The Lost Library

The moment Peter spoke, he realized he had been reckless. He clapped a hand over his mouth and gave the Ancient One an apologetic look.

"I didn't mean it like that..."

His face turned bright red. He had blurted out what he really thought and couldn't think of an excuse.

The Ancient One wasn't angry.

"No matter. You're Peter Parker, aren't you?"

"I am. You know me?"

"Of course," The Ancient One said gently. "You're a kind, upright child."

Just a little too blunt for his own good.

"I know what you want to ask, but I can't tell you what I saw. I can't even say whether I saw anything at all." The Ancient One was speaking in riddles again.

"Good. Then do you have a solution? Or can't you tell us that either?" Lin Yi cut in. He hadn't expected the Ancient One to give them a straight answer.

Between her and Strange, Marvel had plenty of people who spoke in riddles.

Not that he couldn't understand it. The more they said, the more things could go wrong, and the more uncertain the future became.

It made sense. It was still annoying.

"You'll have to find the solution yourselves. I can only point you in the right direction."

"But before that, Lin Yi, I need you to go somewhere."

Lin Yi kept his face blank. "Where?"

Of course. I knew she'd have something for me to do.

"A library containing countless forgotten and forbidden teachings. All kinds of magic, even—the laws that govern the universe."

"As for that place... Never mind. I'd better not say more. You'll understand when you get there." The Ancient One hesitated and glanced at Strange.

Sure enough, the mention of such a library caught Strange's interest.

"I'll go with him."

The Ancient One shook her head. "No. You can't."

Strange paused with his cup halfway to his mouth. "Why not?"

"Another possible future for you lies there," The Ancient One explained. "I can trust who you are now. But the future isn't fixed, and you don't have time to face more challenges."

"So for the sake of the future—and your safety—you can't go. Not yet."

"Trust me. You couldn't bear the consequences..." That meaningful look silenced Strange again.

"Oh," he said, giving up without argument. He could guess how serious it was, even without knowing the details. He had seen what unpredictable changes could do more than once. If he couldn't go, so be it.

Lin Yi clicked his tongue. "You don't mean Cagliostro's Lost Library, do you?"

It was the only place he knew that fit the description.

That library was where Doctor Strange Supreme had been born.

To reverse an absolute point in time and bring back his girlfriend Christine, a Strange from another timeline had gone to Cagliostro's Lost Library.

There, he had delved deeper and deeper into forbidden magic until he dragged his entire universe down with him.

The Ancient One gave Lin Yi a long look. She sounded faintly surprised, yet not entirely so. "You do know about it..."

"No, I don't." Lin Yi chuckled and gave her a meaningful smile of his own.

Come on, riddle master. Guess how much I know!

In truth, Lin Yi knew next to nothing. What he had watched before crossing over was one thing, but recent events had shown him that even when the broad strokes matched, the details could be wildly different.

As for what was actually inside the library, who knew? All he'd heard was that Doctor Strange had studied forbidden magic there. There had been no mention of the vast knowledge or the laws of the universe that the Ancient One described.

"No, you know something. You just may not have the whole picture." The Ancient One sounded certain. "That makes me more comfortable sending you there."

Right. She isn't even going to ask if I want to go.

Honestly, he was curious about what the library contained, not to mention all that Magic.

He just didn't want to play along with her riddles.

But the Ancient One's next words stopped Lin Yi from making another quip.

"To deal with that thing, you'll need to find a way in another universe."

"And that library holds the coordinates of that universe. Perhaps... it holds a solution too."

"I need you to find those coordinates."

Lin Yi couldn't refuse that.

"Fine. What's the book called? I'll take a look."

"I don't know." The Ancient One spread her hands.

"You don't know? Then how am I supposed to find it?" Lin Yi scratched his head as a dreadful thought occurred to him.

"Wait. You don't expect me to go through every book, do you? Ha ha. No way. There are so many books there..."

His laughter died as the Ancient One gave him a solemn nod.

"You're joking..."

An entire library, book by book. If he was lucky, he'd find it in the first one. If he wasn't...

"You can read very quickly." The Ancient One smiled, confident in Lin Yi's abilities.

Lin Yi drew a sharp breath. With his Superman physique, he could read at an absurd speed. On Blue Star, he could have gone through a whole library in minutes. But the Lost Library's collection... He could only hope it wasn't too enormous.

"Wait here."

As if she had read Lin Yi's mind, the Ancient One went into a room at the back. She returned moments later with a coin.

"Take this. I've placed a Mental Acceleration Spell on it. Together with the Time Stone's subtle effect on the flow of time nearby, it will help you read and retain vast amounts of knowledge in a short time."

With that, the Ancient One pushed the Time Stone toward Lin Yi as well.

"How do I use this?" Lin Yi picked up the coin. A faint golden magic circle shimmered around it.

"Squeeze it hard. Once you apply enough force, it will activate on its own. It will keep bringing you books and turning the pages automatically to save time..."

Lin Yi raised an eyebrow.

Oh? That's handy. But he still couldn't feel pleased. She was even handing him the Time Stone to help him read. He had no hope left that the library's collection was a manageable size.

"All right. When do I leave? Now?" Lin Yi had resigned himself to it. He wanted to get there and back as soon as possible.

The Ancient One shook her head. "In half an hour. The library's location is unusual. Ordinary Teleportation Magic won't work."

Half an hour passed in a flash. Lin Yi stood at the center of a magic circle in the small room, with the Ancient One just outside it.

The room had only one small window. The dim light made it feel quiet and cold.

The Ancient One no longer looked relaxed. Her expression was solemn, her gaze sharp.

Lin Yi knew she had something to say.

"Lin Yi, I must warn you. Whatever you read in that library about the Dark Dimension, Forbidden Magic, or the laws of the universe, keep it in your memory. Unless you have absolutely no choice, never try to put it into practice!"

Lin Yi listened quietly. I thought so.

Ever since the Ancient One had told him to go through the books one by one, he had wondered what she was really after.

If all she wanted was the coordinates, that made no sense. He could simply search the books most likely to contain them.

Yet the Ancient One had specifically told him to read them one by one. Something was clearly off.

"Master, did you see my future? Or... the future of our universe?" Lin Yi asked without thinking.

He expected the Ancient One to speak in riddles again, to give him the same answer as before. Instead, she fell silent.