"I think that's enough."
Rowan rose from his chair as the towering Curse Warrior charged him.
He didn't rush. Didn't posture. He simply lifted his right hand and extended a single finger.
Lightning answered.
Not the crackling arcs Thor summoned with Mjolnir. This was something older, purer, violent in a way that ignored scale.
The bolt struck Agrin head-on.
For a heartbeat, the giant froze in place.
Then he disintegrated.
No scream. No explosion. Just a column of light and a drifting scatter of black ash.
Loki stared.
"I'm starting to think he suits the title of God of Thunder better than you."
Thor swung a lazy kick at his brother, which Loki neatly sidestepped.
Above them, Malekith watched Agrin's destruction in stunned silence.
His fist slammed into a control panel.
"Trap. Initiate jump. Now."
The crew moved instantly.
"Spatial interference detected. Jump drive offline."
Malekith's expression hardened.
This had been planned. Deliberate. The Aether had been bait.
"Maximum thrust," he snapped. "Break orbit. Once clear of interference, jump."
The warship surged upward—
—and struck an invisible barrier.
Runes ignited across the sky.
A colossal magic circle unfolded over Svartalfheim, spanning the entire horizon.
On the surface below, Rowan closed his eyes briefly.
"Fairy Law."
Light descended.
A pillar of judgment tore through the clouds that had smothered Svartalfheim for millennia. The world saw true illumination for the first time in ages.
When the brilliance faded, the Dark Elf flagship was gone.
Not wreckage.
Not fragments.
Nothing.
The sky was empty.
Thor lowered Mjolnir slowly.
Loki swallowed.
Rowan could have destroyed the entire planet if he chose to. At his current level, even consuming a world outright was no longer fantasy.
A universe was another matter.
A parallel Marvel universe was vast beyond comprehension, its mass dwarfing lesser worlds combined. Devouring something like that would require time. Preparation. And no interference.
There were shortcuts, of course.
Dormammu had demonstrated one.
Consume the core world. Remove the anchor. The rest collapses faster.
Rowan exhaled softly and dismissed the thought.
He had other priorities.
They returned to Asgard briefly, collected the Infinity Gauntlet from Odin, and then Rowan returned to Earth.
Two days later, the Gauntlet rested in his hand once more, now set with five Infinity Stones.
He stepped through a portal into Kamar-Taj.
The Ancient One turned as he appeared.
"Is it time?" Rowan asked.
"It has begun," she replied.
There was sadness in her eyes.
Not for herself.
For the students who would die.
Rowan hesitated.
"If you want, we could do this differently. Fewer casualties. The outcome would remain the same."
She shook her head.
"Too much alteration invites unintended consequences. The path must remain recognizable. Those who fall… I will guide their souls onward."
Rowan studied her for a moment, then nodded.
A distant explosion echoed through the sanctum.
Kaecilius had arrived.
"Shall we observe?" she asked.
They vanished.
In the New York Sanctum, Stephen Strange confronted Kaecilius.
The duel was frantic and chaotic. Strange survived not through power, but through wit, quick thinking, and the Cloak of Levitation's stubborn loyalty. He managed to trap Kaecilius briefly using the sanctum's artifacts, but the victory did not last.
The Ancient One revealed herself soon after, speaking to Strange in quiet clarity before the final confrontation.
In the Mirror Dimension, she fell.
Her death shattered the illusion around Strange's doubts. He accepted the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme and chose to stand against Dormammu.
As Strange sought Mordo's aid, Rowan stood above the hospital rooftop in New York.
Beside him floated the Ancient One's spirit.
And before them—
Reality shifted without shifting.
No ripple in space. No distortion in time.
It was simply there.
A vast, dark silhouette suspended in existence.
Eternity.
Its form was not immense, yet Rowan felt smaller than dust before a star. Within its outline shimmered galaxies, entire clusters spinning silently inside its being.
It did not speak.
It did not need to.
Rowan understood immediately.
He had grown powerful. Strong enough to shatter fleets. Strong enough to challenge cosmic entities like Dormammu.
But before a multiversal embodiment—
He was nothing.
If Eternity willed it, Rowan would vanish in less than a breath.
For the first time in a long while, he felt the weight of perspective.
...
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