"Ancient One, our deal with Mephisto has been exposed. Should we silence them?" Lucas asked the female Ancient One with a solemn expression.
Bang!
The male Ancient One shouted, slamming his hand on the table and knocking over their cards.
Every time he got worse and worse cards, how was he supposed to win?
"Silence them! We must silence them!"
Avengers: "!!!"
The four already nervous Avengers immediately became vigilant.
Under the stress response, Hulk replaced Bruce.
"Roar! Hulk, fearless!"
Hulk charged towards the male Ancient One, about to sweep him with a palm.
The male Ancient One did not get up, remaining seated on his stool. As Hulk approached, he bared his teeth and smiled.
Bang!
His body turned into a blur, dodging the attack, and Bruce's palm landed on Lucas's head, who hadn't reacted.
The male Ancient One thought, 'That's for always winning against me in the game just now, and for bragging about being the Card Emperor.'
With a muffled thud, Lucas's body didn't budge, only his stool shifted slightly.
A hint of confusion flashed in Hulk's eyes. This was the first time he had encountered someone who could withstand his attack without a scratch.
His fingers tightened, about to grab Lucas's shoulder for an over-the-shoulder throw.
Lucas gave the male Ancient One a look.
So old, yet still like a mischievous child, unable to handle losing.
"Calm down, Hulk. Try to control yourself, Dr. Banner." Lucas's voice carried mental power, calming Hulk.
Lucas raised his hand, wanting to tidy his hairstyle, which Hulk had messed up. His hand was halfway up when he remembered he had a buzz cut, so he feigned touching his hair. The next second, his hair grew wildly, forming a center-parted style.
Hawkeye and Blade were stunned.
Is this Sorcerer Lucas? He took a punch from Hulk without even flinching, acting as if nothing happened.
Natasha's attention was on another thing.
Is this a sorcerer? He can customize his hairstyle at will.
Tony ignored the two playful individuals and asked, "What's going on?"
The male Ancient One swept his hand, collecting the cards. Afterward, he sat to the side, looking at ease.
The female Ancient One then swept her hand, and a tea set appeared. Afterward, she quietly brewed tea on her own.
Seeing that neither of the Ancient Ones wanted to explain, Lucas could only do it himself.
He paused for a moment, considering how to phrase his words to sound more righteous.
"After (un)friendly communication, Mephisto recognized his impropriety and proactively offered to compensate me for medical expenses, work-related injury expenses, emotional distress, and conscience damage."
Tony couldn't help but interject, "Conscience damage? What is that?"
"It's when I ambushed..."
Mid-sentence, realizing he had let something slip, Lucas quickly changed the subject, "Your compensation has also arrived, look."
As he spoke, he flipped his palm, and the souls of Tony's parents and butler floated above it.
Tony's pupils constricted, and he slowly reached out to receive the three souls, protecting them with his mental energy.
"Can they be revived?"
Lucas interrupted Tony, reminding him, "It requires constant magical maintenance to awaken their souls. Tony, you should know what happens when an ordinary person's soul is exposed to magic energy for a long time."
"Even Sorcerers who have trained for a long time must be very careful when drawing energy from the Multiverse. One slip-up can lead to magic infection and mental distortion."
"I can use the power of Vishanti." Tony retorted to Lucas, but his voice grew softer and softer.
Vishanti almost freely allows Kamar-Taj's Sorcerers to draw their energy for practice and combat, hoping that the Sorcerers will use this power to protect reality from extra-dimension erosion, not to forcibly maintain the lives of their relatives.
"Tony, you can send their souls to the dimension where Vishanti resides. This does not violate the rules."
The female Ancient One, unable to bear seeing her disciple in distress, offered a suggestion.
"Under the immersion of White magic, they will gradually recover. When you die, you can reunite with them."
It sounded similar to Mephisto's conditions, the difference being that White magic would not distort the mind, while the magic of Hell would.
Tony was silent for a long time, then slowly nodded.
At this moment, Natasha asked, "Are the souls of people who died in our world all in Hell?"
"Most likely, yes." Lucas nodded, confirming.
Natasha hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Sorcerer Lucas, can you help us retrieve Hope's soul? Hank Pym's daughter, Hope van Dyne."
"Hmm? Why?" Lucas asked.
He knew about Hank's deal with Mephisto, but what did that have to do with him? He wasn't the one who enticed Hank to sign the contract.
Natasha explained, "Hank Pym suspects that S.H.I.E.L.D. deliberately harmed his daughter. And during our investigation, we found that there were indeed irregularities in Hope's mission back then. We suspect that a mysterious force is lurking within S.H.I.E.L.D., and we hope to communicate with Hope."
Lucas rubbed his temples, a slight headache forming.
He wasn't interested in the conflict between HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D., but the Avengers had risked a great deal to enter the Quantum Realm to support him, so he couldn't show no appreciation.
Although the Avengers were useless this time.
Lucas's gaze turned to Mephisto.
Mephisto's lips twitched.
He had figured it out, he had been trapped by these three sorcerers.
Moreover, he had made a fatal mistake—the open window effect.
They first deliberately pretended that if he didn't compromise, they would attack Hell, raising his sense of crisis.
Then one of them deliberately played the 'bad cop,' making both sides take a step back, giving him a psychological hint of spending money to avert disaster.
Finally, they even generously waived the compensation for redeeming the clone.
In fact, from beginning to end, their only bargaining chip was this clone. Unfortunately, by the time he realized it, many sunk costs had already accumulated.
But did they truly think he didn't know the principle that sunk costs should not influence decisions?
Mephisto feigned a conflicted expression and produced Hope's soul.
First, plant a secret pawn!
Handing Hope's soul to Natasha, Lucas reminded her, "Do you in S.H.I.E.L.D. have a way to nourish souls? If not, it would be better for her soul to return to Hell to sleep."
Natasha just looked at Lucas expectantly.
Lucas: I just made a big profit, so I won't argue with you.
Lucas extracted a trace of energy and infused it into Hope's soul.
[Points -0.1]
"If she remains in spirit form, she can sustain for a month. If she enters a physical body, it's hard to say."
"Thank you, Sorcerer Lucas."
Natasha thanked him, carefully put away Hope's soul, and stepped back.
"Oh, and Tony. How did you get in, and how much time has passed outside?"
This place was specially chosen by the Ancient One, and the flow of time here was not much different from the outside world.
Lucas and the Ancient One both didn't want to encounter that unlucky situation—
Five hours in the Quantum Realm, five years in the outside world.