"You talk too much for an old hag."

  And his Power Theft activated with full, desperate, violent force. Like a thirsty man finding an oasis and drinking until he couldn't hold more.

  The sensation was immediate and overwhelming.

  It felt like reaching into molten metal bare-handed. Like grabbing shapes made of broken glass.

  Selene's power wasn't separate from her magic. They were one thing woven together. Life force vampirism stitched into psychic manipulation stitched into immortality stitched into spells older than civilization. Everything was tangled and interconnected. Separating them would require precision and time.

  Jay had none of those things.

  So he just tore. Ripped and pulled with brute force.

  He grabbed the strands of stolen life force first. Thousands of years of accumulated vitality, taken from victims across centuries.

  He pulled. And Selene's body convulsed, her back arched and muscles spasmed.

  Ancient flesh that had remained perfect for millennia suddenly remembered what aging felt like. She thrashed against him, but the Muramasa held her pinned. Her power bled out like water from a broken dam.

  Next came the psychic might. Her telepathy and telekinesis. Jay grabbed it, and when it tried to attack back, all it faced was an insurmountable wall of mental shield.

  Jay pulled harder. His power theft ability straining as blood vessels burst in his eyes, nose and ears.

  Meanwhile, far above, the Ancient One and Mephisto paused in their battle.

  Their attacks held in frozen tableau. Green energy and red hellfire locked in stalemate. Both combatants recognizing something significant happening below.

  The demon's yellow eyes tracked what was happening. Watched Jay draining Selene with visceral intensity. His grin faded and became less playful.

  "No, no, no." His voice carried annoyance. "We can't have that. I just got her back to fighting shape. Wasted good hellfire on those regenerations. That's expensive, you know. Can't just go around throwing healing flames at every broken toy."

  His hands moved, breaking from combat with the Ancient One to form a devil's horn gesture. Fingers crooked as Hellfire gathered between his palms. A spell designed to freeze. The kind of magic that even gods feared because it negated free will itself.

  He aimed it at Jay. At the connection between drainer and victim. One gesture and it would all stop. The theft would fail. Selene would survive. And Mephisto's investment would be protected.

  But before he could finish the incantation, before the hellfire could coalesce into its final form, new energy flooded the dimension.

  The Ancient One's hand moved to her robes. A decision crystallized in her mind, weighing the cost against necessity. This battle required more than conventional means.

  She pulled out a second Eye, smaller and newer than Agamotto's, pulsing with yellow light instead of green. The Mind Stone, gifted by her beloved student to be used in an emergency.

  This qualified.

  She pressed it to her forehead, right where the third eye existed in mystical traditions.

  The stone sank into her flesh, and the Mind Stone embedded itself in her skull with a wet sound that was perfect.

  Power erupted outward in a tsunami of pure cosmic force that made the dimensional walls scream. The Mind Stone's yellow light blazed like a sun being born.

  The corruption from Dormammu's Dark Dimension, the subtle influence that had been eating at her for years, the whispered temptations that came in quiet moments, the slow decay that trading with darkness always brought, burned away instantly. The Mind Stone's cosmic purity couldn't coexist with dark dimension taint. So the taint died. Screaming. Writhing. Consumed by light that showed no mercy and accepted no compromise.

  Her eyes blazed yellow, amplifying her mental capabilities to levels that shouldn't be possible for beings bound by physical form. Every spell she'd ever learned crystallized into perfect understanding. Every technique refined over centuries became instinctive. Every mystery of the mystic arts revealed itself like opening a book she'd always been able to read but never had the light to see by.

  Time manipulation became effortless like breathing and heartbeat.

  Her connection to the Vishanti strengthened. The trinity of cosmic entities that empowered Earth's Sorcerer Supreme felt her ascension and approved as they sent more power, knowledge and themselves.

  She'd reached her peak. The absolute pinnacle of what a Sorcerer Supreme could be while still remaining recognizable as human.

  And Mephisto felt it. Felt every erg of power and Felt his advantage evaporating like water on hot stone.

  "Oh, you cheating—"

  She didn't let him finish. Both Time and Mind working in concert. Golden mandalas formed, Hundreds of them, then thousands.

  "Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, hear my call! By the Vishanti's Light, by Agamotto's Eye, by the Power Primordial, I COMMAND THEE!"

  Reality itself leaned in to listen, the fabric of existence bending to her will.

  Green and yellow energy collided with hellfire. Time and cosmic consciousness against infernal power. The dimension couldn't handle it. This pocket hell was Selene's creation, designed for her power level; this was beyond its specifications. Beyond its capacity.

  The walls cracked like eggshell. Light bled through from other dimensions.

  Their fight intensified. Became something beyond mortal comprehension. Too fast for normal eyes. Too complex for three-dimensional beings to process. Each exchange rewrote local physics.

  They became absorbed in their cosmic chess match. In proving dominance and showing the other that this time, this encounter would end differently than all the previous ones across their centuries-long grudge.

  Meanwhile, below, Jay continued draining Selene.

  His body began to heal. The transformation was visible as the cuts closed like time-lapse footage of wounds healing, flesh knitting together, and blood stopping its flow.

  The stolen life force flooded through him. Centuries of accumulated vitality forced into his system all at once. His stamina refilled past normal now overflowing. His exhaustion didn't just fade. It burned away.

  Selene's form began to wither. The transformation was horrific as her once-flawless skin, wrinkled rapidly. Becoming parchment-thin, translucent, then transparent. Her bones became visible beneath tissue-paper flesh. Her veins stood out in stark relief, black lines against gray skin, blood flow visible and slowing, thickening.

  Her limbs shriveled as muscles atrophied in seconds. Her body, maintained through constant vampirism, collapsed as the foundation was ripped away.

  She tried to scream. But Jay's hand kept her mouth covered. Only muffled sounds escaped. Wet and desperate.

  Her eyes that had watched Rome burn and Atlantis sink were now filled with understanding that she was dying. Finally, terror replaced rage.

  Just as he was about to finish her, to drain that last spark of life that held her consciousness together, to reduce the Black Queen to dust and memory, Mephisto appeared between them.

  The demon moved faster than physics allowed. One moment locked in combat with the Ancient One hundreds of feet above. The next standing right there, his hand catching Jay's wrist.

  Fingers wrapping around Jay's arm with casual strength.

  "Now, now." His smile was back suggesting he found all of this tremendously entertaining. "All this fun has been delightful. But we can't have me failing on my contract. The paperwork alone would be murder. You understand."

  His other hand gestured lazily at himself. At the red overcoat he'd transmuted from Jay's reality-warping spear and the coat moved.

  It unfolded. Extended. Becoming the idea of restraint made manifest. The reality-warping properties Jay had woven into it were still there.

  The coat wrapped around Jay's blade and his arm. Pulling the Muramasa away from Selene's abdomen as if Muramasa's negation meant nothing. Because the coat wasn't magic. It was reality itself being polite and doing what Mephisto suggested.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The blade slid free, and black blood followed. But Selene didn't collapse as Mephisto's other hand shot out, catching her by the collar. The hellfire chain blazed brighter, pulling taut, forcing her to remain upright even as her body wanted to surrender to gravity and death.

  Jay's form blazed as his overflowing stamina was put to use to retune to his Muramasa state. Black skin with red sheen pulsed like heartbeat. Lightforce flowed through him, amplified and weaponized.

  He was preparing to defend, since that's all he could muster.

  But the Ancient One appeared between them. Positioning herself as a wall of power between Jay and Mephisto.

  "Stand down, Jay." Her voice carried absolute authority. The tone that accepted no argument.

  The Mind Stone blazed from her forehead, yellow light creating halos around her form.

  Then she turned to Mephisto. Her expression was serene. "And you, demon." Her voice dropped to something colder. "Take your summoner and leave. Now. Before I decide that the ramifications of destroying a Hell Lord are worth the hassle. Never return while I draw breath."

  Mephisto laughed giddily, unhinged and genuinely delighted. "Oh, this is rich! This is absolutely delicious!" His yellow eyes tracked between the Ancient One's glowing forehead and Jay's battle-ready form. "The Sorcerer Supreme, making demands! It's been so long since I've been out of hell properly manifested, and there's a ripe outsider soul literally bleeding reality-breaking power up for grabs!"

  His gaze fixed on Jay with naked hunger. The need to possess and add to his collection. "Surely you wouldn't deny me this prize. This delicious and absolutely fascinating specimen of—"

  He stopped mid-sentence.

  His eyes were tracking Jay's hand. Watching as it moved with quickness approaching his. He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a single card.

  It was unassuming. Just a playing card, really.

  But Mephisto could feel the energy. Recognized it instantly. Similar to the Mind Stone blazing from the Ancient One's forehead and the Time Stone on her chest. Similar but different. A sibling to the other Infinity Stones.

  The Space Stone hidden in a card that shouldn't be able to hold it.

  "Ah." Mephisto's voice lost its playful edge entirely as it became flat, like someone reassessing a situation and not liking their new conclusions. "I see. How very clever. The boy has teeth after all."

  His hand twitched. Calculation flickering across his perfect face. 'Could he take them both? The Ancient One, wielding two Stones and Jay with a third?' The variables were numerous. And Mephisto hadn't survived since before humanity's dawn by taking stupid risks.

  But before he could make a move, before he could calculate whether the gamble was worth it, the Ancient One took the card.

  Plucked it from Jay's fingers with casual grace. Her movement was economical.

  The Space Stone emerged from its containment as she touched it. Blue energy, the color of deep ocean, of endless sky, of the void between stars. Pure spatial force that made the dimension's fabric stretch and strain just from existing in proximity.

  She now held three Infinity Stones.

  Mind blazing from her forehead. Time pulsing at her chest in the Eye of Agamotto. Space crackling in her palm, raw and barely contained.

  The power radiating from her was biblical. The kind of force that shouldn't exist in one location. The pocket dimension's collapse accelerated, unable to sustain existence in proximity to that much concentrated cosmic power. The walls shattered and unraveled at the seams.

  But it was too much. Even for the Sorcerer Supreme at her peak. Even enhanced by the Mind Stone's consciousness-evolution.

  Blood trickled from her nose, ears and corners of her eyes. Three Stones simultaneously pushed even her enhanced consciousness to its limits.

  She could feel herself fragmenting.

  But she held on. Gripped her sense of self with iron will. And she used that power. Not to attack. That would be a waste.

  Instead, her hands formed a complex gesture. A spell more complex than anything she'd ever attempted. Time, Space, and Mind working in concert as blue energy, shot through with green and yellow, wrapped around Selene.

  "By the power of three cardinals of existence, I cast you OUT!"

  The energy shifted Selene's position in space, ejecting her from this dimension entirely. Contract and summoning be damned.

  Space folded around the External. Time accelerated around her specifically, making her movement instantaneous. Mind ensured she arrived conscious, aware, knowing exactly what had been done to her.

  "Wait—" Mephisto's hand shot out desperately. The first truly desperate motion he'd made all fight.

  But it was too late.

  Selene vanished. Ripped from the pocket dimension with violence that left cracks in space itself. The Ancient One hurled her across dimensional barriers, through layers of reality, across the boundaries between worlds. Depositing her somewhere she'd calculated using knowing she would gain the most.

  And since his summoner was gone. Since the contract's anchor had been forcibly moved across dimensional barriers.

  The demon began to fade.

  The contract pulled at him. Yanked him across space toward wherever Selene had been ejected. The summoning's terms were clear. Protect the summoner. That was the deal. That was what she'd paid for with her eternal servitude. And deals, especially deals with Mephisto, had to be honored. Even when inconvenient. Especially when inconvenient. Because that's how his contracts worked.

  His form became transparent as his hellfire suit flickered. The perfect body started to lose cohesion, becoming see-through and pulled back to wherever Selene had landed. Being yanked across reality by cosmic law that even Hell Lords had to obey.

  "No! NO! You conniving little bit—" His complaints started angry, the rage of someone who'd been outmaneuvered. Then they dissolved into genuine respect. "The Lord of Lies himself got tricked! Out-gambited by the bald wonder! HAHAHAHA!"

  The laughter echoed unhinged. But also... impressed? Appreciative? Hard to tell with Mephisto.

  His final words, before he vanished completely: "Well played, Sorcerer! But this isn't over! Not by half! The boy's soul is still—"

  Gone.

  The demon disappeared mid-threat and was forcibly ejected.

  Silence fell.

  "Time to leave," the Ancient One said. Her voice was tired and empty as she'd pushed herself beyond her limits and was now running on fumes and will.

  Blood still leaked from her nose, her ears. The Stones' combined power had taken its toll. It would continue taking its toll for months if not years. Wielding three simultaneously, even briefly, wasn't something even gods were meant to survive.

  Her hands moved, shaking slightly. The three Stones blazed simultaneously one final time as reality tore open, creating a portal back to Earth.

  With a single step, they materialized in the parking lot.

  One moment in dimensional hell. Next moment in London, where physics applied and gravity worked, and the sun existed in the sky.

  The setting evening sun hit Jay's face. The warmth felt wrong after the pocket dimension's oppressive heat. It was too pure.

  Jay's enhanced senses went hyperactive, and the smell of car exhaust and fresh bread from nearby shops replaced sulfur and burnt ozone and the coppery stench of mass death. The sounds of traffic, of birds singing, of normal human life chattering in the distance, all of it obscene after the screaming and combat and carnage.

  It was too normal. As if cosmic forces hadn't just clashed. Like Jay hadn't just nearly lost his soul to the Devil himself.

  Bodies still littered the ground. Mad Jim Jaspers' bisected corpse, already bloating in the London heat, as flies gathered around it. The protesters cut apart by Selene's portal, their signs still clutched in dead hands, messages about Human supremacy now tragic and ironic. Blood painted the pavement in abstract patterns, drying brown in the sun, some of it still tacky and wet.

  But standing guard over the unconscious Braddock siblings was Domino.

  She'd dragged them into a defensive position. Brian and Jamie lay against a low wall, positioned where she could see all approaches. Her guns were out, one in each hand, tracking every shadow with paranoid intensity. Blood stained her clothes from wounds that had already healed, tacky patches of brown against black fabric.

  She looked alert but exhausted.

  But there she was alive, whole and waiting.

  Finally, her eyes found Jay.

  Relief flooded her features. Her whole posture changed. As her mouth opened, forming his name.

  Then concern replaced relief as she took in his state. Blood-soaked from head to toe. Covered in cuts that were still closing, new pink flesh visible beneath torn clothing. Moving like every step hurt, and his body was one massive bruise.

  "Jay—"

  He crossed the distance in three strides, stumbling. His legs barely supporting him as adrenaline was finally crashing. The stolen life force still settling. Everything that had kept him moving was suddenly gone, leaving just exhaustion and relief and a desperate need to confirm Domino was safe.

  He pulled her into a hug so tight it made her gasp. Made her ribs creak as his arms wrapped around her completely, crushing her against his chest. Face buried in her neck. Breathing in her scent of Gun oil, sweat and Domino. Confirming she was real and alive.

  His whole body trembled from something deeper, from almost losing something truly precious.

  Fear. Pure fear.

  The memory of watching Jamie's reality-warping strings invade her body. Of hearing her scream as she was unmade and remade a thousand times in seconds. Of seeing the woman, he loved experiencing something worse than death. Of knowing he'd been too slow too late to stop it before it started.

  It crashed over him all at once. The terror he'd been suppressing. The horror he'd been ignoring. The absolute pants-shitting fear that he'd failed. That he'd return from battle to find her gone, erased, lost beyond any power to retrieve.

  "I'm sorry," he whispered against her neck. His voice cracked as tears nearly spilled from his eyes. "I wasn't fast enough. When Jamie caught you. After hearing you scream. I thought…I thought I'd lost…" The words choked off as his throat closed. He couldn't finish as he feared that voicing the fear would turn it real.

  "Hey." Domino's arms came up, slowly. Wrapped around him just as tightly. "I'm here. I'm right here. Still breathing. It's fine, everything is fine." Her voice was rarely this soft. "Healing factor, remember? Takes more than that horseshit to put me down."

  But she felt it too. The way he held her like she might vanish if he loosened his arms even slightly. She could only imagine what he'd gone through.

  She held him tighter.

  They stood like that for a long moment. Two people who'd just survived hell, literally, clinging to each other in a parking lot full of corpses and evidence that the world was so much darker than most people knew.

  Around them, London continued to exist. Life was going on, completely unaware that demons and cosmic forces had clashed.

  The normalcy of it all felt like mockery.

  The Ancient One watched them with approval. Recognizing that some moments were private.

  Then she turned, giving them privacy. The Mind Stone's light faded from her forehead as she released its power, the gem returning to dormancy in the newer eye. She carefully placed the Space Stone back in its card containment, sealing it away. Three Infinity Stones were three too many for one person to wield for long. Already,

  The price of touching that much power was too much; she's confirmed it, sensing the changes her body was going through.

  But it had been worth it. Her student lived, the devil was banished, and the External was contained. If this was not victory, what was?

  "Come," she said to no one in particular. Her voice was tired. So tired. "We have much to discuss. But first, let these children have their moment."

  She moved toward the Braddock siblings, her steps slower than usual, each one requiring conscious effort. Checking their conditions with care as her mystical senses probed for corruption that had taken root.

  Brian and Jamie were alive. Both unconscious but breathing. The pentagrams carved into their foreheads had faded completely, leaving only scars.

  And brave Betsy Braddock was well enough, but too exhausted. Though her other problems still persisted.

  The sun continued its descent, painting the sky in brilliant oranges and deep purples. Shadows lengthened across the parking lot, mercifully obscuring some of the carnage.

  In an hour, maybe two, someone would call the police. The authorities would arrive to find a scene that defied explanation. But for now, in this liminal space between battle and consequence, there was only silence and survival.

  Jay and Domino remained locked together, neither willing to let go just yet. Two people who'd stared into the abyss and somehow made it back. Two people who'd learned, viscerally and undeniably, what they had to lose.

  Still holding on.

  Still grateful to be alive.

  Still together, against all odds.

  

  These last few chapters took the whole weekend to finish, and I honestly think it's some of my best work so far. I really gave it everything. I'd love to know what you think, whether it's good or bad. Your reviews mean a lot and really help me keep going, so share whatever you feel after reading.