Hawk raised an eyebrow.
After proving himself by revealing his true red demon form, Mephisto reverted to the look of a middle-aged punk and looked at Hawk.
"It's not my fault that Earth turned black."
"Yahweh did it."
"Don't forget, I only took over Earth after defeating Yahweh."
Mephisto shrugged, back in his middle-aged punk form, and looked at Hawk: "Besides, he was black too."
While speaking, Mephisto's right arm transformed into a Demon's Claw. Accompanied by rising Hellfire, the flames gradually condensed into the image of an old black man in the air.
Hawk looked at the projection of Yahweh by Mephisto, his lip twitching imperceptibly.
"Is this Yahweh?"
"Absolutely."
Mephisto opened his mouth, and the flame-formed Yahweh image was instantly swallowed into his mouth, as if he had consumed Yahweh whole.
Hawk recalled the image of Yahweh and couldn't help but shake his head.
"If the people on Earth knew, the dreams of hundreds of millions of believers would likely shatter."
"Including you?"
Mephisto smilingly looked at Hawk: "Are you among them?"
Hawk chuckled. He looked at Mephisto: "If I were, I wouldn't be here, discussing with you how to slaughter his dimension, would I?"
Mephisto looked suddenly enlightened and pursed his lips.
"Makes sense."
"But I'm curious, if he was black, why didn't his mythology spread in Africa?"
"It's simple."
Mephisto answered Hawk's question with a smile: "The reason it didn't spread in Africa is because of the birth of a new Celestial God. Think about the conditions for a new Celestial God to be born."
Hawk looked at the smirk reappearing on Mephisto's face and felt a pang in his heart: "The new Celestial God needs the population of a Planet of Life to reach a critical point. The more life, the more the new Celestial God will..."
At this point,
he seemed enlightened, looked at Mephisto: "So, Africa is his pasture."
It's well known.
On Earth, each region has its own prevailing belief system.
The Jade Emperor of the Eastern Country.
Buddha of the Indians.
Odin of Northern Europe.
Zeus of Greece.
And the so-called God.
But only Africa doesn't.
There can only be one possibility.
The place is not without belief, but cannot have belief.
After all…
Cultivating faith takes time, but if it's merely pasture, it's unnecessary.
Hawk looked somewhat enlightened, then suddenly thought of something and looked at Mephisto.
"But after you got hold of Earth, you didn't seem to do anything to Africa either."
"Because I don't need to."
Mephisto spread his hands.
"I won."
"Yahweh needs life, and I need souls, so from a certain perspective, what Yahweh and I need is the same."
"But the big boss behind me is 'Death'. What I need is just souls. All I have to do is take Heaven's plate, keeping life controlled enough not to trigger the Celestial God's critical life point, keeping life controllable."
"Then... what if it becomes uncontrollable?"
"I will intervene."
"Plague of Athens."
"Antonine Plague."
"...indeed."
Mephisto enthusiastically shared with Hawk his deeds of ensuring that life on Earth stays below the Celestial God trigger point, then looked at Hawk: "Who do you think tempted the first Portuguese to Africa to trade goods?"
Hawk was a bit stunned, his eyes lit up, he looked at Mephisto, who seemed to smile while not smiling.
"You started the African trade?"
"Now, who do you think is a friend and who is a foe?"
"You are a friend, undoubtedly."
Hawk beamed, raising his champagne glass to clink with Mephisto's: "Cheers to you, my dear friend."
At those words,
Hawk drank his champagne in one go.
Mephisto also emptied his champagne, then smilingly looked at Hawk, who was grinning as if on the same page with him and the black one.
"So, have we reached an agreement?"
"No rush."
Hawk said with a smile: "Earth's souls are still yours in the future, but the souls I kill, are mine, not just those I know."
Mephisto grabbed the champagne bottle, shrugged.
"As long as you don't think about exploiting loopholes and reaping all the life from Earth for me."
"I won't."
"Then I have no problem, I can agree with you."
"Wow!"
Hawk looked at the readily agreeing Mephisto, astonished, and looked at Mephisto: "My dear friend, Yahweh must have hit your weak spot. If I didn't come over this time, would you be begging me to cooperate in a few days?"
Frankly, this isn't like Mephisto at all.
Old Mephisto considered souls more important than anything—think about what happened last time when grabbing Alexander Pierce's soul.
Back then, Mephisto was like an angry bull.
But now,
facing Hawk's hefty demands, Mephisto almost agreed without thinking.
Either Mephisto already has a plan on breaching the agreement.
Or Mephisto already saw the impending, tremendous move from Yahweh, sharpening his knives at him.
Hawk leaned toward the latter.
The verification method is quite simple.
"Swear it in the name of Death."
"What?"