"Hajimi, increase output by another 5%."
In the top-floor laboratory of Aurantius Tower, Luca stared intently at the data panel in front of him.
At the center of the lab stood a black stone monolith, roughly three meters tall, densely covered in intricate, bizarre runes.
Even stranger was that the monolith's base, which looked highly technological, was messily connected to a mass of cables and pipes.
The other end of these cables connected to a peculiar, cone-shaped device emitting pale red light particles.
As this cone-shaped device—which appeared to be an energy engine—ramped up, the red light surged into the monolith it was connected to.
In that moment, technology and magic seemed to forge a link. The strange ancient runes carved into the monolith lit up all at once.
The flickering red characters swayed, casting a somewhat sinister glow over the entire laboratory.
However, just as Luca was about to signal Si Bei to perform the hand seals for the 12th test of the "Hell Positioning Soul Retrieval Ritual"...
A rhythmic thump-thump knocking sound suddenly came from outside the glass curtain wall of the skyscraper.
Startled out of his intense focus, Luca jumped and nearly threw the tablet in his hands across the room.
He turned to look at the exterior glass wall. There, floating in mid-air, was a flashy figure in gold and red armor. The faceplate was open, and the man inside was craning his neck, peering into the room.
Luca was speechless.
He pressed a button next to him, splitting the glass wall open to let the uninvited Tony Stark into the lab.
"You realize we're over two hundred meters up, right? You opened your faceplate just to see if your naked eyes could see through one-way glass?"
Watching Tony land steadily in his Mark armor, Luca swiped the data on his holographic screen to the background and complained helplessly.
"Hey, I just installed that marble flooring! I'm sending the bill to Miss Pepper, so don't even think about dodging it!"
As Tony stepped out of his armor, he glanced down at the scorch mark his thrusters had left on the marble floor and waved it off dismissively.
"Perfect timing. When I was renovating the new Avengers facility, I bought two marble quarries in Italy. I'll have someone ship a batch over to you later."
Rich bastard!
Luca rolled his eyes in disdain but asked anyway.
"What do you want? Haven't you guys been busy putting down rebellions on the West Coast? How do you have time to visit me?"
Tony frowned slightly and corrected him immediately.
"Don't talk nonsense. We're just cooperating with S.H.I.E.L.D. to strike against Hydra. Putting down rebellions is the government and military's job. Now that most of Hydra has gone underground, naturally, the rest doesn't require our intervention."
As an "international non-profit organization," meddling in politics was a major taboo for the Avengers.
Even though the actions of Captain America and the others had substantially interfered with the political landscape of the US and the world—to the point where market analysts had to watch superhero activity before checking stock prices—
Officially, at least, the Avengers couldn't be seen getting involved in political matters.
Tony, who hadn't yet experienced the Civil War arc, naturally held this view.
It was also why he was trying his best to distance himself from organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D.
Luca, however, didn't share that opinion, so he just shrugged noncommittally at Tony's explanation.
Seeing this reaction, Tony sighed slightly but didn't explain further. instead, he steered the conversation back to the reason for his visit.
"Gwen told me you haven't left this lab in over a month. You're not taking video calls or answering your phone."
"She was worried about your mental state, so she asked me to come check on you."
As he spoke, Tony looked around the room.
He hadn't had a chance to observe closely when he first entered, but now, the more he looked, the stranger his expression became.
Although Luca hadn't left the lab in over a month, thanks to the cleaning bots, the place wasn't messy.
But that monolith in the center covered in weird runes...
Why does this look more and more like some cult ritual? Did this kid go down a dark path?
Thinking this, Tony's tone became hesitant as he eyed the characters on the stone tablet.
"Runes? Ancient Celtic? And... uh, Oracle Bone Script? Have you been watching too many fantasy horror movies lately? What kind of nonsense is this?"
Hearing this, Luca rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
But since he had chosen to let Tony directly into his lab without hiding anything, he hadn't intended to keep his current project a secret from him.
His experiments had hit a bottleneck. If a genius like Tony got involved, maybe they could speed things up.
Of course, Luca was currently "improvising" an explanation in his head.
However, before he could figure out what to say, Tony—already concerned—had walked around the large black monolith in the center of the lab.
But when he saw what was behind it, he cried out in shock.
"F! Luca! What the hell are you doing?!"
Tony stumbled back a half-step. The look he gave Luca shifted from weirded-out hesitation to genuine horror.
Why?
Because right behind the monolith sat a semi-transparent stasis pod shaped like a coffin. And inside this pod, connected to the monolith's base by a mess of tubes and wires, lay the corpse of a woman.
Seeing Tony's jumpy reaction, Luca could only offer a weak explanation.
"Don't make a fuss. Justine attacked me, and I killed her in self-defense. The lawsuit for damages from Hammer Industries isn't even over yet."
"I remember asking you last month, and you said you weren't interested in Hammer's assets or technology."
Yes, the corpse lying in the coffin connected to the monolith was none other than Justine Hammer.
Using her body to attempt a "Soul Recall" was just Luca making use of waste material.
But clearly, Tony wasn't concerned about the attack or the state of Hammer Industries. He was concerned about why there was a literal dead body in a lab that looked like a scene from an evil ritual.
Seeing his expression, Luca spread his hands and explained in a casual tone.
"Don't look at me like that. This is just a necessary step for an ordinary soul magic experiment."
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