MWM Chapter 485

The cunning Mephisto, of course, wouldn’t let Johnny, such a valuable enforcer, go so easily. The condition he promised was one that Johnny simply couldn’t fulfill.

It wasn’t because Mephisto thought Johnny, a Ghost Rider powerful enough to threaten him, would lose to Leo.

Rather, it was because Mephisto had already crafted his own plan.

If Johnny were about to defeat Leo, Mephisto would intervene at the last moment, snatching the kill for himself, absorbing the vast energy in Leo’s body, and dragging his soul back to Hell.

In that case, it wouldn’t count as Johnny killing Leo, and thus, Mephisto wouldn’t have to honor the contract.

If Johnny truly couldn’t defeat Leo, then his immortality would allow him to wear Leo down significantly, leaving him vulnerable to Mephisto’s sneak attack.

It was the same as when Mephisto had tricked Johnny into signing the contract, offering to cure Johnny’s father of his terminal illness in exchange for his soul, turning him into the Ghost Rider.

While Mephisto did cure Johnny’s father, he orchestrated an accident the very next day, causing Johnny’s father to die during a stunt performance.

Humans were always so greedy and foolish. No matter how many times they were deceived, they could never resist temptation, allowing Mephisto to toy with them in the palm of his hand.

And if Johnny actually managed to kill Leo, so what? The contract would be fulfilled, but it didn’t matter. Without the Spirit of Vengeance, Johnny would just be an ordinary human again. At that point, Mephisto could simply implant the Spirit back into him, and Johnny would have no means to resist.

“Guilty, as expected!”

Johnny turned to look at Leo, immediately sensing that the Spirit of Vengeance inside him was seething with fury, as if it had reached its boiling point.

This meant that the man in front of him had indeed killed many people and bore deep sin.

“I think you should reconsider,” Leo said, watching as the Ghost Rider began swinging his chain. “You, of all people, should know what happens when you trust a demon.”

Johnny took slow steps toward Leo, his voice tinged with helplessness: “I know, but sometimes I can’t control it. The moment I saw you, even though I didn’t want to fight, it’s forcing me to. But I’ve never felt it so angry before.”

Most of the time, Johnny could control the Spirit of Vengeance within him.

However, if the target’s sins were too great or if they had killed too many people, the Spirit of Vengeance would compel Johnny to strike, even if he didn’t want to.

That was the purpose of the Spirit of Vengeance’s existence.

Mephisto often exploited this, forcing Johnny to kill for him.

Johnny still harbored the hope that one day he could truly fulfill the contract, have Mephisto remove the Spirit of Vengeance, and return to a normal life.

The power of the Spirit came with a heavy price. Johnny had to constantly suppress its rage with his own willpower. Otherwise, the Spirit of Vengeance would go on a rampage, killing anyone guilty of sin.

But not everyone’s sins were deserving of death—some had already been judged by the law and had repented.

And as humans, who among them had never committed a sin? No one was a saint. By the Spirit’s standards, there wouldn’t be many people left alive on Earth.

Furthermore, the Spirit of Vengeance carried a curse, affecting all of Johnny’s friends and relatives, ensuring they would meet unfortunate ends.

In the end, he was destined to live a life of eternal loneliness.

“Alright then, it seems we’ll have to fight!”

Hearing this, Leo gave up on trying to resolve things with words. He prepared himself for battle. After all, he was far more skilled with his fists than with his mouth.

It couldn’t be helped. After all the small worlds he had experienced, along with his time spent wandering the universe, the number of lives he had taken was countless.

By the Spirit of Vengeance’s standards, he was practically drowning in sin.

**”Galactic Star Burst!”**

Raising his hand, countless golden fists shot toward the Ghost Rider, as if countless stars were exploding.

**”Boom, boom, boom!”**

The punches were so fast that the Ghost Rider had no time to react before Leo sent him crashing into the island below.

Leo hadn’t held back. If any member of the current Avengers, including Thor, had taken that full-powered *Galactic Star Burst*, they likely wouldn’t have survived.

But with the Ghost Rider, it was a different story.

Sure enough, moments later, hellfire erupted from the crater where the Ghost Rider had been struck, and he emerged unscathed.

“Your attack is powerful, but it can’t kill me. I’m immortal!”

The Ghost Rider’s essence was the Spirit of Vengeance created by God, combined with the power of the elemental demon Zarathos and the Hell Lord Mephisto.

To completely kill the Ghost Rider, one would need power on par with these three sources—at least the level of a multiversal entity.

Leo had just begun creating his own pocket dimension. While his abilities and strength were impressive, he was still far from reaching the level of multiversal power.

If Wanda were to unleash her full chaos magic, it might be possible, as her power was of a multiversal scale.

However, Leo wasn’t particularly surprised by the Ghost Rider’s immortality. He had already anticipated most of the Ghost Rider’s abilities.

What he was doing now was merely testing, confirming that the abilities matched his previous knowledge, so he could find the Rider’s weakness and take him down.

“My turn!”

The Ghost Rider swung his hellfire-infused chain toward Leo, who was in the air.

Seeing the chain coming toward him, Leo flapped his wings and swiftly dodged.

But the chain, as if it had a mind of its own, curved in mid-air and continued pursuing Leo.

Clearly, the hellfire-forged chain didn’t follow the normal laws of physics.

“So, this is the Ghost Rider’s chain mastery, huh?”

After dodging several times and realizing it was futile, Leo didn’t panic. He flew higher into the sky, trying to put enough distance between them so that the chain wouldn’t be able to reach him.

But that didn’t work either—the chain continued to extend indefinitely.

**”Phantom Shift!”**

Leo instantly teleported away.

Yet, the chain broke through space itself, following his teleportation and chasing after him again.

“It’s useless. Even if you flee to another dimension, the chain will find you. There’s no escaping it,” Mephisto said with a smug smile, watching the fight unfold from the sidelines.

Even Mephisto, the Ghost Rider’s creator, had to be cautious of his power.

Without removing the Spirit of Vengeance, even Mephisto, in his true form, couldn’t kill the Ghost Rider, as this was the strongest Ghost Rider, made from the soul of the elemental demon Zarathos.

And Zarathos, in life, had been even stronger than Mephisto.

(End of chapter)

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