Seeing Fenris actually dare to grab the chain bare-handed, the four who had just suffered under that strange flame immediately widened their eyes.
"Don't—"
They were not exactly willing to see Thor's Mjolnir fall into this man's hands, but they did not regard Fenris as an outsider either. Sif's voice rose sharply, trembling slightly with urgency.
"Let go! You'll be burned!"
"That flame carries a soul attack. You need to—"
"He may already be under its effect!"
Volstagg, the largest among them, raised his shield and charged at Fenris from behind, trying to force him to release the chain.
Yet the man, who did not look as strong as Thor, seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He casually reached one hand backward, and Volstagg's charge was lightly stopped by him. His figure did not even sway in the slightest.
"You?!"
Volstagg abruptly lifted his head, his face full of disbelief.
Even Thor would not dare say he could block him so effortlessly. How could this Midgardian possibly…
"I told you, this is a misunderstanding."
Fenris released the chain somewhat helplessly. With only a light push, Volstagg lost his footing and staggered back several meters before slowly coming to a stop.
Once he steadied himself, Volstagg stared in disbelief at the finely crafted warrior's shield on his arm.
On its exceptionally sharp edge, a clear handprint had been pressed into the metal.
"What incredible strength… Is he a monster?"
The gazes of the others froze at the same time. Their breathing stopped for a moment, and even the pain flooding their bodies was briefly forgotten.
"After thousands of years, a powerhouse like this has appeared among the people of Midgard?"
Listening to the hushed murmuring behind him, Fenris, with his back to the four of them, curled his lip and turned his gaze forward.
The chain in his hand stretched straight into the yellow sand in the distance. There, dust flew in a gray haze. The scorching temperature grew higher and higher, until even the air began to shimmer, as if some terrifying existence were being born within.
"Johnny, it's me."
Sensing the increasingly intense energy fluctuations from that spot, Fenris's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
The Penance Stare had no real effect on him, but by Johnny's perception, he should have recognized Fenris's aura long ago.
If so, why was he still hiding in the shadows instead of coming out? Why was he assuming this battle stance, as if ready to strike at any moment?
An ominous feeling abruptly rose in Fenris's heart.
"Could it be Blackheart?"
The thought had barely emerged before the sense of danger became impossible to suppress. Looking at the hellfire on the chain in his hand, which not only had not died out but was burning even more violently, Fenris realized something had gone wrong. He gently exhaled and casually threw Mjolnir onto the ground.
It was not his, after all. Playing around with it was one thing. Actually using it in a fight was another.
The next moment, every muscle in his body instantly tensed. His feet shifted slightly, and his knees slowly bent.
"Bang!"
Two pairs of heavy golden wings burst from his back. Their edges shimmered with rainbow light, yet looked exceptionally sharp. A vast surge of power erupted. Behind him, Sif and the others heard only a thunderous blast as the ground within dozens of meters cracked open with massive fissures.
Their vision was immediately filled with sacred, dazzling golden light. Radiance swirled around those long wings, so beautiful that even gathering every lovely word in the world would not be enough to describe one ten-thousandth of it.
The wings extended lightly. Their soft surfaces swept through the air, yet raised cutting, violent winds. Brilliant streams of light covered them like a layer of solid armor.
The next instant, everyone's vision blurred. Fenris turned into a streak of golden light and shot straight toward the sandstorm that blotted out the sky.
Flames surged upward. In the blink of an eye, they formed a gigantic fire tornado linking heaven and earth. Mixed with hard gravel, it would be enough to easily shred any living thing that rushed inside.
Fenris gripped the chain. Surging tongues of flame licked at his arm, yet could not leave even the slightest injury on him.
Feeling the immense force transmitted from the other end of the chain, he transformed into a streak of light and charged into the storm without hesitation.
Inside the dust cloud, visibility was less than a few meters. Fenris frowned slightly. His eyes flashed while moving at high speed, and his gaze easily pierced through the obstruction. Soon, a faint red light suddenly entered his sight.
"Found you!"
With a low shout, the golden light drew a graceful arc and abruptly changed direction.
Hundreds of meters vanished in a flash. The instant Fenris saw Johnny again, Johnny's appearance made his heart sink.
The soul flame that had once been pure now seemed polluted by some unknown power. Although its temperature had grown even hotter, it faintly gave off a foul, nauseating stench.
Johnny was riding his hell cycle, charging toward Fenris as well. His Penance Stare was utterly dim, and he kept roaring from his mouth.
"Sinner!"
"All of them are guilty—"
"Kill! Leave no one alive!"
After defeating Sif and the Warriors Three with overwhelming force, the Ghost Rider at this moment looked as if he had gone berserk. The terrifying sight was enough to make one's blood run cold.
Seeing the magnificent, righteous, and sacred aura around Fenris, the Ghost Rider seemed to freeze for an instant. That power seemed naturally incompatible with him, making him instinctively feel a wave of discomfort.
But the next moment, the frenzied aura of vengeance in his mind completely swallowed Johnny's reason. Without hesitation, he lifted the front of his bike. Hellfire surged from his body into the sky as he crashed toward Fenris, who was diving rapidly downward.
"This is…"
"Did being pursued by Blackheart cause him to be consumed by the Spirit of Vengeance?"
Thoughts raced through Fenris's mind, but his body did not slow at all. Looking at Johnny, who had launched himself into the air and lost all reason as he charged toward him, the wings behind Fenris suddenly expanded dozens of meters without warning.
With a thought from Fenris, his rapidly flying figure tilted slightly. Two pairs of heavy wings swept lightly, their sharp edges meeting Johnny and his bike from an extremely tricky angle.
"Boom!"
The instant the two crossed paths, raging flames suddenly rose, madly licking at the wings, only to be completely blocked outside by the golden light covering them.
Under Fenris's precise control, the cold, gleaming edges of his sharp wings sliced cleanly through the hellfire protection and split the impossibly hard hell cycle neatly in two.
Losing the support of hellfire, the Ghost Rider's mount instantly lost all its luster. After letting out an explosive roar, it burst apart, then fell heavily from the sky.
The collision lasted only an instant. The Ghost Rider did not even have time to react before he seemed to suffer a heavy blow, and the hellfire around him instantly withered.
The blast from the collision sent him flying hard. Suspended in midair, an intense sensation of weightlessness suddenly struck him. Under the successive shocks, Johnny's lost consciousness finally recovered slightly.
"Where… am I?"
The murmur had just fallen when his vision slowly returned. A golden light swept past the corner of his eye, and in the next instant, a hand like an iron clamp seized his throat.
…
In all these years, Johnny had only ever had his throat grabbed by one person.
When they first met, the beating he took in that hotel had left far too deep an impression on him. As his sleeping memories awakened and that familiar sense of suffocation surged into his heart, Johnny did not even clearly see who had come before he almost instinctively called out the man's name.
"Fenris?"
"Cough, cough. You… Why are you choking me again?"
(End of Chapter)
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