"Wait." Strange shouted as Alice stopped and faced him.
"Huh, I'm pretty sure I heard her tell you not to do anything stupid, so why did you stop me?" Alice asked.
"..."
"If you have nothing to say I'm leaving, it's best you spend your time preparing for the upcoming envision of Dormammu than morning the dead." after saying this Alice simply turned and disappeared leaving Strange alone.
Strange stood alone in the room, unable to do anything as Alice left, but as she said he knew he didn't have time to mourn his fallen master, and even if he knew Cul would not watch the earth be destroyed he still needed to take action, his pride would never allow him to simply wait for Cul to take action.
So left with no other choice Strange left the room going to make whatever preparations he needed to make before his time was up.
As these things were happening on Earth Cul and Dormammu had felt the passing of the ancient one, Cul had already expected this and was not surprised by her death and stayed on his throne looking at Earth waiting for his next target to appear.
Dormammu had also known the ancient one was on her last legs, after all, she was living by stealing from his dimension, and her death made him very happy once he felt it he was on the move getting ready to invade Earth.
Of course, Dormammu knew Earth was under the protection of Cul, but so what?
The last thing he heard Cul doing was fighting Zeus, and even though Zeus was strong he wouldn't give Dormammu much trouble, so Dormammu wasn't afraid of Cul based on the information he had about his strength.
But little did he know that information was far outdated and would lead to his death, but even if he had somehow heard of Cul killing Knull, would he have believed it? or would he even care?
After all, saying who is stronger between Knull and Dormammu would be hard, but he didn't and wouldn't be able to think that Cul could devour his opponents adding them to his strength.
So no matter how things would or could have gone, Dormammu would end up dead and being devoured by Cul, one could even say that it could be his destiny.
(Serpent realm)
"You're going to help them right?" Gaea questioned her husband as he sat beside him.
"Of course, no matter how little they have a piece of you in them, for that alone they deserve my help." Cul answered without hesitation.
"So is that why you declared it under your protection all those years ago?" she asked clearly curious.
"It was one of the reasons, the other was as you've seen already three of the infinity stones appeared on this one planet you should know that in itself isn't exactly normal." says Cul.
"Mhm, it isn't. It seems planned."
"I guess you could say that but would say it differently." says Cul his gaze still fixed on Earth,
"Oh, what would you call it?" Gaea asked while she played with Cul's hair.
"I would call it destiny, yes it was the destiny of that planet, or maybe it's people to have those stones." says Cul.
"Destiny..." Gaea said as she fell silent and her hands stopped in Cul's hair.
"..."
The room filled with silence as a solemn atmosphere formed.
"Are you sure you want to get involved in this if Destiny is involved?" Gaea questioned clearly worried.
"I have no choice now, some actions I've taken have already passed the bottom line of what is allowed, now we only have one choice and that's to keep going against the destiny of this universe otherwise we will die when TOAA is finished dealing with his business and has time to really notice my presence." says Cul without a change in expression.
"Well, we have no choice, since they will see our family as a threat they don't need to live now do they?" Gaea said her voice cold and filled with killing intent.
Sensing the change in his wife Cul smiled and finally shifted his gaze from the Earth to her, he scooped her up into his arms and smiled.
"You're right there is no need for them to live anymore, but I'll deal with it, you calm down." says Cul.
Gaea hearing his words gradually calmed done and returned to normal.
"What about Alice? She's still on Earth and you know how much she likes trouble."
"I've already sent her brother to look after her, she won't be in any danger, the time for her little adventure to and is coming anyway, after this she will return home and continue her training." says Cul.
"Things are starting." says Cul as he returns his gaze to the Earth.