He succeeded...
In the rapidly collapsing Dark Dimension, a pale-faced Ancient One finally felt a wave of relief. The process was unexpected, but the outcome was good. At the very least, Dormammu, the master of the Dark Dimension who had always coveted Earth, was now completely gone, never to return.
The collapsing dimension was definitive proof of her conclusion. Her successor, Stephen Strange, would now have a peaceful period to grow.
Among the extra-dimensional demon gods that coveted Earth, Dormammu was by far the most difficult and the biggest headache for the Ancient One. Now that he was gone, she could finally rest and go meet Agamotto.
But before she died, she had to pay a visit to some familiar dimension lords to buy her prized disciple even more time to grow.
"Let's go. We should get out of here."
"This dimension is about to collapse." Seeing his son defeat Dormammu with overwhelming power, a proud Thanos stood up and looked at Frigga.
The former royal sorceress of Asgard nodded with understanding. After a silent exchange of looks with her daughter, Hela, she waved her hand. The teleportation circle she had carved into the Dark Dimension lit up with white light once again.
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, everyone in the Dark Dimension was sent out of the collapsing realm by Frigga's magic, appearing together in the Sanctum Sanctorum that had been occupied by Dormammu's power.
With Dormammu gone, the dark dimension's energy that had been present clearly wouldn't last long under the Ancient One's watch.
"Don't bother looking. I can tell you very clearly, the Time Stone is no longer on me. I've already given it to the person most suitable to possess it." With the common enemy gone, it was time for Thanos to settle his accounts. The Ancient One, having seen the future, naturally wouldn't give Thanos a chance to fight. She spread her hands, indicating that the Time Stone was no longer in her possession. She was confident Thanos wouldn't attack her now. She was about to die anyway, and a fight would be pointless.
"You can't stop me." Thanos, with his giant blade in hand, didn't care. The raccoon Lothar had encountered last time had already made it very clear to him that he would succeed. It was just a matter of time.
"Yes. But I believe someone else can." The Ancient One nodded with a smile, and her figure disappeared before everyone's eyes. She was off to have some yerba mate with the other dimension lords.
"So, should I drag you with me, or will you come willingly?" After the Ancient One left, Hela, with the silver-white earring still on her left ear, turned her gaze to her mother, Frigga. Her eyes were calm, as if she were interrogating an insignificant prisoner.
"Just tell me where your brother is. Tell me if Thor is still alive." Knowing there was no escape, Frigga tried her best to steady herself. She wanted nothing more than to know if Thor was alive.
"Of course. I won't kill him. He is my brother after all, isn't he?" Hela shrugged, extending her hand to Frigga. The multicolored light of the Bifrost instantly enveloped them both.
"Lothar, I have something to talk to you about after I've dealt with things on Asgard." As she was leaving, Hela touched the silver-white earring on her ear and smirked, leaving a cheerful farewell.
"Do you like her, Lothar?" Thanos's sudden question snapped Lothar out of his trance.
"I don't know, Father." Lothar was about to say "no," as he always did, but he opened his mouth and changed his answer.
He didn't know what it meant to like someone. There was no such atmosphere in the Black Quadrant. The generals of the Black Quadrant army, led by Thanos, were basically lifelong bachelors. The only exceptions were the strange pairing of Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive. But even with them, Lothar had never witnessed what people called "liking" or "loving" someone. Yet, he also felt it was wrong to say he didn't like her. He wasn't an idiot.
"Then what about Mera from the other universe?" Thanos asked again.
Lothar shook his head, and his demonic carmine hair gradually returned to its usual jet-black color.
For the first time, Thanos realized his son had the potential to be a heartbreaker. One an Ocean Queen, the other an Asgardian Queen, and neither was of low standing.
"Perhaps, in the future, someone will be able to give you the answer." Thanos reached out and patted Lothar's shoulder.
"Come find me at the base when you get back."
Thanos, eager to go back and figure out what exactly had happened with Lothar's transformation, left a final word before his figure gradually faded away. In an instant, only Lothar remained in the massive Sanctum Sanctorum.
"Energy environment detected as normal..."
"Woz is attempting to gather energy..."
"Energy aggregation successful. Woz is restarting..."
"Woz restart successful."
Inside the wrist-worn device, Woz, which had lost all its energy to the Dark Dimension, began to operate again. Its large, blinking eyes lit up, and a bright blue screen reappeared in front of Lothar's right eye.
"Prince Lothar?!" The confused robot cat Woz had clearly not yet recovered from the crisis in the Dark Dimension. The moment he opened his eyes, he was still thinking about Lothar's safety.
"Huh?"
However, when the automated scan brought the surrounding environmental data into his database, Woz's honest, big face looked a bit dumbfounded.
"The issue has been resolved. Notify The Other and tell him to come here."
Because he was going to see the Ancient One, Lothar hadn't taken The Other with him into the Sanctum Sanctorum, leaving him on guard outside. But now that Lothar was outside, he didn't see The Other.
To be honest, during the battle with Dormammu, he had felt a little off without The Other's celebratory cheers. Usually, even Woz would fill in for him, but Woz had fallen into a dormant state.
"Your Highness Lothar, Woz is unable to contact Mr. The Other." After two seconds, Woz gave Lothar a confusing answer.
"?"
"Woz is attempting to reconstruct the scene using Mr. The Other's residual biomagnetic field."
Thanks to the Chitauri's unique body structure, Woz easily pieced together what happened before The Other disappeared.
A team of well-trained humans had opened a strange box. The ultrasound waves from the box had directly caused The Other, who was hiding at the base of the mountain, to pass out. The group had then quickly and efficiently locked The Other in a cage, which was likely made of a special material, and driven away.
"The Other was captured by Midgardians???" Lothar frowned.
"Based on the emblem on the humans' gear, they should belong to a mysterious organization called HYDRA."
"Woz is now tracking Mr. The Other's location." Woz's intelligent eyes suddenly went blank, clearly busy with some kind of decryption.
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