Loki's Grandstanding Fails, Ren Secretly Cuts Off His Magic!

"Hamir... if I remember right, you developed that move, didn't you?"

A Master turned his head and asked blankly.

Hamir's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. His lips trembled.

What the hell!

He had created the spell, all right, but it was definitely not supposed to look like that!

He wanted to cry. He was so frantic he could have torn out his beard.

He had developed the spell back then purely to show off, making it a complicated piece of flash with no substance.

Aside from binding people, the thing could not even cut through a wooden stick. It had no offensive power whatsoever!

"Hamir, you old bastard, were you holding out on us?"

A colleague beside him pointed at the Light Screen. "You call a spell that wiped out tens of thousands of elite troops in one move 'no offensive power'?"

Hamir really did start crying. "It doesn't have any! How was I supposed to know why it turns into that monstrosity in Ren's hands?"

No matter how he explained, the Masters around him rolled their eyes in unison. They clearly did not believe him.

What kind of cosmic joke is this?

High-grade alien alloy armor could take countless advanced destructive spells without so much as a scratch.

Ren had shredded more than a dozen warships in an instant with a lousy rope, and that was supposed to have no offensive power?

If that did not count as offensive power, there was not a lethal weapon on Earth!

The Masters desperately tried to convince themselves.

Ren had to be using a different version. It absolutely was not because they were too weak.

Otherwise, their centuries of magical training would be one colossal joke.

To preserve the faith of all Kamar-Taj, Wong took a deep breath and declared, "Pass the word. Ren used an Ultimate Secret Technique the Sorcerer Supreme taught him in private!"

Everyone nodded furiously, relieved.

"Ren saved us all. He's a hero of Kamar-Taj," Wong added.

After today, Ren's name would be etched into the memory of every sorcerer.

At the front line.

The clamor stopped dead.

They had won the battle, but the tens of thousands of sorcerers on the ground did not cheer. Instead, they felt stifled beyond belief.

They had not even gotten a chance to fight before one man killed all the monsters.

Was this guy's Magic Power infinite?

Even the Sorcerer Supreme going all out wasn't this fierce!

Fortunately, the Space Portal had not closed completely. Before long, another wave of alien troops slipped through.

After Ren's massive purge, this wave had far fewer enemies. The sorcerers finally got their chance to contribute and crushed them with ease.

Seeing the situation stabilize, Ren suppressed his aura, tore open a Portal, and stepped into the command post at the rear.

"Masters, killing foot soldiers won't solve anything."

As soon as Ren entered the tent, he found several grandmaster-level figures staring at him as if he were a monster. Their gazes made his skin crawl.

He scratched his head and flashed his trademark bashful smile. "Masters, why are you staring at me like that?"

Wong pretended to cough twice and forced a stern expression, while inwardly he ranted.

You just cut through tens of thousands of alien regulars like cabbage. Do you have any idea what you've done?

"Ahem, it's nothing." Wong quickly composed himself. "What were you about to say?"

Ren's smile faded, and his expression turned serious. "We have to find a way to seal the Space Portal in the sky for good!"

"The Chitauri army is endless. As long as that portal stays open, they'll eventually bring their mothership through. Once the Interstellar Mothership reaches Earth, we won't be able to withstand concentrated fire from its main guns."

The cosmos was vast. Across its many star systems, the Chitauri army might rank near the bottom.

But to Earth as it stood now, they were still an utterly devastating threat.

If they didn't close the portal, they could only wait to die!

"We tried. It won't work."

Wong's brow furrowed, his face dark as a storm.

"The Portal is wrapped in a strange, high-energy barrier. Every destructive spell Kamar-Taj has was thrown at it, and we couldn't even get a sound out of it."

The Masters sighed one after another.

Everyone knew sealing the portal was the key. Close the Space Portal, and the remaining alien grunts would be trapped.

The problem was, they could not break the shield!

Against this power governed by the Cosmic Source, the sorcerers' methods seemed laughable.

"I have an idea."

Ren swept his gaze around the room and said with certainty, "The Mind Scepter in Loki's hand can pierce the energy shield."

The Tesseract and the Mind Scepter drew on the same source. Both held higher-dimensional energy of the same order.

Fight magic with magic, counter one gem with another. That was the only solution.

Wong's eyes lit up. He did not even ask how Ren knew such top-secret information.

"Pass the order! Locate Loki and seize the scepter at any cost!"

On the rooftop helipad of Stark Tower.

The remaining Avengers had assembled once more.

Battered and filthy, they surrounded the culprit behind the catastrophe.

"Loki, surrender!"

Thor raised Mjolnir, breathing hard.

"Surrender?"

Loki toyed with the long-handled scepter set with a blue gem, his eyes full of mockery.

"Have you lost your mind? I'm Asgard's greatest sorcerer. Surrender to a bunch of mortals like you? Dream on!"

The words had barely left his mouth.

"ROAR!"

Hulk had no patience for talk. He drove his legs into the ground, shattering it as he charged straight at Loki like a heavy tank.

Wind howled. His massive green fist was about to smash Loki's head.

Loki stood where he was, his smirk growing even more infuriating.

Whoosh!

Hulk's fist passed straight through Loki's body.

The afterimage vanished. Unable to stop, Hulk crashed through the thick glass curtain wall.

"Brainless beast."

Loki stepped slowly out of the shadows on the other side of the helipad, contempt written across his face.

Steve raised the Vibranium Shield and shouted, "You can't escape! Hand over the scepter!"

"Escape?"

Loki looked as though he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

He tapped his scepter.

Hum!

Light and shadow warped.

More than a dozen identical Lokis appeared out of thin air, surrounding the Avengers instead.

"Now, who's surrounded?"

The Lokis mocked them in unison, their voices overlapping.

Thor ground his teeth in anger.

In a straight fight, he could have wiped the floor with his brother.

But his divine power was almost spent. Against this elusive Illusion Magic, he was helpless.

The superheroes pressed back to back, bracing for an attack.

Savoring the thrill of a cat toying with mice, Loki declared at his leisure, "You can certainly fight. But look at you now. You can barely stand, while my army keeps coming!"

"After today, Earth will be mine to rule, and there won't be a scrap of you left!"

He raised the scepter high, fanaticism burning in his eyes.

"You won't get away with this!" Thor roared.

"What a clown."

Loki waved a hand. Steve took a heavy blow and flew backward, rolling across the ground in pain.

"I only let you capture me so I could turn you against each other. Did you really think you were that good?"

"ROAR—!"

Hulk climbed back out of the building and lunged furiously at the real Loki.

Loki shot him a disdainful glance and was about to shift into another illusion.

Suddenly!

His entire body stiffened. It was as though all the Magic Power had been drained from the space around him. His body felt heavy as lead; even moving a finger was beyond him!

Bang!

A dull thud rang out.

With no magic to protect him, Loki took a full-force hit from Hulk.

He flew like a cannonball and slammed into the concrete wall behind him, embedded so deep he could not be pried out.

The Avengers stared, dumbfounded.

The villain had been acting invincible a moment ago. Why had he suddenly stopped dodging? Did he want to get hit?

At the same time.

Inside the Mirror Dimension.

Wong nodded approvingly and patted Ren on the shoulder. "Beautifully done. You cut off his magic in an instant. I can't believe you've mastered the Advanced Binding Spell so thoroughly."

"Thanks to your excellent teaching, Master." Ren lowered his hands from the spell gesture and smiled bashfully.

He had been the one to act from the shadows, forcibly severing Loki's connection to external Magic Power.

Interrupting a spell had always been one of the most effective ways to deal with a sorcerer.

In the shattered wall.

Filthy and disheveled, Loki hauled himself out of the rubble.