A/N

I know, I know, my update schedule is rancid wale shit. Sorry, not sorry. I'm busy.

I'm going to rant for a second, feel free to ignore me and my opinions: I've been looking for another story to tide me over, but nearly half of them are about love/lust stories with goddamn Loki. Half-again of those are the gayest, rainbow-infested, wet dreams of preteen, hormonal little monsters. I have nothing against those, though; this is fanfiction, but for fuck's sake calm your tits, people. There's too much of one damn concept, and for some reason everyone focused in on one of the most annoying characters in all of Marvel. I mean he acts like a 15 y/o girl with daddy issues. He's killed thousands of innocent people, so at some point we need to collectively stop telling ourselves that he's 'misunderstood'. Basically, we could use some originality in the romance department. Stop pairing everyone and their mother with Loki, Black Widow, fucking Bucky (he's at least better than Loki), and Capt. America. Give the other characters some love. Open those creative gates. Find another character you can identify with, or understand, and see where that takes you.

Basically, just fucking stop it with Loki.
/rant

Most of this chapter is a build-up for a slightly large time-skip, then some actual skipping of time. I'm trying to get us out of the current arc, but my fingers keep. Fucking. Typing.

I swear, I have no control where this goes anymore. Every scene writes itself. I keep coming up with plot points, character traits, dialogue, NEW FUCKING OC CHARACTERS, on the fly, and they just show up when I'm editing like, "Where the fu- oh right, I remember writing that, but why is it so long? Why does that explanation have so much to do with how the plot in chapters 14-23 is supposed to work out? Why did I include a detail about a cat throwing up? Deleting that right now."

I can't delete it all either, because I flip around the future outline of the story as I fill in details. I am driving myself insane.

Anyway, there's a lot of little stuff happening in this chapter. A couple bigger things too, but mostly little stuff.

To reiterate: I don't own Marvel.

The absolute first thing that Nathan did when he returned to the temple was make more Oricalcum accessories. Well, technically it was the second thing, as he had to stop by the Time Stone and pull the ambient energy from it to refill his own stores first. Then he sat down and slowly formed six, thin bangles using his Celestial energy, which he slipped around his wrists. Three on each arm. Each bangle could store about twice the amount of energy than one of his rings. Each ring could store about ten times the amount that he could store in his body, meaning that functionally, he now had a 'tank' that could store over 160 times his base amount of energy: four times what he had on the mission.

He would have made more, but just those six rings had taken as many hours to create. Really, he was just exhausted, but that's not why he stopped.

"Nathan, correct?"

Said seven-year-old looked up from filling one of his new bangles with energy, to find the oldest female student that had gone on the previous mission. It was nearing midnight, and was honestly surprised that she was even awake. Most of the students were decidedly in the 'early to bed; early to rise' category.

Nathan nodded. "That's m'name."

She bowed slightly - very slightly. "I realize we never introduced ourselves. My name is Isabelle." She finished the thought with a small smile. "I would like to thank you; it was due to your actions that we were able to escape this afternoon."

Nathan's ears detected a rather heavy French accent from the woman; something he hadn't picked up before. Though granted, she hadn't said much until this point.

He shrugged it off. "No worries. I imagine you would have done the same, if able."

Her mouth twitched into a barely perceivable frown, but it disappeared almost as soon as Nathan noticed it.

"Speaking of that," she began, "you mentioned that it was through the use of Chi that you and Master Ghodi were able to fight off the Wraith and its thralls, correct?"

"Well I'm almost certain that's what Master Ghodi and the other Masters were using, yes."

"But not you?"

Nathan shook his head. "I am not one-hundred percent human." Noticing the guarded look she gave him, he continued, "The Ancient One is fully aware of my heritage. I'm here to learn and help protect everything just like the rest of you."

"Then why bring it up?"

"Well the half of me that isn't human has access to a certain type of energy. Energy that can mimic aspects of Chi - or at least can be used interchangeably. I'll admit that I only learned that during the fight back there, but I can do a few things with it that we can't do with other sources."

Realization shone in her eyes. "So that's how you are able to fly then?"

"Well, 'flying' is a bit difficult, but yes. Using my personal brand of energy, I am able to produce a sort-of 'thrust' that lets me float around - that's an oversimplification, but still kinda accurate. Takes a lot more energy to go at any respectable speed or height, though."

"That still seems rather convenient."

The ex-Ravager laughed. "I'm not disagreeing with you."

She tilted her head with a frowned brow. "Might I ask what the second half of your heritage is, then?"

Nathan smirked. "Space god."

She blinked. "What?"

Nathan opened his mouth to respond, but closed it after a second and waved the question away. "Not really that important, nor easy to explain."

She frowned again, but nodded and dropped the subject. "To be honest, none of us really expected much from you during that outing. We were informed that we were to be joined by another student, but none of us were entirely useful our first time. We expected to have to protect you." She tilted her head slightly. "I must say I was surprised that the exact opposite occurred."

Nathan shook his head with a wry smile. "Please, under any other circumstance I'm sure you all would have easily outdone me."

"And humble too." She quirked an eyebrow, keeping the smile.

"I assure you it's just a formality." The seven-year-old smirked.

Her smile widened. "Oh? So you wouldn't be adverse to a spar, then?"

Nathan fake gasped. "You would hit a child? For shame!"

"Oh please, I am well aware of your true age. The incident with the Eye was rather well gossiped."

"Ruin my all my fun, why don't you?" The boy pouted.

She huffed in laughter. "Well the offer to spar is true. In fact, us five tend to get together a couple times each week to do just zat." Her accent peeked through. "You are welcome to join us if you wish."

Nathan looked up, interested. "Really? I haven't seen any of you around in the two years I've been here. Where do you go?"

"Mongolia." She replied simply. "Xiang… We really do need to do introductions; while traveling northern Asia, he found a relatively secluded spot that we tend to meet at. It is rather beautiful there."

Nathan nodded a couple times, thinking it over. "Sounds fun. Thanks for the invitation."

She nodded back in acknowledgement before a note of realization shone in her eyes. "Ah, though I am glad I was able to thank you in person, I am here for an actual reason. The Ancient One has requested your presence when convenient."

Nathan sighed. "You probably should have lead with that."

She chuckled. "My apologies."

After making his new bangles fit a little better on his wrists, placing the Time Stone back in the Eye, and asking Master Haman to close it, Nathan made his way up towards the Ancient One's study: the room where he was first brought when he arrived.

The 'secretary' on rotation this time was one of the newer students; one that Nathan had actually took time to tutor every once in a while. Her name was Julia Redman, a Mexican-American college student and total hippie. She was on a study-abroad trip in Kathmandu when she stumbled across Kamar-Taj and decided to stay. She was also one of the first potential students that the Boss-Lady sent to him for further character testing / actual mentoring - Nathan still wasn't sure which was expected of him. It took her all of seven seconds after they first met to completely ignore his physical age, and she reminded him of his mother, so needless to say; he liked her.

"Nathan!" She greeted with a wide smile.

"Jules." He greeted back with a similar smile. "Good morning."

The hippie groaned. "You're not allowed to say that. It's like one A.M."

The little gremlin chuckled. "You get used to it." Nathan had to pull his own time as the glorified doorstop. It was supposed to teach a lesson in humility, and taking one's time with their studies. He never learned that lesson, but whatever. "I heard the Ancient One wanted to see me?"

She nodded. "Yup. Go on in." She palmed the door and slid it open for him.

"Thanks Jules."

She smiled back.

Walking into the study, Nathan noticed the Sorcerer Supreme meditating on the… air. Just kind-of floating there in the middle of the room.

"Okay, you have got to teach me how you do that."

"Nathan, you can already fly." She responded, deadpan; without breaking concentration.

Somehow.

He waved his little arms. "Yeah, but not when I'm meditating! Multitasking is hard!" He paused. "Also, how are you doing that exactly? I thought you needed an artefact to float around?"

The yellow-garbed woman sighed and untucked her legs; setting her feet down on the floor and walked back to her desk.

"Levitation is a complex spell, true, but hardly requires a crutch. Full flight is different though. Even I am unable to do that without a tool." She stopped at the tea tray and picked up a couple of cups. "As for multitasking, it will come in time. All you need is practice."

Pouring herself and Nathan a cup of tea, she sat down and gestured to the chair across from her.

Taking the hint, Nathan pulled himself into the seat. "So why, in the name of all that's holy, did you call me here in the wee hours of the morning?"

She snorted into her teacup. "Please, we both know you were still awake."

"It's the principle of the thing." He responded, dripping a glob of honey in his own cup and stirring it around.

Rolling her eyes, she set her cup down, still cradled in her hands. "A few things actually. First, I wanted to speak with you about what happened earlier today; see how you're holding up. I'm not sure what you've experienced outside of Earth's atmosphere, but as far as I know this is the first time you've had to fight with your life on the line."

Nathan nodded. "Well I can tell you this wasn't my first time. Space-pirating isn't exactly safe. Especially for children." He finished in a mumble.

It was true too. The first time, in both of his lives, that he had to legitimately fight for his life was a bit of a shell-shock. The Ravagers might have been relatively good to him as a whole, but they had their bad eggs. One such egg was a newer recruit that was being trained up at the same time as himself and Peter during his first year on their ship. He was the same physical age as Nathan, had just been saved from abusive parents, and dropped into an entirely new life of crime. The kid wasn't human, but the anatomy was close. A head, two legs, two arms, red blood, etcetera. He seemed alright at first, but it didn't take long until something made him snap.

Peter and the kid had fricken hated each other. Got on each other's nerves to the point where their 'spars' became outright brawls ninety percent of the time. Nathan had been ignoring it completely - that is, until the kid had enough of Peter beating him into the ground. Nathan wasn't really a fighter back then; much more into his job as a mechanic than anything else, so he was noted as the weaker link. Peter's soft spot.

One day, the kid cornered Nathan and locked them both in an airlock, as they were one of the few places on the ship with bolt-locked doors. The kid, of course had the access code to that particular door, so he could get back out, but Nathan…

The kid ran a fucking monologue, bragging about how his death would cause Peter pain, and knew Nathan couldn't take him in a fight from the few spars they'd had before. He had gone completely off the deep end, laughing hysterically while twisting the skin of his own wrists to the point of friction burn, and had passively torn off his own fingernails while scratching at his belt buckle.

Nathan had his ass handed to him. Beaten and bloody, he had tried to defend himself. He really did, but the kid had spent all his time fighting, where Nathan hadn't. It wasn't even close to fair.

Nathan didn't know where the kid had gotten a plasma torch, but he still had the scar: a four-inch wide, discolored, and jagged trench on the left side of his chest. Even now, in his younger, child body, the scar was still there. An ever-present reminder of the first person he was forced to kill. He wasn't sure why - or how - it was still there, but it probably had something to do with how his mind stayed in-tact as well after the Time-Stone fiasco. He didn't really want to think about it.

The only reason he was still alive was because the kid didn't know about the small serrated knife that Nathan kept on his utility belt for cutting wires. It was kind of dull, but it did the job. It took more than one swing, since the blade was so small, but his attacker was a kid; it wasn't like it was hard to hit an artery.

He managed to get out of the airlock by opening a service panel and rewiring the door controls, all-the-while ignoring the mutilated body behind him. If he was honest with himself, flushing the body out into space was the easiest thing he'd ever done.

Peter never did ask where the blood came from, even through the weird looks as he patched up the plasma burn and bruises for his brother, nor did he ask what happened to the kid. For that matter, none of the other Ravagers did either, but that didn't mean Nathan slept well for the next few months. He had an inkling that someone shared around the security footage, but nothing ever came of it outside of J'gaar, his mechanic boss, being a little nicer than usual.

He still didn't know the kid's name.

Since then he'd had to fight a few more times; even had to kill. The Ravager ship had gotten raided once by a rival pirate gang, and a few other odd skirmishes during their own raids, but never anything like that first time. Never anything so personal. Even getting assassinated in his previous life was mild compared to that. Clean, fast, and professional.

The Ancient One 'hmmed'. "I suppose not." She leaned forward, peering into his eyes. "I am willing to listen, Nathan. I have no doubt that was a rough life."

Nathan waved her off. "I'm living with it. Don't forget I've got over sixty years of experience. Plenty more good times than bad."

"That doesn't mean they even out."

"Even so, the fact that you care enough to ask is enough. Thank you." He said sincerely, looking her back in the eyes. "I mean it."

She gave him a flat, worried smile. "The offer is still on the table regardless."

Nathan smiled back tiredly. "You said there were a few reasons you called me over?"

Sighing, she nodded, and leaned back in her chair. "The second point is that we managed to defeat the Angled Wraith, but we're still not sure how it slipped into this plane, nor are we sure exactly what happened to the population of the town. I will be suggesting a few specific tomes that you look over for preparation."

The seven-year-old tilted his head to the side. "I'll be dealing with them in the future then?"

"It's a possibility, one that was so small before this afternoon that I had, unfortunately, been ignoring in favor of the more likely outcomes."

"You ignored something? That's a bit out of character."

"Oh shush. I cannot hope to commit every possible future to memory. I have only seen a mere twelve-or-so million of the infinite potential outcomes. Out of those, these events only occurred a handful of times, but now that they have, they open the doors to even worse things."

Nathan threw his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright, I get it. So what do you expect me to do?"

"There is still a chance nothing will come of it, but I don't want you out of your depth if the Sunken City dwellers return. At that time, you may be one of the most able to defend against it." She reached into the drawer of her desk, and pulled out a tattered, bound journal. "This was written by a man who received visions, has even claimed to have seen the City itself, and interacted with the beings there. I personally don't put much stock in the latter bits, but the tales are accurate to what we know of R'lyeh. I suggest you see Master Haman in the Library. He can point you at the more… reputable sources."

She slid the journal over to him, which he belatedly realized was probably the first draft of a novel when he caught the title.

"Oh, you've got to be shitting me."

The Ancient One blinked. "What?"

"Well, Um…" Nathan just sat there, staring at the journal for a solid minute. "'The Call of Cthulhu' is a book in my own home universe. H.P. Lovecraft is a well known horror author there." He paused again before mumbling, "I thought all those things seemed familiar."

The two sat in silence for a moment.

"You're telling me that you know of these creatures?"

"Of them, yes." Nathan confirmed. "The fact that they actually exist, though? That's some serious nightmare fuel."

"I am unsure whether that is a boon or not. Do you already know how to deal with them?"

The boy shook his head. "I figured out today that they block off access to most of our energy sources, but that Chi and my own energy can be used as a good substitute. Further than that? No. I never actually got around to reading it before, but there was a lot of media that used it for inspiration. I'll read up on it."

"Good enough for now." She took another sip of her tea. "There are a few specific spells and techniques that are more effective than what you were using, but we can go over those at leisure. What I'm curious about is how you managed to use your personal brand of energy to power standard, Eldritch spells?"

Nathan sat up a little straighter. "To be honest it wasn't difficult at all. That one time we tried, we were trying to blend my energy with the Eldritch ones. I'm still not sure if that is possible, but using them alone seems to be feasible enough." He ran a hand through his hair, contemplative. "It was almost like pulling from the other sources, but with no restrictions on the spell usage. I was the one granting permission." He stressed.

That was the thing about pulling from extra-dimensional beings, deities, and other sentient sources of magic: they were picky. Their energy could only really be used in ways that those beings were familiar with. Often times, their specific abilities had parallels in the standard Eldritch line-up, but they were far stronger. In rare cases, they could be hundreds of times more effective than Eldritch spells.

That's just the territory, though. They might be stronger, but they always came with a drawback. Equal and opposite return, give and take, the Natural Law. There were plenty of ways to say that everything had a price, and without fail; the stronger of the sources always required the worst prices.

This is what appeared to be happening with Nathan's own energy, though. It was easily recognized as an external source, according to the magical formulae, meaning all Nathan had to do was add it directly to the spell, and it would take.

Easy.

Previously, they had assumed it worked similar to Chi. Which is tangentially different in that it can be used for just about every standard spell, however it is insanely difficult to use alone; which is why the standard practice is to combine it with the Eldritch energies. The similarities between his own energy and Chi were obvious, so it wasn't too far off to try and use them interchangeably.

They were wrong, of course, but hey. He was there to learn, right?

The Ancient One understood all of that without having to be walked through it, though. It was just the continuation of an older conversation.

"Well alright. We can work with that." She set her, now empty, cup back on the tea tray and stood from her desk. "Now for the main reason I wanted to see you."

Nathan cocked his head. "We going somewhere?"

"You've proven yourself capable today, Nathan." She smirked. "I wanted to walk you through our relic collection. See if anything jumps out at you."

The seven-year-old's eyes widened, and he was out of his seat in an instant. "Lead the way, Boss-Lady." He said with a giddy smile.

There were hundreds of artifacts and relics in each of the three Sanctums. Nathan and the Ancient One had spent a solid three hours just walking through the Hong Kong, London, and New York collections before they found one that reacted to Nathan. The Sorcerer Supreme had explained that she didn't really expect one of the artifacts to respond to him, as it was a fairly rare occurrence that one of the powerful objects chose a holder.

'Choosing' was probably not the right term, as only a few of the objects had any sort of sentience, but they would react to someone that resembled their creator; be it moral alignment, ideals, ability, personality, or even smell in one case. A shrunken head of a monkey that could speak and smell? Nope. Nathan was perfectly fine when he wasn't chosen by that thing. Point was, each artifact was different, and would react to something different.

In most cases, they would have had to do this again every year or so before something took a liking to him. Of course, he could use any of these objects if he studied the method, however there was just something special about the bond between a relic and its chosen. It would always be a slight bit more effective in their hands.

There were swords, spears, shields, and plenty of other weaponry. There were various forms of clothing, accessories, and even a collection of clay, or metal jars, boxes, and trinkets. However none of that even tingled in Nathan's presence, and he felt nothing in return.

That is, until they came across an unassuming glass case in a corner of the New York Sanctum. It was utterly filled with vines, and seemed to be trying to overtake the glass it was trapped in. That being the case, there was no outward sign that reacted to Nathan. No, there was something more… Spiritual about it.

A heartbeat. A single, energizing, heartbeat is what drew Nathan's attention to the glass box. A thump that resounded across his entire body, and made his vision blur for a split second.

The moment he stopped and stared at the little glass case, the Ancient One smiled. "Ah. I think we've found it."

Nathan, still a bit out of it, just made a small grunt in the back of his throat.

"I think you'll appreciate this one more than most." She smiled down at him with a bit of mischief. "I, myself, had some fun with it a few centuries ago."

At this point, the tiny wizard had a pretty good idea what was behind the glass. "What's it called?"

"The Pupillam Vitae, or-"

"The Apple of Life." He interrupted, still in a slight trance. What? He knew Latin now, why wouldn't he use it?

Taking a step toward the case, he placed a hand on the glass and watched as the vines slowly receded, revealing a perfect, red apple.

His artifact was a fucking apple.

Magical produce, of all things.

Coming up behind him, the Ancient One placed a finger on the glass and drew a small circle with a triangle in the center. Immediately the glass shimmered and disappeared, allowing Nathan to reach in and grab the apple.

"There are a few known magical apples." The woman started. "I personally have seen two: this one, and the Apple of Eden. The third that I know of is the Golden Apple of Idunn on Asgard."

Nathan blinked, slowly looking up to the woman. "You've seen the Apple of Eden. From the Tree of Knowledge." What?

She shrugged. "I've eaten one. They really don't live up to the name, unfortunately." She smiled down at her student. "They don't actually give you any amount of 'knowledge', but they open the mind to understanding. Meaning that if you find yourself intellectually stuck in a rut, they are quite nice for a… 'Eureka' moment, if you will." She cringed slightly. "Though I've seen what happens when someone eats more than one. It's not pretty."

Nope. Not getting into that. Too much 'what the fuck' in too few sentences. The Garden of Eden apparently existed, which was a can of worms Nathan was not going to open willingly.

"So," the ex-Ravager changed the topic, "What can this little guy do?"

"Well, for one, it's an infinite food source."

"Heh?"

"Normally, one would give it a drop of Chi, and it would sprout a whole apple tree where it sits. The amount of Chi controls the size of the tree." She looked down at the apple, then back to Nathan. "Though you might be able to use your own energy instead."

"What happens if, you know, I eat the whole thing?"

She smirked. "Well, lets just say, 'don't,' and leave it at that. However, as long as you have a single seed in hand, you can regrow the tree and pluck another from its branches. At that point, the tree will deteriorate rapidly, leaving only the apple you take still whole so you can repeat the process." She paused. "Only one apple can exist off the tree at any given time, but the apple that spawned it doesn't count. So say you eat half the apple, then throw it; that half you ate will still exist in your stomach even after you pluck a new one."

"That's convenient. What if I cut the apple in half, and put Chi into both halves?"

She shrugged. "Then you'll have two trees, but as soon as you take an apple from one, the other will also fall apart."

Nathan nodded to himself. "Can it do anything else?"

She shook her head. "It's not that diverse a relic, though if you have enough control, you can direct how the tree grows. In the past, I've thrown it at enemies, and trapped them within its roots. I've also used it to hold up a collapsing building once or twice." She shrugged. "Though, I should mention the tree itself is innately immune to mortal fire, and highly resistant to energy-based attacks. The more Chi you give it, the stronger it will be."

"Neat." Nathan said, turning the apple around in his hand. 'Mortal fire' basically meant normal fire. If the fire was magical, or divine in nature, that would probably be a different story, but the 'highly resistant to energy based attacks' bit meant that it wasn't a bad choice of shield either way.

The Ancient One flicked a finger, spawning a small, orange, Eldritch circle. Nathan recognized it as a basic time-management spell. "Well, it's nearly five in the morning. How do you feel about going to sleep? You can give the apple a try when you wake up, and I'd also like to see how it responds to your 'Celestial energy,' as you call it."

The mere mention of sleep brought a yawn out of him. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea."

The morning after found Nathan waking up just before noon, and the rest of the day was spent just messing with the Pupillam Vitae.

As it turns out, his Celestial Energy worked just fine as a growth catalyst for the thing, and even slightly enhanced the tree's general strength against most external forces. Meaning it was about as strong as solid steel, rather than wood.

Towards the middle of the afternoon, he'd tried dumping his entire reserves into the thing, just to see how large he could make the resultant tree.

Four hundred-ish feet was a bit of a daunting height when he had to fly up and retrieve a new apple. He also had to help repair the courtyard a bit afterwards.

After that, he figured out controlled growth.

He could, from a single seed, make vines instead of a full tree, which he ended up using as a belt with the new apple hanging off the side. He had to figure out how to beef up the stem of the thing though, as just a little movement would cause it to fly off. Apples aren't really that firmly attached to their trees, normally.

Outside of the magic aspect, the apple tasted amazing. Easily the sweetest fruit he had ever eaten. It had the perfect amount of crunch, and was juicy, but didn't drip all over you when you took a bite.

Did Nathan mention that he likes fruit? No? Well he does. It's like healthy candy, and who doesn't like candy?

Well anyway, after getting comfortable with his new relic, Nathan started to exclusively use his own energy when training his magic. It was a bit harder to incorporate into his spells than the standard Eldritch energies, but that's why he trained it that way. It would be easier to use the standard spells, and in a pinch, he would have no issue using his own, more powerful fuel. After a couple months, he was able to use his entire repertoire of spells with his Celestial energy, became significantly more adept at using the Spear of Skanda, and the number of skills he had access to was only growing as he read, listened, and learned more.

Nathan did end up going along with Isabelle to join the others in Mongolia, as well. They met for a few hours about three times a week and offered general combat-related tips, and helped each other figure out ways to deal with issues. It was in these meetings that he started to get a bit of a handle on Chi.

Yes, he had Chi, apparently. It wasn't just overshadowed by his Celestial energy, like he had previously assumed. This little tidbit was pointed out by Master Ghodi, actually.

Master Ghodi was the foremost expert on Chi within the walls of Kamar-Taj - even counting the Ancient One. Yes, she could do more with it, having millennia to practice and put learned skills to use, but Master Ghodi was the one who had the innate, hereditary control over the power.

Apparently, an absolutely absurd amount of time ago, Master Ghodi's ancestors were dragon hunters. Now, if your mind immediately jumps to the Iron Fist, you're actually on the right track. These dragons were originally from an alternate dimension, if you can believe it, where they lived in rather large communities. Some of which had managed to get through to Earth in that time, doing so via a 'Gate' of sorts that could be opened somewhere in China.

Master Ghodi's ancestors were apparently from this dimension, living in a city by the name of K'un-Lun. They had spent the majority of their lives as warriors and defenders that would challenge those dragons, defeat them, and gorge themselves on the meat in celebration. Which is significant because those dragons were basically made of Chi. They had so much of it that the oldest among them were monstrous creatures the size of mountains, had lifespans that long surpassed all other non-deity beings, and had the casual strength to destroy continents.

Master Ghodi's family history was not unique because they fought the dragons. No, they were unique because they ate the remains of the giant lizards that they managed to defeat. Sure the dragons that fell were among the weaker part of the species, but they still had more Chi in one body than all of Humanity had combined.

Eating, and basking in their remains had changed his family. They soon realized that feasting on dragon meat had an invigorating effect. Swallowing the marrow of their bones made their own skeletons denser, and more sturdy. Bathing in their blood rejuvenated the flesh and enhanced longevity.

Then there was the kicker: eating the heart of a dragon.

This was like all the other effects combined, only afterwards, those that digested the heart would start to glow with a golden sheen. Their lifespans were significantly extended, and their strength was enhanced to the point of taking on other dragons single-handedly, whereas before they would lose hundreds of lives against just one of the creatures. Soon enough, Master Ghodi's ancestors, along with other leading families within K'un-Lun figured out plenty of uses for the golden glow. They found this energy could be focused and used in various ways; the leading of which happened to be healing, along with short releases of explosive power.

'Chi' is what this energy was called on Earth. People at all corners of the planet had also learned how to use it to varying degrees, but never to the bulldozing effect that the men and women in K'un-Lun accomplished. Most humans would never achieve the pure amount of Chi that could be gained by cooking up a dragon, after all.

At this point, sorcerers had been born on Earth. Groups of people that could control mystical energies to bend the fabric of reality. In their own studies, they had learned to combine the effects of Chi into their magic, enhancing it beyond all limitations. Some of which had even been noted as gods for this show of utter power. Take Skanda for example; the man who invented Nathan's favorite spear spell. The man was an Indian warlord, and his name had gone down in history as a god of war.

Master Ghodi though, was only a descendant of these people that had since immigrated to Earth. He, himself, had not consumed the heart of a dragon, but the abundance of Chi was in his blood, and its uses passed down through the generations.

Outside of the Ancient One, Master Ghodi was the powerhouse of Kamar-Taj, and their resident master of Chi. The Sorcerer Supreme had found him in his youth, and brought him in to help round out a less studied aspect of the universe, namely how Chi interacts with magical formulas, and ended up with a major resource.

Now, all of that is important because Master Ghodi had attended one of the Mongolia meet-ups at the request of Anthony, another member of the combat group - the one that was jealous of Nathan's ability to fly. Nathan and the others had been attempting to train themselves in the uses of Chi, and had pretty much found nothing. So they asked for some help.

Master Ghodi had been walking among them, tapping their foreheads, and sending a spark of Chi into their systems when Nathan exploded. Or rather, the area around him did. Master Ghodi weathered it like a champ, of course, only widening his eyes slightly and finding better footing on the broken ground. The others, though, had all been blown a few feet away.

The pure bursting energy of Nathan's own Chi had awoken at that point. Well, 'awoken' might not be the best term for the experience; more like 'discovered'. The point was that he could feel it inside of him now, but he found it stupidly difficult to use in any way. More so than the others, for sure. He easily had more of it than Master Ghodi. Like hundreds of thousands, if not millions of times more than his teacher, but its use was restricted somehow. He couldn't access it in the same way the others could. In fact, the method he used for accessing his Celestial energy was incredibly similar to the normal method for accessing Chi. It just seemed that there was something inherently different with how his being was made up.

After several months of deliberating with his peers, the Ancient One, and Master Ghodi, he did finally find the method to direct it, but it was near useless in the Mystic Arts for him.

To direct it, he had to pair it with his Celestial energy and ease it from his core. Doing so looked very much akin to the blue energy tentacles that Ego used in the Guardians Two movie. Using these 'Chi Tentacles', Nathan was able to directly interact with the Chi stores of his peers, rejuvenating, or stealing from their supply, however that was pretty much the extent of it. While carrying his Chi through his Celestial energy, if he tried to add the combination to a spell, the formula would just crash. The spell would fall apart, and Nathan, Master Ghodi, and even the Sorcerer Supreme had no inkling as to why.

It seemed Nathan had found the method his father employed to use Peter as a 'battery', though, so that was something. Also, Master Ghodi, his peers, and the Ancient One's faces were absolutely priceless when they found out the extent of his Chi stores.

From there, years passed by. Isabelle and the next oldest of the combat group, Xiang, had both been granted the title of 'Master' along the line somewhere, and due to their study sessions and extra training, no one had died on any of their missions outside Kamar-Taj's walls. Their little combat group had actually grown to include a few others as well. Nathan himself had gone on at least one trip every week, sometimes having to help channel excess dimensional energies into the aether from some freak, minor convergence, or fighting off rogue sorcerers and creatures from various reality-bending, bullshit dimensions.

At one point, he literally punted an honest-to-god leprechaun into an active volcano. Yes, the little fucker deserved it, and yes, he did have a large pot of gold, but no, he didn't wear green, nor did he have red hair. He was about two feet tall, and looked more like a yellow-ish goblin, to be honest.

The point being, Nathan was now considered an experienced member of Kamar-Taj. He was respected among the students, and was routinely asked for advice, or help with random experiments. After five years, 2004 was just a few days away, and Nathan was now about twelve. Of that time, he had spent nearly every waking moment improving some skill, or ability. You might think that would be a bit unreasonable, but that was honestly just the culture of the community. Everybody was obsessed with learning at the temple, with figuring out new ways to bend their reality to their whim, and in the case of the combat 'clique', absorbed in trying to protect the planet. The sense of 'duty' was strong with those that had it, and it only grew as their peers became friends.

Nathan's idea of a 'break' was to spar with his combat group, portal over to France for a fancy breakfast, go into the Astral plane and screw around with the local's electronics, or maybe play a game of Magic Jeopardy - a game that Julia had come up with a few years back. In the game, each magical discipline was a category. It was primarily educational, of course, and followed standard Jeopardy format. The game was honestly pretty fun, especially since The Sorcerer Supreme was the one picking the topics every time they played. She was using it as a way to gauge the students' progress, no doubt, but even the Masters had a blast playing.

Who'da thunk Kamar-Taj would have a routine Game Night every Friday? They had started using an old ruin of a Greek amphitheater in Eastern Sicily due to the sheer volume of people, and were forced to start a raffle to see who the contestants would be for the same reason.

Julia was positively giddy that her idea had been so popular.

It was the morning after one such Game Night that found Nathan and about twenty others standing in the main courtyard. Each person present was a powerful sorcerer, all arrayed in a semicircle behind the Ancient One, herself. Nathan, though, stood facing them all with a gigantic smile on his face. Could you blame him?

After all, everyone there besides Nathan had gone through the same ceremony. It was a bit of a big deal in their eyes.

"Nathaniel Edward Quill," The Ancient One began, "You've spent nearly seven years in our halls and have made strides in the Mystic Arts that have benefited not only yourself, but all those you associate with as well." She gestured to two of the people in the semicircle. "Two of which stand before you, here to welcome you into our highest rank."

The two she had spoken of took a step forward.

"I hereby recognize the skill and ability of Adept Quill." Isabelle stated regally, and stepped back into her previous spot with a smirk.

"I hereby recognize the skill and ability of Adept Quill." Xiang, the second person from Nathan's combat group to be elevated in rank, positively beamed at Nathan, and stepped back into his own spot. Xiang had been struggling when Nathan had first joined the group. It wasn't due to a lack of knowledge, or ability though. No, he was a bit of a loner compared to the others. In other words, the dude was just shy. Nathan had gotten fed up with it and started pranking the living shit out of him until he spoke more than three words at a time.

As it turns out, that was pretty much all he needed to start making some real friends instead of just peers. He and Nathan weren't exactly close, but Nathan was the one who introduced him to Julia, and now the man just wouldn't shut up about how awesome his girlfriend was. The twelve-year-old thought the rambling was payback for the pranks.

"Two of your colleagues have spoken highly of you, Adept Quill." The Ancient One picked back up. "What say you?"

Nathan bowed deeply. "I am greatly humbled, Master."

She smiled and turned to face the others. "Does anyone else wish to endorse Adept Quill?"

They all grumbled good naturedly and shook their heads.

Truth-be-told, nobody else needed to endorse him, they were all just there for the ceremony. Nobody really took this seriously, as the Ancient One held the only opinion that mattered in this decision, but it was important to each of them that they show their support by being present. It's what they all received when they were recognized, after all.

Turning back around, the woman continued with a smirk. "Very well. Then from this day forward, I would like to introduce the newest Master of the Mystic Arts: Master Quill." She finished with a bow.

"Master Quill." The others repeated, bowing as well.

And to finish it off, Nathan bowed back. "Thanks guys. Anyone wanna go get a burrito?"

A/N

Guys, I did not edit this one beyond basic spelling and grammar, and I barely even did that. Normally I run back through it five or six times, but I just didn't have the time this go-round: this one's 8k words, which is nearly 3k over my usual number. Sorry for how rough the dialogue and events are.

K'un-Lun: It's the city that the Iron Fist came from in canon, but I made up its history, and added a fuckload of dragons to it. I think we only know of a few that are from there. To be honest, I only did the bare minimum of research on that one.

The apple: I sort-of made it up. In a Dr. Strange comic, he once uses an apple to trap Baron Mordo by throwing it at him, spawning a tree in much the same way the Ancient One described in the chapter. However, to my knowledge, it was never described as an artifact in itself. It could have just been a regular apple, and Strange might have just used a spell to grow a tree out of it. In any case, I gave that apple a life here, along with some resistance to fire and energy attacks. You can thank the reader known as Joe Lawyer for reminding me that Relics exist. I had completely forgotten about them. In any case, I have plans for that apple now, and most of them involve Nathan being the little shit that he is.

This chapter marks the end of the first arc. The next chapter will be Nathan leaving Kamar-Taj, but unfortunately, it's another 'learning' arc. It should only be one chapter long, though. Two at the very most, but if that's the case, I'll throw in some action. After that is another big timeskip, and pretty much all action until the story's over.

Next time on Godhood: For Dummies - Fucking with Wakanda.

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual constructive criticism, I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please review! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.