In an instant, the sense of mystery was shattered when the Ancient One appeared, dusted the fine particles off her robe, and said, "Why are you just now looking for me?"
"This is the situation…" Strange began to explain the current situation to the Ancient One. After listening, the Ancient One nodded and said, "Does this involve the Multiverse? That's indeed quite rare."
For Shiller, this was the first time he had heard the term "Multiverse" from the lips of an original inhabitant of this world. Others typically refer to the region beyond their universe as "above the universe".
When Strange pursued clarification on this term, the Ancient One explained, "The region beyond the universe is not 'above' the universe. The universe isn't stacked in accordance with any specific pattern or order. You can refer to the region beyond the universe as 'infinity', and beyond this infinity lies an even greater infinity."
Shiller, who was familiar with the structure of the Marvel Universe, knew that the Multiverse indeed wasn't the end; beyond it lay the Greater Universe, the Omni Universe, and so on and so forth.
Thankfully, Stark wasn't present; otherwise, he would have undoubtedly drilled down to get to the root of the matter. However, the people present didn't fuss over these conceptual issues. At this point, the Ancient One began to speak again:
"The Morlun Family? I recall that I've taken down a member of this family before. It happened in New York. Just before he died, it seemed that some sort of power corrupted him. Was that a special feature of the Bat Totem?"
After speaking, she recollected for a moment before saying, "Previously, I did lend a hand to that newly born totem. It still owes me. However, if I could gain some Faith Power, I wouldn't be at a loss."
"I can help you guys search for the location of the Morlun family in the Multiverse, but whether we can locate their faith transfer channels and whether such channels can connect to the Magic Defense Network is hard to be certain of at the moment," the Ancient One said.
Though Strange and the others were almost certain about this, no one was definitively declaring it, thinking that identifying and connecting to the channel would be the most challenging step in the plan. If they successfully connected the Faith Channel, extracting Faith would be a matter of minutes, right?
But it was only after the Ancient One left that Shiller remembered something. He asked Strange, "What if the Ancient One finds this place and can't resist killing them all?"
Strange instantly widened his eyes then hurriedly took out his phone and told The Ancient One, "Master! Please bear with it! Don't kill them all, you must restrain yourself!"
A few minutes later, the Ancient One sent back good news. She had located the Morlun Family's base and had restrained herself from wiping them all out.
The people in the office all stood up. Strange opened a teleportation portal, and they arrived near the Kamar-Taj's Energy Central, ready to wait.
Soon, the Magical Defense Network lit up. A golden comet moved across the sky from afar and then merged into the defense network.
The four people, standing in a row of anticipation in their eyes, saw a golden line gradually light up on the Magical Defense Network.
Meanwhile, in Eddie's apartment, several symbiotes were gathered around Venom, who was guiding Eddie's thoughts into a state of meditation.
Since symbiotes can only rely on their hosts, Venom had to guide Eddie to respond. Luckily, Eddie initially worked in writing, so his imagination was rich enough to quickly enter the state.
As they had done before on multiple occasions, they saw a group of shadowy bats. While observing, Venom noticed something was off and said doubtfully, "Why has the golden light on these bats faded so much?"
"The last time we came, hadn't the golden light already covered most of their wings?" Eddie also felt something was wrong, "Besides, the build-up speed has greatly slowed down."
Sensing that something abnormal may have occurred, Venom also gave up his previous plan of cautious probing. He took direct control of Eddie's consciousness and began to influence the flock of bats.
Then, he heard familiar prayers again. Only this time they were much weaker, and within the voices, Venom heard a hint of fatigue.
Completely unaware of what had happened, Venom thought it was just his perception, so he went forward with putting his plan into action. However, to his surprise, the response from the other side was not as quick as before but rather hesitant.
Only when Venom let this Faith Power cover the majority of all the bats' bodies, leaving only a small portion at the wing tips, did the golden light suddenly surge.
In an instant, Venom exerted his force, sweeping away all the Faith Power. Huge amounts of energy surged into Venom and Eddie's bodies, and the other symbiotes used their tentacles to touch Eddie's body, transferring the excess energy into their own bodies.
After repeating this process a few times, Venom noticed that the golden light had become thinner and nearly disappeared. He guessed that this might be because he had drained the stored Faith Power on the other side. Since that was the case, he decided to be more thorough.
Using the energy he had previously obtained from Nal, Venom covered the flock of bats. It appeared as though the people on the other side observed someone was contesting for control of the Bat Totem and immediately became nervous.
They poured in more Faith Power, but without exception, all of it was absorbed by Venom. It wasn't until the last trace of thin, nearly colorless, golden light disappeared that Venom finally belched with satisfaction. The other symbiotes lay sprawled on the sofa, too full to move.
Meanwhile, near the Energy Central in Kamar-Taj, Strange lifted his Magic Wand. The golden line landed on his wand along the center of the Magical Defense Network. In an instant, a starry sky covered the surrounding space.
Everyone saw a flock of black bats flying. Strange said solemnly, "The extraction function is being activated!"
Immediately, the gold thread thickened, and the energy it carried surged more intensely. Shiller fixated his eyes on the thin line, just like an old farmer anticipating a bountiful harvest.
However, despite the energy surging for some time, no Faith Power was transmitted. Strange paused, uttered with some confusion, "Wait, there may be a problem, let me adjust it."
After another attempt still found that no Faith Power was transmitted, the Ancient One showed up quickly and asked with a lot of confusion, "What's going on? Seems like the Faith Power on the other side has disappeared?"
She exchanged glances with Strange. The Ancient One swiped her hand and the surroundings changed. Immediately, countless thin lines unfolded.
Then, everyone saw two skinny side branches appear on either side of this main energy channel.
Just then, the last bit of Faith Power vanished into nothingness through the branch on the right. Then, over Universe Space, everyone heard distinctly satisfied burps.
Shiller immediately realized what was going on. Without delay, Shiller's roar echoed in the chamber of Kamar-Taj:
"Someone's stealing Electric Power!!!!!!!"