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Godhood: For Dummies by intata

Movies » Avengers Rated: M, English, Adventure, OC, Words: 121k+, Favs: 8k+, Follows: 10k+, Published: Oct 6, 2018 Updated: Sep 5

2,390Chapter 6

A/N

First, before we begin the chapter, some people are still having difficulties with the whole 'Nathan is now five' thing. I will just say that there is a girl he will meet later on (don't ask, spoilers are bad) and I wanted their ages to match. They will both be adults when they meet. I changed his age for two reasons: potential romance with this specific character, and the fact that I find it funny. Can you imagine all the reactions to a tiny badass? Well you don't have to, because I will be writing them in. Stop bitching about it.

A lot of people didn't like the amount of exposition in the last chapter. I was afraid of that, but it was necessary to set up, and close out, some things. I am not the world's best author. Still learning. I'm sorry if I over explain things, or maybe have too many things explained at one time. I'm working on it.

On the bright side, we're learning magic in this chapter. Yay, plot progression!

Another thing: If you want to ask questions in the reviews, and get an answer, be sure to sign in and enable replies. I may not get to all of them, but I do try and answer questions. I will at least read all of them, though. I refuse to respond to individual questions in the Author's Notes of the story itself, which means anyone asking questions as a Guest will not get an answer. If it's a good question that I think needs to be answered for everyone's benefit, I will, but only for that reason. I will try and fit these answers into the story itself, rather than filling out the A/N's with plot-defining bullshit, because I know a lot of people just skip them.

To reiterate: I don't own Marvel.

"I am where I wish to be?" Nathan repeated to himself, studying the Sling Ring. "Why is everything a fucking riddle?"

"No." The Master repeated from twenty feet away, looking directly at Nathan. The Hell? Nathan was mumbling, how did he hear that?

… Magic. Right.

"You are where you wish to be." The old man repeated, putting a little more emphasis on the 'are' than before.

Nathan blinked. Was it a question of 'being', then? As in existence? But he said location didn't exist… No, he said 'wish' too, which made it more along the lines of willpower, but…

The five-year-old's thoughts bounced around in his head, trying to find the cipher to this puzzle when he caught a glimpse of the other students. Half of which had a fierce look of determination, glaring at a point in space just a few feet in front of them. The other half were just as confused as he was, staring down at the ring in their hands.

Some of these students had taken this lesson a few times. It was only required the once for each student, but a different Master would cycle through each week, offering a different perspective on the first basic class everyone takes. The only class that everyone takes. The only actual scheduled class that they offered.

Meaning that this was a piece of magic that was slightly different for everyone, that's why the instruction was only like three sentences.

OK. So the concept was that location didn't exist, and there was an emphasis on willpower. Meaning Nathan had to… Believe? No, he had to force himself to link two locations in his mind, and combine them, then will a sort of doorway to connect them, all the while channeling Eldritch energies through the Sling Ring.

Right?

Well accessing the Eldritch energies wasn't all that difficult. The third or fourth book that the Librarian assigned was always the same for every new student, containing a meditation technique to sense the energies of the cosmos.

Just think along the lines of that scene in the movie; where The Ancient One opened Strange's "eye" when they first met.

Even though that was more of a forced astral projection, in the Astral Form, a person is directly put into contact with all forms of energy, and can learn to access them individually in their physical form, through practice. Nathan couldn't project at this point, but the meditation technique took him halfway there.

The ex-space pirate had a pretty decent handle on accessing the energies, but he couldn't really use them for any type of magic yet. He did find that he could use them to help replenish his Celestial energy. However, even though it was much more effective than his normal efforts, it didn't hold a candle to what he could pull from an Infinity Stone. Think garden hose as normal, fire hose as pulling from Eldritch energy, and the goddamn Nile River for the Power Stone.

Turning his attention back to the Sling Ring, he held his fist out in front of him and started to funnel some of those cosmic energies into the ring, feeling it hum with slight power. After that was a fight of focus; trying to balance the energies with the concept of a lack of fucking location.

He was lucky the ring was handling the hard part, to be honest.

It took about twenty minutes before he didn't really have to think about funneling the energies anymore. He knew it would take a much longer time before it was second nature; not having to think about it at all, so he could focus on the complex magical formulas without splitting his mind in seven different directions, but honestly, what did he expect on the first day?

In the end, he didn't get anything more than a couple of golden sparks that morning, but after focusing on the task, and nothing else for the next week?

Oh boy that sparkly, golden, stable gateway was a beautiful sight to see.

He spent some time trying to figure out where to make a portal to, and ended up with that island back on Morag, the one where he spent three months with the Power Stone. It was the only place that wasn't on a spaceship that he could remember clearly, other than his room in Kamar-Taj. Plus, proof of concept: he could travel between galaxies in a blink if he wanted to, now.

Bonus too; the Sling Ring was apparently his to keep.

The students that studied enchanting were in charge of making them, he learned, and the base materials for Oricalcum only cost about 850 rupees per ring, so the temple could reasonably afford to give them out. He had still had no idea what that was in USD, but he could get a pretty decent, if cheap, meal for that much.

Nathan would be joining in on those enchanting groups later on, since it was one of his three main focus points in his education; from when he was previously prompted by the Librarian. It wasn't a priority at the moment, but he could see it becoming incredibly useful.

But back to the magic he was currently learning:

The Sling Ring was just the beginning. The first thing he put time into after that, was figuring out Astral Projection so he could pull a Dr. Strange and keep learning while his physical body slept - somehow, it was possible to pull copies of books into the Astral Plane, much like one's clothes, which was the only reason the process was feasible. To that end he joined a couple study groups where the veteran students would give pointers between their own projects, and a couple of the Masters doing the same.

Within four or five days, he had it down, which he honestly owed to all the different perspectives he picked from, be it the Masters, the other students, or the books. Great Mother Meredith Quill, the books! With all the languages he knew, he could pick the brains of a wide variety of Masters from across the centuries!

He was starting to see why the study of languages was considered the foundation to learning at Kamar-Taj. None of the other students shared his learning speed, mainly just because of this. Half of them could even use the basics of 'The Method of Loci', and they still couldn't keep up and he wasn't even using the Time Stone anymore.

After that, pairing Astral Projection, 'The Method of Loci', and all the books, he just started to read. The only thing on his daily menu that took time away from that was the general combat classes, where he learned to shape basic Eldritch energies into shapes of hardened, sparkly weapons, or whips, and use them in the Shaolin-esque style that they taught there.

He did already know a more instinctual way of fighting that the Ravagers taught him, but it was still nothing compared to actual combat classes. Being in as young of a body as he was made the process a bit more difficult, though, so at the suggestion of one of the other students, he tried to adopt a more 'bouncy' aspect of the style; dodging and weaving, instead of aggressiveness and blocking.

He couldn't wait to kick his brother's ass when he got the chance. The sass-monster was a much better fighter when they were learning together, and put him on the floor more times than Nathan wanted to admit.

Outside of those classes, he read about everything that he might need as a mystic defender of Earth: extra-dimensional creature bestiaries, first-person accounts of Masters calming random cosmic energy spikes and accounts of fighting off said creatures, tutorial scrolls on various forms of magic, and records of various dimensions that his predecessors had traveled to. All the while carefully organizing the information in his mental library, making sure he would be able to retain as much as possible.

Overall, by the time he turned seven - again, he was counted among those veteran students that helped teach the new arrivals.

Which is why he was dealing with this idiot.

"You expect me to believe, that this…" The Middle-Eastern man paused, waving his hands in a large gesture towards Nathan. "Toddler is capable of anything more than wetting the bed?" He finished in a thick accent.

The man, though Nathan was hesitant to call him that, was a rather lanky individual named Imir. He was the son of some rich businessman from Dubai, and lived the life of luxury; fed with a platinum spoon since birth, and seemed to be the type to scoff at the prospect of switching to the golden utensil. God save you if you suggested silver.

Nathan was honestly disappointed. There was another student in the temple that was from Dubai, named Rasheed. Rasheed was one of the few students that helped Nathan learn Arabic, and they had a relatively friendly relationship built up since then. Rasheed even had about the same level of upbringing that Imir had, yet was far less conceited about it.

Nathan had been hoping to earn another likable colleague, but it seemed this guy was pretty hung up on being a cunt.

"It's bad enough that I must deal with a woman in charge of this… heap." He continued, looking around with an expression of disgust, before returning his attention to Karl; completely ignoring Nathan. "And now I am subjected to this?!"

"Hey Karl," Nathan began, cutting off whatever his friend was about to say in retaliation, "Want to go get some lunch? My treat."

Karl blinked and looked down at Nathan, a light of realization tinting his eyes after a moment. "Can we try out that new corner shop a few streets down? I hear they have Mexican food."

The seven-year-old breathed in quickly. "I'd kill for a burrito. It's been… a long time since I've had one of those." The last time he had the delicacy was a week or so before he had been abducted by the ravagers, so nearly eleven years. That was way too long to go without a burrito.

"Kaecilius recommended the place, said it was pretty good." Karl shrugged.

"Wait what? Dude, don't trust his opinion on food. He likes anchovies."

"He does?" Karl recoiled with an upturned lip. "Alright, maybe somewhere else, then."

"You are ignoring me." Imir piped in, visibly annoyed.

Nathan nodded in his direction. "Oh, you're still here."

"Of course I'm still here, you ignorant child!"

"Why, though? If you don't want my help, I won't give it to you. Simple as that." Said child shrugged. "You should know the way out, so feel free to use it."

The Dubaian man clenched his jaw. "I was informed that there was a man who could help me begin my studies, but instead I am lead to... this!" He spit out, gesturing at Nathan, while talking to Karl. "Do not insult me further. I demand you take me to the man who is set to teach me."

"You did meet the Ancient One, right?" Karl asked, with a confusedly cocked eyebrow.

"I met the woman who pretends to be your master, yes. I expect to meet the true Master of Magic once I prove my worth." Imir returned with a proud sneer.

"Man, how are you even alive right now?" Nathan asked, baffled.

"Nathan, the Sorcerer Supreme does not murder people that annoy her." The teenager shot back with half-lidded eyes. "If he was a danger, it might be different-"

"He's a danger to himself." Nathan interrupted, looking at Karl and waving his arm toward Imir. "You're hearing this crap too, right?"

"I am, but the fact that he's around to say it, proves my point."

The boy grumbled.

"I am being insulted directly now!" Imir started to turn red in the face. "The audacity of this-"

"Alright," Nathan stopped him, pulling his Sling Ring from his belt, and using his Celestial energy to float himself up to Imir's eye-level, glaring directly into them and making the man go wide-eyed at the display. He would admit that he'd been slacking with his own energy in favor of learning everything else, but he was able to get pretty good with the telekinetic aspects in passing. Pulling one book to him from across the room, levitating himself up to the top of the bookshelf to grab another… turning the pages when he got lazy. You know; little stuff.

"You're leaving. I'm done with this." Nathan stated and flicked a finger in a quick circle, opening a portal directly under Imir, depositing him in the Bay of Bengal: the same bay where he parked his ship. The Middle Eastern man yelped as the floor suddenly disappeared beneath his feet, and they heard a splash just as the now seven-year-old closed the portal.

"Now why would you do that?" Karl said, visibly trying to hold back a laugh.

"She did it again." Nathan sighed, hopping up on a bench in the hallway, and swung his legs like the kid he was. "In the past few months, I've had to deal with three of those." He gestured to the spot where he sent Imir for a swim.

"Truly? And here he thought he was special."

"Oh don't get me wrong, that ego of his was pretty special." Nathan nodded sagely. "I think she just doesn't want to deal with people like that, so she pushes them off on me so I can kick them out for her."

Karl paused. "Are you sure about that? Or are you just assuming it?"

"Well she hasn't yelled at me for doing it yet." Nathan shrugged. "I'm pretty sure she just wants to put people like that in their place; declaring a child as their mentor just insults their 'better sensibilities'." He said with air quotes. "Either that or as a further test to newcomers. I mean you know about that switch-a-roo she does when people are first meeting the 'Ancient One'." The seven-year-old slumped. "Everyone else I've helped has been perfectly reasonable… Well, they still look at me weird, but they take me seriously."

Karl 'hmm'd', and they both fell into silence for a moment.

"That offer for lunch still available? I'm getting tired of rice."

Nathan chuckled. "Sure man, but I don't think I trust that Mexican place."

"Fair enough." He responded with a slight smile.

It didn't take long for something interesting to happen after that.

Kamar-Taj had a system in place to give experience to their more advanced students. Meaning that every month or so, there was a spontaneous field trip where one of the Masters would take a small group of students out to deal with whatever issue inevitably popped up. A few of the students that were deemed ready were told that they had five minutes to get to the central courtyard, where one of the Masters would give a short explanation and open a portal to the location.

Nathan would learn later that if the location hadn't been traveled to before, the place would be scried in a bowl of water, giving the user a decent picture of the area. A useful tip that the Ancient One 'forgot' to tell people until they traveled the hard way a few times.

Something-something- you should appreciate the gift of instant transportation, blah blah blah.

The seven-year-old was one of six students called into the courtyard that morning. All of which were under thirty years old, and had been on these excursions before. Nathan was the only first-timer, and had honestly never met anyone in the group before. Most of these people were actually on the home stretch; expecting to get the title of 'Master' within the next couple of years.

One might think that, if there were five - six if you counted Nathan - up for the combat promotion, how was there such a low number of Masters? Well, the mortality rate was pretty high on these field-trips, and it was much harder to gain the title of 'Master' as a pure scholar. Every year, there were at least five students that didn't come back. Sometimes even the Masters would be overwhelmed. For example, in the case of that Demon invasion in South Africa twenty years ago… Nobody came back. The Sorcerer Supreme was forced to deal with that one in the end.

Even so, all of the people going into it were explained the risks, as the Master was currently doing for everyone in the courtyard, and nobody was allowed to go unless they were recommended by a combat instructor. Everyone chose this path, despite its risks, and Nathan was no exception.

He had gotten his recommendation just two days before, and refused to back down. He had spent just under two years at Kamar-Taj so far, and in that time, he had learned far more than he had ever thought possible. Nathan was ready.

Probably.

"Do you all understand the perils of our task?" The kind voice of Master Ghodi asked, staring directly at the lone child in the group. Which made sense, everyone else had already been on these trips, meaning they knew the ropes. It wasn't a question of abilities, as everyone here needed the OK of a combat Master. His presence might have caused a bit of surprise, but nothing more on that end.

Nathan nodded in a small bow toward the sixty-two-year-old Indian man.

Master Ghodi was a spry old-timer; very well built for a man his age. He was bald, like most of the other men at the temple, and had a thick black beard that didn't give his age away. The only thing doing that were the wrinkles. He also stood an inch or two shorter than most, walked with a slight limp, and, forgoing a cane, kept his hands clasped under baggy sleeves.

"Good." He acknowledged, and turned away from the assembled students, flicking a finger and opening a portal.

Did he just do that without a Sling Ring?

"We will be going to northern Italy today." Master Ghodi began, as if he was picking out where they would be getting groceries. "Just East of a town called Bolzano, some sort of energy spike been detected. We will be investigating, and may have to deal with whatever has caused it. Follow me." He finished succinctly, and briskly walked through the portal.

As everyone funneled through after him, Nathan found that they had appeared in Bolzano, rather than outside of it. They came out on the edge of a park by a traffic circle, next to a fountain with a bunch of stone frogs spitting water toward the center, or at least should have been spitting water - according to the tourist poster that stood next to it.

At this point, a number of strange things became apparent.

The portal that they all went through blinked away, as if fighting off static, rather than the usual, smooth fizzle. Master Ghodi just stared at the space it had occupied with a blank expression, until one of the students piped up.

"Master," he began worriedly, "did you aim for the town when you set the portal?"

"I did not." He responded with the same bland tone as when he gave his earlier speech, which just made the student who asked worry more.

"There are a lot of car crashes…" The student observed after a moment. That was true. Wreckage after wreckage were littering the streets, almost as if the drivers just disappeared mid travel.

"What happened to all the people? We're in a tourist spot, on a Saturday, in mid-afternoon." One of the two women in the group pointed out.

"The clouds are really thick." An Asian student said.

"That might be due to the fires, Hong." Another student theorized.

The Asian student who had previously spoke, apparently named Hong, nodded and glanced around at a few of the buildings that were, indeed, on fire and billowing smoke into the darkened sky. A darkened sky around two P.M.

It kind of reminded Nathan of the sky in Dragon Ball Z, when the dragon was summoned. All dark and spooky, but still able to see the sun in the distant horizon.

"No." Master Ghodi corrected, still cucumber-cool. "This amount of fire could not create such clouds." He turned toward the mountains that Nathan supposed were East of the town, based off of Master Ghodi's speech back at the temple, and started to walk quickly in that direction. "Come, it seems this might be one of the more difficult tasks."

Everyone quickly fell in line with him, adopting some sort of formation that Nathan wasn't privy to. They were also walking much faster than his little legs could keep up with, without resorting to running, so he picked himself off the ground with his Celestial energy and floated along in the back of the group.

One of the older students, the one that 'corrected' Hong, glanced back at him and tsked, but quickly diverted his attention to the surroundings; keeping a watchful eye for potential danger.

The ex-Ravager smirked slightly. The dude was just jealous that Nathan could fly, and he couldn't. Sucks to be him.

Honestly, since Nathan was now able to store over forty times the amount of Celestial energy than before, due to the Oricalcum rings and despite his smaller frame, floating along like this barely did anything to his reserves. He had actually taken to using it as his primary mode of transportation, even, meaning he was continually getting better at it too; reducing the resource costs further, and being able to use it subconsciously.

Lazy? Yep. Totally fucking awesome? Definitely.

All he needed was a black, hooded robe, a deranged giggle, and to figure out how to blast lightning from his fingers. With all that, he would be an unholy combination of Yoda and Palpatine; considering how small he was.

Life goals.

Meandering in what Nathan thought was Eastward, the group didn't come across a single person, or even any dead bodies, but there was plenty destruction and fire. Cars were flipped on their side or crashed into storefronts, half of the trees in the park they passed were felled and burning, and they hadn't yet passed a building that didn't have a hole in it, or a roof that hadn't been ripped off. Past the buildings on his right, there were a set of train tracks, where even a derailed train laid on its side.

Whatever caused this anomaly had only been detected about twenty minutes ago. How did all of this happen within that time frame? How was an entire town emptied of its residents in under twenty minutes?

Unless… Maybe whatever had done this had been around already, and caused this much damage before they picked up the spike? Nathan had been assuming that whatever caused the energy spike was the use of some major magic, or minor convergence between dimensions, but maybe whatever, or whoever, had a way to subvert the detection spells...

If that was the case, then how were they detected at all?

This was starting to resemble The Snap far too much for Nathan's liking, regardless of how contained it seemed to be.

"Eyes front." Master Ghodi said suddenly as they cleared the town's limits.

At once, all eyes turned towards the mountain range, where the fires from town seemed to have spread. Even from this distance, they could all see a single figure among felled and burning trees, cloaked in billowing darkness that even dimmed the blaze that spread around it.

Staring directly at them.

"Descendants of the Peon Gods." A voice of gravel seemed to declare, rather than ask, reverberating through the air, and shaking each of the practitioners of the Mystic Arts to their core. Forget the distance between them, because it didn't yell or scream, instead merely speaking those words, yet they were still heard.

"This plane will be brought to heel." It continued. "The banner of the Old Ones will be risen atop your graves, as is the fate of all that is, or will be."

A/N

I don't like this chapter. It wasn't hard to write, but I don't feel I did a good job with it. It's not as easy to read, I don't think. Sorry about that.

To explain a couple points where I'm not confident in my story-telling for this chapter:

1. Nathan started this chapter at just over 4 months into his stay at Kamar-Taj. About a third of the way through, there is a time-jump to where he is much more accomplished; where he continues at just under two years at the Temple, and seven years old.

2. Nathan is not a genius: It takes him time to learn information, and figure out how to use it. If you didn't know, the entirety of Dr. Strange's learning in the Temple, before he is named the Master of the New York Sanctum, takes place over the course of one year. Nathan has essentially been there for five and a half, if you count his time with the Time Stone.

A/N #2

If anyone here is good at art, I could use a cover image for this thing. If you want to make something and send it to me, I would appreciate it. I will update this chapter and credit the person who sent it over. If there's more than one, I'll try and make a page with them all and link to it in my bio. Now as for what to make it of, I would prefer it to be of Nathan around age twenty, but you're the artists, not me. If you want to try something else, run it by me, and I can at least tell you what it looks like in my head. Or you could pick something I've already written about, like Nathan holding the Time Stone, wearing an over-sized Ravager jacket maybe? I'll accept all submissions regardless, and seriously consider each one.

As for what Nathan looks like at twenty-ish? (Skip the next two paragraphs to avoid minor spoilers)

Not-quite shoulder-length, brown hair - windswept backwards type of 'do. His eyes look like windows into another galaxy (like how Peter's eyes looked when Ego "Showed him the universe" in the second movie). I'll leave facial features and hair up to you guys, I want to see where your imagination takes you. As for build; He's got some muscles, but he's still light, and just under 6-foot. Think college-student that goes to the gym somewhat regularly.

As for stuff; I can picture him in either the red Ravager jacket, or light greyish-teal Kamar-Taj monk robes. He also has a forearm-length tomahawk: silver colored, modern tactical style, flat full-tang, with Nordic runes along the blade, and a thick leather wrap on the handle.

Again, this is your prerogative. Draw, paint, scribble whatever you feel like. If you have the time, energy, and boredom to put it together, I would appreciate all submissions regardless of content. I am shit at art, but this thing could use a cover image.

If I don't receive anything, that's fine, I'll just have to do a good job of painting the picture with words.

A/N #3 - as per usual:

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual constructive criticism, I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please review! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.

Chapter 899 - 6