Boom!
The ever-flowing river of time suddenly became still.
The next second.
The river of time seemed to explode like fish, accompanied by splashing water; Hawk, who had been sitting cross-legged on the riverbed, had now returned to the river of time.
Hawk glanced down at his own timeline after closing the time loop.
A timeline flowed backward from the present into the past, then merged into one, forming a closed loop.
He traveled from the present back to the past, where he met his daughter Jean.
His daughter Jean, after he left, went to New York City and found him.
From his daughter Jean's mouth, he learned that his future self had met her and spent time with her.
Then he went to Kamar-Taj, used the Time Gemstone, entered his own timeline, returned to the past, and met Jean.
To this point!
The time loop was complete, with no omissions.
Next.
"Contract!"
Hawk's mind moved; he opened his right hand and grasped the river of time fiercely.
The next second.
Swish!
His timeline, a silver-hued thread, leaped out from the river of time like a dragon.
Scales and claws flying!
But...
These were time loopholes, like computer viruses. The purpose of contracting the timeline was to eliminate these loopholes, ensuring the timeline's stability and preventing anyone from hacking it in the future.
Hawk glanced at his timeline full of loopholes and smirked, once again sitting cross-legged above the river of time, a phoenix's shadow appearing behind him.
With the expansion of the phoenix's shadow, strands of Phoenix Power flowed like streams, extending towards every loophole in the timeline.
As the Phoenix Power entered, the time loopholes began to repair at a speed visible to the naked eye.
During the repair process, Hawk's perception of time also became increasingly clear and transparent.
In the Little Cosmos.
Golden light was spreading, and the phoenix's eyes grew brighter. The Reality Gemstone, originally split into two for aesthetics by Hawk, recombined into one.
But the phoenix did not become a one-eyed phoenix.
Because the Mind Gemstone became the new Phoenix's Eye.
Left eye: Mind.
Right eye: Reality.
The phoenix's one yellow and one red eyes converged into golden light, which, under the wash of Phoenix Power, transformed into the golden light of the Golden Saint Warriors, coloring Hawk's silver Cosmos with gold.
Rumble!
With the golden light fully saturating the entire silver Cosmos, the golden light didn't stop, beginning to expand like opening new territories.
Accompanied by rumbling sounds at the edge of the Cosmos.
Hawk's Little Cosmos seemed to finally push open a long-sealed door, with golden light rushing in.
At this moment.
Sitting cross-legged above the river of time, Hawk seemed to perceive something, opened his eyes, and looked along the river of time.
In the future, at a nodal point on the timeline, an unparalleled aura was emanating, seemingly tempting Hawk to go and investigate.
"Hiss!"
"Do you think I'm stupid?"
"The future is not to be viewed."
"Besides..."
"I hate spoilers."
While Hawk's mind turned, he snorted with laughter, ignoring the seductive future node timeline, and directly closed his eyes.
Neither seeing nor hearing.
He's not crossing the river by feeling for stones.
He's crossing on the shoulders of Odin and The Ancient One, so he wouldn't repeat their mistakes.
He prefers to hold the future in his own hands.
The future—
Created by himself, so that he can tread his chosen path without guilt.
Hawk's thoughts were unimpeded, and he no longer paid attention to the tempting future node. As his mind and spirit became one, his aura surged unpredictably.
Clang clang!
The phoenix's call to the heavens, its voice clangs.
For another five days at Kamar-Taj, just as before, during the apprentice mages' morning exercise, Gwen stood in the corridor, watched the mages' practice, listened to the phoenix's call, and instinctively looked towards the direction of Kamar-Taj's library.
In sight.
The Fire Phoenix ascended to the sky, reflected above the library's sky, spreading its fiery wings, with its one yellow and one red eyes emitting a golden resonance beneath the crimson flames.
Wait.
God?
Gwen raised her Liu Mei in thought. Just as she was about to find the Supreme Mage, she saw the Supreme Mage in a white robe appear beside her, her eyes lighting up.
"Mage, did Hawk succeed?"
"Consider it so."
The Ancient One also looked at the Fire Phoenix reflecting in the golden aura above the library sky and gave an ambiguous answer.
Gwen was slightly stunned by the response from the Ancient One.
But at this moment.
The Fire Phoenix came quickly and left just as swiftly, disappearing completely over the library in the blink of an eye.
It seemed as if it had all been an illusion.
Gwen looked towards the Ancient One.
The Ancient One smiled slightly.
"Would you like some tea?"
"..."
When Hawk opened his eyes again, he found himself once more in that slightly shabby but warmly comforting house.
This was the place where he and his sister were born.
Located in Brooklyn, it was just three blocks away from the former residence of Steve Rogers, an unremarkable typical American building from the outside.
But it was also the only remaining flaw in his timeline that couldn't be automatically repaired by the Phoenix Power and required manual fixing.
Hawk looked around and then listened to the voices coming from the bedroom inside; his eyes flashed with X-ray vision, and he entered the bedroom.
The blonde woman and the man with a scruff were leaning against the bed talking.
The scruffy man was mostly talking, while the blonde woman gently caressed her already big belly, smiling as she listened.
The conversation was essentially the scruffy man painting dreams.
In simple terms, he was describing to his wife how, after their child was born, he would work harder to move from Brooklyn to Manhattan soon. Then they would have a big house, with a lawn in front, a garden in the back, and even a swimming pool. In the future, they could take their child swimming in the backyard and invite friends and family over for barbecues.
The scruffy man vividly described the vision of their future.
The blonde woman looked at him with a gentle smile, expressing her belief in him, that he could lead their family out of poverty.
The woman stroked her belly, "Son, do you hear that? Your dad can't wait to take you swimming when you grow up."
The scruffy man also carefully touched the woman's belly with his somewhat rough large hands and said in a low voice with a sense of responsibility, "Son, when you grow up, I'll take you drinking and hunting."
As he spoke.
The scruffy man looked at the woman, "I've found a new job at the dock unloading containers, the pay is double what I made before."
The blonde woman was slightly stunned when she heard this, looking at the scruffy man.
"Container factory, isn't that rumored to be a gang…"
"I'm just a worker, just unloading my goods."
The scruffy man grinned, "Although it's more tiring than my last job, the pay is higher, and I've calculated it. The extra pay is just enough to cover the milk powder and your medical expenses."
The blonde woman heard him.
"But I don't want you to work so hard."
"Not as hard as you."
The scruffy man touched the woman's belly, looking at the blonde woman with tenderness, "Amy, I will certainly strive to give us a good life."
Amy Chloe.
That was the name of the blonde woman.
Soon.
Time swiftly passed to the day the scruffy man had an accident.
Hawk watched as the scruffy man and Amy kissed goodbye, and he spiritedly walked out the door, watching as he drove away in that old rusty second-hand car, and looked at Amy standing at the doorway, holding the infant version of himself, seeing off the scruffy man.
He thought for a moment, and in the next moment, he was already sitting in the back seat of the scruffy man's battered car.
In the back seat were two baby car seats.
They looked old, but seemed to have been carefully maintained.
Hawk's gaze fell on the man's front passenger seat, which was filled with architecture-related books, with a borrowing slip from the New York Library beside it.
The name on the slip was Andrew Chloe.
Indeed the name of the scruffy man.
Hawk then looked towards Andrew Crowe, whose face did not show a dislike for the job but rather an aspiration for a beautiful future life.
In these days, he hadn't fast-forwarded through this time period in order to find the time anomaly here.
Therefore,
Hawk once again witnessed his and his sister's birth, and also how poor yet warm this family was.
Amy Crowe, like his sister, had a congenital heart disease, so not long after birth, she was abandoned and a crude repair of her heart was done with free medical care before adulthood.
But work was too much for her, especially after he and his sister Anya were born, she was even weaker than before.
As such, the entire burden of the household was on Andrew Crowe's shoulders.
However,
He remained optimistic.
Hawk had witnessed more than once, Andrew returning from work exhausted but showing a warm smile upon entering the door, walking to the crib to pick up himself and his sister Anya for a kiss.
At such times, he liked to sit on the sofa and watch Andrew and Amy joke around with the infant versions of himself and Anya.
Because such scenes were often fantasized by Anya after learning they had no mom or dad.
Thus,
Hawk seemed to understand why this time anomaly couldn't be patched.
He quietly followed Andrew after work, watching as Andrew left the convenience store having used his paycheck to buy milk, clothes, and toys before leaving.
Hawk looked towards the silent, empty alley next to the convenience store.
He knew very well what was going to happen next.
Because this alley was the endpoint of Andrew's time.
...