For Tony Stark, the potion that had so easily eased his anxiety and panic felt nothing short of miraculous.
But to Lynn, it was just a simple concoction—one of the most basic formulas.
The ingredients were laughably common, and any half-decent alchemist could have made it. Its sole function was to restore clarity to those in a state of mental chaos.
When they finally reached the end of the tunnel, a vast, bottomless pit came into view.
Steve and the others hadn't yet appeared from the other passages.
Lynn pulled out a glow stick, cracked it, and dropped it into the darkness below.
They watched as the faint green light fell into the abyss and was gradually swallowed by the void. Lynn quietly counted in his head.
"Three hundred and thirteen meters," he said when the echo returned.
"See?" Tony said immediately, grinning. "Science still wins."
As he spoke, the other two teams emerged from their respective tunnels—looking noticeably more battered than Lynn and Tony.
Even the Hulk was holding a torn bat wing in one massive hand.
"What a deep pit."
Staring into the abyss more than three hundred meters down, Natasha asked Tony, "Tony, can you light the bottom?"
"Of course."
Tony flashed a triumphant wink at Lynn, and the arc reactor on his chest flared with a brilliant white light.
But when the beam reached the pit's floor, everyone grew solemn.
At the bottom lay countless skeletal remains scattered like refuse. Among them were the relatively fresh bodies of boys and girls, not yet fully decomposed.
Elsa Bloodstone tightened her grip on her custom longblade. "This is the danger of vampires. To them, humans are nothing but ingredients—no matter how many die, they don't care."
"That's precisely why my Bloodstone family, and the other three major hunter houses, have always dedicated themselves to hunting vampires."
Tony's eyes reddened, and his voice dropped several degrees. "Vampires have to die—whether they're domestic or come from Europe. My God. I can't begin to imagine how many innocents they've harmed."
Clint said nothing; he simply swapped in higher-explosive arrowheads into his quiver.
The Hulk clenched his fists, his breathing growing heavier.
Shield in hand, Steve Rogers rose from the edge of the pit and looked toward the ancient castle ahead. His voice was firm and resolute. "Everyone, it's time to round up these vampires."
"Avengers—assemble!"
At his call, everyone, including Elsa Bloodstone, readied for battle.
As for Lynn...
He looked around, but disappointingly, there wasn't a single ghost in sight.
He'd thought this operation might yield thirty or so ghosts with purple obsessions, like with Count Kolsais before—but not even a single green one appeared.
The Avengers charged toward the castle, Tony Stark leading with a barrage of ultraviolet blasts.
Lynn followed in behind them. After casually decapitating a few lesser vampires and tossing out a slowing agent to stall their movements, he started to take things easy.
There wasn't much else to do—once vampires lost their speed, they were still dangerous to ordinary people or even trained agents, but against the Avengers and hunters like the Bloodstone family, they were nothing.
With one smooth strike, Lynn severed a vampire's head—and his gaze was suddenly drawn to a painting hanging along the second-floor corridor.
He glanced at the screaming vampires still locked in battle below, then walked straight up the stairs to the second floor, stopping before the painting.
In the portrait, a man in a black tailcoat leaned on a cane, seemingly engaged in conversation with another man dressed in a stand-collar coat.
The only difference was clear—the second man was unmistakably a vampire.
As for the one with the cane... Lynn couldn't shake the feeling that he looked familiar.
Just as he tried to recall where he'd seen him before, the man in the painting slowly turned his head.
He adjusted his black top hat with one gloved hand, then gave Lynn a graceful nod of greeting.
The uncanny sight made Lynn instinctively take a step back—and in that instant, he remembered who the man was.
The Lord of Hell, Mephisto.
A being infamous for making "fair" deals and collecting the souls of those foolish enough to sign them.
But why was he in the painting? And why did he look alive?
When Lynn stepped back, Mephisto placed a finger to his lips in a silent shh.
Then he lifted his hand, and a glowing hexagram appeared beneath Lynn's feet. Sheets of parchment covered in black runes floated up before him.
[Mephisto's Gift.]
[The contents stolen by the Dark Sorcerer from Mephisto's notes—now restored by Mephisto himself.]
The next second, a sharp hum echoed in Lynn's head.
Countless formulas, alchemical theories, and fragments of black magic knowledge—each brimming with strange and wondrous detail—poured into Lynn's mind like a flood.
On the system panel, the Secret Potion Creation level hadn't increased, yet he suddenly understood how to refine a wide array of powerful and mysterious elixirs.
He didn't know how much time had passed. When he finally came to, he was still standing motionless before the painting.
It wasn't until Tony Stark walked up and patted him on the shoulder that Lynn snapped out of his trance.
"What's with you?"
Tony glanced at Lynn, then at the painting before them.
In the portrait, a vampire in a stand-collar tailcoat sat elegantly in a chair, looking as though it were a self-portrait.
"You into this kind of art?" Tony asked. "I've got a bunch of paintings in a similar style in my collection room. If you like them, I'll give you a couple."
He paused, then added with a smirk, "Or, if you're that attached to this one, just take it home."
Lynn had naturally noticed the change in the painting.
"Nope... I just want to.."
It felt like everything that had just happened had been a dream.
But the alchemical and black magic knowledge now swirling in his mind was undeniably real.
He even knew how to create a human-like creature from an egg.
"..Burn it."
Shaking his head, Lynn pulled out a lighter and flicked it on.
He watched the flames engulf the painting, but nothing unusual happened.
Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
So that scene earlier—had Mephisto really manifested just to hand over a completed set of notes and knowledge?
As Lynn was still piecing things together, Natasha's sudden exclamation pulled everyone's attention.
_______
(づ￣ 3￣)づ
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