A vicious light flashed through Doctor Strange's eyes as he stared directly at Thanos. There was no hesitation left in him anymore, no trace of restraint. He flipped through the pages of the Darkhold and the Book of Vishanti at the same time, and dense waves of mystical runes instantly spread out behind his body like a living storm.
The surrounding void trembled as countless monstrous phantoms emerged around him. Serpentine horrors twisted through the darkness while massive tentacled creatures writhed in the air beside hellhounds covered in black fire. Ghostly bats screeched overhead as demon dragons unfurled their wings, and cloaked insect-like creatures crawled through the dimensional cracks surrounding Strange's body. There were so many distorted apparitions that some of them could barely even be seen clearly.
The moment those creatures appeared, they let out deafening roars and charged straight at Thanos.
Thanos didn't slow down at all. The Tyrant's Blade swept forward with overwhelming force, cutting through the incoming illusions one after another. Every slash erased entire waves of monsters, reducing them into fragments of dark energy. Even so, the endless tide of phantoms still managed to hinder his advance for a brief moment.
Doctor Strange took advantage of that delay immediately. His hands moved continuously as he cast spell after spell, and just before the remaining phantoms were wiped out, he suddenly waved his arm.
The Book of Vishanti flew out of his hand and transformed into a gigantic golden shield directly in front of Thanos.
Without even blinking, Thanos swung the Tyrant's Blade downward again.
Boom!
The shield exploded apart instantly, and even the Book of Vishanti itself was split cleanly in half by the terrifying strike.
But at that exact moment, Doctor Strange finished his final spell.
A twisted grin spread across his face as his expression became completely deranged. "Thanos… you lost! Hahaha…"
The laughter that followed sounded horrifying, almost inhuman, like the shriek of some creature crawling out of the abyss itself.
An enormous amount of dark energy erupted from Doctor Strange's body and swallowed him whole. The surrounding void shook violently as that energy rapidly condensed into a gigantic face hanging high above the battlefield.
The face itself looked blurry and unstable, almost unreal, but the dark energy radiating from it was unimaginably pure. It was far beyond anything Doctor Strange should have been capable of controlling on his own.
The moment Thanos saw it, his eyes narrowed sharply.
"Sisythos!"
He understood instantly what Strange had done.
Doctor Strange had willingly sacrificed himself to become a coordinate for the ancient demon god Sisythos, allowing the entity to project its power into reality. Just like the Ancient One had once connected herself to Dormammu's dimension, Strange had chosen corruption in exchange for strength.
The void was boundless. Without coordinates, even dimensional demons couldn't directly interfere with this reality. But now Doctor Strange had become that anchor point.
Still, after sensing the creature's aura carefully, Thanos quickly realized something else.
Sisythos was nowhere near Dormammu's level.
Back then, Dormammu's mere gaze had been large enough to swallow star systems whole. Compared to that overwhelming multiversal pressure, the energy radiating from Sisythos was significantly weaker. It hadn't truly reached the level of a complete dimensional god yet.
Which also meant one important thing.
The creature still lacked the ability to directly corrupt souls.
Even so, Thanos couldn't help feeling puzzled. Exactly how deep did Doctor Strange's hatred run for him to willingly throw away everything just to drag him down?
Without taking his eyes off the giant face above them, Thanos spoke coldly. "Ancient One, leave now. This fight is beyond you."
The Ancient One nodded immediately and raised her hands, drawing glowing circles in the air. Nearby, Hela and Laufey quickly flew over as well, preparing to retreat together through the portal.
But after several seconds passed, the portal still refused to form.
Sweat appeared on the Ancient One's forehead as she continued trying to force the spell open. "Sir… I can't open it."
Thanos immediately looked back toward the enormous face looming overhead.
The entire space had been sealed.
Sisythos clearly had no intention of allowing anyone to escape alive.
At that moment, the giant face slowly opened its glowing crimson eyes and stared down at the battlefield.
"I'm back… click… click… click…"
The bizarre laughter echoed through the void as endless dark energy burst from its mouth like a tidal wave and surged directly toward Thanos.
In Sisythos' perception, Thanos was obviously the strongest opponent present. Naturally, he became the primary target.
Thanos reacted instantly. He spun around and hurled the Tyrant's Blade forward before covering his body in dense purple apocalypse energy. Instead of retreating, he used his physical body to forcibly withstand the incoming attack head-on.
The Tyrant's Blade spun violently through the air and pierced straight through the giant face, instantly shredding Doctor Strange's body apart before curving back toward Thanos.
Since Sisythos still couldn't corrupt souls directly, then destroying Doctor Strange's body remained the simplest solution. Without a stable coordinate, the demon god wouldn't be able to maintain his projection for long.
Thanos grabbed the returning Tyrant's Blade and immediately spun it again to block the incoming flood of dark energy.
Meanwhile, Doctor Strange's torn body rapidly reassembled itself.
As Thanos watched the process carefully, his gaze shifted upward toward the Darkhold floating above Strange's head.
The book continuously released streams of dark energy that both maintained the giant face of Sisythos and restored Doctor Strange's body at the same time.
That was the real medium.
Doctor Strange served as the coordinate, while the Darkhold functioned as the bridge allowing Sisythos to project his power into this universe.
The realization appeared instantly in Thanos' mind.
Sisythos hadn't truly become a full dimensional demon god yet. He lacked the authority and power necessary to project himself across realities naturally. That was why he needed both a coordinate and a medium to force his presence into existence.
The next moment, Thanos made his decision.
"Ancient One, Laufey, Hela! Attack together!"
Since escape wasn't possible, then everyone present would contribute to destroying the enemy instead.
The three reacted immediately.
Golden light exploded from the Ancient One's hands as countless fan-shaped energy blades shot forward like a storm. Laufey raised the Casket of Ancient Winters and unleashed torrents of freezing blue energy that spread across the battlefield in an instant. Beside him, Hela continuously swung her arms, launching dense waves of black necroswords through the void.
The giant face roared furiously after being struck from multiple directions. It turned toward the three attackers and spat out another massive stream of dark energy.
At the exact same moment, Thanos moved.
Apocalyptic power erupted throughout his body as the Power Stone glowed with blinding purple brilliance. His ruler abilities activated completely, pushing his physical strength to its absolute peak.
In an instant, he appeared directly in front of Doctor Strange.
Then the Tyrant's Blade descended from above.
Slash!
The Darkhold was cut apart instantly, and Doctor Strange's body was split into pieces yet again.
This time, however, the Darkhold didn't regenerate.
The shattered pages began burning violently as enormous amounts of dark energy leaked out uncontrollably. The gigantic face above them rapidly destabilized.
Doctor Strange's body still attempted to regenerate. "You can't kill me—"
Before he could finish speaking, Thanos swung his blade again without the slightest bit of patience.
Doctor Strange exploded apart once more.
Then Thanos raised one hand as world-destroying energy surged forward, completely erasing the remaining fragments of Strange's body down to the atomic level.
"No!"
A furious roar echoed throughout the void.
The burning Darkhold finally collapsed into ashes, and the massive face in the sky rapidly shrank until it transformed into the figure of a white-haired man.
He stood roughly six feet tall, dressed in a crimson bodysuit while yellow light flickered inside his eyes. Dark flames coiled around both of his hands continuously.
This was Sisythos himself.
One of the four ancient demon gods.
Originally, Thanos had still been debating whether he needed to spend fifty thousand evolution points to unleash the power of tens of millions of stars. But after personally sensing Sisythos' current strength, a cold smile slowly appeared on his face.
Looks like Doctor Strange's body was destroyed too quickly.
The projection process had been interrupted before Sisythos could descend completely, leaving him far weaker than expected.
At least for now…
He was still weaker than Thanos.
But in the very next second, blazing light erupted around Sisythos' body.
Chaos energy.
That was another one of the demon god's powers.
"I'll tear you apart!"
.....
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