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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 3
–Axle Riddle–
Okay, what the fuck was going on. He had fainted by some sneak attack by some yellow-robed bastard before he had even spent a day in his new universe. He did not know if he was even alive or not. The space he was currently in, looked awfully similar to the one he had been in when he had died and was sent to the MCU with his powers. Nowhere in the fine print, it was written that he would encounter someone way out of his league in the hours he would be there nor was it written that he would be thrown into that world when the people were still fighting wars with swords and spears, not guns and mortar.
He, in his soul form, continued to pace around in the black-and-white space for a seemingly long time, muttering profanities against the ROB who sent him here with such an early ending. He was cheated out of it too. He was promised that the world would not deviate even a little bit from the canon MCU timeline up to the point he was inserted into it. He was also promised that while life and death could not be guaranteed in the MCU, he would most likely get enough time to prepare for foes beyond his ken. He had been placated with that as the Sage FOrce was powerful enough, at least according to him. If he needed more of it, he could have asked the Ancient One to teach him.
“Sorry for that,” He whipped around to glare at the new entry into this mind space.
“What the fuck just happened out there? I didn't even get a chance to say a word before I was out,” He hissed out at the offending light even though looking straight at the light hurt his eyes for some reason.
The light placatingly said, “Calm down. Don’t worry about this situation. Some third parties interfered in your placement into your designated universe. That situation is solved now so don’t worry about it for now. You will now wake up in an alley in the 21st Century.”
He sighed in relief at that piece of information. He was not keen on living in the medieval age, bereft of all the modern amenities he was so used to. What was the point of having all this power if he couldn't even live the life he wanted to live and by the time some modernities came back into his life, he would be too old to even enjoy them, making his second life a major waste of his karmic points that he had accrued somehow. He did not even know what he had done to collect those karmic points but he was glad that something he had done in his lifetime had helped him, even if it meant that he had died very young.
His relief was cut short when the white light continued, “Well, there has been a slight complication in your scenario,”
He tensed at that, “WHAT?”
“There were problems with your release. The VIshanti of the MCU have taken an interest in you for some reason and were adamant in making sure that you were under their thumb or at least in their sphere of influence. We have obviously stopped them from doing that but in exchange for leaving you alone, they have certain conditions that, unfortunately, we had to agree to,” The voice seemed regretful about that as it sighed as well.
“Just spit it out,” He shouted at the light, his voice trembling, the day going nothing like he had imagined when he had been first told that he was going to be reincarnated.
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“In exchange for a non-interference clause, they have made us geo-lock your location until a few conditions are met. You will be bound to the island of Manhattan until the New York Invasion of Chitauri happens. After the invasion is done, you will be free to move about the universe. I suggest you do everything you can in the meantime to improve upon your powers,” The light said in a single breath.
There was pin-drop silence as even his breathing, as much as his soul form could breathe, had stopped.
Being trapped on Manhattan Island? That didn’t seem that bad until you realised that every single major bad event could be traced back to that place. Also, suppose he gained enough power that he could easily prevent the invasion from happening. He didn’t know about everything else but he could, with practice, knock out Loki and his forces once they arrived at Stark Tower to open the portal, thus preventing the Chitauri INvasion at the last moment.
But that would mean that he would be constrained to that island for the rest of his life. Even if he grew strong enough to beat Thanos at that point, it would be very hard to create a scenario where he could confront Thanos with his powers. No, he would be lucky to have some sort of sway in that fight if he was trapped in that place.
No, he would have to get out of that place and gain his freedom. Speaking of freedom, he turned to the light,
“Any limits on my power?”
“No, as a trade-off for the geo-restrictions, the ceiling on your telekinesis and spatial awareness has been removed. With a couple of years of practice, you will have more than enough power to influence things on the entire island of Manhattan with ease. You will also gain extra-dimensional sensory powers so you can easily cover the entirety of the state of NYC with your powers, just remember that the longer the distance, the weaker the powers,”
He sighed at that. In the comics, he had read that having the Sage Force meant having access to powers that could one day be enough to cover the entirety of the planet in awareness and then some. He would definitely grow strong enough to stop the Invasion then.
He would make sure the Invasion happened on time but there was no major fallout from that battle, ensuring that he had the moral high ground for essentially facilitating the INvasion.
“Okay. I am ready. I just hope that there are no more problems from your side,”
The light brightened a little bit at that, “You have my word. In exchange, you will get a starter’s pack so you can survive without using your powers for a bit,”
That was the last thing he heard before his vision darkened once again as he felt his body going through a series of tunnels before being roughly dropped on something hard.
New York Sanctum
–Ancient One–
She was deep into her meditation, verifying the timeline she had plucked out of millions of other possibilities when her entire magical system went haywire for a moment as she was pulled out of her visions and back into her body.
She gasped as she tried to stop the violent beatings of her heart. Somehow, something had happened inside the shield on the planet that had pulled her back from her meditation. It was an old spell that somebody had tied to the post of the Sorcerer Supreme. She just never thought that the conditions for triggering it would ever happen.
She pulled her Astral Form and flew out of the New York Sanctum and her entire astral body froze in sheer terror as she looked at the multi-colored barrier that surrounded the island of Manhattan. The sheer power those symbols were emitting was enough to discourage her from going anywhere close to that. She pulled her Astral Form back into her body and called for an emergency in Kamar Taj, ensuring that the Sanctums were protected.
She then went towards the curtain that covered Manhattan, hoping to uncover who or what placed it there for what reason.
For some reason, she found her throat becoming dry as the power of that barrier meant that someone even stronger than Dormammu or even the Vishanti had placed it there. This was way out of her league yet at the end of the day, she was the Sorcerer Supreme and this was her sworn duty.
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