"Successful Summoning: Summoning to obtain the inheritance of the ability 'Stand: The World.'"
Ethan Blake stared blankly for half a second as the notification echoed in his mind. A strange mix of disbelief and excitement surged through him as the system began transferring the information about the ability.
His first thought was completely ridiculous.
Was Pietro doomed to be single for the rest of his life?
If Pietro ever discovered that his romantic luck had been sacrificed as part of Ethan's summoning ritual, the guy would probably try to kill him on the spot. The image of Pietro chasing him around the Avengers compound with murderous intent flashed through Ethan's mind, and he nearly laughed.
But that thought vanished instantly as the meaning of the summon truly sank in.
This was enormous.
No—this was absolutely insane.
"Stand: The World — A manifestation of life energy that takes the form of a powerful humanoid entity. Among all stands, The World is considered one of the strongest. It is a close-range power-type stand with the ability to stop time. The name 'The World' originates from the twenty-first tarot card, symbolizing completion and ultimate power."
The air in front of Ethan suddenly distorted.
A tall humanoid figure appeared, standing silently before him. The stand was nearly two meters tall, its body built like a metallic warrior. It wore a yellow helmet, and two tank-like cylinders protruded from its back. The entire figure looked both mechanical and alive, radiating overwhelming pressure.
Ethan's heart pounded as he looked at it.
The words burst out of his mouth before he even realized it.
"ZA WARUDO!"
The World!!!
Every stand possessed a unique ability, and the signature power of The World was something legendary.
Time stop.
The moment Ethan shouted the command, the stand's eyes suddenly snapped open.
In the next instant, the universe froze.
Everything stopped.
At that moment, the entire world fell into absolute stillness.
Rivers no longer flowed. Ocean waves froze in mid-motion. Even sound itself ceased to exist. The planet seemed as if someone had pressed a pause button on reality itself.
No—this wasn't limited to Earth.
It felt like the entire universe had stopped.
Only Ethan remained capable of moving.
He tried shifting his body and immediately realized how strange the sensation was. Moving inside frozen time felt unnatural, like trying to run through invisible water. His muscles resisted every motion as if reality itself was pushing back against him.
Still, he forced himself to walk a few steps.
This was his first experience controlling stopped time, and the unfamiliar feeling made every movement awkward. But gradually, he began adapting to the strange rhythm of the frozen world.
Just as he started to grow comfortable with it, the effect abruptly ended.
Time resumed.
The moment normal flow returned, exhaustion slammed into him like a hammer.
Ethan staggered backward and collapsed onto the sofa, breathing heavily. His chest rose and fell rapidly as fatigue flooded every muscle in his body.
"Damn…"
During the Battle of New York earlier, he had fought continuously for more than two hours without feeling this drained. Yet a single use of The World's ability had left him completely exhausted.
In his current condition, using "ZA WARUDO" again was impossible.
He estimated it would take at least half an hour for his stamina to recover.
As for the duration of the time stop, Ethan had quietly counted using his own heartbeat while the ability was active.
The result was roughly seven seconds.
Seven seconds wasn't extremely long, but it definitely wasn't short either. In high-level battles, even a fraction of a second could determine life or death.
Seven seconds was more than enough to change everything.
Ethan leaned back and imagined a terrifying scenario.
First, he stops time.
Then he unleashes dozens of Atomic Collapse beams at once.
Could Thanos survive that?
Ethan honestly wasn't sure.
Thanos' durability was legendary. According to everything Ethan knew about the Marvel universe, the Mad Titan possessed monstrous strength, endurance, recovery ability, and reflexes. His skin was practically indestructible.
Across the events of the Infinity War and Endgame timeline, only one person had truly pierced Thanos' defense.
Thor.
And that was when Thor wielded Stormbreaker while in his most explosive state.
Even Tony Stark, wearing the most advanced nanotech armor ever built, had barely managed to scratch Thanos' face. That tiny wound had been enough for Thanos to acknowledge him with respect.
Thinking about an opponent like that gave Ethan a slight headache.
He waved his hand dismissively.
Forget it.
There were still six or seven years before the real confrontation with the Mad Titan. That was an eternity for someone with a summoning system. If he kept accumulating summons during that time, he would definitely obtain dozens more powerful abilities.
When the time came, he could always sacrifice something else from Pietro.
Maybe Pietro's hairline.
If he got lucky enough to summon something truly absurd—like the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception—then forget Thanos. Even a god would be killed on the spot.
While Ethan was still casually pondering whether Pietro's future hairline or his next lifetime of romance should be the next sacrifice, something unusual happened elsewhere on Earth.
High in the Himalayas, inside Kamar-Taj, the Eye of Agamotto hanging on the chest of the Sorcerer Supreme suddenly burst with brilliant green light.
The glow flashed intensely before gradually fading.
The Ancient One, who had been quietly meditating while studying magical principles, immediately opened her eyes.
Her expression changed.
With a calm gesture, she opened the Eye of Agamotto and removed the Time Stone contained within.
Through her connection with the artifact, she immediately sensed what had happened.
Seven seconds earlier, time itself had been forcibly stopped.
Someone had frozen the flow of time.
The Ancient One frowned slightly.
Who could do something like that?
The Time Stone allowed its wielder to manipulate time, but what she had just sensed felt different. The pause had not come from the Stone's power.
Could some multiversal-level entity have entered this universe?
The possibility made her uneasy.
Even with the Time Stone in hand, she would have no chance of winning against a being of that level.
"I just hope this visitor isn't interested in Earth," she murmured quietly.
The Ancient One had carried the title of Sorcerer Supreme for far too long. If possible, she would gladly pass the responsibility to her future successor in a few years and finally step down from the burden.
Far away in Asgard, another powerful being also noticed the disturbance.
Odin sat upon his throne, holding the spear Gungnir while judging Loki's crimes. As the Allfather spoke, he suddenly paused mid-sentence.
A faint wrinkle appeared between his brows.
He had sensed a brief fluctuation in time.
Odin turned his gaze toward the distant direction of Earth.
"Playing with time again, Ancient One?" he muttered.
Without dwelling on it further, he returned his attention to Loki's trial.
Meanwhile, deep within the far reaches of the universe, on a desolate world shrouded in deathly silence, a massive figure sat upon a throne.
Thanos.
The Titan stared into the endless void of space.
He possessed neither divine magic nor supernatural powers, but his cursed intellect allowed him to perceive truths hidden from most beings in the universe.
And he had noticed something.
A subtle change had just occurred in the fabric of reality.
For a moment, Thanos' eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
Had the universe truly reached the limit of what it could endure?
If that was the case, then perhaps his plan needed to accelerate.
Back on Earth, Ethan remained completely unaware of the ripple his experiment had caused.
He was still focused on studying The World.
After all, time stop wasn't the stand's only ability.
As a close-range power-type stand, The World's physical strength was also terrifying. During one test, Ethan commanded it to unleash a barrage of punches.
The result shocked him.
Even his telekinetic wall with a strength of one thousand tons was shattered by The World's fists during the relentless punching barrage.
In terms of raw physical strength, the stand surpassed Ethan by an enormous margin.
Even if Ethan reduced the telekinetic barrier to one hundred tons of force, he still wouldn't be able to break it with a single punch unless he enhanced himself with additional abilities like Armament Haki.
Unfortunately, there was one limitation.
The World was a close-range stand, meaning it could only operate within ten meters of Ethan's body.
Ethan frowned slightly.
That restriction was annoying.
If the stand didn't have such a limited range, its combat potential would be even more terrifying.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.
The Woodcutter's Spring.
What would happen if he threw The World into that spring?
Would the stand's range restriction disappear?
Or would it evolve into something even stronger?
....
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