"He's targeting the Hextech Dimension? Uh... and?"
After hearing the Ancient One's second piece of bad news, Luca didn't react much. He just stared blankly at her.
"Isn't Mephisto still on a leash held by you, old timer?"
"Besides, how much Hextech energy do I even use? Don't you sorcerers use the lion's share? Shouldn't the one benefiting take responsibility?"
"And even if something does happen to the Hextech Dimension, what am I supposed to do? I've got noodle arms compared to a big bad like Mephisto. I can't stop him!"
In Luca's view, just dealing with the demon army Hell sent to invade Earth nearly capsized his boat.
If Mephisto really had his eye on the Hextech Dimension, and the Ancient One wasn't planning to help protect it, did he have any choice but to hand it over on a silver platter?
At best, he could just turtle up and settle the score with Mephisto later, once he got stronger abilities in the future.
Basically: I can't handle it, I can't afford to mess with him, so what are you talking about, Boss?
However, seeing Luca's attitude, the Ancient One didn't seem too surprised. She just smiled faintly and continued.
"You may not have realized it yet, but there is an inevitable connection between you and the Hextech Dimension itself. If you wanted to, you could become a brand-new Dimensional God at any moment."
Hearing this, Luca looked slightly surprised.
Not because of the "connection" or "Dimensional Lord" stuff, but because...
"At any moment?"
"Correct! But it's a bit complicated to explain. You should experience it for yourself~"
As she spoke, the Ancient One struck Luca in the chest with her palm.
Instantly, Luca felt the world spin. His soul seemed to detach from his body.
His vision was suddenly filled with magical, magnificent scenery, as if he were traveling through a colorful kaleidoscope.
But this sensation didn't last long. In a flash, the changing surroundings froze, and all the dreamlike colors converged into a single hue: blue.
A gentle, yet brilliant, endless azure.
At this moment, Luca felt as if he were floating in the deep, blue cosmos.
"Is this the Hextech Dimension?"
He looked down at his semi-transparent hands. Streamers of light, similar to Hextech particles, flowed through his palms.
Most importantly, Luca could clearly feel that a large portion of this flowing blue energy was merging directly into his body.
The boost this environment gave him was hundreds, maybe thousands of times greater than the high-concentration particle space created by his GN Drive.
"Yes, this is the Hextech Dimension."
The Ancient One's voice echoed in Luca's mind. He looked around but couldn't see her anywhere. Even her "thought projection" hadn't followed him.
Right, she said that projection relies on the arrays at Kamar-Taj. Guess it can't stray too far.
This seemed to imply that while the Ancient One was indeed holding off both Mephisto and Dormammu solo, it might not be as effortless as she made it look.
Of course, looking at it another way, the fact that she could do all this with just a stationary thought projection proved she truly deserved the title of Sorcerer Supreme.
However, what the Ancient One said next scared the living daylights out of Luca.
"Although entering the Hextech Dimension in this state lowers your fusion efficiency, I suggest you restrain your impulse to absorb this energy."
"Hmm... unless you want to abandon your sense of self right now, merge completely with this dimension, and never escape for all eternity."
The moment the words left her mouth, Luca shuddered.
He flailed his limbs wildly, trying to push himself away from the Hextech energy.
But inside the Hextech Dimension, the energy was omnipresent.
Fortunately, due to his mental resistance, the rate at which the energy merged with his body was quickly suppressed to a very low level, no longer skyrocketing like before.
Seeing that he had managed to stop the energy from flooding into him, Luca asked, still shaken, "Is... is this Hextech energy toxic?!"
Although Luca used "toxic" as a figure of speech, losing his self and being trapped here forever sounded pretty damn poisonous to him.
The Ancient One chuckled and explained.
"This is the price of becoming a Dimensional God. Take Dormammu, for example. It's hard to say if he's truly the original Dormammu anymore, or just a collective consciousness of the Dark Dimension's will."
"Then what about all the stuff I've been doing..."
Thinking about how he had specifically built a GN Drive rig to soak in Hextech particles, Luca seriously suspected he had accidentally been digging his own grave.
"Relax. Limited fusion has no side effects. Your approach wasn't wrong."
"Throwing someone into the ocean and forcing them to drink might drown them or burst their stomach, but drinking a normal amount of water every day makes you healthier."
Essentially, it all came down to Luca being too weak right now.
Because of his special connection to the Hextech Dimension, the energy naturally gravitated toward him and wanted to merge.
Unlike Dormammu, who had to scheme and struggle to claim the Dark Dimension, Luca had already skipped that step.
But the catch was, merging with the dimension's entire energy at once would wash away Luca's consciousness, turning him into a "Hextech Lord" in name only—effectively a puppet of the dimension.
Only by continuously merging in "small doses" could he absorb the Hextech energy while slowly improving his overall stats.
Once he grew strong enough to fully accommodate the entire Hextech Dimension, merging with all its energy would simply make the dimension a part of him, without any negative side effects.
In other words, if Luca were strong enough right now, he could use his connection to...
Grab it all, refine it instantly.
Understanding this, Luca's anxiety settled down, and he even started looking forward to that day.
But the Ancient One interrupted his daydreaming.
"Alright, I didn't bring you here for that."
"Come. Let me show you what a dimensional fusion war looks like."
As she spoke, Luca felt his spirit body suddenly start moving forward at high speed.
Well, he couldn't actually tell if he was moving forward or if the surrounding space was retreating rapidly.
The blue streamers were left behind in an instant. If he had to describe it, Luca felt like he had entered the Speed Force.
However...
"Huh? There are galaxies inside this dimensional space?"