Marvel: Raising — Chapter 145 - The Angel of Marvel

Ghost Rider types are all about the cool factor.

Flaming skull, swings the chain, everyone goes down.

He carved through Stark Industries floor by floor. Tech butler J.A.R.V.I.S. had set up checkpoints at every level. None of it mattered.

Because that flaming skull's hellfire motorcycle can smash through basically anything. And if it doesn't feel like smashing, it just drives up walls or across water.

Most critically, he has the Penance Stare.

In Marvel, that's basically the gaze of God. A walking indulgence vendor.

And in the corporate world, business is booming.

Those superheroes — which one of them doesn't have blood on their hands?

Which one of them hasn't picked up a little of that The Boys energy?

Right off the bat.

A-Train, fastest to react, got hard-locked. A loop running in his head: Hughie's girlfriend he ran through, the Supersonic incident he orchestrated, the wolf-girl he killed...

He clutched his head and sobbed.

At the same time.

Thor was deep in the sin of pride.

The Hulk, the sin of wrath.

Iron Man Tony flashed back to Stark Industries' sinful past.

The whole group hit the mechanic at once, curling in on themselves and weeping while Ghost Rider worked them over.

Azu: "Lol."

He watched the chaos unfold, recording it with the Time Stone and sharing it with Pops.

He also asked about Ghost Rider's origin.

And that, of all things, actually stumped Guan Fuyun.

As a transmigrator and walking cheat code, his knowledge of Marvel was about as comprehensive as it gets.

But thanks to personal taste, the entire Heaven-and-Hell side of the setting had always bored him to tears.

Ghost Rider specifically.

What he knew basically came from the movies. He knew this guy's whole deal was tied to Mephisto, that Johnny had a contract with Old Meph.

Old Meph had a son named Blackheart.

Another entry in the long list of father-worriers.

To surpass his old man, kill his old man, and crown himself the new devil king, Blackheart came to the material world to obtain the San Venganza contract — a thousand fallen souls, bound in one pact.

The idea was that the resentment and evil inside it were born from the corruption of the purest, most virtuous souls imaginable. High-grade stock.

Dark power far deeper and more terrifying than anything an ordinary soul could produce.

So the second-gen devil got excited. Get the contract, devour the power, ascend in one move, replace Old Meph as ruler of Hell.

To which Guan Fuyun could only say: Blackheart was dreaming.

In Marvel, Old Meph is a Skyfather-tier existence on par with God himself. The big brother of Hell. The souls in his hands number in the countless millions.

Not to mention, Doctor Doom's mother's soul is still sitting in Old Meph's collection right now. Those two throw down over it every other week.

If a measly thousand-soul contract was all it took to birth a Skyfather.

God wouldn't be sleeping very well at night.

Anyway.

Ghost Rider also had a connection to God.

Guan Fuyun told Azu to look it up himself, and the answer came back fast.

"Pops."

Azu sent a psychic message, that little smugness of a kid delivering a lesson to his father leaking through as he grinned. "The original Ghost Rider was actually a spokesperson God dropped into the world to judge sin. Called the Spirit of Vengeance."

"But that was ancient history."

"20,000 years ago, the elemental demon Zarathos appeared and ran loose."

"As God's spokesperson and the wholesale distributor of indulgences, that generation's Ghost Rider gathered every last Spirit of Vengeance and fought Zarathos to a standstill."

"It ended in mutual destruction."

"Zarathos was sealed into a stone statue. The Spirit of Vengeance was shattered apart."

"Over the long ages that followed."

"The two forces restrained each other, countered each other, and slowly fused together."

"Until Mephisto got his hands on it and refined it."

"And so God's Spirit of Vengeance became the devil's Ghost Rider."

"But maybe because Pops is just that powerful — existing alone is enough to shift the world, to bend the fates of every living thing."

"The current Ghost Rider has actually reawakened Zarathos's power."

"Three Skyfathers' authorities, all tangled together."

"Ghost Rider Johnny is extraordinarily powerful right now. And extraordinarily out of control."

Here it comes.

The classic body-holds-a-demon, blackout-mode triples-your-stats situation.

Which explained everything, actually. How a Ghost Rider with average base stats and a hellfire that supposedly "burns everything" but in practice worked exactly like Sasuke's Amaterasu, only good for burning nameless fodder who don't rate a character sheet...

...was now able to suppress the current Thor and the Hulk.

And beyond the mechanics.

With 3 Skyfathers' blessing stacked on him, Ghost Rider's numbers had climbed sharply. He'd basically received the BOSS template.

While they were talking.

Guan Fuyun had made his way back to the farm and settled in to watch the show with Azu.

The two of them were chatting, gloating, wearing matching schadenfreude grins.

Then the time around them froze.

The wind stopped mid-air.

The void rippled outward like water disturbed by a stone. Holy light poured down.

A pair of white wings pushed through first. Then long legs, a slim waist.

A woman stepped through.

A woman so beautiful she looked artificially constructed.

Blonde hair, soft and flowing. A figure with perfect curves. Wings full and lush. Like an ancient Greek sculpture had decided to walk off its pedestal.

On looks alone, she was a clear tier above Gwen, Polaris, and whatever other names people threw around.

But staring at her, Guan Fuyun couldn't feel anything real.

It was like looking at a painting.

"Is that holy light she's radiating?"

He rubbed his chin.

He reached out and plucked a feather from her wing. Turned it over, examined it. No LED inside.

He had to admit, it was genuinely pretty. As a collectible, as a decoration, it probably wouldn't lose to the wings of DC's Lucifer next door.

But that was about all.

Marvel's Heaven and its God landed at roughly the same prestige level as Asgard and old man Odin. Same story with actual power.

This female angel in front of him, as far as foot soldiers went, was sitting at the sub-Skyfather tier.

"No idea what she thinks she's performing."

Azu was openly mocking her now. "If we hadn't opened the door, she couldn't even get onto the farm."

Female Angel: "..."

She awkwardly rubbed her wings together and landed on the ground like a free-range chicken.

"Greetings to the two Celestials."

"I am the Archangel of the Heavenly Pantheon, Gabriel."

She introduced herself with practiced composure.

She'd clearly done her homework before coming.

She just couldn't stop herself. Force of habit, holy light, special effects, the full entrance package. One reflex-flex before she could think better of it.

➤ Next: Azu vs. Ghost Rider