"Now that we've discussed me, let's talk about you." Loki extinguished her cigarette, took a sip of water, and said, "Actually, I haven't quite figured out what you guys do. What do you mean by the 'cosmic timeline'?"
Mobius paused for a moment, he first looked up at Loki, then spoke, "There are some basic concepts that I could explain to you, but don't expect to trap me in my words…"
Loki leaned back, propped her elbow on the armrest with her hand supporting her head, assuming a very relaxed posture, "Please, when it comes to future events of various timelines, I probably know more than you guys. Perhaps, you might have something you want to ask me?"
Suddenly, Mobius's expression became rigid. He was genuinely impressed by what Loki had said. He glanced out of the door, noticing that the guards were quite far from the door and there was no one else approaching, he lowered his voice and spoke,
"You have to understand, there are a lot of things out of our control in our job, I hope you won't get yourself into trouble...and don't trouble us either…"
"Don't worry, I understand." Loki leaned forward, also lowering her voice, "Perhaps even more than you do."
Mobius glanced to the side again and said, "If you didn't indeed differ from those ignorant Gods of Mischief, I definitely wouldn't have had such a long conversation with you…"
Mobius sighed, took a sip of water, and continued, "The so-called cosmic timeline is just a timeline, only that, different cosmos have different development directions and hence possess different timelines."
"Most cosmos have a past, present, and future timeline, or rather, they are actually different points on the same line. However, for the sake of easy management, events that have happened, are happening, and will happen, are categorized and recorded."
"In regards to the crime you committed, put simply, every time you travel back to the past, an extra point is added to the past timeline. This point, once recorded as happened, will outline a separate possibility."
"But I did not do anything on the past timeline." Loki said with a trace of doubt.
"It does not concern whether you did anything." Mobius shook his head, "Let alone you traveling back, even if you just elevate yourself above the cosmos and take a peek at the past timeline, a new possibility would arise."
"This behavior of yours could cause changes to what is happening, to what will happen in the future, and even possibly lead to the birth of a new cosmos…"
"In the Multiverse, most of the Individual Universes are born this way. When the same person makes different choices in the present time, different cosmos are formed, generating different timelines. Infinite timelines signify infinite possible cosmos…"
"But, the cosmic timeline wasn't there from the start." Mobius shook his head again and started to explain in detail,
"Initially, all cosmos only had one timeline, which we call the 'Sacred Timeline', or simply 'Timeline'. The birth of the cosmic timeline came after the shattering of the Sacred Timeline. We now call it 'Cosmic Timeline' to distinguish it from the Sacred Timeline."
"The Sacred Timeline is a single possibility where everything progresses as expected. Any deviation from the Sacred Timeline that creates other possibilities is considered a crime. This was the initial definition of a 'time criminal'."
"The scenes of Ragnarök that I showed you earlier were what should have happened in the Sacred Timeline, and according to the Cosmic Timeline, what most of the cosmos should have encountered."
Loki nodded to indicate she had understood this part of the content, looking at Mobius she asked, "So now, what does the Time Anomaly Management Bureau manage?"
"We still manage timelines." Mobius took a sip of water, "But now, our job is not to prevent the creation of other timelines, but to ensure the cosmic timeline, on the whole, remains in a balanced and stable state."
"You can think of the cosmos as a water tank and the timelines it can accommodate as water."
"The capacity of the water tank is limited. Some cosmos, due to different reasons, head towards destruction which can be equated to scooping water out of the tank. And in some cosmos, when different individuals make different choices, new universes are born which is analogous to pouring water into the tank."
"What we have to do is to ensure the rate at which water is being scooped out and the rate at which water is being poured in are basically the same. Neither can we let the water run dry nor let it overflow. This is our current mission."
"The main reason we arrested you is that your high-intensity time rewinds in a short period, is like constantly pouring water into the tank. If we didn't stop you and let you continue, how many cosmos would need to be destroyed to scoop the water out?"
"Wait a minute! I have an extremely important question!" Loki interrupted him, asking, "If you didn't interfere, would the water pouring in and scooping out of the cosmos be balanced?"
The expression on Mobius's face became stiff again. He remained silent for a long time, only to awkwardly wipe his mouth after a while, and said, "Great, you've asked the crucial question. The answer is... we don't know."
Seeing the way Loki was staring at him, Mobius lowered his gaze and said, "I'm just an employee. My company tells me that if we didn't maintain it, the cosmos would be destroyed, so we do it. As for whether it would really be destroyed without our intervention, no one knows."
Loki sighed, she had guessed this outcome. In order to get more information from Mobius, she shared a tiny bit of significant information, "A while ago, did certain changes occur in the cosmos?"
Mobius was shocked again. This time, he stared at Loki, as if he were seeing her for the first time. Loki pretended to be profound and said, "I told you before, I know more than you."
"If that's the case..." A very conflicted expression appeared on Mobius's face. He gritted his teeth, exhaled, and said, "Actually, the reason I'm telling you all this, is related to this matter."
He drew a deep breath, looked at Loki, and said, "Before, I made you a promise, anything you say to me won't leave this room. Now, you must make me the same promise..."
"You don't have another choice." Loki didn't bother to pick up his words and merely replied, "I'm sure you'll not find another Loki more knowledgeable than me."
Mobius fell silent for quite a while before he slowly said, "The key to all this lies in the boss of this organization."
"Before you arrived, you probably saw his statues everywhere here. We don't know his name, we just know that he's the director of the Time Management Bureau, our immediate supervisor?"
"A long time ago, when the sacred timeline hadn't collapsed yet, the Time Management Bureau was directly managed by the director. Back then, our methods were much crueler than now."
"Then one day, the sacred timeline suddenly collapsed, this single timeline turned into countless timelines, and the Time Management Bureau also divided into countless ones, so were the director and the staff."
"No, perhaps only the staff could be said to have divided, whereas the director..." Mobius shook his head and said, "Well, this is just our guess, but both Ravona and I speculate that there might have been countless directors to begin with..."
"Anyway, after the Time Management Bureau divided, each multiverse had a Time Management Bureau and a director, these directors might be the same person, or they might be totally different; but what's certain is, their ways of doing things are not the same..."
Mobius' fingers suddenly started to tremble. He said, "You should count yourself lucky that you weren't arrested when the sacred timeline just collapsed. Back then, the measures our director demanded us to adopt were much harsher than now..."
"He required us to actively rectify the timeline, the amount of water poured into and scooped out must be the same. If there were any errors, we'd have to interfere with the beings in the cosmos, create new possibilities, or simply destroy the cosmos..."
"Can you do that?" Loki asked.
"I can only say, his power is much greater than you imagine." Mobius shook his head and said, "We can't do it ourselves, but he would provide us various types of equipment, some of which are beyond your imagination."
"Like what?" Loki raised an eyebrow to ask.
"You've seen the wand in B15's hand, right?" Mobius's voice was very low. "It's specifically designed to deal with you Asgardian gods, it's not actually a wand, and what is implemented isn't magic. The golden beam you saw is the Twilight of the Gods."
"What do you mean?" Loki's expression finally turned a bit serious.
"The director imprisoned the twilight of the gods that will descend upon a certain cosmos in the wand, it can easily kill all the Asgardian gods. In fact, many mad Lokis who came here and refused to be disciplined were killed this way." Mobius' gaze became slightly vacant, obviously not willing to bring up this period of time.
"In fact, being killed is already a good outcome..." Mobius lowered his head, his voice became a bit hoarse, "Before this, we would use torture, this is also the main disagreement we have with the director..."
"One day, we arrested a Loki from one of the universes, also a female." Mobius's voice began to tremble more and more, he continued, "She was still a little girl, similar to your daughter. The director said she was important and wanted us to torture her... "
Loki's pupils shrank a little. Mobius lowered his head and continued to say, "We didn't want to do that. Among us, I, B15, Ravona, and many employees who had contact with the case, none of us wanted to."
"You have met Judge Ravona earlier, she is a very serious person and hates time criminals. This has to do with her personal experience. So, she always advocates for strict and severe trials..."
"But that time, she hesitated, none of us could bring ourselves to act against such a little girl, let alone torture."
A struggle appeared in Mobius's eyes, he took a sip of water, and continued to say, "So, we came up with a solution unprecedentedly... we let her go..."
"Then, didn't the director trouble you?" Loki asked.
"This is exactly what I want to ask you." Mobius looked up and asked Loki with a puzzled look,
"What exactly happened to our universe? Why is it that the director said he was on a trip to another universe for a while, but never returned?"
"Um..." Loki showed a strange expression. Mobius stretched out his hand, indicating him to continue speaking.
Loki's mouth slowly twitched upwards, as if suppressing a laugh. After quite a while, under Mobius' gaze, she slowly said:
"Could it be... his house has been demolished?"