章節 16: Chapter 4 Part 3

Magus in Marvel

Chapter 4 Part 3

By: Pineappl3

Aldebaran POV

It was rude, sure. But I couldn't stop seeing the future. I lacked the finesse and control I had on Azum and I was still missing most of my memories. I slapped myself, 'Calm down and think.'

My friends had to be here, I just knew it. I could faintly see us together, but I wasn't sure if it would happen in this timeline. It wouldn't matter though. I'd make it happen. Honestly I had been surprised when I first saw Baldur, but it wasn't long after when the visions started pouring in and things started to make sense.

I lived my whole life thinking my visions were nothing more than vivid dreams, but I knew differently now. I was Aldebaran, not Samuel Smith, and I was the greatest Diviner Azum has ever seen, well at least I would have been in another timeline.

Shortly after I left the kitchen I searched my room for my notebook so I could jot down my latest vision. It came to me in the middle of my conversation with Sofia and I just had to write it down before I forgot it.

I saw myself meeting Balrog, he didn't remember me, but then again we looked different. I knew him though, he was no longer a tall Half-Giant, but rather a hulking Dane who came to New York to live with his uncle.

He had dreams too, but nothing as vivid as mine. 'I'll get the gang back together, their memories too. I'm not sure we can save Azum, but I know we can be just as amazing heroes in this world as we were in the old one.'

Satisfied with my idea of grandeur, I started to plan everything out. 'Step one. Find Balrog. Step two. Get his memories back. Alright planning complete. I'll start searching for him tomorrow.'

Finding myself now on the streets of Manhattan the next day, I started walking to where I knew Balrog worked. He had a part time job at a Seven Eleven while he attended college and he was currently on shift.

'Divination is honestly bullshit, I just wish I could control it. I've just seen 12 different ways this turns out on my way here. Let's just hope this world is the timeline he remembers me and not the one from last night's vision.'

Entering the convenience store I noticed it was empty, 'So far so good.' I walked up to the counter where a large Danish man sat. He was easily pushing seven feet and he had muscles on his muscles.

'All he's missing is his grey skin, flaming hair, and golden arm. Ok, let's hope this works.' I took a deep breath and coughed to get his attention, "PRAISE BE THE SUN BROTHER!"

The mountain of a man roared with laughter. "Praise the Sun indeed. Wait. Do I know you?"

I frowned at that, "Friend, you don't remember me? It's me. Aldebaran. Come on. We've been adventuring buddies for years!"

Balrog gave me a confused look, "I've heard that name before, but I've never seen you in my life."

'Fuck. How do I jog his memories? Think. Maybe talk about his wife? Yeah let's try that. "Balrog buddy, do you remember your wife? Celia?" I asked hopefully and I wasn't disappointed.

Balrog looked towards me with interests, "You know about the woman in my dreams? How. Who are you really?" He started to tense up and I could tell, partially from a brief divination, that this would end one of two ways.

"You have a strange fascination with the sun, you really like elves, and you feel like you're not tall enough." I raised my brow in anticipation of his response.

The large man slightly turned his head, "I re-remember. This can't be real. ARGH!" Balrog dropped to his knees and began clutching his head, all the while roaring in pain.

I quickly made my way behind the counter and I was shocked at what I saw. Balrog's skin turned from pale white to deep grey and his hair started to fall out, only to be replaced by a swath of fire. His eyes glowed bright gold and I felt a large amount of energy pulse from within him.

My eyes rolled back in my head and I saw a vision of the not too distant future. We had finally gotten the party back together, but the people hated us. They called us Mutants and I instantly knew what was going on.

I watched until his transformation was complete and helped him up off the ground. "How do you feel? Do you remember anything else?"

Balrog managed to stabilize himself and he took a moment before answering, "I have a faint idea, but I do know we are friends. What of this wife of mine you spoke of? Where is she?"

I frowned at that, "I have no clue. BUT. We will find her. You might have forgotten, but I'm a Diviner! The best if I might so shamelessly profess."

The mention of this seemed to invigorate him, "Perfect! Then we shall be off! To look for my wife and to PRAISE THE SUN! . . . Sorry, that just came out."

'This is going to be fantastic, or end terribly,' and with a shake of my head I followed Balrog as he left through the front door still wearing his Seven Eleven uniform. All through the streets of Manhattan people would stop and stare at the giant grey skinned, head of fire that was Balrog.

It wasn't until we spent 20 minutes searching when Balrog stopped, still completely ignoring the looks he was given. He scratched his head, "I. . . Uh. Have no clue where we are going. Shouldn't you be leading this?"

"Uh. . ." I stopped to think for a moment, "Yeah. I guess you're right. Kinda got caught up in your energy. I guess I'll use a spell to locate your wife. Let's get somewhere private so we can view the spell. I know a place."

"Where are we going?" Balrog asked inquisitively.

"To a Magus Tower, it's owned by a dude named Baldur. He's from our world, but he's also an eccentric wizard. Don't bother him and he won't bother you kinda dude. He likes to recruit talented people and learn new things. He isn't really that bad but I can't bring myself to trust him fully yet."

"Well, we'll see how it goes. If he is from out world I'm sure he'll help us out of the kindness of his heart," he replied with a smile. "Now, lead the way."

With a shrug I began to lead the way back to the Magus Tower and as I reached for the front door, my body began to tense up. I began to fall to the ground and my world went dark before I could catch myself.

={db}=

Instantly I found myself far away from Earth and back on Azum. "Hey you, you're finally awake. You were trying to enter the Magus Tower right? Walked right into that confusion rune, like us and that goblin over there. Name's Xander and that," he pointed to the goblin, "Is Articulus."

Looking around I saw that I was seated not too far away from Baldur's Magus Tower, in The Waste not in Manhattan, near a campfire. The person who spoke to me was a man of average height with short black hair and wore a weathered trench coat. He held a flask that he occasionally drank from and had a far away look in his eyes.

The goblin on the other hand was picking the ear wax out of his ears and eating it, he paid me no mind. "Um. Yeah. I'm Aldebaran. What exactly happened?"

Xander handed me his flask and nodded to me, I took a sip and found it to be cider. "Get comfortable, this is a long story. It all started 10 years ago with a beholder."

'What does that have anything to do with my situation? How did I get back?' I nodded my head to Xander to indicate I was listening and zoned out in thought about what could have possibly happened.

={db}=

"And that's how I got captured by the lich."

Before Xander could continue, I stopped him, "What does a four hour long recount of your life starting from 10 years ago have anything to do with what happened HERE AT THIS TOWER?"

"Oh," he sheepishly stated. He took a large swig of his cider and continued, "Sorry. Thought you meant how I became like this. Not what happened to you this morning. That's a much shorter story."

I looked over and noticed the goblin was sleeping and it seemed Xander wasn't going to continue. "Never mind, I'll just divine what happened. No big deal, I'll just waste a spell in The Waste where every spell counts. I thought I was on Earth. What in the 49 Hells is going on?"

Without waiting for a response I began to channel my spell. I looked into the past and watched as the events unfolded before me. Balrog, Hakon and I made our way to Bladur's tower from the west and from the east came Xander and Articulus.

As we all neared close a pulse of white light flashed out from the tower and all five of us turned to dust. Hours later Xander and Articulus began to reform and eventually woke up.

It was then, when they started to search the area that I started to reform and they found my body. 'What is actually going on? So I can channel spells here, but not on Earth? Was that all a dream? Urgh. I think I'm gonna go crazy.

Looking at the mentally absent goblin for a second, I moved my gaze to Xander. He took another sip from his flask like clockwork and gave me a warm smile as if we had been friends forever.

"So? Did the spell work?" He asked honestly.

"This solves exactly zero of the questions I had, was everything a dr-"

A large flash of white envelopes my vision and I'm once again thrust into seeing another scene, although this time it's one of a white ceiling. 'Someone needs to paint that.'

I looked around and found myself to be in a lab of some sorts. It was clean to a scary degree. I was sitting in some sort of chair where you would see mad scientists perform experiments on people.

I slowly got up and made my way towards the door. As I was grabbing for the handle, the door flew open and smacked me in the face. I was sent flying and I was then sprawled all over the ground.

The room got dark, and I realized a figure was looking down at me, "Oh good, you're awake. I must say each and every mutant I study brings me an immense amount of joy. Too bad you already woke up."

I tried to ignore the definite mad scientist vibes Baldur gave off and picked myself up off the ground. Baldur took a step back and I could see peering through the doorway was Balrog.

"Good to see you are healthy, friend, I told you this man would help us out of the kindness of his heart." He gave me a blinding smile. It was then I noticed he was lacking his signature grey skin, head of fire, and golden eyes he gained shortly after we met.

"He also created this nifty ring to hide my appearance from everyone, I guess I was so excited I forgot how scared people are of mutants."

It was then Baldur spoke, "You both are lucky I'm as proficient in spellcasting as I am, I managed to quell the mini anti-mutant riot outside AND pull your astral body back from wherever it was and return you to this body."

'Astral body? What? A riot? That kinda lines up with my vision I guess.' I sheepishly scratch the back of my head, "Yeah, thanks man. Hey, did you do something? I can't see my future around you, usually I get tons of visions. I haven't had one since I woke up."

Baldur's lips grew into a smile as he explained, "I was waiting for you to ask that! You are a mutant, luckily or unluckily for you though, you couldn't control it. So I just made you an artifact to stop your powers. It took me hours, but sadly it only works for your powers. I need more tests and samples to get it to work on a wider scale, not that it should interest you."

I ignored the obvious red flags and asked, "Where is this artifact? I can't see it."

As if on cue, both Balrog and Baldur pointed at my face. I felt around and found I was now wearing glasses. "Noooooo. MY COOL MILITARY LOOK IS RUINED WITH THESE."