One Problem After Another

"Reality Stone? Restore my intelligence?"

Wang Bert’s words made Mephisto stare greedily at Malekith. Malekith immediately grew wary.

After a moment, Mephisto came to his senses and sneered. "Blood God, do you think I’d fall for that?

You over there, I don’t know who you are, but since you have the Reality Stone, hurry up and take me back to Earth with you. I’ll help you kill that bastard Blood God. Oh, and restore my intelligence while you’re at it."

Malekith glanced at Mephisto and shook his head. "No. The Reality Stone requires a sacrifice to use, and I have nothing left to sacrifice."

"You do. Of course you do. Sacrifice Mephisto. He’s a Hell Lord."

Wang Bert’s voice rang out again. "Malekith, there isn’t much time left before the Celestial Convergence."

This time, it was Mephisto’s turn to be wary. He asked Malekith, "You’re not stupid enough to fall for that, are you?"

"Of course not. Do you have anything that can be sacrificed?"

"To enter Earth, we have to break through the defenses Ancient One set up. Other than me… cough, cough, cough."

Mephisto suddenly realized what he was saying halfway through and immediately shut up. He wanted nothing more than to slap himself. How could he reveal something like that?

"Damn intelligence."

Mephisto looked up and sighed. The Blood God was truly vicious.

"Then there’s no other way. I have to return to Earth. I have no way back."

A fierce glint flashed in Malekith’s eyes. He did not have much time left to live. This time, he had to succeed.

Mephisto hurriedly waved his hands. "Don’t fall for it. Let’s kill Blackheart together. He’s my son, so he counts as half a lord. That should be enough to get you back to Earth."

"There’s no time. For the great cause of the Dark Elves, please die."

Malekith roared and instantly appeared before Mephisto. His fist, glowing red, smashed toward Mephisto like a meteor.

"Who do you think you are?"

Mephisto flew into a rage and transformed back into his devil form to meet the attack. Boom! Amid the violent shockwave, both men were blasted backward and crashed through the walls behind them.

Malekith rose from the ground and found himself surrounded by an army of demons. He said coldly, "Looks like you never had good intentions either."

"Of course I want the Reality Stone. I was planning to use you at first, but I never expected your intelligence to be even lower than mine."

Mephisto flew over from the opposite side, his face twisted viciously. Malekith sneered. "Lower than yours? So you know you’re an idiot."

"Die!"

Humiliated and enraged, Mephisto led the demons in attacking Malekith.

Malekith showed no fear and began a fierce battle with the demons. With his current strength and the help of the Aether, even Mephisto was someone he could fight.

"They really started fighting."

Wang Bert smiled faintly. Neither Malekith nor Mephisto was particularly stupid. The reason they had begun fighting was simple—Malekith was out of time. He had to return to Earth as quickly as possible.

And to return to Earth, Malekith had to kill Mephisto and sacrifice him. Ordinary sacrifices could not penetrate the Sorcerer Supreme’s defenses.

If entering Earth had truly been that easy, how could those Hell Lords have been blocked outside for centuries?

Of course, Wang Bert’s plan was not flawless. For example, Mephisto could have called on other Hell Lords for help. The problem was that Mephisto, with his current intelligence, could not think of it, while Malekith knew nothing about Hell and could not think of it either.

So, they went to war.

Besides, Wang Bert had prepared a backup plan. If anything really went wrong, he could instantly bring Malekith back to Earth. There would be no chance of being outsmarted by his own cleverness.

Leaving that aside for now, in the Mirror Dimension, Ebony Maw gritted his teeth upon hearing Wang Bert’s words. "Blood God, so what if Malekith is gone? I can still kill you!"

"A dying man sure has a lot to say."

Wang Bert smiled disdainfully and charged at Ebony Maw like lightning. Ebony Maw pushed both hands forward, and the air slammed into Wang Bert like a wall.

Wang Bert immediately used Teleportation, but space suddenly became chaotic, forcing him to reappear where he stood.

"When the mind is powerful enough, it can interfere even with space. Blood God, your Teleportation no longer works."

Ebony Maw laughed loudly and controlled the air around Wang Bert, turning it into a sphere that crushed down on him.

Blue and red Light Flame blazed around Wang Bert’s body as he forcibly held back the pressing air. Then, with some difficulty, he raised the Vibranium Spear and shouted. The spear shot fiercely toward Ebony Maw like an arrow released from a bowstring.

"You can’t kill me!"

Ebony Maw roared. A translucent giant phantom appeared around his body out of thin air. When the Vibranium Spear struck the phantom, it was like sinking into a swamp, slowing more and more.

In the end, the Vibranium Spear exhausted its force and fell to the ground with a clang.

This burst of power made blood flow from Ebony Maw’s nose, eyes, ears, and mouth, but he did not care. He laughed wildly. "Blood God, the Ancient God will not let you kill me. To fulfill the agreement, to kill you, it will spare no effort in projecting power into me.

My previous agreement was not me trying to exploit a loophole. It was to ensure that I could kill you."

Amid Ebony Maw’s laughter, the phantom around him gradually solidified into an incomparably majestic crimson Ancient God. The moment it appeared, even the void seemed to congeal.

"Blood God, who gave you the courage to look down on an Ancient God?"

The crimson Ancient God roared, raising its enormous arms high before smashing them down like falling meteors at Wang Bert, who was trapped by the air.

Wielding such terrifying power was more than Ebony Maw’s body could bear. He kept coughing up blood, but his face was full of exhilaration, because that damned Blood God was finally about to die.

At that moment, the Vibranium Spear that had fallen to the ground suddenly burst up from beneath Ebony Maw’s feet and violently pierced through his body from below.

Ebony Maw spat out a mouthful of blood, disbelief written all over his face. How could this be? At that moment, the Light Flame on the Vibranium Spear formed Wang Bert’s face. He sneered. "Feeling proud, aren’t you? Too bad you got carried away and forgot to defend yourself. Hmph, so what if it’s an Ancient God? If I want to kill you, can it stop me?"

The rapidly fading Ancient God phantom roared at Wang Bert, "Blood God, I will not let you go."

Wang Bert’s body emerged from the Vibranium Spear. He sneered. "Sure, sweetheart. Talk again when you can enter Earth."

At the same time, the Wang Bert trapped by the air slowly faded away. In truth, he had merely been a mass of power. Wang Bert’s real body had been inside the Vibranium Spear.

Not long after, Ebony Maw’s body was burned to ashes. His soul glared hatefully at Wang Bert and prepared to flee, but Wang Bert took out a scroll and beckoned toward the void. Ebony Maw’s soul flew uncontrollably toward the scroll.

Ebony Maw cried out in terror, "What is this?"

"Did you think you could use the same trick on me twice?"

Wang Bert sneered. "This is a Soul Scroll personally drawn by the Sorcerer Supreme. It can seal all souls. I may not be able to kill you, but I can seal you forever."

"No, you can’t do this."

Ebony Maw shouted in alarm, "Ancient God, I sacrifice all of myself to you. Take me away."

A ripple appeared in the void as the Ancient God’s power tried to descend. Wang Bert summoned the Tesseract to suppress space and shouted, "Sorry, this road is closed."

The next moment, Ebony Maw’s soul was sealed inside the magic scroll. The Ancient God roared, "That soul belongs to me! Blood God, you will pay for what you’ve done."

"You’ve said that many times already. The problem is, you’ve never made it happen."

Wang Bert sneered. "Does your face hurt?"

"Blood God!"

The Ancient God roared, but there was nothing it could do to Wang Bert. It could only disperse into the air. Wang Bert snorted and put away the magic scroll before turning his attention back to Hell.

In Mephisto’s Hell, Mephisto—covered in wounds, with one of the horns on his head broken in half—laughed wildly. "I won. In the end, I still won. The Reality Stone is mine."

Across from Mephisto, Malekith lay on the ground covered in wounds. His life force was almost exhausted, and he could not even lift a finger.

Around them, demon corpses were piled like mountains. To kill Malekith, Mephisto had paid a huge price.

"I curse you. I curse you with my soul to die a miserable death."

Malekith shouted through gritted teeth in a weak voice. Mephisto smiled disdainfully. "You think you still have a soul? When you sacrifice yourself with the Reality Stone, you sacrifice not only your life, but your soul as well. Hmph, die."

As he spoke, Mephisto swung a claw viciously at Malekith. Malekith was about to utter one final curse when a flash of light appeared, and he vanished from before Mephisto.

Mephisto froze. Then Wang Bert’s voice rang out. "Mephisto, thanks."

"Blood God!"

Mephisto let out a heart-wrenching roar and nearly died of rage on the spot. He had actually become the Blood God’s tool demon.

Just then, laughter suddenly came from outside. "Mephisto, your time to die has come! Hahaha!"

"Blackheart! That damned bastard is here again!"

Mephisto sucked in a breath. That little bastard Blood God was too ruthless, wasn’t he? Not only had he used him, he even intended to take the opportunity to eliminate him!

Was that guy the real demon?

Mephisto turned and ran. There was no helping it. In his current state, he was no match for Blackheart.

"Mephisto, so you have this day too."

Blackheart laughed wildly and pursued him relentlessly. As long as he killed Mephisto, he would become a true Hell Lord.

Leaving Hell aside for now, Malekith was brought back to the Mirror Dimension by the Space Stone. The moment he saw Wang Bert, he was about to speak when Wang Bert controlled the blue and red Light Flame and blasted it fiercely into him.

When the Light Flame faded, Malekith had already been reduced to ashes. Only the floating Aether remained.

Malekith, dead!

"I’m not the kind of villain who talks too much."

Wang Bert snorted and summoned the Space Stone to seal the remaining half of the Aether. The Aether seemed to have accepted its fate and did not move at all inside the Space Stone.

Wang Bert did not return to the real world immediately. He said over the channel, "I won."

Everyone froze for a moment before erupting into cheers. The Blood God truly had never disappointed them.

"Bert, get out here and help clear the field."

Tony laughed. "Not one of these damned invaders can be spared."

Everyone nodded. "That’s right, not one can be spared."

Wang Bert said, "If you want to wipe them all out, I can’t appear. The moment I show up, they’ll run."

"That’s true."

Tony nodded, his expression somewhat cruel. "Then don’t appear. Leave them some hope so they’ll fight to the death without retreating, until their last soldier falls."

"That’s exactly how it should be."

Ivan said, "Bert, you don’t need to come. Leave this to us."

"That’s right, leave it to us. We can handle it."

The others echoed him. The situation was not merely good—it was excellent.

"Alright, I’ll leave this to you. I’m going to Kamar-Taj. The Hell Lords deployed far more troops than expected this time, so there may be complications."

Wang Bert nodded. After thinking for a moment, he sent Loki a telepathic message. "The overall situation is settled. Are you rejoining us, or continuing as an undercover agent?"

Loki was silent for a moment before asking, "Ebony Maw and Malekith are both dead?"

"Malekith was completely destroyed, body and soul. Ebony Maw’s soul has been sealed by me."

"You really are ruthless."

Loki asked again, "Will you really turn me back into a man?"

"I’m not the God of Lies. I will fulfill what I promised you."

Wang Bert smiled. "Though it’s a bit of a shame. I originally planned to wait until you had completely become a woman before turning you back into a man."

Loki was speechless. Wasn’t this guy really a demon?

Loki glanced at Thor, who was roaring nonstop nearby, and said, "I’ll continue being an undercover agent. Rejoining now would be too boring. But I have one condition."

Wang Bert asked, "What condition?"

"I want Malekith’s half of the Reality Stone."

Loki said, "Also, I’ll escape with the Dark Elves to gain Thanos’s trust."

"We want to wipe out the Dark Elves completely."

Wang Bert frowned slightly. Loki sneered. "What difference does it make whether you kill more or fewer? The Dark Elves are finished. From now on, they can only be my puppets."

"Fine, I’ll give you the Aether."

After hesitating for a moment, Wang Bert said, "Loki, I’m curious. Why did you choose to stand with me this time?"

"Don’t flatter yourself. Who said I’m standing with you? I’m helping you because of Odin."

Loki snorted. "Since he truly sees me as his son, then I’ll see him as my father too."

At first, Loki had not intended to side with Wang Bert. She had even truly planned to blow up Odin and Thor. It was only after Odin spoke those heartfelt words that she changed her mind.

Loki did have Odin in her heart as a father. In "Thor 1," everything she did was to gain Odin’s approval. For that, she had even been willing to kill her own biological father.

Later, Loki grew increasingly dark, and Odin’s hardline attitude had a direct connection to it. Simply put, the harsher Odin was toward him, the harsher he was toward Odin.

In this world, Odin’s temperament had gradually softened because of Little Hela. As a result, he was no longer hard on Loki. Instead, he tried to persuade her kindly and patiently. Seeing that Odin cared for her, Loki chose to turn back.

In a sense, Loki was merely a rebellious "child."