CHAPTER 246

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As I stepped into my office, having completed the mission I had set out myself to do, I was greeted by the image of the Ancient One, sitting on my desk, reading some papers with a trained gaze, before noticing my presence and waving at me, "Mr. Walker."

"Not that I mind, but why are you here?" I asked, walking towards the chair that laid in front of my desk before taking a seat.

"I was waiting for you," The Ancient One replied with a quizzical smile, as if it was obvious.

"But why?" I asked, moving my hand around a bit to emphasize.

"Earth it's almost within your hands," The Ancient One replied, tapping her fingers on my desk, "Italian, not bad, I prefer German made desks, they tend to last longer."

I chuckled, shaking my head ever so slightly, "While your choices about desks are certainly a topic I would like to discuss on a later date. I am currently quite interested in the other thing."

The Ancient One smiled, "I suppose we can always talk about desks in less challenging times. Now, about Earth, I am happy to inform, I have managed to deal with most of the minor organizations we had on the list, with most of them agreeing to 'bend the knee' so to speak."

Which meant, the big players of Earth were still a problem.

"How many organizations are left?" I asked.

"Eight," The Ancient One replied.

"Very well, that should be easy enough," I nodded, satisfied with the number, "For the remaining eight, I will grant you control of my golems, to speed things up."

The Ancient One sighed, pressing her index finger upon her lips, "You suggest I intimidate them, and should that not work, I force them, is that correct?"

I looked at her and nodded, "We talked about this, while not the path I ideally would've wanted to take, we have not much of a choice."

"I know," The Ancient One sighed, rubbing her temples. "How was your mission in Xandar anyway?'

"They rejected my offer," I replied, bringing both of my hands together, "So, I acted accordingly, by taking control of their government."

"I see," The Ancient One replied, seemingly unfazed by my answer.

I smiled, "I expected you to sound more disappointed."

"I have morals Mr. Walker, just like you, and like you, I don't let them blind me or moronically guide me, at least, not in the face of what we are about to face," The Ancient One replied, giving me a warm smile, "For the sake of the greater good, we all must make sacrifices, even if those sacrifices go against our very selves."

"Wise words," I replied.

"I'm not called the Ancient One just because I am old, Mr. Walker," The Ancient One winked.

I grinned, "But you are though."

"Mr. Walker, has nobody ever told you how rude it is to talk about a lady's age?" The Ancient One gasped, pretending to be emotionally hurt.

I rolled my eyes at her lackluster performance.

"Well now everyone's a critic," The Ancient One sighed, "Now that I think about it, need I remind you Mr. Walker, your girlfriend is a few hundred years older than me? I wonder what she might think if I told her you considered my age to be old, I reckon it would break her poor maiden heart."

I chuckled, before breaking into a fit of laughter, "Have you been taking improv classes?"

"Not really, your daughters mostly," The Ancient One chuckled, "And movies, I suppose, as the young ones nowadays say, they got me hooked."

"Fair enough," I nodded, standing up, before walking to the door. I had just remembered, I had something to do.

"Where are you going?" The Ancient One asked, confused as to why I was leaving my own office.

"I have an errand to run, and I intend to run it before I forget or something else gets my attention, and by get I mean demands my attention," I replied, before teleporting to the tombs of Asgard.

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Once I had found a spacious enough room in the tombs of Asgard, I started to work on creating a portal to Dormammu's dimension by carving runes on the floor with my index finger. My intentions were simple, creating a portal stable enough for at least two travels, and one that didn't allow the power hungry god from entering this dimension. What can I say? The last thing I wanted was fighting two evil entities at the same time.

Granted, for one all I needed was a shiny green rock. Aka, the time stone to defeat him, but still, even if defeating him was easy, I wanted to avoid any unnecessary altercations at least for now.

So, for the next few minutes, I focused on carving the runes required for the portal, while thinking how I would go about saving the Ancient's One soul, or the part of it, inside Dormammu's dimension.

"I guess I can steal Strange's strategy," I mused at the thought, imagining the fun I would have 'bargaining' with Dormammu, "I guess I will do that, sounds fun enough." I chuckled, carving the last rune.

Runes finally ready, I stood from the ground, giving work one last look, to verify everything was correct, which it was, so once having confirmed that, I activated the runes, and waited, as a portal opened in front of me to a dimension one could only describe as a meth addict's dream.

"I feel like I should get a drug test after this," I chuckled, at my own joke, while jumping into the portal, closing the same a few moments after. 

Now to find Dormammu, it shouldn't be hard.

"You…. came…." 

Well, that was easy.

"I… did…" I replied, imitating his tone as I turned around to face him. Finding the pleasant surprise he looked exactly like he looked in the Dr. Strange the movie.

[Dormammu - Destroyer of Worlds - LV 1994]

Stronger than Arishem, by quite a bit, interesting.

"What do you seek here, Alex," Dormammu growled, circling around me like a giant snake.

"Well, seeing as you are being quite a pleasant host at the moment, I suppose I can answer your question," I smiled, as he came to a full stop in front of me, "I wish to retrieve the Ancient One's soul, the part of it that you have, at least."

"I see," Dormammu replied, his tone short and cold, as he summoned what I was looking for in front of me, for the taking, "Take it, be gone then."

I blinked, well this was unexpected.

"I'll be honest with you," I chuckled, grabbing the Ancient One's soul, storing it within me for the time being, "I expected a fight or something."

"Do you really wish to fight me?" Dormammu asked, his eyes staring into mine in a challengly manner. 

I chuckled, my eyes going over to his level, [Dormammu - Destroyer of Worlds - LV 1994]

A level weaker than me.

Fighting him would offer me perspective, and besides… that power he had, was being wasted on him.

I smiled, my eyes still fixed on his level, while suddenly feeling somewhat hungry.