บท 199: CHAPTER 195
We stepped inside the portal that had begun to eat away the underground basement of Kamar-Taj, finding ourselves in a dimension that brimmed with darkness, fire and destruction.
"Woah! This place feels all sorts of trippy." Steve being the one most attuned with space after me was bound to be disoriented in such a chaotic space but it also highly favored him if he could get attuned to it.
"Where are we?" Strange asked as he glanced around, not at all bothered by the strangeness of the place.
"This is the Dark Dimension, or Hell. Whichever one you affirm to." The Ancient One said, eyes focused in a particular direction.
I expanded my senses, taking in the endless space around me and imprinting myself to its illogical coordinates. It was also at that time that I felt the looming presence that was thousands of kilometers away and yet still a few centimeters from our face. "You feel that?"
Before any of them could answer, the darkness and fire around us coalesced into a humongous head of pure destruction.
"We meet again, wretch." All I could feel was pure malice and his suffocating presence that seemed to be submerging us.
Everyone, except me, Ororo and the Ancient One, watched with bated breaths as tendrils of darkness rose from all every part of hell our eyes could see and wrapped itself around each other, taking a huge humanoid form.
"That we do, Dormammu. I will only tell you this once: leave the Earth be." The Ancient One said but I could catch the tiniest hint of fear in her magic, which normally would have been impossible but I was a bit attuned with the Mind Stone which practically 10x my senses.
"Hahahaha. Still as arrogant as ever, I see. Unfortunately for you, this time will be different. After your death, I w-"
BOOOM!
The dark form of Dormammu was flung away into the distance as Bucky, Ororo and I attacked and cut short the hateful vitriol of the Dark God.
"Save the monologues for later." I shouted at the two stunned sorcerers beside me and snapped them back to focus.
It was only after he appeared in front of us that I knew how truly powerful Dormammu was. He eclipsed us in strength by a long margin and it would take our combined effort to keep him at bay and that was not factoring the likely arrival of another Hell Lord.
Magic, power and space burst forth from my body as I increased in size with my trusty old axe appearing on my palms. I could feel the power that was coursing through the runes on it, smiling a bit as it gave me a boost in assurance.
SCREEEEEEEEECHHHHHHH!
An unholy howl of raw unadulterated rage echoed throughout the Dark Dimension and caused it to tremble as it drew in everything, even the darkness, towards Dormammu.
We were literally in the belly of the beast which made dodging his attacks very difficult for the others if they weren't fast enough making blocking them the most viable option, but the problem with that was that it was almost impossible for people like Natasha, Yelena, Bucky and even Steve, to successfully block it.
Grunting as the attack came closer to us, I swung my axe, letting my well of spatial energy flow into the axe without any restrictions which resulted in the malformed space of Dormammu's dimension crumbling down as both attacks clashed into each other.
Despite the impossibility of it, I was slow to dodge as Dormammu's charge impacted me and sent me flying through the floating moon we had been standing on.
I was about to rush back when I felt something that I haven't felt in quite some time.
Blood.
It wasn't a deep wound or anything but rather a busted lip that had already healed leaving only the taste of it in my mouth.
At that realization, a lot of emotions washed over me; anger, disgust, arrogance, anticipation and excitement and it took me a few seconds before I finally settled on the one that was the most important in this situation.
Rage. Unbridled rage.
As soon as the feeling washed over me, the once chaotic space of hell suddenly became more comfortable and inviting.
All I saw was red as destruction and darkness enveloped me in a hazy fog, fusing with space in a sickening way, except that I didn't care about that and erased the space between us and forcefully teleported everyone away from Dormammu as the mountain-sized enlarged axe in my hand was brought down with an earth-shattering force under the might of four forcibly fused Infinity Stones.
Everything crumbled and disintegrated in a cascade of red and purple.
"Did that get him?" Steve materialized and hovered close to me in his ephemeral form.
"Of course not." I couldn't help the deep growl that rumbled out with my words because I knew that even that had only hurt him a little which he could easily recover from given that he was in his domain.
Cue to my point was the darkness forming and coming together to form the physical body of Dormammu.
"It's you! Hahahaha. I finally remember you, mortal. Oh what a marvelous day indeed. Long have I pondered on how to kill my enemies from that irritating realm and today fate answers me."
His smiling face oozed wrath as he eyes focused on me, not at all bothered by the others who had already surrounded us. He wasn't at all worried about us besting him and as much as it irritated me to say it, he had some basis from his perception but regardless, I was not ready to die today.
"Mr. Cross…" The Ancient One started but I cut her off. "I'll take his focus since I'm the strongest one here while you and Strange find a way to seal or restrict him, even if for a moment as a moment is all we need. We also need to keep an open eye for any other movement. There's still another Hell Lord out there after all. The rest of you will run interception with me, got that?"
The amused smirk on Dormammu's face irked me but I didn't bother with it because I knew that I was in a very volatile state and I needed to focus my anger on him rather than letting it run wide and rampant.
The others nodded their heads, even the two sorcerers, and got ready to face the smiling God in front of us.
I exchanged a glance with the two sorcerers and Bucky and Ororo and immediately set into motion. Clasping my hands together along with our allied sorcerers in fast fluid motion, we slammed it on the ground while Ororo bathed everywhere else in her lightning.
Golden vines spewed forth from the ground and wrapped around Dormammu, increasing in numbers as the Dark Lord ripped them off as they entangled him, snarling in irritation only to be bombarded with Ororo's lightning.
The two sorcerers beside me disappeared only to appear at the place Dormammu was, calling forth the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak to bind him.
Dormammu roared and spewed flames from his mouth at the two sorcerers but I was already on it. I compressed the two points of space that covered the radius of the flames and stood in it, making it look like there was two of me, a vastly higher form of Steve's omnipresence.
I cleaved the flames in two making them pass harmlessly through the side of the two sorcerers who had all their focus in maintaining the unbreakable bands they got him wrapped in.
Demons started crawling out of the ground in multitudes and rushing at us to hinder us from attacking their lord.
Lightning ran across the endless number of connected satellites like the one we were standing on and started killing the demons that were rushing at us.
Yelena and Natasha were ridiculously underpowered to be here but they still made the choice to come even after I tried dissuading them. Seeing the demons, they both got into action sending the demons back into the shadows in order for them not to get in our way from the main character.
My senses alerted me of danger but not one intended for me, rather the Ancient One.
Dormammu was using the bands she used to bind him to further corrupt her as it was a dark spell even if it was not one of his.
It was a very bad idea for her to come inside the Dark Dimension as she was easily susceptible to Dormammu's influence which she had been fighting since the first moment she had stepped foot inside this infernal realm.
I could see her soul slowly losing its already dim countenance the more she struggled and held him but despite knowing fully well of her condition, she continued on regardless.
"Let go!" Without waiting for her response, I severed her connection with the bands for a brief moment which was more than enough time for Dormammu to wriggle his way out followed by his maniacal laugh at her state. "How bad?"
"I might have been quite stingy there. A moment of oversight on my part." She panted as she spoke.
Dormammu was toying with us, that much was clear. He didn't perceive us a threat at all and yet I could still feel his rage building up as the minutes ticked by.
"I heard it's a culture among your kind not to play with their food. An apt saying." His huge firm shrunk further down, bringing his height down to 7ft as the darkness around him solidified. "Seeing you all attacking so fiercely stokes my appetite, so for my sake please don't stop now."
My senses told me that demons had begun encroaching through the rift that was consuming the Sanctum but there was still no sign of Satannish so that was good news for now.
My axe thrummed with energy as I gripped it hard and faced Dormammu, the power of four Infinity Stones empowering me with every passing moment.
"Oh? You want to face me? I applaud your foolish bravery." He was omnipresent in his own realm with the way he made to grab my neck despite being a healthy distance away from me.
I exploded into a puff of smoke, separating my cells in order to dodge his choke and reappeared at his sides to dig my axe in his head but it was stopped by a shield. I strengthened myself further with Power Stone while also bombarding it at the same time with my destruction energy which caused red lightning sparks to dance wildly.
The shield finally gained a crack which surprised the Hell Lord but it was not enough for me to capitalize on as the shield shot out energy beams that pushed me a few feet back.
The lines around my body lit up like a Christmas tree as I attacked Dormammu once more along with Strange and the Ancient One who had recovered a bit.
Dormammu's gauntleted hands and magic ripped open wounds in my body only for them to be closed as his hands exited them. The Time Stone around Strange's neck was lit up which meant he was probably working on a spell, hopefully.
There was no way for us to defeat Dormammu here. We might have had a chance if he had stepped into Earth because he would have been weakened considerably and wouldn't have been able to draw endlessly on the power of the Dark Dimension. Sure we could hold him back a bit but what was important was a way to keep him unable to enter Earth because killing him here was an impossibility.
My axe impacted the Dark God on the side of the head which sent him flying and blasting his way through two moons in the distance only for him to get sucked inside a black hole, the same black hole that sucked all of our attacks and bombarded the trapped Hell Lord with all of them.
My senses registered heat, smoldering heat, that melted everything around it appearing on Earth as the second Hell Lord stepped through it and the encroachment finally began.
Dormammu was already ripping the black hole into nothingness, his escape being just around the corner.
"Guys. They need you back on Earth." I didn't have the luxury of time to explain so I just warped them there despite Ororo calling out to me.
All that remained was just the three of us sorcerers against the Dark God of Darkness and Destruction.
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