For the Dark Dimension, today was an exceptionally dark day.
As the ruler of darkness and the embodiment of destruction, Dormammu had long coveted the riches of the real world. Absorbing it into the Dark Dimension had always been his grand ambition. Unfortunately, Earth's Sorcerer Supreme not only fiercely protected that realm, but shamelessly stole power from the Dark Dimension for her purposes.
One day, Dormammu vowed, he would tear the Sorcerer Supreme into pieces.
That day had finally come.
The Sorcerer Supreme had brought a man—armored, and one size too large—into the Dark Dimension.
"Hahahahahahaha! You dare invade my domain, you—"
BOOM!
A massive shockwave engulfed the entire realm in an instant. The Ancient One, having predicted this outcome, had long since fled.
Luke could finally calm down.
From the moment the Ancient One spoke, he had a hunch she'd send him here—to the Dark Dimension. Indeed, it was the perfect place to vent his power without threatening the balance of the universe.
Luke's understanding of energy was fragmented but clear in some principles—for instance, energy and mass are interchangeable. As a living perpetual motion machine and energy generator, if he stayed in the real world too long, the damage he could cause would far exceed expectations. Like in The Three-Body Problem, where simply preserving five kilograms of the universe doomed the world to collapse and reboot failure.
Luke could only survive safely in the cosmos if his energy input and output stayed balanced.
This left him with a big problem: how to eliminate the excess energy generated by his "perpetual motion" body. Storing it wasn't an option—not just because he might lose control, but also because he vaguely remembered that black holes are essentially cores of near-infinite mass. If he tried storing all that energy, he might just turn into one.
Sitting cross-legged on a celestial body, Luke began to think rapidly. And with his brain fully powered, thinking was a breeze. He quickly came up with two solutions:
Internal Evolution: Luke's evolution required energy. If he could channel 100% of his surplus energy into evolving himself, he could avoid affecting the external world. Essentially, turns exports into internal imports. The downside? His evolution might spiral out of control—because the efficiency of his energy system scaled with his strength.
Annihilation through Conversion: This was Luke's preferred method. After all, a perpetual motion machine is already an impossible, zero-loss mechanism. Generating more energy on top of that? Utterly unscientific. But so is Superman absorbing solar energy to produce ice breath. As the saying goes: fight magic with magic…
He needed to slow down his evolution—only full control of his body would give Luke peace of mind. But to execute Plan 2, he had to evolve further to unlock the necessary powers.
Dormammu, who had nearly been vaporized earlier, suddenly felt relieved. The "bomb" the Ancient One dumped into his dimension seemed to have quieted down.
Luke looked tiny in the Dark Dimension—but to Dormammu, the pressure was growing. That distant figure was undergoing a transformation that made Dormammu feel a creeping dread.
If this continues… I'll die.
Dormammu had that ominous feeling. All he could do was nervously watch and curse the Ancient One and her entire family in his heart.
"Did Earth make friends with a god or something?" Dormammu lamented.
Luke, now evolving at full power, had gone god-tier.
Telekinesis, body manipulation, hair control, bone growth, flame-propelled farts, Observation Haki, chakra nature transformation… all kinds of powers were stacking on.
He even gained terrifying abilities like matter-energy conversion and anti-matter generation.
Just one gram of antimatter has the destructive power of three Hiroshima bombs. He could flick a booger and blow up a city.
Soon, Luke unlocked an ability that changed energy types.
He studied it with mixed feelings: he could now generate "negative energy", which annihilated regular energy. It was basically a higher-tier, absurd version of cold breath. Even more bizarre, small doses of this negative energy could emotionally affect people—causing depression and despair. It was negative energy in every sense.
"I am trash in this dimension," Dormammu muttered from a corner of his realm, slumped and despondent from Luke's negative energy aura. "So many years stuck here, unable to leave, beaten in every fight, surviving by stealing scraps from other worlds…"
Ignoring Dormammu, who was now questioning his entire existence, Luke finally slowed his evolution and stood up feeling refreshed, ready to enjoy his new isekai life. He figured killing Dormammu might mess with some cosmic balance—best not to meddle.
Looking around and realizing he didn't know how to contact the Ancient One, he shouted:
"Ancient One! I've got it under control—come get me out!"
Five minutes later.
"…Ancient One?"
After a long silence, Luke started to panic a little.
"Dormammu, I'm here to—ugh—Dormammu, tell me how to get out of here!"
He didn't suspect betrayal; he knew the Ancient One understood the consequences of angering someone like him. Especially if she had seen the future with the Time Stone.
Dormammu's massive face slowly approached. He didn't want to mess with this oversized human.
"That damn Ancient—uh, the Ancient One," Dormammu grumbled, "sustains her life by absorbing the energy of the Dark Dimension. You've thrown everything here into chaos. She's probably having a rough time back there."
"How can I help her?" Luke asked.
Even though he was stronger now, Dormammu's creepy giant face still made Luke uneasy.
They both just… hated each other.
Dormammu went silent.
Luke took the hint, activated his energy-conversion ability, and released a massive wave of dark energy, refilling the damaged Dark Dimension.
Dormammu stared in disbelief at this divine display of power and quickly shouted, "That's enough! Stop! You're going to make me explode!"
(Internally, he added a label to Luke: Dad.)
How many years had Dormammu spent trying to expand the Dark Dimension? And this guy casually did it like watering a lawn. He couldn't afford to offend him.
After a while, a golden portal opened beside Luke. The Ancient One, pale-faced and drained, appeared.
"There were… some complications," she said with a faint smile. "But congratulations, Mr. Luke."
Yup. She used the Time Stone to peek into the future.
With a smirk, she gave a casual wave to Dormammu's enormous sulking face in the distance. "Dormammu, may we leave?"
Dormammu turned and left with a face like he'd just swallowed a cactus. "Be my guest."
Luke shrugged as he stepped through the portal. Kind of felt like he'd just saved the universe.
This side of the portal seemed to be back on Earth, in a remote, uninhabited area—right where he'd taken off.
"Looks like I did the right thing."
The Ancient One, still ghostly pale, waved her hand and conjured a standard Kamar-Taj cloak over Luke's now-too-small outfit.
"I just feel…"
Luke blinked.
And then watched the bald woman roll her eyes and faint on the ground.
Half an hour later, in a small clinic in New York…
A nurse with a puzzled look asked Luke, who was waiting outside the room:
"Did you give her pure oxygen or something?"