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I looked at Mordo, the cold dead body of the sorcerer reflecting in my eyes.
I turned back to look at Nat, chuckling to myself despite the wounds she'd suffered at Mordo's hands. "Looks like you've been having a shitty day." She scoffed at my light jab, stretching forth her hands to me for me to pull her up.
"It's not my fault that I had to be the one who ended up being paired with the mad sorcerer." She winced at the backlash of one of the wounds Mordo had inflicted on her that pulsed with dark magic that ate away at her from the insides, only kept at bay as she somehow managed to scab the magical wound effectively stopping it from growing an inch.
Using the contact of our hands as a medium, I absorbed all the dark energy inside her body which made her healing factor kick in.
"Ooh, thanks for that." Nat said and sighed in relief as the irritating crawl of dark magic left her body.
"Think nothing of it." With that said, I turned to Mordo with a cold look on my face as I was just an irrational thought away from absolutely incinerating the man after a long session of torture.
"A long time it has been, hasn't it Cross?" He said with a small smile on his face as if he was welcoming me but the hate that was emanating from him was unmistakable.
"Dormammu and Satannish, really? Of every stupid thing you could do, you actually settled for the most harebrained delusion your deranged mind could sprout." I said as I walked a few steps forward with Mordo mirroring my actions.
"Hohohoho! Now you criticize, how unsurprisingly hypocritical of you. You only judge something when it affects you negatively. I always loathed that about you." Mordo snarled, his voice echoing through the dimension we were in causing it to tremble.
My expression never changed, nor did it shift with the tiniest twitch because none of it mattered when it came to Mordo. I wasn't someone who would cuddle a person and pamper them with overprotectiveness because more than anyone, I understood the importance of hardship and determination. Even Yelena who I supposedly doted on wasn't spared with it was time to get harsh with them, either during training or when it came to reprimanding her.
The same feelings, but on a slightly lesser scale, was attributed to Natasha. Natasha had grown from a seductive assassin to someone I saw as a younger sister. She was one of the few people who had a deep level of understanding with me which made it easier for me to accept her and her sister into our family after the skirmish with an executive of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Though I knew it for a fact, Nat's fight against Mordo drove home how I was bringing them to another level of warfare. They would never be the strongest which basically meant that their chances of dying increased as their strength did. They were not yet at the level that they could afford to be carefree, the scene I arrived to an all too grim reminder.
"I don't care what you think of me, you should already be aware of that, Mordo. What I am interested in is why would you ally yourself with the Hell Lords, even if you plan on double crossing them, that still doesn't explain why you would go so far as to open Earth to such horrors."
…
[General POV Change]
Mordo actually scoffed at the words of his former friend. It was only after he left Kamar-Taj that he understood just how far the sorcerers there had strayed away from their original path.
They cast out rebels who don't follow their rules and yet they perform the same crime when behind closed doors. Strange and his former master, the Ancient One, were the perfect example of that hypocritical society.
It was so bad, the hypocrisy of sorcerers both good and bad, that he took it upon himself to cleanse this world of their filth by taking the powers of any sorcerer he deemed unworthy of their knowledge and power.
… And in his opinion, the man before him topped that list and everyone in it even including the Ancient One.
"Unlike you, Cross, I have a drive. My determination is not something someone like you could ever understand. Unlike you, I was not born with powers. Unlike you, I have suffered the pain of loss and betrayal. Unlike you, I struggled through my practice of the Sacred Arts with conviction and diligence. Nothing came easy to me, Cross!... Because unlike you, I have a goal! I have a dream that motivates my every waking moment! An ambition so great that I finally surpasses all my peers! I have left you behind, Cross!" Mordo screamed at the hated man who if he had acted when he should, none of this would have come to pass. If only he had rebuked the Ancient One for her faults for breaking the taboos and reprimanded Strange when he repeatedly broke the rules, then Mordo would have been assured that they were at least some who could be considered righteous and true. But he did nothing of the such, preferring to sit in the background and stick his head under the ground hoping that the trouble peacefully passed over him.
Even now, Mordo was sure that the only reason he was being active was that something about the current situation greatly affected him and he had an inkling of what it might be.
He vividly remembered what the Ancient One had said about the dark origins of Cross' powers, going as far as to tell him not to invoke the name of most magical entities, irrespective of their alignment, when he was spellcasting.
A torrent of magical power exploded from Mordo's form that caused the dimension they were in to lose its stability. "Do you see this?! This is the power that I have gained in my exile, Cross! My powers have exponentially dwarfed yours that it barely even registers in my senses. You are nothing but a blade of grass in the middle of a cursed storm, only swaying as my might dictates. With the power of the Hell Lords, I will rid the Earth of its false sorcerers… starting with you." Mordo's shout and excitement died down at the end of his sentence and the dimension became stable once more as if the wave of power that washed over every corner was but a poorly constructed lie.
Despite all this, Draul's face remained unchanged as Mordo's rant went in through one ear and out through the other. Behind him, Natasha's eyes widened as she felt just how vast Mordo's power was which made her know that he had been toying with her since the beginning.
"I pity you, Cross, I really do. Because of your selfishness, you will die and anyone who tries to avenge you will follow. A fitting end for a coward, having no one to even avenge your death." The atmosphere around Mordo seems to thicken as he finally set his sights on the man before him.
Before he could act, Draul who had been silent for the most time finally spoke. "I pity you, Mordo." He had really meant what he said.
Mordo expression turned fierce as he attacked Draul by first locking the space around Draul, taking control of it so that Draul wouldn't be able to even twitch his brows. The area around Draul lit up in a magic circle of Mordo's doing, a circle of dark magic that he had learnt a while back from a group of sorcerers he had killed. The spell was designed to drain the energy – magic, bioelectricity and even life force – from the target that was immobilized inside it.
Even with all this, the expression on Draul's face never shifted a millimeter in discomfort or panic. Even the girl behind him looked composed, not fazed a bit by the development.
All these things immediately had Mordo on edge as he knew that even though he was most likely stronger than Cross, the man was not an opponent to be trifled with during a battle.
"We never actually fought the other for real, did we? All our fights during the entire duration of my stay at Kamar-Taj were magical and not once did I ever use my abilities. Isn't that right, Mordo?" Draul's voice filtered into Mordo's ears but the man did not have the luxury to listen to it as the magic circle began crumbling even as he tried his best to maintain only for him to realize that the spell had done nothing to Draul or Natasha who stood behind him, not even a drop of energy drained.
"Your life was forfeit the moment you actuated this plan of yours." Draul said and began to walk towards Mordo slowly.
Not willing to be intimidated by Draul's actions, Mordo showed his skill as a Master as his body burst into eldritch manifestations, each with disproportionate body, size and shape.
The energy rolling off Mordo completely shattered the dimension they were in but instead of bringing them back to the real world, all the Mordos found themselves inside a dimension that was all black, the only light present being the ones their circles ignited.
"A dimension of your own creation. It matters not." The Mordos released their volley of spells that brought lightning and hails and destruction to the void black dimension of Draul.
Faced with the attack from the Mordos, a purple glow covered Draul's hands like smoke as he brought it up and drew a line that into the void that split it open, creating a great suction force that magnetically attracted all the spells.
Before the Mordos could react, they felt the connection between them and some of their extensions being cut in an instant only for them to find 7 of them scattering into boxes of chopped flesh.
They had not left their stunned state when they all felt a soul and mind attack that immediately forced all the Mordos to combine back into the original as the attack had not only identified the source of Mordo, but also attacked his soul while at it which should have been impossible since as a veteran sorcerer like he was, his soul was protected at all times, but he suffered an attack there regardless.
"H-H-how?!" Whether he was surprised or shocked, Draul didn't care.
"Let me once more correct your most fatal mistake, Mordo. I recall telling you once how a battle between me and you would go if I used all my abilities. My words then if you can remember were… 'you would die the moment I attacked'." Draul didn't say another word and materialized behind Mordo and grabbed the man by his left shoulder.
Acting on reflex, Mordo used one of his lifesaving spells that would have bound the offender with the ominous red Crimson Bands of Cytorrak and send an almost unblockable attack directly to the soul and energy sea of the target.
Draul immediately seeing the ominous red of the Crimson God, immediately let go of Mordo, knowing fully well that even he would have to struggle a bit to get out, but not without taking his entire arm from him.
Mordo's scream echoed through the dark expanse, his pain causing his spell to cancel but Draul didn't care about such unimportant things as he took both of Mordo's with his next attack.
Mordo stilled in shock at the abrupt loss of his limbs and also the unresponsiveness of the ascribed spatial rune on his boots that was strong enough to punch a hole through chaotic spaces like black holes and hell.
Draul held him by his head, raising him to his eye length and brought him close to his mouth. "I am a monster, Mordo. Not the one under the bed, no no no. I am the monster that lurks in your dreams, making you terrified of even closing your eyes to sleep."
Mordo's eyes went into his skull as Draul dug inside his head, crudely dragging out everything he wanted and destroying anything of irrelevance, turning the once powerful Master of the Arts into a vegetable as Draul erased everything that made Mordo 'Mordo' with impunity.
The blackness around them tore apart like fabric as the light of Earth shone on them once more.
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