章 284: Chapter 284: Mephisto's Interest
"I'm not interested in demons, but if you want to talk about it, I'm quite interested in how to kill demons."
Upon hearing Mephisto's words, Oaks raised an eyebrow and pondered for a moment before adding, "Also, I'm not interested in old men.
If you're here to get treatment for your receding hairline, please leave."
"..."
"Hahaha..."
Johnny held his belly and laughed hard. It was the first time he had seen the embarrassed expression of this notorious Lord of Hell.
"Cough... Johnny, mocking this old man is not something a polite person should do."
"Polite? If you want me to kill you, I promise I'll be polite!"
"Johnny?"
Oaks tapped Johnny, who was grinding his teeth. Although his powers came from this Lord of Hell, he had been deceived enough.
If I can't win, can't I at least trash talk!
"What?"
"The witch seems to be waking up... Take her away from here for now, and I'll take you back later."
Oaks sensed that Agatha's breathing had stabilized, indicating that the adaptation process of her soul had ended.
Moreover, the current Agatha felt different to him compared to before.
"You're going to face Mephisto alone?!"
Johnny exclaimed in astonishment with his mouth wide open.
"But he's a Lord of Hell! Don't you know how powerful he is? He..."
"He's just a soul imprint. If his true form dares to come, there will be trouble waiting for him on Earth."
Oaks touched the back of his hand, where the magical imprint left by the Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One, existed.
Just as Odin could sense the magical imprint of the Ancient One, Mephisto could naturally do the same.
"Well, it's better to keep this shackle locked for now. The witch's power is fine, but she has too many tricks. It's hard to defend against."
Seeing the change in Mephisto's expression, Johnny hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
"Be careful."
He glared at Mephisto, transformed into his Ghost rider form, and lifted Agatha as he walked towards the motorcycle outside the ruins.
Once Johnny and Agatha's figures disappeared from the ruins, Oaks turned back to Mephisto.
"Alright, now there's no need for any more hiding... What is your goal?"
"Do you know, Druid..."
Mephisto moved his fingers, and in the next moment, a glass of red wine appeared in his right hand.
He placed the wine glass under his nose, sniffed it carefully, then took a sip and revealed a satisfied smile.
"Since you started to gain prominence, my income has decreased significantly... It's been so stressful that I'm losing my hair!"
"Income? You mean souls?"
Oaks furrowed his brow. He knew that the Lords of Hell gained energy by feeding on the souls of mortals who descended into Hell and their negative emotions such as fear, anger, sadness, and pain.
He didn't have much of an opinion on this matter. As long as it wasn't the Lords of Hell actively harvesting souls, and when humans died, their souls naturally belonged to Hell, they had the right to dispose of them.
This had been the way the world worked for thousands of years, and to some extent, it could be considered part of the natural order.
But did I somehow affect Mephisto's income, that is, the number of souls he obtained?
"You're giving me too much credit!"
Oaksa bsolutely denied this three times in a row.
"How many people who were supposed to die have I saved? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?
Compared to your immense profits, it's like a drop in the ocean. Are you bothering me just for this?"
He snorted and shook his head.
"If you want to find an excuse, find a better one. Why haven't I heard about you blocking the doors of hospitals?"
If Mephisto cared about these things, wouldn't he have to eliminate all the doctors in the world?
Well, he would have to dare to do that first.
"No, no, no... You may not realize what you've done, but you've allowed countless people who were supposed to die to continue living..."
Mephisto shook the wine glass, and the liquid inside glowed like blood, dazzling to the eyes.
"Just in the battle in New York a few years ago, thousands of people were saved from immediate death and subsequent ineffective treatment because of your healing magic...
And the marvelous negative emotions they would have generated in that situation were also purified!"
A flash of red light passed through Mephisto's eyes, and he tapped his staff on the ground with his left hand, as if in a slightly agitated mood.
"Recovery potions, large-scale environmental remediation, that's not enough. And you've even intervened in the food industry!"
Mephisto shook his head repeatedly, sighing with anguish.
"Do you know how high the quality of souls and the wonderful negative emotions are when they die in the agony of terminal illnesses, environmental disaster, and hunger?
But now, thanks to you, the quantity and quality of both souls and negative emotions have been greatly reduced!"
Faced with Mephisto's "reasonable and well-founded" accusations, Oaks touched his nose, feeling somewhat speechless.
Indeed, this old bastard made sense.
However, he probably didn't know that because of Oaks' intervention with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Infinity Stones, events such as the catastrophic crashing of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier and the Sokovia incident...
…Never happened!
The Insight Carriers never took off, and Ultron was never created. The tragedies that were supposed to send countless souls to Hell didn't happen. Those souls that should have been sent to Hell were still alive and well in the world!
Even because of his involvement in the Inhuman incident, the Inhuman clan led by Jiaying is now in an alliance with him...
Because of this, many deaths that were supposed to occur will no longer happen.
Not to mention the unparalleled negative emotions that the individuals involved and the entire human society would have generated in these tragedies!
In this regard, due to Oaks' influence, Mephisto has probably lost several years' worth of normal income from just these few events...
In that case, the old bastard's approach in coming to him now seems... quite reasonable.
And if we take into account what comes later, Mephisto's losses are even greater...
As Oaks' expression gradually became subtle, Mephisto continued to ramble:
"Furthermore, you have the power of resurrection, don't you? Do you know that resurrection is like taking food right out of my mouth?!"
At this point, the Lord of Hell was already furious. He threw the wine glass in his hand backward with an indignant expression:
"Although you haven't used this power much on Earth, the people you think are worth saving, even in the eyes of us Lords of Hell, have absolutely high-quality souls...
And what was that you just displayed? A pocket dimension? What are you trying to do?"
Mephisto waved his arm vigorously:
"With your character, are you planning to build shelters or something? How many people would that divert?
When you add all these things together, isn't that enough for me to be interested in you—
Do you really think there are many people on Earth who can do what you can?!"
Having angered the Lord of Hell to the point of cursing, Oaks didn't know how many people had done it before, but...
It was unexpectedly satisfying.
"So, when you deliberately instigated Johnny and Agatha to fight during the search for the Darkhold, was it to lure me over?"
Oaks chuckled:
"Do you think I'm an idiot? Will you believe your nonsense??"
"This incident was just an accident!"
At this point, Mephisto became even more infuriated. He swung the exquisite staff in his hand and his face was... filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred?!
"How was I supposed to know that old bastard Odin was hiding on Earth!
And... and he even opened such a massive nightclub! And it's a chain!"
"..."
Oaks opened his mouth. I shouldn't be hallucinating, right?
This guy Mephisto, was he just now envious and jealous of Odin?!
"The King of Nightclubs! What a noble position..."
"Wait a minute! Wait a minute..."
Oaks waved his hands repeatedly, interrupting Mephisto's envy:
"King? Do you have some misunderstanding about nightclubs?"
"Misunderstanding? No, no, no..."
Mephisto rolled his eyes, wearing an expression of "this young man hasn't seen the world":
"Don't you know how much effort it takes for leaders like us to maintain our image in front of our subordinates?
Especially when there are exciting earthly things... but with the Supreme Sorcerer guarding..."
He licked his lips and glanced at the back of Oaks' hand, then cleared his throat:
"Well, in any case, it's basically impossible for our true forms to come and experience life on Earth!
But that old bastard Odin actually cheated!
Why would the Supreme Sorcerer allow such a deity to open a bar on Earth and flirt with girls?!"
Oaks instinctively touched his nose again, feeling that this matter seemed to be somewhat related to him...
So, it seemed quite reasonable for Mephisto to come looking for me.
Moreover, if it wasn't for Odin detecting his presence, who knows what would have happened if he took the initiative to find me?
At that time, it wouldn't just be a soul imprint that is forcibly stripped by him, right?
"So, what do you intend to do? If you're dissatisfied with Odin, you can go find him yourself, or go ask the Supreme Sorcerer for permission."
Oaks crossed his arms and calmly looked at Mephisto, who had an embarrassed expression:
"And my plan of healing and promoting the balance between humans and nature will not change.
Originally, I had no grudges with you, but if you want to stop me, I will do everything in my power to deal with you."
The current Oaks wasn't alone.
From a mortal agent to a god-level big shot, he had connections.
"...In fact, I hate violence. It lacks any technicality."
Mephisto clearly understood this. He wasn't originally planning to come to Oaks, but...
Since his soul imprint was torn off by the other party and the Darkhold was lost, if he didn't do something this time, he would be mocked by other Lords of Hell...
"Well... you have a pocket dimension, one that you can fully control, right?"
"Yeah, you've said it three times."
"So... Do you want your pocket dimension to evolve into a true dimension?"
"..."
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