Chapter 271

"I… I don’t know how to describe what I saw." Peggy Carter still looked shaken. Even her eyes, burning with Fel fire, flickered unsteadily.

"I saw the smoldering remains of countless worlds…" Carter’s expression stiffened, and her breathing gradually quickened. "I saw those loathsome, twisted creatures forming an endless army that rampaged across the worlds…"

As the memories deepened, Carter’s expression became strange, her terrified smile tinged with madness. "They launched a vast expedition that reached to the end of creation, swearing to turn all worlds to ash with Fel fire…"

"They are destined to destroy everything we cherish!" Carter clutched her head with both hands, as if trying to drive those mad memories from her mind. At last, she screamed herself hoarse, "This world—every world will burn!"

Boom! Evenson took out his staff and slammed it heavily against the ground. Invisible ripples spread out with the sound, and Carter struggled free from those frenzied memories.

"What was that? What exactly were the things I saw?!" Coming back to herself, Carter grabbed Evenson’s arms like a drowning person clutching at a straw and demanded loudly.

When the transformation had just been completed, countless horrifying fragments had flooded into Peggy Carter’s mind. But before she could examine them closely, Evenson had interrupted her. Then she had seen Captain America, whom she had longed for for over sixty years, and had been unable to stop herself from sharing a dance with him. Those memories that did not belong to her had naturally been set aside.

It was not until Evenson brought up the matter again that she truly faced those terrifying images.

"Spirit Vision…" Evenson removed Carter’s hands and said, "My profession, Sorcerer, has an extremely ancient origin—older even than this world…" He looked at Carter and gave a mysterious smile. "It comes from beyond this world."

Evenson knew that Carter had not actually seen anything just now. The images in her mind were merely fragments of memory from that Doomguard’s soul. She had simply watched a terrifying apocalyptic movie in first person, with several layers of immersion.

After hearing this, Peggy Carter said nothing. Given her former position, she knew extraterrestrial life existed. Though she had never witnessed it firsthand, countless classified objects she had encountered—the Cosmic Cube, the Obelisk, and so on—had all pointed to that fact. Especially the scenes she had just "seen" with her own eyes.

"But when we accept this legacy and complete our ascension," Evenson said solemnly, his eyes burning as he looked at Carter, "we will all, in some unseen way, behold that ancient enemy—the destroyer of worlds, the Burning Legion."

"Then… all of it was real? Everything I saw was real?" Carter asked in disbelief. Carter had seen her share of things. She had personally lived through the most brutal war in human history and witnessed weapons capable of destroying an entire city in one strike. Yet none of that was worth mentioning beside what she had just seen.

"Will they… come for us too?" Carter asked. She desperately wanted to hear him deny it.

"I don’t know…" Evenson had nearly said, That depends on my mood. "But countless worlds have already encountered them, and you have seen what became of them."

"Yes. I saw." Carter answered. The worlds had been shattered, leaving behind only smoldering fragments.

"Since you have seen what I saw, you understand our fate as well…" Evenson said seriously. "Are you willing to fight for the great cause of resisting the Burning Legion?"

"I… Can we win?" It was not strange for Carter to ask that. After witnessing what the Burning Legion had done, many people lost the courage to resist.

"How could you ask that?" Evenson was deeply dissatisfied with Carter’s attitude. He stepped closer and closer. "Is it that you lack the resolve to defend this world, or did I overestimate your resilience?"

Rather than persuade her, he provoked her. Black demonic wings suddenly spread behind Carter. The demonic markings on her body shone once more, her skin turned black and hardened, and curved horns grew from her head. Demon Transformation. "I’ll show you my resilience."

"Good." Evenson looked at his work with satisfaction. "And you had better not tell anyone about this."

"You don’t need to teach me that. I know what to do." As one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s founders, Peggy Carter could tell perfectly well that even if these shocking matters were revealed, no one would believe them. Instead, she would be branded a conspiracy theorist and face endless obstacles.

"Heh heh…" Peggy Carter suddenly laughed. "Hydra? When you came to find me, you said you wanted to deal with Hydra. Now I see that was merely a pretext to lure me out."

"I never lied to you, ma’am." Evenson smiled. "Hydra is still an enemy. Its existence obstructs the plan. Its existence prevents me from concentrating my strength to withstand the disaster that will eventually arrive."

"What about S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Carter asked. "If Hydra is an obstacle, then what is S.H.I.E.L.D. in your eyes?"

After everything that had happened, Peggy Carter could now be completely certain that Evenson was no loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

"I told you, I never lied to you, ma’am." Evenson gave a strange smile. "S.H.I.E.L.D. ceased to exist many years ago."

Peggy Carter fell silent. She knew that if things truly were as Evenson said, then the current S.H.I.E.L.D. was nothing more than Hydra’s skin. If a great tree had only one or two borers, they could be exterminated. But if the whole tree had already been hollowed out by insects, then it could only be burned down along with them.

The work of half her life, reduced to ashes.

"All right, enough about that." Seeing the pained look on Peggy Carter’s face, Evenson knew exactly what hurt her, so he changed the subject. "I have some gifts for you."

"Given your current condition, ordinary weapons are no longer suitable for you, so I prepared something special." Evenson pulled several items from his backpack.

Although the standard weapon of a Demon Hunter was the warglaive, the thing was far too difficult to master. Without years of practice, no one could use it properly. If a novice took one onto the battlefield, they might kill themselves with their first strike.

"This is called Havoc." Evenson took out a half-meter-long flintlock pistol and handed it over. The entire gun was made of metal. A sharpened blade ran beneath it from the trigger guard to the muzzle, allowing it to serve as a machete in critical moments. Special runes were engraved around the muzzle as well, so it could fire without bullets by channeling energy into it.

"This one is called Revenge." Evenson then took out a one-handed battle axe. Its color scheme was cold and dark, and its blade was covered in serrated barbs. One blow would surely tear off a couple pounds of flesh. Its appearance alone sent chills down one’s spine.

Moreover, the axe’s design was quite famous: the Lordaeron Royal Axe. But with Evenson’s smithing skill only just above three hundred, and with such vastly inferior materials, it could at best be called a Lordaeron Tenant’s Axe.

"Ma’am, I personally consecrated these two weapons at a little smithy in the Scottish Highlands three days ago. They are truly extraordinary…"

Things had been fine until then, but upon hearing that sentence, Peggy Carter suddenly felt, for no apparent reason, that the world’s future was truly bleak.