Symbiote 0292: Destruction

The moment Alex's spell on Shang Chi took effect, Wanda's wrath rained down upon the entire planet. Her baleful aura didn't take long to envelop the whole planet. The mere presence of that aura had already resulted in thousands of deaths all around the world.

Then, Wanda's spell took effect. Her Chaos energy took the form of lightning and descended everywhere. Alex just looked on impassively as her actions led to the death of millions all over the world, with the number exponentially rising.

"You still have a chance, Apex. Cancel the spell and I'll use the Time Stone to revive the dead. I'll even leave if you tell me where you got that spell."

Alex sighed and shook his head, "I told you before and I'll tell you again. You cannot possibly hope to contend against me, Wanda. You still have some use to me, otherwise, you would've long been taken care of."

Scarlet Angel's expression warped into one of endless fury before returning to her previous calm, "Then it's too late for regrets."

"Why don't you try to transfer your Darkhold to this incarnation?" Alex said with a taunting sincerity. "Maybe you can use it to deal with this spell."

She didn't respond verbally, but the intensity of her spell increased by multiple factors. Crimson storms ravaged the Earth, bringing about natural disasters everywhere. Within seconds, the loss of life had gone beyond a billion.

Alex didn't do anything to stop her and instead smiled, "I appreciate the support," He said. The mad gleam in his eyes made even Wanda falter for a moment. "Your indiscriminate slaughter will help me control this world better."

Unlike Farm and Research Earths, this planet had a very prominent presence of superheroes. A dictatorial rule similar to the other two planets would have been nigh impossible for Alex without a massive change. Wanda's actions would give him the perfect reason to establish a new regime that would take over the planet.

"For that, this world should exist in the first place," Wanda seemed to have guessed Alex's plans. Her forcefully calm expression warped into one of fury once again as the spell on Shang Chi took effect. Two Infinity Stones emerged from the man's figure, abruptly shooting toward Alex. With the conclusion of the spell, Shang Chi's figure vaporized into nothingness.

"Goodbye, Wanda," The incarnation's strength immediately decreased as she started fading away. Without the anchor that was Shang Chi, she couldn't maintain the incarnation anymore. "We'll meet again soon," Alex said as he made sure that the remnants of Wanda's spell were all dispelled. Calming down the worldwide disasters.

[Is it done?] Gwen asked as she noticed the disappearing figure of Alex's enemy.

Despite the destruction, the people who had come to ambush Shang Chi were all perfectly fine due to Alex's protection. They hadn't even realized that half of their planet had been massacred. To them, the earthquakes were merely localized occurrences due to the battle.

[Not yet.]

Alex's words made a frown appear on Gwen's face as she expected something to appear.

[You wanna see?] Alex asked. Gwen barely nodded before he descended and wrapped his arm around her waist.

"You all can move out, I need we need to do one last thing. In two hours, I want everyone to convene in the hall of Stark Tower," Alex's words were much more authoritative than before as if talking to people who had already subordinated themselves to him. The more capable people among the group all had an ominous premonition at his words and quickly moved to find out about the aftereffects of that battle.

At the same time, Alex and Gwen broke through the atmosphere and appeared outside their Earth. Before Gwen could marvel at the presence of such a large cluster of planets that all looked like Earth, Alex brought her attention to a direction.

"You see that?" He pointed in a direction and Gwen followed his line of sight, suddenly feeling cold sweats appearing on her back. Her Spider-Sense was flaring crazily, telling her just how hopeless any resistance she could mount would be completely useless. It was a beam of crimson energy, as big as the planets that it was passing that took a curved path. She could see that it was approaching her. Specifically, her planet.

"Alex, we have to save them …" Gwen clutched his shirt, trying to calm her trembling. She didn't even realize that they were clearly in space, but she could both breathe and speak without any issues. "Alex…"

"Of course," He chuckled. "I'm not planning to rule over debris. "Just watch."

As the planetary beam approached Gwen's Earth, her grip over Alex's shirt only got tighter, conveying that she was far from being calm.

"It's starting," Just as Alex said so, a matching sphere of red emerged from Gwen's planet. Above the Americas, it quickly grew to a matching size as the other beam before shooting out of the planet. The ensuing explosion sent multiple moons off orbit, including Earth-65's, either destroying them completely or sending them hurling into space.

"We've just killed multiple realities worth of mutants," Alex said.

"What?!"

"After all the persecution they dealt with, they ended up moving house and going to the moon. And looking at the four destroyed and eight that were sent hurling into space, five of them artificial, we've annihilated at least three planets worth of mutants. Of course, unless they have some kind of way to beam themselves back to this cluster."

"Can't we bring them back?" Gwen was horrified.

"I'm strong, but not strong enough to bring back a moon," Alex shrugged.

"That's a lie," Gwen caught on.

"Well, yes, but I don't want to yank a moon back to orbit with my physical strength. It's tiresome."

"So you're just going to let them die? You could instead take over them. Have them subordinate themselves to you."

"Please, one Emma Frost has been sucking on my Bioenergy reserves like a leech. I have no interest in dealing with a Xavier as well. Let alone three."

"But but …"

"Stop worrying so much. They won't die. At best, one of their Omega Classes will reluctantly decide that they want to actually use their powers. They won't end up dead."

After some more comfort from Alex, Gwen finally remembered her own planet's situation, "A lot of people died, didn't they?" She asked.

"Almost four billion," Alex told her. "Every single country was affected massively."

"Well, good for you, I guess," Gwen was clearly feeling melancholic. "You're going to establish control in the name of disaster relief, aren't you?"

"Something like that. But this was necessary. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to incorporate your planet into Gaia."

Gwen sighed, "Let's go back."

"There's still something left," Alex said. "Look," he pointed back at the Earth. From the same location that the previous sphere of light came a much thinner beam of crimson light emerged. It extended all the way up to the Stratosphere before forming the familiar hexagonal pattern shield that spread all across the planet. The only difference was that instead of the Blue of Farm and Research Earths, this one was Crimson.

"Hey, Alex. What's with all the reds? That beam was red, this shield is red, what's going on? Aren't Gaia's shields blue?" Gwen asked distractedly.

"Because I'm not siphoning the strength of the planet's core to run it. I'm using Wanda's source magic to power these things. Both the weapon and this shield are made of that. But there's no need to worry about all of that. Now, it's time to return home. Your father must be worried."

…

As Alex accompanied Gwen, he divided his attention to look inside his soul at the new addition.

Not to mention the second Mind Stone fragment, Alex also got a fragment of the Reality Stone. Both the Stones that Wanda had tethered to Shang Chi were yanked away from under her nose.

Alex first willed the Mind Stones to merge together, leaving a single orb of yellow whose glow matched that of the Soul Stone while the green of the Time Stone and red of the Reality Stone were slightly weaker.

With that, he focused on his current status.

«Skill Acquisition»

«EP/Bioenergy»:: 541 Units

«Cosmic Energy»:: 0.0000 Units

«Soul Energy»:: 1463 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› ‹Soul Devour›

«Authorities»:: ‹Time (2.5%)› ‹Mind (5%)› ‹Soul (5%)› ‹Reality (2.5%)›

«Cosmic Abilities»:: ‹Low Cosmic Manipulation (Incomplete)›

Mind Authority was doubled, reaching 5%, while Reality Authority was added to his Authority column, with the same 2.5% as Time Authority.

'All right, two more stones have been acquired. Now I'm just missing the Space and the Power Stone to complete the Hexad. Once that is done, I'll be able to take care of the hidden danger of the Celestial inside this planet without making all of them my enemies. Unfortunately, the Power Stone is as elusive as ever …'

Alex had spent more than a month in space with Jane. Not to mention Morag, their subsequent leads had also yielded no concrete results until now. It would take him a while to find the Power Stone.

'Now to wait until Gaia comes closer to Earth-65 so that I can incorporate it into the cluster.'

***

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