CHAPTER 188

[Draul St. Cross POV]

I've been searching for a way to stop whatever summoning they were going to perform but I haven't even seen anything that would suggest that the summoning was coming from our side, which meant that whatever they did behind the scenes that hid them from the watchful eyes of the Sanctum made it fully autonomous or somehow gave the remote control to someone from the dark dimension. 

The more time passed, the more unease I felt. Dormammu was already the height of trouble we could get if he was ever freed and found his way to Earth, but now it wasn't just Dormammu that we had to worry about. 

Even now I could feel sorcerers being wiped out in droves and with my spatial abilities I was attacking different places at the same time. If only I could just blow up the planet, save us a lot of trouble in the process of extermination. 

Rather than fighting demons who had no way of protecting themselves against me, I focused more of my attention in unraveling their connection to the ley lines. The ley lines of Earth had already been tainted with the demonic essence of hell and that would have normally captured the attention of any magically attuned person on the planet but they somehow managed to hide it effects, no not hide per se, but halted the effects of such a thing and it was when they were ready, having captured different spots, did they finally let all of them loose which in turn alerted the Sanctums but unfortunately the damage was already growing to a global scale. 

Despite all that, something still didn't make sense. Even if the metaphorical remote was not our side of reality, for a remote to work there had to be a receiver of some kind. Something that will react on Earth whenever they push the button and proceed to fuse the Earth with the dark dimension. If I could find that then I could make their remote obsolete. 

But the problem was what counted as the receiver? Was it the ley lines? If it was and I destabilized it, I would be weakening the magical flow of Earth which was not a very good choice in my opinion. 

This was why I hated magic so much. Even with my powers, which exceeded Earth by light years, some demons fucking with magic was all it took to make me stumble. If I had the Reality Stone then this would have been so much different as I could just erase the effects of their demonic essence in the ley lines and make it as if it was never corrupted. Not even the Power Stone was of any use. 

Tempering with the ley lines was a very dangerous thing as it could be easily corrupted or crippled and it was obvious that the demons didn't care about either. 

I might be able to suppress the effects of the corruption but that is all I would be doing. I needed either the remote or the receiver to understand how what they were going to do worked. I'll start with the lines first and see what I can pick from there. 

Overlapping three different locations on Earth together, I shot out destructive beams that obliterated everything in those three-in-one places before I stepped into it.

Spreading out my sense into the ground, I began traveling along its lines to all those that were connected to it in a similar fashion, i.e. Possessing demonic essence. 

What I saw was expertly veiled circles within hexagonal matrices stretching from city to city and from continents to continents, slowly wrapping its way around the world in a way that was independent from each other and yet still closely knit together. 

The way it was structured was similar to how a building was wired, which meant that there had to be a mother box that would transfer the bulk of the power to the different ley lines unit. What I was looking for was a spot, or spots, that could act as the congregation of the magical energy from the marked lines without it experiencing an influx. 

"The three Sanctums."

I appeared at the intersecting point underneath one of the Sanctums, London's to be exact, and looked at it from a main ley line point of view. 

"This is taking 'hiding in plain sight' to another level." Looking at the way the lines crossed and intersected at one of the three pivotal places on Earth, I understood that the magical matrices around the world was functioning in a way that left the three Sanctums untouched, giving the sorcerers a false sense of security and this folly would only be realized when the huge ass portal was activated and in order to stabilize the excess energy needed for it, they would then run it through the ley lines underneath the Sanctums, taking the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj by a last minute surprise that they couldn't react to quickly enough which confirmed my suspicions that someone helped them with this, someone from Kamar-Taj most likely. 

"But still, even if they plan to run it through the Sanctums, they still need the hundreds of receivers here on Earth to run on something, don't they? It is a basic knowledge after all that the greater the spell, the greater the sacrifice… So that's it, huh? Can't say I'm actually surprised."

I left the Sanctum's underground and teleported to where the Ancient One was. "Did you figure anything out, Mr. Cross?" She asked as I made my presence known. 

"Yeah, though I'm sure you're not gonna like it."

She shook her head at my words. "I already don't like it, and I already expect it to be worse."

"Okay good news first. Not only do we have two Hell Lords coming after us but they also plan to use the Sanctums to regulate the energy needed to sustain the portal to Earth. And we don't have any way to stop it since they can activate the spell from their side." I briefly explained. 

"That's some… news. As baleful as it is to hear that, I don't see the reason why you would need to classify that as good news when we'll be hard pressed to stop it, that's if we can, before they activate their spell. Pray tell, what then is the bad news." The only expression I could read from her was that brief pause and raised brow, meaning she expected this, or at least some part of it. 

"The bad news is that all the locations are hotspots for the spell. In other words, sacrificial altars. They are expendable batteries needed to sustain the portal for a bit of time before the Sanctum regulates the excess energy. Once the spell activates, everyone in that location, both the demons, the cultists and the sorcerers will all be sacrificed to the altars."

No one, and I mean absolutely no one, with a logical mind would side with demons because demons operate on a different logic and morality than us flesh and blood beings. It was also the reason why the spawns of hell were always stronger since they never abandoned the paw of the jungle. For eons they had been living in strife, war and death, living mostly on instincts. Empathy was not something a demon could feel, it was nigh-impossible for them. 

"That is bad news. Do we have a way of preventing them from starting the sacrifice?" Her words were cut short as a magic circle appeared before us with Strange walking through it. "I heard." Was all he said as he stood before us, all bloodied, mostly from his enemies. 

"I could try shifting the Earth into a separate dimension but with doing that, I'll have to sacrifice something. Either I will transport everyone on Earth, including the demons and sorcerers, to another dimension for the duration of the spell, robbing them of their sacrificial lambs until the spell fails but that would also mean causing a global panic and risk even opening the eyes of normal humans to the magical society which they are not yet ready for, not to talk to of the current situation."

Strange had already started sporting white hair at his sides since this morning and I think what I just said aged him by a few years. "No easy way out, huh? Not like I wasn't expecting something like that. What's the second way, Draul?"

"The second way which I wouldn't recommend if not for the current situation will be shifting the ley lines of the Earth either into another dimension or rearrange it which would break the spell in and of itself. But the repercussions of doing something like that would mean crippling the Earth's ley lines and making the mystical community obsolete in a single day. We can put the ley lines back into their original position after we are done but the damage would have already been done and it would take at the very least, decades, before magic will flow freely through the Earth once again." Both options were grim but they were the only things I could come up with that were guaranteed to stop plans without wasting the lives of the sorcerers. 

With my electromagnetic abilities, coupled with the Space Stone, shifting the ley lines was an easy thing and so was repairing it, though the later would be magnitudes harder. But the thing was that shifting the ley lines would not just mean disrupting magic on Earth, or at least the universal energy flowing through Earth which would make the practitioners of that school almost powerless as they would have to rely on relics which were even rarer to obtain. 

Magic won't end on Earth as it could still be performed but would have to be done through different methods like contract with magical beings, gods, or things that held magical power in them. And not only that, shifting the ley lines also meant that most of Earth's natural resources would be lost. Oil wells would dry up, rivers would flow out, rainforests will slowly die out and even deposits of precious minerals like gold, silver and diamonds will be destroyed. The ley lines were an important part of any planet if they wished to thrive in abundance of natural resources. 

"I'm afraid I can't choose any of those choices you presented us with, Mr. Cross." This was the first time I've ever seen the Ancient One's face look so grave. "We will fight to the bitter end, and regardless of the loss we suffer, we will never give up."

"Knew you would say something like that. Not even I am crazy enough to choose any of the choices I offered." I said. 

"Then why did you bother with giving us the options?" Strange asked exasperatedly. 

"Because you asked for it, duh. I called the others, so that should help alleviate the pressure the sorcerers are facing. Which conversely means we have to wait until the portal opens before we can do anything, ergo fighting two Hell Lords." Not even the words coming from my mouth helped alleviate the tension in the air. If the Hell Lords so much as manage to fuse a portion of the Earth to their domain, we'll be up for fighting in a literal Hell Mode. 

At least Bucky, Steve, Nat, Yelena and Ororo were already helping out and getting the workout they actually needed. 

Each of them volunteered to go separate locations which I didn't think much about since they were actually that strong. It was an opportunity for them to spill the blood they haven't managed to spill for a while now, which was apparent in Yelena's case. I actually pity any demon that is unlucky to fight them, not really. 

There was nothing we could do to stop the emergence except try and kill as many as we could to reduce the body count on our side and even if we did kill them, it would still count as a sacrifice since their blood was spilled on the altar. This was a perfect checkmate if I've ever seen one. 

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