Damon walked into the house, and the Ancient One followed him inside.
"Trespassing into a stranger's home is not something a sorcerer should do," Damon said, glancing at her. "Even a sorcerer should understand basic manners."
The Ancient One nodded, her expression serious. "You are right. By the laws of this country, I have violated the Castle Act. According to the law, you are now entitled to take action to protect your rights."
"Are you asking me to kill you?" Damon was speechless. In this day and age, who actively asks to die?
"Can you tell me why?"
The Ancient One paused, her expression complex. "Our world… has no future."
"Huh?" Damon raised an eyebrow in surprise. Then, recalling the strange events he encountered when awakening his insight and the anomalies in Crystal Lake Town, he nodded in agreement.
In this damn chaotic universe, a world without a future seemed entirely natural.
But… the Ancient One, fearless in the face of death, what could she possibly fear?
"This isn't a reason for you to flee," Damon said. "Even in the worst circumstances, shouldn't you face them calmly?"
The Ancient One shook her head, smiling bitterly. "You're right. But the problem may be worse than you think."
She waved her hand, drawing a strange map in the air filled with red crosses.
"What is this?" Damon asked. He could just make out the outline of the world map. But the strange markings ruined the sense of scale and geography.
"This is a map of spirit and demon activity. For some reason, countless evil spirits roam this land."
Seeing the map, almost entirely covered with crosses, Damon couldn't help but exhale in astonishment.
"Given this world has survived this long… we should thank our luck," he muttered.
The Ancient One nodded. "This world should have been destroyed many years ago. At that time, many powerful sorcerers and gods arose, uniting to control rampaging spirits and beasts."
"Humans and gods devised many methods. For instance, Zeus, the King of Gods, struck a deal with the Titan Old Gods of the deep abysses, using their power to create cages to restrain spirits and beasts. But humans had to offer yearly sacrifices to the Old Gods to keep them asleep; otherwise, countless spirits would be freed."
Damon felt a vague familiarity. Damn it—wasn't this the cabin in the woods scenario? Using Titans to bind spirits… ingenious, though somewhat wasteful.
"There was also Merlin, a great sorcerer at the time, the Supreme Sorcerer who advanced magical reform, trained wave after wave of capable sorcerers, and alongside extraterrestrial visitors, protected Earth's peace. He sealed countless spirits."
"But after Merlin's death, the sorcerers were corrupted by darkness, and the world nearly fell again."
Apprentices + Transformers? Damon smirked—he wasn't surprised. The key protagonists still came from familiar classmates.
"Later, under the leadership of the Karmatagei, the Agamotto Sorcerer, and Vishanti, the surviving sorcerers stabilized the nearly broken world, battling darkness for a millennium."
"But now… world peace is on the verge of shattering again."
"I've already sensed the coming storm. Spirits sealed for millennia, ancient gods sleeping deep within the Earth, ambitious beings from beyond the stars, and countless cosmic deities… they are all eager to devour this world."
"But even more alarming are the guardians of the world, those who maintain its stability—they have encountered problems."
Damon noticed the Ancient One's tone shift with subtle emotion when mentioning the world's guardians.
"For example?"
"The great Planet Devourer, who represents cosmic balance and wields supreme divine might… is dead."
"His headless corpse was found at the edge of the galaxy."
"His skull is missing."
"This means the balance of our world has been completely broken. Darkness is approaching, and the Planet Devourer's death is only the beginning."
Damon's breath caught. Not again… Thanos, dead?
Everyone knew the death of a Planet Devourer always heralded major cosmic events. Planet Devourers represented balance; if light and dark were disrupted, death was inevitable. This was an immutable rule of the Marvel Universe.
"Who killed the Planet Devourer?" Damon asked.
The Ancient One shook her head, hesitating, before speaking words that made Damon even more incredulous:
"I suspect it was one of Oblivion, Eternity, or the God of Fear."
Damon was stunned. Even the cosmic abstracts were murdering each other now? Death, maybe—but Eternity? Surely not. Oblivion, perhaps. Eternity theoretically shouldn't act this way… though its children could. And the God of Fear? Damon didn't recall a major God of Fear in the mainstream Marvel canon; even the primordial Serpent wouldn't qualify. The seven lords of fear? Merely minor cosmic entities. The Ancient One had clearly lost her mind.
Knowing this was unbelievable, she had set layers of protective spells around the house.
The outermost layer bore the seal of Vishanti, designed to repel dark forces—a key part of the Karmatagei barrier system.
Damon felt a chill, anticipating the "radical claims" she was about to make.
After setting the arrays, Ancient One held the Time Stone, speaking quietly:
"I suspect Eternity and Oblivion have been corrupted by darkness, perhaps even the source of darkness itself. I gazed into the Eye of Eternity, and what I saw was no longer Eternity… but a blinding light."
"That fleeting glimpse… I cannot forget…"
"My mind was flooded with visions—knowledge, the unknown that drives one to madness!"
She lifted her left arm, revealing veins beneath her skin writhing, alive with energy.
"Since leaving Eternity's domain, I've felt darkness corrupting my body faster. I could once isolate and resist it, but now… I feel special, infinitely proliferating cells inside me coming alive!"
"And…" she lifted her gaze to meet Damon's thoughtful eyes.
"Time itself has changed. It has become unpredictable."
"Countless temporal branches wriggle like tentacles, intertwining, forming a complex web. Amid these fissures in time, I glimpsed the only hope—a divine entity capable of destroying countless evil beings in a single gesture."
"One glance from it forced me to withdraw from the time stream and return to reality."
Damon, feeling the intensity of her gaze, already knew what she was about to say.
Still, he shook his head. He wasn't a fool—this world was dangerous, but he had no desire to bear the weight of its fate.
The world could collapse for all he cared. Fight and flee. No need to tie oneself to a single artifact. The Time Stone alone wasn't worth binding to the Karmatagei.
His skill library already contained many masters of time rules. Besides, if time had any value in this cursed universe, why had Eternity, the embodiment of time, fallen to darkness? Perhaps the Time Stone was already a dud, maybe even a cosmic trap.