Lord of Cinder in American Comics

However, the only place they were shooting at was air.

Looking in the rearview mirror, the dark figure had already moved behind them, then raised the hook and swung it down.

First, it was the team members standing next to the car door, then those at the car body, and then those at the other side door.

As they circled the entire vehicle, all the special forces team members who were using it as cover had their throats ripped open by unseen hooks.

And what happened in that short period of time allowed the team that had overturned to just climb out.

They met the same fate; the shadowy figure didn't wait, swiftly tearing open their throats.

When Coulson and Natasha noticed the crash ahead, they quickly stopped and waited behind them, while Melinda also stopped beside them.

"Fuck, is this woman crazy?" Natasha cursed, reaching out to slap Coulson.

"Get that woman out of here, or smash all the windows, quick!"

Before she could finish speaking, the killing ahead had already ended, and at that moment Natasha saw her own reflection in the car next to her.

Having surrendered her weapon, Natasha was unable to break the window of the other car, so she got out from the other side of the vehicle and hid behind the wheels.

The killing shifted from the lead vehicle to the rear, starting with Melinda's team, where one by one, their throats were ripped open by invisible hooks.

"Smash the glass, smash everything that reflects light."

By the time Coulson roared those words, the carnage was already upon them. Melinda's squad was nearly wiped out.

The panicked but not panicked team members followed Coulson's instructions and smashed Melinda's car windows, rearview mirrors, and anything else that could reflect light. Only then did Coulson and Melinda realize that it seemed a little too late.

After killing dozens of special forces members, a black figure slowly solidified and appeared before them.

It had black skin, and an iron hook extended from its right limb, seemingly fixed directly to the bone. Its left hand was covered in a viscous, transparent liquid that dripped onto the ground and then quickly disappeared.

It was grinning, with a huge, everted wound at the corner of its mouth revealing its gums, extending all the way to behind its ear, where its jaw joint, surrounded by tendons, was visible. Bees were crawling in and out of the wound.

Everyone present saw the eerie black figure, and the figure also saw everyone present.

It grinned, and black bees flew out of its mouth, swarming towards everyone.

Everyone fired at the dark figure without prior agreement. The gunshots rang out continuously, and the bullets fired by different team members almost collided with each other in mid-air.

After emptying their magazines, the group did not stop. Instead, they changed magazines and continued firing continuously until the last shot was fired.

The gunfire continued for several minutes, and the location of the dark figure had long been covered by the dust kicked up by the bullets hitting the ground, so that no unusual phenomenon could be seen.

"Cease fire and wait for observation," Coulson ordered upon seeing the situation.

The group continued to point their guns at the shadowy figure, fearing that the monster might emerge from the smoke and dust.

The shadowy figure responded to the crowd's fear, floating lightly out of the smoke and dust, waving its hook at them as if greeting a long-lost friend.

Everyone present felt a chill run down their spines; bullets were ineffective against this monster. While firepower could suppress their fear, when firepower proved ineffective, the terror became far more indescribable.

"Evacuate in small groups, as many as you can go."

Coulson gave everyone present the most desperate order to escape, and then said to Natasha, "Natasha, come with me."

Coulson decided to take Natasha with him to lure the monster away from the crowd. What to do next depended on whether Fury, who had received the message, had a solution.

After receiving orders, the rest of the group evacuated the location under Melinda's command.

Natasha and Coulson got into their open-air car, ready to lure the monster away.

After getting into the car, Coulson bravely charged towards the shadowy figure. He successfully crashed into the shadowy figure, but only scattered it into a swarm of black bees.

The black bees materialized again behind the car and chased after the two once more.

Natasha, who was constantly observing the shadowy figure, saw it disperse into a swarm of bees, then gradually coalesce into half a figure on the left side of the vehicle, with only the upper half of the shadowy figure extending an iron hook toward Coulson.

"Coulson, watch your left."

Hearing Natasha's warning, Coulson jerked the steering wheel to the right, narrowly avoiding the hook aimed at his throat.

Although he managed to dodge the hook on his throat, a large chunk of flesh was torn from his left shoulder and back by the hook, and the entire driver's side door was also ripped off by the shadowy figure.

The car, which swerved sharply to the right, lost control and crashed into a building on the side of the road, eventually coming to a complete stop inside.

The shockwave from the impact left the two men dizzy and swaying as they got out of the car. They helped each other up and prepared to leave the area.

Despite the dizziness, Natasha wrapped clothes around Coulson and gave him a quick bandage. However, when they regained consciousness, they found a dark figure with hooks standing at the opening in the wall where the car had crashed, staring at them.

Six eyes met, and a somber atmosphere filled the entire space.

The standoff between the two sides continued with difficulty. Coulson, who was gradually losing blood, began to feel dizzy. Natasha noticed the unusual nature of the environment and shook Coulson awake, saying, "He doesn't seem to be able to get in."

## Chapter Nineteen: You Have More Hair Than Mephisto

With Natasha's help, Coulson looked around and found that it was a private storage warehouse filled with all sorts of household items and trash.

The cluttered warehouse had no other exits, and they had just rammed their car through the warehouse's precarious door. And there stood the monster, waiting for them at the entrance.

Coulson forced himself to stay alert and pressed the button on his headset to report the matter to Fury.

As soon as the headset connected, Freya's impatient voice came through.

"Coulson, are you alright? Your team and most of Melinda's squad have lost vital signs. What happened? Melinda hasn't reported to me yet, and her signal is moving further and further away from the outskirts. What did you encounter?"

Fury's barrage of questions made Coulson, who was already suffering from severe blood loss, turn even paler. Coulson had no choice but to slowly recount the details of the accident to Fury.

From picking up Natasha, through the car crash, to escaping with Natasha, and finally being trapped in this place.

"You mean, the monster materialized and then trapped you and Natasha in a warehouse?"

"Yes, sir, the monster didn't even come in one step."

Based on years of experience, Fury offered a solution.

"Perhaps you could try searching the warehouse; maybe you can find a way to defeat that monster. And one more thing, the cheese..."

Fury once again referred to Coulson as cheese, indicating that this information was not to be made public at this time.

Although he was wearing a headset, Natasha couldn't hear anything from the conversation, so Coulson turned the headset volume down to the lowest setting.

“Coulson, that monster’s target is Natasha. If all else fails, hand Natasha over, and I’ll launch a missile to raze the area to the ground in two hours. Remember, you only have two hours.”

Fury offered a final solution: hand over Natasha and raze the area to the ground.

“Yes, sir, I understand. I will hold out until the very end,” Coulson replied.

After hanging up the headset, Coulson relayed Fury's suggestions and solutions to Natasha. Of course, Coulson omitted the part where Fury asked him to hand over Natasha.

"We only have two hours? Or are we going to be hit by a missile that can level this whole block?"

Coulson nodded, then shook his head. He said, "It might just be a missile designed to destroy the warehouse."

Natasha rolled her eyes at Coulson with disdain. As a secret agent, she naturally didn't believe such trivial nonsense.

"Let's get started quickly. We only have two hours, but how do we figure out what can harm that monster?"

Natasha raised this crucial question; Fury hadn't told Coulson how to identify such items either, and perhaps Fury himself didn't know either.

Silence replaced the flow of conversation; it was clear that both had noticed the blind spot, but neither knew how to solve it. Coulson cautiously offered his opinion.

"Shall we try throwing something at him first? In all religious stories, objects can be used to harm mystical creatures."

Ignoring Coulson's suggestion, Natasha picked up a shovel at her feet and threw it at the monster in the doorway. The shovel passed right through his body.

"A shovel won't work."

Natasha picked up another crowbar and threw it over.

"A crowbar won't work."

And so, amidst Natasha's rambling, Coulson and Natasha continued trying out various items in the warehouse until they found a box.

The box is made entirely of wood, with rusted black metal edging. An unlocked latch holds it closed, and a metal chain extends from the back of the box, coiling in an arc along the left side.

“Coulson, we’ve lost everything. If it weren’t for this box, we would be finished.”

Natasha looked at the box, then at Coulson, and finally said, "If there's nothing in this box that can kill that monster, Coulson, you should find a chance to escape. I'll stay here."

Natasha looked at the box, not at Coulson, and spoke these words with her head down.

Coulson was filled with mixed emotions. Just a few minutes ago, he had obeyed Fury's orders to abandon Natasha, but now Natasha was giving him a chance to live. He didn't know how to treat this comrade who wanted to give him a chance to live.

"Let's see what's in this box first. This box is so old, it must contain items that can kill that monster."

Coulson offered some words of comfort. However, neither of them moved for a long time; opening the box would reveal the outcome, while not opening it offered a sliver of hope.

At this moment, this box is like Natasha and Coulson's Schrödinger's cat box. It's forever in a state of flux, a state of either existence or non-existence. It's also Pandora's box; whether it holds hope or destruction will only be known once it's opened.

After waiting a few seconds and preparing themselves mentally, Natasha stepped forward to open the last wooden box.

Just as Natasha reached out to unlock the wooden crate, she instantly pulled her hand back. She practically hopped back to Coulson's side.

"Coulson, that crate is alive!"

Before Coulson could understand Natasha's words, he saw two slender arms extend from the wooden box on the left and right, stretching out their arms and yawning upwards.

"Ah~~~ Ha~~~~~"

The box, stretching lazily, revealed its sharp fangs that filled the entire opening, and a long red tongue that dangled from the box onto the ground.

Then, using the wooden crate as support, he lifted himself up, and a slender body emerged from beneath the crate. Then, a pair of legs, comparable in size to Coulson, stretched out from his body.

The box patted off imaginary dust. Only then did it look down at the two tiny figures in front of it.

Coulson and Natasha were already in a panic. They had thought it was a magical item that could get rid of the monster blocking the door, but they never expected that the whole box contained a giant monster.

The two had already given up the moment they saw the box sprout hands, and quietly awaited their death.

They watched as the monster grew a body and walked towards them. Then, a sentence reached their ears.

"There is no cure for baldness, not even for me."

Natasha and Coulson were stunned. They never expected that the first words spoken by this monster, who was more than twice their height, would be this!

Coulson and Natasha calmed themselves down. A monster they could communicate with was better than that killer outside.

"Sir? Excuse me, Mr. Monster, could you help us deal with that black monster at the door?" Coulson asked tremblingly.

"Oh (⊙o⊙)? You didn't come here to get rid of your baldness? Don't worry, I have excellent rules of conduct and I guarantee to keep your secret. Even with Mephisto, I won't tell him that you have more hair than him."

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Author's Remarks