[A/N]: Alright, since we've hit the first goal, the second goal of the week is 400 Power stones, so get to it!!
Just as he was about to finish her, to drain that last spark of life that held her consciousness together, to reduce the Black Queen to dust and memory, Mephisto appeared between them.
The demon moved faster than physics allowed. One moment locked in combat with the Ancient One hundreds of feet above. The next standing right there, his hand catching Jay's wrist.
Fingers wrapping around Jay's arm with casual strength.
"Now, now." His smile was back suggesting he found all of this tremendously entertaining. "All this fun has been delightful. But we can't have me failing on my contract. The paperwork alone would be murder. You understand."
His other hand gestured lazily at himself. At the red overcoat he'd transmuted from Jay's reality-warping spear and the coat moved.
It unfolded. Extended. Becoming the idea of restraint made manifest. The reality-warping properties Jay had woven into it were still there.
The coat wrapped around Jay's blade and his arm. Pulling the Muramasa away from Selene's abdomen as if Muramasa's negation meant nothing. Because the coat wasn't magic. It was reality itself being polite and doing what Mephisto suggested.
The blade slid free, and black blood followed. But Selene didn't collapse as Mephisto's other hand shot out, catching her by the collar. The hellfire chain blazed brighter, pulling taut, forcing her to remain upright even as her body wanted to surrender to gravity and death.
Jay's form blazed as his overflowing stamina was put to use to retune to his Muramasa state. Black skin with red sheen pulsed like heartbeat. Lightforce flowed through him, amplified and weaponized.
He was preparing to defend, since that's all he could muster.
But the Ancient One appeared between them. Positioning herself as a wall of power between Jay and Mephisto.
"Stand down, Jay." Her voice carried absolute authority. The tone that accepted no argument.
The Mind Stone blazed from her forehead, yellow light creating halos around her form.
Then she turned to Mephisto. Her expression was serene. "And you, demon." Her voice dropped to something colder. "Take your summoner and leave. Now. Before I decide that the ramifications of destroying a Hell Lord are worth the hassle. Never return while I draw breath."
Mephisto laughed giddily, unhinged and genuinely delighted. "Oh, this is rich! This is absolutely delicious!" His yellow eyes tracked between the Ancient One's glowing forehead and Jay's battle-ready form. "The Sorcerer Supreme, making demands! It's been so long since I've been out of hell properly manifested, and there's a ripe outsider soul literally bleeding reality-breaking power up for grabs!"
His gaze fixed on Jay with naked hunger. The need to possess and add to his collection. "Surely you wouldn't deny me this prize. This delicious and absolutely fascinating specimen of—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
His eyes were tracking Jay's hand. Watching as it moved with quickness approaching his. He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a single card.
It was unassuming. Just a playing card, really.
But Mephisto could feel the energy. Recognized it instantly. Similar to the Mind Stone blazing from the Ancient One's forehead and the Time Stone on her chest. Similar but different. A sibling to the other Infinity Stones.
The Space Stone hidden in a card that shouldn't be able to hold it.
"Ah." Mephisto's voice lost its playful edge entirely as it became flat, like someone reassessing a situation and not liking their new conclusions. "I see. How very clever. The boy has teeth after all."
His hand twitched. Calculation flickering across his perfect face. 'Could he take them both? The Ancient One, wielding two Stones and Jay with a third?' The variables were numerous. And Mephisto hadn't survived since before humanity's dawn by taking stupid risks.
But before he could make a move, before he could calculate whether the gamble was worth it, the Ancient One took the card.
Plucked it from Jay's fingers with casual grace. Her movement was economical.
The Space Stone emerged from its containment as she touched it. Blue energy, the color of deep ocean, of endless sky, of the void between stars. Pure spatial force that made the dimension's fabric stretch and strain just from existing in proximity.
She now held three Infinity Stones.
Mind blazing from her forehead. Time pulsing at her chest in the Eye of Agamotto. Space crackling in her palm, raw and barely contained.
The power radiating from her was biblical. The kind of force that shouldn't exist in one location. The pocket dimension's collapse accelerated, unable to sustain existence in proximity to that much concentrated cosmic power. The walls shattered and unraveled at the seams.
But it was too much. Even for the Sorcerer Supreme at her peak. Even enhanced by the Mind Stone's consciousness-evolution.
Blood trickled from her nose, ears and corners of her eyes. Three Stones simultaneously pushed even her enhanced consciousness to its limits.
She could feel herself fragmenting.
But she held on. Gripped her sense of self with iron will. And she used that power. Not to attack. That would be a waste.
Instead, her hands formed a complex gesture. A spell more complex than anything she'd ever attempted. Time, Space, and Mind working in concert as blue energy, shot through with green and yellow, wrapped around Selene.
"By the power of three cardinals of existence, I cast you OUT!"
The energy shifted Selene's position in space, ejecting her from this dimension entirely. Contract and summoning be damned.
Space folded around the External. Time accelerated around her specifically, making her movement instantaneous. Mind ensured she arrived conscious, aware, knowing exactly what had been done to her.
"Wait—" Mephisto's hand shot out desperately. The first truly desperate motion he'd made all fight.
But it was too late.
Selene vanished. Ripped from the pocket dimension with violence that left cracks in space itself. The Ancient One hurled her across dimensional barriers, through layers of reality, across the boundaries between worlds. Depositing her somewhere she'd calculated using knowing she would gain the most.
And since his summoner was gone. Since the contract's anchor had been forcibly moved across dimensional barriers.
The demon began to fade.
The contract pulled at him. Yanked him across space toward wherever Selene had been ejected. The summoning's terms were clear. Protect the summoner. That was the deal. That was what she'd paid for with her eternal servitude. And deals, especially deals with Mephisto, had to be honored. Even when inconvenient. Especially when inconvenient. Because that's how his contracts worked.
His form became transparent as his hellfire suit flickered. The perfect body started to lose cohesion, becoming see-through and pulled back to wherever Selene had landed. Being yanked across reality by cosmic law that even Hell Lords had to obey.
"No! NO! You conniving little bit—" His complaints started angry, the rage of someone who'd been outmaneuvered. Then they dissolved into genuine respect. "The Lord of Lies himself got tricked! Out-gambited by the bald wonder! HAHAHAHA!"
The laughter echoed unhinged. But also... impressed? Appreciative? Hard to tell with Mephisto.
His final words, before he vanished completely: "Well played, Sorcerer! But this isn't over! Not by half! The boy's soul is still—"
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