Chaos Magic

Chthon, also known as the God of Black Magic, was one of the Elder Gods and among the earliest life forms on Earth. Even the ancient texts of Kamar-Taj only touched upon him briefly. He could be considered the source of most dark magic, his power immeasurably vast. Even Dormammu, the evil god of the Dark Dimension, and Mephisto, the ruler of Hell, treaded carefully around this ancient deity.

Now standing before Michael was the black-clad girl, the Scarlet Witch, and the power surging from her like a tidal wave was the same Chaos Magic as that demon god's—though not yet as formidable.

The energy building within the crimson waves seemed to reach a critical point, an oppressive force suffocating enough to dominate the hall. The girl's coat hem was lifted by the magic, her reddish-brown hair whipping wildly in the magical storm. She spread her slender arms, her delicate fingers like a conductor's baton, and the dark red Chaos Magic was the symphony she commanded.

With a sweep of her arms, the surging magic filling the hall was set in motion. It rolled across the space, coalescing into a dark red torrent as it lunged at her opponent, like a water dragon roaring with bared fangs.

Michael raised his palm, magic spilling from his hand and forming a circular spell shield in the nick of time. The flood of Chaos Magic crashed into his shield, the impact forcing his alloy heels to slide back slightly, scraping tiny sparks across the floor.

Michael leaned back a little, his arm bending slightly as the spell shield wobbled like a lone boat in a tsunami under the overwhelming assault of Chaos Magic.

"Hmm, not bad," Michael muttered to himself.

He took half a step back, twisting his hand abruptly, and the spell shield spun rapidly in the same direction. The shield whirled like a centrifugal pump, scattering the concentrated Chaos Magic on contact, blasting the hall's walls full of holes.

Michael spun 180 degrees, letting out a low shout as he whipped a roundhouse kick into the torrent blocked by the shield. The kick, infused with special magic, shattered the magical wave, sending the suffocating energy dispersing back the way it came.

The Scarlet Witch stumbled back two steps with a gasp, the magic she had built up dissipating. She looked at Michael with some surprise, clearly caught off guard by his counter.

But she quickly recovered, dark red magical ripples filling her pupils again. A silver-white whirlwind stopped behind Michael, and a young man in a jet-black coat with silver hair halted there, holding a metal baton in each hand.

The Twins had Michael surrounded, front and back. The Scarlet Witch spread her palms, and Chaos Magic resumed its flow. Quicksilver flexed his joints, crouched slightly, and shifted his right foot back, like an arrow nocked on a drawn bow.

The Scarlet Witch let out a sharp cry and hurled a ball of magic energy. Michael swatted it away with his arm, but Quicksilver moved at the same moment. He dashed forward, leaving a long white trail as he circled Michael at high speed.

"Sherry, track his movement path, calculate all possible directions, and mark them on my display," Michael ordered.

"Already on it, sir."

Michael couldn't keep up with Quicksilver's speed, but that didn't mean his supercomputer couldn't. With Sherry's help, Michael raised his arm without looking, and a self-aiming micro-missile trailed black smoke toward a predicted path, cutting off Quicksilver's next move.

Sherry executed her prediction flawlessly, but the missile's speed wasn't enough to finish the job. Quicksilver's dynamic vision caught the incoming missile mid-motion, and he sidestepped half a meter to avoid it, watching it crawl toward him in slow motion before adjusting his course and charging at Michael again.

What he didn't know was that this wasn't a standard high-explosive missile—its warhead was a custom "Lotus Bomb." Sherry timed the detonation perfectly, just as Quicksilver passed by. Fire and thick smoke expanded rapidly, and countless metal shards burst from the blast point, spinning out like a rain of hidden weapons.

The hot blast chased his neck, and Quicksilver glanced back, sucking in a sharp breath. But he held it, kicked off the ground, and forced another burst of speed, dodging sideways several meters out of the shrapnel's range before regaining his balance and charging at Michael again.

Yet, as if his evasive route had been predicted, a second Lotus Bomb missile shot out right where he landed, meeting him head-on. Quicksilver had to dodge again, the Lotus Bomb exploding once more, and he forced another acceleration to evade. The whole process repeated like a carbon copy, except Quicksilver had halved the distance between them.

A third missile blocked Quicksilver's path again, but with two rounds of experience, he handled it smoothly. He sidestepped the missile and its shrapnel spread, arcing around in an obtuse angle to reach Michael's direct rear.

The thick smoke from the three bombs reduced visibility in the hall to a minimum, but at this distance, Quicksilver could still make out Michael's silhouette through the haze. He lunged forward, his form like a lightning bolt tearing through the smoke toward Michael's back.

Michael spun around, kicking backward without looking, as if he had eyes in the back of his head. The steel boot's wind pressure pierced the smoke like a spike, and the white blur arrived at that exact moment, landing a direct hit!

Quicksilver saw the kick coming as he burst through the smoke, but at such high speed, he couldn't change direction in time. He could only raise his arm in a dull block. A heavy thud rang out as the white blur seemed to crash into Michael's backward kick on its own, sending Quicksilver tumbling through the air several times before slamming into a load-bearing pillar.

This kick seemed like a coincidence, but it was the result of meticulous calculation and precise baiting. With Sherry's superior dynamic capture and computing abilities, Michael had accurately predicted Quicksilver's movement path. He then used the three Lotus Bombs to bait him into following a calculated evasion route, ensuring Quicksilver appeared exactly at the predetermined spot behind the armor at the precise moment.

Quicksilver's body could withstand the strain of supersonic movement, so his physique was exceptional. Still, if Michael hadn't deliberately held back by reducing the leg power system's output and avoiding vital points, Quicksilver would have been instantly killed.

"Pietro!"

The Scarlet Witch shouted her brother's name as Chaos Magic erupted violently, forcing the thick smoke out of the hall.

Visibility cleared, and the black-clad girl's coat hem fluttered as dark red ripples slowly spun around her like blooming flowers. She fixed her gaze on Michael, the turbulent magic in the air forming a crimson domain where every element obeyed her command.

Michael launched himself upward, his jetpack roaring at full power, spewing two long flames that propelled him into the air. But the magic chased him from below like it had a mind of its own. The crimson Chaos energy climbed up his legs, wrapping around his torso like chains. Boundless magical force, under the girl's direction, seeped into every tiny gap in the armor like water finding cracks, threatening to tear the Black Armor apart from the inside out.

Perhaps the Scarlet Witch was too focused on her spellcasting to notice the real threat approaching from behind. The Pulse Cannon blast struck her back without any resistance, sending her light frame flying, and the gathered Chaos Magic dissipated instantly.

The real Michael slowly lowered his arm behind her, while the illusion caught in the Chaos Magic vanished into thin air after completing its mission.

Clone illusions, always handy, especially when bullying inexperienced newcomers.

Still, the Scarlet Witch's performance had surprised him a little. The Chaos Magic energy she unleashed was practically bottomless, and this clearly wasn't her full power. But she seemed to treat it like mere telekinesis, completely missing the point. She was like a baby clutching a treasure vault, possessing terrifying magic but only scratching the surface.

With proper guidance, she might become a formidable mage in the future.

Both Twins had fallen, seemingly incapacitated for now. Michael took a couple of steps forward when a glaring red warning icon flashed on his display. Sensors indicated something rising vertically from beneath the hall, moving fast.

Michael retreated swiftly, tail flames from the armor's waist sides pushing him back several meters. The hall floor, scoured clean by the magical waves, burst apart with a thunderous groan. A massive steel figure broke through the ground, standing like a mountain before him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Dr. Norton." Baron Strucker's grim voice echoed through the steel armor's speakers, resounding across the cracked hall. "Now, I'm ready to talk."