Night fell, and every light in the Avengers' headquarters went out. In the darkness, the superheroes who had come to attend Captain Marvel Mar-Vell's farewell ceremony filed silently out of the building.
In the hopeless darkness, tiny red lights seemed to flicker in everyone's eyes. When they stepped beneath the streetlights, their pupils returned to normal, but their expressions remained cold and stiff. They looked like a crowd of walking corpses.
On an upper floor of Avengers Tower, Mar-Vell, who had been lying at death's door in a hospital bed only moments earlier, now stood beside a floor-to-ceiling window. The goblet in his left hand was filled with scarlet liquid. His emaciated body had regained its former strength, and he stared expressionlessly at the superheroes gathered below.
Mar-Vell had suffered the most severe corruption from the Elder Gods. His entire worldview was now utterly different. The brave, kind superhero he had once been was gone forever.
In his place stood a believer of the Elder Gods: Demon Archbishop Mar-Vell.
The other superheroes had not yet embraced the Elder Gods' blessing with their entire beings as Mar-Vell had. For now, the Elder Gods' magic had merely swallowed their consciousness, turning them into vanguards at Mar-Vell's command.
But this would not last long. No one could resist the might of the Elder Gods. It was only a matter of time before their minds were completely replaced.
"The great Elder Gods' magic alone cannot fully change my condition. This flesh filled with magic is only temporary. I need to escape death for good."
Mar-Vell quietly admired his powerful body in the window's reflection, then issued an order to the superheroes standing below Avengers Tower.
"Go. Bring all your former comrades into our ranks. We need sufficient strength to carry out the great Elder