Boom!
The endlessly flowing River of Time abruptly stilled.
The next second.
The River of Time seemed to explode like a fish, accompanied by splashing water, and Hawk, who had been sitting cross-legged on the riverbed, was now once again atop the River of Time.
Hawk looked down at his own timeline after closing the time loop.
A timeline flowed backward from the present, merging into the past timeline, then becoming one, forming a closed loop of time.
He had returned from the present to the past and met his daughter, Jean.
After he left, his daughter, Jean, went to New York City and found him.
From his daughter, Jean, he learned that his future self had met and accompanied her.
Then he came to Kamar-Taj, used the Time Stone, entered his own timeline, returned to the past, and met Jean.
Thus!
The time loop was closed, with no omissions.
Next.
"Contract!"
Hawk's mind stirred, and he opened his right hand, abruptly clenching it at the River of Time.
The next second.
Whoosh!
His timeline, the silver timeline, immediately leaped up from the River of Time, like a swimming dragon.
Scales and claws soared!
But... these were all time loopholes, like computer viruses. The reason for contracting the timeline was to eliminate these loopholes, to completely fix the timeline and make it flawless, so that no one in the future could invade his timeline like a hacker through these loopholes.
Hawk glanced at his loophole-ridden timeline, twitched the corner of his mouth, and once again sat cross-legged in mid-air above the River of Time, with the Shadow of Phoenix appearing behind him.
As the Shadow of Phoenix expanded, wisps of Phoenix Force, like streams, extended towards every loophole in the timeline.
As the Phoenix Force entered, the temporal loopholes were mending at a visible speed.
And during the mending process, Hawk's perception of time became increasingly clear and transparent.
In the Little Universe.
Golden light was spreading, and the Phoenix's eyes became increasingly clear. The Reality Stone, which Hawk had split into two for aesthetic reasons, now reunited.
But the Phoenix did not become a one-eyed Phoenix.
Because the Mind Stone became the new Phoenix eye.
Left eye Mind.
Right eye Reality.
The Phoenix's yellow and red eyes converged into a golden-yellow light, then, under the cleansing of the Phoenix Force, transformed into the golden light of a Gold Saint, beginning to paint Hawk's Silver Universe with golden hues.
Rumble!
The moment the golden light completely enveloped the entire Silver Universe, it did not stop but began a rhythm of expansion and conquest.
Accompanied by the roar at the edge of the Universe.
Hawk's Little Universe seemed to finally push open a long-sealed door, and golden light instantly surged in.
Just then.
Hawk, sitting cross-legged atop the River of Time, seemed to sense something, opening his eyes and looking along the River of Time.
In the future, a timeline at a certain node was now emitting an unparalleled aura, seemingly tempting Hawk to go and investigate.
"Tsk!"
"Do you take me for a fool?"
"The future cannot be observed."
"Besides..."
"I hate spoilers."
As Hawk's thoughts turned, he scoffed, ignoring how the future timeline at that node tempted him like a seductive harlot, and directly closed his eyes.
Seeing nothing, hearing nothing.
He wasn't crossing the river by feeling for stones.
He was crossing it by stepping on the shoulders of Odin and Ancient One, so he wouldn't make the same mistakes as Odin and Ancient One.
He preferred to hold the future in his own hands.
The future—
Created by himself, so he would have no regrets about the path he chose.
Hawk's thoughts cleared, and he no longer sensed the tempting future node. The moment his mind and body united, his aura instantly surged unpredictably.
Clang, clang!
The Phoenix cried to the heavens, its sound resonating.
After another five days at Kamar-Taj, just as before, Gwen, who was standing in the corridor admiring the apprentices practicing their magic during their morning exercises, heard the cry of the Phoenix and instinctively looked up towards the Kamar-Taj library.
In her sight.
A fiery Phoenix soared through the sky, its reflection cast upon the library's sky, spreading its fiery wings. Its yellow and red eyes, beneath the crimson flames, exuded a golden divine charm.
Wait.
Divine?
Gwen raised an eyebrow, seemingly realizing something. Just as she was about to seek out the Sorcerer Supreme, she saw the Sorcerer Supreme, clad in white robes, already beside her, and her eyes lit up.
"Sorcerer Supreme, did Hawk succeed?"
"More or less."
Ancient One also looked at the fiery Phoenix with its golden divine charm reflected in the library's sky, giving an ambiguous answer.
Gwen was slightly stunned by Ancient One's reply.
But just then.
The fiery Phoenix came quickly and left quickly, vanishing completely from above the library in the blink of an eye.
It seemed as if everything had just been an illusion.
Gwen looked at Ancient One.
Ancient One smiled slightly.
"Tea?"
"..."
When Hawk opened his eyes again, he found himself once more in that slightly dilapidated but cozy house.
This was where he and his sister were born.
Located in Brooklyn, three blocks from Steve Rogers's former residence, it was a typical U.S. architectural style, unremarkable from the outside.
But this was also the only remaining loophole in his own timeline that could not be automatically mended by the Phoenix Force and required him to manually fix it.
Hawk looked around, then, hearing sounds from the bedroom inside, his eyes flashed with x-ray vision, and he passed through the door into the bedroom.
The blonde woman and the bearded man were leaning on the bed, talking.
Mainly the bearded man was speaking, while the blonde woman gently stroked her very pregnant belly, listening with a smile.
Their conversation was nothing more than the bearded man painting a picture of the future.
Simply put, he was describing to his wife how, after the child was born, he would work even harder to move from Brooklyn to Manhattan as soon as possible. Then, they would have a big house with a lawn in front and a garden in the back, and even a swimming pool. In the future, they could take their child swimming in the backyard and invite friends and family over for a barbecue.
The bearded man vividly described the future scene.
The blonde woman looked at him with a gentle smile, expressing her belief in him, that he would surely lead their family out of poverty.
The woman stroked her belly: "Son, did you hear? Your dad can't wait to take you swimming when you grow up."
The bearded man also carefully touched the woman's belly with his somewhat rough big hands, his voice deep with a sense of responsibility: "Son, when you're older, I'll take you drinking and hunting."
Saying that.
The bearded man then looked at the woman: "I've found a new job, unloading at the dock container factory. The pay is double my last job."
The blonde woman, hearing this, was slightly startled and looked at the bearded man.
"Container factory? Haven't I heard that it's some kind of gang..."
"I'm just a worker, I'll just unload my cargo."
The bearded man grinned: "Although it's harder than the last job, the pay is higher. I've calculated that the extra money will be just enough for formula and your medical expenses."
The blonde woman heard this.
"But I don't want you to work so hard."
"Not as hard as you."
The bearded man stroked the woman's belly, looking at the blonde woman tenderly: "Amy, I will definitely work hard to give us a good life."
Amy Chloe.
That was the blonde woman's name.
Soon.
Time flew, arriving at the day the bearded man had his accident.
Hawk watched the bearded man and Amy kiss goodbye, and after the man left the house in high spirits, he saw the bearded man drive away in that old, rusty second-hand car. He then looked at Amy, standing at the door, holding baby him, watching the bearded man leave.
He thought for a moment, and the moment he turned, he was already sitting in the back seat of the bearded man's dilapidated car.
There were two infant car seats in the back.
They looked old but seemed to have been carefully maintained.
Hawk's gaze fell on the books related to construction on the passenger seat, next to which was a New York Public Library borrowing card.
The name on the card was Andrew Chloe.
That was the bearded man's name.
Hawk then looked at Andrew Chloe, whose face showed no厌恶 for going to work, only longing for a better future.
He hadn't fast-forwarded time here these days, in order to find the time loopholes here.
So... Hawk once again witnessed his and his sister's birth, and also witnessed how poor but how warm this family was.
Amy Chloe, like his sister, had congenital heart disease, so she was abandoned shortly after birth. Before adulthood, she had her heart roughly mended with free medical care.
But she couldn't work, especially after he and his sister Anya were born, she became even weaker than before.
So the entire burden of the family fell on Andrew Chloe's shoulders.
However... he was very optimistic.
Hawk had seen Andrew more than once, returning from work, exhausted, but after opening the door, a warm smile would appear on his face as he walked to the crib, picking up himself and his sister Anya and kissing them.
Whenever this happened, he also liked to sit on the sofa, watching Andrew and Amy laughing around baby him and Anya.
Because such a scene was what Anya often fantasized about after learning they had no parents.
So—
Hawk seemed to understand why this time loophole couldn't be mended.
He quietly followed Andrew after work, watching Andrew buy formula, clothes, and toys from the convenience store with his weekly paycheck, then leave the convenience store.
Hawk looked at the quiet, deserted alley next to the convenience store.
He knew very well what was going to happen next.
Because this alley was the end of Andrew's time... (End of chapter)
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