"Damn you, what are you?!" Dormammu's shout was drowned by Bul-Kathos's louder roar.
From the moment Bul-Kathos pinned him, Dormammu was on the defensive. Worse, he felt the Dark Dimension's power waning. Endless dark energy surged at Bul-Kathos, but couldn't even slow him. Dormammu never imagined facing extinction.
To Bul-Kathos, the Dark Dimension was just a larger domain, weaker than a Hell lord's. It was like an empty house claimed by a squatter, while a demon's domain was their raw power manifest. Dormammu was merely a caretaker.
Bul-Kathos's blades moved beyond Dormammu's perception, grinding down the dimension bit by bit. The pain was excruciating. "Stop! Let's make a deal!" Dormammu pleaded, desperate to expel Bul-Kathos, but his attacks only provoked fiercer retaliation. To lessen the damage, he diverted the dimension's energy away from the rampaging barbarian.
"Ancient One, stop him! I'll agree to anything!" Dormammu's power couldn't match Bul-Kathos's unimaginable strength. Evading only prolonged the torment. "At this rate, it'll take him centuries to erase the Dark Dimension!" he shouted to Ancient One, spectating.
Then Bul-Kathos's blade loomed before his eyes. "Xia!" Another war cry, and he resumed pummeling Dormammu.
Ancient One saw Bul-Kathos was merely enjoying the fight. A being who repelled death could shred Dormammu effortlessly if serious. "Bul-Kathos, let's come back tomorrow. It's getting dark outside," she called playfully.
A battle-hungry barbarian was far from sated. "Ancient One, make him stop! Name your terms!" Dormammu doubted his reality, baffled by this unstoppable force. His attacks were futile, yet the dimension eroded steadily. Worse, Ancient One brushed him off.
She didn't just want Dormammu cowed—she wanted him gone. Her earlier talks were a charade, letting him taste the helplessness humans felt against his dimension. A playful prank, making him endure the torment Doctor Strange would face in another timeline. Who'd willingly die countless bizarre deaths?
"Ancient One, if the Dark Dimension falls, your life ends too!" Dormammu threatened.
"Life's end means nothing—just a new beginning," she murmured.
Bul-Kathos's warm-up was nearing its end; Dormammu's demise loomed. "Ha!" He paused, standing on Dormammu's nose, glaring into his massive eyes. "Great punching bag, but too weak to wail in Hell!"
His armor's phantom flickered—damaged against Malthael, but its legendary glory endured. Dormammu's boundless evil felt like a rotting, stench-filled rat's guts, uniquely vile compared to Hell lords' sulfurous decay. "You're frail compared to those I've slain. If you had Leoric's skeletal might, I'd play longer."
Bul-Kathos tensed, not needing full power. Dormammu's strength neared Leoric's, but Bul-Kathos was no longer the warrior who barely bested the Skeleton King. Dormammu's immortality was just a quirk—Mad King Leoric could've erased him. All things end; Dormammu merely tied his life to this dimension. Breaking existence itself was Leoric's forte, and even his undead domain shattered under Bul-Kathos's might. A dark dimension was trivial compared to Li-Ming's mastery.
"These aren't my favored blades, but dying to this legend is an honor!" Bul-Kathos swung, thunder crackling on Merciless's spiked hammer, cyan light flaring on Oathkeeper. A sourceless gale howled as he struck.
"Stop! I'll agree to anything!" Dormammu felt the dimension quake, his soul rejected by the space he ruled. As annihilation neared, the Dark Dimension resisted him.
"Feel a barbarian's spirit, scum!" Bul-Kathos's voice overwhelmed Dormammu's. The dimension peeled away from him. Merciless and Oathkeeper slashed overhead, muscles unleashing raw power. Lightning gleamed, then slammed into Dormammu's fading face, followed by Oathkeeper's blade piercing his soul.
The Dark Dimension shattered like glass, collapsing into a deep purple beam that shot toward Ancient One—the dimension's true master emerging. Dormammu, forcibly bound to it, was abandoned in his final moments. Perhaps the dimension had gained sentience, fearing death.
In his last breath, Dormammu faded into nothingness.
(Chapter End)