The instant Daniel locked eyes with the ancient cauldron, the world turned red.
Those blood-colored eyes, burning with something alive, pierced through him, flooding his veins with a suffocating evil intent.
It was as if the cauldron itself had reached out, trying to smother him, to seep into his very soul. For a split second, Daniel froze. His mind turned blank and his body began trembling
Then, it struck.
A pale, inhuman hand burst from within the cauldron. Its nails were jagged and blackened, curved like talons, aiming straight for Daniel's heart.
It didn't only want to kill him.
It wanted to rip his heart out, drag it into the cauldron, and make it part of itself.
But Daniel's instincts were faster.
A warm pulse of energy surged from his body as his hand shot out, seizing the pale wrist mid-air with crushing force. Sparks danced over his palm, his grip unyielding. The blood mist in his eyes cleared instantly.
"Not today," he growled.
His other hand slammed down with bone-shattering force. Lightning crackled between his fingertips, forming a razor-thin arc that split the air and buried itself straight between the brows of the Japanese swordsman inside the cauldron.
"ARGHHH!"
The scream was inhuman. It tore through the basement like a sonic wave, shaking the very walls. A blood-red mist erupted from the cauldron, curling upward, writhing like living serpents, before flooding the chamber.
But the strangest thing was that the dozens of Hand ninjas scattered around the basement didn't react.
It was as though they were deaf, blind… or dead.
Daniel's instincts screamed danger. He wanted to retreat, but something in the cauldron locked him in place. The danger wasn't in front of him, it was all around him.
"Mjonir!", Daniel called his weapon.
Mjolnir appeared above his head in a flash of blue lightning, spinning wildly, its arcs lashing out like vipers. Three bolts shot forward, burying themselves into the Japanese man's eyebrows, heart, and lower abdomen — the three core points of life and energy.
The air trembled.
Daniel leapt, his body rising effortlessly, landing on the rim of the cauldron before springing to the highest beam of the basement. His silhouette hung there, outlined by lightning as the hammer rotated defensively around him.
A wand materialized in his right hand and that was when Daniel felt it.
A crushing pressure. A presence so heavy it made his breath hitch for half a second.
The cauldron was... alive. Thinking. Watching.
The Hand leaders hadn't stayed here for one reason: even they feared this thing.
This wasn't a relic they controlled. It was a predator they'd chained.
Daniel's gaze snapped back to the swordsman.
The three lightning arcs should have killed him outright, frying his brain, and heart beyond repair. Even the Hulk would have staggered under that kind of current. Wolverine would've gone down on his knees.
But this man just shuddered — his body twitching violently as the blood mist poured into his skin. The wounds sealed as though nothing had happened. His veins bulged with unnatural energy.
'It's not him… it's the cauldron.'
Daniel's thoughts sharpened like glass.
This was possession.
The cauldron didn't owned the life it gave back. These ninjas weren't people anymore, they were fragments of the cauldron's will, puppets to a living relic.
"Kunlun…" Daniel murmured under his breath.
Only Kunlun could forge something this powerful — something that blurred the line between artifact and entity. And yet, the Hand had twisted it into something vile, corrupting its purpose until every soul it touched was enslaved.
Daniel tightened his grip on the Mjolnir.
The cauldron's will pressed against his own.
'Take it or destroy it.'
Those were the only two options.
Lightning coiled around him like chains of light.
With a roar, Daniel dove down, the Mjonir crackling with raw energy.
"BREAK!"
The hammer came down like a meteor, slamming against the edge of the cauldron. The strike sent shockwaves through the blood pool, the thunder roaring like a storm trapped underground.
The cauldron moved.
It spun violently, deflecting the force with impossible strength. The blow hurled Daniel backward, forcing him to twist mid-air before landing hard against a steel pillar.
"No way…" Daniel hissed under his breath.
Blue lightning crackled along his arm. Dozens of thin, needle-like arcs shot out, stabbing into every inch of the cauldron's surface, seeking cracks, weaknesses, anything.
But the cauldron only pulsed with a low, resonating hum, spinning faster, feeding on the blood in the pool.
Daniel's mind raced.
'Every weapon has a flaw… where is yours?'
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