The moment William set off a dazzling display of nuclear fireworks in Hell—detonating over a dozen clean red mercury bombs at once—it wouldn't take long for the demon circles on Earth to hear the news.
Those weaker demons who had smuggled themselves onto Earth would now instinctively flee at the mention of William's name.
Some who had been hiding in London packed up immediately upon receiving the news—some fled to the USA, others crossed the Channel to hide somewhere on the European continent.
These demons knew all too well that for certain humans with special abilities, entering Hell wasn't difficult.
But every human who entered Hell did so with trembling caution, each step wary, terrified of running into a demon stronger than themselves.
Never before had there been someone like William—who not only confronted the demon lord Mephisto head-on and emerged unscathed, but even detonated over a dozen nukes right in front of him. How could that not terrify demons who were several power tiers below a demon lord?
As for Mephisto, whose domain had been nuked, there was no way he would let it go so easily. One of his projections on Earth quickly sought William out.
But this projection appeared to be in very poor condition—clearly older, with visible signs of deterioration.
"You actually dared detonate nukes in my territory—this is an act of war..."
"Alright, alright, Old Meph."
William casually split off a magical clone to walk over to Mephisto's projection, while his true body returned home to London.
After all, he had just detonated several bombs through a magical projection himself—who knew if Mephisto might pull the same trick?
And right now, his mother was likely the top target of every demon. He wasn't about to risk anything happening.
So, while sharing dinner with Lena, William's magical clone casually draped an arm over Mephisto's shoulder and said, "Let's talk about something useful, Old Meph. I dropped those bombs because I'm not afraid of a lord of Hell like you.
Honestly, you don't scare me nearly as much as Odin does. Odin has the ability to invade Earth with an army if he wanted, and if necessary, he could wipe out humanity. But you demons—do you even dare?"
Asgard, being in the same dimensional universe as Earth and possessing the Bifrost, could invade far more easily than Hell ever could.
But with William around—and Odin now having extended his lifespan and no longer on death's doorstep—he wouldn't dare provoke William, not if he had any intention of future expansion.
The universe was full of planets waiting to be conquered. There was no need to antagonize a powerful ally like William.
Not to mention, Earth still had one other figure Odin feared: the Ancient One.
And if Odin couldn't kill William in one blow, he'd have to prepare for endless revenge, just like Hell experienced—who could predict when or where the next nuke might suddenly appear and explode in their territory?
This was one reason Mephisto, despite being humiliated, didn't go all out.
Of course—it wasn't that he didn't dare, it was that he didn't want to.
But now, William dodging confrontation by leaving a clone and hiding his real body elsewhere made Mephisto's mood turn sour.
How had someone like William—someone he'd long thought of as "just a human"—managed to grasp the secrets of spatial laws, enabling him to travel freely between dimensions and realms?
And if they really did go to war, even if Mephisto eventually won, William would've already razed his territory with every kind of high-powered weapon imaginable.
Once he became isolated, the other demon lords—those who disliked or even hated him—would never let him off the hook.
Set was already a daily reminder of that risk. The timing just wasn't right to make a move.
"Odin dares to wipe out humanity, and I don't? The more people die, the more souls I get to harvest—why wouldn't I?"
"Pfft." William covered his face. "Give me a break. If everyone dies, what do you and Heaven and Olympus and all the other belief-based factions feed on?
Let's be honest. If you really did that, the other demon lords in Hell would tear you apart. You'd be wrecking their meal tickets, right? Tell me I'm wrong, Old Meph."
"So, let's get back to something useful," William said, dropping his smile as he noticed Mephisto's dark expression. He knew that no matter how well he reasoned, he'd never eliminate the fundamental greed of demons.
"One thousand souls. In exchange, you give up Set—or at least stop protecting him. Deal?"
"You dare trade in souls?"
Still weighing the pros and cons, Mephisto stared at William in disbelief. "Are you the demon here, or am I?
You're trying to kill your enemy, and you casually offer a thousand souls? What's next—ten thousand?"
William just shrugged indifferently. They were all aliens, after all. And not even ones he had killed—these were casualties of wars he hadn't started.
Those weird-looking alien corpses didn't trouble William at all. Frankly, not many humans would think twice about them.
As for those saintly, bleeding-heart types? William didn't care what they thought. He had no intention of dealing with them anyway.
Besides, it was strange—these mythical factions like Heaven and Hell, so widely known in human mythology, didn't seem all that interested in alien souls. They almost never went out of their way to collect them.
Maybe those theories were true: Heaven and Hell had existed long ago, but only became strong by absorbing human faith and emotion.
Humanity longed for Heaven, feared Hell. The two just had different branding, but they both relied on us.
With that thought, William's sense of reverence toward Heaven and Hell vanished completely. Smiling, he slung an arm around Mephisto's shoulder. "So, how about it—want the thousand souls or not? Because either way, I will kill that demon god Set."
"Oh, and also that vampire Victor," William added coldly. "I killed him once, I can do it again."
"Ten thousand and I'll consider it," Mephisto replied, sensing the shift in William's mindset. Though wary, he was also moved by William's willingness to negotiate.
Mephisto's ultimate goal with the space bridge of the Transformer Megatron was to access Earth more easily—to harvest even more souls.
And deep down, Mephisto preferred deals. He was far better at wheeling and dealing than outright war.
"I like deals. But if I just said yes, I'd lose all credibility in Hell. And you think I'd be tempted by ordinary souls? Please."
William thought for a moment. He remembered Mephisto was particularly drawn to the souls of those who were once kind, holy, and pure—only to fall into corruption. Those souls, to him, were worth thousands of normal ones.
But William didn't have any of those on hand, and even if he did, he'd never hand them over. He wasn't stupid enough to help his enemy grow stronger.
Ring ring, ring ring...
Just as things were getting tense, William—still far away in London—suddenly heard his phone ringing. In his earpiece, Sunday's voice chimed in:
"Sir, it's a call from John Wick."
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