220 Ascending Tides.

Macht's sword sliced through the air at Wanda, threatening to split her in two, but to his surprise, she dissipated into dust, appearing up in the air above him.

"Images Of Ikonn!"

Wanda split into dozens upon dozens of clones, scattering in the winds, surrounding him a sphere.

"Crimson Bands Of Cyttorak!"

In a coordinated move, she swung out her hands, thick crimson bands of searing hot energy shot out of her hands, like the chains of heaven, attempting to restrain Macht.

But Macht wasn't a demon sage for nothing and a mere one month of training couldn't put her on the same level as him and his centuries of experience.

He disappeared from his place on the street and golden liquid blades pierced through all but one Wanda clone, as the rest collapsed into her.

But somehow she still kept blurring, as if from a spell after effect.

Macht appeared behind her, blade to her neck, drawing a single drop of blood.

"You lose. Agai-"

Just then, Wanda snorted, alarming him and before he could escape, icy purple tendrils burst put from her back, grabbing him, and a burning portal opened up behind him, pushing him through, and back onto the street, pulling Wanda along.

"Burning Bolts Of Balthakk!" She cast, and slammed her hands into her own body.

Pulses of burning orange energy rippled through her body, pushing her to a breaking point, as tendril after tendril, ripped from the earth below, grabbing onto the two of them toghter and tighter.

A suicide attack!

For the first time in the fight, Macht was alarmed, and began to cast another spell.

A mite too late though.

With a roaring boom, Wanda blew up.

A blast of fiery orange energy, burst through her, and the city shook, building evaporated, the earth beneath, the city's foundation itself cracking at the sheer impact as a mushroom cloud formed over the city, clashing with the barrier.

It flickered for a moment, before reconstituting itself, and the smoke and dust began to settle, clearing out the area.

the city was no longer the same, a huge crater, over a hundred meters across carved into the landscape now.

And in the center, stood Macht, his sword speared through Wanda's chest, and a golden barrier of his own shimmering around them.

He had used his sword as a medium to channel her power, redirecting it away from the both of them and saved her from her own explosion. All within a microsecond. While bound by two different spells.

Frightening!

No wonder Frieren was afraid of fighting the guy. He was a goddamn monster!

With a swift, clean move he pulled out his sword from her chest, and looked at me, floating at the edge of the crater, burning with blue frostfire.

With a clap of my hands, the frostfire disappeared, and I descended into the pit.

"Yeah, yeah. Got it." I said, popping a pistachio into my mouth, as I made my way over to her.

She was a whole mess, blood bubbling in her mouth, gurgling as she tried to say something.

"Shush! Heal first, then talk." I said, jabbing her with a dose of CodeRed.

She was back to life within seconds, and hurling the blood out of her lungs.

"Fuck!" She whispered, wiping her mouth.

She eyed Macht, who stood still as a statue by the side, his usual unbothered, listless expression annoying her to no end.

"I still can't put a scratch on him!" She sulked.

"Don't be so sure." I smiled, gesturing at Macht.

He sighed, and raised his sword hand, pulling down his sleeve, revealing a bruise running down the length of his arm.

"It wasn't easy redirecting your spell." Macht admitted, "You pass. Barely."

Wanda looked up at him, her eyes glittering with tears, and she jumped to her feet cheering.

"Yes! Yes! Yesyesyes yesyes!" She shouted to the skies, "Finally!"

I looked at Macht and he shook his head.

Guess I won't rain on her parade then.

In truth, that bruise was only there because he had to protect them both with his spells.

If he didn't, Wanda wouldn't have put a scratch on him.

Still, her combination was creative if a bit too much Leeroy Jenkins-y.

She cast images of Ikonn as a decoy, twice. Once on the surroundings, creating clones, and then inside herself, trying to grant herself a minor form of quantum immortality, temporarily.

Then she cast ankther spell, Icy Tendrils Of Ikthalon inside herself to freeze her insides for what was to come.

Her suicide bombing.

By casting both Burning Bolts Of Balthakk and Icy Tendrils Of Ikthalon inside her, she thought the hot and cold aspects would cancel each other out, then the quantum immortality would save her from the resulting explosion.

And she wasn't wrong per se.

But what she didn't consider is that no ammount of quantum immortality can protect her from burning in a pit of icy hellfire after the spells wore off, leaving her in a burning, irradiated crater.

Not a great plan.

But it was acceptable, considering she had only had a month of training. Besides, just this much put her in a league of her own. Even Strange took longer to master magic at this level, not to mention her multicasting ability.

Sorcerer Supreme Strange could barely cast two spells together.

Wanda had cast six at the same time.

Whatever else she lacked, a dose of Celestial Essence and Asgardian Ichor could fill in for.

I smiled.

Yeah. This will do just fine.

I pulled out a palm sized crystal projector from my pocket, enchanted with the concept of Sympathy, and inserted the chip into it, throwing it to Macht.

He caught it, looking over it curiously.

"Press the red button once to start it. Aim the crystal portrusion at yourself, and it will project a feeling onto you.

Press once to feel guilt, twice and you will feel malice. Press it for a third time and you will feel injustice. Four presses will turn it off."

"Simple enough." He noted.

"I intended for it to be. Thanks for teaching her. I know this might just give you demons an edge over humanity, so here's a final request. Don't kill them all. Humans can be great slaves if trained right. Try it. You might just come to like them."

He shook his head.

"I doubt it."

I shrugged, opening a portal back home.

"Well, I tried. Come Wanda. Let's get you a final power up!"

"Wait, we're just going to leave it like that? You just said humanity might die." Wanda asked.

"Not our world, not our problem, Wanda. Humanity didn't stand a chance anyways. The demons are too strong. At least with the demons feeling guilt now, humanity might just survive."

Wanda raised an eyebrow.

"Might?"

"And they should be grateful it's a might, not a won't. Now are you coming or ..."

Wanda looked back at Macht and sighed.

"Yeah. I'm coming."

"There we go." I patted her back, pulling her close, "And if you really want, you can come back here after we complete our mission, and become the new god of this world.

Then you can save whoever you want!"

Wanda thought for a moment, and she was getting good at thinking now, before she shook her head.

"No, it's fine. If Macht is the strongest among the demons, that means the others are weaker than him."

"By a huge margin." I interjected.

"Then, I'm sure humanity will do just fine. Besides, as you said, heroics never did anyone any good. Only family matters. Everyone else can go to hell." She said.

I was impressed.

She had finally internalized it, well and truly.

I smiled.

"Good. About time you learnt that."

"Yeah, I'm good at that." She smirked cheekily.

"Are you? Maybe I should put you in with the kids and we'll see of that's true!" I teased.

She made a face as if she had bitten into a juicy bedbug.

"Ugh, no. I suck at learning. Totally."

"You really hate maths huh?" I chuckled.

"Does anyone like math?" She asked.

"Star, apparently." I said as we disappeared into the portal and returned home.

"Uhun? Star's a smart boy!" Wanda giggled, as we entered my workshop.

"The smartest. Or he will be once I have educated him in my way." I said, snapping on the octo-pack, as gleaming metallic tentacles extended from my back.

"Into the pod." I gestured at the tank of evolutionary catalysts I had laid out for her.

"In the nude, by the way, if you will. Though at this point I doubt you need me to remind you."

"Are we doing this? Like really doing this?" She asked, squeaking with excitement.

"We'll run a preliminary test. See if you react positively to it and then, if you do..... I'll put you in for the full monty."

"I'm becoming a god?!" She jumped in joy, only to get shot down.

"Asgardian-Celestial Hybrid. There's a difference." I pointed out.

"They can create planets, life. Eat suns alive. Sounds god enough to me." Wanda said.

"God with a small g. There are some differences. Consequence free time travel for one. So no saving Pietro with this. Creating self contained worlds is another. Like adding a whole new unique universe to the Omniverse, complete with its own wacky laws and people. Conceptual authority. Near absolute immortality. Instant travel across the Omniverse. Among others. True gods are OP. Can't compare them to...this."

I turned around to be greeted by the lovely sight of Wanda slipping out of her clothes, her robes sliding down her immaculate curves, happy little eddies of crimson chaos energy dancing across her skin as she hummed happily.

"Noice!" I whistled, eyeing her, as she rolled her eyes.

"Pervert." She chirped, and I chuckled.

"I'm an honest man. I whistle when I like something and I like what I see."

"Yes, yes. And you have seen me naked how many times now? Twenty or so, at least." She excused.

"You don't get any worse looking each time." I bantered as I got the systems ready and she climbed into the tank.

Just as she dipped in, she leaned on the edge and gave me a long look, blushing.

"You know, if you keep acting like this, I won't be able to hold myself back." She teased.

"Wait wha-" I questioned, but before I could ask anything more she just took a deep breath and dipped in, submerging herself completely.

She gave me a cheeky smile and a thumbs up, a signal to get on with it.

I shook my head and actiavted the tank.

"Sending one pulse of power cosmic to you now. See if it feels right or if you need frequency adjustments." I said, as a wave of energy rippled through the tank, bouncing off of it's walls and into Wanda.

With a gasp, she absorbed it, the energy coursing through her veins like living lightning and her eyes sparkled with newfound power.

She looked back at me, and gave a very enthusiastic nod.

Hmmm....let's see.

"Alright. Checking vitals.....All green. Moving on to the big one. Ready?" I connected gene editing nanites in the tank, pulling up the blueprints of a Celestial Essence Core I had invented to contain celestial essence and acclimate the host body to it slowly, integrating the power into the body over time to turn the host into a celestial.

A compromise between power and stability. After all, Wanda didn't have a devouring ability like mine. She would need the equivalent of hearing aids for this, an bio-implant in her chest, a core made of super-condensed celestial matter.

Last week I had put the same in each of my kids.

They were now full blown Celestial-Asgardian Hybrids, and with a tiny dose of my own genetic markers, truly my own flesh and blood, no longer just adopted ones.

I returned my attention to Wanda and she nodded.

"Okay. Beginning procedures in 3....2....1!"

I pushed my power into nanites, and flooded the tank with condensed celestial genetic matter, causing the whole tank to glow a distinct golden blue.

The liquid in the tank buzzed, churning around like a whirlpool while I guided the nanites to latch onto the celestial matter, sewing it into her body, stitching together a fist sized ball of matter, a new, temporary organ that pumped out and integrated the power cosmic into the body.

One by one, I worked the nanites, connecting the organ to the heart, attaching nerve endings and blood vessels to it, creating new pathways in Wanda's body with gene editing to allow her access to this whole new energy source.

Finally, I went in for the brain, the most delicate part of the procedure.

Carefully, with kaiju tissue and molecular adhesive, I glue the new system's control systems to her medula, letting it naturally extend into the rest of her brain, binding with it. This would give her subconscious and involuntary access to the power once she turned completely, allowing her to wield the power cosmic as easy as breathing or sleeping. A natural process of her body.

By the time I ended the operation, she had passed out, falling into a deep sleep.

It was a common symptom of the operation, to allow the brain to acclimate to the increased functions and capabilities.

She would wake up naturally in about a day or so.

Meanwhile, my tentacles picked up several minute drip tubes and injected them into Wanda at critical junctures of her body. With a thought a black gooey substance, thinned out and anesthesized, flowed through the tubes, into her veins.

Asgardian Ichor.

Her body jerked at the sudden intrusion and spasmed for a bit as the ichor ran the whole circuit of her body, her veins pulsing black and blue, causing another simultaneous transformation in her body.

Now, it was a waiting game.

I gave her one last good look and tore my eyes off her.

There were better things to do right now than being horny. The final preparations for the next world, for example.

The world of Magicians.

Now, the world of Magicians was your classic urban fantasy show, based on the trilogy of books by Lev Grossman. Got a decent 5 seasons, great cast, well built world, and enthralling magic system.

It was the tale of one Quentin Coldwater, and the friends he made along the way to his journey to godhood in the books, the titular magicians.

In the show though, it played fast and loose with the tropes of urban fantasy.

Quentin Coldwater, a shy nerdy kid from New York, with a gut feeling that he didn't belong anywhere, that he was something special, that he had a destiny. And then, one day he finds it.

A magical world alongside his own, a place to belong and his precious nakama.

Except, his nakama are utter assholes, the magcial world has face eating monsters from other worlds, rapist heart eating gods, a bestiary of fantastical creatures and he signed a waiver informing him that spellwork was not unlikely to murder him just to enter his new magical university, Brakebills.

A show so filled with drama and self loathing I'm surprised anyone manages to do any actual magic.

Of course, if possible, I'd love to circumvent that, but that was sadly not at option here.

Why?

Because of the ever present threat of the Old Gods, with a capital OG.

If they spot a suspicious visitor from a world beyond their control, it's game over for me, even with my tech and newfound godly power.

Because the Old Gods are infinite horrors beyond compare, beings of energy that can create the multiverse as a fun side project, for entertainment.

And so, I cannot enter the world with my main body, and I cannot enter it anywhere except the highly warded Brakebills University campus.

Because if I use a weak, nearly powerless body, and enter through the wards of Brakebills that can obscure the sight of gods, maybe, just maybe they'll think I'm some anomaly that was caused by an experiment or even be ignorant to my existence for long enough to give me time to prep.

And if they don't.....well, at least I won't lose my main body.

The plan was simple.

I will bring my ship to the void between worlds adjacent to the Magicians multiverse, and park it there, beyond the control of the Old Gods. They don't leave their world often and even if they do, they are unlikely to find it in the vast nothingness of the void.

From there, I send in a weak probe in the form of a clone body and raise it to godhood.

Once I have a godseed, and the accompanying authority as their relative, or child.

This means as their family, they are less likely to hunt me down, and I can bring out some more gods seeds from the world, one by one ripping out the divinities of the entire pantheon and before they know it, I will have amassed enough power to face them, and it will be too late for them to act.

Then, I will consume them all, Yog Sothoth, Azathoth, Nyarlahotep and every last Old God out there till I am the supreme being in their world.

A simple subversion plan.

Which brings me to the first threats I will face, barring a complete wipe-out by the old gods.

First and foremost, other magicians. Yes there were greater concerns, like the Beast, the aforementioned face eating moth monster from another world, and the ever-present, lurking threat of the Library Of The Neitherlands, but by far, before I get swole in magic, other fellow magicians will be my greatest threat.

These, I will deal with using absolute cruelty and cold ruthlessness.

As for the Beast, dealing with him is a simple matter of killing him in one shot. Any good ray gun can do that once I get my hands on some flesh from a reality warper and shut off his magic.

Thirdly, was the first and most evil god, the easiest one to kill and subsume. The rapist, heart eating trickster, Reynard The Fox. He liked to pretend to be his mother, Persephone, and rape her believers. And he had a great scammer setup too. A professional oracle with just enough mystery mumbo jumbo to sell the act and the proper bogus rituals needed to summon him.

Indian scam callers could stand to learn from the bastard.

Why did he do all that? Why go through such tedium for a handful of human hearts when he could just walk into a Justin Bieber concert and carve himself a nice feast of idiots?

Basically? Mommy issues.

His mommy left him on earth while she went home to Hades in the underworld so now he's throwing a temper tantrum to get back at her.

Ungrateful little shit. At least he was born with divinity and didn't have to scrounge about for it like the rest of us. I will have fun gutting him, that's for sure.

The plan was simple. Get a god killing weapon, either the Longinus from DXD or become a Campione and use Veretharagna's Divine Blade to kill and eat him, extract his god seed and apotheosize.

And finally, rounding out the last major threat was ...

____________________

MC begins his final prep work.

Wanda becomes a god with a small g.

And we reach the final chaoter of the MCU arc.

Next time, Scarlet Witch Rising.

MC makes some final mods to his code.

Then, into the void.

Extra chapter at 400 powerstones.

Thanks for reading.

Am tired.

Sleepy time now.

Bye~

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