Master and Sorcerer Supreme
"It seems you are the one she has chosen." Kaecilius did not react much to the fact that his subordinates had been so easily dealt with, nor did his followers.
Their souls were corrupted by the power of the Dark Dimension, causing them to lose their emotions to varying degrees, and even their own consciousness was distorted. At first, Kaecilius only wanted to find a way to resurrect his wife and began to study dark magic. After absorbing a certain amount of power from the Dark Dimension, he began to forget his original purpose and instead simply pursued powerful magic and Eternity life.
After performing the ritual of contacting Dormammu and drawing power from the Dark Dimension, Dormammu, the Lord of the Dark Dimension, directly distorted their consciousness, making these fanatics believe that by offering Earth to him, they could obtain everything they desired.
Ancient One, the Sorcerer Supreme, created the existing Earth's defensive magic array. Even she couldn't avoid being corrupted by Dormammu's power when she had to draw magic from the Dark Dimension to prolong her life. How much more so for this group of people?
"Who did you choose?" Strange, holding a knife in one hand and a shield in the other, staring intently at Kaecilius.
Kaecilius said, "The one who succeeds to the position of Sorcerer Supreme... it seems she has taught you very well."
"However, you've only been learning magic for a short time and haven't encountered any advanced magic."
With that, Kaecilius clasped his hands together, and space and matter began to twist according to his will. The entire New York Sanctum Sanctorum began to rotate irregularly, like a Rubik's Tesseract being twisted by an invisible hand, and space began to become chaotic.
Everything in the Mirror Dimension was cut up and then pieced back together, forming a strange, labyrinthine environment. A portal, sparking with energy, was about to open when it was twisted and sent to an unknown location, along with the mage who was trying to enter the Mirror Dimension through the portal, who was also thrown far away to another place.
"She has been watching us all along. She didn't appear when Mage Garnier died at my hands, nor when Mordo was banished. But she appeared immediately when you were in danger."
Kaecilius said slowly, "It was the Master Gu Yi who opened the portal. After I destroyed the London Sanctum Sanctorum, she must know that my next target is the New York Sanctum Sanctorum or the Hong Kong Sanctum Sanctorum. It's inevitable that she would come to confirm it in person. But this Doctor Strange doesn't know that I can use words to lead him to corruption."
The successor she chose has embraced darkness; how sorrowful the Ancient One will be then! Kaecilius can't help but want to see that scene.
However, a better option now lay before him: to kill this gifted fellow and make Ancient One experience the same sorrow of helplessness he had felt before.
Dormammu granted him not only power but also knowledge of Mirror Dimension manipulation, allowing him to hold off the Master Gu Yi for a while.
Without needing words, the two mages took a step forward, and due to the distortion of space, their figures vanished instantly, then emerged from outside Strange's field of vision, their transparent spatial blades piercing towards his body outside the magical shield.
Strange moved in that instant, as if all his bones had been broken, or like the most skilled yoga master. His body twisted into an incredible angle, and then he swung his shield out. The sharp edge of the shield sliced a fanatic in half at the waist, and the two severed corpses fell to the ground, their whereabouts unknown due to the distortion of space. Meanwhile, the magical longsword in his hand blocked the sharp spatial blade of another fanatic.
"Your knife is too slow."
Using his magical longsword to hold the spatial blade, Strange imitated Wei Xiuming's tone, enunciating each word clearly. During daily combat training, Wei Xiuming would whip him with a short stick while using this phrase to provoke him, making him agitated and impulsive. Then, influenced by his emotions, his movements would falter, resulting in him being struck hard by the stick.
Subconsciously, Strange began to imitate it.
As soon as he finished speaking, Strange unleashed the Holy Sword with a frenzied, chaotic swing, engulfing the Strange like a storm. Although it looked like a madman slashing wildly, each move utterly disorganized, a discerning eye would see that every strike was steady and always created an opportunity for the next.
The clash of swords dozens of times caused sparks of magic to burst forth, blooming like fireworks and enveloping the two figures.
This fanatic was extremely frustrated. In terms of the time he had spent learning magic, he was definitely longer than Strange and had far more experience. In terms of magical power, he had only recently gained Dormammu's favor, and what flowed through his veins was no longer blood, but pure dark magic.
Even so, Strange dominated him during the fight, almost catching him off guard, but Strange's next move challenged him even more.
"Too slow, too slow, too slow! Your knife is too slow!"
"Faster, faster, faster! Your knife, faster, faster!"
Strange's speech speed, twice that of a normal person, allowed him to utter many words in an instant. He constantly provoked the fanatics with his words, his voice carrying a hint of madness, but his eyes remained remarkably calm. His eyes never blinked even amidst the clash of swords, and he wouldn't blink even when his eyes were extremely dry, because blinking could mean missing a very precious opportunity or putting himself in danger.
This was the experience he accumulated through countless painful lessons during his sparring sessions with Wei Xiuming; it was a truly bloody lesson, and it was also the most valuable thing Professor Wei Xiuming had given him.
The combination of strategy, tactics, tactics, experience, and the way power is used—that is, the method to reach Complete Realm —although Strange did not follow the path of Magnetic Field Rotation, these things are interconnected in application.
Strange didn't know what tricks these mages, controlled by dark magic, had up their sleeves, but he figured he should just drag them into close combat and entangle them in a fierce battle, preventing them from using any extra tricks and forcing them to unleash their strongest attacks to fight the enemy, thus achieving victory against overwhelming odds.
Trash talk is also a tactical application, and although Wei Xiuming didn't deliberately teach it, Strange learned it very well.
"With a knife this slow, how can you be a mage? Go back to your rural Idaho and go peel potatoes!"
Under Strange's repression and verbal provocation, the overwhelmed Zealot panicked for a moment, and the long-faced doctor seized the opportunity. The golden blade circled around the Zealot's body, and the man was instantly sliced into a human pillar. Both arms and shoulders were severed together, the right leg was separated from the body from the hip, and the left leg was also severed from the middle of the thigh downwards.
Strange grabbed the man's hair with his left hand, lifting his body as it was about to fall, and then, in the instant the man screamed, beheaded him.
The battle ended very quickly, and the battle did not even leave the basic spatial unit that had been cut and separated.
Strange kicked away the severed limbs with a few kicks, glancing at them as they appeared from varying distances. Strange raised the head of the fanatic towards Kaecilius: "Is this all your men? They're far too weak."
After his provocation, Strange tossed the head, which lay there wide-eyed and seemingly the victim of Strange's fatal blow, toward Kaecilius. But even though it appeared there was no obstruction between them, there were actually layers of space between them, and the head somehow ended up somewhere.
Seeing this, Strange knew he was in trouble.
The application of Mirror Dimension and portals has been repeatedly explained by the mage Mordo. Various swords, spears, and halberds developed based on the Sacred Sword of Vishanti fall under the category of white magic, and with a little caution, one will not be injured. However, while Mirror Dimension and portals are useful, they are extremely dangerous. For example, if one loses their Sling Ring in Mirror Dimension, they will be trapped in that subplane forever; if a portal is closed prematurely, spatial forces will sever anything within it.
Furthermore, the Mirror Dimension is a dimension that is very easy to be distorted and folded. Powerful mages can shape it into a field that is advantageous to them. You may be running straight forward, but the distorted gravitational field will cause gravity to appear on the walls, or two points that were originally close together may suddenly be separated.
With the enemy completely controlling the terrain, there was no way to fight, because the reality in front of them was always unreachable. He sliced the fanatic's body into several pieces and kicked them in different directions, using the corpse to measure where the surrounding space led.
However, Kaecilius was clearly very cautious. No one in the space around Strange could get close to him directly, especially with the Ancient One by his side. He enveloped himself in layers of spatial barriers, causing all of Strange's original tactical arrangements to fall through.
Just then, a sudden change occurred. Space was once again disassembled and reassembled. Unlike Kaecilius's method of twisting Tesseract, this time space began to operate and recombine like a complex mechanical structure. The magnificent changes disrupted the terrain that had been under his control. During this process, the space beneath Strange's feet was constantly replenished, no longer confined to that small area. Kaecilius's layers of barriers were peeled away like an onion, and the ground beneath his Protégé' feet was forcibly pulled together. The fanatics scattered in various places were gathered together, piecing together a perfect circle like a dueling arena.
Then sunlight appeared above their heads, the roof of the Sanctum Sanctorum flipped open like the pages of a book, and the ground beneath their feet suddenly rose to the highest point in the city, overlooking any of the buildings.
Ancient One, Mordo Sorcerer Supreme, descended from the sky, holding a fan-shaped magical weapon, and landed in front of Strange: "Well done, Strange. Strange and Kent have taught you very well."
"Maybe!" Strange replied noncommittally, his previous pride in having slain three fanatics vanishing completely.
After the appearance of the Sorcerer Supreme, Strange discovered that he still had a lot to learn about the Sacred Sword of Vishanti, because the human body cannot contain a large amount of magical power. This is why "artifacts" exist to fix spells in instruments, and this is the reason for the various staffs in Kamar-Taj.
The Sorcerer Supreme, however, took a different approach, creating a physical magic circle based on the principles of Sacred Sword of Vishanti. Although he was too inexperienced to recognize the function of the magic circle, it was far superior to his swords and shields.
"Truly worthy of being called the Sorcerer Supreme."
At that moment, a portal opened beside Strange, and Mordo, smelling of seawater, stepped out. After wiping the seawater from his face, he bowed to Ancient One and said:
"Master."
Mordo said that what he had just experienced was the most difficult battle he had faced since entering the mystical side. As soon as he stepped into the territory of the New York Sanctum Sanctorum, he was thrown into a portal and then teleported directly into the sea. He almost drowned. If a passing dolphin hadn't pushed him to the surface, he probably would have been sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
Just now, Mordo vowed that he would become a marine life conservationist, focusing on dolphin ecology.
"Mordo, you've come at the perfect time. I need you to be my witness," the Ancient One said calmly. "From this moment forward, the position of Sorcerer Supreme is passed to Sorcerer Steve Strange. I will henceforth be just an ordinary sorcerer."
"Sorcerer..." Mordo was very confused about the Master Gu Yi's arrangement. He admitted that Strange was very talented, having completed in just a few months what others took years to achieve, and with Kent Clark's guidance, his potential was limitless. However, Strange was still very inexperienced and not yet ready to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the Sorcerer Supreme.
"No... this is impossible... you drew power from the Dark Dimension..." But when Mordo saw the Master Gu Yi's face, his expression was one of disbelief and despair.
Because the Master Gu Yi had the same mark on her forehead as the Zealots, a rune inevitably left by the use of dark power, the Sorcerer Supreme had deviated from the creed she had established.
Although their goals differed, the Master Gu Yi and the fanatics on the other side belonged to the same category of people.
"This is why I no longer serve as the Sorcerer Supreme. A fallen one cannot bear the title of justice." Ancient One said nothing about Mordo's attitude, then manipulated space to send Mordo and Strange far away from the battlefield, before heading to the arena to face her final battle.
Strange formed hand seals, dismantling the sacred sword of Vishanti in his hands into individual magical lines, and then rapidly reassembling it.
Mordo looked at Strange's actions with confusion and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Go help the Master Gu Yi." Strange manipulated the magical lines with his hands as if he were weaving a rope, and a strange sword was gradually shaped in his hands.