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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 10

77A Bleecker Street, [31st December, 2006]

–Axle Riddle–

Well, he had both good news and bad news. The good news was that his range had now expanded to 4 miles in every direction and the control with which he could wield them has improved significantly as well. Now, he could manipulate individual droplets of water when it rains. It took a lot out of him and left him completely defenseless as every ounce of his mental faculties were focused on that task but yeah, he could do it now. You see, when he had the image of a telekinetic in his mind, it was always the scene of stopping bullets or raindrops or snowflakes, basically any scenario where multiple small things are all stopped at once, and when he was just a nobody looking at a screen, he thought to himself, how hard could it be? Not knowing that it was the single hardest thing to do. You had to split your focus on hundreds of different objects that are now supposed to be completely suspended in your grip, oh but wait, you also have to make sure all the different objects with varying sizes and shapes are held in a grip that is relatively gentle yet firm, for ALL particles. That was a headache and a half to get right. So, yeah, good news was that he figured out a way to get some practice on his control and was already pretty decent at it. On the day of the Chitauri INvasion, he hoped to pull off the badass stunt of just raising his fingers and stopping every single Chitauri in its tracks. Haaa, how awesome would that be? Plus, that would totally make every politician watching shit their pants as they tried to scramble up a response to him.

Oh yeah, bad news as well. Well, bad news was that he had gotten a little bit of a power boost in his head. So yeah, apparently, he was going to ride that confidence boost straight into Bleecker Street, i.e. The New York Sanctum. Surprisingly, it was also in Manhattan. Hmm, he had come to the conclusion that almost everything of significance in NYC occurred in Manhattan or the areas surrounding it. He had been sitting at a coffee shop right across from the building where the seal of Vishanti was clearly on the windows. For almost an hour, he had tried to expand his awareness range into the Sanctum and so far, aside from figuring out some of the more rudimentary protective measures, he had not gotten far. His powers felt as if they were being stopped by a layer of sticky fluid that trapped most of his awareness in it, only letting through a fraction of it and even that fraction does not go far. He had gotten weird looks from the waitress when he had gulped down a dozen double espresso shots like water but it was nothing his body could not handle. In fact, it was a good thing since it helped keep his mind in focus on the task at hand.

He had come up with a brilliant idea to bypass the restrictions laid down on him. Even if he personally could not cross the boundary area, what if he could just extend his awareness through a portal? It was a long shot but he was running out of options and he had a feeling that just winging through on the development of his powers was not going to cut it in the long term.

Against common thieves and criminals? Sure, he was golden there as they would not be able to do much as he knocked them out from a distance (Just like a robber he just knocked out in a pharmacy at the edge of his range right now,) but enhanced criminals would be much harder to fight against. He had no idea who to approach to properly use his powers. The Masters of the Mystic Arts had a long history and he was sure that they could even develop minor psychic powers like Telekinesis or mild telepathy using their spells so he figured they were the next best thing to going to the source itself for knowledge. He had assumed that becoming the avatar of the Sage FOrce meant that he would get a handbook for everything, that he would not have to bumble around but then he realised it. An essential component of becoming the Avatar of the Sage Force was the added intelligence boost that catapulted the person to become one of the smartest people in their world. That intelligence must play a crucial role in ensuring that their powers are properly trained, utilised, and explored upon.

He had none of that. Just mind over-matter powers on a scale the world had never seen before. The building itself was very weird. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get a “grip” on the building. In his case, he doesn’t just “lift” stuff. He creates imaginary appendages that grip the buildings and then do the lifting. He is of the opinion that it was due to his simple-minded nature and thus, his powers are expressed in that simple form, his brain trying to comprehend and manipulate something that is like a limb but is so much more than that.

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So, when he tried to grab onto anything on the building, his powers just flowed over them, not hitting anything. It was as if the entire Sanctum was one huge solid block that just looked like a building from the outside. No matter, he tried to lift the entire building as well, but it felt as if he was trying to lift the entire Earth instead of just a building. For reference, he was pretty sure he could just knock out the support pillars of any decent-sized building and bring the whole thing down. The Sanctum barely had two floors from the outside so he did not understand what was bringing in the extra mass. Maybe the spatially expanded floors added to the overall weight?

“That is a fascinating theory, Mr.Riddle. I would love to discuss it over tea. I am sure you are rather done with coffee for the day?”

He turned around, “Yeah, it is starting to taste like tar to me now but hey, if it…helps,” His words slowed down as he looked at a very amused-looking Ancient One with her signature bald head staring down at him with her hands tucked into her suit. Jacket? Onesie? Whatever it was.

“Ah!” He yelled as he jumped away from her, his powers allowing him to jump very far. He looked at the cafe only to see that it was just an empty cafe. The sound of traffic was absent as well as he looked at the now completely empty block.

Shit! “The Mirror Dimension,” He mumbled to himself.

“That is correct, Mr.Riddle. Now, instead of trying to compromise the integrity of one of the three monuments that are responsible for Earth’s safety, why don’t we talk over a nice cup of tea? I assure you I mean you no harm,” The Ancient One said as he kept her hands to her sides to show she wasn’t doing anything.

His heart hammering inside, he nodded with difficulty. It was not as if he could do anything, especially in a place he literally could not escape from, even with all his powers. The silver lining was that he had a backup in place if he never made it out of here alive. Admittedly, it was a little scorched earth of him but damn it, if he died, he was going to take them down with him. All the information he could remember about the Mystic Arts, neatly sitting in an email that was timed to send information to every single interested party he could think of, if he didn’t personally shut it down in 12 hours. He just hoped that she hadn’t anticipated that.

She opened a portal that led to a small dining room with a table set for two people already. He looked around and could not identify anything though he was reasonably certain that they were still in Manhattan, so this was probably one of the many rooms of the New York Sanctum.

“I assume we are still in–”

“Manhattan? Yes, we are. I assure you, nobody in this universe is anywhere near powerful enough to bypass that barrier that somebody put around Manhattan just to contain you,” She surmised his entire situation with a placid smile and then went back to the tea preparation ceremony. He was a complete novice at that so he did not know what she was doing, at all.

“I thought portals might do the trick?”

She scoffed, “Please, our portals are only as strong as the people wielding them. I can create portals capable of cutting out body parts of Demon Avatars and you think the same portals can be opened by the initiates who just learned how to create them? No, Mr.Riddle, there is no Mystic Art user on the planet who has the power to create a portal to bypass something as fundamentally carved into reality as that barrier. I am afraid you will have to wait for it to naturally dissipate.” She offered him tea and the sweet calming taste of honey in it did nothing to assuage his immense disappointment in the situation.

At least, she was not outright attacking him so that was good.

“So, Mr.Riddle, why were you incessantly knocking on our door today?”

He looked at her and thought, why the hell not?

“I am looking for help in regard to my powers. I need to achieve mastery in them and you are the only person who can help,”

There, he laid down all his cards. Despite his earlier misgivings, this Ancient One was not giving him the same bad vibes as that previous Sorcerer in that other universe was. So, he decided to trust his gut feeling and told her everything.

“I was hoping you would say that. Welcome to Kamar Taj,” She declared and snapped her fingers, causing a book to appear on the table between them.

It had some scribbling on top of it that he did not recognise. He looked at her in confusion and she snapped her fingers once again, making two more books appear. His eyes widened as he read the two books. They were the Latin to Sansrkit and Sanskrit to English translation books.

He looked up at her with a deadpan stare, “Really?”

“Every person who wants to learn in Kamar Taj has to go through the same ritual, Mr.Riddle and despite your peculiar situation, you will have to follow the same procedure,”

“Fiine,” He groaned but decided to enjoy the tea which seemed to refill on its own.

Neat.