Inside St. Mark's Church.
The priest of the church, as he accepted the check Hawk handed him, showed a compassionate expression.
"May the Lord bless you, Mr. Hawk Phoenix."
"Praise the Lord!"
Hawk also said with a solemn expression, "The attacks of heretics can never shatter our faith in the Lord."
The priest's expression was heavy, thinking of the holy land that had been mysteriously removed from Earth yesterday.
"Amen."
"Amen."
Hawk followed closely behind, joining the priest in a moment of silence for the nation-within-a-nation that had been directly wiped off the Earth by some unknown entity yesterday.
Not far away.
Sharon, standing shoulder to shoulder with Gwen in the cemetery, watched Hawk, who was bowing his head in silence with the priest, and her lips twitched.
Just looking at Hawk's expression of donation and mourning for the vanished Vatican, for a moment, Sharon felt a bit dazed, subconsciously thinking that Hawk, with such deep faith, could absolutely not be the peerless demon king who yesterday went against the current to attack Heaven, and then casually wiped out the Vatican on his return to Earth.
She had not learned of the results of the battle in Heaven.
But the Vatican... thinking of the Vatican that had been wiped out in an instant yesterday, Sharon couldn't help but lower her voice and ask Gwen beside her.
"Gwen, how did the Vatican provoke him? Did you ask?"
"I asked."
Gwen replied in a low voice, "Mr. Chloe has been imprisoned inside the Vatican all these years since he was taken away."
Sharon and Gwen exchanged a look, then nodded, letting out a sigh of relief.
"That's good."
"Will there be trouble?"
"No."
Sharon shook her head, "The three Security Council members are a bit worried, but since Hawk had a just cause, then there's no problem."
It is well known.
Hawk is very powerful, but since his debut, except for the one time at Quantico Base, every battle he has fought has been actively chosen to be as far away from cities and crowds as possible.
This is also one of the reasons why the Security Council chose to prioritize peace.
But yesterday.
Hawk broke through the atmosphere, and with just one strike, completely razed the Vatican to the ground within 0.001 seconds.
No.
To be precise, there was a ten-meter deep pit where the nation-within-a-nation in Italy used to be.
That day, less than an hour after the incident, the news had already spread throughout the World.
Fox News: "Divine Wrath or Attack, Nation-Within-A-Nation Evaporates Instantly!"
CNN reported: "Vatican Destroyed, Pope Missing!"
Reuters: "Vatican in Italy Destroyed by Unknown Attack, Leaving a Ten-Meter Deep Pit!"
The World was in an uproar.
The World Security Council immediately convened an emergency meeting to discuss what kind of attack this was.
But the five major powers, knowing the truth, immediately contacted S.H.I.E.L.D., Maria Hill contacted Sharon, Sharon contacted Gwen... The five major powers were very worried that this attack was Hawk's first display of his true power after years of biding his time.
But... the nation-within-a-nation committed evil first, and Hawk was just retaliating.
That was enough.
"By the way, Heaven..."
"Mephisto has already occupied Heaven."
Gwen said in a low voice.
She had already learned the entire process of Hawk's battle last night, recounted by Hawk himself after the fact.
Tens of millions of Heavenly beings.
Tens of... gone.
Heaven was completely gone.
But Gwen, in a flash of thought, chose to answer Sharon by saying that Mephisto had occupied Heaven.
Gwen felt that if she said Hawk had completely destroyed Heaven, the murderous intent would be too heavy, and it was better to push Mephisto forward.
Anyway, that was also a fact.
Soon.
As the two women spoke in low voices, Hawk, who had donated ten thousand U.S. dollars to the departed Vatican, bid farewell to the priest and walked into the cemetery.
Hawk looked at the resting place of his sister, Anya.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents brought by Sharon had already dug up Anya's resting place, just waiting for Hawk to nod so they could retrieve the coffin buried inside.
Hawk said, "Get to it."
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents quickly got to work, and soon, using the tools they brought, they lifted the coffin that had been buried in the resting place. It had been replaced once after that move, looking more luxurious and comfortable.
The coffin was pure white with gold floral patterns, and it had cost Hawk five thousand U.S. dollars at the time.
Pocket change.
He had achieved financial freedom after receiving war reparations from Quantico Base.
And even more so now.
Anyway, he didn't know since when, but the amount in his Stark bank account had never dropped below ten million U.S. dollars.
Simply put, no matter how much Hawk spent, if he spent ten million on the first day, the next day, the bank card balance would automatically replenish to ten million.
Who did it?
It wasn't important.
Just like Hawk tacitly allowed Westview on the outskirts of Jersey City, some things were understood without needing to dig for answers.
As for why he had so much money in his card but only donated ten thousand U.S. dollars, the reason was simple.
The other party was only worth ten thousand U.S. dollars.
However, these were not important either. What was most important to Hawk right now was the major event of his sister Anya's resurrection.
After the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents carefully lowered the coffin, Hawk walked over to it. He didn't choose to open the coffin to look at his sister inside, but instead patted the coffin, took a deep breath, and said, "I'm taking you home, sister."
With that.
He turned to Sharon and nodded.
Sharon understood and nodded to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents she had brought, who were responsible for the excavation and for transporting Anya's coffin to the Tahiti cloning Base.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents silently became pallbearers, lifted Anya's coffin, and walked out of the cemetery.
A black van was already waiting there.
Once the black van loaded the coffin, it immediately set off, heading at the fastest speed to the nearest private plane.
There, the S.H.I.E.L.D. private jet was already prepared, just waiting for the coffin to be transferred to the cabin, and then it would take off, flying quickly to the Tahiti cloning Base, which was also ready, just waiting for the coffin to arrive to extract DNA and begin the cloning process.
In fact, Hawk could have directly taken the coffin and teleported to the Tahiti cloning Base in one second.
Hawk had wanted to do that.
But he had more important things to do.
For example—
His sister had missed many Christmases, and this Christmas, he wanted his sister to be with him.
But Christmas was less than a month away, and according to the cloning Base's progress, even with acceleration, it would be impossible to make it.
After all, cloning takes time.
So... Hawk planned to speed up time.
Therefore, after Sharon followed the car to ensure Anya's coffin arrived at the cloning Base intact, Hawk also took Gwen once again to Kamar-Taj on the snowy mountain, to borrow the eye of agamotto for the third time from the Sorcerer Supreme Gu Yi, who had postponed her retirement.
Just like the first and second times Hawk borrowed the Time Stone, Ancient One this time still looked as if she already knew Hawk's intentions.
Ancient One, while instructing the librarian Wong to fetch the eye of agamotto, poured tea for Hawk and Gwen, then looked at Hawk.
"After this year, I should retire."
"..."
Hawk, holding his teacup, paused at her words, then looked at Ancient One, who had a slight smile on her face: "No more delaying retirement?"
Gwen, beside them, silently drank her tea, but her ears were perked, listening to the conversation between her fiancé and the Sorcerer Supreme.
Ancient One's smile remained unchanged.
"I can."
"..."
Hawk looked at Ancient One, speechless.
Ancient One's expression remained unchanged: "The past cannot be changed, only what is destined to happen in the past, but it doesn't say it cannot be postponed. After all, life is unpredictable. Mephisto is lurking outside Earth, devouring the Heaven Dimension, so even if someone summons Dormammu, Dormammu wouldn't dare to come."
Dormammu is the ruler of the Dark Dimension.
Mephisto is the ruler of the Hell Dimension, and the key point is that Mephisto is outside Earth, devouring the Heaven Dimension.
Although Dormammu and Mephisto are not enemies, in this situation, if Dormammu came to Earth, what if Mephisto mistakenly believed Dormammu was trying to snatch the Heaven Dimension and directly drew his knife to fight?
After all, at this time, Mephisto had completely unfurled his Hell Dimension.
It was clearly telling all dimensions.
If you dare to come and snatch, whoever comes, I'll fight them.
So... until Mephisto finished devouring the Heaven Dimension, Dormammu wouldn't dare to come, and Ancient One's destined demise could only be postponed.
After all, the script says Dormammu's arrival, Sorcerer Supreme's retirement.
They couldn't just not act it out.
Hawk looked at Ancient One, "I can make Mephisto devour it a bit slower."
With Ancient One around, it would be easier for him to borrow the Time Stone.
After all, compared to Dr. Strange, who held himself to his Dr. status, he preferred the Sorcerer Supreme, with whom he had a pleasant working relationship from the beginning.
The most important point.
He didn't particularly like Dr. Strange. While not to the point of disgust, his dislike was enough for him to choose not to interact with Dr. Strange.
So, if Ancient One could delay her retirement, he would be very happy.
As for the nonsense about disturbing the timeline.
Heh.
He had already messed up Avengers 2, so why would he care about anything else?
Furthermore.
Since his debut, he had hardly interfered with the storylines of any Marvel heroes, and even his interactions with superheroes were few and far between.
At most, when the Avengers were resting after fighting HYDRA and returning home, he would take Gwen to parties at Stark Tower to drink juice and such.
Yes.
Juice.
After all, he wouldn't turn twenty-one until after this year, so if he went to a party, wouldn't he drink juice instead of alcohol?
In short.
Marvel plot, none of his business.
But!
After Hawk's words, Ancient One smiled slightly, then shook her head.
"Once, twice, but not thrice."
"The first postponement was because of the struggle between Jehovah and Mephisto, which made Dormammu afraid to come to Earth, in case Heaven and Hell fought and ended up hitting the Dark Dimension."
"Therefore, my retirement was postponed."
"The second time is that Mephisto is currently devouring the Heaven Dimension. In this situation, no matter who comes, they will be tacitly considered an enemy by Mephisto."
"But Mephisto's devouring is not endless."
"So—"
"Once Mephisto finishes devouring Heaven, that will be the time for my journey in this Universe to end."
... (End of this chapter)
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