Sorcerer Potential

When William opened his eyes after taking a short nap in the vehicle, the view of the Dark Dimension shocked him. It was not the horror he imagined, but the beauty of the universe astonished him. When he looked up at the sky, there was no sun or planet, but a supermassive black hole. The planet on which he was currently present was far enough to not be pulled in by the gravity of the black hole. It looked similar in size to the sun, which meant he was at a distance of more than two to three light years from the black hole.

Clea, looking at William's face, understood what he was feeling—the astonishment she had once felt when she first gazed at the sky. It was proof that her people had accomplished a great achievement, requiring the intelligence of millions of people and time measured in billions of years. For a civilization in any universe to harness such technology, it takes more than eight to nine billion years to develop and understand these advancements.

Clea said to William, "Shocked already? You have not even reached our city. So tell me, William, can your people achieve something like this? Can your people harness the very energy of space and time?"

William looked at her and said without hesitation, "No, we have not achieved such things yet, but I am pretty sure we will someday. We are the apes of the world who went from using iron and stones to space travel in the span of 500 years. With the current growth of technology, I am pretty sure we will achieve these feats faster and quicker than any other race present in our universe. I bet my whole life on it."

William continued, "By the way, I never asked, what is the name of the planet, and what is the name of the race you belong to?"

Clea, with great pride, spoke, "We are the proud race named Aurathar. And we call our planet Eliara. Eliara is our last hope for survival in this cold universe. We conquered different planets and became the rulers of this universe so that all the resources present in this dying universe could be brought here, where our people can flourish and sustain."

While having this conversation, William started to see people, and again to his astonishment, they looked ordinary—very ordinary. In the outskirts of the city, he saw people farming. Instead of using the sun as their light source, they illuminated the region with advanced lighting systems. When he reached the city, it was, yet again, an ordinary city. People were busy with their daily chores. He could see children roaming the streets and playing with other children.

When he imagined the Dark Dimension, this was not what he pictured. For him, the Dark Dimension was the city of Dormammu, the conqueror of the universe who only brought death to other universes. And to think that his people were living such lives in this dying universe completed the picture in William's mind: Dormammu was not just trying to conquer the universe for his kingdom but to win the resources necessary for the survival of his own people.

William asked, "Your father, Lord Dormammu. He is the conqueror of the universe, so exactly how much time did it take to create such a vast empire, and on how many lives is this empire standing?"

Clea looked directly at William and said, "Even though the world calls my father a conqueror, this empire was built with the efforts of not hundreds of years but millions of years. We fought countless wars. Remember, not all wars were waged by us; many were defensive battles against other races who attacked us. And in these countless wars, our precious people died protecting the heritage and freedom of our race.

"We do not count them because we believe that if we counted them as mere numbers, we would dishonor their sacrifice. That is why you will never find any records of their deaths quantified, as their sacrifice and honor are equal in the eyes of our people."

With all this information from Clea, one thing William understood was that the Dark Dimension had more life than he had imagined during the events of the first Doctor Strange movie. What he had seen was not even a glimpse of the Dark Dimension. This world was complex, with every race trying to survive. The only thing increasing the lifespan of these people was the time dilation caused by the supermassive black hole.

William looked at Clea without saying anything. He just stared at her, wanting to admire her knowledge, but he could not find the right words. Clea, noticing William's expression, said, "What? Hey, snap out of your thoughts. If I recall correctly, you still need your hand fixed, as you have been whining about it this whole time."

She then turned to Bragg and ordered, "Bragg, can you make sure that after I leave, this stupid-looking person gets his arm fixed by Doctor Ruspenso and that he gets some proper clothes? And please," she added with a smile, "if he starts talking too much, feel free to punch him in the gut. Otherwise, he will just keep asking questions."

William only clung to the fact that she was going to leave and immediately said, "You are leaving? Where are you going exactly?"

Clea replied, "My little adventure is over. After this, I have to study the samples I collected before meeting you. I am researching the mutations occurring on our planet. So, I will be quite busy after this. What, are you scared to be without me?"

William, with a sad expression, spoke, "No, it's not that I'm scared, but I will be true to you. I am a very emotional person. Once I cling to people, it becomes harder for me to lose them, and their absence always bothers me somehow. You know, when I wanted to learn sorcery, I had to leave my family, and their absence in my life bothered me so much that at one point, I wanted to leave this journey just to be with them." While speaking, he almost had a tear falling from his eyes.

Clea, looking at William's innocence, spoke, "Hey!! Stupid, I was only going to leave you until your arm gets fixed, so don't look sad. It doesn't suit your face." After this, she ordered Bragg, "Make sure this idiot's arm is fixed, and when it's done, just send him to my lab. I will be in charge of his custody for further duration." Then she added, "Remember when I said to punch him if he speaks too much? Ignore that order and answer all of his questions, except for some which should never be answered."

Bragg repeated his orders, "My lady, I will make sure he gets Doctor Ruspenso's treatment and will return him to you after his treatment." Then he looked at William, "Mister, now we should move."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

William, breaking the fourth wall, said, "What did you think? That I was cold-blooded, intelligent, a prodigy, or some kind of person who uses others to make my own path easier? I am just a guy who got himself here. First, I lost my original family by coming here. Then I had to leave my Mexican family to learn sorcery. And when I was learning it, I was thrown here by some guy in a suit. So yeah, I am quite an emotional person myself. Don't expect me to do some smart stuff. I am not here to be the main character or something, but I am just a guy on an adventure where I meet some people and then have to leave them after a while."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just when Clea was about to leave, William tried to introduce himself to Bragg and suddenly moved his hand forward, but that made Bragg flinch in response and put his hand on his pistol. Seeing the hand on the pistol, in self-defense, William cast a spell to dash away from Bragg, which caused a good amount of wind to flow around. Everyone nearby started looking at the commotion happening on the street.

William's survival instincts kicked in, and his mind started racing with different thoughts, 'What am I supposed to do? Should I fight him? Is he trying to kill me? Should I flee? But where will I go?' Then he looked at Clea, who had stopped due to the commotion but made no gesture to stop the fight, like she was testing William against her own defense forces. William made everything clear in his mind—he had to go all out. If he needed to survive, he had to show that he was someone important and could not be discarded as waste.

And so, he channeled a new way using sorcery—the way of dark magic. He started to pull energy from the surrounding atoms and molecules. This energy was crude but required refining, and his body started flinching due to all the strain. And for the first time, it happened—William's eyes turned black. This was the symbol of dark sorcery, as the eyes are the mirror to the soul. If the eyes turn black, it means the soul only wants to consume. And when a dark sorcerer becomes hungry, his hunger knows no bounds. He will extract energy from everywhere, whether the object is living or not. If the sorcerer uses all the energy surrounding him, his soul will extract energy from its own body.

Looking at William's black eyes, Bragg understood that he would have to fight and uphold the reputation of being a royal guard. So, he pointed his pistol at William and shouted, "William, my orders were to make sure you remain safe, but your hostility is proving otherwise. So, stop that energy flow in your body and calm down, or I will use force to calm you down."

William replied, "Calm down? Who showed the sign of hostility? The moment Clea turned around, you put your hand on your gun. So what should I take you for? A guardian or a killer? I will calm down if you put that weapon out of my face."

Bragg responded, "You are not the one who can order me around. You will close that energy flow, and then you will come with me. It's that simple. I am being reasonable here, kid. We don't know who you are, where you are from, and now this hostility is not adding anything good to your records. The only reason you are alive right now is because Lady Clea wants you to stay alive. So I advise you to calm down. Since these are Lady Clea's orders, I won't hurt you."

Considering Bragg's logic, William stopped his energy flow and calmed down. The moment he did, he felt sudden pain in his stomach region—he had been shot. Then everything blacked out.

When William started to regain consciousness, he felt pain everywhere in his body. To his horror, he couldn't move, as if he was strapped to a chair. He heard voices of unknown people and started to struggle to free himself, but someone pushed him back.

An unknown voice spoke, "I think you should calm down because if I were you, I wouldn't move a finger." It was the voice of a woman. Following the advice, he stopped moving and opened his eyes properly. He realized he was inside a tube-based structure. His hands and body were strapped, and a complex machine was working on his left arm, which had been paralyzed due to the previous incident.

Then he heard a familiar voice, followed by a knock on the glass capsule. "Hey, kid. I hope you don't mind me shooting you, but you are getting treated here. Once it's done, you will be in my custody. We consider you a threat, so after this treatment, you're going to face long hours of questioning. So sleep well."

It was Bragg, and he sounded very serious.