Chương 148: Chapter 148: The Great Melee

"Mephisto, this conflict does not concern you," the Ancient One stated coldly, stepping forward. The Time Stone flared with brilliant emerald light, causing the localized space-time around her to subtly twist and warp. 

Mephisto, still maintaining his elegant, gentlemanly human guise, tightened his grip on his cane. A massive, terrifying wave of Hellfire violently erupted from the cane, completely enveloping his body. When the flames dissipated, his human disguise had vanished, revealing his true, demonic form. 

The dapper gentleman was replaced by a terrifying entity clad in blood-red, skintight armor. A horrifying cape composed entirely of endlessly screaming, tortured souls violently lashed around his shoulders, and his hair writhed wildly like dark flames. 

"Ancient One, the era has fundamentally shifted," Mephisto rasped, his voice echoing with localized, demonic malice. "The planetary defense grid is completely shattered. Do you genuinely, arrogantly believe your pathetic, localized forces can successfully repel a unified assault?" 

Mephisto expansively opened his arms. Dozens of bizarre, terrifying, extra-dimensional silhouettes silently materialized from the shadows, slowly surrounding Luke, Tony, Galacta, and the Ancient One. 

Tony glanced nervously at the highly disturbing, grotesque entities surrounding them. "Are all of these guys operating on the exact same apocalyptic power level as Dormammu?" 

"Fortunately, no. They are significantly weaker," the Ancient One replied, conducting a rapid tactical assessment of the surrounding Lords. "Only Mephisto poses a massive, localized existential threat. The others are merely minor, opportunistic scavengers." 

She exhaled a slight sigh of relief. None of the truly terrifying, primordial 'Old Acquaintances'—entities that could actively challenge her supremacy—had materialized. 

Tony visibly relaxed. If they were surrounded by dozens of Dormammu-level entities, he would have instantly suggested a tactical retreat. He wasn't arrogant enough to believe he could casually snap his fingers and vaporize an entire pantheon of cosmic gods. 

Luke also rapidly assessed the enemy power levels. Aside from Mephisto, the other entities radiated energy signatures equivalent to absolute bottom-tier Dimensional Lords. Armed with Infinity Stones, Tony and Galacta should be more than capable of managing them. 

The four of them formed a tight, defensive circle, maintaining absolute visual contact with the surrounding hostiles. However, their primary, absolute focus remained locked entirely on Mephisto and Dormammu. 

Luke kept his eyes fixed on Dormammu and whispered to the Ancient One. "Since you are the recognized, undisputed expert in aggressive magical pest control... what is our immediate tactical deployment?" 

The Ancient One offered a faint, slightly weary smile. "As I stated, only Mephisto requires highly specialized, absolute containment. The remaining entities are pathetic scavengers who normally completely lack the courage to even manifest within my localized perception. They are only here today hoping to casually scavenge the scraps after Dormammu destroys the planet." 

"Understood. What is the specific tactical assignment?" 

"I shall actively engage and isolate Mephisto. You maintain absolute, continuous suppression of Dormammu. Tony and Galacta must rapidly, aggressively eliminate the minor scavengers. We absolutely must conclude this engagement efficiently, before any additional, significantly more powerful 'guests' decide to arrive." 

Luke nodded firmly. Tony immediately leaned over. "Are you absolutely, mathematically certain Galacta and I possess sufficient localized combat capacity to effectively manage these entities?" 

"You literally just successfully absorbed a direct, point-blank Origin blast from Dormammu without instantly vaporizing," Luke reminded him encouragingly. "These minor scavengers are entirely insignificant compared to Dormammu. He would swat them like flies." 

Luke turned to Galacta. "Remember, you also possess incredibly specialized, highly aggressive experience dealing with minor dimensional avatars." 

Galacta offered a brilliant, highly confident smile. "Absolutely. They are merely a light, mid-combat snack." 

"Excellent. Execute the strategy," Luke commanded, giving them a quick thumbs-up. He exchanged a final, highly synchronized tactical nod with the Ancient One. 

Instantly, Luke and the Ancient One aggressively launched themselves toward their respective primary targets! 

"Well, alright then," Tony sighed helplessly, watching the two magical heavyweights instantly depart. He turned to Galacta. "What exactly is our highly coordinated, localized tactical strategy for managing this mob?" 

Galacta glanced at him, her eyes glowing with brilliant blue cosmic energy. "The enemies are physically present. Therefore, our 'plan' is to aggressively engage them in combat." 

"I strongly believe that executing a brief, localized tactical assessment and establishing coordinated firing arcs would significantly increase our overall combat efficiency," Tony argued logically. 

"The strategy is violence." 

Before Tony could argue further, Galacta aggressively, violently erupted with raw spatial energy! She instantly utilized a flawless Flash Step, materializing directly in front of a surprised Dimensional Lord! She smoothly conjured a highly concentrated, razor-sharp Spatial Blade and violently slashed horizontally! 

"Fine. We'll utilize the highly primitive 'shoot everything that moves' strategy," Tony sighed in profound exasperation. His faceplate snapped shut, his eyes glowing a terrifying crimson as he aggressively launched himself into the chaotic melee. 

Seeing Luke charging directly toward him, Dormammu offered a highly sadistic, arrogant smile. 

"Do you honestly, pathetically believe you can successfully defeat me without the active, magical support of the Sorcerer Supreme?" 

"We are about to find out," Luke replied calmly, coming to a halt mid-air directly in front of the colossal Dimensional Lord. Behind Luke, the massive, highly intimidating portal to his own Dark Dimension hovered ominously. 

Dormammu casually rolled his massive, burning shoulders, aggressively taunting his opponent. "Throughout the past several millennia, countless arrogant, highly delusional insects have genuinely believed they possessed the absolute, cosmic power to challenge my supremacy. Without exception, I have brutally, violently pulverized every single one of them into cosmic dust, and actively absorbed their pathetic, insignificant localized dimensions into my own absolute realm." 

Dormammu pointed a massive, burning finger directly at Luke. "And you, pathetic novice, are merely the latest insignificant challenger. I openly acknowledge that your highly specialized, localized dimensional manipulation—specifically your ability to temporarily restrict my access to ambient dark energy—is a remarkably clever, highly annoying parlor trick." 

"However," Dormammu sneered cruelly, "you are ultimately incredibly, fundamentally foolish. If you had actively hidden in the shadows and cultivated your localized dimension for another three thousand years, you might have genuinely posed a localized threat. But challenging me now?!" 

Dormammu aggressively swept his massive arm forward! Massive, unfathomable torrents of terrifying, highly mutated dark entities violently erupted directly from his Dark Dimension, screaming toward Luke! 

"YOUR LOCALIZED POWER IS ABSOLUTELY, PATHETICALLY INSUFFICIENT!" 

Watching the massive, terrifying swarm of dark entities rapidly closing the distance, Luke simply sighed in profound disappointment. I genuinely anticipated a highly complex, devastating, reality-shattering high-tier spell. Instead, he just defaults back to spamming generic cannon fodder. 

With a casual, effortless wave of his hand, hundreds of highly agile Nightbat Ninjas violently erupted from Luke's dimension, effortlessly, efficiently intercepting and slaughtering the advancing swarm. 

Luke frowned, observing Dormammu's tactical positioning. The colossal Dimensional Lord was currently hovering safely entirely inside the massive rift of his own Dark Dimension, absolutely refusing to physically step back into the material plane or enter Luke's realm. 

Luke recognized the massive tactical problem. A Dimensional Lord's absolute, terrifying power scaled exponentially when operating directly within their own dimension. When Dormammu had entered Luke's dimension earlier, his localized power was significantly restricted, allowing Luke to physically grapple him. 

However, operating from the absolute safety of his own realm, Dormammu possessed limitless, instantaneous access to his absolute, unmitigated cosmic power. If Luke foolishly charged into Dormammu's dimension, Dormammu would have a massive, overwhelming home-field advantage and could likely casually crush Luke with a single thought. 

Dormammu was intentionally, aggressively stalling. He was utilizing his massive dimensional advantage to passively drain Luke's energy, waiting for the minor scavengers to eventually overwhelm Tony and Galacta, or for even more powerful Lords to arrive. 

Seeking a brief tactical update, Luke glanced over his shoulder. 

He was highly relieved to see that the situation was entirely stable. The Ancient One had successfully isolated Mephisto in a highly complex, localized Mirror Dimension, neutralizing his threat. 

Furthermore, Tony and Galacta were performing absolutely flawlessly, utilizing their Infinity Stones to effortlessly, aggressively suppress the minor Lords. 

While the minor Lords were undeniably vastly more powerful than standard mortal sorcerers, they were completely, pathetically outmatched by the absolute, fundamental cosmic authority of the Infinity Stones. 

Galacta was utilizing a highly aggressive, deeply terrifying combat style. She was actively, aggressively absorbing the incoming dimensional magic attacks, instantly processing the raw energy, and flawlessly integrating it directly into her spatial manipulation! She constantly, seamlessly teleported across the battlefield like an incredibly lethal, blue lightning bolt. Her absolute, instantaneous spatial awareness allowed her to constantly bypass their defenses, and her razor-sharp Spatial Blades effortlessly sliced the minor Lords to ribbons. 

Tony, wielding the Reality Stone, was executing an incredibly complex, highly adaptive combat strategy. 

He was actively, continuously utilizing the absolute, reality-warping power to dynamically alter and upgrade his 'Mystic-Buster' armor in real-time! When the battle began, the armor possessed a highly recognizable, mechanical aesthetic. However, as the fight progressed, the armor was rapidly evolving, becoming incredibly sleek, highly streamlined, and practically nano-tech in appearance, while simultaneously drastically increasing its defensive and offensive capabilities. 

Whenever the minor Lords unleashed localized magical attacks, the highly complex, glowing runic arrays etched onto Tony's armor instantly, flawlessly absorbed the incoming energy! As the armor's internal Dark Energy Crystal rapidly filled, the runes glowed with terrifying, blinding intensity. 

Once fully charged, Tony would aggressively raise his hands, actively utilizing the absorbed magical energy to instantly conjure dozens of incredibly complex, highly destructive offensive mandalas, aggressively bombarding the minor Lords with their own stolen power! 

While they were currently dominating the engagement, Luke noted a highly concerning trend. More minor Lords were slowly, steadily materializing from the shadows, drawn by the massive magical conflict. Furthermore, he spotted a significantly more powerful, Mid-Tier Dimensional Lord actively engaging Tony. 

I need to aggressively eliminate Dormammu immediately, or Tony and Galacta will eventually be overwhelmed by sheer attrition. 

Luke looked back at the colossal Dormammu, who was still stubbornly hiding within his rift. Luke sighed heavily. "I honestly don't comprehend why you cosmic entities are constantly, obsessively fixated on conquering this specific, highly problematic planet." 

Dormammu leaned forward slightly, offering a highly manipulative, deeply sinister smile. "Earth contains numerous, incredibly ancient, highly valuable cosmic secrets. However, if you are amenable to negotiation... we could formally establish a temporary, highly lucrative alliance. If we combine our forces and permanently assassinate the Ancient One, we could effortlessly conquer the planet and equally share the localized spoils. What is your response?" 

Luke raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Since when do absolute, supreme Dimensional Lords ever willingly share conquered territory?" 

"We absolutely never share territory with pathetic, insignificant weaklings," Dormammu clarified arrogantly. "However, you have successfully demonstrated that you are a highly capable, localized power. Therefore, I am willing to formally recognize you as a peer and share the spoils." 

"Oh?" Luke feigned genuine interest, adopting a highly sinister, conspiratorial expression. "However, I perceive a massive logistical problem. There are simply too many minor Lords currently present. Sharing the spoils with all of them would be incredibly inefficient." 

Believing he had successfully manipulated Luke's inherent greed, Dormammu nodded in agreement. "The solution is incredibly simple. We simply permanently eradicate the excess competition." 

"And what about Mephisto?" Luke prompted. 

"Mephisto is undeniably vastly more problematic than the scavengers," Dormammu acknowledged. "However, if you immediately formally relinquish your localized dimensional block and restore my absolute control over the ambient dark energy, our combined, unmitigated power will be absolute. Mephisto is incredibly pragmatic; once he recognizes our overwhelming superiority, he will immediately surrender and withdraw." 

"Hmm." 

Luke nodded slowly, appearing to deeply consider the highly treacherous proposal. "Alright. Excellent." 

Dormammu smiled triumphantly. 

However, a highly agile, pitch-black Nightbat Ninja suddenly, silently materialized next to Luke, holding up a highly advanced Stark Industries smartphone. 

Luke nodded approvingly. He tapped the screen, and the Nightbat immediately flew directly toward Tony. 

Dormammu watched the Nightbat fly away, a profound sense of deep, cosmic unease washing over him. Recognizing the impending treachery, he aggressively unleashed a devastating, highly concentrated beam of pure Origin Essence directly at the fleeing Nightbat! 

Luke instantly flared his massive skeletal wings, violently interposing himself and aggressively blocking the lethal attack! 

"Why the sudden, aggressive urgency?" Luke mocked casually. 

"Do you honestly, genuinely have absolutely no intention of forming a mutually beneficial alliance to share the planet?!" Dormammu roared in absolute, betrayed fury. 

"Share the planet?" Luke adopted an expression of highly exaggerated, profound confusion. "Didn't you literally just explicitly state that you absolutely refuse to share territory with pathetic, insignificant weaklings?" 

"You are not a weakling!" 

"Perhaps," Luke shrugged casually. "However... I genuinely believe that you are incredibly, pathetically weak." 

Instantly, massive, unfathomable torrents of absolute dark energy violently erupted from Luke's body! The energy rapidly condensed in mid-air, forming a colossal, highly intricate, incredibly imposing throne of pure darkness. Luke casually, arrogantly leaned back into the throne, staring down at Dormammu with absolute, supreme cosmic contempt. 

Infuriated by the blatant disrespect, Dormammu's cosmic magma body violently erupted in terrifying, apocalyptic flames. 

Meanwhile, the Nightbat Ninja successfully delivered the smartphone to Tony. 

Tony, effortlessly dodging a generic magical blast, rapidly accessed the encrypted audio file. Hearing the contents, a highly sadistic, incredibly arrogant smirk spread across his face. 

He immediately seamlessly integrated the audio file directly into his suit's external amplification systems, aggressively broadcasting the recording across the entire battlefield at absolute maximum volume! 

Dormammu's highly treacherous, explicitly murderous proposal to immediately betray and slaughter the minor Lords echoed perfectly clearly for every single entity to hear! 

The minor Dimensional Lords instantly froze. Their expressions shifted from aggressive to absolute, unadulterated panic and profound betrayal. They exchanged highly nervous, terrified glances... and immediately began rapidly, frantically retreating! Within seconds, the vast majority of the scavengers had completely fled the material plane! 

The massive, overwhelming tactical pressure on Tony and Galacta instantly vanished. 

Luke smiled in profound satisfaction, turning his absolute, murderous focus entirely back onto Dormammu. 

With the secondary battlefield stabilized, he could finally dedicate his absolute maximum combat capacity to aggressively neutralizing the primary threat. 

However, Dormammu was still stubbornly hiding within the absolute safety of his Dark Dimension, granting him a massive, practically insurmountable home-field advantage. 

Unfortunately for him... I brought enough highly compressed energy crystals to aggressively fund a localized supernova. 

Without a microsecond of hesitation, Luke aggressively launched himself directly off his dark throne, violently charging directly into the massive dimensional rift! He aggressively physically crashed directly into the Dark Dimension, violently scattering thousands of terrified demons! 

"YOU ACTUALLY DARE ENTER MY DOMAIN?!" Dormammu roared in absolute, mind-boggling disbelief. He hadn't expected the novice to be this incredibly, insanely reckless! 

"Oh, absolutely," Luke replied casually. He instantly aggressively summoned two colossal, massive Shadow-Eaters, commanding them to aggressively, violently begin devouring the surrounding demonic horde to establish a secure perimeter. 

Seeing Luke completely ignore him to casually feed his pets, Dormammu's absolute cosmic fury reached its breaking point. 

"Since you are so incredibly eager to die, I will gladly accommodate you! I will extract payment for the Sanctums you defended and the indignity you caused me!" 

Dormammu aggressively charged toward Luke. Within the absolute safety of his own dimension, he possessed limitless, instant access to infinite power! Every single step he took, his body absorbed massive torrents of ambient energy, causing him to exponentially expand! 

Within seconds, Dormammu had violently ballooned to a colossal, terrifyingly massive three hundred meters tall! 

He glared down at Luke, who now appeared incredibly small in comparison. 

Luke simply raised an eyebrow. "You know, exponentially increasing your physical mass doesn't automatically equate to a proportionate increase in actual combat effectiveness." 

"LET US TEST THAT HYPOTHESIS!" Dormammu roared, violently swinging a fist the absolute size of an entire city block directly downward at Luke! 

Watching the colossal, apocalyptic fist descending, Luke simply shook his head. "I also never explicitly stated that my previous size was my absolute maximum limit." 

Luke instantly, aggressively triggered the massive stockpile of highly compressed Dark Energy Crystals stored within his inventory! 

Millions of points of pure, absolute dark energy violently flooded into his physical vessel! His body rapidly, violently expanded, matching Dormammu's terrifying, three-hundred-meter height! 

As Dormammu's colossal punch landed, he was genuinely shocked to find his strike cleanly, effortlessly intercepted by a pitch-black, heavily armored giant exactly matching his own impossible size. However, fueled by absolute, blinding rage, Dormammu continued his relentless, aggressive assault. 

Luke effortlessly, fluidly dodged Dormammu's clumsy, highly telegraphed punches. While Dormammu possessed unimaginable raw power, he had spent eons relying entirely on overwhelming magical artillery; his actual, localized physical combat experience was practically non-existent. 

Luke, conversely, had spent countless hours meticulously observing and internalizing the highly advanced, incredibly refined close-quarters combat techniques of his elite Shadowkhan. 

As Dormammu's massive punch completely missed, Luke aggressively stepped inside his guard! Channeling highly concentrated dark energy into his fist, Luke delivered a devastating, hyper-accelerated counter-punch directly into Dormammu's torso, violently staggering the massive Dimensional Lord backward! 

Luke aggressively pressed the attack! He unleashed a brutal, relentless, highly coordinated barrage of devastating punches, systematically, violently forcing Dormammu into a defensive retreat. 

Realizing that even with his massive size advantage, he was being systematically outmaneuvered and brutally beaten in close-quarters combat, Dormammu was absolutely infuriated. He wildly, erratically swung his arms, desperately attempting to force Luke back. 

Simultaneously, Dormammu aggressively began siphoning massive, catastrophic quantities of foundational energy directly from the core of his Dark Dimension, desperately forcing his physical avatar to expand even further! 

Luke paused, genuinely surprised to see Dormammu continuing to grow. However, recalling that Dormammu's absolute, primordial true form was theoretically the size of a small planet, the exponential growth made logical sense. 

If Luke hadn't specifically, aggressively locked Dormammu out of the ambient energy in the previous engagement, Dormammu could have easily, casually utilized his massive mass to literally physically shove the Earth into the Dark Dimension. 

However, Luke absolutely refused to allow Dormammu to continuously, aggressively absorb energy uncontested. Taking advantage of Dormammu's temporary distraction as he expanded, Luke aggressively summoned his colossal dual Death Scythes and violently charged! 

Seeing Luke aggressively closing the distance, Dormammu was forced to temporarily halt his energy absorption to defend himself. He aggressively reached out and violently grabbed the descending scythe blades with his bare, burning hands! Because he had just absorbed a massive influx of foundational energy, his physical strength had temporarily spiked, allowing him to successfully halt the lethal strike. 

Seeing Luke's slight surprise, Dormammu offered a highly sadistic, triumphant smirk. He violently unleashed a devastating, full-force punch directly into Luke's chest, aggressively launching him backward! 

Dormammu violently snapped the colossal scythe blades in half and aggressively charged after Luke! 

Luke gracefully stabilized himself mid-air. Seeing the enraged, massive Dimensional Lord charging, Luke aggressively unlocked his absolute final reserve of highly compressed Dark Energy Crystals! 

His body and power violently expanded once more, and he aggressively clashed with Dormammu in a terrifying, apocalyptic, universe-shattering physical brawl! 

Since they were currently fighting within Dormammu's realm, Dormammu could continuously, aggressively siphon the dimension's foundational energy to sustain himself. While doing so caused massive, catastrophic, permanent structural damage to his Dark Dimension, he was absolutely willing to sacrifice a portion of his realm if it guaranteed he could finally murder Luke and conquer Earth. 

And so, the absolute, apocalyptic, reality-shattering clash between the two colossal Dimensional Lords continued. 

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