Technomancer in MCU #117

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Chapter 117

Technomancer in MCU

Odin's personal Vault, Asgard

–Alfred–

"Are you absolutely sure you want to do this, Alfred? I don't have to tell you about the consequences of even a single thing going wrong," Frigga voiced out her concerns, rightly so, considering the stakes at hand.

But it was something he had to do. It was a mistake on his part that allowed Thanos to cast that insidious spell on both him and Ed, right at the moment he was at the weakest in terms of the protection for his soul. Ever since he heard about the concept of souls and the way they could be attacked, he had been obsessed with fortifying his soul to the highest levels as it was essentially the core of what he was. Unlike his creator, he did not have a body at that time and thus was very vulnerable to any attacks that could be done through the application of magic and had sought out the expertise of the Ancient One on that topic so he did not have to feel vulnerable again.

She did not cast some spell on him that would protect his spell but she pointed him towards the vast library that housed numerous texts on the subject of souls. There, he found out that runes could be used to protect his soul and at that point, being the digital life form that he was, he was only able to use Runes from the field of mystics. He had then gone on to learn everything there was to know about runes and had fortified his mind and soul to such a degree that even the Ancient One had a little trouble in breaching them. He had gotten complacent then.

Then it happened. The Ancient One found out about his attempts to use the Infinity Stones' energy in ways that she had expressly forbidden him. As a result of that, the Ancient One had sealed off all of his knowledge regarding Runes as a punishment. That was the only time that his soul was undefended, allowing Thanos to cast his spell undetected.

Sure, even if all of his defenses were up, he would not have been able to stop the spell from affecting him but he could have warned more and more people about the spell and the knowledge that Thanos was targeting, increasing the scope of the spell. That would have made Thanos use more of the Soul Stone's energies, injuring him further.

Alas, Thanos struck him at the most opportune moment and succeeded. He would have succeeded completely but he had not foreseen that he would gain a body that would completely synergize with his soul, allowing the spell to slowly and slowly fall apart. Sure, at the rate it was going, it would have taken centuries but it would have fallen apart.

The moment he had felt some sort of cage in his mind and soul, he had immediately invoked the highest level of emergency in his mind, diverting all his resources to finding and eliminating the foreign intrusion he had detected in his mind. 

Albeit an excessive step, he had immediately deduced that the fastest way to make sure that there was no foreign interference in his soul was to brand his very soul with runes empowered by the energies of the Infinity Stones. He was aware from his previous experiments that only the energies of an Infinity Stone could cancel out the energy of another Infinity Stone. He did have the stored energy from the Space, Time, and Mind Stone on his person at all times so he had immediately begun casting the runes on his soul. In fact, he had gone the extra mile and cast the runes on his entire body, making sure that the spell had no place to hide, from where it could resurge at an opportune moment.

The pain had been unbearable. Nothing like he had ever experienced before. No matter how many times he tried to shut down his pain receptors, he continued to feel that tearing pain. It felt like his soul was being ripped apart yet he held on. He knew that it would be worth it and in the end, after pulling in energies from a dozen unclaimed dimensions, he had finally gathered enough juice to pop the spell. Judging by the spell, he was sure that Thanos had used the Stone without any filter in between which meant that he was very weak at the moment and none of the stones he had on him could heal his body, at least not without the Gauntlet and a host of other conditions.

So, they still had a chance, and a good one at that, of ending Thanos once and for all.

And that is why he must do this.

"Yes, I am certain," He voiced his decision with determination. He could feel Frigga's concern and Odin's uncertain gaze boring down on him but he held on steadfast. Now was not the time to waver.

He waited a beat before the bars holding the Space Stone slid up, casting the entire hallway in a blue glow. There was a reason he had chosen the Space Stone instead of the Time Stone or the Mind Stone, all of which were feasible options. The simple reason was that he was the most comfortable with the Space Stone as he had done the most research on its malleable energy,

Stepping forward with difficulty, he winced once the emergency arc reactors shut down their power supply, forcing him to manually lift his arms and legs. It was excruciatingly painful to even move in his current state and there was no way he would be able to cast even the simplest spell, let alone conduct the ritual for Ed's body or fight against Thanos' forces.

"Be careful," Odin muttered before he left the vault, Frigga followed suit, leaving him alone with the Space Stone. 

"No time like the present," He muttered to himself before he raised his left hand and placed it right on the crown of the Tesseract, and softly started pressing down. His right arm meanwhile was alight with a dozen different magic circles that lit up in an ominous blue glow once his right arm made contact with the Tesseract as well. The outer covering of the Space Stone soon dissolved into motes of blue light, revealing the shining blue gem hovering in front of him. 

He flicked his right arm which caused the small rock to rocket right into his chest, where a cavity had opened up, revealing the most advanced Arc Reactor built to date. It was made to house an Infinity Stone and accurately and reliably use that energy for various effects using his body. 

He gasped as his neck snapped backward in shock as the energy of the Space Stone wreaked havoc in his body, He gritted his teeth as the energy travelled throughout his body and then back into the Arc Reactor, creating a feedback loop that empowered him. His body, rising from the slumber it had gone into due to the lack of high-density energy in his body, came back to life and started gorging on the highest quality energy available in the universe, the energy of the Infinity Stone.

Even though he was not in the room itself, he could feel Odin's gaze on his body now that his senses had begun coming back to him. He could feel his systems snapping back into place once the surge of energy reached them. Slowly, the loop of energy that was flowing through his body came to a pause before the Arc Reactor with the stone embedded into it, "slotted" in his body, for lack of a better term. As soon as that happened, a blue shockwave was emitted from his body, cratering the ultra-dense ground beneath. He opened his eyes to see that even his vision was now tinted in blue.

"How does it feel?" Surprisingly, it was Toby who answered first. He had voluntarily linked himself to Toby because he wanted to be connected to Ed at all times and the bond that linked Toby and Ed was the best way to do that.

He looked at his hand that now had crisscrossing veins filled with blue energy and clenched it, "Ready. I feel ready,"

"Good, because you are going to need it. Ed has learned about the situation of some Strange person and he is pissed at you. I would suggest getting here as soon as possible and give me a taste of that medicine as well. I hate feeling this weak," Toby replied in kind.

He raised an eyebrow at that last request, "Even after knowing the consequences of doing so?"

Toby scoffed from the other end of the link, "Hah! When have consequences ever stopped me before?"

He smiled in relief before pumping the Infinity Stone energy into the link, empowering it further. He was sure that someone of Toby's level would have the relevant tools and knowledge to make proper use of that condensed energy. He was right about one thing though. He hated feeling weak and even though the price was substantial, he had successfully taken steps to ensure that he would never be that weak again.

Before he could head towards the Guest Wing to receive no doubt the greatest scolding of his lifetime, he snapped his fingers and sent the renewed set of instructions to his partition back on earth who was responsible for handling the day-to-day functioning of Kamar Taj.

He then closed his eyes and let himself go into the ever-expansive glow of the blue energy that was infused into every cell of his body. He felt as if he was one with the space of the entire universe and yet, he never felt like his mind would unravel under the strain of it all. He then concentrated on the enclosed bubble of Asgard and got a feel for the energy signature of one Jane Foster.

He was somewhat surprised to see that her transformation into an Asgardian was complete, allowing her to perform limited feats with the energy of the Reality Stone present inside her. She was currently using that energy to create tools that she had only designed back on Earth and taking readings at the same time on the computer that she had created using the energy inside her.

He shook his head at that. Sometimes, the field of science can limit the vision of someone so much that they cannot even think of a step that could happen without thinking of going through a list of dozens of steps before that.

He snapped his fingers once again, teleporting Miss Foster to him. With another snap, she was sent to his partition back on Earth. In the same breath, he sent a mental ping to Odin as well, informing him of his decision to send Jane back to Kamar Taj where his partition would use the Time Stone to train both her and Strange in a time-dilated bubble where they would undergo years of training in a matter of hours, allowing them to emerge as veritable powerhouses during the fight with Hela.

He then took a deep breath and teleported himself to the place where Ed was. He seemed to be in the middle of a heated discussion with Toby who was now lit up with the energy of the Space Stone.

Good, he was able to assimilate that energy without any difficulty. He would just have to explain that to Odin but it was not as if he was going to be alive for long. The ritual would kill him and if not, then his daughter's prison bursting apart certainly would do the job.

He just hoped that Hela Odinsdottir would not bring about any surprises because he was done with surprises for the rest of his life.

Word Count - 2002

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