Inside the Aurantius Tower.
After sending Nick Fury on his way, Luca and Tony looked at each other in bewilderment.
Originally, seeing the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier arrive, the two of them—who had just nearly caused a massive catastrophe—were actually a bit apprehensive.
Who would have thought that after getting a rough understanding of the situation, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team led by Nick Fury would just drop the matter and leave without a word?
Even Fury—the guy who usually acted like he was second only to God, meddling in everything and seeing threats everywhere—didn't use righteousness or morality to guilt-trip them into handing over their technology.
In the end, he just used reasons like "S.H.I.E.L.D. needs intel on Hell" and "helping the amnesiac Robbie find his identity" to smooth-talk the silly Ghost Rider into leaving with them.
"Did the Egghead suddenly undergo a personality change?"
Tony looked at Luca, puzzled.
But seeing Tony just as confused, Luca—who had been baffled himself—rolled his eyes dramatically.
"How long has it been since I last saw that guy? Besides, I'm not exactly close with the Egghead. How would I know why he's so easygoing today?"
However, as he said this, Luca subtly touched the watch on his wrist and asked, seemingly casually:
"I think maybe S.H.I.E.L.D. has just been too busy lately to bother with this stuff?"
"By the way, what have they been busy with? Weren't you guys putting down rebellions together a while back?"
As he spoke, Luca stared unblinkingly at Tony Stark.
Tony, however, didn't notice Luca's expression. He was clearly still thinking about Nick Fury's abnormal behavior today, so he answered subconsciously.
"They shouldn't be busy with much, right? The Hydra cells on the West Coast have been mostly cleared out. Just recently, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents rescued some officials who had been imprisoned by Hydra. Although those guys are parasites, with their help, restoring order shouldn't require much more effort from S.H.I.E.L.D., right?"
The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took note.
When Tony mentioned that S.H.I.E.L.D. had rescued officials "imprisoned by Hydra," a strange look flashed in Luca's eyes.
Hydra imprisoned US officials? Why didn't I know about this?
Thinking this, Luca glanced at Si Bei standing nearby.
After receiving a negative look from him, Luca hesitated for a moment but decided not to say anything more in front of Tony.
Tony himself didn't seem to dwell on it. instead, he turned to ask Luca about the demon experiments.
"Uh, so... are you planning to try opening the Hell Gate to search for souls again later?"
By now, without magical interference, Hajimi had successfully reconstructed the footage of Mephisto transforming from a finger into a "human" and everything that followed.
Combined with the analysis and explanations from Robbie—who had spent god knows how long in Hell—Luca and Tony now had a fairly clear understanding of Mephisto's avatar and Gina's current condition.
However, neither Robbie nor Luca knew...
...whether Mephisto's avatar had managed to send intel back to his main body.
So, continuing the demon research became a dilemma.
Continue researching?
Just this once, they had unluckily let a Mephisto avatar into Earth, causing the Dimensional Fusion and a mini demon tide.
If they kept messing around blindly, who knew what they'd pull out of the blind box next time?
But give up research?
Leaving Gina's issue aside for a moment—if Mephisto's avatar could communicate with the main body in real-time, the demons of Hell would know the situation here and might launch a reverse invasion.
Without sufficient understanding of demons, were they supposed to rely solely on conventional weapons to fight these magical enemies?
In short, this was a matter of significant consequence, and Tony wanted to hear Luca's opinion.
However, hearing Tony ask him, Luca gave his answer without hesitation.
"Sigh. Let's pause for now. I'm worried that if we open the Hell Gate again, we might really have to face a Hell Lord's main body."
As he said this, Luca put on a look of extreme reluctance.
Seeing this, Tony sighed along with him.
In reality, while Luca did feel some reluctance, most of it was frustration at his own lack of strength.
With Robbie—who knew both souls and demons—helping to confirm that Gina's condition was stable, Luca wasn't in such a rush to act radically anymore.
More importantly, the construction of the base in Sokovia was nearing completion.
Plus, after researching with Tony for a while, Luca had new ideas for the Solar Furnace.
Although building the original Solar Furnace on Jupiter using the Spot would take time, he had found a different path: attempting to combine magical energy to build a true "Magically Modified" Pseudo Solar Furnace first.
If he unlocked the Magic-Modified Solar Furnace and Yuri's Technology, Luca's power would undergo a qualitative leap.
Then, leading his new Techno-Magic Army to "invade" the Hell Dimension and retrieve Gina's soul would be much safer.
Actually, if Thor hadn't run back to Asgard to quell rebellions, Luca would have wanted to ask him to take him on a "Dragon Hunt" across the Nine Realms.
Having already harvested plenty of Demon Souls, if Luca could just get some Dragon Blood, he could immediately synthesize the [Pink Dragon Fruit] and enhance his own physical strength.
It's a dragon, after all. Even if it's girly pink.
Thinking about eating the [Pink Dragon Fruit] and then fighting enemies personally...
Imagine the enemy going through hell to defeat his mechanical army, then breaking through his mecha armor...
Only for him to transform directly into a dragon and blast them in the face with fire breath.
Luca almost couldn't maintain his feigned look of disappointment.
But Asgard is a no-go for now. Is there anywhere else on Earth I can get Dragon Blood?
Come to think of it, aren't there dragon bones hidden under New York? We've fought here a few times and they haven't been exposed yet? But do dragon bones have blood in them?
Wait, that Ten Rings mystical realm... isn't there a dragon in there too? Maybe I can have Hajimi look for guys named Shang-Chi or Xu Wenwu.
Luca was lost in his wild thoughts.
Tony and Gwen, seeing him deep in thought, assumed he was agonizing over his mother's situation.
Not wanting to disturb him, they silently withdrew from the room.
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