Bucharest lay in ruins... It was now a shocking crater that stretched as far as the eye could see, with only a solitary figure standing at its center...
The black sun on his chest had dimmed, and the Sentinel armor retracted like flowing water.
Sean exhaled a heavy breath, his pale face showing signs of exhaustion. This had been an unprecedented battle... It was a mental duel with Mephisto, where both sides had pushed their willpower to the absolute limit.
One had endured endless cycles of death and torment, while the other had strained under the overwhelming burden of energy output. Comparatively, the latter had it slightly easier.
Being torn apart thousands of times, flesh stripped away again and again, had robbed the Hell lord of any desire to live. That unending, horrifying agony was enough to shatter even the strongest will.
Meanwhile, every cell in Sean's body trembled... his muscles ached as if they had been pushed beyond their limits. His indestructible body now felt like a machine that had been overclocked to the brink.
Yet, he hadn't come away empty-handed. The faintly glowing progress bar in his mind had shifted slightly, inching ever closer to the 50% threshold...
Early explosive growth naturally led to slower progress later on, and Sean wasn't surprised by this. As long as he kept moving forward steadily, he would eventually reach his goal.
A circular portal, traced by sparks, expanded to human size. The Sorcerer Supreme, draped in a flowing white robe, stepped through, her bald head gleaming under the morning sun.
"You Kamar-Taj sorcerers are like the police... always showing up after everything is over to clean up."
Ignoring the young man's teasing remark, the Ancient One stamped her foot. Invisible ripples spread outward from her, cracks like spiderwebs fracturing the surrounding space as if a giant mirror had shattered, its fragments reassembling into countless tiny pieces.
In less than thirty seconds, the near-flattened ruins of Bucharest were enveloped within the Mirror Dimension...
With a flick of her sleeve, the Ancient One brought her hands together in an intricate gesture, and the emerald-glowing gem in her possession responded, its layered forbidden spells unraveling to reveal a shimmering, oval gemstone.
It was the Eye of Agamotto! The supreme artifact wielded by each Sorcerer Supreme, capable of manipulating time and bending the laws of reality.
A massive green ring of light materialized at the Ancient One's fingertips. She froze Bucharest's ruins in this moment, studying them briefly before dispelling the Mirror Dimension.
Her hands rotated, guiding the esoteric incantations from the Book of Cagliostro. The power of the Eye of Agamotto surged, its emerald glow flickering like countless illusions collapsing and reforming in an endless cycle.
"Kaecilius invaded Kamar-Taj again," the Ancient One explained as she worked, "He sought to use the Sanctum Sanctorum to destroy all three Sanctums and disrupt the material world's nodes."
"You don't look so good," Sean observed, frowning at the Sorcerer Supreme's weakened presence, as if she had just endured a brutal fight.
"Dormammu," she replied, her hands never stopping as the green ring pulsed with hidden runes, "I was nearly dragged into the Dark Dimension by Kaecilius' forbidden spell. I briefly clashed with Dormammu before barely escaping."
Her tone was light, but the implications were clear. Mephisto had rallied every possible ally... vampires, werewolves, the rogue sorcerer Kaecilius, even Dormammu himself... all to keep the Sorcerer Supreme occupied while he carried out his grand design.
What the Hell lord hadn't accounted for was Sean... a variable that shouldn't have existed in this game. Yet through an unspoken alliance with the Ancient One, he had stepped onto the board and turned the tide.
"So this is the power of the Eye of Agamotto?"
Sean studied the supreme artifact hovering between the Ancient One's palms. Its emerald light cascaded over her arms like liquid, weaving into intricate rings. As she rotated her hands, time itself manifested in tangible form.
It was as if Sean stood above the river of time, unaffected as he witnessed this breathtaking spectacle. The world rewound like a film reel being dragged backward.
Swirling dust and smoke dissipated into nothingness. The towering plume of ash in the sky shrank as if erased by an unseen hand.
Shattered matter reassembled from nothing, ruined buildings first reverting to broken debris before rapidly repairing themselves. The colossal crater beneath their feet filled with soil and sand, grain by grain.
Constitution Square's surrounding structures, the cars parked along the roads, the faded billboards, the countless shops... all were restored to their former states at a steady, unyielding pace.
Time...
An abstract concept, a parameter describing the progression of events, one of the seven fundamental dimensions of physics... it now revealed itself to Sean in a way he had never imagined possible.
This region's flow of time existed independently from the rest of the world, as if a single fragment had been plucked out and reversed. Bucharest was being rewound.
"This is the power of the Eye of Agamotto," the Ancient One confirmed.
She and Sean walked side by side through the recovering city. Countless particles of dust reassembled into bricks, steel, and concrete, reforming into towering skyscrapers and elegant buildings.
"But using it comes at a cost." The Sorcerer Supreme glanced at the emerald gemstone bending the laws of reality, "Everything has an end. Disturb the natural order, and unexpected consequences will follow..."
"...No one can predict when a single pebble dropped into water might eventually stir a tidal wave." Her gaze lingered on Sean's youthful face, a silent warning in her eyes.
By now, most of the city had been restored. The Ancient One stepped into a café, pulled out a chair and sat down with visible exhaustion. Wielding the Eye of Agamotto clearly took its toll, especially after her confrontation with Dormammu.
"My perspective is the opposite of yours," Sean said softly, taking a seat across from the world's most powerful sorcerer, "Only change can bring life. Stagnant waters hold no hope..."
"Time will judge all things in the end."
The Ancient One closed her eyes briefly. The café, now perfectly restored, was quiet and peaceful, a vase of blooming carnations resting on the table.
Sean tapped his fingers lightly against the wood and gazed out the window. Through the glass, he could almost feel time itself... its presence was tangible as it meticulously reconstructed the city he had half-destroyed.
It was as if time had reversed. The shattered buildings, the obliterated Palace of the Parliament, the vast crater that had been Constitution Square... all were being meticulously undone.
As for Mephisto, the annihilated vampires and werewolves... they seemed to exist outside the reversal's scope. The Ancient One had excluded them, leaving their fates unchanged.
"Time to go back…" Sean leaned back in his chair, his thoughts drifting.
This journey had ended, but an even greater one awaited.
The glittering cosmos, the boundless universe... All infinite wonders and futures yet to be explored...