"How did you end up working here, wherever 'here' is?" Doctor Strange asked.
"I volunteered to work here!" Christine couldn't help but snap. "At your funeral!"
"Thanks for attending!" Doctor Strange replied nonchalantly.
Another bombshell: Doctor Strange had died again.
*Damn, I've died again,* Stephen Strange thought from outside the screen, feeling utterly bewildered.
*Is it too late to back out of becoming Doctor Strange?*
*If this keeps up, I'm not going to live past fifty. I'll die young in my prime!*
"Could it be that the one who died in this Multiverse is the same ponytail-wearing Doctor Strange we saw at the beginning?" Agent Hill asked, her voice laced with uncertainty.
"Doesn't look like it. That world seemed shattered, not a complete one," Tony Stark said, shaking his head. "We don't have enough information yet to determine if it's the same Doctor Strange from the beginning."
"But I'm leaning towards no," Natasha explained. "Because at the beginning, that little girl opened a spatial rift, and the ponytail Doctor Strange fell right into it. Later, that same little girl was with our Doctor Strange, so she most likely came to our world. That means he probably couldn't return to his own world—and even if he did, they wouldn't know he was dead!"
If they didn't know he was dead, how could they hold a funeral for him?
This suggested that perhaps *another* Stephen had already died.
The situation was becoming increasingly bizarre, but there were too many missing pieces. Who knew what was actually going on?
On the screen, Christine was reviewing data on a mechanical device. She said calmly, "Your injuries are very similar, but not identical. How interesting!"
The camera panned, showing X-rays of two palms—clearly a comparison between the hands of two different Doctor Stranges.
The reason was clear. They had all watched the video and knew that Doctor Strange had only embarked on his magical journey because a car accident had crippled his hands. He had turned to magic in a desperate attempt to heal them.
This accident was the catalyst for his quest for magical redemption.
In one version, even Dark Doctor Strange had lost his lover, a tragedy that drove him to learn the mystic arts.
Hearing this, Doctor Strange could only manage a helpless, wry smile. He then asked, "What is our relationship in this universe?"
A flicker of hope stirred in his heart. *Maybe, just maybe, things are different between us in this universe?*
"We've never been able to figure that out," Christine said coolly.
She didn't give a direct answer, but she didn't deny it either.
"Yes, I suppose that's one thing we all have in common," Doctor Strange said with another wry smile. *It seems no matter the universe, I've always managed to mess things up with Christine.*
Meanwhile, Stephen Strange, watching from outside the screen, suddenly felt a strange sense of deja vu. *Is this a dig at me?*
*This has to be a dig at me!*
His relationship with Christine seemed to be just as messy.
After a moment of silence, Doctor Strange tried to persuade Christine. "Christine, you have to let us out. Everyone's in danger right now. I know you don't understand me—"
Before he could even finish his stuttering sentence, Christine cut him off. "I don't want to. In your universe, it doesn't matter who I am to you!"
"Why?"
Hearing this, Doctor Strange's curiosity piqued. He momentarily forgot to struggle against the shackles binding him.
Christine smiled and said, "Because you're dangerous, Stephen!"
Everyone watching from outside became intrigued. They knew all too well how dangerous Doctor Strange could be—including how he once turned dark to save Christine, nearly destroying an entire timeline, and how his reckless actions had unleashed the chaos of the Multiverse.
Even the Doctor Strange with the ponytail had turned dark, even attempting to steal America's powers.
So everyone was well aware that there was a considerable probability of Doctor Strange turning dark.
*Could the Doctor Strange of this universe have also turned dark?*
*If that's the case, then this Doctor Strange is far too easy to corrupt. He might turn dark just from the slightest provocation.*
This immediately sent Tony Stark, a severe persecutory delusional, into a state of high alert. In his mind, he had already quietly reclassified Doctor Strange's danger level to be even higher than Lin Feng's.
On the screen, Doctor Strange was speaking: "In my universe, someone is trying to capture that little girl. They will completely destroy this place and won't stop until they achieve their goal. I don't care if you're from the Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D..."
However, before he could finish, someone interrupted him, saying, "Neither!"
At that moment, a man walked in with four robots.
This man was none other than Baron Mordo.
The man who had previously appeared in the Kamar-Taj video was Stephen Strange's senior fellow student from his days of training.
The four robots behind him immediately caught Tony Stark's attention. He knew instantly that they must be related to him—after all, only he could have designed a robot with a catfish-like face.
Everyone else turned to look at Tony Stark, having realized the same thing. Did this mean they were about to meet Tony Stark's parallel universe counterpart?
After all, that catfish-like aesthetic was so uniquely "Tony Stark" that no one else could have come up with it.
If he wasn't mistaken, this was likely a product of the Earth-838 Tony Stark.
"No, it doesn't look like my work. It looks more like... Ultron," Tony Stark judged, and his heart skipped a beat.
Ultron was nothing to be pleased about—it was a nightmare. If this really was Ultron, they were in serious trouble.
"What is that?" Doctor Strange's face darkened as he saw Baron Mordo. He had trusted the man too much before, only to be knocked unconscious and end up in this state.
"Hydra?"
Doctor Strange tried to figure out which one it was.
But Baron Mordo merely said coolly, "The Illuminati wants to see you now!"
"The Illuminati what?" Before Doctor Strange could even figure out what was happening, his hands were shackled.
Only then did the cell he was in open. Facing this, he knew he couldn't avoid this trip, so he could only carefully instruct Christine: "Don't let anyone hurt that child!"
Immediately after, he was taken away.
"The Illuminati?"
The crowd outside the screen looked at each other in confusion. Tony Stark paused for a moment and then said, "Isn't that a mysterious shadow organization from urban legends that controls everything in the world from behind the scenes? But as far as I know, it doesn't exist."
"It truly doesn't exist, just an urban legend," Nick Fury said with a grave expression. "But that's only in our universe. Clearly, in this Earth-838, such an Illuminati might actually exist. And it looks like this Sorcerer Supreme is a member. Tony, you're likely a member too."
Before anyone could dwell on it, the scene shifted. A portal appeared amidst a snow-covered mountain range. The Sorcerer Supreme emerged first, followed by Wanda, dressed in a practical, form-fitting outfit.
As they stepped out, they could see something faintly hidden within the mist-shrouded peaks in the distance.
Everyone noticed that the Sorcerer Supreme's condition didn't seem very good; her cheeks were covered in scars.
Recalling Lin Feng's words about Wanda tearing through the Multiverse, a suspicion began to form in everyone's mind: Wanda had successfully turned dark again.
Outside the screen, Wanda looked at her own battle-worn face on the Sacred Timeline, momentarily speechless.
On screen, under Wanda's coercion, the Sorcerer Supreme was brought into the ruined palace on the mountain peak.
"Long, long ago, the first demon, Sithorn, carved his magic onto this tomb. The same spell was later copied into the Darkhold!" the Sorcerer Supreme explained slowly.
But it felt as if he were introducing something truly sinister.
"The Darkhold? The Book of Vishanti? What's the connection between the two? That little-ponytail Stephen mentioned before that the Book of Vishanti could be used against Wanda. What is that thing? Does anyone know?" Tony Stark couldn't help but ask as he watched the scene.
At this moment, everyone's gaze turned to the only two people present with any connection to magic: Thor and Wonder Woman Diana.
Diana simply shrugged and said, "Nothing to do with me. I'm from the DC Universe, as you know. So I don't know what's going on in this universe."
After everyone turned to look at Thor, the God of Thunder paused before speaking. "I think I know. I've read a lot of relevant texts lately, and my father has re-taught me about many of the powerful beings that exist, or once existed, in this universe... and Sithorn is one of them."
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