Nepal, Kamar-Taj.
It was noon, and the sun was shining brightly.
Most of the sorcerers had already finished their morning exercises. At this moment, they were gathered in small groups, chatting idly.
The sorcerers gathered together, not to talk about magic, but to gossip about the events of the past few days.
Coulson mingled among them and was quite popular. Thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intelligence network, he could easily learn the truth and inside stories of various gossip.
Erin, however, sat in Lucas's exclusive wooden rocking chair, looking worried.
A few days ago, Lucas promised her he would bring Matt back. Unexpectedly, he had been gone for several days without a trace.
Ring...
Suddenly, Coulson's phone rang.
Making an apologetic gesture to the few sorcerers who were chatting, Coulson walked aside and answered the phone.
"No, Director Fury."
"Okay, Director Fury."
"Yes, Director Fury."
After the call ended, Coulson walked over to Erin and said, "Erin, don't worry. Lucas has appeared and should be back here very soon."
No sooner had Coulson finished speaking than Lucas's figure appeared out of thin air.
"Lucas!"
Seeing Lucas, Erin exclaimed, then asked, "Where's Matt?"
Lucas gave an awkward smile.
Bringing Matt's soul back should count as bringing him back, right?
He waved his hand in front of Erin's eyes, granting her the ability to perceive souls. Then, he released Matt's soul.
Under the nourishment of Lucas's energy for more than ten minutes, Matt's soul had recovered from its daze.
"Matt is here."
After speaking, Lucas stepped aside, giving the space to Matt and Erin, the master and disciple.
Coulson followed him and extended an invitation to Lucas. "Lucas, could I invite you to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier? Everyone has many questions they want to ask you about the Hand."
"How long has it been since I last left?" Lucas did not answer, but asked another question.
When he returned to Earth-404 from the Superflow, he noticed that the time was off.
From the start of the operation, sweeping the Hand's Bases, and searching for a way to contact the Beast.
Then entering a dimension, defeating the Beast, and pursuing the Beast in the Superflow.
In Lucas's perception, the entire event took no more than half an hour, which was quite efficient.
But when he returned to Japan on Earth-404, it was already afternoon. Clearly, he had once again entered an area with a different time flow than Earth-404.
Coulson did some mental calculations and gave the answer. "About 66 hours."
"Only two or three days?" Lucas breathed a sigh of relief.
"Coulson, you can inform S.H.I.E.L.D., we'll open a portal and be there immediately." Lucas was a polite man.
Under normal circumstances, he would not be like Tony, teleporting into someone's home without the master's permission.
"Okay." Coulson's voice was slightly excited.
He felt that S.H.I.E.L.D. had taken a small step on the path to recruiting Lucas. This was a small step for S.H.I.E.L.D., but a giant leap for world peace.
Calling Nick Fury, Coulson briefly explained the situation and received permission.
Golden sparks streaked across, and a finely carved portal, adorned with dragons, opened. From time to time, sparks fell, like dancing leaves.
This was Lucas's Portal Version 3.0.
—
Helicarrier, conference room.
Everyone looked at the portal in front of them, their gazes involuntarily turning to Tony.
"Why does your portal look different?" Finally, Natasha asked the question.
Tony's lips twitched. "The effect is the same. There's no need to make it flashy, like a street magic trick."
Following behind Coulson, Lucas walked out of the portal and teased, "Is it unnecessary, or is it impossible?"
Tony said, "Of course, it's unnecessary."
Snap.
With a snap of his fingers, the portal quickly closed. Remaining sparks drifted down, like a shower of flowers.
"Wow, it's really beautiful." Natasha couldn't help but exclaim.
Lucas looked in the direction of the sound, a flash of astonishment in his eyes, and he couldn't help but lose himself in thought.
The tight-fitting combat suit outlined her figure, making her curvaceous and her face was exquisite and charming.
No wonder a certain basketball superstar suddenly had the idea of drinking her bathwater.
Noticing Lucas's gaze, Natasha blinked ambiguously.
Something's not right!
Lucas quickly composed himself.
It wasn't his first time meeting Natasha.
When Natasha, under the alias Natalie, infiltrated Tony's side as his personal assistant, he had already met her.
If someone said Natasha was incomparably beautiful, Lucas would agree. But it was absolutely impossible for her to make him lose his composure.
It was the energy absorbed during the battle with the Beast!
During the upgrade, he could absorb energy and convert it into points, but the filtering function was greatly weakened.
In the battle with the Beast, Lucas absorbed tens of millions of points worth of energy. The 'impurities' in this energy were still far from being able to overwhelm his mind. But at certain times, they would have some effect on him.
For example, just now?
Flames rose in his spiritual world, beginning to burn away the pervasive scarlet mist.
Lucas composed himself, and also blinked at Natasha in response.
Natasha smiled and stopped teasing Lucas. She saw that Lucas's eyes were clear, and it was no longer fun.
Lucas smiled and turned to greet the others.
To reiterate, Lucas was a polite person.
After the pleasantries, Nick Fury said with a smile, "Lucas, you've arrived. Don't worry about the Hand. The Avengers have already captured their high-ranking members. If you need them, they can be handed over to you."
"S.H.I.E.L.D. will also help suppress the matters on Japan."
Lucas raised an eyebrow.
Why did S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attitude feel so much more enthusiastic than last time?
However...
Lucas shook his head. "The matter of Japan is not over yet. And I don't need S.H.I.E.L.D.'s help to suppress it."
"Whether the world knows or not has no impact on me."
He's already basically invincible, no need to keep a low profile.
Lucas added, "However, I will remember Erin's matter."
Nick Fury frowned and asked, "Kamar-Taj's modus operandi has always been very low-key. Isn't it because you don't want the public to know about supernatural events?"
Lucas explained, "That was true in the past, but it's different now. Ancient One has one set of rules, and I have another."
The reasons were more complex, but Lucas felt it was unnecessary to say more to Nick Fury. Anyway, he would fill in the blanks himself.
Nick Fury was silent for a moment, digesting the deeper meaning of Lucas's words.
Then, he asked another question, "Lucas, can you tell us what the Beast is?"
Among all the information about the Hand, what S.H.I.E.L.D. cared about most was the Beast.
The Beast, whose life form highly overlapped with the Blood God and Mephisto.
Understanding the Beast would help S.H.I.E.L.D. understand what Dimensional Lords and Hell Lords were all about.
(Note: To clarify, it's not that the protagonist's character collapsed. The main purpose is to show a side effect of absorbing too much energy during the upgrade duration.)