Undercurrents in the Decryption Lab, the Foundations of Chaos Magic

The Department of Technology's No. 7 Isolation Laboratory is located on the third basement floor.

There are two guards outside the gate, and one person inside.

Wanda arranged the forty-one Chip in four rows on the Decryption Array, with the extra chip placed in the center.

The laboratory walls were reinforced with an insulating layer, preventing wireless signals and Psychic Power probes from entering. This was a rule she set for herself—during the decoding process, not even a fly could get out.

"Project initiation log, Day 1," she said to the Recording Board. "Forty-one Chip, outer layer code stripping begins."

The instrument started whirring.

The outer TVA standard code isn't difficult. During Wanda's time at the Ministry of Department of Technology, Decryption Array to a lot of things, so peeling back this outer shell wouldn't take much time.

One row, two rows, three rows.

The Data Stream flowed smoothly across the light screen. Wanda sat at the front, a Scarlet clinging to her fingertip, ready to sever any anomalies at any moment.

When I got to the fourth row, something strange happened.

The Chip placed in the center, after its outer shell was removed, revealed a faint gray-black aura emanating from its underlying layer.

It's not code.

It's an energy Residual Echo.

Wanda's fingertips, which were resting on the ground, trembled suddenly.

She recognized that aura. Not just recognized, but etched into her very bones— Sokovia, the ruins, Ultron's laser, and the man who had embraced her from behind, riddled with bullets.

The Death Energy she left behind on the battlefield where she had died once.

"Impossible," she whispered.

How could TVA's Mechanical Guards be tainted by Sokovia's Death Energy?

She raised her hand, and Chaos Magic swept over, enveloping the Residual Echo, allowing her to discern it carefully.

The Residual Echo was faint, faded over the years, almost gone. But the essence remained. The essence caused her magic to resonate uncontrollably, wave after wave, crashing against her heart with pain.

Within this wisp of Death Energy lies a fragment of memory.

She saw it.

It wasn't seen with the eyes, but with magic—ruins, smoke and dust, a man's back, the sound of lasers piercing flesh. The perspective was low and mechanical, like the eyepieces of a guard. These metal shells were there back then, watching Lynn take that hit for her, watching him be riddled with bullets, watching his body shatter into data in the light.

It turns out they weren't bystanders after all.

They are executioners.

"Bang."

The Recording Board fell to the ground.

Wanda didn't pick it up. She sat at the front of the formation, her hands clenched tightly, her nails digging into her palms.

The erased six-year diary—it wasn't anything else that was erased. It was this very thing. It was what these people in the metal shell had witnessed firsthand, things that someone didn't want her to know.

Who smeared it?

The Management Committee's standard procedures and methods.

Within the Management Committee, the number of people who can use this standard can be counted on one hand.

She remembered what Lynn had said in the isolation room: TVA mass-produced fake Anchor, implanted emotional coordinates, and monitored Variant. He spoke so flawlessly that she believed him to some extent at the time.

But that Residual Echo was real.

Chaos Magic can distinguish truth from falsehood. The pain in this Residual Echo is real; that back is real; that heart pierced by a thousand bullets is real.

False memories cannot cultivate true Death Energy.

"You lied to me," she said, enunciating each word clearly, to the empty laboratory. "You lied to me again."

Scarlet magic emanated from her body, rising uncontrollably. The light screen of the Decryption Array began to tremble, the hum of the instruments changed, and forty-one Chip pulsed gently on the array, the Source Code churning and surging with resonance.

The Residual Echo, amplified by the magic, became even clearer.

She saw another fragment—before Lynn shattered into data, she glanced back at "her." In that glance, there was no fear, no regret, only something she couldn't understand.

It's as if they knew this day would come.

Wanda's breathing became erratic.

She hated him for lying to her. But this Residual Echo told her that the man from back then was truly dead, dead in her arms, utterly and completely dead. A person can fabricate lies, but not such a death.

Love and hate tangled in my chest, the tangling fueling the magic to grow ever stronger.

The laboratory alarm lights came on.

The red light shone on the insulation layer of the four walls. The energy reading climbed steadily, crossing the yellow warning line and approaching the red threshold.

The sentry outside heard the commotion inside.

"Minister?" A guard knocked on the door. "The laboratory is experiencing an energy anomaly. Do we need to—"

"Step back."

The voice from inside the door wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable force. The guards exchanged a glance, took two steps back, and placed their hands on the Communicator, not daring to dial.

According to regulations, if the energy level of a S-rank laboratory exceeds its limit, it must be reported to the Liaison Office immediately.

However, the regulations also state that the Minister of the Department of Technology has the highest authority within the laboratory.

The two regulations met at one point, and the guard's hand hovered in mid-air, hesitant.

In that brief moment of hesitation, the resonance in the laboratory reached its peak.

Wanda's Scarlet magic clashed with the Death Energy at the Chip's core, exploding into an invisible shockwave. The isolation layer could block the signal, but it couldn't stop this—the resonance between energies of the same origin, penetrating walls and surging straight out.

The Special Envoy's Office is located on the east side of the White Bone Hall.

Jean Grey was reviewing an official document when her pen suddenly stopped in mid-air.

She looked up and gazed in the direction of the Department of Technology.

The fluctuation was faint and fleeting, but she could taste the essence within it— Chaos Magic, and a faint Residual Echo of someone's death hidden beneath the magic.

She slowly put down her pen.

"So this is where it was," she said softly.

At the same time, on the top floor of the Stability Maintenance Office.

Hela stood by the window, clutching a daily progress report on the investigation. The instant the fluctuation swept past, her fingers tightened, creasing the report.

She knew the scent of death better than anyone.

"Wanda." She gazed in the direction of the Department of Technology, her eyes gradually darkening. "What did you discover?"

Inside Laboratory Seven, alarms were blaring incessantly.

Wanda sat in the red light, watching the code on the screen disrupted by the resonance. Deep within the code, a line of encrypted underlying directory surfaced on its own amidst the vibrations of the resonance.

The table of contents titles consist of only one line of small text.

She leaned closer to take a look.

The moment she saw it clearly, her blood ran cold.