Chapter 1384: The Call of the Stars (End)

On the first floor of the cafe, a small pot set over a flame bubbled with fragrant vegetable soup. The tomatoes had already been stewed into a pulp, their sweet and sour aroma permeating the fibers of the other vegetables. Xu Shangqi brought out a serving of stir-fried noodles, Riley was still heating up his half-finished pizza, and Wanda had already sat down at the dining table, ready to eat.

"I'm really sorry, I'm not very good at cooking." Miss Witch shrugged, and then she felt a pair of hands wrap around her neck to tie her napkin for her.

"Thank you, Jarvis."

"No need to feel sorry, Miss. Everyone has different life experiences. I'm afraid you haven't had much leisure time to study the culinary arts, have you?" Jarvis smiled and said.

Wanda rested one hand on the table, propping up her face, and said, "Yes, in the childhood I remember, I was either moving or on the way to move. There were rarely any stable times. Meals made from fresh ingredients instead of semi-finished products? That was truly a luxury."

"Although it's incredible, I inevitably have to mention this: I always feel that Erik had some thoughts of compensation when he kept Pietro and me by his side, even though it made us all miserable."

The group set out the dishes, and Xu Shangqi's gentle voice sounded in Wanda's mind: "Haven't you tried talking to him?"

Wanda was startled and shivered, then regained her composure and said, "I'm really not used to this ability of yours. I keep thinking Professor X has arrived."

Xu Shangqi shrugged and said in everyone's minds, "But I'm sorry, I can't read minds; I can only transmit sound. Didn't you all gain special abilities too?"

"I still don't know if this is a good or bad thing." Riley walked to the end of the dining table, sat down, moved his stool forward, and placed his hands on the table, saying, "My spider-sense is too sensitive. I tried using it in cooking to control the heat, and the effect isn't bad."

"Seriously, Xu," Riley looked at Xu Shangqi again, "Before, I thought I was the only one who could hear your voice. I thought it was my special ability. When Jarvis said he could hear it too, I was really shocked."

Xu Shangqi smiled and said, "Thank goodness it only gave me the ability of 'thousand-mile sound transmission.' If I could really read minds, I'm afraid I'd scare myself half to death first."

Wanda used a fork to scoop some stir-fried noodles onto her plate and said, "I really don't know how Professor Charles can stand reading Erik's thoughts. Won't he really be angered to death?"

"Seriously, we should expand on that previous point," Riley said while slurping noodles.

"Which one? Dreams, or evolution?"

"We can't study dreams for now. Didn't we all just try? Lying in bed, covering ourselves with quilts, even listening to lullabies, we couldn't fall asleep. Honestly, in this situation, it would be a ghost story if anyone could fall asleep... Of course, our superhuman abilities mean we don't need sleep that often. We've become accustomed to it."

"Then it's 'evolution'," Jarvis thoughtfully served soup to everyone and said, "Creating wounds and then creating new abilities at the site of the wounds—this can only be called evolution in a broad sense, a very broad sense."

Wanda frowned tightly. Jarvis turned his head to look at her and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I reserve my opinion. I don't like calling it evolution because it sounds like a good word, but in reality..." Miss Witch put down her cutlery, spread her hands, and said, "Did anyone ask for my consent? Can't I like my original eyes?"

"Fine, fine, I used the ability I gained later to checkmate Chthon, but do you know what this reminds me of? Erik!"

"That's right, that irritable, stubborn control freak who won't listen to advice. He's always like this. I said I wanted to go to New York University to study, and he said I hadn't even finished high school, so no university would want me. I said I wanted to start a family in the future, and he said no man could stand me. I said I liked children, and he said I should take care of myself first."

"Whenever I was full of ambition to do something, he would always be on the sidelines making sarcastic remarks, saying I couldn't do this or that. Several times I completely broke down and said, 'Then what do you think I should do?'"

"Guess what he said?" Wanda leaned forward, her hands pressed against the edge of the table, and the others also struck curious poses.

"He said, 'You should honestly stay here and finish the work at hand!' That's right, it was the work he made me do—go bomb that factory today, go toy with FBI agents tomorrow!"

"What makes me even angrier is that he actually claimed this was to train my abilities. Yes, frequent fighting did indeed deepen my connection to chaos power, but was that what I wanted? Of course not!"

"I like children and pet dogs. I hope we can live in a detached house with a yard for activities, and not be rolled eyes at by neighbors. I think having all this doesn't require me to be good at fighting."

"But he insisted on stabbing a knife into my heart, creating a wound, and then when I was angry and sad, I could only use the opportunities he gave me to fight to vent, and then use that to train my exquisite magic level. Even if I chose to be a kindergarten teacher, I would never use chaos magic in this lifetime!"

The other three felt a bit suffocated. In fact, such a person who cannot communicate and only talks to themselves appearing in any corner of anyone's life is enough to make one feel suffocated.

But Wanda changed the subject and said:

"Actually, I know what he probably meant: 'If you want to go to university, go finish high school,' 'If you want to find a boyfriend, you have to change your willful temper,' 'If I want children, at least I have to buy a house and a car first.'"

"Yes, he's just that kind of person. He never speaks properly, but Lorna and I can subtly understand him at times. Perhaps it's because we are indeed very similar, sometimes with the addition of Professor Charles, because he can read minds."

"Our relationship isn't that great, but it's not as bad as you imagine. I'd rather describe his over-controlling behavior as a kind of 'twisted fatherly love.' He hopes I become the person he wants, mastering the skills he thinks are useful because he once benefited from them."

"He didn't live well enough, but he thinks the experience of his lifetime can provide help to his children, even though the facts are not so."

Wanda sighed softly and continued, "And the topic of this universe has returned to the starting point. I didn't feel like I was attacked, and neither did Riley. This control is more like a twisted love."

"Something thinks that if we become like this, we will live better, so it changed us. Ordinary people might not have become better due to physical functions and mental conditions, but perhaps it just sees this as an insignificant sacrifice in natural evolution."

"So twisted, indifferent, yet grand to the point of being unobservable, unmeasurable, both terrifying and magnificent, just like another level of nature."

Jarvis stared straight at Wanda, as if he were mesmerized by her, even though Miss Witch's eyes were now completely two black holes, and there were dried bloodstains on her eyelashes. But Jarvis just couldn't look away, for Wanda's wisdom and spirituality, as well as her beauty.

"If we compare this power to nature, then I think we certainly have reason to be angry," Xu Shangqi pursed his lips, his voice sounding in everyone's minds: "No one will thank an earthquake."

"Crustal movement didn't intend to hurt us, and neither did this power, but the most infuriating thing about it is that it highlights the insignificance of humanity."

"Once humans feel their insignificance, they become crazy. They move mountains when they encounter them and bridge rivers when they encounter them. Our ancestors overcame terrifying natural disasters step by step in this way, which is why humanity has survived to this day."

"Humans are indeed a very strange species," Riley shook his head and said, "We all crave power, crave to become stronger, but now that power has fallen on our heads like a pie from the sky, we instead despise it."

"Because the most precious thing about humanity lies in the potential for free development, not in unfree power," Jarvis objectively pointed out, "If the body is limited, develop the brain; if efficiency is insufficient, upgrade tools. The path of human evolution is constant 'sublation,' not randomly picking lucky winners to reward with an ability."

"Oh!" Wanda suddenly realized and said, "I was wondering why something felt weird! Why did it have to evolve my eyes? Besides letting me mock Chthon, what else can this ability do? Does being a kindergarten teacher require looking directly at the truth of the universe?"

Riley sighed softly and said, "Spider-sense counts as my specialty, but I have no interest in predicting the future. And rather, if someone prepares a surprise for me at a party in the future, wouldn't I have to act out an excited expression? I hate that!"

"Don't look at me," Xu Shangqi shrugged and said, "The ability to speak in other people's minds is nonsensical. I have self-awareness; in terms of my eloquence, logical persuasion is better than physical persuasion."

Then he lamented, "Giving me a flight ability would have been fine too. I still want to go see monkeys!"

The group fell silent. After a while, Wanda said with a mix of laughter and tears, "Do you think if that mysterious existence heard what we said, it would think we're all crazy? Not wanting an ability that comes for free, and still picking and choosing here?"

"Abilities don't come for free. Doesn't suffering count as a cost?" Xu Shangqi's thinking was quite simple, and he emphasized, "But we suffered, yet didn't get what we wanted. Doesn't that mean we still lost out?"

Wanda and Riley were both stunned for a moment. They were actually already used to suffering. Xu Shangqi spread his hands and said, "Fine, you can say I'm pampered, but that bullshit attack it launched made us hurt so much, and then it just stuffed us with abilities that don't suit us at all as compensation? Are you all so easy to talk to?"

Originally, Wanda and Riley weren't too angry, but as the saying goes, endure for a moment and you'll think about it more angrily; take a step back and you'll think about it more as a loss. Drawing a bad card isn't scary; what's scary is having a bad friend whispering in your ear every day, "You deserved better."

Wanda puffed out her cheeks and said, "You have a point. Why remove the organs we originally wanted and then stuff us with abilities we don't want? Don't let me know who did it, or I'll definitely make them look good!"

"Speaking of which," Jarvis pulled them back from their emotional output and said, "Wanda, your point just now was very interesting, that 'mysterious existence turned humans into this, perhaps because it thought it would be better' point."

"Let's assume the principle is indeed like this. This power didn't intend to harm humans, it just thought humans becoming like this might be better adapted to this world. I'm not referring to the ordinary people who turned into monsters, but successful products like you who survived the attack due to your own strength and gained new abilities. Then, why would it think so?"

"Why must there be these special abilities to better adapt to this world? What's wrong with this world?"

As soon as Jarvis finished speaking, a loud noise came from outside the cafe door. Accompanied by the endless shattering of space in the distance, a male figure holding a little girl and with a raccoon sitting on his shoulder came running wildly toward them.

"Quill?!" Jarvis shouted in surprise.

But Quill had no time to answer anyone's questioning tone. He just roared past, running wildly, and shouted, "Run! Go to Central Park! Find the Ancient One!"

The group stood in front of the cafe window, watching the terrifying dark vortex rolling in from the New York skyline. Space was like coffee beans thrown into a coffee machine, completely shattered by the vortex amidst the rumbling sounds and tremors. The entire world was gradually breaking apart.

The group hurriedly started running. Jarvis asked while running, "What on earth is going on, Quill?!"

"What do you mean? Me or this world?!"

"Both!"

"I touched the truth, and so the world was destroyed!"

"What on earth is going on?" Wanda roared.

"This world is a dream!"

"A dream?!"

Arriving at the roadside of New York Central Park, the group saw the phantom of a huge temple. The Ancient One seemed to have been waiting for them for a long time, and a huge portal stood above her head.

"You go." The radiance of magic shone on the Ancient One's face, which was already full of black patterns. Just as Xu Shangqi wanted to say something, the Ancient One interrupted him and said, "I'm not looking to die; I just have to face the master of the dream. This is the responsibility and destiny of the Sorcerer Supreme."

Suddenly, a powerful magical force swept over the group and pushed them into the portal.

Before Quill entered the portal with Jennifer, the Ancient One looked at them and said, "Thank you for revealing the essence of this world... Forgive me for not being able to do this. I must keep my strength to face more truths."

As Jennifer's face gradually faded into the magical radiance of the portal, the Ancient One saw the little girl make a lip-syncing gesture to her—"Thank you!"

Endless light burst forth from the Ancient One's eyes. That rift, which had long failed to close, slowly closed amidst a dazzling golden light with a powerful, irresistible posture, leaving no scars behind. The radiance was complete.

"Come on, let me see who dominates fate in the dream!"

The Ancient One's robe fluttered, her eyes staring straight at the starry sky. But just as she wanted to touch the truth, an angry roar came from the edge of the portal—

"Blinded my eyes! And you want me to just roll away?! Dream on!"

Humans cannot look directly at the truth of the universe, but an angry woman can.

The Scarlet Witch erupted with intense red light, almost illuminating the entire starry sky. The red light in her eyes was like the fire ignited by chaos before the birth of the endless universe, powerful enough to burn through everything. Her roar echoed throughout the universe:

"Chthon! I command you to respond!"

Chthon's voice came intermittently.

"What is that?"

Chthon felt puzzled.

"Behind me!"

Chthon began to fear.

"Wanda, you can't..."

"Trash!"

Immediately after, Chthon felt that the almost infinite chaos power that constituted himself and surrounded his body was shaken. They began to fly toward another place at a speed that even Chthon felt terrified by, so fast and in such quantity that even Chthon felt he was facing death.

"Wanda, stop quickly!! You will destroy everything!!!"

When the infinite chaos power and the eternal power from Eternity erupted simultaneously, the world was completely shattered.

And Wanda and the Ancient One simultaneously saw the vast, magnificent, and indescribable scene behind the chaotic and shattered vortex.

Before the universe completely collapsed, Wanda felt the greatest pride and unyielding spirit belonging to humanity in her heart turn into a flame of ultimate anger.

Thus, the Scarlet Witch, who never understood what forbearance was, ignited all her chaos power in a way that contained the most malicious hatred and desire for revenge of humanity.

Infinite flames burned between countless dream universes, like a prairie fire, burning these unconscious dreams to ashes, leaving nothing behind.

And Wanda, who had almost merged with the rules of chaos, had hollow eyes containing the pleasure of revenge. If I am panicked in the dark night without beautiful dreams, then no one else should have them either.

Finally, the lonely scarlet figure stood in the universe, facing the stars, and called out His true name without any scruples—

"Azathoth..."

It's finished. After this is the main storyline of the Marvel Cancerverse: D

Schiller is quiet, 【】 ===== CHAPTER 1385 =====