Lord of Cinder in American Comics

As he wandered around, Hill began to prepare for what was about to happen, at least making sure to have the most convenient option—an air raid—in case it came in handy.

Geralt, as if prepared, had Robert run around the entire city, and gradually the sky darkened.

Standing beside the Quinjet, Hill noticed that Hawkwood remained as dejected as ever, ignoring everyone. Geralt, too, stood outside for a long time.

Hill approached Geralt and asked, "Is there something wrong with this city? I've noticed you've been staring at one place for quite some time now."

For the first time ever, Geralt didn't drink. Instead, he took out his phone and marked the locations he had noticed during the day. Hill saw that there was a church and a cemetery on the list.

"The Blackheart Demon has arrived, the Hell Gate is closed, and we'll see Ghost Rider tonight..."

## Chapter 266: The Only Two Ghost Riders

Standing at the highest point in the city, Geralt and Hill looked at the city's last remaining moments of peace.

Hill had already informed the World Security Council of the intelligence he had obtained from Geralt. This act of civil war left the Council deeply troubled, yet helpless.

Meanwhile, Johnny Blaze was getting ready to meet his ex-girlfriend.

After learning that he had signed a deal with Mephisto, Johnny left without saying a word on a rainy day so as not to burden his girlfriend.

What followed was Johnny becoming a stunt driver, relentlessly pushing his luck on a path of constant self-destruction.

Today, he actually met the person he had been hiding in his heart, and learned that she was not married, just like him.

The appearance of love made Johnny ignore the contract that had not appeared for many years. The normal life kept attracting him, and how pleasant it was to fall in love with his lover.

Johnny kept changing his clothes in the room, trying to find the perfect state to greet his lover.

Finally, I changed into a leather jacket that best represented me, stood in front of the mirror, and said encouraging words to myself.

"You can't live in fear. You're the best driver, you deserve better. The second chance is right in front of you, and she is the sign..."

Johnny washed his face, wiped it haphazardly, and tried to compose himself, but then he noticed that his hands were gradually becoming different.

Like a red-hot branding iron, Johnny's hands quickly evaporated the water on them, and when he even put them into the pool, the water boiled.

Johnny pulled his hand out of the boiling water without feeling any discomfort.

Just as he was thinking, the roar of an engine came from outside the door.

The sound of the motorcycle engine attracted Johnny; this special and unique sound stirred up memories in Johnny's mind.

Going out to search, Johnny saw the motorcycle he least wanted to see at the intersection—the one he used to elope with his girlfriend when he was young.

If that contract hadn't been signed, this car should have carried him and Rosanne to start a new life together.

Since his father died in a performance accident, he has come to understand the contract he was bound to. The car took him away from his original place, and the motorcycle was also sealed away by him.

But now, it's parked right in front of him, its engine still running, as if it were waiting for him.

Just as Johnny's hand was about to touch the handlebars, he pointed to the alley entrance, where a man with a cane emerged from the darkness.

"It's you! Get away from me!"

"That's really disheartening, Johnny. That car is really cool..."

Johnny was a little angry and said, "What are you doing here!"

Mephisto looked at the car and then at Johnny, as if he were looking at his favorite work, recounting Johnny's experiences.

“Johnny, I’ve always been here, in Phoenix, Denver, Houston… I’ve been at every one of your shows.”

Upon hearing these locations, Johnny understood something. These were all places where he had faced life-threatening situations, but each time he had managed to survive.

"It's you who kept me alive!"

Johnny and Mephisto circled each other on the motorcycle, communicating across it. Mephisto seemed to enjoy this playful interaction, constantly moving closer to Johnny while maintaining a safe distance.

“Johnny, it’s all up to you. You’re the best driver, and I’m your biggest fan. Those posters, the games, the enthusiastic cheers from the crowd—it makes me so proud. It’s like watching an investment appreciate in value until you finally cash out…”

Mephisto walked up to Johnny and whispered something chilling in his ear, making Johnny tremble.

However, Johnny calmed down. Ignoring Mephisto's words, he got on his motorcycle and prepared to leave. Johnny twisted the throttle with his right hand, but the motorcycle didn't respond at all.

Mephisto stood to Johnny's right, his cane resting on the motorcycle, tapping it lightly as he said, "That day is today, Johnny. You must find Blackheart and destroy him!"

"Go find it yourself!"

Johnny's defiance caused Mephisto's cane to be moved from the motorcycle to Johnny's back, and then to his neck.

Mephisto, holding Johnny's neck with his cane, said in the calmest tone, "That's not how things go. You signed a contract, remember? If you fulfill the contract, I'll return your soul to you..."

Having thoroughly studied the classics, Johnny knew that making a deal with the devil would end badly, and that as long as you didn't agree, you wouldn't fall into his trap.

Johnny refused the deal, saying, "Really? I won't do it!"

Mephisto released his cane from Johnny's neck, then slammed it into the ground, saying, "You have no choice!"

After he finished speaking, Johnny's motorcycle started up on its own, the tires screeching violently against the ground, scraping away a layer of asphalt gravel.

Once the motorcycle was fully accelerated, it sped off with Johnny on board, leaving Mephisto alone to wait for Johnny to complete his mission.

High up in the building, Geralt sensed the fluctuations of the activated Hellfire and looked in the direction where Johnny was.

"coming!"

Geralt's reaction instantly perked Hill up as well. Standing on the rooftop in the breeze made her feel a little drowsy.

Hill picked up the binoculars and prepared to look in the direction Geralt was looking.

However, as soon as he raised the binoculars, Geralt snatched them away, saying, "What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?"

Hill was a little confused, but then she realized that there must be something wrong with her actions; her picking up the binoculars clearly triggered some danger.

"Ghost Rider is the Judge. As soon as you see him, he will immediately sense you and then he will come to find you and judge you by burning your soul."

The Judge? This title intrigued Hill; of all the known supernatural phenomena, no person or thing had ever received such an assessment from Geralt.

However, Geralt's next words shattered Hill's illusions, and she even took a few steps away from the telescope.

"Ghost Rider will burn the soul of his victim with hellfire, and the victim will endlessly experience the pain caused by the crimes he committed against other victims in the past. In Ghost Rider's eyes, any person or creature is a sinner, even the evil fantasies in his mind are sins, and he will burn everything. The guy inside that body is a madman."

A madman inside the body? Hill grasped the key point; perhaps the source of this power was a unique entity?

Hill asked bluntly, "Can you tell me the source of this power? Is there any way to prevent it?"

"Prevention? Are you kidding me? Anyone with a soul will be judged by the Ghost Rider, and those without souls will be burned to ashes by the Ghost Rider's hellfire. Unless the enemy has neither a soul nor the authority to be immune to hellfire."

Ghost Rider exists in completely different forms during the day and at night. During the day, he's just an ordinary person who bleeds and gets injured. But at night, he becomes a terrifying knight, impervious to blades, fire, and water. Even if you kill him during the day, burn his body, and grind his bones to ashes, he will rise again at night and come to you to discuss the price of his sins.

The Ghost Rider's power originates from an elemental demon lord—Zatanors. This being originally established a tribe on Earth, conquering and enslaving other tribes through war by bestowing power upon them, and then offering their souls to Zatanors for him to devour.

This behavior caught the attention of Mephisto, the lord of hell, because Mephisto, too, was a demon who gained power by stealing souls. This method of robbing people of their wealth made Mephisto see Zathanos as a threat.

By chance, Mephisto discovered an opportunity to defeat Zarathus. He instigated a rebellion by the tribal heirs, and Mephisto used the opportunity to instill suspicion and distrust among Zarathus's men.

This greatly weakened Zarathus's power, allowing Mephisto to blast his body apart, enslave his soul, and cleanse his memories in Hell.

He lost his memory, but the hatred of betrayal did not disappear. Zatanos harbored resentment towards every betrayer, and this hatred grew stronger and stronger, eventually spreading equally to every soul…

Geralt's bland words narrated a mundane story of hatred, and just as Hill was about to ask more questions, a series of explosions forced her to stop.

Looking down from the rooftop, the view stretched all the way out of the city from where Geralt had been looking. A very clear strip of flame ran down the middle of the road, windows along the roadside shattered, and even cars burst into flames and exploded.

All of this happened in an instant; the flames appeared and then moved outside the city, leaving no time to react.

Hill was somewhat incredulous. In the past, he could at least see the process of any battle clearly, but this one was moving as if he were teleporting.

Calming himself, Hill asked, "Is this Ghost Rider? How can we find him at such speed?"

Geralt thought for a moment and said, "There are two ways. Either find someone who's not afraid to die and follow his trail of flames until you find him, or use satellites to track him..."

Hill was somewhat taken aback. The first method was obviously unreliable, so how could the second one be so convenient, quick, and easy to operate?

"Didn't you say he could sense every gaze?"

"Yeah, he can sense the line of sight, but he wouldn't go out of his way to attack satellites. Satellites don't have souls, so how could he possibly trace them down the internet cable?"

Geralt's bug-exploiting maneuvers, which sounded like comments about someone being mentally challenged, made Hill worry about the Ghost Rider's intelligence level once again.

Geralt yawned, covered his mouth, and said sleepily, "Alright, it's time to rest. Early to bed and early to rise, we'll go check on that Ghost Rider again tomorrow during the day..."

Geralt slept soundly until the sun shone its warm rays, at which point he got out of bed and leisurely went about his business.

After feeding the carrot, Geralt found Hill. Seeing that she had clearly not slept all night, Geralt quietly tiptoed.

Upon seeing Geralt, Hill rubbed his temples hard, trying to ease the pain of a terrible night.

He displayed a map of the city on a tablet and handed it to Geralt; several locations were already marked on it.

Seeing Geralt's puzzled look, Hill explained, "Last night, Johnny Blaze destroyed an entire main road, blew up half a factory, and burned down several people who were doing bad things."

Inside the factory, Johnny was fighting someone, and the aftershocks alone triggered a magnitude 4 earthquake. We had to use geographical factors to cover it up. Is the Blackheart Demon really that powerful?

Geralt picked up the cup on the table, smelled the coffee inside, thought for a moment, then poured it out and replaced it with the life-giving water he always carried with him.

After drinking a full cup, Geralt seemed to wake up from a dream and became the hunter that Hill knew.

Geralt poured himself another glass and said somewhat nonchalantly, "Are you misunderstanding something again? Is Blackheart really that weak? Last night, he was just a subordinate he casually recruited."

Thinking back to their previous trip to Hell, Geralt always used tricks and rhetoric to fight against Blackheart, and Hill had indeed never seen Blackheart at his true level, which led her to misunderstand the power of demons.

Hill carelessly crossed out the report, abandoning what he had written the night before, and snatched the Water of Life from Geralt's hand, taking a large gulp.

The intense stimulation made Hill cough involuntarily. After eating the Mossball Fruit that Geralt handed him, Hill asked, "Are there so many demons on Earth? How did he find his subordinates?"

"Demons don't care about these issues. As long as they are powerful, they can easily find weaklings to attach themselves to them with a wave of their hand. Remember the news from before? The motorcycle gang massacre at the bar. As long as you have a soul, you can recruit enough cannon fodder."

As for the number of demons, that's a question for Mephisto, the true king who controls Hell. All the passages to Hell are under his control; only the smallest, most worthless passages are contested by others.

As Geralt explained, he checked the situation of the shunting yard on his tablet. The old shunting station looked as if it had been bombed; more than half of the buildings were destroyed, and ashes and flames from the fire covered almost the entire area.

Now, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents have taken over the area and sealed off the dispatch station.

Geralt put down the tablet and asked, "Where is Johnny now?"

In the cemetery, Carter Slade was watching the people in the distance. These people had followed Johnny around the cemetery since he appeared in the early morning. But they were just observing and didn't make any other moves.

Standing in front of his own tombstone, Carter Slay waited for Johnny to wake up. Johnny was carrying a glass of water and was drinking it as he walked over.

Carter Slay's few simple words were enough to make Johnny's heart waver. Curiosity and doubt, along with his concerns about his identity, made Johnny choose to listen to Carter Slay's side of the story for the time being.

In the cemetery chapel, Carter Slay stitched up Johnny's wounds while explaining things about Ghost Rider to him.

"Ghost Rider is a bounty hunter for demons, responsible for sending them back to hell. The last Ghost Rider appeared 150 years ago in a small town called San Venganza..."