Max and Doom clashed. Weapons materialized in their hands, shifting and changing with each exchange. Max drew from his knowledge of the universe's most dangerous armaments, weapons he had seen and studied. A Shi'ar plasma blade that could cut through almost anything appeared in his right hand, glowing brilliant emerald. He swung it at Doom, who countered with an orange construct of a Skrull disintegrator cannon, firing point-blank.
Max rolled away, the beam scorching the air where he'd been, and created a Kree graviton hammer. He brought it down with crushing force. Doom blocked with a shield that Max could see had somehow combined magic and the orange spectrum. The impact sent shockwaves that flattened everything around them. Moments ago there had been a forest around them; now there was nothing but destruction.
Doom's intellect worked furiously, creating weapons on the spot based on pure theory. An orange construct rifle that fired compressed singularities. A whip made of destabilized exotic matter. Max countered them all with constructs, ideas he had thought he would never get to use against someone.
As they were locked in a stalemate, they were both hit with a shockwave from above, a gravitational disturbance that made reality itself shudder. Both Max and Doom were thrown aside, their weapons dissipating as they tumbled through the air.
Max recovered first, catching himself mid-fall and looking up toward the sky.
The Moon was aglow with fire.
Even from Earth's surface, even in daylight, he could see it, gold and violet-black flames wreathing the lunar surface.
Max's heart clenched.
He hoped she was fine. He needed her to be fine. Their daughter needed her to be fine.
They continued fighting.
They traded blow after blow, weapon after weapon.
A Rigellian force lance materialized in Max's hands. He thrust it forward, the tip capable of piercing almost anything. Doom countered with a construct based on a Kree Accuser's universal weapon, the orange hammer-like construct deflecting the lance's strike with a resounding clang that echoed across the battlefield.
Max dismissed the lance and created a Badoon neural disruptor, the alien weapon humming with power designed to scramble nervous systems. He fired. Doom formed a shield modeled after Shi'ar psi-dampening technology, the mental assault dissipating harmlessly against orange energy. Doom retaliated with a construct of a large sword, swinging it in a devastating arc. Max blocked with a vibranium-mimicking shield construct, the impact sending shockwaves rippling outward.
Back and forth it went, each creating and dismissing weapons in rapid succession. Energy weapons fired, melee weapons struck, exotic armaments from across the universe materialized and vanished as quickly as thought.
Around them, their other constructs fought as well. The Superman constructs battled Doom's army of conquered heroes, Thors, Hulks, Iron Men, all engaged in their own titanic struggles. The battlefield had become a war zone of cosmic proportions, dozens of construct beings clashing while their creators dueled at the center.
Soon the sophisticated armament creation stopped. The duel between Max and Doom had turned into a brawl.
They punched, kicked, grappled, and tore at each other with raw power. Max headbutted Doom, tearing his mask. Doom responded with an elbow that cracked Max's ribs.
The brawl took them all over the planet.
They crashed through the city of Uruk. They tumbled through the ancient forests of Germany, vaporizing trees that had been growing since the last ice age. They carved a trench across an ocean, the water exploding into steam around them as they fought beneath the waves before bursting back into the sky.
They battled in the skies, trading blows as they flew at supersonic speeds.
Mach cones formed around them as they broke the sound barrier again and again. They spiraled around each other, Max landing a devastating uppercut that sent Doom rocketing upward. Doom recovered, seized Max with magical attacks reinforced by avarice, and slammed him down toward the earth. Max arrested his fall and flew back up, tackling Doom through a cloud bank.
They grappled in midair, spinning end over end, each trying to gain the advantage. Orange light and green light swirled together, creating a maelstrom of color visible from the ground below. They punched, blocked, countered, moving so fast they became blurs.
Max created a massive hammer construct and brought it down on Doom's head. Doom blocked with both arms, the impact driving them both downward at terminal velocity. They fell like meteors, burning through the atmosphere.
The battle ended with them both falling into the Sahara Desert.
They struck the sand with enough force for the sand to turn to glass in an instant. They tumbled through the newly formed crater, separating and sliding to opposite sides.
They hovered opposite each other, both breathing hard despite their enhancements, both showing damage.
Max's construct armor was cracked in multiple places. His face was bruised, blood running from a cut above his eye. Doom's armor was similarly damaged, the ornate plating dented and scorched, one shoulder pauldron missing entirely.
"Max," Jade's voice came into his head. "You have not been pushed this far before. I am noticing peculiar damage to your body from Doom's attacks. The new energy is—"
"We can deal with that later," Max interrupted, his eyes never leaving Doom.
Doom straightened, his posture shifting from combative to something more theatrical. "Doom is tired of this."
He raised both hands, and orange light erupted from him in a column that reached the heavens. The pillar of avarice-tinted energy spiraled upward, piercing the clouds, visible for hundreds of miles in every direction.
The construct he summoned was massive.
Galactus.
The Devourer of Worlds materialized above them, two thousand feet tall, a titan among titans. He glowed with sickly orange light, the Power Cosmic tainted with avarice. His eyes, vast and terrible, burned with orange fire.
It looked down at Max, promising death, annihilation, the absolute end of all things.
"This is the end, Green Lantern," Doom declared. He flew up to stand on Galactus's shoulder. "After Doom kills you and takes your ring for himself, I will master the green light as I mastered orange. The entire spectrum will bow to Doom's will."
"I knew you would bring him out soon,"
Doom faltered slightly, his confidence cracking for just an instant.
"You think I didn't prepare for this, Victor?" Max looked up at the sky, where something was descending, something he had been building since the battle began. "Reed showed me what you could do…"
Max looked up, and Doom followed.
The figure descending was enormous and bulky, easily matching Galactus's two-thousand-foot height. It wore thick, industrial-looking armor. The armor gleamed with emerald light.
Its shoulders were huge and domed, bearing circular symbol patterns etched into the metal. It looked the same as the dead Celestial that Zgreb had come to find years ago. Max had studied it extensively, learning its structure and its composition. He had replicated it, not as powerful as a real Celestial but powerful enough. It was the most powerful construct he could create, the absolute pinnacle of what his will could sustain.
It landed opposite Galactus, the impact shaking the desert, sand exploding outward in waves from the point of contact.
Max flew up and stood on the crown of his construct, balanced on the Celestial's head as green light blazed around him.
The two titans faced each other.
Doom stood atop Galactus's shoulder, orange light blazing around him, his cape billowing in the winds.
Max stood atop the Celestial's head, green light burning like a star.
"Let's end this, Doom."
"Yes, let's."
They charged.
Galactus and the Celestial ran toward each other, each footfall creating craters hundreds of feet wide. Sand turned to glass beneath their feet from the heat and pressure, the desert floor crystallizing under the weight of the titans. The distance between them closed impossibly fast.
They collided in the center of the desert, and the world shook.
The impact was felt across the entire planet. Seismic waves rippled outward from the Sahara in concentric circles. Oceans surged. Mountains trembled. The shockwave expanded upward into the atmosphere, creating a pressure wave visible from space, a ring of disturbed air spreading outward at supersonic speed.
Galactus and the Celestial grappled, titanic hands locked together, each trying to overpower the other.
And atop them, Doom and Max continued their war.
.
.
.
Tony and the Iron Inquisitor fought in the skies as Ghost Azzuri and Nur fought Apocalypse and the Goblin.
Tony's repulsor blasts met the Iron Inquisitor's crimson demonic attacks. They met in midair and exploded as they converged, each detonation creating brief stars of red and blue light that illuminated the sky. The shockwaves from the impacts rippled outward, disturbing clouds and sending sonic booms rolling across the landscape below.
"Tony," Howard Stark's voice came from within the demonic armor. "I wonder how you survived."
Tony did not respond. He continued to attack the Inquisitor with more blasts, repulsors firing in rapid succession, each beam carefully aimed at joints, at weak points in the armor, at anything that might penetrate the demonic plating.
The Inquisitor laughed. "Did you miss me, son?" He attacked, firing crimson blasts from both palms that carved through the air toward Tony.
Tony charged at him, dodging the blasts with precise micro-adjustments to his flight path. He closed the distance and punched, his armored fist swinging with all the force his suit's enhanced joints could provide.
The Inquisitor caught his fist mid-swing.
Before Tony could react, he was thrown down. The world spun as he plummeted, unable to stop. Then he was hit with another blast that scorched his armor, melting through the outer layer and leaving blackened scorch marks across the chest plate.
The nanomachines rebuilt themselves immediately, flowing like liquid metal to repair the damage. He had upgraded his suit considerably with help from Reed and Agamotto over the past few days of preparation.
The armor was sleeker now, dark red and gold with intricate patterns etched across every surface. Mystical runes glowed faintly along the chest plate, the gauntlets, and the boots. Agamotto had spent a day inscribing them, layering protection spells and counter-hexes into the very structure of the suit, weaving magic and technology together in ways that should have been impossible to Tony a few weeks ago. Hell, he had not even known magic existed until he met Strange.
He needed to make it work to fight off the demonic, evil variant of his father.
The Iron Inquisitor continued his attack, descending toward Tony like a falling star wreathed in crimson flame.
"You should have run and hidden, boy," the Inquisitor taunted. "Should have taken the coward's path when you had the chance. But no, you had to play hero." He laughed, cruel and mocking. "And now you're going to die just like them. Just like Rhodes. Just like that spider-brat. Just like all of them."
That pissed Tony off.
He remembered Rhodey's death, being blasted apart by the Inquisitor. He remembered all of it. Every detail burned into his memory with perfect, terrible clarity.
He remembered Peter being burned alive, the teenager's screams cut short as green hellfire consumed him, leaving nothing but ash scattered on the wind.
Tony attacked back with rage.
The new upgrades, especially the magical runes Agamotto had inscribed and Reed had helped integrate, hurt the Inquisitor. Tony's repulsor blasts now carried traces of amber light. When they struck the demonic armor, they burned, eating through the supernatural protections.
The runes made the blasts stronger and, more importantly, effective against the demonic magic the Inquisitor's suit ran on. Each hit disrupted the infernal enchantments.
The Inquisitor reeled from a particularly devastating strike, crimson energy flickering weakly around damaged sections of his armor.
"I'm impressed, Tony," the Inquisitor said, genuine surprise in his voice beneath the mockery. "You actually learned something. Grew a spine, found some competence—"
"I'm glad you like it," Tony interrupted, his voice cold with fury. "I call it my fuck-you armor."
His gauntlets transformed, nanites flowing and expanding, growing larger and denser. The fists doubled in size, then tripled, becoming pile-driver constructs that glowed with amber light as the runes activated across their surface.
Tony punched.
The blow connected with the Inquisitor's chest and drove him down toward the ground. But Tony didn't stop there. Amber electrical charges erupted from the impact point, mystical lightning that began to electrocute the Inquisitor, arcing across the demonic armor.
The Inquisitor screamed. "ARRRAAAAHHHHHH!"
Tony continued attacking, punching down and down and down, following the Inquisitor's fall, each blow driving the demon faster toward the earth. The Inquisitor hit the ground, the impact creating a crater fifty feet wide.
Tony didn't give the Inquisitor time to recover. He attacked with projectiles, micro-missiles launched from shoulder pods, repulsor rays from his palms, uni-beam charges from his chest reactor. The projectiles hit the armor hard, each one precisely targeted, causing more damage, more pain, exploiting the weaknesses his sensors identified.
The Inquisitor fired a blast from his chest, crimson energy gathering at his core and releasing in a concentrated beam.
Tony fired one from his own chest as well, the arc reactor's full output channeled through the uni-beam array, enhanced by the mystical runes.
The beams met in the middle, red and blue-amber grinding against each other, each trying to overpower the other.
Tony gritted his teeth and pushed harder, drawing deeper from the arc reactor, channeling more power through the runes. The amber-blue light grew brighter, stronger, beginning to consume the crimson.
He overpowered it.
The uni-beam broke through the Inquisitor's attack and hit him with full force, the impact lifting the demonic armor off its feet and slamming it backward into the crater wall.
"Impossible!" the Inquisitor roared, disbelief clear in his voice.
The Iron Inquisitor was now heavily hurt, lying on the ground among shattered rock and scorched earth. His armor was cracked, sparking, leaking that strange crimson energy. One arm hung at an unnatural angle. The helmet was dented, one of the red eye-lenses shattered.
Tony did not stop. He landed and went on the attack. He hammered the Inquisitor with punches. Each blow landed with ruinous force, denting armor, cracking plating, and driving the Inquisitor deeper into the ground.
Tony formed swords from the nanites, the liquid metal reshaping into gleaming blades that glowed with amber light. He slashed and stabbed, the enchanted edges tearing away the demonic armor piece by piece. Chunks of the plating fell away, revealing the vulnerable systems beneath.
The Inquisitor tried one last desperate attack, gathering what remained of his power. Crimson energy erupted from every crack in his armor, building to a crescendo. He unleashed it all at once, a massive explosion of demonic force that should have vaporized Tony completely.
Tony was almost beaten. The blast hurled him backward, his armor's integrity dropping to critical levels. Warnings flashed across his HUD in red. Systems failed. The nanites struggled to repair damage faster than it was being inflicted.
But Tony, using his intellect, was able to survive it.
He had noticed the gathering energy, the telltale signs of a massive attack. In the split second before it was released, he had redirected all power to the forward shields and activated all defensive enchantment runes.
The blast washed over him. But the shields held. Barely. The enchantments absorbed what they could. And when it was over, Tony was still standing, smoke rising from his battered armor.
The Inquisitor fell to the ground, completely spent, having poured everything into that final attack.
Tony went on the attack again.
"This is for ROGERS!" He ripped off the shoulder pauldron, exposing the joint beneath.
"For BRUCE!" He tore away the chest plate, revealing Howard Stark's body underneath, protected by inner layers of the demonic suit.
"For RHODEY!" He destroyed the helmet, shattering it into pieces.
"For PETER!" He demolished what remained of the demonic plating, piece by piece, until nothing was left but the man inside.
He grabbed Howard Stark and threw him out of the remains of the armor.
Howard landed hard, coughing, his body broken and bleeding. He looked up at Tony with fear in his eyes, genuine terror replacing the cruel confidence that had been there before.
"Tony," Howard gasped, crawling backward on his elbows, leaving a trail of blood. "Tony, please. I'm your father. I'm your father, son. You can't—this isn't me. I was corrupted. I was taken. Please, you have to believe me. I never wanted to hurt you. I love you, Tony. I always loved you."
Tony did not even respond. He walked forward.
He punched Howard, the blow breaking his jaw with a sickening crack. Howard's head snapped to the side, blood and teeth spraying from his mouth.
Howard screamed, the sound muffled and wet through his shattered jaw, but Tony wasn't done.
Tony stepped on Howard's leg, placing his full armored weight on the shin. The bone broke with a sharp snap that echoed across the crater. Howard's scream was inhuman, primal, a sound of pure agony as his leg bent, white bone piercing through the skin.
"AAAAHHHHGGGHHH!" Howard shrieked, trying to pull away, but Tony kept his foot planted, grinding down, making it worse.
Howard's eyes widened, seeing death coming. "No—Tony—plea—"
Tony raised his fist, repulsor charging, preparing to end it. To kill him. To finally put an end to this nightmarish variant of his father.
But he stopped.
His hand trembled, the repulsor whining with built-up charge, glowing brighter and brighter.
He couldn't do it.
Instead, Tony attacked with an electrical shock, redirecting the repulsor's energy into a concentrated taser blast.
Howard went unconscious, his body going limp.
Tony stood over him, breathing hard, his armor's systems running diagnostics and repair protocols.
He wanted to kill him. Every fiber of his being screamed for it, demanded vengeance, demanded that he end the thing wearing his father's face. But he knew that leaving Howard alive was the better choice. They needed to know what Mephisto was planning. They needed information. Revenge could wait.
Tony used nanites to form restraints around Howard's unconscious form.
As Tony straightened up, checking his armor's status and preparing to rejoin the fight with the others, movement in the sky caught his attention.
He looked up.
High above, so high they were barely visible to normal eyes, two figures fought. Emerald and orange light flew around each other in spiraling patterns, striking each other with such force that massive shockwaves rippled outward from each impact. Even from this distance, Tony could feel the pressure waves washing over him, could see the air itself distorting around the combatants.
Max and Doom.
They moved at impossible speeds, striking at each other.
Tony watched for a moment, his HUD zooming in to capture the details of the battle.
The scale of it was staggering.
"I really am just some guy among gods," Tony muttered, his voice quiet.
Another shockwave rolled across the battlefield, strong enough to make Tony stagger. In the sky, the emerald and orange lights collided again, creating another massive shockwave as they flew apart.
Tony shook his head, pulling himself back to the present. The Inquisitor was defeated. But the battle wasn't over.
He began flying toward where Azzuri, Ghost, and Nur were fighting.
.
.
.
The Goblin laughed maniacally as he rode the glider and threw bombs down at Ghost, who dodged them on Tasi.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHA! HEHEHEHE!" Each cackle echoed and multiplied, as if a dozen voices were laughing in unison, all slightly out of sync.
Ghost, fully transformed, his head now a flaming skull wreathed in golden hellfire along with Tasi, held his flaming bone chain, trying to bring the Goblin down. The chain spun through the air, trying to grab the glider, but the Goblin was too fast, too erratic in his movements.
Ghost had expected to overwhelm this spirit of vengeance corrupted by Mephisto quickly, but the Goblin proved quite difficult. There was intelligence beneath the madness, chaos that made him unpredictable yet effective.
The Goblin threw pumpkin bombs that exploded with green hellfire, each one detonating in bursts of emerald flame that left scorched marks in the earth below.
Ghost, on top of Tasi, maneuvered to dodge each of them. The mammoth moved quickly, responding to Ghost's mental commands as they worked in perfect synchronization. She dodged left as a bomb exploded where they'd been a second before. She charged right as another sailed past. She leaped over a third, her massive form airborne for a brief moment before landing with earth-shaking force.
"Come now, don't ruin my fun!" the Ghost Goblin shrieked, his flaming skull cackling with mad glee, the green flames in his eye sockets burning brighter with each word. "Let's see if you can keep up with a REAL rider!"
He swooped low, firing razor bats, small bladed projectiles wreathed in green flame, that spun through the air with lethal precision, their edges whistling as they cut through the wind.
Ghost used his bone chain and swatted several out of the air, the flaming links destroying the projectiles in bursts of green sparks. But others got through, cutting across his body, slicing through his form. To Ghost's surprise, they hurt.
Tasi trumpeted in fury and fired hellfire from her trunk, the white-hot flames lancing upward toward the glider in a concentrated beam. The Goblin banked hard, the glider tilting at an impossible angle, narrowly avoiding the blast. The hellfire passed close enough to singe the underside of his vehicle.
Then he dove straight at them, the glider screaming as it accelerated, green flames trailing behind it.
Ghost prepared himself. He watched the Goblin's approach, calculating the distance. At the last possible moment, as the Goblin was about to collide with them, the corrupted spirit pulled up sharply, but Ghost was ready for the feint.
He swung his chain with perfect timing, the flaming links arcing through the air in a wide circle. The chain wrapped around the glider's front.
"Got you," Ghost growled.
He yanked hard, hellfire blazing brighter along the chain as he pulled with all his supernatural strength.
The Goblin was ripped off his glider. The vehicle spun out of control as it tumbled through the air before crashing into the ground and exploding in a burst of emerald fire.
The Goblin tumbled through the air, but he was laughing even as he fell, the sound never stopping, never faltering. He twisted mid-descent with inhuman flexibility and landed on his feet, charging at Ghost immediately, not even pausing to recover.
Ghost got off Tasi and charged at the Goblin, wanting to finish him off and then quickly join Azzuri and Nur in fighting Apocalypse. From the corner of his vision, he could see them struggling.
They clashed in the middle.
The Goblin fought with vicious cunning, his movements unpredictable and savage. He pulled weapons from nowhere, blades wreathed in green fire that appeared in his hands as if conjured from the hellfire itself, explosive devices that materialized and detonated on contact, chains of his own that lashed out.
Ghost fought back with his chain, the flaming bone links whipping through the air in complex patterns, and with hellfire attacks that poured from his hands and mouth. Golden flames met green flames, creating explosions of color where they collided.
But the Goblin matched him move for move, cackling all the while, that horrible laughter never ceasing.
"I AM CHAOS!" the Goblin screamed, his voice layered with madness and glee. "MADNESS! THE SWEET SONG OF SUFFERING!" He slashed with a green-flamed blade that Ghost barely blocked.
The Goblin feinted with one hand and struck with the other, a dagger appearing from nowhere and stabbing toward Ghost's ribs. Ghost twisted, avoiding a lethal blow, but the blade still scored across his side.
He kicked Ghost in the chest, sending him stumbling backward several steps.
Then the Goblin pulled out a remote detonator and pressed it with theatrical flair.
Explosions erupted all around them.
Pumpkin bombs the Goblin had been planting during their fight, hidden in the scorched earth while they battled, all detonated simultaneously. Green hellfire bloomed in a dozen places at once, creating overlapping spheres of destruction.
Ghost was caught in multiple blasts, the concussive force hitting him from every direction. He was thrown through the air, his body tumbling end over end, his golden flames flickering weakly around him as the green hellfire overwhelmed his defenses.
The Goblin was on him instantly, raining down punches with fists wreathed in hellfire.
"WEAK! PATHETIC! Is this what passes for a Spirit of Vengeance in this universe? I've EATEN stronger ones than you!" The Goblin's words devolved into incoherent ranting and madness as he beat down on Ghost.
"HAHAHA! SUFFER! SCREAM! CRY FOR ME!" He struck Ghost's face, then his ribs, then his face again. "I BURN BRIGHTER—" Another punch. "—TRUE SPIRIT OF—" Another strike. "—VENGEANCE AND CHAOS AND MADNESS AND—"
His voice became a stream of disconnected words, nonsensical phrases mixed with manic laughter. He babbled about fire, Peter Parker, and goblins and vengeance and a dozen other things that made no coherent sense, all while his fists never stopped striking.
Ghost was being beaten down, his defenses overwhelmed by the Goblin's relentless assault.
Then Tasi intervened.
The flaming mammoth charged, her massive form bearing down on the Goblin like an avalanche. Fire erupted from every inch of her body as she slammed into him, sending him flying across the battlefield like a ragdoll.
The Goblin tumbled end over end, his body bouncing off the scorched earth multiple times before finally coming to a stop. He recovered immediately, still laughing, that horrible sound never ceasing.
"Oh, the dumb elephant wants to play too? HOW DELIGHTFUL!" He spread his arms wide in theatrical welcome. "COME ON, ATTACK ME… HAHAHAHA!"
Tasi trumpeted a challenge, flames erupting from her entire body in response, her trunk raised high.
Ghost got to his feet, shaking off the damage, his skull blazing brighter. "Thanks, girl."
They both attacked together.
Ghost's chains whipped through the air, the flaming bone links lashing at the Goblin from multiple angles. Tasi attacked simultaneously, firing concentrated hellfire from her trunk in devastating beams.
The Goblin was forced onto the defensive, dodging and weaving between attacks. He couldn't mount a proper counterattack, too busy avoiding being hit by the coordinated assault.
"AARAAHHHHHARHHHHH!" the Goblin shrieked madly as he tried to counter, throwing green fireballs that Ghost and Tasi dodged or blocked.
Ghost's chain wrapped around his legs, yanking them out from under him. The Goblin hit the ground hard, his laughter becoming a snarl of frustration.
Tasi was there immediately, her massive foot coming down toward the Goblin's chest, ready to crush him.
The Goblin's eyes blazed with desperate fury, and he powered up fully.
Green hellfire erupted from every pore of his body in an explosion. The release of power blasted both Tasi and Ghost apart, hurling them in opposite directions.
The Goblin now stood with a sword in hand, still laughing, but softly now, a creepy whisper of madness.
"Hehehehe... hahaha... oh, that was fun... hehehehe..."
Ghost recovered, shaking his head to clear it. He slowly stood up some distance away.
The Goblin whistled a jaunty, off-key tune, taunting Ghost. "That was just a warm-up, my friend. Just getting the blood pumping, the fire burning. Now the REAL fun begins!"
In the background, Tasi trumpeted, trying to get up. She was struggling, still recovering from the blast, and she was the nearest to the Goblin.
The Goblin turned to look at her, tilting his flaming skull thoughtfully.
"You know, she's taking all the fun out of this," he said. "It's just supposed to be me and you. Spirit versus Spirit. The way it SHOULD be!"
Ghost immediately charged, realizing what the Goblin intended.
The Goblin blasted Ghost away again with a wave of green hellfire, not even looking at him, keeping his attention on Tasi.
"Let me fix that," he said softly.
The Goblin moved with terrible speed, crossing the distance to Tasi before she could fully rise. The green flaming sword came down in a vicious arc.
He stabbed Tasi with his green flaming sword in the chest.
The blade pierced through her transformed state, sinking deep into her vital organs. Green hellfire spread from the wound, corrupted flames eating into her from the inside.
Tasi let out a sound of pure agony, a trumpeting cry filled with suffering. Her form shifted, transforming back to normal. Green flames clung to her chest where the Goblin had stabbed her, eating into her flesh.
"NOOOOO!" Ghost screamed as the Goblin laughed.
"Well, now that the dumb animal is out of the way—" the Goblin began, turning back toward Ghost with a grin in his voice.
He couldn't even finish as Ghost went ballistic.
The Spirit of Vengeance exploded with power. Flames erupted from him with full force, no restraint, no holding back. He became a blazing pillar of white-hot hellfire that reached toward the sky, his chain transforming into a weapon of pure judgment, burning brighter than it ever had before.
He attacked with fury beyond anything he had shown before.
The chain wrapped around the Goblin faster than the corrupted spirit could react, the bone links binding him tight. Ghost was on him instantly, punching again and again and again. Each blow landed with devastating force, driven by rage and grief and the full power of the Spirit of Vengeance unleashed.
The Goblin's laughter turned to screams as Ghost pummeled him without mercy.
The Goblin tried to fight back, his hands clawing at Ghost, trying to break free. But Ghost was beyond reason now. This was pure vengeance, the Spirit's true nature unleashed without any of the restraint from Ghost that usually tempered it.
Ghost caught the Goblin by the throat with one hand. The Goblin thrashed, trying to break free, his body twisting and writhing.
He fired point-blank blasts of green hellfire from his mouth, the flames washing over Ghost's face and chest.
Ghost didn't care. He held on.
"Your spirit is MINE," Ghost said, his voice layered with that of Zarathos.
He began to absorb the corrupted Spirit of Vengeance within Norman.
The Goblin screamed, a sound that started as his manic laughter but quickly twisted into pure agony. "NO! NO! YOU CAN'T! IT'S MINE! MINE… AAAHHHHHHHH!"
The green hellfire was slowly absorbed into Ghost, pulled from the Goblin's body like thread being drawn from cloth.
The Spirit of Vengeance inside Norman Osborn fought back, screaming, thrashing, trying to resist. But Ghost was stronger, purer, connected to something deeper and more fundamental. He pulled, drawing the twisted spirit out of its host like poison from a wound.
The Goblin's flaming skull flickered erratically, green, then golden, then green again, the colors warring for dominance. Slowly, inexorably, the green fire turned gold, then began fading entirely. Norman Osborn's actual face appeared beneath, pale and terrified and suddenly very, very human.
Ghost absorbed the corrupted spirit completely, taking it into himself.
"No, no, no," Norman gasped. "What have you done? What have you DONE?!"
Ghost was changed now.
The golden hellfire that normally wreathed his skull had mixed with the absorbed green flames, creating something new. Golden and green flames danced together across his body, swirling and merging. Then they transformed further, both colors bleeding into a deep, burning crimson. The fire now burned hotter than before, intense enough that the air around Ghost shimmered and warped from the heat.
Ghost grabbed Norman's face with both hands, his crimson-flamed fingers forcing the man to look directly into his blazing eye sockets.
"Look into my eyes," Ghost commanded, his voice now carrying three tones, all harmonizing into something terrible. "Your soul is stained by the blood of the innocent. Feel their pain."
The Penance Stare activated.
Norman Osborn screamed.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHGGGGHHHHH!"
"NOOOOOO! PLEASE! STOP! MAKE IT STOP! AAAAHHHHHHH!"
He experienced every death, every act of cruelty, every moment of suffering he had caused. Not just in his universe, but across all the universes where he had served the Masters of Evil. Thousands of innocents murdered in his quest for power and chaos. The weight of it all, experienced from the victims' perspectives, crushed him completely, drowning him in an ocean of pain and guilt and horror.
"MERCY! GOD! SOMEBODY! AAAHHHHGGGHHH! PETER! HARRY! HARRY! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY! HARRY! AAAAHHHHH!"
His screams became wordless.
And soon he was silent.
His eyes stared at nothing, unfocused and empty, his mind completely shattered by the weight of his sins. Drool ran from the corner of his mouth.
Ghost released him. Norman collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
Ghost slowly turned toward Tasi.
She lay on her side, her transformation fully gone. She had reverted to her normal mammoth form in her final moments. The wound in her chest was grievous, green flames still flickering weakly around the edges, preventing any healing.
Ghost ran to her, his own transformation fading. He dropped to his knees beside her massive head, his hands, now human again, stroking her trunk gently.
"Tasi," he said softly, his voice breaking.
He realized that he could not do anything to help her. The corruption was too deep, eating her from within. Perhaps Agamotto could, with his mastery of healing magic. Perhaps Max too. But they were not here. And Tasi was dying now, in this moment, and there was nothing he could do.
Ghost comforted her, stroking her trunk, his other hand resting on her massive head.
"You're going to be fine, girl," he said, his voice thick with emotion. "You're going to be fine. You were such a good girl." Tears ran down his face. "You are my best friend, my faithful companion."
His voice broke completely.
"We'll meet again someday, Tasi. I promise you. In whatever comes after this. I'll find you again."
Tasi made a soft sound, barely audible, a gentle trumpet, weak and fading. Her large eye looked at him with something like understanding, like acceptance, like love. Her trunk moved slightly, touching his hand one last time.
Tasi's eye slowly closed. Her breathing became shallow, then stopped.
She was gone.
Ghost knelt there in silence, one hand still resting on her cooling trunk.
He did not wait long there. He could not.
The grief was transforming into something else. Something darker. Something that demanded release.
He stood, anger building up in him like a tidal wave, like a volcano about to erupt. The crimson flames reignited around his body, blazing brighter than before, hotter than before, fueled by rage and loss and the need for vengeance.
He turned to see Apocalypse, now forty feet tall, being fought off by Azzuri and Nur.
Ghost screamed.
The sound was inhuman, a roar of pure fury that shook the earth itself. He transformed once more, but this transformation was different. The crimson flames around him erupted into an inferno. His skull was now black as charcoal, as if burned by fires beyond comprehension, with a deep crimson glow burning inside his eye sockets. The bone chains materialized in his hands, but they too had changed, now black and wreathed in crimson hellfire.
Ghost charged at Apocalypse.
He moved so fast he became a blur of crimson fire, crossing the distance in less than a second. He crashed into the forty-foot mutant with the force of a meteor, hitting him so hard that Apocalypse was knocked off his feet.
The giant tumbled backward, shock clear on his face.
Ghost struck down on Apocalypse with feral brutality, the black chains whipping and cutting, his fists blazing with crimson hellfire as they hammered into the mutant's face, his chest, anywhere Ghost could reach.
The Spirit of Vengeance had been unleashed.
.
.
RIP