I flew up first, away from his air conjurations of weapons. He was no doubt a better martial artist than me and I didn't want him to know that.

As I looked at him, I could sense the immense power emanating from him. I knew I was up against a formidable opponent, a sorcerer of strength and ability I knew almost nothing about other than that he had defeated the other two sorcerers I thought were the strongest.

The fight began with him—rushing outside of the sanctum towards the new york streets. I knew I couldn't let him get away. He was going for the classic, "follow me or I hurt the civies" tactic,

I moved to follow but almost as if it was listening for it, my cape flew me out of the sanctum.

"Last chance, Strange. Someone blessed with the favour of the famed Cloak of Levitation would be a great ally."

"If I join, can I make changes to our overall goal? Like scrap it entirely and do something else? Maybe make it learning what Faustian bargains mean."

"No great loss then."

The edges of my vision blurred as buildings around me twisted and warped. People around me started screaming and traffic sped up. I dearly hoped whatever happened to people inside the buildings were reversible and started to channel the power of the infinity stone.

Everything he was doing reversed and buildings started to move back to what they were like before. I still had no idea how this was affecting the people around me.

Though he seemed to have gotten the message. His bending would not be useful against me, he controlled space and I did time.

"Only if I had known what that medallion could do. No matter, I will take it from your corpse. Come forth, Caius."

[Summon: Call for Caius - 40% analyzed]

He was summoning something. I could feel something from deep below borrow its way up. Something ancient. Something that desperately wanted to see and feast. Something horrible.

I flew up as the first tendrils emerged from the ground. I desperately cast [Minor telekinesis] to push and move all onlookers away from whatever was coming. I wished people would not gawk. You would think civilians in a marvel universe would know better.

Ground flew up as the monster emerged. One look at the beast and I knew I should have learned summoning or banishment.

"[Chains of Krakkan]" I invoked the spell to bring forth chains to chain the beast of gems.

It wasn't really a surprise when they broke when the beast of gems moved its bulk.

The summoned beast itself was a lump of clay with great red gems embedded into it. Those gems were misshapen and dull except for the central gem that looked carefully tended for. I had the cloak move me frantically when I saw it charge something in its gems.

I knew my shields would crumble infront of the beam. I had only one option left.

I caught the first beam with a portal in its way. I opened the portal back on top of the beast and had it hit itself with its ray. The beast fell down with a thump.

"That wasn't too bad," I said and immediately regretted it when I heard Kaecilius laugh like a madman.

I looked down at him and was happy to see him immobile trying to maintain the summon. It wasn't his speciality either, I supposed.

I readied a [Greater Dark Energy Blast] to throw at him. It was always interesting to see someone be taken down by their own tricks.

I didn't get a chance to throw it at him when I had to switch tracks desperately as all the gems on the beast's body started to glow at once.

I dropped [Greater Dark Energy Blast] and tried to create portals. There were more than ten great beams being charged in the beast's gems and I knew I wouldn't be able to create portals to divert all of them, the maximum number of portals I could create were three. Also at this point, they couldn't be made large enough to drop the beast through.

I was going to divert my chronomancy from the struggle it was locked in with Kaecilius's reality wrapping when it happened.

It rained missiles. Small missile projectiles landed on top of the beast and blasted it, breaking the buildup of its energy.

I looked around for what was happening and found—Iron man.

I had forgotten for a second that this was a marvel universe and that this was new york.

—

Iron man flew in and tacked the beast away. Leaving me free to deal with the other sorcerer.

He was still stuck unmoving, I wondered why he wasn't dropping the summon and my magical insight told me that this was the condition for bringing Caius up to the surface.

I charged a [Greater Dark Energy Blast] and threw it at him. And with just that, he was out of the picture.

[Skill Learned: Boon of the Dark Dimension]

I flew behind Iron man and saw his fight. It wasn't going very well.

You see, Iron man used repulsors a lot. And it was conceptually close enough to what the beast used that it was absorbing all of it.

"Stop using the repulsors!"

"If you, whoever you are, have any better idea then I am all ears." Spoke the voice from within the suit.

"Use missiles, punches or other explosions you might have, the farther it's from looking like lasers the best. Give me a few seconds."

"Looking like?" He asked baffled.

"Magic," I answered.

"Punch the big rock monster. Got it, Wizard." He spoke, distinctly sarcastic and blasted off to do just that.

Even kinetic energy was charging the gems, just slower than beams, the trick was to not let it build up and Tony, if that was him under the suit, was doing a pretty good job at it.

I focused inwards. The solution for this problem was simple if I could just banish it through a portal or to the mirror dimension, but that was proving impossible due to its size and its own magical properties. I couldn't use any beam attacks and I didn't want to drop my chronomantic protections till I knew what happened to the people in those buildings.

I looked at the beast and I had a stupid idea. The only kind of stupid idea worth having. An idea so stupid that it might actually work. I prepared the necessary mana, then doubled it, tripled it and put everything I had left into it. I held the spell in my mind and didn't let it break as I did so.

[Skill Created: Overcharge Spell]

"[Overcharged Spell: Conjure Grass]"

I watched in awe as the grass rapidly grew on the beast. It started as small sprouts, shooting up and reaching towards the sky. With each passing moment, the grass grew thicker and stronger, the green shoots entwining and twisting around the mud golem's body.

Iron man stopped his barrage of missiles and stared with me at the magical sight.

At first, the beast seemed to be holding strong, its massive frame standing tall against the onslaught of the growing grass. But as the grass continued to flourish, its roots began to burrow deep into the beast's mud body.

The beast started to shake and quiver as the grass's roots tightened their grip, crushing the once-solid mud into a crumbly mess. Draining all of its essence. The beast struggled to maintain its form, but it was no match for the relentless growth of the magical grass.

Soon all that was left were the eleven gems it had and the grass and the magical too-tall grass that reached up to a building.

I looked around to check for anyone else going to start trouble and the only people around me were the survivors of Kamar-Taj who had come out and were staring at the display and Iron man. The city must have been great at disaster evacuation.

There was now only one more thing left to do.

—

I ignored all the questions from my fellow sorcerers as they no doubt wanted to hear from me, the only person following me was Iron man.

"So you really are a Wizard?" Asked Tony. "Like Loki."

"Two minutes and I will answer all the questions I can," I told him as I flew towards one of the buildings that had been stopped.

I created a portal and passed through the building's walls inside and so did Iron man.

"Come on, I am dying to know if I have to fight you or not. Someone has to tell me who caused all that mayhem. If you are—" He stopped as he looked around.

At the people standing frozen in place. I had reverted the changes Kaecilius had made but not started their time back fearing what would happen to human bodies which were stretched and unstretched so quickly.

"Stand back. I have to see if I can save them." I told Tony.

"They are locked in time, who did it?" He asked.

"I did it. Wasn't sure if what Kaecilius did would have killed them. Too many variables. I am going to unlock—that plant and see how it acts, if it's all good then I will unlock everyone else. If not then they will have to wait till I figure out how to fix them."

I didn't wait for his objections and moved towards the plant. I unlocked its time and waited. I waited and knew I should find something else to test it with when Tony spoke.

"That plant is healthy. I can read its signals."

He had something to scan plants was my first question. I ignored it in favour of unlocking a goldfish. And good thing I did.

The goldfish unlike the plant was mystically different enough that the mystic stretching and de-stretching its body had gone through broke it. It came apart in two pieces in front of my eyes, it stretched, stretched and broke.

I sighed. It was what I was afraid of. I just hadn't mastered all the variables. I will, but it will take some more time and reading.

I looked over at Tony Stark, the science guy and wondered how I was going to explain it. Then I remembered the group of sorcerers who were very nicely not teleporting to the room to ask me questions.

I got ready to give all the answers I should.

—

AN: And that's all I have now. A test to see if an Archmange Essense story could work without the MC refusing to use magic for his problems or nerfing the essence too much.