On Discussing the Multiverse with Ancient One

As she spoke, Ancient One walked up to him, raised her head, and although she only reached Russell's chin, her eyes seemed to hold the ends of the universe.

"Strange's magical talent is very strong, stronger than any magic apprentice, but you are stronger than him."

I have a feeling... if you're willing to learn magic, you'll become the most powerful Sorcerer Supreme in history.

Regarding Russell's strong magical talent, although he was very grateful for the Ancient One's praise, he believed that his microscopic analysis, as long as the accuracy was sufficient, should still be effective for magic.

After all, magic is, in a sense, one of the Cosmic Energy.

But did the Ancient One's assertion that Strange possessed the greatest magical talent include Ned, Spider-Man's good friend?

Russell shook his head. "I don't like being told what to do."

"I know," Ancient One said, his expression unchanged. "That's why I'm not making any arrangements for you; I'm just inviting you."

The doors of the Sanctum Sanctorum are always open to you. You may come and go as you please. I will not take you as a disciple, nor will I require you to join the Sanctum Sanctorum.

I just hope that before you make any decisions, you remember there's another way.

Russell looked at her, at the fire burning behind her, casting her shadow on the wall like a thinking giant.

"I'll consider it." Even so, Russell was only thinking about honing his skills with magic. His path was already set, and most of the magic in the Marvel Universe had its origins.

"Give me the Demons contract you bear," the Ancient One suddenly spoke again. "It doesn't belong to you, and it's dangerous for it to remain with you."

"If you want to go to Hell, I can give you an ancient magic book that contains the method to get Hell."

"Um... the Demons contract has been with Kingpin for so many years, why don't you go and get it?" Russell retorted.

"Many things are not as simple as they seem; even I have to follow the rules."

The voice of Ancient One echoed in the East -style room, like the lingering sound of bells and chimes, unhurried and possessing a magical power that compels one to listen.

"You'll understand when you're able to cross the barriers between universes and travel through the Multiverse."

Some things are much more profound when experienced firsthand than when heard from others.

Language has its limits; no matter how precise the description, it can never replace the moment you personally witnessed the first ray of starlight seeping through the cracks of creation.

Russell shrugged. "Are you talking to me about the Multiverse?"

Her gaze shifted from Russell to the star-filled night sky outside the window.

There was a light in those eyes, not the reflection of candlelight, but a deeper, more ancient light, like a radiance that had settled after witnessing too many things.

"From the Big Bang onwards, everything in the world was born from the initial Singularity. That was not a point, but a 'nothingness' without Dimension, beyond the limits of human cognition."

Then it expanded, with all physical laws, all Dimension, and all possibilities unfolding simultaneously.

Everything comes from nothing to something, from simple to complex, from stillness to movement, from silence to song. The universe prospers, stars are born and then die, life sprouts and then perishes.

Then at a certain critical point, a variable appears, and the universe begins to split—one becomes two, two become four, and four become countless.

The universe we inhabit is but a drop of water in an endless ocean.

She turned her head and looked at Russell again, a faint smile playing on her lips.

"Without leaving the single universe and entering the Multiverse, you will never know the awe-inspiring power of life when facing the heavens."

The feeling wasn't just fear and awe; it was more like a sense of coming home. It was like you'd never been there, but you felt you belonged. You'd never seen those beings before, but you felt you knew them.

Russell, observing the boastful Ancient One, made his judgment.

The Riddler.

This is one of the species he finds most annoying.

Instead of saying things directly, they prefer to beat around the bush, use metaphors, and make you guess.

You think you're imparting wisdom, but you're actually just wasting everyone's time.

He has more information stored in his mind than any library in the world, covering major events in the Marvel Comics Universe and the DC universe.

With a God perspective, they can foresee the future, know the fate of every character, the outcome of every war, and the truth behind every so-called "mysterious" event.

The Ancient One has traveled through the Multiverse, and before his journey, he had read the stories of the Multiverse countless times.

Whose perspective is broader? It's hard to say honestly.

But at least at the level of "macro-level concepts," he probably knows more than the Ancient One.

"Ahem." Russell cleared his throat and leaned forward slightly.

"Ancient One, I also have some knowledge about the Multiverse. Would you like to hear it?"

"Oh, please."

Ancient One extended her hand in a "please" gesture, her movements as elegant as a noblewoman hosting a tea party.

Her smile remained unchanged, but a hint of almost imperceptible nonchalance lingered deep in her eyes.

After all, no matter how mysterious the other person's past and future may be, he is essentially a young man who has never even left a Single Universe. What profound understanding could he possibly have of the Multiverse?

Perhaps it was fragmented information heard from Dimension Demons, perhaps it was incomplete records in some ancient books, or perhaps it was just his imagination.

But she did not refuse; she never refused any form of "telling a story."

Russell then began his own riddle-solving performance.

"After the Big Bang, the Multiverse did not remain unchanged."

His voice wasn't loud, but every word was crystal clear.

"The universe is expanding, new Dimension are emerging, new laws are forming, and new possibilities are being born from nothingness. This expansion is not because some Gods is fighting, nor because some Demons is devouring the world, but... something more fundamental."

It is the Multiverse itself that is growing, like a tree, like a flower, like a baby opening its eyes.

The Ancient One's finger twitched slightly, unnoticed by anyone else, but Russell did.

"Of these expansions, one was the grandest: the emergence of the First Beyonder." Russell's voice was flat, as if he were reading a book.

"His arrival sparked a war that swept across the entire Multiverse. After this war, the Multiverse underwent a massive upgrade, evolving from the concept of a 'mega-universe' to the concept of a 'Multiverse'."

This is not a quantitative change, but a qualitative one, like a fish climbing out of the water and a monkey walking from the trees to the ground.

The Ancient One's expression began to change; her nonchalance vanished, replaced by something she hadn't experienced in many years—focus.

"The First Multiverse Era has begun." Russell didn't stop; his voice remained calm, like a river that would never change course.

"The rulers of that era were not the four Creator God you know today, but an even more ancient being, called the First Firmament, or rather, the 'First Consciousness' of the Multiverse. It was a primordial, god-like being that existed since the beginning of the universe."

Ancient One's hands clenched tightly under the table, filled with utter astonishment. She had heard of the name "First Firmament" or, more precisely, the First Firmament.

During an extremely distant journey, almost touching the edge of the Multiverse, from the mouth of an ancient being that has existed for hundreds of billions of years.

That being told her that this name should not be mentioned, because mentioning it was like calling upon a sleeping behemoth in the deep sea.

You don't know if it will wake up, and you don't know what it will look like when it does.

She thought only a very few people knew this name, but this young Mutants, who wasn't even a Celestial-level powerhouse, was sitting opposite her, reciting the name like it was a recipe.

Russell didn't stop; he continued, explaining how the First Firmament created the Colored Celestials as its servants, and how the Colored Celestials evolved self-awareness in the course of their mission.

How they looked back at their Creator one day and then delivered the crucial first blow.

The First Firmament was betrayed by its own creation, sealed away, forgotten, and slumbers in the deepest part of the Multiverse, like a prisoner locked in a cage, having had nightmares for a hundred million years.

The Ancient One sprang to her feet like a spring, her right hand drawing a circle in the air. Orange sparks exploded from her fingertips, creating a circular, distorted space around Russell and her.

Everything around them disappeared, and the two of them sat in a kaleidoscope-like space composed of countless mirror images.

Each mirror reflects a different scene: some are starry skies, some are oceans, and some are scenes Russell had never seen before—scenes as precise as mathematical formulas and as absurd as dreams.

Mirror Dimension.

The Ancient One's hand hovered in mid-air, her fingertips still bearing the orange sparks left from when she drew the circle.

Her eyes were fixed on Russell, her surprise undisguised.

"These..." Ancient One's voice was a little hoarse. She cleared her throat and spoke again, "Where did you hear all this from?"

"Wait, I haven't finished yet."

Russell shrugged lightly, ignoring the Ancient One's surprise, and continued telling the unfinished story.

Like the five Creator God — Eternity, Infinity, Death, Oblivion, Galactus.

His Eternity duty is time; his body is every fleeting second, every heartbeat, every breath, the birth and death of every star.

The ultimate duty of the Infinity is space; her robes cover every corner of the universe, from the interior of atoms to the vast void between Galaxy —all are her domain.

Death's duty is to end, to "return to nothingness," to be the end of all life, the final page of all stories.

The duty of Oblivion is nothingness, the blank space after death, non-existence itself, the indescribable, unknowable, and unspeakable pure emptiness.

Galactus, on the other hand, is the balancer of the universe and the measure of true power.

After explaining the five Creator God that the Ancient One needed to be familiar with, Russell stopped.

He looked at the Ancient One, his blue eyes devoid of any expression, like two stagnant pools of water.

Ancient One stood still, the light from the Mirror Dimension casting a flowing, ever-changing play of light and shadow on her face.

Her facial expression had already changed, her pupils had contracted, and her breathing was more than twice as fast as before.

[Shock level +100]

Russell's lips curled up slightly.

He wasn't the type to show off, but in front of the Sorcerer Supreme, who loved to be a riddle teller, he countered with an adapted version of the story about the origin of the Multiverse that she had never heard before.

This way, it won't attract the attention of the real big shots, and it will also make the Ancient One look foolish.

This feeling... is really nice.

Shocked, aren't you?

Trying to solve a riddle with a time traveler who has a God perspective is just asking for trouble.

That is, he encountered him, a time traveler who only had a "half-baked" understanding of the Marvel and DC universes.

If a true veteran Marvel fan were here, the ultimate spoilers about the origin of the Multiverse and the love affairs of the cosmic gods would probably drive the Ancient One's mind crazy.

"You..." Ancient One's voice was squeezed out of her throat, dry and hoarse, like a stone that had been worn down for too long.

"Can you tell me where you learned this from?"

Russell did not answer. He picked up the teacup on the table in the Mirror Dimension and took a sip.

A bitter taste spread across his tongue. He looked at the Ancient One, his gaze as calm as a mirror.

Ancient One realized she had lost her composure. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, her eyes had returned to their usual calm.

She appeared to have recovered, at least. She sat back down in her chair, folded her hands on her knees, and gave Russell a deep look.

"It seems you have also traveled through the Multiverse." Her voice returned to calm, but if you listened carefully, you could still hear a hint of unease beneath the surface of her words.

"I wonder which Multiverse deity you are under? The Crimson Overlord Cyttorak? Or... have you already made contact with the Celestials?"

As she spoke, she thought of herself.

She thought of her journeys at the edge of the Multiverse, those fleeting moments brushing past Eternity, those gazes from higher beings that could only be perceived in the Dimension crevices.

She always thought she was the most knowledgeable person in the world, until today.

Russell could not have known these things without a Multiverse- level mentor.

It is impossible to know secrets that should not belong to any "Single Universe inhabitant," or even to most "Multiverse inhabitants."

This also explains why the Time Stone could not accurately predict Russell's future.

The Celestials are the creators of Mutants.

The Ancient One once gleaned some information about them from the words of Eternity.

She knew that the Celestials' power far surpassed that of the pioneers who descended upon Earth thousands of years ago.

Those "Celestial" who were defeated by the combined forces of the Earth's native inhabitants were merely the lowest level among the Celestials.

The true Celestials are the Creator who created countless races, sowed countless civilizations, and wrote history on the scale of the Multiverse.

Their power is a thousand times, ten thousand times, a billion times greater than that of people at that level.

Cyttorak is the Lord of the Crimson Cosmos, a Multiverse being whose essence is "power".

His strength is not "borrowed," but "beared."

The Crimson Gem of Cyttorak are scattered throughout the Multiverse, and each one grants the wearer a share of Cyttorak's power.

But that power comes at a price. The more power you carry, the closer your Soul Stone gets to Cyttorak, and the further you get from your "self."