The three of them had been playing Dou Dizhu. By now, the cards in the hands of two of them had nearly all been played.
In Dormammu's view, the Sorcerer Supreme had at most three single cards left. As for Lake, he had only one card remaining—and it was still the smallest one.
That was what Lake believed. He hoped Dormammu would think the same.
There was not much more Lake could do now. If Dormammu still did not fall for it under these circumstances, Lake could only settle for the next-best option and send Odin straight to his death.
After all...
They had agreed to exchange them. If the universe itself was unwilling to give up Dormammu, then Lake had no need to hand Odin over to the universe either. He would rather let Odin ferment in a graveyard.
Lake sat beneath the Chaos Force Tree, watching Dormammu at the edge of the Solar System.
Hong Kong Island Sanctum.
"Strange?"
After dealing with the fanatics who had refused to follow the usual rules—who had not merely stolen as they claimed, but had killed people as well—Mordo hurried over to check on the next Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange. Seeing Stephen there in his cloak, injured but apparently fine, he was somewhat astonished. "You're all right?"
Stephen was still in a state of shock.
After all, this was Stephen's first time. One's first time was always supposed to have a little ceremony to it. It was just like Lake's first time joining the overseas battlefield back then. At most, Lake's performance had only been a tiny bit better than Stephen's.
Stephen panted as he came back to himself and looked at Mordo. "Relatively speaking, I'm fine."
It had been his first battle. He had fought an enemy hand-to-hand and had even