Chapter 1401 The Return of the Old Ones (9) (Patreon)

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"Again!"

"Who is it this time?!"

"Damn it, it never ends!"

Several figures were fleeing in a panic on the street. Reilly looked back at the horde of monsters behind them. The leading woman had red hair and was holding a walkie-talkie, while the one on the helicopter was in uniform and shooting arrows.

Natasha and Barton, well done. S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't escape either, Reilly gritted his teeth, and they even had advanced equipment that they could control.

"This won't work!" Shang-Chi shouted at him: "Our stamina will be exhausted, and we're out of bullets. We have to get away from them first!"

"They have planes and bombs," the Rocket Raccoon, held by Quill, shouted: "Split up and have one group cover the retreat, then the other group runs!"

"That's not a good idea," Quill immediately covered Rocket Raccoon's mouth and said, "They've noticed our abnormality, that we're not infected by the madness. They won't let any of us go."

The sound of explosions came from behind, and Quill had to cover his mouth and nose to prevent being choked by the cigarette smoke, while Reilly shouted back, "You're right, we can't stop moving at high speed. They have snipers."

Shang-Chi gritted his teeth, feeling that his exhausted breath was not enough to support his high-speed running. He took a deep breath and said to Reilly, "Give me 30 seconds, I can take you all away."

"What are you going to do?"

"Set up a formation to trap them, but it takes time to form the array."

"Quill, you and Jessica defend the right flank, I'll defend the left!"

They had no more time to hesitate, because they all knew that continuing to run like this wouldn't work. And when they stopped, they found that their thinking was correct, because the monsters chasing them had already formed a large army.

Superheroes with tentacles growing from their heads, agents with tumors on their waists, police officers with the lower half of their bodies mutated into insects, flying planes, riding police cars, aiming guns, and howling madly, it was like a real apocalypse.

They should have realized earlier that lack of mental attacks did not mean no danger. The biggest danger in this world was that there were too many of them.

After the superheroes were mutated, in addition to madness, they retained a certain degree of intelligence, and the agents and police officers were the same. This allowed them to use modern weapons, so the few people faced a situation no better than being wanted by the whole world and pursued by all of New York.

Even more troubling is that Scarlet Witch, who had large-scale attack capabilities, is not here now, and JARVIS is also missing. The remaining few have no way to deal with this large-scale modern weapon bombardment, and can only flee.

The monsters kept coming, and Reilly, Jessica, and Quill fought with all their might to hold them back, leaving time for Shang-Chi to form the array. The red-eyed Natasha, hanging on the helicopter's ladder, shouted in a sharp voice:

"Stop resisting and embrace the truth of Space!"

"The truth of Space is that you're a fucking bitch!!" Quill shook off a monster's tentacle and roared, spewing all kinds of profanity, and Rocket Raccoon was even worse.

The 30 seconds seemed to last 30 years. Reilly was shot at least three times, but fortunately, he was wearing the Asgardian-made suit that Nick had provided him, which easily protected him from human bullets, although the shrapnel from the grenades still grazed his leg.

Quill was already concussed, and he was hit in the shoulder again. The bullet didn't cause a penetrating wound, but was stuck in the muscle, making him even more painful.

Finally, accompanied by Shang-Chi's roar, golden light spread out from under his feet, covering half a street, draining the last bit of energy from his body. He stomped his foot and shouted, "Trap!"

In the flow of golden light, all the monsters seemed to be paused. But no one had the heart to appreciate the beautiful spell. In the moment the monsters were trapped, they turned and fled, escaping the sight of all their pursuers as quickly as possible.

"I really should have learned a teleportation technique," Shang-Chi complained, leaning against the cold wall of the sewer. "If I could teleport, I wouldn't have to put in so much effort."

Reilly was treating Quill's wound. He shook his head and said, "Stop complaining. It's too late for that now. Let's think about what to do next. We can't deal with so many monsters."

"The Sorcerer Supreme really had foresight," Quill took a deep breath and said, "His destruction of an entire world of monsters was not without reason. How can you escape their clutches?"

"Did you hear what they just said?" Rocket Raccoon jumped onto Quill's shoulder and said, "That Scarlet Witch woman yelled at the archer, 'The endless proliferating eternal god.' That's probably the name of the mastermind."

"I've never heard of this demon god," Quill shook his head, pushing the bangs back from his forehead, and said, "But that's a very unimaginative name. Most demon gods can live forever, unless they're unlucky enough to be captured by the Sorcerer Supreme."

"The key is proliferation," Jessica added more firewood to the campfire and said, "I noticed during the mutation that many people's bodies began to constantly produce tumors, until they expanded to the point of immobility, and then were smashed into mush by those crazy Superheroes."

"Those are probably the failures," Reilly no longer wanted to dwell on the coldness in his own tone. He just stated plainly, "Not everyone can accept that kind of crazy power. Superheroes can survive the evolution because they were already strong."

"What are you going to do?" Jessica held her hands near the campfire. "If you have a way to leave this place, then go quickly. There's no need to get involved. This Space is completely beyond saving."

"The problem is, we can't leave," Shang-Chi sat down and said, "We're trapped here too, and obviously, we're out of ammunition."

The atmosphere fell silent. They all knew that Shang-Chi was right. Sometimes human power is exhausted. They could handle three major battles in a day, but not thirty or three hundred.

They had already attracted the attention of these monsters, so the monsters would definitely hunt them to the end. Now they understood the taste of the villains being chased by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. The key is not whether they can beat one or two, but that once they show up, they have to face a large group.

In this situation where the power and numbers are vastly different, wisdom can improve their situation, but cannot completely turn the tide.

After a long silence, Reilly suddenly spoke up: "We may need power, no, not may, we do need power, more powerful power."

Jessica couldn't quite understand the three men's silence, but she still had a kind of keen feminine intuition, so she leaned her body slightly forward and asked in a tentative tone: "Do you have a way?"

"Perhaps there is, but it may cause even greater danger, more terrible than the danger we are facing now, more terrible than you can imagine."

Jessica pursed her lips and said, "Will this let you survive?"

"It will let us survive."

"You don't have to include me, I said this Space is already rotten, I'll die sooner or later, I've already wanted to die." Jessica's tone was full of a strong self-destructive tendency without any concealment.

Quill opened his mouth and gave a mocking smile, saying, "You said that when I looked into their eyes, I would be infected with madness, but today I greeted all her relatives by staring into that bitch's eyes, and I didn't feel anything crawling into my brain."

Jessica stared at him like he was a madman, because Quill's face had that familiar hungry look of an alcoholic, as if he was saying, "Can't we get something stronger?"

"It's inevitable." Jessica hugged her legs and shivered, saying, "I've already felt it, felt the whispers, they're circling around my ears."

"Have you heard anyone singing?" Reilly asked, looking at her.

Jessica shook her head and said, "I didn't even hear any sound, just some trivial friction, maybe I imagined it all."

"What did he say to you?" Shang-Chi asked.

"There are no sentences that can be understood."

Jessica finally felt something was wrong, she stared at the fire, feeling a bit dizzy, and then started to shiver uncontrollably, with tears welling up in her eyes.

The girl looked at them with tear-filled eyes and said, "You've all been infected too, haven't you? That's why you haven't gone mad."

"That was just a dream." Quill leaned his head against the cold wall and said, "Not even a nightmare, just bizarre and strange."

"But it can help us find a way to break the deadlock." Reilly also stared at the fire, and Jessica, trembling with fear, still couldn't help but ask in a trembling voice, "What is it?"

"The Call of the Stars."

Shang-Chi sat cross-legged on the ground and said, "They are not some sound, some gaze, or some illusion, they have left knowledge in our minds."

"If we actively read this knowledge," Reilly swallowed and said, "then we can face the truth again, and we can hear the Call of the Stars again, we can make sacrifices to gain power."

"It sounds too dangerous." Jessica shook her head vigorously and said, "You really don't need to do this, it's better to hide here and try to escape."

"We have deeper worries than you, miss." Reilly looked into Jessica's eyes and said, "The disaster in this Space may spread out, I have this premonition, and my premonitions are usually very accurate."

"We have to do something to them before they make this terrible decision."

"What do you want to do?"

"Join them, with even deeper madness."

Jessica was about to speak, but Reilly looked at her gently and explained, "I believe there is more than one mastermind behind this, because this is not the first crazy Space we have experienced, and my experience tells me that these masterminds are similar but different, and there are differences in strength."

"Since the monsters in this Space have become the followers of a God, then we can become the followers of other, stronger and greater Gods, and then stop their crazy actions."

"How can you be sure you won't go mad like them?"

"We've tried it."

Jessica knew she was powerless to stop them, so she said, "Do you need any help?"

"Leave here and go to the entrance, as soon as it's completely dark, tell us."

"Okay."

After Jessica left, the three exchanged eye contact, obviously seeing the anger in each other's eyes, both for those who had trampled on the dignity of the Superheroes, and for their own powerlessness and weakness.

Once humans recognize their own weakness, they become surprisingly angry and then go mad, a cold, calm madness, moving mountains and breaking waters, nothing can stop the steps of the weak human.

After hearing Jessica's voice, they knew it was completely dark, Reilly closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and some broken melodies came out, then became more and more fluent and high-pitched.

Shang-Chi recalled the feeling of his stomach being gripped, the words that wanted to come out of his mouth again surfaced in his mind.

Quill clenched his fists, the red muscle texture, the blackened blood, woven into a mysterious pattern, blinking constantly in front of his eyes.

When they called out to the Stars at the same time, the Stars responded to them, and one of the Stars reached out its arms to embrace them.

In the hazy, protective illusion, they found themselves as a fragile sapling, being pruned by the gardener, making them experience frost and wind, shaping them into the solid tree they wanted.

As they continued to grow upwards, craving sunlight, rain and endless starry skies, the great existence deep in the Stars finally responded to the calls of the new sprouts, bringing them gentle breezes and fine rains, as well as the cold, damp, ubiquitous nameless mist.

After the illusion dissipated, Shang-Chi found himself in a vast, foggy space, with endless mist overhead and an empty island beneath his feet.

Looking down from the edge of the island, he saw a huge City submerged in the endless fog.

Standing above the City, Shang-Chi finally spat out the words that had been lingering in his heart -

"Carcosa... Aldebaran Star System, Lake Harry... the Dark Sun is high in the sky..."

He turned around and saw the huge black Sun slowly rising from the depths of the fog.

[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, and thanks for the invaluable support!]

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