Chapter 207

After a sumptuous dinner, everyone rose from the table before walking to the living room.

At that moment, Ana stopped Cortana and asked her to take her to the Space Stone.

Cortana nodded and teleported them both to the main server.

"You're the first one to come here besides the Master," Cortana said, approaching the large pillar in the center of the room.

"Is this where you were born?" Ana asked, looking around.

"Well, actually, yes, I was born here as a regular AI and later gained consciousness," Cortana said as she took the Space Stone and removed it.

"Here, try to hurry," Cortana said, holding out her hand and handing her the stone, several red lights flashing behind her.

''Take me to the moon and wait for me, I don't think it will take that long,'' Ana said, looking at her and taking the stone.

"Alright," Cortana said, nodding before taking Ana to the moon.

Ana took a step back before summoning her familiar Jormur, extending her hand and handing him the Space Stone, which he immediately devoured with glee.

Her familiar already had space-related abilities, but they tended toward storage and capture.

She wanted her familiar to evolve similarly to what happened with Damian's familiar.

After devouring the Space Stone, her familiar body began to swell, and significant changes began to appear.

Previously a white serpent, it now began to take on a more gray color, and small horns emerged from its head, its eyes were no longer those of a serpent but seemed to contain space within them.

Its evolution finished, and it rubbed its head against Ana happily before circling around her as it levitated.

As it levitated, it teleported short distances, demonstrating its new abilities.

Ana smiled slightly, starting to feel space differently thanks to the feedback from her familiar.

Jormur took a couple of spins before returning to Ana once again.

Ana gently stroked its scales before running her hands over its horns growing backward.

Taking his head in her hands, she gazed intently into his eyes, which looked truly beautiful.

"Let's go back," Ana said, although her familiar had acquired the ability to manipulate space, it still needed practice.

Cortana nodded before the two appeared in the room; immediately, she gave Ana a look.

Ana smiled before extending her palm towards her familiar; it immediately opened its mouth and gently placed the space stone in her hand.

Cortana immediately approached and took it before placing it in the server slot.

Immediately, several alarms went silent and the system returned to normal operation.

Ana looked at the other three spaces on the pillar with some curiosity, wondering if Damian planned to gather all the stones.

"Thank you, let's go home," Ana said, smiling slightly at Cortana and patting her head.

''Don't treat me like a child," Cortana said, looking at Ana speechlessly as she removed her hand from her head.

"For helping me, I'll help you a little," Ana said, suddenly smiling as if she had thought of something funny.

"When you ask Damian for your reward, he'll try to give you a kiss on the cheek," Ana said in a low voice.

"What!?" Cortana exclaimed incredulously.

"Well, you never specified where the kiss would be, it's a bit naive for how smart you claim to be," Ana teased her with a slight smile.

Cortana put on a grumpy expression, looking at Ana.

"That's why I'll help you; when the time comes, you must close your eyes and pretend to expect Damian to kiss you, when he goes for your cheek, you must quickly turn your face so that he kisses you on the lips," Ana whispered.

"He really lets his guard down with his family, so he won't react until it's too late; don't forget to cling to his neck so he can't easily pull away," Ana advised repeatedly.

"As expected of a secretary," Cortana said, wordlessly looking at Ana.

Ana squeezed Cortana's cheeks with an annoyed expression.

"Let's go home," Ana said before letting go.

Cortana made them both appear back home; when Ana turned her back and left, she couldn't help but look at her with a little admiration, if she were as good as Ana, her master would have already fallen for her charms.

...

While the family lived peacefully, at that moment they were unaware of the impact Damian's fight against Arishem had had.

It had been a day since the battle in space, and on the internet, many people anonymously demanded that Madripoor explain what was happening.

Damian's face was captured by several telescopes and people's attention was focused on Madripoor.

Criticism poured in and Madripoor began to be blamed for many things that were happening in the world.

It was clear that there were many hands behind this, powerful people who did not want to achieve anything, just to see how Damian was criticized on the Internet.

Cortana did nothing and just wrote down all the people behind it, they would surely have bad luck from now on, like a bird defecating on them or if they left the cities they would suddenly be surrounded by mutant animals.

Circe was lying face down on a large sofa while looking at comments on a tablet.

"Humans have really changed," Circe said, swinging her feet.

"What were they like 12 thousand years ago?" Wanda asked curiously.

"They didn't dare to raise their voices like they do now; at that time, they fought to the death just because they didn't like the way someone was looking at them."

"Are you exaggerating a bit?" Wanda asked, looking at her incredulously.

"Nowadays, people have a sense of security when they complain, thinking they're protected by the law," Circe mocked, not answering Wanda's question.

"You can't blame them entirely; it's the way they grew up," Wanda said from her desk as she wrote some things.

"They're fools; even before the world changed, the laws didn't protect you," Circe said, clicking her tongue and shaking her head.

"By the way, do you know if vampires exist?" Wanda asked, looking at Circe.

"Vampires? You mean the undead bloodsuckers?" Circe asked, looking at Wanda.

"Yes, you see, the magical system I learned apparently was created by a vampire," Wanda said.

"Impossible!" Circe said, getting up and facing Wanda.

"Vampires and werewolves, who are so well-known, were simply experiments we witches created and used to do almost everything for us."

"I refuse to believe those half-defective things could have created something as complex as the magical system you use," Circe said seriously.

"That's what the system said," Wanda shrugged.

"Vampires still exist; I can faintly feel that there are several around the world. It's not surprising since they're undead, they don't age, and they're really powerful for a normal human," Circe said thoughtfully.

"My master got this magical formula from someone on Earth; he also seemed very afraid of that person and has a crimson magic circle like mine."

"I honestly think there are only two places where the magical formula could come from, Madripoor, or the sorcerers of mystical arts."

"I can investigate the sorcerers, but don't ask me to investigate Madripoor," Circe refused.

"You could go, as the queen of Sokovia, if you seduce Damian then we don't have to worry about anything," Circe said, giving Wanda a mischievous smile.

Wanda frowned as the memory of her teacher attacking her came to her mind; since that day, she only felt comfortable with her brother, she didn't like being alone with other men.

"Am I not the Scarlet Witch? I can be as strong as him," Wanda said after several seconds of silence.

"I don't know if as strong as him, but at least at a close level; besides, that will take several years," Circe said, scrolling through internet pages.

"Anyway, I'll go look for the vampires scattered around the world. I don't think they're even remotely related to the person who created the magical system, but I'll drag them here, anyway, It's labor that can't be wasted," Circe said evilly before making a portal and crossing it.

Wanda sighed before resting her head on the desk; her beautiful hair spread across the desk.

Her magic wasn't growing as fast as she would like; she really wanted the formula to continue creating magic circles.

At that moment, Pietro suddenly appeared in front of Wanda.

"Sister! It's an emergency, from the mountains, a group of wolves emerged; normal firearms don't do anything to them, the leader can expel large blasts of blizzards from its mouth," Pietro said.

"Where?" Wanda asked, sitting up and looking at Pietro; it wasn't the first time a creature had arrived that regular soldiers couldn't handle.

"50 kilometers in that direction," Pietro said, pointing in a direction.

"Take me there," Wanda said seriously, the distance was too far to reach quickly on her own.

Pietro carried his sister in his arms as he ran; within seconds, they arrived at the location where indeed there was a small pack of 5 wolves. The leader, leading the pack, was much larger, almost two and a half meters tall, and its fur was truly beautiful.

An attractive ice blue.

They had arrived so fast that the wolves hadn't detected them yet.

Wanda quickly stood on her own feet before wrapping herself with her magic.

This caused the wolves to immediately look at her and growl cautiously.

She had noticed long ago that her chaos magic was very effective at intimidating animals; since then, whenever some animals came down from the mountain, she simply appeared and intimidated them into going back.

Although she noticed that the wolves felt a little intimidated by her presence, they refused to go back and kept growling at her constantly.

Frowning at seeing the wolves not backing down, usually it was enough to intimidate them, looking up at the mountain, she supposed there was something stronger than these wolves which meant they had no choice but to come down.

The leader of the wolves grew impatient before opening its mouth and unleashing a strong icy blizzard.

Wanda easily dodged the attack before sighing and retaliating.

A large pillar of orange flames shot toward the wolves; the only one to react in time was the leader who quickly leaped to the side.

Two wolves didn't react in time and were consumed by the flames.

The howls of pain echoed until only two blackened bodies remained.

The other wolves immediately turned wild and lunged at Wanda, who levitated a few inches off the ground as she quickly backed away.

Making a hand gesture, she raised a small wall in front of the wolves before unleashing another column of fire on top.

The wolves running towards her quickly jumped over the wall, leaving them vulnerable in the air where the fire burned them.

The leader of the wolves whimpered slightly on the ground, its skin was burned but it was still alive.

Wanda didn't let it continue to suffer and quickly killed it; she could only sigh, feeling she was still too kind, she felt sorry for killing this small pack of wolves.

But she really couldn't let them go; they would advance toward the population and surely eat people.

"I see you're done," Pietro said, appearing next to Wanda; he had taken a little distance when the wolves attacked.

"Hm, it seems something made them come down from the mountain, I entrust you to find out," Wanda said, looking at her brother.

"Don't worry, I'll be back for dinner," Pietro said, nodding before disappearing.

Wanda only saw a slight silver trail in the direction of the mountain.

With her work done, she quickly flew back home.

...

Ross was sitting at his desk in the presidential house.

Looking around the room, he felt he had reached the top, there was no higher position than the one he had now.

But also his responsibilities had reached the highest, the pressure on his army was increasing, the beasts were getting stronger, and mutants occasionally caused trouble.

He even had to personally deal with several occasions where the situation exceeded his soldiers' capabilities.

At that moment, a small alarm sounded, making him sigh and stand up before walking to another room.

His trusted men were already waiting for him to have a meeting.

"We can begin," Ross said, sitting down with a sigh as he loosened his tie a bit.

"Then I'll go first," said a man in military uniform.

"The situation with mutant beasts remains a problem; magic seems to have caused an acceleration in the reproduction of most animals, causing overpopulation. This caused many predators to be forced out of the forests for food."

"It sounds contradictory, but many predators don't live in packs like herbivores, so they are expelled by their parents and have no choice but to leave the forest and inevitably have contact with humans," the general said.

"Meat sales have also decreased; several people have become mercenaries and hunt animals before selling their meat. At this rate, we can only decrease our prices."

"Alright, anyway, money is not as necessary anymore," Ross nodded, he needed it for his political campaign, and now it would be good for other projects.

"It's time to start recruiting; choose a type of meat and give it to the best students in the country to motivate them to join the army."

Since the world has changed, almost every country has added combat training as a mandatory subject in schools.

With the current situation in the world, personal defense is a priority.

"How is the strengthening of the soldiers going?" Ross asked, looking at another of his men.

"Meat has gradually become less effective; still, all soldiers have physical stats above 20," said a middle-aged man with glasses.

"We assume stronger animal meat is needed to continue improving, but these animals also have their risks; many have supernatural abilities and are immune to firearms."

He was the scientist in charge of improving soldiers with Ross's blood.

Ross nodded slightly, inevitably thinking of the Titans, colossal beings that moved from side to side almost ignoring humans.

He shook his head finally, there really was nothing he could do about them; he doubted that even with an atomic bomb he could eliminate them, and if they survived they could come back for revenge.

Even if he could use the Avengers, the damage and deaths would really affect the country and his position as president.

"Alright! Tell me, who's the young man next to you?" Ross asked, nodding satisfactorily before asking.

"He's a young and talented scientist, Reed Richards; he has been of great help to me," said Curtis, the middle-aged scientist.

"I'm getting old, and he will definitely do my job better," Curtis said with a proud smile as if he were seeing his successor.

"I see, then I'll count on you, Reed Richards," Ross said, nodding kindly towards him.

A talented scientist is what he desires most.

Reed Richards nodded kindly towards Ross, eager to get his hands on the research of enhanced soldiers.

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