I fell in Marvel with Essence Gacha but I’ve never heard of Marvel

Lex sighed as he watched the footage of Hela dismantling the Seven. It seemed he had been worrying for nothing; even Homelander, the man who had supposedly been the strongest Supe in this world, had turned out to be nothing particularly special. Hela had dealt with the entire team almost effortlessly, and judging by the way she was behaving, Lex doubted she had even needed to take the fight seriously. Still, defeating the Seven wasn't the same thing as conquering the world, and until he received confirmation that his father's arrangement considered the world conquered, there was evidently still work to be done.

“So, got anything, Raphael?” he asked, leaning back against the headboard.

<Based on the available information, it may take up to ninety days to gain sufficient control over the upper echelon of this world's governments and major institutions. This can be accomplished through a combination of utilizing existing leadership, replacing individuals where necessary, and identifying suitable candidates to occupy positions of authority.>

Lex stared at the ceiling for a moment before letting out another sigh. “Damn. So I really have to stay here for three months?”

<That would be preferable. Ninety days is my current estimate for achieving a level of control that should satisfy the conditions established by your father.>“I see.” Lex rubbed his face before sitting upright. Three months wasn't exactly an eternity, especially considering how long he had already been living in his own world, but he had originally imagined this trip as something closer to an experiment. He had come here with a seven-day travel card, intending to see how easily he could conquer a world if he stopped worrying about subtlety and simply threw overwhelming power at the problem, yet things had changed considerably since then. “All right, then. Where do we start?”

Raphael proceeded to explain the division of responsibilities, and the more Lex listened, the more reasonable the arrangement became. Anything that could be handled without someone physically being present would largely fall to Raphael herself, allowing her to manipulate information, track influential individuals, identify useful opportunities, and handle the enormous amount of background work required to bring an entire world's power structure under their control. Kom would deal primarily with politics, negotiations, corporations, governments, and the various human institutions that required someone capable of actually sitting across a table from another person and convincing them to cooperate, while Lex would handle the things that required physical intervention, particularly Supes and anything else powerful enough to become a serious obstacle. Hela, meanwhile, was most useful simply by existing; her presence alone gave them an overwhelming deterrent, and Raphael's assessment of her as someone far better suited to brute force than delicate political work meant there was little reason to involve her in anything else.

“I suppose it's time to meet Hela and Kom, then,” Lex muttered as he climbed out of bed.

Before leaving, he scribbled a short note for Annie with his phone number, figuring that disappearing without leaving any means of contacting him would be unnecessarily rude after the pleasant evening they'd shared. Once that was done, he slipped the note into a visible place and headed out of the hotel, only for Raphael's voice to reach him before he had gone very far.

<Notice. The United States government has launched a nuclear missile toward New York with the intention of eliminating Hela.>

Lex stopped in his tracks.

“What the hell?” He turned his head toward the sky almost instinctively, although there was obviously nothing he could see from where he stood. “Why would they think that'll work? Then again, their information on Hela is pretty limited, I suppose.” He considered the situation for a moment before asking, “Should I stop it midway?”

<It would be preferable to allow Hela to stop it. The event can be utilized to undermine the authority of the current leadership by presenting their willingness to sacrifice millions of civilians for the elimination of a single individual.>Lex's expression slowly changed as the implications became clear. “So basically, let them demonstrate exactly how much they care about keeping their positions.”

<That would be an accurate summary.>“Yeah, that'll work.”

Lex immediately shifted his focus inward and reached for the demonic power he had recently acquired from Grayfia. It was still relatively unfamiliar to him, and he had only managed to learn a handful of basic applications because he simply hadn't had enough time to properly study her abilities, but teleportation had naturally been the first spell he had chosen to learn. Grayfia had explained that what she called demonic power wasn't exactly a traditional magic system so much as access to a particular form of energy that could be shaped into various supernatural effects, and Lex had quickly realized that Raphael should theoretically be able to help him make use of it in much the same way she helped him understand his other abilities. So far, he had learned only some fundamentals—transportation, language manipulation, mind reading, binding, and a few other simple applications—but that was already enough for him to find the power remarkably convenient.

A red demonic magic circle formed beneath his feet, intricate symbols glowing across its surface as the spell activated. The next instant, Lex vanished.

He reappeared in the middle of Times Square with the same red circle briefly illuminating the ground beneath him, causing several nearby people to stumble backward in alarm. The cameras immediately swung toward him, capturing the unexpected arrival of the second strange man associated with Hela, while Lex paid them little attention. His gaze instead found Hela sitting upon her throne exactly where he expected her to be.

“The American government has launched a nuclear missile toward New York,” Lex announced, pitching his voice just loud enough for the nearby microphones to pick him up without making it sound as though he were addressing every camera in the city. “Apparently, they're hoping it'll kill you. Of course, they don't know that it probably won't have any effect on you, but since you've conquered this place, I'd say it's your responsibility to protect the people living here.”

At the same time, he sent the real message directly into Hela's mind.

Play along. Let them see you stop it.

He wasn't entirely certain how Hela would react to the millions of people who would die if the missile actually reached New York. His impression of the Goddess of Death wasn't exactly one of overwhelming concern for ordinary mortals, and while Lex knew she wasn't going to deliberately slaughter millions merely for amusement, he wasn't about to gamble the lives of an entire city on that assumption.

Hela's luminous eyes shifted toward him, and for the briefest moment there was a flicker of understanding between them.

“I suppose I do,” she replied.

That was enough.

Lex quickly explained what he had in mind, and to his mild surprise, Hela proved remarkably cooperative. She understood that the display would strengthen her position while simultaneously weakening the authority of those who had ordered the attack, and there was little reason for her to object. More importantly, she had already realized that this world possessed very little that could genuinely challenge her, and if she wanted Lex to fulfill his promise of taking her to another world, there was no reason to waste time resisting his plans here.

Hela rose from her throne and slowly began ascending into the sky.

The reaction was immediate.

News anchors began talking over one another as cameras followed the two figures, desperately trying to explain who Lex was and how he had appeared in Times Square without warning. Was he another god? Another unknown Supe? Some ally of Hela? The fact that he had spoken to her with the familiarity of an equal only made the questions worse, and the red magic circle that had appeared beneath his feet had already become one of the most discussed details of the entire incident.

Yet while the public was fascinated by Lex, governments around the world were focused on something else entirely.

The nuclear missile.

American officials had already been preparing to intercept their own weapon if necessary, and several world leaders were reportedly demanding confirmation that the strike would be aborted if Hela moved away from New York. But Lex's casual statement had introduced a deeply uncomfortable possibility into the discussion: what if a nuclear weapon was no longer the ultimate answer to a superhuman threat? Until now, Supes had been extraordinarily valuable military assets, but nuclear weapons remained the final measure of destructive power available to humanity. If Hela could survive one, and if Lex was confident enough to speak about it as though the possibility were obvious, then the balance of power between humanity and beings like them had just shifted in a way that governments could no longer ignore.

Vought had its own reasons for being alarmed.

The company was still struggling to comprehend the destruction of the Seven, with Queen Maeve badly injured, The Deep unconscious, Translucent and Black Noir dead, and Homelander mysteriously incapacitated. Now another unknown individual had appeared alongside Hela, using a form of supernatural transportation that looked nothing like Compound V, while speaking openly about conquering the world as though it were an achievable project rather than a delusional threat.

For the first time, some people inside Vought were beginning to wonder whether the word Supe was even appropriate anymore.

Meanwhile, Hela and Lex continued flying toward the incoming missile. A few exceptionally brave—or perhaps exceptionally foolish—media helicopters followed them at a considerable distance, their cameras recording everything as the two figures moved farther away from New York. Eventually they reached a relatively remote stretch of ocean, far enough from civilization that even if something went catastrophically wrong, the immediate casualties would be limited.

Then the missile arrived.

It crossed the sky at tremendous speed, closing the remaining distance in seconds, but Hela simply raised one hand. Emerald-green energy erupted outward and formed a vast translucent sphere around the missile, completely enclosing it before it could reach its target.

The sudden stop produced a violent shockwave.

The helicopters were thrown backward as the air itself seemed to explode around them, their pilots struggling to keep control while the machines tilted dangerously in the turbulent air. Lex immediately reacted on instinct, extending his hand and catching the helicopters with telekinesis before gravity could send them spiraling toward the ocean. Their momentum abruptly stabilized, leaving the pilots staring through their windshields at the impossible sight of a nuclear missile suspended inside an emerald sphere while two people casually hovered nearby.

Lex held the helicopters steady until the turbulence subsided, only then lowering his hand slightly.

He hadn't planned to save them. He simply hadn't wanted a bunch of reporters to die while trying to film the spectacle.

Hela, meanwhile, remained completely calm as she held the missile suspended before her. The emerald energy surrounding it continued to glow, containing the weapon so completely that neither the heat nor the radiation could escape, while the world watched the Goddess of Death stop one of humanity's ultimate weapons as casually as someone catching a ball.

For the first time, billions of people were seeing the difference between what humanity considered overwhelming power and what beings like Hela considered merely inconvenient.

And the cameras were recording every second of it.

Meanwhile, back in the hotel room, Annie slowly woke from what might have been the best sleep of her life. She felt unusually refreshed, almost as though she had spent the entire night submerged in warm sunlight, and when she stretched beneath the sheets, she couldn't help noticing that even her control over her powers seemed sharper than usual. It was a strange sensation, especially since she couldn't remember doing anything that should have improved her abilities overnight, but the thought was quickly pushed aside when she noticed a note resting beside the bed.

> Sorry, something urgent came up. If you accept my humble apology, do call me on ######. I'll be waiting. ♡

A smile immediately spread across Annie's face as she picked up the note and read it again. Looking back on everything that had happened since she'd casually complained about the terrible pizza, she was still somewhat surprised by how quickly the two of them had hit it off, although she couldn't exactly complain about how the evening had ended. The experience had been considerably more intense than she had expected from a chance encounter with a handsome stranger in a restaurant, and judging by how ridiculously good she felt now, she certainly wasn't regretting it.

After getting out of bed and taking a shower, Annie caught sight of herself in the mirror and paused. She looked... different, although at first she couldn't quite identify what had changed, and it wasn't simply her imagination or the kind of narcissistic inspection people sometimes gave themselves after a particularly good night. Her skin looked smoother, her hair seemed softer and silkier, and several old scars that she had long since stopped paying attention to were simply gone, while even a few persistent aches she hadn't consciously realized she had carried for years had vanished without leaving so much as a trace.

“What the hell...?” Annie murmured, running her fingers through her hair as she studied her reflection. She couldn't help wondering whether something had happened to her powers, perhaps some strange mutation or unexpected development triggered by whatever had happened last night, but she had never heard of anything quite like this before. She would have to look into it later, although for the moment there were far more pressing questions demanding her attention.

That was when she remembered the commotion in New York.

She had heard something about a woman appearing in Times Square and calling herself the Goddess of Death, followed by reports that one of the Supes had already been killed. Annie hadn't been particularly concerned at first because the Seven had been sent to deal with the situation, and if there was one thing Vought had spent years convincing everyone of, it was that the Seven could handle anything. Still, now that she was awake and apparently had nothing better to do, she decided to turn on the television and see how things had gone.

Her expression slowly changed as the reports continued.

“What?”

The Seven had lost.

The more she watched, the stranger things became. The woman calling herself Hela had completely overwhelmed the Seven, and then, somehow, the man Annie had met the previous night had appeared beside her, casually talking to the so-called Goddess of Death as though they were already acquainted.

“Wait... my date is working with that woman?”

Then came the report about the nuclear missile.

Annie stared at the screen in disbelief as the news showed footage of Hela stopping it over the ocean, emerald energy completely encasing the weapon while Lex casually held several media helicopters in the air with telekinesis.

“They're trying to nuke New York?”

Her confusion only deepened as the reports continued, until the final revelation left her staring blankly at the television.

“Wait... the villains are saving New York?”

She sat there for several seconds, trying to process the fact that she had apparently slept with one of the people responsible for the strangest international crisis in modern history.

Then Annie looked down at the note still resting in her hand.

Her smile returned.

Well, at least he had left his number.