[A/N]: Alright, first goal of the week is 200 Power stones, so get to it!!
Just as Jay was wondering what his life had come to, the Ancient One and Mephisto sprang into action.
The pocket dimension shrieked. The obsidian platform beneath their feet cracked in concentric circles, spreading outward from where two supreme beings prepared to clash.
The Ancient One's hands moved through intricate patterns. Each gesture left trails of golden light in the air, mandalas forming and dissolving faster than thought. The movements were precise, economical and had no wasted motion. Centuries of practice made manifest.
The Eye of Agamotto blazed open on her chest, revealing the Time Stone's sickly green glow. Time itself fractured around her fingers like shattered glass, creating afterimages that existed simultaneously across multiple moments. She was young and old, all states superimposed over each other. Looking at her directly made the mind ache with temporal paradox.
"You will not interfere with my student, Devil." Her voice was flat, calm and absolutely certain that this was a line she would not allow to be crossed. "Take your summoner and leave. This is your only warning."
Mephisto's grin widened, showing too many teeth. Each one perfect and white and slightly too sharp. His tongue, when it flicked out, was forked. "Oh, but I must, dear Sorcerer Supreme. Professional courtesy and all that. Can't let my newest pet lose out on revenge before I've properly branded her. Bad for business and even more terrible for reputation. The Lord of Hell has standards, you understand."
His hands erupted with hellfire that was corruption made flame as the temperature spiked.
All spells prepared, they clashed.
The impact was apocalyptic.
Green energy met red flame in a collision that created a shockwave visible to the naked eye. A sphere of pure force expanded outward, slamming into Jay like a physical wall and sending him stumbling backwards. It hit Selene and threw her to the ground. The obsidian platform cracked further, chunks of stone lifting into the air and hanging there, suspended by contradictory forces.
Time manipulation collided with infernal power, and the dimension screamed in response.
Mephisto's body split and multiplied. Each version of him slightly different. They attacked from angles from above and below and sideways and through.
The Ancient One's hands moved faster. Mandalas formed shields, golden and intricate. Each one a spell unto itself, protection layered upon protection. Mephisto's flames struck the barriers and ate through them, consuming mystical frameworks like acid through paper. But new shields formed before the old ones failed, a constant cycle of destruction and creation happening faster than mortal eyes could track.
"Chains of Cyttorak!" The Ancient One's voice cut through the chaos. Crimson bands materialized from nothing, wrapping around Mephisto's multiple forms. Trying to bind him, to hold him in one position long enough for a finishing blow.
But Mephisto laughed. All his versions laughed simultaneously, creating harmonics that made the eardrums ache. "Oh, please. I've dealt with the Cyttorak himself before." His forms blurred, phased through the binding. "You'll have to do better than borrowed power, Sorcerer."
"Very well." The Time Stone blazed brighter. "Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, grant me sight beyond sight!"
Her eyes turned pure white and glowing. She could see every possible future of this fight, every branch, every outcome. And in most of them, neither won. They were too evenly matched. But in a few, in the paths where she pushed herself beyond safe limits...
She made her choice.
Her hands wove new patterns, intricate and dangerous spells that had warning labels in mystical texts.
"Mirror Dimension Inversion!" Space folded inside out. The pocket dimension, already unstable, screamed louder as its fundamental geometry rewrote itself. Up became down. Forward became backward. Distance became meaningless. Mephisto found himself attacking his own afterimages, his multiple forms colliding with each other in impossible angles.
"Clever!" His voice carried genuine appreciation. Respect even. "But let's see how you handle this!"
Hellfire erupted in patterns as sigils and runes older than human civilization. "I call upon the power of my domain! The flames that burned the first city! The corruption that ate the last saint!"
Every surface ignited. The ground, the walls, the air itself burst into hellfire. The Ancient One's shields held, but barely. The flames ate at the edges, consuming mystical energy like fuel.
But Jay couldn't watch their battle. He had his own prey to deal with.
Selene stood before him, fully healed from Mephisto's flames. The wounds Jay had inflicted, the missing limbs, the blood loss, all of it erased. Mephisto's intervention had restored her completely. More than completely, as she looked younger and stronger. The summoning had given her renewed vitality, a surge of demonic power that made her eyes glow red in the dimensional darkness.
Seeing the cause of her current predicament before her, all exhausted and wounded, she snarled.
Her hands clawed at the ground. Her fingers, elegant despite everything, dug into the obsidian with strength that cracked stone. The ground responded to her will, liquefying beneath her touch like the whole dimension was an extension of her body. Stone flowed like blood, reshaping itself according to her desire.
The remains of her petrified sorcerers, hundreds of them turned to dust and scattered across the platform, began to move.
It started with small vibrations. Then the dust particles lifted, drawn by invisible force. They swirled through the air like a miniature tornado, gray and black and carrying the screams of the dead. Particles drew together, compressed under impossible pressure. The ashes knew what was being done to them. Knew they were being violated even in death.
The dust hardened, became denser. A shaft formed first, ten feet long, straight and perfect. Then the head, wickedly sharp, edges that caught light wrong. Veins of crimson ran through the black stone, pulsing like arteries. Runes etched themselves into the surface, glowing with absorbed life force. Hundreds of years of stolen vitality given physical form. The weapon pulsed with power, each beat synchronized with Selene's heart.
A lance. Made of condensed earth mixed with the ashes of her devoted followers. Their loyalty made weapon.
She caught it mid-air as it fell into her grip. The weapon was wrong as it hummed with trapped souls.
She rose on her legs, now steady. The fear replaced with fury. With rage that had been building since Jay first interfered with her plans.
"You," she spat with venom. "You, you, YOU! Everything! Everything I've worked for! Everything I've built! It's all gone because of you!"
The lance came up in a guard position. The stance of someone who'd held weapons since before humans invented metallurgy. Weight distributed precisely, muscles coiled, ready to explode into motion. Drawn from millennia of experience. From thousands of battles. From wars fought when Rome was young and Atlantis still floated.
Jay's grip tightened on the Muramasa blade. His long battle from the infernal demons to sorcerers to Jamie and Brian and finally to Mephisto had left him in terrible condition. Blood soaked his clothes, mixing with sweat and worse things. His stamina for Healing Aura had run dry hours ago. The well of power he drew from, empty. Every cut remained, every bruise darkened, and every torn muscle screamed. His ribs ached with every breath, and his arms felt like they were made of lead.
But he picked up his blade anyway. Forced his body to respond despite its protests. Because he needed to finish this. Once and for all. Because stopping meant dying. And dying meant Domino was next. And that wasn't acceptable.
Selene attacked.
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