"I was under the impression you were busy Cerion."
Cerion flipped around in the air dodging a blast of red chains that sprung out of nowhere.
"I have enough time for a short training session." he shouted as he let out a blast of laser beam from his eyes which the Ancient One turned on him by opening a portal behind his back. "Besides, I'm curious to try something."
"Hmm… go for it." said the Ancient One, not the least bit surprised by Cerion's ability to dodge her attacks.
His eyes lit up but this time it was with a white aura and he let out the blast of condensed energy from his eyes.
The Ancient One hastily put up a shield but it held for only a limited amount of time before it crumbled. Before the blast of energy could touch her, she activated the time stone and escaped from the energy's path.
As the Time Stone reverted back into its dormant state inside the Eye of Agamotto the regular course of time began to flow unimpeded. She watched as the blast of pure white light struck the edges of the mirror dimension.
Just as cracks began to form on the Mirror Dimension Cerion cut off his attack.
"You know what this is right?" asked Cerion as he floated close to the Ancient One.
"I suppose you already know." she said with a knowing look.
"I have my doubts but it is certainly not an energy that is unknown to you, is it?" Cerion asked as he had his doubts the Ancient One had been withholding information. He would've done the same if the positions were reversed so he didn't mind it that much. But still, he felt some form of hostility towards the old sorceress.
"Its nature is not unknown to me. It is the energy of the Light Dimension. Some would call it Lightforce as well." said the Ancient One as she hastily dismissed her energy constructs with a flick of her fingers.
"So why say that it was dimensional energy taking another form when I first asked you?" he asked with a frown.
"Because I was not sure how you could wield such energy. Only the Light Elves of Alfheim has ever shown to wield the White Light. Any being imbued with the White Light energy has the proclivity towards peaceful, non-violent and pacifist. way of life. You are nothing like that hence my scepticism."
"Huh.." he blinked in surprise and looked at his hand as he channelled a bit of Lightforce into his hands. "This thing makes people pacifists."
"Obviously I was wrong, since you are far from a pacifist." the Ancient One pointed out.
"That's true." he conceded while shooting the Ancient One a distrustful look.
"May I ask how you found out about the Lightforce?" the Ancient One asked.
"I didn't know it was the Lightforce but merely White Light. I had a vision... " Cerion started explaining the vision he experienced in space.
He watched as the Ancient One descends into deep thought after his explanation.
"What was the being I saw in the vision?" he asked curiously.
The Ancient one was hesitant for a while but she made up her mind to reveal the truth.
"I suppose you are fortunate enough to see the being. Rarely does it show itself or interfere so openly…"
"So, what was it?" he asked curiously
"Not much is known about the origins of this Universe. But for something to exist another must die and the only thing that is eternal in the Multi-Verse is energy. The being you saw in your vision is most likely Eternity." said the Ancient One.
He frowned and searched his memories but he could find no information. He barely remembered most of the stuff in the MCU. Sure, he had a general idea about certain stuff but he was not a nerdy fan who went after the details of movies. He was never that much of a comic fan, either.
"What is this, Eternity?" he asked curiously.
"Eternity is a being that is the collective representation of everything living in the Multi-verse. I'd say it is a form that represents the aspect of life and soul."
'Well, that's neat.' he thought, 'I basically got contacted by the G-man of the universe.'
"So, why is this Eternity fellow interested in me?" he asked.
"The thoughts of beings like Eternity are beyond my understanding, Cerion. " the Ancient One sighed, "My hypothesis would be that it is interested in you as you are not of this Universe or the Multi-verse for that matter. You came from beyond the boundaries of Multi-verse."
"Is that bad?" he asked in concern.
"It seems Eternity merely took you into its aspect, seeing as you became part of the Light Dimension."
Now, that's confusing and somewhat alarming. He didn't want to participate in anything without consent, especially in the cosmic voodoo, without knowing what was at stake.
"I don't understand."
"Every life form in the different iterations of this Universe is a part of Eternity. You are not and for whatever reason, Eternity decided to assign you the aspect of White Light. It is very curious to see this happen." the Ancient One looked at Cerion like he was an interesting lab rat.
Cerion was not exactly sure what the Ancient One meant, and he was certainly not going to get some straight answers. It was always better to learn these things by himself anyway.
"Then you can help me wield the White Light, right?"
"I'm sorry. I can't help you." she shook her head negatively, "Only the Light Elves of Alfheim have that knowledge. They are the only beings in the universe that have managed to understand and experience the full depth of the White Light."
"So, how do I get there? Do you have any coordinates?" he asked excitedly.
His ship was more than ready to make the journey now that it was restored to full-flight capabilities.
"Only those who wield the Lightforce may travel to Alfheim. The homeworld of the Light Elves is connected to the Light Dimension, a place that is outside the scope of space and time. It is beyond my perception." said the Ancient One.
"That's disappointing. Is there no other way to reach out to them?" he asked, eyeing the woman suspiciously.
"The only way you can find them is through the White Light that courses through your body. Reach out to them through this medium. I can provide you with the minimal information about the Light Dimension that I possess. Beyond that, I am afraid I can't help you."
Cerion fished out a dataminer and placed it on the port of a drone. The dataminer contained scanned copies of books and scrolls about the Light Dimension from Kamar Taj. Speed reading through one of the scrolls related to the subject only left him with more questions than answers. The Ancient One was not lying when she said she hardly knew much about the Light Dimension or Alfheim, for that matter.
The only way the Sorcerers of Kamar Taj knew to access the Light Dimension was through Astral Projection. Their bodies could not interact with the Lightforce of the dimension. Some have tried, but once their bodies were connected to the Light Dimension, their souls left the bodies. Hence, Sorcerers were forbidden to interact with the Light Dimension. The popular theory was that since most sorcerers sought spiritual enlightenment, their souls didn't have the necessary force to pull out of the majestical power of the White Light, which offered eternal peace.
However, in their quest to understand the light dimension, some of the earliest sorcerers tried to establish contact with the light elves of Alfheim. The contact was brief, and a smudge of information was collected in the form of books and scrolls. Much of the information available was a detailed account of the conversation that followed and some assumptions about the nature of Lightforce.
Early Sorcerers of Kamar Taj theorised that the Light Dimension was too closely intertwined with the soul and life energies, a complete anathema of the Dark Dimension. Both dimensions were beyond space and time and, hence, beyond the grasp of Death. The Sorcerers theorized that the entity known as Eternity was the benefactor of both of these dimensions, as Eternity was the opposing aspect of Death or at least something which gave Death meaning and reason to exist.
The difference between the two dimensions, however, was that one tries to conquer time while the other dominates space. The Dark Dimension always sought to enforce its dominion in Space, and thus it expanded on planets. The Light Dimension expanded on the concept of time and hence looked to expand upon the one thing that remained timeless in the Multiverse, the soul.
Based on this information, the Sorcerers theorised that Alfheim was a place filled with Dark Elves who ascended to a higher plane after the birth of Light. The Light Elves were supposed to be pacifists, as they shed their individual nature and accepted their oneness with the soul or Eternity itself.
Overall, the texts were a bunch of spiritual philosophy spouted in flowery words, with alien characters mentioned here and there. The texts mentioned the first of the Light Elves, who were born from the White Light, as Nirvana.
Supposedly, Nirvana was the one who guided other fellow Dark Elves to ascend to Alfheim from Svartelfheim and in doing so breaking the chains that bound them to the Dark that gave birth to their race.
Cerion didn't know whether to believe the story, but he gathered that he could learn more when he travelled to Alfheim.
"Optima, search the Kree archives for the location of Alfhiem, the home of Light Elves," he ordered as he sifted through the books' pages on his datapad.
"Kree archives does not hold the information sir." replied Optima.
Cerion let out a frustrated groan.
"That's a disappointment. What about the locations of Asgard, Nidavellir, Vanaheim, Svartelfheim, Jotunheim and Muspelheim?"
Cerion watched curiously as Optima projected different worlds and their location along with some basic information for his eyes.
"The location of Nidavellir and Svartwlheim are not available."
Another disappointment for sure, but he could learn those locations in time.
"Estimate travel time to Vanaheim."
He picked a place at random so as to get an idea of the time it would take to travel from Earth.
"Best estimated time is seven months and thirteen days." said Optima.
"What! What about Asgard?" he asked, flabbergasted by the projected time.
"Fourteen months and six days from Earth."
"That's ludicrous." he declared as he leaned forward in surprise.
He flicked through many files about the planets nearest to Earth in the Kree archives, and none of them belonged to the worlds he knew of within the Nine Realms.
"Show me the star charts of Asgard, Vanaheim and Jotunheim."
Optima projected the star charts, and a vague idea began to set into his mind. He expanded the projected model so as to get a better idea of the star charts.
From the positioning of Asgard and Vanaheim, the two realms were in a close cluster of stars, while Jounheim was far away from the Asgard-Vanaheim duo.
"Sir, if the Kree star charts are to be trusted, Asgard and Vanaheim are in a spatial continuum separated from the observable universe." said Optima.
"I came to the same conclusion. It seems Asgard and Vanaheim occupy a separate dimension of space or even a separate universe in itself." said Cerion as he looked into the position of Jotunheim and Muspelheim.
It made sense, he reckoned.
From what he saw in the movies, Asgard was not exactly a planet, and it defied almost all the laws of the known Universe. He distinctly remembered that Asgard was shown to be flat rather than having a curvature like all planets. He assumed Asgard was a realm of consecrated spatial anomalies, which were beyond his current knowledge.
If anything, his interest was now peaking beyond the normalcy. Here before him lay one of the great mystical adventures and mysteries. This phenomenon had to be studied, recorded, and experienced. But first, he had a lot of preparation to do before he went out on a long journey among the stars. He also had to make some adjustments to the phantom drive to cut the time needed to cross this distance. He couldn't possibly spend months on a ship to travel halfway across the universe to meet the Asgard and the Light Elves.
Besides, he was not that bored with Earth. There were many interesting discoveries made here and he had more to work on.
Cerion's eyes fell on the cryo pod where Steve Rogers peacefully slept. The discovery of Captain America had expanded the scope of his research into the human genome. While he did abandon the idea of cloning the Kryptonian race, human genetics was still an interesting topic of research.
The Kree archives were an immense help in studying the human genome. It was this access that let him know that Jane Foster hosted a triggering enzyme within her body for her to evolve into an inhuman. The blood samples that he collected from Jane contained a dormant enzyme that triggered the human ascension to an Inhuman state. It was recorded within the Kree archives related to Terrigenesis.
This discovery actually made some sense. He was almost sure that Jane was special, as he knew that in alternate timelines, she managed to wield Thor's power. It also clarified her resilience in weathering the full might of the Reality Stone.
He didn't know what to do with this information. He had taken the blood samples with her permission, but he didn't know how she would react to the exact details of her own nature.
"Sir, you have a call from Miss Foster." Optima said, breaking him out of his thoughts.
"Patch her through."
The drone before him crackled with static as it rerouted his cell signal.
"Cerion?" Jane's sound came out of the drone.
"Yeah, I'm here. Hope you got the gift I sent."
There was a brief bit of silence from the other end before he heard Jane's choked voice. That let him know something bad happened.
"Can you please come here?"
Cerion stood up in alarm, and he immediately disengaged the charm on his necklace.
"Jane, what happened?"
Even as he asked, he sharpened his senses and expanded his range of hearing and vision across the ocean.
"There has been an accident. It's my father."