Twelve Skewer Demon King!

On the other side of the world, in this international metropolis, it was already nighttime, unlike in the other hemisphere. The night market was bustling, with people streaming back and forth as all kinds of specialty food stalls opened for the evening. Some sold fried rice noodles with shrimp, others grilled meat skewers, and still others wontons. You could find just about any kind of Eastern cuisine here, enough to satisfy anyone.

Annie was standing in front of a grilled-skewer stall, swallowing hard. The Teleport spell she had just cast had taken her halfway around the world. At the end of the street ahead stood a Mage Tower—in other words, the Sanctum the sorcerers talked about.

The Sanctum was already beginning to collapse, and a bunch of sorcerers were fighting each other over there! Annie had meant to go help, but when she reached a grilled-skewer stall, she decided to ignore them for the moment and let them fight a little longer. It shouldn't be a big deal. They'd been at it for ages already; waiting a bit more wouldn't kill them!

The smell of the skewers was simply too tempting. The rich aroma had her rooted to the spot. The fighting could wait! Maybe she could buy a few skewers and eat while she watched them fight? Exactly! That was what she'd do! Conquered by the smell, Annie quickly made up her mind.

Behind the stall in front of Annie, a burly middle-aged man with a bare chest and a face full of hard, fleshy features was busy at the blazing charcoal grill. Rows of skewers still cooking sat neatly on the rack, sizzling in the high heat. The man focused on watching them cook as he sprinkled all kinds of seasonings over the meat. Once the spices had mixed in, the high heat brought out wave after wave of enticing aroma.

"Uncle! Uncle! How much are the skewers?" This was the smell! Annie's eyes lit up. She sniffed eagerly, breathing in the wonderful aroma, and hurried to ask the price. She could hardly wait to try them.

"Huh? Oh! Hello there, little one! I've got three kinds: pork skewers are five Hong Kong dollars each, beef is ten, and lamb is fifteen! How many would you like?" The man had been so busy that he hadn't noticed Annie. She was only a little taller than the stall, after all, so it was understandable.

"Hong Kong dollars? I don't have any..." Annie rose onto her tiptoes and looked at the cooked skewers, swallowing hard.

"If you have yuan, that works too." The man figured the little girl was visiting and didn't have any Hong Kong dollars. That was normal enough.

"I don't have those either..." She didn't have either of the currencies he'd mentioned.

Annie suddenly thought the people of Earth were awful. Why did they need so many different currencies? And how could they just print colorful patterns on paper and use that as money? In Valoran, they used gold, silver, and copper coins, which could be used anywhere. They didn't make things as complicated as people on Earth did!

"Little one, if you don't have money, there's nothing I can do! Where are your family? Maybe you can ask them for some?"

The middle-aged man thought Annie had sneaked over while her family wasn't looking. As he suggested she ask them for money, he glanced around, hoping to spot the foreign parents of the little blonde girl. Then he could use his not-so-fluent English to persuade them to buy her a few skewers, and he'd officially be in business for the day.

"Hmph! My family isn't here!" Annie was already furious, and bringing them up only made her angrier.

Her family was still back in Valoran. She'd come to this Eastern city to ask the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj for knowledge of spatial magic. Who could have guessed they'd start fighting among themselves first? She was still at a loss, unsure which side she should help.

"Here! Look, I don't have yuan or those Hong Kong dollars you mentioned. This is all I've got! So are you selling or not?" Annie grumpily handed him a crisp, gray-green hundred-dollar bill. Coulson had prepared it earlier to keep her from causing unnecessary trouble by using gold coins. She still had several stacks of them in her Spatial Pocket.

"What's this? Gasp...! American dollars?" The man saw the little girl holding out a bill, so he stopped working and took it curiously. When he looked it over, he sucked in a startled breath. It was a U.S. dollar... and from the feel of it, it seemed genuine!

"Hey! Are you done staring? Can I use it to buy your skewers or not?" What was wrong with this guy? It was only a bill. Why was he looking at it for so long? Annie was getting impatient. She'd paid him now; if he still wouldn't sell, she'd just have to take the skewers by force!

"Huh? Oh! Yes, of course! Absolutely, no problem!" At the little girl's urging, the man came to his senses. He quickly stuffed the bill into the little pocket on his apron where he kept his money, then grabbed a big handful from the pile of cooked skewers and shoved them into the little girl's hands without a word.

"Here! They're all yours now. Eat as much as you want!" After he put the skewers in the little girl's injured hand, the man grinned so broadly his mouth nearly split.

He hadn't just made his first sale of the day—he'd made a fortune. He hadn't even considered giving her change. Once the little girl finished all those skewers, he could deny everything if her parents came back to settle the bill. She'd eaten a huge pile, after all; he could just claim it had cost a hundred dollars. They wouldn't be able to do a thing about it.

"Mmm! So good, so good!" Once she had the skewers she wanted, Annie waited until no one was looking, then Flashed onto the roof of a nearby building. She sat on the edge of the balcony, swinging her feet, stuffing grilled meat into her mouth as she watched the two groups of half-baked sorcerers fighting in the street below.

"Wow! Tibbers, look! They're so lame. Do the sorcerers around here really like fighting hand-to-hand?" Annie munched on her skewers as she critiqued the brawl below. Didn't anyone ever tell these heretical sorcerers they were doing it wrong?

"They're proper sorcerers, and they've still managed to learn everything wrong. Honestly... tch!" Annie shook her head in disdain and casually tossed an empty bamboo skewer down. She didn't care whether it hit anyone fighting below.

Huh? Just as Annie was about to keep eating, she noticed the whole world had begun to stand still. Had time stopped? How could that be? Then she noticed a world of pure darkness descending toward Earth from above—or, more accurately, trying to devour it.

"Tibbers! What do you think? Should we step in?" Annie asked Tibbers as she ate her skewers. Of course she recognized the dark world above. It was a lot like Little Bear's Shadow Realm, but also a little different.

Master! There's a chaotic, evil, malformed Shadow Creature inside. It survives by devouring the essence of different worlds, and there are many things like it in the Shadow Realm! But I've never seen one this big. How many worlds has it devoured? Its rank is only that of a Pseudo-God, but its body is far too enormous! It has access to an unbelievable amount of energy. I recommend that you not engage it lightly.

"Not step in? Then we'd just let it eat Earth? That won't do!" Annie was startled by Tibbers' advice. Was this dark creature really that powerful? Even Tibbers was backing down? But there was no way she'd stay out of it! There were people on Earth she cared about, and she'd never let the planet be eaten.

My little mistress! If this malformed dark creature hadn't grown so huge, it would be easy enough—I could destroy it with one swipe of my claw! But just look at its size now! How many planets and worlds must it have swallowed?

If you insist on stepping in, wait a little and hit it with everything you've got. It would be best to wound its soul and scare it off in one blow! Otherwise, if we fight for too long, we'll be the ones who suffer! Oh, look! That fellow in the red cloak has gone inside. Maybe we can wait and see?

"Oh? You're right. That man's really brave!" Annie saw a man in a red Cloak fly into the Shadow Realm above. After a brief moment of surprise, she went back to eating her skewers. Tibbers was right; they might as well see how things played out first.

A little hand-to-hand sorcerer had actually gone into the enemy's home ground to fight? Annie didn't know what else to call him but brave. If it were her, she'd never do something like that. It was so stupid!

"Hm? Tibbers! Why do I feel like something's not quite right?" Annie chewed thoughtfully on a skewer in her hand. After finishing it, she tossed the bamboo stick away and carefully counted what she was holding. Hmm! There were twelve skewers left. There were still that many, so she might as well keep eating!

"Ah!!! Tibbers! I've discovered something amazing. My skewers just won't run out! Look, I counted them just now. There were twelve, and I ate two, so there should only be ten left! But look now—they're still twelve!"

Annie had suddenly noticed something that even surprised her. It was so strange! She'd just realized that no matter how many skewers she ate, they never ran out. That was downright bizarre!

Skewers that never ran out? That was wonderful! At first, she'd thought she'd miscounted, but now she looked carefully: she ate two, and there were still twelve. She ate two more, and there were still twelve! Seriously, they'd never run out!

Tibbers didn't answer Annie. He also sensed something was wrong, but he was watching closely.

"Tibbers... I swear, I never want to eat another skewer again!!!" After countless repetitions, Annie angrily threw the twelve skewers in her hand down to the street below.

She'd repeated the same act of eating skewers over and over again, countless times. Hundreds? Thousands? She couldn't remember! Maybe she'd eaten tens of thousands of skewers by now. It was terrifying!

Now the sight of a skewer made her feel sick, but she'd discovered that she couldn't even choose not to eat them! She'd just thrown the skewers down to the street, but the very next moment, they were back in her hands—those same twelve, not one more or less!

"Ah!!! This is so annoying!" Annie threw the skewers down again, then tossed a Fireball after them and burned them to ashes! If she did that, surely they wouldn't come back to her hands? This was the first time she'd realized that even the tastiest food could drive someone to the brink of a breakdown if they ate too much of it.

"Tibbers... what's happening to us? Why is this happening?" Annie stared blankly at the twelve skewers that had reappeared in her hands.

She felt completely out of sorts. These weren't just skewers; they might well be twelve devils! She'd tried burning them, freezing them, disintegrating them, banishing them, and even throwing them into another dimension! But every time, every single time, they appeared in her hands again. There were always exactly twelve!

Ha! I understand! Master, there's nothing wrong with the skewers. Someone has put time in an endless loop! Look! That fellow in the red Cloak has flown into the dark world above again!

"He's flown in countless times already! What's so strange about that? Huh? Wait, you're right! How could he have flown in so many times? So that's what he's been doing!" With Tibbers' reminder, Annie finally broke free of the Twelve Skewer Demon King's endless loop. Then she spotted the culprit at a glance. The bad guy even wore a green gem on his chest. Its energy felt much like the other two in her collection.

Since Annie already had the Space Stone and the Mind Stone, the one on the red-cloaked bad guy was probably the Time Stone, right? Otherwise, she wouldn't have inexplicably gotten caught in a time loop and eaten countless skewers, nearly to the point of breaking down. The guy in red was definitely a villain!

Master! The time loop has ended. The timeline seems to have returned to normal.

Just as Annie was trying to figure out how to end the endless loop, Tibbers suddenly told her it was over.

It seemed the dark world about to descend had been dealt with by the man in the red Cloak. Annie looked at the sky and street, now back to normal, then at the skewers in her hand. Her mouth twitched as she tossed them onto the balcony. She couldn't bear to look at them now—not even for half a second!

A little while later, she watched the two sorcerers leave, especially the one in the red Cloak. After thinking it over, she Flashed down to the street. She intended to follow them closely and find a chance to take the gem.

Annie felt that something as dangerous as the Time Stone absolutely couldn't be left in their hands. It was far too dangerous; what had just happened proved it! They'd nearly trapped her in a time loop she couldn't escape. So she figured she might as well take on the burden of keeping such a dangerous thing safe for them.

"Hey, little girl! Finished those skewers already? Were they good? Want some more?" As Annie passed by, the sharp-eyed skewer vendor spotted her right away. He quickly grabbed a handful of skewers and waved them enticingly.

"Ptooey! They were awful! I'm never eating your skewers again!" The sight of them nearly made Annie throw up. She turned and pulled a furious face at him! She'd nearly made herself sick eating them just now, and this guy still wanted to trick her into eating more?

"Awful? No way!" The man watched the little girl hurry away, puzzled. He looked at the skewers in his hand, then picked one up and tasted it himself. He chewed and nodded. Nothing was wrong with them; they tasted the same as ever—spicy, fragrant, tender, and delicious! How could they be awful? His stall had been a famous old favorite for decades.