When Aron entered the Kamar-Taj library, he felt a brief, strange sensation as if his body was becoming transparent.
Fortunately, the feeling quickly faded.
"Scanning magic," explained a voice from behind a pillar. "For protection. In case someone brings in magical weapons or tries to steal books."
"Your name is Aron, right?"
"Mordo just told me through voice transmission magic."
Wong appeared from the shadows, holding a book in his hand.
"Hello, Master," said Aron politely.
"Just call me Wong."
He put down the book and gestured for him to follow. Together, they walked deeper into the library.
"This section is reserved for mages. True mages," Wong added. "But if I allow it, others can read too."
He stopped by a shelf and pulled out several books.
"New Edition of the Universe," "Chronicles of Magic," "Mysteries of Agamotto," "The Great Emperor Vishanti"
"I recommend starting with these. They explain the origin of secret magic and who Emperor Vishanti was. It will help you establish a magical channel."
When he read Mordo's message, Wong wasn't convinced.
Still, through years of working at Kamar-Taj, he had seen countless students. Most never made it past the first threshold of learning.
And then came Aron.
The only one who failed at the very beginning.
Wong was curious, how bad does someone have to be for even Emperor Vishanti to refuse to connect with them?
"What about those books over there?" Aron asked, pointing to a special shelf with books locked in chains with runes.
"That's Ancient One's private collection."
Wong glanced over and shrugged.
"Can I look at them?"
Aron didn't hide his intention. He had come precisely for those books.
"At Kamar-Taj, knowledge is shared… but not everything is meant to be used."
Wong wanted to give a moral lesson but changed his mind and looked at him strangely.
"Look if you want."
Aron didn't waste time. He set aside the books Wong had given him and walked toward the restricted section.
At that moment, another mage entered the library. Wong glanced at Aron, shook his head, and said:
"You can't take those books out, read them here only."
He turned and left.
When Wong's back had completely disappeared from sight, Aron pulled out the first book.
The Book of Cagliostro.
He flipped through it quickly but noticed that several pages were missing.
"Hmm... The method for summoning Dormammu has been removed."
"Looks like someone already tried this before me..."
The missing pages contained the ritual for summoning Dormammu and drawing power from the Dark Dimension.
Without those pages, Dormammu was no longer an option.
Aron began searching for other books that might contain relevant information.
Soon, he was drawn to one with fiery red covers:
The Book of Hell.
He opened it, and in front of him appeared an old parchment filled with illustrations of demons and descriptions of various dimensions of hell.
It turned out that in the Marvel universe, there are multiple types of hell!
Mephisto's Hell. Lucifer's Hell. Hela's Underworld.
Aron was thrilled.
"These are all potential sources of power..."
"If only there were a summoning ritual..."
At that moment, a sheet of paper fell out of the book.
He picked it up and looked at it.
On it was a complex symbol of a six-pointed star, and next to it, it said:
"For advanced combat training - abandoned"
"Hm?"
He flipped back to the page where the paper had been inserted.
At the very bottom, an explanation: this ritual was once used to train apprentices through demon summoning. Later it was abandoned because it caused dissatisfaction from a powerful entity from hell.
"The training program was abandoned, but the ritual should still work..." Aron muttered and slipped the paper into his pocket.
He returned the book to its place and headed for the exit.
Again, he felt that strange scanning effect, but nothing happened; the paper clearly wasn't registered in the archive.
Wong, in the meantime, was recommending books to others and didn't notice that Aron had left.
…
In his room, Aron spread the paper on the table.
Maybe the Ancient One was watching him through some magical means, but he no longer cared.
In a world where aliens fall from the sky and gods walk the streets, surviving without power was not an option.
And this might be his only chance.
"First draw the six-pointed star, place the candles, a drop of blood in each corner..."
He looked at the demon summoning ritual.
But he didn't start right away.
First, he opened the system's Exorcism Encyclopedia and searched for methods to expel demons from hell.
"Seriously? That simple?"
He chose the first offered method.
In an empty space, draw a protective sigil with chalk.
No candles, no blood, not even ink was required.
"System... are you sure this really works?"
[Host, please rest assured, the solution is 100% reliable.]
"Alright."
Confirmation had arrived.
Without hesitation, Aron drew two protective formations in the corner of the room.
"It's time."
He placed the candles.
Lit them.
"I summon you... from hell... wait, is this a female name?"
"Whatever."
"I, Aron, summon a Demon of Hell!"
He pricked his finger and a drop of blood fell on the sigil.
Boom!
The candle flames suddenly flared, turning into crimson infernal light.
The air filled with the scent of sulfur.
"Who summons me?"
The answer came.