Chapter 4851: The Little Devil in Charge (Forty-Nine)

Does Mephisto understand love? Of course not. Devils can comprehend human emotions, but it's an empirical understanding — because they've lived long enough and seen enough people act under the drive of emotion, they can roughly estimate the behavioral logic driven by human emotions. To put it bluntly, it's behavioral analysis.

The demon gods have desires, but no feelings. Their joy comes from desires fulfilled, their anger from desires unfulfilled. These emotions can't be called true feelings, let alone possess emotional drive. They will never do anything beyond satisfying their own desires — such as sacrificing for love. They have no experience of such things, nor can they comprehend them.

Then what if a demon god came to understand love? Then they wouldn't really count as a demon god anymore, but would be closer to humans. This isn't regression, but true evolution. Love would bring them closer to God.

But just as Harkness said, what makes a person strong is also what makes them weak. If a devil understands love, they gain all manner of human emotions. They'll understand humans better, and know how to tempt and drive humans — this makes them stronger. However, love also creates weaknesses, making them want to give for others, even sacrifice for them. Their behavioral logic becomes more complex, with more exploitable points.

It's not that this holds zero temptation for Mephisto, because it's plain to see that as Strange gradually grew, humanity's development in the universe improved more and more, and Mephisto was becoming less and less important, with ever slimmer chances of stirring up trouble on Earth.

One can foresee that someday, humanity will completely bypass the demon gods as middlemen and directly obtain the power of rules from the universe. When that day comes, all demon gods will become a dish on the table, Mephisto included.

As the saying goes, poverty spurs change; Mephisto is no exception. He felt his desires growing harder and harder to satisfy, and thus wanted more and more to become stronger, to restore his former glory.

But like electronic lifeforms, demon gods are far removed from God. Their floor is high, but their ceiling low. Mephisto is omnipotent only within his own Hell dimension; once he leaves it, he can't even influence universal laws. Wanting to gain an advantage before humanity as it stands now is a pipe dream.

So how to break the shackles of talent? Mephisto has the answer in his heart. To draw closer to God is to inevitably draw closer to His creation, and God's proudest creation is humanity.

Human talent has no ceiling. Even leaving aside mutants, take Stark — with no innate physical advantages, relying solely on intellect to glimpse cosmic truth and rewrite cosmic law — such people abound.

Devils are all greedy; of course they want that kind of talent. But they also understand that to become human, one must possess emotions, and the sentimental are inevitably burdened by emotion. Is it really worth it?

Mephisto looked at the infant in Sarah's arms, and could roughly guess why things turned out this way. Blackheart appears to be the embodiment of sin, yet his relationship with humans is close — otherwise he wouldn't have fooled even the Sorcerer Supreme after becoming human. Like humans, he possesses genuine emotion.

Blackheart once asked Mephisto if he had any other relatives. Mephisto naturally told him no, because at that time, not even Mephisto could have imagined Sarah would live again, that the two of them would meet again.

But after learning of this woman's existence, Mephisto knew his son yearned for her love, wanted to return to his mother's embrace. Blinded by this emotion, he became what he is now.

This is the perfect proof that the strong are also bound by their strength. The human part of Blackheart let him successfully infiltrate Earth, even gave Strange no reason to strike at him; yet that same part made him crave maternal love, return to his mother's arms, and utterly ruin Mephisto's plan.

"This isn't a good place to talk," Mephisto said. He glanced around; the others were fine enough, but Harkness genuinely wary him. Mephisto had dealt with this witch before, but clearly gained no advantage, and he didn't want her prying into his vulnerability.

"Come with me," Greed said. He led Mephisto out the east door to the cliff's edge. Meanwhile Chris hurried upstairs to the far east end, stood at the corridor window looking down — couldn't hear what they said, but fortunately Chris could read lips.

"You've pursued quite a few people," Greed said, looking at Mephisto. "Becoming the form they like most, appearing in their dreams, tempting them to fall. But if you think back carefully, there must be a few cases that failed. How did they resist the temptation? Was it really through devout faith?"

Mephisto fell into contemplation. His life was far too long, his accumulated memories far too many. Following Greed's description, he sifted through fragments of his memory. The vast majority of seductions succeeded — if not leading to damnation, at least causing wavering. Yet among tens of thousands of successes, there were indeed a handful of total failures.

These cases were spaced far apart in time, possibly hundreds or thousands of years. Mephisto had never compared them side by side, but now laid out together, a certain pattern quietly surfaced.

Those who completely resisted the temptation, even drove him away directly, were not successful people in the sociological sense — not outstanding politicians, not successful businessmen. Not only were most ordinary people, many even lived at the bottom of society.

These suffering ordinary folk should have been easier for devils to tempt, because they gained so little, should have been willing to accept the devil's terms for a better life. Yet the reality was completely opposite — most failed cases came from these utterly ordinary people.

"There was a farm wife," Mephisto spoke. "I took the form of her long-dead husband, and she did fall in love with me. We spent over a year of happy life together on the farm. But when I tried to make her sacrifice the soul of her clever yet sickly young son to me, she gave me a pitchfork without hesitation."

"There was a youth. I became the beautiful, romantic lover he liked best, and we spent a spring night together. He loved me uncontrollably, but when enemies set foot on his homeland, he gave me an embrace and a kiss, left resolutely, died on the battlefield, never returned."

"There was an old man. I took the form of the first love he cherished most; he treated me as a God-sent angel to save him. But when I tried to make him abandon his research and leave with me, he chose to refuse."

"None of them were big shots," Mephisto said. "One a country bumpkin who'd never been to the city, one a boy born in a remote region, one a chemistry teacher who taught all his life. They all refused me, wasted all my effort completely."

"See? This is the difference between humans and devils. For power, you can stop at nothing, endlessly scheme to tempt humans to satisfy your desires. But what humans use to resist temptation are emotions nobler than their own instinctual desires — love for family, love for country, love for career. These are the magical treasures the Creator gave humans, letting them defeat devils with mortal bodies, become stronger than you."

"If I want to possess emotions, what should I do?" Mephisto paused, then added, "I've lived this many years; if I'd ever been moved by human emotion for even a moment, I wouldn't still be just a devil now. I cannot understand, let alone empathize."

"That's normal," Greed said. "Not just you — there are humans without emotions too. Even if you perfectly mimic human body structure, replicate the brain down to the last detail, that doesn't mean you'll have empathy.

"But I've always maintained that healing of the soul begins with imitation of behavior. You want to become a healthy person? Start by imitating a healthy person.

"Like anxious people — pretend you're an optimist, play someone who takes nothing to heart, goes with the flow. One random day at some random moment, go out, do something random, no plan, empty your mind, go with the flow when the unexpected hits.

"Like depressed people — pretend you're an ambitious go-getter with endless tasks every day. Pack your schedule full, complete each item on your plan one by one, and use things like photo-sharing to pretend you gain great achievement from finishing a task.

"Even if you know it's all fake inside, you must still convince yourself, immerse yourself in it, keep convincing yourself that this is who you are, and attribute all physical and mental pain to failing to meet the 'fake persona's' needs and desires, thereby further urging yourself to act like that fake persona.

"It's a bit like straightening a crooked sapling. As long as you persistently bend a right-leaning sapling left, even if it can't be fully straightened, it achieves some effect. Counts as a fairly effective psychotherapy when you lack the power to change your environment."

Mephisto nodded, seeming to gain some insight. He said: "Then what kind of person do you think I should play?"

"Your problems are too many," Greed spread his hands. "Indulging in desire, unscrupulous in methods, cunning and sinister, a belly full of bad water..."

"Just say it, can you not make personal attacks?"

"Devils still care about that? Calling you sinister isn't a compliment?"

"Hah, I've already started playing," Mephisto said. "From now on, I'm the embodiment of justice. No calling me evil."

"It's not about what you say, but what you do," Greed said. "For this kind of thing, best to find a reliable reference, lest you learn it crooked."

Mephisto nodded again. He said: "Let me think... How about Captain America? He's the embodiment of justice in human hearts, very popular with you lot; imitating him should work, right?"

"You pick the hardest one right off the bat. You sure?"

"I'm Mephisto," Mephisto gave a cold snort. "Even taking ten thousand steps back, a steady, composed devil like me — surely I wouldn't go imitate some twenty-year-old hothead?"

"Fine, you can try," Greed continued. "But he's not at the manor right now; he's down in Hampton. You can go look for him."

Mephisto left without another word. Greed yawned, ready to go back and catch up on sleep, but before returning to his room he still informed Sarah first that he'd handled Mephisto — for the short term, this guy wouldn't come harass Sarah and her child.

Back in his room, Greed had just lain down when Steve called. Captain America's tone was filled with anger and terror: "What the hell! Shiler! How is there another me right here?!!!"