Chương 79: Chapter 79: A Bizarre Method of Fortune-Telling 

Following B-15, who was still under the Ancient One's compulsion spell, Luke and his entourage navigated the labyrinthine, retro-futuristic corridors of the TVA until they finally arrived in front of a pair of massive, ornate golden elevator doors. 

"So, those Space Lizard 'Time-Keepers' are up there?" Luke asked, looking at the massive contingent of armed Minutemen standing guard in front of the elevator. So this is where all the security went. 

A woman dressed in a distinct, higher-ranking uniform stepped forward from the line of guards. "Halt!" 

"Who is she?" Luke asked B-15. 

"Judge Ravonna Renslayer," B-15 replied mechanically. 

"It appears you have somehow managed to mind-control our operative. This is your final warning: release her, surrender your weapons, and submit to the judgment of the Time Variance Authority! If you refuse, the Time-Keepers will punish you severely!" Ravonna stated, her face dark with fury. 

"Yeah, that sounds super intimidating. But we actually came here specifically to see those Time-Keepers. Can we just skip all this bureaucratic nonsense and have them come down here instead?" Luke asked with a bright, cheerful smile. 

Ravonna's expression didn't improve; it only grew darker. 

"Seriously, how does she manage to make her face look that dark?" Luke whispered to Tony, who was still encased in the bulky dark energy plate armor. 

"Uh... natural talent?" Tony tried to rub his chin thoughtfully, but his armored gauntlet merely clinked against his solid metal faceplate. 

"Weird talent," Luke shook his head. 

He casually released a pulse of dark energy. 

As the dark ripple washed across the sterile floor, Shadow Ninjas immediately responded to the call. In mere seconds, pitch-black shadows flooded the brightly lit corridor, completely plunging the area in front of the elevator into absolute darkness. 

"Alright, now I'm giving you a warning: Move out of the way, or get moved," Luke said, his smile vanishing. 

"Never," Ravonna sneered. She aggressively ignited her pruning baton. The dozens of Minutemen behind her immediately followed suit, their glowing orange weapons casting long, eerie shadows across the corridor. 

Luke simply clapped his hands. 

Thousands of Shadow Ninjas simultaneously rose from the darkness in perfect, terrifying unison, drawing their razor-sharp katanas. The sheer, overwhelming number of lethal assassins instantly dwarfed the TVA guards. 

The two sides stood in a tense, silent standoff. 

Luke soaked in the heavy, dramatic atmosphere for about five seconds before shaking his head in absolute boredom. 

"What are you guys standing around for? Chop her up!" Luke commanded with a casual wave. 

The Shadow Ninjas surged forward instantly. 

"Watch out!" 

Ravonna's eyes narrowed as she witnessed their terrifying speed. She instantly slammed her hand onto the temporal manipulation device on her waist. Time seemed to slow down around her as she accelerated her own personal temporal flow. Her movements became a blur as she swung her baton, easily deflecting several incoming katanas. 

She prepared to prune the first few ninjas, but before she could strike, dozens of black blades violently erupted directly from the walls and the ceiling around her! 

Ravonna twisted her body desperately, utilizing her accelerated time to avoid lethal strikes to her vitals. However, there were simply too many blades. Several katanas pierced non-lethal areas of her body, violently pinning her against the corridor wall. 

The Minutemen behind her were significantly less fortunate. They couldn't react in time and were brutally skewered, their bodies turned into human pincushions by the relentless onslaught. 

To spare Tony's delicate psychological health from the gruesome sight, Luke ordered the ninjas to immediately pull the corpses into the Dark Dimension. The dozens of dead Minutemen provided a pathetic, microscopic fraction of an Energy Point. 

Luke casually strolled up to Ravonna, who was currently pinned to the wall, gasping in agony and completely unable to move. 

"So, about those Time-Keepers. Can I see them now?" Luke smiled pleasantly. 

The ninjas holding the blades twisted them slightly. Ravonna screamed in agony as they forcefully yanked her off the wall and dragged her to the side. 

Luke ordered B-15 to open the golden elevator doors. He then led the group, including a slightly green-looking Tony, into the spacious car. 

Glancing at Tony's pale face, Luke's mouth twitched. 

"Dude, you've personally killed dozens of terrorists in the Middle East. Why do you still get so squeamish around blood?" 

Tony shook his head. "My repulsors and missiles usually just vaporize people or blow them up cleanly. Your guys... all they do is slash, stab, and dismember. Do they only know how to use swords?!" 

"Actually, they're highly proficient in a vast array of martial arts weaponry," Luke mused thoughtfully. "For instance: rope darts, shuriken, throwing daggers, caltrops... oh, and deep-tissue massage..." 

Seeing Tony's utterly speechless expression, Luke chuckled. 

"Well, their preferred weapons do tend to cause incredibly messy, bloody wounds. It can't be helped." 

"Why don't they just use magic?" Tony asked curiously. 

Seeing that Tony had recovered his composure, Luke nodded. 

"Honestly, I've always wondered about that. I provide them with virtually limitless dark energy, but for some reason, they are completely incapable of casting spells." 

The Ancient One, who had been standing silently in the corner observing the TVA architecture, chimed in. "That is because, strictly speaking, your Shadow Ninjas do not possess souls." 

"Souls? But earlier, you literally said technology could be used to cast magic! Why is a soul absolutely required to cast a spell?!" Tony craned his neck, trying to look past Luke to ask the Ancient One. 

"Technological artifacts can be enchanted to channel magical energy because they are forged from solid, mundane matter tethered to the physical plane. Your minions, however, are essentially bizarre, semi-sentient constructs composed entirely of raw, conceptual energy. In order to manipulate ambient magical energy externally without a physical vessel, a distinct, conscious soul is required to act as the anchor," the Ancient One explained smoothly. 

"Ah, I see. Looks like I need to find a way to feed them some souls later. 'You are what you eat,' right?" Luke nodded, finally understanding the limitation. 

The massive golden elevator was surprisingly spacious, so Luke had ordered the ninjas to drag the bleeding, groaning Ravonna inside with them. If they ran into anything unknown at the top that B-15 or Mobius didn't know about, they could interrogate the Judge. 

"Sir, I do not wish to interrupt, but... may I use a Time Collar to heal her? My suit is quite expensive, and I would very much prefer not to get her blood on it," Mobius asked politely, pointing at the bleeding Judge. 

Luke glanced back at Mobius. He didn't actually want Ravonna to bleed to death before they reached the top anyway. 

With a wave of his hand, the ninjas smoothly pulled their blades out of Ravonna's body. 

Ravonna cried out and collapsed, but Mobius—completely ignoring the blood pooling on his cheap suit—caught her. 

He snatched her temporal reset device from her belt and quickly punched in a code. 

A wave of localized temporal energy washed over Ravonna. In seconds, her deep stab wounds completely vanished, the torn fabric of her uniform repaired itself, and the pale, sickly color of blood loss vanished from her face. 

"That is genuinely fascinating technology," Luke remarked, watching the rapid healing process. He suddenly realized this technology could be incredibly useful for Tony's future arc reactor removal surgery. 

If the first surgery failed, they could just 'rewind' Tony's body and try again! They could attempt the surgery hundreds of times until they got it right! 

The only downside was that Tony would probably have to experience the agonizing pain of open-heart surgery multiple times. But hey, a little suffering builds character, right? 

Right, Tony? 

Standing nearby, feeling perfectly safe inside his thick magical armor, Tony suddenly felt a violent chill run down his spine, as if someone was actively plotting something horrific against him. 

Luke ordered the ninjas to hold their blades firmly against Ravonna's neck to ensure she didn't try anything stupid again, and turned back to watch the floor indicator panel above the elevator doors. 

'I am so incredibly jealous of this elevator. It's been going up for like three minutes, and we still haven't reached the top floor.' 

Finally, with a soft ding, the golden doors slid open. 

Several Shadow Ninjas immediately melted into the shadows and surged out to scout the room. After confirming there were no hidden ambushers or traps, Luke slowly stepped out. 

He looked around the massive, dimly lit, incredibly grandiose chamber. Aside from three massive, bizarre-looking figures sitting motionless on high pedestals at the far end of the room, it was completely empty. 

"So... where are these so-called Time-Keepers?" Luke turned to ask the captives. 

Mobius and B-15 shook their heads blankly. Despite being veteran employees with centuries of service, they had never actually been permitted into this sacred chamber before. 

"Folina?" Luke asked, looking at the Judge. 

"Uh, Ravonna," Mobius whispered helpfully. 

"Whatever. Ravonna, where are the Time-Keepers?" Luke demanded. 

Ravonna sighed heavily, a look of absolute, fanatical devotion on her face. "The beings sitting before you... are the Time-Keepers." 

As if waiting for their dramatic cue, the three previously motionless, lifeless-looking figures on the pedestals suddenly began to twitch bizarrely. 

"How strange... why are there uninvited guests in our sacred chamber?" 

The three ugly, reptilian creatures spoke in unison, emitting an incredibly eerie, synthesized, echoing laugh. 

"God, that sounds absolutely awful!" Luke grimaced, covering his ears. He casually pointed at the lizard who was laughing the loudest. "Chop its head off." 

A Shadow Ninja blurred forward. With a single, brutal slash, the lizard's head was severed from its body and bounced across the floor. 

It didn't bleed. Instead, sparks of electricity crackled from the severed stump and the decapitated head. 

"I knew it. They're definitely not alive," Luke said, picking up the heavy, mechanical lizard head and inspecting the crude wiring. "These things are incredibly ugly. Do the TVA employees have terrible eyesight? How could anyone genuinely worship these cheap animatronics?" 

Seeing their comrade brutally decapitated, the remaining two robotic lizards instantly stopped laughing and froze in place. 

Luke nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, so where is the real Time-Keeper pulling the strings?" Luke tossed the robotic head aside and asked the remaining two. 

The two robots remained silent for a moment before simultaneously bursting into synchronized, synthesized laughter again. 

"Considering the—" 

Before they could finish the sentence, Luke had another ninja chop the head off the left robot. 

"Do not speak in stereo. The overlapping audio feedback is incredibly annoying," Luke sighed heavily. "If you're just using robotic proxies to speak for you, why build three of them?! You only need one! What a massive waste of resources!" 

Luke glared at the final remaining robot, warning it to behave and stop trying to act mysterious. 

The final robot dropped the creepy act and offered a surprisingly genial, slightly unhinged smile. 

"Originally, only the two Loki Variants were destined to reach my chamber. But somehow, completely irrelevant anomalies have arrived instead! Therefore, let us play a little game!" 

The robotic lizard pointed a mechanical claw toward a discarded pruning baton lying on the floor. 

"If you wish to find me, you must utilize that pruning baton to banish yourselves to the Void at the End of Time! There, you must defeat my beloved pet! Only then can you reach my true sanctuary, the Citadel at the End of Time!" 

The robotic lizard stood up, its synthesized voice filled with fanatical excitement. "And if you manage to reach the Citadel, you shall claim the ultimate prize—!" 

"The One Piece, right? Got it," Luke interrupted, nodding in complete understanding. He then ordered the ninja to chop the final robot's head off. 

"I swear, these supervillains are so incredibly cliché. Why do they always insist on setting up these elaborate, multi-stage obstacle courses?! If they were dealing with an actual shōnen protagonist, the hero would just use the obstacle course to farm XP and then one-shot the boss at the end!" Luke complained to Tony. 

"Yeah, well, you aren't exactly a standard protagonist either," Tony retorted. "What kind of hero actively avoids fighting the boss until they've literally hit the level cap in the tutorial zone?" 

"Fair point," Luke conceded. He picked up the discarded pruning baton. "So... I guess we have to use this stupid stick to go to the 'Void at the End of Time'?" 

He remembered the Shadow Ninjas that B-15 had pruned earlier. Were they currently trapped in this 'Void'? Should he actually go there? 

"You may proceed safely. Utilizing the Eye of Agamotto before I departed Earth, I foresaw that Tony Stark will successfully return to our timeline," the Ancient One stated calmly, pointing at Tony. 

"Wait, you didn't see my future?" Luke asked, curious. 

"The fundamental 'tier' of your dark energy far exceeds the capabilities of the Time Stone. As your raw power has grown, I am no longer able to actively pierce your temporal veil to observe your personal future," the Ancient One shook her head. 

"Hmm," Luke nodded thoughtfully, turning to look at Tony. "Alright. Next time I have to leave the universe on a dangerous mission, I'll come back and have you write a detailed diary entry about my current status." 

Seeing Tony's utterly confused expression, Luke grinned. "Think about it! Even if the Sorcerer Supreme can't see my future, she can just use the Time Stone to read your diary entry in the future! By reading what you wrote about me, I'll indirectly know if I survive the mission!" 

"What kind of bizarre, convoluted temporal communication method is that?!" Tony shook his head in absolute disbelief. 

Luke turned back to the Ancient One. "So it's settled! Before I leave on my next mission, I'll come ask you to look into the future and tell me what Tony wrote in his diary!" 

"Are you... seriously trying to use the Time Stone for fortune-telling?!" the Ancient One sighed helplessly, rubbing her temples. This boy possessed an absolute, unparalleled genius for discovering the most absurd, disrespectful applications for ancient, sacred magic. 

"No!" Luke adamantly denied the accusation. "Fortune-telling is basically guessing! Your method is 100% accurate!" 

My fists are clenching. My fists are actively clenching. 

The Ancient One took a deep, calming breath. She repeatedly reminded herself: He is my primary financial sponsor. I cannot hit him. If I hit him, he won't pay for the renovations.