Dark Mirror Realm.
The Ancient One floated in silence, her expression tight, calculating. This was no ordinary dimensional fracture. The energies swirling through the space were wrong—dark, corrupt, and hungry.
"This mirror realm is unstable," she said calmly, eyes locked on the warping horizon. "You've unintentionally created a tether. A gateway… to the Dark Dimension."
Lin Fan tilted his head. "So I noticed."
She turned toward him, her tone measured. "Dormammu exists beyond time and space. He is not a being in the way we understand it. If he crosses through this opening, Earth won't survive."
Lin Fan didn't reply. He didn't have to.
Because the sky split.
Darkness poured in—not like nightfall, but like ink bleeding through glass. And then... he appeared.
Dormammu.
He didn't walk. He didn't stand. He was the space.
A massive, cosmic face slowly formed in the sky—shifting, warping, woven together from energy and molten color. His features constantly changed: burning, swirling patterns of violet, black, and crimson. His eyes were like twin suns of swirling chaos. His mouth glowed with the heat of collapsing stars.
Dormammu's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere.
A sound that wasn't just heard—it invaded minds.
> "Well done, my disciple... You've done what no other could."
The Ancient One stayed composed, but Lin Fan could feel her energy shift. Controlled tension. She had faced Dormammu before—but never like this.
Dormammu's gaze turned toward Lin Fan.
> "You've opened the door. Delivered my enemy to me. You are worthy."
He was making assumptions.
And Lin Fan let him.
> "Kneel," Dormammu rumbled. "Accept your place. Serve me, and I will give you power without limit."
A crushing pressure descended like a mountain. Gravity warped. The Mirror Realm began to tremble, glassy structures fracturing under the weight of the dark god's voice.
Lin Fan didn't move. His coat fluttered in the pressure like it was caught in a breeze.
Then he sighed.
"Gods sure do talk a lot."
He raised both hands. Ten golden spheres of power ignited across his fingers, glowing brighter than stars.
"I'll make this simple."
Magic Light Cannon: Tenfold Burst.
The ten spheres transformed into beams—pure destructive energy. The moment they fired, space itself cracked, screaming under the assault. The beams streaked toward Dormammu's cosmic face with impossible speed.
Dormammu's eyes widened.
He reacted—dark red energy shot from his maw, a beam wide enough to vaporize mountains.
But Lin Fan's attack tore through it.
Like sunlight through smoke.
BOOM.
The lead beam smashed directly into Dormammu's eye. The explosion rippled across his vast form. Space folded. The Mirror Realm screamed.
> "WHAT ARE YOU…?"
His molten face twisted violently as his essence began to break apart. The sheer force of Lin Fan's attack was destabilizing even this otherworldly titan.
"You picked the wrong guy to recruit," Lin Fan said, calmly lowering his hand.
The rest of the beams detonated—each one hitting with catastrophic force. Dormammu's face contorted, unraveled, and scattered like shattered glass across a black sky.
His voice echoed one last time.
> "I will remember you… I will—return…"
And then he was gone.
The Mirror Realm fractured and collapsed in on itself, folding back into reality like a closing wound.
Silence.
Stillness.
Earth's sky returned. The chaos was gone.
Lin Fan stood amidst the quiet, untouched.
Behind him, the Ancient One hovered, her face unreadable.
Not fearful.
Just… reevaluating.
He turned slowly to face her, expression casual.
"So," he said, cracking his knuckles, "ready to talk terms?"
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