Chapter 2783 - Marvel 31

"God, my head hurts…" Wanda moaned in pain as Alex stood behind her and massaged her head. "Do my forehead too… Ugh~ I just want to go to sleep."

"Then you can sleep for longer, I didn't tell you to get out of bed," Alex said while continuing to massage her head.

"It's impossible to sleep with these stabbing pains in my head," She groaned. "And the fucking flashes of light in front of my eyes. I seriously hate every second of my existence right now. What even are these?"

"It's the knowledge influx tricking your brain into thinking that you're seeing things but it's just the new information that's suddenly appeared without a source. Your brain is working quickly enough that it can identify the source, but that leads to these…" Alex trailed off as Wanda looked at him with a pained yet expressionless look. She was clearly asking a rhetorical question that Alex started answering.

"It's going to be okay soon, promise," He said after an awkward cough. "I've already hastened the acceptance process by many factors. The amount of information that was stuffed in your head was enough to give you headaches for weeks. I've brought it down to a couple of hours. Just bear with me, okay?"

She would've laughed at his awkward changing of the topic, but the pain was far too bad. She merely whimpered and curled up into a ball while falling to the side, getting herself away from Alex's message, "It's not helping…" She said, hugging her legs tightly.

Alex sat beside her and pulled her toward himself, letting her use his shoulder as a pillow, "Try to delve into the knowledge, distract yourself from the information influx symptoms. You're going to have to eventually. This is a process that every Sorcerer Supreme goes through."

"It's impossible to concentrate with this headache," She shook her head, releasing her legs and wrapping her arms around Alex instead. "I hate this…" She mumbled before moving away and essentially shoving her head in Alex's side. She was extremely frustrated with the headache and it was clear from her actions.

"Shh..." Alex let her do whatever she was doing and rubbed her shoulder with his arm.

Wanda stiffened before whipping her head up and looking at him.

"I know that look…" Alex said dryly.

"Come on," Wanda grabbed his arm, "distract me. It's going to be the best way to get over this headache."

"You won't feel any pleasure, Wanda," Alex told her. "You are going to feel the pain being amplified the more your head shakes."

"Then restrain me," She said. "I don't care, bond with my brain and nervous system or something, I don't fucking care! Just get me away from this pain."

Alex smiled wryly and put his hand behind her head before pulling her close. He made her press her face on his chest, "The Skeletal bond is in itself an overwhelming experience, Wanda. It's barely been a few days since we did that. Your body needs time to acclimatize to the changes that accompany the upgrade."

"But but but…" Her muffled resistance was accompanied by weak punches on Alex's arm and chest.

"It's all going to blow over soon," Alex comforted her.

"We did it in that time dilation thing. The bonding process came early on, it's already been a month!" She tried to bargain.

"I prolonged it, Wanda," Alex said. "Your body only started the acclimation process after we came out, at which point we didn't have much time before we had to leave for Kamar Taj."

"I don't care~ Just distract me. Hit me or something. I read somewhere that immediate pain overwrites prolonged pain in the brain. Just do that."

Alex shushed her and ran his fingers through her hair, "It does, the brain prioritizes acute pain against chronic pain, yes. But the threshold for that pain needs to be far more than a couple of arousing spanks. You don't get off on pain, so we can't do that."

"I don't care," She resisted his hand and sat up, looking at him with wet eyes. "Just make me feel something somewhere other than my head. I hate it, I want to just cut it off and throw it away!"

Alex noticed a red glow surrounding Wanda the moment those words escaped her mouth. Alex's eyes widened as he realized what might end up happening if she had actually lost control of her power. He acted as quickly as he could to absorb all of her released energy before it could take effect. "Control yourself, Wanda." Alex tightly grabbed the back of her head and looked into her eyes, "You'll hurt yourself."

"Hey," She said with a weak yet relieved voice as tears escaped her eyes, "what do you know? Immediate pains do overshadow prolonged ones." Alex noticed multiple small cuts on her neck that were leaking blood before he rapidly healed them. They were caused by the energy that acted before Alex started forcefully absorbing it into himself.

"Wanda…" He looked at her with concern.

"C-could you… could you just hurt me, Alex? I won't try to use my magic anymore… just… could you?" She asked. "My head really hurts. It feels like someone is repeatedly stabbing my skull with red hot rods of metal."

"This is a magical headache. Knowledge influx can't cause this bad of a headache no matter what…" Alex growled, suddenly feeling that something was very wrong with the current situation. He then spoke to Wanda with a softer tone, "Just hold on for a little bit, okay? I'll go to Kamar Taj to see if they have any solutions. I'm sure that Wong is dealing with the same pain. And if he's not…"

"Hurry… Please," Wanda said. "It's too much."

…

Alex opened a portal to Kamar Taj and went through it, taking Wanda's form in the process. He appeared in the very spot that Wanda had disappeared from.

Same time as he left, a green glow escaped Wanda's body, enacting Time Authority. Alex created a time domain around her, making sure that she would be virtually paused in time while he sorted everything out. She wasn't literally frozen in time but was moving slowly enough that a year would pass outside before she experienced a complete minute. He wasn't risking anything considering Wanda's previous actions.

"Ms. Maximoff," Wong greeted as Wanda walked into Kamar Taj through a portal, right in front of Wong, "You're back."

"My head is exploding, Wong," Wanda acted like she was extremely uncomfortable at the moment, making Wong display a thoughtful frown. "What exactly was that ritual?" She asked him with a threatening tone, giving him the belief that he was to blame for her current situation. "An hour since it was finished and I feel like someone is repeatedly stabbing red-hot metal into my skull."

Her glowing red eyes looked extremely intimidating to Wong at the moment as he spoke, "We talked about this, Ms. Maximoff. I myself am very much unaware of many intricacies of the position of the Sorcerer Supreme. As for the headache, I also have one, though I don't think it's as bad as yours." He spoke quickly, not wanting to be misunderstood by a pissed-off Scarlet Witch. "Please, give me a few minutes to meditate on the information that I have received from the ritual process."

Wanda nodded and conjured up a chair before sitting on it. It seemed as if she was suffering from the worst headache of his life yet still acting stoic.

The monk's eyes opened almost half an hour later with a grave expression on his face. If they were under normal circumstances, Wanda would've gone haywire by now, either hurting herself or destroying Wakanda completely. Alex was glad to have used the Time Stone to create a time domain around Wanda.

"So?" Wanda asked Wong while acting like she was suppressing a lot of pain.

"I couldn't find a clear answer to it, but I think that your connection to the Chaos Dimension and the demon Chthon in general is the reason behind that headache," Wong said. "It seems that the authority of the Sorcerer Supreme is actively rejecting you due to the foreign influence on you. To be honest, I'm surprised that you're still standing at all."

"You don't say…" Wanda said. "So I've triggered a failsafe that's targetting me. How do I fix it? And you didn't think to look into this information before trying to make me the Sorcerer Supreme?"

"The most straightforward method would be to get rid of your connection to this foreign dimension, hence allowing you to be completely accepted," Wong answered hastily, knowing that if he said anything other than the solution, the volatile woman might just blow up Kamar Taj.

"So essentially crippling myself?" Alex scoffed. He knew that there had to be another way. The Ancient One was drawing power from the Dark Dimension for the majority of her tenure as the Sorcerer Supreme. "I'd first get rid of this Sorcerer Supreme authority that doesn't bring me anything than to give up my power. Give me a viable solution."

Wong grunted in response, "There should be another way. Please, follow me." He said turning around and walking to the library.

"Where are we going?" Wanda asked.

"The Library," Wong said. "To look through the tomes of The Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme who came before Strange."

"Are they supposed to have something useful?" Wanda asked, "I remember browsing through them before without truly finding anything that would help me with my current predicament."

Wong paused, gesturing to Wanda that he would answer in a bit. As they reached the library, he cast a spell to isolate the entire room before turning to her. "The Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme who oversaw Earth for hundreds of years prior has a sort of controversial ending to her story." He turned to the section of books that belonged to the Ancient One's collection. "She was revealed to have been pulling energy from the Dark Dimension for centuries. Strange decided to keep this knowledge secret until before the incident at the ruins of Wundagore."

"So she was in a position even worse than mine and still seemed fine, I understand," Wanda said as Wong continued going through the titles, "Do you think we are going to find anything useful here?"

"Most definitely," He answered, "These tomes may be free for any sorcerer of Kamar Taj to browse. But there are many secrets within them. Secrets that are only visible to one with the authority of the Sorcerer Supreme."

"It's going to be difficult," Wong said with a frown, "to an unimaginable degree."

"What do I need to do?" Wanda asked as the monk put the tome in his hand back on its stand. They had spent another hour in the library browsing as Wanda patiently waited for Wong to finish.

"There is a special ritual that must be cast to rid your power from the unique brand of Cthon — the ruler of the Chaos Dimension," Wong said. "The problem is that that ritual must be cast from within the Chaos Dimension, and at the center itself, the location where the ruler of the dimension is most powerful and in control. To even reach that location, one must battle through hordes of dimensional chaotic creatures. Or strike a deal with the ruler of the dimension."

"You have all that information about the Chaos Dimension?" Wanda asked with a raised brow.

"We are dimensional protectors, Ms. Maximoff. While we keep much of the information public and accessible, some things are better left unknown, if only for the peace of mind of our sorcerers," Wong said. "If the knowledge infusion process had gone without a hitch, then you would naturally know all these things and more about all of the dimensions whose influences we defend the Earth from."

"You're telling me that I need to fight hordes of Chaos Energy demons with this splitting headache? I feel like I would be better suited to lop my head off myself," Wanda said, making Wong raise a brow.

"Your headache must truly be getting to you," He said, feeling that Wanda wouldn't use such a tone naturally.

"Astute observation," Wanda said with gritted teeth, mostly to express the pain, but somewhat to suppress the annoyance that was the result of Wong's unhurried actions as well.

"Let me search, there has to be something that could allow you to suppress the rejection of the authority, even if temporarily," Wong gulped, turning to the tomes once again.

It took the monk another hour of searching despite being deeply familiar with the books before he finally looked back at Wanda. "Did you find something?"

"There is a ritual…" Wong said hesitantly, "The Ancient One herself created it. With the purpose of traveling to another dimension while being the Sorcerer Supreme. The ritual allowed her to completely mask her unique presence as the Sorcerer Supreme, allowing her to traverse the dimensions as necessary."

"There a catch in all that?" Wanda asked, "I have to travel to the Chaos Dimension anyway."

"The catch is that it is a suppression ritual," Wong said. "Its entire purpose is to completely suppress any magical abilities, and block yourself from channeling any kind of eldrich energies. The ritual will suppress your headache, yes. But if you are to travel to the Chaos Dimension, then you will completely lose access to the Mystic Arts. And while the suppression is active, you won't be able to use any magical means at all since it blocks any energy from channeling through you."

"So either I give up all of my powers or be subjected to this crippling headache that already isn't allowing me to use any of my powers…" Wanda's expression was ugly. "Find another way, Wong."

"The ritual is not permanent if that's what you're worried about," Wong said. "You can reverse its effects at will, but your headache will return as soon as you allow yourself access to eldrich energies. The only viable solution is to go to the Chaos Dimension and take over the brand that the dimensional ruler has planted on you."

"Great…" Wanda said with the least amount of joy possible. "So I'm to go in enemy territory without any powers. Fine, I'll figure something out. Tell me the directions for the ritual, I'll cast it on myself when the time comes."

"As you wish, Ms. Maximoff," Wong nodded politely before opening the book that he found the ritual in. He started explaining the ritual to Wanda.

…

"It's all going to be okay," Alex hugged Wanda, "Promise."

"Did you find something?" She asked him, looking up at him with a pained expression.

"It's only been a second…" Alex said helplessly.

"Don't lie to me," She said, "I saw you creating the time domain. Now invoke whatever ritual it is that you're preparing. Get me free from this goddamn headache."

"Can't ever hide anything from you, can I?" Alex smiled as he kept hugging Wanda while preparing the ritual. It took him a few seconds before an intricate magic circle covered the floor of the room with him and Wanda at the center. Moments later, it started glowing, causing Wanda to feel a suffocating feeling. She tightened her arms that were around Alex without resisting or even asking what was going on with the circle. All she felt was the piercing pain in her head lessening as the suppressive feeling got stronger and more prominent.

The ritual was quick to do its deed, leaving a suppressed Wanda without any powers other than what she got from Alex. All that mattered, however, was her headache, which was now completely gone.

"I love you…" She whispered in his ear before fainting. She was completely done with everything and just wanted to rest and relax for some time.

'She's going to wake up in a panic in a few minutes,' Alex thought to himself with a sigh. He picked up Wanda in his arms and brought her to the couch, placing her over his lap and allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder. He didn't want her to have an outburst the moment she woke up.

Wanda was extremely dependent on her powers, even if she didn't realize it. She was especially dependent on her powers' ability to constantly allow her to sense and feel his presence within her. Suddenly, unable to feel that presence she was most likely going to have a panic attack if he wasn't there to comfort her.

"Alex!" Alex's prediction came true moments later as Wanda's eyes shot open in a panic.

"I'm here… shh," He said, rubbing her back and rubbing his nose on her cheek, "You're fine."

"Why–why is your presence so faint?" She asked him. "It's like you're so far away from me…" She buried her face in his neck, tightly hugging him as if she wanted to meld into him.

"That ritual," Alex said, rubbing his fingers through Wanda's hair, "suppressed your connection to all dimensions other than the material plane and made it impossible for the backlash of the Sorcerer Supreme authority to affect you."

[And it also blocked my connection to the Chaos Dimension… preventing me from using my power.]

"Yeah," Alex nodded. "I can remove it at any time you want, but the pain will return, very quickly in that case."

"You have a solution, right?" Wanda asked. "I can feel it. Although our connection is fainter than before, I can still read and understand you."

"The solution is to go to the Chaos Dimension, where you should theoretically be powerful enough to completely block the influence of any external energies. As long as you don't attempt to channel any eldrich energy or try to use the mystic arts, you should be fine." Alex said. Wong hadn't said anything about this, but Alex was confident in his conjecture. If the influence of the Vishanti could reach inside the dimensions as well, then they wouldn't have needed a shield, it would've been the other way around where the dimensions were forced to defend themselves against the sorcerers.

"I read hesitance," Wanda said. "Are you sure?"

"Not completely, but we don't really have a choice," Alex said. "I don't think you're comfortable without access to your powers anyway."

"No, it feels like shit," Wanda said. "I hate not feeling connected to you… Can we go to the Chaos Dimension now?"

Her question prompted a helpless smile on Alex's face. "Rest for a while," He said. "We'll leave tomorrow."

"I don't feel that weak anymore," She said, looking at him unblinkingly, "The suppression ritual made it so that I don't have any of that knowledge infused into my head that I was supposed to have."

"Rest," Alex said, standing up with her in his arms. "You were crying in pain for the past hour. We'll have to go to Kamar Taj anyway to get Wong to open the portal to the Chaos Dimension for us."

"Fine…" She pouted, snuggling closer to him. "I miss you…"

"I'm right here."

"No," She said, placing her hand over her chest, "You're right here, but I can't feel you as well as I used to… I don't think I'll be able to sleep like this."

"Stop acting like a baby," Alex said. "I'm right beside you."

"You don't get it!" She puffed her cheeks pretending to be angry, but he could tell that she was more sad than angry.

-x-X-x-

The next day, Wanda went to Kamar Taj. Alex orchestrated the timeline such that she ran into Natasha, Steve, and Tony whom Wong was bidding farewell to. What followed was Wanda telling everyone that she would be going off-world for a while to do some important work, though the constant eye-rolls and side-eyed scoffs that Wong got from Wanda left everyone confused, including Wong, who thought that he had given Wanda a good solution for now.

None of them knew that Wanda's actions came from her annoyance at how she couldn't feel Alex as closely anymore. And she blamed Wong — who gave that ritual to Alex. She didn't care if it was for her own good or not.

Once the three guests departed, Wanda asked Wong, "Can you open the portal to the Chaos Dimension?" She asked him. "I would rather get this over with as soon as possible."

"At once," Wong nodded as he channeled Eldrich Energy into his Sling Ring. Sparks appeared mid-air as the portal started to form, taking much longer than the normal portal. Its formation was so slow that Wanda started impatiently tapping her foot on the ground, barely stopping herself from gritting her teeth alongside it.

"It's done," Wong wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead before turning to Wanda, only to be left in a confused state once again. The expression on her face seemed to be the opposite of what he was expecting. Instead of gratitude, she angrily grunted at him before leaping into the portal.

"Maybe it is her time of the month or something," The new Sorcerer Supreme shook his head in defeat, "It's times like these when I truly appreciate having taken up monkhood."

…

Entering the Chaos Dimension itself was a unique experience for Wanda. It was one of the few places where she felt as if she was at home.

[We can get rid of the suppression now, right?] Wanda asked excitedly. [I feel like I'm bursting with power.]

[Just don't explode with energy. You're on your home turf without any dimensional ruler…]

Wanda didn't pay a lot of attention to his words, or she would've asked about the absence of the dimensional ruler that Wong failed to mention to her. She was hurrying Alex to remove the suppression over her.

There was a tiny cracking sound in the red-tinted void of the Chaos Dimension before Wanda's energy exploded outward, destroying all aspects of the suppression. A drawn, comforted sigh escaped the redhead's lips as she smiled, "I can finally feel you…"

"You're being a little dramatic, but whatever," Alex appeared beside her and spoke. She widened her eyes before throwing herself at him.

"You have no idea how lonely I felt when I couldn't feel you as closely as usual," Wanda said. "It's like I was permanently homesick."

Alex shook his head, wrapping an arm around Wanda, "Just wait until I bond with your organs and nervous system. You won't even need to rely on your powers to feel connected to me at that point."

"I asked you to do it yesterday. You refused," She pouted.

"And I'm still going to refuse," Alex said. "It's going to be soon, though. Don't worry about it."

"It's like you're talking about proposing marriage to me…" Wanda said with a laugh. "I keep pushing you to propose and you keep delaying it for one reason or another."

"I like to believe our bond runs deeper than marriage," Alex said, kissing Wanda's lips. "After all, we're permanently bonded together. And for far longer than the life of a normal human."

"I'm still not going to be immortal after you finish the bonding process?" Wanda looked at him and asked.

"Virtually immortal," Alex answered. "Just like me. There are still things that can kill me, and by extension, you. But if we're talking about lifespan, there's no limit."

Wanda's reply was interrupted by a stirring in the void around them. Moments later, a crack appeared right beside Wanda as a claw came out of it and slashed at her.

"Your outburst seems to have brought us company."

Snorting, she created a red barrier that intercepted the surprise attack. The claw sunk into the barrier and a pained screech sounded out as the claw was ripped off from its source. Wanda's magical barrier fizzled out after disintegrating the claw that was torn away from what should be the limb of a bestial creature.

Following a roar, another crack appeared in the dimension's space right beside Alex as the claw came out of it, attacking Alex instead. He just smiled and allowed the claw to make contact with him, slashing his waist. Instead of blood, black slime oozed out of Alex, encroaching along the limb of the resident of the dimension. The beast seemed infuriated and Alex sensed multiple cracks forming around both himself and Wanda. They didn't even need to make eye contact to work in conjunction as Wanda formed multiple identical barriers around half of the new cracks while Alex sent his tentacles at the other half.

They had decimated a total of thirty claws but the roars seemed to be from a singular source, allowing Alex and Wanda to identify their assailant as a single attacker instead of a hoard of beasts. Just as the last claw was taken care of, Wanda closed her eyes and a wave of Chaos Energy escaped her, intensifying the red tint of the dimension momentarily as her pulse passed all around her.

The following roar seemed even more infuriated and more cracks appeared all around Wanda, attempting to interrupt her concentration. Instead of the expected beast claws, the cracks started glowing, giving Alex the idea that they were charging to fire beams of energy at Wanda.

The targetted woman, on the other hand, didn't even flinch as the overly showy presence of the charging energy blasts got stronger. She left them completely to Alex to manage, trusting him to protect her. And protect her he did, the moment the beams fired at Wanda, they were met by Alex, who created tendrils that ended in a flat shield right in front of each crack. Alex's black body instantly pulsated with the red of Chaos when those beams met him, but with his high affinity for Chaos Energy and connection with Wanda, he was able to forcefully take control of the violent energy and use it to fuel his reserves of Chaos energy. Not that he needed it, considering Wanda, who was like a nuclear reactor when it came to providing him with Chaos Energy.

As the beams died down, Wanda's eyes opened with a red glow, "Found you." She extended her arm forward and twisted it, warping the dimension itself. Moments later, an eldrich horror seemed to be thrown into the main plane out of nowhere as it roared in pain.

'How peculiar…' Alex examined the creature that seemed to have a single multi-pupil eye at the core of its existence. Instead of white, it was the crimson of Chaos while the pupils all showed a blue color. He couldn't help but feel that it shared certain visual similarities with the Eldrich Leader Class abominations on Earth-Z. 'Maybe there's more to the abominations than just radiation and biological mutations…'

Shaking his head, he pulled himself out of his thoughts as Wanda didn't even bother to question the creature before crushing it under the sheer weight of her energy. She tightened her palm into a fist as a horrible crunching sound filled the surroundings.

"I feel amazing!" Wanda said excitedly to Alex, not caring about the floating carcass of the beast that she'd just killed. "I'm so much stronger here…"

"We could permanently stay here," Alex offered. "You could become the new dimensional ruler."

"Definitely not," She frowned. "Although I feel powerful here, I would much rather spend my time in our sanctum, the construction of which I'm meticulously supervising. Hell, I even love the castle in Wakanda. I don't want to stay long-term in this dark and dreary place."

"I understand," He nodded. "But you should be ready for the possibility. In case the Sorcerer Supreme authority still doesn't accept you after we take over the brand, then you will essentially be banished from Earth."

"I'm going to kill that fucking monk Wong!" Wanda said aggressively.

"It isn't his fault really —" Alex started.

"It is," Wanda protested, "If he never suggested that I take over the Sorcerer Supreme mantle, none of this would've happened. Instead of floating in his red void, I would've instead been getting breakfast in bed where you fed me before we had sex. I was living the perfect life before Wong threw a wrench into it."

"You know…" Alex decided to distract Wanda from directing all her hate to Wong. "I've never had sex in zero gravity. Wanna try?"

His offer worked wonders for Wanda who was already feeling pent up after not having had any sex for the past two days. "Sex in zero-gravity, you say…" She raised a brow, the aggressive expression still there, but her eyes had a whole different story to tell, full of interest and intrigue toward Alex's suggestion. "I would love to, but we have more company…" Wanda said, suddenly annoyed that more inhabitants of this dimension were interrupting her alone time with Alex.

-x-X-x-

"L-lord…" A quivering voice reached Alex and Wanda, making them share an inquisitive look between them. "Undoubtedly… You have finally returned. Welcome."

Wanda decided to play along, "Sending your lackeys to fight your lord sure seems like a warm welcome, doesn't it?" She asked haughtily, barely holding herself back from laughing. "Reveal yourself." Her words were accompanied by a crimson wave that passed over the entity, pulling it out of the subspace that it was using to hide itself.

Alex noticed the acute similarities between this new demon and the first eye demon that they fought. He presumed that this one must be one of the higher-ups of that eye demon's lineage. "My deepest apologies, my lord. But the council has made the decision —" Its speech was interrupted by a choking sound as Wanda raised her arm, narrowing her eyes at the demon.

"Choose your following words carefully," Wanda said with a threatening voice. Combined with the red glow surrounding her red and black outfit and her crimson eyes, the words worked perfectly as the demon quivered further, not even trying to mount any resistance.

"It–it was a necessary precaution, my lord," The demon said. "Before your arrival, two replicas of your current form had also entered here, claiming to be the lord of Chaos. Those pretenders weren't even able to get through my clan's sentry, the first lesser demon that you fought."

"How do you know that I'm not pretending either?" Wanda asked with a raised brow.

"With how easily you dispatched all the lesser demons assigned by the clans, your strength is undoubted, Lord." Alex only now noticed that the demon's voice wasn't coming out of any part of its body. Instead, it used chaos energy to express its thoughts by projecting them into the form of vocal speech.

"Of course it is," Wanda said, "Lead me to the rest of the council. It's only logical that I greet them all warmly." The tone devoid of any warmth sent a shudder through the large singular eye that was the elder demon.

"At once, Lord," The eye turned itself forward as if making a bowing gesture. Throughout the conversation, it didn't even look at Alex or greet him. "Please, follow me."

[They're an unruly group of subordinates.] Alex told Wanda as a massive rift in space appeared in front of the eye which then disappeared into it. Wanda, instead of following it, traced the path of the rift's exit and made another rift for herself which she was about to pass through.

[I'll bring them in line.]

Alex narrowed his eyes at Wanda's tone and grabbed her arm, stopping her from entering the rift.

"Wanda." He looked into Wanda's eyes which had red swirling in them, "Try not to lose yourself in your power, okay?"

"Why not?" She got closer to him and looked on provocatively.

"I'll bring you to a special place called my dungeon where I will tie you up and fuck you for so long that you don't even remember what month or year it is," Alex answered her provocation by grabbing her nape and pulling her even closer to him. "I might even keep you there for multiple years, isolated from everything until all you can think about is the pleasure that I give you."

Wanda tried to keep her composure, but Alex could gauge her arousal no matter how much she tried to hide it. "I'll fight you…" She said weakly.

"Why?" Alex leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on her lips. "Isn't it more fun to submit to me? To give me control and let me pleasure you however I deem fit?"

"Fine, you win," Wanda pouted. "I wanted to play around as queen for a little bit, but you ruined my entire vibe."

He smiled, "You can play queen all you want. Even then, you will only be my cute and lovely Wanda to me. Even if you become my queen along with my other hosts, even then."

She huffed, "You were doing so well until you mentioned those other skanks…" She escaped Alex's arms, turned around, and approached the rift that she had been maintaining.

Alex shook his head, 'That's a problem for Future Alex to solve…'

Future Alex wanted nothing more than to travel back to the past and smack this idiot across multiple planets for this exact thought process.

…

Following the eye demon, Alex and Wanda appeared in front of some kind of a cosmic platform that was filled with endless complicated runes. It was surrounded by ten smaller but similar platforms, all of which were positioned slightly lower than the main platform.

"Please, lord," The eye demon spoke, "you may take your place at the head, the other elders shall be here shortly."

Wanda looked at the demon coldly, not giving it any answer. It felt confused and almost weirded out before bowing once again and taking its spot on the furthest platform from Wanda's current position.

"What do you think?" She turned to Alex and whispered.

"Definitely another trap," He said. "I can neither sense nor see anything wrong with it, but my True Sixth Sense is telling me not to stand on that platform. I believe it should have some kind of a restraining effect."

"I don't have a sixth sense like yours but an obvious plot is obvious…" Wanda said with a suppressed tone as she waved her arm at the eye demon who was about to push her to wait on the platform. The eye instantly stirred in its place and calmed down, staying in its place quietly.

Seeing Wanda act in such an unrestrained manner, Alex wrapped his arm around her waist, "Just don't let the power get to your head. Don't suppress my cute goofy Wanda under a mask of strength."

"I could never," She turned to him with a smile. "And even if I do, aren't you there to keep me in check? You were going to fuck me until I don't even know what month or year it is, right? Those were your words."

"You don't need to go crazy to get me to have sex with you. I'll do it anyway. Very willingly and enthusiastically at that." Alex said.

"It's already been three days and you haven't even inappropriately touched me once," Wanda pouted. "I could even say that my slime partner has lost all his courage and perversion recently. I remember when you couldn't go a few hours without inappropriately fondling me at inopportune times."

"If you attack me like that, just imagine what kinds of things I could do to you in retaliation…" Alex trailed off.

"Please," She nodded. "Retaliate, Alex. You can retaliate as hard as you want. I won't resist in the slightest, promise."

Alex was just about to reply to Wanda, but a crack in the fabric of the dimension distracted him. It had appeared right above the smaller platform beside the eye demon as the second elder emerged from it. Instead of a solid form, the demon reminded Alex of symbiotes, but a much more horror-infused version. It was comprised of some kind of black mass that had streaks of red running all across it. The red streaks constantly expanded and contracted as if pulsating like some kind of vein. Once it emerged from the portal, the mass gathered and rose up into a thin tentacle that ended in an eye. The eye directly looked at him and Wanda without speaking anything.

"I don't think I want to see your tentacles again for a while…" The Chaos lady said with a shudder.

Alex laughed, "Please. I can take a form far more horrifying than that guy if I wished. That guy is barely a discount Shoggoth."

"A discount what?" Wanda asked with a raised brow.

"You know how cosmic horrors have their own mythos, right? Like more well-known gods such as Thor, Odin, and the rest of the pantheons, the eldritch entities have their own mythos based on the Fear Lords. This guy right here looks very much like the Shoggoth."

"I don't care…" Wanda shook her head. "Just don't try to use your tentacles on me for a while, or else I will keep imagining this creep."

"Do you have anything beyond sex on your mind right now?" Alex asked jokingly.

"Not particularly, no," She shook her head before looking into his eyes with an amorous look. "I'm sure you can tell that my head is filled with a very specific direction of thoughts."

"Even with those guys there?" Alex asked. "What if I suddenly decided that I do want to fuck right now? What then, are you interested in doing it in front of these eldrich horrors that could very well become your subordinates if you don't kill them."

Wanda felt as if a bucket of cold water had fallen on her. "I may not look like I mind these scary-looking demons Alex, but I really don't like them, okay? I do not want to be in their presence for any longer than absolutely necessary. Especially that Shoggoth guy who hasn't taken its weird eye tentacle off of us for even a moment."

Alex wrapped his arms around Wanda, hugging her, but before he could say anything, the third elder demon appeared through a crack in the fabric of the dimension.

"Oh, I know this one," Wanda whispered excitedly as she sensed its presence, "That's the Cthulhu, right? We fought a couple of its minions before…" She said.

"Yeah, something like that," Alex said dismissively, examining the humanoid body of the demon with three pairs of wings, one sprouting out of its back and two from the lower ends of its legs. He didn't notice any joints on its legs, indicating that both legs were singular entities. Its most eerie aspect, though, was the head. Instead of a human head, Alex saw a bulbous, pulsating sac with countless tentacles, big and small coming out of its lower end. In the place where its mouth should've been, Alex saw two sets of opposingly placed tentacles covering what he assumed to be the mouth of the creature.

-x-X-x-

Alex couldn't see the Cthulhu's eyes, but its bulbous head was turned in his and Wanda's direction, only identified by the tentacle mouth turning toward them. It looked at them quietly, the same way as the Shoggoth demon.

"Do you think that these guys are the real deal?" Wanda asked. "Piedro used to scare me by vividly describing these horror creatures…" Alex wrapped his arm around Wanda, pulling her close as she continued speaking, "Do you think they are the actual source of the stories? Like Thor and Asgard's mythos."

"Possibly," Alex said, hugging Wanda and combing her hair with his fingers. "These guys could very well be the source of that mythos. Their powerset certainly allows them to be considered cosmic horrors with unfathomable abilities that a mortal can't possibly comprehend. As for them being creatures outside the universe itself, the dimensions are technically outside the main material plane."

"What does that mean?" Wanda asked. At this point, the duo had decided to ignore the waiting elder demons completely. They would only divert their attention once all ten demons showed up.

"Think of the main material plane as a sheet of graph paper with a grid all over it. That grid represents the space-time of our existence. Now the alternate dimensions like The Chaos Dimension, Mirror Dimension, and even the Klyntar Dimension where the Symbiote Hive Mind exists; all of these dimensions run parallel to the main material plane. Imagine a huge stack of sheets that are all completely separate from each other."

"I see…"

"Now, it is not as simple as I made it out to be. Then again, I don't truly understand a lot of it either. For example, the Klyntar Dimension where neither time nor space exist. I don't think it can have a similar representation as the main material plane which comprises an intersection of space and time —"

"I got it," Wanda put her hand on his mouth. "I was just asking because I was curious. I'm not Stark who would try to dissect the intricacies behind each of these dimensions and their connections."

As Wanda spoke, the fourth demon finally appeared. It was a humanoid creature with bat-like wings and talons instead of hands and feet. As for its head, it was similar in shape to a human, but there were no features on its face. It didn't have a mouth, nose, or even eyes. It had a completely featureless head with two horns sticking out of the top.

"He's like the ones that we fought in that bat people horde," Wanda stated, feeling distaste. Those bat-like creatures were particularly annoying to her since they kept slipping into and out of subspace, constantly dodging her attacks. The only way she was able to kill them was to capture them with a concentrated telekinetic burst. They slipped into and out of subspace so quickly that it rendered most of her large-scale attacks useless since they would just dodge the encroaching waves.

"Yeah," Alex was of a similar mind, having been forced to focus on defending Wanda against the constant barrage of those creatures instead of being able to attack them. It left Wanda to take care of all of them while he defended her. Despite coming out of the battle completely unscathed, the duo were both annoyed and tired after fighting against them.

"Whatever…" Wanda ignored them and continued flirting with Alex, who happily reciprocated with her affection.

The next two demons arrived together as two cracks formed above two of the platforms, allowing the two demons to emerge from it. One of them was a malformed amalgamation of fleshy tentacles that constantly moved in a circular pattern all over its large worm-like body, ending in a huge mouth at the top. It rested on the platform, its constantly open mouth had multiple rows of teeth that were constantly rotating in alternating directions.

Glancing at the other demon, Wanda couldn't help but comment, "A lot of tentacles, no? Three of these six are large tentacle monsters… Four if you count that slimy Shoggoth guy."

"This worm is Azathoth, I think. As for this one, it's the Dunwich Horror, less commonly called Yog Whateley if I recall correctly," Alex said after examining the sixth demon. This one was a horrifying face with two glowing red orbs in the place of eyes and a frowning mouth that was open with three tentacle tongues sticking through the spiky teeth. Instead of hair, and the rest of its body, in fact, it was comprised of scaly tentacles that ended in toothy mouths, all opening and closing at random intervals of time.

"I don't think I can look at you the same way after today, Alex…" Wanda's words contrasted her actions as she stuck closer to him, hugging him tightly while maintaining a playful expression. He could tell, however, that she was creeped out of her mind right now. These horrors that had come straight out of Lovecraft's Mythos were taking their toll on Wanda with their mere presence.

"Shh…" Alex said. "I'll renew your appreciation toward tentacles in a couple of decades. Once you're either completely used to the presence of these demons or they are completely out of your mind and thoughts."

Wanda shivered in Alex's arms, "I don't even want to imagine it right now, Alex…" She mumbled. "You ever go instantly limp no matter how horny you are? For any reason. That's exactly how I feel right now."

Alex was going to joke about Wanda being desperately begging for cock merely minutes ago but decided not to. He didn't think that his words would land the way he wanted them to. They would probably stress Wanda out further.

Soon enough, three cracks opened, from them emerging three more demons on their respective platforms, leaving only the final demon.

The first of the three was a pair of white masks that had red tones on them like make-up. One mask showed a frown while the other showed a happy expression with crescent eyes. The masks aligned themselves opposingly with some kind of fleshy mass that connected them like a two-faced head.

The second was a snake-like skeletal creature with a singular long spine that had four pairs of clawed legs. It had two identical dog-like maws on both ends, both of which opened to reveal a long red tongue dripping with some kind of red acid. Both heads turned in Wanda's direction as their skeletal body, reminiscent of a human spine, coiled and rested on the floating platform.

The third emerged demon was a huge human-sized bug with two paper-like wings on its back that glowed red and a thin body with arthropod limbs like that of a mosquito. The most eerie part, however, was the head that was glowing red. It had a rhomboidal, featureless, head with a mane of hundreds of black antennae with red tips extending out of the featureless head. It also turned to Wanda, its antennae constantly twitching as if reacting to something.

Minutes passed as the final, tenth demon also arrived. This was the only one who didn't come by through a crack in the fabric of the dimension and instead landed on the platform from the top. It seemed that it had been flying high up for a while and only now decided to land on the platform. Unlike the other demons that seemed to have come straight out of horror fiction, this demon was essentially a human with merely two horns protruding out of its head.

"Greetings, prospective lord," It said without any deference and even a hint of challenge in its tone. "Bael, the first demon alongside the nine elder demons invites you to the platform of challenge so that we can test whether you are truly our lord or another imposter like the ones who arrived previously."

For some reason, Wanda felt an innate sense of fury when the demon looked at her and spoke those words. The provocative tone and disrespect made her feel like instead of the lord of the dimension or even an invader — which she actually was, her entire purpose in coming here was to play along with the whims of these demons and let them use her as their amusement.

She was instead being treated as some kind of show for these demons and she didn't like it one bit. Her anger flared into a cold expression which, under normal circumstances, Alex would attempt to curb, but he was feeling Wanda's emotions. Not only angry, but she was also frustrated. Frustrated at her powerlessness in front of that Sorcerer Supreme failsafe. Frustrated at the lack of control that she felt in her life. She was even sexually frustrated after not receiving any pleasure from Alex for days. She was a little bit of a nymphomaniac and if anyone other than Alex ended up with her, he would be sucked dry to the point of death within days.

"You wish to test me, right?" Wanda spoke with gritted teeth as her aura flared, her hair floating up as Alex seamlessly merged with her, forming another layer of clothes over her black and red outfit. "Fine then."

Wanda exploded with Chaos Energy.

Cracks formed in the fabric of the dimension from the pressure that Wanda released. She had an apathetic expression as she glanced over at the ten demons who all looked at her with indifference.

With a wave of her arm, the main platform started cracking. In an unnatural manner, it first broke into two perfect halves before those two halves were broken further into two, and so on. The platform continued breaking apart until nothing was left of it.

"Submit to me, or die," Wanda said with an unfeeling expression on her face. Looking at the literal manifestations of cosmic horrors, she had no sympathy and gave them an ultimatum.

The demons chose not to respond to her and Bael, the leader jumped from his platform and instantly appeared in front of Wanda, throwing out a punch at her. She smiled a little and caught the demon's fist. A shockwave was created as Wanda got pushed back a little. But in the next instant, Bael was sent flying as Wanda punched him in the gut. Mid-flight, he burst with a crimson explosion. In the meantime, the bat-like demon, the Nightgaunt, appeared behind Wanda, attacking her with its claws. She didn't react in time as the demon slashed its claws at her.

At the same time, the Cthulhu also flew up and looked down at Wanda, the tentacles in front of its mouth parting to reveal a pitch-black hole. It released a sonic scream at her.

A third demon also attacked her at the same time, the slimy Shoggoth moved much faster than it should've, considering its size, and appeared under Wanda. It formed into a net that was pulsating with sacs of some red material. The net rose up, about to envelop Wanda.

Alex and Wanda's reaction came swiftly, the Nightgaunt's attack met Wanda's back since it was too fast for her to even react. Unfortunately for it, the claw was unable to pierce through her black and red outfit. Instead, it got covered with some kind of black material that encroached upon it, making it slip into subspace to save itself. As for the sonic scream, Wanda clenched her fist at the Cthulhu, and its tentacles were forced to cover its mouth before the scream could be released. The moment the attack was released, the tentacles burst apart, making the demon scream in pain instead.

Lastly, the Shoggoth.

[I feel offended at this bastard trying to encroach upon my territory.]

[Can you just… not?] Wanda gritted her teeth, not wanting to compare the man she was in love with to an Eldrich horror when it came to physical appearance.

A large amount of black mass was released from Wanda and attached itself to the body of the Shoggoth. At this, even the Eldrich horror seemed to recoil as it attempted to use chaos energy to push Alex away. The effort was completely useless and the released energy was all sucked away by the slime that was constantly encroaching upon its body. Slowly, the pulsating red sacs all over its slimy body were getting covered, weakening the light that it emitted and showing that it wasn't able to mount any resistance against Alex who resolved to devour the demon.

At the swift dispatching of three more demons, more joined in. The two-sided head with masks on each side — one frowning and one smiling — rose up from its platform and the frowning mask faced Wanda while it started rotating in its place. She instantly felt her thoughts stirring as a depressive feeling overtook her entire being. Just as she had the thought of wanting to give up on the fight, she felt like a switch was flipped in her mind, making her feel immensely happy, to the point that she wanted to give everything up and frolic around.

[Calm yourself, Wanda. It's messing with your mind.] Alex was quick to notice the external influence on Wanda and told her. She growled while still experiencing those extreme emotions of happiness and sadness that alternated between each other and made her want to stop fighting completely. She waved her arm at the demon to stop its actions, but her magical wave was nullified in the middle of its path.

Wanda looked with narrow eyes at the two-headed skeletal hound-like creature. Specifically, the head that was glowing. It had nullified Wanda's attack. As for the other head, it wasn't idle either. Its maw opened and it released a beam of Chaos energy that spread apart into countless beams that attacked Wanda from all directions.

Wanda quickly cast Chaos magic that sent a pulse of Chaos energy all around her in a spherical form. Sadly, before it could even do anything to the beams, it was dispelled by the domain that the other head of the Hound had generated. She was getting disoriented due to the constant shifting of her emotions and couldn't do anything more as the beams all reached her.

There was no explosion. Instead, the beams all hit Wanda and seemed to get absorbed into her clothes, without any more effects. As for Wanda, she raised her arm and pointed her finger at the anti-Chaos head. A bolt of lightning was released from the tip of her finger and struck the hound before it would even react to it, piercing through the head.

Wanda then instantly threw a beam of Chaos magic at the dual face mask that kept forcing her emotions to alternate. Its entire existence warped as a horrifying screech was released before the demon disappeared completely. She did the same to the second head of the hound.

Just as Wanda was finished, she felt like there was something right beside her ear and instantly whipped her head to the side. She saw nothing, and before she could turn back to the remaining monsters, she felt a presence on her other side, quickly whipping her head to the side. During this time, the mosquito-like demon, the Mi-go, had the glow of its head intensified as it focused it on Wanda. At the same time, the Dunwich Horror or Yog Whateley floated up and approached Wanda while becoming smaller in size and multiplying. It split itself into tens of thousands of copies that were all barely as large as a small house fly and continued splitting further. All of the split bodies spread around and surrounded Wanda.

The Scarlet Witch in question had finally realized that her perception was being messed with. "You really are a fucking bug," She said annoyedly to the mosquito-like Mi-go while still feeling that there was something close to her ear. She cast a spell on the countless tiny Dunwich Horrors that now seemed to her like the kind of disgusting parasitic bug that would crawl into one's ear and take control over them.

Her spell had no effect. All of the energy she released was sucked by the wiggling worm-like mass of tentacles that ended with a mouth. It had absorbed all of her released energy. Just as Wanda's spell failed, the tiny Dunwich Horrors approached her. Wanda growled and exploded with lightning instead, hoping to take care of the bugs in a single attack. Sadly the lightning was also sucked away by the Azathoth's huge open mouth.

"God damnit!" Wanda grunted as she waved her hand beside her ear, feeling as if something was flying right beside her ear. Her slight loss of composure was all that was needed for the Dunwich Horrors to capitalize on the opportunity as the demons all surrounded her in a sort of cocoon, crawling all over her body and attempting to somehow get inside. Once even a single body of the demon entered her, she would come under its control.

Unfortunately for them, just like the sneaky bodies that The Dunwich Horror had been sending throughout the fight to take over Wanda, they were all blocked from even coming into contact with her skin. Before they even reached her, the black parts of her outfit expanded out and covered her from head to toe completely.

Wanda took a moment to regain her bearing despite having lost her sight as Alex covered her completely — She was, in fact, glad that she had her eyes covered and was unable to see anything. The only thing that annoyed her was that she was still feeling a presence right beside both her ears as the Mi-go's perception attack was still messing with her.

Calming herself, Wanda released an instant burst of energy that made the fabric of the dimension crack. Even as her energy was sucked away, she teleported through the crack to appear above the culprit. She gathered her strength and punched the wiggling mass of tentacles that was the Azathoth. Her attack didn't seem to have much effect other than creating a hole in its skin that was quickly being healed. That was until a red glow passed all over its body. The attack had disrupted its absorption, which Wanda capitalized on to send a wave of energy through its body to destroy its internal bonds. The tentacles all fell away, turning the creature from an amalgamation, into separated fleshy tentacles that all lost their connection to the main thing.

With her magic not being interrupted anymore, Wanda first destroyed all the Dunwich Horrors that were still crawling all over her body before crushing the Mi-go into mosquito paste with her Chaos energy.

"You want to test me out as well?" Wanda asked the single demon that was still left on its platform. A second also appeared on another platform, the Nightgaunt. It had been forced to cut off both of its arms since it was unable to stop the encroachment of the weird parasite that had been attached to its claws.

Wanda was met with a profuse refusal by both the eye demon who had escorted her to this location and the Nightgaunt. At this point, Bael also returned, the demon's entire body wiggling as it seemed to have been burned and mutilated, yet was still alive. It was the same with the Cthulhu, it flew back down to its platform and expressed its submission while bleeding blue blood from the tentacles that had been burst apart.

-x-X-x-

[I think I'm going to hurl, Alex!] Wanda told him telepathically with a suppressed tone of disgust.

[Calm down. It's over now.] Alex told her, directly manipulating her biological processes to pull down the bile that was rising in her throat. Now all that was left was the mental disgust that she had. Her body wasn't having any reaction to it at least.

[Fucking disgusting. I feel like something is crawling all over my skin. I should've tortured that fucker Yog Whatever before killing it.]

"You have proven your strength without a doubt, Lord," Bael spoke, kneeling down on one knee despite the horrible pain that he experienced because of the action. Wanda's punch had been infused with a very violent Chaos Energy attack and left the demon extremely injured.

Wanda restrained her impulse to snap the demon out of existence and looked at him impassively, not speaking a word.

The demon seemed to gulp, "Allow me to escort you to the core of the dimension, Lord," Bael spoke. "That is where you resided until your disappearance."

[Ask him about the exact circumstances surrounding Cthon's disappearance.]

Wanda nodded and floated toward Bael's platform. "Tell me, Bael," Wanda asked. "What exactly were the circumstances surrounding my main body's disappearance?"

"You don't know, Lord?" Bael asked, surprised.

"Answer the question, Bael," Wanda said as her eyes glowed red.

The demon had been sufficiently terrified by her previous display of power where she took no more than a few seconds to dispatch almost all of the Elders who were on par with him. It answered apprehensively, "A significant amount of time has passed, Lord. Roughly three chaos cycles, equivalent to four and a half Earth months, since your disappearance from your abode. It was abrupt and completely unexpected. One moment we were all going about our business in our respective domains and the next moment, your presence disappeared. The dimensional currents all went haywire and the lesser demons all rioted. We were forced to take action to suppress them and bring them under control."

Wanda hummed, "Let's go to my abode now. Lead me," Wanda said before turning to Bael. The demon didn't even have the opportunity to voice out its doubts and was forced to escort the new dimensional lord to the central location. Despite its injured state, it fulfilled its task.

Wanda came up to a huge floating landmass shaped like an island that had a palace built atop it.

"You can return to your domain to heal up, Bael. And let me know when the Elders that I killed are revived. We will soon convene an actual meeting," Wanda told the demon who stiffly bowed and essentially ran away.

"The demons that you killed will be revived?" Alex asked with a raised brow, appearing beside Wanda. "How'd you figure that?"

"I just know," She said. "It's like an instinctual piece of information. Chaos demons, whenever killed, are eventually revived within the dimension itself."

"And here I was thinking that you were rid of those tentacled abominations," Alex teased.

"If they creep me out one bit, I'll kill them again," Wanda grunted before taking up a haughty tone. "Now come. Your wife wishes to celebrate a battle hard fought."

Alex raised a brow at Wanda's choice of words, "Wife, you say…"

"Of course," She turned to look at him with her hands behind her back. Leaning forward, she brought her face close to his and smiled a bright smile that seemed to momentarily light up the dark and dreary dimension, "We're life partners, after all, right?"

"Guess so," Alex said with a smile as he moved closer to Wanda who continued floating backward.

The duo soon entered the palace and started exploring.

"That Cthon guy must've been unbelievably big to have needed so much room…" Wanda commented on the large proportions of all of the items in the palace. "I feel like I'm Jack."

"From the fairy tale?"

"Yeah. I believe he must have felt this way as well when he entered the giant's abode."

"If you say so," Alex said. "Let's look if the guy left anyway for us to glean information from this place. If he has some kind of secret library for us to browse, we are going to hit the jackpot."

"I doubt it," Wanda said. "The dimensional rulers are said to be nigh-omnipotent beings within their dimensions. Someone like that has no need for written text other than baiting fools who are hungry for power."

"Cthon was indeed the one who wrote the Darkhold. Or at least his incarnation, Chthon. Innovative name, really." He said dryly.

Wanda snorted amusedly, "Can you split into multiple bodies to scour this place? If it's just us searching, then it's going to take us days to go through the entire palace."

"I thought you liked it here?" Alex said.

"It's good, yes, but I prefer staying in Wakanda. I feel more… welcome there. I think? I can't quite describe it yet. Here, it's those creepy demons, most of whom I would rather never see again. I just want to get rid of the mark of this dimension and get out of here so that I can become the Sorcerer Supreme and finish our sanctum."

"Your wish is my command, my queen," Alex bowed to Wanda before splitting into hundreds of bodies that all spread apart through the castle.

"So many?" Wanda asked. "I thought that you could only create a limited number of copies of yourself."

"My limit is pretty high by now," Alex said. "And it's also a quantity-over-quality situation right now. The bodies I've released to search the castle can easily get obliterated by even a single lesser demon. If I wanted to create stronger bodies, then the number would be much lower."

"Got it," Wanda nodded. "Can you also look for a bed?"

"I don't need a bed to have sex," Alex wrapped his arm around Wanda's waist and pulled her close.

The redhead showed a slightly awkward expression, "Alex…" She placed her palm on his chest, "I love you, truly. But honest to fucking god, I cannot even think of sex in this dimension that's filled with weird creepy bug-like monsters with tentacles and whatnot. I don't think I can ever get used to them if I end up forced to stay in this place."

"I understand," Alex gave an understanding smile. "Why do you want me to look for a bed though?"

"I want to lie down for a bit. I'm tired."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

…

"I'm going to kill those bastards once again," Wanda growled. "And I will keep killing them until they are demoted to damned mindless lesser demons."

"Instead, you could threaten to kill them and force them to return the fragments of the heart that they took away so that we can take control of it to get rid of the mark that it has on you," Alex said, examining the Heart of the Chaos dimension. Or at least what was left of it. Instead of a perfect sphere that was glowing with ominous crimson, it looked like an apple that had been chewed into, leaving just the cylindrical core.

"They took most of the damned core. No wonder Bael didn't tell me that the killed elder demons would be revived in my castle. They all have their own little fragments of the heart that they can use to revive themselves in their own domains."

"Calm down, Wanda. We'll just threaten them to return the eighty or so percent of the core that they took. If not, then we'll just have to go and snatch it from them."

"They are going to be prepared for me this time, Alex. The fight might not be as easy as last time," She told him. "It was already dangerous for me to take them on with them severely underestimating me. They aren't going to underestimate me again. If they truly work together, I'm going to be hard-pressed to take them on."

"Then we just have to make the fight unfair," Alex had a slightly wild idea.

"How so? I can't use mystic arts here since most of those spells are suppressed. Are we going to use the Infinity Stones?"

"We could," Alex nodded. "Or you could take suck the energy of the remaining fragment and use it to empower yourself. It should give you some of the absolute authority over the dimension that only the ruler has. They won't be able to beat you no matter what they do in that case."

"The dimension will destabilize and start imploding, Alex. That's why they left this much of the core intact. Otherwise, why would they leave it up for grabs," Wanda said. "Plus, I'm not strong enough to contain twenty percent of the literal heart of the Chaos dimension. The power it contains is not something that I can handle by myself."

"You said it," Alex said, tilting his head to look at Wanda. "You can't handle it yourself. Now trust me and start absorbing the core's energy, take all of it in. Leave everything else to me."

Wanda looked into Alex's eyes, seeing nothing but confidence in his ability to support her. "Fine," She said, extending her palms in the direction of the core.

A red mist escaped Wanda's hands and enveloped the remnant of the dimension's heart, in the next instant, a loud cracking sound was heard as the ceiling of the palace broke. Alex formed a huge canopy to protect Wanda as she pulled a crimson beam out from the core, sucking it into herself. The beam continued getting thicker as the palace crumbled further.

As Wanda continued pulling the energy into herself, she staggered a little while the entire dimension's fabric seemed to be getting destabilized. Seeing Wanda's strain, he merged into her and took over the energy that she pulled into herself. He started compressing the absorbed energy into a liquified form and spread it around Wanda's body, merging it into her. He had already formed the skin, blood, and bones bonds with her. Using those bonds, he merged the absorbed heart of the Chaos Dimension with Wanda's body.

A thought came to Alex's mind as he started the process, [Wanda… Doing this might end up making it infinitely harder for you to return to Earth. Should I keep going?]

Wanda wasn't able to answer as a loud scream reverberated through the palace, "What are you doing, you bitch!?" Bael screamed. "I'll kill you!"

Wanda heard the threatening scream of Bael along with Alex's warning and widened her eyes. She instantly stopped the absorption process. As for that excess energy that was coursing through her body, "Go fuck yourself," She brought both hands together and sent a crimson Kamehameha at Bael who had just now appeared in her vision. She released all of the energy that she had pulled from the core.

As her attack died down, the dimension's fabric was left unstable, constantly warping as cracks appeared before disappearing. As for Bael, the demon was nowhere to be found, its physical form completely vaporized.

As for the energy that Wanda had released, it naturally found its way back to the core — its natural housing. Seconds later, the dimension stabilized as the twenty or so percent of the core became whole once again.

"Alex," Wanda said with a heavy voice, "You didn't think to tell me that before I started absorbing the heart?"

"My bad…" He said, appearing in front of Wanda. "I didn't think things through beforehand and got greedy when I thought about you devouring the heart of the dimension."

"I'm trying my best to go back home and you almost made it impossible for me to do that, Alex." Wanda crossed her arms.

"I'll make it up to you, okay? I promise," He gave her an apologetic smile and hugged her. "Since you just killed this Bael guy, how about we quickly make our way to his domain and take back his fragment?

Wanda nodded and greeted a huge tear in the fabric of the dimension.

"You know where his domain is?"

"This dimension is funny," She explained casually. "I just have to want to get to Bael's domain. The dimensional crack that my spell created just follows my will and leads me to the spot that I want.

"Cheats, I say," Alex shook his head as he and Wanda quickly passed through the crack and appeared in front of the fragment.

"Almost the same size as the one back at the castle," Alex examined the large red fragment. "He could wrestle away twenty percent of it from those other demons. He must be strong."

"Then it's good that I killed him first," Wanda said with violence in her voice as she waved her arm and destroyed the husk that was pulling energy from the fragment to reform itself. "I'll take it back." She created a vortex right under the fragment that started sucking the crystal directly into it and sent it to the remnants of the castle where she had left the main fragment.

"Are you using spells that you are already aware of or are these spells abruptly coming to your mind?" Alex said with narrowed eyes. Ever since Wanda had entered the Chaos Dimension, she had been using spells that she'd never learned in front of him.

"It's more like an instinct," Wanda told him. "I feel that I just know the correct spell for the occasion."

"Be cautious, okay?" Alex said. "The spells that you've been using ever since you entered the dimension are of the same nature as the ones inscribed in the Darkhold. Be prudent in what spell you cast."

"I know what I'm doing, Alex," Wanda smiled. "But I still appreciate your concern," She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, "Get ready, we're moving to the next closest fragment. If need be, help me pull energy from our fragment of the dimensional heart, okay?"

Alex nodded as Wanda created another crack that the duo passed through to reach the next biggest fragment.

Just as Wanda appeared, she felt a wave of powerlessness pass through her body as her energy seemed to get suppressed by her surroundings. She honed her gaze in on the source of the suppression and saw the half-formed head of the two-headed hound.

"Your brother doesn't seem to be in the best shape right now," Wanda said with an expression of anger as she glanced at the other end of the demon. The magic caster head seemed illusory as it continued siphoning energy from the core of the dimension to regenerate itself. The Anti-Magic head roared at Wanda but its helplessness was easily discernable from its body language.

The Scarlet Witch had no compassion for the demon and pointed her finger at it, releasing a bolt of lightning that pierced through the head of the hound. The action warped the still regenerating skeletal body of the hound into nothingness.

Wanda followed the same process as before, creating a vortex under the fragment of the dimensional heart that pulled away all of its energy and sent it to the main fragment.

"Two down, eight more left to go," Wanda said, creating another crack in the dimension.

"Not the next biggest one," Alex shook his head. "Find Azathoth next — that worm demon. That's the only other one that can cause you any problems with sucking away your attacks."

Wanda nodded, dispelling the crack and creating another, "Shall we?" She asked, turning to Alex with a casual yet slightly annoyed expression on her face.

"You're frustrated," Alex said.

"Not particularly, no," Wanda said. "I still want to go back as quickly as we can."

"You don't have to pretend," Alex said. "This dimension ties very closely to your origin. What you should've felt is comfortable and welcome here. And you didn't."

"It's not that… I do feel the sort of intimate connection with the dimension that you're referring to. But that connection seems to have been distorted into an irksome feeling instead. Maybe it's because of the inhabitants, or maybe something else, I don't know."

Alex nodded thoughtfully as Wanda approached the rift that she'd created, "Shall we go?" She asked.

He followed her in.

…

Wanda groaned as she felt all of her energy constantly being siphoned away from her. Her eyes honed in on the slowly regenerating figure of Azathoth. Its mouth was pointed at her, constantly devouring all of the energy that was in her body.

Wanda growled and approached the demon, "My physical strength is enough to take care of you," She threatened and the demon indeed faltered momentarily, but it didn't stop its absorption ability.

Just as she was about to reach the demon, Wanda felt something appear right beside her ear. "Motherfucker!" She shouted, waving her hand past her ear and hitting nothing. She then noticed the hidden figure of the Mi-go demon emerging from subspace as it continued siphoning the energy from another fragment to regenerate itself.

A depressive feeling overtook Wanda's thoughts, making her want to — "The third is here as well…" She said distastefully while ignoring the Mi-go's attack on her perception. The two-masked-head demon was also here, distorting Wanda's emotions and making her alternate between extreme happiness and sadness.

Just as Wanda was pulling herself together under such attacks, Yog Whateley appeared alongside Shoggoth — both of them absorbing their respective fragment's energy to regenerate. The former had already split into countless tiny creatures that covered the slimy body of Shoggoth which approached Wanda. She wasn't able to react before two suction cup-like tendrils approached her head and attached themselves to the sides, right over her ears.

Wanda didn't know what was going on, but she felt a wave of powerlessness pass through her as her physical strength seemed to get suppressed, making it hard for her to even raise her arms. At the same time, Yog Whateley was putting pressure on Alex's protection and attempting to get inside Wanda.

She had a stern, resistive expression on her face as another demon appeared in front of her. The Cthulhu.

"Wanda Maximoff," The Octopus-headed demon spoke as the tentacles that covered its mouth seemed to stir. Despite having her ears covered, Wanda was easily able to hear the demon as if it was speaking in her head.

"Tell me, how do you wish to die?" Wanda said hatefully.

"Commendable resistance," The demon spoke. "But you have no power here anymore. Azathoth has the power to devour any kind of energy with no limit in sight. Once your magical energy reserves run dry, its devouring will target the electrical impulses that run through your body. It is going to start with small twitches that you don't notice, keep going until you can't feel entire limbs, and eventually, your entire body will be disconnected from your brain. That's when Mi-go will take it out to eat it, she loves freshly disconnected brains, you see. Human brains are specifically a delicacy. As for your physical husk, Shoggogh is very interested in examining what that parasitic slime suit-person is that you have following you around."

Wanda had to suppress her disgust at the vivid picture that was painted in front of her. "That's supposed to scare me?" She asked.

"Not particularly, no. It's supposed to make you aware of your reality. With that bastard Bael gone, I can finally take over the dimension. Nightgaunt should already be at the place where you've taken the Hound and Bael's fragments. I must say, I do feel grateful for you to have come here. Your emergence helped me finally take care of Bael. The previous two entrants were… sorely lacking."

"So that's it?" Wanda said apathetically. "You wanted to use me to shake up your hierarchies?"

"Of course. Did you actually think that we would welcome you into the dimension with open arms? Even if you are a remnant will of the lord, you do have not the power that is needed to manage this dimension. I will take over it in your stead."

"Alex? Is it ready?" Wanda asked, making the Cthulhu's bulbous head twist slightly, showing a very human emotion of surprise.

In the next instant, a crimson sheet exploded out of Wanda. Unlike the usual misty energy she utilized, this was perfectly opaque, passing through each and every demon and pushing them away from her.

-x-X-x-

"This time, I'll make sure that none of you get revived without my explicit approval," Wanda said hatefully as she exploded out with the energy of the core that she was siphoning with Alex's help.

"H-how are you able to do such a thing?" The Cthulhu asked with horror in its tone. "To directly siphon the energy of the heart of the dimension is impossible."

"What are you talking about?" Wanda warped the Mi-go's body into a swirl as its slightly illusory form was crushed into nothingness. She moved her hand and the fragment that it was using to regenerate itself emerged from subspace, only for Wanda to promptly send it away. "Aren't you also using the heart's powers right now?"

"It's not the same. To use the power of the heart as a literal fuel for one's abilities is a taboo, equivalent to destroying the dimension itself." The Cthulhu was barely able to muster up a reply, unable to even move to defend its helper demon.

Wanda's attacks didn't stop. She made quick work of the other four demons as well, namely Shoggoth, Yog Whateley, the dual-masked head, and Azathoth. Before the octopus-man realized, he was the only one who remained. Wanda had not only taken care of his partners, but she'd also taken away their fragments of the dimensional heart. Cthulhu was the only one who remained, his fragment still hidden in subspace as he drew on its power to recover itself.

"You said it yourself, demon," Wanda said. "I am the incarnation of the lord of this dimension. It's an instinct for me to be able to use the heart's power to take care of small rabble such as yourself."

"Impossible…" The demon seemed to be breaking down. Maybe because what Wanda had done was truly that absurd, or maybe because all of its plans had fallen apart solely because of how unbelievably strong Wanda truly was. The woman in question didn't care much for the answer and was quick to rid the dimension of the demon's existence.

With the demon killed, Wanda was quick to take the fragment that it was hiding. She sent it to the main core and moved to the next fragment.

It didn't take her long to take the fragment that belonged to the eye demon. That one was the most timid of them all and had the least resistance. Wanda merely appeared in its domain and it had presented the fragment to her without a moment's delay.

The last fragment was the Nightgaunt's fragment. The demon had returned to its domain in a panic when it realized that its accomplices had not only lost but lost completely. It was waiting for Wanda while prostrated, hoping for forgiveness. The woman paid no heed to the demon and took away the fragment, uncaring of its thoughts.

…

"Now how do I put these pieces back together?" Wanda asked Alex as she looked at the eleven fragments of the heart — the main fragment that sustained the majority of the dimension and ten from each of the elder demons.

"This kind of stuff usually regenerates on its own," Alex said. "Maybe we just need to wait."

"For decades, maybe," Wanda scoffed. "I'm not waiting that long in this horrible place. Let me try something." A red mist escaped Wanda's palms and wrapped itself around the fragments, bringing them together to shape them into a perfect sphere. Wanda continued releasing more Chaos Energy mist from her palms that enveloped the sphere and constantly put pressure on it to compress it.

Wanda grunted as a flare of Chaos Energy escaped from the compressing sphere, sending a wave that left the fabric of the dimension cracked in its wake.

"You sure about this?" Alex asked. "It doesn't seem very happy about being forced together like that…"

"I don't care," Wanda intensified the pressure, compressing the sphere further as it started to glow brighter. It released more and more flares that left even more destructive cracks in their wake. Somehow, not a single flare was released in Alex and Wanda's direction. It seemed to him that she was unconsciously or consciously manipulating the compression to force the flares to be released in other directions.

"Support me, Alex," Wanda said, staggering a little as Alex hugged her from behind. He enhanced her physical abilities as much as he could. She stabilized, continuing to channel immense amounts of energy through her body.

The process lasted almost an entire hour, exhausting Wanda completely. Her spell had formed another opaque layer of crimson around the core that was constantly pressing down on it. She seemed to instinctively know when the core's regeneration was completed and stopped controlling the spell. The loss of tension almost made her faint if not for Alex holding her up.

The layer of Wanda's spell peeled off of the core that glowed bright crimson, barely the size of a basketball.

"You okay?" Alex asked Wanda, holding her in his arms.

"Yeah," She said, trying to get closer to the core.

"Rest a little. You've been pushing yourself,"

"I'll rest once I'm back home," She said stubbornly, pushing Alex away and approaching the large glowing orb. "Time to finish this, once and for all." Wanda finally used the mystic arts for the first time since having entered the Chaos Dimension.

Wanda created two magic circles — both of them red in accordance with her personal signature. One appeared under the heart of the dimension and the other under Wanda.

The void of the dimension crackled as an ominous aura seemed to descend all over the dimension. Cracks appeared on the magic circles that Wanda had created, destabilizing them and making them fizzle out of existence. The ominous aura that had descended in the surroundings seemed to disappear as Wanda expressed her disbelief.

"What is going on?" She spoke rhetorically, creating the circles to invoke the spell once again. They fizzled out before they could even stabilize.

"The dimension is resisting the mystic arts. There must be a reason that the sorcerers don't use the Chaos dimension as one of their sources for Eldrich energy," Alex said with a clinical tone.

"I don't care about what the dimension thinks," Wanda growled, creating the circles again, this time, pumping them with much more power than necessary. It was useless, the entire dimension was resisting her action.

"Calm down, my love," Alex said. "You're stressed, making you prone to mistakes."

She gritted her teeth, creating the circle again, "I just… want… to go… home!" She said in between her attempts, which all failed, leading to her screaming the last word.

"Stop," Alex said, grabbing Wanda's arms and pulling her into a hug. "Let me come up with something."

"I just wish to go home, Alex," Wanda sobbed. "Please. Just take me home." She clenched Alex's shirt and hit her head on his chest repeatedly.

He shushed her, combing her hair with his fingers and holding her tightly. They stayed like that for a few minutes as Alex came up with an idea, "You could use the dimensions might against itself. Channel the heart's energy to cast the mystic arts circles. What do you think?"

"It's worth a try," Wanda said. "Let me go. The sooner I get rid of the brand, the sooner I can cuddle with you in our home."

Wanda's next move was to siphon the heart's energy as she used it to create the magic circles. The dimension's attack came swiftly and violently, but it was useless. The circles weren't affected in the slightest.

Wanda smiled widely and finally invoked the spell that would get rid of the dimensional heart's brand on her.

"Ugh…" She groaned as she floated above the circle, hovering like a puppet hanging from some strings. Chaos energy started leaking from her chest and approached the sphere that started rotating, taking in all of that energy.

The crack of thunder resounded through the entire dimension as a huge rift opened in the sky. It seemed as if something was looking through it at Wanda. No words were spoken, but it expressed its intent to her.

"Wanda Maximoff. You have chosen to relinquish the power that was bestowed upon you by the great one. Since you do not appreciate such a gracious gift, then you do not deserve to live either."

Wanda groaned with a hateful expression, "I'm fucking tired of you, this place, everything here!" She broke free of the magic circle's suppression and reversed the process that she had initiated, pulling the essence of the dimensional heart into her instead. "I'll see how you react once I destroy everything here."

She extended her hand toward the core and it got pulled toward her instantly. She placed both her hands on the core and exploded all of that energy outwardly. The ensuing explosion expanded at the speed of light, covering everything in sight and vaporizing it without distinction. Even Alex's body was destroyed, making him feel thankful that he was anchored to Wanda and not somewhere externally.

"Stop… Ugh"

The previously threatening voice was undoubtedly pained at this point. Wanda ignored it, the explosion ensuing the entire dimension.

[You'll kill yourself with this, Wanda…] Alex said, concerned as even he experienced the strain that was on Wanda's body currently. If the explosion kept going, Wanda's body would be destroyed alongside the dimension.

The woman didn't respond, far too deep in her rage to stop her actions.

Alex grunted as he thought of his options as quickly as he could. He could already see Wanda's skin vaporizing, putting him through immense pain as well considering how deeply he was bonded to her.

[Don't be mad at me, okay?] Alex said with a calm voice in Wanda's head. [We'll figure things out once I get you out of this.]

Wanda still didn't give Alex any response, but he was already making his moves. Wanda's energy absorption continued increasing by an exponential factor but the release wasn't the same anymore. Some of the energy started disappearing on the way.

As for its purpose, it was being used to reinforce Wanda's physical form. Alex doing the very thing that Wanda had previously gotten mad at him for doing. He was merging the essence of the dimensional heart into her body using his connection with her skin, blood, and bones.