Mephisto gazed at Baron Blood before him. His schemes were in motion, and he was eager to see how Adam would respond.
Adam would likely assume Mephisto's first move would be to secure a contract with Doctor Strange. But that was not his plan. Instead, he had bypassed Strange entirely, striking a deal with Christina, who lay half-dead after a car accident.
Even if Adam sensed something amiss, it mattered little. Mephisto never relied on a single deception to achieve his goals.
The essence of deceit was to weave multiple falsehoods, each delaying the truth's revelation.
This meant that, with limited time and power, unraveling his schemes required ever more effort, shrinking the chance to uncover the truth until time ran out, allowing Mephisto to triumph.
Mephisto's scrutiny convinced him that Adam was no true genius, nor a detective with an intellect in the thousands. Breaking through his relentless cascade of ploys in such a frantic pace was near impossible.
Mephisto knew human intelligence well. He had calculated the cognitive speed of average humans, and even those slightly sharper.
Barring surprises, he was certain Adam couldn't keep up.
Even if Adam now sensed a problem, the Xenomorphs rushing to the scene were merely reacting after stumbling upon the issue.
"Adam may be unique, but he's still human." Mephisto mused. "That origin ensures limits in certain realms… Fooling humans is exquisite."
Mephisto's mood was buoyant. So what if Adam had destroyed one of his avatars? He relished how humans, aware of his malice and eager to destroy him, were forced to yield.
"You have less than a minute to decide." Mephisto purred to Victor, his voice dripping with temptation. "Agree, and I'll free you from that wretched body. The Xenomorphs are nearly here. When they arrive, not only will you die, but your brother Strange won't be spared."
"Don't listen, Victor! You'll die!" Came a shout from the screen, where Bruce Banner, still connected, stared in horror at the uncanny Christina, urging Victor to resist. "No one who deals with demons escapes unscathed!"
"Hulk…" Mephisto countered. "You, from this universe, know nothing of me. Why cast me as the villain without proof? I offer genuine aid to solve his plight. And you, his friend, what can you do?"
Banner's brow furrowed. He was powerless.
Continue using Hulk's blood to purge the vampire taint from Victor's body? The gamma radiation in that blood would slowly kill Victor just the same.
"Demon, you know me?" Banner asked.
"Of course." Mephisto replied. "I've dealt with many versions of you across countless universes."
"So the multiverse theory is true…" Banner said, glaring at Christina. "I should contact Adam. He'll end you. Even a demon like you will fall to him."
Mephisto sneered. "It seems Adam has built quite the cult in this universe, amassing followers. Even you believe in him. Pity he's not like the Olympian gods, thriving on your faith."
Olympus? Banner's mind raced. If Asgard exists, then Zeus's Olympian pantheon likely does too. But unlike Asgardians, they require human worship? He grappled with this revelation.
"I agree." Victor declared suddenly. "No one harms my brother, not even you, Mephisto."
"Excellent. The deal is struck." Mephisto said. "I'll grant you a new body."
A chilling laugh erupted from Mephisto as he seized control of Christina's form, driving her fist into her chest. Before Victor's stunned eyes, he tore out the Xenomorph embryo within.
"What are you doing, demon?!" Victor cried.
"As you see, I'm saving you." Mephisto said. "To shed an old body, you need a new one. How about a Xenomorph's? Fear not, this is a grand experiment. It'll reveal whether Adam's command over Xenomorphs is merely mental or extends to their genetic essence. This will help me gauge his true power."
Mephisto's cackling face radiated glee. He adored human bewilderment.
Through this, he aimed to evaluate Adam, suspected to be a nascent conceptual entity, and determine his potential.
Conceptual beings varied in rank, their scope dictating their value and utility.
Mephisto chanted an incantation, instantly reducing the Xenomorph in Christina and Victor's body to ash. From those ashes, he sculpted a new form.
The resulting body was a grotesque hybrid, half-human, half-Xenomorph. It bore a human shape with seamless, pale, rough skin, lacking the stark exoskeleton of typical Xenomorphs.
After a moment's thought, Mephisto infused it with a touch of his demonic essence.
For a demon of his caliber, manipulating energy and matter was child's play.
Victor screamed as his soul was ripped free and fused into the new body.
Mephisto admired his creation with satisfaction.
At that moment, Xenomorphs shattered the windows, bursting in.
"Oh? A speed-enhanced Xenomorph? I overlooked that." Mephisto noted.
Using Christina's body, Mephisto glanced at his bare wrist with blood-red eyes, as if checking a nonexistent watch.
"You've miscalculated more than a few seconds." Came Adam's voice, projected through the sleek, swift Xenomorph. "But I must thank you for this new Xenomorph. I'll use it to pioneer a demonic branch."
More Xenomorphs swarmed, encircling the villa.
Panic gripped the affluent neighborhood. Chaos erupted as luxury cars and helicopters fled in droves.
With countless Xenomorphs, some airborne, others burrowing, and Xenomorph heroes converging, only a fool would miss that the esteemed Doctor Strange was in grave peril.
Linger, and they risked becoming casualties in a catastrophe claiming hundreds of thousands.
S.H.I.E.L.D. received word, but Director Maria Hill, stretched thin, had no resources to spare.
The Xenomorphs' relentless assaults had already exhausted S.H.I.E.L.D. Reports flooded in of global outposts razed and agents slain by Xenomorphs.
Despite S.H.I.E.L.D.'s arsenal and manpower, the Xenomorphs' sheer numbers rendered their efforts futile.
Every clash exposed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' positions, drawing swarms of Xenomorphs that overwhelmed and obliterated their forces.
Maria Hill was at her breaking point, visibly aged by the strain.
She sought aid, but none could help. What could be done? Launch nuclear strikes worldwide to bombard the Xenomorphs?
Beyond the absurdity of such a plan, even if it could decimate common Xenomorphs, how would they counter mighty Xenomorph heroes like the Female Thor?
And then there was Adam, the untouchable mastermind orchestrating it all.
Banner relayed what he knew to Tony Stark without delay.
"No dice." Tony said. "Hill's clinging to the Celestial Armor, refusing to hand it over unless I join her fight against the Xenomorphs. That ties my hands from tackling higher-level threats."
Tony sighed, rubbing his temples. "Doesn't she realize the armor's upgrades aren't finished? Who else has a brain like mine to control that kind of power? Its data stream could fry the world's best supercomputers in seconds."
Hill saw the Celestial Armor as a game-changer, but Tony refused to engage.
What could he do? Lead a depleted Avengers team into a global war against Adam? Be chased across the planet by Xenomorphs?
No chance.
"If I'd developed a cure to purge the vampire blood sooner, Baron Blood might've had a better fate than being caught between two monsters." Banner muttered, adjusting his glasses.
In moments free from frontline combat, Banner could finally flex his scientific prowess, rather than lose himself as the Hulk, smashing blindly and waking to chaos he couldn't recall.
"Watch Mephisto's next move." Tony said, ending the call. "Legends paint him as cunning and treacherous. Stay sharp."
What would this world become? The relentless emergence of god-tier threats left Tony, who needed time to innovate, utterly drained.
Banner turned silently, observing the standoff between Mephisto and the Xenomorphs, effectively a confrontation with Adam himself, each Xenomorph an extension of his will.
"This is my one-of-a-kind Xenomorph, and it doesn't belong to you." Mephisto said with a low chuckle, his excitement palpable at Adam's presence.
"All Xenomorphs are mine." Adam countered.
"Oh? If you wield such power, your reach exceeds my expectations." Mephisto replied, thrilled.
He commanded the new Xenomorph: "Go, my servant. Kill that Xenomorph before you."
Victor, bewildered in his new body, felt Mephisto's words as an undeniable spell, igniting the demonic power within him, compelling him to move.
But in the next instant, Adam's gaze, piercing through space, seized the Xenomorph essence within Victor, commanding it to act against Mephisto's will.
The conflict tore at Victor's being.
"Unimpressive." Adam said, shaking his head. "This Xenomorph holds no novelty for me."
In a moment, he seized control of Victor's Xenomorph components, every gene, bloodline, and fragment of Xenomorph consciousness absorbed by Victor's soul, even the parts where Victor's mind was inevitably shaped by the Xenomorph biology. From the instant they existed, they belonged to Adam.
This was Adam's innate dominion over Xenomorphs, his greatest gift.
Mephisto, witnessing it all, grew ecstatic. "Remarkable. You're even more exceptional than I anticipated. This alone justifies my efforts."
This conceptual entity, birthed by the cosmos, was of a higher caliber than Mephisto had guessed. What he'd probed was enough to delight him, and he believed Adam's unexplored potential could elevate him further.
But Mephisto's blood-red eyes met Adam's mocking gaze.
"So, I've impressed you? My value exceeds your imagination?" Adam said. "Then you'd better be alive to claim it!"
Though standing as a Xenomorph, Adam exuded a commanding presence over Mephisto.
"Either bring your true self to this universe now for a chance to amuse me, or crawl back to your hell. These schemes with your avatar are nothing but childish tricks."
Adam continued: "You tricked Christina into a deal, used her to access my Xenomorph, indirectly binding it through a soul contract to test my limits. You thought I'd focus on Christina, but your real target was always Strange."
"You thought I'd let you manipulate me, let Strange witness me killing Christina?"
"You thought you could lure Strange to your side, have him serve you? Learn your magic, perhaps? Or, bound by your deal, join Kamar-Taj and open gateways to other realms for you?"
Mephisto's grin faded, replaced by astonishment.
He disliked dealing with the cunning, as he rarely deployed his true form to seize desires by force.
"All your plans are within my plans." Adam said, sneering.
He might lack Mephisto's ancient demonic experience, but in one aspect, he surpassed him.
Adam had seen Mephisto's machinations across countless universes, scripts of his schemes!
With outcomes in hand, reverse-engineering causes was simple. Armed with vast computational resources, deducing Mephisto's likeliest moves was no challenge.
Mephisto's deceptions thrived on exploiting circumstances, nudging key players at critical junctures to make choices that seemed to benefit them but ultimately served him.
"In mere minutes, I've had to raise my estimation of you again." Mephisto admitted. "But this isn't the elevation I desired."
He had other tricks, but opened his mouth, using Christina's body as fuel to unleash a potent demonic spell.
Christina's form withered, reduced to a desiccated husk.
Doctor Strange, roused by Druid's intervention, woke to see this and roared in anguish, eyes splitting with rage: "No, !"
But demons cared nothing for mortal pleas. Without magical training, Strange's potential was worthless.
Worse, Mephisto couldn't mold Strange into a mage of hatred.
As Christina perished, her magic coalesced, forming a quivering portal.
"Beware." Came a voice. "This is the infamous 'Singson Banishment,' a vile spell across the multiverse."
A golden portal opened beside Adam, and the Ancient One stepped through.
Adam and the Ancient One exchanged a glance, both exercising restraint, then watched as the fragile portal erupted, unleashing… multiple Mephistos.
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