Marvel: Starting as a Time Criminal, Stealing Powers

Multiverse and timelines?

When the Ancient One brought this up, Russell's eyes lit up with interest.

After thinking for a moment, he guessed:

"Each timeline is a different universe, but they're not all part of the multiverse, right?"

The Ancient One shook her head, then nodded.

"You're right… but not entirely."

"A large number of timelines aren't part of the multiverse."

"They aren't separate universes either—they all exist within the same reality… no, that's not quite accurate. It's more precise to say they all exist within the same Eternity."

She then asked:

"Mr. Russell, you're familiar with Eternity, correct?"

Russell nodded.

"Of course. He's one of the abstract cosmic entities, a true ancient being."

The Ancient One showed a look of reverence and said with emotion:

"Time is incredible, but it still exists within the scope of Eternity."

"So, the timeline—or the new realities created from each time branch—you can think of them as facets of the god Eternity. He has countless faces and spans across countless moments!"

So this is the secret of time...

Russell was momentarily stunned, overwhelmed by the concept of Eternity's power.

Multiversal beings were truly terrifying.

At that moment, the Ancient One continued, "As for the multiverse—that's tied to a different Eternity altogether. As for how many versions of Eternity exist in this seemingly infinite cosmos, or whether they differ or connect to each other—that's beyond what someone like me can know."

She blinked and added, less seriously, "And… it's not impossible that a strange world suddenly appears with a strange person inside it. What do you think?"

Is this old woman hinting at me...?

Russell's eyelid twitched slightly, but he replied calmly:

"Sure. Maybe someone in that world wears a red cape and underwear on the outside while flying around."

"..."

The Ancient One's mouth twitched.

"Then that person must be an alien. What kind of human wears underwear on the outside?"

Russell nodded in agreement, dead serious.

At the same time, he sighed inwardly.

Until today, he'd assumed that the people managing the Sacred Timeline couldn't possibly be strong enough to control the entire multiverse.

If they were, he would've been captured long ago.

Now he was certain: the multiverse and the timeline are not the same thing.

That meant his future still held endless possibilities. Even surpassing Eternity might not be an unreachable goal!

Still, he hadn't expected Eternity to be so unique, with so many timelines existing within him.

But…

Russell didn't believe the Ancient One had stopped him just to explain this.

"Thank you, Sorcerer, for clearing up my confusion," he said. "It's getting late. I won't be staying for dinner."

Russell stood up to leave.

The Ancient One looked helpless and quickly said, "Wait, Mr. Russell. Please... Fine, I'll just say it—the Supreme Alliance needs your help!"

Russell sat down again, glanced at the teacup on the table, and asked, "I prefer iced Coke. Got any?"

"Of course."

The Ancient One tapped her fingers on the table, and a glass bottle of Coke appeared.

Russell observed as the bottle cap popped off by itself. A straw emerged and landed inside the bottle. He blew lightly, and frost instantly formed on the outside.

He picked it up and took a satisfied sip.

The Ancient One's eyelid twitched again.

It was the first time she'd seen someone use telekinesis to open a soda and cryo-kinesis to chill it. Such luxury.

But he wasn't wrong—this guy really had a lot of abilities.

Not wanting to test Russell's patience further, she got straight to the point.

"Before you appeared, all timelines were suppressed under the Sacred Timeline. They were frozen in place."

"Occasionally, there were anomalies—branches of time—but the TVA would immediately prune them."

"The entity known as Eternity doesn't interfere with reality. But too much suppression creates backlash."

"Now that the Sacred Timeline has shattered, many timelines are either collapsing or are vulnerable to invasion… by someone like Mephisto."

"So... we need to repair these timelines in advance. And we need to find a way to defeat whoever's behind the TVA."

Russell looked surprised.

So after the time loom exploded, countless timelines vanished?

Still, in the grand scheme, that wasn't a big deal.

Because Loki—imbued with the hidden power of time—was now acting as a living time anchor to stabilize them.

But he couldn't exactly say, "Hey, I've seen the future."

So Russell thought for a moment and said:

"Even if I wanted to help, I can't enter hidden timelines. Didn't you say they're frozen?"

The Ancient One gave him a meaningful look and said with slight disdain:

"Because you're a being outside of time—you don't belong to this Eternity."

"When you enter a timeline, it begins to flow again, breaking free from suppression."

"As for how to get there—you can travel through the quantum realm."

She sighed, then added:

"That other Ancient One—the blue one you mentioned—came up with a plan. She had Evil Cable transmit information through the Void to contact you. But unfortunately, Doctor Strange failed to follow through."

Russell was stunned. So those jumbled words Evil Cable spoke before dying had come from the blue Ancient One.

But the signal quality had been terrible. It had cut in and out, and he couldn't understand a word of it.

Was that supposed to be the 2022 version of him, using Tony's time GPS from Avengers: Endgame to reach the quantum realm?

Still, Russell didn't intend to agree.

"Sorry, but there are just too many hidden timelines," he said. "Even if I tried, I couldn't finish this mission in one lifetime."

The Ancient One didn't give up and quickly explained:

"It's not like that."

"Timelines have commonalities. If you rescue just one and anchor it, the Supreme Alliance can copy that anchor to stabilize others with similar structures."

"And not all timelines were pruned. Those pruned fewer than a hundred times can self-recover. So, in reality, you may only need to help ten... maybe even just five or fewer."

Russell didn't answer immediately.

If anchoring just ten timelines was all that was required, it might be acceptable.

And he'd already planned to travel across timelines anyway.

But most importantly… these people shouldn't expect to get something for free.

"Then… I wonder, what is the Supreme Alliance offering in return?"

Russell got straight to the point.

Upon hearing this, the Ancient One's expression relaxed visibly, and she smiled:

"Didn't you ask earlier whether you could become the Sorcerer Supreme?"

"Absolutely. No matter which timeline you go to in the future, you'll be recognized as the Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj."

Russell smiled, set down the Coke in his hand, stood up, and said:

"Goodbye."

"The chance to break through the 'single-entity' barrier."

The Ancient One stopped joking and quickly added.

Russell sat back down naturally and said:

"You're too kind. I'll have a cup of green tea instead—Coke isn't great for your health."

That condition was truly tempting.

His current strength had already surpassed Earth-level power and reached the tier of the so-called "God-Father" level.

Though there was still a long way to the top—and even among God-Father level beings, he was still considered weak—once he awakened his ancestral powers, his strength would improve drastically.

The power of Thor and the power of Death within him would also rise.

At that point, devouring powerful conceptual entities would only be a matter of time before reaching the pinnacle of God-Father level.

However, breaking through to become a single-entity being was much more difficult.

It required seizing—or stealing—conceptual "terms" belonging to existing single-entity beings, which was extremely dangerous.

Take the Scarlet Witch for example. Her Origin Magic is extremely high.

But some witches are stronger than others, and the conceptual terms one obtains vary accordingly.

So relying solely on his system wasn't enough. He would have to seize the right opportunity when it appeared.

Once he broke through the single-entity threshold, at least within the Marvel Universe, he would no longer be just an "ant."

Russell took a sip of hot tea, then smiled and asked:

"I can claim this reward anytime I want, right? No problem?"

The Ancient One blinked.

"Absolutely no problem. Do you want to sign a contract?"

"The Supreme Alliance has a parchment obtained from Mephisto—it guarantees fairness."

Hearing that, Russell finally felt reassured and said:

"Let's sign it then. Also, I want full access to the Kamar-Taj library."

The Ancient One nodded happily:

"Of course. And as I said—you can be the Sorcerer Supreme if you wish."

Seeing the Ancient One's generosity, Russell was in a much better mood.

He had long coveted the Kamar-Taj library. The magical knowledge and secrets it contained were exactly what he needed.

Still, even though he had agreed, there was one final formality to take care of.

Russell briefly explained that he had something important to handle and asked when the contract could be signed.

The Ancient One smiled.

"Hasn't it already been delivered to you?"

Russell suddenly remembered something.

"You're talking about the coordinates that the Blue Ancient One gave me—the ones that aren't on the timeline?"

"But the Time Tablet can't access them."

The Ancient One seemed to have anticipated this and responded immediately:

"Not in the real world. But within the Quantum Realm."

"You can use the Time Tablet there to jump into the hidden timelines."

Russell nodded. That solved the issue.

Or did it?

Suddenly, another thought occurred to him.

If the Ancient One knew so much, then Abomination (Abu) must still be out making money.

He asked:

"Sorcerer Supreme, you should know—if I want to save desperate beings, I need to go to the correct time point, right?"

"Don't pretend you didn't peek at the timeline. You clearly arranged for Strange."

The Ancient One gave him a meaningful look and replied:

"You seem to know more than I thought... But it doesn't matter. Maybe that's for the better."

"Let me think..."

After a few seconds, she seemed to have recalled something critical.

"In what time period do you think despair is at its highest?"

Russell pointed outside.

"Three days from now—the Battle of New York. The whole city is consumed by despair."

The Ancient One shook her head.

"No. If you're relying on sheer numbers, push the time further."

"There's a moment when not just humanity, but all living beings in the universe were in utter despair."

Russell's eyes widened in realization.

"You mean after Thanos snapped his fingers... no—after he destroyed all the Infinity Stones."

A look of awe appeared on his face.

The despair from that moment—both in scale and intensity—was more than sufficient for any ritual!

The Ancient One nodded, sighed, and said:

"It was the darkest moment I've ever witnessed. I couldn't believe it myself."

"If you plan to go through with the ritual, then that's the ideal time."

Russell nodded.

Now that the target moment was decided, he changed the subject and suddenly asked:

"What's for lunch at Kamar-Taj?"

"If there's no meat, put in a pre-order for tomato beef. Hunan style."

He had already decided to spend the next three days studying in the Kamar-Taj library.

The Ancient One seemed to guess what he was planning, and to Russell's shock, she pulled out a smartphone and sent a message.

He even saw the recipient's name on the screen: Wong.

The message read:

There's a guest at Kamar-Taj for lunch today.

Prepare Hunan-style tomato beef brisket, garlic radish soup, braised pork hock with ham and onions—oh, and don't forget the black pork hock.

Clearly, the Ancient One had added dishes for herself.

Seeing Russell stare at her, she said calmly:

"You'll love Celtic cuisine."

Then Russell noticed Wong's reply pop up:

"Master, you secretly added more dishes again, didn't you?!"

"Stop making me manage the budget! Kamar-Taj is so broke, I almost went to the black market to stage fake fights!"

The Ancient One calmly put away her phone, as if she hadn't seen anything.

After taking a sip of tea, she looked up and said:

"The meal will be ready in an hour. Want another iced Coke?"

"Yes," Russell answered without hesitation.

The Ancient One immediately began typing again.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

New York, Sanctum Sanctorum.

The battle had already begun outside. Swarms of Chitauri soldiers riding hovercrafts were hunting the Avengers and massacring civilians.

Russell stood by the world window, watching for a moment before heading to the rooftop.

It was almost time. The big green guy should be arriving soon.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can visit my Patreon page:

Patreon.com/PhoeniXcel

I upload 2 chapters daily on Patreon!

There are 80+ advanced chapters available for you to read.

Your support would be greatly appreciated.