"In the name of Chthon..."
When the others heard what Strange was chanting, the few people present who practiced magic couldn't help but look at him, while the Depressed Strange stepped forward to explain: "He's using necromancy. After all, a dimensional demon god has died in his own domain. Using this as a sacrifice allows him to get a massive amount of free magical power."
Necromancers draw the source of their spells from the death of life. Although Belasco is technically immortal, he can still be killed. So Strange seized this opportunity to cast his spell.
Though, in truth, Belasco wasn't actually dead yet.
"Now!"
The Crimson Bands pulled away Belasco's left arm, and Illyana swiftly chopped off his head, then stomped on it. Strange immediately cast his spell. As a gust of wind swept over everything, Strange let out a long breath.
Tony looked around, opened his faceplate, and remarked: "That's it? It's over?"
"For now, yes. The spell quickly severed Belasco's connection to Limbo, but he is still the master of Limbo; his spirit is tightly connected to this place."
Strange sighed with relief, wiping the sweat from his brow before continuing: "Belasco might be resurrected in some universe he corrupted, but not here. I still need to stay here for a while to deal with the remaining things—those corrupted demon versions of the X-Men."
Strange didn't explicitly say what he would do with those creatures, as it was a bit inhumane to mention. He planned to use all the corrupted X-Men as sacrificial spell components to extract the magical power needed to completely sever Belasco's connection to Limbo.
Afterward, Belasco's relationship with Limbo would be like that of Knull's consciousness to his body, perhaps even worse. After all, if Peter or Venom were destroyed, Knull could still return, but if Belasco died outside, he could only be resurrected outside; he wouldn't be able to return to Limbo.
"As long as the spell stabilizing Limbo holds, that's enough. Just to be safe, this place needs someone to guard it..."
"I will." *2
One person who said this was Depressed Strange. He never expected to survive, and since his reality had already collapsed, he might as well stay in Limbo and become its Sorcerer Supreme, protecting Limbo from the threat of Belasco's return.
This was initially the person Strange thought most suitable, but then someone else spoke up, so Strange looked over.
"Miss Illyana... I must admit, you certainly have the talent for this, and if fate hadn't taken a detour, it should have been you..."
If fate hadn't taken a detour, when Illyana was taken, the X-Men would have gone to rescue her and attempted to stop Belasco's invasion. Ultimately, the X-Men would have stopped Belasco but failed to save Illyana.
Then, Illyana in Limbo would become Belasco's apprentice, while also contacting the resistance, learning both White Magic and Black Magic from both sides, and actively awakening her mutant abilities. This would all be discovered by Belasco, and finally, Illyana and the resistance would choose to fight to the death.
"Everyone died except you. You successfully banished your teacher, Belasco, and began merging your soul with Limbo, attempting to replace Belasco..."
"I can still do it, can't I?"
Strange paused. Yes, she could. Half of Illyana's soul hadn't returned to her body yet. If she bound the Soulsword to Limbo, while she couldn't replace Belasco, she could completely weaken his power.
But the whole reason for doing this was to break free from destiny. Wouldn't doing this bring everything back to square one?
"I'll, I'll cast the spell here first. Then Miss Illyana and the other me will stay behind. We need to discuss things, oh, and Blade. He's a vampire, and without magic protection, he can't get out. It's better for him to stay in Limbo."
Peter looked at Strange, wanting to ask if he could help, but Strange unceremoniously smacked him with the Cloak of Levitation: "You go back now. Just seeing you gives me a headache."
"Uh, then... I'm heading off?"
Peter scratched his head and passed through the golden portal, returning to Avengers Tower. Simultaneously, the X-Men teleported back to the school. The Avengers, including the Hulk, were sprawled out nearby. Janet collapsed onto the sofa. Her suit's wings had been ripped by Belasco and now needed repair.
"So, that's our last mission before Christmas. The Avengers saved the world again. Hooray!"
She shouted weakly. Hulk, the only one who couldn't get on the sofa and was sitting on the floor, muttered and voiced his thoughts: "Hulk wants fried chicken."
"Are you okay, Captain?"
Peter, collapsed on the sofa, looked at the Captain. Everyone present had seen Captain Rogers stabbed by Belasco, but the Captain himself seemed fine: "I feel... a bit tired, and there's constant pain, but that's about it."
"A true warrior can endure any pain, even that from the soul."
Thor was the only one not sprawled on a sofa. He leaned against the refrigerator and opened a can of beer: "Many enemies in Asgard use soul attacks. Perhaps the Avengers will encounter them in the future, so... we need to prepare early."
"I suggest we don't think about anything."
Tony finally voiced his relief. He felt like he had almost been cooked alive inside his armor: "Let's just relax and prepare for tomorrow's Christmas party. What are we eating tomorrow? Turkish kebab is out, that place is too terrible."
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
The Beast, who had become a logistics officer and hadn't left, rushed to welcome his teammates after the golden portal appeared. After he left, the Blackbird jet's system in the X-Men's underground hangar finally seized the opportunity to start running automatically.
The virus set up by Otto Octavius was activated at that moment and transmitted to the central underground system of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Following the preset program, it attempted to steal data from Cerebro but gave up after finding the defense level too high.
Next, the virus program began cracking and analyzing the Danger Room's operating program, discovering a large number of data errors, suggesting that this part of the technology did not originate from Earth.
"Okay, hmm? System operating speed... oh, it's normal."
The Beast returned to the lab, glanced at the computer, and confirmed that nothing had happened. The program would simply wait for the next time the entire X-Men team mobilized.
Until then, it would quietly execute the copy command.
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