Marvel: The Ultimate Superman-Chapter 142. Scientific Sorcery

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The wager between Nolan and Mordo had spread across Kamar-Taj like wildfire.

Most didn't even know Nolan's full name. But everyone knew Mordo.

Ever since Kaecilius, the former prodigy, once hailed as the next Sorcerer Supreme,, had betrayed the order, stolen forbidden texts, and slain the librarian, Mordo had become the top disciple under the Ancient One.

So when news broke that Mordo had made a wager... with a newcomer?

It shook the foundation of the temple halls.

"A bet?"

"Three days to master the Mirror Dimension?"

"From that guy? The new recruit?"

On the portal training grounds, where morning lessons had just ended, apprentices gathered in circles, gossiping feverishly.

"There must be a mistake," one muttered. "Who in their right mind would turn down Mordo's personal instruction?"

"No mistake," said another, wide-eyed. "It was that guy, Nolan. Said magic's not that deep and that he'd rather teach himself."

"Nolan..." someone echoed. "Isn't that the guy who stopped showing up to early lessons?"

"That's him. Skipped out after mastering portal magic in three days."

"Three days?"

Whispers turned to stunned silence. Mastering portals in three days?

"That's not normal," someone muttered. "Maybe he really is a genius."

"But the Mirror Dimension isn't the same as portals," another argued. "One's an entrance exam. The other's a master's thesis."

Still, uncertainty lingered.

Then someone mentioned the clincher:

"He was brought here... by Master Wong."

That shut everyone up.

In Kamar-Taj, there were two names everyone recognized: the Sorcerer Supreme and Wong.

If Wong personally escorted this guy in?

He wasn't ordinary.

"Could he be... the Ancient One's new disciple?" a voice murmured.

Even then, some scoffed. "Even Kaecilius never dared claim mastery over the Mirror Dimension in three days. Probably let the success from portals get to his head."

"Guess we'll know in three days."

Their discussion was cut short when footsteps approached.

"Why are you chatting?" Mordo's stern voice cut through the murmurs like a blade. "Did any of you master portals in three days?"

The crowd immediately stood at attention.

"Say what you will about Nolan, but he earned his arrogance. From zero to mastering portals in three days? That's more than most of you will do in three months."

Mordo paced slowly through the group, his voice low and hard.

"If he loses this wager, good. He'll learn humility."

"But if he wins... then perhaps he's more than even we thought. The world rewards talent. It bends for the gifted. If you're not gifted, then you have no excuse not to outwork him."

The apprentices resumed training, their hands glowing as they carved portal sigils through the air with renewed urgency.

Mordo watched them go, but his thoughts drifted.

'If Nolan actually masters the Mirror Dimension... then few in Kamar-Taj will be qualified to teach him.'

'Hell, maybe it'll be his job to deal with Kaecilius.'

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Meanwhile, the man at the heart of the storm sat in quiet concentration.

Nolan's chamber was dim, serene, the smell of incense faint in the air as he moved through precise gestures, whispering arcane syllables under his breath.

"Gestures correct... Incantation accurate... posture stable..."

But no Mirror Dimension opened.

He frowned. frёewebnoѵēl.com

The resonance of the strange echoing tension in space that should vibrate when you touch a dimensional node wasn't clear enough.

The spells worked, the theory checked out, but... something was missing.

The key to the Mirror Dimension wasn't just knowledge. You had to feel the dimensional threads, the fragile seams of reality that linked one world to its shadow.

"Dimensional nodes..."

Then it hit him.

"The Tesseract fragments..."

Nolan's eyes lit up. He thrust a hand forward, and sparks flared.

The gateway opened into Dr. Otto's lab.

Otto nearly dropped a power cell as Nolan stepped through. "Boss?! You're... back?"

"Need your help," Nolan said quickly. "Get me the Tesseract fragments and the data logs. I need the frequencies, the radiation, magnetic resonance, energy flux patterns,, all of it."

Otto blinked. "All of it?"

"Yes. And run scans again. I need to see if they correspond with dimensional weak points."

Nolan's mind was racing.

The Tesseract, the MCU's Space Stone, was pure spatial magic in crystalline form. Even its broken shards radiated traces of higher-dimensional energy.

If he could map how the fragments interacted with space...

If he could record how they bent dimensions...

Then all he had to do was imitate it.

"If I can sync my brain's electromagnetic field to mimic the stone's frequency... then I'll feel the spatial nodes like the Tesseract does."

Not magic through feeling.

Not magic through faith.

Magic through science.

"Traditional training is too slow," Nolan muttered as he watched Otto prepare the instruments. "Why would I spend years meditating in the dark... when I can replicate a cosmic artifact's energy pattern in a week?"

The goal wasn't just to learn like everyone else.

It was to rewrite the way magic was studied.

To engineer sorcery.

Nolan didn't believe in mysticism. Not really.

To him, magic was just science, at a frequency we didn't yet understand.

And he planned to change that.

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