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"Resurrection is possible."
"But first, you have to prepare a vessel for the soul."
"…"
Hawk's expression froze again as he processed phisto's words.
"Wait…"
Hawk shook his head, collecting himself as he looked back at phisto. "You can't just resurrect her directly?"
He was sure phisto had that ability.
phisto t 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 tis in a matter of seconds.
After a mont.
Hawk took a deep breath, his expression turning serious as he refocused on phisto. "So, let 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." phisto confird 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—
phisto'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 an?"
"You're aware that during this ti, all the dinsions 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, phisto 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 et with you," phisto continued, "I could have resurrected her at any ti, 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 dinsion it touched, making it a part of its cosmic system.
That energy was imnse—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 dinsional being active on Earth had retreated to their ho dinsion and sealed the gates.
If the dinsions 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?"
phisto nodded.
"Yes."
"She was sealed away by Odin."
"But she's not dead."
phisto 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 phisto.
"Blackheart?"
"Yes."
phisto shook his head and raised his glass, a look of profound family disappointnt on his face. "If my foolish son finds the four Elental 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 beco hers."
Hawk's jaw tightened.
"That can't be allowed to happen."
"She is the Goddess of Death," phisto 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 to help you stop Blackheart's plan to create a new Hell?"
"I do."
phisto nodded, looking at Hawk.
Hawk's mind spun as he looked at phisto. "If I stop Blackheart, you can resurrect my sister once I find a body for her soul?"
phisto nodded.
"Yes."
"I understand." Hawk nodded thoughtfully, then asked one final question.
"Blackheart. Where is he now?"
"Texas. The Elental 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 Elental Demons, despite their na, 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 elentals who had achieved sentience.
Hawk listened to phisto'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 mont Hawk disappeared, Gwen had wondered where he'd gone. The next second, he reappeared in the exact sa spot.
From Gwen's perspective, Hawk had been gone for barely a second.
But the sll 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 ho.
An hour later.
In the third-floor master bedroom.
Gwen, dressed in her pajamas, erged from the bathroom and saw Hawk standing on the balcony, staring out at sothing 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 phisto.
When he was finished, Gwen's face broke into a happy grin.
"So you're saying if you help phisto 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 phisto is lying to you?"
Hawk shook his head again.
Gwen was completely lost.
Hawk smiled and explained, "phisto wasn't lying when he said he would release my sister's soul. But did you notice? He gave 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 phisto 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 Elental Demons."
Hawk nodded. "Right. So what if I help phisto deal with Blackheart… and then phisto goes back on his word?"
Gwen froze, her eyes locked on his smiling face.
Hawk smiled knowingly. "I believe phisto 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 ti."
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 phisto will keep his promise. At the sa ti, I feel like he's testing ."
"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, phisto will use Anya as leverage against !"
"…"
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