The Ancient One's Troubles

Abomination's battle with Duva drew the attention of quite a few people.

"Looks like the fighting was intense, but who were you fighting?" Blade stood atop a distant skyscraper, looking down as he spoke.

"I found a Hulk duplicate, so I went over to say hello." Duva's expression remained calm.

"If you cleaned your pets and treated their injuries, maybe I'd believe you."

Blade gave a chilling smile and pointed at the several xenomorphs beside Duva. "Looks like you suffered heavy losses. That makes it easy for your enemies to find an opportunity to kill you."

"Don't worry, I'm not that easy to take down. If by enemies you mean vampires, I hope as many of them as possible come." Duva said.

Blade carefully examined the xenomorphs, lost in thought. He could tell that Duva had extraordinary confidence in the creatures he had created. Besides, he had never seen the crown-wearing xenomorph.

The two chatted idly until the barely recovered Abomination emerged into the street with a roar.

Blade looked astonished. His powerful instincts naturally sensed an intense threat from Abomination. In fact, even he would have a hard time taking a direct punch from Abomination.

What truly caught Blade's attention, however, was the appearance of the half of Abomination's body that had only just been repaired.

"You did that?"

"I did."

"How many xenomorphs did you lose?"

"Nearly half."

"Nearly half died, and you still have six left. Looks like you made quite a few preparations behind the scenes." Blade was startled. How long had it been? There were already more than ten of them? Among the six survivors, one looked exceptionally robust, with a more bizarre and futuristic design. It was clearly a new xenomorph.

Paying such a terrible price to surround and attack Abomination, yet still failing, only proved how dangerous Abomination was.

Next, the two watched as Abomination wreaked havoc on Broadway, violently kicking one vehicle after another into the air.

Blade could remain seated if they were only empty vehicles, but when he saw civilians being caught up in it, he could no longer hold back. He drew his blade and charged forward, sprinting up the sides of buildings with his powerful physique before rescuing a civilian.

But Duva did not move. He waited patiently, filled with deep anticipation.

This inexplicable silence surprised those who were watching closely.

"What is he doing?"

Dum Dum Dugan pointed at the screen. "People are about to die, yet he's waiting?"

"Maybe he's afraid. He fought that monster first and suffered too many losses, so fear took hold and he doesn't dare keep fighting." Fury secretly shook his head.

Was that all? Having a timid heart was not necessarily a bad thing. At least he knew to fear power; perhaps that would make him easier to control.

As Fury thought, he operated the computer and lowered Duva's estimated rating by two levels, placing him in the category of "usable, but not worth relying on."

Fury was deeply disappointed, but Blade was not. He was puzzled by Duva's silence, trying to guess what vitally important thing Duva had discovered.

From beginning to end, he had never sensed any form of fear or retreat from Duva.

All these entanglements came to an end when Doctor Banner jumped from the helicopter and staggered into his transformation into Hulk.

Even Fury no longer paid attention to Duva, staring fixedly at Hulk on the screen instead.

With Hulk here, who cared about Duva? Did they know how valuable Hulk was? Did they know just how powerful this thing was?

"Hulk!"

The moment Abomination saw Hulk, he became excited. The violent rage stirred up by Duva now erupted completely. Like a madman, he abandoned Blade and began charging toward Hulk, each step stamping massive craters into the asphalt.

Boom!

Hulk was rammed into the air.

Hulk, who had undergone Mister Blue's experiment and been injected with suppressive drugs by Mister Blue, felt weak all over. He could barely bring out much of his strength, allowing Abomination to gain the upper hand.

The two giants brawled, crashing and rolling around like a pair of giant gorillas, throwing the entire street into chaos.

Abomination grew more and more excited, hammering Hulk with punch after punch. Within his chest, something seemed to be brewing, on the verge of erupting.

"Do you see it, Hulk? I'm stronger than you! I, Blonsky—Abomination, am the strongest!!" Abomination threw back his head and roared.

Countless eyes watched him. This scene was uploaded online through all kinds of channels, setting off an explosion across the world.

This was destined to become a landmark event: individuals wielding extraordinary power displayed their immense might without restraint, slaughtering and destroying.

Watching these two huge creatures fight, even their ordinary punches could flatten sturdy cars, while solid buildings were like blocks of tofu before them.

At that moment, many people across Earth who possessed extraordinary powers noticed the scene.

"Professor, if we leave now, we can still make it."

"No, we cannot intervene. At its core, this is an internal human conflict. Acting recklessly would aggravate certain people's sensitive nerves."

The X-Men watched the breaking news on television and disagreed among themselves, before finally turning to Professor X in his wheelchair.

But Professor X looked bewildered. "Something isn't right... That Abomination isn't alone. There is another consciousness inside him, and it rejected my psychic connection. It's a very strange feeling."

This was the first time Professor X had encountered such a situation.

It was one thing for Abomination to contain another independently conscious individual, but the strangest thing was that the individual who rejected him seemed, vaguely, to have already been deeply bound to a third unknown mind. Was Abomination really just the product of a simple experiment gone wrong? Or had certain people created him deliberately...? Professor X looked conflicted and did not dare act. He could easily use his telepathy to soothe Abomination and Hulk and make them stop fighting, but considering the mutants' terrible circumstances...

"Destiny said that in many futures, mutants are wiped out. I should remain vigilant. It would be best not to do anything unnecessary and to ease our relationship with ordinary people as much as possible."

Professor X was in tremendous pain. He did not dare tell anyone about the countless futures Destiny had seen.

No matter how mutants developed, did they only have one path ahead of them: death? What was he supposed to do for it to be right—the correct choice? Still, someone else was far more carefree than Professor X.

Ancient One sat atop a snow-capped mountain, sensing information from the universe's many dimensions and assessing the potential threats that beings across countless universes posed to Earth. She took a moment to glance toward New York.

"Hmm, reality has changed course once again. But this was not the work of an Otherdimensional Demon God—it was the result of Earth's own development."

As a Skyfather Level being, and with the Time Stone, the Book of Vishanti, the Book of Cagliostro, and a whole pile of other divine artifacts in hand, Ancient One's actual combat power nearly reached the Single Universe Level. She keenly detected the subtle changes occurring on Earth, but she did not particularly want to interfere.

She did not possess the Reality Stone, after all. She could not casually alter established facts into things that had never existed.

More than that, she was concerned about the limit of her debt.

"Vishanti has not demanded payment from me, nor has Cyttorak. So, using White Magic and demon spells is safe for now. The biggest problem is still Black Magic..."

Across the entire multiverse, all magic wielded by mages ultimately came from borrowing power from magical entities within the infinite multiverse—every one of those entities was a Multiverse-level god, a terrifying existence capable of wiping out countless universes with a casual gesture.

Since it was borrowed, it naturally had to be repaid. All kinds of prices had to be paid; no one dared owe a Multiverse-level existence money.

As for what price had to be paid, that depended on the preferences of each magical entity.

Those like the Trinity Vishanti were relatively easy to deal with. As a magical entity formed from three Multiverse-level gods, they backed Kamar-Taj across countless universes, and their loan interest was low.

Ancient One had always maintained the good habit of cultivating ascetics, because they could help the Sorcerer Supreme share the burden of debt. But she had no use for them now, so she decided to leave those ascetics to Strange.

Cyttorak was also easy enough to deal with. As the greatest demon in the multiverse, an ultimate terror residing in the Crimson Cosmos beyond the multiverse, he had always been rather laid-back. Compared to running all over the multiverse collecting debts, this great demon preferred lying around. If someone used a little of his power, he generally would not care.

The problem lay with Black Magic.

Ancient One's Black Magic power had been "borrowed" from Dormammu, lord of the Dark Dimension. Dormammu's Black Magic, put plainly, had been borrowed from Chthon, the God of Black Magic.

Chthon was notoriously ill-tempered, stingy, and absurdly powerful. Even while sealed away, a single breath from him could slaughter its way through countless universes and erase those who refused to repay their debts from the multiversal dimensions.

So the problem now was that Ancient One had taken and used the Black Magic, but Dormammu was the one shouldering most of the debt owed to Chthon.

That put Ancient One in a difficult position. She wanted the goods, but did not want to pay the money. What could she do? She could only continue making Dormammu suffer.

Ancient One seemed to hear Dormammu's hysterical curses once more.

Look at this—Chthon was to blame for driving the noble Dormammu to such a state.

"The future of this sickly universe is destined to be bleak. Even without certain strange, inexplicable figures, there is still Strange... I wonder how long I can hold things off."

Ancient One murmured softly, then casually cast a Black Magic spell to extend her lifespan a little longer.

Dormammu, who was in the Dark Dimension and had been painstakingly plotting to kill Ancient One and devour Earth, suddenly opened his eyes, resentment soaring to the heavens.

Fuck, the debt had increased again.