Marvel's Shendu: Dominating the Multiverse

Chapter 158 Wanda's Changes

There was a brief transmission interruption on the public frequency band. It wasn't due to overload; rather, multiple Celestial groups present simultaneously performed data verification operations to confirm they hadn't misheard.

"He used the coding syntax of the Eternal Clan's underlying architecture that I designed, but reorganized the entire logic tree. The syntax is mine, but the semantics are not. This new logic architecture is four hundred times more complex than my original design, and there is no redundancy."

The weaver paused for a moment: "Four hundred times the complexity, zero redundancy. I can't do it. Even if all ten of us combined, we couldn't do it."

The weaver's stance: Opposition.

Three to five.

The remaining two are Ethan and Arisham.

The calculations were pointless. Even if they both voted in favor, it would only be a 5-5 split, not a majority. But Ethan still went through the process.

"Arisam".

"be opposed to."

Arithm's answer lacked any perceptual information. It was a clean, single word, like the residue left after everything that needed to be processed had been dealt with.

Three to six.

Ethan has brought his stance to the public.

"be opposed to."

Three to seven. The final result was a rejection of the all-out war proposal by a margin of more than half.

The information flow to the eradicate suddenly contracted, and the pulse frequency dropped from a high level, but did not bounce back into noise. He accepted the outcome. Once the collective decision of the Celestials is made, individuals have no option to disobey; this is written into the underlying code.

Tamuz and Jemaah had no objections. The vote was over.

Ethan began to summarize. His feed covered the entire public frequency band, and all Celestials received it simultaneously.

"Our purpose is to ensure that this universe functions as it should. The sowing of life, the evolution of civilization..."

The incubation of planets and the cycles of celestial bodies are more important than the life or death of any individual, and even more important than the dignity of us as a group.

The information flow of the eradicator trembled.

"The precedent problem raised by the eradicators is real. But there are two ways to deal with precedents. One is to wipe them out with war, risking that we will all be rendered useless. The other is to redefine our operational boundaries and remove them from our jurisdiction."

"He is not an object that our order needs to manage. He is terrain that our order needs to avoid."

Ethan delivered the final verdict.

"Coexisting with it is the optimal solution under the current conditions. It's not because we're afraid of it. It's because after we die, no one will take over this universe."

The forging field has resumed standard operation. Gravitational circulation has returned to normal, and density fluctuations in the neutron star's core have returned to normal.

The computing power of the ten Celestial Groups began to withdraw from this discussion and was redistributed to their respective cosmic region management tasks.

Arithm was the last to withdraw from the public frequency band.

Before disconnecting, he left a piece of encrypted data at the very bottom of the frequency band. The encryption level was so high that only he could decrypt it. It wasn't for anyone else to see. It was for himself to see the next time redundant storage was activated.

The data is very short.

"The difference in social standing is irreversible. We are not choosing coexistence. We are acknowledging boundaries."

After the meeting at the forging grounds concluded, the energy circulation returned to its normal course, and the ten Celestial Groups dispersed, their enormous bodies disappearing into interstellar passages in different directions, leaving behind gravitational aftershocks that lingered on the neutron star's shell for a long time.

Wanda stood on the observation platform outside the forge, in the safe zone designated for her by the Lord.

She knew that someone wanted to wage war against the Holy Lord, and she also knew that the proposal had been rejected.

The reason for the rejection wasn't that the Celestials had suddenly become friendly; it was that they were afraid.

Wanda retracted her wandering sensory tentacles. In the process, she discovered a problem.

Her magic field was larger than it had been before she entered the forge.

It wasn't an active expansion. Chaos magic accomplished it on its own without her noticing. The energy density of the Forge far exceeds any known cosmic environment; even the Celestials' reboot requires the gravitational circulation here. Wanda's magic, having been immersed in this environment for several hours, exhibited a spontaneous adaptive response.

Specifically, the crimson energy in her right hand had an added layer of something she had never seen before.

It's not a change in color, but a change in texture. The original chaotic magic was like a fluid, malleable but without structure. Now, that new layer is like a skeleton growing out of the fluid, providing support and a framework that can support more complex operations.

She tried to use this new framework to touch a small piece of space debris in front of her.

The fragments were neither pushed aside nor pulverized. Their material structure was rewritten. The iron-nickel alloy transformed into a transparent crystal, with molecules arranged in perfect order and facets more precise than any artificially processed material.

Wanda stared at the crystal in her hand for five seconds.

She didn't want it to become a crystal. What she wanted was "change," and magic itself chose the optimal solution.

"Your work is starting to hit the bottom."

The Holy Lord's voice came from behind her. He had appeared without her noticing; there were no footsteps, no energy fluctuations.

Wanda turned around and bowed slightly. "Master."

What is the essence of chaos magic?

The Holy Lord asked her this question three times. The first time was on Kamar-Taj, and she couldn't answer. The second time was on Olympia, and her answer was probability manipulation. The Holy Lord said that was incorrect.

This is the third time.

Wanda looked at the spontaneously formed crystal in her hand.

"Reality weaves".

The Holy Lord neither said it was right nor wrong. He walked to the edge of the observation platform, where Ethan's body was traversing an interstellar passage in the distance, its size large enough to obscure three stars.

"Ethan."

A response came on the gravitational wave communication band. Ethan stopped. The sight of a Celestial stopping for a humanoid creature was absurd in itself.

"Open the energy pool of the forging workshop. Arrays three through seven."

Ethan did not respond immediately.

The silence of the Celestials and the silence of humans have different meanings. Human silence may indicate hesitation, while the silence of the Celestials indicates calculation. Arrays three through seven are the core energy reserve areas of the Forging Grounds, and the last time they were fully powered was when the Eternals were being created.

"use?"

"Give it to her."

Three seconds of silence followed.

"The peak output power of the Forging Ground's energy pool can ignite a brown dwarf star. The human body cannot withstand this level of power."

"I know. That's why I told you to run numbers three through seven, not all of them. I'll control the power."

Ethan made his decision. A deep vibration emanated from the depths of the forge, as if something long dormant in the distance had turned over. Five energy arrays activated in sequence, transmitting a steady flow of energy from the core area of ​​the forge to the outer perimeter.

By the time they reached the observation platform, the energy had already been filtered by the Holy Lord.

Wanda sensed it.

This feeling is hard to describe in words. If I had to make an analogy, it's like someone who's always been drawing water from a stream, suddenly being thrown into the Pacific Ocean. Not the kind where you'd drown, but the kind where you discover you can actually breathe in the Pacific.

The chaos magic reacted violently the moment it came into contact with the energy of the forging field; it didn't repel, it resonated.