CHAPTER 192

[Ororo Munroe POV]

Ororo's cold blue eyes scanned the settlement that the humans and their allied demon comrades hid in. 

Even with everything she knew, the human being equally capable of both good and bad, she still couldn't comprehend how someone could be so far gone that they would sacrifice the Earth to demon overlords just for the lust of power. 

These people didn't deserve even the slightest bit of mercy. No one could plead a fair case in their stead as their actions were the epitome of evil, having lost their sanity and morality as they practiced vile arts. Even they knew how evil they were. 

She slowly descended, the sky darkening as she got lower to the point that the comforting rays of sun were all imprisoned beyond clouds, denying the evil men below the universal gift of light. A fitting gift as they practiced forbidden magics.

Ororo blue eyes crackled with lightning as she called upon the divinity of the sky for the first time after her ascension to Godhood. Despite the fact that Gaea gifted her a vast authority over the sky, appointing her as her daughter and envoy, she still wasn't as strong as those Gods who had major domain over the Sky and had tempered themselves in its domain for eons. What she had was a free ticket to the stage that was the Authority of the Sky, while the other Gods were VVVIPs. She still needed to arrive at the venue before her ticket could be validated. That aside, her authority over the sky did put her ahead of many Gods as she would grow much stronger in a shorter time. 

The human sorcerers started erecting a magic dome above and over the settlement as they saw Ororo descending towards them. 

Ororo scoffed at their efforts, obviously not putting their resistance in her eyes. She raised her hand and pure blinding white lightning coiled around it before shooting down, tearing through the barrier with the same ease as a pair of scissors would a sheet of paper. 

The lightning landed in the middle of their assembly, disintegrating those near it to dust before it branched out, each strand of unlimited energy striking through an enemy and turning them to dust in mere moments. 

Ororo swept her eyes through the settlement, comprehending the entire area down to the location of dust particles in moments. Her lightning burrowed into the ground, killing the demons and humans who hid underneath the earth with impunity. 

She remembered Gaea's words as she erased them from the mortal world. Gaea had given her perspective and also helped her understand just how necessary it was for some people to die. She had once naively believed that everyone had equal rights and no life was more important than the other, but Gaea patiently advised her how flawed and stupid such thought processes were. 

The same way she would choose her new family and friends over anyone else, good or bad, was the same way some life just didn't measure up to others. The only way someone could judge the life and death of a person was if they had the power over the life and death of said person. It was the law of the jungle and the jungle was a pivotal part of nature… and that was who her Mother Goddess was. 

And now, she judged the recently deceased as below the ants and trees, not even allowing them to have a place in the cycle of nature. 

Scanning the area for any trace of magic, bioelectricity and connecting herself with trees and the earth, Ororo confirmed that there was not one soul living in the area. Calling her lightning, Ororo took hold of it and traveled through the path of lightning as she was closer to another settlement. 

The inhabitants of the settlement were alerted of Ororo's arrival due to the power she emanated as she rode the lightning and started firing volleys of magic at her. All the vile spells they could conjure up in a short frame of time were casted towards her but she just sailed the sky, dodging them with ease. 

Before they had any chance to react, Ororo landed in their midst, lightning coating her royal form, garbed in a form fitting black suit and trousers that was a little similar to the one she wore during her time with the X-men but different from that one, this one was inlaid with golden accents all over with a matching ebony black crown sitting on her head, holding her beautifully swaying white hair in place. 

She stretched her hand in slow movements and grabbed the head of a cultist who was too scared to react. Her hands crushed the head to mush as soon as she held it which shook the stunned spectators into action and they convened around her with spells lighting up their hands, ready to blast her to smithereens if she made another move. 

Seemingly oblivious to their silent-not-silent threats, lightning shot forth from her hands and wrapped a demon around the waist before dissecting it into two equal parts. 

The enemies around her immediately fired their spells, not caring about the notion of friendly fire, but they were left flabbergasted as she disappeared in a flash of light and their spells ended up hurting their comrades. 

"You care not about the innocent people nor do you care about your allies. Truly, how vile." Her frigid voice echoed in the ears of everyone, man and demon alike, and they rumbled in agreement. 

She appeared behind one, hand thrusted through their heart, before moving to another one, displaying a scene of carnage with elegance that none of those who knew her would expect. "My beloved truly does have the ire of the universe having to deal with these wretches." Her voice remained cold and calm throughout the massacre she was painting. 

The darkened sky receded as Ororo killed the last demon standing, bringing back the rays of light to the world around her, a desolated field scattered with ash and blood. 

"I feel like they are about to start whatever summoning they intended to." She walked a few steps before disappearing from the field with the strike of lightning. 

… 

[Draul St. Cross POV] 

I had been sweeping the Earth, looking into every corner of the globe, searching for anything, anything that would help us stop the summoning in any aspect or even slow it down. 

Dormammu alone was a huge nightmare for anyone to face that not even I was comfortable with my chances if he eventually managed to gain a footing on Earth. I was actively using the Power Stone to boost my assimilating abilities in hopes of quickening the absorption of the two stones that were but a small pocket dimension away. 

It was after I fused with the Power Stone that the Ancient One told me about the intimate aspects of the stones in relation to each other, a revelation that made me understand why even though I was the 'Infinite Space', the amount of cosmic energies I could draw was limited. It was for the simple reason that while I had trained my body to be adapting to cosmic energy, my soul was a different case. 

I could harness cosmic energy but because my soul wasn't infinite in its aspect, the amount of cosmic energy I could manipulate became finite. That was the importance of the Soul Stone as it would elevate my being to a higher form of existence because right now, the only thing that was fully evolved was my physical body. 

In response to the Soul Stone elevating my astral existence, the Mind was the final piece in the evolutionary puzzle. 

Body, soul and mind: Out of the mentioned three, the soul was the hardest to elevate as it required and depended on the state of the mind. 

The mind was the bridge between the body and the soul, acting as an intermediary that helped the body elevate to the same level the spirit was. It was also the reason why the stones were taking a part of my personality and fusing with it. 

The Spatial aspect of Infinity had fused with my most volatile emotion – anger. 

It was calm, in order and serene, fleeting like a façade until it was provoked and wrought untold chaos on its offender.

The Power Stone on the other hand made me overbearing as if daring anyone to challenge my might. The Power Stone could assimilate its five sister stones in a way that gave aspect 'infinite' a whole new meaning. Having those two stones taking such crucial aspects of my personality with nothing to balance them out was bound to one day destroy everything around me. 

It basically meant that I was using, though a very powerful soul, a finite soul to harness infinity. While the Soul Stone would give me total freedom in harnessing the full power of the Infinity Stones, the Mind Stone would help me balance the mental instabilities of the stones, basically allowing me to comprehend Infinity in its truest sense. 

In other words, if the Soul Stone enables me to balance my soul and my body, becoming nigh-infinite in both aspects, the Mind Stone essentially allows me to have infinite potential, perfecting my usage of stones amongst other things. 

Even if I was able to fight Dormammu to a stand still, just the fact that Satannish, another Hell Lord, being present decreased the already abysmal positive chance even further. The only part about this whole clusterfuck that gave me the tiniest bit of assurance was that I'll have the Ancient One and Strange by my side when the fight starts. 

Hopefully both of them are able to hold down one of the Hell Lords while I take care of the other. The only part they all worried about was if they were slow and the Hell Lords imprinted themselves onto the Earth. It would be the same as fighting them inside their own domains and in that laid the problem. 

They could dictate everything that happened inside their domain, including the scale of their strength making them nigh-omnipotent. Dormammu's emergence was sure to severely affect the Ancient One, with the worst case scenario being having her knocked out for the fight the moment it started. 

Strange was strong, unsurprisingly so but even him fell a lot short when it came to fighting an Hell Lord inside their domain of power. Hopefully he was stronger and more resourceful than I gave him credit for. 

As for me, if the situation called for it, I would forcefully fuse with both stones having already devised an almost sure way to do it without suffering from outside interference. 

My sporadic thoughts came to a stop when I checked up on my family and found Natasha missing. My connection to her wasn't broken but it felt as if it was muddled, as if something was stopping me from connecting to her. 

I appeared at the last place her energy was registered, the place eerily calm that it could be disturbing to the weak-minded, probably because the entire town was slaughtered and the half eaten bodies piled up for anyone to see. 

'She's trapped in a dimension.'

Even though I couldn't feel her, I could feel the distance between me and her due to being the Space Stone. The entrance to the dimension was cut off by the caster making anyone trapped inside unable to escape unless they could overpower or kill the caster or just outright brute force their way out of it, of which Natasha could do neither. 

My brows furrowed in irritation as I figured out what was probably happening to her. Using my spatial energy as a source, I cast a large spell around the entire area, connecting this space to the remnant dregs of the dimension as it was clearly activated here. 

With a simple push, the space around me shrank and squeezed in on itself before melting off and showing me the fog that was on the other side. I immediately recognized the spell – Foul Breath of Annurajà – a spell that blinded all senses of those in it. 

It starts first by depriving the victims of their extra sense which includes both magic and any form of danger sense. It then moves on to their hearing, robbing them of any auditory perception and reception. Next would be their sense of smell, followed by their sense of touch before they finally relinquish their eyesight. 

The Mind Stone rendered all illusions moot and with its power flowing into me, I could see Natasha fighting with Mordo, or more aptly, getting knocked around by Mordo. 

I appeared in front of her, stopping the last attack that Mordo sent towards her midair before it shimmered down and disappeared. 

"That was a close one." I said to no one in particular. 

"Come on out, Mordo… or I'll come get you myself." The magic power in my voice forcefully washed away the fog, causing Mordo to recoil due to the backlash that assaulted him. 

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