The ceremony of receiving the sacrament did not mean the baptismal ceremony was over.
There was still a holy meal provided by the church for the guests who came to observe the ceremony.
Hawk was undoubtedly seated at the head of the table.
And during the pre-meal prayer, Hawk also led the prayer.
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name."
"Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven."
"...Forever!"
"Amen!"
"Amen!"
Gwen, Peter, Felicia, Aunt May, and other guests followed closely.
As Peter bowed his head and recited "Amen," he watched Hawk out of the corner of his eye.
Hawk's expression was solemn and serious, looking more devout than any pious believer.
If Hawk hadn't just told him in his ear that he had just killed a God.
Although Hawk later added that it was a joke.
But... Peter's Spider-Sense told him that Hawk was not joking.
And he had indeed sensed a trace of abnormality just now, though it was only in a flash of lightning; that momentary aura was captured by his Spider-Sense, but it disappeared before his hairs could stand on end.
Peter muttered to himself, wanting to ask Hawk for the full story.
But the timing was not right.
After all, this was a church, and asking Hawk if he had really chopped up God just now seemed like a very impolite thing to do.
So... after the holy meal ended and Aunt May and Felicia went to see the guests off, Peter eagerly pulled Hawk into the cemetery behind the church.
Hawk did not refuse.
After all, his sister's grave was there, and because he lived in the adjacent Palm Street community, his sister Anya's tombstone area was kept very clean.
Hawk squatted down, caressing the photo of his sister on the tombstone in front of him, then his mind sank into his Little Universe and he saw his sister Anya playing in Nether-狱, surrounded by the Blood Elf Keira and several other Blood Elves.
"I wonder how the clone experiment replicated by the Merrick clone is going."
Although the real Dr. Merrick was suffering in the frozen Nether-狱.
But cloning was not something only Dr. Merrick knew how to do; his clone also knew how.
At that time, the real Merrick, in order to create a convincing deception and make S.H.I.E.L.D. truly believe he had been captured, had completely transferred his memories to his clone.
So, theoretically, his clone also knew how to clone.
However, Hawk disliked any surprises.
Especially when it came to his sister, so Dr. Merrick's clone was conducting the clone replication experiment under the supervision of S.H.I.E.L.D..
And Dr. Helen Cho also participated as technical support to ensure that there would be no accidents in the cloning experiment.
Once S.H.I.E.L.D. confirmed that the cloning experiment could proceed, the next step would be to open his sister's coffin, extract the DNA data, and then his sister could be resurrected.
So... it shouldn't be long before his sister Anya can truly be resurrected.
Hawk thought to himself, withdrew his right hand, stood up, and then turned to look at Peter, who had pulled him into the cemetery.
"What's up?"
"..."
Peter, who had been waiting for Hawk, looked at Hawk, who turned around with a smile and preempted him, his expression stunned for a moment, then he twitched the corner of his mouth: "I should be asking you that."
Hawk hummed and did not hide it from Peter, recounting how a projection of God had descended, attempting to recruit him to become his Archangel.
Peter listened, dumbfounded.
He was a little curious.
"You weren't willing?"
"Of course."
"Why?"
"Because he's a villain."
"God is a villain..."
Peter's eyes widened, his voice instinctively rising, but he quickly reacted and looked at Hawk: "How is that possible?"
Hawk smiled, then briefly recounted Dr. Merrick's previous evil plan to clone his body on a large scale in the name of God, attempting to replace quality with quantity and completely usurp his soul.
After listening, Peter was even more shocked and disbelieving.
But it wasn't that he didn't believe Hawk.
Rather... Peter thought about how devoutly Hawk had just called out to God, respecting God, and looked at Hawk with some incomprehension.
"Then why were you so devout just now?"
"What's wrong?"
"God and you..."
"Oh."
Hawk didn't wait for Peter to finish speaking, already knowing what Peter wanted to say, and waved his hand.
"Believing in God and me chopping up God are two different things."
"Who says that if you believe in God, you can't chop him up?"
"Besides."
"God is God, and Jehovah is Jehovah!"
"When I chop up Jehovah, I will be the new God."
"At that time, believing in God will be believing in myself."
"So, why can't I believe in God?"
Anyway, when he chopped up God, it wouldn't have any impact on Earth, and as long as he didn't say anything, the Vatican probably wouldn't even know that the source of their faith had changed.
But at that time, Hawk wouldn't bother to inform the Vatican, saying something like, your Lord has changed from Jehovah to Hawk.
One sentence.
Dimensions need faith.
He, Hawk, the Phoenix saint seiya, the Lord of the Phoenix Parallel Universe, does not need any faith.
Faith is like incense, it's poison.
Just like Blood God Madora.
He played with the faith of the vampires, but unfortunately, it backfired; after Deacon Frost died, the last believer who knew of his god died, and Blood God Madora also met his destined end.
So—
Faith, this thing, not even a dog wants it!
After Hawk finished speaking, he looked at Peter, who was wide-mouthed, raised an eyebrow, and patted Peter's shoulder, saying with a smile: "Just keep it to yourself. You wouldn't want the approximately 2.4 billion believers worldwide to have their faith collapse after knowing the truth, would you?"
After speaking.
He patted Peter's shoulder again, then walked towards Gwen, who was coming through the back door to find him.
Gwen looked at Hawk approaching her, then at Peter, who had turned around with a somewhat dazed expression, and curiously looked at Hawk.
"What did you talk about with Peter?"
"God."
"Oh, is he curious why you want to chop up God, but were so devout just now?"
"Hmm."
Hawk nodded, looking at Gwen: "How did you know?"
Gwen smiled slightly: "Because I was quite curious too."
Hawk shrugged.
"God's belongs to God, and Jehovah's belongs to Jehovah."
"And..."
"I came out of the church choir, so of course I'm devout."
Hawk said casually, recalling his childhood days with his sister in the church, and looked at Gwen: "After all, if I didn't act devout, I would have been hungry as a child."
Gwen, hearing this, pursed her lips and hugged Hawk.
Hawk also hugged Gwen.
Half an hour later.
At the church entrance.
Gwen, while teasing Xiao Ben, who was giggling and clutching a golden cross in his stroller, was talking to Felicia: "I've seen the resumes of the personnel you sent me. I've selected a few and sent them to your email. Let's go with those four for now, and we can add more later if needed."
Because when Gwen was jointly researching the regeneration experiment with Helen Cho, she used Dr. Connors' previous research theory on lizard regeneration.
And that intellectual property belonged to Osborn Biological Industry.
Gwen had obtained Felicia's authorization in advance, and Dr. Helen Cho also promised that once research results were achieved, Osborn Biological Industry would be given priority for commercialization.
And now.
As Gwen graduated with her Dr., the commercialization of the regeneration experiment was also beginning to get on track.
Gwen also got her first job after graduating with her Dr..
Still at Osborn.
But no longer assisting others, instead working in the Stacy Phoenix Biological Laboratory, fully funded by Osborn.
These days, Gwen often talked with Felicia, discussing laboratory equipment and some initial staff.
Felicia nodded.
"Alright, I'll have HR send invitation letters to the people you sent."
"No problem."
Gwen smiled, looking at Xiao Ben giggling in the stroller, and reached out her hands to caress Xiao Ben's cheeks: "Wow, our Xiao Ben is so cute."
Hawk was Xiao Ben's godfather, and after she and Hawk got married next year, she would naturally be Xiao Ben's godmother.
Again.
The godmother's say in Xiao Ben's life plan was also greater than that of his mother, Felicia.
Hawk, after shaking hands and bidding farewell to the priest with Peter, also walked out of the church.
After a while.
Peter and Felicia got into the car, waved goodbye, and the driver drove away from the church.
Hawk and Gwen also withdrew their gaze, turned, and walked towards 521A Palm Street.
Half an hour later.
Boom!
A rainbow light shot up from the backyard of 521A Palm Street, appearing thousands of miles above in just a blink of an eye, then its speed suddenly accelerated, creating a sonic boom cloud, and with a whoosh, it broke through the atmosphere.
In the New York S.H.I.E.L.D. central hub, alarms blared on the large screen!
Just then.
Sharon opened her office door, stood in the hallway, and glanced at the alarm on the large screen below.
"Cancel the alarm, execute Project Shackle."
"Yes."
The alarm disappeared as ordered, and at the same time, a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. elite Agents left the central hub, quickly heading to 521A Palm Street to execute the plan to protect the Demon King's Shackle.
Sharon also returned to her office.
She had just received a call from Gwen and already knew that Hawk was leaving New York City for a trip.
"By the way, Gwen, where is Hawk going this trip, and do we need to do anything?"
"Uh, you can't help anymore."
"Hawk said Mephisto occupied his territory."
"He's going to make Mephisto move."
"..."
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