The Ancient One naturally wouldn't stand on ceremony with Ethan. That wasn't her personality. Ethan also didn't mind her dropping by. In fact, he hoped the people he had befriended across various worlds would visit him more often so he could host them "at home."
After chatting for a while longer and confirming that everything was progressing "according to the established path," Ethan left Kamar-Taj.
There was no reason for him to stay there. Given his tendency to stir up trouble, it was better for him to keep his distance. If he suddenly had a wild idea and acted on it, the Ancient One's carefully prepared plan might fall apart completely.
There were ways to fix it if that happened, but putting in so much effort only for it to go to waste was truly frustrating.
The Ancient One clearly didn't want that kind of situation to occur, so she didn't try to keep him. After having tea and chatting, Ethan returned directly to the Avengers Compound.
Originally, after obtaining Ethan's data, Tony should have been eager to return to Los Angeles and begin his research. If Ethan wanted to find him, he should have gone there.
But this trip ended faster than expected. All in all, it took Ethan less than half a day to finish everything.
At this point, Tony hadn't had time to leave yet, since the Avengers' affairs couldn't be resolved that quickly.
As expected, Tony was having an informal meeting with several Avengers, including Steve. Most of the members who weren't currently occupied were present. While chatting casually, they also discussed some recent issues the Avengers had encountered and what needed to be handled next.
Ethan's sudden appearance startled everyone. Once Tony and Steve saw who it was, they both relaxed and reassured the others that it was a teammate.
Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, and James Rhodes had never seen Ethan in this form before. These seasoned soldiers wouldn't let their guard down just because he looked like a child.
"Relax, it's Ethan."
"Ethan?" Rhodes slowly lowered his weapon. "The Ethan I know?"
"Yes, that Ethan."
Compared to Sam Wilson, who still looked doubtful, Rhodes put away his weapon more readily.
In his view, someone like Ethan, who dealt with magic, could change appearance however he liked. Besides, this wasn't even the first time Ethan had changed how he looked. It was just that this transformation had caught them off guard.
Sam and Bucky also lowered their weapons one after another. Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff weren't present, and Scott Lang was usually with Hank Pym. Aside from those, the only ones present were Tony, Steve, and the Maximoff twins, Wanda and Pietro, who were currently in their probationary period as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.
"Why are you back?"
Ethan glanced around and greeted everyone. After all, he was nominally part of the Avengers, so showing up like this wasn't a big deal. Other than a few minor complaints about how suddenly he appeared, everyone welcomed him.
"You just happened to catch our regular Avengers meeting. Isn't this your first time attending one?"
"You call this a formal meeting?"
"No, it's not formal," Steve said directly, not giving Tony any face. "We're just having a casual discussion."
"Alright, you're the boss, so you call the shots."
The recognized leader of the Avengers was Steve Rogers. Both the authorities and the members acknowledged this. Technically, Tony wasn't even a frontline combatant. His official role was head of logistics, responsible for the team's weapons, equipment, and the various facilities in the compound.
Of course, the titles didn't really matter. Ethan's official role was still head of the Mystic Department, in charge of magical and supernatural affairs. But if a situation like that really came up, who would be able to contact him? Most of it still fell to Tony to handle. Besides, Tony was now a sorcerer himself, so it wasn't like he was the wrong guy for the job.
Ethan casually took a seat, which happened to be next to Wanda. She gave him an awkward smile and sat very properly, as if listening to an important lecture. At that moment, Tony was chatting with Banner about his experience in outer space, and occasionally Steve would chime in, shifting the discussion to topics like upgrading the compound's medical equipment.
"The new medical pods Dr. Zhao provided have arrived. The next step is installation. I think Banner can handle that."
"Wait a minute, I don't even know what these new medical pods look like. How am I supposed to handle this?"
"It's fine. Dr. Zhao will come personally to handle the final debugging. There won't be any issues."
Steve didn't care about side issues, but he was serious about critical matters like this. He immediately told Tony to stop joking around and to take it seriously.
"Alright, I'll take care of it... but don't bother me after that. I've got something more important to do."
"What are you up to?"
Before Tony could answer, Steve seemed to remember something. Ethan had mentioned it before. Tony was obviously preparing to build the teleportation device.
That was important business. With the teleportation device in place, if the Avengers ran into serious trouble, they could request Ethan's help instead of waiting for him to show up on his own.
"As long as you finish what's on your plate now, we won't get in your way while you work on that."
During this informal meeting, the Avengers also learned about this project.
"So, we'll be able to travel to other worlds whenever we want?" Rhodes looked at Tony. He still found it hard to believe. Ever since Tony had declared himself Iron Man, the world had changed dramatically. It made everything that came before feel like a waste of time.
"Cool!"
Sam didn't think too deeply. Since joining the Avengers, he had experienced all kinds of amazing things. Meanwhile, the Maximoff twins still looked a little dazed.
Ethan, who had answered a few people's questions casually, turned his attention to Wanda.
"What's Tony been teaching you?"
Wanda seemed nervous. Ethan just wanted to chat, but she clearly didn't take it as such. His question made her visibly tense, and her accent made it a bit difficult for Ethan to understand her.
"Relax, I don't bite."
Unfortunately, that kind of reassurance didn't help. Wanda gave another awkward smile but didn't really relax.
"Hey, don't bully my student."
Tony noticed and lightly tapped the table in protest.
"I'm just curious what you've been teaching her."
Ethan spread his hands, looking innocent. He had only asked a simple question.
Tony picked up an apple and tossed it toward Wanda. She reflexively reached out and caught it with a ball of red energy.
"Show us what you've learned."
Wanda hesitated for a moment, then saw Tony winking at her, seemingly encouraging her. Or maybe he just wanted to show off in front of Ethan.
She took a deep breath to calm herself, then carefully controlled her inner magic and began casting the spell she had been practicing.
"Oh?"
As Wanda's magic began to flow, Ethan could sense more and more clearly the nature of it. Even before the effect manifested, he already knew what spell she was using.
This was a power derived from the Reality Stone. The magic distorted and altered physical objects, essentially turning the Reality Stone's ability into usable magic.
That wasn't easy to accomplish. Even though Tony had custody of the Reality Stone and had been studying it for years, he still hadn't transformed its ability into a mature form of magic.
It was only thanks to Ethan's previous research, combined with Tony's own insights, that this had finally been developed into a form of magic others could learn without direct contact with the Stone or needing immense power to understand it.
Even so, this kind of magic wasn't something just anyone could learn. It required significant innate talent. That was why Tony had specifically chosen Wanda as his student. He believed she had that talent.
And as it turned out, he was right.
As Wanda's magic output increased, the apple floating in mid-air slowly changed form, eventually turning into a solid block of iron that dropped onto the table with a thud.
The Avengers were used to seeing this kind of thing, but no matter how often it happened, witnessing something like this still amazed them.
Ethan wasn't surprised. He had been able to do this a long time ago. What he was interested in was the lasting effect of the magic. The result was a bit unexpected. Wanda really did seem to have talent. The transformation was permanent and didn't revert once the spell ended.
"Can you create objects directly with magic?"
Wanda paused for a moment, then shook her head.
"I can barely form some shapes, but I can't truly create objects... Even if I shape the surface, it collapses easily."
In fact, she was better at destroying things than creating them. When using this magic, she felt she could break things apart effortlessly.
Ethan listened and glanced at Tony, who looked like he didn't know a thing.
"This really is Chaos Magic..."
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)