Chen Tian's pupils constricted abruptly, and the scarlet in his Eye of Heaven surged like flames.
His breathing became rapid, and his magic power surged uncontrollably around him, forming a distorted energy storm.
"What does whether I slept well or not have to do with you?!"
His voice was like a clap of thunder, echoing within the Mirror Dimension, shattering the surrounding glass curtain walls.
The fragments did not fall but floated eerily in mid-air; each piece twisted and deformed in the Mirror Dimension, reflecting fragments of Chen Tian's dream.
Ancient One's expression remained calm, but a hint of pity flashed deep in her eyes.
"Chen Tian, your mind has been corrupted," she said slowly, clasping her hands in front of her chest, a golden magic circle spinning in her palms.
"You haven't even noticed that you are being controlled."
"This is also my fault… I was always on guard against the Dimension Demon God, but I forgot that you were always just a psychologically fragile child."
"Child?!" Chen Tian sneered, a ferocious arc twisting his lips.
"Who do you think you are? I just want to avoid the scenes that appeared in my dreams! I am protecting my friends! I don't want my friends to sacrifice themselves after saying 'I am Iron Man' again!"
Chen Tian's expression was somewhat frenzied.
"What is Captain America? What is Bucky? Why can't I kill that damned holy mother Captain America and his damned friend when he can betray Tony for his friend?"
"I am not from this World! So! I can do what I want!"
Ancient One sighed, her robe sleeve drawing a golden arc in the air.
The entire Mirror Dimension twisted violently like a shattered kaleidoscope, countless memory fragments recombining, finally freezing on Chen Tian's deepest fear in his dream—
Above the ruins of New York, Tony Stark's nanotech armor was in tatters.
Chen Tian's palm clasped his throat, and the azure magic power flowed between his fingers.
Tony's faceplate was already shattered, his caramel eyes, which always sparkled with wisdom, were now filled with tears, reflecting Chen Tian's distorted face.
"Is this the future you want?" Ancient One's voice came from all directions, each syllable like a heavy hammer striking Chen Tian's heart.
The Chen Tian in the mirror tilted his head, his lips curving into an inhuman arc: "Just a necessary sacrifice." With a crisp 'snap,' Tony's neck twisted at a strange angle, and the light in his eyes froze forever.
The real Chen Tian suddenly knelt on the ground, his stomach cramping violently.
More images emerged from the ashes: Pepper dying with Tony's corpse; 2B's mechanical core crushed by his own hand; Steve's vibranium shield impaled in Wanda's chest…
"No… This isn't me…" Chen Tian's voice was fragmented.
He shook his head frantically, only to find another version of himself standing in every fragment—that self's eyes glowed with the same scarlet light as his own.
Ancient One's figure appeared in the scattering ashes.
This time, she cast no spells, only quietly watched Chen Tian: "See clearly, all of this is what the Dimension Demon God wants you to do."
She pointed to the last fragment, which reflected the current Chen Tian: "You think you are protecting them, but in reality, you are becoming their greatest threat."
Chen Tian's fingernails dug deep into his palms, and blood dripped from between his fingers onto the floor of the Mirror Dimension, rippling outwards.
Each drop of blood reflected a different future—but in every future, he ultimately stood atop a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, with the bodies of his friends beneath his feet.
"That dimensional creature is more cunning than you imagine." Ancient One's voice softened.
"It wants your soul to fall, it wants you to walk the path of corruption yourself, it is luring you into its trap."
She waved her hand, dispelling the bloody illusion.
"You are afraid of repeating the past, but it is precisely this obsession that has led you down the worst path."
The Mirror Dimension began to collapse, countless glass-like fragments swirling in the air.
Chen Tian stared blankly at one of the fragments—2B was smiling at him, holding the strawberry ice cream they had bought together.
The pink ice cream scoop emitted a slight mist, and a drop of melted cream slowly slid down the edge of the cone.
Her silvery-white hair was gently lifted by the wind, and behind her was a dazzling blue sky, her entire being seemingly bathed in an angelic halo.
"Now you should understand." Ancient One's voice gradually faded.
"True protection is not slaughter, but…"
Her last sentence was swallowed by the howling wind.
Chen Tian suddenly fell, plummeting into bottomless darkness.
In the instant before his consciousness disappeared, he seemed to hear Tony's words to him before he died in the dream:
"Kid, you're better than this."
Chen Tian's body continued to fall in the darkness, and the howling wind in his ears was mixed with countless familiar sounds—Tony's hammering in the Afghanistan cave, 2B's clear blade cutting through the air during battle, the Arbitrators cheering loudly at a joyful post-war barbecue party; these sounds were like sharp glass shards, scraping at his nerves repeatedly.
Suddenly, the descent stopped.
He found himself standing in a pure white space, with a calm, mirror-like water surface beneath his feet.
The water surface did not reflect his own image but countless silhouettes of futures: in some Worlds, he smiled and high-fived the Arbitrators in celebration; in others, 2B was stuffing half-melted ice cream into his mouth; and in yet another future, he sat alone on the ruins of Stark Tower, holding a blood-stained vibranium shield.
"The choice has always been yours." Ancient One's voice came from beneath the water, and as ripples spread, her figure emerged from the water like an ink-colored lotus.
This time, she was not wearing her sorcerer's robe but a simple white gown.
"You are the most unique existence in this World; in countless parallel Universes and timelines, only one of you exists.
No one can influence you on the timeline, whether in the past or the future."
"All changes originate from yourself, Chen Tian; you have the right to choose to become better or worse."
Chen Tian knelt on the water, looking at the scarlet in his eyes, his expression somewhat dazed.
"I…" Chen Tian's voice was choked.
"All I ever… wanted to do… was just to have a perfect ending…"
Ancient One slowly knelt beside Chen Tian, gently placing her hand on his shoulder; a warm power emanated from her palm.
"There is never a perfect ending in this World, Chen Tian," her voice was gentle yet full of power.
"It is precisely because of imperfection that life becomes precious.
It is precisely because of regrets that people cherish the present."
Chen Tian held his head, his expression full of pain.
"But…" His voice trembled, "In my dream…"
Ancient One gently shook her head, her gaze like a deep, ancient well: "Those images are all illusions that the Dimension Demon God wants you to see." Her voice carried the calmness of one who sees through everything.
"They are luring your fear, amplifying your confusion.
Especially the entity lurking in your dreams—Nightmare, it is weaving a trap with your deepest obsessions."
The instant Ancient One uttered the word 'Nightmare,' the entire pure white space suddenly trembled violently.
The scarlet in Chen Tian's eyes surged like boiling magma, and the originally clear water surface was instantly dyed blood-red.
"Giggle giggle…" A horrifying laugh suddenly echoed in the space, the sound like thousands of voices superimposed, with the hoarseness of an old man and the cries of an infant.
"Sorcerer Supreme… You shouldn't… meddle…"
All the reflections on the water surface twisted into grotesque ghost faces, and Ancient One's white gown billowed without wind.
Her gaze sharpened, and she quickly formed hand seals, but the blood-red color began to corrode her magic patterns in reverse.
Ancient One's pupils constricted abruptly, and her eyes, which had seen through countless dimensions, showed a shocked expression for the first time.
Her white gown billowed without wind, and golden magic patterns appeared around her, but they were instantly corroded upon contact with the blood-red energy.
"So that's it…" Her voice trembled slightly, and the Vishanti's light condensed at her fingertips was stained with murky blackness.
"It's not a single dimensional invasion, but… a feast of demons."
The water surface boiled and churned, revealing three grotesque reflections—
Mephisto's scarlet goat horns pierced the water, and Hellfire burned in the void.
The hellish runes remaining from the New Mexico explosion now flickered deep within Chen Tian's mind.
Dormammu's Dark Dimension energy was as viscous as asphalt, seeping from every crack of the Whiplash armor.
The seeds planted during the Monaco battle had now taken root and sprouted within Chen Tian.
And Nightmare's tentacles were the most dense; they spread throughout the entire space like blood vessels, each pulsation making the scarlet in Chen Tian's eyes intensify.
It had exploited Chen Tian's worries and pressure regarding the Washington District battle plan to infiltrate his dreams every time.
"What a delicious soul…" The triple demonic voices resonated within the space, causing the water surface to explode.
"Sorcerer Supreme, do you think it's enough to block our main bodies?"
Ancient One staggered backward, a trace of golden blood spilling from the corner of her mouth.
She suddenly understood everything—during the bitter battle with Dormammu at the New York Sanctum, during the struggle with Mephisto in Hong Kong, during the resistance against Nightmare's invasion at Kamar-Taj… those seemingly accidental dimensional fluctuations were all carefully designed traps.
Just as the blood-red energy was about to completely engulf Chen Tian, the entire space suddenly trembled violently.
A pungent smell of sulfur suddenly permeated the air, and smoke erupted from the void like a volcanic eruption.
Ancient One abruptly looked up, only to see a pair of giant claws burning with Hellfire tearing through the dimensional barrier amidst the swirling smoke.
"It's you—" A deafening roar caused the water surface to erupt in hundred-meter waves, transforming into a raging sea of fire.
"Devouring my Lord while King is away?" Sulfur fire rained down, each drop exploding into dazzling purplish-black flames upon contact with the blood-red energy.
Ancient One's white gown was lifted by the heat wave.
She saw the hundreds of meters tall Diablo stepping out of the boiling lava, countless flames coiling around his seven demonic horns, like a burning crown in the void.
The projections of the three great Demon Gods shrieked simultaneously.
Mephisto's goat horns suddenly ignited, Dormammu's Dark Dimension energy contracted violently as if encountering a natural enemy, and Nightmare's tentacles—those vascular structures that had just been arrogantly writhing—were now carbonizing and disintegrating at a visible speed.
"And you even made little sister 2B cry?" Diablo's third eye suddenly turned to a future fragment, where 2B's core being crushed was frozen in time. The entire pure white space was suddenly coated in the dark red color of purgatory, and countless molten chains shot out from the void, firmly pinning the projections of the three Dimension Demon Gods in mid-air.
"Although my King is just an immature fellow, is his mental World something you wastes can touch?!"
Diablo's spiky tail gently wrapped around the unconscious Chen Tian. The demonic flames, which were enough to melt Vibranium, now brushed softly over the young man's pale cheek like feathers.
Dormammu's dark projection twisted violently, letting out a deafening roar: "Mephisto! You damned liar!" Dark energy exploded into countless spikes in the void like boiling asphalt. "Didn't you say you gravely injured him with a soul curse?!"
Hellfire flickered on and off on Mephisto's goat horns, and a hint of panic flashed in his scarlet pupils: "This is impossible… I sacrificed one-third of my Hell authority and part of my soul…" His voice suddenly caught, because one of Diablo's chains was wrapped around the neck of his projection, and the burning purple-black flames on the chain made him recognize a familiar energy fluctuation.
"That's… my power?!" Mephisto's projection suddenly trembled violently. "You actually converted my curse… into nourishment?!"
Diablo let out an earth-shattering maniacal laugh, and the flames on his seven demonic horns surged: "I have you to thank, old man!" He suddenly turned to the Nightmare projection, which was quietly dissolving. "Trying to run?"
Countless burning chains suddenly pierced out from inside the Nightmare projection. Those tentacles that had already turned into mist were forcibly pinned back into solid form. Nightmare let out a non-human scream: "No! These chains are reverse-tracking our dimension coordinates!"
The three Dimension Demon Gods simultaneously felt the terror of those chains—they were not merely restraints, but were frantically devouring the primordial power of their respective dimensions through the connection between the projection and the main body. Dormammu's Dark Dimension began to show cracks, Mephisto's Hell throne shook violently, and in Nightmare's domain, countless nightmare creatures were turning to dust.
"Self-destruct the projection!" Nightmare was the first to make a decision. Its projection suddenly swelled into a giant black Sun. "I absolutely cannot let him find the dimension coordinates!"
Dormammu let out an unwilling roar, and dark energy exploded like a supernova: "Diablo! This isn't over!" In the last moment before the projection collapsed, he maliciously looked at the unconscious Chen Tian. "His soul will eventually…"
"Shut up, you waste!" Diablo's giant claw clenched suddenly, and the projections of the three Dimension Demon Gods simultaneously exploded into countless specks of light. But those burning chains suddenly split at the last moment, transforming into countless tiny fire snakes that drilled into the space cracks created by the explosion.
Three muffled groans of pain faintly came from the void, followed by the roaring tremor of the dimension barrier. Diablo watched with satisfaction as the fire snakes disappeared into the cracks, and chuckled lowly: "Enjoy the 'gift' I sent you…"
The Mirror Dimension began to tremble violently, and countless cracks spread like a spiderweb in the void. Ancient One's white robe was torn in several places by the violent energy turbulence, and she discovered with horror—those cracks were not ordinary spatial ruptures, but dimension fault lines that were infiltrating the reality dimension.
"Diablo!" Ancient One's voice was urgent for the first time. She formed hand seals, trying to stabilize the space, but the golden magic patterns disintegrated as soon as they formed. "You must maintain this place! Otherwise, the reality dimension will—"
"Will what?" A clear female voice suddenly sounded. Where the smoke had cleared, the originally ferocious Fear of the King had transformed into a human form. Lia stepped barefoot on the boiling lava, her wine-red long hair flying in the energy storm, a naive yet cruel smile on her lips: "New York collapses? Dimensions overlap? Or…?" She suddenly leaned close to Ancient One's ear, her breath carrying the smell of sulfur. "Are you finally going to admit how incompetent you Guardians are?"
Ancient One's pupils constricted. In her two thousand years of guardianship, she had never seen the collapse of the Mirror Dimension affect reality. But at this moment, she clearly saw the other end of the spatial cracks—the walls of the Empire State Building were inexplicably cracking, pedestrians on the street suddenly bled from their seven orifices and collapsed, and black snow began to fall from the sky over all of Manhattan.
"Demons only destroy." Lia spun lightly, her skirt raising waves of Hellfire. "To repair? You should go find…" She suddenly imitated Ancient One's usual solemn tone, "Your Eternal great god whom you serve?"
Lia's indifference made Ancient One grit her teeth. Ancient One took a deep breath and pulled off the Eye of Agamotto from her chest; emerald light flowed in her palm.
Lia watched coldly, her wine-red long hair flying in the energy storm: "Old woman, do you think I'll help you clean up this mess?" She held the unconscious Chen Tian in her arms. "What do the collapse of reality and the death of mortals have to do with me?"
Ancient One did not answer, merely holding the Time Stone high. The emerald light burst forth, and the entire collapsing space began to tremble violently. Lia suddenly felt a lightness in her arms—Chen Tian's body was becoming transparent!
"What are you doing?!" Lia's pupils suddenly constricted. She lunged at Ancient One, but was blocked in mid-air by the temporal turbulence. She watched helplessly as Chen Tian's outline grew fainter and fainter, finally turning into specks of starlight entering the timeline.
"Stop! Old woman!" Real panic appeared in Lia's voice for the first time. She frantically slapped the temporal barrier. "You'll make him enter the timeline!"
Ancient One's face rapidly aged under the light of the Time Stone, wrinkles crawling over her face like vines. But she still firmly maintained the magic: "This is… the only way…"
Lia's body also began to become transparent. She looked down at her gradually dissipating arm, and suddenly let out a heart-wrenching roar: "Ancient One! When I return, I will tear your soul into pieces! Every piece will burn in Hellfire for a thousand years!"
Her threat was not yet finished when her entire being, like a pencil drawing erased by an eraser, began to disappear bit by bit from her fingertips. The last to disappear were her eyes, burning with rage, staring fixedly in Ancient One's direction.
The entire Mirror Dimension began to reverse-repair under the effect of the Time Stone. Shattered glass pieced back together, and collapsed structures returned to their original state. But Ancient One knew that because the power of the Time Stone and the collapsing energy affected Chen Tian, he would enter the timeline, and it was unknown when he would reappear.
She collapsed to her knees, exhausted, and the Time Stone rolled from her withered hand. In the last moment before losing consciousness, she seemed to hear a demonic roar from a distant time and space, and the faint call of a young man…
— — — —
Tony lay lazily on the sofa. He tore off his tie, and his expensive custom suit jacket was casually tossed onto the sofa.
"Welcome back, Sir." Jarvis's voice flowed down from the ceiling. "You have been working for 14 consecutive hours. I suggest you—"
"Save it, Old Jarvis." Tony unbuttoned his cuffs. "Those old fuddy-duddies at the Pentagon are even more troublesome than the Ten Rings Gang." As he walked towards the wine cabinet, a holographic projection automatically unfolded, displaying twelve Arbitrators defense outposts currently under construction worldwide.
Amber whiskey swirled in the glass, but Tony's gaze fell on the group photo on the wall—it was him and Chen Tian at an Arbitrators barbecue party, where Chen Tian had broken the grill, with Chef Dog Egg roaring angrily behind him, while Tony, Thor, Hulk, Natasha, and Barton laughed heartily beside them, before being pulled back to reality by his own dark circles reflected in the glass.
"Still no news from that kid?" Tony suddenly asked, his voice hoarser than expected.
"Global monitoring systems have not detected Mr. Chen Tian's aircraft signal." Jarvis paused. "However, I have found an explosion phenomenon in Sokovia across the World."
Tony's fingers suddenly tightened, the wine glass swayed in his hand, and amber liquid dripped through his fingers, splashing a dazzling mark on the marble floor.
"Retrieve the footage." His voice suddenly turned cold, all weariness swept away. "Immediately."
A holographic image appeared in front of Tony. In the image, a towering castle in a deep mountain in Sokovia suddenly exploded violently.
Tony frowned. "Rewind. Zoom in on the third quadrant."
The holographic projection switched instantly, and Jarvis retrieved the satellite footage of Sokovia with a 0.3-second delay. The castle exploded at an extremely slow speed.
"Play it again." Tony's voice was a little tense.
The footage played again. In the last frame before the old castle exploded, Tony suddenly saw a silver flash rush out of the ruins.
"Stop!" Tony suddenly stood up. "Magnify that light spot!"
The image continuously magnified and sharpened. The silver light gradually revealed a human silhouette—Pietro was running wildly, carrying Wanda in his arms, and with Captain America and Winter Soldier on his back.
"Jarvis, who are the running man and the woman in his arms?" Tony sat back down and took a sip of his wine.
"Sir, no valid data could be found." Jarvis responded.
Tony frowned, put down his wine glass, "Jarvis, get ready, we're going to Sokovia."
"Sir, the Mark-Eclipse armor has been maintained and is ready for use at any time."
As Jarvis's voice fell, in the center of the hall, the Mark-Eclipse rose from underground.
Tony walked to the armor, and just as he was about to reach out and touch it, a pang of heart palpitations struck him.
"Sir? Your heart rate—"
"I'm fine." Tony rudely interrupted the AI's warning, but his hands were trembling uncontrollably. This empty feeling brought by the heart palpitations was too familiar, chillingly familiar. The last time he had such heart palpitations was the moment he watched his parents' coffins being lowered into the ground.
"Jarvis! Do everything you can to contact Steve! Tell him! I'll be there immediately!"
The muscles on Tony's face stiffened as he clenched his jaw.
"I want him to tell me why he was there!"
------------------------
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(End of Chapter)