"What a great speech."

In an office somewhere far away, an old man's low and hoarse sigh sounded in the unbridled flow of alcohol.

Old A was lying on his chair like a frustrated middle-aged alcoholic uncle, without the slightest hint of the demeanor of the chief arbitrator of the council.

On the table in front of him was a bottle of whiskey that had been drunk, and judging by the production information of the bottle, it was supposed to be a product of the beautiful vanilla era that was born before the impact.

This is probably the private treasure of Old A, but now it has been opened and drunk after a terrible failure.

The drink is bitter in the mouth, with no aftertaste at all.

It can be said that what Lao A is drinking now is no longer wine but real loneliness.

His last plan failed.

His last friend also chose to break himself off in the rift of morality and friendship, and he was also the presiding officer of the council, and he also had unimaginable resources at his disposal.

But he was a real loner.

His head hung over the edge of his chair, letting the sunset outside the window shine a ray of frustrated light on him, and the ugly devil tattoo under his raised left sleeve had dissipated, representing that Mason had given the members of the Stars a share of the freedom.

What an ironic state of affairs.

Although the two have become inseparable, in the end, it was Lao K who gave him freedom at the soul level.

However, it was precisely because he was cunningly injured by Mephisto that he became a member of this organization, and he was able to listen to Mason's sentence on the Stars Society.

"What an amazing young man."

Old A sighed drunkly.

He was especially indulgent today, having not drunk for many years, reaching out and grabbing the glass and pouring the wine into his throat, and in his office, which was alone and locked up, he said to himself:

"He has mastered the foundations of the Stars, the Gates of the World are in his hands, and the entire organization of Pioneers will be subordinated to his will if he wants.

He becomes the next Mephisto, and no, he will be more dangerous, successful, and greater than Mephisto.

He could use this system to carry out his plans more conveniently, which did not conflict with enjoying the power of leadership and domination, but in the face of such low-hanging power, he chose to refuse without hesitation.

Not only did he reject the Starry Sky Throne that was already in front of him, but he even smashed it with his own hands.

I don't sit on my own, and I don't allow anyone else to touch it.

Hey, it's really domineering.

What the hell was I thinking?

Why do I think I can control him? Alas, I was absolutely dizzy, Fury, Fury, your unwarranted self-confidence has caused you so much trouble in the past."

Old A raised the wine glass in his hand and watched the remaining one-third of the wine swaying in front of his eyes, and his big black face was reflected on the wine glass.

Haggard, lonely and hopeless.

He looked at his own reflection, half sarcastically and half scoldingly, and said:

"Why don't you always have a long memory? Why can't you always learn the lesson? Why do you always try to control people or things that you simply can't control?

You idiot! ”

"Bang"

The wine bottle containing the wine was placed on the table, and Lao A endured a headache and opened the drawer in front of him, there were not many things in it, the most conspicuous was the black pistol.

It was the gun he had when he was the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. bureau.

To an ordinary person, this thing is full of intimidation even in the warped Dark Ages, but to a superhuman, it is meaningless.

Next to the pistol was a box, and inside the box was the soul gem that Old A never left his body.

It was pressed under an old photograph that had faded and yellowed, and Old A picked it up, picked it up and put it on the table, and then took out the photo and put it in front of him.

He looked at the figure in the photo.

He was in the center, and on his left was Steve Rogers, who at that time was still the captain of S.H.I.E.L.D., his most trusted henchman and right-hand man.

But he's dead.

Just a few hours ago, the stupid donkey knight who charged at the windmill had buried himself in the plume of neutron extermination.

No one forced him.

He did it himself.

On Fury's right hand side of the photograph is the Supreme Professor with a brainwave intensifier, and at the time of the photo, S.H.I.E.L.D. was negotiating with the X royal family about the coexistence of mutants and humans.

It's a cliché, and there's no proper solution.

But that doesn't stop Fury from having a good relationship with Professor Supreme personally, especially after joining the Illuminati, where they can always agree on some important issues.

They see each other as friends.

But the Supreme Professor is also dead.

Died in the destruction of Utopia, and the initial signal of that destruction was the loss of control of the Sentinel Legion, and what caused the Sentinel Legion to lose control was the Utopia Access Visitor Code that Fury gave to the Divine Monarch Doom.

It was once a show of trust in Fury by the Supreme Professor, but it became the culprit who caused a death.

The sunset outside the window was obscured by the clouds, and the light could no longer shine into the office, dimming the light around Fury, but he didn't notice it, and he picked up his glass and drank it, but his eyes remained on the photo.

There are others.

For example, Tony Stark, who is next to Professor Supreme, is a member of the Illuminati and one of the existing Hope Councillors, and this guy has a gem of wisdom in his head.

Of course, the secret was revealed by the time the photo was taken.

He has always been a think-tank talent, a great inventor, although the Endstar Project was proposed by Lao A, but the later refinement and evolution were completed by Tony.

This guy isn't dead yet.

But he was the first in the group to choose to distance himself from the others, and he had been strangers to Fury, Steve, and Professor Supreme for many years.

No one knows what's going on in this guy's head anymore.

"The Illuminati."

Old A sighed.

The Illuminati in his world were actually the precursors to the Council of Hope, but unfortunately they were damaged by the first impact.

Doctor Strange dies in the process of stopping the two worlds from colliding, and the Black Bolt King is hidden because he disagrees with the Endstar project, and the final whereabouts of the guy are mysterious, but Fury can probably guess what Doom, who is in charge of dealing with the Black Bolt, did to him.

He once called it a "necessary sacrifice."

But when did things change?

Lao A put the photo on the table, rubbed his head and thought about this topic, perhaps because of the interference of the drink, his thinking was no longer clear, and he couldn't get an answer after thinking about it repeatedly.

The headache is getting worse and worse.

Forget it, I don't want to think about it at all, it's not a big deal anyway.

Fury coughed a few times.

He sat up straight and picked up the pistol on the table, withdrew the magazine and looked at it, reloaded it again, and loaded it with a click, just then Fury suddenly covered his forehead and let out an unbearable cry of pain.

It was like the movement of an egg being broken, something coming out of his mind, which had been aching.

"Ah, I'm glad you're still here"

A familiar and disgusting voice sounded in Fury's mind, causing Old A to get up, and then slumped back into his chair as if he had lost all his strength.

He said:

"Mephisto, you're not dead? I thought Mason had crushed you. ”

"That little bastard did just that, and he worked with Death Eater to crush my body, destroy my detachment, destroy my hell, and put an end to my association with Mephisto.

I admit that he has plotted to the extreme, sending me into a situation from which I will never recover.

But he also made mistakes."

The frail old devil laughed treacherously and rejoicably in Fury's mind, saying:

"I have spent so much money to develop you into my Hidden Great Mentor, not only to appreciate the desperation you have fallen into, but also to prepare for myself as a 'self-help measure'.

You should know, right?

As long as the Great Mentor is around, I won't really die, and Mason can't have predicted that I have not only the three traitors who killed a thousand swords, but also you hiding in the shadows.

I'll admit that I don't think I necessarily used this self-help measure when I did it, but I felt that I had to have it.

It turns out I'm pretty good, right? ”

"But the soul contract is gone."

Old A frowned and said:

"Mason removed your control over all the members of the Stellar Society, what about you?"

"That's just a means of controlling idiots who can't be put on the table, but the Grand Mentor is another concept."

Mephisto interrupted Fury's curiosity by saying:

"I'm not telling you, I'm really weak now, and the destruction of my body and existence has made me a ghost with nowhere to go, because you haven't received my power infusion before and I can't use you to reshape my body.

I don't want to hide the current situation, old A, we have both been cornered, so I have decided to abandon my previous fantasies and rude demands.

I'm going to really work with you.

I mean equal cooperation.

It can even allow you to seize the dominance, and I will become the wisdom and power hidden in your shadows.

I can serve you, help you with all your plans, and dedicate what little power I have to your cause, but until then, of course, we will have to deal with Mason's menace carefully. ”

The old devil paused, he seemed to feel the bad state and chaotic mind of the new host at this time, so he said to the old A suspiciously:

"You're not going to accept your fate, are you? Are you going to let Mason leave footprints on both of our faces and then hang his head and not plan to fight back?

Hey, cheer up!

This is not the old A I know, we did lose, but we still have a chance to turn the tables!

You also have the Conqueror Sequence loyal to you, and we can use the destruction of the Stellar Society to put pressure on the other councillors to use their resources and power to help us regroup.

In fact, this failure is not a bad thing.

You see, we can use it to hide into the shadows, so that Mason will be on the bright side, and we can take advantage of the opportunity to recover and cut off his wings little by little, as he did with us.

The fifth shock is coming!

From what I know of Mason, all his next energy will be focused on coping and preparing for this one, and his overly kind heart will not allow him to see another poor victim die a tragic death.

His letting his guard down meant that we could seize our chances, and in the perfect case, all we needed was an assassin to stab the deadly blade in the back. ”

"What's the point?"

Old A leaned back in his chair, put the loaded pistol on his lap, and asked in a very relaxed manner:

"The assassination will not succeed, even without Mason, the career he has built will not stop, and such an operation will be of no use except to make us angry."

"Isn't it enough to export gas?"

Mephisto's tone became grim, and he said:

"The plan we had been preparing for seventeen years was ruined at the last minute, and the rags he had pieced together in just a few months were able to go smoothly, why!

I ask you, why?

I don't know what you think, but as far as I'm concerned, I can't swallow it.

I've lost everything, old A, but it also means I don't need to care about any repercussions anymore and I can vent my last resentment.

I can't stop Mason from becoming the savior of this age.

But I can at least pull him off that radiant throne and let him fall into the mud in his most glorious moments, I know there's no point in doing that, but that's what the fuck I want to do!

For a qualified cold-blooded villain, that's what I'm supposed to do now, bite him hard and make him feel painful! And what the hell is going on with you?

It was you who made a clear decision to carry out the assassination, but now you are saying the that the assassination will not succeed!

Are you scared?

I ask you!

Are you scared of Mason?

Have you become the pathetic creature who will be laughed at by all the villains? Like those goblins in Gotham City who can only hide in their lair when they hear Batman's prestige?

Hey, get some ambition, and don't let me underestimate you, old A. ”

Of course, this clumsy agitation method was of little use to Old A, and he picked up the wine glass with a blank face and looked at the last bit of amber wine in it.

With the shaking of his fingers, he said slowly:

"I just realized that I had made a mistake, and if I had calmed down and chosen to honor that bet with Mason when the new Utopia project came into effect, maybe everything would have been different now.

My thirst for power overrode my moral attachment.

It may sound ridiculous, but when I first proposed the Endstar project, I really wanted to find a boat for those of us who were struggling in the mire.

I don't know when I forgot about it.

I forgot what had pushed me to where I am now, ahh Born of noble ideals, dying of humble desires."

"Are you crazy?"

Mephisto would have realized that something was wrong with Old A, especially since the loaded pistol in the latter's hand made him feel a threat to death.

He scolded:

"Hey! You sober me up, don't really think of yourself as a hero who has gone astray and wants to repent now! By the time you conquered and destroyed the first world in the name of the Council, you were no longer a partner in justice.

Come on!

It's been seventeen years, and you haven't learned to think like a villain? ”

"Repentance? No, without that kind of mercy left to people like me and devils like you, we are bad people, and we deserve to pay for the bad things we do.

I'm not scared.

I'm just tired.

I'm exhausted from walking alone on this dark path, and I don't plan to go any further. I knew Mason wasn't going to let me go, and he would be in front of me sooner or later.

But I'm not going to leave my fate in his hands.

I won't admit defeat like an eighteen-year-old young man, that's the last dignity of me as a loser.

decent

Hehe, last decent.

Speaking of which, Mephisto, I'm your last Grand Mentor, right? If I die, you will also follow me out of this era that we have played badly.

Right? ”

"You're fucking insane! Give me a stop! Damn it! Calm me down!! ”

The screams of the old devil exploded in the heart of old A.

But he didn't want to pay attention to it, and drank the wine in his hand in one gulp, allowing the glass to slip from his palm and smash on the ground with a crisp breaking sound.

He leaned back in his chair and threw everything out of his mind, clutching the faded picture in his hand as he unsheathed the hammer of his gun and pressed the cold muzzle against his chin.

Scenes from the past come to mind, especially after getting acquainted with Mason, the series of events that shine in front of my eyes like a passing eye.

The impossible was done by the young man one by one.

And the self who should have had the upper hand was forced to this point in the conflicts again and again, which is as absurd as a bad third-rate plot made up by a middle-aged decadent writer who drank too much.

But that's the reality

"Oh, wonderful."

"Bang"

Blood splattered and photos slipped.

The light of the setting sun and dusk dispelled the last darkness in this dim place, well, the stars were especially bright tonight.

It's beautiful.

(End of chapter)