The air crackled with energy, the once pristine kaleidoscopic view was no longer present, crack were seen all around the dimension. Kaecilius found himself on the floor. His ears were ringing so loud it made it the only thing he could hear.
As he used his hands to pick himself up, he noticed the spell circle on the ground, or what was left of it at least. A muffled voice was heard, although he couldn't understand it over the ringing, his instincts screamed at him to move.
Concentrating on the spell he had on the other sorcerers, which was no longer able to collect any more magic, he quickly activated the final part of his spell, it pulled what magic and lifeforce it collected from their corpses, causing them to be pulled into the magic circle he drew over his forehead.
Activating a golden portal in the direction of the voice, he heard a bang as he rolled to the side. Looking up he saw the armored man stumble forwards. The projectile meant for him had went thru the portal causing the man to shoot himself in the back.
"Damn, still got some fight in you I see." Adam said as he stood back straight, completely fine. The suits shield had stopped the physical projectile, but the force of the bullet still had surprised him.
'Guess it's better than the alternative, could be dealing with one of those dimensional beings true form.' Adam thought to himself with relief as he saw Kaecilius beginning to heal.
"It seems so. So I take it you and my former master have partnered up? Otherwise I would have succeeded, seems I should've grabbed one other object before leaving that hypocritical place." Kaecilius said with a snarl, as he began feeling his body recover.
The life force of the sorcerers healed him and began to replenish his lost magical energy, he felt his mind sharping as his magic capacity began to increase.
"Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call it a partnership, but it can be. It's ultimately up to her. No, what led me to you is your greed for power. You crave it, that is what led me here. I know what you are after, and do you know what the most hilarious thing about all this is?" Adam said as his suit began to begin lighting up as it prepared the next step in Aidens plan.
He was buying time, he knew that spell circle on Kaecilius' forehead very well, so he had planned for this moment as a backup.
"Please do tell, but know they may be your last words. Have your laugh before you die otherworlder." Kaecilius felt the power within him growing, as did his smile.
"You went in the completely wrong direction if you wished to see your wife and son again, but now you will never see them again. Hahaha. You belong to Chthon now, your soul will not be heading to the same place as theirs did. So sad, but it was your own doing." Adam said with a hint of mockery.
Had Kaecilius paid more attention and looked at things from a different perspective, instead of taking the Ancient One's comment of him not being able to handle the power needed to do what he wanted as a challenge, he may have realized she wasn't just talking about him, but everyone.
Death cannot be controlled, it already was being controlled, she can be bargained with sometimes, but death always wins in the end. Had he let nature run its course, after mistress death took him, he had a high chance of seeing them again. Although death was cold and unforgiving, she wasn't heartless.
However, once he began to read from the Darkhold, the Elder God detected it and offered more power, now his soul was now branded by the evil God.
Not even Mistress Death could get him back, not that she would, just like the Ghost Riders who basically are souls bound to Mephisto, Mistress Death could retrieve them from Mephisto if she really wanted, but she wouldn't because they signed the contract willingly.
If you were being controlled or manipulated to sign over your soul it wouldn't work, those were the rules set for this universes dimensional beings.
Hearing Adam words, a rage built up within Kaecilius. He at first didn't understand, he felt wonderful, like he had the power to accomplish anything he wished.
"Eve, tell me its ready." Adam's nervous voice was heard which confused Kaecilius into thinking it was he himself that Adam was nervous about, as he felt an energy like never before.
Dark mist began to rise from the spell circle as Kaecilius began to laugh manically, he began to weave together a dark spell, the spell circle was no longer showing the golden glow of Aldrich energy. Now it glowed a dark red color, the color of Chaos energy.
"Come on Eve."
"Please remain calm Adam, you are having me make adjustment to the slip space engine built into your suit that has never been done before. If the adjustments aren't done correctly you as well as this moon will no longer exist. Calibrations will be completed in sixty seconds."
'Well shit.' Adam fired at Kaecilius who vanished in a cloud of chaotic energies.
Adam looked around and was suddenly jolted by a crash into his chest, a bolt of red energy blasted into the chest plate of his suit from an arm that appeared from nowhere, the energy shield shattered instantly.
Chaos magic was one of the more powerful magics in Marvel. It was unpredictable by nature. If the caster wasn't careful, their own spell can harm themselves.
Like Scarlett Witch during the House of M storyline, when she uttered "no more mutants" she wasn't very specific. Her magic not only stripped millions of mutants of their powers, effectively reducing them to only a few hundred worldwide, even her own power was stripped from her. Unpredictable by nature.
Time slowed for Adam, his brain began to try to think of what to do, he knew the power of Chthon was even beyond Wanda Maximoff, then he remembered something from the studio next door. The one thing that would have a chance to give him the upper hand.
Adam quicky focused his bio-electric field, but as he did, he activated the reality stone to lace an intent into the field as it formed a a deep yellowish golden color. When the fist landed on the energy field, the red energy dissipated instantly. A scream of pain resounded through the mirror dimension, but the scream wasn't Kaecilius voice.
The suit was able to absorb most of the chaos energy, while it also absorbed the kinetic portion.
Eve's voice caused a grin to spread over his face, "Energy cells are full, it is highly recommended to discharge stored energy before sustaining another blow of similar force."
"Well what do you know. That worked out better than I thought. Eve cancel the energy pulse, no need to take unnecessary risks. It seems I need to thank Doctor Fate if I ever meet him." Adam said as he walked over to Kaecilius who no longer looked like himself anymore.
He now had two long white horns that started from above his eyes and angled to the left and right, the tips looped downward to face them forward. His face and torso was the same color as the horns, same with his hair. His arms and legs were a blood red color, matching that of the color of chaos energy.
"Chthon, glad you could join me. You know I was pretty worried about you showing up, but now, not so much. I remembered something, chaos is very powerful, but so is Order. Now it comes down to a fight of attrition, and unfortunately for you, that body is at its weakest, it hasn't adapted to your chaotic nature. So I kind of like these odds." Adam smirked as he felt Chthon hesitation.
Adam dashed forward, using the same tactic as he did before, creating a construct made from his bio-electric field and using the reality stone to lace it with Order, he created the Blades of Order.
Using Kratos' Blades of Chaos as a reference, a golden short sword launched forward passing by Chthon's head as he moved to the side. Just as Chthon went to dash to the right to get to Adam's unguarded side he felt a sudden tug.
The chain attached to the blade had tangled in his horn, Adam pulled forward, yanking Chthon off balance allowing him to aim for the head, Chthon wasn't a push over and turned his head with the chain to flip over it to untangle his horn.
Escaping being decapitated, he did lose a horn however which caused him immense pain, and anger.
He could tell that Adam's ability to wield the laws of order were sub par at best, especially considering his own understanding of chaos. However this wasn't his real body, this was a newly created conduit.
His only goal for this body was to deliver the Darkhold to Wanda, whose body was made to handle chaos magic, once her body merged with the book he could take over. She was his avatar, he would be able to possess her and use his abilities to the fullest extent.
Knowing that he was being threatened by an apparent beginner agent of Order was very infuriating. Chaos and Order hate one another.
They can negate eachother, the winner in a battle between chaos and order wasn't just about who had the bigger fist. It was who had more energy and better understanding of the laws that governed them.
Adam knew who had more energy, himself, or rather his suit, but it may as well be his own since he can use the energy to power the constructs.
Angered by his injury, Chthon opened his mouth and a huge beam of red energy fired at Adam.
Quicky throwing the other blade to try to offset and negate it, the blade was shattered instantly. Adam wasn't very good with manipulating and using the laws of Order.
Quickly raising his arms in front of himself, the suit opened up the energy cannons on both arms, the deep golden glow of Order energy eminated from the barrels and a large beam of golden light fired and slammed into the red chaotic beam.
When they collided, the mirror dimension shattered but Adam and Chthon remained attacking. The beams seemed to play a tug of war, they pushed against each other back and forth as they each pushed out their energy as much as possible, each trying to push thru the others attack.
When the mirror dimension shattered, Adam and Chthon's battle was no longer hidden. Many beings became attacted to the battle. Odin especially, since he was an agent of Order as well.
Odin felt Chthon in Midgard, his face hardened, he couldn't allow Chthon free roam of this dimension. Grabbing his staff Gungnir, Odin made his way to the Rainbow bridge. Thor followed behind, he wasn't done with the Dark Elves.
"Thor, you will be no match for Chthon." Odin said as they quickly made their way to Heimdall.
"Aye, but thats not who I'm after. I'm haven't quenched my anger enough on the one who hurt mother. I was too sloppy last time, I let my anger overwhelm me rather than channeling it as you have taught. This time my mind is clear, I'm going whether you approve or not." Thor answered as he clinched his fist, lightning was beginning to slowly arc around his eyes.
Seeing his son finally tap into his true potential, Odin's pride soared, he had been worried that the hammer was more of a crutch rather than guide, now he was seeing that wasn't the case.
"Why wouldn't I want to go into battle with my son? I was mearly saying to be careful." Odin replied without looking back, he didn't want his son to see the tears of happiness that were forming.
Adam, knowing that it was too late to hold back any cards, activated the power gem. This was extremely dangerous, there is a very fine line between Order and Chaos, any imbalance could instantly turn Order into Chaos.
This was why Adam didn't use the power gem from the start, it would be foolish to just throw caution into the wind unless you had no other choice.
That was what was on Adam's mind, he didn't see a choice. Although he didn't feel it was a matter of life and death per say, but it wasn't hard to know what Chthon wanted to do. No matter the marvel universe, Chthon and Scarlett Witch were always connected, if Chthon escaped, the Darkhold would be out of reach, and Adam needed that formula to be able to keep vampires in check.
As the power gem activated the golden energy beam surged forward, but in his excitement and rush to end the fight, the beam began to faulter. Order required a calm mind, or so he thought.
Suddenly a voice resounded all around Adam, time seemed to stand still, and Odin's voice thundered.
"Good effort, but your knowledge is only superficial, Order isn't so straight forward as you are thinking." Odin and Ancient One both appeared at Adams sides, the green light of the time stone glowed brightly from the Eye of Agamotto.
"Look out into the universe, what do you see at first glance?" Odin asked as he then knocked the butt of his spear on the ground causing a image to appear, it showed planets colliding and stars exploding.
"Chaos is what you see, but within that chaos there is Order, like good and evil, you cant have one without the other. Order isn't just about calm, cause if you take a step back..." Once again hitting Gungnir on the ground that same image zoomed out, showing the galaxy that these things were happening in.
Adam saw the galaxy swirl in perfect unison, like a dance that all were participating in.
Odin continued after a brief pause, "that chaos is within order and the same holds true the other way. Accept the chaos and it becomes order. Chaos is just a mindset, two people looking at ants who had their hill stepped on can see two different things. One sees the ants in chaos, the other, a orderly search of the army for its enemy."
"Order and Chaos are one, not two sides of the same coin, rather chaos is the engraving while order is the coin." Adam said to himself, he then no longer tried to remain calm, he accepted his excitement, and pushed even harder.
The golden beam strengthened even more than previously, quickly crushing and absorbing the chaos and turning it on its caster.
"Impossible! Odin! I will have my revenge for your interference!" Chthon shouted as he felt even his own chaotic power begin to turn on him, Order took over Chaos.
The golden beam slammed into Chthon, his body began to disintegrate into pieces as a massive explosion tore a chunk out of the moon.
Chthon's main body raged about in his dimension, he would return to get his revenge. Adam had now reached the level of Odin on his list of hated foes.