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Chapter 78
Technomancer in MCU
Wakanda
–Ed–
He had to admit that when his rage-blinded self decided to take on somebody who had been empowered by Dormammu, especially in an alternate dimension, he had done so without much hope that he would survive the aftermath, even if he won.
Seeing and confirming the death of the Ancient One lit up something fierce inside him. Her loss will be felt across the mystic community across the universe. The only reason he even dared to try and avenge her was Alfred.
His new status would mean that it was all but inevitable that the position of the Sorcerer Supreme would be given to Alfred, since he doubted there was anyone left on Earth who could compete with him in terms of mystical attainment.
Alfred had always been dependable like that but going into that fight was more selfish of him because he knew that no matter what he did, he was not going to win against Dormammu of all people. He just wanted to vent his anger and he saw the ready-made punching bag that the Dark Overlord himself had delivered to him.
Honestly, it was refreshing, to say the least. He had not pulled the lid on his powers in years, especially the matter manipulation part of it.
That was probably one of the most taxing parts of exercising his powers. Even then, with his near-crippled body, he was unable to pull off the truly impressive moves and had chosen to stick with the modes with the most destructive potential.
There was also a chance that Dormammu’s avatar might just get out of Project Ark and he didn't even want to think of the devastating damage it could have done since nearly all the S-rankers of the organisation had been injured by it and were out of commision, even Frank since his powers work on only a certain level of power.
So, he chose to just destroy the dimension. That was sure to be the end of the demon. Surviving a collapsing dimension is one thing, surviving a gamma bomb in the middle of a collapsing dimension where the laws of physics are wonky at best, is another thing altogether.
With that done, in the split second it took for the shockwave to reach him and knock him into the unforgiving void, he repurposed some of the nearby shrapnel and fashioned himself a coffin of sorts. He didn’t have enough time, energy, or thought process to make anything more than a basic life-supporting system since it took all he had to just make the metal into the strongest alloy he knew that didn’t include Vibranium since that metal was the most taxing when it came to his abilities.
So, colour him surprised when he found out that not only was he alive, his body had somehow stopped hurting and become functional again, and he found himself facing Toby of all people.
On reflex, he activated his powers, or at least tried to, since he could not even feel his powers. He could feel his soul and it was weird, to say the least. It was as if it was in two places at once and the body he was in was being solely fueled by his soul and because of that, he could not access his powers.
So, he just stood there, with his arms up, knowing that he might as well be a toddler in terms of combat prowess in his current state, especially against someone like Toby who could handily trounce Thor and Hulk together, especially their current renditions before they really grew into their powers.
He swore that he could hear the sounds of cricket as Toby just looked on in amusement.
To be honest, he had nothing against Toby. In fact, he was once his best friend, and in that void, with all that burning, they had resolved that if they were going to be dying, they were going to die fighting together.
After that, he had been heartbroken and depressed for months as Toby had not been with him when he had arrived on Earth. Even building Alfred his first home and having him scan the entire planet and then the entire solar system, to no avail didn’t help matters. It was the Ancient One who had helped him gather hope for Toby’s survival since the higher powers would not have bestowed him with such power and left him to die.
So, with Alfred by his side, he had gone about his life, trying to complete the mission they had self-assigned themselves, hoping that someday Toby would arrive and be happy with the work he had done with his powers. He had imagined Toby would be happy to meet Alfred as well since Alfred was the companion that they had been given as a gift.
When he found Toby and with the help of Ancient One, rescued him from the Dark Dimension, he was overjoyed at finally finding his friend but soon realised that the friend he knew and loved had changed a lot since they last met.
The time in that time-dilated dimension did his mental health no justice. On top of that, upon further research, Alfred had figured out that Toby’s DNA was an unstable hodgepodge of alien DNA and the only thing stopping it from collapsing was Toby’s own powers which worked in overdrive to stop further damage. The Ancient One confirmed to him that the same issue also persists with his psyche, hence the sudden bouts of aggression. That was why he had reluctantly agreed to fight Toby and go ahead with the plan to cruelly imprison him. Ancient One later confirmed that she had foreseen the outcome of their actions and it resulted in him coming out with much better mental clarity was what stayed his hand once he truly realised the magnitude of his actions.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The magnitude of imprisoning and condemning a sentient being to years, possibly decades, of solitary imprisonment.
Now, as he awkwardly lowered his arms and looked over Toby who looked more and more like the laid-back and relaxed Toby he knew, he walked towards the offered seat.
After taking a seat, he took the offered Barbecue stick and for a while, they just enjoyed the silence and the crackling sound of the firewood burning in their own little corner of the world.
Because this is what it was, the only place in the world where no magical interference can occur. Not even portals can be opened in this place. Toby was the one who had discovered it and as the first one here, he had laid down some runes on the vibranium walls and due to the underlying properties of Vibranium, those runes then became permanent, enforced by the near infinite cosmic energy reserve that the mound held.
It was their own little secret base. It was a bit childish, he was aware but they had both been way too excited to find and claim a place that nobody else had found out that they had immediately named it as such, and due to the mystic nature of Toby and his demonic nature, the cave had been reverberated in official confirmation.
“This is nice,” he heard Toby say as he still looked at the Barbecue in front of him.
“Yeah, you’re right. This is nice,” he muttered before taking a plate from the table nearby and taking out the chicken on it.
“What is this? It’s chewy?” he said in between mouthfuls since the meat was tasty, chicken or not.
“It’s demon meat,” he choked on the meat after hearing Toby’s reply.
He spit out the meat in his mouth and glared at Toby who raised his hands in surrender, “What? That was the closest thing to meat I had in my storage. Excuse me if you decide the edibility of a meat-based on its appearance. You know that’s discrimination, right?”
He chuckled and then that chuckle turned into full-blown laughter after hearing Toby rant about the meat industry and the preference of meat eaters who choose to eat different types of meat based on their appearance and not their calorific or nutritional value.
He was soon joined by Toby as they doubled over in laughter, crying tears of joy.
“Oh, I needed this,” Toby said after they had settled down after smelling the meat burning behind them.
He nodded at that.
After a while, after the noise of the firewood crackling died, he spoke,” So, how did you get out?”
“Straight to the jugular, huh? Why? So you can put in better measures to stop me from coming out next time?”
“No, even if I wanted to do that, I can’t since the Ancient One is now dead and she took that spell to her grave,” he replied after a somber moment of silence.
“Oh, did not know that,” Toby muttered in a sheepish tone.
He just nodded, eyes focused on nothing in particular as he stared ahead.
“So, how did she die? And just what the hell happened that pushed you to such a state? Where was Alfred with his shiny new body? Presumably, he is now powerful enough to stop nearly anybody with ease.” Toby said, his words picking up heat as he spoke of Alfred in an accusing tone.
So, he began telling Toby of what happened. Of all that had happened ever since he left.
When he told him of the tidbit of Dormammu making a clone of him and using it to nearly kill all of the higher tier powers of the organisation, a dark look flashed over his face and the resulting pressure that he experienced in the split second nearly knocked him out.
He had forgotten just how powerful Toby was and it would seem that his time in his prison had only made him more powerful. His current powerless body would not last a single second against a First Generation Super soldier, let alone to the likes of Toby.
Speaking of his current body.
“How did you save me? And what is this body? I feel no pain but my powers are inaccessible to me. I can feel them being present, just out of reach,” he asked Toby.
Toby rubbed the back of his head as he spoke, “Yeah, about that…”
Then he spoke of how he basically cursed him with a rare curse that basically solved all his problems. Then he realised of how the torture feature of the curse had been turned down by Toby.
He would have been happy about the solution only if he knew nothing about Mystic Arts at all.
As it was,” The burden must be huge, right?” He questioned Toby about the toll of bearing his soul.
Toby made a so-so gesture with his hands
Sighing, he asked again, “How long until it becomes too much for you, Toby?”
Toby lowered his hands and sighed, “A few weeks, a month tops. Depends on how much of my powers I have to use before they fill up with my regen.”
He nodded, thinking of how to solve the issue once and for all.
At Least he had Toby back with his mind back.
Speaking of solutions, “Where’s Alfred?”
“Huh?”
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Word Count - 1891
If you guys would like to read ahead, you can head onto my P-atreon. It is the same name as my username.
You know you want to, why resist?
I already have up to 15 extra chapters uploaded there.
A/N - Hello everyone! Sorry for the abrupt disappearance but I had a family emergency at home that I had to fly home for. I could not upload or type during that period because I didn’t take my laptop with me for the trip.
Happy to say that my family is safe and will make a full recovery. I have come back to my day job now and will try and get back to my schedule ASAP.
Regular updates will begin from Friday.
Thank you for reading!
A/N - So guys, first things first. The reason this chapter is short is due to this(if it doesn’t open, just search ALLMIGHT vs NOMU on yt and click the first link. And please watch it subbed. That's the best part).
Today, as usual, I woke up at 5 and began my day. By 7 I was done exercising and sat down to write today’s chapter. For unrelated reasons, I was feeling a bit down today so I thought why not go to the handy dandy list I have for when I might need motivation?
So, my dumbass went and opened the first link. It is the ALLMIGHT vs NOMU fight and long story short, I watched a 3-minute video for over 30 minutes.
The fight had no reason to go that hard and it did. Whatever your views might be on MHA or anime in general, just go and watch that fight once and if you didn’t feel like it was worth your time, then you don’t the backstory because I always, always get goosebumps when I watch that.
So, don’t worry, the next chapter will compensate for today’s word loss but just go watch that and hopefully, you won’t blame me.
Toodles!