Mephisto's smile at this moment was incomparably radiant.
He looked at Hawk, who had transformed into starlight and disappeared, and his mind was filled with a single thought.
Finally, I can progress.
Next, as long as he could capture that Phoenix, he would be able to transform from a Dimension God into a Main God.
Mephisto raised his head, his eyes burning with desire as he looked at the Phoenix perched atop the World Tree, radiating extreme brilliance and golden light.
But at this moment.
Hel, who had been silently standing behind him, suddenly had a change of expression.
"Wait, his soul didn't enter my Netherworld."
"What?"
Mephisto snapped back to reality and turned to look at his true ally, Hel.
It did not take much effort to win over Hel.
The reason was simple.
No matter what Odin's reasons were, the fact was that Odin had imprisoned Hel, and as the seal's time progressed, the resentment in Hel's heart grew daily.
She loathed the Vanaheim God Race that did not help her and flattened the ground, exterminating the living beings of Vanaheim.
Similarly.
She also loathed Asgard.
After all, Vanaheim was just her maternal kin, but Asgard was her own family, and yet Asgard also watched as she was sealed.
Therefore, even though her power came from Asgard, she was extremely averse to Asgard, possibly even more so than Vanaheim.
To put it this way.
Even if Loki hadn't released the Flame Giant to destroy Asgard, she would have found a way to release the Flame Giant herself and destroy Asgard.
She would rather spend tens of thousands of years rebuilding Asgard after its destruction.
A true Asgard that belonged solely to her.
Thus...
When Mephisto revealed the Twilight of the Gods, the two of them easily came to an agreement.
After all, they did not desire the same thing.
Each would take what they needed.
She would take the cleansed World Tree, and Mephisto would take the Phoenix Divine Authority.
But just now, logically speaking, after Hawk's demise, his soul should have returned to her Helheim.
Yet in her Helheim, Hawk's soul had not appeared.
Upon hearing this, Mephisto's expression also changed dramatically.
The next second.
He seemed to think of something, his body transformed into black smoke, and instinctively he wanted to merge back into Hawk's Netherworld. He intended to use the portal connecting the Netherworld and his Hell to return to his Hell.
At this moment.
The Netherworld suddenly disappeared, and the Netherworld belonging to Hawk, where Mephisto and Hel stood, abruptly vanished.
At the same time.
A rift seemed to appear in the sky.
At first, it was just a single rift.
But the moment this rift appeared, billions of rifts followed closely, and then they spread rapidly around the entire space like lightning.
When countless rifts intersected at that instant.
Crack!
Like a smashed mirror, the entire space shattered into countless fragments in an instant, then fell from the sky at freefall speed.
Mephisto and Hel only felt their vision blur.
The world before them seemed to change into another world.
The World Tree was still that World Tree.
But now, the name of the World Tree had been replaced entirely.
At this time, the full name of the World Tree.
Is called—
The Phoenix Tree World Tree!
The phoenix arrives, but will not rest without the phoenix tree!
In sight.
The wounds inflicted by Surtur when he hacked through the Phoenix Tree World Tree had long healed.
The World Tree, once depleted of its essence, shook off its withered appearance, standing tall and emitting pleasant rustling sounds indicating its joy.
Countless stars collided and shattered at the place where Asgard once disappeared, then, under the guidance of the World Tree, began forming a new Divine Realm.
The Phoenix continued to stand upon the Phoenix Tree World Tree, spreading its wings and radiating a strong solar-like golden light, illuminating the new Divine Realm slowly forming, along with the other realms and the beings residing in them.
Of course.
Among these beings were Mephisto and Hel, now exposed under the Phoenix's golden light.
Only...
The smile on Mephisto's face had completely vanished.
It was clear.
He had been deceived.
"Roar!"
Mephisto, unable to control his inner fury, tore apart his human form, revealing his three-meter-tall demon body once again, breathing hot sulfur fumes from his ugly nostrils, raising his arms and roaring.
"Hawk!!!"
"Heh."
A soft laugh clearly spread in all directions.
The next second.
Hawk's figure appeared from the Phoenix Tree World Tree, sitting cross-legged, resting his chin on one hand, with golden pupils and a playful expression on his face, looking at Mephisto, who seemed somewhat exasperated and betrayed, with his voice laced with anger.
He couldn't help but shake his head.
"Old Mo, why are you so angry, shouldn't I be the one who's angry?"
"..."
Mephisto's expression froze on his face.
Hawk's lips curled up: "And, I warned you, remember? For others, my mercy only extends once, but for you, Old Mo, I've already been more than fair with you."
To be honest.
Wasn't he good to Mephisto?
Even at the very last moment just now, he was subtly reminding Mephisto, hiding in the shadows, to stop through his conversation with the World Tree.
I can say this.
As long as Mephisto didn't appear, he would have acted as if nothing happened.
So—
"Ask yourself, have I not been good to you?"
"I've been too good to you, you know why?"
"Just because you call me a good dad."
"Although you're a rebellious son, considering our father-son bond, I chose to give you another chance."
"But you didn't cherish it!"
Hawk recalled the scene where Mephisto, crying, held his hand and begged 'Dad, help me', and then looked at Mephisto before him, who not only thought of 'overthrowing the order' but also 'killing his father with his own hands'. Hawk sighed, somewhat reluctantly.
As Hawk spoke, Mephisto's expression kept changing, and with Hawk's sigh, it turned impossibly dark.
But a question lingered in his mind.
Mephisto's voice was low.
"When did you start suspecting me?"
"Suspect?"
"Heh."
Sitting on the World Tree, resting his chin on one hand, Hawk listened to Mephisto's question and couldn't help but chuckle: "I never trusted you, so how could I suspect you? Why do you think I returned the souls of the Western Hemisphere to you?"
Mephisto's expression shifted.
Hawk's lips curled up.
"You told me yourself that Yahweh, that old thing, could use souls to play Death Angels' tricks."
"But you're the expert at manipulating souls, aren't you?"
"If even an amateur like Yahweh could pull off such a trick, wouldn't an expert like you silently infiltrate my Netherworld through souls?"
"Didn't you notice that after giving me the Western Hemisphere, those souls that came to my Netherworld, I just left them on Nether Soil, never letting them into my real Netherworld?"
"I originally intended to see what trick you were playing."
"But you called me a good brother, a good dad."
"So I softened."
"I gave you the Western Hemisphere back, hoping that after you reclaimed it, you'd come to your senses."
"But I found out you didn't understand my implications at the time."
"Do you know how I discovered that?"
"..."
Mephisto's expression was dark.
"What?"
"The typical act of a rebellious son is to pay lip service to his father while doing something else behind his back. I ask you, did you really block the propagation of Earth's black spots?"
"..."
Mephisto's expression froze.
Seeing this, Hawk shook his head.
"That's why I call you a rebellious son."
"Not only did you not listen to your father, but you also deceived me by saying you wanted to expand into the Multiverse, intending to leave and prevent me from asking for souls later, to the point of having me create a passage connecting the Netherworld and Hell."
"I know what you want to do."
"Because I gave you the Western Hemisphere, the souls you left in my Netherworld weren't enough for you to exploit the soul loophole to come here."
"So you had to find a way to appear in my Netherworld when it mattered."
"Even so, just a moment ago, I still considered giving you another chance."
"After all, a son can mistreat a father a thousand times, but a father will always treat his son as a treasure."
"Anyway, it's just the two of us left here. Let's see who lasts longer; I'm giving you your last chance, don't make me regret it!"
Hawk repeated his seemingly World Tree-targeted words, then sighed again, looking at Mephisto: "As a father, Old Mo, I really have nothing more to say to you."
His previous enemies never got the same treatment as Mephisto.
Hawk only gave a single chance, a slim chance of survival.
But only a slim chance, never a second chance.
Except for Mephisto.
He gave more than one chance, just because Mephisto called him 'good dad'!
But how did Mephisto act?
Good heavens.
Every opportunity he gave, Mephisto dodged like he had a tracker on, avoiding chance after chance, then walked up to him.
And this...
What else could Hawk do?
Since respect was not appreciated, then so be it.
Hawk shook his head again.
"Don't worry, Old Mo, seeing as we're father and son, when your soul goes to the Netherworld, I'll arrange a good place for you, Magma Nether Prison, which will be your territory in the future where you can do anything you wish. It's my last bit of mercy as your father."
"Father?"
Mephisto's expression finally cracked as he listened to Hawk's words, and he roared at Hawk: "You want to be my father? My father was killed by me, just like you will be. Die."
With that!
Mephisto shouted to Hel beside him.
"Hel, we're up, let's kill him!"
"You go yourself."
"..."