CHAPTER 105

I had spent three week at Kamar-Taj already and I could already tell that the place was doing wonders for my mind which would have been wonderful if only I had been able to conjure up a fucking magic circle. Mordo even told me that, 'It's like Strange all over again.'

Speaking of Strange, we had a spar once during the last week and let's just say Mordo had to stop me from pummeling the shit out of the man. 

Even using human stats was still more than enough for him given my experience and abilities. 

What the man thought of me was his own. It wasn't like I came here in the first place to meet him or be friends with him. Other than the fact that he was here way earlier than his MCU counterpart, which wasn't exactly true as he arrived at Kamar-Taj way earlier if we were to go by the comics, everything else was going swimmingly. 

"I told you to let go of control, didn't I?" The Ancient One said as she came into view, appearing mysteriously like always. 

"And I told you that maybe it wasn't such a good idea, right?" I stopped the futile exercise that I had been practicing for the past hour. 

"You did. But what I believe is preventing you from taking that step is assurance. So let me give you that... Come." She beckoned for me to follow her as she led me to a room with low lighting that had incense burning on different parts of the room giving it a surreal atmosphere. Almost like being high on the most clarity-inducing drug ever. 

The sound of broken glass and the distortion in my sense of space told me that something was wrong with the room. 

"This is the mirror dimension. A parallel world existing on the same plane but entirely separate from the physical world. In here, the influence of both dimensions can never meet. Feel free to… express yourself." She said coolly. 

Now if it were another person talking, I might have been skeptical but given who she was, her prestige, her title, her centuries of experience, her unseen might – with all that to her person, all I did was nod. 

I increased the anger factor of my emotions and immediately thought of killing the seemingly fragile woman flooded my mind but I was able to retain a bit of clarity. Since there was no cap on the level of emotions one could feel meant that I could build up my level of tolerance to anger to a high limit and still have control over it when I slip into this state. 

"Impressive intent. Now let's see how you f-" I didn't hear her last words as optic beams crashed into an eldritch shield. 

I was already above her but the ground shattered and increased the distance between us only for me to punch at her former location with a flaming fist. 

I felt something crash into me and slashed at my former sides but I ignored the now familiar sensation of magic as ice constructs shot out of thin air in a circular path. 

She cut through the ice in an impressive display of reflexive agility but I couldn't admire it as a spiked mace appeared in my hand as I slammed downwards on her head. 

She weaved a quick motion on her hands before palming the air causing it to shatter like glass but somehow still tangible as it held against my attack. 

"While you seem to be attacking me based on blinded violence, the fact that there remains a sliver of your clarity in your eyes gives us a step forward. Try and bring your clarity forward or try to balance it with your violence. That's the first step." She said as she dodged.

I blitzed forward in a burst of speed to catch her unawares but eldritch ropes spewed out from the moving surfaces around us and bounded me regardless of how much I struggled to move. 

She came forward and with a palm, hit me square on the chest and that was when I felt something was cut as my Astral body floated out of my now slumping physical body. 

".. Marvelous! A very specific piece of soul, and yet…" She spoke as she came closer to look at my astral form which I guess was something different as even now I couldn't see how my astral body looked, but I could see some sort of red markings around my legs. 

"You have no idea, do you?" She came to my astral face and asked. 

"I don't but I would like it if you could share what you found." I really wanted to know. The Phoenix had looked at me and found something but even she didn't want to tell me what it was. 

"Are you sure you are a mutant?" She asked a surprising question. 

"That, I'm pretty sure of. What can you see?" Would someone just tell me what they know instead of going through parables? 

"Those markings on your body, I believed I'd seen them before but looking at your body now, I can finally see the difference. You've been marked by a being, a ridiculously powerful one at that." As soon as she said that she stopped and before I could ask why, the entire mirror dimension screeched as it cracked into numerous small pieces. I looked at the Ancient One who seemed to know the cause and sent me back to my body before the mirror dimension shattered. 

"What the hell was that?!" I screamed at the woman who had maintained her unfazed look after the mirror dimension was broken. 

"That, Mr. Cross, are entities who govern vast domains of the present universe." She explained which only made me more confused. 

"Do you know who or what it was?"

Just that moment Mordo and some other masters along with Wong and Strange came into the room and they all stopped when they saw me. 

"What happened? We felt a breach in the defenses for a second! Are some dark forces attacking us?" Mordo came forward and asked the Ancient One.

"Master Kaecilius, ensure that the defenses and wards are up till further notice. We might have a battle on our hands, hopefully not." She spoke to one of the masters who looked at me for a second before he nodded and left. 

Great! The makings of a villain. 

"Master Wong, please check for any traces of dark energy in any of the Sanctums. Pass on this news to the three Sanctums." She ordered Wong who responded with, "Yes, Sorcerer Supreme." And went to do his task. 

She directed the other masters who left to their task leaving only Mordo and Strange in the room with the two of us. "What was that? What the hell are we dealing with?" Strange was the first one to break the silence, given me the side eye as he questioned the Ancient One. 

"Is it the thralls from the dark dimension?" Mordo asked. 

"For now, I'm not sure. From what I know, whatever it was seems to have some sort of connection with Mr. Cross here." She pointed at me, which at this point she didn't have to do as I'm pretty sure no one could ignore the dude who had some weird red writings all over his body. 

"Cross, what does that mean? Do you have any sort of allegiance with the wretches of the dark dimensions?" Was this guy always this wound up? He was looking at me as if I betrayed him and he was ready to pay whatever the cost might be to take me down. 

"Wait everyone back up for a second? What is this about dark dimensions?" Strange came in between me and Mordo. 

Mordo first looked toward the Ancient One who didn't look like she was going to say anything for the time being so he answered. "The dark dimensions and others like it are home to the most treacherous of evil beings. Vile and malicious eldritch monsters who dwell in chaos and evil and everything in between." He stopped there and looked at the Ancient One again but seeing as she didn't say anything, continued. "They are the most powerful of cosmic beings who enslave thousands of worlds all through the multiverse. One of such beings is Dormammu. A monster beyond even the concept of time who tries all it can to consume earth at every turn. Kamar-Taj exists to protect the earth from such beings," He turned to look at me, "and all others related to them."

"Okay, let me stop you right there. I have no connection with any type of Evil or Chaotic… entities. None that I'm aware of." I said the last part silently. 

"Your present visage doesn't inspire the fact of such truths." He pointed at the crack-like writings on my body. 

"And your judgment is superficial." He made to rebut but a shout from Strange stopped him. 

"Stop! What are you talking about? I only came here to heal my hands, not fight some… mystical war."

Mordo was taken aback by Strange's statement. "What do you mean?"

"I'm out. I didn't sign up for this when I joined." Strange said. 

"You would refuse to be part of something that is bigger than yourself for the first time in your damn life? And I thought you strong, Strange." Mordo walked out of the room followed by a confused and bitter Strange. 

"Why aren't you saying anything?" I directed at the still silent woman. 

"Because there was no need for me to say anything. Why don't we focus on your magic for now?" Since I wouldn't be able to get much from her and given how she said she didn't know who or what entity was linked to me, I focused on the matter at hand. 

"Right, I don't think that fight did anything to my inability to use magic."

"Try again." On her order, I performed the motion for a simple barrier spell and was pleasantly surprised when I was able to fully form a rather simple shield, though the constructs were still shaking. She explained before I could ask 'how?'. 

"Your astral body is, in a sense, your true form. Conversely meaning that how strong it is correlates to how powerful you can be. You were able to keep your calm when in astral projection which in turn diffused most of the raw emotions on your body. Though your anger isn't gone, you can now use more of your strength without the fear of losing control of your faculties."

I paid little attention to her as I stared at the wobbly shield in front of my fingers. 

"This is magic?"

"Most would call it that, but personally I think sorcery suits it better."

I disabled the shield and turned to look at her before bowing my head in thanks. "Thank you for your hospitality."

"You are different than I imagined you'd be, Mr. Cross." She chuckled. 

"And pray tell what that perception looked like."

"Arrogant, condescending, brash, unwilling. But despite having all of those in abundance, you manage not to show it, if at all. Your degree of control sure is an astonishing thing to see, mildly terrifying even." 

I left for my room after some small talk with her. It would be a lie if I said the prospects of magic didn't appeal to me. I mean it was magic after all.

I immediately dove into my magical books the second I took a shower and started experimenting with some spells, small ones. I was still a newbie after all. 

I performed the few spells I could multiple times just to get the feel of magic. I believe that magic was undersold in the MCU, even though it had some fantastic highlights, the magical community wasn't given the same edge that I could see in the present day sorcerers. 

The prime example for that was the Ancient One. Sure I wasn't fighting at my best as I was trying to keep my emotions in check while also being careful, but she wasn't either and I wasn't able to touch her. It could be that the visual effects of the movies couldn't replicate it or due to a lacking imagination of the directors and scriptwriters. 

Whatever the problem was, the fact remained that a sorcerer like Agamotto could fight a Celestial on equal ground and even best some of them. The feat even went up ahead when he could fight with beings like Dormammu and Galactus. Sure he had a somewhat special birth, but that in no way deducted from the true fact that he was purely magical. And given whatever my stupid patron or whatever it was decided to do, that was if I didn't die before then, I would eventually find myself being put against beings of those level. 

Magic was something that would give me an edge against anything, that feature being owned to its simplicity and contradictory complexity in nature which could be assigned to it woven intricacies with the very fabrics that govern the universe as well as… 

Why couldn't my re-do just be a simple life in a crazy universe? Everyone else gets it, so why couldn't I? 

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