After finding the true World Tree, Lucas infused more divine power and more consciousness, examining each aerial root on this tree one by one.
Ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand...
On this true World Tree, there were tens of billions of aerial roots.
Each aerial root symbolized a Nine Realms, a god or a giant.
Among them, a few aerial roots abruptly ended in the middle, looking as if they had been artificially severed.
After a thorough investigation, Lucas concluded that there were hundreds of thousands of worlds marked as being on the verge of a Ragnarok event. This was close to one hundred-thousandth of the total number.
"I'm going to be busy now. If you want to go back, go ahead. You don't have to wait for me."
Lucas's divine power erupted, tearing through space and rushing towards the places he had marked.
He had a premonition that the harvest from this hunt for the Gods behind the World Tree might be greater than he had imagined.
Time flew by and three days passed in a flash.
Lucas converted all these marked pools in one go, which left him quite exhausted.
Originally, he would take about a minute per pool, so completing all of them non-stop would have taken nearly a year.
When had he, Lucas, ever spent so long on one task? What about his beloved girlfriend at home?
Helplessly, he intermittently restored his inherent perception speed, completing this work in three days in Real Universe time.
As for how many years had passed in his perception, he was too lazy to calculate.
However, after he had replaced all the marked pools with his own energy, and continued upwards along the branches of the true World Tree, he made a new discovery.
What he thought was the true World Tree was actually merely a root system of the true World Tree.
Pulling back, across endless time and space, Lucas could barely discern that this mass before him was a tree.
A tree spanning the Multiverse.
No! More than that!
One of its root systems was a Universe cluster.
The continuous evolution of its root system was a Multiverse.
And the tree itself spanned more than half of the Marvel world.
Do the masterminds of Ragnarok, the Gods behind the World Tree, truly fully control the World Tree?
A question arose in Lucas's mind.
Could something spanning more than half of the Marvel world truly be owned by a group of Gods?
Or was the "group" of Gods behind the World Tree referring to a species?
'As expected of the World Tree, the worlds it carries are countless but even this is still finite.'
Stepping outside the Universe, outside the Superflow, and into the Neutral Zone near the edge of the Marvel world.
Lucas discovered a major truth about the Marvel world.
The Marvel world has boundaries.
Things within the Marvel world might be infinite on their own scale. But on a higher scale, they become finite.
This aligned with Lucas's experience throughout his journey.
He had seen many Dimensional Lords and Elder Gods who claimed their energy was infinite. But in the end, with one drain, he found that all their energy was finite.
The so-called infinite was merely a vast quantity combined with repeated utilization.
One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand...
After the initial shock, Lucas roughly counted and estimated the order of magnitude for the number of Multiverses on the World Tree.
Hundreds of thousands of root systems, hundreds of thousands of Multiverses.
And within each Multiverse, there are tens of billions of Universes. Although it's still finite, it's quite terrifying.
Lucas was very confident in his strength. But if every single Multiverse had a group of Gods, and these hundreds of thousands of groups of Gods then united, he would still be a bit apprehensive.
It wasn't that he feared a multitude of ants biting an elephant to death, but rather that he worried they would chant about 'friendship and unity' and then merge.
Uniting all their power to become a High-Tier God.
Lucas's thoughts stirred, and his pure white divine power surged out, completely enveloping him.
The next moment, he vanished as if invisible, imperceptible to the naked eye.
No, if someone were here, they would find that Lucas was not only invisible to the naked eye, his breathing, heartbeat, and scent had also disappeared. Even with any instrument, no trace of his existence could be detected.
He had detached himself from the Universe's magnetic fields, gravitational fields, and so on, as if he no longer had any tangible or intangible contact with this Universe.
After confirming that his aura was well-hidden and he wouldn't be discovered, Lucas stealthily moved towards the World Tree root system belonging to Earth-404.
He planned to investigate the situation first before deciding his next step.
He was usually impulsive, but only because his super brain told him it was time to use his super strength.
Returning to his super-sensory state, Lucas spent three days searching along the World Tree root system and discovered two slightly unusual domains.
Or rather, dimensions.
The first dimension's anomaly was that it was clearly alive, yet it had been artificially interfered with and sealed by a Dimensional Lord, as if it were dead, no longer interacting with the outside world.
Driven by curiosity, Lucas decided to investigate.
He quietly slipped through the blockade and felt a long-lost and familiar aura.
Mephisto and his Hell.
"Mephisto, you owe me. How will you repay me?" Lucas said, rubbing his hands together.
He looked at Mephisto indulging in pleasure, with women on both sides, and then thought of his own days feeling like years recently, making him even more uncomfortable.
Conveniently, Mephisto had a grudge with him, so he could beat him up to vent his anger.
"Lucas?"
Mephisto abruptly lifted his head from the soft embrace, his face filled with terror.
He glanced around, and only after finding nothing did he let out a long sigh of relief.
A moment later, his face showed sadness. "Fuck, am I hallucinating again?
How did I, Mephisto, a former Satan, a Hell Lord, end up like this?
He angrily smashed the skull he was using as a wine cup, then waved his hand at the many succubi who had stopped their movements.
"Continue the music, continue the dance!"
Lucas looked at the skull at his feet, his expression strange.
Honestly, he hadn't expected Mephisto to become like this. He was more familiar with the old Mephisto, who smiled with daggers hidden.
After Mephisto angrily smashed the wine cup, he gestured to a succubus serving him to pick it up, not caring that it was dirty, and continued to use it for wine.
This was the skull of the evil spirit Zarathos, the previous Dimensional Lord of this Hell, one of a kind.
Mephisto was willing to use it to vent his anger, but to truly throw it away? Impossible.
Afterward, the succubus dance troupe continued the music and the dance. But Mephisto seemed to have lost interest, looking dispirited.
Seeing this, the succubus dance troupe felt insulted. They all showcased their talents, competing for attention.
For a time, the dances became increasingly provocative.
Mephisto gradually became aroused, his interest rekindled. But soon, he felt as if a basin of cold water had been poured over him, chilling him to the bone.
"Mephisto, you owe me. How will you repay me?"
Hearing this voice twice in a row, Mephisto was sure it wasn't a hallucination.
He forced a smile and said, "Sorcerer Lucas, since you're here, why not show yourself?"
Lucas teased, "Are you sure you want me to come out?"
Mephisto's smile stiffened, but he felt a slight relief internally. "Whether you come out or not, that is naturally up to you. May I ask, what brings you to me this time, and what commands do you have? I will do my utmost, sparing no effort."
"I was wandering through the Multiverse and happened upon this special Dimension, so I came in to investigate. Unexpectedly, I coincidentally met an old acquaintance here. And even more unexpectedly, after such a long time, Your Excellency Mephisto has become so haggard."
Lucas casually made up a story.
His voice, ethereal and elusive, indeed had a certain charm of wandering the Multiverse.
Upon hearing this, Mephisto nodded, feigning understanding.
Inwardly, he was distressed by his bad luck, or rather, by being too clever for his own good.
"Sorcerer, just call me Mephisto. Meeting an old acquaintance, calling me Your Excellency is too formal."
"Alright, Mephisto. Do you know the four great joys of life?"
Lucas didn't dwell on the address and continued the conversation, following Mephisto's lead.
The four great joys of life?
Instantly, countless years of experience traveling the human world flooded Mephisto's mind.
His potential exploded, and he quickly sorted through these jumbled thoughts.
"Sweet rain after a long drought, meeting an old friend in a foreign land, the wedding night, and success in studies."
"Exactly."
In a place Mephisto couldn't see, Lucas nodded slightly.
"Now that we, old acquaintances, have reunited, isn't this one of the four great joys of life?"
"Haha... Sorcerer, you are absolutely right."