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*****
Philip clutched his wound, staggering slowly down the street. Dark red blood streaked his face and dripped onto his white shirt, giving him the appearance of a malevolent spirit.
He cursed under his breath. Every time he recalled the recent scene, a brutal rage surged within his heart.
"That damn bitch... just wait until I get home. I'll definitely give her what's coming to her!"
The scoundrel raged internally.
Just then, he saw a streak of blue fire flash before his eyes. By the time he regained his senses, he was already suspended in mid-air.
He was completely bewildered.
What was happening? How had he suddenly ended up in the sky?
He glanced around wildly, only to notice the sharp, burning talons clamped onto his shoulder. His body went rigid. He forced his stiff neck to turn, tracing the talons upward with his gaze.
A flaming... eagle?
His brain felt like it had short-circuited. An instant later, a dense, overwhelming fear erupted from his heart, transforming into a piercing shriek that echoed through the night air.
"Help me!"
Help?
Hearing the shriek coming from the man, Gwen sneered.
With a mere thought, she controlled the nighthawk beneath her feet to surge high into the sky. Then, it abruptly released the scoundrel. As the man screamed in terror during his freefall, plummeting closer and closer to the ground, the nighthawk swooped down and snatched him up once more.
"Hah, that scream isn't any different from a woman's. Who gave him the courage to hit women?"
Gwen said disdainfully. Hearing the scream cut off abruptly, she glanced down, slightly surprised.
Whoa!
It wasn't that the scoundrel had suddenly found his courage; he had simply passed out cold.
Gwen, transformed into the Spirit of Vengeance, looked at the scoundrel speechlessly. She carried him to the rooftop of a tall building.
Controlling the intensity of her flames, she lightly touched the scoundrel lying prone on the concrete. A jolt of intense pain shocked him awake.
But the moment he saw Gwen standing before him, the scoundrel scrambled backward on all fours, screaming in terror.
"If you scream again, I'll devour your soul!"
Gwen stared at the scoundrel with pure malice. The pulsing blue flames that wreathed her body burned fiercely, looking as if countless souls, annihilated by the fire, were wailing from within the inferno.
It was an evil, terrifying malice that made one's very soul tremble...
The scoundrel's entire body trembled violently, but under the direct threat to his life, he managed to shut his mouth.
Gwen walked up to him and crouched down. A bone-white claw, as smooth as jade and wreathed in blue fire, pressed down firmly on his shoulder.
Feeling the terrifying temperature of the blue flames, the scoundrel's legs shook, and a foul-smelling liquid began to pool beneath him.
Gwen looked at the man with disgust. "Do you know why I've come for you?"
The scoundrel slowly shook his head, but when he saw the flames on Gwen's body flare violently, he immediately started nodding frantically.
"Then you tell me. Why?"
Gwen watched him with amusement. Within her dark, hollow eye sockets, two burning flames seemed to ignite.
Philip ventured, "You... you want money?"
"Do I look like I need money? I am an emissary of justice!"
Emissary of justice?
This appearance... no matter how you look at it, it doesn't seem to have any connection to justice...
"Then... my life?" he asked in terror. When he saw Gwen nod slowly, his heart seized violently, and he turned and fled without a moment's hesitation.
Gwen watched him run farther and farther away. Just as he reached the rooftop stairwell entrance, she ripped the chain from her body, flicking it out to entangle the scoundrel. Amidst his despairing howls, she dragged him back, inch by inch.
Looking down on Philip from above, Gwen grinned, the flames on her face carving out a demonic smile.
In the next second, the flames within Gwen's eyes began to rotate slowly as she stared directly into Philip's eyes.
The Penance Stare!
As more time passed since Gwen obtained her abilities, she had learned to control the intensity of the Penance Stare.
The Penance Stare possessed the ability to punish the soul and read minds. It allowed Gwen to see—and the target to be judged to relive—every sin they had ever committed, forcing their soul to experience all the pain they had inflicted upon the innocent.
Those whose sins were truly deep would be judged to death, while those with lesser sins would experience other effects, all achieving the ultimate goal of judgment and punishment.
Gwen was using this ability on Philip, but not to kill him, of course. His crimes, while terrible, were not deserving of death. Gwen simply wanted him to experience the pain of his own domestic abuse.
But, even with this dialed-back intensity, Philip screamed like a pig being slaughtered.
The Penance Stare lasted for only a few brief seconds, but even with Gwen controlling its power, Philip collapsed to the ground like a boneless heap of mud.
He hugged himself, looking as though he had been violated and abandoned, silently shedding tears while pained whimpers continuously escaped his lips.
"Do you know what you did wrong now?"
Gwen said in a low voice, grabbing him by the collar and hauling him up from the ground.
Philip looked at Gwen and shrieked in absolute terror.
Gwen grabbed his head and said coldly, "Tomorrow, you are going to divorce that poor woman. And then, you are going to get as far away from that mother and daughter as possible! Understand?"
Philip nodded his head frantically.
"I will be watching you. The result had better be satisfactory to me."
Gwen sneered, extending one bone-white finger and lightly tapping the center of the man's forehead.
A tiny spark of blue flame flashed from her fingertip and burrowed into the scoundrel's head.
Instantly, Philip felt the searing pain of his very soul burning.
Although the sensation was fleeting, it was even more unbearable than the agony he had just experienced during the Penance Stare.
"You should have felt that pain, originating from your soul. As long as you fail to do what I said, your soul will be burned to ashes by the flame I just placed inside your head."
Saying this, Gwen abruptly yanked Philip up, dragging him face-to-face, and roared, "Understand?"
Blue sparks sprayed continuously from Gwen's mouth. Philip stared at that flame-spewing maw, feeling as if he were staring directly into the passageway to hell.
"I understand!"
He answered as quickly as possible, terrified that if he replied even a second too late, she would burn him to cinders.
"Hmph!"
Gwen snorted coldly, strode to the building's edge, and leaped off. The nighthawk caught her, and they quickly disappeared into the night.
...
The next day, Mary Jane didn't come to class. Although Gwen and the other three were a little worried, they broke into happy smiles after confirming the situation at Mary Jane's house via their robot.
Through the small robot, they saw Philip crying bitterly.
That scoundrel was on his knees, practically begging Mary Jane's mother, Madeline, to sign the divorce papers. Furthermore, as if terrified that the demon calling itself an "emissary of justice" wouldn't be satisfied, he also left the house to the mother and daughter.
As for savings... he didn't have any to give.
Faced with this turn of events, Madeline remained in a complete daze throughout the entire process.
And yet, after she signed her name on the agreement, urged on by Philip's desperate pleas, she couldn't help but burst into tears.
This was the moment she had dreamed of for so long.
Mary Jane, who stayed by her mother's side, didn't understand what had happened, but seeing this outcome, her face was also filled with happiness.
Her mother had finally escaped that demon's clutches.
But as she watched her husband leave, the weeping Madeline stretched out a hand, her expression a mask of inner conflict.
Although the divorce was what she wanted, how were the two of them, mother and daughter, supposed to survive now?
On the other side, watching this scene unfold, Gwen and the three boys couldn't help but cheer and happily high-five each other.
"Harry! It's your turn now."
Gwen looked over at Harry.
"No problem. It's just providing a job for Mary Jane's mother. I'll just have someone arrange it," Harry agreed with a playful grin.
He had already made arrangements for this in advance. He just needed to wait for Mary Jane to leave the house, and then one phone call would settle everything.
Originally, his idea had been to just give them a large sum of money directly, but Gwen had stopped him.
With this, the matter could be considered to have come to a close.
All that was left was to wait for Mary Jane's home life to return to normal, and for her to come back to class.
...
"Recently, the Avengers were engaged in battle with a group of super-criminals. According to reliable sources, there were several unique individuals among them, referred to as Inhumans. The origin of these Inhumans is currently unknown. As for the difference between Inhumans and mutants, we will now have Professor Shagil explain for us."
Watching the news, Mike stroked his chin and murmured, "So, they've finally been discovered, huh? I just wonder if the city of Attilan exists."
He had already learned this news from the Avengers. He even knew the reason for the battle between the Avengers and those few Inhumans.
Those few Inhumans were attempting to release something called the Terrigen Mist into the ocean.
The Terrigen Mist... if a person possessed Inhuman genes within their body, the mist would activate them, granting them extraordinary abilities. But if they didn't, the substance would become a lethal poison to ordinary humans.
The Avengers, naturally, would never allow such a thing to happen, which is why they engaged in battle with those individuals.
However, the matter of the Inhumans was, for the time being, unrelated to Mike.
Stretching lazily, Mike looked at Raven, who was busy in the kitchen, and called out, "Dear, I can make lunch, you know."
"No need! I want to cook for you today. You just wait."
Raven's voice drifted out from the kitchen.
Mike used his super-vision to take a peek.
Phew, it looks fairly normal. Much better than I expected.
Mike breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that Raven still needed some time, he flipped his hand over, and a few cards appeared in his palm.
Creating cards, card enhancement.
He did this every day now.
Ever since he gained the card enhancement ability, his inventory of cards had been dwindling at a visible rate.
Items, skills, abilities, characters... it didn't matter the type, they could all be enhanced.
And as for the card with the highest enhancement level at the moment...
Mike flipped his hand over, and a card appeared in his palm.
Name: Ice Arrow (Enhancement +9)
Skill Description: Fires an ice arrow at the target, dealing frost damage and reducing the target's movement and attack speed.
Note: Pew pew!
That's right, Ice Arrow.
Mike had no idea what the power of an Ice Arrow +9 was, but he knew exactly how many cards he had consumed just to get it to level 9.
This, in itself, served as an experiment, and it successfully dispelled any notions Mike had of mindlessly grinding enhancement levels.
When faced with the terrifyingly low success rates for high-level enhancements, Mike maintained that he was an extremely rational person.
Therefore, once he enhanced some of his better cards to a certain level, he generally had no desire to push them any further.
After all, the more powerful the card, the more time it took him to create it in the first place.
But...
"You still have to have a little faith. What if it succeeds?"
Mike muttered to himself.
Holding onto this slim hope, recently, aside from enhancing Ice Arrow for fun and strengthening a few cards for his own use, he had also been trying to stack the enhancement levels on a few specific cards.
Looking at the Ice Arrow card in his hand, Mike focused his thoughts. Ten identical Ice Arrow cards dissolved into motes of light and surged into the enhanced card.
The next second, looking at the Ice Arrow card in his hand, Mike froze.
"It... it actually succeeded?"
He hadn't held out much hope for the enhancement to succeed, but the result...
Staring at the "Ice Arrow (Enhancement +10)" card in his hand, Mike couldn't help but slap his own forehead.
If he had known this enhancement was going to succeed on the first try, he would have used that luck on one of his other cards.
Well... maybe I should strike while the iron is hot?
A thought surfaced in Mike's mind. Then, three more character cards appeared in his hand.
Name: Artoria (Enhancement +3)
Character Description: The legendary King of ancient Britain, known as the Knight of Knights, the King of Knights. Participated in the Holy Grail War under the "Saber" class.
Note: Are you my Master?
Name: Roronoa Zoro (Enhancement +4)
Character Description: A man striving to become the world's greatest swordsman. His head of healthy green hair is one of his trademarks.
Note: Uh, it should be this way, right?
Name: Hashirama Senju (Enhancement +4)
Character Description: The First Hokage of Konoha Village, skilled in the use of Wood Style ninjutsu, known as a legendary ninja and hailed as the 'God of Shinobi'.
Note: One more round, I'll definitely win this time!
Looking at the three cards, Mike felt a little nervous.
He had already failed so many enhancements over the past few days...
"While I'm on a streak, let's go with this one first!"
Mike looked at the Artoria card. He flipped his hand, and four identical cards appeared in his palm.
Enhance!
With a focused thought, the four cards dissolved into motes of light and rushed into the card being enhanced.
Just at the very instant Mike was anticipating success...
"Pop!"
With a sharp sound, the card shattered, dissolving into motes of light that dissipated.
Mike: (╯°□°)╯
It... it broke?
"That was just building up good luck for the next one! Next card!"
Mike muttered, gripping the Hashirama Senju card.
"This is an Enhancement +4 card, it has to succeed..."
Mike mumbled to himself, took out five more identical cards, and initiated the enhancement.
"Pop!"
Mike: (╬ Ò 益 Ó)
"I don't freaking believe this! If you've got the guts, then just break them all!"
Mike cursed angrily, grabbing the last card.
"Pop!"
Mike: "..."
"Fine, you win, you're impressive. But I still don't... okay, I guess I have to believe it!"
Mike let out a mournful wail, completely abandoning any intention of further enhancements.
All of his luck for the day had been completely wasted on that stupid Ice Arrow!
This "using fodder cards to build up luck" thing... it's all a lie!
Mike cursed silently in his heart.
"What's wrong?"
Raven walked out carrying the finished steaks. Seeing Mike sitting on the sofa with a dark expression, she couldn't help but ask.
"It's nothing!"
Mike forced a smile for Raven. When he saw that she had already placed the food on the dining table, he immediately walked over and let out a sound of amazement.
"This looks great."
"It's been a while since I last cooked, but the taste should still be good."
Raven smiled and handed the silverware to Mike. "Hurry up and eat. Didn't you say you had a meeting with Nick Fury later?"
Mike tapped his head. "If you hadn't reminded me, I would have completely forgotten."
(End of this chapter)