Stephen Strange was deeply interested in the strange boy he had met before.
After ensuring that he was protected from other entities and preventing those same entities from causing any problems in the normal world, he used his powers as the Supreme Sorcerer to investigate more about the boy.
And Stephen was very surprised by what he saw.
Until a few weeks ago, that very same boy didn't exist. Not in this world. Whenever Strange tried to use the powers of the jewel of time to see the boy's past, all he found were timelines that had been destroyed and rebuilt when that boy arrived.
And whenever he tried to see his future, he also found nothing but uncertain futures that kept being changed every time Strange used his powers.
That was fascinating and scary at the same time.
That boy was a without a fateless being, without a future, without a past. Someone who had become free from the invisible ties of fate and won the right to create his own destiny. Beings of this nature were unpredictable, and as his master said before passing him the mantle of Supreme Sorcerer: "A being without a fixed destiny is the best ally and also the worst enemy you could have, because as long as he is free from the invisible ropes of time and destiny, he will always be able to do everything he wants"
Looking closely at this boy, Strange finally understood what the Ancient One wanted to say.
The boy was clumsy, impulsive and without any kind of training, but still, the power that overflowed from him was immeasurable.
An energy very similar to Chaos overflowed from the boy's body as if it were a river. No, it wasn't an energy similar to Chaos, it was the Chaos itself, only stronger, more concentrated, more powerful.
And besides, there was also something else that Strange couldn't understand. It was a kind of presence, an invisible backrest, a kind of guardian who was always with that boy no matter where he was. An entity maybe...
Adding all those factors, Strange came to a simple conclusion...
That boy needed to be watched.
Elsewhere... |
It had been a few weeks since Ethan used Chaos Control for the first time, and since then, he has managed to learn many things even without the system to help. Even if he had learned many of these things after a lot of trial and error.
After that day, Ethan tried to use Chaos Control a few more times, ending up fainting every time, until he gave up once and for all after waking up with blood dripping from his eyes and ears.
The explanation for this was even simple. After studying a little how the skill worked through a skill panel, Ethan discovered that Chaos Control was simply a chaos energy manipulation technique that involved releasing or absorbing that same energy to cause temporal and spatial distortions.
Ethan had no control over his chaos energy, that is, he had no control over how much he absorbed or released, eventually unintentionally absorbing and releasing massive chaos energy amounts, much higher than what his body could handle. The end result was always him fainting and his body suffering some repercussion.
But it was worth the effort. His fusion rate rose a little after those experiments.
[ fusion rate: 4.81% ]
Anyway, these experiments made Ethan understand that he shouldn't try to mess with the powers of chaos so deeply until his fusion rate was a little higher. After all, he was essentially destroying his body for nothing, so the best thing would be not to mess with things he didn't understand.
His focus was now on simpler and less complex skills. Like the flight he was practicing now.
For the first time since he started training, Ethan was floating a few meters from the ground without shaking or being afraid of falling.
It turns out that the secret to stabilize his flight was just to stay calm, something he couldn't do before due to being someone extremely anxious because of his bad luck. But after so many experiments with his powers and without the voice of the system to annoy him, he was becoming someone calmer over time.
The process to fly remained the same: cover your body with energy, imagine a force that pulled you up and continue to exercise this force subconsciously while flying. The difference now was that Ethan was calm.
He just needed to keep his mind clear and not think too much about anything that he could stay still in the air without any problem. Of course, he was just floating, because he still didn't have enough mastery to move in the air at impossible speeds like Supeman. But one day he would do it.
Ethan sighed and landed softly, without falling face down on the ground like the other times.
It was a simple feat and nothing impressive by the standards of this world, but somehow, it brought a small smile to the face.
Ethan was already getting used to the oddities of that world. Of course, there were many things that still surprise him, but it is easier to assimilate something out of the ordinary when you yourself become out of the ordinary.
In addition, he was starting to get more optimistic about his current situation. Even though he didn't understand basically anything about that world, he knew that if he continued to train and increase his fusion rate, he would become strong enough to never have to worry about anything again.
Especially after taking a look at Enerjak's list of skills.
Elemental manipulation, technopathy, geokinesis, omniscience, atmospheric manipulation, biological manipulation, magic manipulation, magic, immortality, timelessness, immunity to... practically everything...
Seriously, why did that man needed so many powers?
Still, all he had to do was survive and become stronger. And maybe one day, he could finally rest and be happy in his own way.
Maybe one day he could go back to his world and see his mother again...
...
Before he could be sad with that thought, Ethan instinctively looked up and saw a kind of giant black aircraft coming towards him and landing a few meters from him.
His expression lost all the brightness he had.
"And I thought it would take longer for the government to find me..." he murmured, rubbing his temples and preparing for the worst.
Ethan knew this cliché scenario of movies and series very well. Someone with super powers appears, the government considers this person unstable and dangerous, arrests this same person in a laboratory to be tortured and dissected, and everything ends in an "epic" arc of revenge against the government and researchers.
As well, this scenario didn't seem so cliché anymore when it was about to happen to him.
Seeing the aircraft open and already waiting for the worst, Ethan simply raised his hands in a sign of surrender and slowly approached.
"Look, I already know how this will end, so let's jump straight to the end. I know I have the right to remain silent, but I know you won't respect this right" He said not making a point of hiding how inconvenient that situation was being for him.
He waited for screams, people running and handcuffs being placed on his wrists...
But he was completely incredulous when the first thing that left the aircraft was...
A hairy blue gorilla?