After the Battle of New York, Annie no longer had to go to school for the time being. After all, she was now a hot topic and a major figure: the Avengers' number-one powerhouse! Their strongest member! That wasn't just her own opinion; it was what all the citizens of New York and internet users agreed on.
Ever since the major TV networks aired footage of her battles, countless people had started praising and idolizing her, and she'd gained tens of thousands of fanatical followers. Annie even had a new nickname now: the Flame Goddess! Of course, there were also plenty of ill-intentioned people who feared and cursed her.
But Annie didn't have the slightest interest in any of that right now. What mattered more to her was the Space Stone—and the right way to use it. Once she'd thought of someone in a certain place who should be able to use the Space Stone to send her back to Valoran, she'd decided she wasn't going back to school. That was basically the situation.
As for how to explain things to the school and her teachers, that was something Coulson and Aunt Melinda could worry about. She wasn't going to bother with it! Right now, all she could think about was going home, going home. Anyone who dared get in her way was going to get beaten up! The consequences of stopping Annie from going home would be terrible. That bad blacksmith had tried to steal her stone yesterday, and she still had a bellyful of anger with nowhere to vent it!
So now Annie was standing at the entrance to 177A Bleecker Street in Manhattan, New York. This was the New York Sanctum of that circle-drawing wizard organization called Kamar-Taj. The thing Annie wanted would probably have to come from the wizards of Kamar-Taj.
As for how Annie knew this was the New York Sanctum? Come on! A building had brazenly put up a magic array that blocked detection devices and kept ordinary people out, along with spells that confused and drove them away. On top of that, it had been built at an important magical node on Earth. If this wasn't their Sanctum, then perhaps Annie didn't need to ask them for knowledge of spatial magic after all. What could you expect from an organization that couldn't even choose a good location for its Mage Tower?
"Annie, are you sure this is the place belonging to those people who attacked us last time, then got caught by you? The place called the New York Sanctum?" Outside the entrance to the old building, Coulson, Melinda, and Annie were sitting in a black SUV. The S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicle was parked right by the curb in front of it.
Normally, if Coulson and the others had come here on their own, they wouldn't have noticed the place at all. Magic would have made them overlook it and instinctively leave. But things were different now: Annie was with them, so this low-level repulsion magic couldn't affect them in the slightest. They were lucky enough to see what a building in the Wizarding World really looked like.
"Yep, this is it! There seem to be several places like this on Earth, but this one's closest, so I came here first." Annie could clearly sense several Sanctums on Earth. She'd never paid them any attention before because there'd been no need, but now things were different. She needed the spatial knowledge held by their organization.
Annie had been to Uncle Nick the Black Cinderhead's office last time. There, she'd sensed that some powerful Space Master had once visited, because the magical fluctuations left behind were still quite obvious. Naturally, Annie could feel them.
They had to have been left behind by a powerful spatial mage. The curious thing was that the person's Mirror Space hadn't affected the office in the slightest. That was exactly why Annie was certain they were a master of spatial magic.
If she wanted to get back to Valoran, she would definitely need the Space Stone. She also had to get help from this Space Master and use their knowledge of space as a reference. After all, Annie's greatest strength was fire magic. She could just about manage teleportation within a planet, but she was helpless when it came to long-distance teleportation between planets.
Before coming here, Annie had asked Uncle Black Cinderhead about the wizard he'd met that day. He'd said that a bald female wizard had kidnapped him, and that her name was The Ancient One. She was the leader of an organization called Kamar-Taj. The other party also had a branch in New York called the New York Sanctum, but Uncle Black Cinderhead said he'd sent people to search far and wide and still hadn't found a trace of it.
It was such an obvious place, and he'd said he couldn't find it. Uncle Black Cinderhead's subordinates were really useless. Annie scoffed inwardly. But she didn't know where that powerful wizard, the Ancient One, was either. Finding a master of spatial magic was just too difficult.
Still, since this New York Sanctum was the Ancient One's territory, Annie had come to the right place. She just had to get someone inside to pass along the message. Annie was sure the wizard called the Ancient One would be willing to meet her.
"All right, since we're here, let's go in!"
Annie didn't want to waste any more time. She turned down Coulson's suggestion that they keep observing, opened the car door, and hopped out. Coulson and Melinda hurried after her. They'd already reported to the director, whose instructions were for them to cooperate with Annie while doing their best to observe and investigate the New York Sanctum.
As for this strange wizard organization that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't recognize and considered illegal, Director Nick Fury said he'd had a grudge against them for a long time and had wanted to shut them down for ages! A major reason he'd initially assembled the Avengers was that he'd been provoked by the bald female wizard, the Ancient One, who had once coerced him.
He'd never been able to find the other party or figure out what they were capable of, so the matter had dragged on until now. That damn thief of a bald monk! Ahem, wrong again! Director Nick Fury the Black Cinderhead felt that now Loki's business had been settled and the Battle of New York was winding down, it was time to get ready to deal with this unruly group of wizards. Of course, it would be even better if they could recruit them! S.H.I.E.L.D. would gladly welcome a group of wizards into its ranks—provided they were willing to follow orders from the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
After getting out of the car, Annie walked properly up to the Sanctum's entrance. She looked at the mysterious magical runes on the door and the abundant magical energy flowing through them, then nodded with satisfaction.
The familiar fluctuations confirmed that this Mage Tower was the place she'd been looking for! She stepped forward and used magic to rap lightly on the door twice. She was sure her action would make the people inside open up. The knock spell had just shown them her strength; unless the wizards inside were idiots, they'd recognize the difference in power and come open the door.
Some time passed after Annie knocked—about five minutes—but there was still no response from inside. She heard no footsteps, and there wasn't the slightest sign that anyone was going to open the door! Were all the wizards inside nocturnal animals? Did they sleep during the day? There was no other reason they wouldn't come open the door! Annie wondered, then decided to wait a little longer...
"Annie, what's going on now?" After nearly ten minutes had passed since Annie knocked, and there was still no movement inside the building, Coulson and Melinda exchanged a look. Coulson asked her.
"..." Annie frowned and thought seriously for a while. Then her patience ran out! She'd already knocked politely! And they still wouldn't open the door? Well, then, they couldn't blame her. Hmph! Magic enhancement: Bull's Strength!
"Annie? Uh..." Coulson had been about to ask another question when he saw Annie's dark expression. She lifted her leg and kicked once, sending the wooden door flying open! Both wooden panels flew straight into the building. Nobody knew what they'd smashed, but the clattering crash of something breaking rang out.
"All right, let's go in!" Annie clapped her hands and nodded in satisfaction at the force of her kick, then beckoned for the stunned Coulson and Melinda to follow her inside.
Sure enough, Annie thought, this sort of simple, brute-force approach suited her temperament best! They'd brought this on themselves by refusing to open the door. She'd knocked properly—very properly, even. They'd forced her to kick it in. They deserved it! She'd already shown restraint by not blowing up the door with a Fireball.
"Wow, looks like there's been a fight in here!"
The three of them walked into the building's main hall and awkwardly surveyed the wreckage. Don't get the wrong idea: Annie hadn't caused this with her kick. At most, she'd broken two wooden doors. Nearly everything in here had already been destroyed, probably in a major battle. The hall was full of bodies and bloodstains, along with all kinds of traces left by spells.
More importantly, this Sanctum, which looked like a Mage Tower, had been completely wrecked. It had lost the basic functions of a Mage Tower. They might not have been able to tell from outside, but once they were in, Annie could sense it clearly: someone had maliciously destroyed its energy nodes, and they'd lost their original purpose.
"Could this be... an internal conflict? Do wizards kill one another too?" Coulson and Melinda split up and looked around. As agents, it was easy for them to reach a conclusion.
As they saw it, two groups had been fighting, and judging by the traces, neither side was ordinary. Their scattered weapons weren't modern firearms. They were all sorts of strange objects. That was enough to make it pretty clear: the wizards who'd originally been here had fought with another group of wizards.
"This isn't fun anymore." Annie had been looking forward to coming here to learn about spatial magic. But now she'd walked into this?
They'd even smashed up the Mage Tower! What on earth had they been so angry about? If they had to fight, couldn't they have waited until after she'd gotten what she wanted? Now Annie didn't even have anyone to ask for directions. That was just awful!
"Oh? Looks like I've found something else!" Annie, who'd been sulking, suddenly sensed something. A powerful dark presence was descending! Its location seemed to be on the other side of the planet. And it was near another Mage Tower that looked a lot like this one? That should be another of their Sanctums, right? If so, she might as well go take a look. Maybe she'd find the Ancient One there? Yep! That was the plan!
"Hey! Annie?" Coulson was searching the other side of the building when he suddenly saw a flash of blue Arcane Flash flare around Annie. Before he could ask what was happening, she had vanished. Coulson knew she'd teleported somewhere.
"Coulson, what should we do now?" Melinda had no idea why Annie had run off by herself, so she could only ask Coulson.
She'd just given the building a quick search, and there were no survivors.
But there were still plenty of strange things. Some of the windows seemed to be Space Gates that led to different places. It was incredible! When Melinda had opened one of them, she'd nearly lost her footing and fallen into the ocean. She was still shaken and didn't dare touch anything else.
"What else can we do? Call headquarters and have them send people over to take control of the place right away." Since there was no one left in charge, the place would belong to S.H.I.E.L.D. from now on! Coulson was sure the director would be pleased with his decision. Nothing would make him happier than S.H.I.E.L.D. getting its hands on a wizard's headquarters so easily.
Before you continue