Black Widow's eyes sparkled as she gazed upon the ancient structure in front of her.
Kamar-Taj.
A legend among the worlds of magic.
She could never have imagined that her path would one day lead her here.
"This time, I'm coming back and showing Clinton," she muttered, with a half-smile on her lips.
At that moment, a middle-aged man with a round face and a somewhat tired expression appeared in front of her and Aron.
It was Wong.
"The Sorcerer Supreme is already waiting for you," he said briefly.
Then he turned to Aron and patted him on the shoulder.
"But I have to warn you… she's not in the best mood today."
His face briefly showed a hint of malicious satisfaction, then he disappeared down the corridor.
Aron raised an eyebrow.
He wanted to say something.
But instead, he swallowed his words. He was here with a purpose. To find someone who could help him.
He turned to Black Widow.
"Wait outside. I'll go in alone."
He didn't wait for a reply. He opened the large doors and stepped inside, leaving her behind.
The interior of the main hall was quiet, filled with the scent of incense and the old air of mysticism.
In the very center of the room stood the Ancient One, motionless like a statue.
Her face was expressionless, it was impossible to tell whether it hid peace, sorrow, or anger. She was skilled at remaining unreadable.
"You came for help?" she asked in a flat tone.
"Yes," Aron replied and nodded.
He stepped a few paces closer and pulled a small device, a hard drive from his inner pocket.
"It contains the consciousness of a man. Dr. Zola. He transferred himself into the network and became digital life."
"But... I want something more."
He paused, looking directly at her.
"I want to know... does a digital being have a soul?"
That was the essence.
Ultron had no soul, born of technology, with no roots in humanity.
But Dr. Arnim Zola had been a man.
Even if his body had vanished and his consciousness was transferred into digital form, it was logical to assume the soul remained.
Aron wanted the Ancient One to use magic, specifically the Soul Palm, to extract Zola's soul from the hard drive.
If he could confirm its existence and capture it...
Then he would have the upper hand.
He could enchant it.
Seal it.
Bind it with dark magic, curses, connections.
So even if Zola ever tried to betray him, Aron would have enough means to destroy him.
But all of that was only possible if the Ancient One agreed to help.
Aron didn't know how to merge with the soul.
He didn't know how to extract it.
Even when he searched every corner of the library in Kamar-Taj, he found nothing that could help him.
Aron had more than once suspected the Ancient One was hiding something.
She had deliberately left a few tricks he couldn't learn on his own!
"Aron, I'm glad that, when you ran into trouble, you came to me," the Ancient One said calmly. "But I'm not pleased that you took the Eye of Agamotto."
She extended her hand toward him.
"Return it."
For a moment, Aron stood confused and frozen.
Didn't you leave that Eye and allow me to take it? How are you changing your tune now?
"I know what you're thinking," the Ancient One continued. "Yes, I left it on purpose so you could defend yourself. But now… you've run off, captured Hela, and Limbo is about to collapse."
"It's time to give it back."
As soon as he heard those words, Aron felt uneasy.
No, don't… I'll save the world!
Can't you just let me keep it a little longer?
He looked at the Eye of Agamotto. Even though he didn't say a word, the Ancient One, of course, knew exactly what was going through his head.
"Don't even try," she said sternly.
"The Time Stone is not a toy. Your misuse has already created multiple branching timelines. That could have catastrophic consequences."
Then she looked him straight in the eye.
"I know you're planning to use the Stone to go back and stop Tony Stark from creating Ultron. But..."
"I must remind you, you're not like the others."
"Do you remember when we first met? I told you that the Time Stone cannot see your past or your future. Do you know what that means?"
...
"What does it mean?" he asked quietly, seriously.
The Ancient One set down her cup of tea.
"It means that you are outside the timeline itself. You don't exist in the past, nor in the future, you exist only now, in this moment."
"For example, if someone went back in time to kill a baby who had not yet grown up... nothing would happen. Because in that past, you didn't even exist."
"So… if you now go back a few days to stop the birth of Ultron, then the Aron who at that moment was in the underworld speaking with Hela - will disappear."
"You would create a new timeline. In that line, perhaps Ultron would never appear. But Hela wouldn't recognize you, and Limbo would remain the territory of Belath."
"So I ask you: Do you really want to go back to the past?"
She said all this in one breath. Then she calmly took a sip of tea, carefully observing the expression on his face.
Click!
Suddenly, Aron tore the Eye of Agamotto from his neck.
With a snap, he threw it onto the table in front of the Ancient One.
"Take it! Take it, now!"
"I don't want to look at it anymore!"
"Let whoever wants use it, just let me forget the endless cycle of submitting to Hela!"
Seeing that, the Ancient One slightly jumped in surprise.
She quickly reached for the Eye and examined it carefully.
This child… why does he have to do everything so forcefully?
"Ahem."
Once she was sure the Eye wasn't damaged, she lightly cleared her throat and reached with her other hand for the hard drive containing Dr. Zola.
She gently touched it.
A magical wave emanated from the disk.
In the next moment, a transparent figure shot out of the disk, it was Dr. Arnim Zola, in soul form.
"What is this...?" he murmured, confused, looking around.
The hard drive had stopped working. For him, that meant he had been in the underground base a second ago, and now he was… here.
"Wait! I have a body!?"
Zola only then realized he was floating in the air, in human form, but transparent like a ghost.
"What have you done to me?!" he shouted, stunned, looking at Aron.
Aron said nothing.
Instead, he looked at the Ancient One.
"Is there magic... dark magic, that allows someone's soul to be controlled, so that at any moment you can shut down their consciousness and their soul would simply fly away?"
"If it exists, can you show it to me and add a few more, just in case."
The Ancient One didn't answer immediately.
Zola, still floating in his spiritual form, looked at the two of them as they talked like he wasn't even there.
After a few seconds of silence, it was as if hell had opened before his eyes.
Zola saw Aron, his eyes were red, and his whole body was wrapped in dark energy.
He looked like a demon from the depths of the underworld.
Left hand — dark magic.
Right hand — evil curse.
The smile on his face was icy, malevolent.
He slowly stepped toward Zola's soul.
"Truly…"
——
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