Past midnight!
On the apartment rooftop.
Hawk was practicing his punches.
There was no punching bag.
Nor were there any fighting techniques.
Hawk did not even move. He simply stood where he was, his eyes slightly closed, throwing punch after punch at the air in front of him as if lost in thought.
This time, he no longer pursued speed. Instead, he seemed to have entered a state of enlightenment.
Even before this, every punch he threw had brought an unusual feeling to his heart.
But tonight, that feeling was even stronger.
Hawk felt as though he had entered an existence that was infinitely dark no matter which angle he observed it from.
But...
With every punch he threw, a glimmer of light bloomed within that infinite darkness.
If Hawk had looked up at that moment, he would have discovered something even stranger.
That was—
The Bronze constellations formed by the forty-eight constellations he could see with the naked eye in the night sky—Pegasus, Draco, Cygnus, Phoenix... Lacerta, and more—were flickering in response to every punch he threw.
Yes.
It was not a single constellation responding, but all of them.
All forty-eight Bronze constellations responded to Hawk's punches.
One punch, another punch... and another.
Hawk punched slowly this time, yet also incredibly fast.
Although he made sure to pull back each punch completely before throwing the next, the afterimage of the second punch often appeared before the afterimage of the first had fully faded.
Then came the third punch, the fourth, the fifth, until now.
The sky was filled with fist shadows!
At that moment, a sudden roar rang out in Hawk's mind.
The sound was faint beyond measure, yet it was also like the toll of a great bell.
Bang!
A wisp of flame appeared with that sound. As the flame emerged, the stars that Hawk's repeated punches had completely projected through reality into infinite space rippled outward, quietly parting the pitch-black curtain.
At first, it was only a faint stir.
Then, that stir abruptly expanded. Like the universe's first Big Bang, the stars scattered across the infinite darkness suddenly exploded—
Within Hawk's body, an intangible, formless wall collapsed beneath the energy released by that primordial cosmic explosion, and a power that had slept for hundreds of millions of years suddenly awakened.
Whoosh!
Hawk, whose eyes had been half-closed, opened them.
The moment he did, the flame deep within his eyes no longer merely bloomed before quietly extinguishing itself as it had before.
This time, the flames bloomed completely.
Boom!!
Hawk felt the blood throughout his body surge and howl. Every tiny cell within him trembled madly, like ten thousand stars expanding at once. Amid that violent vibration and expansion, every inch of him, every bone, was continuously shattered and broken, only to be remolded in the blink of an eye by a terrifying force that seemed to be witnessing the birth of celestial bodies.
Buzz!
A buzzing sound reached Hawk's ears. Then his vision blurred, and he saw a miraculous sight.
He saw the particles composing his flesh and blood spin violently, burn, collapse, and finally erupt like the universe's first Big Bang.
He saw the blood rushing beneath his skin, like a boiling, roaring river of stars.
He saw his beating heart as well. Every beat was like the primordial, eternal pulse at the birth of the universe, sending invisible ripples through infinite emptiness.
The next moment.
Inspiration struck.
The instant Hawk clenched his right fist, his heel ground against the ground and his foot plowed through it. The rooftop paving shattered as his body's center of gravity shifted backward.
He drew back.
Then...
He punched!
Hawk let out a low chant that came not from his throat, but from the explosion of his soul!
"Burn, my Cosmo!!"
"Boom boom boom!"
The surrounding air rippled apart like water.
The surrounding space shattered like glass.
Even the flow of time seemed to be brutally torn apart at that instant.
Air, space, and even time all seemed to freeze beneath Hawk's punch.
The next second.
"Screech!"
The air let out a scream as it was torn apart.
"Bang bang!"
Space groaned as it was crushed.
"Rumble!"
Time itself was utterly shattered by that strike.
But immediately afterward, a brand-new timeline instantly replaced the shattered one.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The exterior windows of the apartment building across the road from Hawk's apartment exploded and shattered under the wind from that punch, producing deafening crashes.
"Bang bang bang!"
"Wail!"
"Wail!"
The cars parked on the street across the road were suddenly crushed down as if an invisible giant hand had descended from the sky and pressed upon them.
Their windows shattered as well, followed by their alarms going off one after another in shrill cries.
At the same time!
Kamar-Taj!
"Hmm?"
"Master?"
The Sanctum mages looked toward the Sorcerer Supreme, who had suddenly made a puzzled sound.
The Sorcerer Supreme in yellow robes lowered her gaze toward the sacred relic hanging around her neck—the Eye of Agamotto.
The Ancient One formed a seal with both hands. The Eye of Agamotto slowly rotated and opened, and an eerie green radiance bloomed from the mysterious, profound green gemstone within.
This gemstone had a common name in the Marvel Universe.
The Time Stone!
It allowed its user to reach any point in time and thus travel through time, whether to the distant past or the far-off future.
The Time Stone controlled all known and unknown timelines. To control the Time Stone was to control time.
"What is this?"
"The future has changed?"
"..."
The Ancient One formed another seal with both hands, closed the Eye of Agamotto, rose to her feet, and vanished from where she stood.
'Ding!' 'Congratulations, you have activated Cosmo Cultivation!' 'Ding!' 'It has been my honor to accompany you for one thousand days. The cheat is about to unbind. I look forward to seeing you again!' 'Finally, the Cosmo Cultivation method is a method of battle, a method of holy war. Grow through battle, ascend through battle!' 'Farewell!'
The cheat's mechanical voice rang out in Hawk's mind.
A thousand days ago, the cheat had quietly come online.
A thousand days later, the cheat quietly went offline once more.
It had come quietly.
And left quietly.
By now, the sky was already bright.
"Holy shit!"
"What happened?"
"My windows!"
"Ah, my car!"
"Who the fuck did this?"
"Wait."
"Look, what is that?"
"Holy shi..."
"Jesus Christ."
Hawk, standing on the apartment rooftop, listened to the various clamor that seemed to be ringing right beside his ears. He slowly opened his eyes and saw a breach in the sky above Manhattan, torn open by an eerie blue light.
Hawk froze instantly.
"Hiss!"
"Did I just punch a hole in the sky?"
"..."
New author, new book. I have two hundred thousand words saved up, so feel free to bookmark it!
Before you continue