Marvel: Empire of Power-Chapter 91: The Necromancer’s Due, a Skull’s Whispered Secrets

The Chantry of the Black Order was a place of profound, suffocating dread, nestled in a lightless gorge deep within the Bavarian Alps, accessible only by a treacherous, ice-slick goat path. Even from miles away, Dr. Alistair Finch, despite the protective enchantments Elias Thorne had woven into his travel gear via System-guided alchemy, could feel the oppressive weight of its necrotic energies. It was a wound in the world, a place where the veil between realities was thin and sanity was a fragile commodity. His two Giant bodyguards, Olaf Svensson and "Moose" Garneau, their simple minds largely immune to the subtler psychic pressures, nonetheless felt a primal unease, their massive frames tense, their great fists clenching and unclenching.

Elias Thorne monitored their progress from Montreal with a focused intensity that bordered on a trance. His psionic link with Finch was stretched taut across the Atlantic, a lifeline of will and System energy. He could feel the chilling emanations from the Chantry, a cold, hungry emptiness that sought to leach warmth and reason. His [Psionic Shielding (Tier Alpha)] held firm, but it was a constant, draining effort. The [0.1 Prime Essence Shard Reserve] remaining after Logan's latest European "harvests" was a buffer he hoped he wouldn't need to tap for Finch's ritual itself.

Anya Petrova's intelligence had pinpointed the Chantry as a likely repository for some of Johann Schmidt's personal effects and a focal point for the Red Skull's most fanatical, mystically-inclined followers. These weren't typical Hydra soldiers; they were acolytes, scholars of the dark arts, individuals who believed Schmidt had truly transcended, becoming a god-like entity, and who sought to follow in his path or facilitate his return.

Finch's mission was not to engage them in combat – even his Skeletal Warriors would be outmatched by true occultists on their home ground. His objective was to reach the Chantry's central reliquary, where Schmidt's personal artifacts (recovered from Adlerhorst before its collapse) were said to be enshrined, use them as a powerful psychic fulcrum, and attempt the [Psionic Echo Retrieval] – to summon a Mnemonic Ghost of the Red Skull.

The infiltration was surprisingly easy, a testament to the Chantry's isolation and the arrogance of its inhabitants who relied on its dread reputation for security. Olaf and Moose, their Giant strength making short work of ancient, iron-bound doors and crumbling stone passages, cleared a path for Finch. The Thorne's Guard regulars accompanying them, equipped with O'Malley-designed sound dampeners and thermal cloaks, handled the few human sentries with silent, brutal efficiency.

The central reliquary was a vast, circular chamber, its walls lined with disturbing, pre-human carvings that seemed to writhe in the flickering torchlight. In the center, on a pedestal of black, unearthly stone, lay several objects: a scorched SS officer's cap bearing the distinctive Totenkopf, a pair of strangely resonating crystal lenses, and a single, obsidian-handled dagger that pulsed with a faint, malevolent energy. These were undeniably Schmidt's.

"The psychic residue here is... immense, Mr. Thorne," Finch's mental voice reached Elias, strained but resolute. "Centuries of dark rituals, amplified by Schmidt's own monstrous will and his interaction with the Tesseract. This will be... challenging."

As Finch began his ritual, drawing complex glyphs on the floor with powdered bone and consecrated salt, chanting in forgotten, guttural tongues that made even Elias's System-enhanced mind recoil, the atmosphere in the reliquary grew thick, colder. The Thorne's Guard regulars formed a protective circle, their weapons ready, while Olaf and Moose stood like granite statues, their simple minds a bulwark against the encroaching psychic horrors.

Finch raised Schmidt's obsidian dagger, its dark energy resonating with his own Witch powers. He focused all his will, amplified by Elias's long-range psionic support and the raw necrotic power of the Chantry itself, and called out into the void, "Johann Schmidt! Red Skull! By the power of your ambition, by the echoes of your shattered godhood, I summon you! Speak!"

The chamber plunged into an icy, unnatural silence. The torches guttered, threatening to extinguish. Then, from the black stone pedestal, a shimmering, crimson-tinged ectoplasmic form began to coalesce. It was translucent, flickering, but undeniably the Red Skull – his hideous, lipless grin, his burning, fanatical eyes, his impeccably tailored SS uniform, all rendered in ghostly, malevolent light.

[MNEMONIC GHOST (JOHANN SCHMIDT – FRAGMENTED PRIME CONDUIT ECHO) SUMMONED. Stability: Low (45%). Duration: Limited (Estimated 10-15 Minutes before psychic cohesion fails). WARNING: ECHO EXHIBITS RESIDUAL MALICE AND POTENTIAL FOR MINOR PSIONIC/ENERGETIC DISRUPTION. EXTREME CAUTION ADVISED.] freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

"Who... dares... disturb my contemplation?" the Mnemonic Ghost of Schmidt rasped, its voice a chilling echo of arrogance and fury. Its spectral eyes fixed on Finch, then seemed to pierce through him, towards Elias thousands of miles away. "Ah... the new player. The one who wields a power he does not comprehend. The one who broke my toys at Adlerhorst."

Elias, through Finch, maintained a calm, focused psionic front. "Schmidt. Your reign is over. Your Reich is ashes. But your secrets remain. The Tesseract. The 'Nexus of Worlds.' What were your ultimate goals?"

The ghostly Schmidt threw back its head and laughed, a sound like grating tombstones. "Goals? Foolish whelp! My goals were transcendence! The Tesseract was not merely a weapon; it was a key! A gateway to power beyond your pitiful mortal understanding, beyond even the limited grasp of your 'System'!"

This was a direct hit. The Mnemonic Ghost, somehow, perceived the System's influence on Elias.

"The Nexus of Worlds," Elias pressed. "What is it?"

"A place where realities bleed together," Schmidt's echo hissed, its form flickering more violently. "A cosmic intersection. With the Tesseract, I sought to open a permanent gateway, to draw upon the infinite energies of other dimensions, to make Hydra not just the master of this insignificant world, but of all realities! I was... so close... before your brutish pets and that star-spangled simpleton interfered!"

The Mnemonic Ghost lunged, its spectral form passing harmlessly through Finch, but a wave of chilling, debilitating psychic energy washed over the chamber. The Thorne's Guard regulars cried out, clutching their heads. Olaf and Moose roared in pain, their simple minds vulnerable to the direct psionic assault. Finch stumbled, his own necrotic shields cracking.

Elias, reacting instantly, poured his own psionic defenses through the link, reinforcing Finch, shielding the minds of his men. [PSIONIC SHIELDING (TIER ALPHA) – COUNTERING SCHMIDT ECHO ATTACK. HOST ENERGY DRAINING RAPIDLY.]

"Your ambition outstripped your control, Schmidt," Elias projected, his mental voice a lash. "You were consumed. But where did the Tesseract go? And are you truly gone, or merely... elsewhere?"

Schmidt's ghost seethed. "The Cube... it was unstable... the collapse... it was torn from my grasp... flung across the pathways... I feel its call, even in this half-life... It seeks a new anchor... somewhere cold... somewhere powerful... as for me... I am... everywhere and nowhere... a consciousness scattered... but I will reform... I will return... Hydra endures..." Its form began to dissipate rapidly, its energy spent.

"Strucker... he is but a pale imitation... a fool playing with my tools... Look for the sign of the Serpent... in the land of eternal ice... where the old gods sleep... Zola's calculations... they were almost... correct..."

With a final, chilling burst of malevolent laughter, the Mnemonic Ghost of Johann Schmidt dissolved into nothingness.

The chamber was silent again, save for the ragged breathing of Finch and his men.

[PSIONIC ECHO RETRIEVAL (SCHMIDT): COMPLETE. KEY INTEL ACQUIRED: TESSERACT LOST/LOCATION UNKNOWN (HINTS AT COLD/POWERFUL ENERGY SIGNATURE). RED SKULL – CONSCIOUSNESS FRAGMENTED/DISPERSED (POTENTIAL FOR RECONSTITUTION – EXTREME LONG-TERM THREAT). HYDRA – "SIGN OF THE SERPENT" FACTION/OPERATIONS IN ARCTIC/ANTARCTIC REGIONS (POSSIBLY LINKED TO "NEXUS OF WORLDS"). ZOLA'S RESEARCH KEY TO LOCATING NEXUS/TESSERACT .]

[FINCH, ALISTAIR (WITCH LV.2) – SIGNIFICANT PSIONIC STRAIN. NECROTIC ENERGY RESERVES DEPLETED. RECOMMENDED EXTENDED RECUPERATION. ABILITY "MNEMONIC GHOST SUMMONING" – DATA ACQUIRED/REFINED. POTENTIAL TO SUMMON LESSER (NON-PRIME CONDUIT) ECHOES WITH REDUCED RISK/COST.]

Finch, though pale and trembling, had done it. They had a new, terrifying piece of the puzzle. The Tesseract was lost, but findable. Schmidt was a dispersed consciousness, a far more insidious threat than a mere physical entity. And Hydra was active in the polar regions, searching for something related to Zola's work and this "Nexus of Worlds." The reference to the "land of eternal ice where the old gods sleep" resonated ominously with some of Namor's more cryptic pronouncements about ancient, slumbering powers in Antarctica.

Elias recalled Finch and his team immediately. They had poked the hornet's nest, stared into the abyss of Hydra's ultimate ambition, and barely escaped with their sanity. The knowledge gained was invaluable, but it painted a picture of a conflict far vaster, far more esoteric, than he had ever dared to imagine. The Red Skull's whispered secrets had just redefined the entire shadow war.