章 66: C66 Trouble

*Bonus Chapter *BOOM*!*

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"I am Knull. Lord of shadows. God of the Symbiotes. I know you are there. Stop hiding and come out, NOW!" The white-haired man commanded as an unyielding pressure could be felt radiating from his body.

The second this Lord of shadows arrives, Tom and the Ancient One thought the same exact thing.

'F*ck!'

Although, now their question has been answered. The shadow dimension does have a ruler and his name is Knull.

Tom tried to turn back into his human form but found himself stuck as a snake. He's never shifted before and the book only said to relax and wish yourself back to normal.

'How the hell am I supposed to relax with the God of Symbiotes yelling at me a few meters away?' Tom thought as he tried and failed to calm himself down.

The Ancient One simply sighed and shook her head. This could have been such an easy trip had Tom not done something idiotic. All they had to do was slip in and out. In fact, Tom simply had to do nothing and everything would have worked out perfectly.

'Why couldn't he just wait patiently?' The ancient one took a deep breath, even though she doesn't need to breathe in her astral form, and lets all of her frustration go. 'We'll have to retreat. I'm not prepared to fight a god, nor do I want to deal with this particular one.'

The Ancient One looks over at her student and could already tell that he was panicking. She could see that he isn't able to change back into his human form.

"If you won't come out, I'll have to capture you myself." Knull says casually as he stared at the exact area where the two intruders were floating.

Before the Lord of shadows could move forward, the Ancient One activated the Eye of Agamotto and slowed his movement.

Time seemed to halt around Knull as his movements were as slow as a snail. He seemed to have noticed as a bloodthirsty smirk appears on his face. He knows only one being that can control time like this and would love to slice her in half from bald head to toe. He started putting more power into his movements and was getting faster with every step.

With a sigh, the Ancient One opens a portal and grabs her student's noodle-like body. They fly through the portal and Knull breaks through the time dilation around him. He picks up speed and tries to follow them through the portal, but it closes and he misses his chance.

As Tom and his teacher appear in her private quarters, the Ancient One didn't even wait for a single second and threw her student into his body. With the return to his physical body, came the return of his human form. His panic started to subside and a moment later the Ancient One comes walking in with an annoyed expression.

"Umm... Sorry, Teacher." Tom says as he sees her walk over to a shelf and pull out an old tome.

"Mistakes happen and we move past them." She says as she starts skimming the book for the right page. "Do you know the predicament you're in now?"

"I can guess, yes." Tom says with a grave look on his face. "My Animagus form is connected to the shadow dimension, which means that I'm connected to the shadow dimension. The same dimension that seems to be ruled by some evil shadow/symbiote god."

"At least you aren't a complete imbecile." She says as she finds the right page. "Lay down on the couch, now."

Tom does as his teacher says and she walks over and starts forming Symbols of eldritch energy all around him.

"What are you doing?" Tom asks as he studies the symbols around him.

"I'm locking away your Animagus form and blocking your connection to the shadow dimension." She says as more and more runic symbols crowd around Tom's body. "It's the only way to keep Knull from following your connection back here to earth."

"As much as I wish to protest, as it took a lot of work to finally become an Animagus, I agree and won't complain." Tom says with a sad smile on his face.

He finally became an Animagus and now he won't be able to turn into a snake again. At least until a time where there's no ruler of the shadow dimension, which would only happen if someone kills Knull and doesn't want his realm.

'That's not very likely to happen. I'll have to kill him and take the shadow dimension for myself.' He thought and chuckled in a self-deprecating manner. 'I'm far too weak to even think about taking dimensions from gods. I couldn't even think straight while in the presence of Knull, yet I'm thinking about killing him. I need to get stronger...'

The Ancient One had no idea what her student was thinking of as she kept layering protections and barriers onto Toms Animagus form. After a minute passed, she finished her work, and Toms snake form was wrapped up tightly and wouldn't be coming back out anytime soon.

Toms connection with the shadow dimension was temporarily severed. He wouldn't be able to draw on the power of said dimension, nor would he be able to turn into the black snake again. At least not until the bindings are removed.

"Done, now go and read up on Knull in the library. It's best to know your enemy if you ever want to take those bindings off. Although, I forbid you from removing them without informing me first." The Ancient One says as Tom is still lost in thought.

"Uhh... yeah." Tom says as he gets up and leaves in a daze of his own thoughts. 'I need to get stronger...'

Tom does what his teacher said and looks up Knull in the library. Knull is an ancient malevolent deity who ruled over the Abyss, the existential chasm that existed between the destruction of the Sixth Cosmos and the creation of the Seventh Cosmos, and was originally content to drift through the endless void.

When the Celestials began creating the universe, Knull was awakened by the "Light of the Creation" and was outraged at his kingdom of darkness being despoiled. Knull retaliated by creating a sword of living darkness, the All-Black, which is the first symbiote, from his newly-cast shadow, decapitating one of them.

Cast back into the void by the other Celestials, Knull used the slain Celestial's severed head as a forge to temper his sword in its cosmic energies. Intent on devouring the divine light that had usurped his kingdom of darkness, Knull manifested a symbiotic suit of armor from the eldritch darkness he commanded and embarked on a genocidal campaign against the other gods and life itself, becoming a legendary figure of terror for divine beings even billions of years later.

'I need to get a lot stronger...'