章 201: CHAPTER 197

[Nick Fury POV]

Things might have been going way too smoothly for old Nick that made the universe think that it was high time it balanced the scales.

The universal retribution had begun when we started receiving reports of dead signals from some regions across the globe. Dead signals as in no one was actively using the internet, no one was making calls, no one was playing video games or even sending texts.

It wasn't weird because believe me or not, there are some regions in the world that are basically cut off from the rest of the world as a whole. Not even the internet exists in those places.

I immediately knew something was up when some people started putting in calls that they were demons and aliens killing people here and there. And then there was the footage.

Alien-looking things feeding on humans and local authorities trying to kill them with their firearms but they were mostly unsuccessful. We were in over our heads and I knew it but everything went to shit when the scouts Barton had ordered to case the dead signal regions came back and reported that entire towns and villages had been wiped out – my heart chilled.

"Sir, you have to see this." I looked at the video Hill had brought me. The video was showing a man, probably a meta, flying and killing the extraterrestrials left and right without even moving his limbs. Teleportation, flight, he could also stop things from moving, telekinesis it seems, and then there was the way most of the ETs just burst into tiny pieces as if they were suddenly inflated.

"How did he do that and do we have any idea who this is?" I asked as I handed the tablet back to Hill who, against all odds, nodded her head. Hoh? Now this is getting interesting.

"According to satellite readings on the area, there have been some rather illogical spikes in gravitons." She said which earned her a scowl. I hate it when people half-explain things. "We believe his abilities are spatially oriented which would greatly explain the teleportation, telekinesis and also how they exploded."

"What kind of files do we have on him?" These were the kind of people I had been looking for. While S.H.I.E.L.D did have a metahuman taskforce, strong abilities like these were rarer even among the already rare metahuman kind.

"We have everything on him, down to his birthday and where he was born." Saying that, she produced the amplified scans of the video and whatever I wanted to say about half-explanations died in my throat. "His name is Steve Rogers sir."

"What the f…"

"Sir! It's an emergency! You have to see this!" Coulson barged into the room and went straight to the projector and connected it to the main channel we used. The same one that oversees all other S.H.I.E.L.D digital information.

"What… the hell is that?" The satellite readings coming from Nepal were off the charts in every way.

"We are still not certain, but whatever it is appeared at once. There was no gradual energy buildup of any kind that we could track. Something this big should not be spontaneous… and I'm afraid that's not all sir."

At this point I don't think I can take more of this. "There is more?" The world was turning to shit at this point and you're telling me that there's more?

"Yes… Uhm sir, we have every reason to believe that a portal or black hole is forming under Nepal…"

"…"

"Are you joking, Coulson?"

"I'm afraid not sir."

My eyes trailed everyone, from Barton to Hill, and then back to Coulson, and each of them had the same stunned-into-silence expression that I had.

I could only play my last card, my only viable card, because it seems that someone was having a game of who had what and no one bothered to give me a heads-up. "What of Draul? Can we contact him, any of them?"

"Negative sir. I even tried reaching Yelena but none of their cells are connecting. What do we do now sir?" Barton asked which somehow got a chuckle out of me.

"We'll do what we can and then die trying. Since we are no longer receiving reports of alien attacks, I want every armed and trained personnel to get ready. They went under our guard and due to that we've already lost a few towns and some cities are in disarray. If what first happened is some sort of preemptive attack then whatever is coming from that portal will likely raise hell on Earth." I slumped back on my chair as they all scurried to their respective departments to issue out orders and make preparations to combat whatever we were facing.

The only thing that was currently giving me some form of assurance was that Draul was probably out there fighting, along with the others who apparently now had superpowers. But the thing that still scared me was that the satellites would have been able to pick up the destruction in his wake if he actually was fighting but there was no picture or video of him on the internet despite it currently turning to shit.

May God help us all.

…

BOOOOOM!

CRACKLE! FWOOSH! BANNNNNG!

The city had been reduced to rubbles in the event of their fight and it was only through the aid of the Master Sorcerers of the Sanctums that the destruction hadn't already covered the entire country.

Overlaying dimensions over dimensions all in a bid to slow down the Hell Lord's advance in conquering the Earth. Bucky's body was flashing in between various states and molecular forms as he disregarded everything that was thrown at him and attacked the Demon Lord.

Despite him bleeding out from every orifice in his body due to the overwhelming magic of Satannish, he still didn't relent as he jumped in once again. The others with him were not faring any better, not even Ororo, though she seemed to be in a relatively better state than the others.

The sorcerers fighting with them had made the dimension as big as possible and held it for as long as they could but they had begun crumbling each time Satannish attacked.

Steve and Ororo both rushed at him after he and Bucky clashed for the nth time, with the latter being flung away in this exchange, each wielding their respective abilities, space and lightning. Steve had locked down the space around Satannish but he was finding it a daunting task to slow down the monster from moving just a limb.

Meanwhile Ororo moved overhead as lightning, hail, fire and ice followed her and struck at the eyes of the monster, making him howl in rage which forced him to break free of Steve's hold and make his way towards Ororo only for it to stumble back as if a satellite just impacted him.

Yelena's body cackled with white lightning as she zoomed across the gigantic being's body, laying punch after punch that impacted so hard that it caused the air to vibrate.

Satannish grunted and as if responding to his wishes, the area around him turned night as darkness covered everything and swallowed every speck of light.

"Yelena, get out of there!" Seeing the darkness enveloping her sister as it ate away at everything, Natasha used every bit of power and frustration inside her and held darkness – a notion that seemed to take the Hell Lord by surprise but also increased his greed in possessing the redhead as a powerful pawn.

Not caring about how Natasha managed to hold apart darkness, Steve dove and as soon as his senses registered every point in that space, he immediately appeared at Yelena's side and teleported both of them out.

"*Huff huff*.. That was scary. Whatever that darkness was sucked away every speck of light that came from my body making me unable to get out." Yelena warned as got her breath under control. That had outright terrified her down to her bones.

"Can you guys still go on for a while?" Ororo asks the group of sorcerers who looked like they were a second away from passing out or falling to death.

"Yes we can. Hopefully we can sever this dimension very soon and send it to Hell and put an end to this battle. Master Draul, Master Strange and the Ancient One entrusted the safety of Earth to us and yet you took those burdens upon yourself. Holding on until you no longer can is the least we can do." A master, the first one Draul had met when he arrived at Kamar-Taj, told the people that were currently fighting their battle.

"Then we'll have to speed things up a bit. Waiting on the sidelines can be a shit job." Bucky remarked jokingly but his face was anything but. "One more push."

He didn't wait for anyone before he disappeared in a flash, running with a speed that only Yelena could accomplish, which she did as she appeared on his side, both bathed in lightning as they reached Satannish not even bothering to slow down despite the floating orbs of darkness around his form.

Steve and Natasha appeared on both sides of Satannish, each brewing with power as none of their strikes were limited in destruction capabilities.

Similar to Yelena, Ororo appeared right in front of Satannish face with white lightning cladding her form as she was now able to ride every element of the sky without any restrictions.

Not intimidated a bit by their fierce attacks, fire and darkness covered his hands as he punched torrents of fire towards the ants swirling around him but unfortunately for him, each and every one of those ants were not afraid of being burned in the slightest.

The elements under Ororo's command coalesced into a spear of fire, water, wind and lightning, brimming to its feel with divine energy that made Satannish nervously hesitant.

On Steve and Natasha's end, the duo compressed everything they could muster, forming a small black orb that couldn't even cast its shade with the light shining on it on Steve's hand while Natasha pulled in all of the psionic energy she could muster and drew them to her outstretched hand forming a haze of purple and black around it.

Bucky and Yelena were not left out as Bucky's form, though unknowingly, gained a tinge of gold while time seemed to stop in Yelena's point of view.

She saw what she could only describe as reality tear apart like a very bad quality fabric under the attack of five people against an Hell Lord.

The multitude of layers of dimensions stacked against each other crumbled in droves as everything, even space and time, seemed to collapse in on itself before spewing out all its content against the outside world which created cracks in the very fabric of reality.[A/N: Is that a mini infinite-mass punch?]

Divine might, magic, physical force, fundamental forces and cosmic energies met in a brutal clashdown that razed and destroyed everything in the vicinity of impact and other connected areas.

The collision and its resulting explosion was so catastrophic that the sorcerers holding the dimension from colliding on itself all received a violent backlash that caused most of them to cough out blood while others bled out from their orifices.

What followed after was a scream of agony that rattled the bones of all those who heard it. A nightmare-inducing scream that made even the most battle hardened sorcerer's heart skip a few beats.

When the smoke clear away, everyone was astonished to see what could be called an injury on Satannish's body as it ran straight from his head, cutting off one of his dual horns, to a little under the mouth of his second face which destroyed one of his eyes, causing blood and fire to bleed out in huge amount that turned the already destroyed landscape to a hellish one.

"YOUR SOULS! I WANT YOUR SOULS!" Satannish screamed in unbridled rage but the targets of his screams could all be seen sporting a smug smile on their lips as if taunting him saying, "Come get it."