Marvel: The Awakened One

Blazing Phoenix Rays shot from Hawk’s eyes, striking Alexander Pierce—who stood before him in some kind of fanatical pose—dead center.

In an instant...

Alexander Pierce vaporized on the spot. Not even bone fragments remained.

But his soul stayed right where it was.

Pierce, now in spirit form after his instantaneous death, stood frozen in place. Confused. He couldn’t quite understand why Hawk had killed him so easily.

After all, in Pierce’s imagination, Hawk would have tortured him first. Extensively.

He’d already braced himself for it. He’d prepared himself not to reveal—no matter how much suffering Hawk inflicted—why HYDRA had been bold enough to test him in the first place.

Their second attempt at world domination had failed.

But they still had options.

Whether it was Dr. Zola’s cloning project or Strucker’s plan, as long as one of them succeeded, HYDRA could still achieve global dominance.

But instead—

Hawk hadn’t tortured him at all. In fact, when death came, Pierce hadn’t even felt a shred of pain.

Was Hawk... merciful?

Of course not.

Just as Alexander Pierce was processing this thought, he suddenly felt a pull. He turned his head and saw a gate slowly opening before him.

The Gates of Hell.

He had to enter quickly. If he didn’t go in within the allotted time, he’d become a malevolent spirit.

In his soul form, Alexander Pierce instantly understood the meaning of that gate—and where his journey would end.

But—

Just as he took one last look at Hawk—who seemed unable to see him—and prepared to turn toward the Gates of Hell, he heard Hawk’s voice.

”Pierce. Where do you think you’re going?”

”...”

Alexander Pierce instinctively turned his head.

The next second, his eyes widened in shock.

Behind Hawk, the Underworld had opened. The pull from the Underworld immediately fell upon Alexander Pierce’s soul, attempting to draw him into Hawk’s realm instead.

Pierce had provoked him this much, and he thought he could just die and escape to Hell to live comfortably?

Not a chance.

Hawk would make Pierce understand exactly what he’d meant by his earlier words.

Perfect timing, too.

Since establishing his Underworld, Hawk’s Eight Prisons of Hell hadn’t had a single guest yet. Pierce would make an excellent first customer.

He’d learn what it meant to wish for death. Very soon.

In an instant, A roar echoed from the rift in reality.

”HAWK!”

RUMBLE!

Space twisted and collided violently. The Hell Gate that had been pulling Pierce toward damnation suddenly swung wide open. Then—horned, tailed, appearing in his giant demonic form—Mephisto emerged behind the gate, his face twisted in fury.

Powerful Hell energy surged forward, attempting to reclaim Pierce’s soul from the Underworld’s pull.

CLANG!

CLANG!

CLANG!

Hawk took one step forward. The Black Phoenix phantom appeared around him. The Black Phoenix Surplice rapidly assembled itself onto his body. By the time he was fully armored, he’d already reached the rift between reality and countless dimensions.

His Underworld manifested behind him, standing in direct opposition to Mephisto’s Hell Dimension as the two realms battled for ownership of Alexander Pierce’s soul.

In life, Alexander Pierce had stood above millions, living in luxury and power. Even in death, his soul was being fought over by Hawk’s Underworld and Mephisto’s Hell.

You had to hand it to him—Alexander Pierce had lived a hell of a life.

Literally stretched to his limits.

In the extreme tug-of-war between the Underworld and Hell, Alexander Pierce’s soul had been pulled so taut it had practically become a straight line.

Mephisto roared furiously.

”HAWK! THIS SOUL BELONGS TO MY HELL!”

”I know!”

Beneath the Black Phoenix visor, Hawk stared back at Mephisto across an unknowable span of dimensions.

His eyes were calm. His tone was calm as he faced the demon lord standing at the edge of the Hell Dimension.

”But I’m taking this soul.”

”Not happening!”

Mephisto bellowed.

”Fine.”

Hearing that, Hawk didn’t get angry. He just sighed, then addressed Mephisto again. ”Let me rephrase. I’m taking this soul whether you like it or not. You’ve got two options: hand him over nicely right now, or we have another war. I’ll find a way to break down your Hell’s gates, storm into your dimension, trash the place, shatter your realm, turn your rivers upside down, and then I’ll take this soul anyway. Two choices. Pick one.”

Mephisto’s voice grew even more furious.

His face turned red, like magma about to erupt from a volcano.

”You’re still planning to fight me for Earth’s souls??”

”Depends on you.”

”WHAT??”

”I only want this one soul. He wants to die? Too bad. I’m going to show him what it means to wish for death. So either you give me this soul, or I really will start competing for all of Earth’s souls.”

Perfect timing, actually. Since his Underworld hadn’t officially started processing souls yet, Pierce could be the first Beta tester for his Eight Prisons. He’d get to experience firsthand whether Hawk’s designs were sufficiently... entertaining.

Pierce would test them out, and Hawk would make improvements as needed.

Just like a game in closed beta.

Common knowledge—

During closed beta, you could tweak any data you wanted. But once the game went live, making changes became a lot more complicated.

His Cosmo worked the same way.

Right now, his Cosmo hadn’t manifested as reality yet. It only approached reality through the influence of the Reality Stone.

So at this stage, he could modify anything. But once his Cosmo became real, making changes would be a massive pain in the ass.

Hearing Hawk’s blatant threat, Mephisto’s nose practically bent sideways from rage.

”Damn it, Hawk! You made an oath!”

”Pfft!”

Hearing that, Hawk actually laughed. ”An oath? What’s that? Demons are the least trustworthy creatures around—your words, not mine, Mephisto. I’m just learning from you. Though I’m more considerate than you are. I’m leaving the choice in your hands. You can choose to let me keep my oath by giving me this soul. Or you can make me break my oath. I’m fine either way.”

Listening to Hawk’s completely shameless response, Mephisto’s massive demonic body trembled with fury.

Hawk’s expression remained flat.

Fight honor with honor.

Fight dirty with dirty.

When dealing with an untrustworthy Demon Lord like Mephisto, the best strategy was to be even more untrustworthy and even more shameless.

Most importantly, In this timeline, compared to Mephisto, Hawk was the one with nothing to lose.

Common knowledge:

Throughout history, people with something to lose have always feared those with nothing to lose. Never the other way around.

Like he’d said before, Right now, Hawk’s Cosmo only existed within his spiritual platform. It hadn’t become reality yet.

But Mephisto’s Hell Dimension was very real and very much existed in the physical world.

Another war? So what?

Hawk could recklessly burn and detonate his Cosmo without consequence. After resting for a bit, his Cosmo would recover—and come back even stronger than before. After all, the Cosmo was forged through battle. Every fight made it grow.

Why else did Hawk act like a honey badger, picking fights with everyone he met? Why else did he actively look forward to them?

Simple, Saints grew fastest through combat. That was also why, as their sparring sessions continued, Thor had become increasingly reluctant to fight him.

He was too intense.

To sum it up: Hawk loved war. He actively craved it.

But Mephisto couldn’t afford that. If Mephisto’s Hell Dimension got wrecked, it was really wrecked. No respawns.

And so, Mephisto had no choice.

He stared at the expressionless Hawk standing before him—the one calmly giving him an ultimatum—and his entire body shook with rage. His face flushed red like churning magma.

”Damn it. Damn it. DAMN IT!”

”Right. Right. Right.”

Hawk’s tone was completely indifferent. ”Go ahead, keep stalling. If you stretch the soul I want into fragments, I’ll just assume you’re declaring war.”

Mephisto’s expression froze.

That had been exactly what he was thinking.

After all—

Just handing over the soul like this? He couldn’t do it. Because what was the difference between that and giving in to extortion? Give him one today, five tomorrow, and where did it end?

Mephisto instinctively loosened his pull on Pierce’s soul. He took a deep breath and looked at Hawk, his voice low and dangerous.

”You guarantee it’s only this one soul?”

”I—”

Hawk was about to nod, but suddenly thought of something. He looked at Mephisto again. ”There might be a few more souls I’ll need to throw into my Prisons. I want to watch them suffer. So let’s say ten... Give me ten slots.”

Ten??

Mephisto felt like his entire demonic existence was collapsing.

He actually laughed from sheer rage.

”Why don’t I just split it fifty-fifty? You and I can co-own Earth from now on.”

”Sounds great to me.”

”LIKE HELL IT DOES!”

Mephisto roared. ”Hawk! I have never met anyone as audacious and shameless as you! Life and death are Hell’s Authority, yet you keep challenging my domain! Do you really think I can’t do anything about you??”

Hawk tilted his head slightly, looking at the furious Mephisto.

”You can do something about me?”

”You can’t even enter my universe, but I can force my way into your Hell.”

”So...”

”Let’s not argue about that. I just want ten souls. I can swear an oath to Death herself—as long as you don’t provoke me, I won’t covet Earth’s authority over life and death.”

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