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639. Avengers' Training: Black Widow III
🕑 Added 2024-08-22 05:16:05 +0000 UTC“So, what exactly happened to your home?” Natasha asked. According to the story Edward gave, he was from a parallel Earth and had to leave and inhabit this place because he was facing some trouble.
“With how things are going, aren’t you worried about how the Convergence will affect it?”
“My home is isolated from the multiverse, well, this multiverse, so I don’t have to worry,” Edward replied. “My worry should be after the convergence.”
“For whatever this convergence is supposedly preparing us for?”
“Exactly,” Edward nodded. “I don’t think anyone can escape that trouble.” The two became momentarily silent. “So, if things don’t go well, could the people of this earth take refuge in your Earth?”
“It’s good to think ahead,” Edward praised. “And yes, that is my final plan to protect this Earth.”
“I’m sensing a but,” Natasha continued.
“My ship is lost, so I need to retrieve it before we escape,” Edward replied. “More importantly, I don’t think escape will be as easy or simple as stated.”
“Of course it won’t.” Ever since she started training with Edward, Natasha realized she had entered a world where nothing is ever simple or direct. Her previous life as a spy was like this, but this was another level — another scale.
“Enough with the chit-chat,” Edward stated. “We have a lot of work to do.”
“Alright, what’s the next step?”
“You have a lot of new things to learn.”
“Learning again?”
“Not the studious type, are we?” Edward asked.
“It’s not even about being studious or not,” Natasha replied. “I can spend days learning about a new identity I’m about to assume — from education, family ties, to personality, and even micro-expressions — and I would be fine about it. However, your kind of study is boring.”
“Boring, yes, but necessary.”
While Natasha was learning the knowledge from the Library of Cagliostro and about sealing higher beings, Edward began preparing for the ceremony. Once she was ready, he took her to a large room with a magic circle on the floor.
“I suddenly don’t know how to feel about this,” Natasha said as she looked at the magic circle.
“How come?”
“Well, I’m about to have a god inside my body. No matter how I put it, it seems unnerving.”
“True. Do you want to stop? We can begin with you drawing energy from the shadow dimension?”
“No. I just need a moment to process all of this.”
Natasha remained true to her words. After taking a moment of rest, she executed the process flawlessly. Due to her high shadow affinity, Morag did not resist as he thought this was a way to escape his imprisonment and find a vessel that could inherit all his powers.
As Edward looked at her final appearance, he was deep in thought. ‘She jumped from Tier 4 to Tier 6. Are there any repercussions?’
‘Her body developed a few fatal flaws, and her soul has a few cracks. However, it’s not something we cannot fix with time and the right potion,’ Morgana replied.
“What about the seal?”
“I’ve checked a million times, and there is no flaw.”
“Good.”
Natasha stood in the middle of the magic circle with a bra and underwear. However, she now had a black rune above her navel, similar to Naruto, except her design was different. This new tattoo even further increased her natural charm.
“Such power,” Natasha commented. “It is so easy to envelop this planet into darkness. Better yet, this is not even my limit.”
Edward frowned.
“Transform,” Natasha uttered, using her Transforming Talent and tapping into Morag’s strength. Her hair suddenly turned shadow-like, her eyes completely dark, and a tight-revealing black armor surrounded her body. Her strength rose from tier 6 to tier 8.
“Now, this is power,” she uttered, her voice containing an echo. “Let’s call it Shadow State. Yes, that’s a good name. No, this is the best name in the universe.” She raised her head to look in the distance.
“My senses. I can see wherever there is a shadow. Are those dimensions? This should be our solar system. So many creatures lived in the shadows, unknown to those who bathe in the light. Soon, I’ll be their master.”
“We have a problem,” Morgana said.
“That’s obvious. What happened?”
“All the power corrupted her spirit. We may need to train her Willpower.”
Natasha finally turned to look at Edward. “I shall thank you for granting me this power. To show my thanks, I will grant you the position of my number one general. You will lead my army as we plunge this world into the realm of shadows.’
“It seems the corruption is not just due to the newly acquired power but also Morag’s influence,” Morgana remarked.
“As interesting as your proposal is, I have a lot of work to do, meaning I don’t have time to waste with you.”
“How dare you—”
Edward snapped his finger, and Natasha left the [Shadow State]. Her body fell to the ground. She did not pass out, but she felt extremely weak. “What just happened?” she asked, her eyes regaining clarity.
“This is what happens when you acquire power too quickly, but your soul and will are too feeble to control it,” Edward explained as he handed her a potion. “We need to delay the other procedures. In the meantime, you should train to increase your soul level and raise your willpower.”
His plans previously involved Natasha leaving her imprint in the Shadow Dimension to prepare for the fusion. However, she was not in the shape for this part of the training, so Edward postponed it.
“This was horrible,” Natasha stated. “I could feel the power taking over me — I could feel my sense of self rapidly dissipating as someone, no, something else, takes over.” She shuddered as she thought about that experience. She glanced at him.
“Is this how you feel?”
“No,” Edward shook his head. “My power came gradually and over the course of a thousand years. However, I do have time when I find myself acting out of character because of it, but I never lost myself as deeply as you did.”
Natasha sighed. This experience was terrible, almost traumatizing. Edward frowned after noticing her situation. “It seems I need to put you through the same Therapeutic Session as Loki.” He feared she might become afraid of her power and thus could not utilize its power, or worse, outright refuse to use it.
“Therapy? What good is that?”
“It’s magical therapy,” Edward explained. “It can allow you to unravel the effect your memories, the environment, and even your subconscious has on your current self.”
“Do I need it?”
“We all need therapy,” Edward joked. “How do you think I remain normal, well, relatively speaking, after living for so long and with so much power?”
“So, is it going to fix me?” Natasha asked.
‘She seems averted to the idea of therapy,’ Morgana commented. ‘Probably because of her troubled past with the Red Room.’
“Don’t think of it as fixing you,” Edward stated. “More along the line of helping you better understand yourself, deal with past regrets, and accept the kind of person you are and not what you wish to be.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“The program you’ll be using is basically state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, so there is no need to worry about your information leaking,” Edward added. “Personally, I prefer sessions with real and living Spiritual Arcanists, but we are not home, so our means are limited.”
“I understand.”
Edward ensured Natasha was fine before handing her the tools to train her soul, willpower, and therapy sessions and escort her out of the magic tower. Then, he took the next avenger, Steve Rogers himself. He was slightly intrigued by what kind of hidden talent the man had despite already having his own conjecture.
