"You know ? Well, of course, you should know ."
Lyon glanced at the bald figure in front of him. After a quick assessnt, he concluded: A hairstyle befitting a strong individual.
"What I an is, you people don't seem like the warm and welcoming type. But today, there's an airport pickup, tea service—it's all a bit overwhelming."
"Umm.. You're not trying to ask for a favor, are you?"
Lyon thought back to a certain world consciousness that once wagged its taphorical tail and showered him with flattery.
He took a sip of tea. "Is this honey tea? Not bad."
With a flick of the Ancient One's finger, Lyon's teacup refilled itself.
"If you like the taste, drink more. We have plenty here."
"You don't need to feel uneasy or suspicious. I ask for nothing in return."
"This is simply Kamar-Taj's way of treating esteed guests—with welco and courtesy. It was the sa when Strange ca here."
Lyon raised an eyebrow. "No way. When soone like that atheist showed up, I bet you gave him a show of force first, didn't you?"
The Ancient One smiled. "That was after I served him tea."
"Damn!" Lyon nodded thoughtfully. "And what about ?"
"I thought you would have co much earlier, Mr. Lyon."
The Ancient One's smile lingered. "For example, after your 18th birthday or perhaps when you returned from space."
"I've been waiting for you for quite a while."
"That makes it sound like I've stood you up multiple tis," Lyon quipped. "But I don't recall us ever eting, let alone making any appointnts."
"We haven't t, but surely, Mr. Lyon, you're familiar with the term kindred spirits," the Ancient One replied with a smile.
"So, you're saying we've been friends for a long ti already?"
"If you're willing, we could be."
"An honor. You probably already know that I ca here to learn magic," Lyon stated, getting straight to the point.
The Ancient One nodded. "From now on, all the books in Kamar-Taj are open to you."
"…Thank you. But are you sure you don't want to do sothing in return? Taking without giving feels a little awkward."
The Ancient One's smile seed to grow warr. "I have only one question for you."
"Go ahead."
"How much do you know about the crises our world is about to face, Mr. Lyon?"
"Hmm… Dormammu, the Infinity Stones, and Thanos?"
"Ah~ You do know quite a bit. Besides that, is there anything else?"
"Are there more multiverse-level crises?"
"That's exactly what I'm referring to. I fear the ti for these crises to arrive is very near," the Ancient One said.
Lyon straightened his previously relaxed posture. "What do you an?"
"Several years ago, the Ten Rings began emitting a certain unique signal toward the universe beyond. Do you know what that is?"
"The Ten Rings sending a signal? Isn't that supposed to happen several years later…?"
Lyon frowned.
In the movies, the Ten Rings didn't start transmitting a signal to the multiverse until Shang-Chi had mastered them.
But the Ancient One claid it had already started.
'Why is there a difference in the tiline, and..'
"What kind of ssage is it sending?"
Lyon felt as though he had missed sothing crucial.
"You've used the Ten Rings before. Do you rember what they bring to their wielder?" the Ancient One prompted patiently.
"Power, energy… and longevity? Wait, are you saying longevity?"
Lyon latched onto the clue.
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and analyzed aloud, "Longevity… which is essentially ti. Ti… and the multiverse…"
'Could it be that the Ten Rings are actually a weapon left behind by Kang, the creator of the Ti Variance Authority? Or perhaps a weapon of one of his variants?'
Lyon's eyes lit up with sudden realization. 'The Ten Rings might be transmitting our universe's coordinates to a Kang variant!'
Before Lyon's arrival in this world, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) had only progressed to The Marvels.
Thus, his understanding of the future multiverse landscape was limited to educated guesses based on clues.
The Ancient One nodded in agreent. "The crisis of the multiverse has already begun. It won't be long before it reaches us."
Lyon furrowed his brows deeply. "So you're saying our world isn't the Pri Universe? And the Pri Universe's tiline has already advanced many years ahead?"
The Ancient One smiled faintly. "That depends on how you define the Pri Universe."
"The Pri Universe is clearly the one numbered 199999," Lyon replied confidently.
In his previous life, Marvel had designated that number for the MCU.
But the Ancient One shook her head.
She stood and walked to the center of the inner sanctum. With a sudden gesture, she pulled her hand through the air, constructing a chaotic cosmic diagram with energy drawn from the universe itself.
"In our reality, the multiverse does not consist of just one hierarchy."
She moved her palm gracefully, manipulating the swirling energies.
In the intricate, three-dinsional diagram, nurous black spheres representing universes appeared.
Countless spheres clustered into several distinct groups.
"The Omniverse contains many multiverses," the Ancient One explained.
"We are one of them."
"Our multiverse is designated 199999, with each parallel universe within it assigned its own number."
"What you referred to as the Pri Universe is actually numbered 199999-A. However, within our multiverse, it is indeed commonly referred to as Universe 616."
"And where we are now is one of its parallel worlds, designated 199999-S."
Lyon was taken aback. "616? Isn't that the comic book Pri Universe?"
"Comic books?" The Ancient One paused, clearly puzzled. "What comic books?"
"I an… shouldn't there only be one 616 Universe?"
"That's not the case," the Ancient One clarified. "Multiverses are like apartnt buildings, and each building contains its own Room 616."
"But you are correct about one thing. No matter which building you're in, 616 serves as a sort of baseline Pri Universe."
"It functions as a model ho within the multiverse complex, with other universes branching out and varying based on it."
"In the grand scope of the Omniverse, among all those countless 'apartnt buildings,' the two most significant ones are ours and another," the Ancient One explained.
"However, the inhabitants of that other 'building' are far stronger than we are."
Lyon imdiately understood. She's talking about the comic book universe and the movie universe.
This made sense now.
The long-standing contradiction where the movie universe claid to be numbered 616 while the comic book universe designated it as 199999 was finally clarified by the Ancient One.
To summarize:
The differing numbers simply ca from different perspectives.
From the Omniversal viewpoint:
The movie multiverse is treated as a single 'unit,' with its overall designation being 199999.
But from the perspective of those within the movie universe:
They naturally regard their baseline universe as 616, aligning with Marvel's tradition of using 616 to signify the "standard" or "pri" reality.
"So, does that an our baseline universe has already started fighting the Multiversal War?" Lyon asked.
"Exactly," the Ancient One said calmly. "And the Ten Rings will be one of the fuses that ignite that war and draw its flas to this place."
"Then I'll go back right now and tell Tony to block the signal from the rings," Lyon suggested.
"It won't help," she replied. "The information was sent out years ago. By now, the enemy may already be on their way."
"Won—Ehm.. Master, you seem so calm. Surely you have a plan for this, right?" Lyon's sense of urgency grew.
A Multiversal War... surviving that would require power at least on the scale of a universe-level entity. Lyon knew he was still far from such strength.
The Ancient One gazed at Lyon with her serene smile, warm and unwavering like the deep tranquility of a springti pond. There wasn't a hint of worry in her expression.
"You ca here to learn magic. How about we start with a little hands-on experience?"
For so reason, she diverted the conversation back to magic.
_________
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