"Let him go, Blackheart!"
Just as Blackheart lifted Carter Slade by the throat to interrogate him, a hoarse, demonic voice filled with pure rage rang out from the edge of the graves.
Johnny Blaze marched forward, his body instantly engulfed in roaring Hellfire, transforming entirely into the Ghost Rider.
"You're here too, Johnny!" Blackheart smiled, completely unbothered as he casually tossed the bleeding Carter Slade to the dirt. "That's perfect! Help me bring out the Contract of San Venganza... and I'll graciously release your lovely girlfriend."
Turning to face the flaming skeleton, Blackheart proposed his terms.
"Give it up," the Ghost Rider snarled, the chains rattling on his chest. "I will never trust a demon's promise again."
"Oh? Is that so?" Blackheart's pitch-black eyes gleamed with cruel amusement. "Don't you want to save her anymore?"
Beside Blackheart, a swirling vortex of air materialized. The Wind Demon, Abigor, slowly appeared from the dust. And appearing right alongside him, held tightly in the demon's grasp, was the figure of a terrified woman.
"Johnny!" she cried out. "How did you... become like this?!"
"Roxanne!"
The raging Hellfire on the Ghost Rider's skeletal head was instantly extinguished. The terrifying skull melted away, and he forcefully reverted back to the exhausted, human appearance of Johnny Blaze.
Seeing this familiar face—knowing he was still human underneath it all—Roxanne finally breathed a desperate sigh of relief.
However, after only a moment of human vulnerability, the searing flames erupted from Johnny's body once more. The demonic presence took over, his head transforming back into a flaming skull to protect him from the threat.
"Give me the Contract," Blackheart demanded, pulling Roxanne back by her hair. "You and your girlfriend can leave this place safely. The deal will be done immediately."
Leaving the scene to Johnny and Carter Slade, Blackheart waited, holding the ultimate leverage.
Johnny stared blankly at the hallowed ground, the human consciousness inside the Rider violently warring with the Spirit of Vengeance.
A look of ancient reminiscence flashed in Carter Slade's bloodied eyes.
"Johnny, this is a terribly difficult decision," Carter coughed, clutching his broken ribs. "Heaven knows how many terrible wrongs we Riders have committed in the name of vengeance. Every choice leads down a different path."
"I need to save her," Johnny's distorted voice whispered. "I can spend the rest of my cursed life atoning for it."
Seeing the absolute, human determination in Johnny's burning eyes, Carter Slade said no more. He scrambled up with a groan and picked up the heavy iron shovel that had fallen to the ground.
"Remember your decision, kid!" Carter Slade warned, taking one last, solemn look at Johnny.
Carter gripped the wooden handle of the shovel and snapped it violently over his knee. From the hollowed-out center of the wood, he pulled out a rolled, ancient parchment radiating dark magic. He handed it over to the Ghost Rider.
"Now, let's trade!" Johnny roared.
The exact moment Blackheart saw the physical Contract, his black eyes widened. He could no longer suppress his ecstatic, demonic excitement. He shoved Roxanne forward toward Johnny.
Johnny Blaze simultaneously tossed the ancient Contract high into the night air.
Just then, a calm, deeply amused voice tinged with a Kyoto accent rang out from the shadows above.
"Shoot to kill, Shinsō."
Several spiritual figures suddenly flashed out from the void.
Johnny caught Roxanne, hugging her tightly to his leather jacket, and stared blankly at the sky.
The Contract did not fall into Blackheart's waiting hands. Instead, a blindingly fast streak of white light pierced through the night. The parchment was snatched effortlessly into the palm of a figure hovering in the sky.
At the exact same microsecond, the extending white blade pierced cleanly through Blackheart's skull. The Wind Demon and Water Demon, who had just materialized to support their Prince, were simultaneously bisected and dispersed by a single, untraceable strike.
"Ichimaru Gin!"
Having his head pierced did not deal an immediately fatal wound to Blackheart. His demonic biology rapidly regenerated the hole in his skull. After the impossibly long blade retracted into the sky, Blackheart looked up in an absolute, boiling rage.
There, standing on the air itself, a silver-haired man with permanently squinted eyes, looking exactly like a cunning fox, was watching him with a wide grin.
"How dare you deceive me?!" Blackheart roared, realizing who had fed him the intelligence about Earth in the first place.
"Deceive?" Ichimaru Gin chuckled, tapping the hilt of his short wakizashi against his chin. "Wasn't what I told you the absolute truth, Prince? I told you where it was. I never once said I wouldn't compete with you for it, did I?"
Ichimaru Gin responded to Blackheart's fury with a terrifyingly calm smile. With that, Gin leveled his Zanpakutō directly at the Prince of Hell.
"Your mission to draw out the Contract is complete," Gin said softly. "Now, die. Bankai."
"[Kamishini no Yari: Butōrenjin]" (Spear of the God-Killing Spear: Serial Step Dance)
A blinding torrent of extended blades rained down from the sky faster than the speed of sound. With a single, devastating barrage, Blackheart's immortal body was violently reduced to microscopic ashes.
The spiritual power of a God of Death acts directly upon the soul, bypassing physical durability entirely. This strike didn't just send Blackheart back to Hell to reform. It severed his soul chain and made him vanish into thin air, entirely erased from existence.
"All right!" Gin clapped his hands, looking at the parchment. "Mission accomplished. We should leave."
"Indeed," the incredibly handsome, cold-faced man standing in mid-air beside him spoke.
Ichimaru Gin nodded indifferently. The two Shinigami turned, preparing to use Shunpo to depart.
"Wait!"
A female voice interrupted their movement.
Natasha Romanoff and Hawkeye emerged from the shadows of the church. Looking at the flowing white haori cloaks the two men wore over their black robes, Natasha quickly noticed the kanji embroidered on their backs.
The characters for 'Three' (三) and 'Six' (六).
Natasha and Clint exchanged a look, both feeling deeply troubled. It was tactically clear that this was a highly militarized organization with a strict numerical hierarchy. Seeing that the squinting man could casually obliterate a Prince of Hell in one hit... their power levels were terrifyingly self-evident.
Everything had happened so unexpectedly. From Johnny's impossible choice, to the trade, to Blackheart being instantly executed by an apparent 'acquaintance'. It had only been two minutes. And in those two minutes, the tactical situation on the ground had changed drastically.
The appearance of these two strangers left the few mortals present completely baffled.
But Natasha and Hawkeye were still the most experienced spies on the planet. Seeing that these two uninvited, god-like guests were about to leave with the apocalyptic artifact, Natasha immediately spoke up to stop them.
"Wait. You two," Natasha called out, her hand resting near her holster. "The Contract in your hands concerns the safety of millions of people on this planet. You can't just take it away like this."
Although she logically knew there was an insurmountable disparity in power between them... the sheer importance of the Contract of San Venganza left Natasha with absolutely no other choice. No one wanted to see something like the Meliodas incident happen again if these beings decided to use it.
"Humans?" Ichimaru Gin tilted his head, his smile widening into something genuinely sinister. He looked over at his companion. "Captain Kuchiki. This is terribly overstepping. Should I kill them?"
At Natasha's call, Byakuya Kuchiki stopped his departure.
Ichimaru Gin spoke the terrifying, lethal words with a casual, polite smile.
With his previous, agonizing experiences involving his sister Rukia and that orange-haired substitute Shinigami, Byakuya Kuchiki no longer held such a blind, violently condescending attitude toward humans.
However, Natasha's demanding words... still made the aristocratic Captain somewhat displeased. But it hadn't reached the point where he wanted to slaughter them for the insult, unlike Ichimaru Gin.
Byakuya Kuchiki slowly turned around, looking coldly down at the group from the air. The white kenseikan headpieces woven into his hair shimmered in the pale moonlight.
Seeing the two gods stop, Natasha and Hawkeye hurried forward to negotiate.
"Halt!" Byakuya commanded, his voice echoing with absolute authority.
"Humans. Your souls are far too fragile," Byakuya warned coldly, his dark eyes narrowing. "If you come any closer, your souls will shatter under the pressure, and you will die."
The Reiatsu (Spiritual Pressure) of every Captain is at the absolute peak of the Soul Society. Merely by approaching, a mortal human's soul would be physically crushed by the dense gravity of the Reiatsu they unintentionally emitted.
Natasha and Hawkeye stopped immediately, feeling an invisible, suffocating weight pressing against their chests. Looking back, Carter Slade and Johnny were both nodding at them frantically, confirming the truth of the Shinigami's warning.
Natasha's expression was grave. Could they really not even get close to the figures this time? There was no way to even talk about a physical confrontation.
Composing herself and fighting through the crushing spiritual gravity, Natasha looked up at the man who exuded an air of supreme nobility. The way the squinty-eyed man had addressed him caught her spy's attention.
"Captain Kuchiki?" Natasha asked, taking a calculated gamble. "Are you a God of Death as well?"
As soon as Natasha spoke, everyone present except Hawkeye froze in confusion.
"We are ranking members of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers," Natasha stated confidently, staring directly into Byakuya's cold eyes. "We are currently cooperating with the Gods of Death in this sector. The name of the initiator we are working with is... Rukia Kuchiki."
As she spoke, Natasha calmly held up her S.H.I.E.L.D. identification badge.
While looking up at the sky, Byakuya Kuchiki showed absolutely no outward expression. His handsome face remained as indifferent and unreadable as ever.
"Oh, my," Ichimaru Gin chuckled, covering his mouth with his sleeve. "Captain Kuchiki... It seems your dear little sister has gotten mixed up with humans all over again. Tell me, does she want to trigger another Ryoka invasion?"
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