On Lynn's third day at Kamar-Taj, Baron Mordo thought he might be losing his mind.
On the training ground, Lynn stood opposite him, his face innocent and his eyes clear and clueless. Just like a college freshman who had only just enrolled.
Mordo took a deep breath, turned toward the wooden dummy beside him, and raised his right hand.
"This is the most basic 'eldritch weapon,'" Mordo said solemnly. "Through meditation and training, you must manifest your will as a tangible weapon. Beginners usually need..."
He never finished.
Because, as casually as pulling a charging cable from his pocket, Lynn conjured an identical magical sword out of thin air. It was slightly longer than Mordo's, and the glow along its edges was steadier.
The corner of Mordo's mouth twitched.
"Are you sure you've never studied this before?" he asked.
"Yep," Lynn answered honestly. "I just watched how you gathered energy, and my brain automatically ran through it once. It felt like... well, it shouldn't be as complicated as you said. Energy has its own flow. You just need to tell it 'where to go.'"
"Tell it where to go?" Mordo repeated, wondering if he had misheard.
"Right." Lynn nodded. "I don't know how to describe it. It's a bit like... uh... you don't need to understand how fire burns. You just need to know, 'I want fire,' and then the fire comes."
As he spoke, he casually snapped his fingers.
Boom.
A basketball-sized ball of fire shot from between his fingers, traced an arc through the air, and struck a stone in the corner of the training ground with perfect accuracy, blasting it to pieces.
Mordo: "..."
He looked at the Ancient One, who stood watching nearby.
The Ancient One's expression remained calm, though a thoughtful look had entered her eyes.
"Has he been like this these past few days?" The Ancient One asked.
Looking as though he had nothing left to live for, Mordo replied, "He learned portals on the first day, energy defense and illusions on the second, and today... you saw it yourself. He hasn't even read a single book on magic. It's all based on... uh, 'feeling.'"
The Ancient One nodded without comment. She walked up to Lynn, extended a hand, and traced a complex magic circle in the air.
"Try copying it," The Ancient One said.
Lynn studied the circle. Intricate runes overlapped in layers, each requiring precise angles and energy flow. Even Mordo would need at least half a minute to draw the whole thing.
But Lynn took only one look, as though taking a screenshot of the image in his mind and then reproducing it exactly.
He raised his hand, golden light flowing between his fingers. In less than five seconds, a magic circle identical to the one before the Ancient One hovered in the air.
The difference was that the edges of the Ancient One's circle glowed faintly orange, while Lynn's radiated a strange, nearly transparent white light.
The Ancient One's gaze fell on that white light, and for the first time, her expression shifted slightly.
"Interesting."
She understood. The white light that appeared around Lynn when he cast magic represented neither dimensional energy nor magic, but some more fundamental "thing" she had never seen before. He was directly writing and modifying reality's source code.
Without saying anything more, the Ancient One called Lynn into her study.
The room was small, its walls covered in ancient scrolls and magical artifacts. The Ancient One sat on a meditation cushion and gestured for Lynn to sit as well.
"Your talent is very unusual," The Ancient One said without preamble. "Most people learn magic by understanding the rules, following them, and guiding energy. But you... you seem to ignore the rules and rewrite the outcome directly."
Lynn fell silent for a moment. He had actually sensed it too: his "magic" was completely different from that of the sorcerers in the movies. Others used incantations and rituals to "request" or "borrow" energy to accomplish things, while he seemed more to "command" reality to change.
"This is an extremely rare ability," The Ancient One continued. "Used properly, it could allow you to do anything. But if it goes out of control, the consequences would be equally unimaginable."
"Uh... so are you planning to banish me?" Lynn asked instinctively.
"Quite the opposite," The Ancient One said. "I want to entrust Earth to you."
Lynn froze. "You want me to become the Sorcerer Supreme?"
"I'm not asking you to become the Sorcerer Supreme." Seeing his misunderstanding, the Ancient One explained, "I intend to send you to the New York Sanctum. It has a large collection of books on magic. You may read every book there freely, and you may also do whatever you wish."
"Then why not let me stay here?"
"Because if you stay here, uh... those apprentices will very likely jump off a cliff," The Ancient One said calmly. "Besides..."
A subtle smile suddenly appeared on her face.
"The food is better there."
Lynn: "..."
The Ancient One took a bronze-colored ring from the nearby bookshelf and handed it to him.
"A Sling Ring," she said. "The Sanctum's librarian is a sorcerer named Wong. He is a man of few words, but very knowledgeable. I will notify him ahead of time, and he will arrange your accommodations."
Lynn accepted the Sling Ring, feeling the cold metal against his skin. He hesitated, but still asked the question on his mind.
"Aren't you worried I'll destroy the world anymore?"
"I already know the outcome," The Ancient One said. "Although I cannot see your future, I can see other people's. You're a good boy."
Lynn was silent for two seconds, then gave her a thumbs-up.
"All right, you win. I'll accept your request."
The New York Sanctum, 177A Bleecker Street.
Standing before an ordinary-looking townhouse, Lynn touched the brass knocker at the entrance. The door was unlocked. He pushed it open and entered, and the scene before him instantly changed from an ordinary home into an enormous, cathedral-like hall with a three-story ceiling.
All sorts of magical artifacts covered the walls... each gave off faint energy fluctuations, filling the entire space with an air of mystery.
Before Lynn could take a closer look, a deep voice came from the second floor.
"New arrival?"
He looked up and saw a burly, bald man in dark red monk's robes leaning against the second-floor railing, holding a thick book and looking at him expressionlessly.
"Wong?" Lynn asked tentatively.
"Mm." Wong nodded, came down the stairs, and looked him up and down. "The Ancient One told me about you. An exceptionally gifted newcomer. She asked me to keep an eye on you. I won't restrict your freedom. Just let me know if you want to go out."
"Did she say 'observe me' or 'keep an eye on me'?" Lynn asked sharply.
Wong did not answer. Instead, he turned toward a small door at the back of the hall.
"Your room is on the left side of the second floor, right beside the library," he said without looking back. "Breakfast is from seven to eight every morning. Miss it, and you go without. Don't touch the artifacts in the Sanctum, especially that one..."
He pointed toward an ornate glass display case in a corner of the hall. Inside floated a dark red cloak with a high, upturned collar.
"That's the Cloak of Levitation," Wong said. "It chooses its wearer. Don't touch it unless it touches you first."
Lynn glanced at the cloak, and an image of Doctor Strange flying above New York flashed through his mind.
"What if it touches me?"
Wong looked at him expressionlessly.
"We'll discuss that when it does."
A few days passed in a flash.
Life in the Sanctum was far more comfortable than Lynn had imagined. Its collection of books was astonishing, covering practically every aspect of magic, from dimensional energy theory to practical elemental manipulation, from the lineages of incantations to the forging of magical artifacts.
His only regret was that he still could not figure out how his ability actually worked.
Whenever he tried to "understand" magic, the intuition in his brain acted like a supercomputer, automatically skipping every intermediate step and delivering the result directly. He could learn a spell instantly, yet he could not understand at all why it worked.
It was a peculiar feeling, and one that left him feeling rather like a fraud.
It was as though he could solve problems without ever having learned the formulas.
That evening, Lynn bought a slice of cheese pizza from the pizza shop on the corner and ate it as he walked back to the Sanctum. Passing through the hall, he heard the television. Wong was making a rare appearance in the hall to watch TV; normally, he spent all his time in the study except when eating.
The television was broadcasting breaking news live.
"This is Afghanistan. In the latest news, renowned weapons manufacturer and Stark Industries CEO Tony Stark was attacked by armed militants after demonstrating a new missile near Bagram Air Base. Stark's whereabouts are currently unknown, and the military has launched a search-and-rescue operation..."
The footage switched to a stretch of desert. Black smoke rose from the wreckage of several destroyed Humvees, while helicopter searchlights swept through the darkness in the distance.
Lynn stopped walking.
He stared at the photograph of Tony Stark's irreverent face on the screen as a flood of memory fragments rushed into his mind.
A man who built the first suit of powered armor from scrap metal in a cave, who went from an arms dealer selling weapons to a hero protecting the world with his armor.
And the supporting character who died in that cave, Doctor Yinsen.
Lynn turned to look at Wong.
"I'm heading out," he said.
"Where?" Wong asked casually, his eyes still on the television.
"Afghanistan." As Lynn spoke, he had already raised his hand and opened a portal. Orange sparks spun in the air, revealing a nighttime desert filled with swirling yellow sand.
Wong finally turned to look at him and fell silent for two seconds.
"What for?"
"To save someone."
Lynn stepped through the portal, and the hot desert night wind struck his face, carrying grit.
The portal behind him slowly closed, and the golden light of the New York Sanctum vanished into the air.
Marvel Universe, here I fucking come!