"What a mess!"
The red clouds covering the sky gradually dispersed, revealing the dark night sky. The stars shone brightly, casting their light unstintingly upon the only remaining humans in North America.
Wanda's heart was in complete turmoil. The irregular rules and abilities displayed by the man before her left the Scarlet Witch utterly confused. They were completely inconsistent with the laws of physics. He seemed to belong in an animated world, where Tom could be attacked by Jerry and, after being repeatedly beaten, smashed into a cat-shaped pancake, chopped into pieces, or blown apart by bombs... Yet no matter how severe the attack, Tom would always return to normal the next second without any lasting effect.
Wanda's mind was a mess. No matter how powerful the force she unleashed to alter reality, it was useless against this man. He seemed to exist outside the laws of the universe, an independent entity that did not belong here. As someone native to this universe, there was simply nothing she could do against him.
It was as if a fish living in water suddenly encountered a fishhook. The water was the universe in which the fish lived, while the fishhook was an object independent of that universe. The fish could not understand the nature of the object at all, nor could it do anything about the sudden appearance of the hook.
Wanda was dumbfounded, frozen in place with absolutely nothing she could do.
"Perhaps you should try some American animation. There are not only sitcoms on television, but also plenty of excellent TV series and cartoons." Renzo lifted the witch's chin, then turned invisible and avoided the knife that struck toward her head.
"I suggest you watch *The Simpsons*. It's a cartoon for people around your age. It has quite a bit of philosophy about life."
"Tom and Billy should have watched it. Little boys prefer this kind of show, and I like it too."
"Give me my children back!" Wanda shook off the man's hand, her expression ferocious with anger.
Seeing that the woman was still stubbornly refusing to listen, Renzo said with a smile, "The children are doing fine, probably..." Renzo scratched his head. "But you should know their situation better than anyone. You've been with them from beginning to end, while I've never even seen them."
"Or do you mean you don't care about the children's condition at all and are solely focused on your so-called goal of restarting the world?"
The man's words completely enraged the witch. It was as if he had peeled away the deepest layer of an onion, exposing the most painful part of her heart and bringing tears to her eyes. Anger flooded her stubborn, narrow-minded heart, rushing straight to her head. Powerful black-and-red magic condensed into a cannonball and shot toward the man's face.
The tremendous impact sent the man flying hundreds of meters backward, smashing through the ruins of a collapsed building with a thunderous roar.
But the witch's strength did not stop there. Without the Black Tower's supply, her power would gradually diminish. She could no longer be chopped into ash, have her head flattened, or have her spine broken before casually waving a hand and restoring herself.
Reshaping her body required a tremendous amount of energy and magic. If Wanda wanted to resurrect herself, it would take roughly three to five seconds. Although that was only enough time to drink a glass of water, among beings whose power surpassed the Heavenly Father level, a moment of negligence could determine life or death.
The Black Tower not only provided Wanda with an endless supply of chaos magic, but also served as a magical tool that allowed her to cast spells faster, more powerfully, and at a lower cost. It eliminated the need for a casting delay, making it crucial to her strength.
Wanda's massacre of the masses had not been an unconscious or careless act. To construct the Black Tower, she needed a vast number of souls and blood, using blood sacrifices to establish a connection with Chthon's dimension so she could continuously draw power from him. In doing so, she had effectively claimed part of that dimension for herself, creating overlapping territories belonging to both Wanda and Chthon.
The channel leading to this overlapping territory had been severed, like collapsed earth cutting off a flowing stream. Not a single drop of water could reach the fishpond. The small ecological cycle within the pond itself was obviously insufficient.
Wanda could feel the chaos power within her body gradually diminishing. Although the change was not obvious yet, it could no longer be replenished in time. Her strength would inevitably continue to decline until the fishpond within her body eventually dried up.
It was not enough to keep wasting her power like this. She had to finish the fight quickly!
Wanda's eyes turned fierce, and two different lights flashed through her pupils. Suddenly, two different forces intertwined around the woman's body. Crimson chaos magic covered most of her body, transforming into a crimson papal robe reminiscent of a medieval church. Her white back was exposed to the air as a pair of black-and-red wings emerged, burning with black-gold flames and radiating an extremely dangerous aura.
"Phoenix power?" Renzo raised an eyebrow. His cynical eyes suddenly became more serious, and he smiled bitterly. "Chaos and Phoenix... I really don't know whether I should call you a genius or a complete madwoman."
Renzo had never imagined that someone would try to combine these two forces, because it was simply impossible.
Both extraordinary energies were volatile and explosive. If she wasn't careful, even the slightest disturbance could trigger a violent reaction that would be extremely difficult to control.
Let alone mixing the two kinds of gunpowder together—only a madman would think of such a method. Renzo could no longer tell whether Wanda was still in a relatively sane state. There were only two possible outcomes.
First, Wanda had used her extraordinary talent and power to combine and control the two strongest energies in the universe. He didn't even need to consider it. This possibility was about as likely as Thor developing a time machine.
Of course, there was a second possibility: when the two forces became entangled with each other...
Boom!
Wanda's body exploded into flying flesh and blood, leaving neither bones nor residue behind, only fresh bloodstains across the ground.
"Okay!"
Renzo shook his head, trying to dispel the terrifying image from his mind. Seeing a beautiful woman explode spectacularly right in front of him was still an extremely horrifying sight, no matter how much it resembled a firework.
But at that moment—
The aura surrounding Wanda had reached its peak. The night was once again shrouded in endless black and red, and a massive hand once again covered the eyes of the earth.
The witch once again donned the crown that belonged to her. The difference was that the patterns on this crown were more golden, with a golden phoenix carved across it, its wings spread wide.
But soon, the golden phoenix was infected by chaotic black magic, radiating a chaotic and ominous aura.
Renzo's eyes widened. She had actually filtered out the corrupted portion of the Phoenix power within Hope's body, absorbed the pure original Phoenix power, and modified it with chaos magic.
In short, two finished products were definitely incompatible when placed together. But if the components of those two finished products were separated and recombined, it was another matter entirely. It was like taking one piece of bread and coating it with another kind of butter. Even if the bread had not originally been intended as the base for that particular cream, the final effect could still be the same.
Apparently, Wanda was good at making desserts.
"Accept your death, human from another universe! You will pay for meddling in my affairs!"
Wanda smiled arrogantly, an expression of absolute confidence on her face. But the moment she saw what the man was doing, she froze.
"You... what are you doing?"
Renzo was lying on the ground with his butt raised high, his eyes darting around as his hands continued groping randomly through the dust and gravel.
What was he doing? Wanda was confused. His behavior reminded her of a crude man in red whose mouth seemed to be his only weapon, constantly spewing nonsense.
A funny character? Wanda didn't quite understand what Renzo meant by such a character. In this universe, she had been making money to support her family since she was a teenager. The two children were not products of chaos magic. They had been born to her and a man from this universe who looked exactly like Paul but possessed no superhuman abilities. Unfortunately, that man had died not long afterward.
Wanda lived alone in her empty house and worked to support her family. She had taken out a bank loan to buy the small house. Unlike the assumptions she had once heard about other cultures, there was nothing unusual about carrying a mortgage for many years, and she had simply accepted it as part of her life.
So Wanda's living expenses were actually not that high, and as Tom and Billy grew older, she no longer had to worry about them as much as she had when they were children.
Aside from a brother who occasionally came to her for help, Wanda had thought her life would continue like this.
Unfortunately, even if Renzo had never arrived, Wanda's life would not have been smooth sailing. In the movie's original events, Doctor Strange would accidentally enter this universe, and the Wanda from Earth-199999 would also come to this universe through the sleepwalking technique recorded in the Darkhold, ultimately killing the Illuminati while possessing Wanda's body.
In other words, this Wanda would still have fallen into darkness even without Renzo's intervention if the original plot had continued. But that descent would not have been entirely of her own choosing.
Wanda did not know her own destiny. Even with such powerful abilities, she still could not see through her future. Apart from the Time Stone, the only person capable of doing so was Renzo, the time traveler.
"Found it!" Renzo looked delighted as he raised a broken hammer handle. It was part of Mjolnir.
"What?" Wanda asked, puzzled.
"Thor's hammer. You should know it." Renzo waved the hammer handle around ostentatiously, causing the woman to smile disdainfully.
"There's only a piece of wood left. What? You want to use that piece of wood to smash my head?"
"I'm not that naive. I can't crush your head, and I wouldn't want to. Have you forgotten how we played at home?" Renzo made a bunny-ears gesture, looking innocent.
"That's not me!" Wanda retorted coldly.
"But you do have that part of the memory. Why don't you repeat the process? Maybe you'll change your mind and stop destroying the world."
Wanda hated the man's glib tone. She wanted to face the cold, murderous man she remembered, with the aura of death always surrounding him.
"I think I would tear you apart like a piece of toilet paper without hesitation."
"Okay." Renzo nodded. "From the front or the back, or top to bottom?"
"..." Wanda fell silent, and even the flames surrounding her subsided slightly.
At that moment, a burst of thunder sounded in the sky, breaking the silence between them. Then a bolt of lightning pierced the heavens, splitting into brilliant arcs across the dark, scarlet world.
Blue lightning mixed with crackling arcs and slammed into the man's body.
More precisely, it struck the hammer handle Renzo was holding.
Wind and sand swept through the ruins. Smoke billowed as the surrounding rubble shook violently, as if something were about to emerge from beneath the earth.
Several stones flew in from different directions, converging around the hammer handle. Mottled cracks spread across the surface of Mjolnir.
Wanda was somewhat surprised that Renzo could actually summon Thor's hammer. She was more willing to believe that this fickle bastard could break through Odin's enchantment than that he possessed some noble character. But she wasn't worried. A cracked hammer was no different from a popsicle stick.
It wasn't over yet!
Renzo's expression turned solemn. A fierce purple light flashed beneath his clothes, illuminating his entire body like a miniature Thanos.
He connected the Power Stone to Mjolnir, embedding it into the hammer as Ronan had done, and gained the power and authority capable of destroying Xandar.
With this power, repairing Mjolnir would not be a problem.
Renzo tentatively swung Thor's hammer, his arms going numb from the effort.
"Sure enough..." Renzo sighed helplessly. Although he could summon thunder, he could not wield the true power of the God of Thunder. The amount of power he could use was still limited. Even Jane Foster couldn't do that much; at most, like Steve, he could summon lightning.
As expected, Renzo wasn't too disappointed. He assumed a baseball stance, his eyes filled with confidence.
"Come on, baby. I'll hit them all. One shot straight through your soul!"
Wanda couldn't bear it anymore. Phoenix flames transformed into a long blade as the woman leaned forward and slid across the ground, leaving faint scorch marks in her wake along with the smell of charred flesh.
Rumble!
Thunder and flames collided. As expected, Mjolnir was instantly shattered by the blow, but the Phoenix fire was also dispersed by the thunder and scattered across the ground.
The first clash ended in a draw.
Renzo touched his neck and couldn't help sighing. "That was dangerous. I almost got my neck cut again."
Before he could think about his next move, severe pain suddenly shot through his shoulders. The penetrating sensation stimulated every nerve in his body. He felt as though he had been lifted into the air and was being dragged along helplessly.
The man's face was filled with both pleasure and pain... It was such a fascinating feeling!
His body was extremely hard, and its density could be adjusted like vibranium. Therefore, it wasn't that Wanda's attack was overwhelmingly powerful. Renzo had deliberately lowered his body's strength. The one-hit-kill strategy had existed ever since he first crossed over years ago, but he hadn't needed to use it for quite some time.
With a wave of his hand, fragments of Thor's hammer flew back from all directions, forcing Wanda to release Renzo.
But Renzo's goal was not to recall Thor's hammer.
The fragments of Mjolnir climbed up Wanda's left leg and continued shrinking, as if they had been glued to her. Wanda hurriedly tried to shake them off. If this continued, the pressure would crush the bones in her leg.
Phoenix fire wrapped around the fragments. Unfortunately, Uru metal could not be melted by ordinary heat. After all, it was one of the hardest metals in the universe, an existence comparable to Adamantium and vibranium. The incomplete Phoenix power could not accomplish it.
Renzo immediately switched tactics, opening another spatial passage. At the same time, the golden beam of light emitted by the Mind Stone struck Wanda's head directly, leaving her dazed for a moment.
Crimson particles emerged from the man's body.
The Ether, the Reality Stone, began to exert its power.
Wanda suddenly felt the power within her body draining away.
No!
It was being taken from her!
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