Lord of Terror

The bald leader stood behind the militants, a grin of certain victory hanging on his face. He raised his right hand, and all the muzzle tips lifted at once, aiming at Tony's armor.

"Long time no see, Mr. Tony Stark," the bald man said in broken English. "Ever since that Dragon Country kid entered the cave, I felt something was off. Sure enough..."

Tony took half a step back quietly, his armor letting out a squeak. Facing this many heavy weapons, this crude armor would easily be pierced right through.

"Listen, bald man," Tony dragged out his tone intentionally. "We can make a deal. You want more advanced weapons, right? I can--"

"Shut up!" the bald man suddenly interrupted him in a rage, "You think I'd still believe your bullshit?"

The bald leader's grin looked exceptionally ferocious in the firelight, and he violently swung down his right hand: "Fire!"

In an instant, the entire cave was illuminated bright as day by gunfire.

Tongues of fire spewed from the heavy machine guns' muzzles, and bullets poured onto Tony's armor like a rainstorm.

The clanging sound of machine-gun bullets striking the metal armor merged into one continuous din, sparks flying in all directions.

"Damn it!" Tony groaned inside his armor, pushed back step after step by the massive impact force.

A bullet grazed the periphery of the reactor, exploding a dazzling spark before Tony's eyes.

He staggered back to the corner, his metal boot soles scraping two deep marks on the rocky ground.

"Tony!" Chen Tian's voice came from not far away, carrying obvious anxiety. "What's your situation over there?"

Tony leaned his back against the rock wall, panting heavily: "Not looking good, Dragon Country boy. This bunch of lunatics are lying in ambush at the cave entrance, they have heavy machine guns and RPGs, we can't break through..." His words were interrupted by another wave of bullets, and a few rock fragments crumbled down from overhead.

The bald leader's voice was exceptionally piercing amidst the gunfire: "Stop hiding, Stark! How long do you think that pile of scrap metal can protect you?" He made a gesture, and two militants carrying RPGs squeezed forward from the back of the formation.

Tony's pupils suddenly contracted. This makeshift armor might barely withstand rifle bullets, but it definitely couldn't handle a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade.

Hearing Tony's warning, Chen Tian's mind went completely blank for a split second. He had originally thought that according to the movie plot, Tony should be able to smoothly break through the encirclement, but now the situation completely exceeded his expectations. Those heavy machines guns and RPGs hadn't appeared in the movie at all!

Damn it, I flapped my little butterfly wings way too hard... Chen Tian muttered to himself, his palms covered in cold sweat. He was just an ordinary corporate slave, when had he ever experienced this kind of life-or-death scene?

The moment he was stunned, Tony had already dragged his heavy armor and rushed toward them. The metal joints emitted a harsh friction sound, and every step the armor took felt like it was about to fall apart.

"Run! What are you standing there dazed for?!" Tony's voice sounded exceptionally muffled inside the mask. "They're going to use an RPG!"

Yinsen reacted first, grabbing Chen Tian's arm: "Let's go!"

Only then did Chen Tian snap out of it, turning around to run with Yinsen. The whistling sound of a rocket launching came from behind, followed by a deafening explosion. The shockwave flipped the three of them to the ground, and rubble and dust rained down heavily upon them.

"Cough cough..." Chen Tian struggled to climb up, finding that Tony's armor was blown to pieces, the reactor on his chest flickering erratically. Yinsen was desperately helping Tony take off the damaged armor.

Chen Tian's pupils constricted violently, the scene before him seemingly slowed down a countless number of times. Tony's once awe-inspiring armor was now shattered to pieces like a toy broken apart by a child. The reactor on his chest flashed with an unstable blue light, resembling the final gasp of a dying person.

No... This is impossible... Chen Tian's lips trembled, his throat feeling as if something were choking it.

He mechanically turned his head to look toward the end of the passage--the bald leader was advancing step by step with a dozen heavily armed terrorists, their gun barrels gleaming with a cold metallic luster in the dim cavern.

Tony struggled to break free from the damaged armor, a striking wound on his forehead with fresh blood sliding down his cheek. "Dragon Country boy..." He panted heavily, "Remember that idiom you taught me? Push someone into a desperate situation..."

"Then he will survive," Chen Tian reflexively continued, but his voice was as dry as if it weren't his own.

His gaze swept across the surroundings--the narrow passage, the shattered armor parts, Yinsen's pale complexion. Desperation surged like a tidal wave, almost drowning him out.

The bald leader's sneering laughter drew closer: "What a touching scene!" He raised the AK-47 in his hand. "Mr. Stark, this is the price for betraying us!"

Chen Tian's fingers unconsciously dug into the rubble on the ground. He thought of his life before time-traveling--the nine-to-five corporate slave routine, huddling in a rented apartment on weekends watching Marvel movies... And now, he was going to die in this gloomy cave, along with Iron Man.

Just as Chen Tian fell into despair, the surrounding air suddenly became abnormally scorching.

Large beads of sweat rolled down his cheek, dripping onto the rubble and emitting a sizzling sound.

Yinsen's shouting echoed hazily in his ears: "Watch out!"

Chen Tian raised his head in a daze, finding that at some unknown point, the entire passage had been surrounded by crimson flames.

In the distorted heat waves, the rocks began to melt, dripping into magma-like liquid.

The terrorists retreated in panic, and even the bald leader revealed a look of dread.

"This... This is..." Tony struggled to prop his upper body up, his pupils reflecting the leaping flames.

A deep and resonant voice came from the depths of the flames, the sound seeming to drill directly into everyone's bone marrow, stirring up the deepest fear within their hearts: "An interesting world..."

The flames suddenly surged, forming a massive whirlpool.

Amidst the distorted vortex, a terrifying figure gradually emerged--dark red skin covered in scales, curved demonic horns gleaming with a metallic sheen, towering spikes lined up across its back, and eyes burning with the fires of the Hell, seeming capable of scorching souls directly.

The tall figure bent slightly in the narrow cavern, but the oppressive aura it brought made everyone's heart breed fear.

"Diablo..." Chen Tian's legs went weak, and he couldn't believe his eyes. The Lord of Terror from Diablo had actually appeared in the Marvel Universe!

The bald leader shouted hysterically: "Fire! Kill this monster!" Bullets shot toward the demon like raindrops, only to turn to ash the moment they touched its skin.

Diablo let out a scornful sneer, its massive claw waving gently. The five terrorists in the front row suddenly let out shrill screams, their bodies shriveling up at a speed visible to the naked eye, finally turning into dried corpses.

"Fear... What a sweet taste..." The demon took a deep breath, as if savoring the terror pervading the air.

Tony's lips trembled slightly, staring at this demon that walked out of hell, and he muttered mechanically, "Well... This is definitely the worst Easter egg I've ever seen..."

Yinsen's complexion was as pale as paper, his glasses hanging crookedly on the bridge of his nose without even the strength to raise a hand and straighten them. His lips kept trembling, yet he couldn't force out a complete syllable.

As for Chen Tian, he bit down hard on his lower lip until he tasted the salty tang of blood, only then realizing he had exerted too much force.

As a loyal player of Blizzard games, he knew the terror of Diablo better than anyone—this Lord of Terror not only devoured souls, but also excelled at exploiting the deepest fears within the human heart. His legs trembled uncontrollably, his fingernails digging deep into his palms.

Diablo slowly turned around, eyes burning with hellfire locking onto the three of them. In that instant, Chen Tian felt his internal organs freeze. The demon's mouth twisted into a bizarre curve: "Hello."

The bald leader had completely broken down by now, dropping his AK-47 and kneeling on the ground to kowtow frantically: "Great god! Please spare us! We are willing to offer these three sacrifices!"

Diablo didn't even look at him, simply snapping his fingers lightly. The bald leader's body suddenly convulsed violently, countless bugs seeming to crawl beneath his skin. Under the terrified gazes of the three, his body swelled like a balloon, finally bursting into a sky full of blood mist with a bang.

"Noisy." The demon flicked his claws in disgust.

The surviving terrorists screamed and scattered in all directions, but Diablo merely waved his hand lazily. The ground suddenly split open with countless fissures, and crimson lava gushed out, swallowing the runners one by one. One gunman tried to jump across, only to be impaled through the chest by a suddenly protruding bone spur, hanging in midair and letting out an inhuman scream.

After dealing with the terrorists in the cave, Diablo turned around again, his huge tail sweeping across the rock wall as gravel fell in a rustle.

On that ferocious face of his, the corners of his mouth twitched upward, revealing a smile he thought was friendly--this expression on a demon's face was even more frightening than pure malice.

"I'll go deal with the scum outside." The demon's deep voice echoed in the cave, every syllable scraping against the nerves of the three like a dull knife.

As Diablo bent over and walked out of the cave entrance, the outside world instantly plunged into terrified shouts and dying clamor. Screams rose one after another, intermingled with the sounds of machine guns and explosions.

The cave fell into an eerie silence, leaving only the screams and explosions drifting from outside. Tony, Chen Tian, and Yinsen looked at each other, disbelief written all over their faces.

Tony broke the silence first, wiping the blood from his face with a tremor of surviving a catastrophe in his voice: "So... that horned giant just now was saying 'hello' to us?"

He forced out a smile uglier than crying, "I bet JARVIS couldn't analyze what language that was."

Yinsen tremblingly straightened his glasses, the lens already cracked with a fissure: "I'd rather believe this is a hallucination caused by excessive blood loss..."

His gaze swept across the corpses of the armed men all over the floor, then moved away like he'd been electrocuted, "But obviously it isn't."

Chen Tian stared fixedly at the direction of the cave entrance, his throat tightening: "That was Diablo... the Lord of Terror."

His voice grew lower and lower, so low others couldn't hear clearly, "But this doesn't make sense, how could a character from a Blizzard game appear in the Marvel Universe..."

"Wait, what did you say?" Tony frowned, suddenly grabbing Chen Tian's shoulder, "You know that... that red-skinned monster?"

Chen Tian only then realized he had let something slip. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, hesitating on how to explain, when an ear-splitting explosion suddenly sounded from outside, causing the entire cave to shake along with it. Gravel fell from the cave roof in a rustle, and the three instinctively hugged their heads to dodge.

When the vibration stopped, the screams outside had completely vanished, replaced by a hair-raising silence.

Occasionally the sound of dripping liquid could be heard, not knowing if it was water or...

"It's safe outside, everyone." A female voice abruptly rang out from outside the cave.

The three exchanged glances; clearly the one who had gone out just now was a demon, so how did this female voice appear?

"Going out?" Yinsen made a face and gestured.

"Go out for what! I don't want to see that red skin again!" Tony widened his eyes.

"If we don't go out, he's going to come in anyway..." Chen Tian sighed.

"Hey! It's all cleaned up outside." The female voice sounded again, but this time it came from inside the cave.

The three looked over, and a young woman in her early twenties appeared at the corner of the cave entrance.

A head of sharp brown short hair, wearing a signature red leather jacket. Her face was pretty, the corners of her mouth carrying a faint smile, but those eyes... deep within those eyes flickered an unnatural red light.

"Lia... Leah?" Chen Tian blurted out.

Tony and Yinsen slammed their gazes toward Chen Tian, you're acting suspicious! How do you know everyone?

Leah raised an eyebrow, saying with a smile: "Emm, you can call me Leah, but I prefer being called the Lord of Terror."

The three instantly understood, this girl named Leah was what Diablo had transformed into.

Tony swallowed a mouthful of saliva, the corner of his mouth twitching: "Ha, ha, ha, ha, it seems the demon's personality is a bit... special."

Leah ignored Tony's remark, those red-glowing eyes staring straight at Chen Tian, the corners of her mouth hooking into a meaningful smile. She walked forward slowly, her leather boots making crisp sounds on the gravel.

"The chaos outside might attract your friends," Leah tilted her head, an action that should have been cute appearing profoundly bizarre when done by her, "you can go outside and wait." She paused, red light flickering in her eyes, "There's no danger anymore."

Tony guarded in front of Chen Tian with vigilance: "Wait, what on earth are you..."

Leah didn't give him a chance to finish asking. Her body was suddenly engulfed by crimson flames, tongues of fire licking every inch of the cave space, yet eerily without burning the three of them. Amidst the distorted heatwaves, her figure gradually blurred, finally dissolving into the air as a wispy wisp of smoke.

"Holy shit..." Tony widened his eyes, turning his head mechanically to look at Chen Tian, "Are you sure this isn't some holographic projection technology?"

Yinsen tremblingly took off his shattered glasses, wiping them with the corner of his clothes: "If it's a hallucination, the three of us couldn't possibly see the exact same thing... let alone..." Yinsen looked at the corpses on the ground with lingering fear.

Chen Tian took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down: "We must leave here immediately." He pointed toward the cave entrance, "If what she said is true, rescue might really be coming soon."

The three cautiously walked through the passage full of corpses. With every step he took, Chen Tian could feel his heart beating violently. The death states of those terrorists were extremely terrifying--some looked like they had been drained of all moisture, turning into mummies; others looked like they had exploded from the inside, plastered flesh-and-blood against the rock walls in a blur.

When they finally stepped out of the cave, the dazzling sunlight made the three squint their eyes in unison. The camp outside had turned into ruins, all tents and vehicles burning, yet without a single living person in sight--or rather, any intact corpses.

"God..." Yinsen covered his mouth, almost vomiting.

The three stood blankly at the edge of the camp, the scene before their eyes making their legs feel as heavy as if filled with lead.

Tony couldn't hold on first, staggering and kneeling to the ground. Earlier, to protect Yinsen and Chen Tian, he had taken the brunt of the RPG rocket explosion's power.

"This... this is simply..." Yinsen's voice was shattered into pieces, mechanically supporting a half-burned jeep, the reflection of dancing flames leaping across his spectacle lenses.

Chen Tian felt like a ball of cotton was stuffed in his throat, making even breathing difficult.

He forced himself to look away, only to find that everywhere his gaze reached was a hellish scene--a corpse cut in half at the waist hung on barbed wire, entrails dragging more than three meters away; a few charred human figures maintained running postures, their carbonized fingers still hooked on triggers.

"Over there..." Tony suddenly pointed toward the center of the camp, his voice hoarse, "There's a cleaner... place."

Yinsen and Chen Tian supported Tony as they moved over to the empty ammunition crate Tony pointed out.

Chen Tian had just sat down when he jumped up--half a finger was stuck to the box.

He slapped his pants frantically, even though nothing was actually stuck there.

Silence pressed down like a physical substance upon the three of them. In the distance came the crackling of fire, accompanied by the occasional harsh groan of deforming metal.

Tony suddenly laughed with a nervous edge. "Ha... you know what? I just turned down an investment for a horror movie project last month..." His laughter stopped abruptly, as if he had been grabbed by the neck.

Yinsen took off his glasses and wiped them repeatedly with trembling hands. "This isn't real... This can't be real..."

Chen Tian stared at his own trembling hands, dirt from the cave still lingering in the gaps of his fingernails. He suddenly realized that just a few minutes ago, they were struggling to survive, and now they were breaking down just because they had survived. This irony made his stomach cramp.

"That... girl..." Tony spoke up suddenly, his voice low. "She said rescue was coming?"

Yinsen jerked his head up. "You believe a demon's words?"

"I don't." Tony twitched the corner of his mouth. "But I believe the explosion will attract my friend." He pointed to the distant sky. "For instance..."

Three Black Hawk helicopters tore through the horizon, the roar of the propellers growing from distant to near. Tony narrowed his eyes, looking at the familiar military insignia on the fuselage, and a trace of a genuine smile finally appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"I knew you'd come, Rhodes." Tony raised his hand weakly and waved.

Before the helicopters had fully landed, a heavily armed black military officer jumped out.

Colonel James Rhodes ran over quickly. "Tony Stark!"

Rhodes's voice was mixed with anger and worry. "Where's your 'happy Humvee'?" Rhodes's sharp tongue was just as annoying as Tony's. "Next time, don't leave me again. OK?"

Tony tried to stand up, but stumbled. Rhodes immediately stepped forward to steady him, and only then did he see his friend's miserable state--face covered in blood and dirt, clothes in tatters, and the eerie metal device on his chest flickering with an unstable blue light.

"Good god, what happened to you..." Rhodes's voice choked up.

Yet Tony forced out a signature Stark-style smile. "New look, like it?" He pointed to the reactor on his chest. "Arc Reactor, made it myself. Ten years more advanced than any military equipment."

Rhodes shook his head, then suddenly pulled Tony into his arms, patting his back hard. "Asshole... Do you know how many times Pepper has cried?"

Tony's smile froze on his face, and a trace of guilt flashed in his eyes. He gently hugged Rhodes back. "I owe her an apology... Many apologies."

At this moment, Rhodes noticed Chen Tian and Yinsen standing aside. His gaze swept back and forth between the two of them, and finally stopped on Chen Tian. "This is...?"

"Chen Tian, a genius programmer from Dragon Country." Tony casually made up an identity. "If it weren't for him, I probably would have died in the cave."

Rhodes raised an eyebrow, obviously unsatisfied with this explanation, but now was clearly not the time to press. He turned to his communicator and said, "Survivors found, prepare medical support!"

Medics quickly ran over carrying stretchers. Tony waved his hand instead. "Take care of them two first." He pointed to Yinsen and Chen Tian. "Especially Yinsen, he saved my life."

Yinsen wanted to decline, but suddenly began to cough violently, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. The medical personnel immediately swarmed around him.

Rhodes watched this scene with furrowed brows. "What happened here? We received satellite images showing the entire camp suddenly caught fire..."

Tony and Chen Tian exchanged a glance.

"Terrorist infighting." Tony said without changing his expression. "They wanted to use missiles I designed to attack civilians, and I didn't agree, so..." He shrugged. "You know, terrorists aren't very reasonable."

Rhodes ignored Tony's glib talk, instead supporting Tony and walking him toward the helicopter, while continuing to say things like "I know, I know" to appease Tony.

The three helicopters soon took off. Inside the cabin, Tony leaned against the seat, the rapidly passing desert scenery outside the window reflected in his tired yet bright eyes.

"Listen, Dragon Country boy," he suddenly turned to Chen Tian. "I owe you a life. Any luxury apartment in the United States of your choice, Michelin three-star chefs on standby 24 hours a day, how does that sound?"

Yinsen was undergoing a checkup by the medical staff and couldn't help laughing out loud at those words. "Tony, are you recruiting employees or proposing marriage?"

"Both work." Tony raised an eyebrow, his expression turning suddenly serious as he turned to Chen Tian. "Seriously, I need you. Not just because of saving my life... but because of your understanding of that red-skinned monster."

Chen Tian leaned back in his seat, but his eyes were unusually dull, showing no reaction whatsoever to Tony's words.

Because... he found himself in the universe, surrounded by a sea of stars, and right in front of him stood Leah, smiling sweetly at him.