Dormammu could never have dreamed he would meet such an end.
But little did he know, his fate had been sealed long ago.
It had been predetermined from the very beginning!
The Disassemble prompts flashed incessantly, experience points accumulated relentlessly, and Dormammu's power waned, growing ever weaker. Having long abandoned his human form, he barely qualified as a living being, reduced to little more than a soul.
Ironically, this very state marked the threshold for the Disassembler's capabilities.
A soul could be shattered, but had Dormammu retained a human body, he would have been impervious to the Disassembler.
Once Dormammu's power had dwindled to its absolute limit, Arthur ceased stripping him of his strength and instead chose to absorb him entirely into the Disassembler.
The gears of the Disassembler churned violently, Dormammu's anguished howls reverberating through the air. Less than half an hour later, the cacophony subsided, but this did not mean Dormammu had been fully disassembled.
This was merely the beginning...
For Arthur, however, the brief battle was already over, though strictly speaking, he hadn't been the one truly fighting.
He emerged from the Dark Dimension's entrance and returned to Stephen's side.
Stephen glanced at Arthur, who snapped his fingers. In the next instant, the group of villains standing nearby, their faces practically screaming "I'm the big bad", were reduced to ash.
Arthur had no interest in exchanging even a single word with these characters who had been so prominent throughout the film.
With this task completed, time, which had been frozen, resumed its natural flow. The shattered timeline began to mend, the dead returned to life, and all of time reversed itself.
Until the moment disaster struck, everything had recovered to its proper course.
Yet they had no memory whatsoever of even the slightest fragment of that chaos.
Arthur glanced at Stephen. "I probably won't be able to return this to you intact. Hmm, I mean I can't give that thing back."
"It was originally meant for you anyway," Stephen replied calmly, as if he had anticipated this all along. "Will you go?"
"Who knows?"
Arthur gazed into the deep void above them, paused, then smiled. "Perhaps. After all, while I'm powerless now, the Future might be different."
"Can I ask for your thoughts on this?" Stephen asked. "From being the savior of one world, you've become... the savior of a series of worlds?"
Arthur considered the question seriously before replying, "If I truly decide to do this, then all I can say is... I originally just wanted to survive, but fate had already carved out a path for me, one I must follow to the end! Since that's the case, there's no point in being afraid anymore. Just step forward and keep going!"
"Too formal for me. Goodbye." Stephen drew a circle in the air and stepped through it.
Wang and Mordo exchanged a glance with Arthur before following him.
Arthur was about to step through when the portal vanished, leaving only a few lingering sparks. He blinked. "Well, that's very Doctor Strange!"
Scanning his surroundings, he finally took a step forward and vanished from the spot.
When he reappeared, he wasn't beside Lily, but high in the sky, amidst the clouds.
Beside him stood another figure: a bald woman with a gentle smile, her head gleaming in the sunlight as she gazed down at the world.
"Have you found the answers you seek?" the Ancient One asked, her voice still gentle, a tenderness tinged with both strength and detachment, imbued with a strange, instinctively convincing power.
Arthur pondered for a moment. "I don't know if this is the answer I wanted," he said. "In fact, I don't even know if this is the life I want."
"Every one of us will eventually become someone we barely recognize ourselves," the Ancient One said with a smile. "Do you remember what we told you back in the beginning?"
"You said so many things..." Arthur's lips twitched.
The Ancient One chuckled. "We don't care about your allegiance, nor do we concern ourselves with what you do. What you do is exactly what we desire."
"Ah, I vaguely recall something like that. But I doubt that's how it was originally phrased, right?" Arthur shot the Ancient One a suspicious look, wondering if the ancient being had also forgotten their original words.
The Ancient One smiled gently. "It's been a pleasure knowing you, Arthur!"
"The pleasure's been mine," Arthur replied, his head bowed, a hint of sorrow in his eyes.
She was gone after all.
What stood before him now was merely the last flicker of her mental energy.
Extinction was inevitable, yet could she still touch the world with her smile?
Arthur gazed at his palm and sighed softly, "But after death, you can no longer feel the warmth of this world."
Not only could he no longer feel the world's warmth, but the Ancient One could no longer hear his words.
High in the sky, amidst the clouds, Arthur stood silently, contemplating his life.
Hmm, if a passing commercial airliner hadn't nearly collided with him, he might have continued pondering a bit longer.
Inside the airliner, a little girl stared in astonishment at Arthur standing among the clouds. With a mischievous grin, Arthur waved at her, and then... his figure flickered and vanished.
"Mommy, Mommy, there's a person standing outside!"
The little girl excitedly announced her latest discovery to her mother.
But all she received was an angry scolding from her mother: "Children shouldn't lie."
"I'm not lying..." the girl pouted, feeling wronged. He was just standing there, waving at me, and his smile was so annoying…
…
Disassembling Dormammu took far less time than disassembling Ego.
It's hard to say whether this was because Ego was more powerful or because the Disassembler's level had further increased.
Regardless, the final result was that Arthur successfully disassembled Dormammu, and the Disassembler underwent its final upgrade.
Maximum Level!
Surprisingly, the maximum-level Disassembler didn't fall dormant. After gleefully announcing its ascension to the highest tier, it reverted to its usual silence.
It was an adorable golden finger, devoid of unnecessary chatter.
At Camp Lehigh, Arthur sat in his room, writing something.
It was the story of himself!
In a certain year and month, a game-loving otaku, fueled by the effects of a sugary drink, attempted multitasking... and ultimately became an indelible existence across the multiverse!
After finishing the last stroke, Arthur initially planned to show the story to Lily.
But considering how embarrassing it was, he reluctantly stuffed it into his Disassemble space.
Then, he took out the Infinity Gem.