Hawk's tone was cold.
Mephisto was somewhat stunned, seriously suspecting that his hearing had been affected after Hawk broke his horn.
"I said, take your sister's soul and get out of my Hell."
"I said that's not enough now."
Hawk floated in the air, his eyes meeting Mephisto's.
"I gave you two conditions."
"The first time, I told you that if you resurrected my sister, you would gain my three friendships."
"The conditions I offer, the first is always the best."
"But you didn't take it."
"Now I'm here, and I've given you a second condition."
"The san venganza contract is yours, in exchange for my sister's soul; I have no interest in your Hell."
"But you didn't accept it again."
"This is the third time."
"So—"
"Hand over my sister's soul, and at the same time, your Hell will no longer have any souls related to me; any souls related to me, who praise my name, shall enter my Underworld!"
Hawk looked at Mephisto expressionlessly: "This is my latest condition. Accept it or not, it's up to you. But if you call for a stop again next time, I won't just demand souls related to me."
As long as I don't accept threats, no one can threaten me.
Hawk, who was already prepared for his sister's soul to be destroyed by Mephisto, was terrifyingly strong at this moment.
Anyway, even if the soul was destroyed by Mephisto, it wasn't truly impossible to resurrect.
Isn't there still the Soul Stone?
At worst, after he leaves Hell, he'll go find Thanos, the director of the family planning office, and have Thanos get the Soul Stone. Once he has it, he'll make an exchange with Thanos using the Reality Stone, and then use the Soul Stone to resurrect his sister's soul. Wouldn't that work?
What's the big deal!
However...
Since Mephisto has opened his mouth again, intending to negotiate.
Then let's talk.
Third time's the charm.
This is the last time.
Anyway, he had already prepared for the worst.
Mephisto listened to Hawk's third and final condition, his face instantly darkening to the point where ink could drip from it.
If he had a chance to do it over, he swore he would choose to agree to Hawk's conditions in the bar without hesitation.
If he had agreed back then, things wouldn't have turned out this way.
Continue fighting?
This is his home turf; after Hawk trashes the Hell Dimension, he'll just walk away, and Mephisto will still have to clean up the post-war mess.
Although Odin and Eternity were also like this back then.
But...
These two didn't make threats like Hawk did.
To do nothing for the rest of his life but specifically target and serve him alone, to make his Hell have no souls to enter, and no demons to leave.
This doesn't look like someone who can be threatened.
This is a porcupine with its quills raised.
The kind that explodes at a touch!
It's just...
Mephisto looked at Hawk with a dark expression: "What do you mean by praising your name and entering your Underworld? I'm already willing to let your sister leave; are you still planning to steal Earth's souls from me?"
Hawk was expressionless: "When the war begins is up to you, but when and how it ends is up to me. My condition is this: My friends, your Hell will have no right to deal with their souls. Either accept it or refuse, it's up to you."
If he wasn't truly uninterested in developing the Underworld, his third condition wouldn't be this simple.
After all, why would he abandon the path of becoming a main god to focus on being a Hades, a path with a very narrow ascension channel?
But to just let it go like this, Hawk's anger wouldn't subside.
Coincidentally, he thought that to prevent Mephisto, that old bastard, from pulling any more threatening stunts in the future, he might as well take all the soul authority over everyone he knew from him.
Mephisto's face was grim.
"What if I don't agree!"
"Then we fight."
Hawk was expressionless, the san venganza contract reappearing in his hand, and he said to Mephisto: "But there's no third time. From now on, I won't give you any possibility of negotiation. I will fight you to the death. Either you find a way to kill me, or you can watch your barren Hell gradually wither and die."
Mephisto's expression changed again and again, his demonic pupils staring intently at Hawk.
Hawk's pupils were completely calm as he met Mephisto's gaze.
After a long while.
"Get out!"
Mephisto withdrew his gaze, suppressing his inner anger: "Take your sister and get out of my Hell."
Hawk did not compromise.
So he had to compromise.
It's still the same phrase.
He couldn't afford to gamble.
Now that Hawk had his own Underworld, his soul could no longer be plundered by Mephisto.
Hawk could throw caution to the wind because he had more than just the Underworld.
He couldn't, because he truly only had one dimension.
But your soul, I'm taking it.
Now?
"Get out of my Hell, and don't let me see you again."
"Heh heh."
Hawk heard this and couldn't help but inwardly sigh with relief, though he didn't show it. He chuckled at Mephisto's words: "As long as you don't provoke me, I have no interest in you."
With that said.
The black phoenix underworld armor disintegrated, reforming into a phoenix ornament in the air, then twisting back into the Underworld's main hall.
Hawk's feet touched the ground, and he smiled as he looked at his sister in front of him.
His smile was joyous, a joy he hadn't felt since 2009.
Hawk looked at his tear-streaked sister, Anya, and said softly, "Hello, my sister, I've come to take you home."
Anya looked at her brother, who was within reach, and instinctively reached out her right hand. The moment she truly touched Hawk's cheek, her tears turned to laughter.
"...Hello, my brother, I knew you would come to save me, just like you promised me then."
Anya pursed her lips, touching Hawk's cheek.
She remembered the scene before her death, when her brother had carried her out of the ruins with his bare hands, and as she was dying, her despairing and weeping brother suddenly found hope and swore he would resurrect her.
Now her brother had truly come to take her away from this hellish place.
With that thought, Anya threw herself into Hawk's arms, crying loudly.
"Brother!"
"Let's go, we're going home!"
Hawk hugged his sister tightly, lowered his head to kiss Anya's forehead, and then said softly.
The next second.
Boom!
Space shattered like a mirror, revealing the other side: a pure land with bright sunshine, birds singing and flowers fragrant, and eternal spring.
Immediately after.
As Hawk took a step, carrying his sister Anya, he flipped his left hand and threw the san venganza contract behind him.
Mephisto appeared instantly and grabbed the san venganza contract.
Hawk had already stepped into his Underworld with his sister Anya.
Whoosh!
The moment he fully embraced his sister and stepped into the pure land specially created for Anya, the spatial rift behind him closed at a speed invisible to the naked eye.
And the moment his sister Anya's soul arrived in the Underworld.
Hawk smiled.
He was wrong.
Mephisto, that dog, truly had nothing truthful to say.
What about not being able to resurrect a soul without a body to house it.
Bullshit!
As long as Mephisto was willing, he could truly resurrect any soul.
Hawk, who controlled the laws of life and death in the Underworld, could also choose to resurrect his sister Anya the moment her soul stepped onto the underworld soil.
He could do it too.
But...
Not now!
Because the laws of life and death he possessed were fragments exploded from Blackheart.
They weren't complete, so he couldn't.
Of course.
It wasn't impossible for him to resurrect his sister before his Little Universe materialized.
Just as Mephisto lied to him, find a body to house the soul, and then he could resurrect his sister that way.
He would go back and use cloning technology to truly resurrect his sister.
As for now.
He could only let his sister stay in this pure land for the time being.
Hawk then explained the situation to his sister Anya, whom he had brought back to his Underworld.
Anya's big eyes were full of bewilderment.
Aggrieved?
She instinctively looked at the pure land in front of her.
Pure blue sky and white clouds.
Green grass.
Countless blooming flowers.
Clear streams.
The magnificent Underworld Temple stood at the heart of the pure land.
So...
Living here is called aggrieved?
She remembered something: when she was little, she was rushed to the hospital for a perforated heart. When she woke up, she saw her brother guarding her bedside, and she smiled as she described what she thought was Hell to him.
And the pure land before her, compared to the scene she described to her brother back then, couldn't be said to be identical, only a one-to-one replica.
Anya's thoughts spun. She looked at the absolutely serene, peaceful pure land before her, perfectly matching her childhood fantasies of the afterlife. Her heart clenched, then she turned and looked at her brother Hawk, who was behind her, smiling gently.
"Brother."
"Hmm."
"You must have had a very hard time these past years."
Anya looked at Hawk seriously.
She might have only been fourteen when she died, but she had been in the Hell Dimension for so many years; she was no longer a little girl who knew nothing and was well protected by her brother.
Having lived in Hell for so many years, Anya knew very well the difficulty of snatching a soul from Mephisto's hands.
And her brother only took four years.
Just four years.
Her brother fought his way through Hell from Earth, forcing Mephisto, the ruler of the Hell Dimension, to release her soul.
And her brother was clearly an ordinary person four years ago.
So...
She found it hard to imagine how much effort her brother had put in during these short four years to save her from that never-ending Hell.
Her brother must have been very tired these four years.
Anya looked up, her eyes reddening again, gazing at her brother, who had always cherished her, both then and now.
"Brother, thank you."
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
Hawk laughed heartily, gently wiping away the tears from his sister's eyes, then, just like when she was little, he ruffled her hair: "You're not just anyone else; you're my sister, my only... you're my family."
Just as he was about to say 'my only family'.
Hawk thought of Gwen, raised an eyebrow, and said to Anya: "Oh, by the way, I found you a sister-in-law. You'll definitely like her."
Anya's red eyes blinked.
She looked up.
"Sister-in-law?"
"..."
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