Mordo's astonishment wasn't from awe—it was because he simply couldn't understand what Senju Haruto was doing.
From his perspective, Haruto was just pulling books off the shelves, flipping through them rapidly, putting them back, and then grabbing the next one to repeat the process.
Mordo even began to suspect Haruto wasn't actually reading at all. It looked more like he was rummaging through the place rather than studying.
"What exactly are you doing?" Mordo finally couldn't hold back his question. He couldn't make sense of Haruto's behavior or the situation.
"I'm reading. Can you not disturb me?" Haruto replied flatly, not even sparing Mordo a glance. He continued flipping through one book after another, his newly acquired ability—Ultimate Magical Comprehension—allowing him to absorb and digest the knowledge at an incredible pace.
In just a short time, Haruto had already mastered over a hundred different spells.
But… the library of Kamar-Taj was even more immense than Haruto had imagined.
Even what had been shown in the Marvel films was only the tip of the iceberg. Since Agamotto, the first Sorcerer Supreme, countless tomes of magical knowledge had been collected here. The total number of books was astronomical.
Even with Haruto's current reading speed, it would take years to get through everything.
It was no wonder that even someone like Strange, a natural genius, had relied on the Time Stone to compress the endless hours required into something manageable.
"Eternal Mangekyō—open!"
Haruto's eyes whirled, the Eternal Mangekyō pattern blooming within them.
Mordo nearly jumped in shock. This is just reading… how did it suddenly turn into red eyes?
But what truly staggered him was that Haruto's reading speed instantly doubled the moment those eyes activated. His page-turning was now so fast that Mordo couldn't even catch the words on the paper before Haruto was already on the next page.
The bizarre scene quickly drew the attention of the apprentices in the library.
Whispers spread.
"What's he doing?"
"No idea."
"Is he just pretending to study hard?"
"If this is supposed to make him look diligent, it's way over the top. Can he even see the words?"
"And his eyes—what's with them? Anyone know?"
"Never seen anything like it. But I heard he's the one whose mental strength is said to rival the Ancient One herself."
"Yeah, I heard he knocked Kaecilius unconscious just by glaring at him!"
"So that was him!"
But Haruto couldn't care less about the chatter or how others perceived him. His only thought now was to burn these books into his memory, one after another.
With the Eternal Mangekyō and Ultimate Magical Comprehension combined, he was determined to master all the magical knowledge contained here.
"Not fast enough," Haruto muttered, shelving another book he had just finished.
Even with both abilities stacked, after all this time he had only managed to cover a third of a single bookshelf. And there were shelves upon shelves of such tomes, stretching into infinity.
He wasn't like Strange. He didn't have the Time Stone to endlessly loop his study time. And he had no intention of wasting years on nothing but reading.
But… Haruto had his own method.
His hands blurred into seals, chakra surging.
Super Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!
Ordinary versions of this technique produced maybe a thousand tangible clones. But Haruto's chakra reserves were so vast he could instantly summon tens of thousands of solid clones at once.
"Shadow clones require less chakra than Wood clones, and every clone's experience will return to me when dispelled," Haruto thought. "Naruto once exploited this very bug to master the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken."
"But unlike Naruto, my chakra capacity and mastery of ninjutsu are leagues beyond."
His clones immediately activated their Sharingan, each one tearing through shelves at inhuman speed.
No matter what the book was—arcane knowledge, spells, histories—they devoured it all.
By dividing the workload, Haruto compressed years of study into less than a single day.
The apprentices watching were stunned. Their eyes widened, breaths caught in their throats as disbelief painted every face.
None of them had the faintest idea what ninjutsu was, nor could they comprehend that what Haruto was using was simply an advanced form of Shadow Clone Jutsu.
To them, it was something else entirely.
A higher form of magic.
"The Form of Aikon…" someone whispered, awestruck, naming a spell so advanced even they themselves had never mastered it.
Could it be… Haruto had simply glanced at a spell and instantly learned it?
No—wait.
Mordo froze on the spot.
If that was the case, then Haruto hadn't just been flipping through books earlier. He had been absorbing their contents in a way they simply couldn't understand, converting knowledge into his own at terrifying speed.
In other words… Haruto was genuinely learning all the magic in this library.
But how was that possible?
Even the greatest genius could at most skim a few lines at a time. Haruto, though—his speed was like reading ten pages in the blink of an eye.
Mordo couldn't follow him at all. He hadn't even caught a single word, and Haruto was already chapters ahead.
What… what kind of monster is this guy?
Mordo swallowed hard, sweat prickling at his brow. In this moment, his entire understanding of what was possible felt like it had been shattered and trampled underfoot by Haruto.
But Mordo and the apprentices weren't the only ones watching.
From the very moment Haruto stepped into the library, the Ancient One had been observing him through her magic.
Despite her calm acceptance on the surface, she hadn't fully trusted Haruto's words. She had allowed him entry, yes—but with doubts, wary he might have ulterior motives.
The truth, however, was far more staggering than any suspicion.
This man…
He was consuming the library's contents at a pace utterly beyond imagination.
And those eyes of his—eyes the Ancient One had never seen nor heard of—were unlike anything in her vast well of knowledge.
She, who had studied deeper than perhaps anyone alive, could not comprehend them.
She was also the only one who realized Haruto's technique was not the legendary Form of Aikon.
But then… what was it?
"Senju Haruto… just what are you?"
For the first time in many years, the Ancient One found herself truly shaken.