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Chapter 178 - Chapter 171: Being Humbled Is A Lesson...

(A/N):

Drop a meme here that you find funny. Or reflects your mood.

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Rex walked casually, his hands tucked in the pockets of his sleek college jacket,

The cigarette still burning between his lips.

The calm clack of his shoes echoed faintly in the cool night.

Then—

A sharp, sudden bark shattered the quiet.

Woof! Woof! 

"____"

Rex's head slowly turned.

Across the street, tethered loosely to an iron fence, was an old dog—

Its fur thinning, muzzle grayed with age.

Its eyes, cloudy and dim with near-blindness, stared directly at him.

The dog barked again.

Then again. Louder.

Woof! Woof! 

Woof! Woof! 

More frantic.

It wasn't barking at a stranger.

It was barking at something wrong.

Rex's expression twitched—

Briefly irritated, then bemused.

"____"

He turned away.

But the dog didn't stop.

Its leash strained as it fought to pull back, its haunches low, tail between its legs, barking louder with every step Rex took.

With a sharp turn, Rex disappeared down a side alley.

One of those neglected roads swallowed by silence and shadows.

It was narrow and crooked, lit only by a broken streetlight flickering overhead.

Ahead, a construction barricade loomed.

Dead end.

Or so it seemed.

Rex didn't stop.

He walked straight into the gloom—

And then, as if responding to an unspoken command,

The shadows thickened around his feet… pulsing.

A tendril of red, gelatinous mass slithered out from under his shoe.

Then another.

And another.

The shadows coalesced—

Slick and living, like blood turned to jelly.

They clung to the surfaces, breathing, crawling, multiplying, coating the alley walls and ground in a grotesque film.

Rex exhaled slowly.

The red ooze responded—

Shivering in delight.

"They never learn,"

He whispered.

"Even when the devil knocks, they still open the door."

Then, without a sound, he sank into the crimson muck—

His form melting into it,

Becoming one with the crawling, sentient shadow.

The alley was empty once more.

Only the flickering streetlight remained, blinking as if in panic—

Until it too went out.

Veronica's house…

Meanwhile, inside Veronica's house…

Jojo moved with urgency, his face stern as he turned toward the others.

"Everyone inside the salt boundary. Now,"

He instructed.

Inadu, crouching by the floor, finished drawing the last line of the protective circle—

Thick lines of salt interwoven.

She muttered a prayer under her breath, her hands steady.

Veronica ushered her younger siblings into the center,

Her mother hesitating for a second before stepping in.

Sister Narcisa took her place near the edge,

Her white eyes fixed on the candle flames that flickered around the circle.

"It will keep him from touching you directly,"

Jojo said, pacing the perimeter with sharp eyes.

"But stay inside no matter what you see."

Then it happened.

The house went silent.

Too silent.

"____"

"____"

"____"

Not the usual quiet of night—

But something unnatural.

Oppressive.

Wrong.

Even the ticking of the wall clock seemed to pause.

Veronica's mother clutched her youngest child closer.

A cold breeze crept across the floorboards, but none of the windows were open.

Inadu's eyes narrowed.

"Something's shifted."

Jojo's shoulders tensed.

The candles flickered erratically.

Then—

CRACK!

All at once, the lights burst into flickering chaos.

The overhead bulbs surged violently—

Popping with loud, static bursts.

And then—

CRASH!

Every window in the house shattered inward, shards flying like glass rain.

The children screamed and ducked. Veronica shielded her siblings.

Through the broken panes, a red, sludgy ooze began to slither inside.

It wasn't just blood—

It was thicker, living, like something half-alive and half-born from nightmares.

It spread along the floor like spilled ink, bubbling and pulsing with heat.

Wherever it touched, the walls blackened.

Wood warped.

The air grew heavy and hot, like the breath of a furnace.

Sister Narcisa stood unmoving, her head tilting slightly.

"He's here,"

She whispered.

Jojo clenched his fists.

His eyes burned faintly as he was about to transform into ghost rider.

Inadu looked at the red goo with cold look on her face.

The red goo oozed toward them—

Slow, deliberate, taunting.

And within it…

A shape began to form.

Arms.

A torso.

A crooked, smiling face—

Not quite human anymore.

Rex was entering.

And he was enjoying every second of it.

The red ooze thickened, coiling like a serpent across the floor until it rose—

Shaping itself into the figure of a man.

Or something close.

Rex.

His skin pulsed with shadows, slick with remnants of that blood-jelly substance, glowing faintly with a corrupted red aura.

His eyes—

Black voids with thin crimson irises—

Swept across the room, resting on each face with the mocking curiosity of a predator examining trapped prey.

"____"

Then he sneered.

Sneer~ 

"Well..."

His voice was layered—

Human, yet reverberating with something far older, far darker.

"You called... and here I am."

He spread his arms like a host at a dinner party, mockingly elegant.

"Isn't this cozy?"

But then—

His gaze found her.

Veronica.

Standing inside the salt boundary, clutching her youngest brother close to her chest, trembling.

"____"

"____"

Rex tilted his head slowly—

Then smiled.

Not the kind of smile that reaches the eyes.

This was hunger.

His tongue slid across his lips like a wolf staring at its next meal.

"Mmm… there she is,"

He whispered, voice dripping with desire and venom.

"Sweet Veronica. You look... tastier in person."

Veronica recoiled slightly, her heart pounding.

The salt boundary glowed faintly in response to Rex's approach, sizzling where his presence pressed against it.

Jojo took a step forward, his boots crunching glass.

"Inadu. Now,"

He said quietly.

Inadu didn't hesitate.

She flipped her grimoire open—

Its pages fluttered rapidly despite the still air.

With a low chant in Romanian, she raised her hand high.

A surge of green-blue light erupted from her palm and shot outward, racing along the cracked walls and broken doorframes.

A containment seal.

Glowing runes snapped into place across every exit—

Windows, vents, doors—

And a dome of magical shielding sealed over the house from the outside.

Rex turned his head slightly, noticing it.

"Oh? Trying to cage me in?"

His smile widened.

Jojo's voice dropped into a cold growl.

"You're not leaving. Not this time."

Without another word, Jojo stepped forward—

His eyes blazing—

His human form melting away into hellfire.

In seconds, his body transformed, engulfed in orange and blue flames.

His jacket smoldered and reformed into chains.

The Spirit of Vengeance had arrived.

JOJO THE GHOST RIDER stood tall, flaming skull glaring straight at Rex.

The room shuddered under the weight of their presence—

Two supernatural forces now locked in the same space.

The siblings screamed and clung to Veronica.

Ahhhh! 

Her mother muttered prayers.

"____"

Rex narrowed his crimson eyes, staring at the blazing figure before him—

The Ghost Rider, a flaming wraith of judgment and fury.

The heat from Jojo's body cracked the tiles beneath his feet, fire licking the air like tongues of wrath, but Rex didn't flinch.

He just… stared.

And then—

A flicker.

A memory.

Two years ago…

Rex had been summoned.

Dragged out of the Void and into this world by a pitiful cult—

His so-called worshippers, robed in black, chanting nonsense in the ruins of an abandoned mountain church.

He'd tolerated them.

Used them.

Devoured their souls and body when he was done.

But something strange had happened few days after.

Somebody has tiggred the curse he put at the coffin.

His coffin.

Buried deep beneath the altar, sealed in a twisted vault of bone and blackened gold.

He felt it open.

Not physically.

Mentally.

His mind reached for it instinctively, to see who dared tamper with his coffin—

With the vessel that once held his essence before the ritual.

But before he could get a clear look—

Something intervened.

A blinding force.

Burning.

Righteous.

Unnatural.

It sensed him.

Traced his connection.

Rex had no choice.

He severed the link immediately, snarling in frustration, his psychic thread snapping like a rope pulled too tight.

all he knew was flaming monster transform back into human which had a blurry vision.

And now… staring at the flaming skull before him—

He felt it again.

The same energy.

Jojo's presence reeked of something which he felt fear and the heat.

Of chains.

Of fire that burns the soul, not the flesh.

"____"

"You..."

Rex murmured, more to himself than anyone else.

His cocky demeanor faltered, if only for a second.

A low rumble echoed in his chest. His gaze sharpened.

"You're connected to that night, aren't you?"

He muttered, eyes narrowing.

"That blinding flame that tried to trace me... It was you or something like you."

Ghost rider didn't answer.

"____"

But the flames around him flared brighter.

"I HAVE WAITED FOR THIS TIME FOR TWO FUCKING YEARS,"

Ghost rider growled in a voice like grinding chains and thunder.

"YOUR RUN AWAY SAGA, REX. IT ENDS TONIGHT."

Rex tilted his head slowly, his twisted smile returning.

"_____"

Sigh 

"So you were the hound waiting outside the gate to bite us huh... I regret not listening to the old mans words.,"

He whispered.

"Good. Then I won't have to hold back anymore."

His body began to ripple—

dark goo expanding from his spine, sharp tendrils stretching from his back as his human form peeled away, revealing his true shape beneath.

The house shuddered.

The shadows recoiled.

And Ghost rider raised a burning chain into the air, fire roaring in anticipation.

The reckoning had begun.

Without a word, Rex lunged forward.

His tentacles—

Sharp, slimy, and grotesquely long—

Lashed out like vipers, slicing through the air in a blur of black-red energy.

Each one cracked like a whip, aiming to pierce, to crush, to tear apart the flaming skeleton before him bone by bone.

But Jojo was already moving.

CLINK—

SWOOSH!

With a smooth, practiced swing,

Ghost rider hurled his blazing chain.

It whirled through the air like a halo of fire, coiling mid-air and wrapping around every single one of Rex's tendrils,

Binding them tight with burning fury.

Rex's eyes widened.

"____"

"What—?!"

CRACK!

Jojo yanked the chain, pulling all the twisted limbs taut—

Immobilized.

And in that same motion—

WHAM!

Jojo spun on his heel, fire flaring from his boots as he launched a devastating kick straight at Rex's chest.

Rex barely twisted away, the blow grazing him—

But he wasn't fast enough.

Because the real strike was coming.

Before he could turn—

A fiery fist descended like judgment from heaven.

"GHAAAA—!"

BOOOOM!

Ghost rider flame-ignited punch connected with Rex's jaw,

The impact sending a shockwave through the room.

The tiles cracked.

Walls trembled.

Rex's body went flying, crashing through the air like a ragdoll and slamming into the kitchen cabinets, reducing them to splinters and rubble.

Dust and flames billowed.

For a moment, everything fell silent again… except the low crackle of Ghost Rider's flames.

Jojo took a step forward, chain dragging behind him like a death bell.

From the rubble, Rex's growl echoed.

Low. Angry.

Ferocious.

"You dare..."

Came his voice, warped and guttural,

"...strike me?"

A pulse of dark energy rippled out from the kitchen.

Something was coming.

Inside the ruined kitchen,

The faint hum of the refrigerator was the only sound amidst the debris.

From the smoke and splintered cabinets,

Rex slowly stood up—

His posture twitching, unstable.

His jaw, half-burned and unhinged, hung grotesquely, bone and scorched muscle exposed.

It crumbled like dry sand, disintegrating as he turned his head with a snarl.

His eyes blazed—

No longer human.

They were sickly yellow, pupils thinned to demonic slits.

Fury twisted his face as steam hissed off his burned skin,

The flames from Ghost rider's punch still echoing through his nerve endings.

Then, his gaze landed on the refrigerator.

"____"

Creak—

He opened it slowly, like a predator inspecting prey.

Inside:

Leftovers, vegetables, bottles of wine... and raw meat—beef.

Chicken. Eggs.

Without hesitation, he grabbed everything he could use.

CRUNCH. RIP. CRACK.

He tore open the raw beef packets, shoveling cold meat into his mouth, chewing it with disturbing wet squelches.

The chicken bones crunched in his jaws like breadsticks.

Eggs popped, yolk and shell alike devoured with maddening hunger.

A torrent of primal, disgusting chomping filled the room.

Then it happened.

The red, slimy substance—

His pseudo-flesh regeneration fluid—

Began crawling over the burns,

Bubbling and stitching broken tissue.

But—

It failed.

The Rider's hellfire had burned too deep.

Rex growled in frustration.

With a scream of hatred, he sliced off the dying flesh himself—torn chunks of muscle and charred sinew falling to the floor.

The walls were splattered with black blood and slime.

From underneath the torn flesh, new cells burst forth, regenerating faster, stronger, denser.

His body twitched violently, mutating to adapt.

Claws grew longer.

Spine stretched.

Shoulders widened.

Horns pushed through his scalp.

He stood fully once more.

A demon reborn.

His voice echoed like a drum in a cavern:

"You think fire can stop me...?"

The ground quaked slightly.

As the smoke billowed from the scorched kitchen doorway, footsteps echoed, wet and heavy—each one leaving behind a smear of blood and red slime on the ruined floor.

Rex emerged, reborn and twisted.

His body had changed—

Horns curled from his head, skin covered in patches of armoured bone, and long claws twitched with eagerness.

His eyes gleamed, wild with rage, hunger, and the thrill of the hunt.

He was prepared to see the shocked and scared reactions of his enemies.

But then… he froze.

"____"

In the center of the shattered living room, Ghost Rider sat calmly—

Like a judge on a throne of fire.

"____"

The chair he once stood beside had been transformed, now warped and melted into something grotesquely regal by the hellfire that poured through the house.

The back of it curled like demonic wings, the legs molten and twisted, glowing with embers.

Ghost Rider leaned forward, resting an arm on his knee,

Flame-cracked skull tilted as if he'd been waiting for hours.

His voice thundered, low and taunting.

"DID YOU FINISH YOUR MONOLOGUE, SCOUNDREL?"

A sharp crack filled the air as he clenched a flaming fist and cracked his knuckles—

One after the other—

BOOM.

BOOM. BOOM.

"BECAUSE IF YOU'RE DONE TALKING... GHOST RIDER'S READY TO FINISH THIS."

He rose, slow and deliberate, chains slithering across the scorched tiles, the hellfire around his body flickering like a storm barely held back.

Rex's sneer faltered.

"____"

For the first time since his arrival… there was a pause.

And then—

He roared, launching forward like a beast unchained.

Rex moved.

Faster than before—

A blur of muscle, claws, and blood-slick skin.

The air around him warped, shimmered with heat and rage as he surged forward with a vicious snarl, red mist trailing behind like burning smoke.

In his mind, he was already celebrating.

'That flaming skeleton's going down. I'll crush that cursed skull to dust and feast on the girl's soul after…'

He appeared right before Ghost Rider, the movement too fast for normal eyes to follow—

And slammed his fist straight into Ghost Rider's chest.

THOOM!!

The impact echoed like a cannon blast.

Ghost Rider was pushed back, flames trailing behind him.

He didn't scream, didn't grunt—

Just absorbed the hit as his boots scraped against the scorched tiles.

Then—

CRACK!

He crashed into the glass wall behind him,

But it shattered before his body even touched it—

The sheer heat radiating from his form had already melted the surface, causing it to explode outward in shards of steam and fire.

Glass rained down like molten rain.

Ghost Rider's body rolled once, but then—

He stood up.

Instantly.

His chest burned where the punch had landed, but the flames only grew brighter—

Spreading like wildfire across his ribcage.

He raised his head slowly, eyesockets glowing brighter than ever, and grinned.

"GOOD HIT,"

He growled, voice like thunder tearing through the Underworld.

"BUT I DON'T BREAK THAT EASY."

He snapped the chain from around his torso, and lashed it forward with a crack like a lightning strike—

Aimed straight at Rex's throat.

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(Author's POV)

(A/N):

 

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