A Gathering of Heroes (Part Two)

"Hiss..." The sound of the Phantom Demon gasping for breath echoed in Peter's mind. Peter asked her, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, maybe it's just my imagination. But that skeleton's power seems a little familiar?"

Just then, chains ripped through the dark New York night sky, and a flaming skull drove a motorcycle, leaving a bright arc of light in the air.

The motorcycle descended onto the rooftop, less than 200 meters from the building where Peter was. When Peter saw the motorcycle's fiery eye sockets, he felt as if his soul was almost sucked in.

"It really is him!" The Phantom Demon's surprised voice echoed in Peter's mind, "That's Mephisto's power! The Lord of the Hell Dimension has descended???"

"Mephisto?" Peter said, somewhat puzzled. "I think I've heard a friend mention that name before, something about the Lord of Hell ..."

"Mephisto is an extremely powerful Dimensional Demon God, ranking among the top of all Dimensional Demon God. His Hell Dimension is perpetually engulfed in raging Hellfire, and any creature that dares to provoke him will be burned to ashes..."

As he spoke, the Phantom Demon's tone became quite puzzled. "How could Mephisto's apostle be here? Could it be..."

Her tone grew increasingly somber. "Could it be that Knull has escaped? Has he made a deal with Mephisto?"

Then she muttered to herself, "It's not impossible. Mephisto loves making deals, and he has business partners all over the universe. If that's the case, then we're in trouble. I have to notify the Agents of the Cosmos immediately..."

"Wait!... Why are those two fighting??"

With a shocked tone from the Phantom Demon, the flaming skull brandished its chains, binding the Riot shrouded in the black veil. Then, looking into the Riot's eyes through its flaming eye sockets, it said, "You are guilty! Die!"

The Riot clearly hadn't expected an uninvited guest to appear during their unleashing of power, but this didn't stop them. They muttered to themselves, "The great Creator is about to descend, and the world will eventually be swallowed by chaos and darkness..."

"That skull is actually on our side??? Too bad, he's just Mephisto's apostle, he doesn't seem capable of interrupting Knull's descent of power. Looks like I'll have to call for backup..."

"Boom!!!!"

A deafening roar shook the earth. Peter turned his head and saw a huge figure leap into the battlefield amidst a cloud of dust in the distance. His muscles were bulging and he was incredibly strong. More importantly, his entire body was a vibrant red.

"Wait a minute?? This is the power of Setar'ak??? He's an apostle of the Lord of the Crimson Dimension???"

The Phantom Demon's tone was somewhat distraught. "Why is Cyttorak here too??? Mephisto, Cyttorak, who's next? Dormammu??? Chthon???"

"What's going on??? Are the Demon God having a meeting???"

Before she could finish speaking, another cloud of black mist surged up in the distance. Peter turned to look again and saw a figure floating in the endless black mist, vanishing in an instant amidst the darkness. When Mordo landed, his voice was cold and deep, echoing in everyone's ears. "I have come on the orders of Dormammu, the Lord of the Dark Dimension..."

Strange and the Phantom Demon exclaimed together, "Dormammu?!"

"Mordo! Are you insane?!" a mage behind Strange shouted. "You actually betrayed the Sorcerer Supreme and joined Dormammu's side?!"

Mordo's expression wasn't good either. He said to Strange expressionlessly, "Dormammu sent me to ask you why the Sanctum Sanctorum's phone is unreachable? His... his..."

Mordo stammered for a while, seemingly unable to recall the word, but Strange understood immediately and said, "Return on investment, right? We've already discussed 7.2, and to be honest, that's our bottom line. If he keeps making those harassing calls, we can't back down..."

Then he came to his senses, looked at Mordo and said, "Wait, how did you become Dormammu's apostle? Aren't you afraid your master will be angry???"

"Sorcerer Supreme did not choose me, I will naturally seek another way out... Strange, we'll settle our score later."

As he spoke, Mordo turned his gaze to the Riot floating in mid-air. Peter and the Phantom heard him say, "God descending? What audacity!"

Peter quickly jumped down and asked him, "What's going on? What does that Symbiote want?"

Mordo stared at the Riot in mid-air and said, "The Demon God behind him seems to want to open a passage for divine intervention."

"That's impossible!" Phantom Demon denied through Peter's words. "Knull is imprisoned on Klyntar planet. He hasn't escaped and couldn't possibly have come to Earth."

"His physical body cannot come here, but his power can. Clearly, this Demon God has left a seed in the believer's body, and this seed is the key to opening the channel for the power to descend."

Mordo's expression was icy. He said, "The Demon God behind him seems to be of a very high rank. Earth's magical defense system might not be able to stop the eruption of the Seed of Power..."

As they spoke, the group looked up and saw that the fiery skeleton and the crimson giant were approaching the Riot in mid-air. The flames and crimson power were constantly eroding the curtain of darkness, but they were still not fast enough.

"Mephisto and the apostles of Cyttorak possess only a small fraction of the power of the Demon God, and may not be able to completely stop the eruption of the Seed of Power."

"Where is the Sorcerer Supreme?" Strange asked Mordo.

Mordo remained silent without answering. After a long while, he muttered to himself with some doubt, "Even if the defense system might not be able to stop it, it shouldn't have been breached so quickly... What happened to the Ancient One?"

Upon hearing that the Ancient One might be in trouble, the sorcerers behind Strange became anxious. Strange turned to them and said, "You guys open a portal back to Kamar-Taj first and see what's going on. Leave this to us."

After the sorcerer left, Strange said to Mordo, "Whatever happened, you came to help, right?"

Mordo ignored him completely, manipulating the Dark Force to begin stopping the Riot.

Unlike the other two Demon God's apostles who launched a direct attack, Mordo planned to use the power of the Dark Dimension to suppress the Riot's power, constantly infiltrating the area surrounding the Riot with Dark Force.

"What should we do next?" Strange muttered to himself, but Peter didn't hesitate. He raised his hand... and then pulled out his phone.

Two minutes later, the mech roared across the horizon, and a gleaming shield flew in with a whooshing sound.

Stark's first words upon landing were. "Peter, Dr. Connors is looking for you. He said if he doesn't see you within ten minutes, he'll come here himself and take you back."

"But..."

Steve jumped down from another building and said to Peter, "Connors and Dr. Schiller have made a result, the one you had me test last time. You'd better go and take a look."

Stark turned to me and said, "What on earth are you guys doing? All this secrecy! Jarvis told me that the lab you're using overloaded its power 27 times in three days..."

Upon hearing that Stark was about to press for answers, Peter immediately said, "Dr. Connors must be very anxious. I'll go right now!"

As he spoke, he turned translucent and vanished in a flash, leaving Stark wide-eyed. He turned his head and saw Strange waving his Crimson Bands of Cyttorak and jumping down as well.

Stark was very curious about what these people were up to behind his back, but with only Steve by his side, he felt too embarrassed to ask. So he simply activated his mech and flew towards the Riot.

Inside the Stark Tower laboratory, as soon Peter landed, Phantom told him, "We need to keep an eye on the Riot! If Knull's power really does descend, I need to call in Agents of the Cosmos for support immediately!"

"Believe me, there are more important things to do now than keep an eye on him."

Just as Phantom was about to retort, Schiller came out of the laboratory's preparation room. He patted Peter on the shoulder, Peter heard Phantom utter a sound, "... Huh???"

Then the Symbiote fell silent. Peter asked her, "What's wrong? Are you angry? Okay, I'll finish up here as soon as possible, and then we'll go to the battlefield..."

"No, no need, let's stay here for now."

Peter was completely baffled when Dr. Connors came out holding a strangely shaped object.

The object looked like two pyramids, one upright and one inverted, with a sphere sandwiched in between, and the sphere was still emitting a faint light.

Peter stared at the object and said, "Is this the finished product? It's much smaller than I expected. After all, this is the result of our hard work over the past few months..."

Connors tossed the polyhedron to Peter, Peter caught it hastily and said, "You guys don't mean to make me...

"Who else could it be but you? Do you think he would take it if just anyone handed it to him?"

"Alright, but you said..." Peter looked at the object in his hand, but the Phantom Demon couldn't help but speak up, "Where did you humans get such refined magical energy? Aren't you a Mechanical Civilization?"

"I don't know, but they call this a 'deposit'."

Schiller said to the two men, "You can finish the rest of the work; I have other things to do."

Connors took out a syringe, pointed it at his arm, and said to Peter, "You can finish the rest of the work. I have things to do too."

The Phantom Demon also said to Peter, "You'll have to finish the rest of the work; I have something to do."

"Hey, wait! Those two are one thing, but where are you going? Aren't you Symbiote?"

Before Peter could finish speaking, the purple on his spider suit faded, returning to its original red and blue color, and the purple Slime disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Peter wasn't the type to force people, so he just sighed with a hint of regret and went back to his experiments.

Outside the lab, Schiller held a glass jar, collecting the purple Slime that had jumped in. He extended a finger so the Phantom could touch his body. The moment they connected, the Phantom shouted, "You're here!!! Do you know that all the Symbiote in the universe are looking for you???"

The Gray Mist said, "I don't know, and I don't want to know."

"How did you even get to Earth? You... never mind, you'd better hide quickly. Knull's power is about to descend, and you'll be in big trouble if he finds you."

The Phantom Demon spoke rapidly, "Although we no longer acknowledge Knull as our creator and leader, he did create the Symbiote. Even if he can no longer directly control the Symbiote, he will definitely be able to sense your presence once his power descends."

"No matter how you got here, he has always hoped that the new Symbiote could take him out of that prison. If he is determined to catch you, then the Agents of the Cosmos can't help you."

"My compatriots... I regret that I cannot help you. After the Agents of the Cosmos split up, they no longer have the strength to form an army to resist Knull. Once he is truly freed, the universe will once again face the catastrophe of chaos."

The woman's voice was filled with sorrow. "Child, while there's still time, run away quickly."

Sorry for the lateness.