I'm working on Marvel's Spider-Man in American comics.

Chapter 739 Strange: I have way too many cards.

In the Marvel universe, there are four main sources of magical power.

The first is one's own life energy. Without burning one's life force, the spells that can be cast with this energy alone are very limited, generally limited to minor spells like astral projection (soul leaving the body). The second type is the natural energy of the material world. If one relies solely on this type of energy to cast spells, the possibilities are also very limited.

The third type, which is the energy most advanced mages use, is external energy. This type of energy comes from various sources, and most of it is so powerful that it can harm the mage themselves. Of course, you can try to mitigate this damage, for example, by communicating with powerful beings residing in these dimensions (usually their masters, i.e., dimensional demons) and requesting their help.

Generally speaking, dimensional daemons will not refuse your requests, because the act of being asked itself endows these abstract entities with power. The more their concepts and names are mentioned in a reality, the more powerful they become in that reality, and the more powerful they are in themselves. Of course, some dimensional daemons will make additional requests; for example, the Vishanti will require their followers to maintain reality.

There are also evil things like Sithon or Velasco that demand the caster's soul as a price.

"So, generally speaking, if you are a weak mage, it's best to change your source of power. If you are a strong mage, you can choose to beat them up and make them pay the simplest and most ordinary price, or simply steal their dimensional energy without mentioning them in reality."

Strange spoke quite fluently, flipping through the Necronomicon while chatting with Wanda. Wanda decided to temporarily ignore the phrase "beat up the dimensional demons" and continued to ask, "And then?"

"And then? Then, if Velasco intends to cast a spell, where will his mana come from? Although he is a follower of Sithon, he will not sell his soul to Sithon, and other dimensional demons probably will not accept the call of a follower of Sithon."

As for his own dimension, Hell's Border? It's already occupied by Iliana. As long as Iliana and his demon child version aren't killed by Velasco, Velasco won't be able to draw power from Hell's Border.

"That is why Velasco's magic must come from necromancy. This is the border of hell, the so-called Limbo, the first circle of hell in Dante's Divine Comedy, where countless souls fall and where too much energy from the end of life itself gathers."

The energy generated at the end of life is precisely the source of necromancy invented by Sithon, which is also the best source of mana for black magic.

After listening, Wanda suddenly looked at Strange: "Wait, isn't Dante's Divine Comedy an artistic creation?"

"It is true, but not entirely true. He was the hero who stopped Velasco from summoning Sithon in our world and the great mage who banished Velasco to the border of hell."

Strange explained why he had the Necronomicon with him: "So, I have to stop Velasco from using these energies. White magic resists most life energies, especially those from the dead. And the Dark Bible is connected to Sithon, so using it now might hasten Sithon's arrival. Luckily, I found a copy of the Necronomicon, which can be used to solve this problem."

Meanwhile, on the other side, the half of the Midnight's Children who were charging toward Velasco were still discussing the situation as they advanced. Even Blade, who had been silent all along, couldn't help but ask, "Does that mage really have no other way to deal with Velasco? I've dealt with a lot of vampires, but I've never dealt with a guy like that before."

The Moon Knight, standing to the side, was puzzled: "Then how did you get into this team?" "Because the evil god that guy is going to summon is the creator of all vampires. Heh, I'm going to see who this guy is."

As they were talking, there was another sudden earthquake. At first, the Midnight Son thought that the descent ritual of Sithon had entered the next stage, but what emerged from the ground was not lava, but skeletons or rotting, twisted hands. A large number of undead and ghosts poured out from the underground of the border of hell and rushed towards Velasco and the Dark Daughter (the child version of Iliana).

Meanwhile, Velasco, who was conducting the summoning ritual, sensed everything. Strange had used a spellbook from who-knows-where to cast a massive, terrifying, and powerful undead summoning ritual, almost draining all the mana. Velasco's face darkened as he looked at the sky. Fortunately, it was mainly Sithon who intended to descend at this point.

The problem is that he has no way to cast spells anymore. Unless he sells his soul to Sithon or burns his life, he can only rely on his physical strength and swordsmanship to fight against these undead creatures.

And this was the first great gift Strange presented.

Spider-Man in the sky continues to tear open the cracks in reality. Strange shook his head and then stared at the sky. Now, apart from Wanda, almost everyone has a mission. With nothing else to do, Wanda could only look up at the sky, where large amounts of lava were constantly being spewed down to the ground. This lava was rapidly repairing the cracks in reality that Peter had torn open.

Immediately afterwards, the lava transformed into a living entity, beginning to drip down in large quantities like water droplets about to fall.

But this process came to an abrupt end.

“Good, our ‘reinforcements’ have arrived.” Strange breathed a sigh of relief. “Originally, the time wouldn’t have been so urgent, but unfortunately, Mephisto didn’t come. Otherwise, Spider-Man could have opened the rift a little longer, and Sithon’s infiltration of Limbo would have been weaker.”

What exactly is your plan?

“See those dripping ‘drops’?” Strange looked at the drooping matter. “Those are a very small part of Sithon’s essence that came into this world. He’s being held up like this for a while, and he won’t drip down. What we need to do is not let him drip down normally, but tear it off from Sithon’s essence.”

"Then what are you going to do?"

"First, we need to withstand the next wave of attacks from Sithon. It will be a retaliatory attack because he must have realized the moment he entered the border of hell that it was a trap."

As he spoke, Strange put away the Necronomicon and took out the third spellbook he had brought: "Fortunately, I brought the Book of Vishanti, the book of the god of white magic. It sensed the presence of Sithon."

　I originally planned to write about some other divine artifacts, but considering that introducing artifacts without any background or that I'm unfamiliar with might seem like a mechanical deus ex machina, I decided against it.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)