"Finally, Saitama!"
Dormammu's savage grin split wide. He still remembered—back in the multiverse, when their souls clashed, this bald human had left him humiliated. Now, to see him here, on Earth? Interesting.
"I told you I'd kill you myself, then forge your soul into my puppet! HAHAHA!"
Darkness surged like a tidal wave. All of New York seemed to sink into shadow.
Strange and Mordo instantly raised magical barriers, but they were like fragile boats tossed in a tsunami—shaking, straining, on the brink of collapse.
"Dormammu, enough!"
A dazzling sunlike brilliance burst forth, tearing through the suffocating darkness.
The Ancient One.
She rose like a blazing sun, golden rings of light blazing in her hands, carving into Dormammu's endless night.
The flood of darkness shrieked, parts of it torn away by her radiant wheel. Dormammu roared in pain.
But still, his shadow dwarfed her light.
"Ancient One! You cannot kill me!" he thundered, his enormous head lunging forward, maw snapping toward her.
Her light wheel met his fangs head-on—
—and then froze.
The Ancient One's eyes widened. A sharp blade erupted from her chest. She turned in disbelief. The weapon… her own conjured wheel of light.
"You thought to wield darkness against me? Foolish. I cannot fully control you, but your summons? They are mine to twist. Go to your end, HAHAHAHA!"
Dormammu's laughter was cruel.
The Ancient One's hand trembled toward the Eye of Agamotto on her chest—but the black fire spread faster, consuming her body and soul. Her hand fell limp.
"Master!!" Strange and Mordo cried out.
Even with their doubts, their grief was real.
Black flames devoured her flesh, her bones, her spirit. In moments, the Sorcerer Supreme turned to ash.
The Eye of Agamotto clattered to the ground.
"HAHAHAHA! Dead at last! Damn sorcerer!" Dormammu's roar shook the void, reveling in his ancient foe's end.
His gaze swiveled. Onto Saitama.
His hunger, his fury, his vengeance—all aimed at the bald man.
Strange screamed. "No—Master!!"
He dove for the Eye of Agamotto, summoning a portal at its side. He seized it, chanting furiously.
Green runes flared, the Time Stone spinning.
"Mordo?!" he gasped, stunned. "Strange… you—know how to use it?!"
"Go back!" Strange roared.
The Eye blazed. Time spun backward.
The scene reset. The Ancient One, alive, her blazing wheel cutting the darkness.
"Look here, Dormammu!" her voice rang again.
And once again—the blade struck her from behind, impaling her chest. She screamed. She burned. She died.
"Failed again… Then once more!" Strange shouted, trembling, seizing the Eye.
Time spun back.
And again.
And again.
Each time, the same. The Ancient One fought. The Ancient One fell.
No escape. No change.
Thousands of loops. Tens of thousands.
Strange's soul frayed, his mind splitting at the edges. Mordo's voice echoed endlessly, the same cries repeated again and again.
A cage of eternity. A dead end with no solution.
His hands shook as he wound the Eye once more.
"Return—"
A sigh broke his lips. "…Ugh…"
He slumped.
This was it. The end of the path.
"Not tired yet? Strange, you've rewound this… what, a few thousand times now?"
A lazy voice drifted beside him.
"Huh?!"
Strange snapped his head around.
Saitama was there. Leaning on a stone, yawning, dead-fish eyes half-shut in boredom.
"Sleepy already?"
Strange froze. His jaw dropped. His eyes bulged like eggs about to fall out.
Impossible.
When the Time Stone rewound reality, everything reset. Everyone. Every soul.
No one remembered.
But Saitama… he was unchanged. Every loop, he had just been there. Watching. Commenting.
This bald man had slipped through the grip of time itself.
An existence beyond the Time Stone.
A monster beyond time.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For 20+ Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!]
[[email protected]/Draumel]
[Thank You For Your Support!]