American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

Chapter 255 The Meaning of Magic

With one side enthusiastic and the other eager to please, the conversation went very well—at least on the surface. But unfortunately, neither side gained any useful information.

Doctor Doom and Serpent were not very clear about what Rune had done before. Serpent did not pay attention to what was happening in the mortal world, and Doctor Doom had been knocked away by Captain Marvel in his own world and was sent flying to the vicinity of the World Trade Center. He did not even know how Rune had defeated the Red who possessed six Infinity Stones and had become a berserk attacker.

As for information about Rune—aside from Raven's praise, Doctor Doom and Serpent only obtained information that Rune really liked to study magic, which doesn't count as information.

If it weren't for the expression on Raven's face, Doctor Doom and the snake would have thought that this little girl was playing a trick on them!

After quite a while, the raven finally encountered the rune. Before the rune could fully gather the surrounding spacetime fluctuations, the raven swooped down.

Rune hugged her tightly. Rune wanted to scold Raven and tell her to be careful of the spatial fluctuations, but he realized that Raven was the daughter of the Third Palace and had the ability to travel through dimensions. She wouldn't be afraid of this level of spatial fluctuations at all, so he could only sigh.

What else could Rune say? He could only pat the raven's head with his left hand and whisper, "I'm back."

Meanwhile, the giant snake and Doctor Doom, who had been beside her, looked around warily, and it took them quite some time before they realized that Marvel had disappeared.

Exile in time and space?

As someone skilled in both technology and magic, Doctor Doom naturally conceived of this method to combat a powerful enemy. Dimensional travel is an essential ability for some extremely powerful mages. Many powerful beings who can control cosmic energy can only travel between dimensions by relying on certain artifacts. Therefore, spacetime banishment can be used by mages as an alternative form of sealing.

Doom guessed that Rune must have used Time Exile, otherwise Doctor Doom would find it hard to imagine how he could defeat an immortal and powerful guy who could fight against swordsmen, serpents, and himself in such a short time.

However, considering Marvel's unique circumstances, Doctor Doom still spoke up to remind him, "While time-space exile is useful, Marvel has already gained the favor of an evil god. Are you sure another dimension can resist the invasion of an evil god?"

Rune tilted his head: "What are you talking about?"

"Didn't you banish Marvel to some random spacetime?" Doctor Doom stared intently at Rune.

No, this boy's reaction is wrong. Rune's question made Doctor Doom realize he was wrong. His pupils contracted sharply. If Rune could defeat Marvel head-on, then some of his strategies would have to be changed.

The next second, Rune handed over the Marvel Human Cube in his right hand, letting Doctor Doom, Swordsman, and Orochi see it clearly.

"What is this?" Swordsman asked without shame. In any case, in the eyes of this powerful man, Rune was a ruthless character who had the courage to lock Marvel in an arena for a duel. Well, given that Swordsman was practically a magic idiot, that's how Doctor Doom explained the Mirror Dimension to him. So, Swordsman was willing to respect this boy.

Although Swordsman himself is overconfident to the point of arrogance due to his abilities, he is not blindly arrogant. When cooperating with other Earth heroes, he is willing to show respect. And for a powerful being like Rune, Swordsman is naturally willing to treat him with courtesy and hopes to make friends with him.

In this respect, Sword Fighter is simpler and more endearing than Orochi and Doctor Doom.

"This is Marvel."

Before Rune could answer, Destroyer Bodhi spoke up for him.

"It looks pretty good." Swordsman nodded and sincerely praised it, only to be glared at by Doctor Doom. Swordsman touched his mohawk, feeling puzzled: We were just fighting side by side! There's no conflict of interest right now, so why is he suddenly taking his anger out on me?

Doctor Doom glared at Swordsman before saying, "This is an exquisite work of art made with master-level Transfiguration. However, to transform a powerful evil god's familiar into a human cube the size of a palm requires not only extremely powerful Transfiguration skills but also the complete erosion of its will. Ultimately, to dispel the evil god's blessing, Rune had to inject an extremely large, even terrifying amount of magic power into it."

Doctor Doom, who had always used magical research to serve his own ambitions, saw such exquisite and blasphemous creations for the first time. He also understood the significance of Raven's statement that he "liked to study magic." For the first time, he also pondered the meaning of his own research into magic.

Initially, his motivation for learning magic was to save his mother's soul. Later, magical research became a way for him to achieve his goal. Doctor Doom even dared to dabble in dark magic, which even Doctor Strange had to avoid. But now that he has seen the ultimate in a certain magical path, at least the ultimate that he can imagine, Doom is envious.

This was the first time he had ever seen the beauty of magic.

But he quickly dismissed the idea.

No! Doom doesn't need such beautiful magic. Magic only needs to be enough—but how much is enough?

Of course, only magic that can maintain one's rule is sufficient.

The serpent didn't react much. He didn't want to know anything about magic. Magic wasn't popular in Asgard. The innate physical strength, coupled with the unique culture that developed from it, made Asgardians more inclined to be warriors than weak mages—even though the current god-king Odin's wife and youngest son were both mages.

Rune, of course, wouldn't say that turning Marvel into a human Rubik's Cube wasn't actually that difficult; of the three conditions Dr. Doom mentioned,

After Marville fell from grace, he lost his unwavering will. The source of his immense magical power was provided by Rune through digesting Marville's regenerated flesh and blood, as well as some of the blessings from the Multihorned. The only one that was relatively technically sophisticated was actually Polymorphism.

Rune's transformation magic is indeed exquisite.

"Where are the others?" Rune looked around and found that many people were already lying on the ground resting. Coupled with the screams of the cancerous creatures wreathed in flames in the background, the scene had a strangely dark humor.

Raven leaned close to Rune's ear and whispered, "They followed the traitorous Scarlet Witch to find the underground resistance."

That makes sense. While these heroes might be capable of destroying another already destroyed universe, they wouldn't abandon those creatures that can still be saved.

After seeing Rune and the others finish talking, Mr. Fantastic Reed immediately ran over.

"We're in trouble."