New York City, Earth. When the last massive Leviathan was struck by Tony's magical beam and fell from the sky, there was no cheering on the battlefield.
Because everywhere they looked was devastation. Nearly the entire downtown had been blasted apart by fireballs and explosions, and the economic losses had climbed into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
Thankfully, the civilian evacuation had been carried out in time. And Harry had acted decisively—shortly after the Chitauri arrived, he wiped out most of their forces. That was the only reason civilian casualties hadn't reached the horrifying levels everyone had feared.
Even so, between the cracks of the ruined city, bloodstains were still everywhere—silent proof of how brutal the battle had been.
Steve, Tony, and the rest of the Avengers sat exhausted inside the wrecked remains of Stark Tower. Through a floor-to-ceiling window spiderwebbed with cracks and missing panes, they stared down at the bleak scene outside in wordless heaviness.
Dust and smoke hung in the air, mixing with grief and weight until it felt hard to breathe.
Their eyes were full of fatigue. The price of this victory was too steep for anyone to feel even a hint of joy.
Tony sprawled across a sofa with zero dignity, his face drawn and miserable. After a long silence, he finally spoke, worry seeping into his voice.
"Harry went to face multiple dimensional demon gods head-on… and one of them was Mephisto, the legendary devil. He's not going to—he's not going to get killed, is he?"
Steve looked awful. He believed Harry would win, but what gnawed at him more was the shame of his own helplessness.
He shook his head slightly, voice heavy.
"Harry's strong. He won't die. He'll beat them and come back safe.
What frustrates me is that we're still too weak. Even the power we've been borrowing… comes from Harry.
If we could actually master the magic we're suited for, push it into the high tiers, we'd have been able to do so much more in this fight."
Unlike the others, Thor looked far calmer. He was the one who had seen Harry on the brink of losing control before, and he was also the first person here to have known Harry. In some ways, he understood him even better than Tony did.
Thor stroked Mjolnir fondly, then let out a booming laugh, full of confidence.
"Relax. Harry won't be harmed. He'll defeat those so-called dimensional demon gods."
Then something occurred to him, and his expression turned grim. His shoulders sagged.
"Harry will be fine… but whether we'll be fine is another matter. Let's just hope the Sorcerer Supreme's Mirror Dimension can stop all of Harry's power from leaking out."
Right then, a portal opened in front of them. A figure wrapped in multicolored, flowing chaos stepped through, appearing before the Avengers.
The instant the figure arrived, the higher-dimensional chaos magic clinging to their body released an overwhelming pressure.
Black Widow—physically the least durable among them—was forced down hard, collapsing awkwardly to the floor. She even landed against a small chunk of rubble, and her face twisted in pain.
The newcomer was hidden behind shimmering, multicolored light, making their true appearance impossible to see. But the unmistakable Kamar-Taj portal made the identity obvious enough. Under that crushing pressure, Thor forced out the words:
"Harry… the magic on you—"
Only then did Harry realize what was still lingering around him. Embarrassed, he drew the last thread of power back into himself, then apologized to the team.
"Sorry. I just got back from the battlefield and didn't rein it in. Didn't mean to scare you."
But at that moment, nobody cared about details like that. Almost at the same time, they all blurted out the same question:
"How did it go? Did we win? What happened to the dimensional demon gods?"
They all knew the ground battle had only been damage control. The fight that truly decided the outcome had taken place far out in deep space.
Harry's face looked strained and gloomy, and everyone's heart lurched into their throat.
Then, at last, Harry spoke—his voice low, carrying a hint of sorrow.
"We won…."
The room erupted immediately, voices spilling over each other, and the next question came just as fast:
"Then where are the dimensional demon gods?"
Harry lowered his head, his shoulders slumping. A dim, defeated aura clung to him, his eyes dull and lifeless, his face written with misery.
For a moment, everyone thought it meant the demon gods were still intact, that this had only been a small win.
Then Harry said flatly:
"I turned them into applesauce."
"Oh. Applesauce. That's… honestly pretty good," Thor nodded, then suddenly processed what he'd just heard. His eyes went wide. "Wait—what did you say? Applesauce?!"
Tony practically shouted, "WTF?! Those were dimensional demon gods, not ordinary Chitauri! You turned them into applesauce?!"
Even Black Widow and Hawkeye—elite agents who prided themselves on keeping cool—couldn't help cheering.
"If that's true, Earth won't have to worry about other dimensions invading for a long time!"
"Yeah. That's incredible news!"
The celebration didn't last long.
Harry spoke again, and the air in the room froze.
"But my teacher… the Sorcerer Supreme… she died in that battle." His voice cracked with anger and grief. "Damn it. Why did it have to be like this?!"
The cheering stopped instantly. Shock filled everyone's eyes.
No one could wrap their head around it. Harry's teacher—the mysterious, terrifyingly powerful Sorcerer Supreme—had died in this war?
She had protected Earth for thousands of years. Across endless ages, she had held back threats from every direction without ever falling. And now, suddenly…
Their minds filled with disbelief and confusion. How violent had that battle been, for the Sorcerer Supreme to lose her life?
For a while, they just stood there in stunned silence, at a loss for what to do. None of them knew how to comfort Harry, so they said nothing.
They all knew what it felt like to watch a comrade die in front of you—the gut-splitting pain, the fog in your head, the sense that your heart had been carved out.
And for Harry, it was worse.
This wasn't just a comrade. It was his teacher—someone he loved and owed everything to.
The weight of that grief had to be crushing.
Steve stepped beside Harry and gave his shoulder a heavy, steadying pat.
"Harry… I'm sorry. I've heard the stories about the Sorcerer Supreme. She was a great person. Even if she's gone, she'll still live on—in all of us."
Thor's face was drawn with genuine sorrow. He respected the Sorcerer Supreme as well—someone on the same level as his father.
If even she could die in battle… then what about his father, older still, his body already failing…
The thought of Odin dying someday—maybe even dying badly, without dignity—twisted a knife in Thor's chest. He forced himself to speak.
"The Ancient One was great, Harry. Don't drown in grief. Her legend will remain in this world forever… and in the multiverse as well."
Only Tony stood a little apart, brow furrowed, his expression strangely hard to read as his eyes stayed locked on Harry.
Tony remembered Harry mentioning it before: for sorcerers, death wasn't necessarily the end of the journey.
Especially not for someone standing at the absolute peak of magic. A being like the Sorcerer Supreme would understand life and death in ways normal people couldn't even imagine.
Even if death happened, with her power—if she wanted—she could abandon the limits of flesh and continue as a soul.
And by Kamar-Taj's borrowing rules, there was a decent chance she had gone off to the Vishanti… or even Eternity… to finally relax.
More than that, Tony couldn't shake the feeling that Harry's sadness was… slightly off.
It didn't feel like grief over her dying.
It felt more like grief over her leaving… or over something else entirely.
And then Tony remembered Harry complaining before: the Sorcerer Supreme's responsibility was enormous, the workload brutal, and if it weren't for wanting to repay her, he wouldn't want to inherit the job at all.
Tony's face stiffened. His eyes widened until they were practically round.
A bold, utterly ridiculous thought popped into his head, and he couldn't believe he was even thinking it:
Don't tell me Harry's sad because now that the Sorcerer Supreme is gone… he has to clock in and become a full-time wage-slave.
No. No way.
…Right?
Tony shook his head hard, forcing the thought away.
Harry wouldn't think like that.
Probably.
After talking with the Avengers for a bit longer, Harry stepped to the shattered window and looked out over the ruined city.
Then he drew his wand, took a deep breath, and shouted:
"Reparo!"
The collapsed, broken skyscrapers trembled, and the shattered concrete and steel rose as if lifted by an invisible hand. Broken walls snapped back into place. Split support beams fused together. Missing chunks of stone sealed seamlessly, as if the damage had never happened.
Soot-blackened surfaces visibly cleared, grime fading away until the original colors returned.
On the streets, cracked asphalt knitted itself back together. Potholes filled in. Long fissures closed like healed wounds.
Cars that had been flipped over rolled back upright and settled neatly along the curb. Scratches and dents vanished in an instant, as though the disaster had never touched them.
As the spell continued, a faint golden glow spread over the entire heart of Manhattan.
Inside that light, everything recovered at terrifying speed.
Under Harry's relentless casting, in barely more than ten minutes, the downtown that had been a wasteland of rubble was restored to normal.
When it was done, Harry looked exhausted. Casting a large-scale Mending Charm nonstop in his current state was genuinely taxing.
He turned back to the Avengers.
"The rest is up to you. I need to go to Kamar-Taj immediately. There's a lot that has to be handled after my teacher's passing."
After saying goodbye, he flicked his wand and opened a portal to Kamar-Taj, stepping into the familiar training courtyard.
Wong, Yondu, and even Kaecilius were already waiting there.
The moment they saw Harry step out of the portal, they rushed toward him at once...
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