CHAPTER 189

[Bucky Barnes POV]

How the times have truly changed. If someone was to tell me five years ago that I would be on the level where I would have to fight not only Gods but also demons from hell, the only reason I would have believed them was if I was brainwashed to. 

It was times like these that I truly understood how the quack felt when he would say that 99.99% of the world couldn't experience the things he had. If they could live half of what we've lived through in these past few years, their entire worldview would be shattered and reformed and after that reformation, they would find out just how truly disconnected from the rest of the world they were. Only a select few on Earth were on the level we were and that made it even more lonely. 

When the quack had told us about what was currently happening which may or may not have contained something about our reality being destroyed, I don't know because it somehow didn't sound that important, it really didn't take me by surprise. 

Finding out that two kings of hell were trying to conquer Earth was nothing more than another Tuesday for us at this point, but I will have to admit that this was on a whole different scale than annihilating galactic tyrants or beating up young Gods. They were actually spreading around the Earth which was impressive as they managed to do that without stepping on anyone's tail. 

"Having a device which can teleport you to different locations on the planet sure is handy." I muttered as I stepped through the swirling blue portal which was the effect of the device I had on me, courtesy of Draul. 

"73 in total. Light work, should be done in record time." It was still a trippy experience whenever I used my powers but it didn't feel as weird as it once was when I first got it, which was hours ago, Draul sure had perfect timing or the worst timing. 

The demons and cultists present were already aware of my intrusion as I could feel the ground tremble as they rushed to my location. Time was of the essence so I couldn't dawdle. 

Power flowed through my veins uninterrupted. "I could get used to this feeling." Blood obstructed my perfect vision as I ripped the first person I came across, a human, into two. I didn't ease up and neither did they even after their comrade died. 

Their unrelenting fervor however wouldn't change the expected outcome. I dove into the thick of the fray in a semi gaseous form and started a carnage that even made the bravest demon amongst them pale in fright.

I will be the first to admit that I am not okay. Trained as an assassin and world class martial artist, I always went for efficiency and precision; always going for the silent kill. But that all changed since that fateful day I woke up and tried to attack Draul. 

What changed? Rather than the assassin I once was, now I was nothing more than a rampaging intellectual monster. The abilities I had gotten increased this factor by a hundred fold when it became apparent that I was a small gap short of becoming the ultimate soldier. Oh how HYDRA would have cremated their pants at the prospect of having such a weapon under them. 

A cultist fired a spell at me which did nothing more than send a slight jolt up my nerves, a tickle. I hate tickles. 

My hand morphed into a black blade as I slashed at him, dissecting him from his right shoulder to his left waist side. Not stopping there, beams shot out from my hands, compressed sound waves, which shredded the people in the direction of my hands, bursting them into small stomps of meat. 

A whip was wrapped around my neck which was followed by a tug that felt nothing more than the tap of a child. Grabbing the whip which emitted black wisps, I tugged on it and the demon came flying towards me only for it to be separated towards the four cardinal paths. 

"Time's up." My torso, from the neck down to the waist, gained a smoldering red color, a few shades lighter than Draul's red, and from my front and back grew long sharp flat edged red constructs like the blades of a fan. Before they could jump back to avoid whatever it was that I wanted to do, the blades immediately extended to a few meters, covering everyone before me in its radius. 

A second later, denied of any respite not like they deserved one in any way, the fans spun at blinding speed and shredded them into red mist like a blender. 

Seeing the red that filtered into the surroundings reminded me of Nat. "I wonder how she's doing. Probably steamrolling these fuckers." Why I will admit it would be somehow hot to see her pulverize her enemies into red paste, unfortunately I was still in business mode. Work first, pleasure later. 

Next stop, the outskirts of Angola. 

I recalibrated the device and pinged in on one of the locations on the holographic globe it projected, one of the brighter red ones. Well what can I say? I have a new thing for red. 

Space rippled before me and I once again stepped through the blue portal. The place I was in was very close to the city which meant that in the likely scenario that the fight spilled out, civilians would be casualties of battle. 

Reading the situation, a plan of attack was already laid out in my mind. The next moment, I rushed at the camp of demons in flashing speed, grabbing the first person by the leg, a woman, before she had the chance to react and dragged her along the rough ground, leaving a trail of blood and grated flesh on the ground. 

I flung her stomp with a great force against her comrades, turning the two people she collided against into watermelons. 

The enemies this time seemed a little wiser as they halted their press the moment they saw three of their members killed in a moment faster than their eyes could see. 

I wanted to attack them since they were actually stupid enough to look at me like that but had to pause my steps as I saw a tall demon, massively overshadowing the others, standing at an impressive 8ft making his way through the demon congregation as they made open a path for him. 

"Human~ A quite strong one." The hellspawn's raspy voice fizzled in between hisses. He had two pairs of curved horns on the side of his head and held a triple-serrated black broadsword that looked like it was forged from the bones of tortured souls if the constant screams and faces on the body of the hellish contraption were given any credit. 

That was some dangerous level of instinct this guy was making me feel. While I haven't fought a demon as strong as this one, I didn't actually feel enough of a danger threat from him for me to be thoroughly cautious. 

The blades started leaking thick black blobs and fell off its body to the ground, causing the ground to sizzle as whatever that black thing was completely ate through it. 

"Some weapon you got there, big fella. Mind telling me what the hell that black dripping thing falling off of its body is? No? Well I guess I have to use it on you to find out."

The demon roared and ran towards me, reaching me with only a quick, almost imperceptible, blur of his movements and swinging down his blade. Not wanting to find out first hand what that obviously sinister weapon could do, I dodged to the sides but the demon immediately went after me, flaunting his speed in a way that appeared almost teasingly to me. 

Seeing the demon's unrelenting strides, I dodged towards where his group was standing and due to him being likely over arrogant and lost in whatever rage he was feeling, or maybe he simply didn't care, he couldn't stop himself on time when one of his comrades fell into his line of execution. 

He cleaved cleanly through the stunned cultist and that was when I understood what it was that the blade did. Looking at the quickly shriveling corpse and how it emitted some wisp that the blade seems to absorb, and also the small new face that appeared among the sea of faces on each part of the blade, it didn't take me long to realize that the blade somehow absorbed the life and soul that was fading away from the dead guy and used it to empower the demon. 

The demon rushed at me with reinvigorated fervor but despite its little strength increase, I reacted to it with barely restrained ease, parrying its blade with my hands taking on the properties of Vibranium. 

Seeing me being able to keep up with it despite its empowerment, he started attacking everywhere around him rabidly, killing any unfortunate demon or human who was within its striking radius and using their death to empower himself. 

"Fuck!" This demon was already strong, using the life force of his allies to strengthen himself would make him a lot harder to deal with. I rushed at him to get him to refocus his attention on me but before I reached him, a huge explosion knocked me back, sending me flying into the main highway road. "Oh crap!" 

Before I could even tell the people coming out of their car to check the cause of the disturbance to run away, a huge energy blast came from within the bushes and impacted my location, turning everything around me to debris and fire.

The demon landed in front of me with changed forms. His horns were longer and they were double coiled and he now had three pairs of eyes. The sword was somewhat bigger to match his increased size and the screams coming from it were more pronounced. 

I could hear the screams of terror around me but I couldn't keep my focus on them, not risking the chance of letting this demon out of my sight. 

My body took on a matte black color as it rushed at me, sword a swinging, but I just stood there even as the blade impacted me, sending an air blast to the area behind me. I could feel the force from the strike empowering me and small trickles of purple shone through my all black form. 

"How about that?" He swung his sword a couple of times at me but I just tanked each of his attacks, building up large units of energy in my body. He backpedaled a couple of steps as soon as he realized that none of his attacks were causing me damage but instead the opposite. 

Not letting it go on one of its angry fits, the first expulsion of power was directly into his face, pulverizing his eyes as they did his ears, nose and mouth. The second was to his throat, reducing his face to more outpour of blood. 

The third and last, also most powerful, were to its scrotum, which it definitely had, shattering everything there into mush. He still at the final impact, as if he was frozen down to his heartbeat. 

I held his kneeling form by the neck while my right hand took on a blurry shade as it crackled with lightning. I reached for his heart, completely bypassing his thickened skin, and grabbed it slowly before yanking it out and causing his body to spasm for a moment before it stilled once again. 

"Quite a nifty trick." I mused before reducing the slimy heart in my hand to black soot. The fight had spilled out due to a blindside attack that threw me off for a moment, causing unnecessary casualties. Well, there's nothing I can really do about this. I should get on with killing these pieces of shits than worrying about what kind of impact this would have on the neighboring people. 

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