Chapter Ninety-Nine: Simple and Brutal

First was the little witch Nico’s staff, the strongest battle asset in the entire series: the Staff of One.

The Staff of One was originally conceived as a special weapon forged by alien technology, with little to do with magic. Later, the story retconned it into a magical artifact stolen by Nico’s mother, Tina Minoru, from the place where she had learned sorcery.

The Staff of One is a powerful magical weapon. It does not require much of the wielder’s mana; instead, whenever the user speaks a word to the tip of the staff, it releases a corresponding spell unique to that word.

However, each word can only be used once. If it is used too often, the limited vocabulary makes it unusable, and if one forces it, backlash will follow.

To a certain extent, this artifact has already reached the level of law itself. In the Marvel universe, it could easily be called a divine relic.

Gu Chongyan had never obtained a relic of that caliber, and he could not help glancing at Nico Minoru, dressed in her gothic finery.

His gaze fell on the dark smudges of smoky makeup around her eyes, and he could not help thinking of how she would look later on, after overusing the Staff of One and being eroded by dark power, just like Kaecilius, the traitor from Kamar-Taj.

If he remembered correctly, the Staff of One seemed to have some connection to the Dark Dimension.

Tina had also said that the staff had been stolen from the place where she learned magic.

Taken together, these clues made it hard not to think of Kamar-Taj. Gu Chongyan suspected that Nico’s mother, Tina, must have broken away from Kamar-Taj, and that the Staff of One had been stolen from there as well.

Besides the Staff of One, there was another thing Gu Chongyan was equally interested in: the Darkhold.

In his memory, the Darkhold appeared in Marvel’s screen adaptations a total of three times, in Runaways, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and WandaVision.

Each time, the owner of the Darkhold was different. By Gu Chongyan’s estimation, those three Darkholds must have existed on different timelines and in different dimensions.

Moreover, he suspected that apart from the one in WandaVision, the others were probably only Books of Darkness, not the true Darkhold.

The Book of Darkness and the Darkhold differed by only one word, yet their status was worlds apart.

There was no need to say much about the Darkhold: it was created by the great dark god Chthon, one of Marvel’s top-tier divine artifacts.

The Book of Darkness was different. It was derived from the Darkhold, essentially a simplified version, or perhaps a fragment of it.

Although it likewise recorded a great many black arts and possessed the power to corrupt the mind, it was far from comparable to the Darkhold.

As Chthon’s grimoire, the Darkhold would be drawn to powerful sorcerers. A mage without sufficient strength and potential could not attract it.

From the few appearances of the Darkhold in Marvel’s screen stories, it was clear that apart from Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, the other holders were not yet qualified to attract the true Darkhold. That was why Gu Chongyan guessed that those so-called Darkholds were probably nothing more than Books of Darkness.

Still, whether it was the Book of Darkness or the Darkhold, both contained a vast body of powerful magic, which would greatly help Gu Chongyan in studying Marvel’s magical system.

The only thing that gave him pause was the Darkhold’s wielder: Morgan le Fay.

In the television series, Morgan le Fay was Tina’s former friend and had apparently studied magic with her.

Though she was the final boss, her strength and aura were only middling. Not weak, but nothing extraordinary.

In the comics, however, this witch stood on a very different level. Her status and power were no less than Wanda’s, and she possessed magic, reality warping, time travel, witchcraft, resurrection, empowerment, teleportation, omnipresence, shapeshifting, energy projection, illusion, and more.

Beyond her formidable strength, her background was terrifying as well: she was a disciple of Merlin, one of Marvel’s supreme heavyweights.

Merlin the wizard was the strongest mage in the Marvel universe, without question.

How strong was he? Marvel’s five cosmic powers were formidable enough, yet even they still stood beneath the Living Tribunal. Merlin, by contrast, was an omniversal existence capable of standing against the Living Tribunal itself.

Gu Chongyan did not know what level Morgan le Fay truly belonged to.

If she was only the version from the screen, he would not worry too much. But if she was the one from the comics, then let alone him— even the Ancient One would probably not dare provoke her.

While Gu Chongyan was carefully weighing the matter, Richard’s explanation was also drawing to a close.

“So the situation now is this: their parents want to dig something up from underground at the construction site, but whatever it is could very likely trigger a massive earthquake and sink all of California.”

“Even though each of them has some superhuman ability, they still can’t handle their parents.”

“I inherited the Nova Force, but I don’t really know how to use it. My power is all over the place, sometimes strong, sometimes weak, like it works one moment and fails the next.”

“So, Shawn, do you have any way to stop all this?”

Richard looked at Gu Chongyan, and the other boys and girls who had witnessed his power also stared at him with anticipation.

Seeing this, Gu Chongyan came back to himself and set Morgan le Fay aside for the moment.

After all, it was not yet time for Morgan le Fay to appear. If he remembered correctly, she should still be imprisoned in the Dark Dimension. Her escape in the original story was entirely due to Nico being corroded by darkness while using the staff, causing her power to run wild.

As long as he kept watch nearby, he could prevent that completely. So long as Morgan le Fay could not get out, she would not be able to interfere with him at all.

And even if, against the odds, she still emerged because of the story’s influence, he could simply step back and leave the mess to the protagonists. They would manage to solve it eventually, and it would not drag him in.

Thinking this through, Gu Chongyan finally relaxed. Meeting those hopeful eyes, he spoke.

“It’s simple. Since they want to dig something out from underground, why don’t we just destroy it?”

“No need to waste time. Richard, lead the way. We’ll go destroy whatever’s in that giant pit at the construction site right now and settle this once and for all. Then we call the police and send your parents to prison one by one. End of story.”

When they heard Gu Chongyan’s plan, everyone except Su Yan froze.

The young black man, Alex, could not help blurting out, “No, that’s your plan? We don’t even know what’s under the construction site, or whether destroying it will cause serious consequences.”

“If we rush in blindly, not to mention how easily we could expose ourselves and draw our parents’ attention, what if we accidentally cause enormous destruction? Then we’re done for.”

The others nodded again and again, looking at the simple, brutal Gu Chongyan with clear disapproval.