One day, a bored Lucas suddenly thought of a question.
"Ultron, why do you want to add another set of servers? And you specifically said they were your own."
"I want to earn some private money."
"Why?"
"..."
Another period of time, whose exact duration was difficult to calculate, passed.
Tony and the others completed their data collection and returned to Earth.
"This experiment was a complete success, thank you for your help. Rest well for two days, and I'll see you at the party in two days." Tony summarized.
Hearing this, Natasha and the others cheered and left separately.
Lucas was no exception, but he was called back by Tony just as he opened a portal.
"Lucas, during this time, remember not to withdraw your power and continue to maintain the spaceship's structure."
"Alright." Lucas replied, not looking back, just giving a casual response.
"Remember, absolutely, otherwise if the spaceship's structure is damaged, we'll have to conduct another test, and time reversal won't help." Tony reminded loudly again.
"Got it."
In a flash, about ten days quietly passed.
"Is this… really Earth?"
"There's no mistake, this is where you originally were, the Earth that was destroyed by Galactus." Lucas stated with certainty in a cosmic space that was almost empty, with only scattered meteorites whistling by.
Seeing that the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom still looked disbelieving, he waved his sleeve, and a green light swept across the cosmic space before them.
The next moment, a phantom projection appeared, like a movie played in fast reverse. The projected images flashed quickly, and the sun, along with the Solar System, returned from an extremely distant point.
The final image froze at the moment before Galactus arrived—countless fireballs fell from the sky, and a giant shadow enveloped Earth.
"Johnny and Ben might not understand, but Reed, Doom, Susan, you are all people with Ph. Ds. You should understand that motion is eternal and unchanging."
"Earth revolves around the sun, the sun revolves around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, and the Milky Way Galaxy is moving away from the center of the Universe, while the Universe itself is changing its position within the Multiverse."
"Referring to different coordinate systems, Earth's position is not exactly the same."
"Stop, Sorcerer Supreme, no need to explain, I understand." Reed said.
"I understand too."
Ben added softly, "Although I don't have a Ph. D, I have a bachelor's degree."
Lucas nodded. "Since you understand, that's good. Next, I will reverse the local space-time here to save Earth, and then put it back into the Solar System.
"After this process, it might affect the results of certain experiments, leading someone to discover the truth that time was once reversed."
"You need to solve this yourselves, no problem?"
"No problem." The five nodded in unison.
"Then witness the miracle."
Lucas chuckled, and endless fluorescent light surged from his body, overwhelming the phantom projection of Earth.
Lucas then drew his fingers across the void, golden sparks flickered, a portal opened, and Galactus's figure flew out of it.
Lucas then threw Galactus into the fluorescent light as well. Moments later, the fluorescent light flickered, mysterious runes appeared, and countless souls and matter detached from Galactus's body.
These bewildered souls and scattered Planet fragments, guided by the mysterious runes, slowly began to converge towards the phantom projection.
Gradually, the crude prototype of a Planet began to appear.
As more fragments poured in, connecting and merging, the fragmented surface began to smooth out, and the cracks gradually disappeared.
The fluorescent light did not stop, continuing to flow over the Planet's surface.
Atmosphere, mountains and terrain, rivers and lakes, and steel jungles—the Planet's natural landscape and artificial structures reappeared one by one.
Finally, the light suddenly intensified, then gradually receded, and a blue Planet reappeared.
Looking at this blue Planet, the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom had tears in their eyes.
Was it their deep love for this blue Planet?
Not entirely, it was also their tear ducts being stimulated by the strong light.
Lucas pointed, indicating, "If you don't want to retain the memories of this period, just go forward and enter the fluorescent light."
Hearing this, the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom all shook their heads. Although these memories were not pleasant and often woke them up in the middle of the night, they did not intend to abandon them.
Lucas shrugged at this. He had already expected it, he was just asking casually.
Snap!
With a snap of his fingers, the phantom projection solidified.
In the next instant, space and time shifted, and Lucas, along with the Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom, and the reconstructed Earth, caught up with the distant Solar System.
As for Galactus, Lucas left him where he was.
Placing Earth back into the Solar System, and slightly adjusting the positions of the other Planets, asteroids, and comets within the Solar System to restore their orbits to what they were before Earth disappeared...
Lucas smiled, quite pleased with his masterpiece. "Everyone, your home is back."
"Thank you, Sorcerer Supreme."
"Then let's part ways here. You all have the coordinates for Earth-404. After you've dealt with matters on your own Planet, we can discuss how to find another way home."
Lucas greeted the Fantastic Four, sent them into the Earth before them, and then opened a portal to return to Earth-404.
Earth-404, Kamar-Taj.
Galactus was dealt with, and the world of the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom was reshaped, but the Galactus incident was not over.
Lucas said in the tea room, "Galactus's arrival on Earth-404 this time was deliberately guided by someone, and it has nothing to do with Strange."
"I left a power in the book, specifically to smooth out the space-time disturbances caused by Strange's magic. Normally, it would never open a space-time passage to another Universe and drag innocent people into it."
Hearing this, Strange kept glancing at Lucas. Seeing Lucas nod calmly, Strange was moved.
He hadn't seen a teacher take the blame for his student in a long time.
Beside him, Mordo frowned at this and retorted, "Time magic is mysterious and unpredictable, and no one knows if an accident will happen."
"I don't deny that possibility, but it's too much of a coincidence. During this time, I've been corresponding with Chthon."
Ignoring the changing expressions of Mordo and Wong, Lucas picked up a cup of tea and took a light sip.
"A while ago, he told me that Galactus was attacked and reversed from his Lifebringer form back to his Galactus form. In his words, he hoped I would help Galactus restore his Lifebringer form."
"Soon after, Galactus unexpectedly arrived on Earth-404."
"Sorcerer Lucas, are you saying that Chthon was behind this whole incident?" Mordo asked.
"Not sure, this method is too crude." Lucas shook his head.
"Chthon doesn't seem like someone who would use such crude methods. Moreover, he has a favor to ask of me. Logically speaking, he wouldn't do something that might offend me at this time."
Mordo's brows furrowed even tighter and he asked gravely, "Sorcerer Lucas, what exactly is your relationship with Chthon?"
"Hmm... it's a bit complicated. But that's not important, what's important is that this matter has nothing to do with Strange." Lucas emphasized again.
He just liked to delegate tasks to be lazy, not to shift blame.
As Lucas said, Strange just happened to make a mistake in practicing time magic, disturbing the space-time structure.
The contingency he had set up just happened not to be triggered.
It just happened to connect to the Universe where Galactus was.
And he just happened to encounter Galactus devouring a Planet, snatching some food from Galactus's mouth.
The Multiverse is vast, and it's not without coincidences, but coincidences are low-probability events.
Compared to coincidence, the probability of someone deliberately orchestrating it is undoubtedly much higher.
Furthermore, when Lucas had this conjecture, his Transcendent Perception subtly indicated to him that this was not a coincidence.
Pondering in his mind, Lucas considered who might be the mastermind.
There were only four outsiders who knew he had a slight acquaintance with Galactus.
Chthon, Set, the Creator, and Galactus himself.
Lucas first ruled out Set.
He had not dealt with Set before, and unless Chthon and the Creator informed him, Set would not know the coordinates of his Universe.
Secondly, the possibility of the Mastermind being the Creator was very small. Lucas had a deep cooperative relationship with him, and if he needed to ask Lucas for help to rescue Galactus, he could have directly said so.
Again, it was Chthon, but Lucas still didn't believe that the methods of the dignified God of Black Magic, would be so crude.
Finally, it was Galactus, but his situation was similar to Set's. He also didn't know Lucas's coordinates.
And Lucas clearly remembered that Galactus was quite surprised to see him.
In addition, there was another possibility: the mastermind was not among these four, and perhaps the mastermind didn't even know the information that Lucas had a slight acquaintance with Galactus.
And this possibility could lead to countless other possibilities.
After much fruitless pondering, Lucas gave up thinking and decided to cheat.
A conjecture arose in Lucas's mind: The mastermind knows his relationship with Galactus. They brought Galactus here to rescue him, to restore him to his Lifebringer form.
Transcendent Perception: No.
Another conjecture arose in Lucas's mind: The mastermind does not know my relationship with Galactus. They brought Galactus here not to rescue him, but to kill with a borrowed knife.
Transcendent Perception: No.
Lucas listed various possibilities one by one and tested them with Transcendent Perception, finally locking onto one possibility and obtaining relevant information.
Information 1: The mastermind does not know Lucas's relationship with Galactus. They brought Galactus here to test Lucas's abilities.
Information 2: The mastermind learned of Lucas's approximate strength on Earth-616.
Information 3: The mastermind is not someone Lucas knows.
As for other cosmic beings Lucas didn't know, he didn't use Transcendent Perception to rule them out.
Transcendent Perception is mutual. If Lucas senses the other party, the other party will also sense Lucas.
That's impolite!