Countless malevolent spirits drifted above their heads.
From every direction, dark shapes surged through the air as if summoned by an invisible call. Within moments, the sky above the ruined town was filled with swirling specters.
Their screams tore through the night.
Each spirit howled with unbearable agony, their voices overlapping into a horrifying chorus that echoed across the desolate ruins. Their hatred toward everything seemed absolute.
Some clawed violently at each other as they floated through the air. Others twisted and collided like broken fragments caught inside a storm.
Yet despite the chaos, they all moved toward the same destination.
Watching the scene unfold, Ethan Voss finally understood what people meant when they described something as hell on earth.
This place was worse than hell itself.
If the dead were suffering like this now, how unbearable must the pain have been for the people who once lived here?
Ethan sighed quietly while observing the spirits swirling overhead like a swarm of angry insects.
Then something caught his attention.
His brow furrowed.
Every spirit was screaming, but after listening carefully, Ethan noticed something strange.
If their screams were treated as a form of language, the spirits were not speaking randomly.
They were repeating the same few sounds again and again.
Coincidence?
Or something else?
After thinking for a moment, Ethan raised his hand and opened a portal.
In the next instant, several figures rushed out.
Professor Charles Xavier rolled forward in his wheelchair while Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Hulk, Abomination, and several others followed closely behind. The moment they arrived, each of them instinctively took a combat stance.
But when they looked up and saw the sky filled with howling spirits, even Wolverine's expression stiffened.
Cyclops swallowed quietly.
Ethan turned toward Charles.
"Professor, can you try to see if these spirits are communicating with each other?"
His voice was serious.
"Be careful. They're extremely hostile."
With Charles's extraordinary telepathic ability, he might be able to sense something.
The professor nodded slowly.
He closed his eyes and remained completely still.
At first, nothing happened.
Then small beads of sweat began forming on his forehead.
Cyclops and the others watched nervously while the professor continued focusing.
Meanwhile, the sky continued to grow darker as more spirits arrived. The number above them increased rapidly, forming an enormous storm of tortured souls.
Finally, Charles opened his eyes.
His face looked pale.
"My God," he whispered. "They're unbelievably evil."
Ethan stepped forward quickly.
"Did you understand anything?"
Charles nodded slowly.
"I was able to sense fragments of their thoughts. Those screams do represent something like language."
He took a deep breath before continuing.
"But most of their minds are completely broken. There's almost no rational thought left, so I could only understand small fragments."
"What did you hear?" Ethan asked.
Charles spoke carefully.
"The phrase they repeat most often contains several words."
He paused slightly.
"Body… we… sin… pain…"
The group remained silent as they listened.
Charles continued.
"There were also other fragments."
"God… devil… God… given… body…"
He frowned slightly.
"Body… sacred… death… we… forgive…"
No one immediately understood what those broken phrases meant.
Ethan narrowed his eyes.
Body?
They wanted a body?
Their own bodies had already turned into dust long ago. Even the angel Aaron's body had been devoured centuries earlier.
So what exactly were they referring to?
Ethan glanced toward Carter Slade, who had been staring at the sky the entire time.
"Old Rider," Ethan asked calmly. "What do you think?"
Carter's expression remained grave as he looked at the mass of spirits.
"All I know," he said slowly, "is that there's no way we can defeat a thousand evil spirits like this."
He paused briefly.
"Unless…"
"Unless what?" Ethan asked.
Carter turned his head slightly.
"Unless they possess a physical body."
He explained quietly.
"When evil spirits exist in pure spirit form, they're almost impossible to destroy. But once they possess a body, they become much easier to kill."
He shook his head slightly.
"The problem is that spirits usually hate possessing bodies. They say it feels suffocating."
Carter's voice grew heavier.
"They can smell the slow decay of death inside the flesh."
Charles inhaled slowly.
"But these spirits…" he said uncertainly.
He pointed toward the Witch-Heart Demon.
"They seem desperate for that body."
Ethan's eyes suddenly widened slightly.
Then he understood.
"What they want isn't a body."
Everyone looked toward him.
Ethan's voice became quiet.
"What they want… is death."
The group fell silent in shock.
Carter sighed deeply.
"They regret it."
His gaze drifted across the swirling storm of spirits.
"But the question is…"
"Who can forgive them?"
Wolverine frowned.
"What exactly did these people do?"
Ethan shook his head slowly.
"They committed a terrible sin."
His voice was calm.
"And God abandoned them."
The Justice League members exchanged uneasy glances.
Even Hulk blinked silently.
At that moment, Ethan finally understood something important.
In the original story, Johnny Blaze had somehow defeated the Witch-Heart Demon and the thousand spirits together.
It had never been about raw strength.
Even though the spirits had lost their reason, they still carried a powerful desire to die.
They had willingly rushed toward the Ghost Rider's judgment.
If Mephistopheles had gained control of them instead, he would have transformed that obsession into a terrifying weapon.
An army formed from a thousand damned souls would be unbelievably powerful.
At that moment, nearly all the spirits had gathered above the church.
Then suddenly—
Every single spirit plunged downward.
In an instant, the entire swarm rushed into the Witch-Heart Demon's body.
The surge of power made him throw his head back and roar wildly.
Once the final spirit entered him, he burst into manic laughter and looked directly at Ethan.
"Come on," he shouted.
"Let me show you my power!"
His eyes burned with hatred.
"The pain you inflicted on me, I'll repay it ten thousand times!"
He raised his arms toward the sky.
"Not only you. Even Mephistopheles will die!"
Ethan simply shook his head.
Poor kid.
Growing up in hell meant he had probably never experienced warmth even once.
Now a thousand tortured spirits had chosen to accompany him on his journey.
And he held the contract in his hands.
Fate always attached a price tag to its gifts.
"Ha! Are you scared now?" the Witch-Heart Demon shouted.
He laughed arrogantly.
"If you kneel down and lick my feet right now, maybe I'll let you die a little faster!"
His voice grew more arrogant.
"Otherwise—"
Ethan sighed.
"I can't listen to this anymore."
He glanced at the others.
"Go ahead."
The moment he finished speaking, two massive figures leapt forward.
Hulk and Abomination landed beside the Witch-Heart Demon and grabbed his arms instantly.
At the same time, Carter's glowing chain whipped through the air and wrapped tightly around the demon's neck.
Johnny Blaze followed immediately, binding the demon's legs with blazing chains.
The rest of the group didn't even get a chance to act.
The Witch-Heart Demon struggled violently.
But his expression suddenly changed.
The power inside him felt strangely weak.
"What's happening?" he shouted in confusion.
His mind raced.
"Is there some kind of adjustment period?"
No one had ever mentioned anything like that before.
With his limited intelligence, he could never imagine the real reason.
The thousand spirits inside him all wanted to die.
While he continued struggling, a portal suddenly opened above him.
In the next instant, he was swallowed into it.
Hulk, Abomination, and both Ghost Riders jumped in with him.
Ethan looked toward the remaining members.
"Alright," he said calmly. "You've all worked hard today. You can head back now."
One by one, the others stepped through the portal.
After the last person disappeared, Ethan followed them inside.
The vehicles that had brought them to the ruins had already been instructed to drive themselves back automatically.
Inside the Kingdom of God, the Witch-Heart Demon stood frozen in place.
His entire body had been locked by divine power.
He stared at Ethan helplessly.
He couldn't even move his mouth. Only his eyes could shift slightly.
Ethan waved his hand casually.
The demon instantly lost consciousness.
Then Ethan began extracting the spirits from his body.
One by one, the thousand evil souls were pulled out.
According to the system's analysis, the total energy contained within them equaled roughly the power of two thousand five hundred Wolverines.
The result was slightly lower than Ethan expected.
But he had already realized something important.
The amount of primal energy a being could be converted into did not necessarily represent their true combat strength.
These spirits were extremely ferocious, but they lacked physical bodies and coherent minds. Because of that, the amount of energy they produced was limited.
Originally, Ethan planned to convert them all directly into raw power.
Then he suddenly remembered something Carter had mentioned earlier.
Each spirit still carried fragments of memory.
If those fragments were combined together, perhaps the truth behind this entire tragedy could finally be revealed.
"Let's try it," Ethan murmured.
The Kingdom of God immediately extracted every memory fragment from the spirits.
Like an unimaginably powerful supercomputer, the system began assembling them together.
Soon, a shattered yet coherent sequence of memories appeared before him.
Ethan only needed to glance through it a few times.
Then his eyes widened in shock.
"My God," he whispered.
"If that day ever arrives…"
.....
Join my p@treon and read ahead by more than 60+ chapters.
Link : [email protected]/InfinityWeaver
Free members can read the next two chapters for free on my p@treon