Heliosphere.

"Alright. So now we know your strengths and weaknesses, so I can formulate a training plan for you." I said, as we walked through a thick deciduous forest, the fall leaves crunching beneath our feet, "And from what I have seen you need combat experience. A lot of it. Like a fuck ton. You're too slow to cast..."

"....bunnies.... hell bunnies..." Wanda muttered shaking.

Shit. Did I traumatize her?

"Wanda." I snapped my fingers before her eyes, "Wanda! You okay?"

She shot me an incredulous look.

"Do I look okay, you spartan asshole!" She caught my face between her clawed fists, shouting at me.

"You ruined bunny rabbits for me. Now everytime I see a normal bunny, I will think...flesh eating hell bunnies!" She pouted.

Phew!

Okay, so she's not too traumatized.

Thought I'd have to snip some memories and start her over.

"I'm surprised you're taking it this well." I said with amusement, just as a monstrous bird swooped down at us only to be sliced open by my particle beam, while Wanda shot a load of orange lightning into a golbin sentry lurking in the bushes.

"Yeah, well...I was ready for anything." She said, her tone dipping with each word, as she scanned the forest for anymore hindrances, "I ... I'm done losing people. The ones I love. And if it means I need to bleed, feel a little pain? It's a price I'm willing to pay."

I whistled, and patted her back, pulling her into a shoudler hug.

"It takes guts to go through that and come out like you did. I can respect that. Proud of you, Wanda. Real proud."

She looked at me with a surprising softness and made a cute noise.

I smiled.

Let's see if she can handle this next one.

"Just one question. Did we need to walk through this monster infested forest? Couldn't we have just portaled in wherever we needed to go?"

"No. Well yes, but I wanted you to know where the nearest town was in case you needed something in a pinch."

"That was barely a village. More like an expedition outpost." She scoffed.

"Aaand, the guy were going to see wouldn't have appreciated surprise intruders. You'll see.

So where was I? Ah yes. You're in severe need of a proper magic battle boot camp. Which is why we're here." I said, as we walked to the edge of a cliff, overlooking a great forest, engulfed in huge magic barrier.

"Wow!" She gasped in amazement, pointing down below, "A city of gold!" And then as if realizing the implications, she added softly, horrified.

"Oh...a city of gold...."

"Yup. The fortified city of Weise. A great tragedy. I know." I said, catching her by the hip as I jumped down, off the cliff and into the forest below.

We came upon the great barrier soon enough, protecting the city, or rather everything outside it from what was inside.

The curse of gold, ever expanding, threatening to consume everything it touched. And at the center of it all, one man. Or rather, a demon.

I pointed at the man who had just appeared from behind a tree, his curved horns and flaming red hair, calling Wanda's attention.

"Wanda, meet your new instructor." I said, putiing her down, "Macht of El Dorado, Demon Sage Of Destruction and master of the great magic, Di Agolze, Universal Gold Transmutation."

He looked over us, casually strolling into the street.

"I don't remember agreeing to instruct any humans." He replied with a languid expression, as if it was a mere passing fancy for him, like watching a sparrow sing in a tree.

Macht. One of the seven sages of destruction, a former general of the demon king's army and a major antagonist of the world of Sousou No Frieren.

He was the strongest demon alive and one of only four people even the titular Frieren, master of magic and elven mage extraordinaire wouldn't dare fight.

And she took down the goddamn demon king.

"True. You did not agree to it. Yet." I pulled out a chip from my pocket, holding it up to his vision.

But before I could get a word in, he continued.

"And here I thought you were just another group of reckless daredevils walking to your doom." He replied, mildly intrigued, even though his bored expression didn't change one bit.

"Interesting. It has been a while since a human apprached me with intentions beyond just the glory of my death or revenge for their relations. I'll at least humor you before I deal with you. Go on."

"Sure." I said, deciding to keep my true power hidden.

No need to start unnecessary conflict. Besides, I had a bargaining chip he desperately desired.

"I have heard there is something you have wanted for a long time. The reason you decided to serve the Lord of Weise.

You want to learn what it means to feel guilt, malice. You want to understand justice. Isn't that right?"

I could see his eyes focus, I had grabbed his attention.

"This." I waved the chip at him, "Can give you all that you want. It contains the conceptual understanding of guilt and malice. As for justice, I think I can explain it to you in just one sentence. Consider it an advance payment.

That is if you agree to train Wanda for one while month to the best of your capacity?"

"What's to say I won't just kill you and take that artifact from you, whatever it is. If it can even do what you claim." He said, but the way he said it made me feel like it wasn't the complete truth.

"You can try, but this chip alone won't give you what you want. You will also need another device, another artifact to use it. And to get that you will need me." I explained the concept of a projector to him.

"Clever. But have you considered that I could have already gotten what I wanted?" He proposed.

Oh, right. That could be true. Macht had worked under the service of the Lord of Weise precisely because he wanted to learn about guilt and malice and then for some reason he had killed and turned the whole city to gold.

One reason for that could be that he had already gotten what he wanted and didn't have any use for the humans of the city anymore.

He was fiercely individualistic and asocial after all. It would make sense that in his psychopathic demonic logic, it was just easier for him to wipe out the city and then relax there, living like a hermit the rest of his life. He was already getting on in age at that point, even if he didn't show it.

Hmm.....what to do?

Strong-arm him?

No. There would be no point. He is the least violent of the demon sages and hates fighting. If anything he might just lay down and let me kill him if I overpowered him. Strong arming him is a last resort.

Let's just hope he values his own life enough.

Then.....I suppose I can just bullshit him through.

Yup. When nothing else works, might as well bullshit along.

"Sure, you could have gotten an understanding of it already but if you did, then you would also want to understand it more, better. This can help with that. Besides, if you had learnt to feel guilt, you'd be riddled with it after wiping out the entire city, men, women and children. I'm willing to bet you didn't actually achieve what you set out to do."

"Humans are like livestock to us. Even if I understood guilt, I might not feel it over humans the same way you don't feel guilt butchering sheep for meat." He shot my proposal down.

"And yet here you are, bickering with a human." I pointed out.

"You are far from human, godling. I can smell divinity on you." He replied with utter disinterest.

Oh, now that's interesting. He can distinguish humans and gods by scent?

And he didn't let it be known till I called him out on it.

Hiding his cards to the end.

He really is the perfect teacher for Wanda.

She needs to learn that discretion, especially with her chatterbox personality.

"The only reason I'm humoring you is because I am profoundly bored." He added.

"Then teaching someone might just offer you a reprieve from your boredom." I offered.

"It could. So could killing you. I have never killed a god before."

I sighed.

Fine. Strong arm it is then.

I let a sliver of my power explode forth, a blanketing divine pressure weighing down the entire territory as Macht almost buckled under it, his hand instinctively reaching for his massive golden blade.

Then as quickly as it had descended, it disappeared at will and a frown adorned Macht's face.

"Or you could die." I said, coldly.

He matched my gaze and unflinchingly stood his ground, his eyes betraying sheer apathy.

"That would be undesirable." He replied, patting his robe clean.

He eyed Wanda and probed her with his magic, before letting out a soft sigh.

"I will teach her. For one month. And you will pay me what is due."

I nodded.

"Should have taken the offer from the start." I scoffed, but he ignored it.

"We begin tomorrow. I need time to formulate a regimen for her." He said, and walked away into an alley, disappearing.

Finally, Wanda let out a breath she had held in for a while now and gasped.

"That was weird. And terrifying. His eyes are so... inhuman. Like....like..." Wanda couldn't find the words.

"He IS a demon. They don't experience the same emotions as us. In this world, they are all born psychopaths, the perfect predators to humanity, able to mimic their actions and expressions.

They understand only dominance and survival. Of course his eyes looked inhuman. He sees you like you see rats or chickens."

It's the whole reason Macht wanted to understand guilt and malice. The same way we try to understand why the Stars glow and what snails think. Pure curiousity.

He wasn't some misunderstood homunculus that just wanted friends or wanted to feel 'love' like some shonen manga snowflake.

With him it was a pure, cold scientific desire to learn. To acquire that knowledge so he could be a better demon.

He was something of a demon researcher. Or rather he was a human researcher. An anthropologist.

While most demons only focus on one magic their whole life, he mastered not only his own unique magic, Di Agolze, but also learned many human magics too.

His battle experience, wide spellwork repertoire and sheer apathy made him the perfect teacher for Wanda. She was too emotional and over reliant on her power.

He would act like a mirror, reflecting her flaws and make her the formidable fighter I needed her to be if we are to hunt down gods in the Magicians world.

No weakness or hesitation can be allowed.

"Okay. You've had a tough day and he's not budging till tomorrow. So let's get some of the other chores out of the way." I said, opening a portal.

.

We emerged on the Sanctum's courtyard, where the Ancient One was instructing a group of sorcerers from a pamphlet, using a magical projection of what looked like a football.

She was looking much better now than when I had last met her, her youth having returned to her somewhat.

Even though she didn't look like a 30 year old anymore, she did look only slightly older, maybe 45 at most, with a faint glowing white sigil adorned on her forehead.

So she used the light dimension to regain her youth this time huh?

Guess heaven isn't as liberal with eternal life as hell, given the disparity in her age.

Never liked the righteous cunts up high anyway.

She turned to us as we entered, and called us over, dismissing the onlookers, beaming with joy.

And I knew why.

"Jay, Wanda!" She greeted excitedly.

"Ancient One." Wanda greeted with a namaste.

"I hear the project has been completed?" I asked.

The project. The Heliosphere. A dyson sphere carved with mystic formations, made to protect the solar system from threats, terrestrial, extra-terrestrial and extradimensional.

It had taken a whole three months in a time dilated microverse, which was about 200 years in the microverse, along with a generous dollop of anti aging serums from me.

But they finished in time.

And now it was my turn to fulfill my end of the bargain.

"Yes, indeed. We finished it just yesterday. I was about to call you over for the final installation." She replied,

"Of course. Do you have the spell formation ready?" I asked.

"Yes. Wanda, could you go over and help them out? Just like we practiced." The Ancient One gestured at the group on the roof, weaving a massive spell.

"On it." Wanda chirped, disappeared and dropped down onto the roof, taking ger place in the formation.

"The dimensional curtain spell is already being cast as we speak. It will be ready anytime now. So if you could transfer the Heliosphere soon, that would be great. It wouldn't do to shroud the Earth in darkness for long periods. It will raise unnecessary suspicions among the populace." She requested.

I nodded.

The dimensional curtain spell. One part of the two part defense mechanism of the Heliosphere.

The first part being of course the spell imbued dyson sphere.

Once I transferred the dyson sphere onto our sun, the sphere would begin to absorb solar energy to power the spellwork and act as a defense mechanism for the solar system. But putting a dyson sphere over the sun would also mean blocking off all the sunlight from the Earth, causing catastrophic ecological damage, crop failure and vitamin D problems being the least of it.

That can't be allowed to happen.

And that's where the dimensional curtain spell came into play.

Connected to the dyson sphere itself, it would siphon off the right amount of sunlight from the excess energy of the sun and channel it across space, through a special spatial pathway, the dimensional curtain, directly onto the planet, maintaining the correct amount of sunlight on planet Earth, preventing disaster.

And everyone on Earth would be none the wiser.

"Yup. Just give me a minute." I replied, prepping the necessary equipment.

Portals opened up around the sun, as drones carrying miniaturized dimension anchors surrounded it in an array while in the microverse the same thing happened simultaneously.

"Ready?" I asked the Ancient One.

She nodded, raising hand as a spell sparked on her fingers.

"In three.... two....one!"

Instantly we both snapped our fingers and a massive mandalaic spell formation appeared above the Earth, in the sky for the briefest of moments only faintly visible to the common eye.

Meanwhile, around the sun, a yellow-green beam scattered, and space cracked like glass, shattering and shimmering. Then as if it had collapsed into itself it fell into an illusory point mass and with a flash there it was, appearing instantly.

The Heliosphere.

Rows upon rows of pitch black satellites, each with a glowing spell circle carved into it's shell.

Like a tidal wave it lit up, activating, and began to absorb the solar power, storing it in flat, miniaturized solar batteries, entire bank of them lining each satellite plate.

It's appearance itself sent a crackling ripple of spatial waves out from it's inception in all directions, what with the increase in gravity and adjusted for by the onboard gravity engines, but it was absorbed by the drones that had summoned it, stabilizing space around it with their miniaturized dimension anchors.

Then, within it, after a time delay of microseconds, the spell worked and a thin veil of dimensional space formed, weaving through the dyson sphere like a silken cloth, shimmer like the northern light, like a soap bubble refracting a rainbow sheen.

It greedily absorbed all the sunlight that escaped the dyson sphere, powering itself and sending it over to the exosphere to be absorbed into the Earth.

To the naked eye, it looked like just another solar flare, the sun flickering for a second and then everything went back to normal. But to those in the know? It was possibly the crowning achievement of mankind. A superweapon of unparalleled proportions, such that no alien civilization would dare come near with hostile intentions.

I clapped my hands, the sorcerers cheered and the Ancient One extended me a handshake.

One I gladly reciprocated.

"Thank you." She said, bowing her head slightly in respect.

"Just keeping my end of our contract. Don't worry about it. Just, you know, explain the situation to Shield and the other concerned parties when the time comes and questions are asked.

Because I sure won't be around to answer them." I chuckled.

"You're leaving this world?" She asked.

"Yes. In a month. And it's going to be a very busy month. Till then, ciao!" I said, opening a portal, disappearing into it.

Wanda waved goodbye behind me before following through too.

___________________

Phew!

3000 words!

You guys better appreciate this one lol!

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Let's get to top ten with this one my dudes and dudettes!

MC gets Wanda an instructor, and MC places the Heliosphere.

Next time, Wanda finishes her training and mc finishes his preparations.

Also, two more chapters left in the MCU!

Then, onto magicians!

Till then, thanks for reading!

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