"Oh~ Stephen!"
"Oh~ Christine!"
"Stephen!"
"Christine!"
"Ste—"
"That's enough, you two!!"
Ryan really couldn't take it anymore and slapped the table, interrupting the pair who were going on endlessly.
It brought the two of them back from the sour stench of love.
After Christine returned, even the gloomy aura around Dark Strange disappeared. Aside from the dark circles under his eyes and his pale complexion from staying up late practicing magic for a long time, he was basically no different from a normal Doctor Strange.
Dark Strange looked at the spatial wormhole slowly closing behind Christine, then at Ryan who had opened the spatial wormhole to bring her back, his expression shifting rapidly.
As a genius himself, how could he be a fool?
With things like this, how could he not understand that something was wrong!
Recalling the entire process of Christine being taken away by 'Dormammu' at the sky restaurant, Dark Strange finally reached a conclusion.
That was...
Dark Strange looked at Ryan with a grim face: "Mind, Time, Space... it was you? It was you, possessing these three Infinity Stones, who orchestrated all of this!"
Since he chose to bring Christine back, Ryan naturally didn't intend to keep using lies to cover lies, but admitted it generously:
"That's right, it was me. I was the one who tore you apart on your happiest day, and I was the one who plunged you into the deepest despair~"
Dark Strange gritted his teeth: "And then you set up a scheme with that old thing Ancient One to play me for a fool?"
Ryan wouldn't take the blame for this one:
"You're really wronging me on this. Ancient One joined in of her own accord. Besides, even if I did this, it was only because I was commissioned to complete the task of guiding you onto the path of a sorcerer in advance~"
Dark Strange couldn't help but be stunned: "Commissioned? Commissioned by whom?"
Before Dark Strange could react, the Doctor Strange on the side—who had been watching his counterpart from this Universe find a happy ending with Christine and was secretly feeling melancholy—suddenly shuddered violently!
Wait!
Something's wrong!
Sure enough, in the next moment, Ryan pointed his finger at Dark Strange: "Naturally, it's the one... behind you~"
Hearing this, Dark Strange whipped his head around and saw Doctor Strange standing behind him, his eyes filled with shock!
Dark Strange, who was already extremely dissatisfied with this cowardly version of himself, was now even more furious upon hearing that all of this was caused by this guy's commission!
And he didn't doubt the truth of Ryan's words, because he would verify it himself!
"Christine, wait for me here a moment, I'll be right back!"
Dark Strange didn't give the normal Doctor Strange a chance to explain at all. After leaving those words for Christine, he reached out and shoved violently toward Doctor Strange!
*Crack!* ——————
Then a miraculous scene occurred...
Not only was the normal Doctor Strange pushed back as if by an invisible giant hand, but the air he crashed into shattered like real glass, and he fell into another Strange space composed of diamond-shaped mirror surfaces!
And this, naturally, was one of Kamar-Taj's advanced spatial magic techniques, the Mirror Dimension.
Dark Strange didn't stay for a second, shaking the Dark Red Magic Cloak on his back and flying in at high speed!
After entering, he even politely closed the passage to the Mirror Dimension!
As for what would happen next, the others in the meeting room would have no way of knowing...
But they all knew one thing, and that was that the normal Doctor Strange was in for a rough time~
As for the result he had personally caused, Ryan himself seemed not to care at all, waving his hand:
"Alright, don't mind them, let's continue the meeting."
Hearing this, the others also didn't show any sign of worry and sat down, preparing to continue the meeting.
Only Christine, who had just returned from Jotunheim, was a bit dazed. She whispered to Ryan at the head of the table:
"Um... Mr. Spider Monarch? Is it really okay that they're fighting?"
Ryan, who had just sat down again, glanced at Christine and smiled;
"Palmer Doctor, we're all on the same side, no need to be so formal, you can just call me Ryan..."
"As for them, don't worry. This Strange of yours isn't the one who has blackened the most; at most, he'll give the other Strange a beating, nothing major will happen~"
Hearing Ryan's words, the worried Christine finally breathed a sigh of relief, but then she immediately reacted:
"Wait, Ven... Ryan, what do you mean when you say my Strange isn't the one who has blackened the most?"
Hearing this, Ryan looked at Christine meaningfully and said slowly:
"The Strange of every Universe will fall in love with his Palmer Doctor, but not every pair in every Universe can end up together..."
"On the contrary, the fate of most of you in the Universes actually ends in a tragedy..."
"The lucky ones, like the Strange who is currently being beaten, his Palmer Doctor only married someone else, only losing you spiritually..."
"And for the unlucky Stranges, the 'you' they lose isn't just spiritual, but lost in a physical sense—meaning, you would die..."
"And just as you said before, your Strange would do whatever it takes to save you, and the Stranges of other Universes are the same!"
"And in a certain Universe, there is such a Strange who wanted to save the dead you at all costs!"
"To that end... he entered the Time Loop alone, trying every possible way time and again to save the destined-to-die you from the River of Time. He didn't hesitate to fall into darkness, he devoured countless monsters, just to bring back the you who was destined to die at an Absolute Point in Time..."
Hearing Ryan's words, not only was Christine shocked, but even the others in the meeting room were stunned.
They hadn't expected someone to go to such lengths for the person they loved!
Going against the Sea of Time again and again, facing the death of a loved one again and again, even if the heart was peeled open time after time, yet never once thinking of giving up...
Pain! It was simply too painful!
As the female protagonist of the story, Christine felt it even more deeply. Her eyes were already filled with Water, and she looked at Ryan expectantly:
"After going through so many painful and torturous experiences, did that Strange finally save his Palmer Doctor? Did the two of them finally succeed in being together?"
The others were the same, all waiting with expectant eyes for Ryan to tell the ending of this story, hoping it would be as happy as a fairy tale!
Especially the two Gwens, their eyes sparkling as they stared at Ryan!
It was as if it wasn't Strange saving Palmer Doctor in the story, but Ryan saving them!
But...
Who said fairy tales are always beautiful?
The core of a true fairy tale is, in fact, often a tragedy...
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