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Mephisto gave in.
After Hawk swore his oath to the Goddess of Death, Mephisto chose to trust him one more time.
Though—
He didn't have much choice.
Those with nothing to lose don't fear those with everything to lose. And right now, the situation was exactly as Hawk had said—Mephisto was the one with something to lose.
Mephisto couldn't enter Hawk's universe.
But Hawk could blockade his Hell Dimension. More than that, Hawk had made it crystal clear during their last encounter in Hell what would happen if things escalated.
"I'll spend the rest of my life doing nothing but camping your Hell Dimension's gate. If you've got the guts, never come out. I'll wait you out until you rot."
Thinking about that... Mephisto shuddered. He could only swallow his rage and accept the humiliation.
After Hawk finished his oath, Mephisto turned and left without a word.
What else was he supposed to do? Stick around and get insulted some more?
But...
This wasn't over.
We'll see about this. Just you wait.
The moment the Gates of Hell slammed shut, Mephisto turned back. His demonic eyes locked with Hawk's one final time, burning with suppressed fury and volcanic rage.
Hawk felt Mephisto's hatred. He didn't care.
The moment he'd used force to take his sister's soul from Hell, he'd known he and Mephisto were enemies for life.
Demons weren't just untrustworthy. They were petty as hell. A single glance could make them think you were looking down on them.
And Mephisto, as the biggest demon lord in the Hell Dimension, was petty on a legendary scale.
Funny thing, though—
Hawk wasn't exactly generous himself.
To be precise, transmigrators never were.
So, One day, I'm swallowing your Hell Dimension whole.
Hawk watched Mephisto disappear from view, making that silent promise. Then the Black Phoenix Surplice disassembled itself and returned to the palace in his Underworld. He took one step forward and returned to the physical world, sinking his consciousness into his Cosmo.
His conversation with Mephisto had taken place in the rift between dimensions. Time-wise, it had been instantaneous.
And the moment Mephisto abandoned his claim to Alexander Pierce's soul, the latter's spirit—confused and disoriented—was drawn into the Underworld and cast into one of the Prisons.
Hawk's Underworld had Eight Prisons.
He'd created them using the Life-Death Law Fragment he'd looted from Blackheart, combined with the Four Creation Elements from the Elemental Demons and the Reality Stone. He'd based the design on the Underworld Specters' prisons from his previous life.
Each of the Eight Prisons served a unique purpose.
They were:
The First Prison: The Court of Judgment. Eventually, this would govern all life within his Cosmo. It would hold the Book of Life and Death, judge the sins committed during life, determine rewards and punishments, and assign sinners to the appropriate Hell based on the severity of their crimes.
The Second Prison: The Acid Rain Prison. An endless pocket dimension where condemned souls would endure constant downpours of corrosive rain capable of dissolving spirits. They would die, revive, die again—over and over in an eternal cycle until their sentence was complete.
The Third Prison: The Stone Mill Prison. A massive circular grinding platform connected to three colossal mountain-sized pillars that rotated at constant speed. Condemned souls would be forced to run endlessly across the surface. They could choose not to run—but the result would be getting crushed beneath the pillars, dying, and then reviving to do it all over again...
And Alexander Pierce—right now—was in the Stone Mill Prison.
The moment his soul finished being violently stretched during the tug-of-war, Pierce suddenly appeared on the massive stone platform of the Stone Mill Prison. His expression twisted in horror as he took in his surroundings.
Vast. Desolate. A world painted in hopeless shades of brown and gray. In the distance, a towering mountain-sized pillar—so massive it blotted out the sky—rolled toward him.
No time to think.
Alexander Pierce turned and ran on pure instinct.
The pillar pursued.
Pierce ran.
But...
No matter how fast he ran, he couldn't escape. The moment he started running, Pierce realized something was wrong—his legs felt like they were weighed down with lead. But before he could figure out why, the mountain pillar behind him closed the distance with a shrieking roar of wind.
The next second, Alexander Pierce was crushed to death beneath the pillar. The second after that, Alexander Pierce revived behind the pillar. Before he could process what had just happened, he heard the thunderous rumbling behind him again.
He looked up.
Another mountain pillar appeared in his field of vision.
"What the fuck—"
"Welcome to my Prison, Pierce."
Hawk appeared silently within the Stone Mill Hell.
Pierce's eyes widened as he saw Hawk, then looked at the pillar that had frozen mid-rotation.
In that instant—
He finally understood why Hawk had killed him so easily. He also understood what Hawk had meant when he said "death is worse than life."
So death really wasn't the end. It was just the beginning.
Alexander Pierce replayed the memory of being crushed beneath that mountain pillar—the sheer agony of it. He looked at Hawk standing before him, and even his breathing stopped for a moment.
Though he'd already forgotten he was dead. He didn't need to breathe anymore.
Pierce's expression shifted.
Hawk let out a dry laugh.
"You think I'm going to keep asking you what you're hiding from me?"
"Don't worry."
"I'm not."
"Because I already gave you your last chance. You didn't take it. You're out of opportunities."
"So..."
"You'll stay here."
"Forever."
"..."
By the time Alexander Pierce snapped back to reality, Hawk had already vanished completely. And the mountain pillar that had been frozen in place resumed its rotation once more.
Alexander Pierce ran again. And was crushed to death again.
He would remain in this Stone Mill Prison, cycling endlessly through eternity—forever experiencing the punishment of fleeing, being crushed to death, and reviving on the spot.
Above the Stone Mill Prison, Hawk—having finished his conversation with Pierce—looked down calmly at the scene below.
Just like he'd said.
You only get one chance. He'd given it to Alexander Pierce. Pierce hadn't taken it. So now Pierce would carry his secret with him through eternal torment.
Hawk didn't care at all what secret Pierce was hiding.
Well... that wasn't entirely true. He cared a little. He just couldn't figure out what secret Pierce had that was worth dying—and suffering eternally—to protect.
But it was fine.
Once Anna died and her soul came to the Underworld, Hawk was confident she'd tell him everything.
Of course, Anna was just the backup plan. Hawk had other options.
After all, Alexander Pierce and Arnim Zola weren't the only HYDRA leaders.
HYDRA had several others.
And Hawk happened to know two more.
The first: Daniel Whitehall.
That guy was a real piece of work. He'd survived into the modern era by harvesting organs from an Inhuman woman named Jiaying—Skye's mother.
Because of that, Hawk's memory of him was particularly vivid.
However, Hawk only knew he existed. Where he was currently hiding? No idea.
But that was fine. There was still the second one.
Wolfgang von Strucker.
Or rather—Baron Strucker.
The HYDRA leader who used the Mind Stone to activate Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's abilities.
And Hawk knew exactly where he was.
Sokovia.
Perfect. The Mind Stone was in Sokovia too. He could swing by and grab both at once.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Hawk's form appeared at high altitude in an instant. The next moment, accompanied by a sonic boom, he transformed into a streak of light and shot toward Sokovia at incredible speed.
...
At the same time.
Back at the SHIELD Triskelion headquarters, Tony Stark heard JARVIS's voice.
"Sir, I've detected Mr. Phoenix's energy signature."
"Put it on screen."
"Yes, sir."
JARVIS immediately projected a real-time satellite feed.
In the image, Hawk was moving at incredible speed, so the camera had to zoom way out to keep him in frame without constantly switching feeds.
"That's not the direction back to New York."
"Correct."
"Can you predict his destination?"
"One moment."
JARVIS paused, then traced Hawk's current flight path. A small landlocked country in Eastern Europe—bordered by Slovakia and the Czech Republic—appeared on the map, highlighted.
"Sokovia."
Tony looked at the name, then turned to Natasha. "Where's that? Do you guys have a SHIELD base there?"
Natasha shook her head. "No."
Tony frowned with curiosity. "Then what's Hawk doing there?"
Just then—
JARVIS spoke again. "Sir, signal scan complete. I've confirmed the location of the suspected HYDRA signal source hidden outside Bleecker Street."
"Send it over."
"Already sent."
Tony looked at the signal source location JARVIS projected, then turned to Natasha. "I'm done here. I'm heading back to New York to deal with that hidden HYDRA cell."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
Tony's faceplate snapped shut as he walked toward the exit. "Hawk's better than Hulk. At least with Gwen around, I don't need to build an anti-Hawk armor."
That was the truth.
As long as Gwen was there, no matter how volatile Hawk got, he could be calmed down.
Unlike Hulk.
Hulk didn't listen to reason. He just smashed everything when he got angry.
Though—
Anti-Hawk armor?
Tony was actually working on that in secret.
Just in case...
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