"Ah! Kamar-Taj! Damn Ancient One!"
Belasco cursed angrily, recognizing the familiar golden fire ring and knowing whose handiwork it was and what it represented.
Training a deputy?
This thought was implanted by the Ancient One disguising as an Ancient God, poured into his mind!
He had personally created his greatest enemy, someone who also possessed the Blood Stone and was favored by the Ancient Gods.
But he was clear-headed for only a moment, immediately followed by more whispering voices engulfing him, as if the Ancient Gods were trying to help him escape the endless cyclical space that entrapped him.
However, with hundreds of voices speaking in various languages, his mind was like a cacophony in a noisy marketplace.
Nonetheless, the fall didn't last long; he promptly landed with a loud thud, not suffering any injuries aside from his heart pounding wildly, as if the fall had been an illusion.
He glanced towards the prison door and saw four individuals standing there, yet the small girl tied to the corner of the cell was nowhere to be seen.
"Kill him and seize the Hell Border."
"Okay, teacher."
The young blonde woman cheerfully drew a Great Sword from her chest, the gate-sized Giant Sword entirely white, with a strong white light illuminating the cell brightly.
This was none other than the grown-up Secret Guest.
Su Ming instructed Professor X and Phoenix to send the four back ten years, and even with Professor X's control over the Phoenix Power, the terrifying force reminded Su Ming of previous events.
Reversing ten years equated to fabricating an independent timeline outside the Main World's Time Stream, essentially creating a 'Parallel Universe' for the Plane of Hell Border.
Barry's method of correcting the Flashpoint event actually involved abandoning the Flashpoint timeline and reverting to the original one, but with so many people affected, many stories had been altered, effectively rebooting the universe.
Currently, Su Ming's tactic is inspired by the Jester Badge; although creating a closed-loop system where a section of the Time Stream is continually revisited like Dr. Manhattan is still unachievable, this will suffice for now.
Su Ming doesn't enjoy manipulating timelines due to their unpredictable outcomes.
But that doesn't mean he can't; on the contrary, as a former observer, he is exceptionally proficient at it.
Loki wants to tell stories? Then Deathstroke will stir the timeline into chaos. It's not just future Loki who can traverse time; Su Ming can find plenty of such individuals, and if considering other parallel worlds in Marvel, forming an army is not an issue.
........
Now, in that independent timeline, the three of them raised the Secret Guest, who had been nurtured by humans as a Half-Demon, perfectly inheriting their strengths.
Hamill's magic knowledge, Ciri's swordsmanship and fighting techniques, and Su Ming's modus operandi.
In that timeline, as she was the only demon in Hell Border, she naturally became the Lord of Hell.
Returning to this timeline, she directly rewrote her childhood self, who was severely injured and paralyzed on the throne, meaning her childhood was completely altered.
Instead of growing up with the New X-Men, she spent her childhood as Deathstroke's disciple in Hell Border. While nothing else is guaranteed, Su Ming assures this at least is more pleasant than falling into Belasco's clutches.
The only remaining issue is the convergence of tributaries and the main stem, causing two Lords for Hell Border at this very moment, ironically fulfilling the conditions for a Hell Monarchy change.
If the Secret Guest can kill Belasco, he will be truly doomed; the struggles between Lords of Hell have always been this direct — occupying the opponent's hell to prevent resurrection.
Perhaps Belasco's 'masters' might resurrect him elsewhere, but the Secret Guest wouldn't allow him to reclaim Hell Border.
Ciri's situation is slightly better; she can traverse time and space solo, able to slip away and skip classes when teaching becomes tiresome.
Su Ming and Hamill, however, spent ten genuine years on the other timeline; while Su Ming hadn't changed much, Hamill had noticeably aged.
Seeing the once little girl become today's Lord of Hell, Hamill felt sentimental, and with age, he spoke a bit more.
"Finally back."
"Yes, it's ending soon; then she needs to help me."
Su Ming stroked his beard like an old man; truthfully, he initially viewed the Secret Guest as a tool, but after living together for so long, it became difficult to merely use her as a pawn.
Ciri felt helpless; every time she emerged from the time tributary, the Main World was late 1945, and external time rewound repeatedly.
Even if she sought Geralt for a month-long continuous hunt and returned to the tributary, next time out, everything seemed reset.
Geralt's full-month hunt hadn't begun yet; it was the moment before they entered the tributary, with wheelchair tracks still on the ground.
Unless the ten years within the tributary were exhausted, external time was meaningless relative to them; Deathstroke explained the principle, but she couldn't understand the eggshell layered analogy, nor wanted to hear about relativity.
So annoying...
And little Secret Guest, she was somewhat obedient at first, but by fourteen or fifteen, she increasingly resembled Deathstroke.
By then, she had mastered almost all of Hamill's White Magic; Spirit Realm Projection, Soul Shaping, and other advanced skills she knew them all.
Her first task was to forge a sword with her soul, a sword of the same design as Deathstroke's Nightfall Greatsword.
Although the final product wasn't quite perfect, after all, Soul Casting Technique isn't iron forging; the essence of the soul, once shaped, cannot be altered by the Warlock's will.
But it's still a Giant Sword, two meters long and forty centimeters wide.
Ciri had expressed at the time that her combat lessons couldn't continue. What's going on? Demon Hunters always use one-handed swords; who's ever seen a Giant Sword Demon Hunter?
Slade should teach instead.
But he couldn't teach, for the same reason he couldn't teach Natasha and the others before. His style of training and fighting would turn the girls into King Kong Barbies.
Can you imagine the body of Steel Warrior with the young Mao Sister's little face?
Thus, Ciri gave up and taught Secret Guest the only set of Giant Sword Technique she knew, which was the 'New Year Sword Technique' Slade had demonstrated to her and Geralt in Novigrad years ago...
Su Ming found out, no wonder the last time in Paris, when he saw Secret Guest slicing down German Soldiers, the moves were so sweeping and familiar—it originated from him?
.........
Words aside, while the conversation was ongoing, the four of them immediately launched a siege on Belasco who fell out of the Teleportation Gate, the black and white Great Sword flying up and down, various colors of Magic intertwining.
Belasco had almost no power to fight back.
Weapons were manageable, but a dark monster constantly manifested sturdy metal to pin him to the ground, and periodically bit him. It neither resembled a creature nor metal, leaving him defenseless.
Anyway, as long as Secret Guest personally killed the Lord of Hell to take the Demon King's position, it didn't matter if the others helped beat Belasco to severe injury.
It must be said the Lord of Hell died quite gallantly; Su Ming hadn't seen anyone else able to endure so long under his and the symbiote's siege.
He was slashed hundreds of times; even Su Ming alone cut him in half dozens of times.
But he still stood firm, continually healed by the Ancient Gods, restoring his strength, making Su Ming almost think the plan failed.
But ultimately, the Ancient Gods doomed him.
Belasco had a sudden thought; maybe some Ancient God helped him understand what was going on—there was a problem with the timeline.
So he pleaded with the Ancient Gods to grant him the power to travel through time and space.
Yet who are you? Who am I? Am I you? Who is that?
I am you.
The Ancient Gods seemed not to understand Belasco's intent and bestowed this power on Secret Guest instead...
Thus Belasco died with hatred, his curses seemingly echoed as the four rested facing a pool of minced meat.
"The ability to teleport space and time, is that how it's obtained... You can start by learning its use from Ciri; we have some time."
Secret Guest flicked her golden hair, scraping meat off her face with her fingers and tossing it to the ground, her bright eyes fixed on the dark sky, horns sprouting atop her head, even her voice became hoarse.
"Hell Border, it's mine!"
"You've always been the Hell Border's lord, is it worth such joy?" Ciri immediately messed up Secret Guest's hair, playing with her horns.
"No, it feels different." Secret Guest reverted to human form to evade Ciri's grasp, sighed helplessly, Ciri still treated her like a child, but Ciri herself seemed more childish: "The past ten years in the time stream felt almost unreal."
"I have the same feeling..."
Ciri spoke empathically, each time discovering time returned to a starting point, who knew how desperate she felt?
Her car was created and destroyed repeatedly, really not possessing it at all.
Luckily, while in the main stream, time in the tributary continued to flow; she hadn't lived there for ten years, or she'd surely have gone mad.
"Not false at all, just difficult for you to comprehend; anyway, Lianna must be cautious of Belasco's resurrection and his daughter's revenge in the future."
Su Ming transformed the Godslayer into a shovel, scooped up Belasco's flesh, tossed it into the Teleportation Gate Hamill opened, letting the shredded meat continue free falling.
"He has a daughter?"
Lianna sheathed her Great Sword; she didn't know such a monster as Belasco had family.
"He doesn't know either, but that's a matter for the future. Now the primary issue is resolving the 'story.'"
Secret Guest instantly showed obedience, approached Su Ming for a head pat: "The power of Hell Border I can compress and mobilize via White Magic. We can now go to any point on any timeline, afterward I'll return here to wait for 1992, rewriting the final story."
"That's nearly fifty years; you should go to Kama Taiji and learn some Dark Magic." Su Ming patted her head, watching her narrow her eyes contentedly.
"I know, to remedy some spacetime paradox... Anyway, there's plenty of time, I'll secretly visit you all; where do we need to go now?"
She only enjoyed briefly, immediately became serious, earnestly inquiring Su Ming's next plan.
"We go to 'End of Time,' location is Latovinia."
Su Ming prepared everything, with Secret Guest's assistance, he was confident in acquiring the final two allies.