CHAPTER 112

[The Hong Kong Sanctum, Doctor Stephen Strange POV]

Strange felt torn.

A fight like this was not something he thought he would ever be a part of, and here he was hovering over the ruins of where Draul and Doom had fought.

He was grateful to Kamar-Taj for opening his eyes to the wider world but like Mordo always says, 'The price comes due.' And his was a choice: Forgo his mundane life and dedicate his all to the Mystics, or abandon the Mystics and go back to being a world-renowned neurosurgeon. 

It was an option Draul had laid forth to make his choice easier as that was the only two ways he could go. 

But try as he may to think of himself as Doctor Strange, all he found was himself, wearing the cloak of levitation as Master Strange, not Mister Strange… Not Doctor Strange. 

He had taken more life today than he had ever lost patients, it was a sickening thought maybe because it was due to his pride or the selfish comparison he had made in regards to their life. 

First of all, it had been a simple one of which life was more precious and undoubtedly, he chose his. 

Then when the importance of his life dwarfed his enemies, the comparison changed… just like his world view. 

These people, these zealots, wanted, according to his understanding, to bring in a dark entity that would subsume the world and everything within in darkness all for their selfish goal of power and immortality. That choice had been a little easier to make due to those facts and it was what allowed him the reprieve to choose the majority and the minority. Rather than choose which of their ideal goals were better, he let simple statistics solve it out for him. 

He wondered if it were the same way people like Mordo and Draul made their choices. 

Strange had made his choice very quickly and had joined the fray against the zealots, doing what he had never done – kill. It got to the point where he didn't feel the gut wrenching feeling again as he flung a zealot to the wall and used the debris around to turn her into a pincushion. 

He was just in time to see Kaecilius attempting to stab the Ancient One through a small portal that he created. Creating a smaller portal, he opened it a few centimeters from the opening of Kaecilius portal the exact moment the Master ran his spear through it only for him to pierce through his own back. 

He had thought that at that point it had ended, only for him to be proven naïve in the way of flags and villains. 

The mark-bearing Kaecilius and his zealots as vessels of Dormammu lit up as the body of both those dead and alive rose up in the air before cracks started appearing on them like the most fragile of porcelain. 

They didn't have enough time to react before they turned into misty wraiths that hovered in the air before coming together in a swirl which expanded to form a hole in space that filled every sorcerer present with dread. It was then that he noticed that someone with them was affected – The Ancient One, The Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj, his teacher, bore the mark of Dormammu. 

He wasn't the only one to see this, both Wong and Mordo who were with him saw it. His mind was filled with incomprehension before something clicked. 

'Immortality'. 

It was something so profound that it made sense the moment the thought crossed his mind. The reason why Kaecilius seemed to have it out for her. 

The reason why she was the oldest person in Kamar-Taj. 

The reason why she seemed so knowledgeable about the cons of dark practices. 

Strange turned to the others with him and saw Wong looking a bit shocked before his face went back to his passive neutrality. Mordo on the other hand expressed more emotions than the other two. He seemed as if he was looking at a stranger the way his face expressed a monumental shock. 

It was his practical mind that subsided the surprise he had gotten from that reveal that made him focus on what was more important. He rushed to the side of the Ancient One who seemed unfazed despite her current ordeal. 

"Strange! The relic!"

Wong's call was the prompt he needed for him to see the Eye of Agamotto flying towards him as the Ancient One relinquished her control of her symbol of Supreme. 

It was instinctual. Something he understood as he saw the Eye of Agamotto flying towards him. She was choosing him as the next Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj. 

'Think Stephen, think!'

His advanced mind browsed through the multifold of spells he had read and researched. 

A spell he needed. One that could reverse casuality and reality, bending the domain of absolute to his will. 

Dormammu existed beyond time so that meant there was no distance he couldn't reach in the time-space stream. Kaecilius called him the One. Him and his followers strived to be part of the One so rather than saying they were his followers, it was more accurate to say they were his vessels. An extension of Dormammu on earth… so was the Ancient One. 

He needed something that surpassed the time hold Dormammu had on the Ancient One. 

He paused in his thoughts as he saw the same genial smile she always had, sitting right there on her face as she approached sure death. 

"The bill always… comes due."

He ignored those words that flowed into his ears as spells and indexes came into his mind. He cast aside the warnings and taboos he had been taught and focused on the words that came to his mind. 

The spell he got was not one he deemed enough so he started merging the spells with others in areas in which it lacked. 

He didn't open his eyes as he concentrated even as he heard shouts and cries of his name nor the foul stench of death that wafted through his nose until he completed what he was doing. 

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in the middle of death. The city of Hong Kong was no more, nor was half of the earth. 

Only he floated in the void of space of the ruined planet as the spell he had conjured protected him from the reality before him. 

He turned around to see the most terrifying and huge thing he'd ever seen in his life.

Dark red eyes with a hazy dark figure over it boring into him. 

"So you are finally back, pest. I've been waiting for you." The thing in front of him spoke in amusement. "You saved yourself, but for what I wonder? You or that guy, I wonder who would make the best meal."

"Dormammu. As Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, I bound you to relinquish the hold you have on this dimension."

At his command to the dark being which only got him a snort before tendrils of death flew towards him but he already was protected by his spell. Taking one last look at Dormammu, Strange let go of his constrained spell. 

Dormammu's amusement was cut short as he felt a wave past him that made him shudder. Not in a reaction to being attacked but a wrongness in the spell that the mortal sorcerer casted. "What di-… YOU DARE?!"

He felt it at that moment. 

Something that rewrote… no, not rewrite, but somehow it was able to ignore whatever he had done to earth. 

'Cancelling' out his impressions on this dimension. It was some sort of 'repayment' that was never bargained for as whatever he had given was returned and more as a sickening act of compensation. 

He raged. 

His cry traveling through the galaxy and into the wider verse as his food was taken from him. His prize of conquest once again denied him by the damned sorcerers of earth. After he had taken his joy in feasting on the corpse of that Sorcerer Supreme who had made the mistake of thinking she could outsmart him for all of time. 

He cried at the unfairness of it all, destroying the other planets in this small system but yet the new pest of the bunch kept on staring at him with runes covering him as he casted his abominable spell that had the universe cry out in retaliation. 

"YOU! YOU! YOOOOOUUUUU!"

"Is that the upper limit of your vocabulary? And here I thought the all-powerful dark being would at least be somewhat 'knowing'. Well, we can't have it all can we?"

"RAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" 

"Its intelligence keeps declining due to stress? Paranoia? Or is it lacking intellect in comprehending 'what is', not 'what should be'? Regardless, I think we should remove smart from his introduction in the ancient books. The history books aren't accurate after all, who knew?"

Dormammu couldn't take it anymore and unleashed all his might in hope of exterminating the bug from his presence but all he got was a repayment as even reality refused his price for the death of the sorcerer. Even the universe which was supposed to be the impartial judge and watcher sided with that mortal. 

He tried all he could as he felt everything he took been taken away from him. 

At that moment he knew he had lost… again. From the beginning when they had started crawling out of their caves like ants from the crevices of the very earth that they walked on had he coveted the planet, only to be denied of his prize time and time again. And now when he had finally tasted his most sumptuous meal and relished the delicacy even as he took his time to fully consume his long-awaited conquest only to find it been taken away from him, leaving him with nothing but the phantom taste of the food he had once again failed to eat as his compensation. 

A reminder of his failure. 

"You think you are smart, boy. You think tampering with the thread of reality is without a cost? You think taking the universal right of 'time', that which belongs to it who is eternal comes without a wrecking due? Hahahahaha! In your desperate attempt to wage futility against me, in the folly of your ignorance and unfounded pride, all you've done is pit yourselves against those who govern and those who conquer. Nothing more than a shout to go against the universal way…. A declaration of a war of Supremacy. Hahahaha! When they come, and they shall… I will also be there to collect my due. Be glad in your victory mortal child and despair in its short lived passing."

Dormammu's crazed laughter rang through the void at the realization of the irony of what the sorcerer had done. The mortal saying of fighting poison with poison was never truer in this case. 

He could feel his presence and impressions on the planet receding at a faster pace as the spell went on. 

"What is your name sorcerer? It is only right that I know the name of my most hated being."

"Strange. Stephen Strange."

"An apt title." Strange brows furrowed in confusion at what Dormammu meant but the dark lord continued. "Strange Stephen Strange. Your death will be my most sumptuous delicacy. The next time we meet, Sorcerer of the strange ways, will be the recompense for your error."

Saying that, Dormammu receded into his darkness unwilling to bear the sight of the sorcerer as he knew everything he did would result in futility. He would wait. He had tasted that planet even though it now seems like a dream, a fleeting thought, all an illusion, he knew it had happened. He had been so close to victory only to have it seized from his hands. 

He had thought the shackled Ancient One was his last obstacle in obtaining the earth only to once again be reminded of the cockroaches that were the sorcerers and the undying worms that were the Sorcerers Supreme. 

Now he knew who was his foe: Strange Stephen Strange, a practitioner of strange arts. All he had to do was wait for the opportune moment that he could already feel coming. 

Hahahahahaha! He went silent as his raged brew in frustration as the last vestige of earth left his phantom hands that he was struggling to grip, but alas, all was taken. 

A last laugh echoed through the reconstructing solar system as the dark lord went back to his domain leaving Strange as he hovered in the air as reality bent to his will. 

He heaved a sigh before bringing his head down to look at the green energy that was coming out of the Eye of Agamotto. He knew that it was only through this thing that he had been able to cast that spell. The vast amount of energy in it was something that should by all right be impossible, it could be used to power the most dangerous of spells as long as its host could withstand it and the relic made the last defect, the only disadvantage of using it, null. 

The Eye was made to restrain the power and toll of whatever was held in it from affecting the user. 

"Wong, Mordo and Draul weren't kidding when they said this thing was dangerous. I feel like they downplayed its danger by a lot." The depreciating chuckle that left his mouth as he saw everything repairing itself blew out most of the tension he had felt in front of that being. 

He still remembered what Dormammu had said, even laughed, about the price he would have to pay for what he had done. 

"Guess I need to hit the books." Despite the joking tone at which he said it, his thoughts were the complete opposite. 

He had to be ready to pay the price for his debt. He had paid the debt the Ancient One owed for centuries with the destruction of his planet. What then would his debt be, what scale would it weigh, when the price for bending the flow of the universe and existence to his will be? 

His feet touched the ground as the last vestige of casuality spell he cast ran out. 

"What th-" Mordo was the first to react as everything went back to how it was. Before Strange could answer, the sound of glass shattering stole their focus as Draul walked out from the mirror dimension with an axe on his shoulders and a body in his hands. 

"What the fuck just happened… Strange?"

'Geez! A thank you would be nice.' Strange thought. 

… 

… 

… 

A/N: Just for clearance on how Strange could be that strong, I'll like to inform you that this is Classic Strange as opposed to Dr. Strange from MCU. 

For those who don't know, Strange at his strongest was easily multiversal, maybe more. Then there is also Black Priest Strange which was just… something else entirely. And don't get me started about Magic God Strange. 

Strange's spells has always been hax level, what with things he could throw against beings like Dormammu, Galactus, Mephisto and even one upping the Living Tribunal. So yes, in case I didn't make it clear, when it comes to magic, at least in the Marvel-verse, no one trumps Strange and Draul won't either. 

And while it is true that this Strange was still new to the Mystic Arts, having spent less than a year in Kamar-Taj, it still doesn't take away from the fact that Strange is the most talented sorcerer earth has ever known, surpassing the likes of Cagliostro and even the father of magic, Agamotto and the Vishanti. And not to mess up the power scaling, I made it clear that without the Time Stone, he wouldn't have had enough energy to make his spell work.

Hope that helps. 

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