Chapter 169: Face to Face With the Ancient One
With the Battle of New York fully behind them, everything had finally settled.
Times Square, New York.
Times Square was packed today, an unusually dense crowd, with reporters and media outlets converging from everywhere, all to witness one piece of "big news."
They were here to give an award to the hero of the battle.
Or, more accurately, to give an award to Matthew.
Given how stirring Umbrella's battle declaration had been, and how undeniable its contribution to the fight had turned out to be, the relevant parties had reached a unanimous decision: they would award Matthew the Medal of Freedom.
Matthew had been completely indifferent to this decision at first. He'd even considered turning it down.
The reason he hadn't wanted to accept the award was simple: Matthew suspected Nick Fury and Congress were hoping to use the medal to tie him and Umbrella more tightly to the United States.
But after a round of persuasion from Fury, Matthew had reluctantly agreed to go along with it. On one condition, of course: that neither he nor Umbrella could be "morally blackmailed" into anything by virtue of it.
The only thing capable of "blackmailing" him was money.
Click, click, click.
Camera flashes went off nonstop down in the crowd.
The ceremony was nearly over now.
After a round of "I thank the people for their trust, I thank heaven and earth, I thank my parents..." style acceptance remarks, Matthew, his facial muscles by now frozen into a smile, finally stepped down from the podium and climbed into a waiting black Bugatti.
Inside the car, Logan had already been waiting for a while.
Glancing at the medal in Matthew's hand, Logan grinned and tossed out a jab. "Well, look who it is. Mr. Lawrence, humanity's last shield."
"So? You happy with this little award?"
Hearing the ribbing from beside him, Matthew gave a soft click of his tongue and tossed the medal carelessly into the back seat.
"Honestly, I'd rather have a twenty percent discount card good at every store in America."
"No matter how good they make this thing sound, it's not even real gold."
"Anyway, enough cracking jokes at me."
"If there's nothing else, drive. We've got actual business to take care of."
The "actual business" he meant was the side quest that had been delayed by the Battle of New York: finding the Ancient One.
After asking around through various channels, he'd confirmed that the bald woman in question was currently at the New York Sanctum.
What the two of them needed to do was meet with her and get a clear answer about exactly what had happened to Professor X.
And if possible, Matthew wouldn't mind picking up a trick or two of magic himself.
After all, what man doesn't dream of being a wizard at some point.
The car sped down the road.
Cold air leaked in through the gaps in the window, ruffling Matthew's hair without pause.
Before long, the car pulled over to the side of the road.
Matthew and Logan stepped out of the car in near-perfect unison, walking toward the Sanctum's location.
But before the two of them could get close to the Sanctum, a figure suddenly appeared at the roadside, wearing a wide hood and a robe the color of ochre.
Seeing the outfit, Matthew's steps came to a halt.
The next instant, the figure drew one hand from behind their back and pushed it toward the two of them...
Whoosh—
A gust of wind cut across the street.
As the wind swept past, the distance between Matthew and Logan stretched out instantly!
In the blink of an eye, the gap between the two of them had become immeasurable, and Logan vanished entirely at the far end of the street.
The traffic and the dense crowds of pedestrians on the street were stripped away in an instant.
Once Logan had vanished from this pocket of space, the Ancient One slowly lowered her hood, revealing that signature bald head.
A pair of eyes, impossibly clear, settled on Matthew.
There was no hostility in that gaze at all, but the sense of being seen through entirely still left him with chills running down his spine.
As though sensing the wariness rising in Matthew, the Ancient One slowly withdrew her gaze.
"Matthew Lawrence, isn't it." The Ancient One stood where she was, stating his name without any attempt to hide that she knew it.
Matthew had already expected the Ancient One to know his name, so he didn't show much surprise.
But the next sentence she said hit him hard enough to bring out a cold sweat.
"Matthew. A traveler from another world."
"Have you come to find me because you're planning to leave this world?"
After a long silence, Matthew spoke slowly. "I don't have any plans to leave here. Not for now."
"In that case, what did you come here for?"
"Would you believe me if I told you I came here to learn magic?" Matthew said with a smile.
Since the other party clearly already knew everything about him, there was no point continuing this conversation as "Matthew Lawrence." He might as well speak as the transmigrator he actually was.
"You want to learn magic?" The Ancient One blinked, then looked at Matthew with something meaningful in her eyes. "...You're not planning to replace Strange as Sorcerer Supreme, are you?"
"That's not it."
"I'm just genuinely interested in magic, that's all," Matthew admitted. "Though, that's not the only reason I came to see you. There's something else I'd like to clear up."
Hearing that Matthew had another matter to discuss, the Ancient One pressed her lips together slightly. "You want to ask about Charles Francis Xavier?"
Seeing the Ancient One bring up Professor X on her own, Matthew raised an eyebrow. "You know what happened to him?"
"Of course." The Ancient One nodded without any attempt to hide it.
"It's not really a secret, as such. It's simply that you haven't reached the level where you could perceive it on your own yet."
She continued, shifting the subject. "You've probably noticed it too, haven't you? The world has become something different from what you remember it being."
"Quite different."
"A number of things have appeared that fall outside what should exist. Your presence, for instance. The existence of your company. And, more recently, the sudden appearance of this 'Vought International.'"
"None of them were ever supposed to be here."
As she spoke, the Ancient One extended a finger and traced it through the empty air—
A golden line appeared within the mirror-space around them.
The line passed directly through Matthew and disappeared into the void.
"Is this... the Sacred Timeline?" Matthew said after a moment of thought.
"You should say, the previous Sacred Timeline."
"Previous?"
"That's right." The Ancient One nodded.
Then she snapped her fingers.
Snap!
The Sacred Timeline before them instantly split apart into countless densely packed threads, and the line, originally golden, turned red.
Those countless thin timelines, branching off from the original Sacred Timeline, were still, at this very moment, continuing to split further.
At a glance, it looked like a centipede, constantly splitting and growing.
"This is the current state of the timeline."
"It's a mess."
"A real mess."
"Even the Time Variance Authority has no way to correct it."
As she spoke, the enormous number of branching threads had already filled the entire mirror-space.
To avoid blocking the view between the two of them, the Ancient One erased the timelines once more.
"You probably have a lot of questions... why the timeline has ended up looking like this now. Whether these changes happened because of you..."
"I can tell you this much, here and now."
"The changes to the timeline weren't caused by your presence. Rather, it's because the timeline had already begun changing that you suddenly ended up here in the first place."
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