Everything was just as Aron had expected.
Quicksilver failed to carry out the assassination and in the end joined the Avengers.
Wanda, when she heard the news, was stunned. She knew very well how stubborn her brother was. The thought that he would give up his hatred and even become an ally of Tony Stark… was hard for her to imagine.
"Aron!"
"Is Tony Stark using the Mind Stone to control my brother?"
Wanda couldn't shake off that suspicion. In her mind, a conspiracy theory began to take shape, and her eyes gleamed with crimson energy.
"If someone uses the Mind Stone on Earth, I can sense the energy fluctuations."
"So don't worry…"
Aron leaned back on the sofa as if nothing concerned him, leaving the initiative to Wanda.
The dimensions of Hell were now almost united. Only a few fragments of the dimensional barrier remained to be naturally merged. Hela had already noticed this process, the edge of Eternal Hell touching the borders of the Succubus Hell.
If it continued…
Soon all the divided pocket dimensions would merge into one enormous transdimensional whole.
At that moment, Aron, as the ruler of Hell, would become a true dimensional lord.
"A good man spends his whole life hunting demons… and in the end, I've become a dimensional demon god."
Aron laughed at himself. Meanwhile, he crossed one leg over the other, stretched out his right leg, then lowered his left, allowing Wanda to continue lightly massaging and tapping his leg.
"Seems like everything is under control…"
"Just waiting for Arishem to arrive."
Aron, eyes half-closed, enjoyed the moment.
Finally, it seemed he could live a bit more leisurely.
Just then, while Aron was enjoying a peaceful moment with the Scarlet Witch, the Ancient One brought Squirrel Girl back to the temple in New York.
"Why didn't you send her back?"
Aron didn't even have to look; he immediately knew what had happened.
The Ancient One didn't reply but gently pushed Squirrel Girl toward him.
"She doesn't want to go back."
"And I have to go to Atrez."
The Ancient One spoke in a serious tone.
Aron opened his eyes and looked at her.
"Are conquerors coming from other universes?"
"I don't know."
"In any case, a new passage has opened."
After saying that, the Ancient One added a few warnings: not to meddle with the Darkhold while she was away and to remain vigilant.
Aron nodded, as if in complete agreement.
But as soon as the Ancient One opened a portal to the depths of the cosmos and left, his expression changed.
"Alright, stop with the tapping… I'm taking you to the Darkhold."
Aron grabbed Wanda's hand.
"Hm, in the movie the Darkhold was first shown in 'WandaVision'…"
"Damn robot, he was with my Wanda after all!"
Aron muttered inwardly with a hint of annoyance.
In the original Marvel-199999 cinematic universe, the Darkhold appeared in the series "WandaVision," where it was in the hands of the evil witch Agatha.
But this was Marvel-19998-FL, the universe where Aron resided.
Because of the butterfly effect, Vision never even existed, so the events of "WandaVision" never took place.
Nevertheless…
The witch Agatha was still alive somewhere.
"Where are you going?"
Seeing Aron and Wanda preparing to leave, Squirrel Girl asked curiously.
"Adults are doing serious things. Children don't need to ask."
Aron replied briefly and led Wanda out of the temple in New York.
As the current master of the Darkhold, he knew that ordinary locating spells wouldn't be able to find the witch Agatha.
Fortunately, he had a simple plan.
"This old witch has survived for hundreds of years and must have strong magical energy within her."
"I've already marked all the locations near the temple's core where the concentration of energy is unusual."
"We'll check them one by one."
Thus he decided to use the exhaustive method.
There were very few sorcerers on Earth who could be called archmages.
Kamar-Taj had only a few, and the rest were scattered around the world.
Their energy reactions could be detected at the temple's core, although it wasn't possible to immediately recognize which belonged to whom.
But that didn't matter…
It was enough to check each one.
"If we have to search the whole world… well, let it be a global trip."
...
At the same time, while Aron and Wanda were traveling the world in search of clues, far away in the depths of the universe, a completely different meeting was taking place.
There, where there were no stars or light, where only endless darkness and silence reigned, in a space resembling nothingness, a swing hung suspended. It had no support, as if existence itself held it in the void.
On that swing sat a little girl. She was barefoot, swinging back and forth, slowly, almost absentmindedly, as if time had no meaning here.
Suddenly, she stopped swinging.
"Ancient One, have you come?" she asked softly.
"Yes." came the calm voice, and from the darkness stepped the Ancient One.
The Ancient One, who had lived for centuries, didn't dismiss the words of the girl, even though they sounded as if they came from a child. Because the girl before her was no ordinary being.
This was Atreza – the physical embodiment of the Anchor of the Universe.
Atreza had no age. She had existed forever, from the moment each universe was born. She was its connection to the infinite, its anchor in the chaos of the multiverse.
"Ancient One, have you come because of the collisions between universes?" asked the girl as she jumped off the swing. She looked about ten years old, gentle and lively. She reached out her hand toward the Ancient One's head, as if wanting to touch it.
"Why don't you have hair, Ancient One?" she said, smirking mischievously.
As soon as the words left her mouth, thick black hair appeared on the Ancient One's bald head, cascading down to her waist, making her look a decade younger.
"Don't make mischief. I'm here on serious business." said the Ancient One and with a wave of her hand returned herself to her old, bald appearance.
"Hm…" Atreza pursed her lips in dissatisfaction but returned to the swing and obediently waited for the Ancient One to continue.
"The dimensional barrier of our universe is damaged. Can you repair it?" the Ancient One asked in a serious tone.
"I tried my best…" the girl replied, and a shadow of helplessness appeared on her youthful face.
"If the problem is only with parallel universes similar to ours, I can fix it." she continued.
"But…" she waved her hand, and before them appeared a massive image composed of countless shimmering spheres.
Each sphere held within it endless stars, galaxies, and nebulae.
"Look. These are universes like ours." said Atreza calmly.
"This is ours, 19998-FL. This is universe 19999, the one from the primary timeline. And here…" she pointed to one of the spheres "…this is universe 616, which recently had a minor collision with ours."
She paused for a moment and pointed to another sphere.
"And this is universe 2813. It is… strange. Completely different from all the others."
The Ancient One silently gazed at the enormous display. There were countless spheres, like a string of glowing pearls on an invisible necklace, each a world unto itself. All these universes were interconnected, forming a complex, infinite mosaic of reality.
"If the problem were only a collision between such universes," Atreza continued, "I could contact their anchors, join forces, and together we would resolve the threat."
Her large eyes then grew serious.
"But now…" she waved her hand again.
The image changed.
It showed a space very familiar to the Ancient One, a room for meditation and cultivation, created with the help of the mirror dimension in the temple in New York.
"What's wrong here?" asked the Ancient One, watching the scene intently.
At first, everything seemed normal. The room was empty, quiet, without any sign of life. But then, suddenly, out of nowhere, a man appeared. He was tall, handsome, with blond hair, dressed in dark clothing, and appeared completely at ease.
He stood in the middle of the room and spoke to himself, as if someone else was present, even though the space was empty.
"That man's name is Lucifer. Lucifer Morningstar." said Atreza quietly.
"He is very powerful. But… he is not from our universe."
She looked at the Ancient One, and in her eyes a spark of suspicion shone.
"Moreover… he doesn't exist in any other parallel universe."
The Ancient One sharply raised her eyebrows.
"He seems to have been summoned… but…" Atreza continued thoughtfully.
"I investigated the timeline. There is no trace of him. Neither in the past nor in the future of our universe. As if he came from nowhere."
She paused, then added:
"This is… Lucifer. A stranger from another world. I often see him talking to the void, as if someone stands there whom only he can see."
She looked at the Ancient One and tilted her head, appearing almost childishly curious.
"By the way, Ancient One, do you know who he is?"
The Ancient One hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly rubbed her nose, avoiding Atreza's gaze. Then she replied seriously:
"I don't know. I have never heard of that person."
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