As soon as Daniel stepped forward, the world around him shifted. In an instant, he found himself surrounded by a blinding white void—empty, silent, and completely featureless.
Before he could react, a transparent, razor-sharp blade sliced toward his throat at terrifying speed. It felt like the attack ignored every law of nature, as if it didn't care what stood in its way.
Daniel barely had a moment to register the danger. This wasn't an ordinary weapon—it was a blade made of space itself. A pure, refined edge of spatial energy. In this realm, it could slice through anything—matter, magic, even life itself.
Despite being a legendary magician, Daniel knew most of his defensive spells would be useless against this. But just as the blade was about to hit, Mjolnir tore out from the void beside him and smashed into the space blade.
With a loud crack, the deadly edge shattered into fragments, undone by the power of the ancient weapon.
Mjolnir carried a deep connection to the elemental forces—strong enough to tear through space itself.
This very ability had helped Daniel master spatial magic. He'd learned to manipulate it by studying the summoning circle of the Rainbow Bridge.
Within seconds, Daniel had located his attacker. Activating his magical sight, the blinding white faded, revealing a square, metallic chamber—some sort of hidden room. On the floor were four lifeless bodies, laid out just like those at the SHIELD facility.
At the center stood a man in his 40s, wearing a tattered red mask and an unkempt beard. He looked tired and disheveled, but a smile crept across his face as he saw Daniel. His eyes locked greedily on Mjolnir, hovering above Daniel's head.
"Well, this is a surprise," he muttered, grinning. "Didn't expect this kind of jackpot."
A sudden flash of lightning cracked through the room. Daniel's voice rang out coldly, "Kaecilius. I should've known."
Kaecilius. Of course. No one else would be reckless enough to infiltrate SHIELD and steal the Mind Scepter. Not even Doctor Doom would risk angering SHIELD this way—it would jeopardize everything he'd built in Latveria.
But Kaecilius had nothing to lose. He'd spent years being hunted by the Ancient One and the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. Always on the run, never in one place too long. Only recently had their pursuit slowed enough for him to regroup and rebuild his following.
He didn't care about consequences. He was like a starving dog—when he saw something he wanted, he lunged for it, no matter who got in his way.
Daniel had already suspected it was Kaecilius. Only someone with Dormammu behind them could ignore the threat of SHIELD and sneak this deep without being noticed. Daniel didn't need to recognize his face—he recognized the golden sling ring on his hand. The same type worn by the Kamar-Taj master, Drum, of the New York Sanctum.
Only a master of space could get in this deep unnoticed.
"You know me," Kaecilius said, raising an eyebrow. "And I think I know you too. An Avenger, right? Well then… I guess this is just your unlucky day."
Before Daniel could answer, the ground beneath him suddenly bent upward—folding into a sharp, steel wedge. Gravity pulled him straight toward the deadly point. If he landed, it would gut him on impact.
The whole room had been designed like a trap. SHIELD's steel walls were smooth and reinforced—when bent into sharp angles, they became deadly weapons.
Kaecilius had triggered the Mirror Dimension, a technique Daniel had expected the moment he realized who he was facing. Kaecilius had been the Ancient One's most skilled student once, and the Mirror Dimension was Kamar-Taj's signature spell.
Daniel reacted instantly. A white and bronze wand slipped from his sleeve, glowing with magic. He floated upward, avoiding the spike below just in time.
Kaecilius smirked and flicked his fingers. The steel corner beneath Daniel shot up like a blade again, aiming straight for his groin. Daniel kicked into the air, narrowly escaping.
With a thunderous BOOM, a pulse of energy exploded outward. The chamber transformed—the steel walls folded and twisted, turning into a forest of sharp blades. All of them aimed at Daniel.
He leapt into the only open space left, a small quadrant still untouched—but it was a trap. The walls around it folded again, forming dozens of jagged, knife-like points ready to crush him from all sides.
This was why the Mirror Dimension was feared. Even powerful sorcerers rarely escaped once trapped inside. For most people, it meant certain death.
But Daniel wasn't most people. He had Mjolnir, and he knew space magic inside and out. The Mirror Dimension, after all, was just a creative use of space manipulation.
Thunder suddenly erupted through the air, crackling with pure power. The blades around him shattered instantly as lightning surged through the mirrored world. Amid the destruction, Daniel spotted Kaecilius —standing ten meters away.
Kaecilius tried to retreat. A glowing portal appeared behind him—the doorway to another dimension. He planned to flee and leave Daniel stranded in the Mirror Dimension forever.
But Daniel didn't chase him. He hovered silently, watching with cold eyes as Kaecilius backed away.
He wasn't worried.
If this Mirror Dimension had been created by the Ancient One herself, it might have held him. It might have even destroyed him the moment it collapsed.
But Kaecilius wasn't the Ancient One.
His spell was weak. The Mirror Dimension he conjured could trap average fighters, maybe even low-level sorcerers. But to Daniel—who'd mastered spatial runes and fought battles across dimensions—it was nothing more than an obstacle.
Kaecilius probably realized this too. That's why he hesitated just before disappearing into the portal. He shot Daniel one last look, cold and calculating, then vanished through the gate.
Portals like these were tricky. While they couldn't help Kaecilius leave the area entirely due to the magical interference from Mjolnir, they still allowed him to shift around within the Mirror Dimension.
Sure enough, Daniel felt a ripple of energy behind him. A split second later, a blade of space pierced through the air, aimed straight at the back of his head.
It struck—only to pass right through him.
Kaecilius's expression changed immediately. The Daniel he'd stabbed dissolved like mist. An illusion.
Before he could react, a massive blow struck him from behind with a loud CRACK. Kaecilius staggered forward, forced to use the momentum just to stay on his feet.
He turned sharply, eyes wide. He'd been tricked. Inside his own Mirror Dimension.
From the reflection on his own space blade, he saw it clearly—Mjolnir, glowing with lightning, hurtling straight at his skull.