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Chapter 59
Technomancer in MCU
Kamar-Taj, Kathmandu
–Ancient One–
As soon as the space around the area stabilised, she activated the eye of Agamotto to rewind time but hesitated to do so in the last moments.
Multiple activations of an infinity stone in close proximity to the energy of a dimensional lord were inadvisable at best.
So, she just warded off the area using basic distraction wards and left the area.
Upon her arrival at Kamar-Taj, she could see Master Daniel and Master Wong discussing something.
Upon noticing her arrival, both of them bowed although she noticed that Master Daniel winced while doing so.
“Master Daniel, I think a little more time on the medical beds would do you good. Master Wong can update me about the situation here. I am afraid that as soon as you recover, you’ll have to return to your duties as the Sanctum Master. One of our oldest enemies, Dormammu has started moving again so I can’t have one of my best fighters benched.”
“Understood, Ancient One,” Master Daniel bowed at me and left. Even now, she could see him favoring his left leg over his right and the Vaulting Boots of Valtorr were suspiciously absent from his person.
“Please tell me that they didn’t manage to break the Vaulting Boots of Valtorr,” she said to Master Wong.
He shook his head regretfully, “Unfortunately, the enemies this time were too strong. Kaecillius’ betrayal cost us dearly. We are now down 3 Masters, excluding Kaecillius and his cohort,”
“Any damage to the Sanctums?” she asked him as they both moved around the area, surveilling any lingering damage as well as lingering Dark Energy from the many spells that were thrown about in there. She found multiple pockets of dark energy that were sealed by the wards of Kamar-Taj. She promptly extinguished all of them and at the same time repaired the wards that she could and resolved to use the time stone to repair the rest after the entirety of Kamar-Taj was sanitized from the remnants of Dormammu’s energy.
“None of the sanctums were attacked. Kaecillius seems to have been targeting the area where the dimensional gateway for the medical ward was. It would seem that his target was either you or Master Throgg.” Wong said to her.
She shook her head and said, “It’s highly unlikely that Dormammu would expose Kaecillius for just Master Throgg, no matter how powerful he may have been mystically. No, during the treatment, I had to use a spell that left my body vulnerable for a while as all my mind was focused on removing the will in the poison so it was far more likely that Dormammu came to know about that moment of weakness of mine and chose to attack.”
“I see. Is Master Throgg alright?” Wong asked her.
She nodded, making him sigh in relief, “He is out of danger and is most likely resting right now. I have yet to talk with him properly as I had to rush here immediately after learning of Kaecillius’ betrayal from Master Throgg.”
“I see. I’ll go coordinate the burial efforts now. Thanks to Alfred, the casualty figures are nowhere near what they could have been.” Wong bowed to her and left.
Yes, Alfred’s invention did end up saving a lot of lives for their organisation. They even did it for free for them. Granted, Alfred got the idea from their archives but it's the thought that counts.
Speaking of Alfred, the thought of losing him sent chills down her spine.
The only spell that she knew of that Master Throgg and Kaecillius collaborated on was a spell designed to store the digital blueprint of a physical location and then subsequently erase any foreign digital lifeform in the location. According to the early drafts she had seen in passing, the spell was only supposed to affect an area the size of a small building, thereby making sure that a single facility could be purged at any moment.
She was amused at first when she realised that the terror of Alfred had not even left Master Throgg untouched but now, the implications of what he mumbled before going back to sleep gripped her heart in fear.
She hurriedly went back to the room where he was resting, only to find him sitting on the bed, gripping his head.
At her entrance, he looked up with bloodshot eyes.
‘What happened, Master Throgg? You said something about a spell and Kaecillius. As far as I am aware, the only thing you were working on was a harmless digital erasure spell.” she asked him, hoping against all odds that he would deny my statement.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Yes, he tricked me. I was just checking the spell. That bastard hid it deep inside the spell in such a way that only magical energy of high energy species could activate it and that too the amount required for it could be fulfilled by only me in the entire organisation. The ludicrous amount of energy I expended that day probably only aided in delivering an even bigger attack on Alfred.” he said in a whisper-like voice.
She stood rooted to the spot until she came to her senses and demanded to see the magic circle. Before he could manifest it, she already had a scanning spell ready and scanned the entire magic circle from top to bottom.
After confirming his results, she staggered back in horror.
Then, she remembered something, she took out a watch from her dimensional storage and hurriedly put it on her wrist.
The turning on and authentication procedures, which included drawing blood from her wrist, filled her with hope but that soon turned into despair as the smartwatch showed the NO CONNECTION error. Her heart sank as she thought of the day that Alfred gave it to her as a way of contacting him. According to what she gathered from Alfred’s ramblings, the watch was connected to a server in the Asterisk’s data center that was made with an Uru alloy upon which intricate runes were carved. This allowed that server to have a direct link to Alfred’s soul.
The only way the watch would show NO CONNECTION error is if Alfred was in the Quantum Realm or in outright another universe or multiverse.
None of the options filled her with optimism.
But, still, to confirm, she contacted the agent who was always stationed at the New York Sanctum, to see if she could get a meeting with Ed only to receive even more bad news.
Ed had fallen ill and with Alfred nowhere to be found, Daisy had taken over. She remembered Alfred talking about taking down H.Y.D.R.A. once and for all during this time period.
She just hoped that Daisy could complete the mission without Ed or Alfred. She was not as worried because she knew of the incredible support system that Ed had created within the organisation.
No, she was more worried about the significance of Dormammu moving once again. The last time Dormammu took action was when Ed was still searching for Toby and had enlisted her help to travel to the Dark Realm to search for his friend whom he had found using a soul bond that they shared. She still remembered the way Dormammu had to turn tail and use all his might, even sacrificing a part of his dimension and converting it into energy, to expel Toby from the Dark Dimension.
As she was contemplating visiting Ed and offering the aid of Kamar Taj to Daisy, alarms started blaring once again.
“Ancient One, demons. Lots of them. We have multiple confirmed breaches with hell champion level demons descending on multiple mystical hotspots.” Wong ran to her and reported.
Hmm, this smelled like a conspiracy to her.
But they came by at just the right time. Coincidentally, she just had to blow off some steam.
A small string of eldritch conjuration came out of her ring finger and began flowing back towards her neck. Soon, strings came out of every single one of her fingers and attached to her torso where an armoured shielding was being formed. Soon, she was standing in an awfully familiar suit of armour made out of the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak that covered her from head to toe. She grinned an eerie smile and said to Wong, “Locations, Master Wong. Looks like I’ll have to remind some fellows why I have been Sorcerer Supreme for all these years.”
Master Wong gulped and gave her the relic responsible for tracking any breaches in the mystical shield surrounding the planet.
She smiled and took off right into a portal that formed above her.
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The Sun’s Photosphere
–Toby--
With a groan, he came to the land of the living.
As he discovered the restraints placed on him and the lengths to which Ed and Alfred had gone to imprison him, he smiled. He smiled an ugly smile that seemed to scare the fellows who were staring at him from the other side of the barrier that separated him from this dimension.
Oh, he could feel it.
While it looked like he was just trapped with power-sucking bands that were locked onto his limbs, the truth wasn’t nearly so simple.
Why would it be? He wouldn’t expect anything less from the combined minds of Alfred and the Ancient One.
He was trapped in a semi-dimension. It was a term coined by Ed during their early days. He had tried to understand it back then but it all flew right over his thick head. The only thing he understood was the fact that Ed found a dimension that was in the formation process and with some mumbo jumbo, they could trap someone in that dimension, forcing the dimension’s formation process to adapt to the new variable.
Due to the dimension not being formed, hence being in 2D, and with the prisoner, i.e. him being a 3D object, it kept both of them in stasis. Thus, creating a perpetual prison.
Quite a novel concept. If only it were powerful enough to hold someone of his caliber.
Even now, he could feel the soul bindings on him. He could easily shatter the bindings and leave but the knowledge that should he force himself out of this prison, Ed would die alongside with him stayed his hand.
The Ancient One, when necessary, truly was cruel.
Then again, it wasn’t long till their deal would run its time and he would be out of this prison, free to bring Humanity to the forefront of the universe, by hook or crook.
He had waited for decades before he met Ed. What was a few more years to an immortal like him?
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Word Count - 1806
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head on to my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.
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I already have up to 12 extra chapters uploaded there.
A/N - So uh hey guys remember that barbeque I talked about that was too good? (Insert bashful smiling) Well as it turns out, too much of a good thing turns it too bad as well.
Long story short, I fell ill and the double kicker was the test I had at work today that would signal my readiness for a project I had been hoping to get. Now, as you can probably tell, I've recovered enough to write, and will probably provide you with regular chapter goodies. Also, expect a double chapter release this weekend.
Stay tuned for more!
Toodles!