A/N:
" " : Dialogue,
' ' : Thought,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy,
"Bold text": Shadows,
[ ] : System,
| | : Artificial Intelligence.
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Location: Earth, Nepal, Kathmandu, Kamar-Taj
July 2, 2006
Omniscient POV
A week had passed since Ashwani had begun staying at Kamar-Taj, and no one had seen him step out of his workspace. However, the workspace had increased in size by quite a bit, since Ashwani felt that he needed more space for him to properly work and live there. Ashwani had busied himself with the knowledge he had absorbed from the tomes in Kamar-Taj's library, converting every single spell into code, so that he could turn them into skill chips that he could make with his nanomachines, all the while keeping up with his daily quest.
At this point, he had finished with the spells, and returned to working on his plans for the near future. Since receiving the Sling Ring from Yao, thoughts of travelling to various parts of the world to get resources he would use to strengthen himself had been plaguing him, albeit at the back of his mind.
He could portal deep into Wakanda and steal multiple Heart-Shaped Herbs without anyone none the wiser. But the boost that he wanted to get was something more immediate. So, for the first time in seven days, Ashwani stepped out of his workspace. He came out and saw multiple apprentices going through training to create a standard Tao Mandala.
Quickly giving them a quiet greeting, he quickly opened a portal into a room where Yao was meditating. "Hey, Yao. I wanted to ask you for something." Ashwani said, and shortly after, Yao came out of her meditation. "Go ahead." She said as she opened her eyes.
"I need access to the relics." He said, causing her to raise a brow. "I'm not taking them away. I just want to create my own iterations of some of them." He said, piquing her interest. "Okay. I'll allow it." She said curtly, her face hiding her interest in Ashwani's plans.
"Thanks. Well, I'm heading out." He said, as he created another portal. Yao saw the environment on the other side of the portal and recognized it. "Why London?" She asked him. "Well, there's a certain blade that I want to get my hands on. So, it's better I get it now than later." He said as he waved her goodbye, then walked through the portal while activating Stealth.
…
Ashwani POV
Closing the portal behind me, I look around the area that surrounds the building that I opened the portal on, then Blinked away, heading towards the Natural History Museum. As I reach it, I walk in, making sure not to touch anyone as I head deeper into the building. Eventually, I come into a large room with actual British artifacts.
Altering the nanomachines in my eyes, I apply a relic-detection spell in tandem with me using Void Gaze, and I found it. In a corner of the room lay a 5'3" long box no wider than 5 inches. Since no one is in the room with me, I walk over to the box and open it.
Inside the box was a sword wrapped in dirty bandages, a seal to keep its horrid power locked away. "The Ebony Blade." I say as I remove the bandages. Wrapping the sword in a layer of nanomachines, I instruct ELITE to analyze it quickly. |Understood. Estimated time of completion is three minutes.| Three minutes. I can work with that.
While ELITE analyses the Ebony Blade, I build a projector, one that projects a highly convincing hologram of the box with the Ebony Blade still securely bound in it, as any object I hold is also taken into Stealth while it's active. While I do that, multiple notifications pop up in my vision.
[Status Effect has been removed due to the effect of 'Immunity']
['Curse: Berserk' has disappeared.]
['Curse: Corruption' has disappeared.]
The effects of the Ebony Blade continue to attack me as it stays in my grasp, but I just tune it out as ELITE continues analyzing it. Time passes, and ELITE tells me she's done. I pull the sword out of the case, leaving behind a copy made from nanomachines. I wrap the copy in the bandages, and put it in the box, replacing it to the exact same position it was in before I came in here.
As for the actual Ebony Blade, I tossed it into my inventory. Opening up a portal. I return to Kamar-Taj, then head over to Yao, who's sipping on some tea. "I thought it would take you a bit longer to return." She says calmly, as she returned to sipping her tea. "It wasn't all that hard to find. It also helps that I'm immune to its corruption." I say as I pull the Ebony Blade from my inventory and flourish it.
The notifications pop up in a frenzy, causing me to rub my temples in annoyance. "It's still as horrid as I remember." Yao says as she eyes the sword. "That's what I came to you for. I want to purify it. It can't affect me, but I'd prefer not having its corruption constantly prodding against my mind." I tell her.
"Of course. Follow me." She says, as she places down her cup. With a wave of her hand, we are moved to another room, one with multiple relics in it. Walking over to a shelf, she picks up a metal vessel of some kind that had a glow coming from inside it. She then waves her hand again, moving us from the room with relics to an empty yard.
As she placed down the vessel, I'm finally able to recognize the relic she had picked out. It was the Brazier of Bom'Galiath, a relic that was mainly used for amplifying the power of spells, but also had the ability to generate flames to a great extent. "Hold the sword over the Brazier." She says, as she begins weaving hand seals to cast a spell, a purification/exorcism spell that is normally used to eliminate demonic influence in objects.
As she casts the spell, she simultaneously activates the Brazier of Bom'Galiath, causing it to spew out a torrent of flames, which now carries a strong purification attribute. As the flames exit the Brazier, I place the sword within the flames, and keep a hold on it using Ruler's Authority. As the purifying flames continue to lick at the blade, the corruption that has been entrenched in the blade begins to steadily wane.
Slowly but surely, the sword was purged of the corruption that had accumulated from its previous wielders, the multiple generations of Black Knights, and eventually, Yao shut off the spell, finished with the purification of the Ebony Blade. Bringing the sword into my left hand, I smile, as no notifications pop up in my vision.
"Thanks for the help, Yao." I say, as I form a BFS on my right arm. I bring the purified Ebony Blade to the BFS, controlling the nanomachines to latch onto the sword and assimilate it. I detach the BFS from my arm while keeping its form, then remold it, making it a large blade with no openings. As for the Ebony Blade that was being assimilated, I made its hilt the base for my new sword's hilt, moving some nanomachines to enlarge the hilt.
After the nanomachines had fully assimilated the Ebony Blade, its abilities were now subject to my whims. And so, I completely removed the corruption curse that was still within it – as Yao only purified the corruption that was present, but not its source, and replaced that with five stacks of the Combo Frenzy skill, while also giving it the System Shock effect.
With the compound multiplication, I'll end up with about 150% more power per strike instead of 100% like it'd seem at first glance. With that, I had fully repurposed the Ebony Blade. Dane Whitman will not become the Black Knight without multiversal interference, but that's a small price to pay. After finishing the assimilation, I inspect the sword's attributes.
[Item: ???
Item Class: SSS
Type: Sword
Attack +900
Agility +90
Strength +125
A sword created by subsuming a Starstone blade laden with multiple abilities, and combining it with ever shifting nanomachines, turning it into a weapon of even greater power.
Effect 1 'Severance': Ignores 95% of enemy defense.
Effect 2 'Combo Craze': Every consecutive attack that hits the enemy increases the next attack's power by 149%.
Effect 3 'Mind Veil': Protects wielder's mind from intrusion.
Effect 4 'Spirit Slaying': Capable of hitting intangible beings.
Effect 5 'Apport': Wielder can be transported to the blade through will, and vice versa.
Effect 6 'Absorption': Absorbs energy upon collision.
Effect 7 'System Shock': +60% chance to paralyze enemies upon hitting, +50% chance to cause an additional random debuff.
Effect 8 'Loyalty': Unable to harm its registered wielder.
Effect 9 'Indestructible': Cannot be destroyed.]
It had no name, and some of the Ebony Blade's abilities were altered or just added to other abilities that the nanomachines already had, like its ability to deflect and absorb magic being turned into the Absorption effect, and the black armor that Dane Whitman used in the King In Black comic run was absorbed into the Nano Suit.
Looking over the greatsword once more, I cycle through different names for it in my head, and eventually landed on the name I felt would fit it. "Black Rift." I say, naming my new weapon. "A fitting name." Yao says from the side as she observes the pitch-black sword. "Thanks. It's better now that I don't have to worry about the corruption." I say as I put the Black Rift in my inventory.
"By the way, I'm going to be studying the Cloak of Levitation." I tell her, referencing my earlier request for access to relics. "It's the only relic I'll be needing for a while, so don't expect me to be asking for other relics any time soon." I say, hoping to avoid any complications or misunderstandings.
"Of course. But, you do know that the absence of the Black Knight is going to pose its own problem in the future." She says, and I remember the possibility of a portal to Otherworld, a pocket dimension that is attached to Earth in most universes, this one included, being opened from either side. While I wouldn't necessarily want to deal with Avalon, it doesn't mean that I wouldn't be capable of doing so.
"If it does become a problem, I'll deal with it. And besides, the British should get used to getting something culturally important stolen from them. They've been doing that to others for a long time." I say, opening a portal to the New York Sanctum, as my mind begins forming contingencies. After entering the New York Sanctum, I looked around until I found Drumm once more and told him that Yao had given me permission to study the Cloak of Levitation.
Although he was a bit wary of me, he knew that there was no reason for me to lie about this. And even if I did deceive him, I wouldn't be able to deceive the Cloak of Levitation. So, he guided me to the relic room, and I saw relics that in the original timeline, would have had some importance in the future.
After entering the room, I walked up to the box that held the Cloak of Levitation. It hung there, as still as can be, until I reached toward it, upon which it wrapped around my arm, tightly constricting it for a few seconds. "Hey, pal. I'm not here to take you as my own. Someone else will do that in the future." I say to the Cloak.
"For now, though, I want to study you." As I say that, it shrinks away from my arm, almost as if in fear. With my increased sensitivity to extradimensional energies, I can tell that there is astral energy within the Cloak, albeit a small amount. It's pretty clear that this is the basis for its rudimentary consciousness, which allows it to have these reactions.
"Don't worry. It's not going to be anything that would damage you. I just want to try and make something like you for myself." The Cloak seems to sag in disappointment, like a dog that didn't get adopted from a pet adoption center. "Hey, I'm not going to become the Sorcerer Supreme, and if the future doesn't change too much, you'll probably get chosen by the person who'll do that." I say, giving the Cloak some comfort.
After saying that, I pull it out of its case, then put it into my inventory. I bid Daniel farewell, then open a portal back to my workspace, eager to begin creating an improved version of the Cloak of Levitation.
…
Omniscient POV
Location: Earth, Genosha
Nine days had passed since Erik and Raven had visited Ashwani, and Erik had made sure to tell the nation's main attack squad, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, about him. Erik had told them of the abilities that Ashwani had mentioned having, and most of the members of the Brotherhood were impressed. Most of them.
"So what? He's still a fuckin' kid." Victor Creed, the Sabretooth, said derisively. "The fact that he's only got memories of the dead means that he's just a combination of weaklings that died to the strong." He said with a snarl. "It seems that you forget that even the strong have died. It would be best for you not to underestimate him." Magneto said as he thought back to the fact that Ashwani had also mentioned that he was essentially in infancy as far as his development as the Shadow Monarch was concerned.
"So the kid thinks he's death itself now? He might be a bit in over his head, don't you think?" Mortimer Toynbee, the Toad said, also skeptical of Ashwani. "I mean, his abilities definitely sound powerful, no doubt. But it seems like he needs to be strong in the first place to properly make use of them." He said, bringing up a valid point.
"If he was willing to tell us about his abilities to such an extent, I believe that he's strong enough to do just that, Toad." Raven said, almost defensive of Ashwani. "Okay, love. No need to get ya' panties in a twist." Toad said with his hands up. Erik put his hand on Raven's shoulder, understanding the reason for her outburst.
"I agree with her, Toad. Do understand that he has experienced all of humanity's deaths. He knows the pain that our kind has gone through… intimately. Even the pain that they have gone through." Erik said, vitriol in his voice towards normal humans. "He has all of that, and quite possibly more that we don't know of. If he wasn't strong when we met with him, he will be when he comes to us, whether any of you believe it or not." He said, directing his words to all members of the Brotherhood.
Although a few of them still had a bit of skepticism, Erik – no, Magneto's confidence in Ashwani had pushed that down. So now, they were eagerly waiting to meet the Shadow Monarch in person.
Chapter End.
Word Count: 2,529
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