Wanda

There was an owl banging its head at her window. And they had what looked suspiciously like invitation letters to a certain magical school on its beak. But unlike the story, this owl didn't feel like an actual owl.

"Vision, babe. You have to see this."

She lightly shook Vision and that was enough for him to "wake up". He went to "sleep" each night to keep her company when there was no reason for him to do so other than to be with her. She appreciated it even if she sometimes felt guilty that he felt the need to do it.

Vision woke up and without having to feign any morning drowsiness, looked at the window where the bird was tapping its beak.

"Is that a synthetic owl transporting a message?"

Vision asked Wanda to which she could only nod her head.

"I didn't know it was 'synthetic'. just felt weird to me. Do you think we have been found?"

Wanda asked him. They were on the run from the world itself. The Sokovia Accords had turned them into fugitives.

Vision approached the window and started to do—something. He looked like he was concentrating.

"Why would anyone use the slowest flying birds for sending letters? Alas, I am unable to detect any transmissions emanating from the creature. It appears to be a unique specimen. Strangely enough, it bears a resemblance to my own self."

Wanda couldn't see it. Nothing about the bird would make anyone believe it was synthetic but if Vision believed it was, then she would believe him.

"Let's see. I will open the Window, we might be attacked."

"Captain Rogers might be unhappy with the bill if we are attacked at this hotel." Vision remarked.

She opened the window and with great anticipation they both watched the bird fly in.

They were ready for an attack but what the bird did next was drop the letter and patiently wait for—something.

Vision was the one who carefully extended his hand to pick up the letter and read what was said. He finished reading it in a fraction of a second.

" It's an invitation."

"An invitation? From Ross, Steve, Tony, who is it?."

"You should read it, it's for you more than me."

He passed over the letter to her and she took it. There was something to the letter that she could not put a hand on. It felt like the gem on Vision's head but infinitely smaller. She opened it and read.

Dear Wanda,

I hope this letter finds you well, and that you are keeping safe and healthy. My name is Dr. Stephen Strange, and I am the Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj, the largest magical institution on Earth. It is my pleasure to write to you, having heard of your remarkable talent and reputation in the magical arts, thanks to our mutual acquaintance, Tony Stark.

I am writing to extend a formal invitation to you to join us as a professor and student of witchcraft at our esteemed institution.

I understand that you may have concerns about revealing your location and trusting someone you don't know. However, I would like to assure you that our school is a safe and secure place for all who practice magic. We take great pains to ensure the protection and privacy of our staff and students, and I can guarantee that you will not be put at any risk by accepting our offer.

I also understand that you may be wondering why you should consider this offer. First and foremost, this is a unique opportunity for you to learn more about yourself, and hone your skills as a witch. Our school can offer you the training and resources to develop your gifts in ways you never thought possible.

Moreover, I assure you that this is not a one-sided relationship. We are eager to learn from you, and to expand the boundaries of our magical knowledge and understanding. You would be free to design your own curriculum and teach in a manner that aligns with your own magical philosophy.

You may have some questions or reservations, and I would be happy to answer them all. Simply write a letter with your thoughts and let the techno-organism I've sent the letter with carry it back. Let me know whether you are open to meeting to discuss further.

I want to emphasize that this letter is not a threat or an attempt to discover your location. The method I have used to contact you is simply a testament to the extent of my own magical abilities. I have taken care to ensure that the only one who knows of your current location is an artificially created techno-organic bird.

In closing, I hope that you will consider our offer, and that we may have the honour of welcoming you to our community of magical scholars. Should you be with Vision, please know that he is also welcome at Kamar-Taj.

Respectfully yours,
Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme.

—

Strange

I was going to send a few versions of that letter to a select few magical individuals across the globe once I figure out a global divination spell. The way I was doing it now wasn't very effective. From the books I found in Kamar-Taj's recreated libraries, there were covens of witches and vampires, shamanic tribes, monster hunter organizations, immortal wizards and more I will have to vet and send invitations to when I learn it.

But this letter was special. I could live with or without most of the recipients of the letter not bothering to show up. But I wanted—both Vision and Wanda to visit Kamar-Taj. While I had addressed it more towards Wanda, I wanted both of them to take up the offer.

Wanda was one of those characters who were misery magnets like spiderman. But unlike spidey whose misery quota would end with only him breaking, Wanda's misery storylines usually ended with her and everyone around her breaking.

That's why I agonized over inviting her and Vision. I had thrown way too many arguments back and forth but I finally decided that knowing where the snake lay would be more important than crossing my fingers and hoping that the snake doesn't bite me.

There were more justifications I could make like learning her and Vision's repository of spells and skills. Keeping tabs on what her patron God Chthon was doing and trying to not be on her bad side when she inevitably goes full psychotic.

But by teaching her wouldn't I just be making her more powerful? That question did not even deserve an answer. I was a better and faster student of all things Mystical. If I wasn't then I would not be worth being called the Sorcerer Supreme.

I looked through the eyes of the techno-owl I had created combining the [Ritual: Call of the machine spirit] and [Lesser Magitech Crafting]. I had created the required shell of the techno-owl using old computer parts from around Kamar-Taj and then flesh of slain magical beasts. My goal was to create a messenger to get in touch with the kinds of people I wanted to get in touch with.

The shape of an owl had naturally evolved as I had focused on the purpose of the creature I was creating using [Lesser Magitech Crafting]. [Ritual: Call of the machine spirit] had for the lack of a better word allowed me to breathe life into the finished project.

Though I did not understand why the [Ritual] had made me use [Aspect Of the Divine] it had still worked spectacularly. The end product was a machine-looking techno-organism capable of flight and finding wanted to find. It had a few more fun things built into it like the one that I was pretty sure going to see soon.

The conversation between Wanda and Vision was coming to a close they were leaning towards meeting with me but after telling Captain Rogers and his ilk. Which was exactly what I wanted. They were also going to try and follow the techno-owl.

They wrote a letter with details on where to meet up and gave it to the owl. Both of them were confused about the signals each of them were getting from the owl. Vision was picking up on its techno-organic nature and the Scarlet Witch was picking up on the magical illusion I had specifically weaved to be faintly detectable by even an amateur.

Once the bird had the letter it took off as per instructions I hadn't have to bake into it due to the ritual. It flew out of the window they had left open and then I saw the first use of chaos magic.

How the scarlet witch brute forced magic to fly was hilariously offensive. She was using enough mana to drown a city in conjured blood to fly for a few seconds. And how she had to use both of her hands pointed down to fly even after all of that—yeah, I had a lot of work ahead of me.

I greedily drank in the magical sight of both the scarlet witch and Vision flying using both of their respective techniques. Visions was—

[Spell Upgrade: Telekinesis - Greater Telekinisis]

Vision was using telekinesis to fly by lifting himself with the power of that gem on his forehead.

Another Infinity stone. Mind stone, if my remote readings were correct. I added a note to check up on what Thanos was doing. Or alternatively, try to figure out a way to collect and neutralize the use of the stones.

Obviously for everyone other than me.

The bird flew faster and faster I almost heard Vison remark that he was finding it hard to keep up with it. Wanda was too but she was getting around the issue by burning more and more ludicrous amounts of chaos mana.

[Skill Learned: Chaos Magic]

[Pact Learned: Chthon]

I wasn't going to touch that pact with a ten-foot-wide pole till I figured out the exact rules the entity had to abide by. Though I appreciated the first skill greatly, especially since my internal magical engine was good enough to create chaos mana to let me use Chaos Magic without any of the pesky pacts or gaining the attention of the dark God Chthon.

I had gotten everything I wanted from the two for the moment. I sent a magical message to the techno-owl who at least deserved a name after all that. She then did what I was the happiest about being able to accomplish within an artificial being.

The owl created a portal in front of it and passed through it to the Canadian Kamar-Taj. Sparks danced in front of her as the portal grew just wide enough for just the owl to pass through and once the owl did pass through, it closed leaving the two following it confused.

As it flew and perched on my shoulder, I had a rogue thought that an email would have been enough. But what kind of self-respecting sorcerer would use an email as an invitation to a magical land?

—

The letter on its beak that I had collected for the sake of simple aesthetics told me that they wanted to talk tomorrow. That was all well and good.

I decided to check on my second project. This one would have to be more hands on but easier if everything goes as expected. Wong had told me to get defensive powers and who else had a stronger defensive power in all of Marvel multiverse than Spider-Man?

—

Peter

He swung through the streets of Queens, his spider-sense on high alert, as he kept an eye out for any signs of trouble. He was growing increasingly frustrated by the lack of any real danger. Not that helping peple around with their small problems wasn't rewarding, He was just bored and restless and yearned for some real action.

And he did find something interesting when a man tapped him on his shoulder. Now, this wouldn't normally be of concern except for that the man had tapped him on his shoulder mid-air.

"Wha—"

That was enough of a departure from norm for him to miss his next swing and go falling down. He found that before he could let out a scream or try to swing again he was flying.

"Wow! When did I learn to fly? Did I get a new superpower? that's sick!"

"Nah Kid, I am just helping you float. I had something to talk to you about and didn't want you to go down splat before I could."

"I had that situation under control. Mr flying guy—oh shoot! Aren't you the guy who fought the big monster down at Greenwich with Mr Stark?"

Peter recognized him from the video he had found online of the new superhero. The hero in front of him was just called Dr Strange in all the news articles he could find about him.

Dr Strange was one of those heroes who didn't have to worry about his secret identity. According to what Mr Stark had spoken to the press, Dr Strange was an enhanced hero who had come in contact with some strange rays and gained a few powers. What those powers were or what the rays was a mystery. It seemed like no one really cared about what those powers were so he hadn't either.

"Yeah, yeah let's talk somewhere where you can stand."

Peter then flew under some sort of force and was placed on top of a building. Flying was—strange. He told himself not to make any 'strange' jokes.

However, "Why did you choose such a strange name as Dr Strange?" was the first question that he asked after he gained full control of himself on a rooftop.

The mysterious hero in front of him just sighed and muttered about logical bugs.

"You know my name is Stephen Strange, right?"

"Yeah, I saw that in the news."

"And you know that I am or was a Doctor."

And just then did his brain make the connection. Peter was embarrassed, He tried to quickly change the subject.

"Ah, that… yeah. So what do you want from Spider-Man?"

Was referring to himself in the third person cringe? Was it less or more cringe if you were a hero?

"Right to the point I see. I like that. I am here to ask you for a demonstration of your powers. Just once or twice for each power you have would do. As compensation, I am willing to provide—three favours, that should be appropriate wouldn't it?"

Peter scrunched his eyebrows.

"But why?"

"Because I like studying powers, that's it. And I don't need any blood samples or any of your personal information. I just have to see them, I could have hidden and seen you do your spiderman things but I am here to give you fair recompense for what I am asking for. So, do you want three favours or not?"

Peter chewed on the offer from the relative stranger.

Peter didn't think about why he the ever-curious teenager hadn't asked about the source of Strange's powers or what kinds of favours he could get. Peter was affected by Strange's worldwide amnesia spell as well. He had calibrated it so that people Strange wanted to remember him would be able to maintain an auto-corrective memory of Strange that left out the curiosity for Strange's powers.

The people who reported on the incident and the people who followed it all would be able to understand the incident but not be able to think too deeply about the powers involved. It was a simple reinforcement for the world's own pre-existing incuriosity of everything super.

After some thinking, Peter nodded.

—

Strange

[Spell Learned: Spider's Body.]

[Craft Learned: Spider's Thread.]

[Skill Learned: Regeneration.]

[Skill Learned: The Web of Life and Destiny, Mine.]

I left after an hour of talking and demonstration with Peter a happy man. Spider's body was a fun [Spell], It made me strong and agile as spiderman, or got me close enough to it that my other enhancements should put me over. I had plans for the [Spider's Thread] I learned as a [Craft]. But beyond both of them, the toughest nut to crack was no doubt the [The Web of Life and Destiny, Mine].

It was even tougher because the kid hadn't figured out spider sense yet. But I was a supernaturally gifted teacher. That along with my illusions was enough for me to teach him how to do it. It definitely helped that I didn't have to bring it out from his subconscious or anything. He just hadn't been in a tough enough situation to have him use the spider-sense yet.

The 'training' if you could call it that was simple. I blocked the area with a Shield of light, I then bought out one of the minor [pacts] I had made from the invasions. A minotaur. Then I had the minotaur try to skewer the kid as I slowly made peter 'lose his eyesight' by casting an illusion. He got less and less able to move as time went on too. So he eventually had to stop focusing on his traditional senses and focus on the precognitive sense he had.

He was incensed by the time I was done. He did feel better when he learned that he now "had a new power" and the danger wasn't really real.

I didn't bother telling him that even as I was then, I had no real way to get around the multiversal precognitive abilities of his The Web of Life and Destiny. The Danger was real, I had to convince myself that I would not help him for his power to trigger. What he doesn't know can't hurt him, can it?

What was most surprising was that I hadn't realized that bullying spiderman would be this fun. I should do it more often.

There was also the alarming case that the spiderman of this world hadn't known how to use spider sense. Now it was those kinds of little things that made me wonder how much of what I was taking for granted was real.

Did the infinity stones do what they were always supposed to do? Would bringing them together just kill the universe, because that's what should logically happen, right? Was there a 'One Above All' or a multiverse? What even was Dormammu and a thousand other questions swam through my mind.

Ancient texts and news reports only went so far.

Though I was thankful that now I had the resource that I would need to actually get answers. And once I can talk to vision, then it will be even more solid. If I could hunt down Madame Web and Heimdall then it would be even greater, though I doubted that perfect knowledge and precognition would be even possible or even desirable.

[The Web of Life and Destiny, Mine] Wasn't just a fancy way for spider sense or strange sense as the case it was. No, the reason it took me an hour of repetition to get was that it was the greatest timeline sorting algorithm that should be possible.

I prepared the [Skill] as I got ready to enter the new Kamar-Taj. A new name for it was being hotly debated. Personally, I would be fine with everything but the Moose's Magiorum.

I portalled in and looked over at every change that had been made.

I hadn't made anyone other than myself unaging due to the complexities of the process at hand. That would have to wait till I could find an Asgardian or go to Asgard for a quick loosky.

Instead, I had created a wide "doorway" the disciples could pass through that should "Normalize" their bodily age with the outside world. Anyone not using the doorway will still feel the ravishes of time.

Every building was now fully enchanted to Kamar-Taj's standards. The wards on here were even better than Kamar-Taj's. Both of the processes were incredibly rewarding, the former because it had given me the inspiration to actually start using my [Craft] Skills and the latter because it made me aware of all the dimensions that I had to ward against.

The wards were of differing qualities and some of them were only specialized wards in name only. So what I found the most fascinating about the preexisting wards were the names of things or places the wards were created to stand against.

Among the usual suspects like The Dark Dimension, Mephisto's personal hellhole, the Lovecraftian Gods, The Chaos Gods, The Space Gods etc… There were also wards against magical attacks set to specifically block anything, an attack or a plea for help from Wakanda, An Atlantis analogue called Talokan, Asgard, Ta-Lo, K'un-Lun and a few other places.

I wondered what that was all about. Was it some other Sorcerer Supreme fucking with the wards just because he hates hidden civilizations? Was there bad blood between us and each of those factions or were they each excluded for separate reasons that I could not fathom or even research because of the goddamn amnesia spell being way too good?

Some good things had to cut both ways, it seems.

I had gone way past the review of everything that was done. Other than the time normalization door, I had also created quick-growth farms, training rooms which were even more accelerated than the overall 20X factor. I had also finally gotten around to creating a few [Greater Mana Cores] I had gotten from analysing Tony's arc reactor and was using that to power the dome and the Giant portal connecting Canada to Nepal.

I have to go on another tangent for a second. The Mana Cores from the arc reactor design that I built? It wasn't really an arc reactor so much as a fully magical equivalent of one. I had created it out of the Gems of the fallen beast from my fight with Kaecilius. As a result, they were gigantic, I had been on the lookout for smaller bases I could use to create cores but hadn't found any so far.

I was happy seeing everything working as intended. The proper ceremonies for the Ancient one's burial were over now that we finally had some time. It would happen tomorrow in normal Earth time.

The last major thing I wanted to accomplish was to automate a lot of the tasks that were done through magic in the current settlement. I didn't want to create automated spells or enchantments to do it due to the limitations those could cause from the user's magical knowledge.

So my solution to the question was to create more techno-organisms. Non-sapient ones of course. But the problem I kept running into was monetary and the isolation we had from the outside world.

Which was a roundabout way of saying that just creating my loveable owl—Toots, I was going to call her Toots, had me use up most of the tech I had around. Now I could go to a tech graveyard and portal some of it, but why do that when I had better options?

Like using vibranium, or getting the best of Stark tech.

However, I wasn't going to go to Stark begging for his attention. And it's solving that problem that I was going to use [The Web of Life and Destiny, Mine] for.

This one didn't need spectators. I prepared the spell in my hands and I aimed at a barren land inside the time dome. Using the skill along with my [Greater Chronomancy] was a feeling I would not forget.

Exactly Fourty Three possible timelines bloomed in front of me as I thought about what I wanted. Getting to this result from such a vague state would have previously taken enough mana to conjure blood to drown a planet but now, with [The Web of Life and Destiny, Mine]'s sorting abilities, it only took me enough to drown a State and I believed that with enough testing and practice, I could bring it down even further.

I should really stop measuring Mana in how much blood it can conjure.

Possibilities bloomed into reality and went away as I kept dialling through the options arrayed in front of me. I had Queried for a timeline where futuristic tech was available in droves around the planet.

I found a planet conquered by Asgard but the tech was too Divine attuned for me to use. Not that I couldn't but that I probably had better options.

Another was a planet where Wakanda hadn't decided to be isolationist. I liked panther tech but the Vibranium content in the discarded tech at the location I was transforming wasn't enough.

There were similar planets where each of the big hidden civilizations had decided to cut loose, but I didn't think any of them were exactly what I was looking for.

There was a planet where Ultron had won and made Earth the cradle of his galactic invasion. While Vibranium was practically non-existent on his "Foot Soldiers", my [Craft] told me that the tech they represented was practically perfect for the task on my hand. But I had let that planet go as well because it felt like there were better options.

I found a planet that had been invaded by the Kree, and another by the Skrulls. I sighed because of course those tossers were around too.

The more interesting alt!timelines I found was one where Spiderbots clearly of Parker's creation raged. There was one optimistic one where Earth had turned itself into a utopia not on the back of super-geniuses but on the back of a shot-down space pirate vessel. Before I could feel good about humanity the next on roll had the same divergence point but Earth had become a cyberpunk dystopia instead.

It was really just a coin-toss it seemed.

There was a planet conquered by Thanos confirming my suspicions that he was around. Another planet was a bio-tech "utopia" with not a single person in sight that my Gift told me was Ego for some reason.

I kept—scrolling for the lack of a better world. These were all glimpses. I hadn't made them real yet, just possible timelines that might or might not exist as other universes. Nothing about my spell was touching the multi-verse since I didn't really know how to go beyond the veil yet even if I had clues from other spells and skills.

I found a very interesting reality. A reality conquered by Dormammu. In front of me was an army of the mindless ones. Sometimes his toys and sometimes the people he was at war against. But in either case, an excellent source of magi-tech.

The mindless ones were mat-black giant humanoid golems. However, what stood out to me wasn't the army in front of me, I had seen way too many of them in the past few days, but the sole woman being carried as a prisoner.

Dormammu had conquered Earth and left someone as a prisoner. A human from the looks of it. I kept looking at the girl not just because she was hotter than anyone I had seen since coming here but also because the clothes she wore reminded me of a character. There was no way she was just some rando.

She had long silver hair and piercing blue eyes. Her outfit was that of an obvious outsider to Earth, the materials I had to come from a different dimension, my gift told me. Her clothes were in blue, white and silver.

Huh. Was that Clea? Dr Strange's love interest Clea?

And suddenly I felt a shiver go up my spine. Why the hell did I find her so attractive? Was I fully me? Was I just fated to find her and find her attractive?

Then I promptly disregarded that thought because of course I was me. Any red-blooded straight man would find her at least good-looking. I didn't have to be Strange to do so. The only question worth asking was why I had found her.

The answer to that question was also obvious when I thought about it for more than a second. It was my subconscious desires affecting my request. I wanted to kill Dormammau and I had recently learned that my assumptions about him were wrong. I had to find a reliable and direct source that could help me with it. And who better for that task than Clea?

[The Web of Life and Destiny, Mine], being the great skill it was just fulfilling the request I didn't even ask. Because it wasn't like Spidey asked his power to tell him of danger each time. The Skill itself was semi-sentient or at least worked in ways I had to fully uncover yet.

That's what you get when dealing with multiversal bullshit.

That said, I quickly moved past the vision it was showing me. I saw the trap of bringing that to reality. It won't just mean that there would be two of them but also that the Mindless Ones might be enough of an anchor for Dormammu to come to and start causing trouble.

I didn't want that till I was ready.

I kept scrolling and scrolling but I found no one world that suited my purpose. I had gone through all 42 of them.

I did find it interesting that none of the worlds I had seen were divergent from my actions. I would have loved to get a world where alt!me had made them all real and gone through all the work needed to bring it all together into a cohesive perfect whole.

It was that thought that gave me the answer to which world I should make real.

I bought them all—except for the one with the mindless ones.

I conjured all of them in 42 different slices, slices decided by which area had the highest accumulation of tech or magic I was looking for. And right at the moment it did, I froze every single one.

I then spread them using [Boon of the Dark Dimension]. They split like the inside of a Kaleidoscope all around me. More applications of chronomancy, more warding, more enchantments, a sprinkling of randomness from the newly acquired [Chaos Magic] and more pure unadulterated magical might and I had what I hadn't gone looking for but had received anyway.

When I was done with my most ambitious project so far, I called it the Dungeon of Foury-Two Ends. It existed within multiple alternate planes and there were reflections of each of its planes in the "real world" too. It would be great practice grounds for my disciples. I powered it all using two [Greater Manacores].

I flew down to the entrance and entered the dungeon I had created. I needed practice with non-mystical threats too. I was going to meet the Scarlet Witch, Vision and their friends tomorrow after all.

—

AN: Should I write an exploration of the dungeon? I usually find them boring in fics.