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[Superman] Chapter 197: Journey to the End of Time, The Shocked He Who Remains
🕑 Added 2024-08-12 09:45:54 +0000 UTCPeter moved like a ghost through the timeline, observing the development and evolution of the Time Variance Authority (TVA). Of course, he wasn’t particularly interested in the TVA's history.
After a brief observation, he traveled through time, arriving at the moment just before the timeline completely collapsed, leading to the destruction of the TVA and the entire multiverse.
It was there that he encountered Loki, who was constantly jumping through time, trying to save all timelines and the entire universe.
Like a specter, Peter followed Loki's footsteps, viewing the world from Loki’s perspective as they traversed the timelines, attempting to save the TVA and the universe.
"Ah!"
"We failed!"
However, no matter how hard Loki tried, despite his best efforts to perfect the process of saving the Temporal Loom, it all ended in failure. This failure was finally signaled by a heart-wrenching cry as Victor, clad in a temporal protective suit, was twisted into spaghetti by time radiation.
After each failure, they could only watch helplessly as the Temporal Loom was overwhelmed by the infinitely multiplying timelines, leading to the withering of those timelines and the subsequent destruction of the universe alongside the TVA.
After thousands upon thousands of time jumps, even Peter couldn’t help but be impressed by Loki's sheer willpower.
For an ordinary person, enduring thousands of time jumps, countless failures, and the repeated destruction of the universe would have long driven them to a mental breakdown, rendering them unable to continue traversing the universe or saving the world.
"Now I finally understand what it was like for Doctor Strange in Avengers: Infinity War when he used the Time Stone to view over fourteen million possible futures."
"It’s no wonder the Ancient One regarded him as the most outstanding among all the Sorcerer Supremes."
Just following Loki through thousands of time jumps to save the multiverse was enough for Peter to feel the mental strain and the psychological impact of constantly moving through time.
It was unimaginable what kind of soul-crushing experience Doctor Strange must have gone through during his time-jumping ordeal.
...
"Damn it, we failed again!"
As Victor, clad in his protective suit, walked about halfway down the path to the multiplier, he was once again torn apart by the ever-increasing time radiation, reduced to nothing but strands.
"It’s useless; all of this is destined to happen!"
Standing behind Loki, Sylvie—the female Loki—looked on in shock as the Temporal Loom finally succumbed to the overwhelming number of timelines and collapsed.
At that moment, Sylvie realized that it was her decision to kill He Who Remains that had led to this scene of destruction.
However, Sylvie felt no regret. Even if given another chance, she would still kill He Who Remains without hesitation, fully liberating all the timelines.
"Could it be that the collapse of the Temporal Loom and the withering of the timelines are truly destined to happen?"
After yet another failed attempt by Loki and the others to save the timelines, Peter, who was desperately trying to figure out how to save them all, couldn’t help but ponder Sylvie’s words, wondering if this was indeed fated to occur.
When Sylvie killed He Who Remains, it freed the timelines and allowed them to develop independently. Perhaps even Peter’s timeline was an extension of that event, key to its existence apart from the Sacred Timeline.
Liberating the timelines wasn’t wrong; the real question was how to manage the infinitely multiplying timelines.
"Maybe the idea of fixing the Temporal Loom is the wrong approach."
As Peter gazed at the collapsed and exploded Temporal Loom, a flash of realization crossed his eyes.
He recalled some special memories he had just extracted from Ultron's mind.
Ultron had become a unique being, transcending time and space, existing in every timeline. The emergence of Infinite Ultron exacerbated the already rapidly multiplying timelines.
The infinitely growing timelines overwhelmed the capacity of the Temporal Loom, and almost simultaneously, Ultron destroyed nearly the entire multiverse across countless timelines.
Perhaps by some coincidence, these two originally unrelated crises—Ultron’s emergence and the collapse of the Temporal Loom—occurred together. Ultron’s appearance accelerated the Loom's collapse, and the collapse of the Loom truly enabled Infinite Ultron's plan to destroy the entire multiverse.
"It seems that resolving only one of these crises won’t be enough to save all the timelines and the multiverse."
"Both crises must be addressed separately to fully save the timelines and the universe."
"Looks like I need a partner now..."
Having figured out the key to saving the universe and the timelines, Peter turned his gaze to Loki, whose face had grown numb from witnessing the collapse of the timelines countless times.
"Loki, the God of Mischief, once filled with selfishness, violence, cruelty, and deceit—who would have thought that he would now be the hope for saving the entire universe!"
Even Peter couldn’t help but marvel at Loki’s fate and life, which had truly been astonishing.
But Peter didn’t hesitate just because the hope of saving the universe rested on this former trickster god.
He slowly manipulated time, causing countless green time strands to extend from Loki’s body. This was a manifestation of Peter's unique understanding of time, forming a strange ability.
At that moment, he could see all the time branches that had formed from Loki's continuous time-jumping.
Nearly thousands of green time branches extended from Loki’s body, most of which flowed into the endless dark void, indicating that those time branches had no observable future.
Suddenly, among the numerous time branches, Peter noticed one that led to the past, constantly extending and generating more unknown time branches. A sharp glint appeared in his eyes.
This indicated that Loki was currently traveling along this timeline, constantly jumping through time, attempting to alter the past to impact the doomed future.
"Is he trying to return to the past when He Who Remains was still alive, in an attempt to modify the future where all the timelines were freed?"
Peter immediately understood Loki’s true intent, but he would never allow Loki to erase all the liberated timelines, as they represented boundless hope.
...
Peter once again transformed into a Time Ghost, following Loki's journey through the timeline, arriving at the past Loki was attempting to alter.
At the end of infinite time, everything had turned to ruins. A massive purple cloud, brimming with seemingly endless power, loomed overhead…
This cloud was none other than Alioth, the gaseous entity embodying the supreme power of time, and the most dominant ruler here, devouring everything exiled to the end of time.
Peter's form, like a ghost, swiftly moved through the desolate end of time.
The enormous cloud-like Alioth in the sky seemed to sense Peter's presence. The brilliant lights within the cloud, resembling eyes, suddenly shifted, focusing on the direction where Peter had passed. Then, as if recognizing something terrifying, Alioth's entire cloud-like body surged and fled from Peter’s area at the fastest possible speed, abandoning its unfinished feast.
"Is it afraid of me?" Peter wondered, puzzled, though he didn't dwell on it. Having transcended the dimension of time, he mused that to a creature existing within time, he must appear as a primordial beast capable of destroying time itself.
Continuing his ghostly traversal, Peter sped through the endless reaches of time's end until he encountered a massive palace—the dwelling place of He Who Remains. In the next instant, Peter's figure flashed, and he found himself inside the palace.
Before him stood three figures.
"Sylvie, you can't kill him…"
At that moment, Loki, who had traveled from the future, was desperately trying to stop Sylvie from killing He Who Remains. However, due to his special feelings for Sylvie, Loki couldn't fully commit to stopping her.
"Unless you kill me, I will never stop…"
Sylvie, a variant of Loki with almost identical powers, was determined to kill He Who Remains and wouldn’t be deterred.
One holding back while the other went all out, Loki was, of course, unable to stop Sylvie. She struck him multiple times before dashing toward the seated He Who Remains, who watched everything with amused interest.
"Ugh!"
Sylvie's blade had already pierced He Who Remains' chest countless times, eliciting an almost pleasurable moan of pain from him. Looking toward Loki one last time, he uttered, "See you soon!" before collapsing.
Despite controlling all time, He Who Remains fell easily to Sylvie, like a child, unable to resist.
"Damn it, why didn't you even fight back!" Loki, who had experienced hundreds of time jumps but still failed to stop Sylvie from killing He Who Remains, seemed to finally break down. He stopped fighting Sylvie, turned, and shouted at the fallen He Who Remains.
"Hmm?" He Who Remains looked thoughtfully at Loki before finally reacting differently from his counterparts in other timelines. Picking up the time-control device from the table, he instantly trapped a bewildered Sylvie in a time cage, then, for the first time, began speaking with Loki.
"Haven't you learned this trick by now?"
Seeing Loki's surprised expression, He Who Remains looked at him with eyes that seemed to know everything.
"What did you do?"
Loki glanced at the immobilized Sylvie, then turned back to He Who Remains, his face serious.
"How do you know…"
"Time slipping? Hahaha, do you think that ability came from nowhere?" He Who Remains laughed, revealing that Loki was just a pawn in his plan. It was through his design that Loki acquired the ability to jump through timelines.
"Could it be…"
"What are you really up to?" Loki's expression was filled with shock as he struggled to accept that his endless time-traveling, in an attempt to save the world, had all been under He Who Remains' control.
"Hahaha, did you think I'd just let myself be killed so easily?" He Who Remains laughed, pointing at the immobilized Sylvie. "I am the great He Who Remains, the master of all time! If I didn’t want to die, I could survive even the destruction of the universe…"
He Who Remains controlled all time and had personally created the Time Variance Authority (TVA) to maintain the Sacred Timeline and eliminate all branching timelines. While he wasn’t truly evil, everything he did was to protect the Sacred Timeline and the universe.
With the emergence of time branches, countless variants of Kang the Conqueror would be born across the multiverse. Most of them were malevolent, seeking to trigger a multiversal war that would destroy the entire multiverse. He Who Remains was one of the few Kang variants who cared for the multiverse. He had fought and defeated the other Kangs, creating the TVA to erase all time branches except the Sacred Timeline, thus suppressing the birth of other Kang variants and maintaining the harmony of the multiverse and the timelines.
However, with Sylvie killing him and the timelines being freed, the variants of Kang the Conqueror would be born en masse, and the multiversal war would soon erupt again.
"In fact, the collapse of the Temporal Loom wasn’t an accident—it was destined. Its purpose was to protect the Sacred Timeline and eliminate all time branches outside of it…"
As He Who Remains explained, Loki finally understood everything. He realized that the plan to repair the Temporal Loom had been doomed to fail from the start.
"And now, you have two choices: let her kill me and free all the timelines, only for each to be erased by the collapse of the Temporal Loom. Or, become the new He Who Remains, inherit my will, and continue to protect…"
He Who Remains wore a solemn expression as he presented Loki with two choices. Only this way could the multiverse be saved.
"No, he actually has more choices…"
Just as Loki was absorbing everything He Who Remains had said, torn between the two difficult choices, a voice suddenly emerged from beside them, causing both to react with surprise.
"Who are you?" He Who Remains, the master of everything, was so shocked that he stood up from his seat, staring in the direction of the voice.
At some point, a figure had appeared beside them.
"Impossible! I control all time; no one should be able to escape my notice… Who are you?"
He Who Remains looked at the figure who had appeared without his detection, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"It’s you, Mr. Superman? How…"
Loki, recognizing Peter, was equally shocked. He knew Peter was incredibly powerful but had never expected him to appear here.
"Master of all time, He Who Remains—seems like you don’t know everything after all…" Peter looked at the stunned He Who Remains and shook his head before turning to Loki.
"He doesn’t even know about the crisis of Infinite Ultron. His plan to erase all timelines and save the Sacred Timeline is just the most desperate option!"
"But we have more and better choices!"
...
(End of Chapter)
