"Dormammu, I've come to bargain."
"Dormammu..."
"Dormammu..."
In the Dark Dimension, Strange experienced all manner of deaths, yet he remained stubbornly determined to bargain with Dormammu.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
With great difficulty, Strange used the Ring of Lagadool to block several purple energy blasts, then collapsed on the ground, panting in exhaustion.
"You will never win," Dormammu rumbled.
"Yeah!" Strange forced himself to his feet. "But I can lose—again and again, endlessly, forever."
"Then you will be my prisoner."
"No!" Amid his fury, Dormammu felt a trace of fear. A barrage of arrows killed Strange.
But time looped once more, and Strange appeared before him again.
"Stop. Stop it. Let me go."
Hearing Dormammu beg for mercy, Strange knew he had achieved his goal. The tension on his face swiftly faded, replaced by brazen confidence.
"No. I've come to bargain."
"What do you want?" Dormammu asked, staring intently at Strange.
"Take your zealots away from Earth. End your assault on my world, and never return."
"Do that, and I'll end the loop."
"Get up, Strange.
Get up and fight." Mordo climbed to his feet and assumed a fighting stance against Kaecilius and the other two. "We can settle this."
"How beautiful!" Kaecilius looked up at the Dark Dimension. "A world beyond this world, beyond death."
As soon as he spoke, Strange flew back from the Dark Dimension and landed steadily behind Kaecilius and the other two.
"What did you do?"
"I made a deal."
Kaecilius did not understand, and just as he was about to say something, he noticed something wrong with his body.
His flesh was gradually crumbling into ash-gray fragments.
"What's happening?"
"This is everything you wanted.
Eternal life. Becoming part of the One." Strange laughed maliciously. "You won't like it."
The dark marks on the foreheads