Hell's Kitchen had always been a playground for devils, but tonight, even the devils were praying.
Madame Gao had compromised.
From the start of the assault until now, the Triad had lost over a hundred men. It was a massacre. The bodies were piling up. If this continued, her entire organization would be extinct before sunrise.
What terrified Gao the most was the Ice Demon's efficiency. He hadn't even unleashed his full power. He used guns and fists, only using his ice for defense. He was toying with them.
Five minutes were up.
Vincent stood.
The air in the restaurant lobby grew heavy. Every remaining Triad soldier instinctively raised their weapon, hands trembling.
Gao's phone rang. She glanced at the screen. "Kingpin."
She answered, her hand tight on the receiver.
"Gao. Stall him. My sniper is in position," Kingpin's voice was deep, authoritative, and utterly devoid of fear.
"Mr. Fisk," Gao whispered urgently. "I do not need help. You do not understand what we are facing."
"No," Kingpin interrupted. "The Kitchen cannot fall into chaos. Order must be maintained. Do as you are told."
Click.
The line went dead. Wilson Fisk tolerated no dissent.
Vincent's lips curled into a microscopic smirk beneath his mask.
Kingpin? So the Emperor of Crime is watching.
Good.
Tonight wasn't just about revenge. It was about harvesting.
[System Notification]
[You killed a Triad Enforcer. Fear generated: 8,000 Desire Points.][You killed a Triad Captain. Fear generated: 6,000 Desire Points.][Terror induced in survivors: 600 Points/sec.]
The points were skyrocketing. He had already harvested over 1.6 million Desire Points.
The entire population of Hell's Kitchen was in a state of panic. He had broken the threshold. The fear was self-sustaining now.
"I need a symbol," Vincent realized. "A name that makes them shudder."
"I brought them," Gao's voice cut through his thoughts.
Jordan, the large Caucasian lieutenant, dragged two terrified men into the lobby. The junkies who killed his parents.
Vincent checked his watch.
"You're ten seconds late."
BANG!
Vincent drew his revolver and fired without looking.
The bullet caught Jordan between the eyes, blowing the back of his skull out. The large man collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
"You..." Gao stepped forward, her chi flaring, barely suppressing her rage. "You kill my top lieutenant over ten seconds? You are arrogant!"
"I hate tardiness," Vincent replied coldly. "Besides, you've lost hundreds tonight. What's one more?"
Gao took a deep breath. She was the only one in the room who could sense the true depth of the cold radiating from him.
"Take your men. Leave my house. Now."
Outside, police sirens wailed in the distance.
"Ah, someone called the cops," Vincent mused, his voice amplified by the ice, echoing down the street. "I wonder if that good citizen knows you sell heroin to their children? If they knew, would they seek vengeance like I have?"
The temperature dropped sharply. Breath turned to mist.
CRACK!
A high-velocity sniper round punched through the window.
It struck Vincent perfectly in the temple.
But instead of blood and bone, the bullet hit elemental ice. It shattered into lead dust, passing harmlessly through his mist-form head.
Vincent didn't even flinch. His head reformed instantly.
Gao's eyes widened in horror. He survived a sniper round to the head?
"Tell Fisk," Vincent whispered, his eyes locking onto Gao, "that he owes me for that bullet."
He heard the phone call? Gao felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature.
Vincent stomped his foot.
Ice-Ice Fruit: Deep Freeze.
The floor turned white. A wave of freezing mist exploded outward, rolling across the room like a tsunami.
Gao, spry for her age, leaped through a second-story window, abandoning her men.
The others weren't so lucky.
"Demon!!"
"It's the Ice Demon!!"
"RUN!!"
The mist moved faster than they could run. It possessed a malevolent intelligence, grasping at ankles, climbing up legs.
In sixty seconds, the entire ground floor of the China Garden Restaurant was a mausoleum.
Hundreds of Triad soldiers were frozen in mid-scream, statues of terror.
The mist didn't stop. It rolled out into the street, freezing getaway cars, trapping lookouts. Three city blocks were transformed into a winter hellscape.
Over a thousand statues.
Vincent walked up to the two frozen junkies. He stared into their petrified eyes.
"Finding you two took a lot of effort," he whispered. "But it was worth it."
His heart, now fully elementalized, felt no pity. The Ice-Ice Fruit suppressed his humanity, leaving only cold logic.
He walked out to his battered van. The engine turned over—machines didn't feel fear.
As he drove away slowly, the only sound was the cracking of ice settling in the night.
Rooftop.
Madame Gao watched from a safe distance, shivering uncontrollably.
She had survived. But looking at her frozen empire, she knew the message was clear.
He let me live.
Not out of mercy. But because he wasn't done with her.
"Ice Demon..." she hissed, her fear turning into a cold, hard resolve. "You have made an enemy of the entire Underworld Alliance. We will hunt you. We will find everyone you love."
"And SHIELD will come for you. No government allows a power like yours to exist unchecked."
3:00 AM.
Vincent parked the van in an abandoned factory in Queens, stashed the money, and switched back to his Lincoln.
He drove back to Park Avenue, slipped into his penthouse, and collapsed onto his bed.
New York City was waking up to chaos. The news cycle was exploding.
Vincent slept like a baby.