Chapter 182: What a Coincidence, You're in Universe 13 Too
There was a time when Solus would have never thought he would one day confront the Ancient One.
In fact, he had only realized a few minutes ago that this female magician blocking his path was also an Ancient One.
Solus, of course, knew of the Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One. However, in most universes, the ones he was aware of were male. This was his first time encountering a female Ancient One, though it wasn't particularly strange. The Multiverse was so vast that all sorts of bizarre things could happen.
But being blocked by her was truly... rotten luck. He had just come from an unknown universe after devouring a Spider-Man and was on his way to Universe 13.
Solus's expression turned grim. He had no idea what madness had possessed this archmage before him, who appeared only in soul form.
"It seems you've decided to make an enemy of me. That is a choice that courts death."
Solus's wild hair flared up, and he opened his mouth to reveal sharp fangs, his ferocity on full display.
The Ancient One had already gathered immense magic. Even without a body, her faintly glowing soul form still emanated a palpable sense of pressure. "Actually, I am already dead."
"Then I'll kill you again, your soul included!"
Solus was completely unafraid of death. Even knowing that this Ancient One from an unknown universe possessed terrifying magical skill, he felt no fear, only the irritation of being obstructed. He immediately unleashed his Totem Power and began his battle against the Ancient One.
As the patriarch of the Inheritors, Solus had led his family members in a secret hunt for Spider-Men that spanned centuries. Only recently, after accumulating sufficient strength, had he drastically intensified the hunt, forcing the formation of the Spider Alliance.
With centuries of accumulation, he had long ago raised his strength to an astonishing level. He had accumulated an immense amount of Totem Power, especially the power of the Spider Totem.
At full power, the energies of various different animal totems erupted from him—a terrifying convergence of power sufficient to shatter countless stars.
Solus, after all, had feats of defeating Cosmic Gods. Now, he was only stronger.
"Totem Power... I'm not very familiar with this kind of power, nor have I deliberately acquired and interpreted knowledge about it. But for a vampire like you to walk the path of seizing Totem Power... that is something I didn't expect."
The Ancient One was clearly very interested in Solus; she had never seen such a peculiar vampire. "And you possess many kinds of totems, which makes the Totem Power you wield very complex..."
"A sorcerer of unknown origin like you has, at most, only studied magic. You completely fail to grasp the power of the totems, let alone my own strength."
"That's not what I mean. I'm saying your power is quite mixed. There's nothing wrong with that, because my power is ten times more complex than yours."
The next second, it was as if the Ancient One's soul form had blown up the lair of the gods of magic. All sorts of chaotic magical particles surged out from her soul like a waterfall, each scrambling to be first.
It was no exaggeration to say that if the Ancient One didn't forcefully restrain them, the mutually opposing magical particles from different systems would have spontaneously attacked and annihilated one another the very instant they appeared.
Solus was stunned. Even though he didn't use magic, he knew that White Magic and Black Magic were diametrically opposed systems. Yet, he simultaneously detected strong fluctuations of both White Magic and Black Magic emanating from the Ancient One.
The crucial part was that she wielded both White Magic and Black Magic simultaneously, with no discernible order. The other chaotic types of magic power from various different systems were even more numerous.
Is this sorcerer even legitimate?
But the Ancient One couldn't care less about legitimacy. As long as it was effective, that was all that mattered.
The Ancient One pointed a finger forward. A magic spell, a mixture of different powers, suddenly shot out, rapidly expanding and extending as it coalesced into a heart-pounding, dark vortex.
Solus charged forward, his Totem Power transforming into the phantoms of various animals. The largest phantom was a ferocious-looking spider that, in the instant it lunged, resembled a vast net.
The contest between magic and totem erupted. The collision detonated the macroscopic world, starting from the microscopic level, and instantly transcended the Reality Dimension. Its destructive power reached into an even greater number of dimensional worlds.
This was more than a simple confrontation between two different kinds of power. Neither the Ancient One's magic nor Solus's totem was pure; on the contrary, both were exceedingly complex.
The difference was that the Ancient One was the more chaotic one. She flicked her arms, her fingers dancing without any pause or delay, always able to cast various exquisite magic spells at an incredible speed, like a relentless, unending flood.
In Solus's eyes, this strange Ancient One was like a brilliant pianist. The magic spells, sourced from different magical entities, were her keys. The Ancient One brought order to the complex and violent torrents of disparate magic power, able to wield them with mastery and unleash the most ferocious spells at precisely the right moment, composing a masterpiece that could be called art.
Elegant. So fucking elegant.
A strange thought popped into Solus's head: this person was far more elegant than his most favored son, Morlun.
The members of the Inheritors were all impeccably dressed in suits and leather shoes, their hair spotless, their polished shoes capable of reflecting the shadows of the Spider-Men they had killed.
But when such elegance was displayed by an archmage who wielded magic like an autocannon, it was not the least bit wonderful.
This was especially true of the magic she used, which seemed both chaotic and orderly. He could never predict what type of spell the Ancient One would cast next.
As the battle intensified, Solus felt immense pressure. He had never encountered a sorcerer like this—powerful yet utterly unfathomable.
Her magic being unfathomable was one thing, but he couldn't even comprehend her reasoning. He didn't even know why this Ancient One was hunting him down.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
Terrifying explosions covered every domain visible to the naked eye. Even the smallest burst of energy was a devastating blow, sufficient to shatter a planet and annihilate a civilization.
Faced with such terrifying intensity, Solus's expression turned grim. He pushed the various types of Totem Power to their absolute limit, but he still found it taxing to deal with such a tenacious Ancient One. The slightest carelessness would see him wounded by her extremely insidious and sinister spells.
"What kind of Kamar-Taj, from what universe, could possibly produce a Sorcerer Supreme like you! Look at these spells you're using—each one is more evil than the last!"
Solus briefly broke free from the magical encirclement, growing more agitated the longer he fought. He swung his arms, shattering one magic spell after another.
"Evil? Compared to you, magic is merely a pure form of power—even Dark Magic and Demonic Magic."
Of course, the Ancient One was not unscathed. In fact, the very act of using magic was a form of "self-harm."
Facing the formidable Totem Power, she directly invoked the Images of Ikonn, creating several hundred copies of herself at once. She also used mirror magic, layering countless pockets of space to conceal the location of her true form.
The Ancient One's voice was ethereal and hard to pinpoint, seeming to emanate from the Mirror Dimension before each of her copies. "In my wanderings across the Multiverse, I have met some very powerful beings and learned a great deal of interesting knowledge. Part of that knowledge mentioned the origin of vampires. Your kind is merely a race born from Black Magic."
"So what? That information is hardly a secret. But don't lump me in with ordinary vampires, and don't even think of using creation-type Black Magic or the Book of Darkness to inflict corruption upon me. It's useless. I am already a deity on the side of the totems, not a deity of vampires!" Solus said coldly.
"A vassal to the totems would be more accurate."
"Aren't you also a vassal to magic? What qualification do you have to speak of me?"
"There is a difference. There are only so many types of Totem Power. Magic is different. The types of magic I use... are many."
While delivering lethal blows, the Ancient One single-mindedly searched for an opportunity to capture the vampire before her and achieve a certain objective. At the same time, she spoke in a gentle tone that only served to further irritate Solus, "Magical entities from different factions will enter into disputes over me. You can't say the same. I can see those few totems would love nothing more than to unite and kill you."
"Ridiculous. Is that something to be proud of? You magicians are essentially living off magical debt. Every iota of power you use must eventually be repaid!"
But the Totem Power his family had seized was different. Once taken, it was theirs.
"If this continues, we'll only end up mutually destroyed. The best-case scenario for you is being tortured to death by the many magical gods you borrow power from! Your end will be utterly miserable!" Solus snapped. "I don't have the time or energy to waste on you. I don't even know what you would gain from successfully killing me."
"Discovering a vampire like you is a benefit in itself... It's been some time since I left my Native Universe. Going back to ask that person for help this time won't be a simple matter. Without paying the price upfront, he absolutely wouldn't lift a finger."
The Ancient One didn't know what her Native Universe, the one that had birthed her, had become. However, she suspected it had likely transformed into a massive, war-torn battlefield, with war raging on every planet throughout the entire universe.
Beings from different races and civilizations were at war with the Xenomorphs. The wreckage of countless battleships littered the entire universe, and every planet was covered in dismembered remains.
At least, that was what the Ancient One envisioned.
She was now facing a predicament. She needed Du Wa's help, but her usual trick of fooling the magical gods—incurring a magical debt and then defaulting on it—would be difficult to pull off. Du Wa would not be deceived.
If it did work, that in itself would be the problem, as it would mean Du Wa had already used some unknown means to extract even greater value from her.
Solus finally decided not to drag this out. He had already been wounded by the relentless barrage of magic. If he delayed any longer, losing this body was a small matter, but expending too much power would be real trouble.
It meant he would miss the unprecedented hunting feast in Universe 13. Worse, if his offspring devoured enough Spider-Men, they would rapidly close the gap in strength between him and them.
BOOM!
Various forms of Totem Power detonated in succession, shattering a huge expanse of space. By the time the universe spontaneously repaired itself, Solus's body had also vanished into nothingness.
"He just abandoned his body? It seems this strange vampire is somewhat like me, viewing the body as a less-important container. The soul consciousness is the foundation... No, he's actually more like Du Wa. Both can transfer their soul consciousness into different bodies and still exert the majority of their power."
But escape was impossible.
The Ancient One wasn't just skilled in space-time spells; she was also an expert in soul spells. Otherwise, how could she have abandoned her body to wander the Multiverse in soul form? Without this ability, she would have struggled to even traverse ordinary universes.
"Let me see... The vampire's soul is making a long-distance jump. According to the multiversal coordinates given to me by the Vishanti, he should be heading to Universe 13."
The Ancient One didn't waste much thought on what kind of place Universe 13 was. No matter how terrible, it had to be better than Universe 10011.
She had operated jointly with the Ancient Ones of other universes, but their experience in Universe 10011 was nothing short of a nightmare.
They had been besieged by a horde of Cthulhu-esque, undead aberration monsters, and had even encountered a clone of Shuma-Gorath, a being of multiversal standing. In that battle, several Ancient Ones had perished.
Universe 10011 had another, more terrifying name—the Cancerverse.
...
"She's fast. But I can't abandon all these Spider-Men. This is an excellent opportunity to drastically increase my strength."
Solus had already switched to a new body, arriving in Universe 13 instantly via the Web of Life and Destiny. His face was exceptionally grim, completely stripped of his former cold composure.
If he truly had to choose, dying a few times was unimportant. Killing more Spider-Men to obtain more Totem Power was what truly mattered.
For example, if he devoured all of the dozens of Spider-Men here in one fell swoop, he could then turn around and utterly crush that abnormal Ancient One!
"Who is that? He doesn't have any Totem Power on him. It seems the judgment Daemos paid for with his life was correct—the Spider-Man from Earth-1543681 is a problem. That universe shouldn't have had a designation before I went in and devoured its Spider-Man."
Solus quickly scanned the bloody battlefield, seeing the corpses of several Spider-Men and, of course, the corpses of several of his own family members.
This meant some of his family members had already been killed more than once.
He then focused his gaze on the Alien Spider-Man, sensing a subtle threat emanating from the creature.
The very instant Solus made his move, the Ancient One also arrived. She opened an ultra-long-range teleportation portal, and the moment she stepped into Universe 13, she froze.
"Du Wa is actually here? So, he targeted this group of vampires before I did. Such a persistent fellow. It looks like all the vampires in the entire Multiverse are in for some bad luck."
The Ancient One stared in astonishment at the Xenomorph.
As long as a Xenomorph was present, it meant Du Wa was there. The Ancient One was certain of this.
(end of chapter)