Chapter 227: Mind degeneration. 

[Ryan POV]

As I entered the soul stone with the rest, suddenly, I could feel that my mental defenses were being invaded by a foreign consciousness.

"What the- Who are you?" I spoke to the invader who's tearing up my defenses mercilessly, one by one, with a very high speed. Although I had hundreds of thousands of mind defenses after the incident with D'Spayre, I found myself to be helpless in fighting off the invader.

I sensed the energy of the soul stone within the consciousness as it kept moving forward to reach the core of my entire being.

"Fuck!" I cursed as I was down to my last 30 defenses. Finally, Adam Warlock pulled me out of the soul realm before my last defense was broken.

I breathed in relief after I sensed the familiar universe - the one that I belonged to was finally upon me.

"Kang will pay for what he has done!" I muttered to myself. Inside my mind, a darker seed of consciousness that had buried itself deep within my mind since the battle of New York finally broke into my core mindscape, causing me to experience extreme pain.

I tried to scream, but no words would come out.

Inside my mind, I was battling the muddy version of myself.

"I know what you're thinking. How right? 'Oh, I had protected my mind perfectly. How does this happen? I also have a system and all that bullshit." The darker me said while blocking my attack as if he had anticipated it.

"Let me tell you a secret. Everyone has a dark side." The darker Ryan said while laughing hysterically.

"Why are you doing this? You're not going to be able to take over my body. You're only killing us." I said to the darker Ryan.

Our strength was equal, no one could hold an advantage toward another. The only thing our battle would do was to let my body be vulnerable. That means, any scheming entity could deliver a fatal attack toward the body.

"What is this? Naruto? You're going to talk me out of what I'm going to do?" The darker Ryan said with contempt and mockery.

"Maybe if I mention Onslaught, you'll understand what I am." The darker Ryan said. "I became sentient when D'Spayre attacked your mind, and I have been strengthening myself ever since. Ever wondered why you can't sleep? Always stressing out over nothing, almost feeling suffocated by the threat of death and the universe?"

The realization finally dawned on me. "But that didn't change anything." I said.

"Oh ho ho ho ho." The darker me laughed in contempt. "It changes everything. You see, an idiot devil wanted to tempt you at night to prevent you from changing the world. I had been talking to him, and I reached a deal with him too."

"ARGHH!" I let out a blood curdling scream as a few ice stakes suddenly appeared and pinned my entire limb to the ground.

"You! You're going to let the demon take over my body?" I asked with gritted teeth.

The darker me shook his finger at me playfully. "Non-non. I am using him too. It's my time to play. I'm not giving the body to anyone else." The darker me displayed an evil smirk, and he created an intricate magic seal that connected my mind to the Frozen Hell realm where Ikhtalon resides.

Ikhtalon let out a grated cheese like laughter as he peered into my mind. Without saying anything, the demon invaded my undefended mind and started to control my body.

[3rd person POV]

In the true reality, Gwen turned toward Ryan after they were saved by Adam Warlocks' Soul stone.

However, Ryan experienced something different when he was brought into the soul stone unlike the rest of the group.

Adam Warlock turned to Ryan after he sensed something wrong and saw him breathing heavily. One of Ryan's eyes turned bloodshot, and he clutched his heart while gasping for breath.

"Ryan!" Gwen flew toward Ryan in the air and stopped face to face with him in no gravity.

"What's wrong? Ryan. Hey…Look at me.." Gwen said, holding his face and trying to calm him down.

Both of Ryan's eyes turned bloodshot, and his palm moved toward Gwen's neck, and he started choking her suddenly!

"..R..Rya…Ryan…" Gwen tried to call him out to let him escape the curse of insanity, but Ryan wasn't hearing anything.

"I…AM…IKHTALON!" Ryan proclaimed, causing Carol to punch him right in the face while Gamora simultaneously kicked him in the abdomen.

"GWEN, ARE YOU OKAY?!" Carol asked while she stood guard against the seizuring Ryan.

Gwen touched her neck, and she turned toward Ryan with concern in her eyes. "He's being controlled. We need to help him!"

"No. We alone are not enough." Adam Warlock said in a solemn tone. "The only being that could help Ryan Knight right now, is Dawn Everstar."

-Washington-

In a newly made encampment – built during the battle with the Scarabs by the Brainbots. It was built for logistics and research, a standard SHIELD procedure in fighting the unknowns.

"Talk KANG! WHAT HAST THOU DONE TO OUR FRIENDS!" Thor slammed Mjolnir onto Kang's head multiple times to make him open his mouth. Kai was in a coma, Ryan, Gwen, and Carol were gone, and the entire world was in chaos because of Ryan's disappearance.

"LET ME HAVE A CRACK AT HIM!" Hulk said while cracking his fist after Kang was still keeping his silence even after he was broken down by the heavy hitters.

With bloodied eyes and nose, Kang replied with a broken laugh, "Ha...Ha…Ha…He's now, at the end of…time. The…void…Now, I can finally win." Kang said, his sanity was almost gone from the beating.

Out of his iron suit, Tony suddenly walked into the room holding a tablet where the heavy hitter was and announced, "Hey Everybody. They're back."

He showed the people there the footage of Ryan, Gwen, Carol, Gamora and Adam Warlock standing in the vacuum of space after they had returned to their universe using the holographic image of the tablet.

It was live footage, so Tony was feeling pretty great about himself for managing to arrange this show.

"NO! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! NO VARIANTS OF HIM WAS EVER THIS STRONG!" Kang yelled in frustration and horror. Hulk punched Kang right in the face, knocking him out for more than 100 times today.

"That still doesn't explain Kai's situation." Natasha chimed in hurriedly.

"I know. I'm still working on that." Tony said and then he turned to the Hulk. "Can't you let Banner out now?"

Hulk growled and said, "No. Something is coming. Puny Banner can't take it."

"Vision is still building robots?" Barton asked in a weak voice.

"Yeah. I thought that he wanted to create an army to attack us the second time, but no. He was doing it to prepare against…Ryan…"

"You mean END?" Ant-man suddenly enlarged himself inside the room and spoke, causing all the people there to turn their weapons at him. Scott Lang put his arm in the air to show that he wasn't a threat as he knew he had startled the group.

"Damn it. It's just Scott." Barton said and relaxed his bow string. "Here." Scott throws something toward Hawkeye. It was an ordinary looking green bean.

"This is your lunch? Are you on a diet?" Hulk said in confusion.

"No. I got it from the Valkyries who's protecting the summit building. It can help you recover your energy." Scott explained.

"By the way, were you… in the fight?" Natasha asked in confusion.

"...I am." Scott said with a helpless tone. He, Hope, Hank Pym and Janet had been fighting the Scarabs since the start of the battle. But, none of their battles was witnessed by another person.

As Steve was monitoring the footage, he saw the incident currently going on. "Wait. Why is Ryan choking Gwen?"

The entire group turned their attention to the footage, and saw Gamora and Carol attacking Ryan, causing him to be pushed backward from the rest of the group.

The next thing they saw was Carol flying at a high speed toward Ryan, trying to attack him with her photon blast punch. But then, Carol's entire right arm was ripped off by Ryan, causing her to bleed heavily in space.

"What the hell?!" Tony exclaimed in disbelief.

"Call Strange and Wanda. Ask them if Ryan is possessed. We need to go to space, NOW!" Steve ordered hurriedly.

"Seriously, Possessed….We're in the era of Conjuring or Annabelle?" Barton muttered to himself, feeling a bit fearful when he thought of the ghosts.

"What Puny Archer? YOU'RE SCARED? HULK WILL PUNCH ALL THE GHOST!" Hulk muttered after hearing Barton's mumbling as they jogged toward the front door. By this time, Ryan had cut off Gamora's left leg and choked her, causing Adam Warlock to teleport Gamora on Earth for safety.

However, the animalistic Ryan in space turned his attention toward Gamora instead of the others.

Adam Warlock widened his eyes as he knew he did something wrong. "Stop him! HE'S ENTERING THE EARTH!"

Gwen shot multiple restraining webs toward Ryan, but it was too late. With a speed nearing the speed of light, Ryan arrived to where Gamora was teleported inside the Earth.

-Inside Ryan's Mind-

The darker Ryan was humming a song while he was locked into an unending battle with his true self. He was scribbling a few things in the mindscape – a magical circuit that was added with some complicated equations and runes language.

"That…" The true Ryan widened his eyes as he saw the magic circuit. He could understand what the darkness was trying to do immediately, but he couldn't stop it as he was currently trying to push Ikhtalon away from his body. He contained his defense on the magic circuit skill, preventing Ikhtalon from using his own powers.

"Shh!" Don't say it. The devil doesn't know what I'm going to do yet." The darker Ryan created a silencing ward inside the mindscape, making the entire battlefield silent.

-Real World-

As Ryan wanted to rip out Gamora's heart, Steve threw his unbreakable shield to block his hand.

"Damn it. Washington again!" Steve mumbled in frustration as the city still hadn't had a chance to recover from the war before this – a war that ended less than 5 minutes ago.

But there was also a good thing for the situation. Washington right now was the most heavily defended place on the planet.

Without saying anything, Vision shot his mind stone blast toward Ryan. The blast hits Ryan's abdomen, pushing him back away from Gamora.

Natasha jumped toward Gamora and sprayed her torn off leg with a synthetic spray to stop the wound from bleeding.

"What happened?" Natasha asked the older looking Gamora. She knew inwardly that things weren't as they seemed when the group had returned to their timeline in the matter of minutes.

"Long Story." Gamora said.

"Did Ryan become like this in the place you all went to?" Natasha asked.

"No. He was okay before. He became like this after we got back." Gamora explained.

"I see. Ryan. Can you hear me?!" Steve called out as he retracted his shield.

"Grrr…" Ryan growled, seeming more animalistic than the Hulk itself.

"He's fighting the transformation." Stephen Strange said. Dr. Strange and Wanda Maximoff floated toward the battlefield after getting the call from the Avengers.

"Mr. Knight? Are you still there?" Wanda asked, her eyes glowed in a crimson light. A golden man teleported to the area with Gwen and Carol, stopping Wanda from entering Ryan's mind quickly.

"STOP! Your mind will be corrupted by it." Adam Warlock said.

Wanda quickly stopped what she was doing, and turned her head toward Adam.

-Inside Ryan's mindscape-

"Ohh. he's angry now. Hahahaha." The darker Ryan laughed maniacally as he saw Ikthalon becoming more and more frustrated by failing to control Ryan's body fully.

"Let's see. Will he freeze the world first?....Or will I devour him first?" The darker Ryan said evilly.

-Real World-

"Uhh Guys." Tony, who had been scanning Ryan's body, saw a spike in the cold energy inside his body.

"GETS DOWN!" Tony yelled quickly. Wanda and Strange opened up a barrier to help the Avengers survive the explosion.

As Ikthalon's energy touched Ryan's magic circuit, an explosion occurred centered from Ryan's body, causing everything around him to be enveloped by frost. The cold wave spread quickly, enveloping the entire city in Washington to enter the ice age.

Millions of the inhabitants of the city were affected by the explosion. The summit building crumbled and was destroyed, together with buildings in the range of 1 kilometer from where Ryan was standing.

-Inside Ryan's mind-

"NOOO!!" The true Ryan yelled in horror and fear after he saw what he had done.

"You've killed, MILLION!" He said to the darker one.

"Calm down little bitch." The darker him cursed casually. "Unfortunately…No one died."

-Real World-

With a panting breath, Dawn floated carefully next to Strange and the rest of the magicians there.

"I…made…it…" Dawn said while trying hard to catch his breath. Although the entire city was destroyed, Dawn managed to cast a mass teleportation spell and transferred all the citizens to another city in the nick of time.