A ruthless, resolute glint flashed in Martin's eyes. Raising his right hand, a pulse of brilliant blue light surged forth. He bypassed Dormammu entirely, tearing through the fabric of the Dark Dimension on a massive scale.
As long as the Dark Dimension was destroyed, he was confident he could kill Dormammu outright.
"What are you doing?!"
Dormammu's roar shook the void. Rivers of molten magma boiled across his form, and torrents of black magic surged violently through the plane, distorting the vacuum with dark tremors.
"Dormammu," Martin sneered, "why don't you say hello to an old friend?"
A thunderous vortex of space-time swirled open beside him. From its spiraling depths stepped a figure, cloaked in flowing yellow robes. She lowered her hood, revealing a bald head and calm, unreadable eyes.
"The Ancient One!!" Dormammu bellowed in rage and disbelief. "You two… you've joined forces?!"
He was stunned.
These two had been at each other's throats not long ago, clashing in a cosmic battle that required the power of three Infinity Stones and sent shockwaves through the multiverse. And now… they were united against him?
"You…" Dormammu's face darkened with fury.
"It's been a long time, Dormammu," the Ancient One said softly, her smile almost serene. "I've dreamed of this day, the day I could finally erase you from existence."
A strange black sigil spread across her forehead and eye sockets, dark and ominous. As the darkness of the realm reacted to her presence, parts of the dimension's corrupt energy flowed into her, slowly enhancing her power.
Her tone remained gentle. A faint smile played at her lips. She was the calm before a magical storm.
The Eye of Agamotto opened on her chest, the green gleam of the Time Stone glowing within. Its radiance intertwined with the Space Stone and Mind Stone in Martin's possession.
Three Infinity Stones, aligned for one purpose: to annihilate Dormammu and eliminate him as a threat forever.
In that instant, Dormammu understood everything.
"You came after all, you hypocritical Sorcerer Supreme!" he roared with laughter, his gaze feral as it bore into the Ancient One. "All these years, you've been siphoning my dark power, and now you bring it back to strike me down?!"
Dormammu's massive form loomed with suffocating weight. He stared down at the Ancient One, feeling the unshakable resolve that radiated from her small frame.
"You fed off me! Without me, you wouldn't possess even a fraction of your current strength! Now you think you can repay that debt with your life?! Neither you nor Martin, two insignificant worms, can hope to challenge the great Dormammu!"
A surge of even darker energy erupted from his form, an overwhelming wave of killing intent.
"You misunderstand," the Ancient One said, voice even and steady. "Darkness was never yours to begin with. Even you are merely a vessel for its use."
Her hands opened.
In a flash, a devastating current of magic burst forth, blasting Dormammu back with explosive force.
He howled as torrents of dark energy rapidly reknit his damaged essence, healing his wounds in mere seconds.
"ANCIENT ONE! MARTIN! YOU FILTHY MORTALS!!"
Dormammu raised a clawed finger. The entire Dark Dimension responded with a deathly howl. Countless meteors, wreathed in spectral green flame, plummeted from above with a shriek of death and fury, targeting both Martin and the Ancient One.
Martin barely cast a glance her way.
"Our deal still stands," he said coldly. "Once Dormammu is dead, you hand over the Time Stone."
The Ancient One nodded. "I will honor my word. But remember, the handover happens once you've left Earth."
She knew that once she relinquished the Time Stone, she would lose a critical tool in resisting Martin.
"Hmph. Once this is done, leaving Earth will be my first act. Everything is already in place."
They spoke of Dormammu's defeat as a foregone conclusion, as if they were merely dividing the spoils of war.
Fury flared in Dormammu's core. His roar tore through the Dark Dimension, sending cosmic tremors across the void. Every dead star and ruined world twisted into motion under his will, now charging at the pair like a tide of annihilation.
Martin unleashed spirals of spatial rifts.
The Ancient One raised her hand. Sparks of eldritch fire danced in the air.
The meteor swarm was sliced apart and redirected in midair, but more continued to fall, cloaked in black curses and fell sorcery.
A faint frown creased the Ancient One's brow. Her face remained serene, but something shifted.
She raised both arms, and instantly, duplicates of the very same meteors appeared beneath her feet, rocketing upward to collide with Dormammu's own.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
It was as if galaxies collided, reality shredding at the seams.
Martin struck next. Waves of devastating power burst from him, tearing through space with calculated fury, sweeping across Dormammu's form like a cosmic scythe.
Meteor impacts and arcane detonations lit up the realm, chaos reigning as if the apocalypse itself had come.
Each strike triggered shockwaves that warped time and space.
Martin stepped forward, his power erupting at full throttle. He and the Ancient One launched simultaneous multi-directional assaults on Dormammu. This was battle at its apex, violence on par with the might of Skyfather-class entities.
Dormammu retaliated, his dark essence roaring in defiance. He channeled his full power as the master of this dimension, wielding reality itself as a weapon.
The Dark Dimension shuddered violently. Dust storms raged, obliterating everything in their path. His magic was absolute, devouring light, time, and space.
But it wasn't enough.
Not against both of them.
Martin alone had been a serious threat. Now, with the Ancient One inside Dormammu's own realm, the balance tipped decisively against the dark lord.
For the first time in eons, the Lord of Darkness found himself on the edge of defeat.
Another thunderous explosion tore through the realm. Cracks opened across the skies and abyssal floor of the dimension, growing faster than they could be healed.
Martin and the Ancient One weren't just fighting to win.
They were dismantling the very foundation of Dormammu's power.
"STOP!!" Dormammu roared, genuine fear lacing his voice now. "What are you trying to do?! You think the great Dormammu will ever bow?! NEVER!!"
Martin's voice was cold as ice.
"I told you from the beginning, I'm not here for negotiations. I came here to kill you."
The Space Stone pulsed in Martin's grip, its cosmic authority unleashed at full magnitude. Waves of destructive energy bypassed Dormammu's defenses, ripping into the very framework of the dimension.
And finally—
The vast, abyssal realm began to crumble.
The Dark Dimension, an infinite void of madness and shadow, was collapsing under Martin's relentless assault.
Space itself, the fundamental pillar of this realm, shattered like glass under the dominion of the Space Stone, an artifact that held supreme authority over dimensional integrity.
For a weapon like this, destroying a pocket dimension?
Was almost too easy.
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