The "G" Shield - By IdleMuse

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Kamar Taj [August 2015]

–Jack Sullivan.–

Welp, it was official. Strange was a prodigy, even greater than himself. The Eye of Agamotto did not respond to him at all. In fact, the sequence in the movies itself was a big fat lie. The number of spells that one has to cast at a dizzying speed, just to get past the authentication phase of the protections of the Eye was staggering, let alone casting the spell to open the Eye.

Then, while keeping that spell cast, one had to manipulate the Stone inside the Eye to get the various effects one could get by essentially toying with the Space Time continuum. Strange could do it with seeming ease but even that freak of a man had to cast some spells as practice to open the damned thing and then even more practice to actually use the energy for something useful.

Damn shame, he couldn't actually use it. Although it was nice enough that the Eye clicked on the pedestal and he felt the defences going back up, which were quite strong and had very strong energy from the Eye interwoven directly into the defenses so it would be safe to say that there were some nasty time spells and traps in the thing.

"Hey, Jack?" Tony's voice crackled to life in his comms. The team was still tracking down any anomalies around the world as well as around the two remaining sanctums so that he could come back and regroup at Kamar Taj.

"Yes? Anything?" He asked, ready to open a portal to either of the Sanctums' general locations. They could not afford yet another Sanctum falling down, that would bring them one step closer to literal doom.

He knew how Strange did the whole "Dormammu I'm here to bargain" thing but he didn't have the magical chops for that yet.

"No, nothing of the sort yet. I have Jarvis with two suits per Sanctum and also Captain and Widow at both locations just in case Jarvis' surveillance isn't compatible with your Voodoo magic," Tony snarked back, tension clear in his voice. Yeah, he did lay it on real thick about what could happen if the Sanctums fell and it was clear that Tony took it pretty hard, what with his PTSD already about the original Invasion even though Tony was not the one who had to deliver the tactical Nuclear payload, unlike the original one where he saw the Mothership and how many more Leviathans were headed their way, while making peace with the fact that he was dying alone.

"Then?" he asked, ready to read more about the spells required and try again with the Eye since it was pretty critical to winning this battle or would serve as a power boost for him even if Kaecilius was killed, in the middle of enacting his plan.

"This energy signature that you have given us, it is glitching Jarvis' systems so bad that I had to create another VI for it and it is telling me that I have a similar energy hit in China, some place called Hunan,"

Tony's answer stopped him right in his tracks, as he realised that Hunan was the same place as the demon but that demon was not like the typical Dark ones. No, that was more akin to a Hell Prince.

"Tony? Can you try again? Any chance that there was a glitch on your end?"

"Jack, my systems have been glitching nonstop ever since you had my sensors read that weird piece of book but no, I have triple checked everything with fresh systems, and the answer is the same. It is kinda far so I thought you could go check it out,"

He breathed out, snapping the book shut, "Yeah, I'll go."

With a wave of his hand, a portal opened in front of him, taking him straight into the village that had been slaughtered by a demon who had in turn been killed by him without much fuss.

As soon as he crossed the threshold, a foul smell assaulted his senses as he immediately used his barriers to filter out everything, falling back on the stored supply of pure oxygen he kept in the back of his barriers for emergency situations just like the one he was in now.

His eyes were wide as he reached the area where there was no such demonic stink left, when he had left this place. Just so that no demonic energy was left lingering in the area which could be harmful for anyone who would stumble on this place, he had spent extra time sealing the entire area, and that seal was now gone.

Not just gone, it was as if the demonic energy had quadrupled in volume with the Dark Energy of DOrmammu being the primary one here. That was not the case last time he was here.

"What a drag," he muttered as he went to work on getting this much Dark Energy contained. It was as if Dormammu sent some of his empowered ones, and actually descended in this place.

He froze mid way, his barrier still cast but not moving as his mind retraced his previous thought. What if Dormammu had used that leftover energy from the Demon, energy that was obviously useful since the Demon was using it, to cast some sort of ritual using Kaecilius?

That didn't explain many things but that was just yet another possibility he had to look into.

Working on getting this entire place sealed, he saw how large the energy spread was and said, "Fuck it!"

He waved his hand, casting a giant barrier than then turned into a dome above them, digging into the Earth and then below the land as well, forming a giant sphere, holding onto all the corrupted land, he even spotted a couple of corrupted rabbits, already in the process of mating, when he sliced them in two using his barriers, covered the entire landmass, and lifted.

That actually put a strain on his abilities as he lifted the entire landmass, and flew straight up. He did not have the means to open a portal large enough to fit this through, otherwise this would have gone straight into the Mirror Dimension where he would investigate it later on.

Right now, he was just getting it off the planet, and into space. With no other habitable planet, it was bound to not be his problem though he mentally vowed to come bacjk and properly dump it into the sun, just to avoid any future problems.

He was probably noticed because he had to contain three different missiles from the Chinese Military before Tony probably got in touch with them, stopping the volley of missiles though he knew that they were keeping a close watch on him, their finger hovering above the trigger button.

The Communist Party did not like him all that much, calling him the attack Dog of the West because of the Whole America centric theme of his superhero career.

He actually paused a moment at that thought. Huh, he always wondered in his previous life why the majority of the Superheroes lived in or around the United States of America, or at most, the Americas. For having just 4% of the world's population, the US sure did enjoy the protection of a lot of Superheroes. Then, the moment passed and with a somewhat exerting grunt, he threw the landmass out into space, where it would not land on the moon, defacing its surface even more.

"Alright, Tony that was taken care of."

"Uh-huh, I saw that. The Whole lifting the village thing. Might not wanna do it anymore, we don't have a lot of arable land in the world. If you start doing that regularly, everytime a problem pops up, we might just end up running out of food,"

And once again, there goes Tony with his exaggerations.

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind,"

He had to keep looking for the attacker because right now they were in possession of some of the most dangerous knowledge in the Nine Realms and could cause a lot of damage, even if their magical abilities were not much to go by, judging by the complete lack of magical residue when they laid waste to parts of Kamar Taj.

Normal bombs were used to jostle around the Apprentices, along with the demon in China and the attack used on Mordo was a particularly peculiar thing on his mind.

(It was a matter of personal concern for him because he did not want to be the one who had to die an uncountable number of times before Dormammu was ready to bargain. He did not know if he could hold on for that long if the time came to it.

"Oh well, first learn how to open the damned Thing, Jack" he muttered to himself as he opened a portal and entered Kamar Taj, under the disapproving glare of Wong who was standing with his weapons ready, since he did enter the Library directly.

"Mater Sullivan, do I need to remind you that–"

He waved Wong off, not in the mood for his extreme rules, "Yeah yeah, I know Wong. Fine me once we are through this. Now, please excuse me while I familiarise with the Eye,"

Wong nodded, "Yes. That would be wise for now, instead of gallivanting across countries and launching small villages into space," With that backhanded comment, Wong stalked off, taking the catalogue of books which was latched onto his back, going back to his work.

_____xx____

Undisclosed Location

–Kaecilius–

"It is all as per your plan, My liege," He informed his Master of the foolish alien who thought himself above everyone and assumed to command him.

"Hmm. Soon, Earth will be mine," With that, his Master's voice faded away, letting light enter the room once again. They were in a secluded Motel Room with the owner's mind implanted with thoughts of going to his family and not leaving for a week, which should be more than enough time for him to prepare for his Master's arrival.

Standing up, he turned around, his face already set in stone, "Let's go. I am sure Jack is back by now. We can't let him hinder our work. The second they hit the first one, we will hit the second. I have long since wanted to spar with Drumm," he ordered the minions and got to work.

Apparently, the alien held tentacle powers and could eat brains to get information but it would seem that all that brain eating did not enhance his intelligence because the alien was not realising that HIVE was playing right into the hands of his Master.

HIVE was yet another pawn, if an unwitting one of his lords, sharing in the Immortality benefits along with the darkness powers. HIVE himself did not seem to be aware of it, allowing his lord to plan around him, getting them the maximum chance of success.

The creature itself made it easy because of his lust for magical knowledge, presumably in a bid to get stronger.

He sneered at that. Stu[id creature. Once they were all in their Lord's embrace, there would be no need to put anyone else down. They would all be immortal, unaging in their Lord's dimension.

A place untouched by time, the greatest enemy of all life.

Time.

His fists clenched as he thought of his family, the ones he lost to the rivers of time and could not be resurrected. He thought of the other family he made when he came to Kamar Taj and while a small part of him felt guilty over injuring them, he knew that once they were all in his Lord's embrace, he would be forgiven because then they would all be in Utopia.

His eyes then reddened in anger as he thought of the one person he trusted the most. The Ancient One, the supposed beacon of strength, virtue, wisdom, and sheer fucking power.

The one being who had betrayed all that Kamar Taj stood for, drawing–no stealing energy from his Lord while using her powers to push back his Lord himself.

No, she would pay and she would pay most spectacularly. While his Lord was confident in killing her once they all were in the Dark Dimension, he knee that he did not need that. He could kill the traitor in the physical world, once and for all.

He felt giddy at the thought of his Lord being pleased with his work and then giving him a reward in return. Maybe a chance to get back alternate versions of his family and kill his Variant in that timeline?

Oh, he couldn't wait!

---

Word Count - 2154

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Kamar Taj [August 2015]

–Jack Sullivan.–

"Aha! Finally!" He shouted in jubilation as he was finally able to, after hours of continuous practice, open the Eye and cast just a single spell, the one spell that trumps them all.

The Time Loop spell. Good Lord was it hard, and even then, he hadn't even mastered the spell. That would have opened all of its functions but also taken a lot longer.

Theoretically, casting incomplete spells or even spells without learning all of its functions was dangerous but then again, letting Dormammu spill into their reality was even more dangerous.

Sighing, he put the Eye back on the pedestal. He did not have a death wish to try and take it out of the library. There were a mind boggling amount of spells cast onto the Pedestal that would no doubt do horrendous things to the person who tried to take the Eye out of the Library, not to mention being faced with the possibility of being hunted down by the Ancient One who, so far, had a 100% success rate.

After all, in their line of work, a single failure means death. Especially if you were the Sorcerer Supreme, your failure meant Kamar Taj's failure and Sorcerer Supremes don't back down from fights. Fight till death, taken literal form.

He went out of the Library and nodded at the restoration work going on. THis was not the first time that Kamar Taj was attacked and damaged, although he wagered that it happened for the first time in centuries since neon of the MASters had any idea how to go about the process without compromising the entire ward scheme.

Thankfully, the overarching Ward scheme of Kamar Taj was fine. Kaecilius did not have the authority or the power to destroy the ward completely. All he could do was temporarily disable it using his authority as a Master of the Mystic Arts. So, the Masters were now breaking down rubble and restoring the older buildings as much as they could while they awaited the return of the Ancient One.

"Jarvis? Any updates?"

There was a beat of silence before Jarvis replied into his comms as he waved down the Masters who were calling him and went into his chambers which were thankfully intact, "No, sir. There have been no confirmed sightings of any suspicious person as well as the perimeter around the Sanctums have not been breached by any energy signature. Also, the shifts have been rotated now,"

He nodded at that. Made sense because it had been over 8 hours since they began observing the Sanctums. The Sanctum Masters must be exhausted as well because they were all expecting an attack to occur at any time and they had to be awake for longer periods of time.

Still, they were trained for this so being awake for days at a time was not that hard. What was hard was the stress, the anticipation, the tension in their body as they waited for an attack, and he could understand that. There were spells to reduce the body's need for sleep but they always had a drawback, being that once the spell cleared off, they would crash much harder than necessary. He'd read reports of one such Master going into a coma because their brain couldn't handle such things.

While he himself had no such limitation, owing to his enhanced body, even he was starting to feel frustrated at the entire thing. At the Ancient ONe's absence, at Kaecilous' inaction, and his own inability to find out what the fuck happened in Kamar Taj while he was away. NO magical residue attacks meant that someone from the normal world might be involved, which would be disastrous, for all the wrong reasons.

He knew that magic as a whole would be outed to society at large, eventually but for that to be accepted properly, humanity as a whole also had to learn a lot of other bitter truths as well. As they were now, he might just have to start shutting down a whole lot of crusader type shit that sought to prosecute the magic users.

He nodded at the Masters and left Kamar Taj, arriving in the crater that was once the village where the majority of the active Inhumans on the planet lived. THis was basically their base. Jiaying's crusade was always going to end in tragedy, the only question was would it be her tragedy or the tragedy she was going to inflict on humanity. This….was not what he had in mind when he was going to stop her crusade or disarm the entire conflict.

He was either going to vote for reunification with the Attilan Inhumans, obviously after killing Maximus but not this. Devoured by a Demon for some ritual that ended up being used by Dormmamu?

He winced as his senses alerted him about the heavy presence in the surroundings. He was deep into the village and there we go, heavy lights flooded his side as the Chinese Authorities no doubt converged here.

"Halt!" He knew at least that one word for Mandarin and despite their wishes, he could not actually halt in this place. He had a lot of other places to be, he was just checking in on the barriers. Topping it up with another charge, he made sure that the barrier would last for days, hopefully enough time for the Dark Energy here to fully disperse.

With a boost from his barriers, he flew right into a portal that led him to Greenwich Village. He had not yet entered any of the Sanctums, mainly because the Wartime wards were active and he thought it prudent to maintain caution but the wartime wards weer extremely energy expensive and while they did have what was essentially unlimited energy in the form of dimensional energy, the wards needed a much more concentrated energy source.

The energy itself was almost limitless but they could not feed that energy directly into the wards. The storage mechanisms for that energy density were very few in number and the ones installed in the Sanctums were always going to be temporary ones, meant to stall any would be invaders long enough for the Sorcerer Supreme to arrive.

The ones in Kamar Taj were made of Uru, making them infinitely reusable. The ones in the other Sanctums? Not so much.

Sooner rather than later, they were going to have to drop the wartime wards and Kaecilius would no doubt be waiting for that, ready to destroy any Sanctum that did not have the presence of Jack.

He could have laid down a trap in the library before Kaecilius had all the knowledge he needed but now that he had no idea what exactly Kaecilius was after, he could do nothing but wait.

The Time Stone was one such thing but the protections on it made any move he could make useless.

He sighed and walked right up to the Sanctum, and knocked on the door, watching as that made a visible ripple of magic all around the Sanctum. IT also sampled a piece of his magic, which he let happen, and then watched as a voice came from the door.

"Master Sullivan."

"Master Drumm, I think it is time we drop the wards. Kamar Taj has regrouped."

"Has the Ancient One returned?"

He sighed at that, "No. We have not been able to contact her but I have no reason to worry. The Fae negotiations have always taken time."

There was silence on the other side before, with a resounding click, he watched as the visible protections faded away, revealing the brick wall of the Sanctum. At the same time, the door opened and Master Drumm, haggard and tired, stepped out, took a deep breath, and said, "I need a Bagel."

He grinned at that, "Spoken like a true New Yorker. I'll fill in for you," He said and entered the Sanctum.

"Be careful," Drumm said as he was metaphorically handed over temporary control over the wards by Drumm, in an instant. Damn, that was some good skill. Well, he had been Sanctum Mater for a long time now.

His subtle barrier that molded around Drumm drew his attention but he didn't react aside from a subtle nod as Drumm disappeared from his vision.

___xx__

Eastern Europe

–HIVE–

They were ready, he knew that and yet, for some reason, he was hesitating. The teams had been formed, and while he was saddened to know that none of the knowledge as well as the magical items from these two Sanctums would be available to him, he knew that he could not push further on that topic.

Two teams had been formed and they were already on their way to London and New York. According to Kaecilius, the Ancient One would remain busy until the last moment. That would give them more than enough time to blow up one Sanctum, with his team and then they would call on something more special to deal with the retribution that would undoubtedly be coming their way.

The knowledge in the books he had read so far gave him glimpses into the structure of the Sanctums and how they were operated. An invisible planetary shield capable of repelling enemies older than Earth itself. It was distressing, how much he was unaware about his future kingdom.

A part of him feared what would happen should all the Sanctums fall, which is why he would be going to the London Sanctum himself, to sabotage this mission. The New York Sanctum would fall, undoubtedly, there is nothing that can stop the Ghost, now that she has completed her Inhuman transformation.

Kaecilius will be overseeing the destruction of the London Sanctum as well so he should be able to stall Kaecilius long enough for the heroes to arrive. His lips curled in distaste at the necessity of the act but he knew that should the shield fall, beings much worse than him would try and capture his kingdom, something he could not allow.

"Sir?" He looked up as one of his minions entered his voice, a tablet in his hand. Now that he had a good enough number of minions from his own species, he had begun relegating the monkeys to lesser jobs like cleaning the bathrooms as such. He undoubtedly enjoyed putting the monkeys in their place.

"Yes?" he turned his attention back to the book, which was in his hand but he was not reading that at all. He was feeling a sense of unease about the whole thing and yet, after going through the entire plan with a comb, he could not find anything that might indicate that he was going to be in any danger.

"Sir, we have received confirmation from their side. They are about to engage this Ancient One who will be returning soon,"

"Hmm, leave."

He could feel him leave hastily. As soon as the door shut, he snapped the book shut and went to the window in his office, overlooking the training as well as the modifications being done to the base. Sure, the Elephantised Inhuman was grotesque and incomplete to look at but his strength was undeniable.

With two more of his brethren who were unable to become perfect like himself, they were well on their way to making his first lair, according to his wishes. It would be the start of many such lairs, spread across his Kingdom.

____xx___

–Kaecilius–

"She will return soon. At this location," He opened his eyes from his meditation as a message was received from his Liege. He bowed at the invisible air until the pressure from the area receded. They were in one of the many natural air chambers that had formed beneath the ocean. Detection at this depth was next to impossible using technology, like the one that Stark has, who is undoubtedly roped in to defend the Sanctums by Jack Sullivan.

And he has cloaked this cave, along with many others, to make sure that none of the Dark Energy scent leaves it. He had to be careful in storing some of the more volatile Dark Ones in one of these caves but it had been worthwhile to do that, to deal a surprise blow to the Ancient ONe.

"Inform the leech," he ordered as he stood up, making preparations for the battle.

For one, they had a pre chosen location for the Ancient One, to push her in that place so that they would have the home field advantage. His liege has given him the entrance to the Fae Palace so that he could prepare to ambush the Ancient One.

After a long last, he would be one step closer to Eternal Life, to immortality. All he had to do was kill a thief and a liar. He would have loved to have her loyal Masters in front of them when he exposed her hypocrisy but alas, that would mean Jack being there to support her and as powerful as he was, he was not confident in defeating that infernal man's barriers.

His liege would be the one to deal with that pesky insect once his liege descended on the world and made it timeless.

---

Word Count - 2238

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

The In Between dimension [August 2015]

–Ancient One.–

It was always cumbersome dealing with the Fae, in ways most frustrating because her advantages that allowed her to effectively single handedly defend Earth, were meaningless in front of the Fae.

Having overwhelming power in the universe meant almost nothing to the Fae who could casually set into motion a chain of events that would have even the strongest of beings in the universe dead. Only those outside the chains of fate could have a chance at defying the Fae and live to tell the tale. The ones that did live came out so broken that it would probably have been better to die.

In the entirety of Kamar Taj, only she was uniquely capable of handling the flowery language that belied the dangerousness of the conversation that the Fae used as their primary weapon. A single word misspoken, a single phrase misunderstood could mean the difference between heaven and hell when it came to the Fae and their regular treaty signings that she had to because having Fae come to Earth unrestricted was a nightmare.

Then there was the matter of the treaties. She was the signee from Earth's side and the Winter Court usually sent a different person every time, to try and confuse her, which would have been fine if not for a single detail. The timings of these treaty signing events.

They were, as far as her knowledge went, completely random, without any rhyme or reason, at least on their side of the universe. Who knows what went on in the minds of the Winter Court? After all, they were the ones to decide everything and while the Fae certainly did come with the sincerity to sign the treaty as written, it did not mean that they didn't take every opportunity they had to add something extra to the written treaties.

That was why she had to be the one to read it personally, go over it multiple times, and show it to the representative of the Winter Court, who then conveyed his thoughts back to the Winter Court, who then debated amongst themselves and gave the representative either an agreement or instructions for another round of negotiation, usually the latter.

All in all, it was a very tedious affair, one made even more inconvenient for her because it was conducted in a dimension that was halfway to the Winter Court and halfway to Earth, in dimensional terms. It made contacting Kamar Taj all but impossible, with the Sling Rings and the formation carved into the Shield building units of the Sanctum being the only thing that could reach her this far, allowing her to know the rough status of all the Masters in Kamar Taj and the status of the three Sanctum buildings, respectively.

She was also not given much time to prepare Kamar Taj for any invasions and usually, the Time Stone did warn her about an unavoidable event, even though it could not accurately map the Fae so she usually did give the Masters in Kamar Taj a little advance notice though this time, that was unnecessary because Jack was there. She was more than relieved that he was there because he was the strongest one in Kamar Taj, even more so than her who was only this powerful because she was borrowing the power of the Dark One, power that would also render her useless if Dormammu ever managed to make his way into the material universe.

Her eyes narrowed as she saw the representative of the Winter Court's hands almost twitch the second she thought of the Dark One's true name. A bad feeling appeared in her mind as she once again said Dormmamyu. There! Her eyes narrowed as she once again saw the same thing happening.

Sighing, she spoke up, "I suppose you are new, then?"

"What?" The Fae questioned her but she was all out of patience at this point. A quick check had her eyes widening as she saw one of the Sanctums destroyed with most of the Masters intact and alive. That second part was confusing but the first part was much more damning, she had to get to Earth soon.

"Nothing. Just this point will appeal to the Winter Court, I am quite sure," She said while casting any and all spells she could to communicate with Earth, knowing that most of them would be useless without summoning an exorbitant amount of power. Power that would be misconstrued as an act of aggression by the Fae, something that she would not stand for. It would just undo a lot of work and also put Earth in terrible danger, especially right at the edge of her leaving.

It would just be unfair for her successor to deal with such a huge mess right in the beginning of their tenure. She still didn't have any idea as to who her successor was actually going to be. It was clearer when Jack hadn't arrived in the universe but after he did so, it became so much more murky, the Time Stone didn't show her nearly as much of the future that it did before.

As her thoughts ran wild inside her mind, she didn;t break stride in her negotiations with the Fae, only this time, knowing that there was a threat to Kamar Taj back on Earth, she abandoned a few of her objectives and made sure that the Treaty was signed quickly, something that the representative did not seem to like, if his reactions were anything to go by.

Ofcourse, it was a Fae, so the reactions were not even visible to the untrained eye but she had dealt with Fae and more of their ilk far more times than they could have possibly imagined. With the aid of the Time Stone, she had spent countless years in countless timelines dealing with various Fae, resulting in multiple outcomes.

In body, she might be a thousand years old but in spirit? She was hundreds of thousands if not millions of years old if she counted the time she spent living multiple timelines before returning to the main timeline.

"Thank you for this," She said to the representative before flicking her fingers, sending a wave of orange energy that seemed to transcend space and time, arriving right in the middle of the Winter Court, for the Fae to read. She smiled coldly as the representative paled at her action, well as much as the Fae could lose color, anyway. That should be enough for the Fae in front of her to be dissipated and then dismissed. After all, interfering with the dealings of the Winter Court, especially with an outsider, was a much bigger crime than outright killing another Fae which brought with it the death penalty.

With the crimes committed, the representative would get something much worse than the death penalty, with the Winter Court using all their creativity and cruelty to deliver a truly gruesome fate on the Fae.

With a mocking salute, she pulled on her side of the contract, three pieces of paper appearing in the air before one of them flew to her. The second her hand made contact with the paper which was more akin to energy, the dimension began shattering, as she was being pulled back to Earth.

Securing the contract, she braced for the journey because the Fae always liked to leave her in a different place every time. Sometimes, it was a public washroom, sometimes it was on top of an active volcano and sometimes within as well, sometimes in the middle of a city, sometimes at the bottom of a lake or the ocean, she could never know.

She knew that they derived no small amount of joy from seeing her get inconvenienced, especially since she didn't allow them any room in matters that seemed to matter to them. Since it made them happy, she didn't fight it much because it was a trivial matter to protect herself, especially since the Fae promised to deliver her on Earth itself.

So, as she had already cast a solid barrier over herself, she found herself stumbling a bit as she landed on green grass. Stunned at the hospitality, she dispelled the barrier and found herself overlooking a cliff with the moon shining in the sky. She was about to open a portal when she realised that she didn't have her sling ring on her. Also, the Fae always insisted on her not having her dimensional storage spell on her during the negotiations so she did not have anywhere to put the papers as well, not that anything could happen to them. They were more than durable and also not really material to be harmed, but energy taking a physical form.

She sighed and was about to float up to get to the closest city when her eyes narrowed, her surroundings rippling for a moment before three individuals appeared in front of her, where there were none before.

Holding the treaty papers behind her, she projected an air of calm even as her senses told her of the dense barrier that now covered the entirety of the cliff, stinking of a familiar energy that did not bode well for her.

'So, this is it then.'

"Kaecilius." She greeted the one in the lead, sadness, and regret in her voice as she looked straight into his hood, wanting him to know that she knew who it was and why he did it. Kaecilius paused and removed his hood, revealing the scars that one got whenever they overdrive on the energy of the Dark One.

For someone as powerful as Kaecilius to draw that much energy meant that he had come awfully close to becoming the second strongest Dimensional Energy sorcerer on the planet.

"Ancient One." Kaecilius greeted back, his voice tinged with anger and bitterness. Though they were far past the point of talking it out now, she still tried.

"Why do this Kaecilius? You know how this all ends."

"It is far beyond words now, Ancient One. Your deceptions ran deep but I know the truth now. I know what I must do."

She sighed, put the folded treaty papers into her robe, as dimensional energy pumped through her body, multiple eldritch constructs already taking shape in front of her body, without even moving her hands an inch. That was the skill level she had already reached and yet, she knew that she was not coming from this alive.

Not with the way things were set up for her. She did not have her weapons with her, courtesy of the Fae, no way to use the Sling Ring. The barrier was built with Dark Energy, and more likely, Kaecilius had many of his acolytes burning their bodies powering the barrier, which meant it would be an uphill battle getting out of this space, especially with Kaecilius on her back.

She mentally noted the invisible space shards that Kaeciloius had taken as his weapons, with his much lesser skilled accomplices drawing on Dimensional Energy constructs before empowering them with energy from DOrmammu, toughening them and also giving them a poisoning attribute.

"Quite a show." She commented as she took a single step forward, the entire space around them rippling before a wave of dimensional fire sprouted from the hexagon in front of her, drowning the area in front of her with Hellfire.

Her hand snapped up as she caught a nearly invisible shard of space inches away from her eyes. Crushing it with her hand, she kept an eye on the area in front of her. It was still covered in fire but she knew that they would not die with just this spell.

She leaned to the side as another shard grazed her robe, her eyes making contact with Kaecilius's completely dark orbs as she closed her eyes, having no choice but to call on the energy from him. When she opened her eyes once more, her eyes were dark as well with a purple tattoo appearing on her forehead. Drawing on her energy, she created a shield and bashed it right against Kaecilius, the shard breaking upon contact and pushing Kaecilius dozens of feet back.

She waved her hands behind her negligently, dispelling the fire, revealing the forms of the two people mid lunge. Reality seemed to glitch before the acolytes folded in on themselves, as if struck by a massive force, launching them right back at the barrier, their forms unmoving with multiple bones sticking out of places.

All this time, her attention was on Kaecilius who was standing back up, his arm that she had shattered, snapping back into place as Dormammu's energy worked overtime in making sure that Kaecilius' body remained whole until his purpose was finished.

"You see, Kaecilius, I might be trapped here but please do remember who you are dealing with. I am not some Master who can be dealt with just some zealots jumped up on Dark Energy." She took a single step forward, space rippling around her feet before she appeared right in front of the motionless Kaecilius, her hand drawn back holding onto an eldritch construct of a fan, a passable imitation of her favourite weapon. Her first relic.

With the speed granted to her unaging body, she stuck with her fan, her fan sinking right into Kaecilius' chest before her eyes widened, jumping back as she felt a mass of Dark Energy erupting straight from Kaecilius.

Kaecilius moved like a man possessed as he crushed her fan construct before his body was covered in Dark Energy with just two red eyes staring her down. Her face grim, she called on more and more of Dimensional Energy, trying to prepare for whatever Kaecilius-no-Dormammu had in store for her.

Her way of using the Dark Energy differed from what Kaecilius had done to his soul. She only used it to prolong her lifespan and even that made her feel dirty all over. She didn't use it to do much beyond empowering her DImensional energy spells and constructs. She didn't hand over her soul to Dormammu who had apparently flooded Kaecilius with so much Dark Energy that the space around them was beginning to warp.

If it went on any further, she would not be able to control the space in a wide enough range to matter. It would be like walking in a witch's domain all over again. It would not be pretty but back then, she had energy to spare and also the Time Stone in her possession, pretty much guaranteeing her win.

Now? Now she had nothing and that?

That made her grin, finally something to excite, something that was new, something that she didn't know the conclusion to. A feeling long lost emerged in her chest, a warm feeling that made her focus razor sharp.

She smiled as sweat gathered on her brow, not from fear or from exertion but excitement.

If I have to go today, let it be with a boom, as the kids say

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Word Count - 2542

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