In an instant, the entire, quiet reception room in Kamar-Taj fell silent, the only sound the faint, cooling rattle of the tea cups.
The Ancient One, having delivered a blow specifically designed to separate the astral form from any physical body, stumbled back two full steps. Her expression was no longer one of wary caution or gentle amusement; it was pure, unadulterated astonishment. The Sorcerer Supreme, who wielded the power of time and dimensions, had been physically repelled by a teenage boy.
A faint golden light, subtle but absolute, had surged from Leo's body, creating an invisible force field that stopped the Ancient One's palm precisely two centimeters from his skin. The Immovable Golden Body had not only blocked the sheer kinetic force but, more crucially, shielded his very being from the spiritual shockwave. Leo hadn't moved a visible muscle, yet the strongest mystic on Earth had recoiled.
Leo, however, didn't seem victorious. He slowly glanced at the Ancient One, and the golden light around him gradually dissipated. He just stared blankly at Gu Yi, his eyes wide and filled with an almost desperate expectation, as if silently pleading for her to try again, harder this time.
In that brief, shattering instant, Leo had felt the immense, foreign force acting upon his soul, attempting to rip it free from his flesh. It was a terrifying sensation, but his core spiritual essence, anchored by his advanced power and the Steel Bars enhancement, had completely refused to yield.
After Gu Yi unleashed this unprecedented palm strike, her deeply tense expression finally relaxed. The lines of fatigue around her eyes smoothed out, and a genuine, if somewhat cryptic, smile bloomed on her face.
"Ancient One, is that all you've got?" Leo whispered, his voice slightly shaky from the shock of the spiritual engagement, though his body remained stable. He felt compelled to continue the test, sensing she had lost her immediate desire to attack. He couldn't help but offer a reminder.
Gu Yi laughed, a soft, pleasant sound that echoed oddly in the room. She walked forward again, raising her hand, but this time, it was not an attack. She simply placed the palm of her hand gently, almost reverently, on Leo's chest.
This time, the immense force was channeled and focused, a subtle pressure rather than a violent shock. She sought the connection point between his spirit and his physical form. She searched for the seam where the other-dimensional soul was attached to the Earth-native body.
The spiritual force instantly struck Leo's soul body, and he felt the familiar pull, the sensation of his spirit rising toward the ceiling. But just as his soul was about to leave his body, a second defense mechanism, subtle and perfect, engaged.
A layer of golden light—the spiritual essence of the Golden Eyes and the ultimate refinement of his B-level Body Enhancement—silently filled his brain, spreading throughout his body, binding Leo's soul and body tightly together with an unbreakable, ethereal chain. The golden glow was the manifestation of a soul that was totally, perfectly integrated with its host.
Gu Yi removed her hand, her smile widening into one of complete satisfaction and acceptance. "I can sense your heart, young Leo. And I can sense your acceptance of this place and this time. You are deeply and entirely anchored here."
She sat down opposite him, gesturing for him to do the same. "Your soul and body are now perfectly integrated. It is impossible for a soul from another dimension to have simply taken over this body—that happens at a much lower power level. You are something else entirely. Something… natural, yet unforeseen. It is simply that your physical abilities are too powerful, too rigid, too dense. Even the Eye of Agamotto cannot condense time onto you because you present no choice in the future I see. You are an absolute fixed point, a phenomenon."
She held up the teacup in a toast. "Since you are not a life form that broke in from another dimension, and your intent is benign, I should not restrict you, Mr. Leo. You are free to leave Kamar-Taj now, with our deepest apologies for the abrupt arrival."
Leo frowned. Although he had always respected the Ancient One as a mentor of wisdom, he felt that she seemed to be deliberately simplifying the truth, hiding something profound about his nature. He knew she had seen more than she was letting on.
"Ancient One," Leo pressed, ignoring the offer of freedom for a moment, "could you please let me see some books about astral projection? I need to understand how the soul works."
"Leo, I must advise against this," the Ancient One said, setting down her cup with a gentle clink. "You have immense physical power. You do not have the innate talent to learn the mystic arts. If you try to practice this spell, it will take you a prohibitive amount of time, diverting your considerable energy from your established path."
"I want to try it anyway," Leo insisted. If she couldn't see his origins through the Eye of Agamotto, perhaps by mastering the manipulation of the soul itself, he could pierce the veil of his own past. It was a desperate gamble, but the Ancient One's failure had lit a fire under his existential crisis.
In the end, Leo still managed to get his hands on the book about astral projection. The Ancient One, after a long, scrutinizing silence, even granted Leo permission to take the book away, a decision she knew would cause ripples. The condition was simple: he must return it within one year, and it must not be circulated or copied outside of the temple's control.
Leo stood, clasping his hands together once more in a deep, grateful bow. "Thank you, Ancient One. This means more than you know."
"Use it wisely, Leo," she replied, her eyes reflecting the gold in his. "The mysteries of the soul are not to be trifled with."
"Ancient One," Leo continued, a mischievous glint in his eye, "as a courtesy, and because my feet are tired, could you teleport me back to the Hong Kong Sanctuary? I'd like to leave from where I arrived."
The Ancient One chuckled softly, raising her hands to create a signature Sling Ring portal.
Through the inter-temple portal, Leo arrived back in the quiet, echoing Hong Kong Temple. Looking back at the closing portal, which dissolved the distance between Nepal and China in a flash of sparks, he couldn't help but marvel at the efficiency of the teleportation that completely ignored distance, time, and the inconvenience of Mach 10 travel.
He stepped out of the sanctuary and back onto the dizzying street, the humid, loud, vibrant air of Hong Kong washing over him. The city never slept, and despite the pitch-black night, the colorful signs and neon advertisements burned with a feverish intensity. Leo shook his head, momentarily banishing the unsettling philosophical conversation with the Sorcerer Supreme.
He licked his lips. 'Vibranium can wait a few hours. I'm going to have a proper meal!'
Two hours later, Leo walked out of a bustling food street, a blissful, satiated expression on his face, to the astonishment of the street vendors, who had never seen a single person consume that much beef brisket and wonton noodles.
He readjusted the small backpack containing his phone and the ancient, heavy Sanskrit text on astral projection, found a quiet rooftop, and silently took flight.
My stomach is full, my body is warm, but my heart is cold.
For a brief, precious few hours, the sheer complexity and deliciousness of the countless familiar foods had helped Leo temporarily forget his troubles. But after finishing a final bowl of hot wonton noodles, Leo felt acutely lost as he prepared to go home.
In this world, he no longer had any family here in China, where he felt he spiritually belonged, but in New York, Aunt Jenny and Uncle George were waiting for him. They were his anchor now, his only concrete link to this reality.
Leo glanced back from high above the city, looking at these familiar yet alien streets, memorizing the shape of the skyscrapers and the glow of the harbor, before turning back and continuing his journey toward the African continent.
He flew above the clouds, unfurled his Nirvana Golden Wings, and accelerated to Mach 10 once more.
Leo, flying at high speed through the thin air, even had the leisure to flip through the book in his hands. The ancient text was entirely written in Sanskrit and included incredibly complex, swirling diagrams and accompanying illustrations of the soul body. It left Leo completely baffled.
He attempted to take out his phone to use its translation function. However, the network signal at this supersonic altitude was nonexistent, so he had to resort to using his Metal Control. He shaped a small, polished piece of dense metal to serve as a perfectly sealed container, wrapping the precious, irreplaceable book completely for safe keeping.
Before long, looking at the massive, hazy expanse of the African continent before him, Leo's eyes gleamed with golden light, shifting into the deep focus of the Golden Eyes of Truth.
Silently, he reduced his speed to a more manageable Mach 3 and began a tedious, concentrated search along the coast of Africa. Leo was going to have to put in some serious, concentrated effort to find the stolen Vibranium shipment across this vast coastline.
Meanwhile, back in Kamar-Taj, Mordo was troubled. The air in the library, usually thick with the quiet hum of accumulated knowledge, felt thin and unbalanced. He didn't press the Ancient One for answers, but he did quietly go to the immense library to borrow a few books on advanced dimensional theory to browse.
He searched for the book he wanted to read, but his attention was immediately drawn to an empty space on a high shelf. A book was missing. This was extremely strange, as books in the mage's library were generally not available for loan; they were too dangerous, too unique.
He asked the current librarian, an older, stoic monk, and learned that the book, titled 'Out-of-Body Experience and the Self-Stabilized Soul,' had indeed been borrowed by a 'junior sorcerer' with the personal permission of the Master. The librarian added that the Master suggested it might not be returned for a long time.
Mordo naturally deduced that the 'junior sorcerer' was Leo.
The realization brought a cold spike of worry. That book was not just a spell; it was an extremely complex, profound text. It outlined the theoretical and practical application of separating the spirit from the physical body—astral projection.
Mordo knew that, currently, apart from the Ancient One, no one else in Kamar-Taj had the discipline, power, and mental acuity to successfully perform the final steps of true astral projection. He himself had tried for years, but could only ever enter a deep meditative state; he could never truly leave his body.
The spell allows the spirit to separate from the physical body, becoming invisible and intangible. The astral form does not need to breathe, eat, or sleep, and is mostly unaffected by the laws of physics, retaining all its thoughts and intentions.
The immense drawback, however, was the vulnerability: the physical body becomes incredibly fragile, easily killed by any ordinary physical attack. If the physical body dies during a celestial projection, the spiritual body will remain trapped in a ghostly state, a fate worse than death.
How could that child, a boy with no mystic training, have been allowed to take such profound and dangerous magic? Mordo felt a deep unease. How could the Ancient One, the keeper of order, have personally led someone to break the strict rules of the library? It felt like an abandonment of the protocols he held so dear.
Later that evening, the Ancient One, sensing Mordo's distress, unusually put on the Eye of Agamotto again and went to the library, where she found Mordo still standing rigidly in front of the bookshelves.
"Good evening, Ancient One," Mordo greeted her stiffly, his back perfectly straight.
"Mordo," she returned, her voice gentle.
Mordo stepped forward, his eyes burning with genuine concern. "Ancient One, who was that boy who came today? Leo. He actually took the book 'Out-of-Body Experience' and left the temple. Should we not be concerned that such a volume has been removed from our protection?"
"Master Mordo, I don't know his true nature any more than you do," Ancient One said, her voice soft but her gaze fixed on the Time Stone on her chest. "But time tells me that, despite the chaos he brings, he is filled with only good intentions."
She glanced at the green gem, the answer she had found through her own forbidden exploration of the future. She saw that because of Leo's absolute, unwavering physical strength, he acted as a singular, positive, immovable barrier against the worst threats. She saw him survive and even thwart several critical nexus points—at least until 2016.
"As for what happens after 2016, Mordo," she murmured, a trace of melancholy entering her voice, "that is another story entirely. He is a mystery we must trust, for we cannot stop him."
Leo had been circling for two whole hours, maintaining his Mach 3 search pattern, almost halfway around the African continent along the coast, following every major shipping lane, but he still hadn't seen any trace of Vibranium. The cargo ships he scanned with his Golden Eyes contained massive shipments of weapons, oil, food, and electronics—but no exotic metals.
Just as frustration began to set in, his Golden Eyes focused on a seemingly innocuous, aging cruise ship disguised as a pleasure vessel, cutting through the twilight waves.
His eyes narrowed. In the aft cabin of the ship, visible through multiple metal layers, Leo saw a dozen Asian girls, bound and lying unconscious on the floor, heavily sedated. This wasn't trade; this was human trafficking.
Even as Leo watched, two of the girls were picked up roughly by a hulking, burly black man, one in each arm, and were being dragged toward a darker, interior cabin.
There were seven or eight burly black men and two casually dressed white men inside the common area, drinking, laughing, and talking about something with chilling indifference.
The speeding, silent figure high in the sky stopped dead. The pursuit of Vibranium, the philosophical mystery of his soul, and the fear of the Ancient One all vanished. They were replaced by a cold, immediate, righteous fury.
Leo retracted his wings and plunged from the sky, not with the focused roar of Iron Man, but with the silent, terrible speed of a falling metallic asteroid.
Not far away, at a large, brightly lit port known as the Salvador Grand Port, a massive, brightly lit cargo ship sat docked. It was bustling with people, loud music, and laughter, as if a large party was being held.