Her fingers trembled slightly.
The Dark Dimension.
It was the domain Dormammu had ruled for countless ages: an independent universe connected to every other dimension, yet sealed off from them all.
It held endless dark energy, warped space, and dimensional beings Dormammu had enslaved for countless eons.
Whenever she had faced a powerful enemy before, she had secretly borrowed power from the Dark Dimension.
If she listened to Russell and took it over...
"You'll need time to adjust."
Russell went on, his voice carrying an easy certainty.
"But you have plenty of time. The Dark Dimension won't demand that you remain on call every moment, the way being Sorcerer Supreme did. You can establish your own rules there, your own order.
You can also watch Earth from the shadows. Watch Kamar-Taj. Watch Strange. And when the time is right, in the right way, you can offer a little... guidance."
The Ancient One looked at him. Something was changing in those eyes that had seen through everything.
"You don't just want me to be an observer." She raised an eyebrow.
"Of course." Russell admitted it readily. "Like I told you, I want an ally. An ally who has built a new order in the Dark Dimension.
Someone who will stand on my side in the game being played across the Multiverse. The Ancient One, you know better than anyone that Earth's true catastrophe has yet to arrive.
Dormammu was only the appetizer. The real devourers, the real destroyers, are still sleeping in a deeper darkness."
He held out his hand.
"So I'm giving you two choices. First, join Eternity. Merge with that vast will and become one of countless Ancient Ones, spending the eons ahead quietly in Eternity's embrace."
His fingers moved slightly, and threads of cause and effect glimmered in