Wanda didn't even know why she was feeling so nervous.
Maybe it was because Pietro had been knocked out, and now it was just her and Lyon here, which made her feel unsafe.
Maybe it was because she was about to awaken her powers like Pietro, and her heart felt like it was being squeezed, aching with anxiety.
Whatever the reason, she was deeply uneasy and couldn't help but avoid Lyon's gaze.
But Lyon clearly didn't pick up on her panic.
With a flick of his fingers, streams of condensed Space Stone energy wrapped around Wanda.
In the next moment, Wanda no longer felt nervous.
Because she had lost consciousness.
Just before she blacked out, she vaguely sensed that either the Space Stone or some other force lifted her into the air.
In that brief moment, she seemed to see a red-robed figure wearing a horned headdress tear through the blue energy and step into her body.
The whole thing lasted only an instant.
So brief that she didn't even have time to fully focus and see clearly before slipping into unconsciousness, her strength draining as she fell.
Then, with a wave of Lyon's hand, she was sent along with Pietro to a grassy field in the distance.
Lyon could sense a mysterious energy continuously surging within Wanda's body.
"This must be the power of chaos—one of the three ancient primordial forces of the Marvel universe."
He tried to observe the energy with his mental power, attempting to analyze it.
But the moment his spiritual force made contact, that portion was instantly devoured without a trace.
"Definitely aggressive," Lyon murmured, rubbing his chin. "Maybe this could become one of my future paths to power as well?"
"Just like in the Swallowed Star world—after comprehending the Ten Great Laws, one could go on to fuse the Chaos Law, and eventually even comprehend the Ultimate Dao."
"So here in the Marvel universe… maybe after mastering the six fundamental forces, I could try to fuse chaos energy—or even tap into Phoenix Force or Fairy Force?"
It was all still unknown.
But Lyon felt that building a good relationship with Wanda in the future was definitely necessary.
She might be the most convenient key for him to comprehend the power of chaos down the line.
"They'll both be unconscious for more than ten hours."
Lyon floated upward, flying toward the Time Fortress that stood in the center of the world.
"While I have this window, I'd better take care of some final preparations before the battle."
Meanwhile, the Blood Sea Clone had already transformed into an ocean, continuously creating small clones and dissolving them to expand the sea's area.
When it came time for the battle, he would have the Space Stone, one hundred thousand suns, and the sea of blood as his three major backup energy sources.
Even if something unexpected happened and Dormammu turned out to be stronger than he anticipated, he could still pull a "I could do this all day," line of Captain America!
Lyon quickly flew into the third level of the fortress.
He was here to train.
The trial steps in this place could help amplify his power output, but climbing them required a strong enough will.
During the ten thousand days it took for his Blood Sea Clone to reach the peak of Domain Lord level, he'd gone from a 100x force amplification to 900x.
At that time, he could climb as high as the 999th step.
After breaking through to World Lord, both his willpower and strength had advanced to the Undying level.
Now, walking up to the thousandth step only brought a slight sense of pressure.
In fact, he'd even managed to reach the 1300th step in one go.
The third floor of the fortress had a total of ten thousand steps.
Steps 1 to 999 tested willpower below the Undying level; steps 1000 to 5999 belonged to the Undying tier.
The remaining steps, up to the ten-thousandth level, belonged to the Law Sovereign tier.
Standing on the steps, Lyon began cultivating the Body of the Cosmos.
Countless fine light particles automatically surged from the steps, like fireflies, drilling into his body.
With the help of these light particles, his force amplification progressed rapidly.
Eight hours later, Lyon left the third level.
His amplification had reached 1300 times, perfectly matching the number of steps he had climbed.
Any further progress, without the support of the steps, would slow significantly.
It was better to wait until his willpower improved again before continuing.
Next, Lyon turned and made his way to the first level of the fortress.
Here, there were mountains, lakes, and trees—this was where the Beast God "Zhou" used to rest.
Besides the lakes and Zhou's personal swimming pool, even the mountains were treasures, the trees were treasures, and even the white clouds in the sky were treasures.
So-called Supreme Treasures were weapons and artifacts either forged by intelligent beings or naturally birthed by the universe.
Some could enhance defense, others could unfold into domains to trap enemies.
Before, Lyon had been too weak to even use these kinds of treasures.
Now that he had broken through to the World Lord level, he finally had just enough qualification to use some of the equipment.
In the villa atop his mountain, he picked out a set of armor, a pair of gloves, a cloak, and a small tower.
Then he spent several hours engraving his soul imprint into the treasures, allowing him to use them at a basic level.
Since all of these items were originally just decorations from Zhou's villa, none of them had specific names.
So Lyon simply named them the "Beat-the-Crap-Out-of-Dormammu Set," or the Dormammu Set for short.
Among them, the "Dormammubuster Armor" could freely change shape and had extremely powerful defense.
Only attacks strong enough to destroy an entire solar system in a single strike could even hope to break its defense and cause damage.
Otherwise, any incoming attack would be reduced to one ten-thousandth of its original power.
The "Dormammubuster Gloves" were a bit less impressive.
They originally contained a set of secret runes that, when activated, could increase his attack power by nearly ten times.
However, those runes were based on the laws of the Swallowed Star universe.
In the Marvel universe, they no longer functioned.
So now, the gloves were just a pair of very sturdy gloves that could slightly enhance his attack power.
The effect of the "Dormammubuster Cloak" was both defensive and offensive—it could block attacks and also be used to bind enemies.
Lastly, the small tower, the "Tower of Dormammu," was a piece of soul-defense equipment.
It was similar to Magneto's psychic helmet—except this was a supercharged version, capable of protecting both the soul and consciousness.
Lyon equipped the Dormammu Set.
Armor, gloves, and cloak all fitted simultaneously, forming a sleek black uniform.
As per his usual preference, there was still an S-shaped emblem on his chest.
The tower entered Lyon's core, standing guard over his soul from within.
"Pre-battle prep complete!" Lyon flexed his wrist, full of fighting spirit. "Now all that's left is for Dormammu to walk into my trap!"
…
When Lyon left the Time Fortress, Wanda and Pietro had already been awake for a little while.
The two of them were currently on the plains, excitedly testing out their newfound powers.
Pietro was darting across the open plains like he didn't know the meaning of exhaustion—one moment running in an S-pattern, the next moment in an M-shape.
He laughed loudly as he ran.
His speed hovered around several times the speed of sound.
But sometimes, he would suddenly slow down, moving at the pace of a normal jogger.
Clearly, he still hadn't fully mastered his super speed.
Wanda's powers were far more complex.
She simply stood in place, releasing a faint crimson glow from her hands as she tried to lift a patch of grass in front of her.
"Looks like you're both pretty pleased with your new powers?"
Lyon landed beside Wanda, startling her so badly that the bit of turf she had just managed to lift slammed back down into the ground.
"Ack—Oh my god! Can you not show up out of nowhere and scare people like that?" Wanda clutched her chest, still rattled as she looked at Lyon.
It was obvious that after awakening her powers, she had become noticeably more confident—confident enough to complain to Lyon outright.
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