Sorry, everyone, for not uploading these past few days. I have been busy with my job, so my attention is focused elsewhere.
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Witnessed by viewers across the Federation and under the solemn gaze of countless high-ranking officials, on the vast screen that connected the entire civilization, the Ancient One calmly raised her hand. Then, with a single palm strike, she pressed it against Strange's chest. The next moment, an illusory version of Strange was forcibly expelled from his body.
It was not metaphorical. Not symbolic. Not cinematic exaggeration. A translucent, soul-like Strange shot backward, suspended in midair, his physical body still standing where it was.
Across Terra, viewers froze. Many jaw dropped, eyes widened, and breathing halted. Moments ago, hearing the Ancient One mention healing through the soul had already sounded outrageous enough.
But hearing is one thing, and seeing is another. Now, under the watchful eyes of the entire Federation, no one wanted to believe what they were seeing was real. If the earlier battle between the Ancient One and Kaecilius had inspired shock and awe, this single palm strike shattered the foundations of material reality itself. This was no longer intimidation; this was metaphysical domination. In the so-called age of Earth civilization, a human beating another human's soul out of their body?
The broadcast chat was filled with comments instantly.
"What even is a soul?!"
"Is this some next-level reality show?!"
"The soul has form?!"
"One hit and the soul leaves the body?!"
"Does this kind of thing really exist?"
"Bro, that looks real! Do we all have that inside us?"
"I believe in materialism! Don't show me this!"
The mentality of an entire civilization cracked at once.
The Administration.
In the central command hall, Johan stared at the screen, lips trembling, "Forget what you think you know…"
He repeated the phrase softly, as if trying to convince himself. Then he suddenly let out a self-mocking laugh.
"When the Network was first connected," Johan said slowly, turning toward the director and the gathered experts, "when we discovered we could remember past lives… even awaken strange abilities…"
He paused, "I suppose we all reacted the same way back then, didn't we?"
Silence filled the room. It had been too long. When the Network first appeared, humanity had been too overwhelmed to fully understand what was happening. What had once been impossible had gradually become accepted, and common sense had quietly shifted.
Darwin's hands trembled, "The concept of the soul has always existed," he said hoarsely. "But it was treated as fiction… philosophy… metaphor. This is the first time I've seen a true soul-form presented as physical reality. Even if it's a projection of events… It's real enough."
Xiaotian frowned deeply, "There have always been studies about the so-called soul," he said. "Out-of-body experiences. Near-death phenomena. Krotkov once used bioelectrical imaging at the moment of death. In the gas discharge imaging photos, blue light appeared to detach gradually from the body. He claimed the navel and head were the first points of departure for life force… and that the heart was the last point before it faded into the unknown."
He exhaled slowly, "But whether any of that was real… we never knew."
Hawking added quietly, "In physics, there were also fringe theories. In Asgard, there were devices capable of interacting with something akin to a soul. Some proposed that souls behave like particles without fixed form. That their existence can only be detected through wave-band scanning or high-energy interactions."
Then Kasey spoke solemnly, "Someone once tried to weigh the soul."
The room stirred faintly.
"At the moment of death," Kasey continued, "some experiments claimed a sudden loss of several grams. This experiment is one of the many famous anomalous studies recorded by the Federation."
He went on to describe the controlled measurements conducted during deep sleep and awakening states, "The conclusion claimed the soul weighs between eighteen and twenty-five grams. There was even an earlier claim of thirty-five grams' difference before and after death. After accounting for moisture and gas release, they believed the soul was a physical substance. Something measurable. But most people dismissed it as no one knew if it was true."
The command hall fell silent again. On the screen, Strange's translucent soul hovered in midair. Separated. Independent. Visible. The Network could not fabricate an illusion. If it displayed something, it had existed.
In the Federal Hospital
Inside a high-security medical ward, Tetsuo and Jay stared at the screen in disbelief.
Jay whispered, stunned: "I saw Asgard's soul-refining device before… But the Ancient One just… pulled his soul out with her hand."
His expression shifted strangely, "Why do I feel like the soul might actually exist? I always thought it was just a conceptual framework."
Tetsuo frowned. This scene overturned everything he knew about medicine. Even more than the most complex turbulence equations humanity had solved.
After a long pause, he spoke quietly, "The soul may truly exist."
Everyone turned to him at once, but he did not elaborate. A faint, nearly imperceptible gleam flickered in his eyes. Among all present, perhaps only he understood the implications most deeply.
In the High Council.
The Councilors reconvened urgently. As the image of Strange's soul replayed, several of them felt as if struck by lightning.
Gladwin, normally composed, stood abruptly, "Soul… that is a real soul! There truly is a soul inside the human body."
Now, an impossible thought surfaced, "Did I see something back then…?"
The room trembled with unspoken questions. Many of the Councilors had accessed fragments of past lives through the Network. How many forgotten memories were now being reinterpreted?
After a long silence, Hyeon spoke slowly, "This appears to be an entirely new combat system. And the master of this system… is the Ancient One."
The others nodded gravely. Then their gazes returned to Strange. What was he? Why him? Doubt spread through their thoughts.
[Back in the Room, Strange himself was in shock. Time seemed to slow. He looked down at his translucent hands. Unbelieving. Then, he snapped back into his body, and he staggered, "What did you just do to me?!"]
[The Ancient One replied calmly, "I pushed your astral form out of your physical body."]
[Strange's breathing grew rapid, and his heart was pounding violently, "What was in that tea? Psilocybin? Isd?"]
[The Ancient One shook her head gently, "It's just tea with a little honey."]
[Fear lingered in his eyes. "What just happened?"]
["For a moment," she said, "you entered the astral dimension."]
["What?"]
["It is the place the soul exists apart from the body."]
[Anger flashed across Strange's face, "Why are you doing this to me?"]
[Her expression remained serene, and she said softly, "To show you just how much you don't know. Open your eyes."]
[Before he could react, she pressed her thumb firmly against his forehead. Strange's eyes flew open, and the space around him began to fracture. Reality twisted and dimensions folded inward. The universe itself seemed to peel back its layers, and what he saw next would shatter every belief he had ever held.]
From the broadcast, the audience saw something entirely different. They saw Strange standing motionless. No gestures. No chanting. No visible magic. Not even a flicker of fear on his face. He simply stood there. Still. Silent. As if nothing at all had happened.
[Yet at this very moment, Strange's soul had already been torn from his body. It plummeted through something that resembled a space-time tunnel, but that description was far too simple. The passage was alive—warped, spiraling, impossible to define. Reality stretched and twisted like molten glass.]
[Bizarre visions flooded his awareness. Color beyond color. Light beyond the spectrum. A sun ignited before him—then shattered into geometric fragments. A sky unfolded into infinite layers. White clouds fractured into crystalline lattices. He saw a planet suspended in darkness—then dissolved into pure energy. He felt space fold inward. He felt wind—no, a gale—rip through dimensions.]
[Strange screamed, "No! What is this?! Let me out!"]
[His voice echoed—but not in the air. It echoed inside thought itself. Then, a butterfly appeared before him. Delicate. Iridescent. Its wings shimmered with shifting constellations. Instinctively, Strange reached out and touched it.]
[Boom. His soul detonated. There was no fire—only expansion. He exploded into something vaster, falling again into an even more fantastical realm. Colors no longer simply existed—they rushed toward him like tidal waves. Light became liquid. Sound became texture. Energy pulsed everywhere. It was alive. Watching him.]
[Mordo's anxious voice echoed faintly in the physical world, "His heart rate is getting dangerously high."]
[The Ancient One calmly pulled a chair behind Strange's body, and his physical form collapsed backward into it. She smiled gently, "He looks alright to me."]
[The moment her words fell, Strange burst again into light. Another plunge, another impossible world.]
[The Ancient One's voice resonated—not in his ears, but within his consciousness, "You think you know how the world works. You think that this material universe is all there is. What mystary lay beyond your senses?"]
[Strange emerged above a realm of erupting volcanoes—except they were not made of stone. They were pillars of light and shadow, spewing waves of chromatic distortion. Every eruption distorted logic itself.]
["At the roof of existence, mind and matter meet. Thought shapes reality."]
[Suddenly, Hands. Countless hands. They reached from everywhere and nowhere, seizing his limbs, his torso, his mind, dragging him downward into abyssal infinity.]
[Strange raised his own hand in terror. His five fingers split, and each finger sprouted a palm. Each new palm grew five more fingers, and those fingers grew more palms. An infinite cascade. Replication. Explosion. Recursion. Birth and destruction cycle endlessly.]
["This universe," the Ancient One's voice whispered, "is one of infinite number. Worlds without end. Some benevolent and life-giving. Others filled with malice and hunger."]
[Strange crashed through a glass-like reality that shattered around him in razor fragments. He burst into a realm of shifting colors and bottomless darkness. Something watched from the shadows. Something ancient. His soul streaked through terror at incomprehensible speed.]
["Dark places, where power older than time," the Ancient One continued, "lie ravenous and waiting. Who are you in this vast multiverse, Mr. Strange?"]
[Everything became a kaleidoscope. Reality folded in rotating patterns. Strange roared in helpless defiance as an enormous purple eye opened in the distance—vast beyond planets. It stared directly at him. He hurtled toward it uncontrollably. Then, silence.]
[He snapped back. His physical body fell from the chair and hit the ground hard.]
[The Ancient One looked down at him calmly, "Have you seen that before in a gift shop?"]
[Strange knelt on the floor. His entire body trembled violently. Hands shaking. Breath ragged. He forced himself to look up at her. All arrogance had vanished; only awe remained.]
["Teach me," he whispered hoarsely. Not demanded. Begged.]
Viewers across Terra sat frozen. Scientists. Scientists. Ordinary citizens. They had just heard something even more shocking than Strange's experience.
"Infinite universes?!"
"What does that even mean?"
"How many universes can there possibly be?!"
"I can accept other planets… but other universes?"
"That's too much!"
"Maybe we're just like Strange—thinking we understand history and reality when we don't."
"What happened to him just now? He looked utterly terrified!"
"During the Earth Age, I used to think going back would be amazing. Now? It sounds like a cosmic trap!"
"Insane…"
In the Administration.
In the Director's Office, silence hung heavy in the air. Several physicists stared at the frozen footage, faces pale.
After a long pause, Hawking spoke slowly, "Infinite universes… I can hardly conceive of it. We haven't even mapped the full structure of the universe that Terra itself inhabits. And yet… history suggests there may be others beyond it. To be honest… I struggle to accept it myself."
The director exhaled deeply, "The Nine Realms and the World Tree described earlier—those were still structures within a single universe. Thor gave us a broader picture of cosmic structure. But an infinite universe? How does that even exist?"
Darwin shook his head, "This exceeds my field entirely. I cannot comprehend it."
Odom frowned, "If what the Ancient One says is true… then what form do these multiverses take? How do they coexist?"
The Federation had never stopped exploring the cosmos. Telescopes like Webb had pushed deeper into space than ever before. Progress was slow—but relentless. Many cosmological theories had already been proposed.
Hawking and others had theorized extensively. Earlier memory projections had already shattered conventional cosmology. The World Tree. The Nine Realms. Thor's accounts of Asgard. Those revelations alone had destabilized Terra's understanding of space. But now, the Ancient One claimed this vast universe itself was merely one among countless others.
Hawking drew in a slow breath, "Traditionally, people imagine the universe as a sphere. All stars are contained within it. Beyond that sphere—nothingness. No time. No space. No matter. Not even dust. The expansion of the universe is its expansion of territory. If expansion ceases, the universe's lifespan ends."
He paused, "But if infinite universes exist… then this supports a deeper interpretation of cosmological matter theory. The universe we describe may simply be our local environment. The infinite universe—or multiverse—could represent a larger ensemble of possible universes coexisting with ours. They may together form the true entity we once simply called 'the universe.'"
The room fell quiet again. Gradually, the weight of the idea settled in.
The director's expression darkened. A previous hypothesis resurfaced in his mind. During the Earth Age, Thor's description of the cosmos did not match Terra's current astronomical observations. Many dismissed it as a myth or cognitive error.
A few had suggested that perhaps planetary position changes perspective. After all, the universe was already known to be unimaginably vast. But if infinite universes truly existed, then perhaps the difference was not perspective. Perhaps, they were not even looking at the same universe anymore.
After learning that countless universes might exist beyond their own, a strange and unsettling thought surfaced in the director's mind. Is this universe truly the same one it once was? That purple monster… did it originate from this universe? Or is it a being that crossed over from some ancient, shadowed dimension buried deep within the cosmic void?
Fragments of information collided violently in his head. The more he tried to piece them together, the more chaotic everything became. His temples throbbed. Wave after wave of revelations crashed into him.
Just when he thought the truth was within reach, just when he believed they were about to uncover how the Earth Age had been destroyed, the appearance of the Ancient One, and her display of incomprehensible mystical power, had overturned everything again.
Then came the explanation of the so-called infinite universes. Instead of clarity, the truth only grew more tangled.
Odom turned toward Hawking and spoke thoughtfully, "Mr. Hawking, if we compare our universe to a foam sphere floating in space… Would the other infinite universes be like countless adjacent bubbles?"
Hawking smiled faintly, "Mr. Odom, your analogy seems rooted in an early-stage interpretation of the Big Bang theory, does it not?"
Odom nodded. With humanity's ongoing exploration of the cosmos, countless hypotheses have emerged. Among them, the Big Bang Theory remained one of the most widely accepted. It is proposed that, billions upon billions of years ago, the entire universe may have existed as an infinitesimally small singularity. Then, in an instant, an unimaginable explosion occurred.
Within an incredibly brief span after that detonation, the universe underwent a phase of exponential expansion. This period was known as inflation. It elegantly accounted for several long-standing cosmic mysteries: the uniformity of the universe's temperature, the distribution of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and the large-scale structure of matter. It was convincing. Yet, conclusive physical proof remained elusive.
Hawking neither affirmed nor rejected the theory outright. Instead, a strange brilliance flickered in his eyes, "I don't think it matters whether the universe resembles foam, a flat sheet, or something beyond our imagination. There is one element that permeates all universes."
Everyone instinctively leaned forward.
Hawking's voice deepened, "Time."
His gaze shone brighter and brighter, almost feverish with insight, "It does not matter whether we inhabit a single universe or exist among infinite ones. At least in terms of time… there must be a governing structure."
He paused, noticing the confusion in the room. After choosing his words carefully, he continued: "Let us imagine time as an invisible thread and everything—every universe, every dimension—exists along that thread. The past, the present, the future… they are not separate realms. They are points woven into the same strand."
He hesitated, then added: "Perhaps the concept of parallel universes is a more intuitive description."
The room stirred. That term was easier to grasp.
Yet Hawking shook his head, "These are merely our simplest assumptions. What I truly wish to uncover are the genuine mysteries of existence. And if there is a way to verify them… The recovered memories may be the most direct path."
Johan nodded slowly. If such memories truly existed, then Terra and Earth, humanity's understanding of the body, of the planet, and of the universe itself must have reached heights far beyond current comprehension.
The feed suddenly shifted.
[Strange, having witnessed true sorcery for the first time, was completely shaken. The laws of physics he once worshiped had crumbled before his eyes. Everything the Ancient One had told him, about dimensions, about unseen forces, he now believed without reservation. With trembling hands, he begged her to teach him.]
[But the Ancient One merely looked at him with calm indifference. "No."]
[The wooden door opened, and Strange was unceremoniously cast outside. He rolled several times across the stone ground before stopping. Nearby pedestrians stared at him as though he were a madman.]
Even the viewers were stunned by the sudden turn.
[Strange scrambled up and began pounding frantically on the door, but it did not budge. Inside the palace, the Ancient One stood upon a circular platform. Above her hovered a massive rotating model of Earth. She did not turn. "Do you think I was wrong to refuse him?"]
[Mordo stood nearby, "It has been five hours," he replied. "He is still waiting."]
[The Ancient One gazed upward, "There is a powerful energy within him. Stubborn. Arrogant. Ambitious. It feels… familiar."]
[Mordo hesitated, "He reminds you of Kaecilius."]
[Her expression grew solemn, "I do not wish to see another gifted student consumed by darkness."]
[Mordo stepped forward, "But you did not lose me. I longed for strength as well—strength to defeat our enemies. It was you who gave me that strength. You taught me discipline."]
[The Ancient One's voice softened, "The inner demon cannot be destroyed. We only learn how to coexist with it."]
[Mordo's face tightened, "The missing pages are still in Kaecilius' possession. If he unlocks their secrets, we may all perish. The dark forces are growing stronger. Perhaps Strange is exactly what Kamar-Taj needs."]
[Silence lingered.]
The scene shifted again.
[Night had fallen. Under the cold moonlight, Strange was still knocking, "Please… don't shut me out. I have nowhere else to go."]
[Suddenly, the wooden door opened inward. Strange, who had been leaning against it, fell backward inside, "Thank you…"]
[Mordo helped him up, "Bathe. Rest. Meditate if you can. The Ancient One will send for you."]
[Strange looked around. It resembled a simple bedroom.]
[He exhaled deeply. This was his chance. Healing his hands remained his unshakable goal.
[Mordo scribbled something onto a slip of paper and handed it to him.]
[Strange glanced at it eagerly, "Oh, what's this, my mantra?"]
[Mordo stared at him as though observing an idiot. He said flatly, "The WiFi password."]
[He turned and closed the door behind him. "We are not savages."]
[Strange stood frozen, then looked back down at the note. He sighed.]
Viewers, still reeling from revelations about infinite universes, collapsed into laughter.
"WiFi password?!"
"Even mystic masters need the internet!"
"So Terra and the Earth Age really weren't that different!"
"Mordo's expression killed me!"
Inside the training grounds, Ren and others also broke into groans and laughter. The tension shattered. Even Ren could only mutter, "Unbelievable…"
Then Louis slapped her leg excitedly, "Look! Real magic! See if you can learn even a move!"
Everyone turned back to the screen.
At that moment, the Ancient One and Strange sat opposite each other. She raised her hands slowly. With a single breath, brilliant sparks erupted between her fingers, weaving golden patterns through the air. Strange's eyes burned with hope.
Ren's pupils narrowed. The other held their breath. If they could comprehend even a fragment of this power, even a single technique, it would be worth everything.
The air itself seemed to tremble, and true magic had only just begun.