Crushing Defeat

Seeing the Blood God personally take action, Nova Prime ordered Xandar’s fleet to halt its assembly. Judging by the Blood God’s aura, he should not fear the demon across from him.

"I never got the better of you before because my projection was too weak, and Ancient One was protecting you."

Mephisto sneered. "But this time is different. This projection of mine possesses thirty percent of my true body’s power. And Ancient One is severely injured now—she can no longer protect you.

"Blood God, this time, you’re doomed."

"That’s right, Blood God, you’re doomed."

Tivan shouted excitedly, "Mephisto, destroy him, and I’ll get you a massive number of souls."

"Don’t worry. Even if you hadn’t said so, I would have killed him."

Mephisto roared, "Blood God, it’s time for you to pay the price for everything you’ve done to me."

"With a dumbass like you?"

Wang Bert sneered. "Mephisto, given your current condition, if this projection is destroyed again, how much longer can you hold on?"

"For a very long time, because this projection of mine won’t be destroyed. Blood God, die!"

Mephisto roared, and a massive pillar of demonic fire burst from his mouth, blasting fiercely toward Wang Bert. Wang Bert opened a portal, and the pillar shot at Mephisto from behind.

The battle between Wang Bert and Mephisto was quite a spectacle, and everyone turned to look. Gladiator and the other three were no exception.

Looking at the towering Wang Bert and Mephisto, Gladiator felt uneasy. He seemed to be no match for either of them.

"No, I’m the protagonist. I’m the strongest."

Under the influence of the Protagonist Ring, Gladiator’s confidence quickly returned. However, it was ultimately false confidence. He did not dare interfere in the battle between Wang Bert and Mephisto.

"So the Blood God is this powerful."

Carol was astonished. In that battle back then, the Blood God had not gone all out at all. He could even be said to have been toying with her.

Mephisto had dealt with Kamar-Taj many times and had come prepared. The pillar of fire split directly in two and continued blasting toward Wang Bert from either side of his body.

At the same time, Mephisto’s body abruptly vanished. When he reappeared, he was already behind Wang Bert. His claws descended in a dense barrage, disrupting even space itself.

This was Demon Teleportation, Mephisto’s signature technique.

"Mephisto, I’ve just perfected a move. Please give it a taste."

Wang Bert smiled slightly, and his body abruptly transformed into over a thousand crimson spears. Then, those crimson spears shot densely at Mephisto from every direction. Each one was as fast as lightning; ordinary people could not see them at all. "Get lost."

Demonic energy erupted from Mephisto’s body, transforming into rolling demonic flames that swept toward the thousand crimson spears.

At that moment, the thousand crimson spears simultaneously teleported into the inner ring of the demonic flames and continued flying toward Mephisto. Mephisto tried to teleport, only to find that the surrounding void had been completely sealed.

Wang Bert’s disdainful voice came from the crimson spears. "Who gave you the nerve to use Teleportation in front of me?"

"The Space Stone."

Mephisto gritted his teeth and formed sixteen arms from demonic energy. He then condensed fire into swords and swung them rapidly, knocking away every crimson spear that came at him.

The thousand crimson spears that had been knocked away flashed in midair and reappeared around Mephisto, stabbing fiercely at him from every unimaginable angle.

"Damn it."

Even with eighteen arms, Mephisto was flustered by such an attack and nearly got stabbed. And this was only the beginning. Wang Bert’s crimson spears appeared and vanished unpredictably, constantly attacking from Mephisto’s blind spots.

With Wang Bert’s current soul power, he could control over a thousand spears at once and teleport them to different locations.

Although Mephisto blocked with all his strength, the spears were simply too fast and too unpredictable. Moments later, one spear stabbed fiercely into his shoulder.

Before Mephisto could do anything, that crimson spear abruptly turned into a streak of blood light and burrowed into his body.

Mephisto was greatly alarmed and hurriedly used demonic fire to block the crimson spear. At that moment, all the crimson spears fused into the one inside Mephisto’s body.

Then, the spear transformed into a blood sphere and explosively burst forth like a hedgehog. The left half of Mephisto’s body was instantly riddled with holes, and he could not help letting out a shrill scream.

It had to be said that Mephisto was ruthless. Seeing the blood light rapidly spreading toward the right side of his body, he swung his sword backward and split himself in half.

Then, Mephisto’s right half rapidly fled to the side, while his left half lit up with dazzling light. It was preparing to explode and deal Wang Bert a vicious blow.

Wang Bert snorted coldly and turned into a Space Vortex, swallowing Mephisto’s remaining body. Then he returned to human form and pulled backward with both hands. The fleeing Mephisto was dragged back together with the surrounding space.

Mephisto slashed at Wang Bert with his sword and roared, "Damn it, how did you become this powerful?"

"You’re just too weak."

Wang Bert grinned, and his body suddenly vanished. Only the Demon King’s remnant body, on the verge of exploding, remained where he had stood. Mephisto’s expression changed drastically, but he had no time to dodge and was severely injured by his own explosion.

Several spaceships were too close and were caught in the blast, instantly reduced to ashes. Everyone could not help swallowing. This was far too terrifying. "Bert is becoming less and less human."

Tony secretly sighed. He was inhumanly strong.

With half his body shattered and ruined, Mephisto shouted in disbelief, "Impossible! Why did my body only explode now?"

"Space and time have never been absolute."

Wang Bert smiled faintly. The principle behind this move, Cosmos Shift, was not complicated. He merely needed to find a dimension where time was nearly stagnant to store the energy.

With the Space Stone, it was not difficult for Wang Bert to find such a dimension.

"Mephisto, you really disappoint me. I haven’t even used ten percent of my power, yet you’ve already lost."

Wang Bert clasped his hands behind his back and said with contempt, "Mephisto, without intelligence, you are nothing."

"Shut up! How can a Hell Lord be humiliated by the likes of you? Don’t think you’ve won. I still haven’t used my trump card."

Mephisto roared as demonic energy surged from his entire body. Then, a massive figure slowly rose behind him. It was power transmitted by his true body.

Just as everyone held their breath and waited for Mephisto to unleash his ultimate move, he suddenly turned into a streak of Black Light and fled rapidly toward the Space Vortex.

That’s right, Mephisto ran.

"Fuck."

Everyone could not help cursing. That was it?

Tivan’s eyes nearly fell out. Mephisto had actually been beaten into fleeing by the Blood God? This was far too absurd.

Tivan began to regret it. Had he been too hasty in seeking revenge against the Blood God? Also, was he really a jinx?

"Mephisto, your fleeing technique is truly crude."

Wang Bert smiled disdainfully and condensed a chain from Space Power, throwing it forward. The chain broke through space and instantly wrapped around Mephisto’s foot.

Mephisto continued fleeing, but no matter how he ran, he was merely running in place and could not move forward at all. He quickly realized this and stopped with an ugly expression.

Space Magic was truly infuriating.

"Blood God, do you really intend to fight me to the death?"

Mephisto blustered, "I have over a thousand souls, plus the power of my true body. If we truly fight, I won’t lose to you."

"You mean this?"

Wang Bert raised the kettle in his hand and asked with a smile. Mephisto looked toward his waist and discovered that the kettle had long since vanished. He shouted in shock and fury, "Blood God, when did you steal it?"

"I took it, I didn’t steal it."

Wang Bert said calmly, "Mephisto, I’ll ask you again: given your current condition, if this projection is destroyed again, how much longer can you hold on?"

Mephisto’s expression became incomparably ugly. Given his current condition, if this projection were destroyed again, he could basically prepare to die.

His son, Blackheart, would never let him go.

"I shouldn’t have come. What a massive loss."

Mephisto was filled with regret. He shouted, "Blood God, since you still haven’t killed me, you must want something from me. Speak. What do you want?"

"Straightforward. I want all the Spirits of Vengeance in your possession. Give them to me, and I’ll let this projection of yours return."

Wang Bert got straight to the point. "Otherwise, I will not only kill this projection of yours, I’ll also use the connection between your projection and true body to give Blackheart some assistance."

"You…"

Mephisto gritted his teeth, but he knew Wang Bert was absolutely capable of doing such a thing. He said, "I only have half a body left. I’ll give you half the Spirits of Vengeance."

Everyone was speechless. This Hell Lord was truly disgraceful.

"All of them. In addition, you must hand over the method for creating Ghost Riders."

Wang Bert said, "Damon is here. He can tell whether what you say is true."

Damon could not help shouting at Wang Bert, "Bert, just kill him. Keeping this guy around will only bring trouble."

"If I kill him, Blackheart will become the next Mephisto. I want to keep him around to fight Blackheart from within."

Wang Bert explained. Damon came to a realization and said, "I still think leaving Mephisto alive is too dangerous."

Wang Bert smiled. "He isn’t dangerous now. If he starts recovering his intelligence, I’ll destroy him immediately."

Wang Bert had already locked onto Mephisto’s location.

Mephisto hesitated for a while, then gritted his teeth. "Fine. I’ll give you the Spirits of Vengeance and the method, but you must guarantee that you’ll let me return to Hell—and that you’ll let me return unharmed."

"Fine."

Wang Bert nodded. "With so many people here, I won’t break my word."

"Good."

With a thought from Mephisto, nine streaks of light flew from the Space Vortex and shot toward Wang Bert.

These were the Spirits of Vengeance Mephisto possessed, nine in total—not because there were only nine Spirits of Vengeance, but because Mephisto possessed only these nine.

Wang Bert caught the nine streaks of light, sensed them, and nodded in satisfaction. They were indeed Spirits of Vengeance, and they also contained the method for creating Ghost Riders.

It was worth mentioning that not everyone could become a Ghost Rider. One had to meet the qualifications.

At that moment, the Spear of God inside Wang Bert suddenly began vibrating violently—it was asking Wang Bert for the nine Spirits of Vengeance.

Wang Bert thought for a moment and sent the Spirits of Vengeance into the Spear of God. Holy light burst from the Spear of God as it purified the Spirits of Vengeance and transformed them into its servants.

It was purification, not destruction. Under the illumination of holy light, the Black Light on the Spirits of Vengeance rapidly dispersed, and the wings on their bodies gradually turned white again.

"It seems the Spear of God is even more powerful than I imagined."

Wang Bert nodded in satisfaction. He liked such surprises.

With the transaction complete, Wang Bert released the spatial chain around Mephisto. Mephisto immediately fled toward the Space Vortex.

At that moment, Tivan, who had not made a move until then, suddenly transformed into a streak of light and flew rapidly toward the Space Vortex. He wanted to escape into Hell to avoid being sealed for ten thousand years.

Hell was dangerous, but Wang Bert was even more dangerous.

"Why do you always think you can escape in front of me? Does the Space Stone have no pride?"

Wang Bert smiled disdainfully. A spatial chain instantly appeared beside Tivan and firmly locked around his foot.

At the same time, the Space Vortex disappeared. Mephisto had come for nothing and suffered tremendous losses. In Hell, he roared endlessly, "Blood God, this isn’t over!"

Tivan took out a pitch-black sphere and roared, "Blood God, let me go, or I’ll perish with you."

"Go ahead. I’d like to see whether you have the nerve to perish with me."

Wang Bert sneered. Tivan glared at Wang Bert so fiercely that his eyes nearly bulged out. Wang Bert remained entirely unafraid, looking as if he were waiting to watch fireworks.

After a moment, Tivan smiled bitterly and lowered the treasure. Being captured by Wang Bert only meant being sealed for ten thousand years. He did not lack that much time, so why risk his life?

Tivan sighed and said, "Blood God, I’ve lost this time. But the Infinity Stones truly cannot be gathered together. Otherwise, there will be a great catastrophe—a catastrophe capable of destroying the universe."

"If you had spoken properly from the start like you are now, none of this would have happened."

Wang Bert sneered. "People like you are just asking for it. You only behave after getting beaten up."

Tivan gritted his teeth in fury. Just as he was about to say something else, Wang Bert flicked the chain and trapped him in a special space. He would deal with him slowly later.

"Long live the Blood God!"

Seeing Wang Bert crush the demon and Tivan with overwhelming force, everyone cheered. Centurion Lindy was especially astonished. She knew the Blood God was powerful, but she had never imagined he would be this powerful.

No wonder he dared to be so high-profile. With such strength, what did being high-profile matter? Carol could face an entire fleet alone, while the Blood God could face an entire nation alone! The Ronan Coalition was completely despairing. Someone asked in confusion, "Why hasn’t Tivan been using the Power Stone?"

"Maybe he forgot. Let’s run. Ronan has been sealed away for so long; he’s probably in grave danger."

A Keli commander said. Everyone nodded and began fleeing.

Nova Prime and the allied forces on both flanks immediately surrounded them. After fighting to this point, how could they possibly let them escape?

On the abandoned planet, Gladiator and the other three were still fighting fiercely. Hulk’s eyes rolled, and he suddenly shouted, "You say you’re invincible. Then do you dare challenge the Blood God?"

"Challenge the Blood God?"

Gladiator felt a wave of guilt and shouted, "Once I defeat you all, I’ll naturally go challenge him."

Hulk shouted, "Go now. If you win, that Square-faced Woman will become your woman."

Carol viciously gave Hulk the middle finger, but she understood his intention and did not stop him.

"That’s right, I’ll be your lackey too."

Beta Ray Bill provoked him. "Don’t tell me you don’t dare? Didn’t you say you’re the protagonist?"

Hulk snorted. "Too scared, weakling."

Gladiator’s face flushed red as he roared, "Who says I don’t dare? Just wait to become my lackeys and woman."

After saying that, Gladiator turned and flew toward Wang Bert. Wang Bert sensed his movement, turned around, and looked at him coldly.