Chapter 68: Mephistopheles

Casillas was in a miserable state. He wiped the blood seeping from the corner of his mouth with his tentacled arm, his expression growing ever more twisted and hideous.

Yet, he was laughing.

The world laughed at him for his madness;
He laughed at the world for their blindness!

Standing behind Ancient One, Mu Mu Mei had thought this duel was all but won. But seeing Casillas’s confident, unfazed demeanor, his heart suddenly skipped a beat and began pounding wildly.

Mu Mu Mei couldn’t help but clutch his chest and ask himself: what am I missing? What have I overlooked? Is there any decisive factor that could allow Casillas to turn the tables?

With Dormammu not yet arrived, Casillas couldn't possibly wield more power. His array of space magic, flashy and overwhelming as it was, might be overwhelming for Mu Mu Mei, but before the Ancient One, it was nothing but showing off before a master, futile and foolish.

With her mind free of distractions, the Ancient One was not so easily defeated. Even with hidden injuries within her body, her strength still surpassed everyone else on Earth.

So why did Casillas wear such an expression?

Soon, everyone had their answer.

Casillas burst into wild laughter. “Ancient One, you hypocrite! You used the great Dark Lord’s power to gain immortality, and now you attempt to wield Dormammu’s power against his most loyal servant. Don’t you find it laughable?”

The moment those words left his lips, the faces of Mordo, Mu Mu Mei, and Ancient One changed drastically.

Mu Mu Mei finally realized what the original film had crucially omitted—

The Ancient One had survived a thousand years by using Dormammu’s power, paying a heavy price unknown to outsiders: her hair was gone, the dark power corroded her magical circuits, and wounds couldn't be fully healed. All things considered, the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.

She could use the dark power to fend off evil forces from other worlds, but she could never use it against Dormammu. It would be as absurd as trying to burn a fire demon with fire.

The Ancient One’s face grew solemn as she invoked a mysterious spell, seemingly attempting to suppress her body with the traditional magic of Kamar-Taj.

At that critical moment, a sudden clang echoed—a sound like a great bell ringing—reverberating in the minds of Ancient One, Mu Mu Mei, and Mordo.

This time, every member of Kamar-Taj turned pale.

Kamar-Taj was under attack, and the enemy was of the highest order. Otherwise, the ultimate alarm in Ancient One’s own sanctuary would never have been triggered.

This alarm magically alerted every official sorcerer carrying a Kamar-Taj artifact.

Clearly, the assailant was a foe powerful enough to destroy Kamar-Taj itself!

Ancient One was both shocked and enraged, her voice trembling: “Casillas! You actually colluded with Mephisto?!”

Mephisto was a super demon, renowned for harvesting souls and usually doing so by contract. He possessed formidable magical power, which he could convert into other abilities: superhuman strength, shape-shifting (his true form was unknown), altering size, projecting illusions, manipulating memories, changing history, and immense resilience against harm.

He could go without sleep, food, or air, and was immune to ordinary diseases. Mephisto could trap living beings within his domain—Hell—but as he couldn't feed them, he seldom did so. The extent of his power depended on his location: the longer he stayed away from Hell, the weaker he became.

In the Marvel universe, his most famous feat was tempting a man named Johnny into signing a contract, thus transforming him into the Ghost Rider to serve him.

Few knew that he had once clashed fiercely with the Ancient One long ago and suffered a bitter defeat at her hands.

Throughout her thousand-year vigil over Earth, the Ancient One had thwarted countless demons. It was no exaggeration to say that many of them regarded her as their nemesis.

There was no way to tell when any of them might resurface.

Mu Mu Mei’s face turned pale: Mephisto’s arrival was completely unexpected—not only was it impossible to predict, but he hadn’t even appeared in the original story!

“Oh no!” he cried.

“Ugh!”

As Mu Mu Mei exclaimed in horror, the Ancient One was struck.

Casillas, his regenerated dark tentacles floating in midair, shaped a symbol—the totem of Dormammu, the Dark Lord, which both he and the Ancient One bore on their foreheads.

Within this mysterious rune, powerful and evil energy rippled outward.

Visually, the rune connected to another world. It hovered at the boundary between the Mirror Dimension and a pitch-black realm.

From the Mirror Dimension, one could see an endless universe steeped in darkness.

Murky tides of dark energy surged like rolling clouds, churning and boiling in that ink-black cosmos. Amid the darkness, one could faintly make out shriveled, walnut-like shapes, emitting a dim, lifeless glow.

From this perspective, it was as if a hellish tableau unfolded before their eyes.

Light streamed beneath the feet of Mu Mu Mei and the others, rushing toward the dark rune, as if drawn by a vortex, all illumination sucked away and extending into the endless darkness.

At that same moment, the Ancient One let out a shrill, agonized scream.

From her heart, a series of dark veins were pulled out.

Centered on her heart, these veins extended to every muscle and organ, forming a map of her internal channels. But now, this bizarre three-dimensional black map, along with a phantom black heart, was forcibly wrenched from her body.

“Ah—” The Ancient One was utterly unable to control herself, her cry piercing and mournful.

“In the name of Casillas, the most loyal servant of the Dark Lord, I reclaim your immortal power!” Casillas roared, the tentacles at his shoulders morphing into human arms as he swiftly performed a spell. More translucent black energy was stripped from the Ancient One, plunging her into deeper agony, and her smooth skin aged visibly before their eyes.

Mordo was utterly stunned. “This… this is the price of using dark power?”

Mu Mu Mei now fully understood.

The Ancient One’s power was divided into two parts: the core stored within the sanctuary of Kamar-Taj. As its master, the sanctuary was her domain and greatest support. At this moment, Mephisto must have used some dark sorcery to disrupt her connection with the sanctuary.

Thus, as the Ancient One was stripped of her dark power, she lost the ability to resist.

Each step followed the next—a ruthless chain of traps.

Faced with the original master reclaiming the dark power, the Ancient One had no way to fight back.