C 131
"Welcome home girls. Or at least where I live currently…" I said as I spread my arms wide gesturing all around. This penthouse was still pretty great. Too bad I hadn't gotten to spend a lot of time actually living here yet. I'd been traveling around more than a Xianxia protagonist!
Asia and Akeno looked around my Penthouse curiously. Asia had stars in her eyes and had probably never seen such luxury before. Akeno looked mildly disinterested. She grew up in the Gremory mansion which was probably a lot more ritzy than my multi million dollar penthouse. Maybe I needed to get some servants?
I easily had enough gold to pay for them now. In fact, I think I had more gold than Fort Knox. I wonder if the government would be interested in buying some of it off of me? It's pretty hard to spend gold coins on Earth after all…
"Ok. Asia, your room is on the left and Akeno's is on the right. Well talk about enrolling the both of you in school soon as well. Just because you're in a new world, doesn't mean you can skip your education." I explained to the pair of them.
"I can go to school!?" Asia asked excitedly. "I've always dreamed of being able to go to one!"
"I suppose I wouldn't mind going to school myself. As long as it's anywhere but in Japan…" Akeno said with a far off look. I decided not to ask.
The two girls settled into their rooms and I checked back in on Andrea Stark. She was still unconscious for now. That apple of Idun was talking a long time to fully change her body. I had tried contacting Tony so I could tell him about 'his sister,' but he wasn't answering currently. Jarvis had told me that Tony was back home in his lab and had asked to not be disturbed. He had been hit with some crazy bout of inspiration apparently.
Figuring the two girls would be fine on their own for a while, I decided to pop over to see someone I hadn't visited in a while. I opened up a portal to the Kamar Taj.
…
"Halt, Abomination! You will not step foot on our sacred grounds!" I stepped out of my purple portal and was immediately yelled at. I glanced around and saw over a dozen sorcerers, all armed with glowing orange weapons, glaring at me hatefully. There was some kind of loud alarm blaring all around as well.
"What the hell, guys!? It's me, Layla. I studied here for over a month, not even that long ago!" I said to everyone. Some of the sorcerers in the courtyard finally seemed to recognize me and lowered their weapons. Around half of them did not, though.
"Is that truly you, Layla? You feel…different." The voice of the Supreme echoed out through the courtyard. Everyone's attention shifted towards the Ancient One as she stepped out of a nearby wooden building. I saw Heather Potter trailing after her. Heather's eyes lit up when she saw me! The girl was looking a lot better. Gone were her gaunt eyes and thin frame due to years of abuse and malnutrition. Now, Heather looked like any other teenage girl her age. Just one that was wearing monk's robes…
"Layla! I missed you! You've been gone for so long! I thought you forgot about me?" Heather said as she walked up to me and gave me a big hug.
I hugged her back and apologized. "I'm sorry, Heather. So much crazy stuff happened all at once! I had Voldemort, then the Hand, then Voldemort again, and then Voldemort a third time! Then I had to deal with Asgard, where I got engaged. Then there was the zombie apocalypse in an alternate dimension, and the woman I'm engaged to in this dimension tried to kill me in that one!" I listed off with a huff! I really need to kill this dimension's Voldemort. He should not have made the list three times!
The Ancient One just raised an amused eyebrow at me. Heather was looking completely lost, of course, by my terrible explanation. "You're engaged!?" She exclaimed! "To who!?"
"Hela, the Goddess of Death and new Queen of Asgard." I said.
"The Asgardians are real too!? Are all the gods real?" Heather asked me.
"Yes." the Ancient one answered for me. "That is why we sorcerers are so important. Most of the supernatural world thinks of us humans as lesser beings that deserve to be ruled by them. We, the sorcerers, exist to protect those people from threats like that." She explained to Heather.
"So, can you do anything about all of them?" I asked the Ancient One while gesturing to all the sorcerers still pointing their eldritch weapons at me.
"All of you go back to what you are doing. She feels far different than when she left us, but I can say that this is Layla." All of the sorcerers lowered their glowing weapons at the Ancient once words.
…
I was sitting alone with the Ancient One in her office while she gave me a scrutinizing gaze. "You've certainly changed quite a bit from the last time I saw you, Layla."
"I have, yeah. As mentioned before I've definitely gone through quite a few trials to get stronger." I said.
"Hmmm, and I'm sure that entity fused to your soul has nothing to do with your unprecedented growth…" She trailed off while giving me a knowing grin.
I sighed. "Maybe a little…"
"Although, that's not the only entity fused to your soul anymore. I sense another…something more foreign to our dimension." The Ancient One said again. She was staring at me, and her eyes were almost glowing. She was sensing the eye inside my Orb of Anywhere. That might have also been what triggered the mystic alarm when I arrived here. The arrival of an Eldritch being – even just a small part of one – wouldn't go unnoticed in the heart of the Sanctum, after all.
Two could play in that game. With my higher levels and [Observe] skill, I wondered if I could see her level now?
[The Ancient One - Level ???]
The woman sent me a smirk. "Trying to pry into my secrets so soon, Layla? You might have grown significantly in power, but your knowledge over the mystic arts is still abysmal. You could barely make portals when you left after all." She said as she took a sip of her tea.
"And now I can open up portals all over the universe and to alternate ones even whenever I want!" I bragged.
The Ancient One looked at me with pity. "So can every single other sorcerer who leaves here with their training complete… We simply choose not to open portals to alternate dimensions or universes. Lest we accidentally find one that is filled with the kind of creature now fused to your soul." She said to me with a deadpan.
"Awe…that makes sense. Azazel said that thing was the size of a moon and had millions of tentacles. A single one of those tentacles almost killed him in one hit too."
I saw the ancient one pale at my words. "That moron discovered THAT abomination!? He's lucky our entire universe still exists! And somehow a piece of it is now fused to you and it actually seems to like you!? I have no words…" She trailed off and shook her head.
[Well, that's some encouraging information. That being even terrifies this madwoman!]
I could feel the System's sarcasm flowing through me…
"Other than that, Layla. I can sense the dimensional energies all over you. You recently came from a universe that reeks of death. Was that the Zombie Apocalypse you mentioned earlier?" She asked me.
"Yeah, the world was pretty messed up. There was a terrible virus that popped up in…" I started to explain.
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