A/N: I posted the completely wrong chapter yesterday by mistake. Chapter 183 is out now.
"Mount Wundagore…" The woman in purple robes spoke as she overlooked the structure that had been calling to her for months. It was still some distance from it and had to either scale a cliff or go around the mountain to reach the place, both of which would take time. She felt many 'thoughts' emanating from the Darkhold that was floating behind her. It was calling to her with an even more increased intensity, wanting her to hurry up to the location.
Looking at the ominous structure that had been eroded by the wear and tear of thousands of years, the woman scoffed, "Yeah, I'm not destroying myself further for a simple flight spell from you …" Mount Wundagore had an intrinsic anti-magic field that rendered a lot of magic useless. She would have to cast a far stronger flight spell to fly to the structure.
She pushed her gloved hands down as they emanated a green glow that enveloped her body. In a second, she started floating up in the air, "Let's see what the deal with this place is… The place where you were made." She mumbled to herself as she started floating toward the temple. However, within moments of her taking flight with the intent to move toward Wundagore, she fell back to the ground.
"Damn it…" She cursed as she stabilized herself, "Let's try this again, shall we…" She mumbled before pushing far more magic into her flight spell that allowed her to float once again.
"Halt!" Just as she took flight, a man with a goatee appeared in front of her and she saw multiple mystic arts circles appearing all around her. At the same time, she heard a distinct crackling sound as the space around her seemed to shatter and fragment. Multiple sorcerers appeared all around her as she faced the man in the goatee.
"Well," She let out a nervous laugh, "Will you believe me if I said I was just out and about practicing my witchcraft without hurting anyone?" She said as she looked at the multiple masters of the mystic arts that had appeared all around her and trapped her in the Mirror Dimension.
"The Darkhold harbors a forbidden lexicon," Doctor Strange floated in front of her and spoke with circles appearing in front of his fists, "It is said to corrupt anyone who comes into contact with it. Surrender peacefully and we won't have to use forceful means."
"You know I can't do that." The woman smiled an almost predatory smile, "The late Sorcerer Supreme was an absolute existence. My coven used to make sure that all new recruits had her legends remembered by heart. Can you even live up to her?" She asked Doctor Strange with an arrogant smile. Even since the Ancient One had died, many witches had had their courage renewed as they came out of hiding, not giving much respect to the newly appointed Sorcerer Supreme.
"You'll see that I can more than just live up to her." Strange gave her an arrogant smirk and crossed his hands, combining both magic circles and forming a larger one in front of him. He pushed his palm forward and the single circle split into multiple layers and started approaching the woman. Just as the frontmost circle was about to collide with the woman, the Darkhold behind her released a hum that tinged her purple aura with a red one and turned it murky. She pushed her palms forward and that aura blocked the spell.
"We'll see about that won't we, dearie?" She smiled as her eyes glowed with a faint purple, spreading an invisible wave of her murky energy to her surroundings. In that instant, a crackling sound returned as her energy started to distort the space around her.
"Wong," Strange shouted, "Fortify the overlap of the Mirror Dimension."
"Sorcerers!" Wong shouted as he chanted something and created a magic circle on one of his hands, using it as a conduit to resist the murky energy that the woman released. The other sorcerers cast the same spell and channeled their gold energy into the mirror dimension to prevent the woman from breaking out of it.
"How cute…" The woman chuckled derisively and channeled even more of the murky red energy from the Darkhold. The purple energy that she released to break through the Mirror Dimension turned around and intercepted the energy released by the sorcerers. She chanted something and started absorbing the released energy for herself.
"Cut the connection!" Wong ordered within seconds of noticing the effects of the woman's action as the sorcerers followed his words immediately, cutting off the magic circles that they were using to channel their magic. At the same time, Doctor Strange created multiple chains pulsating with orange markings that he threw toward the Darkhold, binding the Book of the Damned and putting it under suppression. It immediately weakened the woman, preventing her from breaking through the Mirror Dimension and giving some respite to the sorcerers who had just experienced the energy drain that was the signature of her practice of magic.
"The Salem Witch," Wong identified her after seeing the effects of her spells and gave her a cautious look, "Agatha Harkness…"
"You know about her?" Strange directed some of the chains toward the woman and attempted to bind her with them, but she kept breaking through. He took that moment to get her information from Wong.
"Somewhat," Wong said, "She was part of the Salem coven before it was destroyed and the witches all killed. The Ancient One deemed that it was she who stole their forbidden branch of knowledge and used those witches as fuel to empower herself."
"Lies!" Agatha shouted as she closed her eyes and brought her hands together, pooling her energy together before shooting it at the chains that Strange had conjured. As the orange glow turned purple and traveled along the chains to Strange, he cast another spell that empowered the chains, breaking Agatha's energy drain attempt.
"The sorcerers have more than enough methods to failsafe against your particular branch of magic, Miss Harkness," Strange said, "Surrender yourself and the Darkhold."
She gave Strange a scornful scoff and chanted something. It made the Darkhold pulsate as it started vibrating while still chained and suppressed by Strange's spell.
"She's burning her life force." Wong identified what Agatha was doing, "Defensive measures!" He shouted and all sorcerers except Strange created shields in front of themselves. Strange on the other hand, empowered his spell to keep the Darkhold suppressed.
Agatha shouted as a torrent of energy left her body and shook the Darkhold, breaking through its suppression. At the same time, an explosive wave of her magical energy was released all around her, assaulting the defenses created by the Sorcerers. As for Strange, he was able to timely create a large circle in front of himself that took the brunt of the shockwave, seemingly bending in an arc shape before straightening itself. The action made the entire shockwave disappear.
Just as Agatha was about to release her energy to attack the Mirror Dimension once again, she sensed something above and found a mountain above herself. It accelerated when she noticed it and forced her to defend against it instead of attempting to break through the dimension.
Seeing the scene, Wong gave Strange an incredulous look. He knew what kind of power was needed to have this great of an influence over reality within the Mirror Dimension. It was the power that Kaecilius got by taking the power of the Dark Dimension and giving in to Dormamu. The only other person that he knew to have been able to manipulate the Mirror Dimension to such an extent was The Ancient One, and he was sure that Strange was still very far away from her level of strength and knowledge to be able to do something like this.
"Later…" Strange gave Wong a look before turning his attention back to Agatha. She screamed and released a torrent of energy upward, directly targeting the peak of the mountain that was approaching her. Her beam pierced through the mountain and spread the debris all around before the crackling sound signifying the Mirror Dimension's breaking resumed. The beam was enough to destabilize the overlapping of the Mirror Dimension.
"Sorcerers!" Strange shouted his order, "Fortify the dimension." He turned his focus back to Agatha and created a magic circle while channeling the power of his sling ring. The borders of the circle took a sparking nature, like that of his mystic arts portals. At that moment, the same magic circle appeared in the path of Agatha's beam of energy and intercepted it, preventing her from continuing her attack on the dimensional connection.
Agatha realized that her spell was useless and pulled her energy back while Strange made some complex hand sighs, making the tips of his fingers shine with a golden light. At the same time, Agatha felt a cry from the Darkhold and widened her eyes before releasing more of the purple energy with a scream, connecting it to the Darkhold as it started moving away from her.
Strange had manipulated the raw space within the Mirror Dimension and was separating Agatha from the Darkhold, weakening their connection and interrupting the power that she could borrow from the book.
Agatha's body started shaking and she gave Strange a hateful look, "Enough!" She screamed as her energy output increased by an exponential margin and she broke through Strange's spatial manipulation, pulling back the Darkhold to herself. But she didn't stop there, her energy spread out and intercepted the sorcerers' energy channeling and intercepted it while also attacking the Mirror Dimension.
All this happened with a single burst of energy and before anyone could even react, the Mirror Dimension shattered as Agatha's energy kept spreading outwardly.
Strange finally reacted and cast a distinct hand sign that made him cross his hands together. The tips of his fingers glowed green as he separated them and green circlets appeared on his wrists as the Eye of Agamotto was opened. The green gem within the eye shone with a bright luster and brightened momentarily.
"Stop," Strange said, and a wave of green spread out from his body. It spread all around and enveloped all of the released energy along with Agatha herself, including the Darkhold before anything could damage the real world.
"How can you manipulate the Mirror Dimension to such an extent, Strange?" Wong asked with a hostile look as he cast magic circles and got ready for a fight. At the same time, Wong created multiple portals around the sorcerers who had come with him, gesturing for them to leave. They hesitated for a moment, but when the Sorcerer Supreme in question himself also nodded, giving them his tacit permission, they obeyed the order and left, leaving just Wong and Strange as Agatha floated, frozen in time.
"I'm not pulling any power from the Dark Dimension, Wong." Strange answered, "It's just that the Mirror Dimension has been much weaker for a while now."
***
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