2080 The Correct Path of a Bystander
As the ruler of the Dark Dimension, Dormammu wasn't any ordinary 'god.'
But in the end, he chickened out when he encountered someone like Sorcerer Supreme, who didn't act human at all.
If he continued playing with the utterly shameless Strange, both sides would definitely be in trouble.
Strange would definitely die, and Dormammu might follow after him.
He could tolerate stepping on dog sh*t, but it really wasn't worth it to be hit by a car after that.
Dormammu gave in. He would leave Earth and take away all the believers here to prevent them from causing trouble.
Whether or not he would come back to Earth in the future was another matter.
At the very least, he wouldn't come until he had figured out how to deal with the Eye of Agamotto.
Watching coolly from the side, Luke, who hadn't done very much, understood that the graduation exam was over.
Strange's approach seemed absurd and comical, but it was actually very tragic.
Had Dormammu suffered any losses? No.
For this sort of existence which basically didn't have a lifespan and whose existence was like a planet itself, waiting hundreds of years was like an ordinary person taking a nap.
He had memorized Earth's location. He just had to wait for Strange to die, and Strange's successor might not be as difficult to deal with.
Not everyone could die thousands of times and still have the courage to shamelessly barter with him.
Strange was smart, strong, capable and brave, which was why he had seized this opportunity.
As for Luke? Dormammu, who had been harassed to the point of going crazy, had completely forgotten about this little extra character.
…
They left the Dark Dimension and returned to Hong Kong.
The bodies of the leader and his two lackeys turned dark bluish-purple. They howled and flew into the Dark Dimension, and vanished without a trace.
Green light glowed on Strange's chest, and the green circle of runes in his hand spun to complete the last bit of the rewind spell.
The Hong Kong Sanctum returned to normal, and the world started moving again.
Strange let out a breath. "It's finally over."
Fatty Wong and the African-American sorcerer looked at each other in bewilderment. That was it? That was Dormammu, whom even the Ancient One was wary of!
But Luke didn't think so.
He wasn't familiar with the Ancient One, and didn't have an established impression of her. He could only analyze this bald female mega bigshot from their two encounters.
Thus, he didn't think that Strange's victory was 'ridiculous.'
It would be strange if the disciple whom the Ancient One valued didn't have this strength.
He simply tossed a smartphone to Strange. "This is the contact number of the bigshot who sells everything. You might need some of his products."
Strange caught the phone with mixed feelings. If he had this earlier, would he still have become a sorcerer?
Now that Dormammu knew who he was, it would be hard for him to retreat even if he wanted to.
Luke had no intention of having too much contact with Strange.
It wasn't good to let such a person know too much.
Chances were that one day, Strange would give Luke that 'finger of karma' and tell him to hurry up and get things done.
He simply said, "Please open a portal to New York. Thank you."
Strange nodded and drew a circle with one hand, and a ring of sparks appeared.
"Goodbye." Luke walked into the ring.
The portal disappeared; the people on the streets of Hong Kong didn't notice as they carried on with what they had been doing before.
They never knew that they had already died once tonight, and had almost died a second time.
Sometimes, ignorance was bliss.
Strange subconsciously played with the phone until Fatty Wong reminded him, "Let's go back to the Sanctum first. There are too many people here."
Strange made a sound of acknowledgement before he put the phone away. Dark Knight, we'll definitely meet again in the future. There's no rush.
…
On the other side, Luke was busy wrapping things up.
Now that the alarm had been canceled, his friends and family in space could turn around and land.
The PDD would take care of all the loose ends, and his clone would personally take care of the troublesome ones.
With a clear division of labor, the various organizations operated smoothly and took care of everything in less than a day.
Everybody had already received confirmation; no idiot would come running over to ask if it had been a false alarm.
Those who had the authority could naturally check the database for the crisis that the alarm represented.
As for those who didn't have that sort of authority, Luke didn't care what they thought.
His biggest gain this time was seeing what the Sorcerer Supreme was capable of.
The enemy trio just gave him some combat experience.
Dormammu was Strange's first official opponent.
In the end, such an unfathomably strong enemy was annoyed into running away.
Although Luke didn't have the Time Stone, he had the Space Stone.
There were a lot of ways to deal with a strong enemy.
However, the Sorcerer Supreme was a professional player, and the Eye of Agamotto was an heirloom.
No matter how highly Luke rated himself, he didn't think he could, in the short term, compete professionally with this sorcerer system that had existed for who knew how many years.
But it was possible to learn from them.
His other gains were the experience and credit points from this mission.
He had basically been just a bystander this time, but according to the system, he had contributed 21% to this mission, and had obtained 31.4 billion experience and credit points.
Now that he was at level 43, he had more than three billion credit points.
Clearly, secretly using his two abilities on Strange had been the right choice.
Power used in the right place, no matter how little was used, could be of significant help.
It was just like how Strange hadn't killed Dormammu, and had instead died thousands of times, yet most of the contribution rate was attributed to him.
However, Luke would rather this sort of mission appear less often.
All of this was why Luke could remain so calm during this 'graduation exam' which the Ancient One had set for Strange.
The person Luke trusted was the wily Ancient One, not the newly-appointed Strange.
Would Strange use such a 'mystical' method for solving the problem next time? Luke couldn't guarantee it.
In the face of an opponent like Dormammu, it took no more than a thought to fail.
After that, it would be practically impossible to turn things around.
Putting all his hopes on Strange was no different from gambling.
People still had to rely on themselves.
For example, Luke had earned the last bit of his contribution with his own fists.
He had defeated the leader called Kaecilius, and obtained a list of his abilities.
The knowledge on summoning Dormammu could only be considered backup information and used to come up with countermeasures.
In fact, Kaecilius was one of the most outstanding sorcerers of Kamar-Taj.
If one had to compare, he was second only to Strange.
Fatty Wong and the African-American sorcerer could only be tortured by Kaecilius.
Luke wouldn't learn Kaecilius's magic abilities, but he could use them as reference.
The real treasure trove was the knowledge Kaecilius possessed.
With this, Luke wouldn't need to look for Strange for a long time.
Defeat Strange? That was courting death.
If Strange had just had a little more bad luck, he would definitely have died during this graduation exam.
If he died, Luke might not be able to protect Earth, no matter how he tried.
