In the end, Mephisto chose not to sign a contract with Mario. Mainly because he suspected that no matter how beautifully he wrote up a soul contract, it would be completely useless. Worse, he had the distinct feeling that if they did sign a contract, he'd be the one bound by every clause while Mario could just ignore the whole thing.
It was not worth the risk, better to keep things informal.
"Woo! This motorcycle is badass, it totally ignores terrain!"
Mario tore across Hell's wasteland on his Minecraft-style Harley, the bone-constructed bike blazing with blue fire as it roared over rocks, and up sheer cliffs without losing any speed. The thing handled like a dream despite looking like it had been assembled from leftover skeleton parts.
He circled the desolate landscape for a solid twenty minutes but found no signs of life.
Returning to where Mephisto waited, he was in surprisingly good spirits. Sure, he hadn't found the souls of Kaecilius' family, that was disappointing. But getting a Spirit of Vengeance? That was a hell of a consolation prize.
"Mephisto, you're actually pretty cool, you know that? You sure you don't want to sign a contract with me?"
Mephisto shook his head with a smile. "We demons aren't quite what the mortal world makes us out to be. Though we do value the spirit of contracts, not everything needs to be bound by one."
He gestured at Mario. "For someone like you, I feel that even without a contract, you'll bring me plenty of souls anyway."
Souls were his source of power, after all. The more souls in his collection, the stronger he became. Mario nodded thoughtfully, then looked at Mephisto's avatar with sudden seriousness. "Sending you souls is no problem. But there's one condition, I need you to keep them for at least a year before doing anything with them. Of course, after that year, whatever you want to do with them is your business."
This way, if he accidentally killed innocent people, he could retrieve their souls from Mephisto and let Kaecilius check if there was magic to restore them to life. It would essentially make him a one-man resurrection service.
The only drawback: it only worked for people Mario himself killed.
A thought occurred to him, and he looked up at Mephisto hopefully. "Do you have any more Spirits of Vengeance? I promise my soul-harvesting efficiency is top-notch."
Mephisto's expression went flat.
"I don't have any more available right now."
Mario nodded in disappointment, filed that away for future reference, then changed subjects. "Why is this place so empty? Shouldn't Hell have tons of demons running around? How come there isn't a single creature here?"
"It is rather barren," Mephisto agreed. "Because this is my bedroom."
Mario glanced at Mephisto's mountain-sized true form, swallowed hard, and silently added another tally to his mental list of grievances against the Ancient One.
Madonna santa... Ancient One, you really screwed me over...
If not for sheer dumb luck, he might've been sent straight back to the afterlife by one of Mephisto's fireballs the moment he arrived.
At that moment, he finally understood why there wasn't a single creature around, even demons didn't like other beings lounging on their bed. And he hadn't just sat on the "bed" for half an hour. He'd run a full Harley off-road race on it.
"Ahem... I'll stop bothering you for now. I'll come visit again if I get the chance."
He laughed awkwardly and pulled a waystone from his inventory, placing it right on Mephisto's "bed." As white runes lit up across its surface, he waved at the still-smiling Hell Lord.
A flash of light, and his figure vanished from the desolate landscape.
After Mario disappeared, the smile faded from Mephisto's face. Frowning, he stared at the waystone left behind.
"What is he, exactly? No soul at all... how can such a being exist? Where in the world did the Ancient One find him..."
He had lived far too long. In his eyes, even the Ancient One was nothing more than a briefly blooming sorceress, talented but ultimately mortal in the grand scheme of cosmic time.
Approaching the waystone, he carefully out to touch the glowing runes. He felt no response.
"Power of rules... how interesting. The coming days are going to be entertaining."
After saying that, his avatar vanished. His massive true body began to move, an enormous hand that blotted out the sky waved gently, and the ground trembled in response. Huge stone walls rose around the waystone, encircling it like a protective shrine.
He reached out and smoothed the sharp edges, adjusted his enormous body with earth-shaking movements, and laid his head down on his newly constructed pillow.
"I'll sleep for a year first... still a bit tired..."
---
Mario returned to Kamar-Taj through the waystone, materializing in the familiar courtyard with its crisp mountain air. Without saying a word, he headed straight for the Ancient One's chambers. He wanted an explanation, why had he been teleported directly onto Mephisto's face? Shouldn't he have been sent to some quiet corner where he could slowly build up power before confronting a Hell Lord?
He opened the Ancient One's door with aggressive intent.
But the next moment, all his anger evaporated. A chair he'd been dreaming about sat in the otherwise empty room, the final piece needed to complete his furniture set. He walked over, stored the chair in his inventory, and plopped down on a cushion in front of the Ancient One. Looking around, he noticed Kaecilius was absent.
"I'm back. Where's Kaecilius?"
The Ancient One nodded slightly, as if nothing unusual had happened, and lifted a teapot to pour Mario a cup of tea.
"He is training. I pointed out a few things about his foundation. His strength is growing quickly, but his base isn't keeping up. He needs time to solidify it properly."
Mario nodded. He didn't really understand sorcerer training philosophy. In his mind, Marvel sorcerers had two basic outcomes: either be like the Ancient One, borrow power without paying it back, and when you're done living, just run off and let your creditors mark you as a dead loss... Or your creditors catch up with you and eat you whole, bones and all. Of course, some "orthodox" practitioners didn't operate that way, but they borrowed less power and were pickier about talent. Just like a bank.
After taking a sip of tea, he said bluntly, "Kaecilius' wife and child's souls weren't in Hell. You already knew that, didn't you?"
The Ancient One didn't deny it.
"Everything in this world has its own order. As sorcerers, we should not break that order. After a person dies, what awaits them is a new beginning. No one should cling obsessively to resurrection. If the natural rules are broken, the entire world will fall into chaos and destruction."
Tap, tap, tap...
Mario drummed his fingers on the table.
"You're right about the cosmic balance and all that. But I still prefer to follow what the people actually involved want."
The Ancient One simply smiled and shook her head, not continuing that topic. Instead, she asked him about his experiences in Hell.
Mario's eyebrow quirked up, instantly energized. "Can you explain why your teleportation array sent me directly onto Mephisto's face instead of, I don't know, somewhere safer?"
"Mm, last time I visited, that was the spot I used for the portal. So this time it opened at the same location. You met Mephisto face-to-face? What did you think of him?"
Mario rolled his eyes. That kind of explanation might have fooled the version of him who'd just arrived in this world. Now? Not a chance.
"Just like you hoped, he was way too enthusiastic."
---
Back in his quarters, Mario sat on his couch, playing with the Spirit of Vengeance medallion in one hand while petting Creepy with the other. After some testing, he'd discovered that other people could use the transformation too, not just him. Though for reasons he didn't fully understand, possibly because they'd been "infected" by his Minecraft nature, anyone else who wore the Spirit of Vengeance medallion could only transform into the skeleton archer version of Ghost Rider.
He balanced the medallion on his thumb and flicked it upward. The Spirit of Vengeance medallion spun through the air, then he caught it and stored it in his inventory. Now, with just a thought, he could transform into a flaming Death Knight with a badass motorcycle.
Kaecilius hadn't returned with him, he was receiving intensive training from the Ancient One, so Mario had come back alone.
"I should check on Banner's experiment."
He stood and headed straight for the waystone. A flash of white light later, he arrived on Endstar just in time to see Erik walking past, holding a cup of coffee.
"What's going on?"
Hearing Mario's voice, Erik stopped walking and turned with a smile. "I was just about to look for you."
Mario walked a few steps forward to meet him. "What's up?"
"An old student of mine contacted me a couple days ago. I wanted to check... are we still hiring?"
The hiring of regular company employees was usually handled by Anna, so Mario wasn't very familiar with the day-to-day recruitment details. Normally, new hires would start at the company facilities in suburban New York. After observation and his mini-map test confirmed they were clean, they'd be transferred to Endstar for more sensitive work.
But judging from Erik's expression, he clearly wanted to help this person.
Such a small request, Mario agreed readily. As long as the mini-map didn't show a red dot, even if Erik smuggled in a talking unicorn, he wouldn't care.
"Of course we're hiring. But let me be blunt, if your former student is trying to use you to infiltrate the company for someone else, you know what the consequences will be."
He wanted to give fair warning beforehand, so Erik wouldn't take it too hard later if things went south.
Hearing this, Erik really did hesitate. He'd seen Mario expose infiltrators trying to worm their way into the company, especially Hydra agents. The man never missed. But in the end, he made up his mind. "No problem. If she really is trying to use me, I'll have nothing to say. We'll follow company protocol."
Seeing Erik's determination, Mario smiled and patted his shoulder. "She? So it's a woman. Don't worry, if she really is trying to use you, I'll just wipe her memory at most. Come on, take me to meet her."
Erik nodded with a smile.
---
"It's you?"
Mario stared in surprise at the woman sitting in the meeting room. It had been so long that he'd completely forgotten about her. He never thought he'd run into her again.
A glance at the mini-map showed a green dot. He continued, "I didn't expect the student Erik mentioned would be you."
He extended his hand toward her in greeting.
The newcomer was Darcy Lewis. He had met her back in New Mexico when searching for Thor, and he'd even asked her for an autograph as a joke. Darcy smiled and shook his hand. "Last time, when you took Dr. Selvig away, I had no choice but to return to school. I've graduated now, but you know how hard it is to find a job in political science... I really had no choice but to ask him for help. I just didn't expect you'd be the CEO of all this."
Mario sat across from Darcy, pretending to review her personal file. Since she'd only recently graduated, the document was essentially blank, no work history, minimal references beyond academic records. He handed the file to Anna, who was standing behind him.
Smiling at Darcy, he said, "Welcome to my company. Anna, help her with the onboarding procedures. She can start right away. I'll take her to see Erik afterward."
Anna accepted Darcy's file with a professional smile and nodded before turning to leave.
Erik hadn't attended the interview, whether to avoid any appearance of favoritism or simply because he didn't want to witness any awkward moments if things went badly.
Mario stood up and gestured for Darcy to follow. "Come on, I'll take you to find him. I'll explain some things about the company along the way."
Darcy hurried to her feet, grabbed her backpack and belongings, and followed behind Mario.
Leaving the special reception room and stepping into the corridor, Mario pointed toward the distant workshop filled with activity. "I think you already saw this earlier when you arrived. This is where we produce equipment for the military and S.H.I.E.L.D. I imagine after what happened last time in New Mexico, you must have done some research on S.H.I.E.L.D."
Darcy nodded, eyes sparkling as she watched the busy workers assembling advanced technology. "I did some digging. Found out way more than I wanted to know, honestly. Is this where the Iron Man suits are made? I saw something about it on TV."
The military had been publicizing their new weapons acquisitions, similar to how Hammer Industries held that whole expo in the movies.
Mario nodded slightly. "These are just obsolete product lines. They exist mainly to provide financial support for our real research staff."
Over the noise from the workshop, Darcy wondered if she'd misheard. Each suit's price tag was astronomical to someone with her background, yet Mario spoke of it as merely covering daily expenses for employees.
"I'm sorry, did you just say...?"
"I mean the money earned here basically all goes toward supporting the company's researchers. Whether for projects or taking care of their families' needs. For example, Erik, he's now the head of our transportation research department. He can freely access up to two billion dollars as his personal operating budget. If he needs more, he just submits a request. Usually, as long as it's not literally setting money on fire or throwing it in the ocean, I'll approve it."
In that moment, Darcy's gaze toward Mario changed completely. Someone she'd never thought much of before suddenly seemed incredibly attractive.
Mario waved his hand dismissively. "No rush. Take your time adjusting. Many newcomers react just like you. Everyone's trapped by money concerns at some level. I was no exception. When you see Erik later, you'll understand. Once money reaches a certain amount, it stops mattering. There are some things you simply can't buy with cash."
---
---
50 Advance Chapters!
Visit my profile page for more information.