"Sss..." The phantom hissed, her voice echoing in Peter's head. Peter asked her, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, it might be an illusion, but why does the power of that skull seem familiar?"
At that moment, chains sliced through the dark New York skyline, a flaming skull driving a motorcycle creating a trail of bright light in mid-air.
The rooftop where the motorcycle landed was less than 200 meters from Peter's building. When Peter saw the flaming eyes of the skull, he felt his soul almost sucked into them.
"It's really him!" The phantom's surprised voice echoed in Peter's mind: "That's the power of Mephisto! Has the Lord of the Hell Dimension descended???"
"Mephisto?" Peter asked in confusion. "I think I've heard my friend mention that name, something about a Hell's Master..."
"Mephisto is an incredibly powerful Dimensional Demon God. Among all Dimensional Demon Gods, he is one of the most powerful. His Hell Dimension is perpetually ablaze with infernal flames, reducing any creature that dares to challenge him to ashes..."
As she spoke, the phantom's voice took on an undertone of confusion: "Why would Mephisto's apostle appear here? Could it be..."
Her voice grew darker: "Could Nal have broken free? Had he made a deal with Mephisto?"
Then she muttered to herself: "It's not impossible. Mephisto loves making deals, there are objects of his transactions everywhere in the cosmos. If that's the case, this is bad news. I have to inform the Cosmic Agent immediately..."
"Wait! ... Why are they fighting??"
Accompanied by the phantom's shocked voice, the flaming-skulled man whipped his chains, ensnaring the Riot shrouded by a black curtain. He then pointed his flaming eyes at Riot and declared, "You're guilty! Die!"
Riot evidently hadn't expected a surprise enemy during his power release, but it didn't interrupt his chant. "The Creator is on the verge of descending, the world will be consumed by chaos and darkness..."
"That skull-head is on our side??? Unfortunately, he's just Mephisto's apostle. He seems unable to interrupt Nal's power. Looks like I have to call for backup..."
"Boom!"
A tremor shook the ground. Peter turned his head and saw through a cloud of dust in the distance, a colossal figure leapt onto the battlefield. Its bulging muscles and unyielding strength were completely enveloped in bright red.
"Wait?? Is that Setorak's power??? Is he the apostle of the Lord of the Crimson Dimension???"
The phantom's voice was breaking, "How can Setorak be here too??? Mephisto, Setorak, who's next? Dormammu?? Xeseon??? "
"What the hell is going on??? Are the gods having a meeting???"
Before she could finish speaking, thick black smoke surged in the distance. Peter turned his head again to see a figure floating in the endless black mist. When the darkness dissipated momentarily, Modu landed. His voice was cold and low. He echoed in everyone's ears: "I come by the order of Dormammu, Lord of the Dark Dimension..."
Stranged and the phantom exclaimed in unison: "Dormammu?!"
"Modu! Have you gone insane?!" A mage behind Strange shouted, "You dare to betray the Supreme Magician and side with Dormammu?!"
Modu's face didn't look too good, he spoke to Strange with a blank expression: "Dormammu sent me to ask why he can't reach the Holy Sanctuary by phone? His... his..."
Modu hesitated, seemingly unsure how to explain it, but Strange grasped his meaning: "Return on investment, right? We had discussed a rate of 7.2. To be honest, that was already the bottom line. Also, Dormammu cannot call to harass any more..."
He then came back to the current situation, and asked Modu: "Wait, how did you end up as Dormammu's apostle? Aren't you afraid the teacher will be angry???"
"The Supreme Magician didn't choose me, so naturally, I had to find another way... Strange, we'll settle our score later."
Upon saying this, Modu turned his gaze towards the floating riot. Peter and the phantom heard him say, "A Divine descent? That's audacious."
Peter hurriedly jumped down and asked him, "What's going on? What is that symbiote trying to do?"
Modu stared at the Riot in mid-air and said, "The Demon God behind him seems to want to open a portal for a Divine descent."
"That's impossible!" The phantom refuted through Peter's mouth, "Nal was imprisoned on the Klinter Star. He didn't escape and certainly couldn't have come to Earth."
"His physical form couldn't come, but his power could. Apparently, this Demon God left a seed in his disciple's body, a key for opening the portal for a Power Descent."
Modu's expression was icy, "The Demon God behind him seems to be of high rank. Earth's Magic Defense System may not be able to withstand the eruption of the Seed of Power..."
As he said this, they all looked upward. The skull shrouded in flames and the red giant were both drawing closer to the Riot in mid-air. Flames and dark red power were constantly invading the black curtain, but it wasn't happening fast enough.
"The apostles of Mephisto and Setorak only possess a small fraction of the Demon God's power. I'm not sure they can completely stop the eruption of the Seed of Power."
"What about the Supreme Magician?" Strange asked Modu.
Modu kept silent without a response, after a while, he muttered in confusion, "Even if the Defense System can't necessarily withstand it, it shouldn't have been breached this quickly... What happened to The Ancient One?"
Hearing that The Ancient One might be in trouble, the mages behind Strange began to panic. Strange turned his head to them and said, "You guys go back to Kamar-Taj through the portal first to check what's happening. We'll handle here."
After the mage left, Strange said to Modu, "No matter the circumstances, you're here to help, right?"
Modu completely ignored him, manipulating the power of darkness to resist the riot.
Different from the other two apostles of the demon gods who attacked fiercely, Modu planned to suppress the power of the riot with the power of the Dark Dimension, using the power of darkness to continuously infiltrate the area around the riot.
"What should we do next?" Strange muttered to himself, but Peter didn't hesitate. He raised his hand… and pulled out a cell phone.
Two minutes later, the mecha roared past from the sky, as a glossy shield flew in with a whoosh.
The first words Stark uttered after landing were, "Peter, Dr. Connors is calling for you. He said, if he doesn't see you in ten minutes, he'll come over here and drag you back himself."
"But…"
Steve also hopped over from the roof of another building, telling Peter, "Connors and Dr. Shiller have already achieved results. It's that one you guys had me test last time, you'd better go over and take a look."
Stark turned his head and declared, "What the hell are you guys up to? Acting all secretive! JARVIS told me, the lab you guys have been using had power overload occur 27 times in the past three days..."
As soon as Peter heard Stark trying to probe further, he quickly responded, "Dr. Connors must be really anxious, I'll go now!"
With that, he instantly turned semi-transparent and disappeared with a "whoosh", leaving Stark's eyes wide open. He turned his head, and Strange also jumped down waving the Deep Red Ribbon.
Stark was fascinated by what these people were up to behind his back, but only Steve was left at his side, so he didn't have the nerve to inquire. He simply launched his mecha and flew towards the riot.
In the laboratory of Stark Building, as soon as Peter landed, the Phantom told him, "We have to keep an eye on the Riot! In case Nal's power really arrives, I need to immediately call for support from the Cosmic Special Agents!"
"Trust me, there's something more important right now than watching him."
Just as the Phantom was about to argue, Shiller walked out from the preparation room of the laboratory. He patted Peter's shoulder, and Peter heard the Phantom let out a sound of "...Hm???"
Then, the symbiont fell silent. Peter asked her, "What's wrong? Are you angry? Okay, I will finish up here as quickly as possible, and then we'll go to the battlefield..."
"No, no need, let's just stay here for now."
Peter was confused. At this point, Dr. Connors came out with an odd-shaped object in his hand.
The object looked like two pyramids, one facing up and the other facing down, with a sphere in the middle that was emitting a faint light.
Peter went over and looked at the object and said, "This is the finished product? It's much smaller than I imagined, after all this is the result of our hard work over time..."
Connors swung his hand, tossing the polyhedron to Peter, who hastily caught it and said, "You guys really want me..."
"Who else besides you? Do you think if you hand it to anyone else, they would catch it?"
"Alright, but you guys said..." Peter looked at the object in his hand, but the Phantom couldn't help blurting out, "Where did you humans get such pure magical energy? Aren't you a mechanical civilization?"
"I don't know, but they call this thing 'earnest money'."
Shiller said to the two, "You two will take care of the rest of the work, I have other matters to attend to."
Dr. Connors pulled out a syringe, motioned towards his own arm and said to Peter, "You'll do the rest of the work, I have other things to do as well."
Phantom also said to Peter, "The rest is all on you now, I have something else to do."
"Hey, wait! I mean, it's understandable for those two, but where are you going? Aren't you a symbiont?"
Before Peter could finish his words, the purple on his spider suit faded away, restoring back to its original red and blue color, and in a blink of an eye, the purple mucus disappeared.
Peter is not the kind of person who imposes on others, so he only sighed regretfully and then continued with the experiment.
Outside the laboratory door, Shiller was holding a glass jar, collecting the purple mucus that jumped in. He extended a finger to let Phantom touch his body and as soon as he connected, Phantom exclaimed loudly, "You're actually here!!! Do you know that all the symbionts in the universe are looking for you???"
Gray mist said, "I don't know, nor do I want to know."
"How did you end up on Earth? You... nevermind, you better hide immediately. Nal's power is about to descend. If he finds you, it'll be bad."
The Phantom said quickly, "Although we no longer recognize Nal as our creator and leader, he did create the symbionts. Even though he can no longer control the symbionts directly, once his power arrives, he will definitely be able to feel your existence."
"No matter how you got here, he has always hoped that new symbionts will be able to help him escape from his prison. If he really wanted to catch you, not even the cosmic agents could help."
"My brethren... I regretfully can't help you. After the split, the cosmic agents no longer have the power to form an army to resist Nal. Once he truly escapes, the cosmos will again face the catastrophe of chaos invasion."
Sadness swelled in the female voice: "Child, while there's still time, run."