The two brothers, carrying a bill and the modified [High-Dimensional Core], returned to Asgard via Luke's Rainbow Bridge. Let's not discuss Odin's emotions after seeing the bill. Luke currently had a relatively important matter to attend to.
…
The Dark Warrior opened his eyes abruptly, only to be greeted by an incomparably dark darkness. It was as if a black veil had covered his eyes, obliterating his ability to see. Yet, the Dark Warrior could sense that his eyes were intact.
He was floating in a deep void, unable to see, surrounded by silence and without a trace of light.
All around is the deepest darkness.
This is the Dark Elves' favorite world.
This is also the world that Malekith most wants to transform.
However, the dark warrior did not feel the peace and joy he should have felt in this darkness. Instead, his sixth sense was vaguely warning him that there seemed to be some unknown danger hidden in this darkness.
The dark warrior wondered why he came to this dark place.
It's a door!
The Dark Colossus opened a door that led nowhere, and then the door sucked him in. After being swallowed by the door, he lost consciousness instantly.
The dark armor still remained, and the lingering etheric energy within him gave the dark warrior a sense of security. Even though he was still covered in wounds, he tried to contact his king, but the special communicator the king had given him upon his departure had stopped working in the darkness. No matter how much etheric energy the dark warrior injected into the communicator, using it to power it, there was no response.
The machine worked diligently, sending messages, but it simply couldn't connect to the other end. It was as if the signal had been lost. The nearly omnipotent etheric energy, in this strange space, lost its omnipotence, reduced to mere energy.
Unable to contact his king, the dark warrior could only slowly think of a way after calming down and figure out what kind of place he was in.
universe?
Not really.
Dark warriors don't need oxygen or anything like that and can move and fight in pure space. Therefore, he can more easily tell that this place isn't space, even though it resembles it in many ways.
Based on the knowledge and experience he had accumulated over thousands of years of survival, he believed that this place should be like a dimension. As for how big the dimension was, whether it was space, a world, or a dimensional universe, he couldn't be sure at this moment.
He needed to observe more.
Ordinary beings find it difficult to endure a dark world, but dark elves can adapt quickly. Therefore, darkness is not a problem for dark warriors; the problem is the constant, elusive threat that surrounds them.
There were faint, fragmented voices echoing in his ears, so subtle and so soft, so faint that he couldn't make out what they were saying. When he listened more intently, the voices seemed to grow louder, but he still couldn't make out what they were saying, nor could he trace them to their source. He couldn't even tell if they were the voices of living beings, or just a swarm of insect-like creatures crawling about.
The sense of crisis is even greater.
The floating dark warrior once again squeezed out the little remaining ether energy in his body, and with the help of the dark armor, he opened the dark elf's dark vision. It allows the dark elf to thrive in the darkness, becoming close to the darkness while also seeing more things that cannot be seen or heard with conventional vision.
To put it in a vivid way, humans use technological instruments to observe the world that is invisible to the naked eye.
The energy merged into his eyes, and the dark warrior's vision suddenly changed. Under the new vision, the deep darkness around him gradually became thinner like black fog, revealing something beyond the darkness.
Suddenly, the Dark Warrior's perception frantically warned him of something. Alarm bells rang in his mind, and his entire body tensed up. He stared at the thing in front of him with wide eyes.
How do you say that?
It was both distorted and deeply memorable, a sight never to be forgotten, yet words defy description. The dark warrior felt as if his mind were being eroded by some kind of contamination. The other's image was seared into his memory. The mere indescribable difficulty of expression was of little concern to the dark warrior. But what if it carried with it a corrosive influence?
The faint mumbling sound suddenly intensified, gradually becoming louder from the previous slight sound. The dark warrior still could not make out the content, but he felt that his head was being assaulted by violent waves of sound, and it hurt as if it was being pierced by needles.
The Dark Warrior disconnected New Horizons before he lost control.
The indescribable monster and the surrounding mutterings vanished and faded. He gasped for breath, feeling as if he had survived a catastrophe.
He was sensitive to the fact that part of his mind had been tampered with, along with his body. His mind and body were undergoing some kind of subtle change, and he wanted to stop it but had no way to do it. He was unable to stop it.
He tried his best to stop thinking about the scene he saw in his new vision, but his mind kept thinking about it uncontrollably. Every time he thought about it, he felt his soul consciousness was getting closer to a bottomless abyss.
He has realized where the sense of crisis he has always had in his heart came from.
It comes from the surroundings, from those whispers, and from those monsters that are deeply integrated with this space, like an organ or even flesh and blood of this dimension!
This place is filled with some kind of powerful, overbearing and polluting high-dimensional energy, which can even make the ether energy ineffective, or make other energies ineffective as well.
No, after personally experiencing the power of this energy, the dark warrior vaguely realized that it was not the energy that made other high-dimensional energies ineffective, but this highly polluting energy polluted other high-dimensional energies and adapted and integrated them!
The dark warrior, who had accompanied Malekith in many battles, suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of fear deep within him. It had been a long time since he last felt this way. He had almost forgotten the emotion, and with his incredibly strong will, he believed it would never occur again. But now, suddenly and without warning, he experienced this forgotten emotion.
It wasn't just fear, but also despair, sadness, pain, and all kinds of negative emotions that surged up like a tide, engulfing his consciousness one wave after another.
The resilience of his willpower dam rapidly weakened and collapsed in the face of this surging emotional torrent. As the voice of the muttering became louder and louder again, his mind was on the verge of collapse.
He could clearly sense that his current state was not right, and he tried his best to save himself, but not only was his self-rescue useless, it made the negative emotions that emerged even more obvious.
He realized that if he truly lost his mind, tainted and eroded by the negativity of this place, he would likely remain here forever, a slave to this dimension's captivity. He still had the strength to hold on, the strength to resist, but he didn't know how much longer he could hold out. Barring any unforeseen events, he already had a premonition of the future he would sooner or later face.
Corroded and transformed, reduced to a puppet and slave of the dimension, even maintaining a clear will might become difficult.
…
"No matter how many times I sense it, this dimension is awe-inspiring." Ancient One sighed softly as he watched the dark warriors who were gradually assimilated in the dimension and whose bodies showed the marks of energy erosion.
"After all, it's a garbage dump that can accommodate everything." Luke appeared and took over the words of Master Ancient One.
"Only you can say that." The Ancient One's gaze shifted from the dimension to Luke with a slightly complicated look, and he said, "You are its creator, and it was born because of you."
"You have some ownership of it," Luke corrected. "I don't own it."
"But besides you, who dares approach it so easily? Mephisto? Although the Hell Dimension is a terrifying dimension with a very high energy level, I always feel that in the future, the fear and danger of your dimension will even exceed that of Hell." It is precisely because of the corresponding authority that the Ancient One can more clearly perceive the horror of this dimension's future development. It may become a dimension of catastrophic destruction.
"It's just a garbage dump," Luke insisted. "All the residue from emotional energy that can't be recycled after filtering is deposited here. As one of the masters of spiritual energy, you should understand that dealing with that residue is more difficult than dealing with nuclear waste and pollution. To some extent, even from the moment it's created, it can be filtered out, but it can never be completely wiped out. In other words, when emotional energy is first produced, due to the quantity, we don't need to worry about the disposal of the filtered residue. It can be thrown into any dimension or sealed in space; that small amount won't make a difference. But as emotional energy increases, we always have to find a place to store the filtered residue."
"I understand." Master Ancient One nodded, "I'm just lamenting its purity and trouble."
Although Luke kept saying these were filtered residue, both Luke and the Ancient One knew that the so-called residue was no less powerful than the filtered pure energy, and was even more difficult to deal with. They were not so-called residue at all, but simply energy that most mages could not absorb or control.
Even Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme, seemed to be reluctant to accept the dimensional energy, which had already reached a certain scale and was being used by Luke to deal with the accumulated filtration residue.
Because Luke's technology has refined and filtered energy to the extreme. This includes not only his own filtering techniques, but also the energy filtering and conversion technology provided by the Sorcerer Supreme. In short, the energy residue that can be thrown into this dimension is the residual of current technology and capabilities. Even if the Ancient One extracts this energy and uses it, it cannot be transformed in any meaningful way. It is pure negative energy. It is even darker than the energy of dark forces such as Dormammu and Sithon. At least the Ancient One can use the energy of their dimension to perform various energy conversions after a certain amount of consumption. However, in Luke's dimension, she would not even consider using it unless it was absolutely necessary.
Unable to transform or alter their form, they couldn't eliminate their highly contaminating and dangerous nature. Once used, it would be a mutually destructive and troublesome affair. The subsequent cleanup and the effort required to tidy up the mess were daunting. At least for now, Ancient One couldn't do anything about their contamination. Her only option was to recapture as much of the scattered energy residue as possible after use, disposing of it in other dimensions or spaces. But this was only a temporary solution. Even the slightest residue could reignite this energy. Once used, it was inevitable that residue would remain. Any remaining traces would require regular testing and disposal.
"As long as no one releases them, they're safe," Luke reassured the Ancient One. As for whether this statement was credible, Luke himself couldn't guarantee it. Of course, the Ancient One wouldn't believe it either.
"They will always undergo qualitative changes. By then, it will not only be the decline of life, but it may also become the cancer of the universe. But by then, that will probably be a problem you need to consider." Ancient One was quite open-minded. Anyway, she had intended to retire a long time ago. It was only because of the emergence of emotional energy that she stood guard for an extra shift. But when Strange grows up completely, she will probably retire according to her original idea.
"Maybe I'll have new technology and methods by then. There's no need to worry about it for now. At least, besides being a garbage dump, it's also qualified as a prison. No matter what kind of prisoners are thrown in, they will be contaminated and assimilated by it, becoming an inseparable part of it." Luke shrugged, not worried about the future.
"What do you want to name it?" The Ancient One was already planning to leave. She had simply traced back to this dimension from the appearance of the Dark Portal. Of course, Luke hadn't hidden it from her, so the Ancient One had no trouble finding it by following the same source of power.
"The abyss," Luke said. "When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes back at you. This perfectly aligns with the energy characteristics of this dimension."
Ancient One opened the portal and waved goodbye to Luke.