"And there’s something else."
Evenson watched the battle outside with an expression that bordered on heartbreak.
"This Hellfire is the only one I have."
"And it’s single-use."
"When it’s gone... it’s gone."
Coulson looked at him skeptically.
Only one?
A weapon powerful enough to fight the Destroyer head-on should have been stockpiled in secret warehouses, not treated like a collector’s item.
Tony Stark already had multiple generations of Iron Man armor.
How did Evenson only possess a single Hellfire?
Surely no arms control treaty applied to demonic siege constructs.
And somehow, Coulson doubted Evenson had refrained from making more out of pure humanitarian principles.
"The manufacturing process is incredibly complicated," Evenson explained with a shrug.
"The materials are exceptionally rare."
"It takes a very long time to create one."
"And the cost is... painful."
That part, at least, wasn’t a lie.
Hellfires really were expensive.
Granted...
That was because, somewhere in the Twisting Nether, the Burning Legion had apparently decided to liquidate surplus inventory.
If Kil’jaeden ever started a clearance sale on siege weapons, even a Warlock would have trouble resisting.
As far as Evenson was concerned, the "market value" remained outrageously high.
Completely true.
Technically.
"For this mission," he continued earnestly, "I’ve emptied my vault of emergency resources."
"I’ve sacrificed quite a lot."
He looked meaningfully at Coulson and Melinda.
Neither of them understood the hint.
Instead, they simply concluded that Hellfires couldn’t be mass-produced and that Evenson possessed very few of them.
Close enough.
They had no practical way to verify the inventory of the Burning Legion anyway.
Besides...
Evenson wasn’t entirely lying.
He really could only control one Hellfire at his current level.
Melinda shifted her attention back to the battlefield.
"Can it win?"
The Hellfire and the Destroyer had been locked in combat for nearly a minute.
It had successfully stopped the construct’s advance.
It had even inflicted visible damage.
But victory...
Still seemed far away.
"I’m afraid not."
Evenson shook his head.
"The Destroyer was crafted by a god."
"Even in its incomplete state, it isn’t something a mass-produced Hellfire can defeat."
"And there’s another problem."
He checked the battle carefully.
"Hellfires have a time limit."
"It only has five minutes."
He smiled helplessly.
"And unlike certain heroes, it won’t suddenly find hidden strength at the last second."
"When its time expires..."
"It simply collapses into a pile of rocks."
The battle had become progressively less dignified.
Neither construct displayed anything resembling martial arts.
They punched.
Kicked.
Headbutted.
Grappled.
If either of them had possessed teeth, they probably would have started biting.
Expecting elegant combat from two magical constructs was unrealistic.
Their bodies weren’t even built like human anatomy.
Trying to apply sophisticated joint-lock techniques against something whose limbs could rotate in impossible directions sounded like an excellent way to embarrass yourself.
"So..." Melinda asked.
"When it loses?"
She turned toward Evenson.
"Will you send the army back in..."
"...or are you planning to fight personally?"
"Myself?"
Evenson smiled faintly.
"Perhaps."
Then he pointed toward the center of the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound.
"But that’s not how we win."
"The key is over there."
Thor knelt before Mjolnir.
Hands clasped.
Eyes closed.
His expression was more sincere than anyone had ever seen it.
He had tried everything.
"Father who reigns in Asgard..."
"May your name be honored forever..."
"May your kingdom endure..."
He cautiously looked at the hammer.
Nothing.
"...There is no greater lord than my father!"
"My father alone is supreme!"
Still nothing.
Thor’s eye twitched.
He tried again.
"I swear to protect the weak."
"I swear to fight evil."
"I swear to stand against injustice."
"I swear to defend the helpless..."
Mjolnir remained perfectly still.
Thor was on the verge of screaming.
What do you actually want from me?
If Evenson had witnessed this scene, he probably would have smacked him across the head.
You already know why Odin stripped away your power.
Just apologize.
Sincerely.
It wasn’t that complicated.
Meanwhile...
The Hellfire and the Destroyer somehow managed to make their fight look even less graceful.
At first, they’d merely traded heavy blows.
Now they were rolling across the desert locked together like two drunken wrestlers.
One moment the Hellfire would be on top, hammering away with wildly swinging fists.
The next, the Destroyer would reverse their positions and retaliate with brutally efficient strikes.
Neither side had any dignity left.
Finally...
The Hellfire gained the upper hand.
It pinned the Destroyer beneath its massive body.
Its right fist rose high into the air, wrapped in blazing fel fire.
One more punch.
Then...
It froze.
"...Damn."
The green flames covering its body flickered twice.
With a dull boom, every trace of fel fire vanished.
Without its magical power sustaining it, the Hellfire instantly crumbled apart.
Its enormous body collapsed into smoking chunks of blackened stone that scattered over the Destroyer.
Evenson glanced at his watch.
"Looks like time’s up."
Five minutes.
Gone in the blink of an eye.
He looked toward the command center.
"Resume the attack."
"Keep delaying it."
Then he asked,
"Can we drop another two-thousand-pound bomb?"
Coulson shook his head.
"No."
"The Destroyer is too close to the base now."
"We’d bomb ourselves along with it."
Outside...
The Destroyer slowly rose from beneath the pile of broken stone.
It seemed...
Irritated.
Some oversized flaming rock had appeared out of nowhere, pummeled it for five straight minutes, and then conveniently disintegrated before it could be properly destroyed.
An extremely unsatisfying experience.
With the Hellfire gone, neither the Warriors Three nor the remaining soldiers posed any real threat.
Fortunately for them...
No one was foolish enough to fight it head-on anymore.
Everyone scattered the moment it advanced.
Like frightened rabbits, they ran in every direction, forcing the Destroyer to waste precious seconds chasing targets instead of simply slaughtering them.
It was inefficient.
But only slightly.
Every crimson beam it fired still ended in another explosion.
Another vehicle destroyed.
Another desperate scream.
Then...
Thunder rolled across the heavens.
Dark clouds gathered overhead with unnatural speed.
A bolt of lightning as thick as a tree trunk crashed into the center of the base.
The brilliant flash blinded everyone nearby.
From within the lightning...
A figure clad in crimson burst into the sky.
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