"This is Oath Stone, directly connected to the universe," The Ancient One said. "You just need to hold it and make an oath."
Ian held the stone and looked at it carefully. "Cosmic Will? No, it is an entity representing the universe. Therefore, it is eternity that provides the binding force for this contract."
"You seem to know a lot."
"I'm just curious, and - compared to humans, I've lived a long time," Ian explained casually. After figuring out how this thing worked, he made the oath without hesitation. When he finished, a chain extended from the stone and sank into his head.
Ian quickly looked inside and checked. As expected, the chain was wrapped around his soul flame, which meant that this was indeed the most binding form of contract.
"What should I do now?" Ian asked while returning the stone.
"You learn from Wang first. Once you show your talent, you can learn everything from me."
Ian frowned, "As long as you open all your book collections to me, I will be able to master everything in less than two weeks."
"I have no doubt about it," The Ancient One said. "But you have to be part of the show."
"You want me to establish prestige among other mages?"
"Although I have the right to directly designate an heir, things will go much smoother if they can see your ability with their own eyes and accept my decision."
"What about Kaecilius?"
"What do you want me to do with him?"
"As you wish. Since I have chosen you as my heir, I will not interfere."
"Where is Time Stone?" Ian continued to ask.
"Within six months, you should be able to get everyone to accept your identity as the next Sorcerer Supreme. By then, I will hand it over to you."
"Well," Ian murmured to himself. "The situation is better than I expected."
"What did you expect?"
"Despite being bound by the oath, I originally thought I would face more distrust and political struggle," Ian answered truthfully.
"When you get the gem and see the future I see, you will understand why I delegated power to you."
"Now, I want to know what exactly you saw," Ian said, immediately casting a spell to try to peek into the future.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Why?"
"Prior to 2008, you should not be involved in any Time Magic that has nothing to do with Time Stone," The Ancient One warned.
'2008? That's when the plot of <Iron Man> started,' Ian thought. "Is it because of Time Variance Authority? I thought they had opened up Multiverse because no one came to cut me."
Ian knew about the existence of TVA and made sure that his landing time was after the events of the first season of <Loki>, when TVA went through a reshuffle and opened up Multiverse. Otherwise, his appearance would undoubtedly be monitored, and then a group of TVA agents would suddenly appear at his door.
"Yes and no," The Ancient One explained. "The year 2008 was a turning point in the world; from that point on, everything started moving and the Earth entered a new era. Your Time Magic could interfere with this event, causing a lot of problems."
"Is this one of the timelines you saw?"
"Yes," The Ancient One nodded.
"Okay." Ian controlled his curiosity. He had a month's vacation before starting to perform his duties and training as a mage. "By the way, do you know the coordinates of Vormir?" He tried Divination without success, so the planet was either naturally protected due to the presence of gems, or his Divination skills were not enough to find its coordinates.
"You want Soul Stone?"
"Yes."
"Sorry, I don't know," The Ancient One replied.
"Okay. I'll figure it out myself," Ian said and left. He could have teleported to another timeline and gotten it from Thanos's body, but he felt it might be better to use the gem of his own universe.
Ian's next plan was to find Gamora and get the coordinates from her mind. She was unprotected, so it was easy to find her on a mission for Thanos on a planet called Grir. After watching her assassinate a man, he extracted the information from her mind and quietly left.
He opens a portal to Knowhere, a place full of desperadoes and criminals. He needs to find a sinful, ruthless man, but at the same time deeply in love with someone (wife or daughter).
It took him a while, but he found what he was looking for - a criminal couple named Lom and Vie; they were one of the biggest child trafficking kingpins this side of the galaxy, and despite the many atrocities they committed, they were equally famous for their everlasting love. It made for an ideal target.
Ian cast a Prophecy-like dream on Lom, suggesting that he was destined to rule the universe as long as he went to a place called Vormir and was willing to sacrifice everything.
After this hypnosis, Lom woke up the next day and looked at his wife with complicated eyes. Then, on the same day, he took her on the spacecraft and flew straight to Vormir.
When they arrived at their destination, the drug he put in her drink had taken effect and she passed out. Lom carried her to the planet. After listening to Guardians (Red Skull, Red Face)'s explanation, he kissed her forehead for the last time and threw her off the cliff.
He did hold the gem in his hand, feeling the power surge through his veins. With tears in his eyes, Lom walked into the spaceship, ready to face his glorious future. However, his body was instantly turned into ashes.
Without the support of Ian's power, how could his body, as weak as a common man's, be able to withstand the power of Infinity Stones?
When Ian held the gem, a powerful energy surged into his body. He controlled it to enter his Soul Dimension and directed it directly to Morgana. He watched her pale body recover quickly until it returned to normal.
'That's enough for now,' he thought; she should be able to wake up and return to normal in a few months. He teleported to a deserted planet and immediately began to set up a barrier. Over the next week, the planet was surrounded by thousands of magic circles centered on Soul Stone.
'Let's begin,' Ian thought and activated the barrier. A huge Soul Energy poured into his Soul Dimension, and he immediately began the process of integrating his soul into the soul flame. With the help of the method obtained from the Type-Moon cosmic variant, this process went very quickly without any problems.
Ian's soul released a dazzling light, and then he saw two small flames appearing in the soul's eyes.
"Looks like an undead," Ian commented, then shook his head. Appearance is not important; the real value of this experience lies in breaking the limits of his soul. Ian now feels that moving to a higher level is a matter of course.
'Next step.' The next step is to temper the body, and Soul Stone is also the core of this process. He converts the Soul Energy released by the gem into life energy to temper his body. At the same time, he observes the new soul flame born on the fourth layer of the dimension, collects data and conducts experiments.
Ian knew that this method was universal, but it still needed to be tested. So, while training his physical body and waiting for the second cluster of soul flames to appear, he experimented with this method of breaking Soul Limit.
'It is universal and Soul Energy is not required, but it speeds up the process while making it safer,' Ian concluded.
This process is not 100% successful, as his experiments have shown that despite the inherent connection, soul flames may still destroy the soul, or they may repel Fusion.
'Now, let's test Soul Divinity and break through to Tier 10 in one fell swoop,' Ian thought, and then started working on the next First Tier section.