Fate is Wonderful and Unpredictable

Dormammu seemed to have entered this place only half a day earlier than Zarathos.

And yet.

He truly had already been here for quite a long time.

Perhaps.

This former Dimension Lord had already been PUA'd into a qualified Pal.

"The days in prison passed one by one. I started talking to the system—not for any reason, just because I was too bored and wanted someone to talk to. The system would answer me in that mechanical voice, telling me God Kingdom news, telling me about changes in the weather, telling me about the lives of other citizens. It even told me stories—stories of lives Ian had saved, stories of beings who found a new life here."

"At first, I found it disgusting. Later—later, I didn't know anymore."

"Three months later, I was released."

"When I walked out of the prison, the sunlight stabbed so hard I couldn't open my eyes. I stood at the entrance and took a deep breath, and the air felt sweet. Even though that air was mixed with all kinds of smells—the clamor of the city, the pollution from the factories, even a faint stench from the septic tanks—but it was the air of freedom."

"Freedom."

He repeated the word.

"I never thought I would use that word to describe anything. In the Dark Dimension, I was the master, the ruler, the absolute existence. I didn't need freedom, because everything there was mine. But here, after being locked up for three months, I understood what freedom meant."

"It wasn't doing whatever you wanted. It was the right to choose. Choosing where to go, choosing what to do, choosing what to eat. Even if those choices were all limited, even if in the end you still had to go to a construction site to haul bricks