[2009 – October]
Seeing Elijah pull apart the dimensional barrier and leave the Mirror Dimension, Agamotto's carefree expression vanished as a hint of graveness appeared in his eyes.
"What an unbelievable monster … He truly did tame the Darkforce Dimension … ", he uttered to himself while off-handedly casting a variety of spells to restore the Mirror Dimension to its original state.
There was a good reason for his surprise as there existed two ways to become a Realm Lord.
The first one was to create one's own dimension and fuse with it to make it a personal realm that allowed one to draw strength from it. It was usually the path that Demons and weaker mystics usually took.
Only very rarely would beings with great strength opt to choose this path since it was by no means an easy one to take, and most who did never reached the level of a true higher being. The advantage was that the created realm's growth was not restricted by the primary dimension of a reality.
This was known as the path of creation, a path that the Elder Gods of Earth that had survived the Demogorge's slaughter had taken and succeeded in, which were namely Set, Chthon, Gaea, and his mother Oshtur.
The second path was the path of conquest, which was a less traveled path that would require one to conquer an already existing secondary dimension fully. It was a path that required immense strength that could easily lead to one's doom, but in the case of success, the benefits of this path were also rather great.
Most 'new' higher beings in existence had chosen to walk this path, even Dormammu had done so by taking the Dark Dimension for himself after being exiled from Faltine, his home dimension, an eternity ago.
Agamotto himself had taken a 'blank' secondary dimensional space for himself, that had quite literally just existed as an empty void between layers of space, before gradually turning it into his own Sorcerer Realm.
That dimension had been amongst the weakest of secondary dimensions but it was a complete and stable space.
Naturally, there was the question of why he had not thought of taking a more powerful secondary dimension for himself, like the Darkforce Dimension for example, since his strength might have given him a good chance at succeeding.
The fact was though, that doing so would have been tantamount to self-destruction.
The Darkforce Dimension held incredible, damn-near immeasurable power but it was innately malevolent, constantly seeking to devour all things light and life. Normal humans couldn't even enter this dimension for more than a few seconds without going mad.
Fusing one's very soul with the nexus core of such a dimension was just asking for trouble as it seemed obvious that it would turn one into nothing but a maddened beast that hungered for destruction.
One's rationality would be eroded and one's mind polluted, causing one to lose oneself without a chance for redemption.
Agamotto had no confidence that he could have taken such a secondary dimension for himself without it having grave and lasting effects on his mind. Only by choosing a 'blank' dimensional space as his realm could he have ensured that he would still be himself after becoming a Realm Lord.
Watoomb, a fellow mystical principality and former mortal sorcerer, had done the exact same thing, as had many others since it was an established fact that one could not avoid assimilating the characteristics of a secondary dimension after making it into one's realm.
Elijah defied this rule.
He had done the impossible by ascending as the Realm Lord of the Darkforce Dimension without becoming a true demon, an incarnation of destruction that sought to devour the Earth Dimension and other dimensions for his own growth.
He had tamed an energy force that had been set as a taboo by those seeking to ascend. And after doing so, he could still walk in the prime dimension with his true body, being resistant to even Agamotto's banishment spells and sealing curses.
Like one of the ancient Elder Gods, at a time before the pact of non-interference had not been made and they had not yet opened up their own realms, Elijah wandered the Earth, breathing in its air and tasting its life-giving waters with his true form.
Even Agamotto himself couldn't do this. It was easy to send an incarnation to the Earth Dimension as he was the son of an Elder Goddess but he hadn't set foot on his home planet with his real body for eons.
Thanks to his heritage, his incarnation had almost the same power as his true body but that didn't change the fact that his true body was barred entry. On the other hand, other Realm Lords could not even send an incarnation without paying a heavy price and making extensive preparations.
And yet, the fledgling god wandered where he pleased.
Agamotto had come to Earth to find out if Elijah was a demonic entity like Set or Chthon, as well as to see for himself the strength of the young Realm Lord and find out how he moved through the Earth Dimension so effortlessly.
Naturally, he had primarily been roused into action by the fact that the young man was a singularity, which made his actions unpredictably dangerous.
But while he had gotten some of his answers, Agamotto wasn't too happy.
Awakened as a mutant of the highest order at the age of seventeen, ascending as the Lord of the Darkforce Dimension only months later, and grasping how to ignore the rejection force of the prime dimension at the same time, as well as being able to bring ruin to all magic around him.
Elijah Frost was without a doubt the most dangerous singularity that Agamotto had ever come across. Not because of his current power, as together the Vishanti could find a way to deal with the young man, but because even now his potential seemed inexhaustible.
Agamotto was of half the mind to call his mother and Hoggoth to take care of the young Realm Lord because of the dangers that he posed due to his unpredictable fate, but he understood very well the possible consequences of failing to deal with a singularity.
"Ah haaiz, what a horrific young man … ", he eventually spat out with a somewhat annoyed sigh, inexplicable and reluctant curiosity and interest blooming in his mind, "Let's see where your path will lead you, Elijah Frost, [Lord of the Darkforce Dimension], [Ruin of Magic]."
Speaking aloud those titles, the son of Oshtur, the first Sorcerer Supreme and Avenger of Earth, Agamotto the All Seeing acknowledged the fledgling god as an equal existence, the power of names tracelessly propagating throughout reality as he did so.
His lips quirked in a playful and somewhat mischievous smile: "Well, at the very least, I can be sure that it will not be boring."
…
Her red robes sticking to her lithe form, droplets of perspiration running down her temples, Talia was half-kneeling as she poured as much dimensional energy as she could into the Eldritch magic circle in front of her, trying her best in supporting the Sorcerer Supreme in suppressing the dimensional cracks in front of them.
Hundreds of others were doing the same and all of them seemed as exhausted and on the verge of collapse as she was.
Even the Ancient One struggled as she frowned deeply while the cracks seemed to grow wider and wider, harrowing energy shockwaves being emitted by the cracks.
Kamar-Taj was practically in ruins as most of the buildings had collapsed, except those protected by strong magic formations.
And it wasn't only Kamar-Taj that was affected while the whole Mirror Dimension endured impossible strain for an undisclosed reason, earth- and seaquakes hitting all over the world.
The grand magic formation that had the three Sanctums at its core had also been activated in an effort to contain the spreading of the dimensional tears, though while it managed to do so, the tremors and aftershocks coming from the Mirror Dimension could only be blocked with limited success.
Talia wasn't sure how long those present could continue to hang on, but even if they could, what about the rest of the planet? How much destruction could Earth take before reaching a critical point?
Finally, after what felt like years, the tremors coming from the cracks subsided unexpectedly, causing a collective sigh of relief to run through the crowd of sorcerers.
Though before she could ask the Ancient One by her side about what to do next, one of the cracks expanded as a figure emerged from it, simply ignoring the hundreds of seals and chains that they had conjured.
Her eyes widening, Talia could hardly believe what she was seeing as a young man appeared, dark fog curling around his tall figure like a shadowy flame, his eyes glowing with a bright white light, his mere presence feeling as if the atmosphere had turned to granite, a heavy pressure fixing her in place.
Silence. Absolute silence spread as the young man that she knew to be Elijah Frost appeared, even the wind not daring to act up around him.
"Hu Huhu!", the only one that dared to speak was the tiny black owl on the Ancient One's shoulder, who called out happily and flapped her tiny wings before disappearing into a cloud of dark fog.
The young man raised his palm as he seemingly caught the reappearing owlet in his palm mid-air, a faint smile appearing on his lips, his simple movement causing the hundreds of Eldritch seals and chains around him to just disperse into light dust.
Feeling as if she had just stepped onto the air after her spell had just been dispersed, Talia's posture wobbled as she almost could not help herself from falling over, staring wide-eyed at the young man that she had just taken for a rather strange teenager before.
Placing the tiny avian inside his collar, the young Frost's blazing white eyes looked over his surroundings before he just raised his arms while levitating in the air, ripples of pure unadulterated strength radiating off him like waves.
The Earth itself shook in fright at this display of god-like power, the atmosphere creaking under the strain of his presence.
"[Restoration].", he intoned, and reality obeyed.