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Chapter 203: Taking Him Away
The Spirit of Vengeance suddenly appeared on Earth twenty thousand years ago.
In that era, the two great races, the Eternals and the Deviants, were still vying for control of Earth.
As the latest research results of the Celestials, the Eternals possessed a perfect gene chain, while the Deviants had a powerful and unpredictably mutating one. The brutal war between the two sides dealt a devastating blow to Earth.
Subsequently, the Eternals were defeated and fled into space. The Deviants, in turn, were judged to be "unqualified products" by the Celestials who arrived later and were subsequently wiped out.
The war of extermination caused the continent of Atlantis to sink. The Mutants were eradicated by their creators, and only the Primitive Humans who had inherited a small fraction of their genes were able to survive. They eventually multiplied to become Modern Humans. For some unknown reason, the gene within them capable of triggering mutation was reactivated and given the scientific name "X-Gene."
It was at this unprecedented turning point in Earth's history, twenty thousand years ago, that the most primitive Spirits of Vengeance abruptly appeared on Earth. They were born amidst a rain of fire falling from the sky, fulfilling their duty to slaughter sin.
To fight violence with violence was the innate mission of these Spirits of Vengeance.
And Ghost Rider was the contemporary Spirit of Vengeance. Having been born only recently, the memories he inherited from ancient times had not yet awakened, and he was only able to glimpse a few scattered, fragmented pieces of information. However, in his understanding, no life form had ever been able to ignore the judgment of the Penance Stare.
This superhuman before him, Max, considered killing his glory. In killing for that fellow named Tony, Max felt not the slightest sense of sin; on the contrary, he felt honored.
He took glory in destruction and killing, glory in being the sharpest weapon in another's hand.
Ghost Rider had never encountered such a person. The Penance Stare was thwarted, returning without effect.
"You're looking through my memories?!" Max exclaimed, a mixture of shock and rage. A powerful electric current blasted Ghost Rider, sending him flying dozens of meters away.
In that brief instant, it felt as though a long time had passed. Max clearly felt his memories being forcibly dragged from the depths of his mind, scrutinized bit by bit by a pair of terrifying eyes. Every detail, every past event, every thought and emotion he had ever had was picked through by those eyes as if it were trash.
This reminded Max of his past: working at Oscorp, wearing tattered clothes, going to the market to pick through discarded vegetable leaves.
That feeling of helpless humiliation thoroughly enraged Electro.
"You bastard! How dare you look through my memories!"
Enraged, Max let out a rare roar. All the stored electricity in his body erupted, creating a monstrous surge in the night sky. The sea began to churn restlessly, and the dark clouds above gathered under the influence of the lightning, emitting a low, rumbling growl.
At this moment, Max unleashed his full power. He was like a Deity in control of space itself; the entire world seemed to cry out with his rage, and all living things trembled in fear.
Ghost Rider stood on the surface of the sea. Beside him, his motorcycle was slowly sinking.
"You pitiful man... and an out-and-out bastard at the same time." The flames engulfing Ghost Rider flickered slightly as he stared silently at Max.
He had seen all of Max's memories: a pitiful and tragic first half of his life, followed by a fulfilling and glorious new life.
A pitiful bastard—that was Ghost Rider's most fitting assessment of Max.
A pitiful bastard who lived for someone else.
"You could have made a better choice, instead of becoming someone's subordinate and living forever in his shadow," Ghost Rider said, his voice deep, as if rising from the abyss of Hell.
Max's expression was cold. He charged forward brazenly, his arm outstretched, and lunged violently at Ghost Rider. He would wash away this humiliation with blood.
As for a 'better choice,' he didn't listen to a single word of that bullshit. Without Tony, he would still be a miserable wretch, and his capture and dissection on a lab table would have been an almost certain fate.
Of course, Tony had never told him that in the normal timeline, he would become a member of the Sinister Six, teaming up with Doctor Octopus, Sandman, and others to fight Spider-Man, only to ultimately die at Spider-Man's hands.
Not that Max would have cared.
Ghost Rider was overflowing with a sense of mission. Having been born only recently, he was still ignorant about many things. In his limited time active, he had only been madly slaughtering all kinds of villains. His pitifully scarce experience didn't allow him to handle matters in the most appropriate way.
He wanted to free this powerful man with limitless potential who was living as someone else's subordinate, and awaken the guilt and sense of sin within his heart.
Then, he would use the Penance Stare to deliver his judgment. It was sure to succeed.
Ghost Rider schemed gleefully. With his simple mind and limited life experience, coming up with such a strategy was the best he could do, and he was even feeling rather smug about his own cleverness.
But he had overlooked Max's terrifying ability.
Control over the bio-electric field.
The magnetic field and the bio-electric field were the two strongest paths for Max's future evolution. Whichever one he mastered to its fullest extent would make him incredibly formidable.
Even a Spirit of Vengeance was a peculiar life form. If it were in a pure soul state, Max might have been powerless against it. However, this young Spirit of Vengeance resided within a human, sharing a single body.
A vicious glint appeared in Max's eyes. He took control of the suppressed human electric field and launched a brazen counterattack against the electric field of the Spirit of Vengeance!
Countless imperceptible micro-currents streamed from Max's body, whistling through the air as they slammed into Ghost Rider's form.
The being known as Ghost Rider was a hybrid of a human and a Spirit of Vengeance, which gave Max an opening to exploit.
Most of the current bored into the parts of his body not covered by flames, frantically disrupting the Spirit of Vengeance's electric field. A smaller portion incited the suppressed human electric field to launch its own counterattack.
"Heeheeheehee-hahahahaha..." Ghost Rider began to laugh maniacally, a distorted and deranged sound.
The newborn Ghost Rider was a powerful yet fragile creature. He was powerful because he possessed an indestructible body, but fragile because he had to constantly maintain the delicate balance between the human host and the Spirit of Vengeance.
What Max was doing was directly shattering that balance.
Unwilling to be suppressed, the human soul began to fight back desperately. Ghost Rider let out a shrill, manic laugh as his skull head began to transform, sometimes becoming a half-skull, other times showing a spectral human face.
Intense flames burned in the air, and the nauseating smell of flesh and blood filled it. A searing heat erupted for a moment, only to slowly subside.
The flames disappeared, and the skull receded.
A man in a jet-black leather jacket, now unconscious, began to sink from the surface of the sea to the bottom.
"An interesting fellow... Let's take him to see Tony. I'm sure Tony will be very interested in him."
Max lifted the man from the water, paused for a moment in thought, then casually fished out the motorcycle as well. With a whoosh, he flew off in the direction of the Himalayan Mountains.
(end of chapter)
The Spirit of Vengeance suddenly appeared on Earth twenty thousand years ago.
In that era, the two great races, the Eternals and the Deviants, were still vying for control of Earth.
As the latest research results of the Celestials, the Eternals possessed a perfect gene chain, while the Deviants had a powerful and unpredictably mutating one. The brutal war between the two sides dealt a devastating blow to Earth.
Subsequently, the Eternals were defeated and fled into space. The Deviants, in turn, were judged to be "unqualified products" by the Celestials who arrived later and were subsequently wiped out.
The war of extermination caused the continent of Atlantis to sink. The Mutants were eradicated by their creators, and only the Primitive Humans who had inherited a small fraction of their genes were able to survive. They eventually multiplied to become Modern Humans. For some unknown reason, the gene within them capable of triggering mutation was reactivated and given the scientific name "X-Gene."
It was at this unprecedented turning point in Earth's history, twenty thousand years ago, that the most primitive Spirits of Vengeance abruptly appeared on Earth. They were born amidst a rain of fire falling from the sky, fulfilling their duty to slaughter sin.
To fight violence with violence was the innate mission of these Spirits of Vengeance.
And Ghost Rider was the contemporary Spirit of Vengeance. Having been born only recently, the memories he inherited from ancient times had not yet awakened, and he was only able to glimpse a few scattered, fragmented pieces of information. However, in his understanding, no life form had ever been able to ignore the judgment of the Penance Stare.
This superhuman before him, Max, considered killing his glory. In killing for that fellow named Tony, Max felt not the slightest sense of sin; on the contrary, he felt honored.
He took glory in destruction and killing, glory in being the sharpest weapon in another's hand.
Ghost Rider had never encountered such a person. The Penance Stare was thwarted, returning without effect.
"You're looking through my memories?!" Max exclaimed, a mixture of shock and rage. A powerful electric current blasted Ghost Rider, sending him flying dozens of meters away.
In that brief instant, it felt as though a long time had passed. Max clearly felt his memories being forcibly dragged from the depths of his mind, scrutinized bit by bit by a pair of terrifying eyes. Every detail, every past event, every thought and emotion he had ever had was picked through by those eyes as if it were trash.
This reminded Max of his past: working at Oscorp, wearing tattered clothes, going to the market to pick through discarded vegetable leaves.
That feeling of helpless humiliation thoroughly enraged Electro.
"You bastard! How dare you look through my memories!"
Enraged, Max let out a rare roar. All the stored electricity in his body erupted, creating a monstrous surge in the night sky. The sea began to churn restlessly, and the dark clouds above gathered under the influence of the lightning, emitting a low, rumbling growl.
At this moment, Max unleashed his full power. He was like a Deity in control of space itself; the entire world seemed to cry out with his rage, and all living things trembled in fear.
Ghost Rider stood on the surface of the sea. Beside him, his motorcycle was slowly sinking.
"You pitiful man... and an out-and-out bastard at the same time." The flames engulfing Ghost Rider flickered slightly as he stared silently at Max.
He had seen all of Max's memories: a pitiful and tragic first half of his life, followed by a fulfilling and glorious new life.
A pitiful bastard—that was Ghost Rider's most fitting assessment of Max.
A pitiful bastard who lived for someone else.
"You could have made a better choice, instead of becoming someone's subordinate and living forever in his shadow," Ghost Rider said, his voice deep, as if rising from the abyss of Hell.
Max's expression was cold. He charged forward brazenly, his arm outstretched, and lunged violently at Ghost Rider. He would wash away this humiliation with blood.
As for a 'better choice,' he didn't listen to a single word of that bullshit. Without Tony, he would still be a miserable wretch, and his capture and dissection on a lab table would have been an almost certain fate.
Of course, Tony had never told him that in the normal timeline, he would become a member of the Sinister Six, teaming up with Doctor Octopus, Sandman, and others to fight Spider-Man, only to ultimately die at Spider-Man's hands.
Not that Max would have cared.
Ghost Rider was overflowing with a sense of mission. Having been born only recently, he was still ignorant about many things. In his limited time active, he had only been madly slaughtering all kinds of villains. His pitifully scarce experience didn't allow him to handle matters in the most appropriate way.
He wanted to free this powerful man with limitless potential who was living as someone else's subordinate, and awaken the guilt and sense of sin within his heart.
Then, he would use the Penance Stare to deliver his judgment. It was sure to succeed.
Ghost Rider schemed gleefully. With his simple mind and limited life experience, coming up with such a strategy was the best he could do, and he was even feeling rather smug about his own cleverness.
But he had overlooked Max's terrifying ability.
Control over the bio-electric field.
The magnetic field and the bio-electric field were the two strongest paths for Max's future evolution. Whichever one he mastered to its fullest extent would make him incredibly formidable.
Even a Spirit of Vengeance was a peculiar life form. If it were in a pure soul state, Max might have been powerless against it. However, this young Spirit of Vengeance resided within a human, sharing a single body.
A vicious glint appeared in Max's eyes. He took control of the suppressed human electric field and launched a brazen counterattack against the electric field of the Spirit of Vengeance!
Countless imperceptible micro-currents streamed from Max's body, whistling through the air as they slammed into Ghost Rider's form.
The being known as Ghost Rider was a hybrid of a human and a Spirit of Vengeance, which gave Max an opening to exploit.
Most of the current bored into the parts of his body not covered by flames, frantically disrupting the Spirit of Vengeance's electric field. A smaller portion incited the suppressed human electric field to launch its own counterattack.
"Heeheeheehee-hahahahaha..." Ghost Rider began to laugh maniacally, a distorted and deranged sound.
The newborn Ghost Rider was a powerful yet fragile creature. He was powerful because he possessed an indestructible body, but fragile because he had to constantly maintain the delicate balance between the human host and the Spirit of Vengeance.
What Max was doing was directly shattering that balance.
Unwilling to be suppressed, the human soul began to fight back desperately. Ghost Rider let out a shrill, manic laugh as his skull head began to transform, sometimes becoming a half-skull, other times showing a spectral human face.
Intense flames burned in the air, and the nauseating smell of flesh and blood filled it. A searing heat erupted for a moment, only to slowly subside.
The flames disappeared, and the skull receded.
A man in a jet-black leather jacket, now unconscious, began to sink from the surface of the sea to the bottom.
"An interesting fellow... Let's take him to see Tony. I'm sure Tony will be very interested in him."
Max lifted the man from the water, paused for a moment in thought, then casually fished out the motorcycle as well. With a whoosh, he flew off in the direction of the Himalayan Mountains.
(end of chapter)
