Ch. 220 - Unedited

Macht's sword sliced through the air at Wanda, threatening to split her in two, but to his surprise, she dissipated into dust, appearing up in the air above him.

"Images Of Ikonn!"

Wanda split into dozens upon dozens of clones, scattering in the winds, surrounding him a sphere.

"Crimson Bands Of Cyttorak!"

In a coordinated move, she swung out her hands, thick crimson bands of searing hot energy shot out of her hands, like the chains of heaven, attempting to restrain Macht.

But Macht wasn't a demon sage for nothing and one month of training couldn't put her on the same level as him.

He disappeared from his place on the street and golden liquid blades pierced through all but one Wanda clone, as the rest collapsed into her.

But somehow she still kept blurring, as if from a spell after effect.

Macht appeared behind her, blade to her neck, drawing a single drop of blood.

"You lose. Agai-"

Just then, Wanda snorted, alarming him and before he could escape, icy purple tendrils burst put from her back, grabbing him, and a burning portal opened up behind him, pushing him through, and back onto the street, pulling Wanda along.

"Burning Bolts Of Balthakk!" She cast, and slammed her hands into her own body.

Pulses of burning orange energy rippled through her body, pushing her to a breaking point, as tendril after tendril, ripped from the earth below, grabbing onto the two of them toghter and tighter.

A suicide attack!

For the first time in the fight, Macht was alarmed, and began to cast another spell.

A mite too late though.

With a roaring boom, Wanda blew up.

A blast of fiery orange energy, burst through her, and the city shook, building evaporated, the earth beneath, the city's foundation itself cracking at the sheer impact as a mushroom cloud formed over the city, clashing with the barrier.

It flickered for a moment, before reconstituting itself, and the smoke and dust began to settle, clearing out the area.

the city was no longer the same, a huge crater, over a hundred meters across carved into the landscape now.

And in the center, stood Macht, his sword speared through Wanda's chest, and a golden barrier of his own shimmering around them.

He had used his sword as a medium to channel her power, redirecting it away from the both of them and saved her from her own explosion. All within a microsecond. While bound by two different spells.

Frightening!

No wonder Frieren was afraid of fighting the guy. He was a goddamn monster!

With a swift, clean move he pulled out his sword from her chest, and looked at me, floating at the edge of the crater, burning with blue frostfire.

With a clap of my hands, the frostfire disappeared, and I descended into the pit.

"Yeah, yeah. Got it." I said, popping a pistachio into my mouth, as I made my way over to her.

She was a whole mess, blood bubbling in her mouth, gurgling as she tried to say something.

"Shush! Heal first, then talk." I said, jabbing her with a dose of CodeRed.

She was back to life within seconds, a d hurling thr blood out of her lungs.

"Fuck!" She whispered, wiping her mouth.

She eyed Macht, who stood still as a statue by the side, his usual unbothered, listless expression annoying her to no end.

"I still can't put a scratch on him!" She sulked.

"Don't be so sure." I smiled, gesturing at Macht.

He sighed, and raised his sword hand, pulling down his sleeve, revealing a bruise running down the length of his arm.

"It wasn't easy redirecting your spell." Macht admitted, "You pass. Barely." 

Wanda looked up at him, her eyes glittering with tears, and she jumped to her feet cheering.

"Yes! Yes! Yesyesyes yesyes!" She shouted to the skies, "Finally!" 

I looked at Macht and he shook his head.

Guess I won't rain on her parade then.

In truth, that bruise was only there because he had to protect them both with his spells.

If he didn't, Wanda wouldn't have put a scratch on him.

Still, her combination was creative if a bit too much Leeroy Jenkins-y.

She cast images of Ikonn as a decoy, twice. Once on the surroundings, creating clones, and then inside herself, trying to grant herself a minor form of quantum immortality, temporarily.

Then she cast ankther spell, Icy Tendrils Of Ikthalon inside herself to freeze her insides for what was to come.

Her suicide bombing.

By casting both Burning Bolts Of Balthakk and Icy Tendrils Of Ikthalon inside her, she thought the hot and cold aspects would cancel each other out, then the quantum immortality would save her from the resulting explosion.

And she wasn't wrong per se.

But what she didn't consider is that no ammount of quantum immortality can protect her from burning in a pit of icy hellfire after the spells wore off, leaving her in a burning, irradiated crater.

Not a great plan.

But it was acceptable, considering she had only had a month of training. Besides, just this much put her in a league of her own. Even Strange took longer to master magic at this level, not to mention her multicasting ability. 

Sorcerer Supreme Strange could barely cast two spells together.

Wanda had cast six at the same time.

Whatever else she lacked, a dose of Celestial Essence and Asgardian Ichor could fill in for.

I smiled.

Yeah. This will do just fine.

I pulled out a palm sized crystal projector from my pocket, enchanted with the concept of Sympathy, and inserted the chip into it, throwing it to Macht.

He caught it, looking over it curiously.

"Press the red button once to start it. Aim the crystal portrusion at yourself, and it will project a feeling onto you.

Press once to feel guilt, twice and you will feel malice. Press it for a third time and you will feel injustice. Four presses will turn it off."

"Simple enough." He noted.

"I intended for it to be. Thanks for teaching her. I know this might just give you demons an edge over humanity, so here's a final request. Don't kill them all. Humans can be great slaves if trained right. Try it. You might just come to like them." 

He shook his head.

"I doubt it." 

I shrugged, opening a portal back home.

"Well, I tried. Come Wanda. Let's get you a final power up!"

"Wait, we're just going to leave it like that? You just said humanity might die." Wanda asked.

"Not our world, not our problem, Wanda. Humanity didn't stand a chance anyways. The demons are too strong. At least with the demons feeling guilt now, humanity might just survive."

Wanda raised an eyebrow.

"Might?" 

"And they should be grateful it's a might, not a won't. Now are you coming or ..."

Wanda looked back at Macht and sighed.

"Yeah. I'm coming."

"There we go." I patted her back, pulling her close, "And if you really want, you can come back here after we complete our mission, and become the new god of this world.

Then you can save whoever you want!"

Wanda thought for a moment, and she was getting good at thinking now, before she shook her head.

"No, it's fine. If Macht is the strongest among the demons, that means the others are weaker than him."

"By a huge margin." I interjected.

"Then, I'm sure humanity will do just fine. Besides, as you said, heroics bever did anyone any good. Only family matters. Everyone else can go to hell." She said.

I was impressed. 

She had finally internalized it, well and truly.

I smiled.

"Good. About time you learnt that." 

"Yeah, I'm good at that." She smirked cheekily.

"Are you? Maybe I should put you in with the kids and we'll see of that's true!" I teased.

She made a face as if she had bitten into a juicy bedbug.

"Ugh, no. I suck at learning. Totally." 

"You really hate maths huh?" I chuckled.

"Does anyone like math?" She asked.

"Star, apparently." I said as we disappeared into the portal and returned home.