Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1585 The Lunar War (Ninety-Seven)

"That punch felt like hitting smoke," Blackcard Burtg thought. The body shrouded in black smoke shattered abruptly, then coalesced beside him, as if Maximus's physical universe had crumbled. Blackcard Burtg felt an unbearable stinging pain in his chest and neck, blood streaming from his burned nerve endings and skin. "Where is he?" he wondered as he threw his punch. "How can I kill him?"

"I can hear you, brother." A silver greatsword suddenly appeared, slashing a bloody gash across Black Bolt's abdomen. A chilling malice, almost tangible, seeped into his body, coursing up his spine, causing Blackcard Burt to shiver. The black mist dissipated slightly, revealing Maximus's face, now even more rigid, his charred, burned skin sprouting long, white fangs. Before Blackcard Burt could react, the silver greatsword slashed through the air once more.

"Get out of here!"

The sonic waves, powerful enough to shatter steel, pushed Black Bolt away, barely allowing him to escape the deadly attack. The attack failed to achieve its intended effect; the silver greatsword, struck by the sonic waves, remained unharmed, and Maximus, shrouded in black mist, still stood there. Through the dispersed mist, Blackcard Burt saw Maximus's plasma-burned skin, muscles, and bones visibly healing. His malevolent eyes still stared at him with hatred. Behind Maximus, the previously collapsed buildings were now blasted open, the solid steel and concrete instantly shattered by the sonic waves, then billowing high into the air, reaching the steel dome.

Blackcard Burt had just taken the opportunity to inject himself with adrenaline and a fighting agent.

These were combat supplies gifted to him by the Emperor. The so-called combat potions weren't anything special; without superhuman physique and endurance, a single dose would be enough to rupture the heart of an ordinary person. But the Emperor told him that the Inhumans, especially his body, had been enhanced by psionic energy over generations, making them far beyond ordinary humans, and that he could use the combat potions issued to genetically modified warriors.

How did you become like this?

"Because of your foolishness, my brother. You let ambitious men manipulate you, you plunged the Inhumans into war." Maximus staggered back a few steps from the sonic shock, then charged forward again, his towering figure swinging his greatsword with unstoppable force. [Your thoughts are under my control, brother. You see your weakness.] Cursed black flames ignited on the silver sword. Blackcard Burt felt the cold malice boiling over his abdominal wound, almost scalding the skin. [You were originally the one to receive this gift, but now the gods have abandoned you and chosen me. In this light, the gods have far greater insight than our parents.]

"Gods? What are you talking about?" Black Bolt thought to himself. "What is whispering in your ear, making a promise to you?"

I'm telling you the truth, brother. The truth our race once saw, and then abandoned.

A silent battle erupted amidst the shattered ruins. A reconnaissance drone aimed its high-speed camera downwards, but only in slow motion could Blackcard Burtgan and Maximus be clearly seen. Their movements far exceeded the speeds discernible to the human eye, but even those unfamiliar with close combat could see that Black Bolt Blackcard Burtgan was already at a disadvantage.

The silver greatsword pierced the ruins of the building, its black flames instantly igniting the unburnt inorganic concrete and metal, softening and red-hot until it collapsed into molten, red-hot mud in the blink of an eye. Blackcard Burt had just scrambled into a crater created by the human army when Maximus gave chase. A sonic wave erupted from the crater's bottom, and a figure with outstretched bat wings shot out and swooped down, unleashing another sonic wave that pinned Maximus to the ground.

The black mist around the latter was blown away, revealing a body enhanced by etheric energy.

Just like the previous battle, Maximus's skin, muscles, and bones were crushed by the sonic waves. Blood squeezed from his body clung to the ground like thin sheets before pulverizing into a bloody mist. Even the deck beneath him was pulverized into tiny, uniform particles by the high-frequency vibrations. Unsurprisingly, the city's energy pipeline system leaked, sparks flying through Maximus's body. In the blink of an eye, Maximus fell through the crater in the powder-covered deck.

Black Bolt retracted his black wings woven from composite materials and plunged inside. Immediately, even more powerful sound waves and massive amounts of smoke erupted from the crater in the deck, like a volcanic eruption. The entire Attilan Fortress trembled in the sound waves, as if someone had detonated a powerful bomb. All supporting structures were challenged, and many of the Inhumans' layered buildings, constructed over the past millennium, collapsed in the powerful shockwave, causing far more casualties than the artillery shells dropped by human armies.

But neither Black Bolt Blackcard Burtgan nor Maximus paid any attention to this.

They couldn't think of anything else, for their lives teetered on the brink of collapse like water droplets on a spider's web. Blood brothers projected their hatred and grief onto each other, tearing each other apart with every means at their disposal, like two wolves locked in a vicious struggle. Maximus pierced his brother's body with his greatsword. Blackcard Burt just grabbed his kinsman's head, which was beginning to sprout long, curved horns, staring into his bloodshot eyes, and roared with a ferocious expression. Maximus's eardrums shattered, but he still heard the muffled thuds of his own skull gradually deforming and breaking. His vision was gradually flooded with blood. He instinctively twisted his greatsword. Blackcard Burt just felt the wind rush into his chest; what surged from his throat was no longer sound waves, but blood and fragments of internal organs.

They kept falling, falling.

Blackcard Burt had just tasted the salt and lightning; thunder and roars chased them, steel shattering around them. They plummeted into the darkness and eternal night of Starcage's lower levels. They fell forever, as if cursed, everything around them a dream, each second stretched into eternity. "We are cursed, brother," Maximus cried, his blood-soaked eyes fixed on Blackcard Burt. He was blind, his skull crushed and deformed by his own brother, yet he lived. He screamed madly, "The Inhumans are forever cursed! We cannot escape our fate!"

Blackcard Burt did not answer.

He couldn't answer. Blood gushed from his nose and mouth as Maximus pierced his body, crushing his internal organs. A thunderous roar echoed in his ears and then flooded his brain. He couldn't think; he didn't know where he was. Only the blood that kept choking him into his ruptured lungs churned in his breath, which sounded like that of an aging blower.

Yes, we are cursed.

Blackcard Burt had just embraced Maximus when he vomited blood and began to fall forever.

We will all die.

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)