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"Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!"
- Oliver, (Sons of the Desert)
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<[A Few Minutes ago]>
<(Omniscient POV)>
"Ugh, I swear, I hate my father more than anything. Always forcing me into this ridiculous nonsense. It's like he refuses to accept that I want nothing to do with the family business. No matter how many times I try to walk away, he just won't let me. And the worst part? He doesn't even know how to ask—just barks orders like a tyrant. 'Mephista, do this or I'll gut you. Mephista, do that or I'll skin you alive just like I did to your mother…' I'm so sick of being treated like some... mindless puppet." Mephista grumbled, her voice laced with exhaustion.
"Tell me, human—am I overreacting, or is my father really the most insufferable, sadistic bastard to ever exist?" she asked, her gaze flicking toward Natasha, who was too busy fending off a swarm of freshly conjured rock demons with her newly forged weapon to entertain the rant.
Natasha was certain she would've been dead a thousand times over if not for the weapon Atem had given her. The Universal Weapon—or whatever its name was—was unlike anything she'd ever wielded. She hadn't figured out all of its capabilities yet, but even its force fields and energy blasts alone were enough to handle the minor hellspawn she was up against.
"This thing might be just as good as Thor's hammer," she muttered under her breath, bringing the hammer down to crush a demon's skull with a single swing. Without missing a beat, she fired off a barrage of energy blasts, reducing several demons to ashes before swinging the hammer once more with all her strength. Then, as if she had activated another feature of the hammer, a powerful wind vortex erupted from the weapon, surging forward and blowing away the remaining creatures, scattering them like dried leaves caught in a storm.
"…You actually took them all down? Huh. I figured they'd at least be able to kill you outright if not manage to capture you. Guess they were just as useless as every other so-called 'elite' bodyguard my father had ever assigned to me." She chuckled, her wings unfurling as she lifted herself a foot off the ground.
"Natalia, wasn't it? From what I've observed, you're quite the fascinating mortal—though I suppose that's expected when you've got a god with Skyfather-tier strength watching over you." Mephista mused, tilting her head slightly. "A shame we find ourselves on opposite sides… although that doesn't have to be the case, you know."
Her smile took on the polished charm of a high-profile saleswoman as a pair of green hellfire orbs flickered to life in her crimson hands. "How about I make you an offer? Pledge your loyalty to me, and I'll grant you more power than you've ever imagined. More than that, I can even fix your... little infertility issue." Her voice dripped with honeyed persuasion as she pointed towards her stomach. "All it takes is just signing away the rights to your soul. It's such a tiny itty-bitty thing that you won't even miss it. And trust me, if you agree, you'll be saving us both a lot of trouble. The best part? We will both be profiting from this."
Natasha frowned at the offer, the gears in her mind turning as she considered her response. Accepting was out of the question. Even the most naive souls who had never encountered a demon knew better than to trust one. Yes, she wanted a family of her own someday, to have children—but she wasn't desperate enough to sell her soul for it. Besides, she was still young. There was time to figure things out. Who knew? Maybe she'd find another way to get what she wanted. Human science was advancing quite fast after all.
"Mephista, wasn't it?" Natalia asked, her gaze sharp. "You're his daughter. If you hate him so much, if you're so desperate to escape, then why keep obeying him? Why not just let Atem end him and be done with it? If Mephisto dies, we all win. I get to go home, Doom gets his revenge, Atem gets to claim Hell's throne, and you—well, you finally get to be free of your abusive father. So why fight it?"
Even though Natasha hadn't spoken to Mephista much until now, she had been listening. Every word, every detail, every slip of information—she absorbed it all. That was what she had been trained to do. No matter how insufferable someone was or how dull a conversation became, a spy of her caliber never missed a word from her target's lips.
"That's… surprisingly a good suggestion. But no, I can't do that," Mephista said, shaking her head. "You have no idea what my father is truly capable of. He hasn't been able to rule Hell for countless millennia just because of his charming personality. Plenty have tried to dethrone him, kill him, and even plot against him, but as you can see, none have ever succeeded. His power isn't something to take lightly. Even at his weakest—during the Solstice or the Convergence—defeating him is nearly impossible."
She scoffed, crossing her arms. "In fact, the only other Hell Lord or dimensional ruler my father has ever genuinely feared is Dormammu. Outside of the ruler of the Dark Dimension, he doesn't even consider Odin a real threat to his life. So, you get why the idea of my father being taken down by some upstart god I've never even heard of is absolutely hilarious to me, right? No offense, of course."
"I get it. But Atem is… I think he's stronger than you realize," Natalia countered, her voice steady. "You've never seen Mephisto afraid of anyone, but I've never seen Atem lose to anyone. I may not have known him for long, but if there's one thing I can say for certain, it's that he won't go down easily." Her grip on her weapon tightened. "And neither will I."
Natasha took a deep breath, bracing herself. Any second now, the inevitable barrage of hellfire would come, and she was ready—her fingers flexing as she prepared to activate the force field.
*BOOOOOOM!*
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
A deafening explosion rocked the entire dimension, followed by a bloodcurdling scream that seemed to tear through the very fabric of reality. The whole realm instantly began to tremble violently, deep tremors rippling through space itself as if the universe itself was recoiling in shock.
"What the hell is happening?!" Natasha shouted, gripping her hammer tightly as she struggled to keep her footing against the sudden quake.
Mephista's eyes widened in disbelief, her voice turning into a stunned whisper. "...Impossible. He can't fall. Solstice or not… he should be immortal inside Hell."
Natasha turned to her. "What do you mean?"
The princess of Hell's breath hitched, her expression frozen between shock and horror.
"Hell… it just lost its ruler."
***
<[Meanwhile Somewhere Else a Few Minutes Ago]>
A biker stood outside Mephisto's palace, clad in a dark leather jacket and tight leather pants, his head nothing more than a blazing skull wreathed in orange hellfire. On one hand, he was effortlessly lifting a demon king as if the towering fiend was nothing more than a rag doll.
All around him, the battlefield was littered with the charred, maimed, and disfigured corpses of hundreds of demons—their twisted forms a testament to the sheer brutality that the Ghost Rider was capable of.
"You have sinned... You have all sinned. And now, it's time for your penance as I judge you."
His voice was like the clash of grinding metal, harsh and unrelenting. Hollow eyes, burning with infernal fire, locked onto the demon king's terrified face—cold, merciless, inescapable.
"The wicked will burn..., just like you, Paimon."
His words were final as if it were a death sentence. The demon barely had time to register what was happening to him and scream before hellfire burst out from the Ghost Rider's hands and quickly consumed him, spreading across the demon king's body as if he was drenched in petrol. His body turned to blackened ash in seconds, his being dispersing away before he could even try to struggle.
"Vengeance is mine." He chuckled, his hollow, cold voice sounding like grinding steel, before turning his burning gaze to the other noble demons who still remained.
"Tonight, the guilty shall suffer, for the Spirit of Vengeance rides." With slow, deliberate movements, he unwrapped the heavy metal chains coiled around his torso, the links rattling ominously. "Run, sinners. Vengeance comes for you all."
From a distance, one of the Hell Knights, Abaddon, observed the Ghost Rider—Johnny Blaze—with a calculating look on his face. He turned to his brethren with a questioning look, but before he could voice it, another Hell Knight, Dagon, shook his head as if he already knew what Abaddon wanted to know.
"No. Even he cannot stand against all of us alone. The Spirit of Vengeance is powerful, but he is not strong enough to stand against all of Hell by himself… So don't worry," Dagon said, his voice laced with cold certainty. "But just to be sure, I called them. They're here."
Abaddon's eyes narrowed. "Who is here?"
Asael, another Hell Knight who had been silently listening, suddenly stiffened as realization dawned upon him. He spoke up in a low voice. "How many did you summon?"
Dagon smirked, a cruel grin stretching across his face like a gash in the darkness.
"All of us," he said. "ALL of Hell. The biggest army Hell has ever gathered. They will be here within moments."
Abaddon and Asael recoiled, dread seeping into their very bones.
"What have you done…?"
Their minds raced, grasping the full weight of Dagon's actions. After all, he might have just shattered the fragile balance that had kept Hell from descending into full-scale war. The surviving Kings of Hell—those who were currently lurking in the shadows, waiting for their moment—would never let such an opportunity slip away. They would seize control of the infernal legions, claw their way to Mephisto's throne, and, with the dimensional barriers between the Earth and Hell weakened due to the Solstice, launch an invasion upon the mortal realm itself.
But before they could voice their protests—
*BOOM!*
A cataclysmic explosion rocked the entire realm like a child shaking a toy, sending shockwaves rippling through the infernal abyss.
Hell had fully plunged into utter chaos.
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