Marvel: The Sole Player

"What are you looking at? Hurry up and leave."

Darian glanced back and saw Daniel and the others standing there in a daze, so he immediately urged them.

After the hymn from the angel halo suppressed the screams, the Superheroes who had been affected by the mental attack gradually regained their senses.

They had witnessed Black Sky’s power and knew their strength was far inferior; staying behind would not only fail to help but would only hold Darian back.

Although they felt unwilling, no one wanted to be a dead weight. Several of them quickly supported their injured companions and retreated rapidly.

"Did I allow you to leave?"

How could Black Sky watch these people slip away from under his nose? Especially the human named Elektra, who was the perfect vessel he had set his sights on long ago.

In the next moment, the black energy that was originally swirling around him swept toward the retreating group.

Any object touched by the black mist emitted a sizzling sound, and its surface immediately showed pitted marks of corrosion.

Light Spell!

Seeing this, Darian immediately activated the skill, and his entire body erupted in a brilliant white light.

The white light radiated outward with him as the center, colliding with the surging black energy.

The moment the two forces touched, a violent sizzling sound erupted, like cold water being poured onto a red-hot iron plate.

The white light and black mist canceled each other out at the boundary, neither giving way, forming a clear dividing line in the middle. The left side was blindingly white, and the right side was a heavy black.

Seeing that he failed to intercept the Superheroes, Black Sky looked at Darian with eyes full of killing intent: "Meddlesome human! It seems you are determined to seek death!"

Darian’s face was full of disdain: "Dealing with wicked ways like yours is the duty of a hero. Today, either you die, or I live!"

Is there any difference?

The corner of Black Sky’s mouth twitched; this guy really refused to suffer even the slightest loss.

He couldn’t help but sneer: "The Sorcerer Supreme actually left Kamar-Taj to be managed by a shameless person like you. It seems Kamar-Taj is becoming more and more degenerate."

Hearing this, Darian’s attitude became humble instead. He waved his hand and said, "You flatter me. When it comes to being shameless, I’m still far behind the Sorcerer Supreme."

"That is true."

Black Sky unexpectedly didn’t argue, but instead nodded in total agreement.

Seeing this reaction, Darian’s gossip-loving heart was stirred: "Your face seems to be written with stories. Why don’t you tell me about it?"

"Hmph!"

Black Sky gave a cold snort, thought for a moment, and said directly, "After the Sorcerer Supreme defeated me back then, that bald head stopped me and said she wanted to borrow a bit of power from me. In exchange, she promised to give up her soul. I agreed at the time."

To a demon, the soul of the Sorcerer Supreme was undoubtedly an extremely precious thing.

How could Black Sky resist such a temptation? He immediately agreed to the Sorcerer Supreme’s terms.

"And then?" Darian pressed.

"And then..."

Black Sky closed his eyes in pain, as if recalling some unbearable scene: "Then she took a portion of my power, and in the next moment, used that power to beat me up again. Finally, she kicked me off Earth and forbade me from ever stepping foot here again."

Darian: "666."

As expected, an old player really knows how to pull off stunts.

Borrowing from someone, beating up the creditor after borrowing, and then kicking them out of the house.

Is this something a human can do?

Black Sky opened his eyes and gritted his teeth: "I’m confessing these things for no other reason than to let the people of Kamar-Taj know what kind of person your respected Sorcerer Supreme really is!"

Darian complained: "Actually, I knew that even without you telling me."

From the first time he met Ancient One, he knew what kind of person she was.

The more Black Sky spoke, the angrier he got, launching a broad attack: "In short, from top to bottom, not a single one of you in Kamar-Taj is any good!"

Darian immediately cried foul: "That’s not right. The person who tricked you was the Sorcerer Supreme. What does that have to do with me?"

Black Sky didn’t care about all that.

He couldn’t get any advantage over that bald head, so someone had to bear the debt.

Since Darian was the current manager of Kamar-Taj, he would settle the score with him.

To put it bluntly, he was just picking on the weak while fearing the strong.

The black mist around him surged violently, and in the blink of an eye, seven or eight spikes as thick as arms condensed.

Black Sky raised his hand and pointed forward. All the spikes shot out simultaneously, heading straight for Darian with sharp whistling sounds.

Darian clenched his right hand, and white light burst from his palm. A magic sword condensed from pure energy instantly took shape, its light so brilliant that people dared not look directly at it.

He swung the magic sword rapidly, knocking down the incoming spikes one by one.

Returning the favor, Darian also waved his arm, and over a dozen magic swords condensed simultaneously, sweeping toward Black Sky with a dense whistling sound.

This was one of the magics he had learned from Hela, and its effect was similar to Hela’s ’Ten Thousand Swords Returning to Ancestry’.

However, he still had a large gap compared to Hela currently, and was far from reaching her world-covering scale.

Black Sky knew the energy of these magic swords had a restraining effect on him, so he didn’t choose to take them head-on. Layers of black energy shields quickly unfolded in front of him.

The magic swords hit the energy shields, instantly exploding into clusters of blinding white light, causing the shields to shake violently.

Boom!

With a loud bang, Black Sky fiercely crushed the ground beneath his feet. Rubble flew as he charged straight at Darian, pushing through the impact of the magic swords.

A demon’s physical body was naturally powerful; close-quarters combat was his advantage.

Darian watched the shadow approach at an incredible speed. Without dodging, he met it with a head-on sword slash.

Bang!!

The two collided fiercely, and a visible shockwave erupted from the center of the impact. White light and black mist twisted together, sweeping across the surroundings.

A large number of ninjas and Shadow Soldiers were caught in the aftermath, all being blown away and falling in disarray.

Darian and Black Sky had no mind to pay attention to their surroundings; they only had eyes for each other as they instantly became locked in combat.

The magic sword and black claws clashed frantically at close range. Shockwaves expanded one after another, the ground shook incessantly, and the sounds of collisions and explosions echoed across the entire battlefield.

Black Sky’s physical condition was indeed powerful.

Although this was not his true body, this vessel had been strengthened to the limit by his black mist, making it much more powerful than a high-attack, high-defense stat monster like Luke Cage.

But even with such a physical advantage, he couldn’t get any benefit against Darian. Instead, the more he fought, the more strained he felt. This human’s strength was simply unreasonably high.

Isn’t this guy a mage?

Why is his strength so great?

Black Sky’s mind was full of question marks, and he could only attribute it to Darian being born with divine strength.

His movements didn’t slow down at all. He pressed his five fingers together, the black mist at his fingertips condensing into a blade, and thrust a hand-knife straight at Darian’s face.

Darian held the sword with both hands, turning the blade sideways to meet Black Sky’s hand-knife with the flat of the sword.

Parry!

Clang—!

A sharp metallic clashing sound exploded.

The moment the magic sword and The Hand-knife collided violently, a powerful counter-force bounced back from the point of contact, pouring directly into Black Sky’s arm and then spreading through his entire body along his shoulder.

Black Sky’s entire body suddenly went numb.

His muscles, bones, and even his thoughts seemed to be frozen at that moment, and he involuntarily stiffened in place.

In such a fast-paced close-quarters fight, this moment of stiffness was undoubtedly fatal.

Darian did not hesitate. He exerted force with both arms and slashed down with all his might.

The blade sliced through the layers of shields on Black Sky’s body and landed directly on his head.

There was no dull thud of bone shattering, nor any scene of flesh and blood flying.

Half of Black Sky’s head was neatly sliced off, and the inside of the cut was hollow; there was nothing there.

Darian glanced at it and curled his lip: "As expected, no brains."

In the next second, a large amount of black mist gushed from the cut, writhing and rolling like a living thing, quickly outlining the shape of a head and restoring it to its original state in the blink of an eye.

Black Sky gave a cold laugh: "It’s useless. As long as my spirit is not extinguished, I will not disappear."

All of Black Sky’s power came from mental energy. He was only using this body as an anchor, a channel to allow him to descend to Earth.

So the body itself was not important. As long as his mental energy remained, he could reform no matter how many times he was destroyed.

Darian did not show a surprised expression upon seeing this.

Kamar-Taj had to deal with many threats from other dimensions daily. Mages had encountered such undying existences before.

According to Kamar-Taj’s usual practice, there were only three ways to handle such things.

Either forcibly expel them back to their original dimension, seal them with magic, or completely exhaust the opponent’s mental energy. Without mental energy to support it, the physical body would naturally dissipate.

But the problem was that the first two methods were not applicable to Darian.

Expulsion-type magic and sealing-type magic belonged to the highest difficulty tier in Kamar-Taj’s spell system. Even the simplest basic versions would take three consecutive days to learn.

Because of this, Darian had never learned these two types of magic.

That left only the third method.

Darian narrowed his eyes: "I’d like to see just how much mental energy this clone of yours has."

He condensed another magic sword in his other hand. With one in each hand, a sky full of sword shadows instantly enveloped Black Sky.

Black Sky didn’t dodge; instead, he took the initiative to meet him, tanking the damage to close the distance with Darian.

Once the distance was close enough, long swords would actually be difficult to use.

Darian simply let go.

The moment the two magic swords left his hands, they turned into points of light and dissipated. He clenched his fists and threw a punch directly.

Black Sky took a punch and swung his own fist back in return.

The two of them stood face-to-face, trading punches one after another.

Darian’s fists were wrapped in white light. Every punch that landed sizzled against Black Sky’s body, burning away a layer of black mist.

Black Sky’s punches were not light either. Black mist wrapped around his knuckles, making dull thudding sounds as they hit Darian.

Neither of them retreated.

Darian’s left fist smashed into Black Sky’s shoulder, while Black Sky’s right fist simultaneously slammed into Darian’s ribs.

Both took a hit, their bodies swaying, but the next punch followed immediately.

This style of fighting had no technique to speak of; it was pure trading of injuries to see who would buckle first.

Black Sky initially thought this kind of fighting was in his favor.

His body could be repaired at any time, but Darian was just a human. How long could his flesh and blood body hold out?

But after trading dozens of punches, he began to feel that something was wrong.

Why was this guy getting more energetic as the fight went on?

Needless to say, this was the effect of the life-steal ring.

As long as Darian could cause damage to the enemy, he could convert that damage into health to heal himself. He wasn’t afraid of this injury-for-injury fighting style at all.

However, Black Sky’s shell was indeed hard enough; it was difficult to cause much damage with just fists.

Darian had a sudden inspiration. He directly took off the angel halo from his head and rubbed it vigorously in his right hand.

The angel halo quickly softened in his palm like a piece of metal heated by body temperature. The originally round ring profile was constantly squeezed until it finally fit his knuckles, firmly fixed on the back of his hand, turning into a set of Brass Knuckles.

Black Sky: "???"

He originally thought this thing was a speaker, but he never imagined it was actually a weapon!

Before Black Sky could react, Darian held the angel halo turned Brass Knuckles and smashed it hard against his face.

The angel halo burst with holy light, stinging Black Sky’s eyes so much that he almost couldn’t open them, and his movements involuntarily paused for a moment.

Bang!!

The angel halo, carrying white light, smashed right through Black Sky’s black mist shield and landed heavily on his face. The holy light burned Black Sky, making him scream.

Seeing the immediate effect, Darian instantly increased his offensive, frantically swinging his right fist at Black Sky’s face.

Black Sky only felt white light flashing frequently before his eyes, accompanied by a strong sense of impact. The hymn in his ears even became rhythmically distinct, as if he were in a nightclub converted from a church, with Jesus on stage scratching records.

Every time Darian’s fist landed, the holy light inherent in the angel halo would shave off the black mist on Black Sky’s body, directly breaking through his defense to cause damage.

Black Sky was beaten back step by step. Every time his head recovered, it was smashed flat again in the next second.

Although his body could regenerate infinitely, his mental energy was also being consumed simultaneously.

If this continued, he would eventually be worn to death by Darian.

"You forced my hand!"

Black Sky gave a low roar, and the black energy around him suddenly expanded outward, sweeping toward the surroundings.

Large black spots immediately appeared on the skin of all the ninjas covered by the black energy, and they quickly festered as if they had been splashed with strong acid.

Flesh peeled from bones, emitting a pungent rotting smell. Amidst screams, the people melted into blood and were then completely absorbed by the black energy, leaving not even a trace behind.

Early on when Darian and Black Sky started fighting, the three leaders of The Hand had secretly shrunk into a corner, fearing they would be caught in the battle.

They originally planned to wait until both sides were almost done before coming out to clean up the situation. Who would have thought that Black Sky would actually turn his spearhead toward his own people?

Seeing the black energy spreading toward them, their expressions changed drastically, and they hurriedly shouted, "Lord Black Sky! We are your most loyal servants!"

Black Sky glanced at them coldly: "Then offer up your loyalty and lend me your strength."

He ignored the pleas of his three lackeys. The black mist instantly swallowed them, and he didn’t even spare Madam Gao nearby.

Seeing this, Darian decisively pulled out a remote control and pressed it.

Boom!

Accompanied by a loud explosion, Madam Gao ascended on the spot.

Black Sky:

"..."

"..."

Installing a bomb inside a body... are you even human?!

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