章節 100: Globe and Artifact
Finding the room empty except for a large round table with old wooden chairs surrounding it, Liam couldn't help but give the Ancient One a curious look.
"What is this?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
The Ancient One smiled gently and pressed her hand onto a section of the table that looked different from the rest, channeling energy into it.
In response, a massive blue hologram of swirling energy came to life above the table. The projection was massive, filling most of the room as it rotated slowly. Red dots appeared in various locations across its surface, each pulsing faintly.
"This is The Globe," the Ancient One explained. "It was created by the first Sorcerer Supreme and remains our most effective tool for detecting dimensional tears across the world from within the sanctums."
Liam's eyes went over the projection. "The Globe, huh?" he muttered, stepping closer to examine the hologram.
"All of the red marks represent dimensional tears," she continued. "Remember, this information is a closely guarded secret. Only a select few know of this artifact's existence. If its location or function were compromised and it was destroyed, we would lose the ability to find hidden tears effectively."
Before Sse gestured towards a particularly large red dot. "The size of each red mark correlates to the energy levels of the tear it represents."
Liam nodded, beginning to understand how the Ancient One could dispatch mages worldwide with such precision.
'I used to think she memorized these locations using what she has seen from the Time Stone,' Liam reflected. 'But that wouldn't make sense. The Time Stone only shows potential futures. Every change could create new tears in different places.'
The Ancient One placed her hand back on the table. "You may use The Globe whenever you wish. Simply pour energy into this section."
Liam placed his hand on the place she gestured to and send a bit of energy through his palm. "Thank you," he said. 'This will drastically improve my training plans.'
As he circled the projection, a large red mark over Greece caught his attention.
"What about this one?" he asked, pointing at the prominent mark. "Is it a large tear?"
"That's correct," the Ancient One confirmed. "It expanded to a large tear approximately a day ago. The masters assigned to that region are currently handling another tear in the Netherlands. You are welcome to go over there if you wish."
"I was planning to," Liam replied, a smirk appearing. A large tear meant powerful creatures—and an opportunity to test himself further.
'Last time, I defeated a high-level creature with a terrain disadvantage before my evolution. This time, I'm stronger. If it's a fresh tear, I should be able to do it without to much difficulty.'
As Liam sunk into his own thoughts for a moment, the Ancient One looked at him with an unreadable expression.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Liam continued with a question he still had in the back of his mind.
"Can we tell which dimension the tear connects to?" he asked, still interested in the Globe.
"Unfortunately, no," the Ancient One said. "The first Sorcerer Supreme hadn't devised a way to identify dimensions in his lifetime, so also not while this artifact was created."
Liam shrugged. 'I'll figure it out when I get there. Hopefully, it's a dimension I haven't tapped into yet for energy signatures.'
After they exited the hidden passageway, Liam turned to face her again.
"Thanks for all your help today," he said, sincerely.
"Before you leave," the Ancient One said, halting him with a soft smile, "since you have reached master level, you now have the right to visit the artifact room. There, you may see if an artifact chooses you."
Liam blinked. He had forgotten about this tradition. Every master-level sorcerer was granted a chance to bond with a mystical artifact, much like how the Cloak of Levitation had chosen Stephen Strange.
He smiled. "Let's go right now," he said, interested in these old artifacts.
The Ancient One nodded and created a portal.
Together, they stepped through into a chamber filled with rows of glass cases, each housing a different unique object. Some appeared simple, while others were very detailed and looked ancient. Weapons, tools, and strange devices filled the room, each one had a long history and had different requirements.
In one corner, the Cloak of Levitation rested within its own case. Liam approached it, standing still for several minutes. He waited, almost willing it to react. But nothing happened.
The Ancient One observed him with a knowing smile. "Most artifacts are quite selective. They seek those who meet very specific requirements."
Liam sighed. 'I've always had trouble with flying opponents,' he thought. 'The Cloak would've been perfect.'
He moved on, wandering through the room with amazement as he inspected each artifact. Occasionally, he asked the Ancient One about their properties, and she patiently explained.
He found some specific artifacts more interesting than others. One such was the Veil of Silence, which silenced sound within a radius for five minutes before requiring a recharge. Another item, the Gauntlet of Clarity, enhanced mental processing speed and focus.
As he continued, an artifact started to hum very soft in a different section. He didn't notice it at first, but the hum grew louder with each step he took towards a display in the middle-right section of the room.
He turned towards the sound and found himself looking at a pendant with overlapping layers of glass with a long brown cord attached to the top, It laid on a red cushion within its case.
'Mirrorheart Pendant,' the label read.
"Interesting," the Ancient One murmured from a few feet away.
The hum got louder as Liam approached.
"Go ahead," she said, waving her hand to dispel the protective enchantments on the glass. "It seems an artifact has chosen you."
"What is it?" Liam asked as he opened the case and carefully lifted the pendant by its cord. The humming stopped, and the artifact stopped moving in his hand.
He raised it to eye level, inspecting the detailed, mirror-like layers of glass as the Ancient One began to explain.
"The Mirrorheart Pendant is an ancient artifact, crafted shortly after the era of the first Sorcerer Supreme. It has chosen only two previous wielders. For generations, its requirements have remained unknown."
She gestured towards the pendant. "Its primary benefits are enhanced control over the Mirror Dimension and the ability to create mirror-clones within it. These clones can mimic abilities for a limited time before dissipating."
"That's incredible." Liam responded, looking curiously at the pendant.
"Indeed," she said, "The notes from previous owners also mentioned that they felt they hadn't fully explored all of its functions due to their limited skill in manipulating the Mirror Dimension.
"I haven't even learned the Mirror Dimension yet," Liam pointed out. "Why would it choose me?"
"That," the Ancient One said with a soft smile, "is for you to discover."
Liam nodded, he had expected such an answer from the Ancient One.
After a some more talking, he returned to his room with the pendant around his neck.
'Tomorrow will be a busy day,' he thought with a satisfied smile. 'I really wonder what dimension it will be.'
創作者的想法 
Donnuuu
Donnuuu It's been an exhausting day, anyway hope you all enjoy the chapter. Next chapters we will get into some real fighting again.
(It's 5 AM and my college starts in 3 hours again.)
章節 101: Greece
A few hours later, Liam began dressing. He held the Mirrorheart Pendant in front of him, carefully looking at its incredibly detailed design.
After a moment of inspection, he slipped the pendant around his neck.
"Improved control over the Mirror Dimension and the ability to create mirror-like clones of myself," Liam recalled the Ancient One's words.
'If it weren't for large tears being limited, and the potential benefits they provide to my armor, I would've learned the Mirror Dimension first,' he thought. 'But for now, it can wait. Once I'm done in Greece, I'll focus on mastering it while setting up the foundation for my organization.'
With that, Liam created a portal before him. On the other side, the outskirts of a city appeared.
'According to the Globe, the tear is located in Crete,' Liam thought as he stepped through. 'Since it's a large tear, it's probably out in nature somewhere. If it were in the middle of a city, it would've made international headlines by now.'
The past few hours, he had taken a short nap and spent time researching recent cases of missing persons and unusual deaths.
"The island is around 3,000 square miles," he muttered. "There are numerous reports of missing people spread all over it."
Still, that didn't mean there weren't any strange situations.
"Several hikers near the mountains have disappeared since a few days ago, and local news stations are spreading ghost stories about a mass murderer or dangerous wild animals lurking there," Liam recalled. "Even a large search party sent into the mountains lost contact with most of its members."
He moved towards Rethymno, a city with a population of around 40,000. Other cities within a 20-mile radius ranged between 10,000 to 150,000 people.
"The local search group held ninety searchers spread out into the mountains," he noted. "A few made it back, reporting going back because of landslides, which was then assumed to be the cause of the disappearances—this was also part of the reason why it hasn't made national news yet."
He frowned. 'A coincidence? Maybe. But it could also be a creature creating those landslides. Or just something entirely different.'
As Liam walked through the streets of Rethymno, he noticed the tension in the air. People went about their business as usual, but there was a sense of unease. Sirens blared suddenly as police cars sped out of the city.
'Even the locals know that a landslide shouldn't be able to wipe out that many people without leaving any of them having the ability to call for help,' he thought. 'Time to head towards Mount Ida and find out what's really going on.'
This city wasn't actually the closest city to Mount Ida. Instead of it, a smaller town, Anogeia, was about 10 miles away from this city, with a population of around 2,000 people.
"I'll stop there on the way—just in case something's already happening," he decided, thinking about the police cars he had just seen.
After leaving the city, Liam picked up his pace and began running toward the nearby town.
It didn't take long before something caught his attention.
A cloud of bird-like creatures screeched loudly as they circled in the distance, accompanied by a growing, loud, rumble coming from the mountains.
"What the hell are those?" Liam muttered, kicking up his speed by another notch.
As he got closer, he saw two police cars being lifted into the air by the strange creatures. Two officers leapt from one car as it was being lifted into the air, only to be snatched midair by more of the winged beasts.
Summoning Incursio around him, Liam rushed over while raising a hand and firing off a bolt of Balthakk towards the creatures.
The energy flew through the sky at incredibly high speeds, burning through one of the birds holding up a police car. Liam redirected the bolt, killing the other two creatures, their head or torso melting because of the energy from the Bolt of Balthakk.
The first police car dropped to the ground, with an officer still alive inside. Without pausing, Liam turned his attention to the second car and the creatures flying away with the officers.
The officers trapped in the creatures' claws struggled desperately in midair, trying to break free. One of them even managed to draw a gun and fire at the creature. The bullets tore into its skin, causing small amounts of blood to splatter.
Despite getting shot, the creature did not release the officer. Instead, it let out a loud screech, summoning the other creature holding an officer in its claws to come over. The approaching beast used its free claw to swipe at the hand holding the gun.
Its razor-sharp claws drove straight into the officer's hand, causing him to scream because of the agony and drop the gun.
As The creature flew away again, it didn't simply let go. Instead, it ripped the officer's hand apart, splitting it roughly down the middle while tearing away several fingers with other parts of its claws.
As Liam sprinted past the fallen police car, he raised his hand and fired another Bolt of Balthakk. This time, the energy bolt pierced all the creatures carrying the second police car.
As the car fell out of the sky, Liam used it as a springboard, launching himself into the air towards the remaining two bird-man creatures. Holding Neontote in front of him, he drove the blade into the chest of the nearest beast.
He kicked off the first creature, pulling Neontote free just as a white rift materialized behind him. Liam disappeared as he fell into it and the rift closed behind him.
The rift reappeared above the last creature, and Liam jumped out, bringing Neontote down in a horizontal arc that sliced straight through the beast's neck.
His eyes fell on the falling officers. Reacting swiftly, he jumped from the creature's back and opened another white rift below him.
Another rift appeared on the ground, and Liam stepped out of it in time to catch the officers before they hit the earth.
One of them was bleeding a lot from his mangled hand—if it could even be called a hand anymore. The creature's claws had not only shredded his flesh, but also pulled bone fragments from the surrounding area. Causing pieces of bones to stick out of his hand at random places, far from where they belonged.
The wounded officer screamed in agony, while his colleague remained frozen in shock. And who could blame him?
Liam ripped off a strip from the man's shirt and wrapped it tightly around his wrist to temporarily stop the bleeding.
'I don't have time for this. Up ahead is a town with over two thousand people,' Liam thought grimly. 'If it's already this happening here.... I can't imagine what it will be like over there.'
Meanwhile, the rumbling in the distance grew louder. He had no idea what it was, but he knew it couldn't be good news.
"Hey!" He grabbed the uninjured officer, shaking him out of his schock.
When the man's eyes cleared a little, Liam pointed at the fallen cars and his wounded companion.
"Get him back to the city. Call for paramedics. Now."
Without waiting for a reply, Liam turned and sprinted toward Anogeia.
'An incident with this many victims will require a major memory wipe,' Liam thought, already turning back towards the road. 'I want to minimize casualties as much as possible. The people ahead will likely be in worse shape.'
While running, he recalling the creatures appearances.
They had long, bird-like wings with razor-sharp talons on the end of them and at their feet, but their torsos and heads were disturbingly human—outside for the few patches of fur covering their bodies.
'They look like harpies from the legends,' he thought. Liam had studied Greek mythology quite a lot at college in his previous life, always interested by the stories back then.
He sprinted at full speed for another two miles before the town came within eyesight.
When he arrived, he saw a sight he had half-expected—but even so, the horror of it sent a chill down his spine.
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