Chapter Summaries

Wanda Maximoff investigated the aftermath of a Kamar-Taj ritual that had burned out the Arcanists’ brains as the Emperor’s forces attacked the Psionic Barrier. Mordo prepared to oppose the Emperor, while Amon shifted the assault to precision strikes as the barrier retreated before the Emperor.

• Wanda Maximoff examined the dead Arcanists and concluded that Psionic Backlash had burned their brains, while Amon reported that the ash contained matter from another dimension.
• Wanda Maximoff reviewed records identifying the victims and wondered whether an ascetic from the Emperor’s photographs had been involved in the ritual.
• Mordo told Master Daniel that he would join the secret rite against the Emperor and showed him a manuscript proposing to place Kamar-Taj under the Emperor’s control.
• Master Daniel questioned when Mordo had found the manuscript and suggested he had not had time to read it since the attack began.
• Amon ordered the artillery to pause, directed supply convoys to deliver ammunition, and prepared reconnaissance drones to guide precision bombardment as the Emperor’s advance contracted the Psionic Barrier.

Wanda Maximoff used a fear-inducing spell to disrupt the Arcanists maintaining Kamar-Taj’s Psionic Shield, while Mordo attacked the source of the disturbance. After the Praetorian Guard shattered the barrier, the Emperor advanced with his Sacred Sword drawn.

• The Emperor’s team coordinated precision bombardments with Wanda Maximoff’s spell as they approached the Sixth Courtyard.
• Wanda Maximoff entered the Sea of Aether, resisted its temptations, and used a spell to fill the Arcanists maintaining the shield with fear.
• Mordo entered the first Arcanist’s mind and plunged into a crimson sea of Psionic Energy to attack the heart-like source of the disturbance.
• Tatyana fired an explosive round into the weakened Psionic Shield, triggering a chain reaction that shattered it.
• Praetorian Guard Amphitryon steadied the dizzy Wanda Maximoff, who saw the Emperor advance with his Sacred Sword drawn.

Mordo awoke after the ritual and learned that Master Daniel had vanished and the enemy had reached the Seventh Hub. As the assault turned against supernatural defenses, Caveira was wounded and pulled from the fighting while Tatyana confronted an Arcanist.

• Mordo awoke from Psionic Backlash, learned that the monks were trapped in a labyrinth, and asked what rituals the survivors could still use.
• Caveira joined the assault on the Seventh Hub, where smoke-formed monsters attacked the soldiers and wounded her.
• Tatyana destroyed the bronze incense burner, revealing an Arcanist who fought her with a geometric shield and blocked rounds.
• A Battle Sister destroyed a smoke beast and helped Caveira, who was dragged away from the firefight by her comrades.
• A medic treated Caveira's wounds and removed her from the coming battle despite her protest.

Mordo prepared Kamar-Taj’s defenses as the Emperor’s forces broke through, while the Aether Wave left the Sorcerer Supreme missing from the Sea of Aether. The Emperor reached the Seventh Hub and demanded to know what Mordo had done.

• Mordo found no trace of the Sorcerer Supreme in the Sea of Aether and ordered the Arcanists to take the Yggsal Elixir and join the ritual.
• Mordo positioned crimson mirrors near the courtyard gate and told his apprentices to be ready to die defending Kamar-Taj.
• An Arcanist’s attack crushed a First Secret Regiment marksman, and the medic and Caveira tried to keep him alive.
• Praetorian Guard Amon broke through the Arcanists’ shields as the Emperor’s forces advanced toward the Seventh Hub.
• The Emperor entered the Seventh Hub amid the mirrors’ radiant light and shouted, “Mordo! What have you done?”

Wanda Maximoff reached the Seventh Nexus after the Emperor had defeated Mordo and uncovered how Wanda’s magic had helped redirect the ascetics. The Emperor’s forces controlled the courtyard, and Wanda wondered why Kamar-Taj had resisted the invasion so weakly.

• Wanda Maximoff climbed toward the Seventh Nexus, anxious that the Emperor would judge the results of her independent magical work.
• Mordo accused the Emperor of seeking control over Kamar-Taj, but the Emperor challenged him to reveal what he had seen and threatened him with death.
• Mordo activated the crimson mirrors, which teleported the ascetics to Kathmandu instead of Saturn, while the Emperor also made the affected Arcanists disappear.
• The Emperor explained that he had connected the ascetics, the courtyard, and Wanda through a photograph and a spell combining her magic with his preparations.
• The Emperor condemned Mordo’s reliance on prophecy, and Mordo attacked before Amon knocked him unconscious and took his Dragon Fang Sword.
• Wanda arrived to find Mordo unconscious and the courtyard cleared, then passed through the unhostile crowd and wondered why Kamar-Taj had performed so poorly.

The Emperor assumed command of Kamar-Taj and entered the courtyard alone to meet the Sorcerer Supreme. Outside, Athena explained the cost of the Sorcerer Supreme’s power to Wanda Maximoff, while the Emperor and his teacher began a final chess game that would leave Kamar-Taj independent of the Sea of Souls.

• Master Daniel formally recognized the Emperor’s authority over Kamar-Taj and warned him that a dark storm was approaching.
• The Emperor assigned daily affairs to Master Hamir, Master Wu Guiyue, and Cassilius, then ordered the Praetorian Guard to wait outside as he entered the courtyard alone.
• Athena helped Wanda Maximoff endure the climb to the courtyard and told her the Sorcerer Supreme’s soul was bound by the duties and costs of the office.
• The Emperor met the Sorcerer Supreme in a dark, desolate place and played chess with her as she said she could no longer help him beyond giving prophecies.
• Athena said the Emperor would free the Sorcerer Supreme and that Kamar-Taj would become independent from the Sea of Souls.

The Sorcerer Supreme and the Emperor discussed Camelot’s inevitable fall and the danger manipulating her, while a psychic battle with the Aether storm threatened Kamar-Taj. As the storm began affecting reality, Wanda Maximoff learned she had been assigned to help defend the Planetary Defense System and took out Golden Honey Wine.

• The Sorcerer Supreme told the Emperor that Camelot was destined to fall and asked him for a way to avert the Battle of Camlann.
• The Emperor vowed to drive out whatever was manipulating the Sorcerer Supreme, but she warned him that she was describing his death.
• The Aether storm battered Kamar-Taj’s defenses as Wanda Maximoff and Athena sensed that the lighthouse in the Emperor’s memories was affecting reality.
• Amphitryon told Wanda Maximoff to help Master Daniel maintain the Planetary Defense System, and Amon restored her suppressed memories by speaking a code phrase.
• Wanda Maximoff remembered the system’s operating procedures and keys, then took a bottle of Golden Honey Wine from her pouch.

The Sorcerer Supreme confronted the Emperor with a horrific vision of the Sava River and urged him to face the outcome of his projections. Meanwhile, Master Daniel brought Wanda Maximoff and the others into Kamar-Taj’s control center to examine the Planetary Defense System, while the group waited for the Emperor.

• The Sorcerer Supreme showed the Emperor the Sava River’s corpses and told him he had to face humanity’s collective filth.
• The Sorcerer Supreme’s control faltered as the stars raced across the sky, and she urged the Emperor to see the final outcome of his models.
• Master Daniel escorted Wanda Maximoff and Praetorian Guard Amphitryon through Kamar-Taj’s artifact hall, warning them about dangerous objects.
• Master Daniel explained to Wanda how celestial magic and Idol Magic combined in the Planetary Defense System.
• Stephen Strange asked whether they would wait there for the Emperor, but no one answered as Athena and Praetorian Guard Amon stood watch.

Athena waited outside the courtyard while Amon guarded the Emperor’s orders, as fighting inside Kamar-Taj cost the attackers their heaviest losses yet. Wanda Maximoff returned from a random teleportation trap, and Master Daniel revealed the Eye of Agamotto as the key to Kamar-Taj’s Planetary Defense System.

• Athena praised Amon’s abilities and considered how the Praetorian Guard could help her plans for Mount Olympus, while Amon waited for the courtyard gates to open.
• Sherlock Holmes saw the Aether storm and hurt his eyes, while a middle-aged Arcanist advised him to recite a calming incantation.
• Tatyana attacked an Arcanist whose smoky spirit form escaped the meditation hall, but she and the soldiers destroyed it, leaving the attackers with their heaviest losses since assaulting Kamar-Taj.
• Wanda Maximoff returned from a random teleportation trap, and Master Daniel criticized her for failing her teleportation courses.
• Master Daniel rang a bronze bell and revealed the Eye of Agamotto, explaining that it could still control Kamar-Taj’s Planetary Defense System.

Wanda Maximoff and Master Daniel prepared to restore Kamar-Taj’s Planetary Defense System while Master Hamir and Master Wu Guiyue debated the Emperor’s methods and the price of humanity’s survival. In the collective subconscious, the Emperor faced the Sorcerer Supreme as a looming psychic disaster began its second phase, and she asked whether he had planned for her death.

• Master Daniel explained that Kamar-Taj’s Planetary Defense System connected the planet’s energy nodes, and Praetorian Guard Amphitryon ordered him to help Wanda Maximoff restore it.
• Wanda read an old manual describing Agamotto’s system and the later Arcanists’ efforts to study it amid disasters and plagues.
• On the Moon, Master Hamir worried that the Emperor would seek dangerous power, while Master Wu Guiyue defended his choices as necessary for humanity’s survival.
• The Emperor asked whether the Sorcerer Supreme could resist the entities waiting beyond the darkness, and she said they could not easily control her thoughts or actions.
• The Emperor said the disaster would increase the number of human Psionics and that the second phase of the campaign had begun, prompting the Sorcerer Supreme to ask if he had included her death in his projections.

The Emperor met the dying Sorcerer Supreme in a mental landscape, where she urged him to leave and confront the force threatening the Material Universe. After mourning her disappearance, he drove back the shadowy predators with Psionic Static and a Sacred Sword, while Wanda Maximoff’s touch of the Eye of Agamotto sent her into a vision where her Psionic Power healed a wounded soldier.

• The Emperor gave the weakened Sorcerer Supreme water as she explained that she was tired of her duty and intended to die.
• The Sorcerer Supreme told the Emperor that her hidden personality had been found, revealed that she knew he had foreseen this moment ten years earlier, and urged him to go.
• The Sorcerer Supreme sent the Emperor toward the coast as darkness and venomous predators closed in around her.
• The Emperor faced a vast shadow beneath the sea, then used Psionic Static and a Sacred Sword to drive back the malice gathering around the chessboard.
• Wanda Maximoff touched the Eye of Agamotto and entered a vision of soldiers treating a badly wounded person.
• Wanda’s Psionic Power repaired the wounded person’s blood vessel and injuries, prompting a sergeant to urge the military doctor to continue treating them.

Wanda Maximoff connected with the Eye of Agamotto and the Planetary Defense System, declaring that she had seen someone Behind the Curtain. Praetorian Guard Amphitryon ordered Master Daniel to warn Kamar-Taj about Morgan le Fay, while the Emperor followed a crimson thread to a palace across a violent sea.

• Wanda Maximoff imagined a safe palace amid the sea of the collective unconscious as she grappled with the suffering she had witnessed.
• Tatyana ordered her soldiers to restrain the surrendering Psionics and kill Baron Mordo only if he resisted.
• Wanda Maximoff entered the palace and touched the Eye of Agamotto, linking with the Planetary Defense System.
• Wanda Maximoff told Master Daniel she had seen someone and called for him, while Amphitryon stopped Master Daniel from intervening.
• Amphitryon ordered Master Daniel to reveal the Darkhold and warn Kamar-Taj that Morgan le Fay could escape her prison.
• The Emperor followed a dark crimson thread across the sea to a palace and heard Wanda say, “I heard you, Wanda.”

Wanda Maximoff and Praetorian Guard Amphitryon pulled the Emperor back from the Sea of Aether, where he had gone searching for the Sorcerer Supreme. The Emperor emerged in the middle of a fight, and a smaller figure followed him out of the incense-filled courtyard.

• Bayonetta read a letter describing the Emperor's belief that humanity would eventually make him ordinary and leave him at peace.
• Wanda Maximoff located the Emperor in the Sea of Aether and warned that predators were waiting beneath its surface.
• Wanda Maximoff and Praetorian Guard Amphitryon pulled the Emperor into the Material Universe while Master Daniel placed protective spells around them.
• The Emperor returned to the courtyard and, with Amon and Athena, attacked an invisible being until a deep-purple vortex swallowed it.
• A relatively small figure walked out of the courtyard as Athena struggled to breathe through the incense.

The Emperor and Amon entered a distorted Mirror Dimension to confront the threat around the Sorcerer Supreme while Athena held back the Arcanists. As the Planetary Defense System affected people across the world, Amon found that the dimension’s strange forms shattered like glass when attacked.

• The Emperor stopped Amon from striking the unseen foe, identified the courtyard as a Mirror Dimension, and ordered the Arcanists to use banishment spells on themselves.
• The Emperor and Amon entered the smoke to reach the Sorcerer Supreme while Athena guarded the courtyard and ordered the other Arcanists to retreat.
• Stephen Strange demanded an explanation, but Athena refused to reveal the truth and warned him to leave.
• Tatyana learned that an Aether spiritual entity disguised as the Sorcerer Supreme had given the Arcanists their orders, and Baron Mordo called the returning Arcanists traitors.
• The Planetary Defense System drained emotional responses from people near its anchor points, while Master Daniel admitted he did not know whether the effects were reversible.
• Amon asked where they were and attacked a distorted humanlike figure, which shattered into glass shards.

The Emperor and Amon fought through the collapsing Mirror Dimension to confront Dormammu, who had possessed the Sorcerer Supreme. The Emperor recovered the hidden Time Stone and attacked Dormammu, but their battle over temporal magic continued with the Emperor pinned in place.

• Amon guarded the Emperor from mirror creatures while the Emperor gradually restored order to the Mirror Dimension.
• The Emperor confronted Dormammu, who refused to leave the Sorcerer Supreme’s body and tried to persuade him to join the Dark Dimension.
• The Emperor extracted the Time Stone hidden in the Sorcerer Supreme’s soul, and Dormammu admitted that she was still alive within the body.
• Amon and the Emperor attacked Dormammu, breaking its shields and allowing the Emperor to stab it with the Sacred Sword.
• Dormammu used temporal magic to resist, seized the Sacred Sword, and trapped the Emperor in a struggle over time spells while Amon could not move.

The Emperor and Dormammu reversed time to enter a Mirror Dimension, where each held leverage over the other and searched for the dimension’s weakness. As Dormammu advanced, Wanda Maximoff struggled to maintain the Planetary Defense System, while Master Daniel and Amphitryon tried to keep her alive.

• Dormammu taunted the Emperor with the Praetorian Guard’s remaining shackles and proposed another contest, and the Emperor accepted.
• The Emperor and Dormammu rewound time, restored the Sorcerer Supreme’s body, and entered the Mirror Dimension with the Praetorian Guard.
• Dormammu revealed the Mirror Dimension and approached the Emperor, who suspected an unknown variable and began preparing a counterattack.
• Wanda Maximoff endured visions of the Unliving and the pressure of the Planetary Defense System while drawing energy from her Serpent Bone Staff.
• Amphitryon supported Wanda as Master Daniel said he could not use the Eye of Agamotto to relieve her and went to find ice.

The Emperor and Amon fought Dormammu in the Mirror Dimension as it wielded the Sorcerer Supreme’s body and the Dragon Fang Sword. The Emperor wounded Dormammu with a spell involving the Time Stone, while Tatyana tried to force Mordo to reveal where the sword had been stored.

• The Emperor halted Dormammu and the descending Skeleton Church with the Shield of Seraphim, then pursued the enemy through the Mirror Dimension with Amon and the Praetorian Guard.
• Tatyana questioned Mordo about the Dragon Fang Sword and threatened to kill him when he refused to answer.
• Dormammu attacked the Emperor with the Dragon Fang Sword as Amon fought off the Ghosts surrounding the group.
• Dormammu taunted the Emperor about Hell and the war across dimensions while they clashed in the valley.
• The Emperor pierced Dormammu’s chest, triggering an explosion and emerald-green spells, then said he had learned whether the Time Stone could be affected by time magic.

Amphitryon guarded Wanda Maximoff while Amon and the Emperor fought Dormammu amid the collapsing Mirror Dimension. The Emperor unleashed Falting's Fire, revealing that he could draw power from Dormammu's former homeworld.

• Amphitryon warned Master Daniel that an enemy had infiltrated the hall and asked him to protect Wanda Maximoff while he hunted it.
• The Emperor deflected Dormammu's Dragon Fang Sword with the Sacred Sword, and Dormammu's borrowed body began shedding ashes.
• The Skeleton Church fell into the battlefield as Ghosts swarmed the Praetorian Guard and the Emperor fought Dormammu through the shifting terrain.
• Amon rushed to aid the Emperor, was stabbed in the side by Dormammu's Dragon Fang Sword, and grabbed its blade until it vanished and reappeared in Dormammu's hand.
• The Emperor resumed his assault while Amon fired at the Ghosts, and Dormammu roared as the Emperor unleashed Falting's Fire from the planet Falting.

The Emperor defeated Dormammu as the Sorcerer Supreme’s body was freed from his possession, but he honored her final request by killing her with the Witch’s Blade. As the collapsing space cleared, a voice urged the Emperor to kill Morgan le Fay, and he set out with Amon.

• Amon charged through the ash storm toward the Emperor while Master Daniel warned Amphitryon that Wanda Maximoff was dying and could not hold on much longer.
• The Emperor drove the Sacred Sword through Dormammu’s possessed body, expelling Dormammu and freeing the Sorcerer Supreme’s body from his corruption.
• The Sorcerer Supreme asked the Emperor to kill her before her body lost consciousness, and he stabbed her in the heart with the Witch’s Blade.
• The Emperor stood with the Sorcerer Supreme’s cooling corpse as the Ghosts, Skeleton Churches, and burning clouds vanished from the collapsing space.
• A voice told the Emperor to kill Morgan le Fay; he acknowledged hearing it, secured the Time Stone with Amon, and said they had to leave.

After Wanda Maximoff survived a dangerous loss of control, the Emperor carried the Sorcerer Supreme’s body from Kamar-Taj and ordered her buried in the catacombs. He then asked the Watchers to lead him to Agamotto’s Tomb, where he intended to retrieve a key.

• Amphitryon reported that Wanda Maximoff’s mission was complete, and Master Daniel helped restore her condition while Amphitryon warned that the Emperor’s vision required humanity to share common responsibilities.
• The Emperor stopped Athena from giving him the Golden Laurel Wreath and carried the Sorcerer Supreme’s broken body past the shocked Arcanists, while Praetorian Guard Amon blocked them from following.
• The Emperor said the Sorcerer Supreme would be buried in Kamar-Taj’s catacombs, and Athena asked what had happened.
• After Amphitryon reported that Wanda Maximoff was recovering, the Emperor removed her from the order of battle and asked the Watchers to lead him to Agamotto’s Tomb for its key.
• The Emperor entered the catacombs with Athena and the Praetorian Guard, and the Watchers went to retrieve the key.