Hela's bold move left Nolan slightly stunned.
He had thought that, considering how long Hela had lived and how much she had experienced, their relationship would remain unspoken for quite some time.
He never expected her to pierce through that final layer between them so easily.
But naturally, Nolan had no intention of rejecting her.
After hearing Hela's question, Nolan simply snapped his fingers and smiled.
"Without a doubt, you've earned that right."
Even though he said that, Nolan still had no intention of handing over the management of the inner base to Hela.
This truly had nothing to do with trust.
Rather, when it came to this matter, Nolan would never place his trust in anyone other than himself.
It did not matter who that person was.
The inner base contained everything he possessed.
If something happened to it, the consequences for Nolan would be devastating, potentially even fatal.
He would never place his own safety in someone else's hands simply because he trusted them.
That sense of danger had supported him throughout all these years.
It was precisely because he had always maintained such a strong sense of vigilance that he had survived one crisis after another.
Without that instinctive caution, he would have died somewhere long ago.
Therefore, Nolan had no intention of changing his approach now.
While Nolan was waiting...
Ghost Rider had already reunited with Hades.
The two stood together.
A dense aura of death constantly surrounded Hades.
Compared with him, Ghost Rider looked like nothing more than an ordinary man.
His original name was Johnny Blaze.
It was only after making a contract with Mephisto that he became Ghost Rider.
Johnny himself was not exactly a dependable man, but he had never considered himself evil.
From time to time, he would even do something good.
However, whenever something involved his master, Mephisto, he could no longer control his own body.
The reason was simple.
Although Johnny might not want to do certain things, the Spirit of Vengeance controlling his body could force him to do them.
For example, going after Nolan Lock.
Johnny knew very well that he was no match for Nolan.
Unfortunately, the Spirit of Vengeance was determined to help Mephisto enter Earth.
And Nolan Lock was the biggest obstacle standing in their way.
Under such circumstances, Johnny could only compromise.
Besides...
As the time he spent fused with the Spirit of Vengeance grew longer, the sense of justice within him had gradually faded.
The remaining fragments of his humanity existed mostly to serve his own instincts.
Johnny felt that he was becoming farther and farther removed from the word "human."
But there was nothing he could do about it.
He could only allow things to develop naturally.
And now, standing beside Hades...
That feeling had become even stronger.
Perhaps...
He truly could no longer be called human.
Hades spoke first.
"I don't know exactly how powerful Nolan Lock is."
"Do you have any information about him?"
After all, Hades had been sealed for so long.
Under those circumstances, he had never had much opportunity to investigate Nolan.
The limited information he knew about Nolan had all been provided by his followers.
However, those reports contained both truth and falsehood.
His followers were absolutely loyal to him, but they were simply too weak.
There was only so much they could investigate.
Many times, all they could collect was inaccurate information.
Naturally, the information Hades received became somewhat distorted.
Ghost Rider, however, had always lived on Earth.
He was also powerful enough to obtain information that ordinary people could never acquire.
Rather than asking others for confirmation, especially his two brothers, Hades felt it would be better to hear directly from Ghost Rider.
He believed that Ghost Rider stood on the same side as him.
At least when it came to Nolan Lock, Ghost Rider would not lie to him.
That was enough.
His two brothers, especially Poseidon, had never gotten along with him.
Poseidon was always looking for opportunities to sabotage him.
Although Poseidon had sent him information, Hades believed barely thirty percent of it.
He completely dismissed the remaining seventy percent.
He knew Poseidon too well.
That bastard was definitely trying to set him up.
After hearing Hades' question, Johnny Blaze spoke.
"You know about Thanos, right?"
Hades nodded.
"Of course."
"Thanos is one of the supreme overlords of the universe."
"Although I've never personally encountered him, his strength must be extraordinary."
Johnny Blaze explained.
"Not long ago, Thanos invaded Earth."
"I imagine you've already heard about that from your followers."
He glanced at Hades.
Hades had not directly admitted that he knew about it.
Johnny had immediately exposed the secret Hades had been trying to keep.
Hades showed no embarrassment.
He simply looked at Johnny and waited for him to continue.
Johnny had no choice but to keep explaining.
"But your followers probably don't know the details of that battle."
"Thanos invaded Earth because he wanted the Infinity Stones on Earth."
"One of those Infinity Stones was in the hands of the Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange."
"The remaining Stones were with Nolan Lock."
"To obtain them, Thanos sent his army to Earth."
"His goal was to seize the Infinity Stones from Nolan Lock, defeat every powerful fighter on Earth, take the final Stone from Stephen Strange, and gather all six Infinity Stones."
"With all six Stones, he intended to erase half of all life in the universe."
Even Hades froze when he heard that.
Erase half of all life in the universe?
What kind of insane idea was that?
Hades could hardly understand how an existence like Thanos could come up with such a plan.
For a moment, he even suspected that Ghost Rider was lying to him.
But when he saw the serious expression on Johnny's face, he could only suppress that thought.
Johnny shrugged and continued.
"I know it sounds unbelievable."
"But that's what happened."
"At the time, Thanos possessed several Infinity Stones and actually used their power on the battlefield."
"At the same time, his army launched a massive assault on Earth."
"Although Earth's forces were completely overwhelmed by Thanos' army, everything changed the moment Nolan Lock appeared on the battlefield."
"Nolan Lock used his own overwhelming strength to defeat Thanos."
"Even after Thanos used the Infinity Stones, he still couldn't change the outcome of the battle."
"In the end, the Infinity Stones in Thanos' possession were taken by Nolan Lock."
"Not only did Thanos fail to accomplish his goal, he actually ended up delivering the Infinity Stones directly into Nolan Lock's hands."
"That's why Nolan currently possesses five Infinity Stones."
"The remaining Infinity Stone is still with Stephen Strange."
"If Nolan and Strange weren't friends, I suspect all six Infinity Stones would already be in Nolan's hands."
Hades sucked in a cold breath.
Although he had never personally seen the Infinity Stones, he understood their terrifying nature from the descriptions alone.
And now...
Thanos had used the Infinity Stones.
He was already an immensely powerful cosmic overlord.
Yet even with that power, he had still failed to defeat Nolan Lock.
For the first time, Hades began to question whether he could actually take the five Infinity Stones from Nolan.
But Johnny's explanation was not over.
"There is something else your followers definitely don't know."
"Although Thanos was invading Earth at the time, there was actually another group of enemies attacking Earth at the same time."
"An enemy that was no weaker than Thanos."
Hades frowned.
He truly knew nothing about this.
And if what Johnny said was true...
How exactly had Earth survived?
And how had Nolan managed to obtain five Infinity Stones?
Johnny continued.
"I assume you know about dimensional rifts."
"You also know that this universe consists of countless dimensions."
"When Thanos began his invasion of Earth, another battle was taking place within the dimensional rifts."
"Thanos wasn't the only one interested in Earth."
"The Lords of the Dimensions had been watching Earth for a long time."
"My master, Mephisto, was one of them."
"This particular invasion began when Dormammu of the Dark Dimension launched his attack."
"My master, Mephisto, also joined the battle."
"And they weren't the only ones."
"Another powerful Lord of the Dimensions joined the battle near the end."
"Three powerful dimensional lords attacked Earth simultaneously."
"Yet even then, they failed to conquer it."
"And during that battle, Nolan Lock appeared on the battlefield."
"He drove all three dimensional lords back."
"Only after dealing with those three dimensional lords did Nolan appear on the battlefield where Thanos was fighting."
"And then..."
"He defeated Thanos as well."
By this point, Hades felt as though his entire mind had gone numb.
Defeating Thanos while Thanos possessed the Infinity Stones was already absurd enough.
But Nolan had apparently defeated three powerful dimensional lords at the same time.
Hades was not ignorant.
As one of the three major gods of the Olympian pantheon, he had a deep understanding of the dimensions.
He also knew something about the two dimensional lords Johnny had mentioned.
Even among the dimensional lords, those two were extraordinarily powerful.
They stood near the top of the hierarchy.
As for the third dimensional lord who could fight alongside them...
It was obvious that the third one's strength could not be much weaker.
Yet all three had still been defeated by Nolan Lock.
And Nolan had apparently retained enough strength afterward to defeat Thanos, who possessed the Infinity Stones.
Such terrifying power was almost impossible for Hades to comprehend.
"If that's the case..."
"I think we should simply give up on this operation."
Hades said it without hesitation.
He did not care about the rest.
Although he desperately coveted the Infinity Stones, after learning the truth, he had completely abandoned the idea of obtaining them.
Rather than chasing after the seemingly unattainable Infinity Stones...
He would rather return to his own territory and continue living freely.
After all, he had already been released from his seal.
There was no reason for him to remain on Earth.
Although leaving Earth would be somewhat disappointing...
Compared with losing his life, Hades was more than willing to accept that outcome.
Johnny Blaze had explained all of this precisely because he expected Hades to become afraid of Nolan and abandon the operation.
However...
That was not actually his goal.
He wanted Hades to understand the seriousness of the situation.
So Johnny continued.
"You don't need to be that worried."
"Nolan wasn't the only one who fought during that battle."
"Death Goddess Hela was there as well."
"It was because Hela assisted Nolan that he was able to defeat the three dimensional lords so quickly."
"Furthermore, Earth has three major magical formations."
"Within the range of those formations, the power of dimensional lords is greatly suppressed."
"Otherwise, my master Mephisto alone would have been capable of fighting Nolan Lock."
"He might even have been able to defeat him."
"Nolan is powerful."
"But we're not fighting him with just the two of us, are we?"
"Behind me is my master, Mephisto."
"And there are other dimensional lords who may also become involved in this operation."
"Behind you, meanwhile, are Zeus and Poseidon."
"Of course, Poseidon has already been captured."
"We still don't know exactly what has happened to him."
"But no matter how poor the relationship between the three of you brothers is..."
"You're still brothers."
"If we can use this opportunity to rescue Poseidon, wouldn't that be a good thing?"
Hades' expression turned cold when Johnny mentioned his brother.
"If possible..."
"I hope he's kept imprisoned forever."
"Perhaps sending him to Hell would be an even better outcome."
Johnny Blaze laughed dryly when he heard this.
That was certainly an outcome he had never expected.
But it had nothing to do with him.
His goal was very simple.
He wanted to drag all three brothers into the same fight.
And now...
He believed he had accomplished exactly that.
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