Hey Everyone! Once again, I am so sorry that I've been doing a lousy job at uploading here lately but I think it's partly because I'm not quite ready to let this story end yet. I also have been super busy the past few weeks what with church events, keeping up with both jobs and being sick last week and I just wanted to make sure that I had a good amount of content to post. I really hope you've enjoyed this story so far and I'd be really appreciative to know what you have thought of my first Avengers/Doctor Strange fanfic. I will try my best to upload again over the next two weeks or so, I can't promise anything definite I'm afraid though. Thank you for understanding and I'll be looking forward to hearing from some of you! :)
I slowly lowered the golden machete as I stood up to face the powerful woman that stood across the room from me. Her dark hair flowed slightly in a breeze that shouldn't have been present in the hidden library and as she tilted her head up to regard me with scrutiny, glimmering silver necklaces were exposed through the black veil covering her face. Her elegantly long dress was a deep violet color, and I noticed that she wore silver bracelets on either of her wrists. When she stepped closer to me, matching shining bands were revealed around her thin ankles as well. Clearly the Enchantress adored her jewelry.
"What have you decided, Alexander?" Her taunting voice broke the silence between us after a long suspenseful moment. I raised my golden machete more in a reflexive defense than in an attempt to threaten her. Her blood red lips spread into a wider smirk through her veil and she gestured towards me, causing my weapon to melt away easily like the light show that it appeared to be. I stepped back and drew my hands up into fists to ward her off but she casually flipped her hand to the side again and under her influence, my raised arms were thrown back to my sides as she continued her slow approach.
"What do you mean, 'what've I decided?!' I didn't choose to release you so I don't really think I'm in control here…" I responded as calmly as I could while still trying to retreat backwards from the dangerous looking Asgardian Enchantress.
"Of course you're not in control here, you're just a child." She said through perfectly white teeth that were gritted in agitation. I chanced a glance over her shoulder at the taxidermy horse where it had ceased its rampage around the room to stomp frightfully by the shattered display case. The cat, chickens and iguana were also congregated on the other side of the room together as if waiting to be released from the stifling room.
"…Are you in control?" I asked stupidly as I felt my back press against one of the staggered bookshelves. Karnilla stopped just in front of me and cast her veil aside to reveal her dark eyes that glowed with some ancient fury unknown to me.
"You have no idea, boy…" She hissed, clearly wanting to rip me to shreds but for some reason being unable to. "What I've been through…what I've done…what I'm capable of doing…"
I stared at her carefully where she stood, every muscle visibly clenched in her irritation. Her red lips were pulled back into a sneer as she eyed me up and down and I chanced at moving to stand up straight to face her. As I did, she grabbed me by the front of my robes, which were still coated in splashes of gook from the dead spider on the floor. That seemed to anger her even further and she then hurriedly released her hand from my robes to rub the remaining slime off of her hand onto a nearby bookshelf.
"I'm sure you're all-powerful, Miss Enchantress…" I fumbled shakily, trying to swallow against the overwhelming sense of fear that she was trying to invoke in me. "And I'm sure you'd very much like to prove your abilities and dominance, but there's really no need. Call off these earthquakes and bringing objects and animals to life thing, and maybe we can talk about this like decent – uh…people?"
Karnilla's hard expression lightened greatly as I spoke and by the time I was finished she burst into laughter just a few feet from my face. I frowned deeply, afraid to let my guard down as I waited for her to flip back into instant murderess mode.
"You think I had anything to do with that before?" She finally said when her fit of laughter had died down into almost sarcastic giggles. "Oh no. You ought to know that it was the Sanctum itself using this time to try and gets its affairs in order before its imminent destruction."
"The house is doing this?!" I repeated, looking around at the devastation of the library we stood in. Almost the only things still standing in the room were the once taxidermied animals, the shelves they once were placed upon and the tower of magical books that I had bound together in my containment spell that still glowed strongly in the other corner of the room. When I glanced back up at the Enchantress still standing in front of me, her eyes were wide with mocking sincerity as she nodded in confirmation.
"Pretty odd, isn't it? Alexander, darling…let me clarify something to you. The world as you know it is not the only one that's out there! These artifacts and books did not all come from your Earth. Doctor Strange and the sorcerers that preceded him have collected these mystical objects and have written about the happenings on other worlds and in other dimensions for centuries. All of this isn't new to me…but…this Thanos…" Karnilla tore her gaze away from me for a moment and worriedly fingered at one of her many silver necklaces. There was a glint of hesitance in her eyes and she shook herself back to facing me. "He's not the only one who has tried to collect these Infinity Stones."
"He's not? Then…that means that the others were stopped, right? Are you saying there is a chance that we can prevent him from winning?" I asked, daring to be a little hopeful. Karnilla regarded me for a moment in hesitant consideration.
"Not exactly…" She said lowly, her dark eyes searching as she reached a hand up to my face. I drew back from her in surprise, flexing my hands into fists and flashing my mandalas into existence warningly. She narrowed her eyes and shot her gaze down to the shields and up to my face once more. I let my shields fall as I realized that she in return was warning me to stand down. When she moved forward again, I pressed my back further into the shelf unconsciously as she reached for me.
"What are you doing?" I asked her uncertainly as I felt her cool touch on my forehead.
"I'm helping you to open your Third Eye, boy…" She hissed in slight irritation. "It's the only way for you to see what's really about to happen…"
Confused, I tried to pull away from the Enchantress standing over me but there was a startling shock of pain that suddenly shot through my forehead beneath her powerful touch. I cried out in a gasp of surprise and squeezed my eyes shut against the closeness of her dark and intense gaze.
"THERE!"
I could suddenly hear Thanos' exclamation from all around me and I allowed my eyes to shoot open as the pain in my head neared exploding. The softly twinkling light of the Mirror Dimension I had been trapped in seemed to crack upon the opening of my eyes and shatter back into the dark real-time dimension of the Sanctum. Karnilla was thrown to the floor away from me when another earthquake shook through the room and I hurriedly leapt away from the bookshelf behind me. I whirled around with a breath of disbelief as I appeared to be able to see my surroundings with a new clarity.
The secret library was nearly destroyed just as it had been in the Mirror Dimension, but the blank wall between the two empty taxidermy shelves was completely opened up like a makeshift doorway. The huge stack of books that I had thought to contain in a golden tower had been dismantled with the powerful earthquake and scattered puffs of light exploded from the few books that fell open. I turned back to the two shelves against the wall, noting that standing just before me where the wall once stood was the sorcerer that had taught me everything I had been able to learn in the past few days.
"Wong?!" I asked slowly in confusion, my eyes still strained as widely as they could go as I surveyed everything uncertainly. Wong didn't move or even acknowledge that I had spoken to him. I noticed that he appeared to be frozen on the spot with his arms outstretched and his fists glowed with his familiar golden shields in what was clearly a defensive pose. He seemed to have his back to me, ready to fight off anything that got near the library I had been locked in. When he still made no movement that he'd noticed the huge hole in the wall that had opened up behind him I moved to walk toward him warily, still using my new sight to scan for anything that seemed off.
"Alexander…stop…" Karnilla's voice spoke up quietly from behind me. I glanced back to see that she had picked herself up from the ground and that the once-taxidermied animals were once again nothing more than the decorative pieces they had originally been, scattered on their sides behind Karnilla. The Enchantress nodded towards me and gestured for me to look back to Wong. "Look closer…"
I tried to do as she said and looked back to where Wong still stood motionless in the gaping hole in the wall, the only real light coming from the shields hovering over his fists. I moved slightly closer and my eyes widened as I suddenly realized that he was facing towards me instead of in the position of defending me like I'd originally thought.
"Wong…what's going on?" I asked quietly as I straightened up and tried to discreetly back away from the sorcerer. Wong said nothing, but I could see an expression of deep anger masked on his face. Ever since Dan and I had been transported to the Sanctum, Wong had always held a serene or sometimes condescending expression, but never one of genuine anger. I frowned as yet another warning bell rang in the back of my mind when I saw a flash of red from somewhere behind the sorcerer.
"Alexander." Wong's voice said lowly and without emotion, a typical observation of what I'd seen in him over the past few days. I watched in hesitation as he slowly spread his arms which dismantled the shields. He then methodically turned his wrists inward and then with a slightly quicker motion, flicked his hands in a wide arc in the space in front of him. I heard a powerful rush of air blast over me and struggled to hold on to my hindsight as I chanced a glance to my side out of curiosity when I noticed movement.
There was nothing at all behind me.
The downed shelves, display cases, ancient artifacts, and even the animals were gone. The whole secret library was nothing but what appeared to be a small spare room, dimly lit and windowless since the room appeared to be somewhere in the very center of the mansion. There was literally nothing in the small spaced room which caused me to wonder what on earth I had been interacting with in whatever illusion the Mirror Dimension had held. As that thought ran through my mind, my heart skipped a beat.
The Enchantress wasn't standing behind me like she had been only seconds before.
I whirled around to see that Wong had moved slowly into the room with me, and I took only a passing glance of the sorcerer's head, noticing that the gaping hole that had previously appeared to have been torn through the wall of the room had transformed into a simple large wooden doorway. I backed away just a step or two, the warning bells still ringing furiously in my head amidst my present confusion.
"Another illusion? Really?" I asked almost sarcastically. When Wong didn't remove his heavy gaze from me, I threw my hands into the air in sudden anger. "You must think I'm an idiot, Wong! To remove me from the real fight to bring me here and lock me up in my own mind…in yet another attempt to train me for the real fight that's been going on out there in the real Sanctum this whole time."
I gestured around at the empty room behind me, even spinning once with my arms spread out dramatically. I finally stopped and stared at Wong who had lowered his arms to his sides though he still seemed stiff with masked emotion as he regarded me carefully. When he still didn't speak, my shoulders fell dejectedly.
"…Is there even a real fight going on out there right now?" I asked, my voice barely above an audible level. Wong lowered his chin in my direction in some sort of reply and I noticed a hint of disappointment in his face.
"Not anymore."
The air behind him rippled with an odd red glow and I caught a brief glimpse of a huge hulking form standing a few yards behind him just inside the doorway. My eyes widened in realization but as quick as the glimpse through the red glow had appeared, the figure had vanished. I straightened as I noticed that Wong had realized I had seen the large alien figure behind him. Instead of whirling around or motioning for me to help him fend off the threat that stood watchfully by the doorway, he seemed intent on reaching me. I took yet another step back as he slowly moved further into the room.
"Give me the Stone, Alexander. You're not fit to protect it."
My confusion still forced me into disbelief as I continued to stare at the sorcerer in front of me. I looked up at the space where I had seen Thanos' slip, wanting to tear my way over to him to wipe that now-invisible smirk off of his purple face. When Wong raised his left arm up toward me I flicked my eyes back to him, leaning away instinctually.
"Alexander." Wong repeated almost threateningly. I frowned at him as I narrowed my eyes, noticing that his other hand was held smartly behind his back. "…the Stone, please."
I tilted my head up towards him knowingly then flicked my gaze over his shoulder once and straight back to the sorcerer's expressionless face before I opened my mouth in a hesitating breath before I answered him.
"Sorry Wong… but I don't think that's the best idea. And I think you agree with me on that." I said gently, watching the man's reaction carefully. When there was no change in his stern expression, I took a shaky breath in preparation for what I knew would happen next and forced myself not to flinch as he lowered his outstretched hand to his side and behind his back to join its partner.
"You're a fool if you think I agree with that, boy. " Wong said sharply, sounding too much like Thanos. I let that go over my head as I clenched my hands into fists and felt the sting of my newly opened shoulder wound. "And like the others…you'll die as one."
I flicked both of my fists up and crossed my arms across my chest, flashing a large golden shield over the front of my body as Wong whirled around with a blast of energy that exploded into sparks of glowing light upon impacting my shield. I knew I had to move away because my shielding technique would not hold off the powerful sorcerer for long. Wong had stepped back in examination of his first surprise attack so I had a millisecond to morph my shield in a ball of golden energy to retaliate.
Before I could do more than shape my spell Wong was gone, leaving a swirling portal in his place that revealed an explosive fire. I stretched the ball of golden energy quickly into a flat sphere that acted as a net to catch the burst of flame that instantly shot through the portal just a few feet in front of me. I struggled to maintain the substance of my conjured spell, cringing as even through the shield I felt the unbearable heat welling up before me. I heard the swish of another portal forming behind me and as I thankfully felt the heat dying down rapidly in front of me signaling the closing of the first portal, I pulled my hands back together and whirled around with the collected energy from the flames to face Wong as he emerged from the most recent gateway.
"Forget something?" I said, opening my arms back up and releasing the built up energy in the sorcerer's direction. The portal's edges contracted and then extended outward transforming the small spare room into an icy tundra, complete with biting winds and chunks of ice littered everywhere. The flames that had exploded outward from my energy net immediately dissipated as the temperature plummeted below zero.
Suddenly wishing that I had the fire back, I curled my fingers into another sphere, exhaling only when a reddish ball of energy formed between my palms. Wong had dodged my retaliated explosive fire as I knew he would, but now he was creating portals left and right to confuse me. I had no idea which one he would emerge from, so I hurriedly reached into the ball of red energy floating before me.
"Wong…I don't want to fight you!" I called, shivering in the frigid winds, the feeling in my face already nonexistent. The red energy snaked its way up through my fingers and settled around my wrist, pulsing with built up power. As the most recent portal swished to life right behind me, I whirled around and flicked my hand towards it, seeing Wong distantly on the other side of the golden portal. Wong was taken by surprise and the whip that had exploded from my palm latched onto his left wrist where it was held up for conjuring. The sorcerer looked down angrily at the red glow burning through his forearm before he made a final semicircle with his right hand, dissolving the portal that separated us and cutting straight through my energy whip. The ricochet of my whip snapping back abruptly caused me to stumble through yet another portal that had appeared directly behind me.
I landed on my back in a thicket of grass and thorns, hurrying to scramble back to my feet before Wong could take advantage of my lost footing. Not wishing to return to the freezing temperature of the icy location, I took off in the opposite direction and away from the portal I had fallen through, tripping in an unknown ditch that had been invisible through the thick weeds and grass. The red energy that had been bound on my wrist blinked out of existence as my concentration fell and I tried once more as quietly as I could to gather myself and make it to my feet without drawing attention to my whereabouts in case Wong didn't know which portal I had disappeared through.
"You think you're so lucky?" Wong's voice said as if he had heard my thoughts. Before I could climb to my feet from the mess of greenery surrounding me, the plants around me started rustling unsettlingly. I had a split second to realize what was happening just as the nearby weeds and unkempt grass twisted and tightened around my wrists, forearms and calves.
"Come on!" I shouted angrily, fighting to free myself from the thick and very malleable plantlife entrapping me. I kicked hard, hearing the thankful snap of some of the ropelike weeds and thorns. Before I could try and do the same with my arms however, a fist collided with the side of my head out of nowhere, sending dizzy waves of pain shooting through my body. Through my haze, I looked up in time to see Wong's foot slam forcefully to the ground just inches by my face. Without thinking, I used all of my strength to get my legs all of the way free from the still twisting bonds growing rapidly to hold me. I kicked my legs up over my head, somehow getting a decently powerful blow to Wong's side while also yanking my arms mostly free as I managed to do a somersault against the restraining weeds.
I finally made it back to my feet and crouched to dodge Wong as he swung towards my face with a large golden blade attached to his fist. I shielded myself against a few more frantic swipes from the experienced sorcerer and then conjured up my black staff, useless without fire to power it up, but still a seemingly very solid walking stick. I struck out almost without thinking, surprising myself more than anything as I aimed straight for Wong's knee with the butt of my staff. The man cried out in protest as his damaged knee buckled, sending him to the ground in pain.
"Wong, this isn't you – Thanos is controlling you!" I tried to reason with him, suddenly worrying that I had overreacted in attacking him. Wong glared up at me angrily for a brief second and my slight hopefulness instantly fell away as his glowing fist shot upwards, knocking me back through the weeds for several yards. My conjured staff flew out of my grasp and I heard a hissing whisper as it seemed to vanish from existence without my touch. Not wishing to be caught in the twisting weeds that quickly tried to wind themselves around my limbs again, I clenched my hands into glowing fists and then flicked them outward again, sending everything within a ten-yard vicinity shooting away from me with a powerful energy surge. Wong, who was hit with clumps of dirt, rock and flying greenery swirled another portal into existence and before I could move from my spot the glowing doorway was thrown right at me. I managed to keep my footing as I fell through the portal this time, but I stumbled into what felt like a signpost before my rushing head allowed me to focus on my new surroundings.
The ground below me was wooden and there was a slight sway in gravity as I tried to steady myself. The post I had bumped into appeared to be a worn wooden base for a large brass bell. It rocked quietly as the gravity continued to shift and I finally looked around hurriedly, noticing the presence of moving water all around me. The dock that I stood on was clearly weather-beaten and in need of dire repair, and the water so high that it was seeping through the cracks in the planks beneath my feet. Chunks of the worn dock were missing and as I moved, the wood creaked and splintered audibly with my weight.
I had forgotten about Wong, whom I instantly returned my attention to when he caused the very planks that I stood on to break and send me plummeting downwards through the dock. I cried out as just my feet went through and my knees banged against the splintered wood of the broken planks. The seawater garbled around my thighs and I summoned up a mandala shield before Wong could come down on me with another attack of his golden blade.
"Stop!" I shouted over the rushing sound of the water and the creaking of the dock I was attempting to pull myself out of. Wong stood just in front of me pretending to crack his knuckles as he watched me struggle. "Don't play his game, Wong. You're like his puppet…"
Wong scoffed at me sulkily and then raised his hands which glowed with a humming golden glow. Before I could react, I found that I was slowly being lifted out of the water, my legs burning from the evident cuts and forming bruises that I had sustained when I had fallen through the worn dock. Wong's face was expressionless as I paused in my retaliation with the hopes that he was no longer attacking me.
"If we're comparing puppets, I'd say you are an accurate description of Strange's." Wong's voice said flatly. I felt an icy chill run through me as the words didn't come from the sorcerer's mouth.
"Wong…?" I uttered uncertainly. The man in front of me lowered his upraised hands to his sides, letting me fall back to the dock hard enough to knock the breath out of me.
"The Stone, Alex. We both know how this will end. I trained you, yes, but not enough for you to be better than me." Wong said bitingly. I glared up at him, still waiting for my breath to return to me.
"I'll never be as good as you or Strange. Frankly, I don't want to be…and after all of this…I think I'm going to shun this whole magic thing altogether." I said with venomous sarcasm. Wong frowned down at me in annoyance and raised his left hand where I could see his Sling Ring. Instantly a portal appeared above the dock just behind me and as I hesitantly picked myself up despite being weak and still without breath, Wong kicked me forcefully through it.
"Magic is not easy to forget." Wong said through clenched teeth as I rolled back to my feet to face him as he too came through the portal again. This time we emerged in what appeared to be an old underground train system that had been abandoned and out of use for several decades. The safety lights that blinked in the ceiling of the tunnel cast awful shadows on the grimy walls around us and from the corner of my eye I thought I caught a glimpse of a large shadow shaped familiarly like Thanos' bulky silhouette.
"I'm sure," I said breathlessly, placing my hands on my hips in an attempt to still my rapidly hammering heart and also look as unthreatening as I could. "But it sure takes a hell of a long time to learn!"
With Wong's attention focused on my illusioned theatrics of nonchalance in front of him, he was blind to my approach from behind him where I had masked myself with another illusion of invisibility. I landed one good blow between his shoulder blades with my black staff that I had noiselessly conjured back into my possession. The sorcerer was shoved forward by the force of my attack, but he recovered quickly. By the time I had come up to deliver another blunt strike with the magical staff, Wong had whirled out of my path and raised his arm in a karate chop that I knew I would have no chance at dodging. As I'd feared, Wong had added a little extra strength to his punch and as he hit the pressure point just at the base of my collarbone, I collapsed to the ground at his feet, once more discarding my black staff.
Every muscle in my torso felt like it was screaming as I tried to force myself into movement to dodge the sorcerer's expected next blow. My arm felt like it weighed fifty pounds as I lifted it above myself in an attempt to shield myself just in case. As I managed to conjure up the golden glow, Wong's foot suddenly appeared at my elbow, kicking it forcefully so that I jerked forward and lost my grounding and the half-existent mandala I had summoned.
"What did I tell you?" Wong said gruffly as I was shoved to my hands and knees, still somehow trying to crawl away from the fight. His foot shoved me in the left side of my ribcage and I cried out angrily as he rolled me over to my side. I held up both of my hands in my crouching position as the man stood over me with a literal sword to my throat. Only glowing with a hint of golden magic, the blade looked very real and very sharp.
"You mean about me not being better than you?" I asked sarcastically, still gasping out breaths and keeping my hands at a surrendering motion. Wong's gaze drifted to his hands on the sword he held above me and then he narrowed his eyes, turning them back to me.
"Before that." He said sharply, his voice slightly lower.
"Look closer…" Karnilla's voice whispered in my memory. I blinked heavily through the screaming pain that wracked through my body and I finally noticed a twitch in Wong's left eye. I tilted my head in confused fearfulness as his hand that held the blade closest to me flicked in the hopes of catching my attention as well.
"This…is your last…" Wong's voice rasped lowly, dragging out his cryptic way of speaking. "…warning…"
Wong's grip on the blade shifted again as he moved it closer to me threateningly. I held myself up on my elbows, my shoulder pulsing with the nearly unbearable pain from my still bleeding wound. The fingers of his left hand twitched again and my gaze fell on the large ancient-looking Sling Ring that he wore there.
"My last…" I repeated slowly. Wong's hardened gaze narrowed as he waited for me to continue. I finished my response in a whisper. "…defense."
Wong nodded abruptly and suddenly I knew what was going on. He knew that he was under Thanos' influence and the small uncontrolled part of him was reaching out to me in a last effort to help me. As Wong's left hand twitched once more and he prepared to lunge down at me with the magically enhanced blade, I jerked myself upward and shielded the blunt edge of the sword before it could hit me. I kicked towards Wong's fists where the hilt of the blade was firmly in his grasp and then somehow managed to get hold of it and turn it the opposite way. Wong's left hand was thrown to the side by the force of my strength alone, leaving his right hand still fighting to hang on to the blade and prevent me from gaining full control of his weapon. In the blink of an eye, the blade came down to the side with hardly any resistance at all and sliced straight through the sorcerer's wrist.
I jumped back in surprise, letting my hand fall from the hilt of the blade and I saw Wong's do the same. The sword clattered noisily to the stone floor of the tunnel and sparked with the golden energy that had been conjured along with it. Wong cried out in agony and I immediately stepped back to avoid what I assumed would be his vengeful retaliation. When he didn't turn back to me and remained hunched over in disbelieving painful silence, I suddenly felt my stomach roll as I realized what had just happened.
Wong's dismembered left hand lay on the floor of the dimly lit train tunnel, spatters of dark red blood staining the floor at our feet. With my mind nothing but panic, I threw myself forward to grab for the Sling Ring that still had remained on the sorcerer's left hand. Wong knew I would be going for the magical object however, and kicked me forcefully across the tracks when I hesitated too long by the disembodied hand on the ground.
"No matter…" Wong's voice was back to sounding icy and threatening again, which I took to mean that Thanos was in full control once more. I scrambled to my knees just as he leapt into the air with his bloody left sleeve pulled close to his side while his other hand shot out golden discs for him to climb through the air above me in an aerial attack.
"Wong…if you're still there…I'm really sorry!" I called up to him, feeling slightly less bothered by the fact that I had just cut off one of my teacher's conjuring hands. With murder in his eyes, it was slightly easier to justify protecting myself against his attempts at killing me. When he jumped for one final mandala at the very top of the tunnel's high ceiling, I quickly conjured up a glowing red energy whip and shot it straight up for where I knew Wong was about to leap into the air to come down on me with a bone shattering and possibly mortally wounding blow. The end of my red whip stuck to the underside of the floating mandala just as he landed on it and I hurriedly yanked downward with my magical whip and pulled the mandala out from under him, causing it to dissolve into golden dust before he knew what was happening.
"You idiot boy!" Wong's voice echoed as he fell through the air for a few seconds before managing to catch himself on a hastily conjured mandala. I ignored him as I abandoned my red whip which had fallen through the air once the previous golden mandala had vanished. I gestured for Wong's left hand where it still lay on the ground several feet away from me and I watched as a small golden ball of light slowly lifted it into the air. I blanched as blood still pooled from the wrist of the hand and then gestured again with my other hand, singling out just the Sling Ring.
"Give it up Thanos!" I shouted with a mix of sarcasm and anger. As the Sling Ring drifted closer, I heard Wong's feet hit the ground from behind me. I whirled around, still leaving my right hand out in wait for the Sling Ring to reach me. "You're not going to win this time…"
Wong's murderous expression relaxed only for a moment and then his eyes widened as he realized something that I didn't. He moved to turn around with his remaining hand extended to shoot out a half-conjured blast of disintegrating energy at his attacker, before a huge spurt of blood shot out of the middle of his chest.
"Wong!" I screamed out in horror. The sorcerer stopped in his attempt to turn around and wavered on his feet as his gaze drifted wearily back to where I stood, now in possession of the bloodied Sling Ring. A huge shard of wood impaled the man in front of me, looking very out of place in the stone train tunnel that we were surrounded by. Wong's arms dropped to his sides as all energy drained out of his body and I dove forward as if to catch him as he looked like he might fall to his knees. The sorcerer shook his head and attempted to swallow but blood already stained his lips from the extensive internal damage done to his body from the wooden stake.
"…last…defense…" He confirmed, his eyes glazing over with the pain of his end. I stood frozen to the spot and watched in shock as the huge wooden shard was pulled out of his chest from the back, letting his body slump to the ground in a bloodied heap.
I clenched my hand into a tight fist over the Sling Ring and stared at the hovering wooden stake that had just impaled my teacher. The red glow of the Reality Stone blinked into view then, revealing Thanos' taunting smirk and he cast the wood aside, letting the red glow spread around the entire space. Overturned bookshelves, display cases and damaged walls melted into existence in place of the dimly lit train tunnel. As it turned out, we had never even left the Sanctum's hidden library.