Chapter 32 MCE

The next few days.

Luke commuted daily between New York and Kamar-Taj, his footsteps nearly as familiar in the ancient sanctum as in the bustling city streets. 

He wasn't sure if the system would function properly in the underworld, especially with a local version of Hela possibly waiting for them.

Just in case, he decided to take things into his own hands.

For once, Luke became a diligent student, diving headfirst into the study of advanced magic. 

His first stop: the library of Kamar-Taj. 

Again.

"Here we go again..."

As he stepped inside, the ever-watchful Wong spotted him and sighed deeply.

"You might be wasting your time today," Wong said, arms crossed. "The Ancient One is already dodging you."

Luke rolled his eyes. "That obvious, huh?"

"But Mordo’s been asking around for you. Words about Limbo reached him," Wong added before motioning for Luke to enter the restricted section.

 "Go on. Find whatever spell you need. Just don’t mess anything up. And put things back where they belong."

Without another word, Wong vanished, clearly wanting to avoid being dragged into another one of Luke’s schemes.

Luke muttered under his breath, "Is the underworld really that scary? One by one, you’d think they’d at least offer to come with me."

Sure, he hadn’t formally joined Kamar-Taj’s ranks, but after a few intense days of training, he figured that made them—at least unofficially—fellow disciples. 

Brothers in magic, right? Apparently not.

"If this doesn’t work out, I’ll just head to Asgard and bother Odin. He did ask me for help first..."

Luke tucked a heavy magic tome back onto the shelf.

 In the past few days, he’d crammed in quite a few life-saving spells.

Like the Shield of Seraphim, the Images of Ikonn, and—possibly the most useful—the Mirror Dimension. 

Spells like these didn’t require a specific power source, making them perfect for Luke’s unpredictable demonic energy.

Some spells, like the famous Hosts of Hoggoth, were completely out of reach. 

They required divine energy from ancient beings like Hoggoth—part of the Vishanti trio. 

Not really something he could access, even with the system.

"Even if I can’t beat Hela, I should at least be able to escape in one piece," Luke said to himself, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

Sun Tzu would’ve agreed: The truly skilled don’t go into battle unless they’re already unshakable.

That was why Luke wanted to drag the Ancient One into this mess.

After all, she was the one who tattled to Odin to begin with...

"Ancient One?"

Leaving the library, Luke made his way straight to the training chamber. Just like Wong had warned, it was empty.

But right there in the middle of the room, on a raised shelf, sat the Eye of Agamotto.

"Can I borrow this?"

Luke waited for an answer, and hearing no one's rebutal, he shrugged and went near the relic.

No protection spells. No illusion traps. No Ancient One guarding it. 

Just the Time Stone hanging quietly in its ornate casing.

Luke didn’t wait. 

He grabbed it.

Better to leave before she showed up and changed her mind.

...

A swirl of energy later, he stepped through a portal and landed in the New York Sanctum. 

The Eye of Agamotto still hung securely around his neck.

"Okay," he said, grinning. "Now we’re in business."

Forget Hela—if she showed up now, he’d probably just slow her down with some fruit tricks.

He picked up an apple, took a few bites, set it on the table, and opened the Eye.

Sure enough, just like in the movie, a green glow sparked from the Eye of Agamotto. The bite marks on the fruit disappeared in an instant.

"Pfft!" Luke suddenly spat out a piece of fruit pulp. "What the hell?!"

He stared at the apple sitting intact on the table. The piece of fruit in his mouth didn’t vanish—it had been recreated to restore the apple.

"Seriously? It didn’t disappear, it just... duplicated? No wonder people say the Time Stone isn’t meant for casual use."

He scoffed. "Newton’s probably rolling in his grave."

Just as Luke was about to stow the Eye away, a voice called out behind him.

"Mr. Constantine, is this also magic?"

It was Wanda.

For the past few days, Wanda had been training non-stop. 

Because Luke understood her powers came from chaos magic, his guidance had mostly been adapted from what he'd learned at Kamar-Taj. Still, chaos magic was different. 

Very different.

While mystic magic came from disciplined training or borrowed sources, Wanda’s chaos magic was internal. 

It came from her, naturally—no spells needed, only exploration.

"More or less," Luke said, turning to face her. 

Then, an idea struck.

"Wanda, tell me—what’s your favorite food? Favorite color? Animal? Place to visit?"

She blinked, startled. "Uh... I like sweets, especially low-calorie nutritional shakes. My favorite color is red. And... I like cats. As for places—I guess somewhere quiet, like a park or the library."

Even though she was confused by the sudden questions, she answered them all honestly.

Luke nodded silently, memorizing every word. 

Then, with a small grin, he activated the Eye of Agamotto again.

...

"Mr. Luke, is this also magic?" Wanda’s voice repeated behind him.

"Yes," Luke said, turning to face her with a smile. "It is. And speaking of magic—could you do me a favor? Can you grab some food for me from outside?"

"Sure. What would you like?" Wanda asked.

"A smoothie—any flavor. Oh, and grab a nutritional shake. Low-calorie. That one’s for you."

Wanda’s eyes widened. "Huh?"

Before she could process it, she was already halfway out the Sanctum, flustered and red-faced.

Luke watched her go, a smug grin on his face. "Now this—this is the real way to use the Time Stone. Strange has no clue."

...

Meanwhile, in New York—

Inside Avengers Tower, Tony Stark worked tirelessly in his lab, eyes heavy with exhaustion but hands moving like clockwork.

Dr. Banner stood nearby, looking increasingly worried. "Tony, come on. You haven’t slept in days. If you keep this up, I’m seriously afraid you’re going to collapse."

Tony didn’t even glance up. "Relax. I know my limits. Jarvis is monitoring my vitals in real time. Besides..."

He popped a pill from a container on the table. "This little guy keeps me going. Keeps the body fueled while skipping all that boring stuff—like sleep, eat."

"You mean skipping the necessary activities for the body to function?"

Tony shrugged, ignoring Bruce's sarcastic remark. "Doctor, remember what we found at the Hydra base?"

"You mean Loki's scepter?" Dr. Banner had just finished speaking when he turned around and saw Tony dragging a metal case out from the corner of the lab.

"I brought it back," Tony said casually.

He opened the box. Sure enough, inside was Loki's scepter from the Battle of New York — the very one embedded with the Mind Stone.

"I thought you gave that to S.H.I.E.L.D.," Banner said, his face tightening.

In this version of reality, Hydra was wiped out early thanks to a butterfly effect, so S.H.I.E.L.D. had remained intact, never disbanded like it was in the movies.

"Yeah, we did. And what happened? Hydra got their hands on it," Tony said sharply, securing the scepter to the lab table. "So now we keep it. Study it. Understand it. Come help me."

Dr. Banner approached, cautiously eyeing the scepter. Even after all this time, he couldn’t shake off the bad memories. 

This thing had once messed with his mind and turned him into the Hulk mid-flight on a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier.

"You sure we should be poking this thing again?" Banner said warily. "Might be better locked up in a vault somewhere."

Tony ignored him. He was already lost in his work.

"Remember that Ultron project I told you about?" he said, typing rapidly. "I think it’s time to make it real."

Grabbing a transparent touchscreen device, Tony scanned the scepter and flicked it in air causing a hologram to lit up between them, a glowing neural network pulsing with activity.

"This is... from inside the scepter?" Banner asked, leaning in.

"Bingo," Tony grinned. "Guess what it’s doing."

"Looks like it’s... thinking. It's not a human mind, but...close. It's like neurons firing."

Tony nod solemnly at Bruce's remarks.

"Down at Strucker's lab, I found some very advance robotics. The deep six the data, but... I gotta guess he was knocking into a particular one..."

"Artificial Intelligence..." Bruce with a frown.

"This could be it, Bruce. This could make the Ultron project work," Tony said, eyes gleaming. "Imagine an AI that can think, learn, adapt — no more human errors. It evolves itself. No fatigue. No doubts. I see a suit of armor around the world,"

"That sounds like a cold war, Tony." Bruce added,

"I've seen colder."

Tony's voice got harder. "This one, this vulnerable blue one? It needs Ultron. So that next time aliens, or demons, or whoever else wants to attack Earth — they’ll meet legion of iron. No magic. No sorcery. Just tech."

He glanced toward Queens, as if searching for something in the skyline.

"We don’t need mystics, Doc. Just machines. Peace in our time... just imagine that..."