Fortunately, the Ancient One was able to shed so light on the girl's origins.
According to her, Morgan was likely similar to the Juggernaut: a creation tied to an extradinsional entity, designed as a tool for invading Earth's dinsion.
Much like how the dark god Chthon had granted chaos magic to the future Scarlet Witch, every use of chaos magic subtly strengthened the connection between Chthon's dinsion and Earth, paving the way for eventual invasion.
Morgan's powers worked on the sa principle.
The Ancient One also revealed the true nature of the magic she wielded.
Soul Magic.
A deeply dangerous form of sorcery fueled entirely by souls.
What concerned the Ancient One most was that she couldn't identify which dinsional entity the magic originated from.
In simple terms, if Morgan burned hundreds of souls to empower a single spell, the strength of the attack would scale according to the quality of those souls.
The more powerful the souls.
The more malicious.
The more corrupted.
The stronger the magic beca.
Like chaos magic, Soul Magic could theoretically accomplish almost anything so long as enough souls were offered as fuel.
Mind manipulation.
mory extraction.
Spatial barriers.
Even temporal reversal.
The possibilities made even Drex feel tempted.
Then the Ancient One calmly explained the hidden cost.
Ninety percent of every soul consud by the magic was taken directly by the dinsional entity behind it.
Only the remaining fraction beca usable magical power.
Drex almost laughed.
"That's a ninety percent tax rate," he said flatly. "Even demons are running scams now."
According to the Ancient One, all souls eventually passed into higher-dinsional afterlives after death, whether heavenly or infernal.
But when a dinsional entity embedded its power into a living being from a mortal dinsion, any souls harvested through that power beca the property of that entity instead.
Naturally, she avoided ntioning cosmic beings like Death itself.
There were so truths she clearly had no intention of explaining to either Drex or Morgan.
Under normal circumstances, the Ancient One would eliminate beings connected to extradinsional corruption imdiately.
Drex found that a little inconsistent.
Funny how she never showed up to erase the Juggernaut.
Or Wanda.
Now suddenly she was taking initiative.
Still, her conclusion was clear.
Morgan's Soul Magic needed to be sealed.
"No objections here," Drex said calmly. "Neither of us has a problem with that, right?"
He glanced toward Morgan.
Unlike arrogant idiots who thought raw power solved everything, Drex understood exactly how dangerous dinsional entities could beco.
His own evolution had already granted him abilities like energy absorption and psychic powers, but those still belonged largely to the realm of physics.
Mysticism was different.
Unknown.
And unknown things deserved caution.
Part of him feared what he didn't understand.
Another part of him was irresistibly fascinated by it.
The scientist inside him wanted answers no matter the risk.
Fortunately, the rational side usually won.
Morgan hesitated for several seconds.
This was her first real taste of extraordinary power, and honestly, Soul Magic sounded undeniably cool.
Besides, if stronger and more evil souls produced stronger magic...
Wouldn't killing criminals solve the problem?
In the end, however, she still allowed the Ancient One to place a complete seal on her abilities.
Afterward, the sorcerer left almost imdiately, disappearing as abruptly as she had arrived.
Drex had wanted to ask a few more questions, but apparently the Ancient One preferred vanishing dramatically over having normal conversations.
He turned toward Morgan.
"So," he said, "what are your plans now?"
Black Queen had already compiled her background information.
Orphanage upbringing.
Still in high school.
No remaining family.
Even with the Soul Magic sealed away, the crystalline blue tips of her hair and her glowing eyes remained unchanged. She looked strikingly unusual now, impossible to mistake for ordinary.
Morgan lowered her gaze slightly.
"Mr. Valen... could I stay here?"
Drex almost smiled.
This girl's attraction to pretty faces is terminal.
"I don't mind," he said. "Actually, there are two people here I think you'd get along with. Their situation isn't all that different from yours."
Morgan's cheeks imdiately turned pink.
Drex noticed, naturally.
And fully intended to exploit the effect later if necessary.
After all, once the Ancient One eventually died, there was a decent chance Morgan's Soul Magic seal would weaken or disappear entirely.
Better to stay on good terms with walking apocalyptic weaponry.
Soon afterward, Morgan t Wanda and Pietro.
Pietro was visibly stunned the mont he saw her.
At this point, none of them had awakened their powers yet, so Pietro's preferred thod of impressing girls remained painfully normal.
Street racing.
"Co on," Pietro said confidently. "You've gotta try it at least once."
Morgan rejected the offer imdiately.
Her mother had died in a car accident caused by a rich kid street racing. The driver walked away untouched while Morgan's family lost nearly everything during the legal aftermath.
Since then, she'd hated street racers with a passion.
By extension, Pietro instantly dropped several points in her estimation.
Watching the interaction gave Drex another idea.
He later instructed Urd to begin construction on a private academy.
Eventually, he intended to handle young superhumans the sa way Professor X handled mutants, gathering and protecting minors listed in the superhuman archives he'd been compiling.
Adults, on the other hand, could go work for World Serpent.
No free rides there.
Strangely enough, Morgan's appearance and sealed magic seed to trigger sothing in Jessica Campbell.
The very next day, Jessica finally woke up.
The unfamiliar environnt terrified her instantly.
She curled into the corner of the room, trembling.
Then a screen activated nearby.
A news report began playing automatically.
It covered the car accident that had killed her family.
Jessica stared at the date in disbelief.
Several months had already passed.
"This is all real, Campbell."
Drex stepped into the room.
His presence alone cald her almost imdiately.
No psychic influence required.
Being ridiculously handso and carrying yourself like absolute certainty apparently worked just fine.
Under Drex's reassurance, Jessica slowly accepted reality.
Her powers, however, still hadn't fully awakened. They seed to require a specific trigger condition.
Drex didn't particularly care.
Jessica's abilities were useful by human standards, but compared to his own power set, they barely registered.
After introducing Jessica to Wanda and Morgan, Drex shifted his attention toward another matter entirely.
A news report flashed across multiple networks.
The famous scientific genius Reed Richards was preparing to investigate an approaching cosmic storm.
The mission was part of an aerospace research initiative funded by Doom Industries.
Drex imdiately recognized it.
The Fantastic Four origin event.
Judging by the details, this version seed closer to the movie adaptation.
Black Queen quickly dug up additional information.
Apparently Reed had previously contacted Blade Tech Industries seeking financial support for the mission.
Urd had ignored the request completely.
At the ti, Drex Valen had shown no real interest in aerospace expansion beyond Blade Tech's developing satellite launch program. Even those satellites were still years away from deploynt.
And despite the company's absurd daily cash flow, that didn't an they were obligated to throw money at every ambitious science project that crossed their desks.
With nowhere else to turn, Reed had ultimately accepted conditional backing from his forr university rival:
Doctor Victor von Doom.
Ironically, Doom trusted Reed's intellect more than Reed trusted himself. Otherwise, he never would've invested so heavily in the mission.
Unfortunately for him, Reed Richards had a supernatural talent for dragging everyone around him into catastrophic disasters.
Heroes.
Villains.
Friends.
Enemies.
Entire corporations.
No wonder Doom eventually developed a lifelong obsession with destroying him.
Drex leaned back thoughtfully as he reviewed the data.
Cosmic radiation.
The more he examined the projected storm patterns, the stranger they looked.
And that raised an interesting question.
Could the cosmic storm benefit him too?
User Comments
0 comments from readers