Following Mordo out of the tea room and finally escaping the Ancient One's piercing gaze, Luke felt his entire body go slack. Honestly, he had been half-convinced he was about to die in there.
"Master Ancient One treats you differently," Mordo remarked, slowing down to let Luke catch up. He shot the boy a peculiar look.
Luke felt incredibly awkward. 'Of course she treats me differently. We're both hoarding dark energy!'
"The rest of us came here on our own to seek knowledge," Mordo continued, recalling how the Sorcerer Supreme had abruptly stopped instructing two sparring novices earlier, only to vanish and return with Luke in tow. "But you are different. The Master brought you here personally."
Luke's awkwardness skyrocketed. 'Brought me here? Try kidnapped!'
"Perhaps you possess extraordinary talent for the mystic arts," Mordo mused aloud.
Luke thought back to his involuntary trip through the multiverse, where the only thing he actually remembered was sprouting a dozen extra hands out of his body. Everything else was a traumatizing blur.
"I highly doubt that," Luke interrupted, his face burning.
Seeing his reaction, Mordo simply shrugged. "Regardless, the Sorcerer Supreme clearly values you. She is incredibly wise; she must have sensed your potential." At this point in the timeline, Mordo was still a die-hard fanatic of the Ancient One, practically worshipping her as an infallible god.
'Oh, I have potential all right. I have a useless System, a body full of forbidden dark energy, and got dragged in for a forced tea party the second I transmigrated. What a joke.' Luke looked up at the ceiling, wanting to cry but lacking the tears.
"Would you like to try casting some magic?" Mordo asked, noticing his sullen expression.
'Now that I can get behind!' Remembering the glowing portal from earlier, Luke's interest was instantly piqued. If he could at least master that, he'd never have to worry about sprinting to the bathroom again.
Pleased to see a spark of enthusiasm, Mordo nodded. "Let me show you to your quarters first. Afterward, we can head down to the courtyard to practice. If the Sorcerer Supreme believes you have talent, I am sure you will master our spells with ease."
When they arrived at a dim, sparsely furnished room, Luke felt like he had just been tossed into a monastery prison cell.
"Do you guys not believe in lightbulbs?" Luke asked, peering through the gloom. It was broad daylight, yet the room was so dark you wouldn't even need to close the curtains to develop film. He turned to look at Mordo and almost couldn't see the man in the shadows.
Mordo just shrugged. "Maintaining the daily lives of the masters and disciples is already quite expensive. Kamar-Taj does not exactly own corporate assets in the mundane world."
Handing Luke a small slip of paper, Mordo offered a faint smile. Luke held it up to the sliver of sunlight filtering through the tiny window and read the word written on it: Shamballa.
Suddenly, a terrifying realization struck him. 'Wait—crap! Where is my phone?!'
Assuming Luke was just confused by the paper, Mordo chuckled. "It is the Wi-Fi password. We aren't savages."
"No, it's not that," Luke replied with a bitter smile. "I don't have a phone."
Mordo stared at him in utter shock. "What kind of savage are you?"
After finally getting settled, Luke followed Mordo down to the main training courtyard.
Mordo slipped a two-fingered brass Sling Ring onto his left hand. "Would you like to try opening a portal first? Beginners usually enjoy this one." He reached out with his right hand and traced a circle in the air. A gateway of bright, crackling golden sparks instantly spun into existence.
"It is convenient, practical, and relatively easy to learn—though most novices just appreciate the visual flair," Mordo explained. He stepped through the portal and casually reappeared right behind Luke.
Handing the Sling Ring to Luke, Mordo instructed him to visualize an empty spot in the courtyard. Luke focused hard, raised his hand, and started drawing circles in the air.
Nothing happened. The grand portal he was expecting refused to materialize, leaving him frowning at the empty air.
'I knew it. I don't have an ounce of magical talent. I can't even cast the starter spell.'
Seeing his bitter expression, Mordo quickly comforted him. "Do not worry, this is completely normal. No one conjures a portal on their very first attempt. It requires repetition and focus."
Encouraged, Luke regained some of his confidence. 'He's right. Even Stephen Strange had to get stranded on Mount Everest before he could open one. I can't expect to pull it off instantly. Gotta leave some face for the future Sorcerer Supreme, right?'
After a short break, Mordo began explaining the deeper theory behind their magic.
"In truth, the mystic arts are not so different from the technology used in the mundane world. They are simply different methods of applying energy. We sorcerers manipulate energy through our minds, whereas technology drives energy through physical matter. If you want to cast a spell, you must first use your spirit to sense and control the energy around you. Give it a try."
Luke nodded. He took a wide stance and closed his eyes, earnestly trying to feel out the invisible forces around him.
Suddenly, he noticed a strange, dormant power coiled deep within his own body. To his surprise, the energy felt incredibly docile, practically begging to be used.
'Alright then. Take me to that spot!' Visualizing his target across the courtyard, Luke commanded the power. The energy instantly surged forward.
He thrilled at the sensation, but his excitement quickly turned to panic. The energy wasn't flowing into the Sling Ring at all. Instead—
Right before Mordo's stunned eyes, a violent surge of pitch-black energy erupted from Luke's body. It swallowed him whole, dragging him into the shadows on the ground, only to spit him out from another shadow a dozen yards away.
Stumbling out of the darkness, Luke turned back to look at his mentor in utter confusion. "Did... did I do it?"
Seeing Mordo staring at him with wide, horrified eyes, Luke assumed he had just pulled off an incredible feat. "Wow, I guess I really am a genius! First try!"
But as the surrounding sorcerers silently began summoning glowing magical weapons, Luke finally realized something was horribly wrong. 'Are they... are they going to jump me out of jealousy? Surely not!'
He slowly backed up against a wall as the masters and disciples closed in on him like he was the universe's greatest threat.
"Whoa, hey, you guys are serious!" Luke yelped, the atmosphere turning suffocatingly tense. Even Mordo was advancing on him with a glowing mystical whip. 'This is escalating way too fast!'
Swallowing hard as a dozen battle-hardened sorcerers boxed him in, survival instinct took over. 'Run!'
The strange power flared within him again, cloaking him in shadows and erasing him from his spot.
He had intended to teleport straight to the Ancient One's pavilion to beg for sanctuary, but he barely made it a few corridors away before the energy completely ran dry. He popped back out of the shadows, stumbling into the physical world.
'Crap! I don't have enough mana!'
Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm his racing heart. He might be cornered, but he still had one ultimate trump card.
"Master! Help!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.
He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for a golden portal to open. But whether he was too far away or she was simply ignoring him, the Ancient One didn't miraculously appear to save him.
'Dammit, I need to get closer to her pavilion. But how am I supposed to get past all of them?'
He peeked around the corner at the pursuing sorcerers. He checked his internal reservoir, but the dark energy was regenerating at a painfully slow crawl. It wasn't nearly enough to shadow-step again.
As a massive, robed man stepped forward and raised a glowing staff, Luke desperately prayed for someone—anyone—to jump out and block the attack.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, a chunk of his own shadow violently tore itself away. It twisted and stretched upward, materializing into a figure clad entirely in pitch-black ninja garb with glowing crimson eyes.
'Holy crap! The Shadow Khan!'
It finally clicked. This was one of the Ninja Khan from his childhood cartoons! Remembering the glowing red eyes of the mask in his System shop, it all made sense. The units he was buying to mine crystals were actually Shadow Ninjas, and he could summon them to fight for him!
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A rush of pure adrenaline hit him. He was actually commanding his own childhood dream army!
But that excitement only lasted a second. Sure, a Shadow Ninja could easily mop the floor with regular street thugs, but...
He looked at the grim-faced mystics bearing down on him. With their hulking physiques and decades of martial arts training, he was fairly certain these battlemages could beat his ninja into a pulp even without magic.
He quickly checked his System balance. He only had 5.9 points. He couldn't even afford a second ninja.
'I'm so dead. This idle system is complete garbage. Can I request a refund for a different cheat code?!'
Shoving his despair aside, he pointed at the approaching mob. "Go! Hold them off!"
Without a single moment of hesitation, the Shadow Ninja launched itself at the horde of masters. And exactly as Luke predicted, the poor ninja was instantly dogpiled and mercilessly beaten down by a flurry of glowing mystical weapons.
However, that brief, brutal distraction bought him just enough time. A tiny fraction of his dark energy regenerated, allowing him to melt back into the shadows and vanish.
He popped out of a shadow just outside the courtyard walls and immediately bolted. But Mordo and the others were no slackers, and they were hot on his heels.
Tapping into the desperate speed of a wage slave running late for the morning train, Luke actually managed to outpace a group of highly trained martial artists. But his head start didn't last. Golden portals began snapping open directly in his path, with angry sorcerers pouring out of them to cut him off.
"Oh, come on! That's cheating!" he shouted, realizing just how terrifyingly relentless these magic-users were. He couldn't outrun teleportation!
A sorcerer lunged at him, swinging a glowing cudgel overhead. Luke instinctively shadow-stepped to dodge, sinking into the ground. But the attacker immediately slammed the staff directly into the floor. A violent shockwave of extradimensional energy blasted outward, forcefully knocking Luke straight out of the shadow realm.
Stunned, he scrambled back and tried to melt into another shadow, but the veteran fighters had already figured out his trick.
"Box him in with shields! His teleportation cannot pass through pure magical barriers!" one of them barked. The others instantly raised their hands, summoning massive mandalas of golden light to form a glittering cage around him.
Luke watched the golden walls close in, his heart pounding against his ribs. His energy was completely depleted again, and he was trapped.
Remembering he still had his single summon, he tried pulling it out of the system again. His shadow split, and the bruised ninja materialized beside him.
"Grab me and run!"
Instead of sending it on a suicide mission, Luke vaulted onto the ninja's back like a koala.
The ninja's crimson eyes widened as if straining under his weight, but it dutifully launched into a dead sprint. With unnatural agility, it bobbed and weaved through the closing gaps in the glowing shields, miraculously carrying him out of the encirclement.
Still, Luke knew it was completely hopeless to try and outrun a teleporting army inside their own headquarters. His only chance of survival lay with a certain bald woman.
As the ninja vaulted over walls and darted through courtyards, juking an ever-growing horde of angry magicians, Luke clung on for dear life, continuously screaming the Ancient One's name at the top of his lungs.
If the shadow summon didn't have limitless stamina, they would have been pinned to the ground minutes ago. But eventually, their luck ran out. The ninja skidded to a halt, backing Luke into a dead-end alley. A sea of glowing weapons blocked their only exit.
Staring at the sheer wall of bodies, Luke was fairly certain every single official master in Kamar-Taj had shown up to hunt him down. He checked his empty energy reserves, unable to shadow-step even a single inch. He shook his head grimly. 'This is it. I'm dead.'
But just as he braced for the impact, the air shattered like glass. A golden portal sparked into existence directly in front of him, and a figure draped in yellow robes calmly stepped out from the Mirror Dimension, placing herself between Luke and the furious mob.
"Sorcerer Supreme!" a master shouted from the crowd. "That boy behind you harbors dark magic! He is a zealot of the Dark Lord!"
Luke peered around the Ancient One's robes at the man who had yelled. He looked awfully familiar. He squinted.
'Holy crap, is that Kaecilius?! You little traitor, you haven't even defected yet, and you're pointing fingers at me?!'
The Ancient One lowered her hood, her bald head gleaming in the light as her mere presence instantly silenced the courtyard.
"He does possess dark energy, but he is not a follower of Dormammu," she announced evenly. "Rather, he is another Dormammu..."
'Are you actually trying to get me killed?!' Luke felt his soul leave his body. She had just labeled him as the literal final boss of the universe! Was she planning to burn him at the stake right here to reaffirm their religious tenets?
As a dangerous murmur rippled through the agitated crowd, the Ancient One casually held up a hand. "He possesses the potential to become an entity like Dormammu, but his nature is fundamentally different."
'You can't just pause for dramatic effect like that! Stop speaking in riddles!' Seeing the entire courtyard collectively blink in confusion at her cryptic words, Luke could have cried tears of joy. She really was covering for him. He was going to live.
"He resembles Dormammu in that he commands the power of the Dark Dimension," she elaborated smoothly. "However, unlike Dormammu, he is not corrupted by it. He rules the darkness, rather than letting it rule him."
"He is a far purer master of the void. He is the true Lord of the Dark Dimension."
Hearing her elevate his cosmic status far above Dormammu's, Luke glanced at his System interface. It read 5.9—oh wait, it just ticked up by 0.1. He now had a staggering 6.0 energy points.
'Wait, am I really that badass?'
"But Master, you taught us that dark magic is inherently evil!" Kaecilius protested loudly. "If he is the true Dark Lord, shouldn't we execute him now before he can threaten the Earth?"
'You absolute hypocrite! When you inevitably betray Kamar-Taj, I'll deal with you myself!' Luke glared daggers at Kaecilius, but the man completely ignored him, waiting stubbornly for the Ancient One's response."Pure power has no inherent morality," the Ancient One replied, her voice remaining impossibly serene. Her calm, sagely demeanor made her every word sound like absolute truth. "Just as a blade in your hands defends our world, the same blade in the hands of a tyrant destroys it."
"Furthermore, his power originates from the very same source as our greatest enemy. The stronger he grows, the weaker Dormammu becomes." She dropped the final, irresistible hook, completely extinguishing any remaining hostility in the crowd. "As long as his heart remains just, his power will pose no threat. And once Dormammu is eradicated and the Dark Dimension is purified, we too will be able to draw upon that untainted power. We will be able to cast our spells without paying the cosmic toll."
Magic in Kamar-Taj was fundamentally a system of bartering. Sorcerers borrowed power from extradimensional entities at a steep personal cost. That was exactly why they constantly trained their physical bodies—to endure the horrific toll their magic demanded.
If that cost was removed entirely, they would become true, unburdened mages, just like Doctor Strange in the final battle of Endgame.
'Wait, what was Endgame again?' Luke's memory blurred for a second.
Realizing the sheer magnitude of her promise, the sorcerers suddenly looked at Luke in a completely different light. Their eyes practically burned with frantic hope, as if they were silently begging him to march into the Dark Dimension right this second, roundhouse kick Dormammu in the face, and bring about a new era of free magic.
Before Luke could even process how he had miraculously gone from public enemy number one to Kamar-Taj's most precious VIP, the Ancient One casually grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back into the Mirror Dimension.