59- Scheming

With a flourish of her hand, an illusion appeared in the air in front of them. Still smiling, she said, "You see, Izo is not only a master of martial arts, but he has also survived for hundreds of years fighting beasts, demons, and all sorts of dangers. As far as survival goes, he may be second to none on this Earth."

Mason wanted to refute that, before catching himself as he realized what she was hinting at, and asked instead, "You mean to say… he let himself get caught?"

"How perceptive of you, Mason."

Mason stared at her blankly. "Sarcasm does not suit you, old woman."

She kept smiling nonetheless, and with a tap of her finger, a point lit up on the map. A point located in Japan. She said, "An old contingency we set in place before the colonization of America. Izo was curious about the old continent after leaving the Hand, you see, but did not want to die a grave-less death. So he had me inscribe a spell on one of his ribs that would activate when he died. I’m sure he regretted it many times over his long life, but I’m certain he never forgot about it."

"Won’t he tell them about the spell once he is turned?"

Yao gave him a derisive glance. "I was already Sorcerer Supreme then. My spell is not something that can be erased so easily. And I already got the location down."

The map zoomed, and Mason muttered, "A random mountain near Kyoto… makes more sense than the bustling Madripoor."

She clapped, and the illusion disappeared. She looked back in the direction of the four dead demons and said, "While what you did was undoubtedly powerful, I can feel you are spent. Don’t make me ground you."

Understanding the implication, Mason asked, "Isn’t the issue quite time-sensitive now? We may know where their headquarters are; they do have their six Immortal Weapons. I may not be in my top condition, this is not about me. Delaying for too long would just be giving them the time to open the Eighth City."

She shook her head. "We have time. Another reason I did not believe Sadhan could have been turned is that it is a lengthy process, and even more so for an Immortal Weapon. We should have a day before they are ready. Enough for you to recover."

Mason nodded, feeling relieved inside. He had been ready to attack the Hand headquarters right away had there been no other choice, but even he knew that it would not have been a safe move, to say the least. He would have done it because the fate of the region was at stake, but he preferred to go ready.

"So what’s the plan for tomorrow? Since the old man is aware of the mark, even if they can’t remove it, they can easily use him as bait, so how do we know whether we should attack their headquarters, the gate to the Eighth City, or some other place?"

Yao gave him the same infuriatingly calm smile as before, as if they were talking about the weather and he was throwing a fit because there was a cloud he did not like the shape of. "Patience, Mason. Precipitation will only lead to ruin."

Mason deadpanned at her, "You’re just saying this to annoy me, aren’t you?"

Her expression did not move in the slightest. "Would I dare make light of this terrible situation we’ve found ourselves in to tease you? I am the Sorcerer Supreme, Mason."

Mason rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, wise old bat. I’ll go back to the summit to regenerate. Come pick me up when it’s time."

She looked at him for a moment longer before finally relenting. "Do you know where the gate to the Eighth City is, Mason?"

"Somewhere that’ll make me go ‘wow’ when you tell me?"

"In the Himalayas. At the base of Mount Everest."

"Wow."

She kept smiling, ignoring his antics. "It was one of the reasons why Kamar-Taj was built here. Opening the Eighth City is not an instantaneous process either, especially with one of the Immortal Weapons missing. So we will be making a two-pronged attack. If by the time everyone has recovered they have not yet tried to breach the door, you will lead a team to attack their headquarters, while I stay to defend Kamar-Taj and the gate."

Mason pursed his lips, stopping in place as he considered what to do for a moment. Yao’s plan was good, of course, but from the look of things, it seemed that they had plenty of time to deal with this. After all, Mason doubted that even the whole Hand put together, along with the Seven Immortal Weapons and even him added in, could defeat the Ancient One if they tried to.

She was the Sorcerer Supreme, ultimate defender of the Earthly Plane. Although she mostly used her Tao mandalas and martial arts, Mason knew she also had access to the Mirror Dimension, at least in the MCU, where she could manipulate reality on a large scale. Then, there were the various artefacts in Kamar-Taj, the Eye of Agamotto being chief among them.

Even if it was the comic version without the Time Stone inside, it remained an immensely powerful artefact. She also probably had plenty of spells she had refrained from using so far because they were too large in scale and would have harmed her own people.

All that to say, if the gate was next to Kamar-Taj, Mason doubted the Hand could ever open it. This meant that he could take the time to deepen his research, and possibly break through, which would trivialize the annihilation of the Hand.

But Mason quickly gave up on the idea. He went along quite well with Yao, so much so that he would consider the two of them friends. But no matter how friendly they might be, there was always a worry at the back of his mind, one related to the Time Stone.

Again, he did not know whether she actually had the Time Stone; he had not asked, but if she did, then each of her decisions meant more than they seemed to at first glance. After all, both she and Doctor Strange were shown to be capable of seeing possible futures thanks to the stone, and steer it to get what they believed to be the best outcome.

Not only was being manipulated not a good feeling, even if it was for the ‘greater good’, but there was also the fact that the greater good did not necessarily mean it would be his as well.

So, faced with this uncertainty, Mason returned to the one truth he knew he had, and that was himself. He would act according to himself, live his life, and eventually reach a point where odds no longer mattered.

Waving at Yao over his shoulder, Mason shared a look with Danny, who looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and left for Mount Everest.

Mason climbed it the same as he always did, rapidly running up its side. Suicide for a normal person, but quite casual for him. The thin oxygen did little to him, and the climbing was easy when he could jab his fingers into the rocks like they were made of butter. He was creating his own climbing holds as he went up.

Besides, it was not his first time.

He never went up there with a portal, because he felt it would feel empty. Although the climbing was easy for him and relatively risk free, climbing the tallest mountain in the world still gave him a special feeling that was hard to put into words.

Mason guessed it had something to do with the Dao, as all things did. Or perhaps something deeper than that. At least, deeper than what he had understood so far.

Strangely enough, the closer he got to the next realm, the more he felt that breaking through would heavily involve the Dao.

But for now, Mason stopped at the very top, where the various climbers had placed their flags, and sat down under the glorious light of the sun.