Sama was going through Lilith’s memories and forwarding them all to me, as she was basically one of the original crafters and sources of the magic used here on Terra by its sorcerers and priests of many of the Dark powers here, on at least a par with Chthon, Mephisto, and that lot.

It was mostly a lot of extremely horrid, depressing, and vengeful stuff, with big focuses on eating her own kids and then exuding them again to store power and retrieve it, treating them like disposable batteries or capacitors. Given her age and capabilities, she had a whole lot of them, too, and she could make more of her ‘lilin’ from sacrifices, innocent victims, willing pawns, her own servants, or even out of thin air if she had the time.

Probably would have killed off the whole world for a chance at the Duplicate Spell...

Mys-tech, Mys-tech... where had I heard that before? -Royale, Mys-tech, something going on with them?- I /asked narrowly.

-They’re a shady company, do a lot of arms dealing, snooty sorts,- Royale /replied to me. She’d set herself up as British, currently covering for Felicia and looking after their networks, while becoming a new darling of the English societal scene as yet another of those gorgeous Munroes coming out of nowhere. -Why are you asking, luv?-

-They’re messing around in Brazil, and there’s magic and gene-mucking going on. They’ve made a couple moves against Isabella, but when I go tracking them back, I go completely misty, using the Orb or Awareness.-

-Ho!- she /answered. -Then it seems we must have a very hands-on approach to them.- It went without saying that anyone who could hide from both the Orb and my Awareness had at least archmagicks available to them... and had somehow flown right under the awareness of Strange, as I hadn’t heard him talking about them at all.

And yet, the name was right out there in the open. Swift boot in the rear...

-Get Medea and find out what we’re facing before we actually face it.-

-Yes, mum!- she /laughed back, but that’s exactly what she’d do. There was a time for brute force, and there was a time not to crash the dam before the levees were in place.

I was interested to see what they’d find. Then there was probably going to be some excitement. Medea had been very quickly raising some ungodly havoc against the Askar and the Crux in Africa, and was very much on their Kill List... which was totally fine, as they were on hers!

---------

A couple months later, under the Museum of Pagan Antiquities, Canary Wharf, London, England...

“As the Fangs of Farallah gape wide

Let Faltine’s Flames be felt

Annihilation from Creation,

Where even Souls Shall Melt!”

Sorceress Supreme gotta Supreme, right?

Three Sublime Chords converged on the Cadence of the Invocation, and a dozen of the gaping jaws of the Beast Lord of the Octessence gaped wide. They were an excellent tool for entering other planes, sucking creatures into traps, and the like... and this time, they gaped open on the Flaming Furnace, Ancestral Realm of the Faltine!

The incoming demons flooding out of Hell looked up in shock, and if the unwhiteness on the tips of the Fangs about to unload on them stirred something in their hearts, that was all totally fine.

The Breath Weapon from Beyond worked damn fine, the Cosmic Chord completely overwhelming any counterspells and raging over the demons with, yes, the power to destroy them utterly, and so it did.

The nine Archmages of Mys-tech screamed and ran for their pocket world as utter annihilation came for them, escaping into the false world they’d created to grow hapless mortals for their Tribute of Souls before the flames could reach them.

The Flames of the Faltine smashed into the open Portal there, and raged into the space beyond even as the dead demons here exploded into vivus and turned the Veil to something harder and stronger. Medea and Royale landed their spells on the gaping Portal, shattering its anchors to the Prime by burning the blood and soul sacrifices en vivus, and the literally world-ending Portal began to collapse.

The flood of death and destruction was actually sucked back this way as the harvest of vivus fled back to the mortal plane it was a part of, bringing the energy of a significant chunk of Hell with it.

I was pretty sure I heard an outraged scream from a certain fiery red Lord of Hell as it closed. The Red Rat could go kiss it...

Excalibur was gathered around us, tensed and more than a little bashed-up after holding off the demons. Psylocke, Spitfire, Captain Britain, Megan, Union Jack (a Shielder), the Black Knight, Lady Libre (also a Shielder, and the wielder of the actual Excalibur), and Peter Wisdom of MI13 had all kept themselves remarkably busy not dying here.

“Tell me that’s everything!” Wisdom blurted out, his legs collapsing suddenly and sending him falling against the wall. His sun-hot plasma knives had worked pretty well on the demons, even fire-resistant as the things were.

I held out my hand, and a liquid wave of silver washed out and over the wavering passageway to the Mys-tech world. It was their very own artificial magically-made realm of power, where they hoarded their Tribute of Souls for Mephisto, and I locked it into place.

“Not yet,” Royale smiled. “Did the precious darlings think we’re going to let them be keeping that?”

Levy was blue instead of red as he hovered around me, a conscious choice for my temporary status, still impressive and billowy-showy. “A pocket dimension for growing mortals to sacrifice to Mephisto, and a storage bin for purloined souls?” I sneered as I looked at it. “Agamotto’s All-Seeing Eye, I’ve a new world for you to inspect!” I Called out, pouring my own strength instead of the Vishanti’s into the spell, and punching through the Wards about the Nine’s hidden world.

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Speaking of punching out and hiding...

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Agamotto, busy as he might be right now, always had time for something new and interesting, and the crystalline Orb that materialized and shed its radiance upon the pocket world was a definite indicator of his interest.

“Souls Doomed by Traitor’s Wills,

Under a Watchful and Merciful Eye,

A Hoary Host steals Man and Ghost

And Gives that Fate the Lie!”

Once again, Cosmic Chord, Shaking magic with the sound of the Vishanti Invocation, now bringing Hoggoth and his Hoary Host over to do a little mercy work and take the souls captured by the Nine, living and dead, away.

Uncounted numbers of spectral shades, old and mighty, streamed forth from the ring of Runes that opened in front of Agamotto’s Watchful Eye. They flowed in an infinite stream into the world beyond, and I imagined I heard the screams of disbelief as the Tribute of Souls, and all those living there, were taken and brought away to some other place.

I could have called on Oshtur next, but why?

“A little prison cage have you,

Eight eyes regard you fast.

Your World, A Meal.

Your Souls, She’ll Steal.

Your Lord, Will Deal,

How long will your Fear Last?!”

The world fell away, and the Underweb stretched into infinity all around us.

Treading across the gaps between worlds and stars was a great form of darkness, lit only by the crimson hourglass on her abdomen, and eight ruby eyes regarding all.

The greatest predator among the Weavers of the Web, the Widow of the Web.

Down came the head that was large enough to grasp stars. Pedipalps plunged into the quicksilver sheen of the fake world and lifted it up and away, threads of stolen reality snapping it free of the Web as something that should not have existed, and it rose far and away.

I imagined I could hear nine voices screaming in existential horror. By the power of Mephisto, they couldn’t die if they offered him his yearly tribute, but that wasn’t going to be coming this year.

The Widow, she was patient enough. Mephisto would come for the souls that were his, and what would he give her for them, or would she sup upon the hapless sorcerers as well?

-----

They were giving me pretty odd looks at the power of the three spells. Hey, Cosmic Chord Casting and X+1 Valences are SUPPOSED to be ungodly. Why do you think I was drafted, instead of any of the more magic-focused Dupes who could technically run rings around me in standard Caster Level with all their Theurgies?

I hadn’t even pulled out the Underweb Casting, because it was about the same as Cosmic Chord for what I was doing and, well, bringing them together was probably something that could smash planets. Just having the Voice of Thunder from Composite was enough to juice the Sublime Chord stuff here to crazy levels.

Supersverse, where magic stood up there with true super-powers and cosmic shiznit!

Royale and Medea were naturally far less concerned, airily ignoring how impressive it all was, just another day at work. “Are we done here?” Medea asked, sounding a bit petulant. “There’s a certain place in Egypt I was looking into, and they might have all run away now...”

“Yes, dear sister, saving the world comes with sacrifices,” Royale sniffed grandly, patting her fellow Munroe consolingly. “Next time, kick a few demons. It makes one feel better.”

“I had no idea you were so magically adept, Dynamo,” Captain Britain admitted, trying hard not to be formal.

I pointed at the white-haired, dark-skinned Munroes bickering over there. “Competition,” I said softly, and his eyes got that knowing look. “Remember, all the physical stuff is like ‘bam, you’re now Mrs. Muscles!’. I actually had to earn the magic stuff. Lightning control was just an outgrowth of the alchemical and magical discipline, right?”

“Oh, I see,” he nodded, sounding a bit relieved. I certainly wasn’t nearly as stuffy as most powerful Casters liked to be, and the Munroes all held themselves like royalty, because, well, one of them was a Goddess AND a Queen.

“All of Britain was shaking with those spells!” Megan chimed in, sounding a little awed. Given she was tied to that power, she could totally feel the magic sliding around at my command.

But the Chord totally overwhelmed my le Fey connection here, even as Britain recognized me underneath it all. “Britannia was very helpful, yes,” I agreed politely, looking all around calmly, and tapping my fingers on my crossed arms. “Blargh de blargh. Now we have to do the clean-up right...”

“The government can pretty much handle most of that, luv,” Peter Wisdom broke in quickly.

“No, actually, they can’t. You know as well as I that their version of clean-up is sweep it under a rug, lock it down, and try to bury the knowledge of it, because that’s fast, cheap, and easy.” His lips pursed, and his eyes shifted away. “Nah to that. We’re going to do things a better way. Everyone,” I made a come-hither gesture, and interested despite themselves, they gathered around me.

“Mys-Tech is still a company, which means listings, properties, assets, employees, yada yada yada.” They all nodded understanding. “In the interests of doing the job right, I propose that we simply buy the bastards out, take possession of everything since their stocks are going to be tanking precipitously as soon as word of some of the things that went on here somehow manage to leak out (I wonder how?), we’ll pick them up for a song, and then skim the whole thing, break it up, sell off the parts that are feasible, destroy the parts that are not, research the parts that are worth it, and keep the parts that are functional.

“You all have government contacts that can smooth this out. As for the profit, better us than Midas or his ilk, who will jump on the chance to do this, without any moral oversight or purpose behind it. If you have a social cause you’d rather the money go to, fine. If you want it in an annuity for retirement, also fine. We just saved the world, not a job for everyone, and you deserve more pay than Midas does for sitting on his arse and giving orders to people like you to make him money, right?”

They all nodded despite themselves, even Union Jack.