Taj

For millennia, the Ancient One has used dark energy to extend her lifespan. However, fearing that the dark energy would corrupt her personality, she devoted the majority of her strength to suppressing this power. For a thousand years, the Ancient One and Odin have protected Earth—one using their strength to suppress the darkness within, and the other suffering even more, using his primordial power to restrain his own daughter. Two All-Father-level figures guarding Earth, yet neither able to fully unleash their true strength. 

Of course, this is also why turbulent times give rise to heroes. It is precisely because of the intertwining internal and external crises that this small planet, Earth, has produced so many extraordinary heroes. 

Back to the present—after a thousand years of painstaking magical cultivation, the Ancient One's power was rendered completely insignificant in the face of Blake. With just a glance, he triggered the dark energy within her body. 

Black energy surged from the top of the Ancient One's head, and in the space less than a meter above her, a faint spatial fluctuation appeared. The space twisted, forming a small rift, as if a powerful vacuum on the other side was pulling at all the dark energy, causing it to swarm toward the tear. 

Blake could even sense that, on the other side of the rift, within an unknown dark dimension, a terrifyingly powerful dark entity was coveting this world. 

"Hmph!" 

Blake's expression changed slightly as he let out a cold snort, clenching his right fist. The Ancient One's body suddenly tensed, and the dark energy within her erupted with ten times the ferocity from before, surging upward. At the same time, her body began to age rapidly. 

By the time all the dark energy had left her, the Ancient One had been reduced to a dried-up husk. Apart from the faint glimmer in her eyes, she was no different from a corpse. 

"Dormammu! I don't have time for you right now, but come morning, I will find your dimension and destroy your lair. As for this place, take your greedy gaze elsewhere!" 

With a wave of his left hand, Blake instantly smoothed out the rift in space. At the same time, across various locations on Earth, all of Dormammu's followers—those who had defected from Kamar-Taj, including Kaecilius—who served as coordinates for his dark power, were obliterated in an instant. The dark energy dispersed into the void, and the spatial fractures sealing Dormammu's connection to Earth were wiped out with a mere thought. 

Dormammu instantly lost his coordinates for this world, and from the void came a furious, enraged roar. 

But none of this mattered to Blake anymore. With the matter of the dark energy resolved, he placed a palm against the Ancient One's body. A dual-colored glow of blue and green flickered in his hand—green light enveloping the Ancient One's body while the blue light isolated her soul. 

The power of time activated, and her body visibly reverted to its previous state, back to when they had first met. But it didn't stop there—she continued to de-age from her forties and fifties to her thirties, and still further, heading toward an even younger form. 

It seemed Blake intended to restore the Ancient One's body to its optimal age. 

"That's enough, Blake. That's enough! Being a little younger is nice, but I cannot meet people with a face that still has traces of childishness. This age is just right!" 

The Ancient One spoke at last. 

At around thirty, with her natural presence and aura, she now exuded both beauty and a composed dignity—indeed, this was the perfect state for her. 

"I have to admit, I'm really curious about what you looked like at sixteen or seventeen." 

Blake withdrew his hand as she requested but still teased with a playful grin. 

The Ancient One rolled her eyes. Whether it was because of her restored youth or because she had observed all of Blake's actions earlier, now that the dark energy had left her and Dormammu's threat was gone, she was finally able to relax. Her eye roll, full of charm and allure, caught Blake off guard. 

For a moment, he was stunned before awkwardly rubbing his nose and saying, 

"Hey, don't go sending signals my way—I already have a girlfriend!" 

"Get lost!" 

With a flick of her wrist, the Ancient One pulled a golden energy whip from the void and lashed it toward Blake.

A crisp *snap* echoed as the blue light around Blake's body automatically flared up, dispersing the Ancient One's strike into a shower of sparks. At the same time, he calmly placed his hands on the shoulders of the twin siblings who, upon seeing their master being attacked, were already preparing to retaliate. 

"The Ancient One is my elder. She's just joking with me. Do not act recklessly!" 

The moment Blake's indifferent voice fell, the tense expressions on the twins' faces eased. 

"Not bad subordinates. Their loyalty… the result of the Infinity Stones' influence?" 

The Ancient One glanced up and down at the twins and immediately saw the issue. 

"That's right. I don't know why it happened this way, but when the energy gathered, their loyalty formed automatically." 

Blake was somewhat helpless. Although having them as subordinates was a good thing, the method in which it happened left a small regret. 

"This isn't your fault. Just as Dormammu's dark energy induces fanatical devotion to him through deliberate control, what happened with you was completely unexpected. Just make sure to protect this world well and do not waste the power the universe has granted you." 

The Ancient One's expression turned serious. 

"From the way you're speaking, are you planning on retiring? There's still a lot waiting for you to take care of, you know?" 

Blake slipped in a bit of flattery. 

"You are now more than capable of protecting this universe. If the need ever arises in the future, I will return. But after so many years, I'm exhausted. Once I finish passing down the title of Sorcerer Supreme, I want to travel across the cosmos, to see and experience it for myself." 

For the first time in a long while, a rare look of happiness appeared on the Ancient One's face. 

Blake simply smiled and said nothing. 

Indeed, with his current strength, he was unrivaled within this universe. As for future threats, he firmly believed that if the time came, the Ancient One would return without hesitation. 

Leaving Kamar-Taj, Blake's thoughts shifted, and in an instant, the three of them appeared before the Bifröst's Rainbow Bridge Temple in Asgard. 

"Blake?" 

The moment Blake and his companions arrived, Heimdall appeared behind them. 

With a wary expression, Heimdall raised his divine sword, his grip tightening. 

The three before him, especially Blake, exuded an overwhelming and unfamiliar presence. Even at his peak, Odin had never given Heimdall this kind of feeling. 

"Blake, you…" 

Heimdall clenched his sword. 

He had no choice. His eyes allowed him to see a certain level of a being's essence. In the past, when facing Odin at his strongest, Heimdall had felt as if he were standing before a galaxy. 

But now, facing Blake… 

It felt like he was standing before an entire universe. 

The sheer pressure emanating from Blake's very soul left Heimdall momentarily speechless.

*******************************************

You can get access to early chapters on patr*on.

If you like my work and you want to support me then you can become my patron on patre*n.

My patr*on account is S_Pandey_0170