A barren starfield of broken worlds.
A lone figure condensed out of the void—Thanos.
He lifted his gaze to the titanic stone gate ahead, eyes sharp as knives. "Inside… the Power Stone."
He took one measured step.
Crack-boom!
Lances of blinding light raked across him, only to halt a few centimeters short against an unseen barrier. Thanos's massive fist crashed forward; the gate exploded to gravel.
In the black chamber beyond, a silver orb hovered within a pillar of cobalt light.
The Orb.
Without hesitation, Thanos reached in. Traps around the Orb sprang at once—but to the Thanos of this moment, they were laughably feeble; not one could pierce his aura.
His fingers closed.
With a casual squeeze, the casing shattered, revealing a crimson gem within.
"The Power Stone."
A faint smile tugged at his lips. He raised the Infinity Gauntlet; the red gem leapt of its own accord into an empty socket.
Vmm—
Scarlet shockwaves rippled out in all directions. The planet's surface heaved as if the firmament itself were caving in; tectonics screamed and split.
Four stones.
Thanos clenched his fist, feeling a vastness of might he had never known.
Next… the Soul Stone.
There was no difficulty. As before—he destroyed Gamora, the one he loved most, and offered her soul in sacrifice.
The orange Soul Stone slid into place, and orange ripples wound up his forearm.
That left one final stone in this timestream.
The Time Stone.
Because he had traveled here using a Time Stone from another thread, the gem at his disposal was incomplete; he needed the Time Stone native to this flow to be whole.
New York, the Sanctum.
The Ancient One sat, back straight, steam curling from a teacup on the low table. She had meditated long. At her side stood her disciple, Mordo.
As for Stephen Strange? In this era he was still a surgeon in a hospital, dismissing talk of souls.
"Is the calamity… drawing near?"
The Ancient One's voice broke the quiet. Her gaze seemed to pierce the void, ranging across distant seas of stars.
"Master? Don't tell me… Dormammu is coming again?!"
Mordo blurted, startled.
"No. Worse than Dormammu."
The Ancient One rose, lifting the Eye of Agamotto from her chest. "Eye of Agamotto… will you be taken in the future?"
"Master, hasn't it always been in your hands?"
Mordo stared. He didn't fully grasp the relic's function—only that it was her most vital talisman and the Sanctum's keystone.
Her answer was not words—but the Sanctum itself.
Rrrrrrmm—
A convulsion like the world's end. The sky blackened, all light snuffed out. The world itself seemed to unravel.
Crick-crick-crick—
Hairline fractures webbed the very air around them.
The Mirror Dimension.
The Ancient One's specialty—fortified by the Sling Ring's sigils—boasted tremendous defense. Yet under the pressure swamping the Sanctum, even it… splintered.
A titanic shadow descended from the heavens, drifting down from beyond countless universes. It was and was not—phantasmal, unreal.
Dormammu.
Having warred with the lord of the Dark Dimension many times, the Ancient One understood at a glance. Dormammu had coveted Earth since time immemorial; thus the four Sanctums arose to bar him.
But this time… the incursion came far earlier than foretold.
"Master! It's Dormammu! Everyone—scatter!"
Mordo shouted, frantic. The ordinary adepts of the Sanctum could not face such a being. Staying would only swell the toll.
"No need to leave."
A low, rasping voice rolled across the sky.
From the darkling vaults a hulking figure stepped forth, shrouded in black breath—Thanos.
His fist tightened.
Invisible ripples burst outward from him, sweeping the New York Sanctum.
"Mirror—Wall!"
The Ancient One's face paled. She carved a circle with both hands; the Mirror Dimension bloomed again, enveloping the Sanctum.
Crack!
It shattered the instant it formed. Adepts who had just begun to withdraw froze in place; the formless wave passed clean through them. A heartbeat later, they fell like wheat before a scythe.
"Master—!"
Mordo screamed, grief-stricken. Even he was hurled aside by the blast, vomiting blood in midair.
The Ancient One's cheeks had gone white. Her eyes locked on Thanos's Gauntlet.
Five Infinity Stones—
—and a sixth, a ghostly Time Stone shimmering half-real.
"Master, they… they're all—"
From far off, Mordo watched helplessly as his comrades' bodies crumbled to dust and blew away.
"The calamity… has come."
The Ancient One did not seem to hear him. She murmured as if in a trance.
"What are you?"
Dormammu, squared against the Ancient One, finally spoke, surprised—its gaze turning to Thanos.
"Me? The one who will save the universe. Dormammu, I require your power."
A golden throne unfolded in the air. Thanos sat, unhurried.
"You require me? With what?"
Dormammu laughed. He was the sovereign of the Dark Dimension. Who dared to posture before him—before his very face?
"You are dead—merely lingering within this slice of time."
Thanos's tone was flat.
"Dead? Hahahahaha! Has your brain rotted? I am Dormammu, lord of the Dark Dimension—undying, unending!"
"Ignorance."
Thanos lifted a hand. A pane torn from the river of time unfurled before them.
It showed Dormammu facing Saitama and Boros—
—and being annihilated.
"Wha—"
Dormammu stared, stunned into silence, disbelief carved across its face.
"An existence outside the bounds of time… I cannot see his past or his future. This crisis…"
The Ancient One whispered. Even with the Time Stone, she had never glimpsed a single thread of Saitama.
A man discarded by fate?
Or a terror so absolute that even fate dared not peer upon him?
(End of Chapter)
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