearer.
The doctor was coming.