The Ancient One smiled, as if seeing through Quinn's thoughts.
But she didn't dwell on the issue. Instead, she changed the subject and returned to the main topic. "You know all this so clearly—you must be from another world as well."
"Yes."
Quinn nodded in agreement.
He raised the teacup to his lips, lowered his eyes, and asked half-jokingly, "Will you guardians of Earth destroy me as a visitor from another world?"
"If we wanted to do that, we would have done it on the first day you crossed over." Mordo replied with a hint of irritation.
Quinn's habit of charging for everything made him uncomfortable, so he was no longer as courteous as before—though he still didn't let personal preferences influence his professional judgment.
"Kamar-Taj exists to defend against invasions from foreign dimensions. But the multiverse is vast and the cosmos mysterious. Occasional crossings between parallel universes happen from time to time. If we eliminated them indiscriminately, we wouldn't be guardians—we'd be executioners."
"Mordo..."
After the Ancient One called out her disciple's name, she hesitated before continuing. "When you call yourself a guardian, you've already been influenced by arrogance. Don't let these emotions affect you, or they'll be exploited."
"Yes, teacher!"
Mordo apologized solemnly.
The Ancient One nodded slightly, then looked at Quinn again. "We're not guardians—we simply hope that the place where we all live can develop and endure. You don't need to worry."
No, you are guardians.
Quinn wanted to say this, but seeing the Ancient One's serious expression, he found himself nodding involuntarily and didn't pursue the topic further.
Returning to the main subject, he said, "I can sense your strength. A powerful figure like you shouldn't be idle enough to deal with minor threats like demons. Why did you seek me out?"
"Those demons aren't as powerful as interdimensional threats, but they're far from minor." The Ancient One stared into Quinn's eyes. "I didn't pay much attention to you at first, but the demons surprised me—because I couldn't find them anywhere in the multiverse. And the same goes for you."
On the day Quinn crossed over, the Ancient One had sensed the anomaly in space-time and learned of his existence as a traveler.
But at that time, Quinn was just an ordinary person. The Ancient One hadn't cared—until the demons appeared. Then she re-examined the timeline and the multiverse.
Except for finding the demons and Quinn in future timelines, she couldn't locate any trace of them in other worlds of the multiverse.
And Quinn, whom she'd originally thought was just an ordinary person, would become a superhero with extraordinary strength and considerable influence in the future.
That's why she made time to find him.
What concerned her wasn't the harm the demons caused to society. As she'd said, these demons weren't minor threats, but they weren't as dangerous as interdimensional entities either.
And interdimensional gods were the threshold for her intervention.
Unless there was a crisis threatening humanity or Earth's destruction, the Ancient One wouldn't deliberately take action—unless the crisis came to her doorstep.
She hadn't sought out Quinn because he and the demons were from another world. She was worried about unknown changes in the multiverse that she couldn't observe, and whether people or creatures from other worlds would continue arriving.
Though most travelers were ordinary people or beings who crossed by accident and had no influence on the world's development, there were exceptions.
She'd traveled through the multiverse and seen a creature named Godzilla arrive in New York, beat up all the Avengers and super villains, and nearly destroy several cities completely.
She'd seen worlds where Attack on Titan appeared, with giants devouring people at will.
She even remembered when characters that originally only existed in comics appeared, fought against many gods in the Marvel universe, and nearly destroyed reality itself.
She still remembered travelers who infected worlds with terrible viruses.
Without foresight, one must have near-term worries.
Quinn and fifteen demons had crossed into this world within a year. She had to do something.
At least understand what had happened.
Otherwise, this time it was demons—what would it be next time?
What's that?
Why not search for answers in the future?
Because the future could change.
Especially for people or creatures like travelers who didn't belong to the native world—there were originally no records of them in the future. They only appeared after they crossed over.
This made exploring answers from the timeline pointless.
Facing the Ancient One's question, Quinn didn't answer directly. Instead, he said something else. "Although I know about the demons, they and I aren't from the same world."
"What?!"
Mordo looked at him in surprise.
The Ancient One fell silent, deep in thought.
Quinn smiled, ignoring their reactions, and continued. "Just as the Ancient One can understand the multiverse, I can also perceive many other worlds for certain reasons."
"...No wonder the temporal auras surrounding you are different. It turns out you really don't belong to the same world." The Ancient One took a deep breath.
Every time she observed the demons and Quinn, she'd felt a sense of dissonance. Now that Quinn had revealed it, she suddenly understood—it was the atmosphere of different eras, habits formed by different time periods.
"There are many changes in the multiverse that I can't prevent." Quinn continued. "But in the future, more and more travelers will come."
Mordo looked at the Ancient One. Her expression remained calm.
She thought for a moment and asked, "Do you know who will cross over?"
"I don't know." Quinn shook his head lightly, then immediately added, "But because of how crossing works, it's more difficult for powerful beings to traverse. So you don't need to worry too much, Ancient One."
"I see." The Ancient One nodded slightly. "Regardless, the world's self-protection mechanism still exists. If someone too powerful invades, it will respond—whether by suppressing the intruder or finding a chosen one to save the world. It won't let the intruder succeed so easily."
There were five creation gods in the Marvel universe: Infinity, Eternity, Death, Oblivion, and Galactus. Except for Galactus, who represented a specific cosmic function, the other four gods were concepts—or simply embodiments of the universe itself.
The universe was their body.
When something threatened their body, they would naturally seek a way to heal it.
Quinn hadn't read Marvel comics, but he'd watched plenty of short videos. He often saw scenarios like "XX universe crisis" where a certain superhero obtained some power or artifact to save the universe from disaster.
This was their way of self-preservation.
Of course, this didn't mean Quinn was opposed to them.
Because death was also one of the natural laws.
As long as the approach was correct, one could even gain the assistance of the five gods—or bring about the world's end.