chapter 66

Author's note: Okay, I will be quick. I made a mistake in an old chapter where I wrote Charmcaster's hair as Maroon. I just checked the wiki and realized that she has long silver hair. I will be changing the coloring of her hair in the old chapter. The note is just so that you people don't get confused.

Some months later

"She had grown by leaps and bounds," Wang commented standing beside the Ancient one.

"She has.", the Ancient one smiled proudly.

They were talking about Charmcaster. Like Kar-el said she would, she has earned the right to be personally taught by the sorcerer supreme.

"I have never seen someone as talented and hard-working as her.", He admitted watching her defeat one disciple after another without getting hit even once.

"Of course, you have not. Calling her a prodigy would be an understatement but she paid quite the price for that." Ancient one sighed.

"She was already quite talented but after she signed the contract, all the restrictions applied on her talent got removed because now her soul belonged to someone else. Before there was a limit to how fast she could grow but that talent cap got removed now.", While there was a lot that she still needed to learn, Charmcaster easily qualified to hold the title of a Master.

"That's enough, Hope.", the Ancient one said to stop the spar that was going between her student and several other experienced magic practitioners.

Everyone stopped once she ordered. Hope bowed at her teacher before walking to her and standing beside her.

"Go and prepare yourself. Your master has summoned you. It seems that he has a task for you.", She patted her on her shoulder as Hope nodded respectfully before she walked to her room.

"Would it be wise to let her go alone like this?", Wang asked with a worried tone. He had grown quite attached to her in the past months.

At the start, she was quite stiff and hungry for power but with each passing day, her personality grew. While she was still quite respectful in front of her teacher, She would often banter around with other people at Kamar Taj.

She reminded him of his little niece. She too behaved like hope. To compensate for her insecurities, Hope always acted very arrogantly and ego-driven, striving to prove her superiority over others but she quickly grew up in the following weeks.

Ancient one smirked, "Did you forget who her master is? He would not let her die on his watch. This experience would be good for her growth. There is a limit to how much one can grow in a simulated environment. Real-life experience would help her digest what she had learned from me in these months.", She remarked before walking to her room.

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"Is this the place?", Kar-el asked after getting out of the car.

"Yes.", Coulson nodded after he similarly exited from the opposite door.

Kar-el was approached by Coulson about a possible interstellar encounter. Since he was responsible for handling alien-related situations, Kar-el agreed to visit the site with the agent after they cleared it of common people.

"You guys look quite used to this.", Kar-el commented looking at how agents were professionally setting up the perimeter and unloading equipment.

"Well, they had a prior experience just recently.", Coulson was obviously talking about the crash that Kar-el caused.

"Good for them", Kar-el nodded with a smile completely ignoring the unlined sarcasm in his tone.

"Keep up the good work, son.", He said while patting an agent working on a radioactivity reading monitor that looked a decade older than him appearance-wise.

Before the mentioned agent could say something, his eyes met with Coulson's and he silently returned to what he was doing.

"What do we know as of yet?"Kar-el asked as they walked toward the center.

"According to a few witnesses, a portal opened in the sky that attracted their attention. When they arrived here, they found a circle made up of strange symbols and in the middle of the circle was a hammer. They tried to lift the damn thing but couldn't."

"After some hours, a competition started where locals tried to lift the hammer somehow. That was when we arrived. Sadly the circle was already destroyed by the time we reached the place but we have secured the hammer."

"I see", They walked into a newly made temporary facility to contain the hammer.

"What do you think?", Coulson asked, looking at Kar-el.

"I can't say until I have a look at the thing. There are more species out in the universe than you can think of. It will take more than just a description for me to tell who the hammer belongs to.", Kar-el shrugged his shoulders with a helpless expression.

"Follow me then. Let me show it to you personally.", Coulson nodded his head in understanding before leading him under a group of tunnels made up of white tents.

They both exited the tunnel to find themselves in a clearing. At the center of which was the hammer. Kar-el tilted his head once his eyes fell on it.

"May I?"He asked Coulson before proceeding any closer to the hammer. He nodded.

Kar-el slowly walked just beside the hammer and leaned down to closely examine it.

"We are sure that it is made up of an unknown metal or alloy.", Coulson commented from the sidelines.

Kar-el focused on the symbols decorating the hammer and his eyes subconsciously started to glow.

Even though he never learned the language, he could perfectly tell what they meant.

"That who is worthy Shall have the power of Thor.", He muttered in a loud enough voice that Coulson was able to hear it.

"Thor, you say?" Coulson asked.

"Yep, It's runic language. Quite a rare one if you ask me. Runic words carry power inside them. Speaking them could display effects to varying degrees. Likewise, enchanting an object would put certain conditions on the object.", He explained with a patient voice.

"Now I know who this hammer belongs to. This is an Asgardian weapon as only the king of Asgardians has the ability to use Runic language in this side of the universe. Plus the fact that your planet is under the protection of Asgard increases the chances even more.", He said getting up and walking away from the hammer.

"Asgardians from Norse mythology?", Coulson asked with a shocked face.

"Are we dealing with gods now?"He wondered if they had the capability to clash with gods.

"Not gods. Aliens. Let's say that Tony Stark somehow ends up on your planet but a thousand years ago with his suit of armor. To the people of that time, there was no concept of missiles or guns. They have never seen someone fly. How do you think they will react if they encounter Tony?", He asked looking around as they walked to their quarters.

Coulson widened his eyes, "They will treat him like a god."

"Exactly. Though killable, Asgardians sure do carry some traits that could qualify them as gods from a human perspective. Superhuman strength, Hyper advanced technology, Average lifespan of at least 2000 years." He listed some of their traits.

"Don't worry though. You can technically consider them allies. I have already invited someone that could help us deal with the issue without much hassle. She should be here in an hour or two.", Kar-el said before taking a seat in the observation room.

Coulson thought for sometime before taking a seat himself. Fury asked him to let Kar-el take the lead in the mission to test how reliable he could be unless the situation became dire.

"While we are on the topic, Remind me to provide you with an updated starmap of the region containing data about all the nearby alien civilizations.", Kar-el added as an afterthought.

Kar-el busied himself with his new expensive smartphone developed by El Enterprise. This was the concept model of the device so it had a lot more features compared to the commercial model. Nowadays everyone is using this phone for their daily use. In his free time, Kar-el tended to play Gacha games on the device. The gaming industry was developing at a much earlier time due to the creation of Smartphones years ago by El Enterprise.

He was a known player in the community of gamers. Not because he played well or anything else. It was because he tended to spend a lot of money on the games without a second thought. He was the biggest whale in quite a few games.

Many times he would receive in-game messages from players identified as girls asking him to be their Sugar Daddy.

Since Kar-el was busy playing games, Coulson decided to instruct the agents around the base from the observation room.

Just like that an hour and 23 minutes passed....

A portal opened in the observation room beside Kar-el that scared Coulson. He quickly took out his gun and pointed at it.

"She's here.", Kar-el said, closing his phone and putting it aside before he stood up.

Hope walked out of the portal and nodded at Coulson. He looked at both of them before putting his gun down.

"You Americans and your trigger-happy instincts", Kar-el shook his head.

"Welcome back.", Kar-el muttered after observing Hope for a few seconds. He could tell that she had grown a lot both magically and emotionally. It looked like she had spent a lot of her free time getting to terms with her situation.

"Can you tell me how you are able to do that?", Coulson asked her.

"By the use of magic.", She answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

She still retained that regal look that she had the last time kar-el had seen her.

"Follow me, I have a task for you.", Kar-el said, quite pleased with her growth.

"Yes, Master.", She nodded faithfully.

Kar-el led her to the Hammer.

"This is an enchanted Asgardian weapon... Do you know who Asgardians are?", He first pointed at the object before turning to look at her face.

"It was a part of my studies since my teacher knew that I don't know much about the outside world.", She nodded calmly waiting for him to continue.

"She is quite thoughtful. It was a good decision to leave you in her care. Anyway, try and see if you can lift it up.", He stepped back to make a way for her.

She nodded before walking forward and leaning down. She grabbed the hammer and Kar-el narrowed his eyes keeping most of his attention on her.

"Go on", He encouraged her.

She nodded again before putting power in her hands to lift the hammer. Coulson was observing from the side. It didn't budge at all. At least in the eyes of everyone except Kar-el who was capable of noticing even the slightest movement. It did move but on a very minuscule level.

Since it didn't move, she was about to try with even more force but Kar-el stopped her.

"Forget it. It would have moved on the first time if you were worthy. Maybe next time.", She nodded and stepped back obediently.

"Can you make a locator to find someone that has a similar signature as this hammer?", Kar-el asked.

"Easy enough. Won't take more than 5 minutes.", Hope nodded.

"Good. You heard the lady. Prepare a transport. We are going on alien hunting.", Kar-el turned and addressed Coulson who quickly nodded.