Not long after Mephisto was beaten into ashes by Zod, the Ancient One appeared in front of him.
"Master Ancient One, I need an explanation."
Zod questioned her directly. After all, she had never told him that helping her would result in Mephisto setting his sights on him because of the aura of the Hell Dimension.
That old devil would probably keep hounding him from now on for information about that Hell Dimension fragment.
Zod was not particularly afraid of Mephisto, because he could not come to Earth in person. But the schemes and tricks of an ancient devil were exactly the kind of thing Zod hated dealing with most.
"I was careless."
The Ancient One admitted her mistake and offered an apology.
"But you destroyed his projection, so he may not know what actually happened. Of course, I know that does not mean we can pretend nothing happened, so, Zod Heath, what do you want?"
The Ancient One went straight to the point.
"I do not want anything. How has Morgan been doing lately?"
Zod stared deeply at the Ancient One. Under the effects of Dragon Force, Zod Heath could see the dark energy surging through her body.
Could it be that she had been busy digesting the power of the Dark Dimension this whole time, which was why she had not had the time to care about him obtaining the Hulk's blood sample?
"Morgan's talent is exceptional. She just has a habit of attracting the covetous attention of demons and devils."
The Ancient One answered.
Morgan's talent could only be described as astonishing. She learned Kamar-Taj's magic almost as soon as it was taught. Of course, borrowing power still required a price, but the Ancient One had taught her how to secretly siphon power from her father's dimension instead, a method of dodging the price, so to speak. Morgan picked it up very quickly. As a result, not only had her soul magic become even stronger, but even Kamar-Taj's sorcery seemed to take on a completely different flavor in her hands.
But because of that, she had also attracted the attention of quite a few Hell demons and devils. Kamar-Taj had recently killed off wave after wave of demonic invaders.
Mephisto had taken advantage of that very opportunity to slip in, only to be erased by Zod before he could do anything.
"Mephisto cannot exert much power in the mortal world. You only need to be careful of his ability to tempt and corrupt people."
The Ancient One brought the topic back to Mephisto.
"He may not have much power here, but he still has a rider."
Zod shook his head. Johnny Blaze was still just a stunt motorcyclist right now, but sooner or later Mephisto would come for him. And when that happened, it would be a real headache.
"That rider's power should be nothing worth mentioning to you, no?"
The Ancient One nodded, then said.
"But being unable to kill him would be annoying."
"You could send him into space."
"And then he'd come back as a Cosmic Ghost Rider to settle the score with me."
After that utterly pointless exchange came to an end, the Ancient One left behind what Zod needed.
They were magical artifacts capable of preventing Mephisto's corruption, and she gave him several of them.
Zod himself possessed Dragon Force, so naturally he had no need for them. But the women around him did.
Just to be safe, Zod called them all over and used the excuse of giving token gifts of affection to hand them over to Urd, Esdeath, and Wanda, whom he valued greatly.
Urd found it hard to believe that Zod would actually prepare a token of affection for someone.
"Come to my place tonight. I've got a surprise for you."
Urd happily accepted the gift. Even though it looked rather old-fashioned and totally unsuitable for a working woman like her, her heart still fluttered. She immediately decided she would wear the brand-new decisive lingerie she had bought tonight.
"I've got work tonight."
Zod Heath shook his head, making it clear that absolutely nothing could interfere with his research into the Hulk's blood. Whether it was because of the One Below All, OBA, or because of the genes themselves, the answer would be revealed tonight!
Women? With his hormones fully under control, Zod had no interest whatsoever.
When Esdeath received her token of affection, she also said that she wanted to have a physical spar with Zod that night, but she was turned down as well.
Of course, over on Wanda's side, it was not a token of affection. It was a reward Zod had prepared for her perfect score.
Wanda was both surprised and delighted by the gift. It meant that Mr. Zod Heath had actually been paying attention to her all along, rather than simply funding her and tossing her aside.
And the fact that Wanda received a gift stimulated Emma enough that she came straight to his door to demand one too.
"I work for World Serpent. Even if I don't have great merits, I've still worked hard. I want a reward too!"
Emma spoke with perfect confidence.
Zod, who had long since expected she would come looking for him, only shook his head and took out the last artifact.
"I already had one prepared."
That was all he said.
Emma was both shocked and delighted. That meant Zod Heath did have a place for her in his heart after all. Delighted, the young beauty no longer fussed over anything else and left happily with her gift.
"She's easy to coax."
Zod Heath sighed with some emotion.
As for why Jessica had not come, that was perfectly normal. Jessica had never seen herself as one of Zod's women. Deep down, she probably did not dare cross that forbidden line herself, so naturally she would never come knocking like Emma did.
Zod Heath did not pay much attention to Jessica either. His plan to use her as bait to lure out the Purple Man still had not succeeded. He had no idea whether the Purple Man had already been dealt with or was simply hiding.
After researching through the entire night, Zod showed not the slightest sign of fatigue as he pushed open the doors of his laboratory.
The Hulk's genes and cells were indeed far beyond those of ordinary humans, and they were very likely the key reason Bruce Banner had become the Hulk. But because the level of the One Below All, OBA, was simply too high, Zod was not entirely certain.
The only thing he could do was test it and see whether other people could also be turned into a Hulk.
Of course, now was not the time for experimentation. The Ancient One might not have said it out loud, but Zod could not openly cross the line either.
Fortunately, it was not as though there were no other matters to distract him.
For example, the superhero merchandise and superhero films tied to the Superhero Association.
After all, he was now the president of the Superhero Association, which meant every matter involving the association had to pass through his hands.
"Talk to the heroes. Anyone willing to release merchandise can do so. At the same time, put it to a vote on Spiderweb. Any superhero with more than one million fans can get their own personal film series."
Zod had never eaten pork, but he had at least seen pigs run. Even though merchandise and films were just pocket change to him, if this kind of culture could really be developed, then Earth would eventually become a world immersed in superhero culture.
At that point, if Earth turned into something like the world of One Punch Man, then whenever danger appeared, Zod would not need to act personally at all. He would simply stand at the top of the superhero pyramid, and with a single order, a single wave of his arm, he could send the superheroes after whomever he pleased!
There were nearly ten thousand superheroes on Earth now. If you excluded the majority of street-level heroes, then most of the remaining superheroes could actually be sent wandering into space.
After all, even someone at Gamora's level was already considered the deadliest woman in the galaxy...
/-\
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