Chapter 228: The Truth Comes Out—Allen Lends a Hand
You had to hand it to the police—their efficiency was off the charts.
It didn't take long at all to locate Wanda's address.
With Allen and Agatha in tow, they rushed straight to the suspect's location.
"Attention inside! Come out with your hands up immediately, or we will resort to force!"
A detective with a pronounced beer belly, whose belt was struggling to do its job, bellowed toward the house.
Meanwhile, Allen had just stepped out of the police car and immediately cast a glance at the trash bins lining the street.
They were overflowing with Halloween decorations—clearly, once the holiday ended, everything had been tossed out for disposal.
Just then, a tall young woman in casual clothes and an apron stepped out of the house, wearing a puzzled expression.
There was no doubt—it was Wanda, one of the Avengers.
She looked every bit the part of a regular housewife who had been in the middle of cooking when she suddenly heard police shouting outside.
Of course, the confusion on her face was just that—confusion. There wasn't a trace of fear or panic.
The entire town of Westview lay within her domain of Chaos Magic.
She was the undisputed queen of this land.
"Wanda Maximoff, you're under investigation for breaking and entering, as well as assault with intent. We ask for your full cooperation," the detective said sternly.
"What evidence do you have?" Wanda asked, somewhat incredulously.
"I am the evidence," Allen called out loudly from beside the trash bin.
At that moment, he had a white cheerleader pom-pom stuck to his head like a wig. Flicking his imaginary bangs, he struck a dramatic pose and said, "Sis, I'm Quicksilver!"
Wanda's expression changed drastically.
She raised a hand, and with a flash of scarlet magic at her fingertips, everyone except Allen was frozen in place.
Furious, she demanded, "You think making fun of the dead is funny?"
"Dead?" Allen was stunned. "Quicksilver died? How did he die?"
From Allen's genuinely shocked reaction, Wanda could tell the two might have known each other. She hesitated. "Who are you? How do you know my brother?"
"It's a long story."
Allen didn't try to be cryptic and laid everything out clearly and honestly.
After all, misunderstandings needed to be resolved before they spiraled into something irreparable.
Besides, Allen wasn't stupid—this was her turf, and without overwhelming power, he knew better than to push his luck.
"I've heard Pietro mention you," Wanda admitted after confirming his identity. "Not long ago, I sensed he was in danger. By the time I got to him, he had no signs of life."
"You're trying to bring him back?" Allen realized.
Wanda neither confirmed nor denied it.
She couldn't be sure if he would try to stop her.
As for why she chose Westview for the resurrection ritual, it was because the human realm had a layer of dimensional shielding, and this location happened to be where the barrier was thinnest.
"If his death was within the past 24 hours, I could ask Bat-Girl for help with resurrection. But it's too late now," Allen said seriously, removing the pom-pom from his head. "How do you plan to bring him back?"
Since Pietro was more or less a friend, Allen naturally wanted to help.
As for what Wanda had done in Westview, he didn't really care. Once it was over and she lifted the Chaos Magic, everything would go back to normal.
"Come with me," Wanda said, leading Allen to the basement.
On the stone platform in the center lay Pietro's corpse.
But when Allen got a clear look at the face, his expression turned to one of complete disbelief.
The man had turned into a balding, greasy middle-aged guy. The blue uniform shirt barely hid his bulging stomach, and most noticeably, the top of his head was completely bald except for a ring of gray-white hair around the sides, looking like a bird's nest.
"Did he go through a breakup or something?" Allen asked with a look of disgust.
He remembered Pietro as a pretty handsome guy. How had he turned into this bloated mess in such a short time?
"He opened a Chinese restaurant after graduating. Slowly gained weight," Wanda replied bluntly.
Allen fell silent.
Just before leaving the mutant timeline, he had given Pietro a cookbook.
Now it turned out he was the root cause of this transformation.
The basement walls were etched with various runes, and the body was covered in a layer of Chaos Magic to preserve it from decay.
Wanda explained without reservation, "Once the full moon arrives, I'll use Chaos Magic to retrieve Pietro's soul from the Underworld and bring him back."
Within her Chaos Domain, Wanda was confident she was invincible and had no fear of anyone sabotaging her plan.
The full moon was the time when the frequencies of the human world and the Underworld were closest, and the resistance between realms was weakest. It would save a great deal of magic to locate the soul and complete the rescue.
The Underworld wasn't unknown in the magical community. Necromancers were adept at communicating with it.
At other times, Wanda could dream-walk into the Underworld, but the magical drain was immense. Even then, there was no guarantee of retrieving Pietro, and she risked alerting the Death Lord or having the conflicting rules shred Pietro's soul.
"Don't worry. I'll help you."
"You'll help me?" Wanda clearly didn't think this eccentric man could be of any real help. At most, he had shadow-level magical strength—barely different from an ordinary person in her eyes.
Agatha had just barely reached Supreme Sorcerer-level. Wanda, on the other hand, was at the absolute pinnacle, and with Chaos Magic under her command, she could challenge even low-tier dimensional lords.
Allen leaned in mysteriously and whispered, "Wanda-wan, I've got contacts in the Underworld."
"…"
Lest anyone forget, Hela, the Goddess of Death, was one of the Death Lords.
Allen had once visited her realm. Asking for a single soul shouldn't be too difficult.
"I see that look. That's doubt in your eyes," he said proudly.
"Since we're both practitioners of the dark arts, I might as well show off a little."
Wanda crossed her arms, clearly waiting for a show.
No one could use magic in Westview unless she lifted the magical lockdown.
"Wait here. I'm going to get my mount."
Allen dashed outside and soon came back carrying the frozen Agatha on his back like a sack of potatoes. He struck a cocky pose and said, "Try not to throw your back out."
Arcane talent. Elemental affinity.
The former allowed him to easily cast any kind of magic, while the latter amplified his connection to elemental forces.
Once Allen stopped holding back, crimson Chaos Magic began to flow from his fingertips.
"Chaos Magic!"
Wanda's expression finally shifted.
Her signature ability—Chaos Magic—had somehow been learned by someone else without her noticing.
He had mastered it without guidance, without even being part of her inner circle. It was like witnessing a miracle.
"Allen, run!" Agatha shouted the moment she regained control of her body and turned to flee.
But Allen grabbed the back of her collar calmly. "Let me formally introduce myself to Wanda-wan."
"…"
Realizing that the two had made peace, Agatha composed herself and said, "Allen, Supreme Sorcerer candidate from the second generation of Kamar-Taj, five hundred years ago."
"Add more detail," Allen prompted.
"He could learn any magic just by watching it once and even created his own system of spells. The third Supreme Sorcerer, the Ancient One, classified his work as forbidden texts."
Wanda: "…"