"It's fine—modern medicine can heal damage at this level," Daisy murmured in Wanda's ear. And as for scars, well, Director Daisy had a magic touch; surely she could handle a few scars.
What came next was the old witch giving a full lesson in what witchcraft actually meant.
She slit open Viper's limbs and lower belly, then scattered seeds into the wounds and planted trees—the leafless, pitch-black, evil-looking kind, all jagged branches, iron trees through and through.
"Ngh—agh—"
The roots drove all the way in. Beneath her jade-white skin, black tendrils wormed into her blood vessels one after another, ravenously draining her life force. Viper couldn't hold it in and let out a raw scream.
Wanda turned to look at Daisy, as if asking whether this was really okay.
Daisy patted Wanda's shoulder lightly, signaling that this was still the normal stage of things. Normal, right? Like hell she knew.
Inside, she sighed to herself: she absolutely had to cultivate Wanda, this magic-user who'd grown close to her. Otherwise she'd stay blind as a bat in situations like this, far too passive.
Every time the iron trees came close to threatening Viper's life, a fresh surge of vitality would well up inside her. Full recovery was impossible, but it restored maybe twenty-some percent, just shy of thirty.
The iron trees never let up, draining without pause. The old witch grabbed a handful of powder—God knew what was in it—and sprinkled it over Viper. This time it wasn't just iron trees; hair-like weeds sprouted too.
Viper didn't bother with any "I'm fine, I can take it," so Daisy wasn't too worried about her. The Chthon contract was still in effect, and there wasn't much on Earth right now that could truly kill Viper. She'd just have to suffer through it.
Daisy strongly suspected the old witch was a sadist at heart, itching to inflict every ounce of what she'd endured during the Salem witch trials onto someone else, exactly as it had been done to her. Viper might have had a similar read, because she didn't play tough. Genuinely ten out of ten in pain, she screamed like it was twenty out of ten, until her voice went hoarse.
Round after round, like the ten great tortures, the old witch worked Viper over for a full two hours before finally stopping. She beckoned the Darkhold into her hand and flipped to the last few pages.
"You. Come. Only you can sever the bond." The old witch waved toward the empty air. Daisy knew herself well enough to know she wasn't the one being called, and she set Wanda down.
"I'll recite a line. You follow."
The two of them began a live lesson. Poor Daisy couldn't see a thing and could only fret uselessly. Thankfully Viper could see, and every so often signaled with her eyes that she was fine.
The sweat on Wanda's forehead grew heavier and heavier. The old witch's voice dropped lower, but her power clearly ramped up considerably. She was compensating for the shortfall in Wanda's own magic.
A low rumble rolled through the earth. Daisy's face lit up. "That one I felt."
Viper rolled her eyes. "This whole space is about to collapse. You really are slow."
Slow or not, the spell had reached its final stage. Wanda's voice began to rise, and Daisy could have sworn it wasn't her voice at all, but something else, borrowing her mouth to speak.
Strange phenomena multiplied all around. The little cabin looked ready to fuse with some unknown dimension, a space that exerted an enormous pull, trying to drag the cabin in and make it part of itself.
The old witch resisted with everything she had. Daisy finally saw where she could be useful and pitched in, using her gravity to help shove the opposing space back.
A damp, dark world seething with resentment gaped open like a colossal beast of the void, its jaws wide to swallow them whole.
The best the old witch could manage was to fortify the cabin—to turn it into something indigestible and wait for that world to spit them back out.
At that moment, Daisy's gravity was a huge help. She hauled at this tiny pocket of space, resisting the devouring pull of that immense world. It pulled harder, she pulled harder, back and forth like a tug-of-war.
"Aaah—!" Wanda cried out. A dazzling, dark-red sword of pure energy appeared in her hands. Her gaze crossed countless dimensions of distance, and gripping the blade in both hands, she brought it slashing down into the void.
Crack. Like a chain being cut by magic.
The immense world's pull surged violently. Daisy barely held on. It felt like a second passed, or maybe several minutes—then Viper coughed out a huge mouthful of black blood, her limbs visibly shriveling and contracting.
The contract had been forcibly broken, and an incomparable backlash slammed straight into her.
Seeing the iron trees still doing their work and Viper's life force draining fast, Daisy drew her Asgardian longsword and hacked at them backhand.
Wanda was faster. Countless crimson points of light shot from her fingertips, and the iron trees peeled themselves off Viper's body and flew toward that immense world like tossed-out garbage.
"Go, now!" Viper shouted from the floor. Daisy's gravity powers roared to life; with a final punch into empty air, she yanked the cabin back to its original position.
The pull vanished. The immense world, with no choice, closed its entrance. The four of them had pulled off one flashy stunt and bolted. It had been way too intense.
The old witch slumped to the ground like a corpse, catching a single breath only after a long while. Viper was worse off, caked in blood and grime, and worst of all had lost a good deal of life force. She now looked as if she'd aged ten years out of nowhere.
"Take the book. Come to me if you have questions. As for you two, don't come back!" The old witch played favorites, warm and hopeful toward Wanda but nothing but venom for Daisy and Viper, not a shred of brothers-in-arms camaraderie. With a flick of thought, she cast all three out of the room.
Daisy had been worried the old witch would teach Wanda all the wrong things, but this outcome wasn't bad at all. A textbook for self-study, questions welcome, no questions no problem.
Wanda clutched the massive book, a little at a loss. She looked at Daisy pitifully, the meaning plain: your friend's been healed, will you still take me in?
How could Daisy possibly turn away a sorceress who'd shown up on her doorstep? As for whether casting spells in New York would offend those useless wretches at the New York Sanctum, Daisy didn't care. The two sides had never been on good terms, so what was there to offend?
Supporting Viper and leading a delighted Wanda along, Daisy teleported back to her own villa.
Viper's injuries were severe. Wounds all over aside, her body was running a huge deficit of life force. The Chthon contract had overdrawn a great deal of her potential, and dropping from immortality back to the level of an ordinary human left her beset inside and out. Her condition was very bad.
But this was her own choice. Rather than become a puppet laced with inexplicable memories, she'd rather die.
"You're in luck." Daisy gave her an injection, a serum made from Kree cells.
The effect was immediate. Viper's cells went from feeble and drained back to a normal state, though her body remained weak.
She couldn't recover the way Daisy did, gorging on food and drink; she'd have to restore herself in her own way.