(General P.O.V)

"We need to get back!"

The Ancient One said with urgency, her hands waving through the air.

sparks trailed behind the Sling Ring on her fingers, all to no effect.

"It's futile, Mephisto knows he cannot defeat me, so he set a trap."

Gaea said morosely.

"One that I stupidly fell for."

"You're not to blame my Lady."

The Ancient One consoled her.

"I thought I could outsmart him as well. Failing that, I thought I could finish the spell in time."

She shook her head, dishearteningly sitting down on the carapace of a dead demon.

All around them were dead bodies belonging to Demons that had immediately attacked them upon their arrival.

Mephisto had apparently sent them to a place infested with a lot of low level demons.

Some were speared through by spikes of wood, others crushed in between boulders, others ensnared and strangled by vines while others were simply split apart, the edges of the wounds seared as if what had cut them had been on fire.

"What spell?"

Gaea enquired, enlarging her zone of influence to give them time to talk without getting distracted by the low level attacks.

She then sat down, a throne of wood growing off the ground to provide her seat.

The zone kept the demons busy as they discussed the strategy to get back to the Castle quickly.

"There was a clause in the desk Mephisto and I had. In exchange for giving him the ring of Solomon, he would allow Billy's soul to be set free. However, the boy needed a body."

The Ancient One explained, pulling out the time stone, holding it up for the Earth Mother to see.

"A singularity. One of time."

Gaea muttered, eyes briefly narrowing in recognition.

"Yes...the time stone or as it's known to us Sorcerers, the eye of Agamotto. It allows me to-"

"See events before they happen. Or rather all the possible outcomes of any action."

Gaea cut in.

"Yes." The Ancient One agreed.

"Though in some special cases, it doesn't always work. For instance, there is not much I can see about Billy's future."

She tucked the time stone in her robe.

"However, by looking into what's happening around him, I can see a version of his future. And that's how I came up with a plan to get him out of hell."

She tucked her hands underneath the long sleeves of her robe.

"There is a Government program. Off the books, due to the nature of it's...moral views. or lack there of."

A serious expression appeared on her face.

"A splinter group of a government project to create Superhumans. It's called Weapon Plus."

She paused before continuing,

"Created from the merger of Weapon X researchers and a particularly annoying genocidal mad man called Nathaniel Essex...they hope to merge Mutant abilities with the powers of demons in a bid to create an army of ghost riders. Only they would be Mutants on top of that. In other words, they've been working with Mephisto."

Gaea's presence poured out of her.

"That...would create abominations."

She bit out.

"Yes."

The Ancient One sighed.

"One of the experiment samples is a body created from the Boy, Billy's own d.n.a. Turns out, Weapon Plus had been tracking him down after his abilities impressed them. They were hoping to create a clone with the telepathic capabilities of one Charles Xavier."

"I don't understand, how is all that connected?"

Gaea questioned.

"Simple. Mephisto was to keep his end of the bargain and create a link between Billy's soul and the clone body in the Weapon Plus facility."

"That part of the spell is carved into the pedestal. I only had to complete a different spell to banish any curses, Slavery brands or geass placed on Billy's soul to enslave him."

"Then I would activate the spell on the pedestal and send his soul to Earth, to inhabit his clone self. There, my sorcerers would raid the place and secure him. But before I could finish the cleansing spell..."

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"Mephisto teleported us away."

Gaea finished.

"Exactly."

The Ancient One replied, looking at the ground with a frown. What a mess. She had known this wouldn't be easy but still..

"Well then."

Gaea got up, green hair waving behind her.

"what are we waiting for? Let us go save a Champion's soul and kick ass as you children say..."

The Ancient One blinked in surprise before a giggle escaped her.

"Yes, let's do that. But before we get going, there's a more immediate problem to take care of."

She responded, staring at their front.

The Demon army had increased in numbers...and it didn't seem to be the low level demons alone.

Gaea's hand stretched out to the side.

A massive tree broke through the ground, forming into a long spear with a bone blade at the end.

From afar, demons of all types flew, crawled, slithered and ran towards them. They numbered in the millions.

"Yes. I see what you mean."

Gaea replied, a bloodthirsty smirk on her beautiful face.

"So stand back, Child. While this might be a simple emanation that carries only 10% of my full power, I shall protect you with everything I have."

The Sorcerer Supreme chuckled at the Primordial Goddess' claim.

The Ancient One, not to be outdone, flipped her hood on before settling into a basic fighting stance.

Tao mandalas appeared in each of her hands, the edges glowing with brilliant orange sparks.

"And I shall protect you as well, my Lady."

She replied.

'Hold on Billy. From the little I've seen of your destiny, It is not your fate to fall here.'

(Billy's P.O.V)

Two red eyes with yellow sclera appeared below me in the darkness of the pit, glinting with cruelty.

Mephisto.

"I couldn't see you before...I still cannot. However, I can sense you, Thief."

The Demonic Dragon's voice reached my ears.

"You're deluded. We both know who the thief here actually is."

I shot back, breaking off shards of the ice cocoon before sending them hurtling down towards the hole.

There was a whistle and then... nothing.

I didn't feel them make contact. But something big moved through the pit, it's massive form brushing against the walls of the sink hole and causing a mushroom of dust and soot to rise up.

"That attack has traces of divine energy- ice that does not break easily...are you a subject of Gaea?"

Mephisto enquired, a red glow pulsing from the hole.

There was a rumble, an almost methodical continuous beat. Hot smoke escaped into the air.

He's planning something...

Too bad I can't cut off the chain shackling the pedestal to him. Any ice I extended through the chain to shatter it, was immediately turned to steam due to the heat.

"I suppose it does not matter." Mephisto's continued. The rumbling from below increased in tempo.

"For the sin of trying to steal what's mine...I condemn you to a fiery death!"

Oh shit...it's dragon breath.

Right from the start, he had me at a disadvantage. I was surrounded by his underlings and escape was impossible due to the chain linking us.

But that wasn't the biggest problem. He was.

No matter how much power I had, I knew there was no way to realistically win this.

Not in his realm where he had more than enough influence to squash me like a bug.

This wasn't a normal weekly villain. This was as close to fighting a god as I could come close to.

'Mmmph..you still don't get it. You set your bars too low...a real god does not hide like that Lizard is doing...'

The thought came from...

"Hercules?"

I called out, looking around.

No response came. Then who had said that? Did I imagine it?

However, a certain warmth washed through my consciousness, undermining my fear and stoking the flames of my stubbornness like a certain bullheaded Demigod.

My senses went into overdrive as Herculean Strength filled my being, further putting stress on my Dream-Form.

Fortunately, melded into the ice like I was lessened the strain.

I didn't notice it at first but red became prominent in the collage of colors surrounding my soul within the ice crystal.

Bright enough to shine even through the ice cocoon.

My awareness was on high alert, anticipating an attack.

And sure enough, the Hell Lord decided to make good on his threats.

"Aagghh!!"

The orange glow below me reached critical levels.

The demons on the edges of the pit trampled over each other as they escaped what was coming.

A storm of hell flames rose out of the sink hole, like Lava erupting from a volcano. The fire was hotter than anything I had encountered.

Hot enough that when the heat wave reached me, it blew against the cocoon, causing the whole thing to wave sporadically in the air.

Behind the initial heatwave, the pillar of flames arrived.

Relentless, it swallowed my ice construct whole. I felt a strain through my Dream-form as the ice fought to stay solid.

A battle I was losing very quickly as the flame breath seemed to have no end.

'Then break through it!'

Another loud thought manifested in my mind.

Yeah...I guess I could do that.

Herculean power brimming within my dream-form, I poured what I could and entirely covered the cocoon, enhanced it's durability.

The ice changed from an oval shape into a drill shrouded in red energy.

Then I allowed it to drop, reinforcing the ice around the pedestal as much as I could.

The drill fell, smashing through the pillar of flames. I felt the ice drill right through, expelling the heat.

The drill followed the chain linking me to Mephisto...

Then Bam! squelch!

I hit something hard and fleshy. The roof of Mephisto's head. I had shattered through his front teeth and was now drilling a hole through his upper jaw.

Hot blood gushed out around the ice drill.

A loud roar of agony was unleashed from the depths of the pit, the demonic dragon's body jerking around in pain, trying to dislodge the drill.

So I increased it's rotation speed, bursting through the bone, and flesh before I pierced through Mephisto's brain...

Or I was about to, when something went wrong.

Without warning, Mephisto disappeared into dark smoke.

One second there was flesh and blood around the drill, then the next, the drill was slamming onto the walls of the sinkhole, penetrating in halfway.

Silence reigned.

I felt a jerk on the chain locked around the pedestal. He was still alive.

And around. Somewhere.

Thinking quickly, I changed the ice into liquid water before letting it soak in through the wall, tunneling deeper by using ice tipped tendrils.

Then I changed it all back into ice, lodging the entire ice structure further into the wall of the sink hole.

Good. The pedestal is buried 30 meters within the wall, getting to it won't be easy for anyone but Mephisto. And in the meantime... I'll be dealing with him.

A little bit of ice broke off from the structure, falling down into the dark hole, following the path of the chain linking the pedestal to my opponent.

Mid-flight a new form begun taking shape in the chunk of ice.

A hand made out of crystal blue ice sprouted, followed by a torso, then the rest of the limbs before finally, a crystal head formed.

The Ice Unit landed on the ground with a bang, the floor cracking under my new feet.

I bent, using my control over the ice molecules to transfer the force of the landing through the crystal legs, up my my ice thighs and then my shoulders.

The force was expelled as cold mist from my back.

I stood up to my full height, looking down at myself. The Ice Unit. A more streamlined model of the water armor I liked using.

My consciousness was melded into the Unit, allowing me to control it intuitively and instinctually.

Not to mention...I reached for my back, hand wrapping around the handle of a weapon.

A huge ice blade, more akin to a cleaver. I could also mold things from the ice as long as I had enough water present.

Though I wasn't sure if this ability worked on every liquid or if it was exclusive to Gaea's special purified water I was using.

None of that really mattered, for I had come to a conclusion.

If I couldn't cut off the chain...then I was going to behead Mephisto, getting rid of the problem once and for all.