26 Chapter 18: Exam and disciple
(I am not back, I just wanted to thank those people who comment every day for me to post a chapter on this fic and though it's not long it's a good 1,500+ words)
(1 week Later )
It was a bright day with the sun shining inside the monastery.
The crowd murmured between themselves in anticipation as they saw the different Masters and surprisingly the ancient one walk to the stage erected for this rare event.
The master of the New York sanctum stepped towards the crowd and with a single hand gesture of his, a magic circle barely 2 inches wide came together in front of his mouth. It seemed to be some sort of voice amplifier.
He did a few test words to get our attention and the crowd quieted as they waited with anticipation for him to begin speaking.
"As you all know, today is the disciple exam and the prize is the honorary position to become one of our disciples. This year is slightly different because we have one more teacher with us today." He stepped to the side and the ancient one walked up to in front of the stage and the same magical circle formed in front of her mouth but the difference was that she made no hand movements as if it appeared just from her willing it.
" Hello, everyone; I hope all of you have studied well for the past year or so because today is the day, the wheat is seperated from the grains, the determined from the irresolute, the strong from the weak." Said the ancient one as she scaned her eyes over the anxious audience.
"Now, while this exam focuses more on the theoretical aspect of magical studies, you still have a physical portion. Now will the first contestant; Mr. Jones step foward and follow me."
The first test subject got up hesitantly and followed the ancient one and the rest of the masters in a small fort.
This small tattered fort however was a priceless space artifact, this artifacts predates ve the anicent one in the years it has accumalated.
The art of making space enchantments has been lost since the time before the ancient one, so to see this fort was a major surprise for me since its likely that this fort is at least 600 years old.
Time passed as one by one the contestants were called to the fort and by the time Ethan was called, three hours had already passed.
Ethan stopped his meditation for today and went into the small fort with a slight anticipation for what was to come. He stood at the entrance of the fort as he took in a deep calm breath to calm his nerves, before proceeding to walk in with a confident smile on his face.
When Ethan walked inside the fort, it was as he expected the inside of the fort was 4.5 times larger than the outside.
Waiting for him was a long horizontal table and seated at the table were the 12 Mystic Masters of the order, at the center was the Bald hax lady that we all know and love.
(1st POV switch)
There were currently about 50 students taking the exam today, so about only 13 students were going to be accepted as disciples and the rest would have to wait till next year.
Anyways they asked me questions that were relatively easy to answer. I kept on answering them with textbook answers, quite literally; I recalled all the answers written in the textbooks the questions were based on and I relayed them back to them word by word.
It took all my effort to not burst out laughing seeing all the masters eyebrows slowly rise up with each answer, until the point where they looked like cartoon characters with their eyes popping out and with their mouths left hanging.
Even the ancient one was very surprised, she kept staring at me with calculative eyes. As I answered the last question, after allowing me 5 minutes of rest. They soon switched to the physical portion of the test.
They asked me to demonstrate 2 Magic spells, if it was any type of conjuration magic or illusions type. It would have to stay relatively compact for at least 30 seconds. For elemental or any battling spells, Master Bindu just snapped his fingers and 3 training dummies popped up from the ground.
I looked at the twelve masters and they all gave a single nod for me to begin. They all had a relaxed expressions probably thinking that I was just a smart kid and I couldn't possess the same talent for physical magic except for the ancient one because she knew me well enough to know that I was way too abnormal to be a one-trick pony.
I smirked at how sorely mistaken they were, I got spread my legs shoulder-wth apart and took another breath to ready myself at what was to come.
I pressed both of my palms together and as I spread them apart again; two magic circles formed and the shape of a 12 foot spear of light that strangely radiated a large amount of heat followed.
The masters were slightly stunned as it was a flawless weapon conjuration. The spear wasn't flickering, the spell integrity itself was great as the spear seemed to be compact and solid. Most of all it looked like it was a partial elemental spell powered by the sun as it radiated heat and warmth with a golden yellow color.
However, Ethan wasn't finished just yet; soon 4 other weapons appeared that were each circling him protectively. A Scythe, Sword, Bow and arrow and chains.
They glowed with power, lighting up the room and the masters were just frozen in place. Thousands of thoughts racing through their heads, however one primary thought persisted.
"This Talent should not exist and if it does, it should be protected and and sharpened to its full potential."
Even Diamonds have to be shaped, cut, polished countless times to become the flawless beautiful jewels everyone adores.
Every master looked at each other with cold determination and Ethan felt a chill run up his spine as he saw the masters looking at him like a piece of meat, which while he expected it. He still was a little creeped out as a bunch of hundred year old men and women salvaiting at the sight of you isn't very appealing..
A light cough broke the tense atmosphere as everyone's neck snapped to the Ancient one as she looked at everyone present, while looking at Ethan more closely. As if declaring to everyone that Ethan was hers.
The Masters met her gaze but their previous cold determination crumbled in seconds as they sighed and looked at Ethan with a little regret. The Ancient one smiled triumphantly and she gestured for Ethan to follow her outside the room.
Ethan didn't raise any questions and just followed her in silence, she took him further inside the fort; until she stopped at a door. When she opened the door, it led straight to the room where the eye of Agamotto was placed.
(1st POV switch)
She gestured me to come inside and I did with a little curiosity. She waved away the two guards and they bowed towards her and left in silence.
"Why did you bring me here, especially to that." I looked at the ancient one while glancing the Eye of Agamotto.
She spoke without taking her eyes off of me " 3 months ago, when you first came to me; you told me of your frustations how such a integral and nigh-omnipotent object like the Time stone was being treated like its a cheap stone."
I just stayed silent while still staring at as if to ask her whats the point of all this.
She waved her hands creating an extremely large circle, that was the about 20 meters large.
"The crux of the problem is that this is not where the Time stone is located, you see the time stone has very special origins and as such it has certain advantages." Spoke the ancient one while weaving her hands.
I looked at the circles and suddenly it struck me like thunder, you see a couple months back I read a book about the mirror dimension and real world and that there was a very thin space separating reality from warped and twisted reality that is the mirror dimension.
It's called the Limbo and it's impossible to survive inside because the rules of reality don't exist there, that means in a single attosecond, you can become a horse with wings; and so only extremely powerful beings can go inside the Limbo. Which makes it the perfect hiding spot for the time stone because the time stone mainpulates time and it has a certain amount of sentience. Any changes made to it can be easily reversed and that's only if the Limbo can make any changes because the infinity stones predate the Limbo by a very large amount of time.
The ancient one looked at me and smirked as she realized I figured it out, I just looked at her with a little respect because to place the time stone in the Limbo you have to go inside and I don't think anyone wants to experience that every single moment of their existence being stretched, compacted, manipulated. It was practically the worst torture, so she had earned a lot more of my respect for it.
