"Lothar!"
"Lothar, can you hear me?!"
In the utter darkness, a cluster of blue flame rose from Hela's palm. It was a flame tainted with death, and now it was her only means of lighting the way.
"Lothar?"
After walking for what felt like an eternity in the darkness, Hela frowned. The cold blue flame flickered without a breeze, illuminating her face in a shifting, ghostly light.
The situation was bizarre, completely and utterly bizarre. A master of magic, Hela could smell the concentrated oddity of it all, but she couldn't find a way to break free. She had never dealt with Dormammu before. In fact, she had only heard the name once during the era of ancient Egypt and knew very little about him.
"Is there no way to dispel it?"
Hela performed a hand sign, trying several times in succession to use all the "clearance" spells she knew, but she still couldn't clear the black mist around her. What was most confusing to Hela was that her flame could never expand her field of vision. No matter how much power she put into it, her visible area remained a mere ten meters.
"Such a different type of magical element from Asgard. Interesting..."
Holding the cold blue flame, Hela set off in one direction. The seemingly endless path gave her a fleeting sense of déjà vu, as if she were back in the place of Odin's seal. She was intimately familiar with this kind of solitary loneliness.
"Hela?"
In the boundless darkness, Hela suddenly heard a familiar voice. A golden light appeared not far from her, and an illusion of Lothar, with his long golden hair, came into her view.
"Lothar?"
Seeing the familiar face, Hela's guard dropped slightly.
"What's wrong?" The illusion of Lothar frowned, his unlikable tone earning a subtle glare from Hela. If I knew what was wrong, I wouldn't be walking blind like this. I would have been out of here ages ago!
"I don't know. This is a magical program I've never seen before. I can try to break it, but it will take time."
To say it was completely unbreakable would be a lie. After "undistractedly" studying for so long in the place of her imprisonment, Hela's individual power was now enough to rank her high in the universe.
This was only because she wasn't on her home turf of Asgard. If she were standing on Asgardian soil, where her power increased exponentially, Hela was confident she could shatter this sub-dimension with the power of the World Tree.
"How long will it take?"
"I don't know. Couldn't Woz analyze it?" Hela was a little annoyed. This oppressive environment made her uncomfortable.
"No."
"Frieza." Hela casually mentioned a name.
"What?"
"Never mind. Give me your hand." Hela shook her head, not wanting to continue wandering aimlessly in this place. She reached out her hand toward the illusion of Lothar.
"Hurry up." The illusion of Lothar looked impatient, but he still reached out his hand.
But just as he was about to touch Hela's fingers...
BOOM!!!
Hela flicked a finger, and a small, death-infused cold blue flame ignited on the illusion of Lothar's body.
"Do you want to die?!" The illusion's face instantly darkened.
CLANG!
The power of reconstruction instantly created a cage around the fake Lothar.
"You're a very good mimic, but there's one thing. Lothar wouldn't have not known who Frieza is," Hela sneered. The secret of Frieza was likely only known to Thanos, herself, Lothar, and his two subordinates in the entire universe. "Also, if you were Lothar, you shouldn't have said 'Hurry up.' You should have asked, 'Why?' Or, you would have said nothing at all and just watched me."
Hela wagged her index finger and grabbed at the empty air with her left hand!
BOOM!!!
A blinding explosion flashed and faded. In the midst of the fire, a slightly disoriented Lothar frowned. This magic was very strange. The attacks he threw out were all redirected back at him, as if Dormammu was hiding behind him, forcibly changing his position. But Lothar didn't feel himself being forcibly displaced at all.
Lothar was extremely irritated. Even after he transformed into Super Saiyan 4, his energy blasts were still being redirected back at him.
"This is really an annoying feeling."
Lothar angrily shook his head. For the first time in his life, he found magic to be so detestable. Especially when it kept creating illusions of that woman, Hela, to provoke him.
"Lothar?"
Hela's familiar voice echoed again. Lothar turned, his eyes meeting hers.
"Vanish." The cold Lothar couldn't be bothered to say any more. He had already tried this 91 times, and the "Hela" he encountered always had the same opening line.
"Die."
After encountering various Super Saiyan versions of Lothar no less than a hundred times, Hela was also numb to it all. Her face, illuminated by the cold blue flames, was filled with murderous intent. She reconstructed a torrent of steel to collide with Lothar's energy blast.
This time, however, the outcome neither of them expected happened. The energy blast Lothar threw won the collision with Hela's metal torrent. The silver-white energy blast, its momentum undiminished after shattering Hela's creation, flew straight toward the barrier she had hastily erected!
BOOM!!!!
The light of the explosion illuminated the stunned expressions on both Lothar and Hela's faces...
"No!!!"
"Hela!"
In the Dark Dimension, Frigga, who had been brought back by Kaecilius, collapsed to the ground, watching as her daughter's chest was pierced by Lothar in the vision. Beside her stood a long-silent Thanos.
"That's the look!"
"That's the look!"
"That expression of painful grief!"
Dormammu, whose true form had already merged with the Dark Dimension, laughed with wild arrogance. "I told you I would make Odin pay! I will make all of you pay! Including you, Thanos!"
Toying with magic, manipulating the human heart. This was Dormammu's true expertise. He was a sorcerer, one who had long since abandoned his physical body. With his full preparation, even a Celestial would have to kneel.
Toying with a mere Lothar and Hela was child's play. If Agamotto hadn't allied with Thanos and Odin to catch him off guard back then, why would he have been in such a pathetic state?
"This is only the beginning, Thanos, Frigga."
The sinister laughter abruptly stopped. A powerful blade flashed with an unparalleled might that seemed to split the entire Dark Dimension, but in the end, it was absorbed and dissipated by the vast dimensional energy.
"The time should be right."
In a certain part of the sub-dimension, the Ancient One, who had been meditating, opened her eyes. She spat out a mouthful of blood, her face growing even paler. Her time was running out.
"By now, Hela should have been accidentally impaled through the chest by Lothar."
The Ancient One, who had been silently counting the seconds in her mind, stood up.
Before leaving the New York Sanctum, she had used the Time Stone to view the outcome of the battle with Dormammu over two thousand times.
And this was the only way to truly defeat him.
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This fanfic has been fully translated!