Atonement Mission: London

The atmosphere was suffocatingly oppressive. Wong paced back and forth, angrily waving the damaged Book of Cagliostro in his hand, his serious round face flushed red.

"That traitor! He stole the core chapters on the 'Time Ritual' and summoning spells for the 'Dark Dimension'!"

Wong abruptly stopped pacing and glared sharply at Jiang Li. "And it's all thanks to that 'time party' you threw in the library! Your Space-Time Shockwave disabled the alarm system for a full ten seconds! Those were ten fatal seconds!"

"I said I'm sorry, Wong."

Jiang Li raised both hands in surrender, looking utterly innocent. "Besides, I didn't do it on purpose. Who knew that big golden guy would make such a racket... Next time, I'll remember to put a silencer on it."

"There won't be a next time!" Mordo cut in coldly, slamming his staff heavily against the ground. "Not only did you violate the laws of nature, you let the wolf into the house. Technology brings nothing but chaos."

"Enough."

Ancient One's voice was not loud, yet it instantly drowned out every argument with unquestionable authority.

She stood in the center of the hall and waved a hand. A massive holographic magical projection of Earth floated before her, marked with three flashing golden points of light.

"Blame is meaningless. Kaecilius has fallen, and he craves Dormammu's 'eternal life.' To achieve it, he must destroy Earth's magical defensive network."

Ancient One pointed at the three points of light.

"New York, London, Hong Kong. The three Sanctums form a mystical shield protecting Earth from the Dark Dimension's corruption. If the Sanctums fall, Dormammu will descend and devour the entire world."

"Where will he go?" Gwen asked. She had fully stabilized now and was curiously studying the magical map.

"London."

Jiang Li looked at the map and suddenly spoke with certainty. "If I were him, I'd hit London first. Its defenses are the weakest right now—when the alarm went off here, the master guarding the London Sanctum was called back to provide support, wasn't he?"

Ancient One gave him an approving glance. "Your tactical instincts are sharp."

"This is my mess, so I'll clean it up."

Jiang Li straightened, his gaze turning sharp. "Since I helped open the door for him, I'll be the one to break his legs. Send me to London."

"I'm going too." Gwen tightened her gloves and adjusted the web-shooters on her wrists. "I may not understand magic, but I know how to beat up bad guys."

"No." Mordo immediately objected. "This is a war of sorcerers, not a street brawl. And all he can do is use those strange aliens..."

"Mordo, take them." Ancient One interrupted him, her gaze profound. "Perhaps, as Jiang Li said, when facing an enemy that breaks the rules, we need some 'different' methods."

London, United Kingdom.

On London's rain-soaked streets, pedestrians hurried along, unaware that a drastic change was unfolding inside an ancient Victorian building.

Boom!!

Flames shot into the sky as the Sanctum's doors were blasted open from within. Several guards in yellow sorcerer robes were hurled onto the street by the tremendous shockwave, their fates unknown.

"Are these the Sorcerer Supreme's lapdogs? Pathetic."

Kaecilius strode into the London Sanctum's hall with three fanatical followers. The black marks around his eyes had grown darker, and cracks like parched earth had begun spreading across his skin—a sign of deep corruption by dark energy.

"Destroy the Sanctum's core," Kaecilius ordered coldly. "Let darkness descend."

Just then.

Screech—!

A huge orange spark portal opened in the ceiling above their heads.

"You're tearing the place down already? Did you clear it with property management?"

A teasing voice rang out. Immediately afterward, a strand of white webbing shot down from above, precisely sticking to the wrist of a follower who was preparing to cast a spell, then yanking hard!

"Who's there?!" The follower staggered, his spell interrupted.

"Your friendly neighborhood Ghost Spider!"

Gwen leaped from the portal, swung from the magnificent crystal chandelier with her webbing, and used the momentum to drive both feet viciously into the follower's face, sending him flying.

Mordo and Jiang Li landed right after her, forming a triangle around Kaecilius.

"You again..." Kaecilius looked at Jiang Li, a flicker of wariness passing through his eyes, though madness outweighed it. "You think that watch of yours can stand against the great Dormammu?"

"Dormammu doesn't need to worry about dealing with you."

Jiang Li raised the Omnitrix, his gaze icy. "I hear you sorcerers love this move—"

"If you're so eager to die, I'll grant your wish."

Kaecilius wasted no words. He suddenly brought his hands together, and spatial magic erupted.

"Mirror Dimension!"

Buzzz—!!

The real world shattered instantly like broken glass.

The streets, buildings, sky—everything began folding and twisting. The once-flat floor became a vertical wall, the ceiling became a bottomless abyss, and gravity instantly lost all meaning.

"Here, reality is under my control!"

Kaecilius grinned viciously and swept his hands outward.

The entire Sanctum hall began compressing wildly. Countless sharp shards of glass and folding walls pressed toward the three of them like enormous grinding wheels!

"Watch out!" Mordo raised the Shield of the Seraphim, but cracks instantly appeared across it under the immense spatial pressure. "His power has increased! He's being empowered by the Dark Dimension!"

"Ah!" Gwen cried out.

In a place like the Mirror Dimension, where the laws of physics were chaotic, her Spider-Sense was completely overloaded. What had felt like the floor a moment ago suddenly became the ceiling. She stepped into empty air and nearly fell into the endlessly looping abyss.

"Hold on!" Jiang Li grabbed Gwen's wrist and steadied himself on the floor tilted at a ninety-degree angle.

"In the Mirror Dimension, if we don't break his control, we'll be crushed alive!" Mordo shouted. "Jiang! Use that energy-absorbing rock creature!"

"No. Chromastone can't withstand spatial compression on a physical level."

Jiang Li looked calmly at the folding walls pressing in from every direction like dominoes and turned the dial.

"To deal with magic that wants to blow us away or crush us flat, we need someone... with a stable base, and who's an insulator against magic."

Jiang Li selected a gene with a massive shell-like structure.

"A naturally magic-resistant species from the Galvan Galaxy."

"It's Hero Time!"

Green light flashed.

This time, no warrior that looked especially strong or swift appeared.

What emerged was an alien with a huge green shell resembling fan blades, short thick limbs, and a turtle-like head.

A Giovannian—Terraspin!

"A... turtle?" Kaecilius sneered. "Are you planning to hide in your shell and wait to die?"

He clenched his fist, and the folding walls around them accelerated toward them as golden magical lines tightened like chains!

"This isn't an ordinary turtle."

Jiang Li's heavily nasal voice rang out.

Rather than dodge, he directly withdrew his limbs and head into his shell.

"Terraspin... Magic Breaker!!"

Whoosh—boom!!!

Something terrifying happened.

Jiang Li's body inside the shell began spinning at high speed, while the openings in his shell blasted out a super hurricane powerful enough to tear steel apart!

But it was more than just wind.

The Giovannians' racial talent—Mana Immunity. The airflow they generated naturally repelled magical particles, like concentrated acid splashed onto silk.

"What?!"

Kaecilius watched in horror as the golden magical lines maintaining the folded space snapped apart inch by inch and dissipated before that green hurricane!

Without magical power sustaining them, the walls that had been folding and crushing inward instantly lost their momentum and "sprang" back into place under physical inertia!

"Get... blown away!!"

Jiang Li, as Terraspin, spun at high speed as he flew into the air, transforming into a huge green eye of an anti-magic storm.

Every magical construct disintegrated the instant it touched the storm. The powerful centrifugal force pulled Kaecilius and his followers in, then hurled them against the walls like garbage.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The Mirror Dimension's distortions were forcibly smoothed out.

"That's the Giovannians' greeting gift!"

Jiang Li stopped spinning, extended his head and limbs, and floated in the air as he looked down at the battered Kaecilius.

"Your space folding may look fancy, but before absolute magic resistance, it's just a wall made of paper."

Mordo stared at the scene, forgetting even to retract the magical whip in his hand. He was completely dumbfounded.

"Even spatial magic can be blown apart..." Mordo muttered. "That's neither science nor magic."

"It's very scientific." Gwen hung upside down from the ceiling. Though pale-faced, she still smiled. "It's called... elemental advantage."

Kaecilius climbed out of the rubble and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. His eyes grew even madder as the black cracks on his skin began spreading across his entire body.

"You are indeed powerful, aberration."

He suddenly pulled out the stolen page and began chanting an obscure, malicious spell. As he chanted, black fluid flowed from his eyes.

"But you cannot stop the master's descent! The London Sanctum... must fall!"

Rumble!

Suddenly, a tremendous crash came from outside the Sanctum.

The Mirror Dimension had actually been broken from the outside! A massive dark vortex formed above London. Though it was still within the Mirror Dimension, that dark power had already begun seeping into reality.

"He's sacrificing himself!" Mordo shouted, his voice trembling. "He's using his life force to forcibly connect to the Dark Dimension! Dormammu is coming!"

Jiang Li's expression changed.

"Calling for your parent? That still depends on whether I allow it!"

Jiang Li pressed the Omnitrix again, and the green light turned dim and sinister.

"Since you want to play dark magic, then I'll show you... what a real 'ghost' is."