American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

“So, I guess I'm lucky?” Luke mused.

The Ancient One shook her head and said, “Compared to Odin and me, you're far too young and still have too many attachments. But in the future, you'll inevitably deal with dimensional demons and powerhouses like Odin, just as I have.

I just hope you understand that the morals established by mortals don't apply to us. Perhaps in the future, you'll find the actions of those dimensional demons barbaric and cruel, filled with the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak, without even bothering to put on a pretense. That's just who they are.”

“So?” Luke raised an eyebrow.

“So, never have any emotional attachments to them, or try to predict their behavior in a mortal way. The foundation of their power is right there for all to see, impossible to hide,” the Ancient One replied calmly.

Luke nodded slowly. He knew the Ancient One was reminding him.

“It seems you've had a pleasant conversation,” Odin and his queen, Frigga, arrived together.

The Ancient One and Luke stood up and nodded slightly to Odin and Frigga.

“This operation went smoothly. According to our original plan, shouldn't we prepare for the next one?” Odin could sense the changes in Asgard. In just half a day, he felt the energy around the palace had become much more active.

The increased activity and concentration of energy were extremely beneficial to both the land of Asgard and its people. Asgard's land would become more stable due to the increased energy, and the Asgardians' physique would become stronger as they absorbed and were cleansed by the energy, especially the next generation, who would have even stronger constitutions! And as the King of the Gods, under the contract of his divine duties, both of these would feed back to him, making him even more powerful.

With this wave of benefits, Odin felt he could use the magic of the palace to add a few more powerful divine duties to Asgard, enriching its foundation.

Having resolved a huge hidden danger, turned crisis into safety, and gained enormous benefits from it, Odin was somewhat impatient.

“Is the schedule already full?” Luke's gaze swept back and forth between the Ancient One and Odin.

“One must always have a long-term vision. If your technology can indeed achieve the desired effect, then using it only once would be a waste,” Odin said with a smile.

“Odin and I once visited Mephisto, one of the lords of the Hell dimension, hoping to enlist his help. But he was too cunning and cautious, simply put, he wouldn't act unless he saw the profit,” the Ancient One revealed what she and Odin had been doing during their disappearance. However, Mephisto never left his dimension, only sending an avatar to communicate with them.

“Mephisto is one of the more reliable demon gods, relatively speaking. Although he can still be described as despicable and shameless, with no bottom line,” Odin shrugged at Luke's gaze, took a drink of his wine, and continued, “He's still quite committed to contracts, if the right to interpret the contract wasn't in his hands.”

“Yes, if he didn't have that habit of always wanting people to sign a contract first, he would actually be a fairly normal demon god with whom one could have some communication,” the Ancient One had also dealt with Mephisto many times. Perhaps the frequency of various kinds of communication and fighting was second only to her interactions with Dormammu. The other party was powerful, but also excessively cautious.

“Now that we're all here, and the initial operation has concluded successfully, should we invite Mephisto over to discuss things?” Odin's words were directed at the Ancient One, but his eyes glanced at Luke.

The Ancient One also turned her gaze to Luke, her eyes filled with inquiry.

“I have no objections,” Luke thought for a moment and didn't reject their suggestion. Odin's smile grew even wider upon hearing this. Actually, if he had a choice, he wouldn't want to bring Mephisto into the fold so soon. With the Ancient One and Luke as helpers, he could completely take down those tough nuts in the Nine Realms that he hadn't been able to crack before, like eliminating Mangog, and remove some hidden dangers for Asgard.

But such a good thing was obviously unlikely to happen a second time.

Neither the Ancient One nor Luke would be his thugs, helping him clean up the Nine Realms. Although they could also gain some benefits from this cleanup, there was no doubt that Odin would be the biggest beneficiary.

How could the Ancient One and Luke keep working for him? If it weren't for the fact that mind/emotional energy was the future source of magic for the Sorcerer Supreme lineage, even if Asgard was gone, the Ancient One wouldn't have lifted a finger to help Odin.

……

The great hall of the palace.

“Why was the banquet suspended?” Thor, who had finally regained his ability to move, sat in his seat and asked Luke beside him with some confusion.

“A distinguished guest is coming,” Luke squeezed the muscles on Thor's shoulder, as hard as rock. He asked, “How are you feeling now?”

“Feeling? Not bad. Father used magic to cut the energy into multiple portions and store them in my body. After I've completely digested one portion, he'll unseal the next,” Thor replied honestly. He still felt a bit clumsy, but it was much better than not being able to move at all before.

“That's good,” Luke was thinking about how to coax Thor later—呸, to invite him to Midgard or his data dimension for a detailed physical examination.

“Who's coming?” Thor felt a chill all over his body, and a sense of crisis arose.

“There, that's him,” Luke also became serious, pointing to a large expanse of black energy pouring in front of the palace gate.

Black hellfire paved the ground, forming a black carpet of flickering flames. The scene outside the palace gate was replaced by a dark, bone-filled path of corpses. In the limited light, eerie faces filled with pain and agony flashed from the darkness, as if screaming.

Step.

Step.

Faint footsteps sounded on the bone path, and a thin figure slowly emerged from the darkness. It was a man about two meters tall, wearing a long black dress coat, holding a cane, wearing a black top hat, and a white bone mask.

The man's thin figure attracted the attention of everyone in the palace. The palace guards felt a strong sense of crisis from the thin man. Even though they knew this was a guest invited by their own God-King, they couldn't help but subconsciously tighten their grip on their weapons.

The man finally stopped in front of Odin and the others, and the terrifying and oppressive background behind him slowly disappeared.

“Just an avatar, Mephisto, you're still so timid,” Odin laughed.

“No, this has nothing to do with timidity. This isn't a meeting that requires combat, an avatar is enough, isn't it? After all, my kingdom isn't safe either,” the white bone mask on Mephisto's face seemed to come to life, revealing a strange and peculiar smile.

“Our time is tight, so let's skip some unnecessary procedures. We've already implemented the plan and verified its success. You can feel the energy lake near the palace,” Odin took over the scene, and neither the Ancient One nor Luke had any objections.

Mephisto didn't mind Odin's impoliteness. After carefully sensing it, two faint flames ignited in the eye sockets of the bone mask.

“It seems you did succeed. It is indeed a kind of energy with considerable superiority. And I feel that some of them would be very suitable for my hell dimension,” Mephisto nodded with satisfaction. “On behalf of my main body, I can join your group and participate in subsequent plans.”

“I've already chosen a guy who's powerful enough, not too bright, and always fighting me for territory…”

“No, the conditions have changed, Mephisto! This time we'll choose the candidate, not you providing the target,” Odin shook his head and interrupted Mephisto.

Under the watchful eyes of Luke and the others, Mephisto and Odin engaged in a fierce war of words, the scene so intense that powerful energy fluctuations surged from both of them, as if they would start fighting at any moment because of the breakdown of negotiations. Luke had observed more than once that Thor's hand holding Mjolnir was tightening again and again.

However, after arguing for a considerable period of time, seeing that it was impossible to obtain any benefits from Odin and the Ancient One, Mephisto finally restrained the energy that was overflowing from his body.

“Okay, okay, you choose, but I must state in advance that if the target you choose is too outrageous, please forgive me for refusing,” Mephisto's bone mask revealed a helpless smile, drawing out his tone as he compromised.

“The Beast,” Odin said. This was the target that the three of them had discussed and agreed upon before Mephisto came.

“What?” Mephisto's bone mask looked dull.

“The Beast!” Odin even repeated it in the language of the Hell dimension with consideration.

“That's impossible!” Mephisto's energy fluctuations surged several times more violently than before, as if he was about to attack at any moment, and said angrily, “How dare you turn your attention to the Beast?”

Mephisto's angry roar made Thor stand up with his hammer. Luke quickly grabbed his arm, “What do you want to do?”

“Didn't the negotiations break down?” Thor looked at Luke, who was grabbing him, somewhat blankly.

“No,” Luke pulled Thor back to sit down. An avatar coming here, even if it bared its teeth, was just trying to make a show of strength. Did Mephisto really want to rely on an avatar to fight Odin in Asgard, on Odin's territory? He wasn't one of those mindless demon gods, and his own brain wasn't broken. What's more, the Ancient One, who was silent and just quietly drinking tea, was standing next to Odin.

Sure enough, the next moment, the furious Mephisto began arguing with Odin again.

Mephisto's core requirement was only one: The Beast is a good partner separated from my territory by [tens of thousands of miles], I can't do that kind of heartless thing! What? You want me to make a request? I only have one request, I need more money!

After several waves of back-and-forth haggling, they finally agreed on a price that satisfied both parties. Odin and the others had originally agreed on a distribution share, and now they could even deduct a little from Mephisto, so of course they were very satisfied.

“Now that everything has been negotiated, let's sign a contract,” Mephisto opened his dress coat and took out a quill. Sheets of yellowed parchment appeared in the air, in triplicate, and floated towards Luke, Odin, and the Ancient One.

Contract document.

Luke curiously took the long parchment. Under his gaze, the inexplicable words on the parchment suddenly transformed into the words of Midgard, and the format was as clear and organized as a human contract. But the more Luke looked at it, the more he felt that something was vaguely wrong. When a desire to sign the contract surged in his heart, his Omnipotence Ring suddenly transformed into Quiet Blue mode.

Luke's mind instantly cleared, and he broke free from the bewitchment of the parchment.

A hint of disappointment appeared on Mephisto's bone mask.

“Don't play these little tricks. Do you think I don't know that those fancy patterns are just another language of the Hell dimension? And a double contract, you have thirteen layers! Is signing this kind of contract going to make me work for you?” The Ancient One directly used the parchment as a coaster for her teacup, and Odin didn't even look at it, just threw it aside.

The exposed Mephisto stood there calmly, his bone mask showing no shame or other expression. Anyway, he was just habitually trying to kill two birds with one stone. What if he succeeded in tricking them? He didn't need face anyway.

“You have to give me some sense of security, right? Otherwise, I'll finally lure the Beast out, and then excitedly step into the encirclement you've set up. What if you take me and the Beast in one fell swoop? I don't want to be an energy battery with it,” Mephisto spread out his hands. Could this situation happen? It was very likely to happen! Who hadn't dealt with whom before? Who didn't know who?

“Trust can be cultivated,” Luke suddenly said. Odin and the Ancient One glanced at Luke who spoke, and both fell silent.

“Yes, so why don't you sign a contract?” Mephisto's bone mask was full of distress.

“I think this contract looks a bit like a contract template from Midgard,” Luke patted the parchment that he had rolled up.

“Yes, yes, I've harvested a few souls from your side, and I've gained some interesting knowledge from them. Banks, finance, contracts. My business spans all over the universe, so contracts will also change in thousands of ways,” Mephisto said vaguely.

“You should be able to see that if our actions can continue, each of us will be able to obtain huge benefits. And continuous and long-term benefits! With this kind of accumulation, perhaps one day in the future, each of us will have so much energy in our hands that we can squander it without ever running out. At that time, maybe we can also borrow some energy from other dimensional demons or those who are trying to impact the demon god status,” Luke said softly.

“What do you want to say?” Mephisto had a strange feeling. He sensitively grasped something that made his heart flutter from Luke's words.

“Would you like to become the first bank president of the future dimensional demon energy bank?” Luke said directly.

Mephisto blinked.

PS: Thank you I无趣I for the reward.

PS1: Recently, readers with good information may know that all fanfics will be difficult in the future. This book of mine has decent results, but I don't dare to expect too much for future recommendations. There's nothing to say about supporting original works. I just hope that those who like it won't give up easily.