A/N:
" " : Dialogue,
' ' : Thought,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy,
"Bold text": Shadows,
[ ] : System,
| | : Artificial Intelligence.
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Location: Earth, USA, New York, New York City
Ashwani POV
After taking the dragon skeleton, I leave the area of the Midland Circle Financial building, still in stealth. Choosing to run, I make my way to what is inarguably the most important building in the NYC, the New York Sanctum of the Masters of the Mystic Arts.
After some minutes of full-on sprinting, I eventually each the iconic location. "177A Bleecker Street. Nice to see that the wards are still going strong." I say, feeling the presence of the multiple spells that were placed on the building.
There are mainly perception filters, mystic creature repellents, and the main spell on the building that turned it into a node for the mystical shield that Agamotto placed on earth over 3,000 years ago. But if I'm being honest, all of this isn't enough for the threats that we'll have to face.
Walking up to the door, I open it, and see Daniel Drumm, the current master of the New York Sanctum, which is otherwise known as the Sanctum Sanctorum. "Hello, may I help you?" He says, looking at me calmly. I guess my nanomachines are being pretty effective at hiding my power.
"Yes, please. I'm here to meet Yao. You may know her as the Ancient One." I say, and he narrows his eyes, immediately going on guard. "Calm down, Daniel. I'm sure she's about to tell you to let me in, right about... now." As I say that, a portal opens behind Daniel, and on the other side is a room in Kamar-Taj, the global headquarters for the Masters of the Mystic Arts.
"Well, I'll be seeing you, Daniel. And thanks for your efforts to protect humanity. I'll try to ease the burden on you." I say, and before he can make sense of my words, walk into the portal, which closes behind me.
As I step in, an old looking man who's missing a hand, walks up to me. "Hello, Hamir. It's nice to meet you up close. Can you help me tell Yao that her act is a bit much?" I say, and he nods, then walks away.
"I really would like to know how you know my name, or his, for that matter." I hear a woman's voice from the side. She wasn't there a second ago, and now she is. That's some impressive spatial manipulation.
"It's nice to see you too, Yao." I say, and take a seat across from her. "I guess that since I'm not an expected guest, I won't be receiving any tea." I say, looking at her with a smile.
"Unfortunately not. But depending on your intentions, that can change." She says, then takes a sip out of her cup of tea. "Don't worry, I'm not here to cause any harm. In fact, what I'm here to do will be quite beneficial for Kamar-Taj and the Masters of the Mystic Arts." I say, and construct a cup with my nanomachines.
She raises an eyebrow and pours some tea in my cup. "And what exactly are you planning on doing?" I smile and take a sip of the tea, which admittedly tastes pretty good. "Nothing too much. Just helping you get back what you gave to Dormammu." I say with a snap of my fingers.
As I finish speaking, the entire room becomes isolated from the outside, making sure that nothing we speak about or do here would leak out. The biggest advantage of nanomachines is their miniscule size, so when I spread them around to create magic circles, they can remain undetected, for the most part.
After setting up the isolation barrier, I deactivate the concealment I had placed on my Darkforce, which causes her to widen her eyes in shock. "Don't be alarmed. Despite the level of Darkforce within me, I am still a human. This is mainly a result of my X-Gene." My curt explanation gets her to relax ever so slightly, but the tension is still there. Which is understandable, seeing as I isolated the space here as easily as I did.
"I know that your contract with Dormammu is a touchy subject, to the point that it's unknown to all living members of the Masters of the Mystic Arts. But, the last person that knew of it is dead, and due to an inexplicable ability I have, I now know of it." I tell her, wanting to avoid any escalation.
"Fine. Let me assume that you aren't lying about helping me regain the fragment of my soul that I had surrendered to Dormammu. How would you even be able to fight him?" She asked, then took a final sip of tea from her cup.
"Physically, you do not measure up to people like the Masters of Kunlun, and as far as the Mystic Arts go, you do not seem to have much in the way of achievement." She says, making her judgement from my appearance.
"That's ironic. I would have thought that you of all people wouldn't judge someone from their appearance." I say with a small chuckle. After a few more seconds of silence, I open my mouth to speak. "January 2009. Give me until then, and I promise you, I'll get that fragment of your soul back from Dormammu."
She looks at me, probably trying to see where my confidence comes from. "Okay, then. I'll allow it. But understand that I will have all of your actions under scrutiny." She says and gets up from her seat, and I follow suit.
Following her as she walks deeper into Kamar-Taj, I look at the current apprentices and the Masters that are guiding them on their path to learning sorcery. Looking at their hands, I see one of the signature relics of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, the Sling Ring.
Apart from gaining a relationship with Yao and the Masters of the Mystic Arts, I also want to analyze a good amount of the relics and tools that they have here, just to see if I can create my own versions. The Sling Ring currently has the top priority for the relics that I want to recreate.
Although I'm able to use Shadow Exchange, it's currently limited, until I 'die', at least. Using Gates and being able to travel to other dimensions willy-nilly is going to be in the future, just not the near future.
"By the way, when are you gonna "open my third eye"? I kinda want to be on the receiving end of an out of body experience." I say as we continue the tour of the basic training area. "All in due time." She says cryptically, as we continue to move through the place.
We soon make it all the way to the sparring grounds, where Karl Mordo is currently teaching a man, who looks like he's having some difficulty standing. Looking at his face, I notice that it's none other than Jonathan Pangborn, the man who much later, informs a damaged Stephen Strange of Kamar-Taj.
"Mordo, a moment, please." Yao calls him, and he stops and holds Jonathan, keeping him from falling. "Yes, Ancient One. What do you need of me?" He says as he reaches us, a look of reverence on his face. I wonder how he'll feel if he finds out about Yao's past with Dormammu.
"This young one here wishes to live amongst us. Help him get settled in." Oh no, she didn't. She just tried to drop me off like an unwanted package, and I didn't even see if my astral form would be the same as my Spiritual Body Manifestation. Well, if she thinks things will go that way, she's got another thing coming.
"Of course, Ancient One. Please, follow me... Sorry, I didn't get your name." Karl says politely. "My name's Ashwani. Ashwani Bourne. It's a pleasure to meet you face to face, Karl Mordo. And you don't need to get me a room, I can make mine." I say with a courteous smile, but it seems that saying his name before he told me set him off a bit.
He looks at Yao, as if asking for an explanation, but she waves, letting him know that it'll come later. "Sorry, but do you all mind giving us some privacy." She says, prompting the masters and apprentices to vacate the area. After they leave, she dashes forward and taps my forehead, then slams her palm on my chest, and with that, my astral form is pushed out of my body.
Her eyes widen as she looks at my form, and I look down at my arms, only to see them covered in a black armor that glowed purple, with bluish-black spurts of energy spurting out of the joints in 3 second intervals. I quickly put my hands to my face, and feel no metal, meaning that I didn't have a helm or any head covering.
"W… What are you?" Yao asks, this time with a notable edge in her tone. "Can I get a raincheck on that expo?" I say, then lightly touch the butterfly that I see moving about. The instant I touch it, the space around me stretches, then I am basically flung into multidimensional space. As my astral form rockets through the space between dimensions, I keep an eye out, noting down the dimensions as I pass by them.
The shared dimension of the Octessence, the Red dimension ruled by Cyttorak, the Faltine birthland, the home dimensions of Cinnibus, Balthakk, Watoomb and more, and eventually, I feel two particular dimensions that greatly attract me. The Darkforce Dimension, and the Realm of Death. Yet, another dimension attracted me, albeit not as strongly as the other two, and this is surprisingly enough, the Lightforce Dimension.
While its pull is strong, it's not of the same nature as the Darkforce Dimension and Realm of Death that attract me so strongly because I have Darkforce and Death as integral parts of myself, but rather, one reminiscent of hunger and synergy, almost like it's trying to offer me something.
But unfortunately, as they say, all good things must come to an end. As my astral form is pulled back to the location that this spell had anchored it to, i.e.: into my body, which is right in front of Yao, who is still looking at me incredulously. I guess I should probably begin explaining, huh.
"Okay, Yao. What do you want to know?" I ask her as I acclimate to the interdimensional energies that are currently filling my senses.
Omniscient POV
After half an hour, Ashwani had gone ahead and explained a great deal of his powers to Yao, who was shocked by the sheer number of abilities he possessed, and wary of his openness towards her. He had even told her of his nanomachines' abilities and the powers he got from the Essence of the Outsider.
When he told her why he trusted her with such information, all wariness she had towards him vanished. "Because, as the Sorcerer Supreme, you're probably the only person that would understand the rationale of my actions, and not try to stop me." He said solemnly, the implications of his words left up in the air.
"I see. That is understandable." Yao said with a nod. "So I take it that the room you said you would make would be made with your nanomachines, yes?" She asked, and Ashwani walked over to a part of Kamar-Taj that overlooked a cliff, then began walking off, only to ascend, as if walking up a short flight of stairs.
Within him, the central nanomachine went into overdrive, kicking off a massive replication process. The nanomachines came off his body as a large black cloud that reformed as stairs that led into a 12-foot tall room that measured 20ft by 30ft, giving him 600 square feet of space to use as he pleased. "There's your answer, Yao. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some things to attend to." He said as he walked into the room, which was followed by two metallic doors sliding closed.
Feeling that she could leave Ashwani to his own devices, Yao left to attend to her duties as Sorcerer Supreme. Meanwhile, Ashwani had taken out some of the food he had prepared from his inventory and speedily wolfed it down. Then he went on to complete his daily tasks, with his nanomachines acting as full-body weights.
He received his 3 stat points and the random box, while leaving the status recovery, just in case he would need it at another time. Right as he was about to open up the random box, he suddenly received an alert from E.L.I.T.E. |Boss, Yao's approaching.| He quickly put the random box into his inventory, then instructed E.L.I.T.E to open the doors as he walked to them.
"Hello, Ashwani. I forgot to give this to you." Yao said, handing him a golden band with space for two fingers to be put in. He recognized this as a Sling Ring, the tool that the Masters of the Mystic Arts used to open portals. "I formally welcome you to Kamar-Taj, Shadow Monarch." Yao said, giving him a short bow.
"Yeah, thanks." Ashwani responded curtly, as his mind was filled with different plans he had that had opened up with him acquiring a Sling Ring. Yao smiled as she noticed this, then left the area. After she left, he put the Sling Ring into his inventory, went back into his workspace, cleaned himself up and dressed up, then headed to the Library.
As he entered the Library, he saw a man with a somewhat stern face, who he knew was the librarian who in the main 199999 timeline, was killed by Kaecilius and the zealots of Dormammu sometime within late-2015 and early-2016. Quickly greeting the man, he headed to the bookshelves, took out a tome and speedily flipped through it.
Once he reached the end of the tome, he felt the knowledge within it imprint onto his mind, and he broke out into a smile. Out of the Librarian's line of sight, Ashwani used his nanomachines to create 5 drones with cameras, which he put under Stealth by forming skill chips inside them. Then using Ruler's Authority, he began pulling tomes out of the shelves on either side of him and flipping through them, with the drones reading through each of them.
Whenever a drone finished reading through a tome, he would feel the knowledge in it imprint on his mind. As he continued this, his smile went from looking slightly happy to euphoric, then was wiped away as he went stoic. Letting out a breath, he replaced the tomes he had finished, then quickly took out another set of tomes and flipped through those. This went on for 30 minutes, and by then, he had finished reading every tome that wasn't a part of Yao's private collection.
Once he was done, he left the library and returned to his workspace. As he entered, he brought the Sling Ring out of his inventory, then covered it in his nanomachines, analyzing it to its most minute details, then commanded the nanobots to assimilate the Sling Ring.
Manipulating the nanobots that covered his body, he made the ones at his wrist hold the function of the Sling Ring, as he felt that having it on his fingers would be obstructive.
After all that, he pulled out the random box and opened it. With a flash of light, the content of the box was released, and in Ashwani's hand was a blue key. He smiled as he inspected the key, his Black Heart pulsing with mana , and his human heart with anticipation.
[Item: Dungeon Key
Item Class: B
Type: Key
A key that allows you to create an Instant Dungeon. You may use this at the Delacorte Clock in Central Park, New York.]
"Well, it looks like I'm going to have a good hunt after all." He said, as his mind was filled with a desire to fight.
Chapter End.
Word Count: 2,662
Thanks for reading!