Marvel: The Enlightened One#139+140: Holding Anya to Control Hawk? The Black Phoenix Armor Is Also Cool

“Resurrection is possible.”

“But first, you have to prepare a vessel for the soul.”

“…”

Hawk’s expression froze again as he processed Mephisto’s words.

“Wait…”

Hawk shook his head, collecting himself as he looked back at Mephisto. “You can’t just resurrect her directly?”

He was sure Mephisto had that ability.

Mephisto met Hawk’s gaze, a slight smile playing on his lips. “Of course, I can—If you’re willing to play dumb and pretend the body your sister returns in isn’t just a cheap construct of my own energy, that is.”

Hawk’s mind raced.

His crimson-gold eyes, a unique trait of his new state, contracted and dilated rapidly several times in a matter of seconds.

After a moment.

Hawk took a deep breath, his expression turning serious as he refocused on Mephisto. “So, let me get this straight. If I can find a body to house my sister’s soul, you can bring her back?”

“Precisely. Find the vessel, and I will release her soul.” Mephisto confirmed with a smooth nod.

Hawk let out a slow breath, his expression still deadly serious.

Just as he was about to offer his sincere thanks—

Mephisto’s tone shifted again. “—That is, if you hadn’t summoned her soul a few days ago.”

Hawk’s heart skipped a beat.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re aware that during this time, all the dimensions connected to Earth have sealed their gateways, fearing the fallout from the World Tree’s energy, are you not?”

“I know,” Hawk nodded. “What does that have to do with my sister?”

“Your sister’s soul was touched by that energy.”

WHOOSH!

Hawk shot up from the sofa. “What?”

Across from him, Mephisto glanced up. “Don’t worry. She’s fine, for now.”

Hawk closed his eyes, took a deep, steadying breath, and sat back down.

“If she had never stepped through my gate to meet with you,” Mephisto continued, “I could have resurrected her at any time, once you’d procured a vessel. But that is no longer the case. Your sister’s soul no longer bears only the scent of my domain. It now also carries the stench of Hel.”

The World Tree’s once-in-a-millennium energy fluctuation would assimilate any dimension it touched, making it a part of its cosmic system.

That energy was immense—otherwise, the leader of the Dark Elves, Malekith, wouldn’t have tried to harness it to plunge the Nine Realms into eternal darkness.

Although Malekith had failed, the energy wave still happened.

And because of that, nearly every dimensional being active on Earth had retreated to their home dimension and sealed the gates.

If the dimensions themselves were affected, what chance did a soul have?

Even though Anya had only stepped through the gates and not fully crossed the border of Hell, she had still been grazed by the formless energy of the World Tree.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough to cause a problem.

Simply put, Anya was no longer a soul belonging exclusively to Hell. A part of her now belonged to the Norse underworld, Hel.

“Hel?”

Hawk’s mind flashed back to the desolate realm he had glimpsed during the Convergence. He frowned. “Hela? The Goddess of Death?”

Mephisto nodded.

“Yes.”

“She was sealed away by Odin.”

“But she’s not dead.”

Mephisto stated, a cold sneer on his lips. “And now she’s convinced my son to escape from Hell, hoping to use him to break her seal ahead of schedule.”

Hawk’s brow furrowed as he looked at Mephisto.

“Blackheart?”

“Yes.”

Mephisto shook his head and raised his glass, a look of profound family disappointment on his face. “If my foolish son finds the four Elemental Demons and uses the final echoes of the World Tree’s energy to forge a new Hell, then Hela will be able to briefly break free—and your sister’s soul will become hers.”

Hawk’s jaw tightened.

“That can’t be allowed to happen.”

“She is the Goddess of Death,” Mephisto reminded him.

Not all gods were created equal. Hela was a True Goddess, one who held dominion over the souls of all non-warriors who died in her corner of the universe.

“You want me to help you stop Blackheart’s plan to create a new Hell?”

“I do.”

Mephisto nodded, looking at Hawk.

Hawk’s mind spun as he looked at Mephisto. “If I stop Blackheart, you can resurrect my sister once I find a body for her soul?”

Mephisto nodded.

“Yes.”

“I understand.” Hawk nodded thoughtfully, then asked one final question.

“Blackheart. Where is he now?”

“Texas. The Elemental Demons were in Texas before I sealed Hell’s gates. The aftershocks of the World Tree’s energy are still ongoing, though they’re fading. I need to stabilize my realm, and I have to fight Hela to keep her from taking your sister’s soul. I can’t go myself.”

The Elemental Demons, despite their name, were not from Hell.

They were native to Earth.

To be precise, they weren’t even true demons. They were primordial spirits of earth, water, wind, and fire that had taken on demonic forms when Earth fell from the World Tree.

In other words, they were elementals who had achieved sentience.

Hawk listened to Mephisto’s explanation, nodded, and then drained his glass. “I’ll take care of it.”

With that, he set the empty glass on the table, stood up, and walked toward the door.

...

The moment Hawk disappeared, Gwen had wondered where he’d gone. The next second, he reappeared in the exact same spot.

From Gwen’s perspective, Hawk had been gone for barely a second.

But the smell of bourbon was real.

Gwen shot a suspicious look at Hawk as he opened the car door and slid back into the passenger seat. Seeing his silence, she said nothing, just hit the gas and drove them back home.

An hour later.

In the third-floor master bedroom.

Gwen, dressed in her pajamas, emerged from the bathroom and saw Hawk standing on the balcony, staring out at something in the distance. She blinked.

Just then.

Hawk turned and walked back into the room. He saw her and smiled faintly, then gave her a brief summary of his conversation with Mephisto.

When he was finished, Gwen's face broke into a happy grin.

“So you’re saying if you help Mephisto stop this Blackheart guy, he can resurrect your sister?”

“That’s what he said.”

“Uh…” Hearing his tone, Gwen paused and looked at him. “You don’t believe him?”

Hawk nodded without the slightest hesitation. “Gwen, never trust a demon. Not even a punctuation mark.”

Gwen frowned. “So you think Mephisto is lying to you?”

Hawk shook his head again.

Gwen was completely lost.

Hawk smiled and explained, “Mephisto wasn’t lying when he said he would release my sister’s soul. But did you notice? He gave me a condition.”

Gwen’s mind raced. The next second, her eyes lit up. “You need to find a body for Anya’s soul first...”

“Exactly.”

Gwen drew in a sharp breath. “How are you going to do that?”

Hawk just shrugged. “That’s the easy part.”

“Easy?”

“Cloning.” Hawk smiled faintly.

The Marvel Universe had no shortage of black-market technology.

Cloning was nothing.

He might not know of any specific companies working on it, but he had no doubt the technology existed and was probably already mature.

And even if it wasn’t available on Earth, there was always space. He could take a trip to Xandar, or even Sovereign.

The universe was a big place. Finding a body for his sister would be easy.

But that wasn’t the point.

The point was the condition Mephisto had set.

Hawk looked at Gwen. “Which do you think needs to be taken care of first? The body for my sister, or Blackheart?”

Gwen blinked, thinking back to what Hawk had just told her about Blackheart. “Blackheart. He’s already on Earth looking for those Elemental Demons.”

Hawk nodded. “Right. So what if I help Mephisto deal with Blackheart… and then Mephisto goes back on his word?”

Gwen froze, her eyes locked on his smiling face.

Hawk smiled knowingly. "I believe Mephisto was telling the truth just now. But what's true today might not be true tomorrow. Demons can't be trusted. It's like Loki swearing he's really changed this time.”

Gwen blinked again. “Loki?? What’s that?”

“It’s not important.” Hawk waved it away and looked at her. “The point is, I have no guarantee, no leverage to make sure Mephisto will keep his promise. At the same time, I feel like he’s testing me.”

“Testing you?”

“Yes. A test.”

Hawk looked at Gwen and laid out his suspicion.

“If I really do solve his Blackheart problem for him, I’m worried that from now on, Mephisto will use Anya as leverage against me!”

“…”

<><><><><><><><>

Yes.

Using Anya as leverage against him.

Was it likely?

Extremely.

The moment Mephisto had suggested he needed help dealing with Blackheart, Hawk had been on high alert.

He now seriously suspected that the whole story about his sister’s soul being tainted by the aura of Hel was a complete fabrication.

It was just a little trick, a bit of added drama from Mephisto to ensure Hawk would help him deal with Blackheart.

It came back to the cardinal rule.

Never trust a demon. And when it’s the king of demons, it’s best not to trust a single punctuation mark.

That whole line about not wanting to make an enemy of a future god over a single, ordinary soul?

Heh...

It sounded nice.

But if you believed it, you were a fool.

Mephisto wasn't afraid of gods. This was the being who had once tried to scheme against Galactus.

Sure, the Devourer of Worlds was perpetually starving, but at full power, he was on par with the other cosmic entities.

Though, admittedly, Galactus was never well-fed.

But it was a glimpse into his audacity.

Mephisto had once coveted the soul of a cosmic entity. What did he care about the soul of a man who wasn't even a true god yet, even if he did command the divine authorities of Immortality and Rebirth?

Put it this way.

If Mephisto wasn’t after his soul, Hawk would gladly rip his own head off and gift it to the demon as a urinal.

And the claim that he couldn’t resurrect his sister without a body?

Other lords of other hells might be bound by such rules, but for the master of a dimension that bordered so closely on Death itself, it was bullshit.

You couldn't trust a single word.

So—

“Either Mephisto is using this to see if he can use my sister as leverage against me, or he’s trying to lure me to Texas to see if he can get his hands on my soul.”

“Hiss!”

Gwen drew in another sharp breath as she listened to Hawk’s theory. She frowned. “You’ve met him before, and he couldn’t take your soul then. Why would luring you to Texas make a difference?”

Hawk replied, “Texas is the closest place on Earth to Hell.”

Texas didn't just have demons. It had the Ghost Rider. And that Penance Stare of his... God only knew if it would work on Hawk.

An image of Nicolas Cage’s face flashed in Hawk’s mind.

Gwen’s expression grew worried. “So, what are you going to do?”

Hawk snapped back to the present, meeting her gaze with a faint smile.

“Simple.”

“I’ll just build my own underworld.”

...

The underworld was a must.

Life and death were the fundamental authorities of any universe.

Hawk had originally planned on waiting until he had grasped the Seventh Sense, until his Cosmo had fully manifested into a true, parallel Phoenix Universe.

After all, his inner universe was still a desolate place. He hadn't even touched the threshold of the Seventh Sense. The idea of building his own underworld had been completely unrealistic.

Before his Cosmo could manifest, it lacked the fundamental elements needed to form a material world. But the appearance of Blackheart and the Elemental Demons had given Hawk an idea.

What were the foundational elements of a material world?

Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, and Aether.

Hawk already had the aether. That was the fundamental component that would allow him to transform his Cosmo into a parallel universe.

But the other four elements?

The Elemental Demons were the key. They were the hope he needed to rapidly populate his Cosmo, to push his Silver Cosmo to its absolute peak.

If I can absorb those four demons…

Combined with the Reality Stone…

The stars in my Cosmo will grow at an exponential rate!

And… it might even be possible to build the underworld of my Phoenix Universe ahead of schedule.

And once I’ve grasped the laws of life and death for myself—even if I haven’t mastered the Eighth Sense that allows one to traverse those realms—I’ll still be able to go to Hell.

Most importantly!

The Underworld Armor (Surplices)…

It doesn’t require nearly as many complex materials.

So, Mephisto—you'd better not be playing games with me.

...

The next day.

Hawk bought a ticket to Texas. After a final hug with Gwen, he boarded the flight.

His first thought had been to just fly there himself, straight through the atmosphere.

But he wanted to run one last test, to see if he truly had some kind of curse that doomed him whenever he used public transportation to leave New York.

If this trip went wrong too, then that was it. From now on, if he ever needed to leave New York, he would just fly himself.

He’d just settled into his seat and was looking out the window when a surprised voice cut through the cabin noise.

“Hawk?”

“…Sharon?”

Hawk turned to find Sharon Carter sliding into the seat beside him, her face frozen in complete shock. He was equally surprised.

“What are you…”

“Texas. Vacation...” Sharon glanced around, making sure no one was paying attention, then lowered her voice. “What about you? Why didn’t you just fly?”

She was curious. With the speed Hawk had displayed during his weekly sparring sessions with Thor on Mars, he could get to Texas much faster by flying himself. And a lot cheaper...

Hawk, of course, wasn’t about to tell her he was testing a theory about a personal curse. His mind spun, and he just smiled. “It’s the holidays. I was trying to save you the trouble of coming to knock on my door tomorrow. Didn’t expect to see you here.”

Sharon blinked.

She bought it. She had no doubt that if Hawk had just zipped over to Texas, she would have been the one getting a call to go and ask him what he was up to.

Sharon’s expression turned serious as she nodded at him.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Hawk smiled back, then asked, a curious glint in his eye, “By the way, are you just starting your vacation now?”

Sharon’s voice was even.

“My leave was approved before the holidays.”

“Then…”

“The day I picked up Carrie from your house, I came straight from the airport.”

“…”

Hawk paused, then, meeting Sharon’s slightly resentful gaze, he just shook his head. “Alright. Sorry.”

Hearing his apology, the last of Sharon’s lingering resentment vanished.

After all, even though she hadn’t been able to start her vacation right away, it had been worth it.

It didn’t matter if Hawk had entrusted Carrie to them or not. The fact was, she had been the one to bring back a witch. She had been rewarded by the bureau for it.

A level-up in clearance, and an extra ten days of paid leave.

All things considered... She had definitely come out on top.

Sharon smiled faintly and began to give him an update on Carrie’s progress.

The short version was—

Carrie was doing great. The S.H.I.E.L.D witch consultant had been thrilled to learn she was a Salem Witch and had happily taken her on as an apprentice.

“By the way, I saw Carrie a few days ago. She said that once she finishes her first phase of training, she wants me to bring her to thank you and Gwen.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I was going to ask you the next time I saw you.”

“Of course.” Hawk was genuinely happy to hear the news.

The Hell Witch had entrusted Carrie to him. He might not be able to offer a lifetime warranty, but he had to at least guarantee her well-being for the first year.

...

Soon. The plane took off without a hitch.

It ascended into the clouds with a smooth, professional grace and began its steady journey towards Texas.

After takeoff, Hawk kept his senses fully open. It wasn’t until the plane had finally crossed into Texas airspace that he let out a sigh of relief.

Good...

Looks like even if something does happen, it won’t be on the flight.

It’ll probably be after we land.

Hawk thought to himself as he continued to chat with Sharon.

Suddenly, he heard her mention something about a motorcycle stunt show and his interest was piqued.

“What stunt show?”

“This one.”

Sharon pulled a promotional pamphlet for Johnny Blaze’s motorcycle stunt show from her bag and handed it to him, launching into her pitch. “It’s the hottest show in Texas right now. Johnny Blaze. His stunts are incredible. I came all the way to Texas just to see him.”

Hawk took the pamphlet.

The first thing he saw was the unforgettable face of Nicolas Cage.

Yep.

That’s the Ghost Rider.

Hawk thought, handing the pamphlet back to Sharon. “Is that so? If I have time, I’ll check it out.”

Sharon took the pamphlet back, then her eyes lit up. “By the way, Hawk, what are you in Texas for?”

Hawk smiled faintly.

Just as he was about to answer, the plane, which had already begun its descent, suddenly lurched.

In an instant, the cabin was filled with cries of alarm.

Hawk’s good mood instantly vanished.

He opened his five senses completely, and in the blink of an eye, his awareness swept over every corner of the plane, searching for the source of the danger.

Sharon had tensed up as well, but as the plane stabilized. She saw Hawk’s serious expression and assumed he wasn't used to flying. “Relax, Hawk. It’s just turbulence. Happens all the time.”

Hawk heard her words, thought of the strange energy fluctuation his senses had just detected outside the plane, and looked at her, a corner of his mouth turning up.

“You sure about that?”