American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

“What the hell is going on? We've detected unknown, massive energy! And what's that hole in the sky? Don't tell me your magic's gone out of control!” Nick Fury, watching the images on the projection screen, his face grim, once again requested a connection to the Sorcerer Supreme's ring communicator. This time, the Sorcerer Supreme didn't refuse, and as soon as the connection was established, Nick bombarded him with questions.

“It's Kaecilius!” came the Sorcerer Supreme's voice, accompanied by the sounds of intense battle and heavy breathing. He seemed to be in the middle of a fierce fight, and his voice was hurried.

“That rogue sorcerer? What have they done?” A warning bell instantly went off in Nick's mind, and combined with the images on the screen, his sense of unease grew several times over.

“He's summoned Dormammu!” the Sorcerer Supreme shouted.

Nick felt a wave of dizziness. He wasn't some clueless newbie anymore; at least he knew about beings like Mephisto and Dormammu. He also knew some information about them.

Dimensional invasion!

This was an extremely high-risk event in his understanding!

“What about the Ancient One?” Nick instinctively thought of the Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One. “Isn't she there?”

The Sorcerer Supreme was silent for a moment, then, urged by Nick, he said in a strained voice, “The Ancient One is dead, killed by Kaecilius.”

This answer made Nick feel ice-cold all over, and he instinctively didn't want to believe it. He had seen the Ancient One, such a powerful person! Someone who could sit as equals with Odin, the King of Gods, and Mephisto, the lord of the Hell dimension, how could she just die like that? His first thought was that the Sorcerer Supreme was telling a joke that wasn't funny at all.

But soon, Nick corrected his thinking and began to force himself to believe this terrible news. At the same time, his brain was working at high speed, considering all sorts of terrible consequences and ways to deal with them.

But after only a moment of consideration, Nick sadly realized that his response methods seemed to be of little use in the face of this level of disaster. He wasn't even sure how much his secretly built safe houses, constructed through embezzlement, could do in the face of a planet-level disaster like a dimensional invasion.

“Where's Luke? Hasn't he returned yet?” After thinking it over, Nick still thought of his trouble-solver, Luke. As the saying goes, when in doubt, find Luke. Even if he didn't want to sometimes, he had to admit that asking Luke for help was the simplest, most effective, and most efficient way to solve problems.

“No,” the Sorcerer Supreme gave Nick another terrible answer, as expected.

“I'll take the Captain and some people to help you.” Nick began to select and arrange partners and teammates. He couldn't just sit and wait for judgment in the face of this level of disaster. Even the pager that had never been activated was taken out at this moment. Although he didn't know if the other party would make it in time, or if they could drive Dormammu away if they arrived, it was still a fighting force.

“It's too late. Strange has already rushed into the Dark Dimension. The situation has changed a bit.” The Sorcerer Supreme's tone was so complex that Nick couldn't grasp the real emotion in it. This made Nick clench his fist again.

If he could survive this disaster, he would tell Luke to strengthen the absolute defense of this planet! To equip it with more powerful equipment! He couldn't put all his hopes on that group of sorcerers.

……

Dark Dimension.

“Dormammu, I've come to bargain.”

Stephen Strange, who had died countless times, used the time loop power of the Eye of Agamotto to stand up again and say the words that made Dormammu frown in annoyance.

The Dark Dimension transcended time, and Dormammu wasn't afraid of time acting directly on him. And the sorcerer Strange understood this, so he cleverly applied the time loop to himself.

He set up a loop for himself, so every time Dormammu appeared, he was passively dragged into a loop with Strange. Each time Stephen died was the beginning of a loop. Dormammu could remember each loop, but he was always dragged into the next loop by Strange.

He knew very well that he could break the time loop by finding a way to eliminate the main cause of Strange's loop, and he did so, but the situation was a bit beyond his expectations. He successfully killed Strange, but it led to the next loop. And the phrase “I've come to bargain” was like a magic spell that opened the loop.

He had lost count of how many times he had killed Strange in front of him. The other party jumped around in front of him like a little bug, dying and reviving. He had also used all sorts of means, but the other party's loop made him feel disgusted.

“Dormammu, I've come to bargain!”

Strange, who had died again, jumped up and started another loop, coming to the energy-formed humanoid Dormammu, who was like a giant.

“I don't need to bargain. I bet you can't last much longer.” Dormammu didn't make a sound; his voice was an energy frequency that bombarded Strange's soul consciousness.

“I can last a long time, but what about you? How long can you last?” Strange said loudly.

“What do you mean?” Dormammu paused his surging energy. “Do you think I can't last as long as you?”

“I believe your energy can kill me thousands of times, but what's the point? You have your dimensional power, and I've brought some power from our side. We're now in an unsolvable dead loop. But if I'm trapped here, my home will be safe. If you're trapped here, is your home really safe?” Strange still said loudly.

“I am the lord of the Dark Dimension. This is my dimension, my universe, my territory! Why do you think my home wouldn't be safe?” Dormammu roared.

“You are indeed the lord of the Dark Dimension, but have you always been the master of your Dark Dimension?” Seeing that Dormammu was no longer unwilling to communicate with him at all and attacked him to send him into the next loop, Strange was overjoyed and said, “I once read in a book that recorded the history of various dimensions that the previous ruler of the Dark Dimension was a wizard named Ornar, and you were an interdimensional energy lifeform who joined him.

You taught him how to use the characteristics of the Dark Dimension to devour other dimensions for expansion, and he gave you high status and power. Later, Ornar was obliterated when he tried to conquer a dimension called the Unconscious Realm. Then you and your sister Umar took the opportunity to slaughter a large number of Ornar's followers and used various means to seize control of the Dark Dimension.

You even used the power of magic barriers to block the invasion of the Unconscious Realm, which made the life of the Dark Dimension think you were their guardian, which deepened your deep connection with the Dark Dimension.

You and your sister are keen to devour the material world, and for this reason, you were driven away as heretics of the Faltine race. After you took control of the Dark Dimension, you never stopped devouring other universes and dimensions. But you're not without enemies, are you?

If you spend a lot of time and energy here, causing major accidents in your Dark Dimension's backyard, what will you do?”

“That's what I hate about the Ancient One! She recorded too much!” Dormammu said resentfully. If you were to say who had the most black history of the lords of the various dimensions in their hands, then without a doubt, the Ancient One was one of them.

Even if the various dimensional demon gods could hide their black history and past very well, they couldn't stand the Ancient One, who had both the ability and the pleasure of peeping as a way to relieve stress. The Time Stone was almost played out by the Ancient One in this regard. Some dimensional demon gods silently endured the Ancient One's fleecing behavior, and it can't be said that the black history about them in the Ancient One's hands was of no use.

Using the Time Stone to gradually understand the operation of the power of the various dimensions, and then find loopholes and obtain permissions from it, and then, naturally, they also gained some inexplicable [records]. Out of some kind of bad taste, the Ancient One also magically imprinted some of the [records] she obtained along the way as secret treasures.

An existence whose strength did not match the black history of these demon gods, naturally, would be asking for trouble if they wanted to blackmail them.

But an existence whose strength was very strong and difficult to truly kill held black history, and they could only pay hush money regularly. If there were any hardheads, either they couldn't find the Ancient One's whereabouts at all, or they were killed by the Ancient One.

In the relatively short period of hundreds or nearly a thousand years for the demon gods, the Ancient One was able to make such a big name for herself in the multiverse, and there was naturally a reason for it. Pure strength and being able to fight were not enough.

And Strange, as the successor of the Sorcerer Supreme, after the Sorcerer Supreme opened all the treasures to him except for a very few taboos, he naturally also saw this secret book that recorded the black history of the lords of the various dimensions under “chance”. And Dormammu, the master of the Dark Dimension, occupied a considerable amount of space in the book, and was recorded in great detail.

“What's your opinion?” Strange walked to Dormammu's energy face, which was bigger than an asteroid, and asked.

“What conditions do you want to talk about?” Dormammu didn't want to follow Strange into this endless loop again and again, especially since Strange was about to expose his family's secrets. He really needed to take care of some things outside the loop. Even the barrier in the Unconscious Realm needed to be constantly monitored. In short, he recognized Strange's negotiation.

“Take your fanatics and leave my territory.” Strange made a request: “Stop doing evil in our world, and promise me that you will never come back. If you agree, I will stop the loop, and we will all go back to our homes and deal with the mess in our own homes.”

“As you wish.” Dormammu took a deep look at Strange and gave his answer with a rumbling voice.

……

Strange slowly flew out of the Dark Dimension's space, coming to Mordo and Wong, who were confronting Kaecilius and others.

“What have you done?” Seeing Strange reappear unharmed, the intoxicated look on Kaecilius's face when he looked at the Dark Dimension disappeared. He looked at the other party in shock and couldn't help but ask.

He didn't understand why this sorcerer who sought his own death didn't die, but instead returned from the Dark Dimension.

“What have I done?” Strange stood firm on the ground, lengthening his tone, “Maybe I had a friendly and warm negotiation with your master? The process wasn't pleasant, but the result was not bad.”

Kaecilius and the others looked at each other, not knowing whether to believe Strange's words or not. But just as Kaecilius was about to say something, the power mark on his forehead suddenly lit up, and a huge suction force suddenly pulled him. His whole body was like burning red-hot charcoal, and huge energy flowed through his blood vessels and body.

The other fanatics of Dormammu also floated up one after another, and like Kaecilius, they were sucked into the shrinking Dark Dimension without any resistance.

“Goodbye, I helped you achieve your wish, sent you to meet your master, merged into one, and gained immortal life. No need to thank me.” Strange shrugged slightly, watching Kaecilius and the others, who had turned into a pile of charcoal and lost their life, disappear into the entrance.

“Well done! How did you do it?” Seeing the last bit of the hole in the sky disappear and the sky return to its original appearance, Wong almost jumped on Strange in excitement, patting his back hard with his little fat hands, laughing heartily.

“This is incredible.” Mordo felt a little jealous in his heart. He was jealous that he wasn't the one who did all this, but soon, he cleaned up his emotions and congratulated Strange like Wong.

Without a doubt, if some people would still question and disagree with the Ancient One's choice of Strange as her successor before, but after the other party succeeded in driving away Dormammu and protecting Midgard under the other party's hands, Strange was already the well-deserved new Sorcerer Supreme. And like the Ancient One, he was a new Sorcerer Supreme who could gain the respect and recognition of all sorcerers.

“Oops, I suddenly thought of a troublesome thing!” Wong, who was celebrating, suddenly jumped off Strange as if he had thought of something, his face flustered.

“What trouble is more troublesome than Dormammu now? We've solved Dormammu, so what trouble can't be solved?” Strange laughed.

“Luke's 《Book of Energy》 was absorbed into the Dark Dimension along with Kaecilius.” Wong squeezed out a flattering smile, grabbed Strange's arm, “Sorcerer Strange, no, Your Excellency the Sorcerer Supreme, I think you should go and explain to Luke. This is not a problem of our dereliction of duty.”

The smile on Strange's face gradually disappeared.