MFG - Chapter 62 (Patreon)

Chapter 62: The Seed of Revenge

—

One by one, the four women dropped into the water in a series of splashes. Enrique himself dropped gently, however.

As one could expect, the girls had a less-than-lovely reaction to the gesture. Especially Black Cat and Magma, who had genuine reasons to be mad.

“Gah!”

Black Cat took out her face from under the water, gasped for a deep breath, and yelled at Enrique.

“You piece of shit! I showed you I am bleeding! Why would you drop me at the pool?! This-”

Magma too was quite uncomfortable and annoyed at the gesture, and this time her previously meek act around Enrique didn’t cloud her yelling.

“Such an inconsiderate fool! My body was hot from before, to suddenly drop me to cold water, it’s painful-”

Both of the girls paused midway through their ranting. Tigra was glaring at Enrique, while only Rogue didn’t appear angry as she swam up to sit on the border of the swimming pool, observing the little situation play out.

“Girls, girls, come down. Don’t judge me so fast, how hurtful. I obviously did what I did, while knowing your conditions. As your expressions tell me, I bet you’ve realized this is no normal pool. There is no pain, and only the feeling of peace, healing, and divinity remains.”

The water, as they looked at it, appeared deep blue. Deep as if it was a sea, not just a mere pool. It was a few dozen meters in size, shaped circularly, and let out a fragrant scent, as if deep within a forest.

[Welcome home, my children.]

Suddenly, a voice reverberated in the space within the pool. If someone stood outside it, they would have failed to hear it. Only Enrique recognized the voice, belonging to Goddess Mut. This was the first time he had heard her talk to another mortal other than himself.

[I thank you for fighting under my name in this battle that’d undoubtedly leave a mark in history. I know a few of you don’t know what I am even talking about, or who I am – for them, I am Mut. The Mother Goddess of the Egyptian Pantheon.]

All four of the girls looked a little taken aback. None of them immediately believed her, but then again they had just been fighting Loki alongside Thor just until half an hour ago. Plus, Rogue had nearly killed Loki, and for sure consumed parts of his memory too, so she of all people knew Gods were a real thing, not just people pretending to be them.

Still, to talk to a Goddess, the Mother Goddess of an entire Pantheon even, all of a sudden was a little surprising. Even if they didn’t know who Mut was, they were mostly familiar with Isis as Egypt’s most famous Goddess.

[This pool is a miniature “Lake of Life” mentioned in the famous Book of the Dead if any of you are into Egyptian myths. It is a mere imitation of it, as I had my child here, Enrique, do a series of rituals to transform his rooftop pool into this. It has, as you would notice, magical properties. Little cat lady, your wound has healed, as goes for the lava girl too.]

[This is but a small show of my appreciation for you fighting for me in this battle. As this scenario will impact the world over time, my Divinity will grow, and it’s all thanks to you.]

[Ah, and at nighttime, this will turn into a hot spring, so please enjoy that too. Farewell.]

With that, her voice dissipated for the last time. The girls waited a bit more to be sure if Mut was really gone, and then they turned their heads to look at Enrique.

“What?” Enrique shrugged, “I told you she is real. I was not praying to a… False God.”

Why did he feel a bit weird saying those two last words together? Huh, interesting.

“Anyway, I am gonna go inside. You girls stay a bit longer if you want, I'll order some food until you're done."

Saying so, Enrique jumped out of the pool. His cape that was wrapped around Magma freed from her body, giving him a clear look of her pink nipples, that she pretended he didn't see until she yelped and covered her chest.

Then, Enrique left the girls alone.

* * *

About half an hour later, the girls were still pretty reluctant to leave. So it took a bit of motivation to lift them up, which was initiated by Rogue.

Rogue left, and then returned with a towel, offering it to Magma who was surprised. She gave her a grateful smile and wrapped it around her, leaving with her. Tigra got up when the two girls were in the distance, and followed suit.

"Oi, wait for me!"

With that, the three girls headed inside. Only Felicia Hardy remained, staring at the three women with a narrow gaze.

"Oh right," Rogue returned suddenly, with another towel in her hand. She put it down near a railing. "If you need this."

She left again, making Felicia frown at the goodwill. She had taken off her stiff suit at one point, only wearing her domino mask. It was a bit weird for her to be naked with three other girls, acting all friendly and complimenting each other's curves.

"Well, whatever." She had fun though; she smiled. "It's time to leave."

She got up the stairs, cleaned herself with the towel, and contemplated if she should wear her suit and flee. She could jump from this height and easily leave, and since she wasn't running after a theft, she doubted Enrique would hunt her down.

But for some reason, she wanted to spend some more time. She knew the reason in the back of her mind, but she didn't want to admit it. She really wanted to spend some time in the hot spring, so she wanted to stick out until evening.

"Eh… I'll just continue wearing the mask, it's gonna be alright."

Deciding, she was about to leave. But just before she could step out of the pool's stairs, she heard the voice of Mut again.

[By the way,]

The Goddess' next words made her pause.

[Tell your pet cat that her Mother wants to talk to her.]

Her pet cat…? Onyx?

What the hell?

* * *

Scepter was the weapon that held the Mind Stone within itself. For a period of time during the Battle of New York, Enrique or his people were in possession of it. However, in the end, he didn’t keep it to himself. When he offered it to Mut once, she refused it too.

Being in possession of an Infinity Stone was often more detrimental than beneficial, more so if you didn’t have the power necessary to keep it safe. As was the case with Enrique, along with the current Egyptian Pantheon. So he had told Rogue to leave it on the rooftop of Stark Tower, fated to be taken by Black Widow and afterward following its fate to awaken Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, plus some other stuff.

Perhaps it was a bad idea to let fate follow its thread and let Scarlet Witch emerge, but Enrique liked playing with fire if the return rate was exceptional. If he could make that woman his, which should be easy enough given her mental state, then all of the possible dangers were worth it. Still, that was a plan for years into the future; he could chill for now.

Luckily, as planned, Black Widow had indeed taken Scepter and handed it to SHIELD. Later that day, she and the rest of the Avengers were to sit down for shawarma, as invited by Tony Stark. However, before that the God of Thunder left to look for someone, which everyone knew who.

Loki had vanished. Nobody had seen what happened to him, only Black Widow knew that he had fought Enrique the last time anyone saw him, however she didn’t have the chance to tell Thor that before he left to look for his brother. In the end, SHIELD decided to help Thor find Loki.

Soaring through the skies, Thor rushed towards where Black Widow reported Loki was, found by SHIELD. His knees shook as he rushed towards the body lying on the ground, crouching down and clasping his cheeks with his hands.

“Brother!”

At first, he thought the God of Mischief was merely unconscious, but touching him, he realized the lack of energy, mana, and divinity in his body. There was still some spark left, he wasn’t dead, but this was far from optimal. Loki was not just unconscious; he was in a coma.

“Who did this?” Thor snapped his neck at the surrounding agents, his eyes glaring. “Who dared to harm my brother like this?!”

This would take years, if not decades to heal. This was lethal damage that he suffered. It was a miracle that he still lived.

Thor’s eyes locked with Black Widow, who was staring at the scene with a frown. Thor noticed her frown and spoke, his tone a bit lighter when it came to her.

“Friend, do you have any idea who it is?”

A guess? No, Black Widow was almost certain that it was Super-Nova who was the cause behind this. She had no idea what had happened, and why he would hurt Loki like this even after already defeating him, and she didn’t know if telling Thor would be the right thing to do.

Thor was essentially a member of Avengers now, someone who had saved her life quite a few times today. However, from a more diplomatic point of view, there was no reason to put Thor against Enrique. Enrique was a hero in his own right, there was no reason they should fight over a criminal who was planning to kill millions.

In the end, Black Widow shook her head, her strategic side winning over her emotional one as usual.

“No idea, sorry.”

Due to those three words alone, Enrique Nova survived that day.

Due to those three words only, the Egyptian Pantheon wasn’t turned into dust.

Black Widow had no idea the lethality of what she had done; she instead decided to keep this information to herself for now, telling SHIELD may not be a good idea either. Instead, she decided to go meet Enrique someday, to ask him about what and why he had dealt with the Trickster God.

Someday.

**

**

**