Mephisto’s Interest

"I’m not interested in demons. If anything, I’m quite interested in how to kill them."

Oaks raised a brow at Mephisto’s words. After giving it some thought, he added:

"Besides, I’m not interested in old men either.

"If you came here to get your receding hairline treated, you’d better go back."

"…"

"HAHAHA…"

Johnny clutched his stomach and laughed with difficulty. Since getting to know Mephisto, this seemed to be the first time he had seen that bastard Hell Lord wear such an awkward expression.

"Ahem… Johnny, mocking an old man like me isn’t something a polite knight should do."

"Polite? Let me kill you, and I guarantee I’ll become polite!"

"Johnny?"

Oaks nudged the gritting Johnny. The latter snorted. Though his power came from this Hell Lord, he had already been tricked badly enough.

So what if he couldn’t beat him? Couldn’t he at least talk some trash?

"What?"

"That Witch looks like she’s about to wake up… Take her farther away first. I’ll bring you both back later."

Oaks sensed that Agatha’s aura had stabilized. It seemed that the soul adaptation process had ended.

Moreover, the Agatha now felt somewhat different from before.

"You’re facing Mephisto alone?!"

Johnny’s mouth fell open in shock.

"That’s a Hell Lord! You still don’t understand how powerful he is, do you? He…"

"He’s only a soul imprint right now. If his true body dared to come, there’d be plenty waiting for him on Earth."

Oaks touched the back of his hand, where the Magic Mark left behind by the Sorcerer Supreme Ancient One remained.

Seeing Oaks’ gesture, Mephisto’s smile faded, and he narrowed his eyes.

Odin could sense Ancient One’s Magic Mark. Naturally, Mephisto could as well.

"All right. But leave these restraints on for now. The Witch’s power is one thing, but she has too many tricks. She’s impossible to guard against."

Seeing the change in Mephisto’s expression, Johnny hesitated before nodding.

"Be careful."

He glared at Mephisto, transformed into his knight form, then stepped forward, picked Agatha up, and headed toward the motorcycle outside the ruins.

Only after Johnny and Agatha disappeared beyond the ruins did Oaks turn back to Mephisto.

"All right, you can stop beating around the bush now… What do you want?"

"Do you know, Druid…"

Mephisto moved his fingers, and in the next moment, a glass of red wine appeared in his right hand.

He held the glass beneath his nose and carefully inhaled its aroma, then took a light sip and smiled in satisfaction.

"Ever since you started making a name for yourself, my income has dropped considerably… It’s worrying me so much I’m losing my hair!"

"Income? You mean souls?"

Oaks frowned. He knew roughly that Hell Lords drew power from the souls of mortals who fell into Hell, as well as negative emotions such as fear, anger, sorrow, and pain.

He had no particular opinion on that. As long as the Hell Lords did not actively harvest souls, then if human souls naturally belonged to Hell after death, they had the right to deal with them.

That was how the world had operated for countless millennia. In a sense, it could be considered part of the natural order.

But he had affected Mephisto’s income, meaning he had affected the number of souls Mephisto could obtain?

"You think too highly of me!"

Oaks flatly rejected that idea without hesitation.

"How many people who would otherwise die could I possibly save by myself? Tens? Hundreds? Thousands?

"Compared to your massive profits, that’s barely a drop in the bucket. You came to trouble me over that?"

He snorted and shook his head.

"If you’re going to make an excuse, at least make a better one. Why haven’t I heard about you blocking the entrance to some hospital?"

If Mephisto cared about that, wouldn’t he have to kill all the doctors in the world first?

Well, that was assuming he actually dared to do such a thing.

"No, no, no… Perhaps you haven’t realized how many people who were destined to die have continued living because of what you’ve done…"

Mephisto swirled his wineglass, its crimson contents glaring like blood.

"During the Battle of New York a few years ago alone, tens of thousands of people were spared immediate death and later deaths from failed treatment because of your healing magic…

"And the exquisite negative emotions they produced under those circumstances were actually purified!"

A red gleam flashed through Mephisto’s eyes. He tapped the ground with the cane in his left hand, seeming somewhat agitated.

"Recovery Serum, large-scale environmental pollution control—those weren’t enough. And now you’ve tried to, no, you’ve already interfered with the food industry!"

Mephisto repeatedly shook his head and sighed, looking utterly heartbroken.

"Do you know how high-quality the souls are of those who die in the agony of terminal illnesses, environmental diseases, and hunger? How wonderful their negative emotions are?

"But now, both the quantity and quality of souls and negative emotions have been drastically reduced because of you!"

Faced with Mephisto’s "well-reasoned" accusation, Oaks rubbed his nose, somewhat speechless.

Indeed, the old bastard had a point.

However, he probably still did not know that because Oaks had intervened in S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Mind Stone, the Helicarrier crash incident and the Sokovia catastrophe, both of which would have caused massive casualties…

Had never happened!

The Insight Carrier had never even taken off, Ultron had never been born, and the tragedies caused by those two events had never occurred. Countless souls that should have been sent to Hell were still alive and well in the world!

Even because he had intervened in the Inhumans incident, the Inhumans led by Jiaying were now his allies…

Many people who would have died because of that incident would now survive as well.

Not to mention the incomparable negative emotions that the people involved and all of human society would have produced amid those tragedies!

By that calculation, because of Oaks’ influence, Mephisto had probably lost several years’ worth of normal income from just those few incidents…

Put that way, the old bastard coming to find him now actually… made quite a bit of sense.

And if he counted what came afterward, Mephisto’s losses would be enormous…

As Oaks’ expression gradually turned strange, Mephisto continued to ramble on.

"Also, you’ve mastered the ability to resurrect people, haven’t you? Do you know that resurrection is practically stealing food right out of my mouth?!"

By this point, the Hell Lord had become utterly furious. He flung the wineglass in his hand behind him, his face filled with anger.

"Although you haven’t used that ability much on Earth, anyone worthy of your personal intervention would definitely possess a high-quality soul, even in the eyes of us Hell Lords…

"And what was that thing you displayed just now? A Pocket Space? What are you trying to do?"

Mephisto fiercely waved his arm.

"With your habits, are you planning to build shelters or something? How many people would that divert away?

"Isn’t all that together enough reason for me to take an interest in you—

"Do you fucking think there are many people on the entire Earth who can do what you do?!"

Oaks did not know how many people had managed to make a Hell Lord curse, but…

Unexpectedly, it felt rather satisfying.

"So you deliberately used your search for the Darkhold to provoke Johnny and Agatha into fighting, just to lure me here?"

Oaks chuckled coldly.

"Do you think I’m an idiot? That I’d believe your bullshit?"

"This time was just an accident!"

At that, Mephisto became even angrier. He waved his exquisite cane, his face filled with… envy, jealousy, and resentment?!

"How was I supposed to know that old bastard Odin was hiding on Earth!

"And… and he opened such a huge nightclub! A chain nightclub, even!"

"…"

Oaks opened his mouth. He could not possibly be seeing things.

In other words, Mephisto had just been envious, jealous, and resentful of Odin?!

"King of Nightclubs! What a lofty throne that is…"

"Hold on! Just hold on…"

Oaks waved both hands repeatedly, cutting off Mephisto’s envy.

"A throne? Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about nightclubs?!"

"A misunderstanding? No, no, no…"

Mephisto rolled his eyes, wearing the expression of an old hand looking down on an inexperienced youth.

"Do you have any idea how exhausting it is for high-level leaders like us to maintain our image in front of our subordinates?

"Especially when the wonderful mortal world has… has the Sorcerer Supreme guarding it…"

He bared his teeth, glanced at the back of Oaks’ hand, and coughed lightly.

"Ahem. In any case, it’s basically impossible for our true bodies to personally come to the mortal world and experience life!

"But that old bastard Odin actually cheated!

"Why would the Sorcerer Supreme allow such a great god to open a bar on Earth and pick up girls?!"

Oaks once again subconsciously rubbed his nose. This matter seemed to have something to do with him as well…

So Mephisto coming to find him actually… really did make quite a bit of sense.

And if Odin had not discovered his aura, who knew what would have happened by the time Mephisto came looking for him on his own?

By then, it presumably would not have been merely a soul imprint that Oaks could forcibly strip away, would it?

"So what are you going to do? If you’re unhappy about Odin, go find him yourself. Or go ask the Sorcerer Supreme for a pass."

Oaks crossed his arms and calmly watched the embarrassed-looking Mephisto.

"And my plans to heal nature and promote balance between humanity and nature will not change.

"We had no real grudge to begin with, but if you try to stop me, I’ll do everything in my power to deal with you."

Oaks was no longer alone.

From mortal agents to god-level powerhouses, he had connections with all of them.

"… In fact, I hate violence. There’s no technical skill involved in it at all."

Mephisto clearly understood that. He had not originally planned to come looking for Oaks at this point.

But since his soul imprint had been torn off by the other party, and he had also lost the Darkhold, if he did not do something this time, the other Hell Lords would laugh at him when he returned…

"Hmm… You have a Pocket Space, one that you can control completely, right?"

"Mm. That’s the third time you’ve said it."

"Then… do you want your Pocket Space to evolve into a true dimension?"

"…"