Chapter 36: The Ancient One

***Third-person P.O.V.

It was evening and kar-el was walking up to his apartment when he noticed two presences in his apartment. Someone was waiting for him in the living room. His expression didn't change because he expected this.

He calmly opened the front door and entered his house. He put his coat on the hanger before walking into his room and putting his bag on the cabinet situated on the left side.

He exited the room after that and entered the kitchen. He walked up to the refrigerator and took out some mineral water as he spoke," It's a pleasure meeting you."

"The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Karl. " The lady in the living room calmly replied.

"Could I have some water too?" She further asked.

"Sure." Karl grabbed a glass and walked into the living room.

"Here" He politely passed the glass of water to her before taking the seat opposite to her.

"You didn't seem much surprised from my visit." Ancient One asked while smiling.

"I was expecting you for a while now so it wasn't much of a surprise. I'm more interested in knowing what took you so long." Karl asked as he looked at her locket.

"I'm afraid I had other things to worry about too after what transpired 3 months ago. Plus, you are an unknown, I prefer to be prepared when facing someone like that." Ancient One replied calmly.

***Three months earlier, North pole.

"Are u ready?" Kar-el asked Serena over the device.

"Yeah, No radar will pick you up. I must warn you that all connections would be lost when you enter a 100 km radius to the sun. When you want to enter the atmosphere once again, make sure to contact me first with the help of one of your satellites." She paused for a bit before continuing, " Also good luck."

"Thanks" Kar-el replied before turning the device off.

He looked around himself before sighing calmly to ease his tense muscles.

"Here goes nothing." He said as he took a deep breath using the full potential of his Kryptonian lungs before he took a knee on the ice and closed his eyes.

It had been a month since he fully recovered his Kryptonian powers and right now he was about to take his first flight.

He had been testing every day with the gravitational control he got access to once his suppression on his powers got released.

He quickly noticed the difference between his controls over the gravitational field around him and what was available to Kal-el in the movies.

As far as he could tell, the only differences between them were the extra IQ we asked for and the presence of a life equation inside him.

It could be that since the life equation possesses the capability to manipulate reality itself, his manipulation capabilities related to gravity got enhanced as a side effect with his relation to it.

Dolphins were said to be much smarter than humans but a big portion of their IQ focused on making their inbuilt sonar work optimally. Another possibility is that the extra IQ he asked as a wish was the reason for his better utilization of gravitational fields.

Not only does he possess a gravitational barrier around him and the ability to fly, but he also possesses the ability to manipulate gravity like a stellar entity.

Obviously, right now it wasn't much since it would take a lot of time to master it enough to use as a weapon.

The surface around him started to shake as he slowly but surely built pressure on the gravitational force around him.

Once he made up his mind, he let go of the pressure, and a ball fired from a catapult he soared into the sky.

The invisible barrier around him helped him cut air resistance as he flew higher and higher into the blue sky.

"Whooohoooo" He couldn't help but shout as he tried to get used to this new form of travel.

Slowly but surely he got hang of it. He slowed down his momentum and just floated between the clouds after that.

Everything looked tiny if he didn't use his hyper senses as he enjoyed being among the clouds.

He pretty much got used to being a Kryptonian during these years on earth. The ability to do things beyond any normal human being could do didn't give him much excitement nowadays since it was an everyday affair after he returned to earth but the ability to fly was a different matter altogether.

He could feel the shivering of his hair, the boiling of his blood, the ecstasy and excitement inside his heart.

He shook his head to calm himself down a bit. He turned to look upwards before he shot through the atmosphere at supersonic speeds.

Just before exiting the atmosphere of the planet, he collected as much air as he could into his lungs.

Before he was using the earth's magnetic field to propel himself forward but once he got out of the atmosphere, he had to switch his power source otherwise he couldn't travel much farther from the earth.

Thankfully there was no lack of such sources in the universe. Universe Itself has its gravitational fields but even inside it, there are plenty of different sources from supermassive black holes, neutron stars, red giants, blue giants, planets, and the sun itself.

He turned toward the sun before flying towards it. He didn't raise his speed more than Mach 3 inside the atmosphere because he was worried that the shockwaves generated from him traveling at such speed would spread at long distances which could be observed by the naked eye as well as instruments that were not connected to a common system like the internet.

Those shockwaves could also become reasons for avalanches in the vicinity but now nothing was stopping him from testing his limits.

In just a few seconds, he raised his speed to Mach 140 or so which was nowhere near what he needed. He kept raising his speed because he had limited time to reach the sun. The amount of air inside him could at most help him survive for 20 to 25 minutes.

He needed to reach close to the sun in under 10 minutes. He kept on breaking his limits as he got closer and closer to the burning ball.

His clothes have already melted into nothing a long while ago when he flew past mercury.

He never sweated during his time on earth but right now he was sweating buckets due to extreme radiating from the stellar object.

He closed his eyes and let his cells absorb as much stellar energy as they could while he floated near the sun. He guided the slumbering primordial order inside him to reflect outside for the first time.

He still not understood it enough to make planet-shattering changes but it was enough to complete what he had come to do here today.

His goal was to get rid of two obvious weaknesses of his. The need to breathe and the weakness of the red star.

As the equation slowly moved into action for the first, he felt like every cell in his body was burnt alive.

The pain was excruciating for a few moments and he couldn't help but bite his tongue to stop himself from screaming and losing his precious air.

Thankfully for him, the pain didn't last long because the nervous system of his body shut down as millions of his body cells kept dying.

He lost control over his gravitational field and the gravity of the sun pulled him inside the sun.

The next few minutes were filled with silence. It appeared as if the son of krypton turned into ashes without leaving any traces of himself permanently in history.

The sun kept burning and the planets kept spinning without any change and then suddenly like a Phoenix rising from its ashes Kar-el rose anew from the sun itself.

His eyes reflected the primordial secrets of the world as they glittered with power. He didn't need to breathe nor would he lose his strength under a red star now.

But the biggest change was not on the physical spectrum, it was on the spiritual spectrum on which he gained the most. The life equation has finally awakened from its slumber, while he couldn't utilize it still, its awakening had made changes far and beyond his reach.

***2 minutes ago, Kamar Taj

"Let your mind be free of all thoughts except one. Focus on your breath and try to reach equilibrium with your spirit." Ancient One guided the students that just recently come to Kamar Taj to find solace.

"Master", the young student bowed as she put two cups of tea on the table before excusing herself when she got a nod from Ancient One.

" Take it." Ancient One smiled as she pushed one of the cups to her old student.

He nodded as he received the glass before turning to look at the practicing students.

"I missed the tranquility of Kamar Taj the most." He sighed with emotions.

Ancient One smiled, " You are free to spend your time here as long as we don...."

Noticing that Sorcerer supreme didn't complete her sentence, the master of mystic arts turned to look at her in confusion.

"What happened, Master?" He asked her who seemed to be as confused as he was but likely from a different reason than his own.

"I .... I don't know." Ancient One replied as she stood up and walked toward her quarters.

He followed her inside while signaling a young practitioner to stand guard on the door.

As soon as she entered the quarters, Ancient One opened the eye of agamotto and took out the time stone. She put both of her hands around it as it floated by itself.

"Is it Mephisto or Dormammu?" The master asked her as she cast spell after spell to identify what changed just now.

"Neither. While the source and the reason of the phenomenon are still unclear, it didn't originate from their realms so for now, we can rule them out." Ancient One raised the time stone before her eyes as she narrowed her eyes.

"Could it be celestials?" He asked.

"Even the infinity stones were influenced, celestial for all their glory doesn't possess such powers. Something fundamental just changed but that's not the most worrying part." She replied with a dark tone.

"Then what is it?" He asked.

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Quiz time:

Kar-el traveled to the sun to make changes in his physical body, why did he do that?