Marvel: The Awakened One

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Gabriel’s killing intent was a physical weight in the air.

Hundreds of six-winged angels chanted holy hymns, their voices weaving together to create a boiling ocean of pure, blinding light. The holy swords in their hands blazed with concentrated radiance, all aimed at the lone figure hovering in the sky.

Hawk remained motionless. The holy light washing over him didn’t dim the Black Phoenix Surplice; instead, the obsidian armor seemed to absorb the light, radiating a darker, even more menacing luster.

”Judgment?” Hawk looked down at the eight-winged Archangel Gabriel and his hundreds of six-winged lackeys. His voice wasn’t loud, but it cut through the chanting with crystal clarity. ”By you?”

Gabriel didn’t waste time on a retort. He let out a deafening roar.

”KILL HIM!”

”FOR THE HOLY LIGHT!”

The hundreds of six-winged angels roared in unison. Beating their massive wings, they formed a flawless battle formation and charged at Hawk.

At the same time, Gabriel raised his Sword of Protection high. It seemed to resonate with the holy light saturating the dimension. A massive, spectral image of the sword, spanning the entire sky, materialized above them. Infused with the absolute will to judge all heretics, the colossal blade slashed down toward Hawk’s head.

The six-winged angels had already surrounded Hawk, sealing off every angle of escape. They crossed their holy swords, the holy light flowing between them to form an inescapable, airtight net of divine energy above, below, and all around him.

The net sealed his exits.

The colossal spectral sword descended.

Hawk looked up.

He threw a punch.

No.

He pointed a finger.

”Lightning Plasma!”

VMMMM—

A brilliant, blinding golden light erupted from the tip of his right index finger.

It wasn’t a single strike. It was tens of thousands of punches, unleashed in a fraction of a billionth of a second.

In that instant, the golden light overtook and completely eclipsed the holy radiance.

The first thing to meet the barrage was the massive, spectral Sword of Protection crashing down upon him.

Summoned by Gabriel’s ’Authority of Protection’ and fueled by the dimension itself, the giant sword hit an invisible, solid wall of golden fists less than thirty feet from Hawk.

The next second.

WHUUUM—

A terrifying shockwave, a sound beyond the limits of human hearing, exploded outward from the collision of the holy sword and the Lightning Plasma.

Pfft!

Thump!

BOOM—!

The impenetrable net of holy light shattered instantly. The massive shockwave ripped through the formation, violently blasting the hundreds of six-winged angels backward.

As angels plummeted from the sky one after another, a sharp crack echoed across the battlefield. The massive spectral sword, unable to withstand the relentless barrage of fists, began to fracture. A dense spiderweb of cracks spiderwebbed across the colossal blade.

And then!

It shattered. With a resounding boom, it broke down into fundamental, uncoalesced light, dissipating into a shower of harmless, glowing dust.

The backlash of the shattered spell hit Gabriel instantly. The eight-winged archangel was thrown off balance, stumbling backward and dropping his real Sword of Protection.

One move.

Just one move!

Beneath the visor, Hawk’s eyes—pupils shining like dark gemstones—locked onto Gabriel. His voice was freezing cold.

That bastard Yahweh had promised to wait for him here in Heaven.

Now he was here.

And the result?

Motherfucker.

Yahweh was nowhere to be found.

Did he sense the shift in the wind and hide?

Or did he think Earth was already in the bag, leave Gabriel to handle the cleanup, and go off to do something else?

Hawk’s mind raced through the possibilities.

Whatever the reason.

He was pissed.

”I’ll ask you one more time.”

”Where is that bastard Yahweh?”

”Heretic!”

Gabriel glared at Hawk with pure, unadulterated fury. ”You insult my Lord! Your sins are unforgivable!”

Hawk let out a short, harsh laugh.

”Fine!”

”Unforgivable. Let’s see you try and prove it.”

”Galaxian—”

Hawk blurred backward. As he did, he tapped his right index finger to his forehead. The power of the Reality Stone projected his Cosmo outward.

In the moment he retreated, the Gemini Gold Cloth seemed to step out from within him. It faced the recovering army of six-winged angels charging forward and spread its arms wide.

”—Explosion!!”

A low, resonant murmur seemed to escape the lips of Hawk, who still had his finger pressed to his forehead, his eyes closed.

The sound was like the birth of the universe, echoing with the finality of its end!

The hundreds of angels below, Gabriel included, bore witness to the most beautiful and terrifying sight of their eternal lives.

They witnessed the birth and death of a cosmos.

Centered on the outstretched hands of the Gemini Gold Cloth, a miniature but incredibly vast spectral universe abruptly expanded, engulfing more than half of the Heaven Dimension.

And then—

It collapsed inward and detonated. The birth and death of countless stars were compressed into a single, devastating strike. A torrent of pure, cosmic annihilation swept outward.

”NO—”

The six-winged angel leading the charge felt the overwhelming, apocalyptic energy bearing down on him. His eyes went wide in terror, and he only had time to let out a single, desperate cry.

And then he was gone.

Physically, literally gone.

His sword of light, his proud six wings, even his immortal body—which should have been indestructible as long as he remained in Heaven—were erased. It was like watching a pencil drawing being wiped away by an eraser. He vanished without a trace.

And he was just the first.

The tide of destruction rolled over the hundreds of six-winged angels like a cosmic steamroller. Every angel caught in the blast met the exact same fate.

No resistance, because resistance was impossible.

No explosions, just total, silent annihilation.

In the blink of an eye, as the cosmic anomaly faded, so too did the hundreds of six-winged angels.

Their existence had been completely scrubbed from the Heaven Dimension.

It was a massacre.

An absolute, undeniable slaughter. One man, annihilating an entire angelic legion with overwhelming, crushing force.

In Heaven, wingless beings were basically civilians.

Two-winged angels were essentially low-level superhumans.

Four-winged angels were Bronze tier.

Six-winged angels were Silver tier.

And Hawk... was Gold.

It’s a universal truth:

Even if hundreds of Silver Saints ganged up on a single Gold Saint, assuming no one was cheating, the Gold Saint would crush them effortlessly.

And…

Hawk was definitely cheating.

After the Gemini Cloth unleashed the attack, Hawk lowered his finger and opened his eyes. The Golden Armor faded back into his Cosmo, and he looked down at Gabriel with eyes as cold as the void.

Gabriel’s eyes were bloodshot, his heart bleeding.

He was the Guardian Archangel of Heaven.

And what had he protected? What had he guarded?

Heaven was shattered. Hundreds of six-winged angels, the very backbone of their forces, were dead.

Gabriel trembled violently, consumed by an inferno of rage.

Just then.

Hawk’s voice drifted down again.

Cold. Devoid of emotion.

”I’ll ask you again. Where is that piece of trash Yahweh?”

”DEMON!”

Gabriel roared. He tightened his grip on his sword, his eyes burning with holy fire. With a furious scream, he ignited his holy light and slammed his sword into the ground before him. ”Holy Domain!”

With those words, a spectral kingdom forged from the purest holy light projected outward, attempting to overlay itself onto the ruined Heaven Dimension.

Within the Holy Domain, any energy not belonging to Heaven would be violently suppressed.

Gabriel was trying to drag Hawk into his absolute home turf.

Hawk looked up at the descending kingdom of light and sneered. In a flash, he enveloped himself in a storm of golden fists. ”Against my fists, your domain is nothing. Even your God is pathetic!”

”Lightning Plasma!”

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!!!

The storm of fists surged upward like a reversed waterfall, continuously slamming into the descending Holy Domain with a deafening roar that shook the entire dimension.

The billions of omnipresent fists, carrying the force to shatter stars, instantly carved massive black fissures across the kingdom of solid light.

Pop!

With a crisp sound, the Holy Domain—a spell of immense power but a fatally long casting time—shattered before it could even fully manifest, blown to pieces by Hawk’s relentless assault.

The backlash was like a tidal wave crashing into a mountain.

Gabriel took the hit like a physical blow. He coughed up a spray of golden blood, his holy light dimming instantly. Like a falling meteor, he was blasted backward, crashing into the only remaining intact structure: the sacred palace.

KRA-KOOM!

The palace collapsed upon impact, becoming a tomb that buried Gabriel beneath tons of holy rubble.

A moment later, Gabriel, battered and pale, crawled out from the ruins, clutching his broken Sword of Protection.

Hovering in the air, Hawk lowered his fists. He watched Gabriel struggle to his feet, his expression perfectly calm.

Theoretically, the power of an eight-winged Archangel like Gabriel was roughly equivalent to a Gold Saint.

But…

That was just theory.

The Mind Stone continuously nurtured Hawk’s soul, ensuring that the moment he achieved the Seventh Sense, he sprinted toward its absolute peak with unmatched speed.

The Reality Stone physically manifested the power of his Phoenix Gold Universe, allowing him to wield his true, terrifying might with one hundred percent efficiency.

And most importantly.

His time, his power, belonged solely to him. Not to mention, he held the divine authority of the Phoenix.

And Gabriel?

His power belonged to Yahweh.

So—

While they might seem comparable on paper, in reality, there was no comparison at all.

Gabriel stood amidst the ruins, his holy light flickering. Even the four pairs of once-immaculate white wings on his back were now gray with dust. His Sword of Protection was snapped in half.

But the Guardian Archangel of Heaven took a deep breath, beat his wings, and launched himself into the air once more, charging at Hawk with a broken sword.

And then—

THUD!

Dust billowed into the air.

Gabriel hit the ground hard. He struggled to push himself up.

The next second.

BAM!

A leather shoe slammed down on his head, driving his face deep into the rubble.

Hawk stood over him, his foot pressing down on Gabriel’s skull. He leaned in, his voice a low, chilling whisper.

”Now. Are you going to tell me.”

”Where is Yahweh?”

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