The sky died.
One moment it was battlefield-gray, lit by burning warships… then suddenly, every last flicker of light was devoured.
Darkness flooded the heavens like ink poured over the world. Even the suicidal Black Order fleet stopped mid-dive, their resolve shattered by the overwhelming dread that crashed over them.
A pressure settled on every living being.
Then a voice rolled across the darkness, deep enough to shake souls out of bodies:
"I am Dormammu, Lord of the Dark Dimension.
By the command of my master, Soren…
I shall annihilate the Black Order fleet."
"…" Terrified, disbelieving silence followed.
The Earth's defenders stared upward in shock and battered generals of the Black Order lost all hope.
Even the remaining warships felt suddenly… helpless.
The Four remaining generals had heard legends of this being, Dormammu, a multidimensional tyrant, a being entire galaxies feared.
None of them understood why he now spoke Soren's name with the obedience of a sworn servant. None dared to question it.
But the truth was simple… Dormammu was Soren's hidden blade.
While Soren pursued Thanos across the far reaches of the universe, he had left a final safeguard… Dormammu lurking within the thin, unseen layer of alien space closest to Earth.
A shadow waiting for a command.
Long ago, Soren had sealed Dormammu inside a time gap, stripping him of the flow of time until his godhood faltered.
The Mind Gem later strengthened Soren's dominance, binding the Dark Lord with an ancient master–servant contract.
Dormammu now bowed and obeyed.
And now that obedience came crashing down upon the Black Order.
A wave of dark energy surged through the stolen battlefield. Space inverted and one blink, and the entire region was swallowed by the Dark Dimension.
The warships, thousands of meters long, were like insects caught in resin.
Dormammu drank them dry.
Every ship's energy core… every spark of power was consumed in seconds. His weakened form fed on the abundance like a starving beast, draining them until nothing remained but floating metallic husks.
The Four generals suffered worse.
Ebony Maw's shattered mind barely clung to life.
Proxima Midnight writhed, straining to break free of the dark bindings that wrapped around her like iron thorns. But inside the Dark Dimension, there was only one law…
Dormammu is absolute.
Only beings on Soren's level could break free. No one else.
A thousand spiraling portals suddenly ignited through the darkness, illuminating the void with thin lines of teal light.
"I will open the path." Dormammu's immense voice boomed once more. "Leave this place… while I cleanse it."
The Earth heroes didn't hesitate.
One by one, they stepped through the shimmering portals back onto familiar soil. The moment they emerged, the battlefield lay quiet… strewn only with scraps of alien metal and the severed limbs of the fallen Black Order soldiers.
The threat was gone.
When Ancient One appeared on Earth again, the shock on her face slowly faded into something more complicated…
She remembered when Soren had first obtained the Eye of Agamotto. Back then, she could still sense the Dark Dimension.
She could still reach Dormammu if needed.
But soon after, that connection vanished. Now she understood why.
Soren had taken the Dark Dimension's lord for himself.
Relief washed over the battlefield.
The wounded immediately uncorked the potions Soren had distributed before the war, their wounds closing in seconds, strength returning with a surge of warmth.
Magneto, Ancient One, and the remaining leaders surveyed the results.
Almost everyone was injured.
Almost everyone was exhausted.
Yet not a single defender had died.
Against a cosmic fleet, four generals of the Black Order, and the brink of annihilation… That was nothing short of a miracle.
A miracle named Soren Macaluso… the Doctor of Everlife.
✦••┈┈••✦••┈┈••✦
After the battle on Earth, if Thanos truly fell to Soren, the rise of humanity would shake the entire cosmos.
The universe would tremble before a world that suddenly stood at the peak of power.
Far away, in the silent depths of the former Ego Star's domain, Soren materialized.
A breath later, a ripple of violet energy tore open the void… Thanos stepped through.
His heavy gaze swept across the hollow star field, and a faint expression of surprise flashed across his face.
Thanos' abilities were unlike any ordinary titan's, mysterious and almost omniscient.
Here, in this fractured space, he felt it immediately… the lingering distortion of shattered time and broken space… and the fading remnants of Ego the Living Planet's divine essence.
"So a god died here," Thanos said calmly. "That must have been your doing."
"No wonder you're so confident. You've already learned to wield the Time Stone and Space Stone to some extent…"
He spoke without fear. If Soren believed manipulating time and space alone could kill him, Thanos seemed almost amused at the idea.
Soren didn't bother to reply.
On Earth, Dormammu had been sealed by his design. Corvus Glaive had fallen by his hand.
The embers of battle still burned in Soren's eyes. And without hesitation, he launched himself at Thanos.
With full mastery of the Power Stone, Soren's confidence bordered on absolute.
The energy roaring in his veins was enough to erase any ordinary S-class existence with a single blow.
The moment his fist swung, destructive force gathered like a collapsing star, compressed into a single point.
If this punch had been aimed at a fixed star, the star would have erupted into dust. A solid beam of violent light tore across the void, locking directly onto Thanos' chest.
For the first time, Thanos' expression changed.
The incoming power forced him to straighten, his aura erupting like a tidal wave. In response, he clenched his fist violet energy pulsed through the Infinity Gauntlet then he hurled his own punch to meet Soren's head-on.
Boom!
Their fists collided.
Infinite power, channeled through their blows, rippled across the empty star field. The shockwaves tore through the void, making the entire region tremble as if it would collapse under the sheer force of their clash.