Chapter 248: Symbiote 0248: Extreme Measures (3/3)

Symbiote 0248: Extreme Measures (3/3)

“This time, I’ll make sure that none of you get revived without my explicit approval,” Wanda said hatefully as she exploded out with the energy of the core that she was siphoning with Alex’s help.

“H-how are you able to do such a thing?” The Cthulhu asked with horror in its tone. “To directly siphon the energy of the heart of the dimension is impossible.”

“What are you talking about?” Wanda warped the Mi-go’s body into a swirl as its slightly illusory form was crushed into nothingness. She moved her hand and the fragment that it was using to regenerate itself emerged from subspace, only for Wanda to promptly send it away. “Aren’t you also using the heart’s powers right now?”

“It’s not the same. To use the power of the heart as a literal fuel for one’s abilities is a taboo, equivalent to destroying the dimension itself.” The Cthulhu was barely able to muster up a reply, unable to even move to defend its helper demon.

Wanda’s attacks didn’t stop. She made quick work of the other four demons as well, namely Shoggoth, Yog Whateley, the dual-masked head, and Azathoth. Before the octopus-man realized, he was the only one who remained. Wanda had not only taken care of his partners, but she’d also taken away their fragments of the dimensional heart. Cthulhu was the only one who remained, his fragment still hidden in subspace as he drew on its power to recover itself.

“You said it yourself, demon,” Wanda said. “I am the incarnation of the lord of this dimension. It’s an instinct for me to be able to use the heart’s power to take care of small rabble such as yourself.”

“Impossible …” The demon seemed to be breaking down. Maybe because what Wanda had done was truly that absurd, or maybe because all of its plans had fallen apart solely because of how unbelievably strong Wanda truly was. The woman in question didn’t care much for the answer and was quick to rid the dimension of the demon’s existence.

With the demon killed, Wanda was quick to take the fragment that it was hiding. She sent it to the main core and moved to the next fragment.

It didn’t take her long to take the fragment that belonged to the eye demon. That one was the most timid of them all and had the least resistance. Wanda merely appeared in its domain and it had presented the fragment to her without a moment’s delay.

The last fragment was the Nightgaunt’s fragment. The demon had returned to its domain in a panic when it realized that its accomplices had not only lost but lost completely. It was waiting for Wanda while prostrated, hoping for forgiveness. The woman paid no heed to the demon and took away the fragment, uncaring of its thoughts.

…

“Now how do I put these pieces back together?” Wanda asked Alex as she looked at the eleven fragments of the heart — the main fragment that sustained the majority of the dimension and ten from each of the elder demons.

“This kind of stuff usually regenerates on its own,” Alex said. “Maybe we just need to wait.”

“For decades, maybe,” Wanda scoffed. “I’m not waiting that long in this horrible place. Let me try something.” A red mist escaped Wanda’s palms and wrapped itself around the fragments, bringing them together to shape them into a perfect sphere. Wanda continued releasing more Chaos Energy mist from her palms that enveloped the sphere and constantly put pressure on it to compress it.

Wanda grunted as a flare of Chaos Energy escaped from the compressing sphere, sending a wave that left the fabric of the dimension cracked in its wake.

“You sure about this?” Alex asked. “It doesn’t seem very happy about being forced together like that …”

“I don’t care,” Wanda intensified the pressure, compressing the sphere further as it started to glow brighter. It released more and more flares that left even more destructive cracks in their wake. Somehow, not a single flare was released in Alex and Wanda’s direction. It seemed to him that she was unconsciously or consciously manipulating the compression to force the flares to be released in other directions.

“Support me, Alex,” Wanda said, staggering a little as Alex hugged her from behind. He enhanced her physical abilities as much as he could. She stabilized, continuing to channel immense amounts of energy through her body.

The process lasted almost an entire hour, exhausting Wanda completely. Her spell had formed another opaque layer of crimson around the core that was constantly pressing down on it. She seemed to instinctively know when the core’s regeneration was completed and stopped controlling the spell. The loss of tension almost made her faint if not for Alex holding her up.

The layer of Wanda’s spell peeled off of the core that glowed bright crimson, barely the size of a basketball.

“You okay?” Alex asked Wanda, holding her in his arms.

“Yeah,” She said, trying to get closer to the core.

“Rest a little. You’ve been pushing yourself,”

“I’ll rest once I’m back home,” She said stubbornly, pushing Alex away and approaching the large glowing orb. “Time to finish this, once and for all.” Wanda finally used the mystic arts for the first time since having entered the Chaos Dimension.

Wanda created two magic circles — both of them red in accordance with her personal signature. One appeared under the heart of the dimension and the other under Wanda.

The void of the dimension crackled as an ominous aura seemed to descend all over the dimension. Cracks appeared on the magic circles that Wanda had created, destabilizing them and making them fizzle out of existence. The ominous aura that had descended in the surroundings seemed to disappear as Wanda expressed her disbelief.

“What is going on?” She spoke rhetorically, creating the circles to invoke the spell once again. They fizzled out before they could even stabilize.

“The dimension is resisting the mystic arts. There must be a reason that the sorcerers don’t use the Chaos dimension as one of their sources for Eldrich energy,” Alex said with a clinical tone.

“I don’t care about what the dimension thinks,” Wanda growled, creating the circles again, this time, pumping them with much more power than necessary. It was useless, the entire dimension was resisting her action.

“Calm down, my love,” Alex said. “You’re stressed, making you prone to mistakes.”

She gritted her teeth, creating the circle again, “I just … want … to go … home!” She said in between her attempts, which all failed, leading to her screaming the last word.

“Stop,” Alex said, grabbing Wanda’s arms and pulling her into a hug. “Let me come up with something.”

“I just wish to go home, Alex,” Wanda sobbed. “Please. Just take me home.” She clenched Alex’s shirt and hit her head on his chest repeatedly.

He shushed her, combing her hair with his fingers and holding her tightly. They stayed like that for a few minutes as Alex came up with an idea, “You could use the dimensions might against itself. Channel the heart’s energy to cast the mystic arts circles. What do you think?”

“It’s worth a try,” Wanda said. “Let me go. The sooner I get rid of the brand, the sooner I can cuddle with you in our home.”

Wanda’s next move was to siphon the heart’s energy as she used it to create the magic circles. The dimension’s attack came swiftly and violently, but it was useless. The circles weren’t affected in the slightest.

Wanda smiled widely and finally invoked the spell that would get rid of the dimensional heart’s brand on her.

“Ugh …” She groaned as she floated above the circle, hovering like a puppet hanging from some strings. Chaos energy started leaking from her chest and approached the sphere that started rotating, taking in all of that energy.

The crack of thunder resounded through the entire dimension as a huge rift opened in the sky. It seemed as if something was looking through it at Wanda. No words were spoken, but it expressed its intent to her.

“Wanda Maximoff. You have chosen to relinquish the power that was bestowed upon you by the great one. Since you do not appreciate such a gracious gift, then you do not deserve to live either.”

Wanda groaned with a hateful expression, “I’m fucking tired of you, this place, everything here!” She broke free of the magic circle’s suppression and reversed the process that she had initiated, pulling the essence of the dimensional heart into her instead. “I’ll see how you react once I destroy everything here.”

She extended her hand toward the core and it got pulled toward her instantly. She placed both her hands on the core and exploded all of that energy outwardly. The ensuing explosion expanded at the speed of light, covering everything in sight and vaporizing it without distinction. Even Alex’s body was destroyed, making him feel thankful that he was anchored to Wanda and not somewhere externally.

“Stop … Ugh”

The previously threatening voice was undoubtedly pained at this point. Wanda ignored it, the explosion ensuing the entire dimension.

[You’ll kill yourself with this, Wanda …] Alex said, concerned as even he experienced the strain that was on Wanda’s body currently. If the explosion kept going, Wanda’s body would be destroyed alongside the dimension.

The woman didn’t respond, far too deep in her rage to stop her actions.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Alex grunted as he thought of his options as quickly as he could. He could already see Wanda’s skin vaporizing, putting him through immense pain as well considering how deeply he was bonded to her.

[Don’t be mad at me, okay?] Alex said with a calm voice in Wanda’s head. [We’ll figure things out once I get you out of this.]

Wanda still didn’t give Alex any response, but he was already making his moves. Wanda’s energy absorption continued increasing by an exponential factor but the release wasn’t the same anymore. Some of the energy started disappearing on the way.

As for its purpose, it was being used to reinforce Wanda’s physical form. Alex doing the very thing that Wanda had previously gotten mad at him for doing. He was merging the essence of the dimensional heart into her body using his connection with her skin, blood, and bones.