Chapter 229: Frozen hell.

Gwen's eyes were glued on the battle between Dawn and Ryan. Although she has her trust in Dawn, it was hard for her to see her lover's body being possessed by the devil.

"Gwen. Any chance we can help Ryan in getting out?" Tony asked.

"Well. I…don't know. Unless, we have a powerful telepath that could help him-" Before Gwen could finish her sentence, a Hulk frozen in translucent blue ice crashed like a comet near the Avenger's location. Gwen's hair fluttered from the wind, and she turned toward the encased Hulk.

Wanda blinked her eyes twice, and she got an idea. "I…think…I can reach Mr..Mr Knight's mind."

All of the heroes there turned toward Wanda, and waited for her next sentence.

"But…I can't get past his defense. All I can do…is talk to him."

Strange interjected, "Wanda. That will leave your mind defenseless. At this moment, there is no telling that a demon won't try to take over your body."

"If you guys protect me, I won't be possessed." Wanda said confidently.

"I will protect your body." Adam Warlock said calmly. Turning toward the injured Gamora and Carol, Adam said, "We need to get them somewhere safe."

Although she had been keeping her silence from the beginning of the battle, Natasha finally spoke, "I can get them to safety."

Her body replicated into 3 people, and 2 of her duplicates carried Gamora and Carol in her arms before she ran with them toward safety.

Gwen held her chin in contemplation before she turned to Wanda and said, "Send me. I will talk to him."

"Wai-...Okay. I understand." Wanda noticed Gwen's determined look and didn't object to her request.

"I need…some candles for the ritual." Wanda muttered.

The group turned toward each other before they turned to Wanda and said, "Where do we find candles in the middle of a frozen wasteland?"

"I don't know. Go!" Wanda said sternly. Helpless, the Avengers – Steve, Tony, Hawkeye, and Natasha started to scour the frozen land in a search for some light.

Thor had recovered from his injuries, and was barely able to stand up at this moment. He walked to Hulk's ice and smacked the ice with his hammer, helping Hulk get free of the ice capsule.

"Ready for round 2?" Thor asked Hulk while breathing raggedly.

"Why? Tired already?" Hulk smirked and the frostbites on his body started to heal.

…

"The temperature of the entire earth is steadily dropping. We need to do something now, or the entire world will be frozen."

Maria Hill, the acting director of SHIELD received the report from one of her agents as the helicarrier hovered on top of the city of New York.

"Ma'am. The Ice Demon's capabilities and types had varied. Winged Ice Demon's are appearing. Before long, we will lose air superiority in this battle."

Maria Hill's left eye glowed a dark flame. Her necklace with a grimoire - Umbra Witches floated upward and the grimoire enlarged in size.

"M-Ma-am?" The agent who was reporting to Maria Hill was stunned by her sudden changes. Her clothing transformed into a shiny, leathery body suit with the zip on her chest being pulled down. Her long hair was tied up in a high ponytail, and glasses appeared in front of her eyes.

Although the grimoire was based on the Bayonetta games, it was created by Ryan's himself therefore there were some changes in the appearance and combat capabilities of the Umbra Witch the grimoire selected.

Maria Hill took out her classical gun, and aimed it at the agent who was reporting toward her. Intricate, small magic circuit with an eye inside appeared at the tip of the gun muzzle before Maria Hill pulled the trigger.

The agent couldn't react, and the bullet went past his left cheek,

"ARGH!" A screaming sound was heard, and a camouflage demon fell down behind the agent's back.

"What the hell-"

"I guess. We need to add another type of demon in the list." Maria Hill muttered while pushing the bridge of her glasses upward seductively.

"Infernium connect." Maria Hill muttered. The grimoire replied to her with an almost robotic sound, "Infernium connecting. Connection is successful."

"Inferno army summon."

"Summoning the army. Summoning successfully."

From the grimoire, 100 fire demon imp appeared with their knuckles dragging on the floor as they stood with their back bent.

"Go. Help the people." Maria Hill commanded. The imps nodded and ran outside the helicarrier from the helicarrier bridge before they jumped off the helicarrier.

"Contact the Lumen Sage. Tell him to activate his angels and aim for the demons. We cannot let hell's encroachment get worse." Maria Hill commanded.

"L-Lumen Sage Ma'am?" The officer asked in confusion.

Maria Hill shook her head and explained in a repulsed tone, "Agent Crimson."

"That Weirdo?...I meant…Okay Ma'am." The officer said and turned away from Maria Hill before contacting the officer.

…

In the United Nations building, the world leaders who had been evacuated by Dawn's magic had connected their respective security team to come and pick them up. But, the Ice Demon army had marched toward the United Nations building as they received the orders from the devil to remove all figureheads in the world before enslaving all of humanity as one of their own.

"Husband. I guess. We need to step in." Medusa said using a sultry voice as she whispered to her husband's ears.

Black Bolt nodded, and his thought-speech sounded, "We need to contact the other Inhumans to come to help. This matter is too big for the humans to handle on their own."

"I understand my King." Medusa replied as a soldier this time. "Lockjaw, Can you hear me?" Medusa used the telecommunicator to contact the other Inhumans in Attilan – City in the Moon.

"Woof!" Lockjaw replied from the other line.

"Help protect the Earth." Medusa ordered simply as the Ice demons had pried off the walls of the United Nation buildings. Black Bolt walked calmly, facing the thousands of the Ice demons on his own. He opened his mouth and said calmly, "I hate the cold."

BOOOM!!!

The windows around the area shattered as the reverberating sound onomatopoeia attacked the Ice Demon's army, shattering them like broken glasses when they were hit by the sound waves.

Medusa's hair elongates and moves as if they had a mind of their own, slithering towards the demon's neck and wrapped themselves around it. Her hair also took her off the ground and she stood 5 meters tall in the air. The pressure of the choke tightened, breaking the neck of the demons.

Suddenly, one member of the security team walked out from among the crowd inside the building and approached Medusa from behind, gun in hand. He aimed his gun at the back of Medusa's head without her noticing him.

BANG

A bullet flew towards the imposter and penetrated his heart, but he was still standing. Then, multiple more bullets attacked his head, torso, legs, and even balls before it finally fell to the ground, revealing its original demon's appearance as it fell.

Medusa turned to her helper and saw the leader of Symkaria holding a smoking rifle. Silvija nodded slightly at Medusa and said, "I got your back."

Medusa smirked and turned back to the demons before her hair attacked them again. Skye was flying using her quake energy being shot out of her arms and she saw Black Bolt and Medusa decimating the Ice Demon army.

Black Bolt and Medusa's eyes widened as they saw Skye, and vice versa. They instinctively knew that they belonged to the same species as they laid eyes on each other. Then, a giant, 15 meters tall Ice Demon appeared in Skye's path. She landed smoothly on top of the ice demon's head and placed her hand on the demon's skin.

"Blow away!" Skye muttered and directed her quake energy onto the ice demon's head. The vibrations destroyed the ice demon's brain, and it fell toward the ground as Skye jumped off the demon's body.

Medusa turned to Black Bolt with some suspicions in her eyes.

"You don't have a secret child do you?" Medusa asked.

Black Bolt quickly shutted down his thought speech and sorted his thoughts before replying, "No."

Narrowing her eyes at Black Bolt, Medusa gave up trying to interrogate her husband and continue fighting.

…

Dawn VS Ikthalon Avatar.

'Ah shit, this will consume half of my already drained powers.' Dawn contemplated but as the temperature of the Earth had continuously dropped, he shook his head and decided to cast the magic spell.

"Tier 8 magic. Domain."

A huge, spherical magic circuit that moved with the help of countless small magic circles functioning as gears for the sphere locked Dawn and Ikthalon together inside a separated space.

Inside of Ryan's mind, Dark Ryan raised his eyes upward as he had noticed something.

"The time has come. See ya Ryan~ If..you still exists after this~"

Waving goodbye to the chained Ryan, the dark Ryan pushed Ryan deeper and deeper into his level of consciousness before he flew toward his magic circle he had created. He stood in the middle of the magic circle and closed his eyes.

Then, his body floated in the air while he was sitting crossed legged, and he unveiled parts of his hollow chest. "Heart of the Devil." Dark Ryan muttered before Ikthalon's consciousness and magic was pulled toward his hollow chest.

On the outside world, Dawn was going hard in the battle against Iktalon.

Iktalon finally stood up from his throne after being threatened by the prison Dawn put him in. His connection to the hell realm was disconnected as the magic was based on a magic he learned from Anos Voldigoad Grimoire.

"Tier 7 Magic: Hellfire Binding Flame." Dawn muttered, and numerous flaming chains made of hell's black flame attacked Ikthalon.

The Devil wasn't a magician, but he could use his thoughts to create new defensive skills. Ice claws appeared on his hands, and he instantaneously closed the distance between him and Dawn, making the chains lose their target.

"Ah shit!" Dawn cursed and reinforced himself. "I hate fighting physical types!" He covered his head with his arms as Ikthalon was swiping his claws at him.

The claw hits, creating a metallic spark between the two collisions. Then, Ikthalon swiped his other hand at Dawn, causing deep gashes appearing on his hands.

Then, he aimed to claw out Dawn's heart. A centimeter before he managed to do that, Dawn muttered, "Dedon (Mass Increase)"

The devil was pulled by 10000x gravity and slammed into the Washington grounds, making the entire city shook from the impact.

"Minor Heal." Dawn muttered and the wounds on his hand were slowly healing while the demonic residue was pushed out.

Ikthalon laid motionlessly on the ground. Within seconds, his body adapted to the gravity restriction Dawn had placed on him. He stood back up seemingly unbothered by the 10000x gravity.

Then, Hulk suddenly appeared from behind Ikthalon. "One point. Smash!" Hulk muttered, punching at Ikthalon using all of the strength of his body to attack Ikthalon's right side.

"THUNDER" Thor muttered as he charged Mjolnir with his thunder and swung the hammer on Ikthalon's left side.

The two attacks hit Ikthalon's head, shattering the sharp teeth and almost made him lose his consciousness.

"Hehe. Thank you." The Dark Ryan said and siphoned off the Devil's consciousness into his devil heart. As the heart keeps growing, the rate of siphon has also become quicker. In minutes, he had half the size of a normal human heart, and Ikthalon finally realized what the Dark Ryan was doing.

Peering through Ryan's mind, The Icy Devil tried to attack the Dark Ryan. "You had violated the terms of our deal. Now. DIE!"

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Laughing maniacally, the Dark Ryan insulted the devil. "Deal? You really think…that I would make a deal with a disgusting vermin like you? I almost puke from the sheer disgust of calling you the master. Bluek-"

Dark Ryan controlled his stomach so that he wouldn't puke, and then turned to the Devil once more.

"Now. You can't stop it any longer. Your entire strength is mine!"

"NO!" The Devil screamed, but it was too late for him!

After being punched and smacked by Thor and Hulk, Ikthalon's body started spasming.

"Holy shit. You killed him dude!" Tony shouted in concern as he saw blood coming out of Ryan's body orifices.

"What. NO!" Hulk yelled out in horror after he saw Ryan kneeled on the ground.

"The demon energy is diminishing. Ryan. Are you okay?" Thor asked quickly. But in the last struggle of the devil, he created multiple ice shards and shot them in all directions.

Thor and Hulk were stabbed by countless Ice Shards before Ikthalon appeared in front of Dawn and stabbed at his stomach with his arm, ripping out Dawn's stomach from his body.

At the side, Wanda was sitting crossed legged with Gwen sitting in front of her, surrounded by circular, lit candles.

"Are you ready?" Wanda asked.

"Yeah. I am." Gwen replied. Wanda then chanted a spell, and both of them fell motionlessly to the ground.

"Dreamwalking? How did she learn this?" Dr Strange muttered as he and Adam Warlock created a defense around the two girls.

"Who else?" Adam Warlock answered ambiguously. Strange nodded and thought about how Wanda had learned from the Ancient One before, however he misunderstood who was the one who had taught Wanda about it.

Wanda and Gwen's consciousness entered the mind realm before they flew toward Ryan's consciousness. As they reached Ryan's mental defense, they were surprised to see that they weren't alone there.

"Kai? Why are you here?" Gwen asked as she saw the man standing at the edge of Ryan's mind defense.

"Same as you." Kai muttered and placed his hands on the mind defense. A tiny hole appeared where he placed his hands in, and he turned to Gwen. "Pass through here. I cannot go any further. But you can. Bring him back will ya?"

Gwen nodded at Kai's words and said, "Okay. I will."

Only Gwen was allowed to get past the mind defense with Kai's help, leaving Wanda and Kai on the edge of Ryan's mind.

Kai turned to Wanda and said, "Your job is now complete. You can go back now and guard Gwen's body together with the other magicians."

"What about you?" Wanda asked.

"I'll return too. I've stayed here for too long now. It's time for me to enter the battle." Kai said with a tired voice. He had been protecting Ryan's mind from it being destroyed by Ikthalon – that's why Dawn could still be awake right now.

And only Kai could create a direct path to Ryan's most inner subconscious, that's why Dawn referred to him as the key.

"Gwen. Help him." Kai muttered before he exited the mind realm with Wanda.