At this point, the Infinity Stones surrounding Karl inside the Shadow World numbered thirty-one in total:
Six Space Stones.
Five Reality Stones.
Five Time Stones.
Eight Mind Stones.
Four Soul Stones.
Three Power Stones.
Thirty-one Infinity Stones!
Karl was delighted.
Even if these Stones couldn't exercise the laws and abilities of their original universes, the enormous energy contained within them alone could keep Vastness operating at full power for more than a decade.
Meanwhile, the TVA personnel finally realized something was wrong.
The Infinity Stones scattered throughout the office moments ago had almost completely disappeared.
Only four remained on a nearby desk.
Just as several TVA employees turned toward them—
Whoosh!
A black-clad, red-eyed Shadow Ninja emerged from the darkness beneath the table.
Before anyone could react, it grabbed the remaining four Stones—two Power Stones and two Time Stones—and vanished back into the shadows.
That brought Karl's collection to thirty-five.
The TVA employees stared blankly at the empty desk.
Meanwhile, Karl had already shifted his vision elsewhere.
Through the shadows of the TVA headquarters, he began searching for the mysterious material inside their temporal equipment.
The substance that allowed their devices to manipulate time.
Soon, Karl discovered a heavily guarded golden chamber.
Inside were numerous green crystals radiating dense temporal energy.
Temporal crystals.
However, entering this room would be much more difficult.
Unlike the ordinary offices, this was clearly a restricted area.
Its surveillance and defensive systems were considerably more advanced.
Karl suspected that the instant a Shadow Ninja physically appeared inside, the TVA's alarms would activate.
Then everyone would know that an intruder had entered their headquarters.
After considering it briefly, Karl decided not to take the crystals yet.
He hadn't finished collecting the Infinity Stones.
There was no reason to alert the TVA prematurely.
Once everything else had been secured, he could steal the temporal crystals and immediately leave the Null-Time Zone.
Karl shifted his perception again.
One shadow after another became his eyes.
He couldn't help remembering a saying.
One man's trash was another man's treasure.
For the TVA, the Infinity Stones were practically worthless.
For Karl, they were enormous reservoirs of cosmic energy.
He almost wanted to laugh.
Not long afterward, he discovered something resembling an abandoned storage warehouse.
Inside was another collection of Infinity Stones and discarded TVA equipment.
Twelve Space Stones.
Ten Power Stones.
Nine Soul Stones.
Seven Mind Stones.
Thirteen Time Stones.
Ten Reality Stones.
There were also five Time Sticks, three TemPads, and a small temporal crystal.
Sixty-one additional Infinity Stones.
Adding them to the thirty-five Karl already possessed—
Ninety-six.
Ninety-six Infinity Stones!
Even Karl was briefly stunned by the number.
How many timelines had been pruned?
How many alternate universes had collapsed?
How many Variants had been captured for so many Infinity Stones to end up gathering dust inside the TVA?
Karl didn't dwell on it.
Whatever their origins, they belonged to him now.
Dark hands emerged from beneath the storage containers.
Whoosh!
Every Infinity Stone disappeared.
The Time Sticks vanished.
The TemPads vanished.
Even the small temporal crystal was taken.
Everything entered the Shadow World.
Karl then shifted his vision back toward the heavily guarded chamber he had discovered earlier.
It was time.
Rows of Shadow Ninjas emerged from the darkness.
The instant they materialized, they began transferring the temporal crystals into the Shadow World at maximum speed.
Their ability was simply too convenient.
The chamber's security systems were extremely sophisticated.
But from Karl's perspective, they had one glaring weakness.
They were designed around preventing ordinary intrusion and unauthorized access by TVA personnel.
Who would expect an enemy to appear directly from the shadows inside a headquarters located in the Null-Time Zone?
Karl himself had only physically existed in the Null-Time Zone for an instant before retreating into the Shadow World.
Beep!
The moment the first Shadow Ninja fully materialized, alarms erupted throughout the TVA headquarters.
Red warning lights flashed.
Through the shadows, Karl saw armed Hunters and Minutemen rushing toward the chamber.
But when he looked back inside—
the Shadow Ninjas had already transferred nearly every temporal crystal.
Karl smiled.
Too late.
Then—
Boom!
A powerful energy blast struck the final Shadow Ninja before it could return to the Shadow World.
Its body exploded instantly.
Karl's expression became serious.
According to his calculations, the ordinary TVA personnel should still have needed several seconds to arrive.
Yet the attacker had appeared almost instantly.
That meant it wasn't an ordinary Hunter or Minuteman.
A figure slowly entered Karl's view.
Golden ceremonial armor covered most of its body.
Its appearance was almost indistinguishable from that of a living humanoid.
But Karl immediately sensed something artificial about it.
A machine.
Karl's eyes narrowed.
A robotic Time-Keeper construct.
If this TVA followed the version Karl remembered from the MCU, the supposed Time-Keepers were merely mechanical puppets hiding the true authority behind the organization.
This construct was clearly far more advanced than the ordinary TVA personnel.
It lowered its head and examined the lingering energy left behind when the Shadow Ninja had been destroyed.
Apparently, it was attempting to identify the intruder.
A moment later, the chamber doors opened.
Several armed TVA personnel rushed inside.
But upon seeing the Time-Keeper construct already investigating the scene, they quickly stopped.
They exchanged several looks before withdrawing.
Karl found the situation almost amusing.
The TVA personnel were ordinary employees.
The Time-Keeper constructs were upper management.
And whoever truly controlled the organization stood above them all.
Inside the Shadow World, however, Karl's expression remained serious.
The construct had successfully captured traces of the Shadow Ninja's residual energy.
That was troublesome.
For a moment, Karl worried that they might trace him backward through time.
Then he remembered where they were.
The Null-Time Zone existed outside conventional time and contained connections to countless timelines and discarded temporal branches.
Tracing a single fleeting energy signature through that chaos wouldn't be easy.
And even if they eventually succeeded—
Karl intended to be long gone.
He stopped observing the Time-Keeper construct.
His vision shifted through the headquarters once more.
Now he needed somewhere secluded to leave.
Remaining hidden inside the Shadow World wasn't a problem.
But unless Karl manifested himself in the Null-Time Zone again, he couldn't activate the captured temporal coordinates and return normally.
Eventually, he found an isolated corner far from the alarmed sectors.
Karl's true body appeared there for an instant.
Green temporal energy immediately enveloped him.
Whoosh!
Before anyone could detect him, Karl disappeared from the Null-Time Zone.
...
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