章節 95: Numbers
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The Ancient One revealed a soft smile again after Illyana accepted her offer.
"Your training will start tomorrow. Before that, read this." She handed her a book on basic energy manipulation.
"I already know how to use magic," Illyana said, reading the front of the book. "I don't need to start with the basics."
"The way you gained your magic is different from how it is learned here," the Ancient One replied. "While your magic is powerful, it is also rough, undisciplined, and wasteful."
"And how would you know it's wasteful?" Illyana challenged.
"The magic leaking from your body even now tells me that." The Ancient One's responded in a calm tone.
"And this isn't the first time I've seen your methods." She gestured gently. "Save the rest of your questions for tomorrow. Your room will be prepared shortly. You may go while I speak with Liam in private."
Illyana turned with a questioning gaze towards Liam.
"You can go ahead without me," he said.
With a nod, Illyana walked out of the room.
Liam turned his head back towards the Ancient One, with a puzzled look.
"What did you need me to stay behind for?" Liam asked.
"It's about the change you've undergone," the Ancient One said, her tone more serious. "While I couldn't witness the transformation itself, as it happened outside the bounds of this dimension, it's clear that both your armor and your body have changed—improved, in fact."
Liam nodded and explained the rough events that had led to his transformation. He described the new abilities he had gained, speaking calmly as the Ancient One listened along.
"Be careful, young Liam." She said after Liam had finished explaining. "Though I cannot fully perceive what is behind all of these changes, in my experience, everything comes with a cost. Power is no exception."
Liam took her words seriously, even though he hadn't experienced any negative effects so far.
"But your new strength comes at a good time," the Ancient One added.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"The real reason I needed you to stay here is the current state of the dimensional barriers," she explained. "As you are already aware off, the damage to the barriers grows worse by the day."
Liam nodded—this was one of the reasons he had been training so hard afterall.
"Since your return, the barrier's rate of weakening has increased," she said.
"Is that because of my armor's evolution?"
"Partially," she confirmed. "Your armor and the girl you brought back from another dimension have both contributed to the accelerated weakening, but only slightly."
Her expression changed to a somewhat somber one. "The true danger comes from the enemy dimensions. They've noticed the weakening in the barrier, and as a result, dimensional tears are appearing more and more frequently all across the world."
"That's a problem." Liam said.
"Indeed," she said. "Right now, our mages can manage the number of tears opening each month. But in a year's time? It would be difficult to say if that's still the case."
Liam nodded, he hadn't considered the increase in frequency. He'd been focusing solely on gaining the strength to handle higher-tier tears himself.
"What can I do?" he asked. " While I could definitely recruit more people with great magical talent, when it comes to large numbers of lower-level mages, I doubt I'd have more success than you."
"The people you have brought here are indeed exceptionally talented," the Ancient One said, while smiling faintly. "However, it has never been just about people, has it?"
"What do you mean?"
She chuckled softly. "That's enough for today. You'll understand with time. Keep this conversation in the back of your mind until then."
"Really?'' Liam sighed, his face changing to a bored expression.
"Alright, thank you for your advice. I'll figure the rest out myself," Liam said as he walked toward the exit of the room.
"Good luck, young Liam." The Ancient One said before he left.
After he left, she spoke once more, her voice quiet. ''The future truly is turning out quite interesting.''
Walking back to his room, Liam was deep in thought.
"It's not just about people," he muttered to himself. 'I wonder, am I supposed to tame some kind of creatures or something?'
'How would I even do that?' Liam frowned. "Can beasts learn the magic to close these rifts as well? And even if they could, I doubt just any of them would be capable. And where would I even find these beasts? I can only assume they'd come from another dimension."
The idea felt absurd. 'I wish I could just put everyone in the world under an illusion and teach them magic,' he thought with a smirk. 'That would make everything so much easier.'
As his stopped his musings, a more serious plan began to form.
'Yesterday had already set my thoughts in motion, but this just confirms it,' Liam thought. 'SHIELD can't handle something like this, and with the sanctum unable to manage in a year, I think it would be wise to start my own organization or something along those lines.'
The concept interested him. The more he considered it, the more plausible it seemed.
"But how would I even start an organization?" Liam muttered. 'I'll need a lot more money... talented people... but where would I find them?'
'These dimensional tears require people who can learn magic to close them,' he continued, before arriving at his room. 'So while not everyone needs to be able to do it, some of them would need that talent.'
When he opened the door to his room, he found Illyana sitting on the bed, looking somewhat downcast.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"What the Ancient One said about my powers..." Illyana trailed off, her voice low. "She was right. I lose control sometimes."
Her eyes met his. "Do you think I'm a danger to you?"
Liam paused. He contemplated for a few seconds before he answered sincerely.
"No," he said. "You saved my life when you stopped the Tyrant from reaching me. Even in your dark form, while you might not have had had full control, you didn't hurt me. You even spoke to me."
Liam continued. "You're not a danger to me. And once the Ancient One helps you, you'll never have to worry about losing control again."
Illyana's lips curved into a small, grateful smile. "Thank you."
章節 96: Finally Testing Powers
Minutes later, a master knocked on the door. He had brought a key for the room that had been prepared for Illyana. After Liam and the master exchanged a few words, the master guided them to Illyana's new room.
"This room is quite special," the master said.
"Why?" Illyana asked.
"The Ancient One personally prepared it, which doesn't usually happen," the master replied with a smile.
"What did she do? It's just a room, right?" Illyana questioned, puzzled by how someone could prepare a room to make it special.
"Good question," the master began. "It isn't just a room. The Ancient One cast certain spells over it as a safety precaution."
"What kind of spells?" Liam asked.
"She didn't tell me," the master admitted. "But she did say you wouldn't have to worry about your powers, even if they take control."
Illyana nodded, a smile spreading across her face, clearly happy with what the Ancient One had done for her.
After Liam checked out Illyana's room, Liam returned to his own. Once inside, he opened a portal to the volcanic area where he regularly trained.
Upon arriving, he noticed that researchers had set up at the volcano, and the lava pit itself had grown significantly larger.
'End result from the fight with the whale,' Liam thought.
He opened a portal to another one of the least-visited volcano in the world—Heard Island Volcano. Located on a massive mountain, its closest human presence was thousands of miles away in Australia, making it an ideal spot to continue his training.
"Now it's finally time to properly test everything I can do after my armor evolved," Liam murmured.
'Let's start with my new abilities,' he thought as he summoned a white rift in front of him.
Stepping through, he appeared inside Incursio's dimension.
'Step one,' Liam thought, glancing around. 'I'll need to scan this place thoroughly later—especially for those blurred figures I saw before.'
After walking for several tens of feet, he opened another white rift ahead of him and stepped through. He reappeared a significant distance from where he had first opened the portal.
"It's not exactly teleportation," Liam observed. "It's more like if I open a rift here, move a certain distance in Incursio's dimension, and open another portal back, I'll have traveled an X amount of distance in my world."
He reached into the air, pulling out a notebook from his dimensional pocket spell, and began jotting down his findings.
After noting the basics, he repeated the process a few more times to estimate the distance difference.
'Three feet (one meter) in Incursio's dimension equals sixteen feet (five meters) on Earth,' he recorded. "It's as if the dimensions are layered over each other, but one is stretched while the other isn't."
Putting away his notebook, Liam opened another white rift and concentrated. As the portal disappeared, the ground around him began to shift. This time, he limited the effect to a small rocky area just a few feet wide.
"Interesting," he muttered, crouching to inspect the altered terrain. ''It feels like Incursio's dimension is merging with the space around me."
Rising to his feet, he ímagined a stone pillar in his mind. Focusing his energy on the spot where he wanted it, he watched as an old pillar rose from the ground, its texture matching the ones he had seen in Incursio's dimension.
"It seems I'm using energy to link with the domain around me, allowing me to shape structures from it," he mused. While looking up at the sky, he attempted to send his energy above him, but nothing happened.
"As I suspected, I can only summon structures where the domain is in direct contact with the ground. At least, for now."
Liam didn't want to start drawing any conclusions yet. He had only used this ability a couple of times, and limitations could be overcome with experience in a lot of cases.
'It's a bit like reality manipulation,' he thought, transforming the pillar into a wall, then into a doorframe. 'But not quite the same.'
Experimenting further, he recreated the stone spikes he had frequently used during the Hydra cleanup mission.
"The energy cost for these spikes is much higher than for the pillar," Liam noted.
He examined the spike's tip, channeling more energy into it until it grew sharper and sharper.
"The sharper it becomes, the more energy it consumes," he observed.
Testing its durability, he punched the spike with his bare hand. It remained intact. With Incursio summoned, his next punch caused cracks before the spike shattered entirely.
He had no need to test the terrain further; he had already seen the Tyrant run over it, creating only shallow craters.
"As for domain control," Liam continued, "right now, I can only keep it as a sphere around me. I have no control over its shape or where it spreads."
He attempted to change the area covered by his rocky terrain but failed.
"Also, I have no idea how to gain finer control. It doesn't seem to respond to energy manipulation or mental imagery alone."
Closing his notebook, he unsummoned the domain. "That covers my new abilities," he concluded.
"Next, I need to test the changes to my body, the armor's new resistance, and further explore Incursio's dimension," he thought. "I'll start with my body."
He already knew his cells now contained yellow-white energy, and his eyes had changed. What he didn't know was how these changes affected him.
"Let's start with my eyes," Liam decided, unsummoning Incursio and inspecting them.
He attempted to channel energy into his eyes, but nothing happened.
"They're just for show?" he muttered. "Or I'm not doing something right."
After several more attempts, he turned his attention to his cells.
"I know the red and white energy heal and help my physical body adapt," Liam said. "Now, for the white energy itself."
"During the fight with the Tyrant, I could control the white energy far better than before," he recalled. "I wonder if I can create a spell entirely from it."
Concentrating, Liam tried channeling only white energy into a construct spell. Yellow energy, however, went in despite his efforts. When he finished, a white shield with a faint yellow tint materialized.
'This is the best I can manage,' he thought. 'Even focusing on blocking the yellow energy isn't enough to keep it all out and costs a lot of energy. Still, with practice it should be doable.'
He wrote down the current ratio—65% white to 35% yellow.
He tested the shield with various spells, finding that the shield adapted a lot faster and better.
創作者的想法
Donnuuu
Donnuuu
Hope this gives a little more insight in his abilities, this chapter also helped me introduce training goals and drop some future major plotlines in this chapter.
Next chapter, Exploring Incursio's Dimension.
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