American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

"Impossible!" Agatha denied Luke's words without even thinking. She turned to look at Luke, her face full of mockery. "Only the ignorant could say such a thing.

Magical knowledge is vast and boundless. Even the Ancient One couldn't master all magic! Let alone someone I've never even heard of."

"Is that so? If saying that makes you feel arrogant, then you can try it out." Luke didn't take Agatha's mockery to heart. He looked at her and said, "I can prepare a battlefield for you to experience it firsthand."

"I am more than happy to expose your clumsy lies." Agatha said with a calm expression. Although her usual identity was that of a teacher, it didn't mean she was a good person. Her nature and magical needs were to pursue more magical knowledge and greater power.

"Come with me." Luke snapped his fingers, and several shimmering light curtains appeared behind everyone. Luke took the lead and stepped into one, followed by the silent Hela, Wanda, and finally Agatha, whose face was slightly solemn.

The scene changed.

The four of them were instantly transported from Luke's treasure room to a spacious arena.

Jagged rocks floated around, guarding the circular area with a radius of a thousand meters where Luke and the others stood.

"Mirror Dimension? No, it should be a kind of improved and solidified pseudo-magic. How did you do it? Is the energy you created really that magical? Wanda also possesses it, but its performance is a bit unsatisfactory."

The moment she stepped into the space, Agatha keenly sensed the magical power wandering around. She could even vaguely perceive what kind of magic it was from the flow of energy. She detected a familiar characteristic in it, a characteristic belonging to the magic of Kamar-Taj.

"It's already perfect. Mine is just a variant of it. As for what level the energy I created can reach, it depends on who the user is and how high their authority is."

Luke took the initiative to step aside. A floating piece of rock collapsed into the shape of a seat, then floated behind Luke and Wanda. After they sat down, it rose high and floated away from the center of the battlefield, orbiting it like a satellite.

Around them were many similar pieces of rock, like seats in an arena, appearing disorganized but operating according to a certain pattern.

"Are you ready?"

Feeling the magic power in her body flowing freely again, Agatha smiled at the silent Hela. Purple energy rose from her body, turning into a torrent of energy rushing towards Hela.

The purple torrent engulfed Hela completely. Then, the rushing torrent flickered like a tripped circuit breaker, and then turned into scattered purple light, dissipating around.

Agatha staggered back two steps, looking at Hela, who had only extended one hand to sever her spell, her face full of disbelief.

If Hela had chosen to use other magic to confront, resist, or even restrain her, she wouldn't have cared. However, the other party had used forbidden counteraction.

This was a useful but not very practical magic. It emphasized using the opponent's own methods against them. To put it bluntly, it was using the same magic to restrain and interrupt your magical process.

It sounded simple, but it required the user to know your magic in detail, to be comparable to the caster in terms of proficiency and understanding, or even far exceed them, to be possible!

Understanding a certain type of magic was the basis for using it, but to successfully use it in a rapidly changing and intense battle, the requirements for timing and power were also extremely high.

This was the fundamental source of all magical counteraction and restraint. It was the most basic and also the most terrifying kind.

Who was the last person to make a big splash using this method, defeating all the mages and wizards who challenged them, and making them willingly submit?

It was the Ancient One!

That's why she was revered as the Sorcerer Supreme by all magical factions!

This was the most direct way to demonstrate the overall strength of magic. Whether it was magical knowledge, combat experience, or the use of energy, everything was included.

So once you failed, it was an undeniable failure.

Agatha was extremely annoyed. This was almost a battle where a mentor was lecturing a disciple, making her feel intensely uncomfortable and angry.

Energy once again surrounded her. One magic after another, accompanied by her multiple incantations and spells, turned into a rain of light, covering Hela.

Among so many magics, many were dangerous magics that only Agatha and her faction could skillfully control and apply. Any mistake in dealing with them could lead to a series of domino reactions.

Agatha didn't believe that anyone could use that kind of forbidden counteraction method to cope with such a high frequency of magical attacks and obscure spell bombardments.

Not even the Ancient One, if she were alive!

She believed that the Ancient One had corresponding coping methods and means, but she didn't believe that she would perfectly cope with it using only this simple and terrifying method.

If the Ancient One couldn't do it, then this unfamiliar mage named Hela was even less likely to do it.

However, the scene that made her pupils dilate with shock unfolded before her eyes. The other party had done what she thought was impossible!

For a time, Agatha's hundreds of years of accumulated knowledge and experience were somewhat subverted.

"How did you do it?" Agatha asked Hela in shock.

"Your biggest mistake was using magic to attack me." Hela's voice sounded softly, "I am the master of magic, the apostle representing magic. All magic is useless to me. At least to you.

Instead of wasting time chanting those spells, directly attacking me with energy might be better."

"That's impossible! Are you a god?" Agatha shook her head violently. A pure energy exchange to determine the winner was acceptable to her. But that undoubtedly meant that her spell magic was useless against the other party, and she had already lost this battle of magical knowledge and means.

She did have hidden final means, but so what?

This wasn't a life-or-death battle.

Agatha stubbornly used some of her own created spell magic, but it still didn't have any effect. The other party's response hadn't even changed.

Knowing her spell magic better than she, the creator, this absurd scene unfolded before Agatha's eyes. Whether she accepted it or not, it was already a fact.

"I concede." Agatha restrained her spreading magic power. She looked at Hela with a mixture of surprise and desire. She now urgently wanted to follow the other party to learn, or rather, to explore the other party's mind.

She wanted to know the means by which the other party could do all this. She also wanted to learn and control this power!

"Did it end so quickly?" Wanda, who had returned to the field, was a little dazed.

"In a magic clash, if it's not a fight to the death, then these few exchanges are enough to see who is stronger and who is weaker. It's not impossible for the weak to defeat the strong, but only if the strong gives them a chance," Agatha said.

As she spoke, she turned her gaze to Luke, who was beside her. "Where did you find her? Why have I never heard of her before? I think if the Ancient One were still here, she would probably have to give up the position of Sorcerer Supreme to this Hela. She is close to, or is herself, a god of magic."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration. Although the Ancient One wouldn't mind, Hela's appearance is inseparable from the Ancient One's full support," Luke waved his hand.

"What do you mean?" Agatha vaguely sensed the strangeness in his words. What did he mean by "the Ancient One wouldn't mind"? Hadn't the Ancient One died a long time ago? The current leader of Kamar-Taj was that successor named Stephen Strange.

He used the Dark Dimension's Dormammu as the 'Trial of the Vishanti' and successfully defended the Middle-earth from the other party, thereby succeeding to the position.

"It seems your information isn't very accurate." Luke glanced at Agatha meaningfully. "It's not a secret. The Ancient One didn't die, or rather, she is living in some peculiar form, and she is living well."

"Fake death?" Agatha instantly thought of this possibility, muttering to herself in a daze, "I should have thought of it earlier. How could she die so easily, or die at the hands of her own apprentice."

"Is she the Ancient One's apprentice?" Recalling Luke's previous words, Agatha, who had recovered from her daze, glanced at Hela and asked Luke in a low voice.

"It's a bit biased to think of it that way, but you can also," Luke said. "She is a creation that combines all of the Ancient One's knowledge and everything.

I recently broke through a technical problem and successfully created her. One of a kind."

"Created? Isn't she a human life?" Agatha felt that the shock she had received today was greater than all of her hundreds of years of life combined.

A strange, suddenly appearing existence with magical skills and knowledge so profound that it made her feel terrified was enough to shock her. But the man in front of her told her: this mage who made her feel terrified was just a creation?

Who could create such a terrifying mage?

The god of magic?

Was the Ancient One really that strong?

"It depends on how you understand it. If you think she is life, then she is life. But if you examine her harshly, she still has a way to go before she becomes a true life," Luke replied.

"Did the Ancient One create her? Or you?" Agatha's gaze wandered complexly between Luke and Hela.

Originally, she thought that her disciple Wanda was the closest person to the source of magic, so she spared no effort to cultivate her, teaching her hand-in-hand how to control and tame her violent and dangerous power. But now, looking at Hela, she felt a strong sense of confusion and helplessness.

"The Ancient One is busy with her own godhood ceremony." Luke didn't finish speaking, but his implication had already revealed who the real creator was.

However, Agatha didn't understand the meaning revealed in Luke's words. She was just shocked by the information Luke revealed.

"The Ancient One is preparing for her own godhood ceremony?" Agatha exclaimed. Wanda also looked sideways. As a member of the Avengers, she still knew something about the Ancient One. She knew the Ancient One's strength and terribleness in magical attainments, but godhood?

"After Vishanti's white magic and Chthon's black magic, the third magical concept god based on elements and psionic power." Luke calmly spoke about information that was earth-shattering for Agatha and the others.

Luke didn't care that the Ancient One was using his energy to become a god. The new energy was enough to support several demon gods to share.

Besides, if it weren't for this, why would the Ancient One have refused the solicitations of many great gods and worked so hard for the Energy Bank and him?

This also meant that the other party was completely tied to him, even more closely than the Trinity of Vishanti.

Odin was also a little envious of the Ancient One's current state, so he learned from the Ancient One to abandon Asgard and the Nine Realms, showing his attitude.

This was a transformation of the entire class and power system.

Agatha was silent. Now that she thought about her previous thoughts, she couldn't help but feel a sense of powerlessness and shame in her heart.

"Will Kamar-Taj's mages switch to cultivating the Ancient One's spells in the future?" Although Wanda was also shocked, she didn't care about these external matters as much as her relatives and friends. She just asked curiously.

"It depends on the Ancient One's own wishes. But according to my understanding of her, she probably won't do that. It will also take time for the new system to be established and mature," Luke said.

"So, that's why she appeared?" Agatha seemed to understand something, and looked at the silent and quiet Hela thoughtfully.

"She was created to help the Ancient One record and analyze various magical knowledge and energy, and was regarded as a magical processor. That's why I said she can't be considered a complete life," Luke said. "After the Ancient One no longer needed her, I carried out a second transformation of her core, making her what she is now."

"In other words, she was originally just a tool?" Agatha's eyes lit up.

"It's not wrong to understand it that way." Luke thought for a moment and nodded. In the beginning, it was just a core, used as an intelligent magical supercomputer, so it was indeed a tool.

What about now?

For Hela, that secondarily modified core could be considered an energy core, or a magical heart.

It was stained with too much of the Ancient One's aura. If there were no accidents, it would become an item equivalent to the Book of Vishanti and the Darkhold.

The difference was that Luke had given it a body and life.

"How can I get permission to use your energy and learn from this mage Hela?" Agatha gathered her emotions and said.