Whoosh!
A charred humanoid object plummeted rapidly from the sky toward the ground.
Falling from hundreds of meters in the air, the impact force caused by kinetic acceleration was enough to turn any living creature into a puddle of rotten mud.
At the instant before he was about to hit the ground, Chen Lin barely squeezed out the last bit of telekinesis, forming several elastic protective cushions. Only then did he barely neutralize the impact force, thereby preserving his small life.
But even so, breaking seven or eight ribs was still unavoidable.
His stamina had already been overdrafted to the limit, on top of his mental power drying up, and now his physical body had suffered heavy trauma. Chen Lin could not even lift a finger. His entire body twitched as if in spasms, and he could not help letting out painful groans.
After being struck head-on by the black lightning, the terrifying part was not the pain added to his physical body.
Rather, his spiritual world had become a complete mess. A huge pitch-black storm roared, like a storm from hell. Amid shocking thunder and scorching lightning mixed with torrential rain, waves of wails and groans that twisted the soul rang out.
Within the rolling black clouds and mist of the storm, a blurry demonic face faintly appeared.
Chen Lin guarded the clarity of his spiritual altar, mobilizing his mental power to resist desperately, squeezing every cell in his body, forcing out the final trace of strength, raising a telekinetic storm in his spiritual world, colliding fiercely with the black storm.
After an unknown amount of time, the black storm gradually disappeared.
Chen Lin used all his strength to lift his eyelids. Exhausted to the limit, he wished he could close his eyes right now and just sleep properly for a few days and nights, not caring whether the world would be destroyed or not.
The thick ink-like dark clouds covering the sky had also strangely dispersed at this moment.
The sky returned to clear brightness once again, but the remaining two Helicarriers were already nowhere to be seen. Clearly, they had used the cover of the dark clouds to flee to an even higher place.
"Alexander Pierce..."
A bitter look appeared on Chen Lin's face. With vigilance in his eyes, he recalled what had just happened and sighed to himself, "If I could have saved even a little stamina, how would I have ended up like this?"
He had originally wanted to use Glenn's hand to test his new move.
In the end, he had not expected to be tricked. Alexander had hidden himself deeply. He was the true final boss.
"That parchment book... is some kind of dark magic." Chen Lin remembered the final result of the scan, and his heart could not help feeling uneasy. Frowning, he muttered to himself, "But Alexander is just an ordinary person. Where did he learn dark magic from?"
One had to know that magic was different from superheroes. It was not the kind of thing that could be found everywhere.
These days, any random nobody, as long as they had a little ability, could basically call themselves a superhero. But magic was different. It required strict training, followed by incantations and corresponding gestures, and finally a target from whom to "borrow" power.
For an ordinary person to use magic, it would take at least nearly ten years of training.
Among the few sorcerers he knew, Mordo, who had the most outstanding talent, had the Sorcerer Supreme personally teaching him, yet even he had spent nearly five years before he could skillfully master various kinds of magic. Let alone Alexander, who had become a monk halfway.
An old fellow with half his body almost buried in the ground. No matter what, Chen Lin could not believe that this guy was so gifted that he could skillfully master powerful black magic in a short time, and even cast this kind of forbidden spell that affected the weather.
There must be something strange about this!
"I know! It must be that parchment book!"
Chen Lin gnashed his teeth and quickly locked onto the clue: the parchment book Alexander had been holding.
If nothing unexpected happened, the dark magic he had cast must have borrowed the power of that parchment book. Otherwise, it would have been impossible.
Just as he was deducing the origin of that parchment book, a pitch-black shadow suddenly appeared.
"Who?!"
Chen Lin rolled awkwardly and vigilantly assumed a defensive posture.
He was at his weakest right now. His mental power had completely dried up, leaving him unable to use telekinesis anymore. If someone had malicious intentions, then even an ordinary person might not necessarily be someone he could beat.
He had heard a little about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s style.
Taking advantage of someone's misfortune was something that, when placed on the shameless S.H.I.E.L.D., would absolutely not be surprising in the slightest.
But when his gaze moved up along that shadow and the other party's entire figure came into view, his heart suddenly sank, then began pounding wildly, and several fine beads of cold sweat seeped from his forehead.
"Soul... Reaper?!"
Chen Lin recognized that person's attire. It was precisely a Soul Reaper from Soul Society.
Only, unlike an ordinary Soul Reaper's attire, that person was also wearing a white haori, with bright yellow silk tied at the waist, neat short bangs, and two looped bell snake braids. Although her figure appeared petite, she was not weak at all. Instead, she had a refined and valiant temperament.
"A white outer robe. You are... a Captain?" Chen Lin stared at her nervously, all the muscles in his body tensed. He did not underestimate this Soul Reaper Captain just because the other party was a woman.
"Gotei 13, Second Division Captain, Suì-Fēng."
Suì-Fēng stared at him coldly and said in an icy voice, "By order of the Captain-Commander, I have come to the Human World to support you."
"Looks like you're not an enemy..."
Chen Lin relaxed slightly and said bitterly, "You came too late... Alexander has already disappeared. I don't know where he went, but based on my guess, it's probably related to the Eternals."
"No, I have been here the whole time."
Suì-Fēng looked at him meaningfully, then looked up at the sky before slowly saying, "From the moment you first started fighting Glenn, I was already hiding nearby."
Chen Lin froze for more than ten seconds before saying with a shocked expression, "You were watching from the side the whole time?"
"I know what you want to say."
Suì-Fēng's brows twisted into the character 川 as she said coldly, "Originally, I tried to assassinate Alexander Pierce directly, but unfortunately, I failed. He was rescued by another person. That parchment book... is very evil!"
She thought for a long time before using such a word to describe that parchment book.
Chen Lin deeply agreed. That parchment book was absolutely no ordinary object. This matched his guess, but what was unexpected was that there was actually another person. "The person who rescued Alexander... do you know who it was?"
"I know a little."
Suì-Fēng said faintly, "A fallen disciple of Kamar-Taj, Kaecilius."
"Kaecilius?" Chen Lin searched his memory and did not know this person, so he asked, "Is there more information? I might be able to infer something useful."
"Kaecilius, a fallen disciple of Kamar-Taj, a man who pursues dark magic." Suì-Fēng said truthfully, "He once carried out a sacrificial ritual in New York, but was ultimately stopped by Spider-Man Peter Parker. From then on, he disappeared without a trace, until he recently appeared again."
"A fallen disciple of Kamar-Taj. Why would he get involved with the leader of Hydra?" Chen Lin immediately felt like one head had become two.
Now, the development of the situation seemed to faintly show signs of exceeding control.
More and more people were being dragged in, as if there was an invisible hand pushing everyone forward in a certain direction.
Intuition told Chen Lin... this was not a good thing.
"Wait, then why didn't you chase after him?" Chen Lin suddenly thought of this point.
"Because... there is no need."
Suì-Fēng gazed at the floating clouds on the horizon and said calmly, "You don't really think that I am the only Captain who came to the Human World, do you?"