Ancient One stopped hiding her true power. She gently raised her right hand, and to Tony's and the others' shock, the ground beneath them rose to the sky, bringing them into the dark portal that breached into this universe.
Dormammu instantly sensed that someone had intruded into his dominion. He was very familiar with this aura: it was the one person that had stood against him for hundreds of years in his quest to devour the planet Earth.
Moreover, that insolent intruder also constantly stealing the Dark Energy from his dimension. That same Dark Energy was responsible for maintaining Dormammu's immense strength and nigh-invincibility. One could only imagine how furious Dormammu was when he discovered that someone was stealing his precious energy!
Dormammu was unsurprisingly enraged when Ancient One and the others arrived in front of him.
Ancient One made an inexplicable gesture, and a green light flashed around everyone's body: a great battle was about to begin!
...
Dong!
Tony's reminiscence was interrupted by the loud noise of struck metal!
"Uh, Li Yue, it's been 84 years...I mean, do you have any idea how much I went through in the past month?"
When Tony came back to his senses, Li Yue was already in front of him. Li Yue had knocked on Tony's helmet to snap him out of his daydream.
"Within the last three hours, we've been wiped out 81 times in a row. I experienced every kind of death there is, and I could remember all of them clearly."
Tony could still feel every single one of his wounds. Even though his armor was made of exceptional material and included incredibly advanced shock absorption technology, Dormammu's big hand was still strong enough to severely injure him!
"But I had it easy with my powerful armor. The capsicle and the two mages died way more times than me. Hundreds of times, probably."
Tony didn't miss the chance to brag about his powerful armor.
"Is that so? How many times did he die?"
Li Yue pointed at Thor, who was still fighting with Dormammu.
"Uh, I don't think he even died yet... Cough, cough, let's not talk about this anymore. Do you have any secret weapon to deal with that Dormammu monster?"
Tony was embarrassed because Thor hadn't died once even as the God of Thunder fought that huge monster head-on!
It had only been a month, so how could Thor be so much stronger? Tony felt that there was some sort of trickery afoot. Thor did defeat that crazy strong Destroyer with a hammer when he regained his divinity as the God of Thunder, but Tony felt that the current Thor with his axe was much stronger than when he was just wielding the hammer.
"Also, is that Ancient One woman a friend of yours? She always looked fishy to me. She hid her strength and did nothing to help while the temples were destroyed, and even now, she only watched as we died over and over!"
Tony suddenly whispered to Li Yue.
"I think you're overthinking it. She's the Sorcerer Supreme, the guardian of Earth that had protected us for hundreds of years! There's nothing fishy about her."
As expected of the ever-suspecting Tony. Not even Ancient One could escape his suspicions.
"What did you just say> Hundreds of years? Oh my, I really couldn't tell!"
Tony was stunned when he heard Li Yue's words. T His was the first time that he had heard of someone living for centuries. He thought Ancient One was just a few decades old.
Despite his shock, Tony didn't think that Li Yue would lie about this to him. He thought about Ancient One's time manipulation magic. With that kind of overpowered ability, Tony felt that living for a few hundred years wouldn't be that far-fetched!
"Alright, enough about Ancient One. You said that you got wiped out 81 times in a row; did you count every single one of your own death as a team wipe?"
Li Yue felt a little cheated! He thought the team really was wiped out 81 times like Tony said.
"What of it? Don't you think getting the main DPS killed is the same as full team wipe?"
Tony awkwardly defended himself. He was undoubtedly the main DPS of this party! Thor was a cheater, so he didn't count!
"Alright, alright, good job. Go take a break; I'll take care of the rest!
Li Yue patted Tony on the shoulder and told him to go back and rest.
"I'll leave it to you, then. Go beat up that big face monster!"
Tony knew Li Yue's personality: Li Yue wouldn't act tough if he wasn't sure that he could back his words. With his knowledge of the future, he should know about this monster, and was confident that he could face it head-on.
Thus, Tony had nothing to worry about! He turned on his armor thrusters and flew towards Ancient One!
...
"Hey, everyone. What do you think? Didn't I look heroic?"
Tony flew in his armor toward the others. He didn't forget his manner as celebrity.
"Oh? Are you new? My name is Tony Stark! Would you be kind enough to tell me your name?"
Tony's eyes immediately locked on to Li Yue's companion Annie after he landed. He couldn't hold back his bad habit.
"I am Annie, Li Yue brought me here!"
Annie's first impression of Tony was pretty bad. The armored man reminded her of a third-tier superhero in her previous world: one that wasn't even worth mentioning compared to The Seven!
"Ah, so that Li Yue brought you here. I'm his friend, so a friend of his is also my friend. Tell me if you need anything, I'll help you any way I can!"
Tony had no way of knowing that Annie had immediately classified him as a third-rate superhero. He was still trying to look favorable in her eyes.
"Mr. Stark, correct me if I'm wrong, but did I hear you calling me fishy?"
Ancient One suddenly smiled and interrupted Tony's fruitless attempt to approach Annie.
"Uhh...no, absolutely not. How could I! You must have misheard. Let's just watch Li Yue fighting that monster!"
Tony understandably lost his usual attitude after witnessing Ancient One's shocking time manipulation power—and after discovering that Ancient One was a centuries-old monster.
Thus, he meekly deflected Ancient One's question.
...
As Tony was flying away from the battlefield, Li Yue flew at Dormammu's bark-like face. The wrinkles and ridges on Dormammu's face continuously flowed outwards, like ocean waves.
Instead of attacking Dormammu, Li Yue simply floated to a planetoid right in front of Dormammu's massive face. He then said in his best haughty act:
"Dormammu! I'm here to bargain!"
A burst of laughter suddenly boomed after Li Yue said Doctor Strange's line.
"Haha, Li Yue, so you've come! I was wondering who could wield such power! But why would you want to bargain with this monster? The two of us could just work together and kill it!"
The thundering voice belonged to Thor, whose face lit up with excitement when he saw Li Yue. He landed in front of Li Yue, Stormbreaker in hand, seemingly had forgotten how overwhelmingly stronger Dormammu was as he suggested to Li Yue to fight the dark giant together.
"Watch out!"
Li Yue warned, but his tone was rather calm. He wasn't worried that Thor would be hurt.
Bang!!!!!!!
Perfectly in character for the muscle-head Thor, he let up his guard and turned his back towards Dormammu. Not wasting this opportunity, Dormammu immediately sent Thor flying with a swipe from the gigantic hand!
After slapping Thor to unknown depths of the Dark Dimension, Dormammu's oppressive voice confronted Li Yue!
"What bargain do you propose?"