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The Eye of Agamotto floated up from his chest once more. This mystical artifact, named after one member of the Vishanti Trinity, concealed the secrets of time itself.
Reversing the time of destroyed objects was taboo when using this artifact. Yet there was no punishment attached to that taboo; it relied solely on self-restraint to preserve the proper flow of time.
As for rewinding the dead in an attempt to resurrect them—that was simply impossible. At most, their physical injuries could be restored, but the person would still remain dead. Death was not something that could be challenged.
With the Eye of Agamotto, Tony Stark searched through countless possible futures, seeking the solution with the highest chance of success.
The right hand raised before him constantly accelerated through time.
At times, the sleeve transformed into a suit-style design. At times, it became an empty forearm. At other times, it wore casual clothing instead.
During the process, Tony Stark saw several strange mechanical armors filled with futuristic aesthetics. The most common was a red-and-gold armored arm—the exact color combination he liked best. There were other color schemes too, though they appeared less often.
Finally, the flowing phantoms of time came to a stop.
Tony Stark's right forearm became covered by a sleek red-and-gold armored gauntlet that fit close against the skin. There were no obvious welds or screw holes, clearly the product of far more advanced assembly technology.
The one thing that utterly clashed with his sense of aesthetics was the five differently colored gems embedded across the knuckles and back of the hand.
The instant he equipped the gauntlet, his body shuddered.
A sharp instinct seized his mind, as though some inspiration had suddenly clicked into place. At the same time, every fiber of his being instinctively rejected what he was about to do.
At that moment, Ancient One sighed softly.
"Stark, you should understand this: wishes must be made carefully. Because your wish will not always be fulfilled the way you imagine."
"But this is what you wanted me to do too, isn't it?"
Tony Stark had never intended to resist fate—as long as it was also something he himself wanted.
He had spent over twenty years opposing things simply for the sake of opposing them, always going against what others wanted. The results had been unsatisfying. He even regretted some of it.
So long ago, he had already made up his mind.
He would only follow his own will.
Whether the outcome was good or bad, at least it would be the decision he was most satisfied with.
The hand wearing the Infinity Gauntlet rose high into the air.
The creature battling Cyclops seemed to sense something. In one motion, it shattered the illusion barrier established by the Sorcerer Supreme.
Floating in midair, its half-blind eyes—burst open and blood-red—looked down upon those hiding inside, including Tony Stark with the six Infinity Stones on his hand.
So this is how it ends?
That's fine too…
This was the final fragment of rational thought left within the maddened being.
Meeting its gaze, Tony Stark snapped his fingers with a crisp metallic click and declared:
"The Sentry never existed. Let everything return to the proper course!"
Normally, the wish-granting power gathered from all six Infinity Stones could not be exploited through loopholes like this—using the Time Stone to borrow a completed Infinity Gauntlet from the future and make a wish.
If Tony Stark had merely been an ordinary mortal, then the moment he put on this crude self-made Infinity Gauntlet, his life would have entered a final countdown. Whether he made a wish or not, his ending would not change.
But hidden within his brain was a secret of the same level as the Infinity Stones themselves.
The Mind Stone paid the cost of the wish in his place, making the impossible possible—allowing him to use a future Infinity Gauntlet to make a wish.
For the wealthy, what mattered was whether the price they paid could buy happiness or growth.
Only those who possessed nothing obsessed over every little loss, hoarding everything like hamsters dragging scraps back into their nests, unwilling to part with a single thing.
Whether Tony Stark knew the secret hidden within his brain or not, he did not hesitate in this moment.
Thus, the not-yet-fully-formed Mind Stone shattered completely, dispersing from the universe with no possibility of restoration.
Only a stone could destroy another stone. That principle never changed.
And the moment his wish came true, the world itself began to distort.
Almost everyone was swept into it, dragged back toward the "proper course." Even it was no exception.
Clad in red-and-blue battle armor, its form gradually faded before vanishing entirely, returning to where it belonged.
Only the Sorcerer Supreme did not obediently submit to the power of the Stones.
The white-bearded old man in crimson robes watched as a young, bald monk dressed in brown robes approached him.
He paid no attention to his own body beginning to disintegrate into drifting ash. Instead, he simply greeted the newcomer.
"Ancient One."
The youthful bald monk smiled and nodded in return.
"Ancient One."
"I'll leave it to you."
"Leave it to me."
"Perhaps I should cast a Memory Charm. Make everyone forget that Tony Stark ever learned or used magic—including himself."
"That is a very wise choice, Ancient One."
This brief exchange between the two was proof that the white-bearded Sorcerer Supreme's will was still resisting the wish power of the six Stones, allowing him to retain his sense of self.
Unlike everyone else, whose consciousness had long since been submerged beneath the wish power of the Stones.
However, his existence could not continue in the same way, so he could only hand things over to another "Ancient One." That person was also himself, so he felt neither dissatisfaction nor regret.
Tony Stark's wish of "everything returning to the proper course" also restored shattered Manhattan.
The heavily devastated New York returned to the state it had been in before the Sentry/Void rampage.
All the lives lost during the catastrophe were restored as well.
No matter what injuries they had suffered in their final moments, they were now completely healed.
The Sentry's great battle in Manhattan, the heroic deeds he had once performed—every trace connected to him was erased from the world, or had its history distorted.
Because very few people could calmly face the experience of being murdered or dying accidentally.
Rather than allowing New York's psychiatric clinics to make a fortune afterward, it was better for everyone to forget.
That had been Tony Stark's original intention.
The Sentry should have disappeared completely under the wish power of the Infinity Stones.
But the force that had killed him did not belong to this universe.
The remnants of that power caused the Sentry's corpse to remain where it was. Only every memory and record of him within the universe was forgotten or altered.
Naturally, this situation attracted the attention of a certain existence.
The souls that had already entered her hands were suddenly dragged back one after another into the world of the living.
Such a thing had never happened before.
No deity had ever dared offend Death itself.
As the skeletal entity cloaked beneath a vast hood, wielder of multiversal authority, Death would not be affected by the Infinity Stones of a single universe.
Finding the source of this incident was, of course, not difficult.
And for such an offense, she had to inflict a sufficiently painful punishment upon the instigator.
Otherwise, if people repeatedly came to snatch souls from her grasp, would Death's dignity not be trampled into the dirt?
As for those who had returned to life, they no longer belonged under her jurisdiction anyway.
Unfortunately, within their own universe, the wishes made by all six Infinity Stones together were among the very few things Death could not interfere with.
She could do nothing to the Infinity Stones, even though those stones became worthless once removed from their native universe.
The wish-maker had used one Infinity Stone as the price, blocking Death's right to demand any additional payment or punishment.
Within a single universe, the wish of the six Stones was not something that could be easily interfered with or violated.
Even after learning the full chain of cause and effect, Death still wished to leave behind her own mark to express her displeasure.
No one could—or should—snatch the dead back from her grasp.
So she nudged the fate of one soul that had been dragged back by the power of the six-Stone wish, replacing that person's destiny with the destiny of another universe.
"Return to the proper course," wasn't it?
But from the perspective of the multiverse, exactly which "proper course" one returned to was quite an interesting question.
After all, Death had not violated the wish power of the Infinity Stones. Such an action was permitted.
Even though other entities on her level turned their gaze toward that slight disturbance, none of them stepped forward to stop her.
This accidental attention had already gone far enough.
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