Marvelous Martial Arts (A Marvel Story)

Mason looked at the vast mountain ranges sprawling out before him, the stars illuminating the night sky. They were clearer than Mason had ever seen them, the mountains bereft of the light pollution that would normally hide their beauty.

”Grandmaster Tunt, welcome to Kamar-Taj.”

Mason looked back and first saw his group, or part of it anyway. Izo and Danny were there, but Spider-Man and Daredevil were not. Neither was Disciple Drumm, actually.

They were surrounded by a few of what looked like monks, dressed in yellowish robes, but Mason knew them to be Sorcerers. High-ranking ones, by the looks of it. They all were bent over in a martial bow. Leading them was a thin, bald woman, currently staring at Mason with a welcoming smile. Mason was sure that if he had any Divine Sense left, he would have detected potent magical energies from her.

Behind them was a large, traditional temple that sprawled over the mountaintop, the fabled Kamar-Taj.

Mason raised his hands to replicate the bow, only to be reminded they were covered in black blood. Even the demon’s blood had acidic properties, as he felt a slight sting in his hands.

Izo was looking around like the air itself was poison, while Danny explained, ”Daredevil and Spider-Man stayed behind to handle Fisk’s arrest. Disciple Drumm has already been sent to the medical wing.”

The bald woman, whom Mason recognized to be the Ancient One, offered, ”Perhaps you would care to join him? The venom of Set is particularly potent, even if his incarnation only possessed a portion of its power.”

Mason shook his head. ”Don’t. The venom is good.”

Izo immediately snarled, ”Did you fall on your head, Stupid?! Go get healed before your pride gets you killed.”

”It’s not pride, you old bag of bones. The poison is tempering my body and my Chi. All poison is medicine, so long as you can survive. A bath would agree with me more right now, but I’d rather hear why I’m here first.”

The Ancient One shook her sleeves, and all the Sorcerers retreated. Mason looked at her curiously as she approached Izo, bending to look at him in the face with a teasing smile. ”Izo, I trust you have been well all these years?”

Izo snarled, looking away, ”Piss off, Yao. And if you dare whisper in my students’ ears again, I swear I will rip out your serpent tongue.”

The Ancient One appeared entirely unfazed, and much to Mason’s shock, she patted Izo’s head like he was an unruly child. ”Sadhan made his choice, as did both of us. Magic is only another way, just like Neidan.”

Izo clicked his tongue in annoyance, but he did not lash out physically, only saying, ”Just another way? It is a practice that demands that you consort with demons, and it always ends up the same way. We just killed one of those.”

The Ancient One sighed, looking at Mason this time. ”And I must thank you for this. If unleashed, an Incarnation of Set would have been devastating. It saddens me to see what became of what was once a student of mine, but you did well. As expected of a Grandmaster.”

Her eyes seemed to gain a faint luster as she smiled, looking Mason up and down. ”And not just any Grandmaster. I would almost think you had taken that step, if I did not know any better. You would have made an excellent Sorcerer.”

”Yao!”

She ignored Izo, smiling, and Mason snorted, ”If there’s something I can agree with the old man on, it’s that magic is a shortcut. That doesn’t make it any less important, but from how I understand it, all it does is change the focus from inward to outward.”

”In some ways, yes. But I have a feeling Yao will throw a tantrum if I explain any more, so let’s shelve this for later. Allow me to show you to the baths.”

Mason nodded and followed her inside. While Izo and Danny were shown to their quarters, Mason did not stop there, heading directly for the baths. They were styled after hot springs, but Mason cared little about the place’s beauty as he sank into the hot waters, submerging himself as he meditated underwater.

There were no real benefits to meditating underwater; it even forced Mason to hold his breath, but it felt comfortable, and that was enough.

During his meditation, his Three Treasures recovered from their exhaustion, their associated energy filling back up. He did not stay underwater the whole time, since Mason could not hold his breath for several hours, but he still found the experience to be deeply satisfying.

By the time he got out, Mason found all of his clothes to have been cleaned and neatly folded at the entrance of the hot spring, including the Haori he had discarded to fight. That made him wonder whether they had picked it up when they got Izo and Iron Fist from the tower, or if they had actually come back for it.

In any case, once he was fully dressed, Mason wandered around, visiting, and purposefully did not make use of his Divine Sense, preferring to explore by himself instead.

He passed by the courtyard, which was empty since it was still night. As he walked around, however, the Ancient One joined him, greeting, ”Mr. Tunt, I am glad you recovered and did not die within the baths. That would have been awkward.”

Mason allowed himself a smile. ”That it would have been. But poisons have little effect on cultivators.”

She smiled back, ”Yes, Izo told me about your naming conventions. I have heard countless over the years. We do not attach ourselves to names here. You must have many questions.”

Mason nodded, and she started walking. ”Would you care to join me then?”

She led him to a somewhat flat rock right outside the compound, and as they sat down, Mason could not help but feel a little strange. They had just met, and here he was, chilling with the supreme protector of Earth, and arguably one of the most powerful people on the planet, if not the universe.

He finally asked the question that had been burning on his mind, ”So, what’s the deal between you and Izo? Actually, what’s his deal with magic as a whole?”

The Ancient One, reminiscing as she explained patiently, ”This goes back many centuries. You see, Magic and Martial Arts have always been connected, since they were born from the same art.”

”And what would that be?”

She laughed at that. ”Even I am not quite ancient enough to know its name, I am afraid. And maybe it never had one. What I can tell you is that the ancestor of magic, Agamotto, was an Awakening Grandmaster before he became a Sorcerer.”

Mason felt himself at ease as he indulged his curiosity. ”Are you sure you’re not just still pitching me your teachings?”

”I permitted myself the teasing because I knew you would not accept. Izo might actually try to kill me if I successfully poached you, not to mention I would not gain much from this. But to return to Agamotto, he devised Three Forms of Magic.”

”That sounds like the Three Treasures.”

She shook her head, although the remark seemingly amused her. ”A coincidence, I am afraid. Or the connection is one that is lost on me. The number 3 has a certain power, as do all numbers, but you are not here for a lesson in numerology. The first of those Three Forms is Egocentric Magic, the magic of the self. It is the most basic kind of magic, the first every student of the Mystic Arts learns, and it taps into a Sorcerer’s own spiritual energy.”

Mason raised an eyebrow in surprise, musing, ”So that’s why that cultist said any Sorcerer would envy my Spirit. Are all Sorcerers cultivators first?”

”Not quite, I’m afraid. Although Magic and Cultivation, as you call it, were born from the same ancient art, there is an inescapable divide between the two, and they cannot be learned at the same time. The Sorcerer is spirit, the Cultivator is body.”

Mason narrowed his eyes at the mysterious explanation, as he actually managed to make sense of it. From his personal experience too. Still, she further explained, ”A normal person’s soul is strongly tethered to their body, forming a whole. A Cultivator cultivates that Spirit as part of the Body, with the goal of forming a unity in the end. For the Sorcerer, only the Spirit interests them, turning their Body into a funnel. As a result, to get started with Egocentric Magic, one must loosen the bond between their Spirit and their Body. This allows for one’s Spirit to achieve greatness, but it is also profoundly incompatible with Cultivation.”

The Ancient One brought two fingers to her glabella, and with a twist of her wrist, Mason felt a faint knock on his own Spirit. She resumed, except she expressed herself telepathically now, ”Your Spirit is many times stronger than anyone here, including me. But because it remains bound to your Body, because it retains the trifecta with your Essence and Breath, it is restricted, and you are only able to manipulate it rudimentarily. Despite possessing vastly weaker Spirits, any student here can manipulate theirs with far greater control.”

Mason nodded naturally, because he had experienced the difference himself. His Spirit, or Soul, had only improved marginally since he had taken over the body, if at all, yet he held a far greater amount of control over his Spiritual Energy when he was a ‘disembodied’ soul than now that he had awakened it. Had he been practicing Egocentric Magic without knowing it then?