"Surprised?"
Alex smiled—
a cold, disdainful smile.
"A man playing God… feels surprise?
Soone who scripts the lives of others… can feel surprise?"
"Well,"
one of the Ti-Keeper puppets—the long-faced one—began speaking as Kang,
"I admit… it is a little embarrassing.
Until now, this has never happened."
He continued calmly:
"I know everything about everyone. All of it.
Because I can see everyone's future."
"I always know what people will say, what they will do next.
So I am never surprised."
"But when I looked at your future…
it was completely obscured.
A blur of fog."
"I can't see a thing."
Kang actually sounded puzzled.
"To be honest… this is a first."
The explanation was simple— Kang had never bothered paying attention to Alex before.
After the TVA was established and stable, Kang no longer micromanaged.
Routine variants?
Routine tilines?
The TVA handled them all.
And Alex was from Earth-617, not the MCU's famous Earth-616.
A backwater universe.
Nothing requiring Kang's attention.
Until today—
when Alex stord the TVA alone, shook the entire organization, and forced Kang to take notice.
He checked Alex's fate…
And found nothing.
Only fog.
---
"I don't care about any of that," Alex said, expression turning ice-cold.
"I ca here to tell you one thing."
"Stay. Out. Of. My. Business."
"Otherwise, I won't just tear down your TVA—
I'll twist your damn head off."
SWISH!
Right after he finished talking, a golden portal appeared beside him.
A short, dark-skinned man stepped out—
Kang the Conqueror in person.
"I believe you," Kang said calmly.
"Honestly, killing would be as easy for you as crushing an ant."
He wasn't exaggerating.
Kang's true power didn't co from physical strength.
It ca from knowing everyone's future.
He knew every opponent's next move.
Every attack.
Every outco.
Except Alex.
Alex was the one person he could not predict—
which ant Kang had no advantage.
Given Alex's overwhelming combat strength,
Kang really was nothing but an ant.
"But…" Kang suddenly smiled, shifting tone.
"Instead of killing outright, I think you'll like another option better."
He extended an inviting hand.
"Co. Let's talk sowhere more… private."
Alex didn't hesitate.
He stepped into the portal.
If he wanted to end this once and for all, he needed a real conversation with the man pulling TVA's strings.
---
SWISH!
Alex vanished from the TVA.
He reappeared inside a massive, empty, oddly desolate palace.
Kang's secret domain—
The Citadel at the End of Ti.
"Welco to the Cathedral at the End of Ti! Congratulations!"
A cartoon mascot projection popped up cheerfully.
Kang stood beside it, smiling warmly.
"Yes—welco.
You're the first person in countless years to ever step in here."
"To be precise, you are my first guest."
"Please—co in."
Kang's hospitality was almost absurdly sincere.
Of course, Alex wasn't fooled.
Kang had greeted Loki the sa way—
even when Loki was trying to kill him.
Alex followed Kang into his "office."
They sat across from one another.
Kang even made him a cup of coffee.
Alex didn't drink it.
---
"Holander… let's see…"
Kang rubbed his hands together and rummaged through the massive shelf behind him.
He pulled out several thick "books"—
records of multiversal variants.
Flipping through them, he raised an eyebrow.
"In the entire multiverse, there are exactly seventeen Holanders."
"Seventeen.
That's extrely rare."
Given Alex's current strength, variants of him should have been everywhere, like Loki variants—
thousands erased by the TVA, millions that weren't.
But only seventeen Holanders existed.
Alex imdiately understood.
The original 617 Holander was supposed to die.
Alex, a traveler from another world, replaced that destiny.
Then Alex's own ti-travel incidents had spawned several new tilines—
new versions of himself.
Those versions likely did the sa.
Seventeen?
Not surprising.
Kang closed the book, looking oddly relieved.
"You really are… unusual."
"But fortunately—there are only seventeen of you."
If the multiverse were filled with people whose futures he couldn't see,
Kang would be dood.
---
"Enough small talk."
Alex leaned forward, voice firm.
"We're here to solve this problem."
"I was getting to that," Kang said, shrugging.
"In fact… I have a proposal."
He raised a finger.
"From this mont forward—
your tiline—the Holander's tiline—
will be recognized as Earth-617's Sacred Tiline."
One universe ant nothing to him.
A trivial concession.
But to Alex?
It ant the TVA would never hunt him again.
Alex nodded.
"Good.
Rember what you just said."
Kang smiled.
Of course he would.
This matter was resolved.
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