The Scarlet Witch floated high above the ruins of Kamar-Taj.
Deep-red chaos magic erupted and swirled around her, and the pages of the Darkhold turned quietly.
The once-sealed forbidden runes burst from its pages in deep red and formed tendrils of energy at her fingertips.
By now, she had lost her sanity completely and had stained her hands with blood to achieve her goal.
Toward Datch and anyone else who tried to stop her, she felt only killing intent. She wanted to tear them to pieces.
Valdor's expression was cold. He wanted to execute this reckless woman with his solar spear.
The Ancient One and Stephen Strange also readied themselves for battle.
Datch raised a hand to stop the Captain-General of the Custodes and the two sorcerers, then summoned Wanda's two children, Billy and Tommy.
He even brought Vision, who had been killed by Thanos, back from the flow of time.
Vision looked around blankly, but when he saw his beloved Wanda, his face lit up with joy.
Both children were real and had every memory of their time with Wanda.
When they saw her, they cried "Mama," their clear, childlike voices full of the joy of a long-awaited reunion.
At that, the chaos magic Wanda had been gathering spun out of control. The dark-red energy backlashed at once, and the powerful witch coughed up blood on the spot.
But Wanda did not care about her own injury. Without even wiping the blood from her mouth, she ran to them joyfully and embraced Vision and the two children.
Vision reached out and held his wife.
Billy and Tommy clung tightly to their mother with their small hands.
Body warmth, heartbeats, and breathing that no illusion could reproduce gave Wanda absolute certainty that they were real.
The next instant, Datch waved a hand, and Vision and the two children crumbled to ash in Wanda's arms.
Right before the desperate woman's eyes, in her arms, at the very moment she thought happiness was finally within reach.
"No…" Scarlet Witch let out a scream of anguish and despair as she watched them turn to ash.
"Please bring them back, please bring them back."
She fell to her knees on the rubble, looked up at Datch, and begged.
"Please give them back to me."
"Hehehe…" A wicked smile spread across Datch's face. "Madam, you don't want to lose your children and husband, do you?"
Everyone's eyes went wide as they stared at the nameless one.
Something about that sounds off. It sounds a little… not safe for children.
"Ahem, ahem, ahem…" Stephen Strange coughed repeatedly to hide his embarrassment.
Before his injury and his training at Kamar-Taj, he had been one of New York's top neurosurgeons, with a high income and beautiful women all around him.
But when he was alone, he also enjoyed the art films of a certain island nation.
He was especially fond of the ones about beautiful married women caught in compromising situations and forced to give in.
Such famous lines are hard to forget, aren't they?
"What do you want me to do?" Wanda stared at Datch as if clutching a lifeline.
She would do anything to get Vision and the two children back.
She could give up chaos magic, give up the Darkhold, give up everything she had ever been proud of.
"You destroyed Kamar-Taj, hunted down a child, and disrupted the balance of space and time." Datch pointed at the ruins of Kamar-Taj. "You must face Imperial judgement, and you'll probably serve several hundred years in prison."
"Once you finish your sentence, you can be reunited with your family."
"And if I refuse?" Hearing that she would be locked away for hundreds of years without seeing her family, Wanda's voice turned cold, and deep-red chaos magic gathered in her hand.
"I don't intend to lift a hand against you, but I want my husband and children back. Give them back, and nothing will happen."
"I'm not advising you to do anything bad," Datch said calmly. "For you, facing Imperial judgement is the best possible outcome."
"This is your last chance. Give me back my husband and children!" Wanda screamed, unleashing terrifying chaos magic.
The Darkhold flared beside her, its pages flipping violently, and countless deep-red runes poured into her body like a bursting dam.
Dark-red chaos energy spread outward from her, blasting away all the rubble and the sorcerers' remains in the ruins.
Wanda slowly rose into the air, her whole body wrapped in terrible energy, looking like a dreadful goddess.
"You've lost your last chance." Datch held out the hand wearing the Infinity Gauntlet and snapped his fingers.
The strength drained from Wanda's entire body, and she could no longer control her chaos magic. The Darkhold fell from her side and slammed onto a shattered flagstone.
Soon after, she lost the ability to fly and dropped to the ground.
Datch waved a hand again and created a prison space sealed off from the outside world.
He threw Wanda into it, cutting her off from everything outside.
Then he summoned Vision and the two children and had them stand on the far side of the prison, only a few metres away.
Wanda lunged toward them in excitement, but the very moment she tried to touch her family, Vision and the two children turned to ash and vanished, leaving her with nothing.
When she turned away in despair, Vision and the children appeared again and called her name.
When she went toward them, they vanished again.
When she walked a little, they appeared once more.
Clearly, this was Datch's punishment.
Wanda could never again embrace her family. All she could do was look at her husband and children.
Realising this, Wanda roared in fury and tried to break out of the prison with chaos magic.
Whatever happened, she wanted to be with her family. Whatever crime she was convicted of, even if she was locked in this cage for life, she wanted to be with them.
At least let her be with them.
"If you break out of the cage, you'll kill them. Even if you do escape, can you bring them back?"
Datch's words stunned Wanda, and the chaos magic in her hand vanished.
There was no denying the power of chaos magic. It could surely break through the cage.
But if the price of escaping was losing them again, what was the point?
She could not bring Vision and the children back by herself. Otherwise, she would never have struggled so hard in the first place.
"Why? Why are you doing this?" Wanda stared at Datch and asked desperately.
"This is your punishment for killing so many people for your own selfish reasons," Datch said, and snapped his fingers.
This time, his target was not Wanda but all of ruined Kamar-Taj.
Shards of stained glass scattered through the ruins flew up from the ground back into the dome, and the broken stone pillars reassembled themselves.
The ancient texts destroyed by chaos magic were restored without a mark.
The sorcerers who had fallen in the ruins came back to life and rose from the ground one by one.
Even Stephen Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme of Universe 884, was revived.
The main universe's Stephen Strange watched in amazement as his other self came back to life.
The Ancient One had clearly seen such things before and remained very calm.
"Keep a close eye on the prisoner."
After giving instructions to the Sorcerer Supreme and the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj in Universe 884, Datch opened another portal and returned to the main universe.
But shortly after they returned, another incident occurred.
A portal ringed with crackling sparks suddenly appeared.
A young man in the standard robe of a Kamar-Taj sorcerer staggered out of it.
The left half of his face had been charred beyond recognition by some corrosive energy from the Dark Dimension, and his skin and muscle kept peeling away.
When he saw the Ancient One, he cried out in relief.
The next instant, an arrow of pure Dark Dimension energy flew in and pierced his chest.
"Protect the nameless one!" Valdor shouted to the Imperial guards.
Whoever was on the other side of the portal had clearly realised something was wrong.
Fearing the Imperium's retaliation, they slammed the portal shut and fled.
The Ancient One and Stephen Strange rushed to the injured sorcerer, stabilised his wounds, and asked what had happened.
"It's Kaecilius. He attacked the temple and is plotting to bring Dormammu into the real world to devour Earth."
The injured monk explained everything that had happened.
The moment he finished speaking, a violent tremor shook the ground.
"Look at the sky!" Someone pointed upward, and everyone looked up.
A gigantic crack had opened in the azure sky, and the power of the Dark Dimension was pouring out of it, swallowing everything in the real world.
While the Ancient One was away, Kaecilius, the traitor who had defected from Kamar-Taj, had attacked the New York, London, and Hong Kong Sanctums, which had been built to guard against Dormammu.
The Sanctums were the anchor points of a dimensional barrier that generations of Sorcerers Supreme had reinforced.
Together, the three formed a magical defence network covering the entire Earth, holding back Dormammu and the Dark Dimension.
Kaecilius had broken the seal that held Dormammu back and given the ruler of the Dark Dimension his chance to invade.
"Dormammu. It's Dormammu." The Ancient One's expression changed slightly.
Without the support of the three Sanctums, even she could not have stood against Dormammu.
"Why is there always so much to deal with?!" Datch was at a loss for words.
But since Dormammu's forces had already come knocking at their door, it would make no sense to strike back.
Datch waved a hand and twisted the space around them.
When everything settled, they were in the Dark Dimension, standing on a corroded meteorite.
The Dark Dimension was filled with endless dark-purple chaotic energy that swirled and seethed violently.
The remains of planets swallowed by the Dark Dimension drifted in every direction like skeletons forgotten at the bottom of the deep sea.
As soon as they arrived, a gigantic head made of pure Dark Dimension energy appeared. It was Dormammu.
His appearance alone filled everyone with an indescribable sense of pressure.
"Get out of here. Now." Datch did not even draw the Sacred Slaughterer's Spear and stood at the front of the group.
Hearing that, the Ancient One beside him nearly had her eyes pop out of her head.
Wait, you're talking to Dormammu like that?!
He's the ruler of the Dark Dimension, a terrifying demon god who has devoured countless universes. Show a little respect, at least.
"You insect, how dare you speak to me that way!" Dormammu roared in rage, his terrible voice booming over them like thunder.
"It seems I have been absent from this world too long, and you have all forgotten how terrifying I am."
"Got it," Datch cut him off. "Don't say I didn't give you a chance. If you don't want to leave, then stay here."