Marvel: Awakening the Universe.

Chapter 157 Let the Bullets Fly for a While (Second Update!)

On a hazy, moonlit land.

Accompanied by eerie, cacophonous laughter, followed by the roar of a motorcycle cutting through the sky and then crashing heavily to the ground.

boom!
The motorcycle, as if emerging from hell, burst into flames, its exhaust pipe constantly spewing sparks outwards.

Finally finding a motorcycle, Ghost Rider, who felt like he had been toyed with by Hawke, managed to return to Texas just before midnight.

At that moment, Ghost Rider, gripping the motorcycle handlebars, sitting on the motorcycle, and sporting a burning skull on his head, looked up at Hawke above the canyon.

Within his hollow eye sockets, hellfire burned fiercely, swirled, and even pulsed, as if forming two vortexes leading to hell.

"Jie Jie Jie!"

The Ghost Rider drove to the edge of the canyon, letting out a chilling laugh. After getting out of the car, without saying a word, he grabbed the iron chains wrapped around his body and swung them violently at Hawk above.

The chains, like living venomous snakes, suddenly flew up, carrying hellfire that scorched the soul, howling and whipping up a fire tornado, precisely strangling Hawke.

Hawke watched silently as the soul chains hurtled toward him.

His figure vanished the moment the chains struck, and the fire tornado violently destroyed the rocks beneath him.

next second.

The moment Ghost Rider, gripping the other end of the Soul Chain, caved in with his chest, he transformed into a fireball and crashed into the canyon wall with a deafening roar.

"Sonic punch!"

"boom!"

Hawke silently appeared where Ghost Rider had just stood. Then, looking at Ghost Rider, whom he had knocked into the rock wall and who seemed to be completely embedded in it, he clenched his right fist and swung it at Ghost Rider once again.

"Super! Sonic Fist—"

"Boom, boom, boom!"

The rock wall was shaking and collapsing, and rocks that broke off from the mountain were flying outwards like bullets.

As Hawke's punches continued to deepen the rock wall, Ghost Rider, who was directly enduring hundreds of punches from Hawke every second, continued to sink deeper into the rock wall at a visible speed.

finally.

With a mournful cry, countless rock walls in the canyon slowly tilted and collapsed amidst a deafening roar, burying the Ghost Rider completely in the ruins of the rock walls as dust billowed into the sky.

Hawke withdrew his fist but did not leave.

Is it really that easy to deal with Ghost Rider?

Stop it.

It's important to understand that Ghost Rider is different from the Four Elements of Genesis, and even different from the second-generation Hellish Witchheart.

Its core is the spirit of vengeance.

in short.

Ghost Rider is almost completely immune to physical attacks.

really!

After another deafening roar from the ruins of the rock wall, the Ghost Rider, his body ablaze with hellfire, leaped out of the ruins.

The rock fragments beneath his feet were scorched red-hot by the hellfire and even showed signs of melting.

Standing atop the rubble of the rocky cliff, Ghost Rider, with his hollow, fiery eye sockets and clutching his Soul Chains, looked at Hawke, his voice hollow.

"You are guilty!"

"none of your business!"

Hawke spoke almost the instant Ghost Rider spoke, and at the same time, his right fist swung out again.

boom!
The Ghost Rider, who was standing on the rubble of the rock wall, was sent flying backward once again, crashing into another rock wall.

But this time he wasn't defeated.

Rocks were scattered everywhere.

The moment Ghost Rider landed on the sand like a painting from the rock wall, the Soul Chains on his hands flew out once more, instantly wrapping around Hawke's anklets in the blink of an eye... just kidding!
The moment Hawke was bound by the soul chains, the afterimage he left behind vanished.

The raging hellfire in Ghost Rider's empty eye sockets paused for a fleeting moment.

Hawke's voice rang out from above his head.
"Hey!"

"..."

"boom!"

Almost the instant Ghost Rider subconsciously looked up, Hawke delivered a powerful punch directly to Ghost Rider's fiery skull.

As the ground shook, Ghost Rider's height shrank at a visible rate.

wrong.

It wasn't shrinking; Ghost Rider's entire lower body was instantly swallowed by Hawke's palm strike and disappeared into the sand.

Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Ghost Rider's height shrank continuously. After Hawke's three blows, only Ghost Rider's flaming head remained on the ground, while his body below the head had completely sunk into the earth.

"hiss!"

Hawke withdrew his right hand, flicking away the soul-scorching hellfire that had stained it. He looked at Ghost Rider, whose head remained intact after three blows from Hawke that could have crushed a small mountain, and said with some amazement, "Your head is really hard."

The words have not yet fallen.

The soul chains, which had been hanging on the ground and seemed to have had no time to react, automatically sprang up like venomous snakes, flicking their tongues, and with a whoosh, attacked Hawk, who was standing on the skull.

Hawke neither dodged nor avoided, but directly extended his left hand and successfully grasped the vital point of the Soul Chain.

With only his head protruding from the ground, Ghost Rider sensed Hawk grabbing his Soul Chains and let out a sinister, raucous laugh.

next second.

The hellfire of the Soul Chains surged violently, and then Hawke felt his feet sink into the ground. Looking down, he saw that the skull that had been beneath his feet had vanished.

but……

The Ghost Rider's body was still beneath their feet.

Hawke snapped out of his daze and looked again at the soul chains he had been holding.

The instant he looked over, a pair of hollow skulls burning with hellfire replaced the soul chains on his hands.

His empty eye sockets met his gaze. "Hehehe."

"You are guilty, accept your trial."

The skull held in Hawke's hand had its mouth slightly open, chuckling eerily, and the hellfire in its empty eye sockets instantly formed a vortex.

On the other side of the vortex, there seemed to be endless darkness.

Hawke felt his soul being pulled, as if an external force was attacking from the hellfire vortex in Ghost Rider's eye sockets, trying to drag his soul into the passage.

If the underworld belonging to his microcosm had not been born, he would have had no chance of resisting such a pulling force.

After all, he is currently on Earth and has not signed a contract with any dimension, so theoretically speaking, he is an Earthling and his soul should belong to Mephisto's Hell.

But things changed after he created his own underworld.

Again.

I already have my own underworld, yet my soul still belongs to your hell. Then what's the point of building my underworld?

and so……

Hawk could feel the vortexes in Ghost Rider's empty eye sockets trying to pull at his soul.

But his soul remained unmoved.

Time passed little by little.

Ghost Rider continued to chuckle maniacally.

Hawke calmly met the swirling vortex in Ghost Rider's empty eye sockets.

ten seconds.

Thirty seconds.

One minute.

three minutes.

Ghost Rider stopped his grotesque laughter. Not only did he stop laughing, but even the vortex leading to hell disappeared, and the hellfire in his eye sockets froze. He seemed to have fallen into silence at this moment.

but……

The smile doesn’t disappear, it just shifts.

Hawke looked at Ghost Rider, who had walked right into his trap and stopped his cacophony of laughter, and smiled slightly: "Laugh all you want, keep laughing!"

As he spoke, he suddenly tightened his grip on Ghost Rider's head.

Click!

A crisp cracking sound rang out clearly in the canyon, which had been noisy just moments before but had now fallen silent.

If Ghost Rider doesn't separate his head from his body, Hawke really can't do anything to him.

But things are completely different after Ghost Rider chooses to detach his own head.

"what!"

As the sound of shattering rang out, a scream from the depths of one's soul rang out, followed by what seemed like a scene from a horror movie.

The fiery skull in Hawke's left palm transformed into a head with Nicolas Cage's old face the instant the scream rang out, but then instantly reverted to Ghost Rider's iconic skull.

Hawke instantly understood.

He originally thought that Johnny Blaze's relationship with Ghost Rider was more similar to that of Bruce Banner and Hulk.

Johnny Blaze can transform into Ghost Rider, but Ghost Rider isn't just Johnny Blaze; he can also have other hosts.

But that doesn't seem to be the case right now.

Johnny Blaze's soul seems to have perfectly merged with Ghost Rider's vengeful spirit.

There is only one way to achieve this.

That must be Johnny Blaze's willing choice to merge with the Spirit of Vengeance.

This explains another issue.

Why did Sharon mention in the phone call that Johnny Blaze, even during the daytime when he wasn't transformed into Ghost Rider, was still heading towards New York City?

Simply put—

Ghost Rider wasn't the only one who took Mephisto's orders and tried to take his soul to hell.

Johnny Blaze is also among them.

Johnny Blaze also wants to send his soul to hell.

No wonder Ghost Rider can sever a head so easily.

So you two are now of one mind, right?

"Tsk!"

After Hawke figured this out, he couldn't help but click his tongue as he watched the head, which was screaming in agony under the continuous pressure in his left palm, switching back and forth between Johnny Blaze and Ghost Rider.

next second.

boom!
The moment Hawke's gaze turned cold, his left hand, which was gripping the head, snapped shut.

The screams abruptly stopped.

Hawke released his left hand, and tiny fragments of the skull slipped through the gaps between his fingers.

A hellish vortex opened in Hawke's perception.

Johnny Blaze's soul, perfectly fused with the Spirit of Vengeance, was instantly absorbed into the Hell Vortex.

Hawke perceived everything with a blank expression.

He already knows how to get to hell.

but……

Let the bullets fly for a while!

……

(End of this chapter)