Every damaged part of the New York Sanctum was repaired one by one. Strange's injuries healed rapidly, and even the many Sanctum guardian sorcerers who had been "killed" by Kaecilius reappeared inside the Sanctum.
In the blink of an eye, the New York Sanctum returned to its original state. This was the moment when Strange had first been blasted into the New York Sanctum by the explosion.
After that, everything developed exactly as it had before. Strange was soon acknowledged by the Cloak of Levitation, then defeated Kaecilius's many followers and faced Kaecilius himself.
However, unlike before, this time Strange successfully escaped. Although he suffered rather serious injuries, he still managed to flee back to the floating city.
The floating city had spatial stabilization arrays. Most portals could not open inside the floating city.
However, Harry, Wong, and the others, as core members of Kamar-Taj, were naturally exceptions. Strange, who possessed the potential to become the next Sorcerer Supreme, was also among them.
A portal opened inside the sanctum of the floating city, and Strange staggered out of it.
The Cloak of Levitation hung in tatters over his shoulders. The right side of its hem was still smoking, revealing the sorcerer robe beneath that had been burned through.
He dropped to one knee and braced himself against the ground. His left hand covered the wound on his abdomen, which continued to seep blood. Drops of blood flowing between his fingers fell onto the stone floor and actually condensed into purple-black crystals, a sign of corruption by dark magic.
When he saw Harry and the others rushing over after hearing the commotion, he said hoarsely, "The Hong Kong Sanctum… Kaecilius is going…"
Mordo rushed forward to support his shoulder. The moment he touched Strange's skin, his brows furrowed sharply. Strange had been corroded by dark magic, and his body temperature was abnormally low, like a corpse that had just been pulled out of an ice pit.
However, no one panicked. Although Strange's injuries were more severe than expected, they were still within the plan.
Harry did not even need to act. Mordo quickly treated Strange with the healing magic Harry had improved. In only a few seconds, Strange's complexion rapidly regained its color.
At that moment, Wong had already strode to the global map and pressed his palm against the floating map of Asia.
He enlarged the projected map, and the position of the Hong Kong Sanctum was already radiating ominous black fog.
Within the mist, deep spatial cracks filled the air. As time passed, the cracks continued to expand until they finally connected into one mass, revealing the Dark Dimension behind them.
Mordo seemed somewhat nervous as he anxiously said to Strange, "This is bad. Kaecilius has already begun summoning the Dark Dimension. If he succeeds, Earth will be completely devoured, and we will all become Dormammu's slaves!"
Faced with a crisis capable of threatening the entire world, Strange paced anxiously back and forth inside the sanctum and asked, "What should we do? Right, the Sorcerer Supreme! In this situation, only you can handle it!"
Harry deliberately put on a serious expression and nodded. He drew his wand from his Pocket dimension and said confidently, "Don't worry. It's only Dormammu. I can deal with him."
However, all of a sudden, a large amount of deep-red magical radiance appeared around the outer edge of the Earth projection. Apart from Strange, the new sorcerer, everyone's expressions changed drastically.
Wong's hands trembled slightly as he said in shock and uncertainty, "This is… the Crimson Cosmos is actually invading Earth?!"
Mordo drew the Staff of the Living Tribunal and gripped it tightly. "This is bad. Could the Dimensional Demon God Cyttorak have allied with Dormammu and come to invade Earth together this time?"
Harry did not hesitate. He directly opened a portal and stepped into deep space, leaving only one sentence behind.
"Cyttorak is even stronger than Dormammu. I'll deal with him. Dormammu is up to you!"
Wong and Mordo nodded. "Sorcerer Supreme, focus on dealing with Cyttorak. Leave Dormammu to us! Strange, let's go. We're going to Hong Kong!"
Everything happened too quickly. Before Strange could think too much, Wong and Mordo dragged him into the portal leading to the Hong Kong Sanctum.
The moment Strange and the others stepped out of the portal, damp sea wind carrying the scent of decay rushed into their faces.
The once-brilliant night view of Victoria Harbour had vanished completely, replaced by a twisted chaos.
The sky had been torn into a boiling purple vortex. Dormammu's enormous phantom appeared and disappeared deep within the clouds, and his massive mouth, filled with sharp teeth, was greedily devouring the wreckage of shattered buildings.
On the ground, the skyscrapers of Central twisted and deformed like melting wax figures. Their glass curtain walls flowed with black liquid like asphalt, reflecting countless faces twisted in agony.
In the streets, pedestrians were gradually assimilated by dark energy. Purple veins visibly bulged and writhed beneath their skin. Their screams echoed through the thick, ink-like air before finally turning into eerie sobs.
The Hong Kong Sanctum's building swayed on the verge of collapse in the darkness. The runes on its outer walls emitted a dying glow. Golden inscriptions were being devoured by blackness, like fireflies struggling in the dark.
The Sanctum's doors shook violently as countless dark creatures rammed against them. Kaecilius's crazed laughter came from outside the doors, accompanied by waves of low chanting. Ancient spells trembled in the air, stirring up wave after wave of darkness.
When the three of them arrived near the Sanctum, what they saw was a Sanctum that had completely collapsed. Mordo's expression was unreadable, filled with deep meaning. He looked at Strange and said in a grave voice, "The Sanctum has collapsed. It's the Dark Dimension. Dormammu is coming!
"Damn it, we're already too late. No one can stop him."
Strange lowered his head and looked at the Eye of Agamotto hanging in front of his chest. After making up his mind, he took a deep breath and refuted him.
"That's not necessarily true."
His hands moved, forming a special mudra. Immediately afterward, the Eye of Agamotto began rotating rapidly, and the Time Stone hidden within gradually appeared before Mordo and Wong's eyes.
Kaecilius, in the distance, also noticed what was happening. When he realized Strange was preparing to cast time magic, Kaecilius rushed toward Strange without hesitation.
"No! You won't succeed!"
Kaecilius was extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, he arrived in front of Strange. Just as he was about to use an energy blade to pierce Strange's head, his entire body suddenly froze in midair.
At the same time, the Eye of Agamotto burst with blinding green light in front of Strange's chest. The mysterious patterns flowing across the surface of the stone writhed violently like living things, enveloping him in a green magical halo.
He opened his arms, and his fingertips traced complex runic paths. Wherever each green light passed, the air rippled in layers, as if the barrier of reality were gradually being torn open.
The surrounding Dark Dimension began twisting and warping. Dormammu's phantom let out an enraged roar, and a purple energy storm swept toward him.
But Strange did not move. He clenched his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead, and guided the Time Stone's power with absolute focus.
On the ground, the buildings corrupted by darkness began growing backward in reverse. Collapsed walls rose up again. Shattered glass restored itself. The black tendrils covering the bodies of the assimilated civilians also gradually receded under the shine of golden light.
Time began flowing backward. The seawater stopped boiling. Surging tentacles froze in midair, then slowly retreated into the abyss.
The purple vortex in the sky gradually calmed. Dormammu's phantom became transparent and let out an unwilling roar.
Strange's hair whipped wildly under the force of immense magical power. His eyes flashed with dazzling green light. He endured the enormous pressure head-on and stubbornly maintained the spell, refusing to let the reversal of time stop.
As the spell continued, all of Hong Kong began returning to its original state. The pedestrians on the streets regained their lives, and the buildings once again shone with their former splendor.
However, just as joy rose in Strange's heart and he thought that this global crisis was about to be solved by him, a terrifying dark energy descended from the sky and fell into Kaecilius's body as he was being reversed through time.
Kaecilius's body trembled. His entire person seemed to detach from the original layer of reality, cutting himself away from the constantly reversing space-time around him. With "Dormammu's" help, he became immune to the effects of time magic.
Mordo noticed this and realized it was Harry's doing. Harry probably did not want Strange to pass the test so easily.
So he pretended to be grim and said, "A Dimensional Demon God at Dormammu's level can already resist the influence of time to a certain extent. He has bestowed his power upon Kaecilius, allowing Kaecilius to resist time as well.
"Strange, I am currently no match for Kaecilius. You possess the Time Stone. Use time magic to hold him back. Once I deal with his followers, I will come help you!"
The moment he finished speaking, Mordo unceremoniously left Strange where he was and charged toward the other traitors who had broken free from time one by one.
Strange stared blankly, dumbfounded, at Mordo's retreating back.
Seriously, dude? You want me, a rookie who has studied magic for less than a year, to hold off Kaecilius by myself after he was strengthened by a Dimensional Demon God?
Do you really trust me that much?
However, the arrow was already on the string and had to be loosed. Strange condensed a green magic circle again, trying to stop Kaecilius as he rushed toward him.
Purple lightning and green streams of light collided inside the twisted space-time rifts. Kaecilius's black robes whipped around him, and the dark energy wrapped around his fingertips formed a sharply divided barrier against Strange's time magic.
Everything around them was flowing backward, but the two of them seemed isolated from the world, as if they were standing at the center of a time vortex, unaffected by space-time.
"Look at what you've done!" Kaecilius demanded. "You are tearing apart everyone's dream of immortality! You have stopped the world from moving toward a better future!"
With the Eye of Agamotto amplifying his magic, Strange could temporarily handle Kaecilius's frenzied attacks. Hearing Kaecilius's accusation, he loudly refuted him, "You think eternity is a blessing? Look at your body. It's ruined, rotting, and giving off a rancid stench. Dormammu corrupted you a long time ago!"
"Shut up, you stupid bastard! It seems you will never understand Dormammu's greatness. In that case, I should do everything I can to get rid of you!" Kaecilius raised his hand and manipulated the real dimension.
With a wave of his hand, the ground suddenly split open into an abyss. Countless tentacles with fangs burst out of the earth and quickly wrapped toward Strange.
The Cloak of Levitation lifted Strange like a living thing. A golden shield lit up in front of his chest, but the moment the tentacles touched it, spiderweb-like cracks spread across the shield.
Seeing that the shield was about to break, inspiration struck him. He slowed Kaecilius's flow of space-time. Even though Kaecilius possessed "Dormammu's" power, he was still affected by the Time Stone, and his speed slowed dramatically. This gave Strange time to escape and avoid the range of the tentacles.
Even so, Strange was still at a disadvantage. He gritted his teeth, and the Eye of Agamotto in front of his chest burst with blinding green light.
Strange's body flickered rapidly in midair, splitting into several duplicates. These duplicates condensed the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak together and sent them winding toward Kaecilius, only for them to be instantly burned apart by the black flames surging from his palm.
"Those little tricks are useless against me!" Kaecilius laughed wildly. But at that moment, Mordo, who had defeated the other followers of Kaecilius, arrived at the battlefield. While Kaecilius was dealing with Strange, Mordo launched a sneak attack.
Another golden rope suddenly wrapped around Kaecilius's feet and restrained him.
Immediately afterward, before Kaecilius could struggle, Mordo forcefully hurled his body into a wall that was currently repairing itself.
Only then did Kaecilius react and stretch out his hand with all his strength. "No!"
But it was already too late. He was soon buried beneath a massive amount of stone.
Just as Strange and the others let out a sigh of relief and prepared to guard the Sanctum once it finished repairing itself, preventing Kaecilius and the others from invading again, they suddenly saw another black light descend from the sky and fall into the wall that had swallowed Kaecilius.
Immediately afterward, with a thunderous boom, the wall burst open. Countless stone fragments shot in every direction. Kaecilius broke free and emerged, having obtained even greater power, slowly floating into the air.
He gently brought his hands together, and a visible shock wave struck Strange, sending him flying and interrupting his time magic at the same time.
Seeing the Dark Dimension begin spreading outward again, Kaecilius nodded slightly.
His current strength had already reached a level extremely close to that of the Sorcerer Supreme. With victory firmly in his grasp, he floated in the air and looked down at Strange, Mordo, and Wong below.
"You cannot defeat what is destined to happen. Look at it, that beautiful Dark Dimension. How breathtaking!
"That is a world beyond time. A world beyond death. We will obtain immortality within it!"
"Strange, pull yourself together!" Mordo came to Strange's side and woke Strange from his daze.
But even after Mordo called out to him, Strange continued muttering to himself.
"A world beyond time…"
He looked at the Eye of Agamotto in front of his chest and at the Time Stone inside it, shining with green light. In that instant, a bold idea came to him.
"Beyond time. I understand now!"
The next moment, he ignored everyone. Controlling the Cloak of Levitation, he suddenly rose into the sky and charged into the Dark Dimension.
Seeing this, Kaecilius originally wanted to stop him. However, when he saw that Strange's target was actually the Dark Dimension, he sneered and stopped caring.
If someone wanted to die, why stop him?
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