"Why has the Dark Dinsion beco so barren? Why is the energy so thin?"
Dormammu muttered, as if the sky itself had fallen. All his ti, all his efforts, all his sches had gone into building the Dark Dinsion into the formidable realm it once was. Every wisp of energy had been painstakingly acquired by consuming Earth and other dinsions.
And now… everything was gone.
He closed his eyes and opened them again. The Dark Dinsion seed to have reverted overnight to the state it had been when he first beca a Dinsional Lord.
"Why is this happening? Why is this happening?" Dormammu repeated in despair.
Malrick watched from the side with mild curiosity. Dormammu now resembled a panicked investor whose stocks had collapsed overnight, desperate to find soone to share his ruin.
"Is it you, Sorcerer Supre? Did you do this?" Dormammu's eyes blazed with fury, as if he wanted to devour Malrick alive.
Malrick raised his hands calmly. "Look around. Are your brothers still here?"
"What brothers?" Dormammu turned and saw only Malrick in the boundless emptiness.
He paused, recalling phisto and the others — the Hell Lords who had once betrayed him. "Are they… the Hell Lords? Have you driven them away? How long have I been unconscious?"
"You've been unconscious for several months. Just a few days ago, the curses and poisons on your body finally wore off."
Malrick had omitted the detail that phisto and the others had also been incapacitated for months. Dormammu's outrage flared anew.
"Bastards! Those Hell scoundrels, Dinsional villains! Since they couldn't claim the new Dinsion, they plundered my Dark Dinsion! I won't let any of them escape!"
Malrick feigned concern. "Is that so? But you seem… weakened. Is your Dark Dinsion intact?"
"My realm is nearly drained, and now… Wait. This feeling — soone is seizing my authority! Who is it? Those scoundrels? Or is it Umar?"
Dormammu panicked, losing all composure. To discover the dinsion had shrunk was bad enough. Now, it felt as if soone had taken his place, exploiting his domain and possessions.
"I have to go back. I must return!" he said, struggling futilely against the ground that held him pinned.
He stared up at Malrick. "Sorcerer Supre, I'm in grave trouble. Let's put our past conflicts aside. Let return first. Anything else can be negotiated afterward."
Malrick considered. The other Dinsional Demon Gods were no longer a threat. Their true bodies had been absent for months and then destroyed. The only entity capable of claiming the Dark Dinsion now was Umar — Dormammu's biological sister.
Long ago, Dormammu and Umar had been expelled from the Faltine Dinsion. Her talent and power surpassed his, so much so that Dormammu imprisoned her in a pocket dinsion, visiting occasionally to humiliate her. Now, if he delayed, she would seize the opportunity to claim his authority.
Dormammu eyed Malrick nervously. "Sorcerer Supre, you must let return!"
Seeing no imdiate reaction, he appealed emotionally. "I fulfilled all previous contracts. Even if my actions were excessive, I helped Strange to the best of my abilities!"
"Strange… You an the one who resolved the Universal collision crisis? The main Universe?" Malrick's eyebrow rose.
Dormammu faltered. "No… I failed. I returned to the Dark Dinsion too late. The Universal collision could not be prevented."
"Now their Universe will soon collide with another?" Malrick pondered silently. Strange's failure implied a Universal collision in the main reality, precisely the crisis Eternity had warned about.
Dormammu, sensing Malrick's silence, grew desperate. "Sorcerer Supre, let go! I will accept any condition you impose!"
Malrick produced a contract he had long prepared. It contained nurous unequal terms, pressing against Dormammu's limits but not completely stripping his will.
Dormammu scanned it, saw Eternity as the witness, and grimaced. Reluctantly, he nodded. His head blazed with black fire.
"I agree to everything!"
He could not bear to see Malrick a mont longer, not only because he needed to reclaim his dinsion but also because each encounter with this Sorcerer Supre had proven disastrous. Magic was a deeply taphysical domain, and Dormammu realized Malrick might be his fated nesis.
Once the contract was signed, the parchnt dissolved into specks of light. Malrick could now draw energy freely, and Dormammu would no longer secretly limit it. Occasionally, he would even be compelled to serve Malrick's purposes.
"Very well. You may go." Malrick snapped his fingers. "Your Dark Dinsion is far from here. I'll help you get there — consider it a free ride."
Dormammu, curious, watched as his body disintegrated into fine dust.
"You're just like those Hell Lords, also a scou—" His protest was cut short as he vanished.
Malrick stored the Ti Fortress and returned to the Divine Kingdom Continent — the central hub of his dinsion. Though called a continent, it was a pocket universe only accessible to him.
There, the Rege Duo Clone and the Black Light Clone stood beside the Sea of Blood, observing its [Creation] talent at work: forming and then crushing countless ethnic groups repeatedly, reaffirming the cycle of creation under Malrick's control.
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