The rest of Silvija's day passed by in a blur. At some point before dinner, Gaia led her out of her cell by using the collar as a guiding mechanism to receive some sort of 'hormonal treatment' that would allegedly make her stay in prison a little more comfortable. She was in something of a daze throughout the process and didn't exactly recall what had happened, but ultimately, when she returned to her cell, she was allowed to eat whatever she wanted for dinner before going to sleep.
Her actual training would commence the following morning.
The morning alarm that awoke Silvija was a light shock that jolted her awake in panic. The stinging sensation surging through her neck instantly destroyed all semblance of sleep in her eyes as she abruptly sat up and got out of bed, taking a fighting stance.
"Good morning, Silvija," Gaia's voice came through her collar instead of the ceiling this time. "Your training is to commence from now on. Make sure that you obey my commands and do not resist. You are not allowed to speak unless spoken to and given permission to respond. Do you understand? You can speak."
It took Silvija a few seconds to orient herself and calm her surging anger as she nodded. "I understand. Will I be awoken with an electric shock every day?"
"You can exchange it for a different alarm with your rating points," Gaia said. "Now, please approach the center of the room for the cleaning procedures."
With another breath, Silvija approached the center of the room. Finally collecting herself, she realized that she had already lost the bodysuit that she'd been given the previous day, while the only clothing item in her possession was the collar that had shocked her awake.
As she approached the center of the room, she observed that the bed she had slept on started receding into the wall. Since it was a big structure, she had a clear view of how it essentially disintegrated into nothingness, with the nanites visibly receding into the darkness of the wall.
'Could this whole place be made of this nanotech…' Even the thought of such an immense operation baffled her, confirming the belief of just how outmatched she was in front of a planetary dictator like Apex.
Suppressing her inner thoughts from appearing on her face, she stood in the spot Gaia indicated. With a slight hissing sound, the tile she was standing on started depressing until she was around a foot lower than the floor. At the same time, a transparent glass boundary started rising until it was a foot higher than her head.
'Just put a shower in the corner… What's the need to make this so convoluted…' She felt like this was such an unnecessary process.
As the cold water started falling on her head, she instinctively wanted to dodge it to not get her hair wet but suppressed the instinct. "Do I get soap, Gaia?"
"Minor violation." Gaia's voice sounded cold to me, and before she could realize what was wrong, a painful zap jolted Silvija's neck, making her groan in pain. "You are not to speak unless spoken to, Silvija. A repeat offense will result in a deduction of rating points and a punishment."
Suppressing the curse that was about to escape her lips, she nodded shakily. As the cold water dowsed her body, Gaia spoke to her again.
"Please raise your arms."
Silvija quietly obeyed and felt something traveling from her collar along her arms before wrapping around her wrists. She felt an irresistible pull on her arms and found them attached to opposite edges of the glass cabin. Then, she felt more nanites traveling along her body and moving as if scrubbing her body.
'Why the need to restrain me? You could've just told me to keep my arms above my head.'
She tried to tug her arms free from the magnetic restraint, but neither the cuffs nor the glass budged. Ultimately, her body, including her face and hair, was thoroughly cleaned and dried within the span of five minutes as the efficient nanites did their thing.
Just as Silvija thought that things were finished, she felt the nanites probing her in a severely intimate area.
"H—" Her outrage was replaced with a hiss as the thin probe expanded into a small pipe inside her ass. That was when she recalled Gaia mentioning an enema being included in her daily cleaning procedures.
'This is humiliating… Am I going to be fitted with a catheter as well…' Her discomfort only got enhanced as a warm liquid started filling her insides.
She was not proud of the sounds that she made during the process. Nor the fact that Gaia picked up on her reactions and proceeded to provide her with some very gentle stimulation by means of a small cap that vibrated on her clit. It was far from enough to bring her to a climax, but it surely made the entire experience just as pleasurable as it was embarrassing.
Her arms numbly fell to the sides when her wrists were finally freed and the glass cabin receded into the ground. While the process was extremely embarrassing and invasive, Silvija felt exceptionally clean now that everything was over.
"Kneel." Gaia's voice made Silvija flinch, but she obeyed without a protest and knelt on the spot. The floor was a little hard, but it wasn't painful. She looked in trepidation as a pole emerged from the ground before turning to face her and forming into a metal phallus. "Hands behind your back," Gaia said, and Silvija felt her hands being tied behind her back.
"You may start sucking. If you cannot receive the food within five minutes, it will be forced down your throat in a very uncomfortable experience." Gaia's words made Silvija gulp as another pang of humiliation hit her. She had to suck a metal cock to be fed. It was the most humiliating thing she could imagine happening to her. And that was just after being cleaned through an enema.
Ultimately, in her state, she didn't have much of a choice but to obey and lean forward to start sucking. At the same time, she felt a slight pinching sensation on her nipples and saw through the mirror that her nipples had been clamped and were attached to the pole in front of her. Every time she pulled her head back, she was tugging on her clamped nipples, forcing her to take the cock in deeper. It led to her releasing humiliating sounds that she hated herself for making. The worst of the humiliation came from the fact that there was a mirror right in front of her. She witnessed every single moment of herself being degraded in such a manner.
…
Once bathed and fed, Gaia led her outside her cell as the glass panel in the front opened just enough to let her through. She was hesitant to walk out wearing just a collar and no clothes, but she ultimately steeled her resolve and followed along with Gaia's instructions to exit her cell. Immediately, she encountered a line of women, all of them in the same attire as her — a single collar. Almost all of them. Looking around, she noticed that a few women were wearing the same bodysuit that Gaia had provided her on the previous day.
As she entered an empty space in the line, Silvija realized a fact that both disturbed her and slightly calmed her. Every single one of the inmates was female. Not only that, they were all very beautiful as well. One thing that calmed her was that while she received some stray looks, none of them were too piercing. Most of the women were perfectly silent and kept walking forward.
'This place might as well be a sex slave factory…' Trying to suppress the pounding of her heart, she continued walking along the circular corridor with the women as Gaia's slightly suppressed voice entered her ear. It was still clear as day, but she could tell that it was spoken directly into her ear.
"Your speech and hearing will be suppressed for the duration of the three-hour training session. Follow my commands well, and you will be rewarded at the end."
Suddenly, she felt earplugs forming in her ears, along with a ball expanding in her mouth as it widened in the perfect shape to completely seal her lips. She couldn't even drool through the gag. Something that slightly confused her was that her breathing wasn't hindered in the slightest. She could still breathe normally through both her mouth and her nose.
Following the women, she turned and walked through a huge door, only to be greeted by a large gymnasium. The huge open area could only be considered a gym if one could ignore the severe lack of equipment. Looking at the women already exercising, she got an idea about the upcoming training.
'So training meant actual training…' She thought to herself, fully having expected to be trained to serve as a sex slave.
-x-X-x-
"We will start with some basic stretching while I analyze your vitals to determine the appropriate voltages to be applied to your muscles." Gaia's words that directly sounded in her ear made Silvija very concerned, but she obeyed, just like the other women who had entered with her. Following along with Gaia's precise instructions, she performed dynamic activation stretches that would get the blood pumping through her body and prepare her muscles for the workout. She even felt the nanites in her collar move along her body to support and correct the slightest imperfections in her movements.
During the process, Gaia also attached small electrodes all over her body with seemingly no pattern at all. One of her arms had four small pads stuck to it, while her other arm had six. It was the same with her legs and even torso. Though she didn't understand why her breasts needed five electrodes each, she knew better than to resist at this point. She had observed how the other women were also going through the exact same process during their stretching, with Gaia dynamically attaching electrodes to their bodies with seemingly no pattern.
"Good, we shall start with strength training." Two dumbbells formed in front of Silvija through the nanites in her collar. "Pick them up."
Gaia worked as the perfect personal trainer for Silvija if one could discount her current naked state. She was a little glad that instead of common training equipment like a normal gym, everything that she used was formed by the nanites in her collar. She was very resistant to using the same equipment as other naked women. And going by the expressions some of them were sporting during their training, sweat wasn't the only liquid she needed to be worried about.
The workout was perfect, not to mention extremely efficient. Despite having her mouth gagged, her breathing was perfectly normal, not to mention she was constantly kept hydrated throughout the process without having to take any breaks. Gaia not only spotted her during exercises that involved heavier weights but also made sure that her form and breathing were perfect throughout the process.
The one thing that truly bugged her was that she was constantly inflicted with tiny shocks throughout every single exercise. The twitching of her muscles had caused her to fail multiple times, aggravating her. But even that only lasted for the first hour; after that, she realized that somehow, the shocks had started assisting her movements and even enhancing her, allowing her to push herself beyond her limits. As a highly trained and competent combatant herself, she was well aware of her physical abilities, and she could tell that in just this first session, she had already pushed many of her limits and gone beyond them.
Suddenly, the situation didn't seem as aggravating to her; at least, whatever she was enduring was bringing her tangible benefits. If anything, she could consider this place to be a hellish training camp.
…
Once training was over, instead of feeling weak and tired, Silvija felt more energized than ever. She assumed that it had to do with the constant shocks that she had endured throughout her training that kept her muscles in a constant active state. Ultimately, she was led back to her cell with the women in the same order they had all entered. Every single woman trained for exactly three hours, and Gaia made sure to optimize their training accordingly.
Once back in her cell, Silvija felt a sort of weight loosen from her shoulders. Despite almost everyone being in the same situation, she had been very conscious that she was completely naked and in the presence of many women, all of whom had unprecedentedly beautiful bodies, many even better than hers. Considering the kind of training they were going through every day, she naturally understood the reason that they weren't muscular hunks and instead possessed soft-looking bodies that had perfectly compressed their muscles.
"Your performance during the training had an 83% efficiency rating," Gaia told Silvija. "After some initial distractions, you were able to fully focus on working out and following my commands impeccably. As your efficiency was greater than 80%, you will be rewarded."
As the silver-haired rebel leader had expected, the reward involved pleasure.
Gaia provided her with the same comfortable bed that had disappeared from her sight in the morning and had her lie down on it. Following that, the nanites started caressing her body all over, stimulating her in ways even she didn't know she could feel pleasure. They explored all of her erogenous zones, only getting better and better as her reactions told Gaia exactly what she liked. Eventually, Gaia would have enough data about her body to know exactly what to do to make her tick.
Despite the optimized process, Silvija felt that she was only slowly being brought toward her climax, eventually giving rise to a sense of impatience. Unfortunately, Gaia didn't allow her to touch herself. The moment her hand got close to her crotch, she found a cuff wrapping around both her wrists and holding her arms above her head.
Soon, Gaia started stimulating her clit. That was what changed her state from impatience into one of delirious pleasure. She ended up spending an entire hour being pleasured by the nanites before the stimulation in her clit sent her over the edge, bringing her to an explosive climax.
Once she recovered, she was fed lunch in the same manner as breakfast, by means of sucking a cock. Once that was finished, she was subjected to another invasive cleaning process involving an enema and catheter that cleared her system.
With all of that done, she had one hour of free speech time to converse with Gaia, where she could talk about whatever she wanted. Gaia told her about the theories behind many of the training techniques she was using and more, letting her feel a slight sense of normalcy after the mind-numbingly messed-up events of the day.
Then, it was time for training to continue. However, this time, instead of strength training, it was one thirty-minute high-intensity cardio workout, of course, assisted by the electrodes and their accurate shocks that helped push the human body beyond its limits. That was followed by a thirty-minute break before they had two hours of martial arts exercise, specifically Tai Chi. Silvija didn't quite get the purpose behind Tai Chi specifically but followed along without any complaints. While she had already learned some rudimentary Tai Chi before, the accompanying electric shocks that she had to endure made the process novel and new, constantly keeping her on her toes.
Finally, it was time for dinner before she would get to go to sleep. Of course, if she thought that she'd already seen the weirdest aspect of this facility, there was another surprise waiting for her. She had yet to repay Alex for being provided with such a high-class training environment. Of course, that repayment would come in the form of Bioenergy, specifically milk.
…
By the time it was morning, the amount of milk collected from Silvija had been equivalent to 0.005 units of Bioenergy. While it might sound low, with almost four hundred permanent prisoners and more than three hundred temporary prisoners with a single year in captivity who were just here to explore their kinks, the farm was currently providing Alex with more than two units of Bioenergy a day. Of course, that was factoring in the far lower yield of the temporary prisoners — merely 0.001 units of Bioenergy per prisoner — and the newer permanent prisoners with slightly inferior physical conditions, providing between 0.003 to 0.005 units since their physical stats weren't as good as Silvija's.
However, that number wasn't even counting the four women who had already awakened Qi in the past year since Alex had gotten access to it. They provided a hundred times the Bioenergy in comparison. Each day, they provided Alex with half a unit of EP. With just four women, that was two units of Bioenergy, the same as the yield of the entire prison. That was the reason he had been so invested in Qi. The only limitation he faced for now was that every time he tried to manipulate or handle Qi, it naturally separated any imperfections and turned the energy into Bioenergy for him. All he'd figured for now was to transport it from one location to another through the use of his ‹Inventory›. That limitation was the main reason he'd befriended the Great Protector instead of devouring her.
Even the four women he'd been able to awaken had required substantial investment and effort on his part, though ultimately, it would be immensely beneficial for him in the long term when considering their production of Bioenergy compared to the others without Qi, especially if the time dilation factor of one day to one year was considered. Alex was already getting roughly a thousand points every day in space with the current production of the Farm.
For now, however, this was just the first day of the next ten years of Silvija's life. She had a long way to go if she wanted to become one of the commanders of Alex's precious widows.
-x-X-x-
A little over a week had passed since the destruction of the Chaos Dimension. During that time, Alex and Wanda took pleasure in each other's company. Having taken up sanctuary in the ship that brought Alex to this cluster in the first place, they had no disturbances as it simply floated around the cluster like the myriad satellites and space debris all around.
At the moment, the two were sitting on a small two-person dining table, eating a luxurious meal under just enough candlelight to make it feel both dim and not too dim at the same time.
"I think we can move out of this small ship now. It's getting harder and harder to get rid of the smell of sex from this place," Alex told Wanda.
"Do we have to? I don't mind staying in here for a few more years. I'm enjoying it a lot~" She said suggestively as she slowly bit down on a piece of steak from her fork.
"It's time to face reality, Wanda," Alex said with a gentle smile. "We should go talk to Wong so that the Sanctum's construction can continue unimpeded."
"Can't you do that?"
"I already am. But it's time that you at least tell him about the current situation."
"It's troublesome…" She said reluctantly, poking her fork at her food.
"Let's finish dinner. I'll take you to Earth, then. Wong will naturally sense your presence and appear to intercept you."
"I miss our home," she mumbled. "I want to go to Wakanda and live in my big, beautiful castle, attended on by servants and revered as their queen…"
"If we change some things, I could see you fitting the criteria of a Disney princess," Alex said amusedly.
"Why a Difnie pwinfess?"
"Swallow your food first," Alex admonished.
"Why a Disney princess specifically? I could be any princess."
"Disney princesses involve a certain level of tragedy in their backstory," Alex said. "And people usually think that all their problems are solved when a big strong man shows up. Codename: Prince Charming."
"What a clichéd trope…" She snorted. "And my problems were solved because a big, strong slime showed up. So, I'm completely ineligible for that specific identity."
"If I remember correctly, there should be a checklist for it," Alex said. "Tick any of the boxes, and you can be considered a Disney princess."
"Amuse me…" Wanda didn't look particularly amused.
"Magic hair… Half tick. Your hair may float when you use your powers, but that's kind of it. Magic hands- that's kind of your whole thing, casting magic through your hands.
"I don't need to use my hands to cast magic, Alex."
"But you use them as a medium for the sake of convenience. Next up, we have animals. Most of the Chaos Dimension's residents can be considered animalistic, and you can understand them; that's another tick."
"I just needed one tick."
"Yes, but if you tick all of them, then you can be a super Disney princess," Alex said. "You know, like one princess to rule them all…"
"Can we stay in the genre at least?" She said.
"They are close enough. Most Disney princesses are from medieval times. Anyway, moving on, we have poison. Hydra's experimentation was no less than poisoning you. Cursed: The whole thing with the Vishanti could be considered a curse on you, considering its effects. The Sorcerer Supreme's power was naturally lashing out against you. Then we have enslavement. It's the Hydra story again. They enslaved you and your brother…"
"Shut up!" Wanda suddenly threw her fork at him.
"Fine, no more Disney princess talk," Alex said, instinctively catching the fork in his hand. He decided that the best thing to do would be to move on from the sensitive topic that he'd just brushed against. "As long as you finish, we'll go to your Earth to tie up some loose ends before moving on. I have just the planet for us to move to after that. Princess Wanda."
"That's Queen Maximoff to you," she huffed at him.
…
Space warped as Alex and Wanda appeared in the exosphere of Earth-199999.
"Hey, I can still breathe," Wanda said, holding Alex's arm with both her hands.
"That's me," Alex said. "Not like you need to breathe in the first place after all of the alterations that were made to you by the Source of Chaos. Same thing with speech."
"That's just a spell I'm using. I still have human anatomy… It just seems partially energy-based now."
"You haven't needed to breathe since I formed the bond with your blood. It's just an instinct that you possess. Now, let us go down. We have a mystic arts monk to beat up."
"It wasn't his fault." Wanda's hands tightened around his arm as the two of them started their descent. "He couldn't have known about such a backlash existing."
"Even so, his actions directly put you in mortal danger."
"Fine, we'll just beat him up a little bit, okay? I don't actually want to hurt him," she said.
As the two crossed the thermosphere — completely unaffected by the extreme temperatures — and entered the mesosphere, an uncomfortable sensation started affecting them both. It was a feeling of resistance that stemmed from the planet itself that was compelling them to turn back. It didn't particularly affect them, but as they got closer to the stratosphere, that feeling kept getting stronger and stronger, compelling them to turn back. Alex could tell that it was only targeting Wanda, but due to his connection with her, it was treating them as the same entity.
Once they entered the stratosphere, the intensity of that unwelcome feeling stopped increasing, stabilizing at a decently uncomfortable feeling for the two of them. Suddenly, a flare of mystical energy assaulted Wanda, only to dissipate just as it got close to them as Wanda's intrinsic protection spells took effect.
"First, mental resistance, now outright attacking me… How annoying," Wanda sighed, not feeling good about her own home planet rejecting her so vehemently.
"It's the protection of the sorcerers, Wanda. Soon, I will be ready to integrate your planet into Gaia. At that time, you won't have to worry about any of this. Then, you can destroy these defensive measures of the sorcerers. For now, they still serve the purpose of protecting your planet from external threats."
"I know. It doesn't make me feel much better."
The defensive measures continued assaulting Wanda with attacks that were easily dealt with as the duo finally came close to the troposphere. Their movements suddenly halted as a golden glow appeared in front of them. Abruptly, a complex, layered shield appeared in front of them. Using the ozone layer as a medium, all three sanctums released a huge burst of energy to create a shield that blocked Wanda's path forward.
Wanda had an expression of slight sadness and defeat on her face as she looked at the golden magic that blocked her entry into her home planet.
"Miss Maximoff…" Wong's voice came not too much later. "You've returned."
"Yeah," Wanda nodded before waving at the monk. "Hey, Wong."
"How…" Wong was standing on a mystic arts platform, covered in a protective membrane, as he expressed his feelings. "The Sanctums have identified you as an extradimensional creature of the Ruler class. What happened that you became equivalent to such godly entities?"
"A lot, Wong," Wanda sighed. "And a big chunk of that was because of you. I could destroy this flimsy defense of yours easily if I wanted…" Wong tensed up at her words.
"That's because the Sanctums are not capable of holding off the full-powered assault of a Dimensional Ruler. With the Vishanti serving as our patrons, we only need to handle threats of our own level," Wong said.
"Yeah. Even if the Dimensional Rulers target you, they won't be able to give you their full attention. Unfortunately for you, the Vishanti are gone."
"Yes," Wong nodded. "But on the bright side, so are all the other Dimensional Rulers, which allows the current status quo to continue."
"Can you bring my defenses up to date so that I can come home?" Wanda asked flatly.
"Even if I wanted to, it's impossible," Wong said. "These are ancient spells that were inscribed by Aggomoto himself. If we try to modify them, then we cannot be sure if our defenses can continue to intimidate and hold away the lesser dimensional creatures."
"Understandable," Wanda nodded. "And my sanctum?"
"Strange's plans made sure that your sanctum's magic would operate on a separate wavelength from the other three. He was going to modify them to form another layer that would involve all four sanctums without interfering with the original three. Unfortunately, he's still in stasis alongside the Darkhold and the Salem Witch; their minds are still corrupted."
"The Darkhold…" Wanda's expression turned thoughtful. "Mind if I take it off your hands, Wong? I have a theory."
"I suppose so…" Wong looked unsure of his decision, but he felt that Wanda's casual demeanor hid a lot of blame behind it. It left him tense and unsure of her next action, especially since he was already aware of her volatile nature. Promptly, he created a portal and stuck his hand through it before pulling out a sealed tome. "Here you go. It's been sealed with potent magic, so it might take —"
Wanda was already flipping through the pages of the book before Wong could finish telling her about the seal on the book.
"As expected..." Wanda mumbled. "This isn't mine."
"Really?" Alex raised his brow. "Interesting."
"Thanks, Wong. Apex will contact you regarding my Sanctum. Work with him to complete it, okay?"
-x-X-x-
"So what now?" Wanda asked as she and Alex drifted in space as their Earth moved away from them, unable to pull them along with its gravity.
"We could always go to Gaia," Alex offered. "Take a couple of years to really get to know each other. Ultimately, as close as we are, we have only been together for a few months."
"Maybe when you integrate my planet into your cluster," she said after cupping his cheek. "I don't care for nor want to meet those other women of yours."
"Worth a try," Alex shrugged.
"You were talking about a planet that you think would be nice for us to settle down on while you take care of things on my planet?"
"Settle down is… a bit far-fetched. It's more like we can go and subjugate a planet and start experimenting with what powers you got from the Source of Chaos. That planet is a prime example of what happens if the Sanctums are destroyed and the sorcerers are unable to protect the populace from the infestation of dimensional creatures."
"I feel like that's aimed at me…"
"Of course not. It's just the best planet for you to go wild with your powers since there will be very little resistance once you take over the core echelons of power. There's just a pesky remnant consciousness that we need to take care of, like the one that affected Strange."
"So more time actually working than lazing around with you…" Wanda leaned forward and hugged Alex. "I miss Wakanda already." She said, burying her face in his neck.
"We'll make a new Wakanda," Alex said with a smile. "With this one, I'll make sure no one can force us away. This planet can be our little playground. You can explore your powers and find out ways to improve your Source of Chaos. I will make an army of witches who are all proficient in Chaos Magic so that they can give you whatever feedback you need to improve your powers."
"That sounds like such a tiresome thing to do..." She mumbled, tightening her arms around his shoulders.
"Why don't you tell me about the Darkhold," Alex said, glancing at the book that was floating behind Wanda. "To think there was a time I was terrified of letting you even come close to this thing."
"Your concerns were valid," Wanda said. "It has a consciousness that is currently terrified of my sheer presence, but it loves whispering in the ears of people who are around it."
"You said that this one isn't yours. What does that mean?" His words made Wanda pull back from his arms.
"Exactly that," she extended her arm and sucked the book into her hand. "These inscriptions, this interpretation… this isn't Cthon's work. Wong said that there is a legend of some demon Chthon in our world. That's all real. Mount Wundagore is also the real deal. But this Darkhold, said to have been inscribed from those very murals, is not Cthon's work."
"Who else could it be then?" Alex asked. "It works to amplify Chaos Magic, and the spells are all from Cthon's library, as you say."
"Yes, but in all of the Dimension's eons of existence, not a single lifeform has had this signature. The creator of this Darkhold has nothing to do with Cthon and Chaos. I am sure of that."
"Can someone even decipher all of that without access to Chaos Magic?" Alex asked.
"Maybe," Wanda said. "But my point is that this isn't the real Darkhold. And it's not the only one. Now that I have this, I can sense multiple copies that have the same frequency as this one. On the other hand, the real Darkhold is in the hands of a select few variations of myself. The true Darkhold brings a corrupted sense of power. But this one. This one solely incites destruction. And considering the copies, this is probably a multiversal destabilizing agent."
"So this fake Darkhold is part of a larger plot to destabilize and what… take over the multiverse? Destroy it?"
"Who knows?" Wanda shrugged. "All I can tell is that this scheme runs unbelievably deep, considering how the oldest records of Kamar Taj include the existence of the Darkhold. And those records include the Earthen Elder Gods."
"Maybe the records were doctored…" Alex said. "I have an idea of who this person could be."
"Who?"
"With such a multiversal plot going on, the most likely culprits seem to be either Doom or Kang. Which of the two it is behind this is still to be determined."
"Dangerous people…" Wanda frowned. "Extremely dangerous people… Who are they? All I can find out about them is how they are mortals who can threaten and achieve victory against beings far greater than themselves, making even Celestial entities wary."
"Yeah, that tracks… Let's think about them later. I've explored a good chunk of this clusterfuck of Earths, and I haven't seen any traces of either Kang or Doom for now. Hopefully, it stays that way."
"Yes!" She jumped at him and held him like a koala. "So we can go back to the ship, right?"
"We are going to the new Earth that's infested by dimensional creatures," Alex said with a laugh. "We will set up our territory, and I'll make sure that there's no one in the world who can dare to force us away."
"Sure, but I'll be the one to make sure of that," Wanda said, pulling her head back to look into his eyes. "I now know why whenever we stay somewhere for a long time, that place becomes somewhat influenced by my energy and presence."
"Oh?"
"Yes. If you noticed, both our safehouse in the mountains that I destroyed and the Wakandan Castle were influenced by my presence, passively empowering me. That was because of all the sex we had in those places."
"That's not how you make excuses to have unrestrained and kinky sex with your partner. Your tone should be less analytical and more suggestive."
"I'm serious," she laughed and kissed him on the cheek. "I don't need an excuse for us to have sex. What I'm talking about is an instinctive circulation of Chaos during sex. It behaved as the rudimentary form of a unique spell from Cthon's directory."
"Sounds awfully convenient, doesn't it?"
"It's full of coincidences. The main factor is that you aren't human and are, instead, a Klyntar Symbiote. Not only that, you somehow have a far more cohesive consciousness than your counterparts. When we have sex, Chaos circulates through us and takes the rudimentary form of a territory establishment spell. That's what was happening."
"And do you have the complete spell model now?" Alex asked.
"Yes, I do. While casting the actual spell doesn't require us to copulate, I will make some modifications to it so that it enhances the effects of the spell." Wanda's serious tone was very different from her expectant expression that belonged to a pervert. "I will have to cast the spell every day for it to be effective. In a month, with twelve-hour casting sessions, I should be able to designate that specific part of the universe as my territory."
"You sure that your modifications aren't making the spell extremely inefficient?"
"Not at all," she shook her head. "The original spell designates those specific particles of matter as my territory. Which means if the planet is destroyed, my territory doesn't exist anymore. On the other hand, my modified spell will target those specific spatial coordinates. I will have to do some math to make sure that the territory is anchored to the planet. But the end result will make my territory infallible to an extent."
"Why? Don't you want to leave small chunks of these domains scattered all around the universe as the Milky Way leaves a trail of Wanda Territories in its path?"
She looked at him dryly. "Twelve-hour sessions. Every day. For a month. Understood?" She asked solemnly.
"Let's do sixteen," Alex said. "The remaining eight hours can be designated for sleep. Just create an incarnation that will travel around with my body to help with your experiments."
"Deal." Wanda nodded. "When do we go there?"
"Impatient much?"
"I just want to set up my territory quickly."
"The territory which you plan to incorporate the movements of not only the planet but the solar system, this star cluster, the Milky Way itself, and even the Universe's expansion while still making sure it doesn't move from one spot? That territory?"
"Don't find holes in my plan," she frowned. "I know it isn't very logical. But guess what? Chaos isn't supposed to be logical."
With her words, Wanda formed a rift in space. Reading her intentions, Alex's face took on a momentary frustrated expression as he hurriedly turned into slime and merged into her just as she disappeared into the rift.
-x-X-x-
Earth-21798B
"Sir, your Chief of Staff is here for the debriefing meeting," a woman spoke through the phone on the President's desk.
"Send him in," Phil Coulson, the current President of the United States, answered.
Moments later, the door to the Oval Office opened as an elegantly dressed man with some light stubble entered.
"Morning, Mr. President," the Chief of Staff spoke.
"Morning, Al," the President nodded. "Tell me you have good news?"
"We got word from the Squadron Supreme just an hour ago," he said. "The army has officially taken over Alberta… but…"
"What happened?"
"They got into a conflict with the Alpha Flight. We lost Hyperion."
"Hmm…" The President frowned. "That is indeed a problem. He was one of our heavy hitters. Prepare for his funeral…" The man raised his brow when he saw the look on his Chief of Staff's face. "What?"
"While the Supreme Squadron was chasing after the mutant responsible for Hyperion's death, they were ambushed by a coven. They injured Power Princess and took all of her magical equipment. They seemed to have been aware of the thing with the Alpha Flight and attacked at the most opportune time to take things that they wanted."
"It's fine as long as they accomplished their mission. We can let them battle it out with the Alpha Flight to curb their anger. What about British Columbia?"
"The Salem Coven has already established themselves there. We don't have the necessary tools to counteract them. With the hotspot under their control, they have enough power to wipe out any army we send there."
The President hummed, with a frown, tapping his finger on the desk. "We need that hotspot, Al," he said seriously. "Only with these emerging magical hotspots under our control can we hope to contend against whatever it is out there."
"Are you sure about that, Mr. President?" The man asked. "We have already occupied seventeen magical hotspots that have appeared all across the country, but without the correct personnel, they are just slightly more expensive pieces of land for us. We can't actually capitalize on them."
"We still have to hold them in our hands. Ever since the Eighteenth Century, witches had all but completely hidden themselves from the public eye. With the emergence of these hotspots all over the world, they have the power to not only resist but also fight back against any witch hunts that we organize. We can only battle those who practice such witchcraft with beings of a similar caliber. As long as we hold enough hotspots, it will become irresistible for certain witches to dedicate themselves to our cause. That is when holding these spots will come in handy. So I don't care about how we are souring international relations. We need Alberta and British Columbia… Unfortunately, one of them is already lost to us."
"I apologize if you feel that I am overstepping my bounds, but have you considered the nuclear option, sir? Whatever hotspots have been occupied by witches in Europe and Asia have led to rampant destruction in their surroundings. They kidnap people who are not magically inclined for unknown purposes, but they are never seen again in the public eye. British Columbia's hotspot is the first in the continent to have been taken over by a coven, and the precedent it sets will make the others even bolder."
"We cannot," the President shook his head. "The destruction of any of the hotspots will lead to a cascading effect of the others bursting out with greater energy. The remaining covens will become a threat to civilization itself if something like that happens. Not to mention that specific hotspot is outside our country's borders."
The expression on the Chief of Staff's face showed that he wasn't particularly sure how the President knew all this, but he didn't pry.
"Understood, sir."
"I'm going to have a meeting with the World Council in the evening today regarding exactly this issue. You're dismissed for now," the man nodded at Al and lowered his head to focus on a document regarding some proposal.
"Yes, President Coulson," the man nodded seriously and momentarily glanced above the President's head before turning around.
Just as he was about to exit the room, the man grunted, "Fuck…"
"Al?" the President frowned. "What is it?"
"You'll see…" the man sighed as if accepting his fate and turned to look at the President with his arms crossed.
Suddenly, the president stood up from his seat and slammed his hands on his desk. His action was followed by a violent gust of wind entering through the open window as if a tornado was assaulting the building. A heavy aura blanketed the room, imposing a suppressive aura over the indifferent-looking Chief of Staff.
"I've been concerned about you since the start…" the President's voice came out far deeper and intimidating than before. It was as if there was an ethereal echo to his voice. "Who really are you? Alex Hunt." His mere words were accompanied by a fiery aura as the violent winds took up a shade of orange crimson.
"Me?" Alex smiled. "What are you talking about, Coulson? You're the one who appointed me as your Chief of Staff."
Suddenly, the violent aura weakened as a complex magical model appeared on the ceiling of the room and started sucking in all of the energy that Coulson had released.
"What is this feeling of dread that accompanies you?" The president frowned as the magical model started its activation procedure and glowed brightly.
"Are you sure that you are human? This kind of sixth sense is usually possessed by more eldritch creatures like demons, no?" Alex teased further, not caring about the spell that was close to being activated.
"No matter," Phil frowned. "While this will set my plans back significantly, your continued existence could quite possibly be a hindrance to my future… projects."
"I'm surprised that you are willing to drain away all of the country's magical hotspots just to deal with little old me," Alex smiled. "I guess I should be flattered that you are putting so much importance on me to use your super special secret weapon on me."
"I have been keeping an eye on you, Apex," Phil said with a grave expression. "I have already pinpointed your magical presence on all Forty Earths and even beyond that. You have given me the perfect opportunity for this now that one of your anchor selves is approaching this planet."
"Your logic may be sound, Mephisto," Alex smiled with a gleam of madness in his eyes. "But do you really think I don't have countermeasures prepared for this? If the real you existed, I might have been concerned, but just a remnant consciousness doesn't pose any real threats to me."
"What makes you think that the real me doesn't exist in this universe? No matter. I'm almost done…" The man trailed off as the magical model on the ceiling extended outward into a complex three-dimensional model that made Alex feel overwhelmed by its convoluted structure the moment he laid eyes on it. Just as it was completed, an immense magical presence descended upon the entire state of Washington, pulling in magical energy from all over the continent. And the brunt of that presence was borne by the White House.
The monumental building that had stood tall for two centuries, under the weight of such an immense magical presence, started collapsing as if an earthquake of an unheard-of magnitude was assaulting it. Within seconds, the entire building crumbled into a pile of slowly disintegrating debris as barely any occupants made it out of the building alive.
The magical aura was so dense that it condensed into a fiery mist that twisted around the fallen debris, forming a minor tornado that brought ruin to the surroundings. At the eye stood two humans facing each other. One of them held a red cube in his hand that was sucking in all of the magical energy at a violent pace, while the other stood with an amused expression.
"Do you really think that the Pandemonium Cube is going to help you here? I have Infinity Stones tethered to my soul."
"Maybe if you had the complete stones. Yes, you could resist this," Phil nodded. "But you barely possess a few of those broken-down fragments. They can't protect you."
"How lively," a third voice entered the fray as the violent storm of magical energies continued to get sucked into the Pandemonium Cube. "Mind if I join this lovely little fray?"
"Finally," the demonic voice of Phil Coulson was excited as a redheaded woman appeared from a rift that appeared in space. She didn't even glance at him, as if her eyes only had Alex in them, unwilling to even turn her head. "Goodbye, Apex. You were a competent assistant if I discount all of your snooping and goading."
A vermillion beam of light suddenly shot out of the cube in Phil's hand, directly targeting the defenseless Wanda the moment she appeared through the rift.
-x-X-x-
While the Mephisto possessed Phil Coulson's plan—using a cosmic artifact powered by the planet's magical energies to directly target the existence of Apex and rewrite the reality of the universe so that he never existed—seemed flawless on the surface, there was one little hiccup in that plan. The anchor that he chose to target Alex's existence was Wanda, the woman who was the current embodiment of the Source of Chaos. She held not only a nigh-infinite source of Chaos energy but also a semi-omniscience that gave her immense insight into most things in the universe.
The moment that the beam of light escaped the Pandemonium Cube, targeting Wanda, she frowned and waved her arm to form a pure, deep crimson structure in front of her that looked as if it was made of crystallized blood. Just as Alex looked at the structure she had created, he felt overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of the frame that was on par or even more convoluted in its design than the one Mephisto's remnant consciousness used to summon magical energy from all over the continent.
The consequent expression of panic and dread on Phil Coulson's face was a sight to behold as the beam was suddenly sucked into the complex structure of moving magical runes, suppressed and unable to even affect Wanda or Alex in the slightest. Without a moment's delay, Wanda cast another spell and yanked the Pandemonium Cube away from the man's hand.
"How rude, attacking me with a reality-breaking weapon the moment I appeared. I had higher expectations from a class two demon…" Wanda sighed. "Then again, you don't seem like the real deal."
With a thought from Wanda, the complex runic structure that held the Pandemonium Cube's attack started compressing. Despite the suppressed energy rampaging and resisting, it was helpless against her complex runic spell. It formed into a small vermilion crystal the size of a marble that disappeared the moment her fingertips came into contact with it. Alex safely stored the reality-altering attack within his ‹Inventory›, followed by doing the same for the suppressed Pandemonium Cube.
"That was Source Magic," the demonic voice coming from Phil Coulson grew solemn. "And not just any Source Magic. Chaos Source…you are the reason behind the destruction of the Chaos Dimension."
"The one and only," Wanda smiled. "Now, if you could be so kind as to leave this planet, I might not have to eradicate your consciousness."
"That's cute, child. If it were Cthon threatening me, I would be quivering in my boots, but you are eons too young to make me wary. Not to mention that without the Chaos Dimension to support you, you are like a fish out of water. How long can you really survive without your domain, child?"
"I don't like your condescending tone," Wanda mumbled.
"It's the truth," he said. "You are an inexperienced child who somehow got away with a small amount of Chaos Source during the destruction of the dimension. You can feel how it is dissipating with every passing moment, no? Every spell you use sucks away a little more of your power, leaving you weakened. How much of the source did you lose trying to hold my attack back?"
"I hear a lot of false words without any intent to explain the reason behind them," Wanda said.
"Well, here's my intent. You and your… symbiote friend here can join my cause. As I've observed, Apex is an incredibly resourceful creature. With his presence spread across multiple Earths and unique anchors, he can be the perfect person for gathering intel. You, my dear child, can be the perfect deterrent force. With your ability to utilize the source of magic —"
"You have other anchors?" Wanda turned to Alex with a frown.
"What are you talking about?" Alex looked surprised.
"This fucker just said so," Wanda said. "What does he mean by you having multiple anchors?"
"Exactly that. Anything can be an anchor, Wanda," Alex said. "You are one; my ship is another. I have many more scattered all over the cluster and further."
"I don't believe you." Wanda narrowed her eyes as a deep crimson aura erupted from her. "Who are they, Alex? Who are your anchors?"
Abruptly, a beam of energy shot out of Wanda's hands, directly targeting the possessed man, who had an expression of levity on his face.
"What an impolite child." The target waved his arm and calmly dispersed Wanda's attack.
"Your mother is impolite," Wanda snorted. "Do you think I don't know about this greedy fucker's nature? I know all about his other women."
"Worth a try," he shrugged. "But my offer is still valid. I want the three of us to work together. I am sure that we can do great things."
"Apex brings information and intelligence to the table; I bring firepower, but what do you bring?" Wanda asked. "I don't want someone who can do everything I can do but worse."
"I can teach you, my dear child. Don't you want to understand the power that you hold? Don't you want to utilize it to your fullest potential? I will even teach you about the dimensional source that you are continuously losing. You will not only be able to utilize it with more efficiency, but it will be possible to generate even greater amounts of it. In time, you might even have the power to reestablish the Chaos Dimension in your image. Reaching heights even your predecessor was never able to."
"Pretty enticing," Wanda nodded. "What do you think, Alex?"
"I think he's had enough time to set up whatever he was setting up for his escape now," Alex said. "Am I right, Mr. President?"
"You are correct, Alex," Phil nodded with a grave sigh. "It is a pity that we weren't able to work together. I believe that we would've made a good team."
Magical energies started stirring all around them once again as a magical model appeared on the ground under them. Since they were all in mid-air, there was no impedance as the model rose up from the ground into a three-dimensional structure that pointed at the floating figure of Phil Coulson.
"Goodbye, Alex. It was nice working with you. I'll see if I can find a planet where you won't hamper my plans."
"I think you should stay, Mephisto," Alex said as an even greater energy erupted from Wanda's figure. "Your presence can be an even greater hindrance to my future plans than you realize. I would rather make sure that you don't end up causing too much trouble."
"You are making a mistake, Apex." The demon's tone finally grew fearful as he noticed his spell being interfered with by Wanda's energy. He couldn't escape anymore. "My real self may be in slumber at the moment, but if you dare to destroy me, you will incur his wrath upon yourself."
"For that, your real self needs to exist in this reality in the first place," Alex said.
"I do exist in this reality. Only the Elder Gods and their directly connected entities are gone. The Hell Lords and most Class Two demons are merely in slumber at this time."
"I can't believe a single word that comes out of your mouth, Mephisto. People would just call me a sucker if I did that," Alex chuckled. "And even if you do exist and are merely in slumber, I'll deal with that when the time comes. For now, my darling Wanda, if you would be so kind as to get rid of this troublesome demon so that we can start taking over this planet for ourselves, that would be great."
"Gladly, Alex," Wanda smiled widely as she cast a spell that overlapped on Mephisto's, directly taking control and using the focus of the original spell as a means of suppression for him. It rendered him unable to even speak, let alone try to resist. Once she was done suppressing him, she designed another spell model around his floating figure as his expression grew increasingly fearful and angry. But her model was completed without any hiccups as he cast the spell and eradicated Mephisto and Phil Coulson from existence.
"How'd you like my acting?" Wanda asked Alex.
"Impeccable," Alex laughed as the two of them landed in the crater, which was all that was left of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. "Now we just need to figure out a new base of operations now that the White House has been destroyed."
"Actually, Alex…" Wanda's eyes had a special sort of gleam in them. "I have a special place in mind."
Alex had a feeling of trepidation at the thought of what Wanda would consider a special place.
"Mind showing me the Pandemonium Cube?" Wanda said. "It's not really any use without Mephisto's direct utilization, so I might as well reforge it into something useful."
"Sure," Alex nodded. "What are you going to make it into?"
"How about a slave collar?" She asked casually. "I'll designate you as the controller so that you can put it on anyone you want."
"How is that the first thing that comes to your mind?" Alex asked with a laugh as he pulled the suppressed cube from his ‹Inventory›.
"I just remembered how you have so many issues when it comes to telepaths. I'll modify it into a collar so that you can subdue a telepath and have them do what you want."
"Damn, this would've been so useful a few hours ago…" Alex mumbled. "How long will it take you to make this?"
"A few days," she said while examining the cube in her hand. "It has some potent authorities that I need to work with. Why would this have been useful a few hours ago?"
"I am working with a variant of Emma Frost at the moment. It's taking a shit ton of my EP to maintain the use of the Mind Stone to prevent her from probing into my head."
"Oh…" Wanda didn't seem particularly interested. "Since it isn't urgent, you can put it back for now. I'll make the collar when we set up base."
-x-X-x-
Once Alex put away the cube, he looked at Wanda and asked her, "So, how are you going to hijack my meticulously thought-out plan?"
"We both know how meticulous your planning is, Alex," Wanda laughed at him. "I'm sure you put no more than a few minutes before deciding to confront Mephisto directly. Did you decide on it before or after we left the spaceship is the question…"
"The moment you become the Source of Chaos," he said. "I had already decided to bring you to this planet. I infiltrated Mephisto's inner circle and spent more than a month observing him before deciding to make my move. His strengths, weaknesses, his arrogance, and tendency to sow discord, I researched everything. I knew that you would be able to take care of the Pandemonium Cube — even if not, I had contingencies prepared. The remnant consciousness wouldn't know what hit him even if he did catch on and fight me."
Wanda shook her head at his overly hurried explanation.
"Come on, darling," she held his hand. "I'm going to make you face your fears, my Apex," the smile on her face made a foreboding feeling dawn upon Alex.
"No…" He narrowed his eyes. "You can't be thinking of that." With the depth of their connection, it took mere moments for him to understand what she was planning.
"Oh, yes," her eyes had an excited gleam. "That is the only place worthy of an entity such as myself. I can't stay in some shabby house made of white stone. After a castle made of Vibranium, I can only go higher."
"You'll antagonize them, Wanda," Alex said solemnly.
"I'm certain I've already antagonized them when I allowed those three versions of myself to continue accessing my Chaos," she leaned forward and cupped his cheek. "And with my current standing, I'm not too far below one of them. As long as you help me get even stronger~"
The gleam in her eyes told Alex exactly what kind of training she was expecting.
"It's my fault for promoting pleasure-based strengthening in the first place…" Alex sighed.
"Come with me, you damn pussy. The Celestials don't have the power to wipe you out with a snap anymore. Not with me around," Wanda's eyes radiated energy as a baleful aura escaped her, coalescing into a spatial rift right in front of her.
"Come on," she lightly yanked Alex's arms, making him frown as he felt a momentary sense of discomfort.
"Why the astral form?" He asked, turning his head around to see his body starting to slump as their perception of time slowed to a crawl. "Fuck… Tell me before you do something like this."
"What happened? Did I cause you problems?"
"Give me a second…" Alex closed his eyes, focusing on his soul for a moment.
[Soul Energy -50]
Utilizing some soul energy that he got by using the ‹Soul Devour› ability of the Dweller-in-Depths to quickly separate while maintaining control over the part of his soul that was connected to this astral projection, Alex regained control over his bodies and synced them with their respective times.
When he opened his eyes, he was greeted by Wanda's concerned expression mixed in with guilt.
"You okay?"
"Yeah… You know what happens when we use the astral projection. The change in perception fucks with my other bodies."
"My bad… I was just excited."
"I know," Alex nodded. "But my question is: Why the astral form?"
"Because I don't want to teleport inside matter, mistakenly destroying part of the Celestial's body," she said. "The magical energy radiating off of the corpse is preventing me from locking onto the spatial coordinates accurately."
"I see… Let's go then."
Wanda's eyes brightened at his words as she excitedly grabbed his hand and pulled him into the rift.
The moment they passed through, Wanda could feel Alex's grip over her hand tighten despite the nature of their current forms.
"You weren't kidding about inaccurate," Alex said tiredly, directly facing the massive head of the incubating celestial. Instead of the expected metallic luster of its armor-clad form, the texture of the head was dry and cracked, as if it had been turned to stone. Observing the rest of the corpse, the Celestial was curled up in a fetal position with multiple large holes all over its petrified corpse. An ethereal energy was escaping its body through those holes, escaping into the outer layer of the Earth's core.
"At least we are inside the eggshell," Wanda said. "That was the thing interfering with my spatial coordinates."
"Now what?"
"Now?" Wanda smiled devilishly. "Now we move to the heart."
She dragged Alex's astral form through the metallic incubation liquid inside the egg, pulling him through the Celestial's head as they found themselves inside its hollow interior. Even though the interior was hollow, Alex could feel an extremely powerful pressure having descended on him and Wanda. It didn't matter that they were in their astral forms. The pressure seemed all-encompassing and seemed to reject their mere presence, trying to prevent them from desecrating the Celestial's corpse.
"I'm not so sure about this…"
"Don't be a pussy," Wanda released her own imposing pressure to counter the Celestial's, also enveloping Alex, not realizing that he seemed perfectly unaffected by the pressure when he spoke to her. "We aren't going back now."
"Fine…" Alex sighed and allowed Wanda to lead him through the body as they got closer to the source of the pressure that was affecting them. Even though the intensity of the pressure was increasing, Wanda simply radiated even more energy to counter it, quickly reaching a spherical structure within the chest of the Celestial.
It looked similar to a Dyson Core, with countless rings that seemed to encompass an energy source completely, making sure that all of its released energy was being collected. That core was the source of all of the pressure and magical energy that was emitted by the Celestial.
"Someone put this here…" Alex mumbled.
"This planet seems like a part of a bigger scheme, don't you think, Alex?" Wanda said as she approached the sphere of rotating rings.
"Yeah… Could it be possible to weaponize an entire planet by permeating it with cosmic energy…"
"The real question is whether or not this pre-conjunction or post," Wanda said.
"Pre-conjunction sounds better than the alternative… similar to what happened with Earth-Z. The Kree's invasion led to its current state, but they were ultimately left behind. If this was done after… that means we have someone capable of doing all this running around freely."
"How long since those magical hotspots started appearing?" Wanda asked.
"A little over a month,"
"Firmly in the post-conjunction timeline then…" Wanda said. "Well, pity for them. Because I'm taking this for myself now."
Suddenly, Wanda summoned both her and Alex's bodies into the Celestial and sent back their astral forms.
The moment Wanda opened her eyes, her presence got immensely more overbearing as her eyes glowed a demonic crimson, and glassy red energy escaped her palms.
"Help me out, Alex. I need support to cast this spell," Wanda turned to him and asked.
"You know…" Alex approached her. "You're the only person who can frown so cutely with your current state."
She chuckled as Alex merged into her, "With glowing demonic eyes and a baleful aura all around me that would vapourize a normal human, you are the only person in the universe who can call me cute at such a juncture. Now sync with me~" Her voice came out as a pleasured moan as she felt her and Alex's thoughts syncing, giving them access to an immense range of mental energy.
Apex's energy output suddenly magnified exponentially as they tapped into the true power of Wanda's Source of Chaos and channeled it to release a glassy liquid that looked like blood from their hands. Wanda's sleek form became bulky and demonic as Apex's maw covered her head, with bloody streaks pulsing throughout the body as Wanda's red hair came through the maw and floated around Apex's head like a crown.
Four crimson tentacles burst out of Apex's back and grabbed the spherical heart of the Celestial, pulling it closer. The bloody energy escaping from their hands seemed to have a mind of its own as it approached the structure covering the Celestial's heart, infiltrating the casing. Slowly, the massive core that was large enough to rival an average mansion in diameter started shrinking as if being compressed by the combined actions of Apex's tentacles and the bloody Chaos liquid.
[CP +0.001 Unit]
The notification chimed in their mind, but Apex didn't let it bother them. Their full focus was on sucking the core of the Celestial toward them as the Source of Chaos infiltrated its casing, making it smaller by the second.
As the minutes passed, the core grew smaller and smaller, drawing ever closer to Apex's chest. The skin on their chest cracked from the center, and multiple hard tentacles stiffly spread apart like ribs to reveal a pitch-black void of nothingness.
Multiple similar notifications of Celestial Energy being absorbed chimed in their mind, but Apex's focus was solely on taking the core for themselves, for it was now as small as the size of a basketball.
As the core drew closer, half of it entered the cavity of nothingness in Apex's chest, suddenly, the Apex threw their monstrous maw backward, roaring loud enough to make their voice reverberate through the entire hollow structure that was the corpse of the Celestial. The bloody liquid that was slowly being released from their hands suddenly gushed out of them like a waterfall, flooding the body of the Celestial and even spreading outward to envelop the entire eggshell that was the core of the Planet.
-x-X-x-
The core of Earth-21798B started imploding in on itself as if a black hole had formed at its center and was sucking in all forms of matter around it. As the outer layer also collapsed in on itself, the semi-liquid material of the mantle that surrounded the core started gushing toward the center, also affected by the attractive force emitted by the eldritch entity within. However, instead of following the outer layer of the Earth's core, the viscous material encountered an invisible blockade that prevented it from moving any further than its initial position. It was as if an invisible barrier took the place of the Earth's outer core, ensuring the planet's stability in everything.
More and more of the core continued to implode as a hollow void was left in its place. Since an invisible barrier prevented anything outside from taking its place, the thousands of miles of matter from the Earth's core were hollowed out, forming a vacuum. Everything coalesced into an absolutely compressed mass on the verge of forming an actual black hole.
Going even further, it all converged into an infinitesimal point, a super-compressed sphere of highly dense matter that defied the laws of physics and should have formed a black hole. Then, with a cataclysmic eruption that resulted in a resounding bang, shaking the planet itself, a torrent of misty crimson Chaos Energy was released, expanding through the thousands of miles of the vacuum of the planet's core. The energy permeated all throughout, spreading rapidly and being absorbed by the invisible barrier, turning it into a red hue.
Within seconds, the misty red energy spread all around the vacuum, slowly solidifying the barrier.
As for the core that had become a sphere no more than a few tens of meters in diameter with more than a trillion metric tonnes of compressed matter, once the misty Chaos energy permeated through the entire vacuum of the hollowed-out core, it started stirring and slowly expanded. It lost its spherical shape and swelled in multiple places as the deformed blob continued expanding further. Minutes passed as the new core of the planet elongated and turned into a tower more than two miles high.
Every single wall of that tower was engraved in complex runes that seemed to give out a sense of dissonance as if they didn't belong in the universe. They looked to be constantly morphing around and moving like snakes across the surface of the tower.
On the top floor of the tower, a ten-foot-tall monster was kneeling, its arms supporting its position as its tongue drooped out of its sullen maw. It was panting violently as if it had been holding its breath for the past few hours.
Once the tower was finished, Apex's form shifted as its skin separated itself from its host, their minds desyncing once again as the black material fell from her skin, forming a puddle under her.
[W-what… the… hell, Wanda…] Alex wheezed while panting, too tired to even take a humanoid shape and speak normally.
Wanda was in even worse shape as she curled up on top of Alex's slime body, not caring that her clothes had essentially melted off her body, leaving her naked. She groaned as her breathing grew faint.
[I just… don't want to leave home anymore…]
Alex didn't respond, but his tired, slime body shifted under Wanda as if holding her. Her eyes naturally closed as she hummed with a peaceful smile on her face.
'You can just go to sleep… what about me?'
Alex was forced to consume even more Soul Energy to empower his soul so that he could continue to function at full capacity without passing out. If he passed out, far too many things would go awry at the moment. His current situation was no longer the same as before, where he ended up passing out when he got rid of his weakness against heat and sound. At that time, it was just his hosts that panicked in worry. This time, he would end up losing multiple identities on the different Earths that he'd infiltrated, a few widows would probably end up dead in the downtime, and his Farm would also see a couple of deaths at the very least, considering Gaia's systems were still being developed, needing him to supervise things for now.
As Alex recovered, he rose up and formed himself into a bed while directly infusing a modified version of EP into Wanda's blood that was designed to improve recovery. She weakly groaned and turned around, curling up while grabbing the blanket that appeared to cover her.
"Alex~," she mumbled in her sleep, calling out to him.
"Needy baby…" Alex mumbled as he formed another body beside Wanda to hold her in his arms.
As the contrasting woman who was simultaneously a needy baby and a witch capable of destroying planets on a whim recovered, Alex focused on the changes he'd experienced after the spell that Wanda had utilized.
«Skill Acquisition»
«EP/Bioenergy»:: 13454 Units
«Cosmic Energy»:: 0.0000 -> 0.2347 Units
«Soul Energy»:: 3357 -> 768 Units
«Manipulations»:: ‹Lightning Divinity› ‹Basic Blood Manipulation›
«Innate Abilities»:: ‹Biological Manipulation› ‹Host Enhancement› ‹Devour› ‹Copy›
«Derived Abilities»:: ‹Cosmic Physique Creation› ‹True Sixth Sense› ‹Inventory› ‹Advanced Camouflage› ‹Elemental Immunity› ‹Hypnosis›
«Magical Abilities»:: ‹High Magic Affinity› ‹High Chaos Affinity› ‹Host of the Scarlet Witch› ‹Wielder of Chaos› ‹Soul Devour›
«Authorities»:: ‹Time (2.5%)› ‹Mind (2.5%)› ‹Soul (5%)›
«Cosmic Abilities»:: ‹Low Cosmic Manipulation (Incomplete)›
He had used quite a bit of soul energy to keep himself afloat and make sure that he and Wanda were able to handle the taxation exerted on them when executing such a complex spell. While it set him back by more than two thousand points, the gains were more than worthwhile. For one, Alex finally had a semblance of Cosmic Energy within himself once again, and while it may seem low, that was only because all of the cosmic energy in the Celestial's core went into the construction of the tower, leaving him with what could be considered as even less than scraps for experimentation. The main gain, however, was the qualitative change in the relationship that he had with the Source of Chaos and his mystical connection with Wanda.
The ‹Wielder of Chaos› ability incorporated aspects of both his Chaos affinity and the abilities he got from being bonded with Wanda and magnified them by a large amount. At the moment, his connection with the Source of Chaos was second only to his Wanda's. The authority he possessed over the Source was enough to directly cut off access to Chaos energy and magic for anyone if he wanted. Not only that, he was essentially equivalent to any variant of Wanda in how he could pull a nigh-infinite amount of Chaos energy from the Source without any issues. For all intents and purposes, Alex was also a Scarlet Witch from now on.
Everything that allowed him to become the ‹Wielder of Chaos› was done while he and Wanda were synced together, which meant sharing their consciousnesses in a limited fashion that was allowed because of Alex having formed a level 6 organ bond with her. As a consequence of that, something happened that Alex didn't expect.
{ «Status- Host #4»
«Name: Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch) (MCU Earth)»
«Bonding Rate: 70% -> 80%»
«Bonding Level: 6»
«Powers: Cosmic Physique—Chaos Magic (Source of Chaos)»
}
Considering the ridiculousness of the feat that was just performed, the conversion of Wanda's physique from low cosmic to cosmic was a given. Even being in the presence of the core of a dead Celestial meant that some stray cosmic energy would affect her and Alex. It had naturally improved the quality of both their physiques. The main thing to focus on was that their Bonding Rate had shot past the 75% threshold and settled at a solid 80%. In their synced state, Alex's self-imposed limits had directly been broken through, making their connection that much deeper.
While Alex had fixed the issue of the split personality of Scientist Gwen, that didn't change the fact that he was still very apprehensive about the unknown state that he achieved at the 75% threshold. While he and Wanda were synced, just as the Bonding Rate shot past 75%, they had achieved a state of oneness, giving both of them a deeper insight into the mind of the other. While Wanda got a slight insight into what drove him and what pushed him to do what he did, he also understood that Wanda, who had been a stray girl, having lost everything and everyone she ever held dear, who held him closest to her heart as her crutch and obeyed all his whims without question, had also healed. Her repressed desire to have a normal life with him was slowly being released. That was the reason that she was pushing herself so far just to create a safe haven.
That is what led to her using an inordinate amount of resources to create a home for them, one that she hoped was infallible.
"I literally cut off most of my body to create this tower, Wanda…" Alex mumbled as he looked at her peaceful expression while she slept in his arms. "It better have been worth it."
-x-X-x-
With Alex hastening her recovery, it didn't take more than a few hours for Wanda to wake up from sleep.
She sat up in bed, letting the covers naturally slip off her body as she looked around the room.
"You've been busy while I slept," she said before falling back down again, resting her head on Alex's arm. "How long was I out?"
"Just a few hours," he told her. "Do you like the room?"
"I do," she nodded. "It just needs some personality… Also, a bit stuffy, don't you think? You didn't put in any windows."
"Thanks…"
"I'm not… criticizing you," she turned to him with a smile. "I'll just help you with some interior design stuff later."
"Why don't we move on to the next step of your plan?" Alex said. "The witches upstairs are all panicking because they just lost their main source of power."
"Let them go through a little panic," Wanda said as she kissed Alex's cheek before getting out of bed. "Their reliance on me will be all the more substantial once they lose their will to fight. Let's establish our city first."
As she stood up, Alex formed her usual red Scarlet Witch outfit with his black accents.
"To think you went from wanting to live in a recluse environment with no one to disturb us to wanting to establish your own witch city at the center of a planet…" Alex shook his head. "How did you even get that idea?"
"You see…" She looked at him with a cheeky smile. "When we do eventually have kids, they need a school and people of their age to play with. What better way to make a good environment for them than to build it from scratch?"
Looking into Wanda's eyes, Alex could tell that her decision was truly all based on that mundane thought process. She didn't care about the implications of establishing a city for people of magical inclination, nor did she plan to actually manage anything. All she wanted was to live a comfortable life with Alex.
The expression on her face that radiated a profound sense of naivety gave rise to a conviction within Alex. He moved close to her and hugged her tightly.
'I'll make sure that nothing ever dares to take away this smile from your face…'
As a meta entity with all sorts of information regarding the cosmos, he was too aware of the tragic fate that reality had in store for Wanda.
"If you continue radiating this sense of protectiveness, Alex… I don't think I'll have the will to resist my urges…" She spoke to him, weakly resting her hands on his back.
When he separated and looked at her blushing face and her eyes filled with arousal, Alex couldn't help but let a smile form on his face.
"Let's finish the city first," he smiled lovingly at her. "Since you've done so much for us, I naturally have to make it up to you with a special reward…"
"I love your rewards~" She got up on the tips of her toes and kissed his lips. "Make sure you don't disappoint me. I'm not letting you go for a while once we start."
Alex didn't respond as Wanda grabbed his hand and pulled him through the door.
"…" She paused. "This is the bathroom."
"Yes."
"Where is the balcony? And why did I sense that this was the balcony?"
"Because…" Alex held her shoulders and made her look at him. "I can't actually block your senses and decided that clouding them would be a better option."
"I'm suddenly reconsidering my thoughts of using your body as one of the materials for building this tower."
"Don't worry. I can't sense anything through the walls, either," he said. "Unless I change up the system a little. And I don't plan to do that. This is our home. We don't need to use any powers beyond conjuring things in here."
"Why don't I just make some modifications to my enchantments…" Wanda's eyes started glowing. "Ah!" She jumped in a panic, losing the glow as Alex spanked her.
"No magic inside the house. Now come. Let me show you around."
She pouted at him like an aggrieved child and crossed her arms as she turned around, only to widen her eyes in surprise.
"This is the bedroom that I had in mind," Alex said as Wanda stepped forward and saw the spacious bedroom with one wall made completely of glass, revealing the red-tinted void outside the tower. Exactly opposite that was their bed, facing the window. They were on the right side of the bed, exiting a small hallway with two doors on each side that presumably led to their closets, with the bathroom behind them. Opposite them was another door that led outside the bedroom.
"We can make changes to it later if you want. I couldn't quite figure out where to put the dresser…" Alex said.
"It's perfect, Alex," she turned to him with a smile. "Still needs my touch, though."
"The rest of it is all in your hands, my lady," he responded with a light bow.
"Come on," she shook her head at him and dragged him to the window. "I feel so tiny in this huge place…"
"Thousands of miles of the Earth's core… all hollowed out and replaced by a tiny little tower two miles in height and a couple hundred meters in radius. Another reason is that creating a city in this space will be a good thing. It will make things more lively. Not to mention giving you a very viable position of authority over all things magic in this universe."
"You have a lot of work cut out for you, Alex. And I'll reap all of their fruits," she said cheekily.
"You are going to be a figurehead at most," Alex said. "I'll be the one managing everything anyway."
"And that's exactly the kind of leader I want to be. You can puppet me around, and we can enjoy a normal, mundane life."
"Don't jinx it."
Wanda smiled at him. They both stepped through the window as if it were a membrane and floated in the air right in front of their bedroom.
"How much Vibranium and all those other special metals do you have available?" She asked.
"We have a few hundred metric tonnes of Vibranium and Adamantium combined, while Uru is much rarer; I only have what I managed to salvage from those three Mjolnirs."
"Good enough," Wanda nodded. "Let's see…" She closed her eyes as calm crimson energy escaped her body, melding with the misty Chaos energy that populated their surroundings. With her spell, the tower's exterior started glowing red as the countless complex runes activated, brightly illuminating the darkness of the empty void. Slowly, the bottom quarter of the tower started expanding into a disk shape as it spread around rapidly. More and more mass continued expanding out of it as an island formed in the middle of the void, with a tower at its center.
"Hmm… Maintaining sufficient integrity limits us to a space of around two hundred miles in radius…" Wanda said. "Any more, and we need more materials."
"It's more than enough for the time being, Wanda," Alex said as he looked at the rapidly expanding metallic island under him with a sense of fascination in his eyes. "Once some people move in, we can make this empty floating island look more like a city."
"Mhm…" She nodded, allowing the runes on the tower's surface to return to their dormant state as the tower stopped glowing. "What do you want to call it?"
"I don't know," he shrugged. "Apex City?"
"Whatever you say. Not like I'm going to involve myself in the administration," she said. "Now that all my work is done, do you mind showing me around the house?"
"Soon," Slex said. "First, I want to test the capabilities of our tower."
The runes that had just powered down started glowing once again as a massive amount of Chaos Energy was released from Alex's figure. Unlike Wanda, his energy had no traces of the Source of Chaos, only the simple, misty energy. But that was enough for his purposes.
"Thousands of units of Cosmic Energy went into the making of this tower. It's got to at least serve my purpose," Alex said with a suppressed grievance as he channeled his authority over the tower to transmit a barrier spell composed of chaos energy to another planet.
"You are looking down on my tower if you think this is testing its capabilities," Wanda said. "I used thousands of units of Cosmic Energy from a dead Celestial's heart, my Source of Chaos, multiple metric tonnes of materials like Vibranium, Adamantium, Uru, and more, and the core of a life-bearing planet alongside your literal body as the catalyst that brought them all together. Trust me, pushing this tower to its limits means that you are planning to destroy this galaxy. Minimum."
"Good to know," Alex chuckled at Wanda's prideful tone as if she was talking about her new toy and showing it off to him.
As the spell he had cast through the tower took effect, Wanda felt a sensation that she'd only felt a few times before transmitting from Alex.
"You got more Infinity Stones?" She asked with a surprised expression.
"Yeah," he nodded. "A fragment of the Reality Stone and the Mind Stone each. But I just need to deal with the counterattack of one of your variants."
"That blonde one, huh…" Wanda mumbled thoughtfully. "You sure you don't just want to cut off her access? You could capture her and take care of her easily."
"Yeah, but then I wouldn't be able to use her," Alex said. "I can't directly use her as a tool like how I can with Ayesha, Cindy, or Yelena. That's why she can serve the purpose of a villain for me so that I can swoop in and liberate the planets that are under her regime."
"A tale as old as time," she mumbled. "Anyway, I don't care. Show me around~," she practically dragged him back through the window of their bedroom to have him show her around their house.