John Wick? The legendary Baba Yaga of John Wick?
Hearing the name, William was momentarily stunned. It had been over two years since he last had any contact with John.
He recalled that seven years ago, John had still been a hitman for the Continental Hotel. After one last job—killing for William—he had retired to live a quiet life with a woman who was practically a saint.
Now a phone call came from him, and William immediately felt a bad premonition.
The moment he answered, he heard John Wick's low, restrained voice say, "I'm sorry, Mr. Devonshire, for disturbing you so late."
"It's fine, John. Tell me, what's going on? If I can help, I won't say no."
"Thank you, I... I…"
On the other end of the line, John tightly covered his mouth with his fist to stop himself from breaking down in tears.
After a long moment, he finally calmed down and said, "I'm sorry, sir. I called because I wanted to ask if you could attend my wife Helen's funeral. Helen... she... she's gone…"
"My condolences, John. I'll be there, on time. And thank you for inviting me."
Ending the call, William sat at the dinner table, silently lost in thought.
To be invited to someone's wife's funeral... in John Wick's eyes, William was at least considered family or a dear friend.
That made William's initial thought of using John suddenly feel wrong. He hesitated.
Then, catching sight of Lena's concerned expression, he quickly made up his mind.
Smiling at his mother, William placed a treasure gourd on the table. "Sorry, Mom. Something urgent came up."
"There are three drops of flower dew in this gourd. You and Abigail, and Selene, take them now. Nissa, Jessie, and Laura can wait until next month."
"You didn't use them?" Lena asked, pleasantly surprised, and then simply waved her hand, letting William go handle his affairs.
As the women's attention turned toward the gourd, William wiped his mouth, stood up, and disappeared with a teleportation spell, reappearing beside Mephisto.
"How about I take you to meet someone?"
Seeing William's real body appear out of nowhere, Mephisto's heart sank. When he heard those words, he raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Someone worth halting negotiations for? Right now?"
William grinned. "A soul that's cold and merciless in action, but filled with love deep down. Interested?"
"Of course, of course," Mephisto replied excitedly, like a hyena catching the scent of blood. His jagged fangs slightly emerged in anticipation.
But then he caught himself, chuckled darkly, and said, "You want to make a wager?"
"Exactly." William didn't bother hiding it. "You say making a direct soul deal would damage your standing in Hell. But if you lose a bet, the other demon lords will just laugh at you. They won't see it as weakness or move against you, right?"
"True, heh heh…" Mephisto cackled and pulled out a magical contract. "You name the terms."
"Hmph." William's eyes flashed with holy light runes, instantly revealing every hidden rune and clause embedded in the seemingly blank parchment.
Seeing the hidden patterns—even the ones woven invisibly into the paper's fibers—William sneered, narrowed his eyes, and burned the entire contract to ash with a burst of holy light.
"Sorry. I'll sign contracts with anyone—but not with demons."
With a spatial freeze spell, he immobilized Mephisto's projection and warned coldly, "Try a stunt like that again, and I'll devote myself entirely to hunting down every one of your projections and worshippers across the globe.
One by one. Every time you gain fewer souls and less faith, your precious Satan throne slips further and further out of reach."
Mephisto's expression immediately darkened. If William really went through with that, with his power and domain control advantage, he could mercilessly slaughter Mephisto's followers.
"One day, I'll return all this humiliation tenfold."
William chuckled lightly. "Be my guest. But with dimensional space limiting you, even if you're stronger than me, on Earth—you'll behave."
Glancing at the sky, William said, "Tomorrow, 2 PM. Long Island Cemetery, New York. Come if you want. And tell Set: I'm coming for him. I'll rip his head off myself."
With that, William stepped back and vanished into the night.
Mephisto, once freed from the spatial lock, stood still gripping his skull-topped staff, silently contemplating how he'd been frozen without even realizing it.
"A mere twenty-six-year-old human... how the hell did he comprehend the secrets of the Space Stone in just two years?"
Thinking hard but getting nowhere, Mephisto cursed in frustration, "Why do humans keep producing these impossible geniuses?"
"This isn't over."
When Mephisto disappeared, William—hiding in the mirror dimension—instantly exited hyperspace, silently tracking the projection's movements.
The reason he kept patting Mephisto's shoulder wasn't just to humiliate him—it was to see if he could sneak a spatial marker onto Mephisto.
After doing it enough times, Mephisto stopped paying attention, and William successfully placed his tag without resistance.
Still, William paused to reconsider. A demon lord who had lived for who knew how long couldn't be underestimated. What if Mephisto wanted him to think he succeeded—just to lure him into a trap?
Better to be cautious.
He left a magical clone to tail Mephisto's projection and teleported himself to the New York Sanctum to see the Ancient One.
As soon as he stepped through the portal, he found Wong holding a magical staff, surrounded by a few other mages on high alert.
When they saw it was William, Wong visibly relaxed and signaled the others to stand down. But even so, all of them stared at William with a strange mix of fear and reverence.
William quickly realized why and frowned. "So you've already heard what happened in Hell?"
"Yes, Mr. Devonshire," Wong replied quickly. "Most of the dark forces we defend against are connected to Hell, so Kamar-Taj has always monitored everything that happens there.
And what you did… it was too massive, too shocking. We didn't even need to seek out the intel—word spread like wildfire across the dimensions. Every creature's talking about it."
William was genuinely surprised. "So Kamar-Taj isn't just passively defending Earth—you guys have channels in other dimensions? Even allies?"
"Uh…"
Faced with that question, Wong immediately clammed up and smiled awkwardly. "The Sorcerer Supreme is waiting for you, Lord Devonshire. If you'd like to know more, please ask the Ancient One directly."
William gave Wong a mocking look, then turned to find the Ancient One—only to suddenly notice the staff in Wong's hand.
"The Staff of Watoomb?"
With a flick of his fingers, the staff flew from Wong's hand into William's.
______
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