Dark Dimension
The Dark Dimension devoured countless worlds and planets, leaving behind endless wastelands wrapped in a purple-black glow.
Once-living planets were connected by black threads of energy, like a ghastly spiderweb that created a monstrous cosmos of twisted life.
On those planets, life still existed, but not in its original form. All beings had been corrupted, turned into sacrificial fodder and energy on which Dormammu fed, constantly expanding his dark dominion.
When Aron passed through the passage of the Space Stone and stepped onto one of those perverted planets, he immediately felt a force that tried to penetrate his mind, poisoning his thoughts.
Of course, Aron, with his pure and holy soul, was not susceptible to that corruption. But he quickly realized something else, the Dark Dimension was not trying to break him in an instant, but rather working gradually, eroding the mind over time.
The longer he stayed, the more dark energy he breathed in, the stronger the pressure would become. In the end, even the strongest minds would falter.
"So, that's why the Ancient One seeks death…" Aron finally understood.
The Ancient One had used Dormammu's dark power to prolong her life and strengthen herself, but every theft has a price. That energy was not only a gift, it was a poison, slowly gnawing at her mind and soul.
"No wonder she ended up dying in the movie by falling down the stairs," Aron thought with a half-smile. "It wasn't Newton who killed the Sorcerer Supreme… she was exhausted, tired. She chose to go."
The only way to win was to find a worthy successor, someone who would continue to protect Earth when she could no longer.
Aron felt a kind of respect.
"Once, you protected me. In the future, if need be, I will protect you, even before Dormammu himself."
He closed his eyes and opened his consciousness, seeking traces of the Ancient One somewhere in the endless darkness of the dimension.
---
Meanwhile, in the heart of the Dark Dimension.
The battle was already over, or rather, it had never truly had a chance to begin.
"Ancient One… Sorcerer Supreme… you use my own power against me. Do you call that wisdom?" Dormammu spoke with mockery, but in his eyes there was satisfaction.
The Ancient One, bound by magical chains made of dark energy itself, hung helpless before him. She did not resist, nor did she try to justify herself.
Within her body still lingered the power stolen from the Lord of Darkness, but now she used it to oppose him. It was like arming yourself with explosives and stepping before the enemy with your finger on the detonator. It was only a matter of time before the end came.
"On Earth, perhaps I would have trouble with you," Dormammu continued, "but here, in my dimension… you have no chance at all."
As if wishing to prove his point, he slowly raised his hand. The dark energy withdrew from her body, returning to its master.
The Ancient One did not resist. She did not even blink as her body, stripped of the foreign power, suddenly began to age rapidly.
"You took what does not belong to you," Dormammu said, "and now you return it. Still, I will not allow that power to be lost."
At that moment, as he absorbed the energy, he suddenly sensed something else. His face, which until then radiated confidence, briefly showed surprise.
"Hm… is it possible?"
Then he laughed, a twisted laughter that echoed through the entire dimension.
"Someone has come here… to save you? Your apprentice, perhaps?"
He turned his gaze toward the dark horizons, his voice turning into icy sarcasm.
"Sorcerer Supreme? Do you think a title means anything before me?"
He looked at the Ancient One, whose body was collapsing without the power that had sustained her.
"Pitiful human, you survived thanks to my energy, and now you die without it. You call that Sorcerer Supreme? Pathetic."
"..."
"Better that than being cast out of your own race, like a stray dog, without home or name."
"In the end, you fled into the Dark Dimension, stabbed your allies in the back and seized a wasteland, didn't you?"
Dormammu was at the same time trying to provoke the Ancient One.
But then Aron's voice was heard.
"What did you say!?" Dormammu suddenly turned.
His mere presence brought pressure, almost unbearable oppression.
Aron felt it was an even stronger surge than Quaggs's destructive power…
"I said… you're nothing but trash."
Aron smiled faintly and said it indifferently, without the slightest respect.
Dormammu originated from the race of the Faltine.
All members of that race were beings of pure magical energy, energy-based lifeforms.
He, however, by nature was evil and greedy, so for the sake of power he began killing and devouring his own kin.
When that was discovered, he was expelled from the Faltine family.
The former ruler of the Dark Dimension, Olnar, then accepted him and made an alliance with him. Together they began to attack and devour other dimensions.
In the end, Dormammu killed him as well and took the title of Lord of the Dark Dimension.
Olnar's fate was obvious.
"Oh, it seems Mordo was right."
"The one who wrote the Chronicles of Magic was terribly boring." Aron said with a cynical smile.
Yet, behind him, the Ancient One, still bound in chains, noticed a green magical sign glowing on Aron's wrist.
The Eye of Agamotto!
The Time Stone!
"Smelly boy, didn't I let you escape?" The Ancient One spoke with a weak, fragile voice.
"Hehe… there's one word missing in my dictionary. Guess which one."
Aron smiled.
"..."
"Do you even exist when I don't?" Dormammu suddenly exploded in rage, realizing that Aron had once again struck him where it hurt most.
His mouth opened, releasing a torrent of destructive energy!
Wherever that wave passed, everything disintegrated and vanished!
His power was even stronger than Quaggs's Beam of Annihilation.
"Cloak!"
Aron immediately unfurled the Cloak of the Great Demon Shadow.
He could infinitely read and store records within it, just as Strange had done.
But he did not want to rely on that.
He was ready to face it.
It didn't matter if before him stood a demon, a god, or a lord of a dimension.
He would fight!
At that moment Dormammu struck Aron.
The Ancient One, who hung chained, suddenly raised her head.
Her eyes, dim and weary from years, suddenly shone with fierce intensity.
That gaze made Dormammu hesitate.
"If you want to know what it means to be Sorcerer Supreme… now you will learn!"
"I will make you understand, Dormammu!"
She no longer sustained herself with the power of the Dark forces.
Her body was decrepit, old, as if carrying the weight of a hundred years.
But the power she awakened was terrifying.
"You? Against me? You no longer have strength or magic, so what can you threaten me with?" Dormammu retorted with scorn.
"It is on me!"
"That is the Sorcerer Supreme!"
The Ancient One stared straight at him, determined, without a trace of fear.
"Even the laws I have learned, I am ready to betray in this moment!"
"Because I am the Sorcerer Supreme!"
"Whether light shines, or when darkness falls…"
After a deafening blast, the dimension itself began to split apart!
In that chaos appeared three mighty figures, three titans who simultaneously reached their hands toward the Ancient One...
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