Chapter 37: The Mages Here Really Know How to Have Fun

After the Battle of New York, Annie no longer needed to attend school for the time being. After all, she was now a sensation: the heavy hitter of the Avengers! The strongest member! This wasn't something she had proclaimed herself; it was recognized by all the citizens of New York and netizens alike.

Ever since her combat videos were released by major television stations, she had been showered with praise and pursued by countless people, gaining tens of thousands of fanatic fans. Annie even had a new nickname: the Goddess of Flame! Of course, there were also those with ill intentions, harboring dread and various curses toward her.

However, Annie had no mood to care about any of that. What she cared about now was the Space Stone and the correct way to use it. Once she realized there was someone in a certain place who could potentially use the Space Stone to send her back to Valoran, she had no intention of returning to school. That was essentially the situation.

As for how to explain this to the school and her teachers, that was something for Coulson and Aunt Melinda to worry about; she wasn't going to bother with that! Right now, her mind was filled with nothing but "going home, going home." Whoever dared to stand in her way would get a beating! The consequences of obstructing Annie's journey home were terrible; that villainous blacksmith from yesterday had tried to steal her stone, and Annie was still bursting with pent-up rage with nowhere to vent it!

Thus, Annie was currently standing at the entrance of 177A Bleecker Street in Manhattan, New York. This was the New York Sanctum, the headquarters of the sorcerer organization known as Kamar-Taj. The things Annie wanted would likely need to be provided by this Kamar-Taj organization.

As for why Annie knew this was the New York Sanctum? Please! A building that brazenly maintained magical arrays to shield against detection instruments and hide from ordinary people, complete with confusion spells to drive away the public, and situated on a vital magical node on Earth—if this wasn't their sanctum, Annie might not even bother looking for them for spatial magic knowledge. If an organization couldn't even pick a good location for their wizard tower, how much could you expect from their knowledge base?

"Annie, are you sure this is the place where that group that attacked us—the ones you ended up capturing—is located? The place called the New York Sanctum?" Outside the entrance of this ancient building, Coulson, Melinda, and Annie were sitting in a black SUV. This SHIELD vehicle was currently parked on the roadside right in front of the building.

Under normal circumstances, if Coulson and the others had come here alone, they certainly wouldn't have noticed this place, because magic would automatically cause them to overlook it and subconsciously leave the area. But the situation was different now; because Annie was with them, such low-level displacement magic could no longer interfere with them in the slightest, allowing them the fortune of seeing the true face of a magical structure.

"That's right, this is it! There seem to be several such places on Earth! But this one is the closest, so I came here first," Annie said. In Annie's perception, the various sanctums on Earth were quite obvious. She had ignored them before because there was no necessity, but things were different now; she needed the spatial knowledge held by this organization.

Annie had visited Uncle Nick's office—the "Black Charcoal Head"—last time, and there, she had sensed that his office had been visited by a very powerful spatial master. The residual magical fluctuations were still quite distinct, and Annie could certainly feel them.

It must have been left by a powerful spatial mage. What was peculiar was that the person's Mirror Dimension seemed to have left not even a trace of impact on the office; it was precisely because of that that Annie was certain the individual was a master of spatial magic.

If she wanted to return to Valoran, the Space Stone was definitely necessary, and she also had to obtain some help from this spatial master to use their knowledge as a reference. After all, Annie's specialty was flame magic; while her planetary teleportation was passable, she was somewhat powerless when it came to long-distance interstellar teleportation.

Before coming here, Annie had asked Uncle Black Charcoal about the mage he encountered that day. He said a fellow bald female mage had kidnapped him; her name was something like the Ancient One, and she was a leader of an organization called Kamar-Taj. Furthermore, the individual had a branch in New York called the New York Sanctum. However, Uncle Black Charcoal stated that despite sending people to search extensively, they had ultimately found no trace.

For such an obvious place, he actually claimed he couldn't find it. Uncle Black Charcoal's subordinates were truly useless, Annie thought with inner disdain. However, Annie also didn't know where the powerful Ancient One was; finding a master proficient in spatial magic was simply too difficult.

But since this New York Sanctum was the territory of this Ancient One, Annie was sure she was in the right place. She just needed to ask the people inside to announce her arrival. Annie believed that the mage named the Ancient One would be willing to see her.

"Alright, since we've arrived, let's go in!"

Annie didn't want to waste any more time. Rejecting Coulson's suggestion to continue observing, she opened the car door and jumped out. Coulson and Melinda quickly followed. They had just reported to the Director, and the Director's instructions were: cooperate with Annie's actions while attempting to observe and investigate the background of this New York Sanctum.

Regarding this unauthorized and strangely acting organization of mages that SHIELD did not recognize, Director Nick Fury expressed that he had long held a deep resentment and had wanted to shut them down for a long time! A large part of the reason he formed the Avengers in the first place was due to the provocation of that bald female mage, the Ancient One, who had coerced him.

It was only because he could never find her or figure out her background that the matter had been delayed until now. That damn baldie! *Ahem*, she said it wrong again! Director Nick Fury felt that now that the Loki situation was resolved and the Battle of New York was winding down, it was time to prepare to deal with this unruly group of mages. Of course, if they could be brought under the fold, that would be best! SHIELD maintained a welcoming attitude toward the addition of a group of mages—provided they were willing to accept the Director's command.

After getting out of the car, Annie walked obediently to the main gate of the Sanctum. Looking at the mysterious magical runes on the door and the abundant magical energy flowing through them, she nodded in satisfaction.

The familiar fluctuations confirmed that this wizard tower was indeed the place she was looking for! She stepped forward and used magic to lightly knock on the door twice. She believed this action would prompt the people inside to open up; the knocking spell she just used had already demonstrated her strength to those inside. As long as the mages inside weren't fools, once they recognized the gap in power, they would surely be sensible enough to open the door.

Annie knocked for a while—about five minutes—but there was still no response from within. There was no sound of movement, nor any sign of the door being opened! *Are the mages inside all nocturnal animals? Sleeping all day? Otherwise, there's no way they wouldn't come to open the door!* Annie thought doubtfully, deciding to wait a bit longer.

"Annie, what's the situation now?" Seeing that nearly ten minutes had passed since Annie knocked without any movement from the building, Coulson spoke up to ask.

"..." Annie frowned and thought seriously for a moment, but her patience was immediately exhausted! She had just knocked very politely! And they still wouldn't open up? Then they shouldn't blame her. *Hmph! Magic enhancement: Bull Strength!*

"Annie? Uh..." Just as Coulson was about to ask more, he saw Annie, with a dark expression, lift her leg and deliver a massive kick, instantly blasting the wooden door open! The two wooden door panels flew directly into the house, and a loud crashing sound echoed from within, though it was unclear what they had smashed.

"Alright, let's go in!" Seeing the power of her kick, Annie clapped her hands and nodded with satisfaction! She then beckoned the stunned Coulson and Melinda to follow her inside.

As expected, Annie felt that this simple and crude method suited her personality best! They brought this on themselves; who told them not to open the door? She had just knocked very, very politely; they forced her to kick it like this. They deserved it! She had been lenient by not just blowing the door up with a fireball.

"Whoa, it looks like a fight just happened here!"

Walking into the main hall, the three of them looked at the chaotic scene with some embarrassment. Don't get the wrong idea—this wasn't caused by Annie's kick. Annie had, at most, broken the two wooden doors; the destruction here was much more extensive, suggesting many people had fought here. Currently, the hall contained not only corpses and bloodstains but also various residual traces of spellcasting.

More importantly, this Sanctum, which functioned like a wizard tower, had been completely devastated. It had lost its basic function as a magical tower. It might not have been obvious from the outside, but once inside, Annie could clearly perceive that its energy nodes had been maliciously destroyed, stripping it of its intended purpose.

"Is this... did they just go through an internal conflict? Do mages kill each other too?" Coulson and Melinda spread out to observe. As agents, they easily reached a conclusion.

In their view, this appeared to be a clash between two groups. Judging by the traces, neither side consisted of ordinary people, as the scattered weapons were not modern firearms but various strange objects. From this, they could basically conclude: this was definitely an internal conflict between the resident mages and another group of mages.

"This isn't fun at all." Annie had originally intended to come here to learn spatial magic, but now, she was faced with this?

Even the wizard tower had been smashed to pieces! Just how much of a grudge did they have? If they were going to fight, couldn't they wait a bit? Wait until she got what she wanted? Now look at this—Annie couldn't even find someone to ask for directions. This was truly outrageous!

"Huh? It seems I've found something else!" While Annie was sulking, she suddenly sensed something—a powerful dark aura was descending! And the location was... on the other side of the Earth? And coincidentally, that place was also near another wizard tower very similar to this one? That should be another one of their sanctums, right? In that case, she might as well go take a look; perhaps she could find that person named the Ancient One? Yes! It was decided!

"Hey! Annie?" While Coulson was searching the other side of the house, he suddenly saw a flash of blue arcane light erupt from Annie. Before he could find the words to ask, Annie had already vanished. Coulson knew that Annie had definitely teleported somewhere.

"Coulson, what should we do now?" Since Annie had run off alone, Melinda could only turn to Coulson for instructions.

She had just conducted a brief sweep of the house; there were no living people left here.

However, there were many miraculous things. Some of the windows here seemed to be spatial portals, actually leading to different places—it was truly incredible! When Melinda opened one window, she nearly lost her footing and fell into the ocean; she was still shaken and didn't dare touch things here recklessly.

"What else can we do? Call headquarters and have them send someone to take over this place immediately." Since there was no longer an owner here, it would belong to SHIELD from now on! Coulson believed the Director would be satisfied with this move; there was nothing that would make the Director happier than SHIELD easily acquiring a mage's residence.

...

(End of Chapter)