"What do you want from my sister?" A silver flash streaked by, and Quicksilver appeared in front of Wanda, blocking Shin's gaze with an aggressive expression.
Shin retracted his eyes and said calmly, "Don't be so nervous. I'm just curious about such a powerful mutant."
Wanda's abilities were indeed formidable, but more importantly, they were nearly impossible to replicate.
In a way, her power to alter reality could also be considered a manifestation of fate, similar to Franklin Richards, the son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, who had surpassed the bounds of mutant classification.
In fact, throughout all comics, the only individual who could be said to have cloned a sliver of such supreme power was Madelyne Pryor
also known as the Red Queen, created by Mister Sinister. That was the closest anyone had come.
The Red Queen was a clone of Jean Grey and did carry a fraction of the Phoenix Force. But her emergence only occurred after Jean's death. Rather than calling it successful cloning, it was more accurate to say fate had been transferred.
And if someone truly managed to inherit chaos magic through Wanda's genes, it could prove disastrous. Magic was like taking out a high-interest loan, and Shin had no intention of drawing Chthon's attention.
"Then let's keep it that way!" Quicksilver said angrily, waving his hand. "But why the hell are you even here at Kamar-Taj?"
Shin rolled his eyes, clearly uninterested in arguing, and walked past Quicksilver without a word.
"Hey! What's with that attitude?!" Quicksilver was infuriated by Shin's indifference. He reached out to grab him but the moment his hand made contact, a jolt of searing pain shot through his arm. His whole limb went numb.
That was the effect of Shin's Advanced Armament Haki.
Quicksilver's speed was comparable to characters like the Flash from DC. Of course, in terms of raw velocity, he couldn't match the Flash's absurd levels of super-speed.
When the Flash first gained his powers, he could already run at five times the speed of sound. Quicksilver, after his powers matured, could also reach about five times the speed of sound. But unlike the Flash, he never reached light speed in the comics, let alone the Flash's feats of time reversal by exceeding it.
However, Quicksilver had one advantage over the Flash: since he lacked Speed Force, a magic-like cheat that ignores physics, his body had to endure real-world friction and pressure, which made his physical durability far greater.
Running at supersonic speed meant Quicksilver's body was unbelievably tough far more resilient than the Flash's in raw physical terms.
Even so, when confronted with Shin's current-level Armament Haki, Quicksilver's arm nearly shattered on impact.
Though Haki is tied to spiritual willpower, Armament Haki also depends heavily on physical conditioning. A strong body vastly enhances its effectiveness. Among pirates, none skilled in Armament Haki were physically weak.
Shin had absorbed Kryptonian blood and taken in a vast amount of solar storm energy, raising his physique hundreds of times beyond that of typical pirate powerhouses.
Even though he hadn't used full force, only meant to teach Quicksilver a lesson, his strike nearly broke the mutant's arm.
"Agh! What the hell, you bastard?!" Quicksilver clutched his arm, pain etched on his face.
Scarlet Witch ran over anxiously. After checking her brother's arm and confirming there was no visible damage, she sighed in relief and scolded, "Pietro, why are you always so impulsive?"
Compared to Wanda, who had grown cautious due to her powers, Pietro's super-speed had also amplified his impatience. Wanda had lectured him like this more times than he could count.
"Sis, this guy's dangerous! You weren't even fully conscious, so you didn't see what happened! If we weren't lucky, that lightning ball of his could've reduced us to ashes!"
Though Pietro had also been controlled, he hadn't lost all five senses like his sister. He had witnessed the entire battle.
What stuck with him the most wasn't just the clash of the Phoenix Force and Chaos Magic but that massive lightning sphere unleashed by Shin.
When it exploded, the sheer energy instantly broke the mind control over him and nearly scared him out of his skin.
That's why he reacted so strongly now. If it had been anyone else, he wouldn't be half as worried.
Scarlet Witch was shocked by what she heard, but she still replied, "Calm down. This is Kamar-Taj..."
"But the Ancient One won't even accept you as a student!" Quicksilver complained bitterly. "And you're supposed to have world-class talent!"
"Don't say that, Pietro. Master Ancient One saved us. We owe him."
Scarlet Witch could feel it, faintly. As the vessel of chaos magic, she could sense that her power was at odds with Kamar-Taj's teachings. There had to be a reason the Ancient One wouldn't formally take her in.
"Fine, I get it," Pietro muttered. "I just think... if you could learn how to draw those circular portals, it'd be way easier to get revenge."
Scarlet Witch shook her head. "That's our business. We'll handle it ourselves."
Unaware of the siblings' conversation, Shin had already left. As he strolled around Kamar-Taj, he saw many trainees practicing martial arts.
Many believed Kamar-Taj to be like a martial arts school. But the truth was that magic wasn't easy to wield every spell came with a debt of power borrowed from higher dimensions.
That's why Kamar-Taj disciples studied theory first, memorizing texts and only attempting spells after fully understanding them. Once a spell was mastered, it was set aside. Unless in combat, they rarely used magic at all.
This practice gave outsiders the impression that it was a sanctuary for magic, when in fact, not many actually used spells frequently.
Still, many Kamar-Taj magicians were quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat. That's because their mystic energy, sourced from other dimensions, gradually transformed their bodies, making them physically superior to average people.
Shin could tell these spellcasters were already on par with trained combatants like Hawkeye or Black Widow individuals who had no superpowers but were deadly in close-quarters fighting.
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