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"Avada Kedavra!"
A ghostly green light slashed through the darkness like Death's own scythe.
The light faded.
"Ah—!"
Dormammu's shriek tore through the Dark Dimension, shaking it to its foundations. His massive energy-formed face twisted and contorted, wracked by agony.
"What magic is this?!"
Terror bled into his voice. Disbelief, too.
He could feel it, that green light hadn't just wounded him. It had torn a piece of his soul away. Not injured it. Not weakened it. Annihilated it. Gone, completely and utterly gone.
He was the Lord of the Dark Dimension.
His soul was fused with the entirety of the Dark Dimension itself, vast, boundless, without measure. Even the Sorcerer Supreme, the Ancient One, could only siphon his power or banish him. No one could strike at his foundation.
And yet a human girl had just erased a fragment of his soul with a single flash of bizarre green light.
Dormammu had roamed countless dimensions and devoured endless worlds. He had never encountered magic this unreasonable. It ignored his defenses. It ignored his sheer scale. It reached past everything and acted directly on his soul, like some kind of fundamental, rule-based force.
A storm surged inside him.
But he was still powerful enough. The blow had hurt, but it wasn't fatal.
As long as he didn't give her a second chance...
"I admit I underestimated you." Dormammu's voice dropped low. "That spell is formidable. If you had power equal to mine, that strike would have certainly killed me."
"But you are still too weak. The gap between us cannot be bridged by spells alone."
Hermione nodded.
"I know that strike couldn't kill you. I never intended it to. Confirming that the Killing Curse works on you was enough." She paused, meeting his gaze. "The main event comes next."
Dormammu had no idea what riddle she was posing.
"Dormammu, I've come to bargain!"
Strange flew in from the side, delivering that all-too-familiar line.
Dormammu went still. Why did this feel so familiar?
Then it hit him, hadn't he just killed this man? How was he alive?
"The Dark Dimension transcends time." Hermione's voice floated over, unhurried and almost cheerful. "Sounds wonderful. But it has one massive flaw."
"Any injury sustained here cannot be reset or restored by time."
"And..."
She paused. Her wand came up.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Green light flashed.
"Ah—!"
Dormammu screamed again. Another small piece of his soul crumbled into nothing. A cold dread settled into him, he was starting to feel like he'd walked into a trap.
This couldn't continue.
Dormammu roared and fired a beam of violet-black energy at both of them. Hermione Disapparated on the spot. Strange was torn to pieces.
"Dormammu, I've come to bargain!"
Seconds later, Strange flew back.
Dormammu:?
Special Beam Cannon.
Strange, deceased.
"Dormammu, I've come to bargain!"
"Dormammu, I've come to bargain!"
"Dormammu, I've come to bargain!"
Strange repeated the line like a broken record, over and over, each iteration identical to the last. Each time, Dormammu blasted him to dust without hesitation. Each time, Strange reappeared, completely unharmed.
Dormammu felt like he was losing his mind.
This was worse than the most vicious curse imaginable. He was the mighty Lord of the Dark Dimension, when had he ever been subjected to something like this?
"Little girl, what have you done?!"
He bellowed, barely concealing the panic creeping into his voice. The ache deep in his soul was spreading. He turned and started to leave.
Earth. I don't want it anymore. Fine?
But a green light flickered at Strange's wrist, and time reversed.
All three of them snapped back to their original positions. As if none of it had ever happened.
"And..." Hermione picked up right where she'd left off, smiling pleasantly, "the time loop resets you back here. You can't even run."
Transcended time, but not quite all the way.
Close, but no cigar.
Dormammu stared at her. In all his long existence, he had never once felt truly cornered. And this little creature in front of him was somehow more of a villain than he'd ever been.
Between Strange's relentless time loop and Hermione's green light, he was getting a thorough lesson in torment. He had a feeling the color green was going to make him flinch for a long time after this.
"You can wound me, but you can't kill me in one strike!" Dormammu roared. "I can restore my soul through the Dark Dimension. We're in a stalemate, let's see who outlasts whom!"
He refused to believe this girl could outlast his entire Dark Dimension.
Strange went quiet.
He'd been thrilled when Hermione first wounded Dormammu. But Dormammu was right. If they couldn't land a killing blow in one go, this would drag on forever, and no one knew how much energy the Dark Dimension actually held.
"You're right," Hermione said.
She nodded, acknowledging every word.
"So next, I'll kill you in one strike."
Dormammu blinked. Then his face twisted into laughter, wild, enormous laughter, as if she'd just told the most absurd joke in the universe.
"That green light was your strongest soul attack, wasn't it? If even that couldn't finish me off, what else could you possibly have?"
"Little girl, stop dreaming. We're stuck in a stalemate — accept it."
"Here's a thought." He offered what sounded like a reasonable compromise. "I leave Earth and never return. You release the time loop. We both walk away. Deal?"
Strange's heart stirred.
That seemed... like a genuinely decent option. Dormammu's power was unfathomable. If this dragged on indefinitely, who knew who would break first?
He looked at Hermione, a quiet question in his eyes.
Hermione shook her head.
"No."
Her voice left no room for argument. "Nothing you say changes anything today. You die here."
She glanced at Strange, her eyes giving a clear signal: keep going.
Strange opened his mouth, then closed it. He didn't know what she was planning. But before they'd entered the Dark Dimension, she'd given him one instruction, keep the time loop running, and leave the rest to her. He'd made his choice before they ever stepped through.
He was about to ask anyway when the sight in front of him stole the words from his throat.
Countless Hermiones materialized out of thin air. They filled his vision from every direction, surrounding them in every dimension of space he could perceive.
What magic was this?
Strange had witnessed extraordinary things. The Ancient One herself had never demonstrated anything like this.
He suspected he was looking at her trump card.
Dormammu had gone completely still. For the first time in his ancient existence, something that felt very much like genuine dread settled over him.
"You..."
He managed one syllable.
Then an endless tide of green light rose from every direction and swallowed him whole.
➤ Next: Ten Thousand Melons Return to the Source
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