The moment the purple sphere of Imperial Purple met Mordo's sphere of Chaos Magic, it generated a grating high pitch sound.
The two differing forces of nature began to grind at each other as soon as it collided.
But, it was evident that Satoru's attack was winning when the purple was beginning to push back the red.
Mordo let out a rattling scream.
His body was no longer ballooning, on the contrary; it was shrinking.
The Darkhold was taking its payment. His skin turned grey and papery, clinging to his bones as his very muscle mass and cellular water were sucked out to fuel the crimson sphere.
He was turning into a living husk just to keep Imperial Purple from touching him.
Satoru floated effortlessly up in the sky with his hand still outstretched, watching the gruesome sight with a lopsided smirk.
"What's wrong, Mordo?" Satoru chirped, his voice cutting through the high-pitched noise. "You're looking a little dry. A little thirsty, maybe?"
Mordo couldn't even form words anymore. His eyes were sunken pits of black fire, his jaw hanging open in an agonizing howl.
Then, the Mind Stone on Satoru's blindfold flared brighter.
The pressure of Mordo's feeling suddenly doubled, tripled, quadrupled… It was so much that his knees were beginning to buckle from the extent of what Satoru's Imperial Purple was exuding.
The purple sphere suddenly expanded, its density increasing until the air around it turned into a vacuum that pulled everything in. The buildings of Kamar-Taj, the stone statues, everything; everything was being sucked into it.
"Game over," Satoru said.
With a final pulse from the Stone, the Imperial Purple surged forward, completely swallowing Mordo's Chaos Magic. The crimson sphere exploded but the impact of the explosion didn't even reach far as Imperial Purple completely swallowed it, and the violet tide washed over Mordo's withered frame.
After a while, when the dust finally settled; the place where Mordo stood was gone, including him. There was only a massive crater that one couldn't even tell the depths of.
Satoru lowered his hand as the purple light faded into the sky, leaving a massive hole in the clouds.
He stood at the center of it all.
Above him, the clouds had parted to reveal the sunny afternoon sky, with purple and golden hue that came from being on the high-altitude place and the residual energy of Imperial Purple mingling with the air.
Below him, a crater of unknown depths courtesy of his Imperial Purple.
He looked like a literal God as the golden light of the Mind Stone washed over his body.
"Should've gone for the bread," Satoru muttered, adjusting his blindfold.
Satoru's Six Eyes scanned the perimeter. Not a single trace of Karl Mordo remained — no soul, no physical residue, not even a hair was left of him. However, he can feel the same energy Mordo has been using within the depths of the crater.
He reached out his hand, and the Darkhold, which had been protected by whatever self-perservering mechanism, flew into his palm.
The leather was cold, but he could feel the book vibrating, almost as if it was whimpering in his grip. It recognized a predator it couldn't corrupt.
"How disgusting," Satoru muttered, then he snapped his fingers, making the book disappear for now. He'll come back for it later and see what's up with that, because even though he had defeated Mordo, he had expended a considerable amount of energy to end it fast and efficiently.
He turned his gaze toward the empty space where the Ancient One had opened her portal. With a casual flick of two fingers, he tore a fresh seam in the air.
The space rippled and folded, revealing the crystalline, kaleidoscopic depths of the Mirror Dimension.
Inside, the Avengers, The rest of the surviving sorcerers of Kamar-Taj, the Ancient One, they all were vigilantly looking around in place, ready to meet the worst.
The Ancient One stood at the front, her mandalas still active, but her eyes widened as soon as she saw Satoru standing there casually waving a hand.
"Hey guys~"
"It's safe to come out now," Satoru's voice projected into the dimension. "Though, I might have made the courtyard a little bit... deeper."
The Ancient One dropped her shields, a look of profound relief and ancient sorrow crossing her face. As the portal widened, the Avengers, Wanda, Illyana, and the rest of the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj stumbled back into the material world.
They stopped dead at the edge of the pit.
Tony Stark lifted his faceplate, his eyes darting from the massive, smooth-walled crater to Satoru, who was casually leaning against a half-broken pillar. "Gojo... what did you do?"
"Renovations," Satoru smiled, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the sky. "You like the view? I think the extra sunlight really opens the place up."
Wanda and Illyana didn't look at the crater. Their gaze was fully on him.
They saw the brand new blindfold and the golden shiny stone on it.
"You're back," Wanda whispered, her voice trembling with the adrenaline crash.
"I missed dinner," Satoru pouted, finally dropping from the pillar to walk toward them. "So can you guys tell me what happened? Why was my favorite temple invaded by the horned goober and an angry luigi?"
The Avengers, Wanda, Illyana, the Ancient One, and the rest laughed wryly at what Satoru named the two.
Then, they began to fill him in on what happened.
…
[ Limbo Dimension ]
The Limbo Dimension was still an obsidian plain. It wouldn't change unless a new dimensional ruler would replace Belasco to accommodate and 'renovate' the place.
Inside one of the castles of Limbo.
Karl Mordo lay sprawled on the cold stone floor of Belasco's throne room.
He was a shell of his former self. His skin was pale, his eyes sunken, his body was thin like a twig, and he could barely even breath at this point.
The Unmaker ritual and the price paid to Chthon had nearly hollowed him out. Well, technically, it did hollowed him out.
He looked up at Belasco, who was now back in his true demonic form.
"Please," Mordo rasped, his voice barely a whisper. "Help me. I am not... finished yet."
Belasco looked down at him with a look of boredom. He tapped on the armrest of his throne. "Help you? Why should I help you, human? You failed. Your 'ultimate plan' went poof… Why should I help you now? You are a broken tool."
Mordo coughed, black bile stained the floors that made Belasco frown at the sight. He forced himself onto his elbows. "Why did you bring me here then? You reached out. You pulled me into the rift a split second before I was erased. You wouldn't have saved a 'broken tool' unless you wanted something."
Belasco paused. He leaned forward and a slow but terrifying grin spread across his face. "Smart. Even when you're dying, you're still a sorcerer."
"Help me regain my strength," Mordo pleaded. "Help me kill the Ancient One… No, just Gojo Satoru! And I will give you everything. My soul, my knowledge, the secrets of the Sanctums... everything."
"Your soul's already gone buddy. You're a pawn of Chthon now, like me," Belasco's eyes glinted. "But, are you serious? Everything?"
Mordo nodded frantically, his resolve completely shattered by the humiliation he had suffered.
He didn't care about the Ancient One. He only wanted to see Satoru Gojo burn.
"Fine," Belasco laughed, a sound that echoed like thunder throughout the dimension. He reached out and grabbed Mordo by the throat, lifting him into the air as he weekly struggled on his grip. "I was going to feed your body to my pets, but I think I have a better idea. You want power? I can provide you with power, but it depends on you if you can get it."
Belasco's claws sank into Mordo's chest, and a tide of dark, demonic energy began to pour into the man's empty veins.
"You can think of this as a gift from me. Ain't I generous? Kekekeke."
…
Back in Kamar-Taj, after Satoru Gojo was filled in on what happened, he only sighed. "Thankfully I had the dwarves make my artifact fast, or else I wouldn't have known and reacted in time."
"You met dwarves?" Wanda asked.
Satoru nodded. "Long story, but yeah, they're a pretty big deal. Honestly, for a race called 'Dwarves', they really overcompensated on the height. I felt like a toddler standing next to them. If they ever play basketball, humans are finished."
He tapped the new Mind Stone brooch on his blindfold. "But they're great smiths. They finished this just in time for me to feel the 'ping' from Earth. If I'd stayed for the full tourist package, I would've come back to a very empty mountain range. Though, the extra crater does add a nice touch of 'modern art' to the yard."
Wanda looked at the glowing gold stone, then at Satoru's face. She couldn't help but feel nice seeing her Master back again.
If Satoru would be able to read her thoughts, he would've just smiled wryly and say. "I've only been gone for a day at most, girl."
"Is the Ancient One okay?" Illyana asked, her voice tight as she looked toward the Master of the Mystic Arts.
The Ancient One stepped forward, her yellow robes torn but her expression steady. "I will recover, Illyana. But the temple has sustained deep wounds." She turned her gaze to the massive, smooth-walled crater. "Karl is gone."
"He was gone long before I fired that blast," Satoru said, his lopsided smirk fading for a second. "He chose the book. The book chose him back. That's a toxic relationship if I ever saw one."
Tony Stark clapped his hands together, his faceplate sliding up. "Alright, as much as I love a good 'we saved the world' debrief in the snow, we've got a dozen injured sorcerers, and a General tied up in my basement who is definitely going to try and court-martial us by dinner."
"Wait, you tied up a General?" Satoru perked up, his eyes bright behind the silk. "Stark, I'm rubbing off on you. I'm so proud. Which one? The one with the mustache?"
"Actually, it was the kid," Natasha pointed at Pietro, who gave a mock salute and a cocky grin.
Satoru laughed, then reached into his pocket. "Anyway, I didn't come back empty-handed. Eitri might be a giant, but he knows his jewelry. He actually complained less about making these than he did about my blindfold."
He pulled out two small, shimmering objects. They were pendants made of Night-Silk cords and polished Uru alloy, pulsing with a faint, protective light.
"Wanda, Illyana. Your souvenirs," he chirped, tossing the pendants toward them with a casual flick.
He patted his pockets and felt around… It's empty. 'Wait, where are Rintrah's asgardian toilet papers?'
...
[ Author's Notes ]:
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