As Doctor Strange froze the monster with a single spell, the onlookers witnessed the dazzling display of his magical attacks.
"Is it dead?" the little girl asked urgently.
"No, it's not!" Doctor Strange immediately denied.
If he could have defeated the creature, why would he have been forced to flee this far?
However, he pointed toward a glowing magical book in the distance. "But *that* can kill it!"
"The Book of Vishanti!" the little girl recognized the object and exclaimed.
Behind them, the monster relentlessly pursued the pair.
"We can't let it get your power! We have to get to that book!" Doctor Strange realized the gravity of the situation and urged.
"How do we get there?" the little girl asked in panic.
"Jump!"
With that, Doctor Strange grabbed the little girl and leaped forward.
The monster behind them closed the gap, even surpassing them in speed. It then struck Doctor Strange with a tentacle, inflicting a severe wound.
A fierce battle erupted in mid-air. Doctor Strange fought with all his might, but he still couldn't contain the creature.
"Lin Feng just said you were the one hunting Doctor Strange. Sister, don't tell me you're going to turn into *that* thing. That would be absolutely disgusting." Quicksilver Pietro's face twisted with a hint of loathing.
Wanda shot her brother a vicious glare, though a seed of doubt planted itself in her mind. *Could I really become that in the future?* she wondered. *Scientifically, it's impossible. But then again, this is the magical world.*
Just then, the Doctor Strange on screen roared in desperation, "It's too strong! I can't hold it!"
His leg was already beginning to rot where the monster's tentacle had struck.
With the creature on the verge of breaking free and the Book of Vishanti about to fall into its clutches, Doctor Strange finally reached his breaking point. After a moment's thought, he turned to the young girl and said, "I'm sorry, but this is the only way!"
Before anyone could react, he cast a spell, attempting to extract something from the young girl.
"What are you doing?" she cried out in terror.
"We can't let *that thing* get your power!" Doctor Strange declared. "You can't control it, but I can!"
"I'll die!" the girl pleaded.
But Doctor Strange could only offer a sorrowful gaze. He knew the moment of truth had arrived. If they continued on this path, the consequences would be unthinkable.
The sight of Doctor Strange turning villainous—even though they had seen a dark version of him before—still sent a shockwave through the crowd. It was a stark reminder of how different timelines and experiences could fundamentally alter a person.
The Doctor Strange of the Sacred Timeline would never do such a thing, even in death. He would sacrifice himself to save Tony Stark from Thanos, all for the sake of the ultimate victory.
***
"Impossible! This can't be me!"
Stephen Strange stared at his doppelgänger on the screen, unable to believe he had become a villain, fallen to the dark side.
This was different from the corrupted Doctor Strange he had encountered before. In that parallel universe, his own fall had at least been born of love—a love so profound it ultimately led to the collapse of the universe.
But *this* version of himself was completely different. He seemed cowardly, clinging to life at all costs. Though he claimed he couldn't let the creature get the Book, his actions were utterly repugnant.
"I know, but in the grand scale of the Multiverse, your sacrifice is more valuable!" Doctor Strange tried to justify his actions, but the next second, he was impaled by a tentacle. He didn't even have time to seize the little girl's power.
He was killed instantly.
The little girl, desperate, threw herself forward in a last-ditch effort to seize the Book of Vishanti before the monster could. But she was quickly snatched by its claws.
At the critical moment, the half-dead Doctor Strange finally found his conscience. He cast a spell to sever the monster's tentacle, causing both himself and the little girl to plummet into the cosmic void.
*Well, that's the first Doctor Strange dead.*
Stephen Strange suddenly recalled Lin Feng's earlier teasing question: *Just how many Doctor Stranges are going to die?* This implied that a whole bunch of Doctor Stranges might be doomed.
Stephen Strange had a bad feeling. If that were the case, wouldn't he have to watch a whole bunch of himself get killed?
Just then, the scene shifted. It was him, from the Sacred Timeline, waking up in bed with a start, as if the terrifying scene he had just witnessed was merely a nightmare.
Seeing this, Stephen Strange finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although that version of himself seemed to have strayed down an evil path before his death, he had ultimately found his true self at the last moment, choosing to sacrifice himself to save the little girl.
But what exactly was that scene just now?
*Could it really have been a dream?*
"This... he died way too abruptly. It feels about as anticlimactic as the Ancient One's death," Tony Stark couldn't help but complain after seeing the scene.
"The Protagonist Halo... I think I see what the key is now," Natasha, the Black Widow, said. "Clearly, in the Multiverse, not every variant is a protagonist. For example, Tony, Lin Feng has mentioned it more than once—the things about you, and your variants, are even faintly visible, but they've never appeared. I think they are all Tony Starks, but not all of them are protagonists. Only those with the Protagonist Halo are favored by fate and won't die so easily. But those without it..."
"Just like this Doctor Strange. Compare him to the Doctor Strange on the Sacred Timeline—even when fighting Thanos, he didn't die. He was beaten by Thanos so many times and still survived. Yet this one died just like that. You can see how important the Protagonist Halo is!"
The rest of the group thought about the existence of the Time Variance Authority and roughly understood what the Protagonist Halo was: if you make a mistake, you'll be pruned, ensuring history moves forward in the correct direction.
And this was the so-called Protagonist Halo.
With the Protagonist Halo, you can achieve anything. Without it, you can achieve nothing.
Not everyone is worthy of being a protagonist. Even if they are merely counterparts from different parallel universes, some people seem to have cultivated immense power, yet they still can't withstand a single, casual strike.
"I have to say, mages are just too squishy. Take the Ancient One, for example—she was that powerful, yet she still got stabbed to death in a heartbeat. Don't they have any defensive spells?" Tony Stark couldn't help but complain.
In this regard, he was much better off. Alright, fine, he'd also been stabbed by Thanos and nearly died, but still.
"But was all of that just a dream?" Agent Hill asked, her voice tinged with doubt.
"No, this was no dream!" Thor declared. "I've heard of something similar. When a person reaches a certain level of power, their dreams often hold prophetic significance. The only question is whether they can decipher it. This is definitely more than just a dream. It's highly likely that this is something happening in a parallel universe. The Multiverse... I suspect the secret is hidden within that young girl!"
"Exactly. I've had a prophetic dream like that too," Diana added.
As the daughter of the God King, she was a demigod, but her strength was no less than Thor's. With both of these deities agreeing, there had to be some truth to it.
The others thought it over. This was indeed very likely. Given Lin Feng's style, he wouldn't have included Doctor Strange's dream for no reason. There had to be a crucial purpose behind it.
"Wanda, you're a bit brutal in that dream, aren't you?" Pietro remarked from the side.
Well, they were siblings who had grown up relying on each other. So, even if his sister might become such a brutal being—even a monster without a human form—he would still choose to stand by her side.
Even if he had to face the entire world, even if he had to walk the path of a villain, he, as her older brother, would not hesitate for a moment.
Because they were the only ones in this world who could truly rely on each other.
"How should I know!" Wanda retorted, feeling exasperated. She also wanted to figure out what the problem was.
"No matter what happens in the future, I'll always be by your side, you can count on me!" Pietro said. "After all, I was born first!"
"Enough!" Wanda couldn't help but roll her eyes at her brother's teasing.
She still couldn't accept the idea that her future self might fall into darkness and become a villain. After all, she hadn't yet experienced the despair of losing her brother, then her husband, and then her two children—a true human tragedy.
Her heart was far from so twisted, so she couldn't understand why her future self would ever do such a thing.
"Don't worry, I won't take it too seriously. After all, my future isn't set in stone. As long as we can figure out the reason and avoid it, everything can be completely changed!" Wanda said.
Suppressing her own shock, Wanda found herself comforting her brother instead.
*The future must be changed. No matter what happens, it must not be allowed to happen again.*
Meanwhile, the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel were also completely stunned.
-----------------------
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