"What the hell is going on?"
There was a saying that flood and time were both impossible to reverse.
Nobody could stay calm when something so blatantly impossible was happening in front of them—at the very least, Tony couldn't.
"It seems to be a magic that reverses time! Master must have left it behind, in order to keep the existence of Dark Dimension hidden," Mordo said when he realized that time was reversing for everyone other than the group.
Mordo felt that it couldn't be anything other than a spell that Ancient One had prepared. Ancient One probably didn't want normal people to know of magic, much less the invasion from the Dark Dimension.
The sudden appearance of Dark Dimension that turned broad daylight into midnight would've caused immense panic among the New York City populace.
If the time stop was simply released once Dark Dimension stopped being a threat, the memory of the invasion would've still remain as traumatic memories.
Left unchecked, the memories would eventually reveal the existence of magic and other dimensions, and spread chaos across the world.
Keeping the world in the dark was definitely preferable than creating a chaotic world. It might be a bit immoral, but it was undoubtedly the right choice.
...
Since the reversal of time was an unnatural phenomena to begin with, the speed of the reversal was not identical to the time being reversed. It only took less than a minute to reverse the last ten minute of time.
Time stopped again when the reversal finished, just for a moment, before the noise of the city and its people finally returned.
The voices of passers-by talking, the sound of cars honking, and the pleasant sound of pop music coming from street shops all became normal and clearly reached everyone's ears.
The world finally returned to normal!
None of the people who had just been returned in time could have known that there was a Sorcerer Supreme that had protected the Earth for centuries, and ultimately sacrificed herself to save the world.
She used her own life to resist the invasion of the Dark Dimension and successfully expelled the darkness from this world! The radiance of the sun had only returned through her sacrifice.
"Ignorance is bliss!" Captain America sighed. He had suddenly learned about too many things at once: existence of secret mages group and even alien dimensions that wanted to consume Earth.
Steve felt somewhat envious of ordinary people. Although their lives were much less exciting, they did not need to worry about the safety of the world!
But Steve would never regret his choice. He was Captain America: no matter how much stronger his enemies were, he would always stand to protect those that he wanted to protect!
...
"Ugh! What happened?! My head hurts..."
A man in fancy clothes and wearing expensive watch groaned when the world finally returned to normal. He suddenly stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, crouching and holding his head while crying out in pain.
His hair was meticulously combed, and he carried a dignified air. He was the model example of a successful man.
"Stephen, what's wrong? Hold on, take a deep breath and control your breathing! I'll call the ambulance right now!"
A very beautiful woman that walked beside him hurriedly spoke to him. Her tone was anxious, but her demeanor was surprisingly calm and practiced.
She propped the man's body, preventing him from falling to the ground, before taking out her phone and dialing the emergency hotline.
"Phew...it's alright, Christine, I feel better now. There's no need to call the ambulance," Right before the woman pressed dial, the man suddenly spoke up and stopped her.
"Stephen...are you sure you're fine now?" The woman asked suspiciously. Just to be safe, she didn't leave the dialing mode yet.
"I'm a doctor; I know about my own body. It was probably just some low blood pressure or something. I'm fine now!"
The man stood up again and moved his body to show that he was really fine now.
"Stephen, I think we should just go back and get you checked to be safe! That surely didn't look like a low blood pressure!"
The woman named Christine was still worried.
"It's fine, I'll just do a self check when we get back. Let's just continue with our date, alright? Didn't you say you're going to pick a watch for me? There's a watch shop ahead, let's go take a look!" Stephen brushed off Christine's proposal, and instead casually took the lead before she could reply.
"Don't you think you're a little too self-centered? You never listen to others," Christine helplessly complained to herself before following the man in front of her.
Despite Stephen's casual attitude, his heart was still racing uncomfortably. He felt as if his brain had been forcibly stuffed with unknown imageries.
The dark sky that seemed to have turned into another world, the panicked pedestrians running away, the cars that exploded one after another, all stopped in place like statues after a thick green light swept by.
"What the hell happened? How did these fragments of memories ended up in my brain?"
The questions lingered in Stephen's thoughts. He had the gift of photographic memories, so he knew for sure that these memories were not his. But then, how did they appear inside his mind?
"Stephen! Stephen! Are you really alright? I knew we should've returned to the hospital and give you a good check!"
Christine's voice once again interrupted Stephen's thought.
"No, no, I'm just thinking about the gift that I should give you!"
Stephen deflected her concern.
...
Li Yue and the others had no way of knowing what had happened to Stephen, but it wasn't like they didn't have their own problem.
The removal of the temporal spell meant that Kaecilius and his followers were also freed and regained their freedom.
The moment Li Yue realized about this, he immediately waved his hands and transported all of them into the Mirror Dimension!
"Li Yue? How did you get here?" Kaecilius exclaimed when he saw Li Yue suddenly appear. After all, they were relatively good friends until just a little while ago.