"Woz?"
"What are you doing here?"
"Did the experiment yield any results?"
Lothar was clearly surprised to see Woz.
"No, Ms. Carol's research was paused. Gaitz reported an abnormal energy surge on Asgard. Woz felt that you, Your Highness Lothar, might be in danger, so I rushed over."
In the ruins, Woz hopped down from the ship on his short legs, a sheepish grin on his face as he explained his reason for leaving the Black Quadrant. Lothar's safety was paramount; this was a principle written into his core programming by Thanos when he created him.
"You're quite loyal." Hela glanced at Woz, a big-faced cat she often thought of during her imprisonment.
"Thank you for the compliment, Lady Hela." Woz looked up at Hela, his gaze full of sincerity.
"It was just a boring fire giant, no big deal." Lothar patted Woz's head and walked directly toward the ship. "Woz, do you know the location of the Sanctum Sanctorum?"
"Lord Thanos's database contains the specific coordinates, Your Highness Lothar."
"Then let's go. We're going to meet the Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One."
Hela's words had piqued Lothar's interest, sparking the idea of meeting the Ancient One. He realized that the amount of time that had passed since Thanos vanished was starting to feel long. Lothar was a little worried. The quickest way to understand the situation was undoubtedly to go and see the Ancient One.
"You'd better wait until I deal with him first, Lothar."
Hela flexed her fingers, grabbing her brother's golden hair. She warned, "The Ancient One is proficient in all kinds of magic, and that's not your specialty."
"Are you going to kill him?"
"Kill him? No, he is my brother after all." Hela shook her head, her words filled with contempt for Thor. "Trash should go where trash belongs, shouldn't it?"
Hela looked up, meeting Lothar's gaze and offering a slight smile that sent a sudden chill down Thor's spine.
....
Meanwhile, on Earth, in the New York Sanctum, the Ancient One, who had just managed to suppress the internal injuries from Dormammu's backlash, opened her eyes. The Eye of Agamotto on her chest suddenly emitted a dazzling light.
"It still can't be done..."
A sickly pallor appeared on the Ancient One's face, but she quickly suppressed it. The future was blurry; even she couldn't use the Time Stone to see too far ahead. This was highly abnormal, inconsistent with the laws of magic and the status of the Time Stone. Yet, it was happening right in front of the Ancient One. She was deeply worried.
"What exactly happened to the future..."
Even the Time Stone, a cosmic rule, couldn't see the full picture.
"Cough... cough..."
As she thought, the Ancient One felt the injuries she had just suppressed begin to act up again. Uncontrollable coughing brought forth bright red blood. The backlash from the Dark Dimension had, in the end, caused her irreparable damage.
During her previous standoff with Thanos, Dormammu, who had suddenly broken free and intervened, left wounds on the Ancient One that were difficult to heal.
Those injuries were enough to kill any ordinary powerful being instantly. It was only because the Ancient One's strength far exceeded Dormammu's imagination that she had lasted this long and even found an excellent successor.
"Is the end near..."
The light in the Ancient One's eyes dimmed, but she quickly became accepting. Her disciple, Stephen Strange, was growing much faster than she had imagined. At this rate, he would undoubtedly become the strongest Sorcerer Supreme in the lineage's history.
For the Ancient One, who had lived for so long, that was enough. Her disciple's excellence allowed her to leave with peace of mind. It was a pity she wouldn't be able to witness his growth.
She stood up, and having made up her mind, cleaned the blood from the floor. She then took off the Eye of Agamotto from her chest. Closing her eyes, she adjusted her chaotic breathing and state before appearing in her closed-door disciple Stephen Strange's room as if nothing had happened.
The flickering oil lamp suddenly stabilized. But now, on the table where there had been only one lamp, there was also a letter and the Eye of Agamotto. Stephen Strange, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed in a state of meditation, didn't notice a thing.
"Dormammu, you cannot disrupt his growth right now."
A gentle whisper faded away. The Ancient One pulled up the hood of her orange sorcerer's robe, concealing her bald head which reflected the moonlight. A light flashed at her feet, and in a single step, she appeared outside the doors of the Sanctum Sanctorum.
At that very moment, Lothar and Hela had just emerged from the Rainbow Bridge teleportation spell. Both sides met eyes in an instant.
"The Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One." Hela never expected to see the Ancient One, who was documented in Odin's database, right after exiting the Rainbow Bridge.
"Lothar, Hela." The Ancient One performed a hand sign, greeting the two. "I know why you've come, but I can tell you that this was all Dormammu's doing."
Before Lothar and Hela could ask their questions, the Ancient One pushed open the doors of the Sanctum Sanctorum. The black nebula hovering above the Sanctum emitted an aura that was enough to make both Lothar and Hela fall silent.
"Dormammu...?" Lothar frowned, as if he had heard that name before.
"If I remember correctly, the opponent we met on Midgard last time was a subordinate of someone calling himself Dormammu."
Seeing that Lothar was still trying to remember why Dormammu sounded familiar, Hela immediately filled him in on the details, faster than it would have taken Woz to retrieve the information.
"..."
"How do you have such a memory after being locked up for a thousand years, unable to do anything?"
Hela wasn't very willing to bring up that humiliating past.
"Yes. That person back then was indeed my subordinate."
A thick black mist burst out from the Sanctum Sanctorum, instantly engulfing the three of them. Lothar felt everything go black. When he opened his eyes again, the surrounding environment had changed.
"A sub-dimension of the Dark Dimension. This is a battlefield opened by Dormammu." The Ancient One, who understood the ruler of the Dark Dimension perfectly, summoned two crimson circular spell circles, giving her warning.
"Agamotto's successor, Thanos's son, and Odin's daughter..."
"Are you ready to face death?"
A figure wreathed in magical flames tore through the sky of the sub-dimension and descended from above.
At the same time, Thanos, who was trapped in the true Dark Dimension, saw a vision of Lothar, Hela, and the Ancient One facing Dormammu.
The clawing, gnashing Dormammu looked the same as he did all those years ago. But the people standing before him now were no longer Thanos, Odin, and Agamotto; they were Lothar, Hela, and the Ancient One.
"Lothar..."
Thanos narrowed his eyes. The sight of this battle, which felt like it was just yesterday, made him grip his giant blade even tighter. He finally understood what that bastard Dormammu was trying to do.
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