Meeting the Ancient One

Erik (POV)

Despite all my planning and contingencies I've put into place meeting with the ancient one can put all my efforts into waste if not dealt with delicately.

The oak door opened revealing a younger more handsome visage of Wong. I recognised him from memories of my previous life however kept my face perfectly still to not tip off my opposition.

"Namaste Master I am here for a meeting with the ancient one at her convenience." As soon as I utter those words out of my mouth the whole atmosphere changed buildings morphed shadows consumed everything and I was transported to a barren wasteland. I looked around and found a breakfast table with two leather comfort chairs facing each other. One of those chairs being occupied by the sorcerer supreme, the ancient one.

The ancient one slowly sipped her infamous tea and locked eyes with me. As soon as we observed each other I could feel some sort of oppression on me as if I would suffocate, My power of perception indicated I would die like a bug if I antagonised her. She smirked at me and the pressure suddenly stopped.

The ancient suddenly spoke, "I'm impressed Mr Stevens not many individuals can stay conscious when I exude that amount of magical pressure. That proud stature and defiant eyes, oh yes Erik KILLMONGER you remind me of your ancestors." I couldn't help the slight widening of my eyes indicating she knew I'm an reincarnated individual. Then she spoke again "please be seated Mr Stevens after all I have especially organised this venue for our prophesied meeting." I followed her suggestions however the word prophesied rang in my like sirens, I used my abilities to analyse her face movements to help indicate where this conversation was heading however she was like analysing a stone wall, no emotions. I couldn't help but ask "prophesied?" she gave me a tinkling laugh at catching me unaware and replied," oh yes Mr Stevens the Vishanti and the elder agamotto have foreseen your arrival on earth and with it the butterfly effects you bring to the rest of the multiverse." Suddenly I was placed under magical pressure again. "Tell me Killmonger why I should not end you now or take an alternative and erase your memories while prisoning you till your death, after all you are anomaly in this multiverse with power to do great things for both good and evil.

Despite my training and preparation I could not help but gulp this woman has the experience of centuries and has the magical might repel beings like Dormammu, Shuma Gorath and Mephisto. I spoke up as politely as I could but with a hint of steel in the undertone of my voice.

"I have come here peacefully with no intention to atttack you, the sanctums or ally with any of your enemies. My goal is to ultimately help root out as much corruption in our race as possible but also give them the strength and understanding to stand against extraterrestrials. For generations cosmic entities, celestials, the kree and others have come to treat earth as their playground abducting members, experimenting and often enslaving humanity. I'm sure with your abilities you have foreseen what is to come, beings such as dormammu, thanos and the celestials are arriving and with it they bring destruction, war and death. No being in this universe will be able to feel peace. I simply wish to help humanity rise above the shackles placed on them. I know you have witnessed both the worst of humanity but also it's greatness and it's potential. Beings such as Siddharta Gautama (Buddha), Arjuna (Indian demigod), Merlin, Arthur Pendragon, king Leonidas are proof of the fact that humanity has a potential to rise above and contend with gods of the pantheons. With your death Earth's chances of surviving are decreased significantly and you killing me or preventing me from acting will just expedite this process." I took a deep breath and continued," I only wish to be your ally and for your support in my ventures."

The ancient one stopped examining Eriks passionate speech and tuned to face the vast wasteland in her personal dimension. And spoke softy, " I agree with your sentiments however the odds are against you, where others would falter and turn away or kneel you will have to stand tall and show defiance against fate." She tuned back to him and looked at him with saddened and haunted eyes and continued," are you sure this is what you wish this path is arduous and the fates themselves are against you they will throw challenges at your every step, betrayals of the worst kind, killing and torture of your allies, monsters and hideous beast will be released to hunt you. The earth will tremble and dirt is all of what will remain if you fail." She looked resigned at my defiant cold face and she continued," If this is what you wish Mr Stevens I will test your will."

Faster than I could react she jumped across the table and punched my astral form out of my body. My body fell face first on the table and I looked at my body whilst floating next to the ancient one I was about to ask a question when she grabbed my hand and we were covered in a bubble with a green tint protruding from the time stone in the eye of agamotto. We were suddenly in an empty expanse of space where stars shown brightly, however what attracted my attention was six brightly coloured stones spinning in a circle. The ancient spoke up suddenly," we have arrived just after the birth of this universe and the conception of the infinity stones, what you are seeing is the infinity stones in all the splendour these ingots that represent this reality and grant the weilder near omnipotent power. However Mr Stevens these are worthless, absolutely worthless to us you can grab those stones and rule this universe with an iron fist however there are beings which you will have to answer to the cosmic entities, multiversal beings that answer only to the living tribunal these beings have very little rules and care little for mortal lives only for the delicate balance of chaos and order. The only reason I can tell you this was with the permission of various cosmic beings and the living tribunal himself. The vishanti, and Lady Gaia herself has had to plead to save your life and for permission to inform you of the basic workings of the universe but also to stay the hands of more insidious and powerful threats till you have sufficient power to face them. Beings such as Galactus and Chtton have you in their sights and as soon as you are of sufficient strength they will confront you.

Suddenly the scenery shifted and we were in a region full of darkensss and molten lava there were millions of humanoid beings in chains being tortured via medieval methods continuously. The ancient one spoke again," Look around you, this the realm of the a lower level demon Sattansih. This realm is outside the time and space of our universe therefore it runs on completely different laws. Those beings you see being tortured are all innocent, you see for demons innocent souls provide excess energy which can be used for satiating their hunger and greed. Despite proof of billions of similar souls in similar conditions I am helpless, as soon as their souls are in his grasp he has authority over them, they are his property. You see as long as these demons and other higher entities don't disturb chaos and order too much there are no consequences to their actions. This has been happening for trillions of years and will happen when this universe is destroyed and another is created to fill its place." The ancient stopped and turned to me and while looking at my eyes said as seriously in a hard voice, "these beings know of your presence and know you are a threat to their way of life, they will take any measures against you. So far we have had near two dozen attempts on your life which have been foiled by me and the sanctum shields."

The surroundings shifted and we went through another kaleidoscope to arrive to different scene a green acidic river that is ever expanding and at the centre of it is a waterfall connecting to an archaic stone platform which houses a being with one eye, green scaled body and hundreds if not thousands of tentacles like legs. The ancient one spoke again, " observe the green river carefully Mr Stevens, that is the essence of reality itself and it's worlds and souls. All that has been conquered by shuma gorath resides in this acidic river all the souls of beings as small as ants and plants to gods and entire worlds live in constant torment while Shuma Gorath feeds and satiates his hunger. This being has no concept of human emotion or morality it has no care for the chaos it spreads if given the chance it will consume everything with no regret. You see mortals and humanity have been made in the whims of gods and their selfishness therefore we have had near little protection from them without the mercy of vishanti and Agamotto. Even then I can say the gods we worship are selfish and vindictive if their will is not obeyed the evidence of this is standing here talking to you. I am destined to die and reside forever in the dark dimension realm of dread Lord Dormammu for even when this universe ends I will be unable to pass on. I only ever wished the prosperity of my race and wished to little longer to live to ensure I may find a worthy successor and prevent threats from eradicating humanity. However several of the elder gods felt I had outlived my purpose and wished for a more ruthless and emotionless sorcerer supreme like shanzar if I had not performed a ritual to connect to the dark dimension saving my life from their assassination we would be on an earth with very little light in its heavy expanse of darkness. The cost of this is as you see Dormammu will always be a threat to earth as long as I live and will have a hold on me for eternity."

I felt earth shattering revelations each time she spoke cosmic beings aware of my existence, prophecy, innocent souls tortured even after their deaths and thedeath of universe, evil everywhere and it being protected by the beings from above. Her story and why she connected to the dark dimension.

Suddenly the surroundings changed we were in front of a tree. However the tree resided in space with a blue violet outline and its trunks housing stars and planets the tree started growing expanding to small sectors of the universe incasing worlds in its shade and protection. the darkness was being devoured by its roots of the tree as nourishment however it started to fight it and formed a dragon which was trying to chew at its roots. Slowly water trickled from the roots forming three different wells at its very end.

The ancient suddenly spoke breaking me from my observations. " Yggdrasill the world tree which takes up a small sector of this universe. Near the start of civilisations pantheons of gods formed, they all went to forward to council and the living tribunal and requested territories for them to thrive in without constant fighting. Pantheons older than the Greeks, Norse and Hindu were some of the first to occupy the worlds formed by this living tree. However mirroring humanity the gods thought wars amongst themselves for many reasons eradicating many pantheons till few existed. You see when the the tree formed it treated life in it as it would a child the tree was a mother who was naive to think her children would not fight amongst themselves. The gods unaware of the harm and pain they caused their mother sought alliances with beings outside of yggdrasill."

We were suddenly on a planet of fulll of metal sky scrapers however there was pungent odour of decay and death. And the bubble we were incased in moved, we were soon in front of a balcony of metal palace. There on the balcony there was three humanoid women with slave collars on beings brutally assaulted by men. The ancient one spoke," this is the result of mindless and ancient evils being bargained with even with the best of intentions they bring decay, death and misery. These women were gods from Yggdrasil however were enslaved immediately upon leaving its protection. The divinity they had tied them to the tree was being used against Yggdrasil to form the dragon Nidhogg root eater and other beasts. They constantly test the barrier between the tree and the darkness preventing her from assisting any life forms on its surface." She paused and then continued, "Mr Stevens what I'm trying to show you is that these women only sought out power to protect themselves, their families and prevent war however the universe and its beings are merciless even the best intentions can have negative consequences. Are you prepared to let others pay for your mistakes?"

The ancient one turned to speak to me, " we will visit one last place please prepare yourself." The surroundings suddenly shifter and I was looking down at a minute version of the universe. Within seconds of my observing death and decay spread thought he universe stars were snuffed out. The ancient one made a hand sign and the bubble moved in towards the universe at light speeds. We were suddenly on a mountainous region which I recognised as wakanda I turned around to observe events and my mouth was left open in shock I nearly fainted in despair and shock my eyes showing horror. In front of me was an older version of me wearing nothing but furred black trouser with a golden spear in my right hand radiating black energy to the sky. However what had me shocked were my eyes all glowing an ominous black and in my left hand was the head of the panther goddess bast. purple and red blood was covering me and pooling at my feet and behind my alternate self was mindless beings committing atrocities and slaughtering the wakandans with the last to stand against me the Avengers.

I looked back at the ancient one and almost screamed, "what the hell is this? Is this the future?" She looked calmly as if not fazed, " yes, yes Mr Stevens this one of the many negative futures in this timeline you were very hungry with power. You had done very well for yourself and earth and even defeated thanos with minimal causalities, you had improved the living standards for humans and ushered peace for many sentient races however you had underestimated cosmic and mystical threats you used the infinity stones believing yourself near omnipotent. You never predicted the schemes of the dreadlords, the demons that were outside this universe before you knew it you were corrupted and in their control they used you as a pawn to destroy what you yourself had built. The same wakandans that acknowledged and came to love you for your efforts were mercilessly tortured and slaughtered by their own enslaved brethren. You had killed and violated your patron goddess which bestowed you many boons. You eradicated all life on earth and moved from planet to planet doing the same. The same entities that had manipulated thanos now had you at their beck and call like a puppet."

I simply looked around with dead eyes and asked, "why show me this?" She looked at me and replied, " I didn't need to show you anything however this is just the bare minimum to test your will and resolve, for in the coming moments you will the feel the pain of every being which has been slain and tortured by your corrupted alternate self." As soon as she finished her sentence a scream tore from my throat I fell on the floor convulsing having visions of deaths of beings at my hand and untold misery and pain I inflicted on them. My astral form convulsed with so much pain that I stopped screaming my soul was being tested by this agony. I had little to no conscious thoughts and had to accept the pain and visions I opened my eyes to look at the wakandan sunset and tried to focus however my soul itself was being torn I could feel myself being erased from existence from mind bending agony. I remembered my previous life memories and my parents and my father in this life and what I had vowed I took slow deep breaths and tried to calm down and focus the pain on one point and ride out the agony. Trillions of people's misery was brought on my shoulders. I could feel the cracks in my mind I was breaking just as suddenly as that happened it all stopped. I breathed heavily and lurched on to my side cradling my head. I stayed in this position trying to breathe and calm myself. I slowly looked up at the ancient one.

The ancient one was smiling softly at me, "Erik you are ultimately a good man, however you are mortal, and every being can break with enough incentive, you have shown me your will is strong enough what you've just been through would tear my soul apart without magical and mystical protections. You my child currently have none with just sheer grit and determination and that indomitable will you possess prevented your erasure." The ancient one's magic slowly enveloped me healing me lifted me with telekinesis and addressed me again. "I will teach you, I will break and mould you to be your best self by pushing your body to the limits and mind to insanity. I will train you in the most ancient and lost archaic arts. In the years I have lived I have found alternatives to power you cannot imagine. I will arm you against everyone. You will be the cosmic nuclear deterrent, You will be your own judge, jury and executioner because the current system has been failing this multiverse. You will rise above your previous life's memories you will have titles far more menacing that Killmonger. No Strange may be the sorcerer supreme but you my child will be a Godkiller of mulitversal proportions,,you will be a LONGINUS.

Suddenly a portal opened in front of us and we were dragged in to it, and back to the original wasteland dimension that housed our bodies. I was placed back in to my body. I slowly raised my head from the table and groaned in discomfort my head was aching and I was seeing back spots in my vision, I struggled to stay awake. The ancient one smiled at me and and clicked her fingers she laughed while speaking, " drink the tea with some painkillers", I did as she recommended while she continued talking. "The trip had no effect on our bodies, just our minds as we were in astral form. You have strained your mind significantly, take a break and rest I will visit you for our next meeting tomorrow." A portal opened to side of us with orange sparks with just a gesture of her hand. I turned to face her and was was surprised to see her with amused eyes.I suddenly fell back and was dragged into portal i analysed that she pushed me through with telekinetic forces without any gestures just with thought. My next conclusion was she wanted to prevent any questioning for now. As soon as the portal closed I planted face first into my bed and lost consciousness.