"I think SHIELD is going to have to rewrite your threat assessment."
Melinda walked over as the smoke from the explosion slowly dispersed.
She had known Evenson was powerful.
Everyone inside SHIELD who knew of his existence agreed on that.
The problem was that no one knew how powerful.
His fight with Obadiah Stane had been over too quickly to analyze.
His battle against the Abomination had taken place outside SHIELD’s control, leaving them with only fragmented reports.
This was the first time she’d witnessed his abilities from beginning to end.
Those strange beasts he’d summoned possessed speed beyond anything she’d ever seen. Combined with the fire-hurling Imps riding their backs, they could probably wipe out an elite special forces squad in difficult terrain without suffering a single casualty.
And that final explosion...
Only five surviving demons had detonated.
The blast they produced would have reduced a main battle tank to molten scrap.
Among every enhanced individual SHIELD currently knew of...
Only the Hulk belonged in the same conversation.
Evenson shrugged.
"Good luck with that."
He wasn’t a mutant whose abilities had stabilized years ago.
He was still growing.
Every month brought new spells.
New techniques.
New ideas.
Trying to define the limits of a warlock after witnessing one battle was like trying to measure the ocean with a coffee mug.
Melinda looked toward the settling dust.
"...Is he dead?"
"Not even close."
Evenson rubbed his forehead.
"Honestly, I don’t have many reliable ways to kill him."
Ghost Riders weren’t ordinary living creatures.
They were infernal weapons.
Neither fully alive nor truly dead.
Without power approaching that of the demons who created them...
Destroying one was almost impossible.
"That’s why I kept trying to avoid this fight."
"They’re incredibly annoying."
"I... see."
Melinda answered automatically.
Her attention remained fixed on the crater.
If an explosion like that couldn’t kill the Ghost Rider...
How many other monsters existed that SHIELD had never even imagined?
Director Fury needed to know.
"What time is it?" Evenson suddenly asked.
Melinda checked her watch.
"A little after four."
"About an hour until sunrise."
"An hour..."
Evenson frowned.
Ghost Riders lost their supernatural power during daylight.
Once the sun came up, the flaming skeleton would revert to an ordinary man.
Killing him still wouldn’t be easy.
But restraining him?
Interrogating him?
Dragging him somewhere against his will?
That became entirely possible.
"Longer than I’d like..."
He narrowed his eyes.
"But manageable."
Just then, the smoke cleared.
The Ghost Rider climbed out of the crater.
Hellfire still burned around him.
Even his leather jacket looked untouched.
Melinda stared.
"...Not even a scratch?"
"How is that possible?"
She had accepted that he might survive.
Walking away completely unharmed was another matter entirely.
Evenson, however, wasn’t looking at the Rider’s body.
He was watching the flames.
"...No."
His eyes narrowed.
"Something’s different."
His hands blurred through a series of spell gestures.
"Curse of Agony."
"Corruption."
"Unstable Affliction."
Three curses struck the Ghost Rider in rapid succession.
Each impact forced the Rider to stagger slightly.
A heartbeat later, the infernal flames burned brighter again, and the effect disappeared.
To anyone else, the spells had accomplished nothing.
Evenson smiled.
"I’ve found it."
Melinda looked over.
"Found what?"
"His weakness."
When the Ghost Rider had first climbed from the crater, Evenson noticed something subtle.
The Hellfire surrounding him had briefly burned less intensely.
Mixed within it had been traces of lingering shadow energy from the explosion.
Only after those traces faded did the flames fully recover.
That meant shadow magic could injure him.
The curses had confirmed the theory.
The curse effects themselves had collapsed almost immediately, unable to function inside the Ghost Rider’s unnatural body.
But the shadow energy powering those spells had lingered for several moments.
Each time it did...
The Rider’s Hellfire visibly flickered.
"So..."
Evenson raised both hands.
"Let’s try something else."
Six rivers of blazing fire burst across the desert floor, racing toward the Ghost Rider.
The crimson flames burned so intensely that ordinary steel would have liquefied instantly.
The Ghost Rider laughed.
A deep, mocking laugh.
He spread his arms wide and walked directly into the attack.
Fire?
Against me?
The guilty fool had finally made a mistake.
If Evenson had continued using that strange shadow power, the battle might have remained troublesome.
Instead...
He had chosen flames.
The Ghost Rider had spent enough time in Hell to know exactly how this would end.
Unfortunately for him...
Evenson knew better.
Ryan Mercer had spent years raiding in World of Warcraft.
He had suffered through bosses like Ragnaros and countless other fire-immune nightmares.
Every warlock eventually learned the same lesson.
Never fight something already on fire...
...with more fire.
The instant the flames reached the Ghost Rider, Evenson snapped his fingers.
The crimson inferno transformed.
Emerald fire exploded outward.
"Burn."
"Fel Flame."
The Ghost Rider’s confidence vanished.
Green?
That wasn’t Hellfire.
He finally realized something was wrong.
Unfortunately...
He’d already committed to standing there.
There was nowhere to dodge.
The emerald flames engulfed him.
Fel energy poured relentlessly into his body.
Unlike shadow magic, which Hellfire gradually purified, Fel energy clung stubbornly to everything it touched.
It intertwined with the infernal flames instead of being consumed by them.
The corruption spread.
Slowly.
Relentlessly.
The Ghost Rider’s burning form became streaked with glowing green.
Evenson wiped sweat from his forehead.
"Just as I thought."
"Fel is much better at corrupting him than shadow."
Transforming the Ghost Rider completely was impossible.
His connection to Hell ran too deep.
But maintaining enough Fel energy inside him to interfere with that connection...
That was another matter.
As long as Evenson kept feeding the corruption...
The Ghost Rider’s movements would remain sluggish.
And if he could delay the battle until sunrise...
Everything afterward would become much easier.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter