Only after seeing the entire floating city did Strange and Christine truly understand its grandeur.
It was like an enormous mountain floating in the sky, and that mountain was covered by a huge transparent shield. Countless dense runes flashed rapidly across the shield, and the spiritual glow they emitted made the entire floating city look dreamlike and unreal, almost like a divine realm.
After rushing out of the floating city and into the high sky, the two of them did not stop moving. Instead, they continued accelerating.
In just a few seconds, they left Earth and arrived in the deep reaches of space beyond the planet.
This terrified them beyond words, and they screamed together.
"Oh, no! What's happening? This isn't real! This isn't real!"
However, a flash of red suddenly passed in front of them, making them stop screaming at the same time and look ahead.
In the vast darkness of outer space, a butterfly was slowly drifting along, utterly unaffected, as if the surrounding area were not the vacuum of space, but a flower field somewhere on Earth.
It was also at this moment that Strange and Christine finally realized that even in the vacuum of space, they could still breathe, and they were not affected in any way.
At that instant, they finally came back to their senses and confirmed that their current state was not physical at all. They had become souls in some mysterious, unseen sense.
Before they could keep thinking, another enormous force acted on them, and their speed increased again, actually reaching the speed of light within one short second, then surpassing it.
Their vision blurred, and their entire beings fell into a long, narrow tunnel.
This tunnel constantly changed direction, writhing like the esophagus of some colossal creature.
At the same time, the tunnel continuously shifted colors, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet changing again and again. Those changes seemed to indicate just how far the two of them had crossed in such a short time.
"Their bodies won't be able to withstand this if it continues," Master Mordo's voice rang out from all around them, as if echoing through the entire world.
Strange and Christine had long since stopped wanting to experience this overly thrilling scene, so they immediately shouted, "That's right! This is too terrifying, and it isn't suitable for us. I think we already believe in magic!"
Soon, they rushed out of the tunnel. Their vision blurred, and they returned once more to the interior of the magnificent, towering sanctuary.
An invisible hand pulled them in front of Harry. Harry observed them briefly, then smiled and said, "They're fine. I think they can still hold on for a long time. Besides, with my power, protecting their bodies isn't difficult."
After saying that, Harry pushed hard, and an even greater force acted on the two of them.
Realizing what was about to happen next, Strange only had time to roar, "Wait!"
The next instant, his astral form was pushed out again and fell into the gaps of the multiverse.
This time, Harry deliberately protected their bodies, so he provided their astral forms with dozens of times more energy than before.
Boom!
Their speed was instantly accelerated to the extreme. Even within the multiverse, this kind of speed was extremely rare. Only certain Dimensional Demon Gods could rely on their own dimensions to accelerate certain things to a level where they could cross countless dimensions in mere seconds.
Because they were moving too quickly, streams of energy gradually appeared around their astral forms, burning like flames.
These energy streams stretched for dozens of kilometers, like a planet charging wildly through the gaps between multiversal dimensions.
Inside that energy current, there were only two unbelievably tiny human souls at its very tip.
Amid Strange and Christine's screams, Harry's voice sounded from the chaos.
"You think you understand the laws by which the world operates. You still believe the material universe is everything. What is real? What secrets lie hidden behind everything you know?
"At the source of reality, spirit and matter meet, and thought carves reality.
"This universe is only one among infinite universes, and this multiverse is only one realm among countless worlds.
"The world is infinite. Some parts are beautiful and full of life. Some are evil and filled with slaughter. In those dark corners, savage forces wait greedily for their chance.
"In this multiverse, who are you, Mr. Strange?"
As Harry's voice rang out, Strange and Christine's speed finally broke through its limit. At some point, they arrived in a vast, boundless, mysterious void.
When they opened their eyes in lingering shock, a sight beyond imagination appeared before them.
Countless universes of different colors and forms floated around them like dazzling gems.
Each universe radiated a unique light. Some were red like blazing flames, some blue like the deep ocean, some green like a vibrant forest, and some purple like a mysterious dream. They intertwined, forming a breathtakingly beautiful, dreamlike painting.
Strange lowered his head to look at his hands and was shocked to discover that his hands, which had once been scarred and trembling from the car accident, had now become transparent and illusory.
Even more strangely, more hands kept growing from his fingers, layering over one another and fractally extending like a Mandelbrot set, spreading toward the endless void as if they wanted to touch every corner of the universe.
He tried to swim forward, and the universes around him began to undergo marvelous changes as if they were alive.
In some universes, stars fell like raindrops, streaking through the darkness in brilliant trails before exploding into countless fragments of light like blooming fireworks.
In some universes, enormous black holes opened their gaping maws and swallowed everything around them. Space-time warped and twisted beneath their gravity, and even light was devoured without mercy, forming bottomless vortices.
In other universes, strange creatures moved through colorful mist. Their bodies shone with bizarre light. Some had countless eyes, while others dragged long tails behind them. Their forms were endlessly strange and astonishing.
Strange continued forward, and a planet filled with steampunk style appeared before his eyes.
Enormous gears slowly turned in the sky, while steam sprayed from pipes and spread across the entire city overhead.
Then he entered a universe that looked like a Hudson River School landscape.
Rolling mountain ranges, flowing streams, and mist-wrapped valleys filled the world. Everything looked as if it had been painted in rich, luminous brushstrokes.
Strange was like a child lost in a fantasy world, drifting and weaving through the multiverse.
His heart was filled with shock and awe. These countless universes, each one containing endless mysteries and possibilities, made him feel like nothing more than a speck of dust in this vast cosmos.
During this dreamlike journey, Strange's understanding of reality was completely overturned.
He began to understand that this world was far broader and more mysterious than he had ever imagined, and the miracle he sought, the healing of his hands, was nothing at all to this endless multiverse.
At last, the two of them arrived in a special world.
This world was wrapped in a black substance as thick as asphalt. The entire space was shrouded in darkness as dense as ink, yet it also flickered with an eerie faint light.
That light came from shattered planets suspended in the void. Their surfaces were covered in rusted spiked chains, connected to one another like molecular structures as they slowly rotated within dark-purple streams of energy.
Unlike the other parallel universes they had entered, the moment they entered this universe, they saw a being capable of moving within this dark cosmos.
It was a colossal head formed from pure magical energy and flame. It was surrounded by blazing fire, its facial features blurred, and only a pair of purple-glowing eyes shone like beacons in the abyss, radiating coldness and pressure.
At first, Strange and Christine were extremely afraid of this oppressive head. But after hearing its roar, a strange expression appeared on their faces.
The head spoke in a hoarse and aggrieved voice.
"No, Harry Potter! Keep him away from me!
"I never agreed to give Kaecilius power! It was you! You stole my power and divided it among them!
"Damn it, I don't want to join the Ancient One's script! Get out!"
At first, the voice was very clear, but afterward, it seemed to be blocked by some force and gradually became blurry, until the final sentence could no longer be heard at all.
Although he could no longer clearly hear what that big black head was saying, Strange knew the Sorcerer Supreme seemed to be hiding something from him.
Before they could think more carefully about it, a tremendous force surged from the black head and instantly blasted Strange and Christine out of the Dark Dimension, sending them back into the cracks between multiversal dimensions.
At that moment, perhaps because the Sorcerer Supreme had finally released the magic placed on them, they began rapidly returning.
However, during the return process, they happened to encounter some creatures wandering through the cracks of the multiverse. They were legendary beings that brought evil to the multiverse, Abyss demons.
At first glance, a hideous Abyss demon hundreds of meters tall showed a delighted expression and said, "Look at these tender souls. I never expected to find sorcerers wandering the multiverse in such a remote region. My luck is wonderful!
"Struggle, scream, and let your fear become my most delicious food!"
However, before they could stay happy for long, once Strange and Christine gradually drew closer, the demons' expressions slowly became suspicious, as if they had sensed something.
A succubus asked carefully, "Wait. They seem to have the Sorcerer Supreme's aura on them!"
"It's the Sorcerer Supreme! Run!"
"Ahhh! I need to get away from the Sorcerer Supreme!"
Strange and Christine, still inside the transfer tunnel, looked at each other. Based on this "tour," they discovered that the Sorcerer Supreme's reputation in the multiverse seemed somewhat… delicate.
It was just like these two times. Every time they saw these terrifying beings, they worried that those beings would attack them and cruelly kill them.
But each time, before they could even come into contact with those terrifying beings, the beings fled in a miserable panic.
No, that black head had successfully escaped, but these Abyss demons did not manage to get away.
Just as they were about to vanish at the edge of Strange's vision, a streak of golden light suddenly shot out from Strange's body.
That streak of light moved extremely fast, instantly landing at the center of the Abyss demons before swelling violently.
The last image Strange saw was endless green lightning enveloping every Abyss demon. After that, he could no longer observe what happened to them.
When the two of them returned to Earth's atmosphere and once again crashed through the wall back into the sanctuary, they fell to the ground from the remaining force, looking utterly miserable.
Because Strange had served as her cushion, Christine recovered faster. She quickly turned her head and looked behind her, only to find that the two holes in the building she had crashed through did not exist at all. The sanctuary ceiling was still perfectly intact.
Christine could not help asking curiously, "We clearly smashed through the ceiling and flew out just now. Why is the ceiling still undamaged?"
There was no need for the Sorcerer Supreme to answer such a simple question, so Mordo consciously explained it for Christine.
"Everything just now happened in the mental realm. It never happened in the real world."
Christine became even more astonished. Everything was too miraculous and had completely overturned her worldview from the past several decades.
After Strange regained consciousness, Harry smiled and asked, "So, Mr. Strange, did you ever see any of that in a gift shop?"
Strange slowly propped up his upper body, knelt on the ground, and said with a devout expression, "Great Sorcerer Supreme, please teach me."
Harry had been waiting for Strange to say exactly that. Once those words came out, their script was basically set. As long as no especially major accident occurred, he would be able to retire in a few months.
So Harry put a mysterious, unfathomable expression on his face and slowly shook his head.
"No. Now is not the time. You need to leave, but Ms. Christine may stay."
"Wait!" Before Strange could try to convince Harry, Harry waved his hand lightly, and a portal appeared beneath Strange's feet, directly throwing him out of the floating city and returning him to the front of that worn wooden door.
Seeing this, Christine immediately became anxious and pleaded on Strange's behalf.
"Great Sorcerer Supreme, I don't know what Strange did wrong. He only wants to recover.
"He does have many flaws, but he isn't a bad person."
Harry naturally would not be swayed by Christine. He smiled and said, "I know Strange isn't a bad person, but he is a genius."
"If he's a genius, then why did you throw him out?"
"Sometimes, a genius who believes himself righteous is far more terrifying than a fool who has fallen into darkness."
After being thrown out by Harry, Strange naturally did not leave. He waited outside the wooden door for a very long time.
Nearly ten hours later, under Harry's instructions, Mordo opened the door again and allowed Strange back into the floating city.
However, unlike last time, Strange behaved much more calmly this time. He did not make any unnecessary moves at all. He knew this was his last chance.
Mordo nodded in satisfaction at Strange's behavior. After bringing Strange to a room, he handed him a note.
Strange asked in confusion, "What is this, RIPAncientOneLOL? Is this my spell?"
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