"Soul? Magic? Experiment?"
Tony stared at Luca blankly, unable to comprehend how these words fit together.
However, given Luca's track record, Tony didn't immediately assume Luca had lost his mind just because the lab looked like the site of an evil ritual.
Although he was worried Luca might be going down the wrong path, he was willing to hear his explanation.
But Tony didn't expect Luca's explanation to be so... crude.
"Si Bei, give Tony a little performance. Show him a variety of tricks."
Saying this, Luca waved casually at Si Bei, then crossed his arms and looked at Tony with the air of a sage.
For the next ten minutes or so...
Under Tony's watchful gaze, Si Bei "performed" a series of ninjutsu abilities: spewing water and fire, transformation, summoning, sealing, and genjutsu.
Although it wasn't technically magic, to an outsider, the ninjutsu from the Naruto world was virtually indistinguishable from true magic.
Seeing Tony break out in a cold sweat and gasp for air after snapping out of the Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique, Luca finally handed him a cup of hot cocoa and comforted him perfunctorily.
"Alright, alright. It's not like you haven't seen Thor and Loki use divine power and magic before. No need to be so jumpy, right?"
Tony subconsciously took the hot cocoa, but hearing Luca's words, he still glanced fearfully at Si Bei, who was standing quietly in the distance with a poker face.
Although he hadn't thought much of Loki—who seemed to only use projections and illusions—after seeing Si Bei "perform" the first few jutsu, Tony realized this guy seemed to be a genuine sorcerer.
But what really made him sweat bullets was the scene he saw in that final illusion, the "Hell Viewing Technique."
Unaware of exactly what Tony had seen in the illusion, Luca waited for him to calm down a bit before continuing his explanation.
"Actually, the reason I'm running this experiment..."
He briefly explained his mother Gina's condition and the concepts of Hell, demons, and souls.
However, Luca didn't admit that he had lured Justine Hammer into a trap because he wanted her spatial artifact to open a Hell Gate.
Instead, he flipped the sequence of events. He claimed Justine Hammer attacked him with a demonic weapon first, and after killing her in self-defense, he obtained the Crimson Cloak. It was through studying this magical item that he noticed the cause of Gina's abnormality.
As for his other magical knowledge, Luca pinned most of it on Si Bei, the wandering mage he had "saved."
"To put it bluntly, whether it's magic or souls, it's just science by another path."
"Besides, Tony, surely there's someone you want to see again, right?"
Looking into Luca's sincere eyes, Tony vaguely sensed some holes in the story.
But knowing that Luca was doing this to save his mother, Tony simply nodded with a complex expression and didn't dig deeper.
However...
"Magic is magic, but Hell and souls... are you sure they actually exist?"
Hearing Tony's question, Luca looked toward a metal wall in the laboratory.
He raised his hand and snapped his fingers lightly.
Snap.
The next moment, the metal wall slowly slid open to both sides.
Immediately, the sound of bzzt-bzzt electrical crackling, along with dull roars and thuds, drifted out from behind it.
When the metal curtain fully opened, Tony was stunned to discover...
Imprisoned behind it was a hideous little red-skinned demon.
At this moment, the imp—less than a meter tall, with two horns on its head and a slender tail dragging behind it—was furiously ramming against the glass cage in front of it.
But every time it was about to hit the glass, runes etched onto the surface would light up, forming a crimson electrical net that zapped the imp and bounced it back to the center of the cage.
Whether it was because Luca's lab had excellent soundproofing or because the imp hadn't been ramming the wall before the metal door opened...
Tony hadn't noticed any commotion from inside until now.
"Th-th-this..."
Tony pointed a trembling finger at the hideous imp bashing against the wall. He was dumbstruck, unable to form a complete sentence for a good while.
Seeing this, Luca scratched his head awkwardly and whispered an explanation.
"Well, uh, I've actually figured out the technology to pull demons over from Hell."
"But since I can't send a probe over there right now, I can't confirm the situation on the other side."
"I figured, instead of risking a trip deep into Hell, I might as well try a targeted anchor to pull a soul out of Hell directly."
Actually, even if he could send someone to the Hell dimension, Luca had no intention of risking his own life right now.
As a Hell Lord, Mephisto was nearly invincible on his home turf.
And since the Hell dimension was a complete world, its scale was massive.
Whether from the perspective of power levels or the difficulty of the search, actively exploring Hell was the worst possible option.
Luca's so-called "Soul Positioning & Retrieval" was essentially relying on the Hell Gate/Demon Summoning tech brought back from the Devil May Cry world, combined with Si Bei's Impure World Reincarnation, using the link between body and soul to try and drag the "deceased's" soul directly out of Hell.
After listening to Luca's explanation, Tony's eyes flickered with uncertainty. After a long silence, he spoke again, his tone stiff.
"What you're doing is too dangerous!"
"The issue of parallel universe incursions hasn't even been solved yet. If you trigger an invasion from the Hell dimension on top of that..."
Tony didn't finish the sentence, but the determination in his eyes spoke volumes.
However, just as Luca was about to open his mouth to explain further...
"So, I must watch over you! For the upcoming experiments, we will proceed together! Just to make sure you don't accidentally cause a massive disaster!"
"Uh... this..."
Although he had originally planned to ask for Tony's help, for some reason, after hearing that tone that allowed no refusal, Luca suddenly felt an inexplicable urge to practice a certain "percussion instrument" on Tony's face.
"Let's start! What are you standing there for?!"
---
One week later.
Having just returned to New York, Gwen sighed helplessly as she changed into her Ghost-Spider suit and climbed up the exterior wall of the Aurantius Industries tower.
Knock, knock, knock, knock.
She rapped on the glass.
"Hey, Mr. Stark! You said you were going to drag Luca out of the lab, but Miss Potts tells me you haven't replied to her messages in a week!"
---