CHAPTER 194
[Draul St. Cross POV]
I threw the crippled dead body of Mordo to the pile of half eaten humans, a fitting place for him because of what he had become, before setting the pile ablaze.
"Are you still angry?" Nat called out to me which snapped my focus away from Mordo's burning form.
"No, not anymore." I answered.
"So you say, but your eyes say otherwise." She said, pointing to my eyes which were blood red.
"Trust me, I'm not angry. Just frustratingly irritated." My eyes went back to their normal color as I exhaled a deep sigh. "You good?"
"Yeah, but I'll admit my confidence got shaken quite a bit." I nodded at her words because she was being truthful to herself. Mordo was stronger than her by a huge margin as he not only excelled at combat, but was also an accomplished Master of the Arts at a very young age. Very few could match his talent and genius and even fewer, a negligible fraction, could surpass him. "How are the others doing?"
"Bucky ran into someone relatively strong but he took care of it with little problems. The others are all fine as they can easily take care of their enemies." I observed the different fights happening at once. Steve being an absolute force of nature; Bucky steamrolling through any opposition he came across with refreshing brutality. Yelena was getting faster the more she ran, blitzing through her chosen location at an astonishing speed. She had the highest clear count.
Ororo was… absolutely stunning, pun both intended and not. It was a confirmation of the type of person I was as I watched enraptured as she brought down heaven's wrath on those she judged guilty. The way she completely erased everyone in her way to dust with such a cold face was a massive turn-on that I would have indulged in had this been another time.
"I'm guessing it's Ororo that's having you slack jawed, right?" Natasha teased as she tweaked the magical teleporter I had made a long time ago for them.
"You're not wrong. Maybe I should go over there and make sure she's… okay." I ignored the eye roll Nat sent me before her portal swallowed her, sending her somewhere in the Delta region of Nigeria. I watched a bit as she took out her frustrations on the poor cultists and their demon friends.
Natasha could handle almost anything she came across so there was no need for me to watch her, Mordo was an unexpected bump, nothing else.
Right now, I have somewhere important that I have to be.
…
[The Dark Dimension]
"The human is dead." Satannish said as he lost his connection with the human sorcerer that was formed due to their pact.
"Then he served his purpose. Are you ready?" The all-encompassing darkness wriggled in parallel to the voice that boomed through every part of it.
"Yes. We will use my realm to stabilize the breach and while they try to stop it, you'll slowly integrate yours with the lines we've corrupted. Those sorcerers will die this time." Satannish's grating voice that was capable of sending war-hardened men into a terrified mess spoke to the darkness.
Satannish mouth was already brimming with hellish flames as he pictured the Earth finally conquered by him and his progenitor until he noticed something. "The mortal's soul. I didn't receive it." He growled in anger as he confirmed that truly, the soul was nowhere near where it should have been. Mordo's soul should have been in his palms after the mortal met his death as per their deal but he didn't receive his price.
WHO DARED TO ROB HIM OF HIS PRIZE!!
The darkness bubbled as flames consumed it, spewing forth dark flames through the expanse of the dimension. Satannish stomped on the ground he stood on and the area around him stretching for kilometers rose up in his rage-fuel Hellfire.
"Why rage here when the Earth will soon be ours for the taking? We will have conquered the Earth before Odin and any of their ill ilk would know what was happening." The fire receded into the darkness as it coagulated to form two orbs of purple and red.
Unlike his spawn, Dormammu knew that taking Earth won't be that easy but he was still sure of their success. His first target was that audacious woman who refused to pay her due. He would burn everything she held dear in front of her before he devoured her.
The second person was the strange sorcerer. He had denied him his long-awaited prize and for that he'll torture his soul for eternity.
The last was the one that caused him shame at the hands of 'it'.
Dormammu was no fool. He knew fully well that he would die if he said a word to it, so he behaved in accordance to the natural law of the jungle. It had taken what it came looking for and whatever non-existing debt Dormammu owed him was cleared which meant everything else was free game. He would find that person again and would savor them fully this time as he decipher why such a… thing(!) would be interested in a human.
"Begin the conquest." Were the only words the Dark God said before his presence disappeared, leaving a still angry Satannish alone to kick start their plan.
…
[Draul St. Cross POV]
My form floated through the place where Ororo was annihilating another group of cultists.
Right now, I was immaterial which was the reason why no one sensed me. Rather than hiding myself in a separate dimension that mirrored the actual world, or astral projection even, this was something I picked up a long time ago when I was experimenting with the Space Stone.
Taking on the void property of space, I could essentially filter myself back into the material plane but without displacing any of the existing space. Basically, I was occupying the billions of atoms around the entire area as I divided myself down to the cellular level.
Ororo made quick work of the people here as none could actually put up a fight when faced with her might. Ororo was a step away from leaving and heading to her next location but she paused and squinted her eyes as she observed the entire place.
She then cracked a small smile which actually took me by surprise. "You can come out, my love."
I materialized in front of her with an inquisitive stare. "How did you find me?" I asked in genuine curiosity.
"My attunement with nature is second to none, and also there's nothing like a perfect space. The space around here was too in order as if it was being supervised. You subconsciously influence the space around you, a little fact that I found out about recently." She said as she took a step forward, her blue shining eyes locked into mine.
"That still doesn't explain how you knew I was there." My fingers traced the white pristine hair on her head to the side of her face.
"The answer is simple, love. Just as I'm connected to the Earth and the Mother Goddess, there's someone else I'm still connected with. So connected that I'll know his general direction even if he was halfway across the universe." Her voice was soft and melodious, drawing me deeper into her vocal spell.
"That's basically stalking, you know? Most people might find it… mildly disturbing." There was no space between us as our foreheads touched and body pressed against each other.
"Then I'm grateful because the man I love isn't 'most people'. You can't run away from me, Draul." Her voice was so low that I would have missed it if I was a normal person despite the close, practically negligible, distance between us.
"I'm not trying to anymore." I whispered as my lips brushed against hers, static coursing through both of our bodies. Craving more than just teasing, we both dove into the others' mouth in a wild but tender passion.
We remained in each other's embrace, lips joined together, and hands intertwined not once releasing ourselves even when lightning ran through Ororo's skin and transferred to mine, doing nothing except relaxing in each other's presence.
"That, huh huh, was…" Ororo gasped out for breath as we separated.
"Electric? Yeah, and quite literally so." I completed her sentence which made her nod in agreement as the kiss was just that intoxicating.
Before we could say anything else, a tremor ran through all the connected points on Earth, signifying only one thing…
"The ritual has started." Ororo said before we both blasted ourselves to the sky, using the high vantage point to scan the immense build up of energy.
"So it seems. Honestly I wanted to kill all the worshippers involved but if I had done that and the sacrifice was activated, without the needed blood to open the gates, the gate would have siphoned the energy from the lines and bled the Earth dry. They really did pull one over on us." I whistled as beacons of energy started appearing in my senses covering different parts of the globe.
"We'll have to fight them head on then." She squeezed my shoulders in a show of comfort which I appreciated. "Come on, let's go get the others."
I took us both to the training grounds of Kamar-Taj and teleported the others to my side.
"Sacrifice already started huh?" Steve asked as soon as he appeared which prompted an affirmative nod from me. "Figured so since they all started bursting all over the place like a bloody firework."
The Ancient One and Strange walked out of a portal with serious expressions on their faces as they could feel the rather exuberant magical power building up under the Sanctum.
They nodded to the people beside me in greeting and silent thanks as everyone readied themselves. "Strange, Mr. Cross. I hope the reminder of how imperative it is that they don't impress themselves on Earth isn't needed." She spoke in the most serious tone I've ever seen her speak in ever since I met her.
"The only way we can do that is if we fight them in their own domain. That's upping the difficulty factor by a fuckton but I guess it's either that or have them come over and trash the whole damn place." The intersection of lines under us was stabilizing which meant the portal was just moments from forming.
"First it was mercenaries, we handled that. Then it was metas, we shrugged that off too. Young Gods throwing tantrums? No problemo, all part of the day's job. Tyrannical alien warlord, just another average Tuesday. And here we are now, head hunchos from literal hell making their way towards Earth but we can't have that so we are the ones diving into hell to stop them from coming out. I miss anything?" Yelena, though looked peppy as she always did, was nervous and I knew it so I just ruffled her hair a bit, drawing her attention to me.
"Stay behind and take care of anything that crawls out." I said to her, making sure no one heard us. We were walking into both the figurative and metaphorical belly of the beast and even though I had a few ways to save them if things turned south, it was better to avoid such a grim scenario if I could.
To my surprise, Yelena shook her head in disagreement. "I'm going with you guys. If we're gonna end up taking an L then I want to be there. I'm skittish, but I think that's a normal reaction given that an apocalypse might happen if we lose. I'll just take this as some sort of blood trial, did quite a few of those back in the days." Oh how proud I was of her. She knew her fears and had no problems with saying it out to me, using it as a motivation to press forward. They really are sisters.
"Gotcha." I gave her a salute before a random idea popped into my head. "You know what? Depending on your performance, I'll get you any car of your choice and any enhancements you want on it. Deal?"
She laughed for a few seconds before she shook on it. "Deal."
"Everyone get ready. The portal will be stabilizing soon." The Ancient One's voice brought our focus back to the event about to unfold.
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