In the Mirror Dimension, Lucas and Chthon confronted each other from a distance.
Chthon was searching his memories, trying to find the deeds corresponding to the name Lucas, and analyzing Lucas's abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.
But unfortunately, Lucas had no counterpart in the Multiverse. No matter how much he thought, he found nothing.
Lucas, on the other hand, quietly observed Chthon in front of him.
Chthon, one of the four most ancient Elder Gods, the first master of Dark magic, the author of the darkhold, also known as the source of Black magic.
Among the Elder Gods, he was among the top tier. It's just that he was driven out of reality and could no longer descend in his true form. He could only project part of his energy through a vessel. And without a vessel, the Universe was constantly repelling his energy body.
Such an incomplete Chthon posed no threat to Lucas. This was also why Lucas dared to directly borrow his energy in the bustling streets of New York, without worrying about him taking the opportunity to descend.
If the two were to fight, Lucas was 98% confident he could control him, and it wouldn't cause too much impact on the surrounding environment.
As for why it was 98% and not 100%?
One should be humble.
"You know Wanda Maximoff. You should have guessed my purpose for descending, but you still chose to let me descend."
After searching his memory in vain, Chthon chose to get straight to the point and directly asked Lucas, "Although I don't know who you are, I know that you must have your own plans for seeking me out. Tell me about them, perhaps we can cooperate."
In Chthon's view, an unknown entity of considerable strength, willing to risk being corrupted by actively borrowing energy from him, must have an agenda. And coincidentally, he also needed a capable servant to do some things for him.
For example, capturing the Scarlet Witch of this world and bringing her to Mount Wundagore.
"As expected of Chthon, you saw through my intentions at a glance." Lucas feigned flattery towards Chthon.
Anyway, he could suppress Chthon's descending energy body at any time, so he didn't mind playing along and seeing if he could get more benefits for himself.
Just now, Chthon had lent Lucas a total of 630 million points. Lucas didn't want to let such a fat sheep go easily.
"I need energy, endless energy. I wonder if the God of Chaos, Chthon, can fulfill this humble being's small wish."
Endless energy?
Hearing Lucas's request, Chthon was delighted instead of angry.
Only if Lucas had needs could he compel him to work for him.
"Mere energy? Of course, I have as much as you want. But why should I give it to you? Or rather, what price will you pay for this endless energy?"
"Faith and loyalty."
Lucas's expression became serious, and he said, "I am willing to exchange faith and loyalty for the favor of the God of Chaos, Chthon, for him to bestow upon me endless energy."
Chthon scoffed dismissively. He wouldn't believe Lucas's empty words.
"Lucas, your faith and loyalty are useless to me. If you want to exchange for energy, you'd better offer something practical. How about your hair, for example?"
Lucas refused.
His goal was to get something for nothing, not to trade. Moreover, fundamentally speaking, his hair was no different from other parts of him. It was all part of his Sacred Body. Lucas would never do something like trading his Sacred Body for energy.
"Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff. Chthon, she is your goal, isn't she? You want to escape your dimension through her. How much energy can she be exchanged for?"
Chthon's eyes narrowed slightly.
Indeed, this Lucas knew his purpose.
"That's right, she is my goal. If you can capture her for me, I can give you another portion of the energy I just gave you."
Lucas shook his head. "Not enough, far from enough."
"Kid, don't be too greedy. Now that I have descended, I don't need you. I can capture Wanda myself. The energy I gave you was just hoping you wouldn't get in my way."
In reality, Chthon, without a suitable vessel, was constantly facing the repulsion of the Universe. He was not confident that he could capture Wanda and bring her to Mount Wundagore to complete the process of occupying her body and descending, all before being repelled from the Universe.
Even with a vessel, Chthon's confidence was not high. After all, in the Multiverse, there were still many who did not wish for Chthon to return, and these people would certainly intervene to stop him if they had the chance.
However, in negotiations, one must always try to gain the upper hand and not easily show weakness.
It's just that Chthon might not have known that Lucas was not a negotiation expert. Or rather, compared to negotiating with words, he preferred action.
Lucas slowly shook his head, extending his palm into a cupped shape.
Faintly visible, a miniature space existed in his palm, and the scene within this miniature space was identical to the bookstore lounge where Lucas and Chthon were located.
Looking closer, the Lucas in the miniature space was making the same gesture, and his palm also contained an identical miniature space.
"Chthon, since you have no sincerity at all, there's no need for a transaction."
As he spoke, Lucas's palm slowly closed.
Crack... Crack...
A sound of space being squeezed and shattered came.
Chthon looked up and found that the space around him had begun to shatter continuously. Black spatial cracks appeared one after another, and from within these cracks, a suction force struck, combining with the repulsion of the Universe, causing Chthon's energy body to sway and tremble.
Chthon suddenly erupted, transforming into a stream of energy and fleeing into the distance.
If he couldn't fight, could he at least not run away?
Moreover, contrary to Lucas's expectation, Chthon actually had another vessel on Earth-404.
Agatha!
Agatha, who wielded another darkhold, was not completely corrupted, and Chthon could not fully invade her body. But that was when he had not descended.
After Chthon, with Lucas's help, descended as an energy body, it was a different situation.
However, when Chthon rushed out of the bookstore and into the air, he suddenly realized.
He had already fallen into a hand!
The ground was the palm, and the distant horizon was five fingers like towering pillars.
Without daring to delay, Chthon flew towards the sky.
It wasn't that he didn't want to use teleportation magic. He had just tried, and it didn't work.
A crimson streak of light shot up into the sky, quickly piercing through the clouds, leaving a white trail.
Then came the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere.
In just an instant, Chthon burst out of the atmosphere and into the cosmic starry sky.
However, he was still within Lucas's palm and this palm was still continuously closing.