The Black Lion - Highway to Hell. (Patreon)

Ilyana Rasputin, Hogwarts – Scotland.

“So…you found both of them in Hydra’s last known base?” Wanda asked curiously, watching as the two young women were being healed inside the Gaia chambers assigned to Hogwarts, under the attentive gaze of Natasha and Doctor Cho, who observed the recovery process.

“The last base in SHIELD’s records, but that doesn’t mean it’s Hydra’s last base. We captured Von Strucker, and Emma plans to scrub his twisted mind clean until she finds his secrets. One of the Kodiaks is already on its way to Olympus for the interrogation,” Natasha said solemnly, just as a Sling Portal appeared behind the three powerful Lionesses.

Ilyana smiled radiantly, knowing perfectly well that only one person possessed both the power and the authorization to appear anywhere inside the castle. Even Stephen could only arrive at the Transport Halls, so the moment the immense silhouette of her beloved Lion emerged, the Queen of Limbo exclaimed with a radiant smile.

“Harrison!”

Before throwing herself into her beloved’s arms, closely followed by Wanda and Natasha.

Without the slightest trace of embarrassment, Ilyana kissed Harrison’s lips passionately, sighing as she caressed the Black Lion’s arms and back with tenderness. The Queen of Limbo trembled with desire at feeling her King’s magic so close…

“My love, it has been far too long since you warmed my Palace, Limbo and its queen misses their King” Ilyana purred, making sure to emphasize the Russian accent she knew Harrison adored.

Harrison laughed softly before placing a hand on Ilyana's ass and replying.

“Oh, I know you only enjoy torturing the demons of Limbo with your screams of pleasure, my dear,” he answered with a mischievous smile, only for Wanda to pull Ilyana by the shoulder and throw herself into Harrison’s arms, giving him a needy, burning kiss to Ilyana’s obvious approval.

“Have you been behaving?” the Black Lion asked with amusement, his hand calmly holding Wanda’s low waist, a smile adorning his face, to which the brunette nodded quickly.

“I have. Ilyana and Stephen have taught me so much. I… I don’t destroy things unintentionally anymore. The anger has diminished… I’ve even learned to create things instead of destroying them,” Wanda said excitedly, separating from Harrison before chanting elegantly.

“Avis!”

A simple spell, at least according to the recovered Hogwarts books, normally summoned only a small bird, but in the hands of Wanda’s immense power…

An entire flock of birds charged with Chaos Magic manifested throughout the room, flying around the three Lionesses before vanishing in a rain of scarlet sparks.

“Excellent work, Wanda! Soon you’ll be ready for true battle magic,” Harrison said with a smile, making the brunette’s eyes fill with satisfaction at his words.

Ilyana simply snorted. Wanda was a strong woman with a hard character, at least until it came to Harrison, where the Scarlet Witch, as the initiates had begun calling her, transformed into a cheerful young woman willing to do anything to please the Black Lion.

Although she was the least qualified person to say anything about it, considering that she, the Queen of Limbo, behaved exactly the same way. It was all rather strange, if she was honest with herself.

After the brunette, Natasha stepped forward, her feminine hips swaying, more than happy in her new body, before taking the Black Lion by the neck and kissing him with sensuality and restrained desire, wrapping one of her legs around Harrison’s torso.

“Are you comfortable in your new bodies?” Harrison asked with a knowing glint in his eyes, while Natasha continued leaving sensual kisses along the Black Lion’s neck, having to stand on tiptoe to do so.

That was still incredible to Ilyana. Her new body was… amazing. There was no other word for it. Her mutation remained, of course, but beyond that… now she was stronger, faster, and far longer-lived.

She was one of the first Homo Ascendens, a member of the Black Council, as people on Earth had begun referring to the most powerful women in the world.

The three women now stood one meter ninety tall, far taller than the average man on Earth, making their bodies a perfect match for Harrison Evans’s two meters and ten centimeters of muscle and magical power.

“Harry… I’m ready,” Natasha said firmly, taking the Black Lion’s face in both hands. It was a gesture of tenderness, but also of determination, or at least that was how Ilyana interpreted it.

“Ready for what, my dear?” Harrison asked, taking Natasha by her wide hips and looking at her curiously.

“To become a mother, Harrison,” Natasha said calmly and resolutely, making Ilyana and Wanda stare at her in astonishment, although Harrison did not seem particularly surprised. He simply smiled at Natasha and gently caressed her face.

“I was wondering when you would have this conversation, Nat, although I must say you’re the second Lioness to ask for it. The first was…” the Black Lion began, only to be interrupted by the three Lionesses at the same time.

“Susan,” they said together with amusement, knowing perfectly well that the blonde doctor was the Lioness who most desired to become a mother.

“And Emma,” Harrison added with amusement, surprising them.

“Emma? Our White Queen who is preparing everything to colonize planets and expand the Homo Ascendens? The blonde who takes pleasure in bringing down enemy companies and increasing the Black Council’s economic reach? That Emma?” Natasha asked with disbelief and amusement, something Ilyana and Wanda shared.

Harrison nodded with amusement and replied.

“Yes, our beloved blonde has everything planned. She wants five daughters, quintuplets. She’s already chosen the names,” he answered with obvious amusement.

Ilyana could not help thinking about how absurd the situation was. Of all the Lionesses, the one she least imagined wanting to become a mother was Emma Frost, but her thoughts were interrupted by the alarms of the Gaia chambers.

“Alert… Subjects awakening… Alert… Subjects awakening.”

At that warning, the three Lionesses and Harrison focused all their attention on the castle infirmary, where the Gaia domes slowly opened, revealing the pair of unknown women found in Hydra’s laboratory.

Harrison frowned and replied cautiously.

“I read your reports, Nat, but seeing them… is disturbing,” Harrison admitted, and Ilyana could only agree with him.

“We don’t have any known facial recognition matches anywhere on the planet. Technically… they don’t exist,” Natasha said carefully, making Harrison nod calmly before taking a step forward.

“Then… let’s find out who they are,” Harrison said as both women began to awaken and look around with obvious alarm.

The green-haired one… the one who resembled Wanda, began looking around erratically. She was breathing heavily, and the metal objects around her started to tremble and rise into the air.

At least until Harrison snapped his fingers, creating some kind of… unknown magical field that caused everything to stop, making the mysterious young woman stare at him in absolute shock.

“How did you do that?” she asked in complete surprise. She spoke English, but her accent betrayed an upbringing somewhere in Eastern Europe, and Ilyana found it strangely familiar somehow.

Harrison did not answer the question. He simply took a step forward and introduced himself.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Harrison Evans,” he said calmly and politely, patiently waiting for the woman’s response as she looked at him with hesitation and even a trace of fear.

“My… my name is Lorna. Lorna Dane,” the woman said, swallowing with difficulty, clearly still shaken.

Harrison nodded elegantly, a smile on his face, before replying.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lorna. We found you in a…complicated situation. I hope you can shed some light on what happened so we can help you,” the Black Lion said, making the agitated woman nod distractedly.

Harrison simply smiled at her response, but then his expression shifted into one of amusement as he looked directly at the redhead, who could have passed for Jean’s lost twin sister.

“That won’t work, my dear,” her beloved said, making Ilyana frown in confusion at the look of absolute surprise and shock on the redhead’s face.

“You can… stop me? You can block your mind?” the redhead whispered, filled with surprise and fascination, her gaze completely fixed on Harrison, looking at him with something that bordered on devotion.

“What’s your name, my dear?” the Black Lion asked curiously, looking directly at the redhead, while Ilyana had a very bad feeling about all of this.

“My name is Madelyne… Madelyne Pryor, or...well, that is the only name I can remeber” the woman replied softly, focusing her large green eyes on Harrison’s face as if she desperately wanted to touch him, much to the obvious amusement of the Lionesses present.

“Where are we?” Madelyne asked curiously, observing everything around her with interest.

Harrison did not answer for a long moment, as if considering his response, before moving his hand elegantly, causing several chairs to appear around them, one for each person present, an act that completely paralyzed the two unknown women, who stared at the newly created seats in astonishment.

“Please, take a seat. I think… we have a great deal to discuss. I don’t have much time, but I give you my word that we will get to the bottom of all this,” Harrison said with complete calm, clearly taking full control of the conversation.

All the women obeyed immediately, sensing that the discussion was going to be far more important than they had expected, even if it would not be particularly long.

After all, they had many things to do, and the guests were about to arrive.

There was no time to waste.

Harrison Evans, a couple of hours later – Hogwarts War Room.

“The guests have arrived, Master Harrison,” said a small house-elf dressed in a tiny butler’s suit, making the Black Lion nod calmly.

“Perfect, Dinky. Ilyana and Wanda?” he asked calmly as he prepared everything for the meeting. The runic table was ready, the clusters charged to trace the origin of Cynthia Von Doom’s contract.

“The mistresses are training the novices and introducing the new students to the rest of the class, all of them are preparing for the presentation of the Cult” the little elf replied, making Harry nod calmly and gesture dismissively.

“Thank you, Dinky. You may go. I will be away from the castle for a while. If anything comes up, inform Ilyana and Wanda,” the Black Lion ordered.

The elf nodded, bowed, and disappeared just as two portals appeared in front of the runic table. One was quite familiar to Harrison, the orange glow of the Sling Portal revealing Stephen’s presence, while the other, a square dark-green portal, could belong to only one person.

An instant later, the Sorcerer Supreme and the ruler of Latveria stepped through their respective portals in complete silence. Words were unnecessary, after all. They all knew exactly why they had come.

Harrison rose calmly and walked to the edge of the circular table, a motion that Stephen and Victor mirrored, both studying the quartz with interest and curiosity.

“Place the contract on the pedestal. The table will do the rest,” the Black Lion ordered calmly as he began preparing the runes for the ritual.

Victor did not answer with words. He simply placed the cursed parchment directly onto the central pedestal, causing it to glow slowly as the runes and the quartz shifted and adapted to the parchment’s color under Stephen’s fascinated gaze and Victor’s feigned expression of boredom.

“This artifact… is it what I think it is?” the Sorcerer Supreme asked, watching with fascination as literally thousands of worlds appeared and vanished across the surface of the table while it searched for Cynthia Von Doom’s soul throughout the vast multiverse.

Victor let out a grunt and replied.

“It is a Multiversal Beacon, arcane in nature, similar to the portal to the Negative Zone that the fool Richards theorized some time ago. You use the energy of the contract to trace the dimension of origin, and at the same time the Beacon allows an incursion, binding the power of this arcane fortress to feed the threshold. Doom approves. Your mind is as privileged as the rumors claim,” the ruler said with unmistakable approval.

Harrison looked at the ruler of Latveria with respect. Deducing the nature of the artifact after seeing it for only a few seconds was something he found genuinely admirable.

Suddenly, the table stopped, revealing a realm that could be described with only one word.

Hell.

Rivers of lava, burned mountains, and hills of bones and tormented souls. A place filled with death and decay, and there… at the center of what appeared to be a kind of infernal palace, there was a bright point pulsing weakly, clearly in agony.

The moment it appeared, Victor leaned over the table with intensity, staring at the point with obsession and madness.

“There she is… in the depths of Mephisto’s palace,” the ruler said before looking at Harrison seriously.

“My offer is simple. You help Doom destroy this insolent being. We shatter his essence, his power, and his pride, so that his realm and his name become nothing more than multiversal dust, and in exchange Doom will support the creation of your Empire. New Latveria is an excellent name for a planet, in Doom’s not-so-humble opinion,” the man declared as if victory were already assured.

Harrison nodded, while Strange asked,

“Are we ready then? This will be… a complicated mission.”

Harrison nodded and gave the order to the Beacon, making it glow softly as it prepared to create the Threshold.

“Let the Incursion into Hell begin,” the Black Lion said as his eyes began to shine with an orange glow.

This was only the beginning.