The Perfect Safe Haven, the TVA's Judgment
Pain. The excruciating pain of having one's soul shattered and then forcibly pieced back together.
Lynn slammed heavily onto the cold, rough, vintage tile floor. He gasped for breath, his nostrils instantly filled with the pungent smell of cheap coffee, old paper, and some kind of preservative. The orange incandescent light above him hummed with electricity, making it hard for him to open his eyes.
He didn't die.
Lynn struggled to prop himself up, watching the purple pixelated spots on his hands quickly fade and reform into flesh and blood. He subconsciously tried to activate his Chaos Magic Affinity, but found that his magic power was like stagnant water that had been completely drained, and even his extremely keen Spider-Sense had fallen into absolute silence.
The Time Variance Authority (TVA) operates under a system of oppressive rules. Here, any magic, divine power, or even the Infinity Stones are nothing more than a pile of useless junk.
But Lynn's lips curled up uncontrollably, and he leaned against the gray wall, chuckling softly, his chest heaving violently.
"By Vishanti... these guys in riot gear are practically living saints."
If it weren't for the TVA time police who arrived at the last second, he would most likely have been torn into four pieces by Hela, Wanda, Female Venom, and Gwen Stacy, each soaking in their formaldehyde jars.
In this place where magic and divine power have completely failed, it is absolutely the most perfect haven in the current Multiverse!
"Number L-001, stop your meaningless chatter. Stand up and take your ticket."
A TVA clerk in a brown uniform with a mustache walked over expressionlessly and stuffed a rough-feeling queue number into Lynn's hand.
Lynn took the ticket, dusted off his hospital gown, and quickly scanned his surroundings. It was a huge office hall with a retro 1970s style, with all sorts of strange "Time Variant" lined up in the queue, and even a Skrulls wearing Spartan War Armor.
He immediately stopped smiling, his eyes switching to a perfectly timed look of bewilderment and terror. "Where... where is this? What did you do to me?"
Deep down, however, he was frantically calling for the system.
[Ding! Host detected in a higher-dimensional rule space (Time Variance Authority).]
[The system core is not subject to Dimension suppression and is parsing the Underlying Logic of the current space... Progress 1%.]
Lynn lowered his eyes, concealing the glint in them. Sure enough, TVA could suppress the native forces of the Marvel Universe, but it couldn't suppress the system cheat that transcended the Multiverse. As long as he could survive here until the system analysis was complete, he could completely escape his passive position.
"Stop talking nonsense and move forward. Your existence has seriously deviated from the Sacred Timeline." The clerk impatiently shoved Lynn.
Lynn obediently followed the group forward, passing through several security gates. He noticed that the TVA guards around him were all holding those Pruning Baton that crackled with purple arcs of electricity. He knew very well what would happen if he were poked by one of those things—immediately exiled to the Knowhere at the End of Time to feed the Galactus Beast named "Alioth".
Soon, he was fitted with a heavy magnetic collar and led into a dimly lit Courtroom.
High on the judge's bench sat a cold-faced African American female judge— Ravonna Losrell.
"Name: Lynn. Identity: Level Three Logistics Agent, S.H.I.E.L.D.." Ravonna flipped through the ridiculously thick dossier on the table, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper, as if she had seen something utterly absurd.
She slammed the file shut, her sharp gaze fixed intently on Lynn below. "This is impossible. How could an ordinary agent who hasn't even been injected with the Super-Soldier Serum trigger as many as seven time branches in the past week? And even cause violent tremors in Asgard, the Dark Dimension, and the Hell's Essence?"
Ravonna leaned forward, her tone scrutinizing and extremely wary. "What exactly are you? Why can't the Time-Keepers's Loom predict your future?"
Lynn stood on the Dais, his hands locked in magnetic handcuffs. He slightly raised his head, revealing an extremely helpless and bitter smile.
"Your Honor, would you believe me if I said I was just a pathetic loser driven to desperation by a few possessive and twisted madwomen?"
"Nonsense!" Ravonna slammed her gavel down, the wooden mallet striking the base with a dull thud. "No Variant escape the watchful eyes of the Time-Keepers. Your very existence is a blasphemy against the Sacred Timeline!"
She waved her hand coldly. "Guards, prepare for deep shredding. Throw him into the Knowhere!"
Two fully armed guards immediately raised their Pruning Baton, which gleamed with a deadly purple light, and approached Lynn from the left and right.
Lynn's eyes turned cold. The safe haven trial card had expired. With a slight thought, he prepared to activate the incomplete [Absolute Get-Out-of-Death-Free Medal] in his system space regardless of the consequences.
At this critical moment...
"Beep--! Beep--! Beep--!"
Without warning, an extremely sharp, Scarlet alarm suddenly erupted throughout the entire TVA headquarters! The sound was so loud it almost pierced eardrums, the overhead incandescent lights began to flicker wildly, and even the solid floor of the Courtroom trembled violently.
"What's going on?!" Ravonna jumped to her feet, staring in horror at the huge holographic screen on the side of the Courtroom.
On the screen, the once smooth white line representing the "Sacred Timeline" is now undergoing a transformation that is shattering the understanding of all TVA members.
Suddenly, four incredibly thick branches, each displaying a terrifying array of colors— Scarlet, eerie green, jet black, and deathly white—burst forth from that white line!
These four branches were not automatically erased by the flow of time; instead, they were like four incomparably sharp knives, frantically cutting and tearing apart the Dimension Bastion of the Sacred Timeline with an extremely ruthless attitude!
"Bang!"
The Courtroom door was flung open, and a senior TVA Technician stumbled in. His tablet computer was emitting black smoke from data overload, and he was trembling as if he had been frozen in an ice cave for three days.
"Your Honor! Something terrible has happened! The Loom explode!" The Technician's voice cracked with despair. "There are... there are four completely incomprehensible, world-destroying energies forcibly reversing the Temporal Coordinates! They... they've torn the Timeline apart by following the quantum afterimage that was cut out from L-001!"
Lynn's pupils contracted sharply, and his heart skipped a beat.
On the large screen, the white line representing the Sacred Timeline cracked open with a loud "crack" under the crushing force of the four terrifying powers.
Immediately afterwards, the entire TVA broadcasting system was forcibly taken over by a violent energy.
After a crackling sound of electricity mixed with Chaos Magic, Wanda's voice, filled with boundless killing intent and extreme obsession, exploded in every corner of the Time Variance Authority:
"Give me back my Lynn...!!!"