The Ancient One's face was grim.
Even a few brief clashes with Martin had already shaken countless alternate dimensions. The pressure she bore was far beyond what any ordinary being could comprehend.
So intense was it that the dark magic within her, power not her own, began to seep out uncontrollably.
This wasn't her power.
Not the mystic arts of Kamar-Taj.
Not even the grace of the Vishanti.
This was something far more dangerous.
The corrupted, foreign power of the extradimensional demon: Dormammu.
Martin watched as the dark tendrils of magic spiraled from her form, black markings surfacing and receding like serpents under her skin. He smirked.
"Borrowing power from others? Perfectly normal," he said, raising his right hand slowly, fingers unfurling like a god revealing judgment. "But if that power stabs you in the back at the critical moment..."
The energies of space and mind twisted around him—wild, cosmic, but perfectly contained. He wielded them both with terrifying ease. These powers no longer resisted him; they obeyed.
The Ancient One inhaled slowly. Her expression was still. Years of secretly siphoning Dormammu's power had taken a hidden toll. The cost was now surfacing.
"Who are you really?" she asked. "And which universe did you crawl out of?"
She stepped forward, slamming her palm onto the Cauldron of the Cosmos. In response, the ancient relic flared to life, projecting countless visions, each connected to Martin.
But no matter how deeply she searched, she found no answers.
No trace of Martin in any alternate timeline. No record in any multiversal stream. Every road, every causal node, led back to a single moment.
That night.
Broadway.
Martin stepping down from the Beetle suit.
Collapse.
That's when everything changed.
With a casual flick, Martin sliced the surrounding space, sending it into chaotic rupture. The visions within the Cauldron shuddered and began to fragment.
"I am of this universe," Martin said coldly. "You can't understand me because you're bound by lower frameworks, too small and too shallow. The problem isn't me. It's you."
His eyes, pitch black and bottomless, pierced through her.
He held the knowledge and might of the entire Cybertronian civilization. What did one Sorcerer Supreme know of such things?
The Ancient One had spent over five centuries tethered to her physical form, restrained by the duties of her title. She hadn't yet ascended beyond flesh into true soulform, hadn't seen the multiverse for what it truly was.
Had she ventured deeper into its wild mythologies, she would know: in the Marvel multiverse, instant godhood was a recurring motif.
One man drinks a serum and becomes a star-powered juggernaut.
Another puts on a mask and inherits the power of a thousand suns.
It defied logic.
And yet, it was real.
The Ancient One said nothing, but her restraint evaporated. Her next attack surged with raw, dark power.
Black and white magic clashed, roared, and collided, consuming everything in their path.
The Mirror Dimension had already been torn apart and rebuilt dozens of times.
Each collision between them erased space itself.
The battle raged across reality and beyond it, fragmenting through twisted dimensions, their silhouettes flickering like ghosts through the void of space.
Martin, wielding two Infinity Stones and arcane relics of the highest tier, completely overwhelmed her.
And yet, the Ancient One refused to unleash the full power of the Time Stone. That hesitation cost her dearly.
"Every time you activate the Time Stone, you ripple causality. You birth a web of new realities," Martin said, voice sharp. "That caution? It disqualifies you."
"Give me the Time Stone. I'll realize its true potential."
He lunged.
BOOM.
The Ancient One smashed the Cauldron of the Cosmos into the ground with titanic force. In the same instant, the Eye of Agamotto flashed.
Spells exploded forth, but were torn apart again by Martin's storm of power.
Reality groaned. Magic fractured like stained glass.
She blurred, split, and multiplied, hundreds of spectral projections cloaking her true self. The battlefield became a sea of illusion.
Martin landed on a floating asteroid in the void, eyes sharp. He watched as endless versions of the Ancient One surged toward him.
He clenched his fist.
The yellow glow of the Mind Stone pulsed—
And unleashed a psychic maelstrom of devastating magnitude.
The galaxy screamed.
"What terrifying psionic force is this?!"
"It's an Infinity Stone. It must be. If I had even one of them..."
"No more Thanos. I would be the conqueror. I, Ronan, would be destiny incarnate!"
Even the Elder Gods of the cosmos were shaken. The blast's resonance echoed across existence, it had reached the edge of this very universe.
"Initiate data acquisition... High-energy particle scan... Locational lock confirmed. Theater of conflict: the Milky Way."
"Target: Earth. Our experimental domain."
"Requesting Fourth Descent. Species audit authorized. If failed... complete extermination."
"Like the Skrulls, only a handful of species have passed evaluation. This will be a new massacre."
"Clearance granted. Earthfall imminent..."
Far away in the dark reaches of space, massive mechanoid titans stirred. Each was clad in heavy armor, their bodies dotted with bulbous, glowing nodes, eyes trained on Earth.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The storm escalated. Entire planets detonated under the pressure.
The Ancient One's countless projections were obliterated in seconds. They weren't even illusions, each one had presence. Now gone.
She spat blood. Crimson dripped from her lips.
But in the next instant—flash!—she teleported across ten thousand light-years, reappearing right before Martin.
"Martin," she said, voice ragged, "you are the second strongest adversary I've ever faced."
"But your ambition... it consumed you."
She raised her hand. Countless portals bloomed around them.
And then, for the first time, she forced the Time Stone into full operation.
Each pulse of green light that passed through her body caused her flesh to crack and mend at once.
Even for a Sorcerer Supreme, mastering an Infinity Stone was impossible. That's why Martin was different.
He wasn't merely tolerating the Stones.
He was commanding them.
"A man whose power matches his ambition," Martin sneered. "You're the one too arrogant to see what's coming."
Time began to reverse, but only for him.
The Ancient One coughed blood again, her body aging rapidly. She fought against the dual laws of two Infinity Stones to rewind Martin's temporal thread.
She stepped forward.
And grabbed his right hand, just as he prepared to strike with the Mind Stone.
"I won't kill you," she said gently. "But I will seal you away."
"Your soul, your mind, even your biology, defy all natural logic. You surpass gods. That means you'll survive in my magic prison for thousands of years without decay. One day, long after I'm gone, one of my successors will release you, if you've changed."
"In this infinite multiverse," she said softly, "perhaps we'll meet again."
Her fingers closed tighter around Martin's hand.
Magic surged, all of it, everything she had left.
Because in the 14,000,605 futures she had seen…
This was the only one where she could defeat him.
By ripping the Infinity Stone from his hand.
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