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CHAPTER 61
🕑 Added 2025-06-28 13:36:55 +0000 UTC"This is a Sling Ring," Mordo announced to the assembled apprentices in the sun-drenched training courtyard. His voice was stern, leaving no room for questions. "It is a focus. It translates the map in your mind into the language of the multiverse. Skilled use of it is paramount, for it can allow us to travel freely across an infinite number of universes."
He slipped the intricately carved brass ring over his fingers. "You must focus. Visualize. The world is not merely what you see before you; every location possesses a spiritual echo, a unique vibration. You must not simply picture your destination; you must feel it. The smell of the air, the texture of the ground beneath your feet, the ambient sounds. The clearer the details are in your mind, the more solid the gateway will be."
Each apprentice put on their own Sling Ring. The hand wearing the ring faced forward, while the other hand began to trace a slow, deliberate circle in the air.
Aidan, a man of science and logic, initially found the process frustrating. He tried to calculate the exact dimensional coordinates of his laboratory on Apex Island, but the magic fizzled, producing nothing more than a few errant, orange sparks. He closed his eyes, casting aside the cold logic of physics. He followed Mordo's instruction. He didn't just picture his lab; he remembered it. The sterile scent of the air scrubbers. The low, omnipresent hum of the Arc Reactor. The cool, smooth touch of the polished steel workbench under his fingertips.
As he imagined these details, the warm, tingling energy in his core began to mobilize involuntarily. A single, brilliant orange spark appeared before him. It began to spin, leaving a thin trail of light, which then erupted into a shower of golden embers. As he completed the circular swing of his arm, the embers coalesced, growing larger and larger until a shimmering, perfect circle with a radius of nearly a meter hung in the air before him. Through the vortex, the view was crystal clear: the white walls and humming machinery of his private laboratory, thousands of miles away.
"Ruby, can you see me?" Aidan shouted happily through the portal.
In the Apex Island lab, the holographic projection of his AI appeared before the shimmering gateway. "Aidan," she said, her calm voice tinged with what could only be described as digital amazement. "Your method of transport is… unconventional. But I can see you."
"Excellent. Record all spatial fluctuation data from this event. I want to see if we can use it to stabilize the unstable data from our own teleportation device," Aidan instructed.
"Acknowledged."
"…What are you doing?" Mordo's sharp voice suddenly appeared directly behind him.
Startled, Aidan flinched, and the portal in front of him wavered, its edges breaking apart like a disturbed reflection in water. "You scared me!" he snapped, quickly focusing to re-stabilize the gateway.
"You should be concentrating on your studies," Mordo warned, his eyes narrowed as he peered through the portal at the futuristic laboratory on the other side.
"I have been studying, Master Mo-De," Aidan said with a grin. "This is my studies."
"That word is read 'Mordo'!" he corrected, his voice frantic with frustration.
"Hey, look," Aidan said, changing the subject and nodding toward another part of the courtyard. "There's a guy over there who seems to be about to run into his own portal." He smiled and maintained his own gateway, watching as Mordo, with a sigh of immense responsibility, quickly leaped over to stop the reckless apprentice from taking a dimensional shortcut he wasn't ready for.
After the training session was complete, Aidan immediately ran to the library. He found Kaecilius sitting at a table, reading. "Aidan, don't mind if we chat!" Kaecilius said with a friendly smile, patting the seat next to him.
"This is not a teahouse for you to chat in. Get out," a dry, irritated voice came from behind the main desk. It was Yalvis, the librarian, his face a permanent scowl.
Kaecilius squinted at him. "Master Yalvis, do not go too far."
"This is my library, boy. I decide who goes too far," he retorted with a disdainful look.
"You'd better go out and argue," Aidan said, looking up from a book he'd just grabbed, his voice filled with impatience. "I'm trying to read."
Kaecilius gave Yalvis one last cold glance and left. With the library finally quiet, Aidan immersed himself in his new texts, absorbing the fundamental rules of magic, the sources of dimensional energy, and the basic incantations that formed the foundation of the mystic arts.
Meanwhile, in the world Aidan had left behind, it was Halloween. The streets of New York were filled with costumed children, their hands holding jack-o'-lanterns of every shape and size, running from house to house shouting, "Trick or treat!" Even a few Baymax units were seen on the streets, one dressed as a ghost with eye-holes cut in a large white sheet, another with a giant, silly vampire cape. The city was a happy, lively carnival.
It was the perfect day for a horror movie to be released.
The highly anticipated Resident Evil, produced and directed by Aidan Parker, hit theaters. Different from his previous films, he had a massive budget and the full backing of a major Hollywood distributor, Lionsgate. Tickets had been sold out for weeks.
On its first day, taking advantage of the Halloween theme, the North American box office reached more than $8 million. But as is often the case with R-rated horror films, the audience was niche. After the initial hype, the box office numbers began to decline. Many people were skeptical about how scary a horror movie shot by a teenager could be. After three weeks, the film's theatrical run ended with a respectable but not blockbuster total of over $200 million. However, those who saw it hailed it as a modern classic of the zombie thriller genre.
Then, Lionsgate did something unprecedented. They released a promotional trailer for Resident Evil 2, announcing it would be released in just one month. The audience was shocked. They thought it was fake news. Who releases a sequel so quickly? But a check on Lionsgate's official website confirmed it. Was this a movie series or a TV show?
The second film, buoyed by the aclaim of the first, was an even bigger success. Then came the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth and final chapter, each released in quick succession. It became a cultural event, a binge-watchable cinematic series that kept fans hooked for half a year. While the box office for each subsequent film was higher than the last, the critical scores dropped, with many reviewers speculating that the director had rushed the work to meet an impossible deadline. They had no idea he was on a deadline set by a cosmic entity, in a race against time itself.
Back in Kamar-Taj, Aidan had completed his basic training. He had mastered the foundational texts, his understanding of magic now as deep and intuitive as his understanding of technology. He stood in the courtyard, a Sling Ring on his fingers, ready for the next lesson.
Comments
KingSpy25i .
Thank you for the chapter 🙏
Hersh Jobanputra
Can you update this one? Two chapters a day maybe three depending on what your workload is like?
Ritesh Jadhav
Before 9:30 indian standard time i update every fic
