Strange stopped in front of the connection point between the Dark Dimension and Earth, and hesitation rose in his heart.
He knew that if he failed this time, he would die for good.
And if he abandoned Earth, with his current abilities, he could live quite well somewhere in the multiverse.
But in the end, he still took a deep breath, silently gathered his thoughts, and resolutely stepped into that mysterious realm shrouded in eternal darkness.
The instant he entered the Dark Dimension, Strange felt a powerful sense of discomfort. The surrounding space seemed to be twisted at will by an invisible hand, and the air was so thick it had almost solidified. Every breath felt like swallowing heavy asphalt, filling him with an indescribable pressure and suffocation.
The scene before him shocked Strange even more. The enormous Dormammu was like an insurmountable black mountain, filling his entire field of vision.
Its body was made of countless twisting shadows and energies flashing with eerie purple light. Those energies moved like living things, constantly rolling and surging across its surface, producing low, terrifying roars, as if they were telling of the endless darkness and chaos that existed before the birth of the universe.
Strange's heart began pounding uncontrollably, each beat like a heavy hammer striking inside his chest. But he forcefully endured the fear in his heart, straightened his back, and revealed determination and resolve in his eyes.
"Dormammu, I've come to bargain!" Strange shouted with all his strength. His voice echoed through the distorted space, only to sink like a stone into the sea, swallowed instantly by the endless void of the Dark Dimension.
However, a Dimensional Demon God possessed absolute control within its own dimension, so Dormammu still discovered him.
Dormammu's colossal body slowly turned, and a huge eye glowing with purple light slowly opened. It was like an enormous purple star suspended in the darkness, its gaze filled with indifference and contempt, as if it were looking down at an insignificant ant.
"Tiny human, you dare intrude upon my domain. You are seeking your own death." Dormammu's voice came from every direction like rolling thunder, shaking Strange's eardrums with pain. The entire Dark Dimension trembled under the impact of that voice.
Strange clenched his fists tightly, his nails almost digging into his palms and leaving crescent-shaped marks. He forced his voice to remain steady and repeated, "Dormammu, I've come to bargain."
Dormammu let out a piercing laugh filled with mockery.
"Bargain? What right do you have to bargain with me? Before me, you are nothing more than a speck of dust I can crush at any moment."
As it spoke, a powerful surge of dark energy rushed toward Strange like a roaring tide. Wherever it passed, space was brutally torn open, revealing bottomless black cracks.
Strange reacted quickly, moving both hands rapidly through the air to draw a complex golden rune.
The rune instantly lit up and formed a solid shield, blocking the impact of the dark energy.
On the shield's surface, golden light and dark energy collided and tangled with each other, giving off dazzling flashes and sharp screeches.
Strange gritted his teeth. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, but his eyes remained firmly fixed on Dormammu without the slightest retreat.
Very soon, the shield was shattered by a powerful blast of energy, and his body was completely annihilated by the beam, leaving nothing behind.
However, that was not the end. The time magic Strange had arranged on himself in advance took effect.
He had cleverly linked the time magic to the Time Stone, so unless the Time Stone was destroyed, the time magic on him could not be canceled.
And so, he came again and said the exact same words as before.
"Dormammu, I've come to bargain."
As a multiversal-level Dimensional Demon God, Dormammu was already immune to time to a certain extent. On the very first repeat, it noticed something unusual.
"Wait. What just happened? Was that an illusion?"
Strange did not have his previous memories, but from Dormammu's words, he realized this was not his first repetition. So he smiled and said, "No. This is real."
"Good!" Dormammu had no intention of wasting words with Strange. Once again, it cruelly killed him with countless dark blades.
But soon, Strange returned again and continued repeating, "Dormammu, I've come to bargain!"
This time, Dormammu roughly understood the time magic and demanded, "How are you doing this?"
Strange spread his hands.
"Just as you gave Kaecilius certain abilities, I brought some power from Earth with me as well.
"This is time. Infinite looping time. As long as you don't agree to my conditions, I will trap you inside an endlessly repeating time loop forever!"
"You have quite the nerve!"
Strange was killed again.
However, with the Time Stone present, even Dormammu found it difficult to escape the time prison. More importantly, it did not dare destroy the Time Stone, because the Time Stone was essentially part of an immensely powerful multiversal god.
So it could only allow Strange to repeat it again and again, until even Dormammu grew sick of it.
This time, after Strange proposed bargaining, Dormammu did not immediately kill him. Instead, it said with certainty, "You cannot keep this loop going forever!"
Strange shook his head. "No. In fact, I can. Isn't that what's happening right now? You and I are trapped in the same moment, looping forever. And you should know, I don't even remember the previous loops."
"Ah. Then you will die an infinite number of times!"
"Yes, but the people on Earth will live! I know you're unimaginably powerful, but you also know that the Time Stone in my hand has the power to manipulate time. I can use it to keep interfering with you, so you will never succeed." Strange's gaze was filled with determination.
Dormammu flew into a rage from humiliation and killed Strange again.
"Dormammu!"
"Dormammu!"
"Dormammu…"
After an unknown number of loops, even Dormammu, a multiversal Dimensional Demon God, had been driven beyond irritation by Strange. It roared, "Enough! What are your terms?"
Strange knew he had succeeded. He shouted loudly, "Take your followers and leave Earth. Stop doing evil in our world, and never come back!
"Agree to that, and I'll end the time loop!"
The Dark Dimension fell silent again. Dormammu seemed to be weighing the costs and benefits.
Strange held his breath, nervously waiting for Dormammu's answer. Time seemed to freeze in that moment, and every second felt endlessly long.
Finally, Dormammu's voice sounded again. "Very well. I agree. I will no longer invade Earth."
After speaking, Dormammu's figure gradually vanished into the Dark Dimension, and the surrounding dark energy also began slowly dissipating.
Strange let out a long breath, and his tense nerves finally relaxed.
He closed the Eye of Agamotto, turned around, and walked out of the Dark Dimension.
"Pull yourself together, Strange!" Mordo supported himself and barely stood up. "We need to keep fighting. This has to end!"
Because Strange had ended the time loop, time returned to a few seconds before he had gone to the Dark Dimension.
At this moment, Kaecilius had just broken Strange's time-reversal magic and allowed Dormammu to descend upon Earth. It was exactly when he felt most triumphant.
Kaecilius ignored Mordo and Wong as they tried to attack him. He raised his head and looked up at the sky, gazing at the Dark Dimension beyond deep space with intoxication.
"So beautiful. A world beyond time. Beyond death!"
But at that moment, Kaecilius froze. He suddenly realized that Strange, who had been right in front of him a moment ago, had disappeared. Immediately afterward, he sensed a familiar magical presence behind him.
He turned around and saw Strange standing there.
This gave Kaecilius an extremely bad feeling. His pupils abruptly contracted, and he demanded, "What exactly did you do?"
Strange raised his head and said lightly, "My bargain was accepted."
In an instant, Kaecilius and his followers sensed something strange happening to their bodies.
The dark-purple lines beneath their skin were writhing wildly like earthworms, rapidly spreading across their entire bodies.
Kaecilius finally showed panic. Trembling, he looked at his gradually collapsing hand and roared at Strange, "No! What is this?"
At this point, Kaecilius had already lost the ability to resist. Strange walked toward him leisurely and shook his head.
"This is exactly what you wanted. To become part of Dormammu's life.
"I have to say, you're really not going to like it."
By now, Kaecilius could no longer say anything. The dark magic inside him fully erupted.
The first to collapse was a young follower. He screamed and fell to his knees, his body twitching uncontrollably. Dense cracks appeared across the surface of his skin, and purple mist seeped out from the cracks, gradually turning his entire body into fog.
Another follower turned and tried to flee, but a giant tentacle suddenly reached out and wrapped around his ankle. Immediately afterward, his body began collapsing even faster.
Until finally, under Strange and the others' gazes, Kaecilius's body began to disintegrate, turning into countless purple specks of light that drifted rapidly toward the Dark Dimension.
At the same time, "Dormammu" also kept the promise made to Strange and gradually withdrew the Dark Dimension's invasion of Earth.
The edge of the Dark Dimension was the first to change. The boundary that had once churned like boiling asphalt began to solidify, turning into countless tiny purple crystals that fell with soft rustling sounds.
The giant tentacles extending from the depths of the dimension, their surfaces covered in fangs and suckers, gradually shriveled. Amid painful shrieks, they were forcefully dragged back into the abyss, leaving long trails of purple blood behind.
During this process, Strange reactivated his time magic. The entire world began growing backward. Corroded buildings regained vitality, twisted streets became flat again, and the writhing purple veins beneath the skin of the civilians assimilated by dark energy gradually receded.
The waters of Victoria Harbour stopped boiling. The surging black waves turned into a calm mirror, reflecting the stars that had reappeared overhead.
Only when the last trace of the vortex vanished inside the restored Hong Kong Sanctum did everything return to its original state, as if the world-ending crisis from before had never happened.
A moment later, Strange, Mordo, and Wong returned to the floating city. Just after they appeared, a blood-soaked figure emerged in front of them.
And that person was Harry.
Seeing Harry in such a terrible state, even Wong and Mordo, who had been mentally prepared, were startled, let alone Strange, who truly believed Harry had gone to confront the Dimensional Demon God Cyttorak.
Strange quickly ran to Harry's side. Looking at his tattered sorcerer robe and the right half of his body covered in crystalline deep-red patterns, he asked with extreme worry, "Sorcerer Supreme, what happened to you?"
Wong and Mordo also hurried forward and asked, "Harry, what happened? How were you injured so badly?"
Harry first gave Wong and Mordo a look, signaling that he was fine. Immediately afterward, a trace of pain appeared on his face. He coughed up a mouthful of black phlegm mixed with purple blood foam and barely raised his head.
"Cyttorak truly deserves to be called one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse. I pulled him into an unclaimed dimension and fought him there. Although I defeated him, I was seriously injured.
"Right now, my combat power is only about ten or twenty percent of what it was. I will need a very long time to recover and return to my peak strength. So I'm afraid I can no longer continue fulfilling the responsibilities of the Sorcerer Supreme…"
"Then what do we do?" Wong and Mordo asked in unison.
Harry thought for a moment, then gave the answer he had prepared long ago.
"Strange, you are the most outstanding one among us, so the heavy responsibility of Sorcerer Supreme will be handed to you next. Conveniently, the Eye of Agamotto is already on you. Therefore, I hereby announce that from this moment onward, you are the new Sorcerer Supreme!"
Being suddenly appointed by Harry, Strange was immediately stunned. He had never wanted to become the Sorcerer Supreme. He wanted to heal his hands and return to the hospital as a doctor.
After all, serving as Sorcerer Supreme meant facing enormous danger. Even powerful figures on the level of the Ancient One and Master Potter had run into trouble again and again, let alone a rookie sorcerer like him, who had only been studying magic for a short time.
Just like with Dormammu and Kaecilius not long ago, the reason he had been able to defeat them was mainly because of the Time Stone's power. If he had not had the Time Stone and the Eye of Agamotto, he would not even have been Kaecilius's match, let alone the Dimensional Demon God Dormammu.
So he refused without hesitation.
"I think Master Wong and Master Mordo are both suitable. They're stronger than me, and they're more fit to become Sorcerer Supreme!"
Harry was not surprised by Strange's reaction. However, he had long since prepared the appropriate lines to shut Strange down.
"Strange, although Wong and Mordo are stronger than you, they cannot skillfully use time magic, much less control the Time Stone.
"The strongest weapon in Kamar-Taj is the Time Stone. If someone cannot control the Time Stone, they are not qualified to serve as Sorcerer Supreme.
"So the only possible candidate for the new Sorcerer Supreme is you. Or do you want to watch helplessly as Earth is devoured by Dimensional Demon Gods?
"If that happens, all your family and friends will die as well. They'll be tortured endlessly!"
// I hope you enjoyed this massive release!
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