-Wanda-

Below the snowy mountain, was the abandoned Hydra base.

Compared to 4 days ago, a shimmering pale yellow dome of energy now covered the entire compound.

Inside the dome, way above the ground and floating in the air, was the Scarlet Witch, the red glow of her magic extending out in numerous tendrils across the entire dome.

She was studying her work. Work that had taken almost a week to complete. If the Darkhold had still been in her possession, she wouldn't have had to go through all that extensive work.

But fortunately, the first step was done.

The formation was fully set up- she just needed one final ingredient that would absorb and store the Universal Energy that would bring Pietro back.

But even after his resurrection, there would be plenty of it left. And she had a few ideas on how to spend the excess.

The Darkhold would be back in her hands, one way or the other.

And it wouldn't be long either.

In fact...

"He should be back by morning...I can still feel his presence near the settlement."

She muttered to herself, eyes cast out in the direction of the village close by.

She had sent Vision to kidnap the sacrifices needed to create the final ingredient, the Soul Crystals.

Once the crystals were refined, she would then activate the formation around the base, tapping into the Leyline node below and absorb all that Natural Energy running through it.

Before the dusk of the 5th day, tomorrow, she would have Pietro back.

'You're close...but others will seek to stop you, be ready for them. Be ready for the X-Men...'

The same voice that had been speaking to her warned.

Wanda raised her eyes to the sky, at the shifting clouds, rolling in from the mountains.

Dusk was approaching, along with a heavy snow storm.

"Let them."

She softly said.

-Vision-

20 people.

The Mistress needed no more or less. The village was a small one, not enough to abduct 20 people without it going unnoticed.

So he went out of his way to target those who lived on the outskirts. Or those who wouldn't immediately be noticed were missing.

He also conveniently avoided children. Anyone below 16- even if the Mistress hadn't explicitly told him, he knew she would have preferred young ones, as their souls were purer.

However, his programming showed him that in the long run, it was better for his Mistress' mental health if he picked adults.

And so after scouting the village the entire day phased and invisible, he made his move during the snowy night when everyone was huddled inside their homes.

He put those he had picked into a heavy sleep and transported them to the back of a truck a ways off from the village.

It was one of the Hydra vehicles, designed to commute the snow and rocky terrain of the region.

To avoid noise and leaving behind tire tracks, he lifted and carried it back by flight.

The Android's considerable strength was more than enough to lift a few dozen tons.

By the time he made it back up to the mountain, dawn of the 5th day was breaking, although it was hard to tell due to the dark clouds covering the sun.

Luckily, the Hydra base was visible from a distance owing to the subtle yellow glow of the dome placed over the compound.

-Locke-

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The third page had contained exactly what I needed.

Hope for escaping with my life.

Wanda had no idea how much she had helped me.

While her words had been cryptic and not contextualized enough to tell me how to use magic, she had unknowingly led me to the perfect solution for my predicament.

Using the Darkhold. Or rather, the spells I could learn from it.

And the second page which had been blank before was now filled with a row of texts detailing 3 spells.

The Header read,

'Basic Spells For Dummies: Blood Magic.'

Don't let the insulting title fool you. The spells described were anything but basic.

It's worth remembering that the Darkhold was semi-sentient and could intuit what it's User required, taking into account the limit of their ability.

In other words, these spells were tailor made for someone like me. A magic novice with no training whatsoever.

Without opening my third eye, having knowledge of complex incantations or magic tools like a wand to draw out my magic, the three spells relied on Blood as a conduit.

The first spell was a summoning one and it read,

(CALIGO CHAOS:- By clapping two bleeding palms together, the user can summon an Umbris Devourer. An entity composed entirely of mist that eats through matter at an accelerated rate. The user needs to keep the Palms clasped together, pulling them apart banishes the Umbris Devourer back to the Dark Dimension.)

The second spell was more of a support one:-

ARMAMENT CHAOS:- (By drawing the symbol of an Inverted Cross using blood onto an object, the User can extract a single Characteristic from the object and temporarily imbue it onto themselves. The effects lasts 10 minutes or until the User's magic energy is spent.)

And the final spell was literally a lifesaver:-

CORRUPTION CHAOS:- (By drawing an Inverted Cross onto a corpse, the User can transfer injuries, curses and hexes sustained into it. The corpse will instantly be devoured by Chthon's black flames. And as a result, the User will feel his presence more strongly.)

It was also the spell I was most wary about.

Catching the attention of THE Chaos Lord himself was a bad idea. It also worried me that the spell itself was called Corruption Chaos.

The very nature and purpose of the Darkhold was to corrupt...

I was going to have to be careful and avoid getting hurt as much as possible.

Fortunately, with the first two spells, Caligo Chaos and Armament Chaos, as long as I wasn't necessarily reckless, then I wouldn't have a need for the final spell.

The third and fourth pages were predictably blank. Just like the rest of the Book of Sins.

I suspected that the Darkhold was intentionally hiding the rest of the spells and hexes contained within it. Most likely because I was too green to put them to good use.

Thats okay. With these 3 spells, my escape is all but guaranteed.

But first, I had to familiarize myself with them.

The rest of the 4th day was spent training with the spells.

Without a sharp object in the cell to draw my blood with, I settled for using my canines to pierce the skin.

Eren Yaeger made it look easy, but the pain was nothing to scoff at. The little bit of blood that spilled from my finger was used to draw the inverted Cross sign in the middle of my palms.

And once I was ready, I stood close to the entrance with my back facing the metal door.

Summoning an Umbris Devourer required slapping both palms together and then holding them in place.

I breathed out, calming myself down while setting my eyes on the target, which was the metal toilet.

Then I clapped both palms together, the sound audibly resonating through the confined space.

The Energy within me fizzled up to my hands in a rush, spreading down to the forearms and out through the the palms.

There was a brief surge of heat followed by sparks that flew from the sides of the clasped palms.

And then a red vortex appeared in front of me- only big enough for a small dog to pass through.

What came out of it was a strange black cloud that instantly shot towards the target. And in a second, the toilet along with a small section of the wall behind dissolved into nothing.

"Stop!"

I yelled and the dark cloud left the wall, churning about the cell violently, before it suddenly headed my way.

It was so fast, I barely reacted, pulling my palms apart before I was swallowed by it.

In the blink of an eye, the summons was gone. Just as fast as it had arrived. A heavy breath full of terror escaped me.

Before banishing it, numerous red eyes had flashed across it's mist body. Eyes that gave off the same feeling as Wanda's chaos magic.

I shook off the fear and hurriedly went to study the space where the toilet had been.

The wall was smooth, with no dust or debris from the metal structure of the toilet to be seen.

The Umbris Devourer truly ate through matter completely. If I hadn't stopped it, it would have eaten through the wall to the outside.

I can't imagine what it would do to a Human body. I resolved to never find out if I could help it.

But if push comes to shove...I was going to protect myself. Even if I had to kill.

A snicker escaped me as I leaned on the wall, the floor below filling up with water from the destroyed toilet pipes.

The smell coming off the hole on the ground was also terrible but I didn't care.

"Hard to believe I wanted to kill myself to get rid of the voice...but now I can't imagine dying..."

I muttered.

The memory of the Avengers and Shield agents getting mowed down as they tried to protect me from Wanda, appeared in my mind. It was because of them I was no longer suicidal.

"I can't let myself get killed. Not when they died saving me. I owe them that at least."

My words resonated with a deep desire. A desire to see things through.

"And if I can...I'll Avenge them."

I added in determination.

Only to slap my face at the insane thought.

Avenging them meant going up against Wanda.

Even with my new spells that was simply impossible. The smart thing to do was flee. Yeah, fleeing as far away from the Crazy Witch as I could get.

"Even Antarctica is not far enough..."

After the success of my first spell went to my head, reason soon returned.

To hide the evidence, I stuffed one of the sheets onto the leaking pipes and pulled the bed back against the wall to conceal the missing toilet.

It wasn't time to escape yet.

Through my strange ability to sense when Wanda's magic was active, I could feel her awareness spread out across the entire compound.

Making any move right now was risky, so I sat back on the bed and continued practicing the second spell while trying to feel how my Energy reacted.

The goal was to get better at handling it.

And then tomorrow morning, I was out of here.