2079 I've Come to Bargain

But just as he took off, Strange felt a tug on the Cloak of Levitation.

He turned around and saw Luke let go of one corner of the cloak before saying to it, "Oh, sorry, I was in a hurry. I'll definitely grab hold of Strange next time."

Strange: ???

Luke flew forward so that he was alongside Strange. "It's good to have one more person."

Strange subconsciously shook his head. "Going is almost certain death."

Luke chuckled. "This is just a fake body. I won't die even if it's destroyed."

Strange was surprised, but didn't doubt it.

As a native of New York, his subconscious reaction was to believe the Dark Knight.

Dormammu was scary, and Knight hadn't said that he could kill him, which was very much like him.

Luke continued, "So, when you go in, just pretend that I don't exist."

Strange asked, "Are you sure?"

Luke said, "I'm sure. It's just throwing away a bit of money."

Strange: …F*ck, isn't that what I used to say before the car accident?!

Strange's right hand hovered above his left hand. He couldn't help but confirm again, "Are you sure you don't need to worry about… this body?"

Luke hummed in response.

Strange turned his right hand, and several green circles of runes wrapped around his left forearm.

Luke simply recorded the energy fluctuations and at the same time, activated Elementary Concealment and Real Dream to make himself as invisible as possible.

This might not have much of an effect when it came to Dormammu, but as long as Strange drew the main aggro, he wouldn't target Luke first.

It was like a person facing a viper and noticing an ant next to their feet; they wouldn't choose to step on the ant first.

Soon, Strange and Luke landed on a slightly bigger planet after entering the Dark Dimension.

Prompted by Luke, Strange focused on dealing with Dormammu.

Luke silently retreated several hundred meters away from Strange to give the impression that he was nothing more than a bystander.

As long as Dormammu looked down on him, there might be a chance!

Strange's cloak fluttered down, making him look the part of a sorcerer.

As he glanced at the green circle of runes on his left hand, an enormous black face rose from under the planet to appear in front of him.

Its purple eyes were full of malice.

Raising his head slightly, Strange chose some polite words in his heart and said, "Dormammu, I've come to bargain."

The black face: "You've come to die. Your world is mine, like all the other worlds."

As soon as he said that, a purplish-black beam of energy fell from the sky.

Strange's shield of runes blocked the attack for less than a second before he was killed.

The purplish-black energy beam pierced a lot of other planets and blood vessels in the Dark Dimension before it disappeared into the distance.

Luke was stunned. What was going on? The protagonist had been killed in less than a second?

This was the only true disciple personally chosen by the Ancient One. Wasn't it too much for him to be killed instantly?

Luke was stumped.

The next moment, he and Strange were flying to the planet, and Strange cast a spell on himself.

The two of them flew over and landed where they had been standing before.

Dormammu's huge black face emerged from under the planet.

Strange said, "Dormammu, I've come to bargain."

Dormammu said, "You've come to die. Your world is mine… What's going on?"

Shock finally appeared on that monstrous and malicious black face.

Luke glanced at Strange and understood what was going on.

His clone was here, but his main body was still in New York.

Although his main body was a little confused by what had just happened, he still had a rough idea.

Without a doubt, this was the traditional ability of the Sorcerer Supreme — playing with time.

With Strange's death, time automatically wound back to the moment he used the rewind spell on himself.

After figuring that out, Luke remained silent and collected intelligence on Dormammu.

He could only withstand that attack with the power of faith or credit points.

Who knew how many times he could hold out, but holding out wasn't the same as taking care of Dormammu.

Although he had billions of credit points now, the chances of him killing Dormammu in one hit were too low.

For now, Luke chose to trust Strange.

Dormammu was an excessive enemy, but it was the Ancient One who had given Strange this graduation exam.

The strongest thing about the Sorcerer Supreme wasn't his power or fists, but his strange magic.

Only a strange spell could contend with a strange enemy like Dormammu.

Thus, this battle wasn't a head-on clash, but a game with the laws of nature.

Luke glanced at the Space Stone, whose energy fluctuations were completely sealed off. It was indeed time to learn related combat skills. Bullying Old Mephisto with credit points didn't bring Luke any benefits at all.

As Luke watched from the side, Dormammu asked suspiciously, "Is this an illusion?"

Strange said, "No, this is real."

Dormammu: "Okay."

Swoosh!

Strange was pierced by a few sharp spikes as thick as his waist, and died again.

Then, Strange arrived to barter. Dormammu flew into a rage, and Strange died again.

Strange came again, and died again.

Relying on the Time Stone's 'save' mode to automatically reset after his death, this new Sorcerer Supreme played the classic 'save and load' game.

Every time he died, he didn't forget to use other traditional spells to defend himself.

Most of the time, it was an instant kill, but every now and then, he could last for a few seconds.

After dying so many times, Strange's proficiency and strength at using the spells increased rapidly, so he didn't die for nothing.

During this infinite time loop, Luke remained invisible the entire time, and only did a bit at the very beginning.

Whenever time was reset, Luke would release Mental Resistance + Real Dream.

Strange was very resistant to mental abilities. These two abilities could only take effect for a few minutes, but that was enough to last Strange during each death.

Mental Resistance cleaned up Strange's negative mental state, and Real Dream distracted Strange from the moment of his death.

With the two of them working together, Strange was tortured to death by Dormammu over 1,000 times, but his mental state was still stable and he didn't collapse.

Not only that, he talked more and more, and emphasized the infinite loop.

Luke could already sense that Dormammu was indeed getting impatient.

No matter what he did, the outcome was the same.

It was like a gamer killing a monster with one slash, and the game resetting right after.

He had to create a new account and kill the monster, and then do it all over again.

He gained or changed nothing during this period.

Dormammu was here to devour the world, not to be tortured.

He could swallow a lot of worlds, but this was the first time he was experiencing something like this.

Worst of all, Strange talked a lot.

For example, he said he could use some sort of technique to make his consciousness go into hibernation, and he could just lie down and let Dormammu kill him.

If Strange decided not to come out one day, Dormammu would really be stuck with him here forever, and couldn't die even if he wanted to.

There were possible dangers with Strange constantly rewinding time like this, as it might attract some unknown existence. At that time, Dormmamu, who was trapped with Strange, would also be unlucky.