The Sanctum was still bustling with activity. Strange strode through the corridor, lightly touching the watch on his wrist and saying, "Have Wong come to my office. Use the teleportation portal and don't let others see it."
The several clerks following him dispersed to their respective offices, one of them went to find Mage King Wong. Strange pushed open the door to his own office, pointed to the left to correct a misplaced vase, and then pointed upwards to make all the dust on the chandelier disappear.
Before he sat down, he repositioned the few items on his desk - a notebook and a pen holder - against the wall. The pens were neatly arranged by color gradient from warm to cold in the pen holder and the notebook bookmark was facing outwards, spotless.
After Strange sat down, Mage King Wong came through the teleportation portal. He looked at Strange and then said, "Supreme Magician, how long has it been since you last rested?"
"There's no need for excessive sleep in life. One can rest for a long time after death," Strange unflinchingly replied. He adjusted his sitting position in his chair and looked at Wong: "How is the training of mages going recently?"
"Quite good, my lord. More pleasingly, due to the upgrade of magic wands, the young mages possess stronger offensive and defensive power. With some physical training, they will be combat-ready."
Strange held his hand to his mouth and asked, "How many can we arm with the current magic wands, cloaks, and suspension rings?"
Wong furrowed his brows but still replied, "Enough for all the formal mages in Kamar-Taj, excluding those young apprentices. I think it's sufficient."
"So you mean there are none for apprentices?" Strange asked while rubbing his brows.
"We still have some old versions left, around half enough to arm the apprentices. My lord, what's going on? Why do you wish to arm the mages?" Wong asked tentatively. He hesitated for a moment before putting it delicately, "I believe there isn't anything in the cosmos that requires the full force of Kamar-Taj's mages to confront."
"What about beyond the cosmos?"
"Did you see anything through the Eye of Agomoto?"
Strange nodded affirmatively. "What I saw was unclear, but a great battle will soon take place. Even with all of Kamar-Taj's power, we might not be able to cope."
Wong's eyes widened in surprise, but Strange quickly calmed him, "Don't worry too much. We have enough power for self-defense, but we lack offensive power. The strategic weapons that the mages can use are too few, and their destructiveness isn't sufficient, including myself."
Wong swallowed and said, "Master Ancient One said we couldn't just focus on destruction alone."
"If our teacher were here, she would be more anxious than me."
Wong fell silent, knowing that Strange was likely telling the truth. When it came to destruction, the Ancient One had no place to criticize others.
"What about the Demon Gods..."
"Don't count on them," Strange shook his head, "and there's no need to count on them. The mages are training every day. It's a rare chance for them to flex their muscles and showcase their training outcomes. Why should we give that opportunity to the Demon Gods?"
"Actually, I called you here to discuss this matter. The upcoming battle will be a mega event for our universe. How much do you think we should charge the Demon Gods for admission?"
"What?"
Seeing Wong's astonished look, Strange waved his hand impatiently, "Why should we let them watch for free if they don't pay? Let me tell you, on the day of the battle, you should lead a team of mages to patrol the entire battlefield perimeter. Any of them who dares to try to sneak in or just peek around without a ticket, chop him down for me!"
Wong's face fell, not because he worried about chopping down Demon Gods. He sighed and said, "So, I can't take part in the battle this time?"
"Wong, your talent isn't in this aspect," Strange leaned forward, looking into Wong's eyes, "There's no better defender than you. Leave the offensive part to the Grand Mages."
Strange sighed again, continuing to look at Wong and persuade him, "You have to understand my predicament. Since the Sanctum was established, we've been working with the Demon Gods. The Grand Mages have not had a chance to unleash their power for years."
"When they followed the Ancient One, they were mighty and fearsome. Every day, they either fought with Demon Gods or were on their way to do so. But since I became the Supreme Magician and started to get along well with the Demon Gods, they've not had much opportunity to take actions. The Swordman Mage is so eager that he wants to use Whirlwind Slice even when chopping vegetables."
Wong sighed and said, "Alright, I'll prepare for it."
"Remember not to spread it widely. Right, who is the spokesman for the Great Shadow Xeseon again?"
"Isn't it the mutant Scarlet Witch?"
"Doesn't he have two spokespersons?"
After some thought, Wong answered, "Yes, the other one is Lady Hydra, but it seems the Great Shadow doesn't like her very much, always responding in a lukewarm manner, and he's set on pursuing Wanda."
"Bring her over, I have some things to say to her."
Soon, Lady Hydra appeared in Strange's office. The once-dishevelled lady was now dressed in professional attire, looking a lot like a Wall Street elite. She idledly played with her hair and said, "If you want me to call that jerk Xeseon, don't count on him answering. I'm already looking for a new house."
"I'm not planning to contact Xeseon. I'm planning to bypass him."
Lady Hydra didn't understand what the Supreme Magician meant. So Strange stood up, approaching Lady Hydra closely. Lady Hydra backed away one step cautiously. She wouldn't thinkStrange was flirting with her. She was certain this Supreme Magician had devoted his entire life to performance, performance, and performance.
"Skip over him, what do you mean?"
"You are directly communicating with chaos powers, and I am sending messages to the chaos powers of this cosmos through you, or in other words, your job is to deceive Xeseon. Can you do it?"
"What's the point of this?" Lady Hydra frowned and asked, "Chaos powers are just powers. They are nothing more than a part of the cosmic rules. They do not have personalities and will not respond."
"That was the case before." Strange said with absolute certainty, but then he quickly tapped the edge of the table with his fingers and looked at Lady Hydra, "But don't tell me you didn't notice, the chaos powers of the cosmos just had a major outbreak."
Lady Hydra's eyes moved for a second, looking at Strange and said, "I felt it, but I have no idea what happened."
"You don't need to know, just do as I tell you."
Lady Hydra was standing in the center of the room, focusing and beginning to communicate with chaos powers. This process had to be very careful to deceive Big Shadow, but luckily Xeseon didn't care about Lady Hydra, or rather, he was annoyed by her and didn't care about her power fluctuations.
And Lady Hydra herself is not very strong, and didn't draw much power, it couldn't even be considered tickling the chaos powers. Therefore, she quickly established a weak but stable connection with the chaos powers.
Immediately afterward, Strange came to Lady Hydra. He extended one hand and put his index finger on her brow. Through the connection with the chaos powers, he shouted to the other side, "Wanda! Wanda! Reply to me, I know you have become the avatar of cosmic chaos, I know you are feeling lost and scared, and you don't know how to escape from this state..."
"Please listen to me, Wanda, when you merged with the chaos power, you have become a part of the cosmic rules. But it is not all of you. Consider them as a force, a right. You have to control it..."
A weak response came from within the cosmic chaos, Strange showed a joyful expression, so he continued to speak.
"You cannot feel who you are or where you are. You just want to go home, but you are not lost. This is just a side effect of drawing too much chaos power onto yourself. You are still you, you have to find yourself..."
"Please do as I tell you. Establish a channel of memory and find yourself., If you feel lost and hindered, think of the person you love the most, call his name. I will assist you..."
The response within the chaos rules grows stronger. Strange could feel something was consolidating, those were the personalities and fragments of memory scattered within the chaos rules.
"I am chaos... No, I am Wanda..."
"I am Wanda... I am Wanda... Jarvis..."
The autonomous thoughts like tides were bringing clumps and clumps of fragments to the shore and condensing them. At the deepest part of cosmic chaos, a touch of scarlet flashed, and the figure of Wanda gradually consolidated.
When the self finally returned, a pair of dazzling red eyes opened, an infinite amount of chaos power onto itself, the Scarlet Witch broke through the barrier of individual universe almost instantly, and ascended above the cosmos.
What ascended was not the Scarlet Witch Wanda, but the Chaos Avatar that had completely merged with the chaos power. At this moment, she had become a part of the cosmic rules like the Eternity, and will live and die with the cosmos.
Xeseon finally encountered the changes, but it was too late, he no longer had complete control over the chaos rules; Wanda had become a more primal god, or in other words, positions of god and believers had been completely reversed. If Wanda didn't agree with Xeseon, he wouldn't even be able to use the power of chaos.
But Big Shadow seemed to have predicted this long ago. His mad pursuit of Wanda was because he knew that this girl was the origin and the end of cosmic chaos. Whoever controlled her would gain full control over chaos, but if she herself controlled the chaos, then what Big Shadow Xeseon has to consider is how to freeload better.
"Supreme Magician, why are you helping me?"
Wanda, who was floating in chaos, had no eyeballs in her hollow eye sockets, only the endless scarlet colour. At the moment of her ascension, there were no more chaos powers of Xeseon in the universe, only the scarlet power of the Scarlet Witch.
"I want to make a deal with you, Wanda. This is not only to help you but also to help Jarvis..."
"You want to use him to threaten me?"
"No such intention, it is just a small request."
Strange felt the nearby magic fluctuations, and a portal opened abruptly, several grand mages flashed their bodies.
The moment they landed, numerous magic glows sprang up, several immobilisation spells pinned Strange to the ground, the leading Swordman said angrily.
"Supreme Magician!! You need to rest!!!"
But before Strange was knocked unconscious, he had to speed up his speech and said, "Listen, Wanda, do as I say..."
A few minutes later, in the space full of dense gray mist, a female voice came from afar, softly reciting a sentence.
"Karkosa... Plough constellation system Lake Hally.... The dark sun is high in the sky...."
Amid the dense Scarlet power, a pair of eyes opened, and the pattern of the black sun finally changed once more, revealing all the information it had.
"Hello, Scarlet God Wanda."