Goal-300 Power Stones for the next bonus chapter
When Jay opened his eyes, the first thing he felt was pain. Not just regular pain. The kind that made every fiber of his being scream. Even his enhanced healing aura, working at maximum capacity, couldn't keep up with the damage his body had sustained.
He was back in the Ancient One's private meditation hall. Soft light filtered through the mountain windows, casting everything in a golden glow that should have been peaceful, but right now it only made his headache worse.
He spotted the Ancient One sitting at her low wooden table. But instead of brewing her customary tea, she was carefully inscribing Sanskrit symbols onto what looked like white bandages wrapped around a familiar black sheath.
Muramasa.
His sword lay there like a sleeping serpent, its malevolent aura completely contained by whatever mystical bindings she was applying.
"Did I win?" Jay asked, his voice barely more than a whisper.
THWACK!
The rolled newspaper materialized and struck him with surgical precision, sending stars exploding across his vision. The pain was so much worse now. Every impact felt like Thor's hammer connecting with his skull.
"Don't you ever," the Ancient One said through gritted teeth, "surprise me like that again! Going around using cursed weaponry and attempting to cut through dimensions from the inside—"
THWACK!
"—without any regard for the consequences to yourself or others—"
THWACK!
"—is precisely the kind of reckless behavior that gets students expelled from Kamar-Taj!"
"Stop! Please!" Jay begged, covering his head with both hands. "It hurts so much worse now!"
The Ancient One's expression immediately shifted from irritation to concern. She set the newspaper aside and placed her hands over him, golden energy flowing from her fingers as she performed a diagnostic scan.
"By the Vishanti," she breathed. "Your body was pushed far beyond its limits. That final technique tore every muscle fiber and nerve ending you possess. If it hadn't been for your healing aura maintaining basic biological functions, you would be a vegetable right now."
Jay nodded weakly, gingerly touching his head to make sure it hadn't swollen to balloon proportions from all the newspaper strikes.
The Ancient One picked up Muramasa's wrapped sheath and handed it to him carefully. "I have personally inscribed containment seals into these bandages and the sheath. They will suppress the blade's negative aura so it doesn't affect those in its vicinity."
"What do you mean?" Jay asked, accepting the weapon with trembling hands.
"Your final attack created a direct connection between yourself and the blade. The sword fed on your negative emotions, but in return, it amplified those same emotions around you. The result was an endless feedback loop that would have drained your emotions completely if the battle had gone on longer."
She fixed him with a stern look that made him feel like a child being lectured about playing with matches.
"This weapon and especially the final technique are to be used only as an absolute last resort. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Teacher," Jay replied, properly chastised, though he wondered if his Mental Shield Perk had been protecting him.
The Ancient One's expression softened slightly, and she exhaled slowly. "Since you are the winner of our wager, I will honor my promise. You may observe select alternate timelines through the Time Stone."
She held up a cautioning finger.
"However, we can only examine a few without risking detection by entities that monitor such usage. And since the timelines are now infinite in number, we must choose carefully to avoid straining my connection to the stone."
Jay found the terms reasonable and struggled to sit upright, every movement sending fresh waves of pain through his battered body. He managed to position himself across from her at the low table, breathing heavily from the effort.
The Ancient One closed her eyes in concentration and began weaving complex protective wards around the chamber. The air grew thick with mystical energy, layers upon layers of concealment and security settling into place.
Finally, she summoned the Eye of Agamotto.
Jay had seen the artifact before, but never this close, never opened. As her fingers traced the intricate mechanisms that unlocked its secrets, the pendant split apart like a flowering lotus to reveal the Time Stone within. A brilliant emerald gem that seemed to contain entire universes within its faceted depths.
The urge hit him immediately.
What would happen if he used Creel's power to absorb its properties? The potential was staggering.
His danger sense exploded into his consciousness with such intensity that he nearly passed out. Every instinct he possessed screamed warnings about dreadful consequences, complete annihilation, and the attention of entities that made gods look like ants.
Jay forced himself to look away, sweat beading on his forehead despite the mountain chill.
"Wise restraint," the Ancient One observed with approval. "The temptation to touch such power is natural, but the consequences would be abominable."
She raised the Time Stone, and reality around them shifted.
A projection formed in the air between them. What had once been a single golden thread now appeared as an impossibly complex web. The moment Jay had entered this universe, the timeline had fractured like glass struck by a hammer, creating infinite branching possibilities. Some threads blazed with vibrant light while others flickered and died, entire potential realities snuffed out by the cascading effects of his choices.
"Your very presence has rewritten the laws of fate in this reality," the Ancient One said softly. "Every decision you make creates new possibilities while destroying others. You are a living embodiment of chaos theory. A butterfly whose wings reshape hurricanes across the cosmos."
Jay stared at the projection in awe. The visual representation of infinite possibilities was simultaneously beautiful and terrifying. He could see how his actions rippled outward, affecting not just individuals but entire civilizations, reshaping the fundamental nature of the universe itself.
The images began to shift and flow, showing glimpses of what might be:
The first scene materialized with startling clarity.
Jay stood in a sleek red and gold armor that perfectly complemented Tony Stark's iconic suit. Side by side with Iron Man and War Machine, they soared through the skies above Los Angeles, their combined firepower decimating ranks of Hammer drones. But this wasn't the clumsy, desperate battle from the films. This was a coordinated assault by three professionals, their movements perfectly synchronized as they executed complex aerial maneuvers that no single pilot could have managed alone.
"In this timeline," the Ancient One's voice echoed as if from a great distance, "you recreated Tony Stark's technology perfectly. You became the third member of their trinity. Iron Will, they called you."
The scene shifted.
Now Jay stood with the Fantastic Four, but his appearance was dramatically different. Magnificent angelic wings stretched from his shoulders, their span easily ten feet across, each feather gleaming with an inner light. His eyes blazed with cosmic energy as he fired precise beams that carved through the Moloids swarming around them. Reed's elastic arms wrapped around Sue's force fields while Johnny's flames provided cover, but Jay was the team's heavy artillery. Angel's wings providing impossible maneuverability while Cyclops's optic blasts dealt devastating damage to their underground enemies.
"Here, you absorbed Warren Worthington's mutation and Scott Summers's powers," the Ancient One explained. "The combination made you one of the most formidable aerial combatants on Earth."
The projection flickered again.
This time, Jay stood in the heart of Manhattan during the Chitauri invasion, but the scene was almost unrecognizable. Instead of six Avengers forming their famous circle, there were seven. Jay's presence had somehow boosted the entire team's capabilities. His muscles bulged with power while energy beams bounced off his skin.
"In this timeline, you absorbed Jessica Jones and Luke Cage's powers," the Ancient One noted. "You became the anchor that held Earth's Mightiest Heroes together through the Chitauri invasion."
The next image was perhaps the most startling of all.
Jay appeared as an older man, his hair silver-white, a distinctive eyepatch over his left eye. He wore a familiar black leather coat with S.H.I.E.L.D. insignia, but the bearing was entirely his own. Less of Nick Fury's paranoid intensity, more of a teacher's patient authority. Beside him stood Maria Hill and Phil Coulson, both showing the gray hair and laugh lines of people who had served long and well under a director they respected rather than feared.
"Here, you inherited Nick Fury's position, but transformed S.H.I.E.L.D. into something entirely different," the Ancient One said with what might have been approval. "An organization built on trust and transparent protection rather than secrets and manipulation."
The images began flowing faster now, too quick to absorb more than a few details.
Jay standing atop a crystalline tower in what looked like New Attilan, Inhuman royal regalia marking him as their king, his queen bearing a suspicious resemblance to a certain luck-manipulating mutant...
Jay in the depths of space, his body somehow adapted to survive in vacuum, trading blows with the Champion of the Universe while wielding Nidavellir weapons forged from the hearts of stars...
Jay seated on a throne that seemed to be carved from a single massive diamond, with beings from dozens of species kneeling before him. Some in fear, others in devotion...
Jay standing in a laboratory that defied physics, where the walls showed glimpses of other dimensions, working alongside a Reed Richards whose hair had gone completely white from exposure to even more cosmic radiation, having abandoned his humanity and focusing only on his scientific progress...
Jay, in gladiatorial armor in what could only be Sakaar, but instead of being enslaved, he stood as champion gladiator, openly daring the Grandmaster to send more warriors his way.
The scenes flowed faster and faster until they became a blur of light and possibility.
Then, suddenly, the projection froze on a single timeline.
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