Anyway, Eric narrowed his eyes slightly.
The tension had eased into something almost conversational, but curiosity still nagged at him.
“How did you find me?
If the Time Stone can’t see me, then you must have used another method.”
The question carried weight.
If the Ancient One could track him, others might too.
And if the wrong people—or worse, the wrong entities—caught wind of his existence, that could spiral into a major headache.
Especially if they got clever and tried using his mother as leverage.
That was a line Eric wouldn’t tolerate.
The Ancient One gave him a small, knowing smile, her expression as serene as ever.
“You know, sometimes being invisible makes you the most visible.”
Eric tilted his head, waiting for the explanation with a raised eyebrow.
“Although the Time Stone cannot directly peer into your future,” she continued smoothly, “I can still observe the broader flow of time.
The universe unfolds before me like a vast, intricate tapestry, each thread woven with countless possibilities.
But you…” She gestured lightly toward him with one elegant hand.
“You are an empty space.
A void amidst a sea of futures.
That alone makes you stand out like a missing piece in a puzzle.”
Eric exhaled, a wave of relief washing over him.
“That’s fine, then.
The Time Stone is one of the supreme treasures—there aren’t many things stronger than it.” His primary worry wasn’t some cosmic heavy-hitter spotting him.
It was the weak, sneaky types who couldn’t threaten him directly but might go after his mom instead.
Those cosmic entities wouldn’t stoop to dirty tricks like that… right?
He could only hope.
With the immediate tension now somewhat diffused, their conversation shifted into a more casual rhythm, almost like two old acquaintances catching up over coffee—except one was an ancient mystic guardian and the other a teenage Shadow Monarch who’d just survived a year of apocalyptic monster wars.
The Ancient One shifted her focus, glancing around the study as if observing layers of reality unseen to normal eyes.
“Now that I’m here, I must say… your domain is truly fascinating.
I sensed it before arriving, but seeing it up close is something else entirely.”
Eric leaned back in his chair, a small smirk playing on his lips.
“Oh?
Something surprising?”
She let out a soft chuckle, the sound warm and rare.
“Surprising is an understatement.
Your dimension is unlike anything I’ve encountered in all my centuries.
In fact, I don’t believe anything quite like it has ever existed.”
She paused, gathering her thoughts before elaborating.
“All dimensions, no matter how vast or powerful, exist outside the universe but remain connected to it—like leaves on a great tree.
If you know the right paths, you can travel between them.
But yours…” Her eyes narrowed slightly in genuine intrigue.
“Your dimension isn’t attached to the universe at all.
It’s connected directly to you.
It moves with you, like a personal domain that follows its master wherever he goes.”
She sighed inwardly, the sheer broken nature of it almost making her want to laugh.
He can go anywhere, claim any dimension he wants… just show up and say, ‘Surprise, motherfucker!
This is my domain now.’ That’s practically cheating the system.
For the first time in centuries, she felt genuinely relieved that she had chosen diplomacy over an outright attack.
When she first sensed his arrival, she’d assumed he was just another powerful entity who’d stumbled upon a dimension and clumsily claimed it.
But now she understood the truth.
He hadn’t simply entered this world—he had brought his entire personal reality with him. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Trying to fight him inside his own domain would have been an unwinnable nightmare, no matter how much preparation she poured into it.
Shaking off that train of thought, her expression grew more serious.
“There’s something important I need to ask of you.
I hope you’ll consider my request.”
Eric raised an eyebrow, keeping his tone light but attentive.
“Oh?
Go ahead.
As long as it’s not something unreasonable like ‘hand over your shadow army for weekly chores,’ I’ll at least think about it.”
The Ancient One’s face turned grave, the playful atmosphere fading.
“I need you to stop using your dimension’s energy directly on Earth.”
Eric frowned, genuinely confused.
“What do you mean?”
He hadn’t noticed any rejection from the universe itself, and if his powers were messing with reality on a noticeable scale, he would have sensed it by now.
The request gave him real pause.
If his abilities were somehow disrupting the balance of the universe—or worse, the multiverse—then this went way beyond just her personal concerns.
He respected the Ancient One as a guardian of Earth.
She protected this world without selfish motives, which was genuinely admirable in a universe full of schemers.
But if what she said was true, this wasn’t just her problem.
Greater entities might take notice.
If I’m truly affecting the universe… forget the Ancient One.
Tomorrow I might wake up with Eternity knocking at my door as an uninvited guest.
And not some projection—his actual body.
Eric wasn’t arrogant enough to believe he could hold a conversation with Eternity, let alone survive one.
The power gap there was astronomical.
If that nightmare scenario played out, his only real option would be to portal-jump to another world and stay hidden until he grew strong enough to negotiate—or fight back.
But in the end… he was probably just overthinking things.