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Sitting cross-legged in his Underworld, Hawk threw his head back and screamed.
The sound was animal. Nothing but pain.
It had been so sudden.
And Mephisto, who had appeared behind him without a sound, didn't stop. He tightened his grip on the pitch-black "Blade of Death" and drove it into Hawk's back, pulling it out and plunging it in again and again.
Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!
Every time Mephisto ripped the Blade of Death from Hawk's body, a geyser of golden blood followed it.
The golden blood sprayed wildly.
It stained the ashen soil of the Underworld.
It splattered across Mephisto's clothes and coated his face.
Mephisto's face was twisted in rage. Ignoring the scorching gold blood on his skin, he attacked in a blur, his arm pumping like a piston as he stabbed the Chief God over and over.
Soon, the spectral projection of the Phoenix surrounding Hawk shattered.
Thud.
By the time Hawk's body slumped forward onto the soil, his chest and back had been reduced to a bloody ruin.
Actually, It was worse than a ruin. He was butchered.
Lying on the ground of his own realm, Hawk was gasping for air. Every breath was a wet rattle. He looked like a man with only a few seconds left on the clock.
As he fell, the figure holding the Blade of Death, his face dripping with golden blood, finally came into Hawk's line of sight.
When Hawk realized that the man who had stabbed him in the back was Mephisto, his pupils went wide. His face showed nothing but disbelief.
"Meph… Mephisto?"
"I'm sorry." Mephisto looked down at Hawk, whose face was turning an ashen gray. He let out a long breath, releasing the tension wound tight in his chest. Meeting Hawk's stare, his face stiffened, and he offered a sincere apology.
Hawk's mouth opened and closed. His ruined chest heaved like a broken bellows. He stared up at Mephisto, forcing the words out. "WHY…?"
His voice dripped with confusion and betrayal. "I thought we were allies."
"I'm a demon." Mephisto wiped the golden blood from his eyes. The solemn look vanished. In its place was a sneer of open mockery. "You can never trust a demon. Especially me. You shouldn't trust a single word that comes out of my mouth, let alone my promises. You said that yourself, Hawk."
Hawk's eyes widened. "But I promised you… I promised to make you the King of my Underworld."
"I know. And I'm grateful for the offer." Mephisto nodded without hesitation. He shrugged. "But given the choice between being your King of the Underworld or being a Chief God myself? I'll take the promotion."
He, Mephisto, was an ambitious man.
King of the Underworld was a step up.
But becoming a Chief God? That was the prize.
Of course, being the lord of an afterlife for a Celestial-tier entity wasn't a bad gig. But being a Chief God? The sky was the limit. He would answer to no one.
So—
'I want to move up in the world. Is that a crime?'
Mephisto thought to himself. He met Hawk's dying gaze, then looked down at the Blade of Death in his hand.
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He looked back at Hawk and flashed a wicked, toothy grin.
"I know you're wondering how this weapon was able to hurt you."
"It's because it's forged from a Law of Death."
"The Law of Death from the World Tree. Let alone you—if we were within the boundaries of the World Tree, even my boss, the Cosmic Entity Death herself, would be screwed if I stabbed her with this."
"…"
Hearing Mephisto's blasphemy delivered so casually, Hawk's pupils contracted.
Mephisto chuckled. "Don't look at me like that. Like I said, I'm just ambitious. There's no crime in wanting a better job."
"Besides..."
"We're in the World Tree right now, not the primary universe. So I can talk as much trash about Death as I want, and she won't hear a damn word."
"You talk too much."
Just as Mephisto was savoring his villain monologue, gloating over the dying hero, a cold voice cut through the air behind him.
The next second, another figure stepped from the shadows.
Hela!
But this wasn't the Hela who had fought Thor on Asgard. THIS Hela was something else. Half of her face was beautiful—pale and regal. The other half was dead.
The skin on that side was translucent, clinging tight to the bone, revealing the dark corrupted veins beneath. Her eye socket was sunken, the eyeball itself a milky sightless gray.
She looked like...
Half-living, half-corpse.
At the same time, the realm of Helheim—which Hawk had assumed was destroyed along with Asgard—began to materialize from the swirling shadows around them.
Lying on the ground with his vitality fading fast, Hawk looked at Hela. His face changed from betrayal to shock.
"It's you… but you were…"
"My power is drawn from the soil of Asgard." Hela stopped beside Mephisto and looked down at Hawk with a cold smirk. "But I am still the Goddess of Death. Not just Asgard's Goddess of Death. I am the Goddess of Death for the World Tree."
Hawk drew in a sharp breath.
But the sudden intake of air tore through his ruined chest. He fell into a violent coughing fit, spitting up more golden blood. His complexion grew even more ashen—he looked as if he might die at any second.
Hawk forced himself to stay conscious. He looked from Hela to Mephisto. Then, as if accepting that this was the end, the shock faded from his face. What replaced it was a grim quiet. He lay flat on the ashen soil, his voice eerily calm.
"So… when did you two team up?"
"We just realized we had mutual interests." Mephisto smiled pleasantly. He looked down at Hawk, who had clearly given up, and decided to humor him. "Do you remember three Earth-years ago? The Convergence of the Nine Realms?"
Hawk's mind flashed back three years to London—the battle with Malekith at Stonehenge, the moment he grasped the Sixth Sense and ascended to Silver Saint.
But that wasn't the point.
The point was, as Mephisto spoke, Hawk remembered that brief glimpse he had caught of Hela during the Convergence.
"Because of the Convergence, even though Hela couldn't escape her prison, the dimensional barriers thinned enough for us—two entities aligned with Death—to have a brief chat."
"That was when I told her that the World Tree was destined to fall into the primary universe."
"I am a subordinate of Death."
"And a favored one at that. So I knew a thing or two about the fate of the World Tree."
"To tell you the truth, before you ever showed up, my plan was to seize the position of Death Lord for the World Tree."
"After all, once the World Tree fell into the primary universe, Hela's authority as the Goddess of Death would be revoked by the cosmic entity Death."
"But then, you showed up."
"And you brought the authority of a Chief God."
"Being a Death Lord is nice, but being a Chief God? For me, that's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
"So…"
"Hela and I made a deal."
"Hela gets to become the new Chief God of the World Tree, and I get to become the Chief God of the Phoenix."
"Mutual assistance. A win-win."
"Therefore—"
"I didn't betray our covenant, Hawk. I just made a deal with Hela first. You were a little late to the party."
Mephisto went on, determined to make sure Hawk understood exactly how he had been outplayed before he died. Hawk's face grew grayer by the second.
"But don't worry, Hawk. After you die, your soul will go to Hela's Helheim, and I promise you'll receive the VIP treatment."
"In her realm, you'll be treated like royalty. Aside from the fact that you'll be dead, whatever you want, we'll make sure you get it."
Having delivered his grand speech.
Mephisto crouched down next to Hawk, looking into his dimming eyes. "We were never officially allies, Hawk, so it wasn't a betrayal. It's just the nature of the game. Winners take all, losers lose everything. Don't blame me. Blame yourself for being too soft. You knew you couldn't trust a demon, but you wanted to believe in me anyway. You brought this on yourself."
Hawk's pupils were almost clouded over with gray. Hearing Mephisto twist the knife one last time, he managed a weak smile that looked more like a grimace.
But he didn't argue.
Because—
"You're right. I was soft. When you called me 'brother,' I wanted to believe that you could change."
"Unfortunately… I gave my heart to the moon, but the moon chose to shine on the gutter."
"Whatever."
"I guess I brought this on myself." Hawk's voice was fading. In what seemed to be his final moments, he looked at Mephisto and asked one last question.
"How were you so sure I would come here?"
"Well, about that…" Mephisto couldn't help but chuckle. He looked at Hawk. "I'm a demon, Hawk. You know this. A demon's greatest weapon isn't our magic or our strength. It's our ability to play with people's minds. Remember when I suggested you use the Heaven Dimension as an anchor to manifest your universe?"
Hawk's voice was barely a whisper now. He was fading fast.
"The Heaven Dimension… Yahweh… you set that up?"
"No." Mephisto shook his head. "All of that was real. I just sensed that you were already suspicious by nature. So I gave it a nudge. I planted two seeds in your mind. The first: that a dimension could be used as an anchor. The second: that Heaven was a trap."
"Once you figured out that manifesting your universe in the primary reality would trigger a temporal trap, it was only a matter of time before you set your sights on the World Tree."
Hawk listened to Mephisto lay it all out. A look of late tragic understanding washed over his face.
But, he had to admit one thing.
"Brilliant."
"Thank you." Mephisto beamed, looking down at Hawk, who was now at death's door. "Anything else you want to know? Once your soul crosses over to Hela's realm, I won't be able to visit you very often."
Hawk shook his head. He looked at Mephisto, and a faint smile touched his lips. "Thank you, Mephisto."
"Don't mention it."
Hawk didn't say another word. He let out a long shuddering sigh and closed his eyes.
The next second, his body turned into a shower of golden light, fading into nothingness.
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