Chapter 4844: Little Devil in Charge (Forty-Two)

Arrogance didn't retreat; he walked straight toward that bloodstain. Natasha followed. Arrogance merely glanced at the bloodstain and said: "Some corrosive liquid mixed with fragments of tongue and internal organs. Just as you said, someone drank something they shouldn't have."

Another strange sound echoed, and Natasha turned her head again. When she shone her flashlight over, she saw a bottle rolling on the ground. The two walked over, picked up the bottle, and Natasha said: "A powerful cleaner used to completely remove limescale, indeed highly corrosive."

Arrogance took the bottle, peered into the mouth, his expression suddenly enlightened, then said: "Not drunk, but poured down."

"If he had drunk it voluntarily, when he felt pain and wanted to vomit, he would have moved the bottle away. Only when forced to drink would he, while continuously vomiting, still press the bottle to his mouth, causing this blood and corroded debris to flow back in."

"A murder?" Natasha said.

Arrogance nodded, and then another strange sound came. This time the noise was loud, coming from inside one of the water tanks, as if something inside was moving.

"Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang!"

The instant Natasha shone her flashlight over, she saw a long-haired figure inside the water tank repeatedly slapping the tank wall, which truly startled Natasha.

Arrogance, however, walked over. He stepped on the nearby support, lifted the lid of the water tank, and his expression suddenly became enlightened. When Natasha approached and shone her flashlight inside, she saw a skeleton sitting there.

"It's a girl," Natasha said, "about eighteen years old?"

She paused, then added: "Multiple fractures all over her body, skull also fractured; before death, she seemed to have suffered violent beatings..."

Just as she said that, some movement appeared again by the wall. When Natasha shone her flashlight over, two shadows appeared. A man pressed down on a girl, beating and assaulting her, then grabbed a bottle of cleaner from the side and poured it into the girl's mouth, finally carrying her toward the water tank.

"Oh, damn," Natasha said, her face darkening.

"Indeed so," Arrogance also frowned and said, "The so-called flesh-eating bacteria outbreak is precisely the revenge of this murdered girl's vengeful spirit. And later, the large-scale supernatural phenomena are another round of revenge by those so-called people killed by the flesh-eating bacteria."

"Something seems off," Natasha said, "The ghosts we saw earlier couldn't attack indiscriminately, nor did they have any large-scale attack methods; otherwise, Hampton would have been empty long ago."

"Moreover, those killed by ghosts seem unable to become ghosts themselves; otherwise, the bride's two sisters and Augustus should have become ghosts, but apparently they didn't. Most importantly, if this ghost attacked indiscriminately, why didn't it attack us two?"

Arrogance also pondered this question. Now it seems that those who died in the resort back then were not all perpetrators; there must have been innocents among them, otherwise they wouldn't have become ghosts, causing a vicious cycle.

But the problem is, if this girl turned into an evil ghost that attacks innocents, then we've been here so long and haven't been attacked. We're no different from those innocents back then.

Moreover, this place was later turned into a mall, with so many people coming and going, yet this ghost attacks none of them, yet back then it killed so many people—this really doesn't make sense.

"Those people perhaps weren't killed by ghosts," Arrogance thought and said, "Although their deaths look like this girl's, like ghostly revenge, but it might not be imitation."

Natasha opened her mouth, then said: "Imitating the killing of one or two people is possible, but killing so many at once? Probably hard to achieve."

"If it's an ordinary person, it's indeed difficult, even poisoning is hard to do. But if it's not an ordinary person, but a superpowered one?"

"Copycat criminals mostly do it to evade investigation. If in this case, that would mean using this method to frame the crime on ghosts. But back then, who would investigate? S. H. I. E. L. D. wasn't even established yet."

Arrogance shook his head. The two left the cellar and headed toward the manor. Tonight wasn't entirely fruitless; at least they knew the flesh-eating bacteria outbreak at Violet Manor was no accident—it was deliberate.

He pushed open the manor's gate, Arrogance walked in. He subconsciously scanned his surroundings, and the moment he saw Blake, his gray eyes turned cold.

He slowly walked toward Blake. Others noticed, unconsciously leaning back, trying to stay away from Blake. Bucky stood up sharply, dodging aside.

"We don't know him," Steve also said, "He barged in himself."

Fortunately, Arrogance stood firm about two meters away. He looked at Blake and said: "Did you kill the people of Violet Resort?"

"What?" Blake blinked, "What resort?"

"A girl was assaulted, dozens died there, and afterward the whole region knew no peace." Arrogance looked into his eyes and said, "You are the beginning of all this."

Hearing this, Blake seemed to recall something. He slowly stood up, looked at Arrogance, and said: "Where did you see her?"

"In a cellar, her body still lay in the water tank."

Blake seemed to sink into memory. Stark's shout interrupted him: "What's going on? The assaulted girl—what exactly did you do?"

The Avengers' gazes also began to turn unfriendly. Arrogance spoke too vaguely, sounding as if Blake had done something heinous that provoked both heaven and man, which Arrogance had uncovered.

As Captain America already picked up his shield, Blake finally came to his senses and said: "You misunderstood. She……she is my mother."

"What?" Steve widened his eyes.

"Her name is Sarah," Blake said slowly, "I said before, I am a form born of accumulated sin. And Sarah is the one who gave me life. The sin that happened to her is the last grain of sand piled up to form my body and soul."

Stark suddenly realized: "Hampton is the Christ Crown?"

Steve felt something, turned his head toward the window. This manor was built on a hillside, and behind the house lay forest. Now it's winter, all plants withered, heavy snow fell, can't see if there are thorns, but this place indeed matches Blake's description—a region steeped in conspiracy and murder for hundreds of years, besides Hampton, where else could it be??

"I understand," Wanda suddenly spoke.

【41> Others all looked at her, including Blake. Wanda said: "Do you remember when I and Jarvis wanted a child? Back then we discovered that wanting to conceive naturally—that is, obtaining a normal human embryo—was very difficult."

Everyone looked at her, including Bruce. Wanda said: "Do you remember when I and Jarvis wanted to have a child? At that time, we discovered that wanting to become pregnant naturally—that is, obtaining a normal human embryo—was very difficult."

Everyone had an impression. A digital life and the Scarlet Witch wanting a child was no easy feat; initially researching how to ignite a spark in the soul took them a long time. But they didn't understand why Wanda suddenly brought this up.

"Sarah is indeed your mother, but the bond between you two is absolutely not just that." Wanda looked at him and said, "She was assaulted, then she became pregnant. At that moment, the soul's flame was ignited; as a human she died, that tiny soul became part of you. So you could become human, even the Supreme Master couldn't discern it. You are truly a human born of a human mother."

Blake staggered as if struck, seemingly unaware of this. Everyone fell silent. Greedy looked at Arrogance, seemingly hoping he would explain what he had seen in Violet Resort.

Arrogance said nothing. Then Blake slowly said: "Yes, those people were killed by me. Even……Sarah was also killed by me."

"She couldn't have lived anyway," Natasha said in a low voice.

Then Natasha briefly told everyone what they had seen in Violet Resort. Steve punched the wall, but fortunately he eased his force at the end, didn't smash the wall.

Hearing such tragedy, everyone fell somewhat silent. Now even grief and remorse feel too late. But they understand better why those invited experts to solve the problem either avoid it like the plague or add fuel to the fire.

For hundreds of years, similar tragedies have surely occurred in this sinful land, so that now all happening events infinitely approach retribution. Even letting these always-good superheroes also have an urge to just leave.

"Why did you kill these people in that way?" Arrogance asked.

"What?" Blake said, "What method?"

"Their internal organs were corroded."

"That wasn't me," Blake said, "When I was born I couldn't control my power, it burst out and killed everyone; it's impossible to have identical wounds. But my father was also present then."

"I understand," Natasha said, "It must be that cunning old devil Mephisto. He feared the Supreme Master would find him, so he wanted to shift the blame onto evil spirits, thus deliberately making the corpses look like that."

Now things suddenly became clear.

For years, Christ Crown—or Hampton—has accumulated countless sins, then Mephisto, Lord of Hell, set his sights on it. He awakened these sins and let them accumulate into the Black Heart Demon.

The moment the Black Heart Demon was born, it killed everyone at Violet Resort. Mephisto saw things getting big, feared the Ancient One would trouble him, so he corroded all the corpses' internal organs, making it look like Sarah had become a vengeful spirit taking revenge on everyone.

And those killed innocents, many became evil spirits. But they couldn't possibly take revenge on Mephisto or the Black Heart Demon, so they turned to others, thus plunging Hampton into a vicious cycle.

"I want to go……I want to find her," Blake said somewhat dazed, "Where is her body?"

Natasha sighed: "Come with me."

"Wait, we're going too." Steve picked up his shield, then said, "If we're going to bury her, it'll take a lot of manpower. Let's go together."

Everyone in the living room followed along, and before long they had all arrived at that mall. But just as they were walking inside, they saw a figure standing at the cellar door.

"Poor girl, I've come to fetch you. Are you willing to come with me?" A deep, compassionate female voice rang out.

Looking at that figure, Wanda's eyes went wide, and she shouted loudly, "Teacher!"

?? "Wang Guan" is a location in the original Marvel Comics setting similar to Gotham's Crime Alley, though its scope is smaller and not quite so intractable.

? Blackheart's origin is also from the original comics setting.