Chương 138: Chapter 138: Battling Dormammu 

After briefly explaining his localized, highly profitable farming strategy to the Ancient One, Luke casually resumed his continuous, apocalyptic magical bombardment of Dormammu's demonic horde. 

Looking down at the terrifying, grotesque monsters desperately swarming through the rift, Luke no longer felt any apprehension. He only saw massive, glowing piles of incredibly delicious, highly nutritious cosmic energy. His hands moved with blinding speed, continuously tracing complex Eldritch mandalas and unleashing devastating barrages. 

However, back in his own dimension, Dormammu finally realized something was catastrophically wrong. 

Wait a minute. He literally just launched an absolute, full-scale apocalyptic barrage that wiped out millions of my vanguard... and now he's continuously, relentlessly bombarding the second wave without even pausing for breath? 

Is he completely faking his exhaustion?! Is he actually farming my army for energy?! 

Dormammu's colossal, burning eyes narrowed in profound, cosmic fury. 

Just as he was preparing to violently intervene, a familiar, highly recognizable figure calmly stepped out of the permanent Sling Ring portal Luke had relocated to the far edge of the Dark Dimension. 

The Ancient One! 

Seeing his absolute, eternal nemesis finally step out of her heavily fortified sanctuary and enter the battlefield, Dormammu instantly abandoned all other tactical considerations. 

He no longer cared if the novice Dimensional Lord was secretly farming his demonic horde! If he could successfully pin the Ancient One down in this dimension and ultimately destroy her, sacrificing a few billion infinitely respawning demons was an absolutely microscopic, incredibly worthwhile price to pay! 

With his ultimate objective firmly locked, Dormammu abandoned all pretense of a slow, grinding siege. He violently mobilized the absolute entirety of his dimension's available dark energy, completely enveloping his entire, endless demonic armada, and aggressively, violently shoved them directly through the dimensional rift with apocalyptic force! 

Hovering above the battlefield, Luke suddenly felt a massive, terrifying spike in the hostile dimensional pressure. He had been slightly worried that the Ancient One's sudden appearance might actually scare Dormammu away. Instead, it appeared Dormammu had injected himself with cosmic steroids and was launching a suicidal, all-out offensive! 

Seeing the sheer, incomprehensible volume of demons violently flooding through the rift, Luke realized his localized, precision barrages were no longer sufficient. 

He spun around, aggressively manipulating the remaining ambient dark energy within his dimension, rapidly condensing it into a colossal, absolute, multi-layered defensive mandala directly in front of the advancing demonic tsunami to buy himself a few seconds. 

Watching the endless, terrifying wave of enemies violently crashing against his fragile shield, Luke decided to stop playing games. 

With a thought, hundreds of massive, highly compressed Dark Energy Crystals violently erupted from his inventory! 

Under Luke's absolute mental command, the restrictive shells of the crystals violently shattered simultaneously! An unimaginably massive, apocalyptic torrent of pure, unadulterated dark energy instantly flooded his dimension, completely refilling his internal magical reserves to absolute maximum capacity in a fraction of a second! 

With his 'mana bar' instantly fully restored, Luke slowly closed his eyes. He raised his right hand high above his head. The massive volume of raw dark energy he had just released began violently violently swirling and rapidly condensing directly into his palm. 

Feeling the terrifying, apocalyptic power violently compressing within his grasp, Luke slowly opened his eyes. They glowed with intense, absolute red light. 

He slowly curled his fingers inward. The swirling maelstrom of dark energy violently collapsed, rapidly solidifying and extending outward until it formed a colossal, terrifyingly massive, pitch-black broadsword several hundred meters long! 

Staring down at the endless, churning ocean of demons attempting to breach his shield, Luke's expression hardened. 

With a single, devastatingly powerful, sweeping downward gesture, Luke violently swung the colossal dark energy blade! 

The massive sword effortlessly, violently cleaved directly through his own defensive mandala and slammed into the demonic horde with the unstoppable force of a falling meteor, completely annihilating millions of demons in a single, apocalyptic strike! 

A massive, heavily armored demon cowering near the front lines stared up in absolute, mind-boggling terror as the colossal black blade slammed into the ground mere inches from its face. It watched in horror as millions of its comrades were instantly violently crushed into bloody paste beneath the blade. The demon exhaled a massive, shuddering sigh of profound relief, believing it had miraculously survived. 

However, a split second later, highly complex, glowing red runic arrays violently flared to life along the entire length of the colossal blade. The demon stared at the glowing runes in brief confusion. 

The next microsecond, the colossal broadsword violently destabilized! It rapidly dissolved back into raw, highly aggressive dark energy, instantly expanding outward and transforming into a massive, terrifyingly violent, pitch-black tidal wave that instantly swallowed the demon whole! 

The apocalyptic black tide aggressively swept across the entire front line, violently consuming everything in its path. Millions of minor demons were instantly violently dissolved, and even the massive, five-meter-tall behemoths were completely overpowered and drowned within the raging dark energy. 

Watching the black tide systematically, efficiently scrub the entire battlefield completely clean of hostile entities, the Ancient One calmly floated up beside Luke. 

"I must admit, that was undeniably impressive. It certainly appears highly cathartic," she noted with a faint smile. 

Luke glanced at her, slightly surprised. "Why did you actually come here? I thought you were holding the fort?" 

The Ancient One subtly clasped her hands behind her back, letting out a small, highly dignified cough, perfectly mimicking a retired, slightly bored elderly supervisor. 

"Given that Dormammu is actively, aggressively invading your dimension, I simply assumed my presence might be required. Dormammu is incredibly ancient and possesses numerous, highly unpredictable cosmic strategies." 

Luke narrowed his eyes, staring at her intensely for several seconds. He tried to discern if she had some hidden, profound tactical objective. Seeing her maintain her perfectly serene, blank expression, he eventually sighed and returned his focus to the raging black tide aggressively devouring the remaining stragglers. 

"Dormammu is definitely plotting something highly destructive. He hasn't physically manifested yet. However, it certainly appears your sudden arrival highly motivated him." 

The Ancient One nodded slowly. "As long as I remained securely fortified within the material plane, protected by the planetary grid, he possessed absolutely no viable opportunity to directly assassinate me. However, by willingly entering this extra-dimensional space, I have presented him with a highly tempting, incredibly rare opportunity." 

Luke nodded, grasping the tactical situation. "In that case, you should probably retreat back to Kamar-Taj immediately to prevent Kaecilius from exploiting your absence. I can easily manage the cleanup here." 

The Ancient One watched the black tide relentlessly pursuing the routing demons and nodded. Her curiosity regarding Luke's 'highly profitable' warfare had been thoroughly satisfied, and she recognized her presence was currently acting as bait. 

"Very well. I shall return to the Sanctum." 

She turned and began walking back toward the Sling Ring portal. 

However, Dormammu, actively scrying the dimension from the rift, absolutely refused to let his primary target escape! His entire, convoluted strategy relied entirely on trapping and killing the Ancient One here! He couldn't allow her to simply stroll back to Earth! 

Realizing his demonic army was completely useless against the apocalyptic black tide, Dormammu had no choice but to physically intervene. 

A colossal, terrifyingly massive silhouette violently materialized directly within the dimensional rift! 

Dormammu rapidly condensed a massive, highly concentrated sphere of apocalyptic dark energy in his hand and aggressively hurled it directly at the retreating Ancient One! 

Luke sensed the incoming attack. He violently thrust both of his hands upward! 

The massive black tide aggressively rampaging through the enemy ranks violently instantly reversed course, aggressively surging upward to intercept the attack! The dark energy sphere slammed into the tide, triggering a massive, blinding explosion that completely neutralized the attack, but severely depleted the black tide's overall mass. 

Luke frowned deeply. A casual, generic energy blast from Dormammu requires that much energy to intercept? 

He tapped his utility belt, intending to rapidly condense the remaining mass of the black tide into a highly concentrated spear to retaliate. He violently hurled the dark energy spear directly at Dormammu. 

Dormammu simply raised his massive, burning hand and casually caught the spear mid-flight, effortlessly crushing it into useless sparks. 

Luke reached into his pocket to grab more energy crystals... and realized he was almost entirely out. He mentally commanded a squad of Shadow Ninjas to rapidly retreat into the deeper vaults of the Dark Dimension to retrieve a massive resupply. Simultaneously, he extracted the final few crystals from his pocket and allowed them to passively orbit his body, ready for immediate use. 

Hearing the massive explosion, the Ancient One halted her retreat and turned around. She frowned deeply, staring at the colossal entity hovering in the rift. It appeared Dormammu was absolutely determined to force a direct confrontation today. 

Both Luke and the Ancient One assumed aggressive combat stances. 

Dormammu stared down at them, a cruel, mocking laugh echoing through the void. He knew perfectly well that outside the material plane, the Ancient One was completely cut off from the Time Stone's power. Without her absolute, temporal safety net, she was significantly more vulnerable. 

If he could successfully assassinate her here, the subsequent consumption of Earth would be laughably easy! 

Determined to finish the fight, Dormammu aggressively compressed his colossal, planetary-sized essence, rapidly shrinking his avatar down to a highly concentrated, incredibly dense, five-meter-tall humanoid form. 

He violently breached the dimensional rift and fully stepped into Luke's dimension. 

Luke and the Ancient One finally got a clear, unobstructed look at the Lord of the Dark Dimension. 

Dormammu's physical avatar was terrifying. His body appeared to be composed entirely of churning, highly volatile cosmic magma, with dark, roaring cosmic flames violently erupting from his shoulders and head. 

He slowly clenched his massive, burning fists and smiled sadistically. 

"Ancient One. Since you have so graciously entered my domain... you shall never leave." 

Luke and the Ancient One remained highly tense, absolutely refusing to underestimate the cosmic entity. 

However, seeing Dormammu acting so incredibly arrogant within his own territory, Luke decided to assert his localized authority. 

"Dormammu!" Luke commanded, his voice echoing with absolute dimensional authority. "The dark energy within this realm shall no longer obey your commands!" 

Dormammu was momentarily stunned by the incredibly arrogant declaration. "You dare command me? Who do you think you are?!" 

Dormammu casually waved his hand, attempting to draw upon the ambient dark energy of the dimension to unleash a devastating barrage, exactly as he always did. 

However, the localized dark energy completely, absolutely ignored him. It remained entirely inert. 

"What exactly did you do?!" Dormammu demanded, his burning eyes narrowing in sudden, genuine confusion and anger. 

Luke frowned, observing that Dormammu's physical, magma-like avatar hadn't instantly collapsed. He had secretly hoped revoking Dormammu's access to the ambient energy would cause his physical form to destabilize. 

"Well, that was slightly disappointing," Luke muttered to the Ancient One. "I honestly expected his physical manifestation to violently disintegrate, considering he's functionally a being of pure energy." 

The Ancient One kept her eyes locked on Dormammu, providing a rapid tactical analysis. "Generally, when a Dimensional Lord successfully cultivates a Mid-Tier or larger dimension, the sheer volume of ambient energy becomes too massive for a standard biological vessel to contain. They typically discard their physical bodies entirely, condensing their consciousness into a highly concentrated 'Origin Core.' As their dimension expands, this Origin Core grows exponentially stronger, eventually allowing them to project incredibly dense, specialized avatars like the one you see before you." 

"Technically speaking, Dormammu's current physical avatar is entirely composed of his own, localized, highly concentrated Origin Essence, which remains under his absolute, internal control. Therefore, your localized dimensional override cannot actively manipulate or disperse his physical form. However, he has indeed completely lost the ability to passively siphon and manipulate the ambient dark energy of your dimension. He is restricted to utilizing his own internal reserves for combat." 

Luke nodded slowly. Alright, a significant debuff is better than nothing. 

He watched as Dormammu repeatedly, furiously attempted to conjure various magical attacks, only for the ambient energy to completely ignore his commands. Luke exhaled a slight sigh of relief. 

However, Luke was acutely aware that Dormammu was an ancient, massive Dimensional Lord. Even restricted to his internal Origin Essence, his raw physical strength and durability were incredibly terrifying. Luke knew his current, un-augmented human body would likely be instantly pulverized if Dormammu landed a solid physical blow. 

Therefore, Luke decided to aggressively upgrade his own physical chassis. 

With a thought, massive torrents of dark energy aggressively enveloped his body. He rapidly, violently transformed into his fully unlocked, five-meter-tall 'Dimensional Lord' true form! 

Dormammu watched the transformation, his burning eyes widening in genuine, profound shock as he sensed Luke's absolute, flawless control over the dark energy. 

He exerts absolute, dominant control over the dark energy within this realm! He is a true, fundamental Master of Dark Energy! 

Dormammu was absolutely astounded. The last time he had encountered an entity exhibiting such absolute, localized dominion over a specific energy type was when he had briefly clashed with a primordial Chaos Demon. Those specific entities enjoyed violently fracturing their own dimensions into tiny shards, scattering them across the cosmos, and allowing pathetic lesser beings to unknowingly cultivate and expand the dimensions for them. Once the shards grew sufficiently large, the Chaos Demon would return and effortlessly harvest the fully developed dimension. 

Because the Chaos Demon retained absolute, fundamental authority over the underlying energy signature, they could effortlessly instantly revoke the lesser being's powers and reabsorb the realm. 

This terrifying realization made Dormammu incredibly anxious. Is it possible... that the Dark Dimension I originally discovered and conquered was actually merely a scattered fragment belonging to this entity?! Is he currently here to harvest my realm?! 

However, Dormammu quickly dismissed the paranoid theory. If Luke were truly the original, primordial creator of Dormammu's massive dimension, he would be infinitely more powerful and could have instantly, effortlessly annihilated Dormammu with a thought. Instead, Luke was clearly highly cautious and treating Dormammu as a legitimate threat. 

Unable to deduce Luke's true origin, Dormammu glared at him. "Who exactly are you?!" 

Luke casually reached over his shoulder and detached the massive, terrifying dual Death Scythes from his back. He gripped them tightly, eyeing Dormammu cautiously. 

"Why is everyone constantly obsessed with asking that specific question? You're acting as if I possess some highly complex, deeply hidden secret identity." 

Dormammu's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Hmph! If you refuse to speak, I possess numerous, highly effective methods of aggressively extracting the truth from you!" 

With a terrifying, echoing roar, Dormammu violently lunged directly at Luke! Even completely deprived of his ability to cast external magic, his highly concentrated Origin avatar possessed apocalyptic physical strength! A single, full-force punch could literally shatter a small moon, and his durability was nearly absolute. 

He was absolutely, arrogantly confident he could physically beat these two annoying gnats to death. 

Watching the colossal, burning entity charge toward him, Luke didn't hesitate. He violently hurled both of his massive Death Scythes directly at Dormammu! 

The razor-sharp, dark energy blades spun rapidly, aiming for Dormammu's chest. However, Dormammu didn't even attempt to dodge. He casually raised his massive arm, allowing the scythes to violently embed themselves deep into his burning flesh. Completely ignoring the minor injury, he aggressively swung his other massive fist directly at Luke's head! 

Luke was genuinely surprised by Dormammu's absolute, ruthless willingness to sacrifice his own limbs for an attack! He frantically crossed his heavily armored arms in front of his face to block the incoming punch. 

However, Dormammu was incredibly fast! He violently yanked his injured arm forward, utilizing the embedded scythes to pull himself closer, and delivered a devastating, point-blank uppercut directly into Luke's heavily armored chest plate! 

CRACK! 

The incredibly dense Crab Ninja armor shattered instantly upon impact! While the armor successfully absorbed the vast majority of the kinetic force, the residual impact violently slammed into Luke's physical form! 

The massive force instantly launched Luke violently backward! He flew helplessly through the air for several miles before finally crashing heavily into the invisible boundary wall of his dimension. 

Dormammu scoffed dismissively, watching Luke fly away. He casually reached over and violently yanked the embedded scythes out of his arm. As expected, absolutely no blood or vital fluids leaked from the wounds; the burning cosmic magma simply rapidly flowed together, sealing the cuts instantly. 

He stared mockingly at Luke as he slowly pushed himself off the dimensional wall. 

"You have successfully ascended to the rank of a Dimensional Lord... yet you still pathetically cling to primitive, highly inefficient human combat techniques," Dormammu taunted arrogantly. 

Intending to press his overwhelming physical advantage and brutally pummel Luke into submission, Dormammu prepared to charge again. 

However, several highly concentrated, incredibly powerful Eldritch blasts violently slammed into his side, staggering him slightly! 

Dormammu turned his burning gaze toward the Ancient One, his annoyance flaring. She was like an incredibly persistent, highly irritating cosmic mosquito. 

Glancing back and confirming Luke was temporarily incapacitated, Dormammu decided to systematically eliminate the more annoying threat first. He turned his full, terrifying focus onto the Ancient One. 

Meanwhile, Luke was slowly dragging himself back to his feet. He watched Dormammu's wounds seamlessly, instantly heal without expending any noticeable effort, and a profound realization finally hit him. 

Right. Both Dormammu and my current 'Dimensional Lord' true form are fundamentally composed of pure, highly concentrated energy. We don't possess traditional circulatory systems or biological weak points! Traditional, human-centric martial arts—striking pressure points, attempting to cause blood loss, or crippling joints—are entirely useless here! 

Attempting to engage Dormammu in a brutal, brawling slugfest of attrition was a catastrophic tactical error! Dormammu possessed an astronomically larger internal Origin reserve; he would easily outlast Luke in a war of pure physical damage exchange. 

Looking down at his heavily mutated, multi-limbed true form, Luke suddenly realized the obvious. My current form is a direct amalgamation of the specialized biological traits of my elite Shadowkhan units. Therefore... I should completely abandon human martial arts and explicitly utilize their specialized combat tactics! 

Rapidly recalling the countless hours he had spent observing the Shadowkhan sparring, Luke's eyes narrowed. He violently launched himself back into the fray! 

The Ancient One was currently heavily engaged, desperately conjuring a massive, multi-layered defensive mandala to block Dormammu's assault. Dormammu violently slammed his massive fist directly into the shield. The mandala held for a terrifying microsecond before violently shattering into glowing sparks! 

Anticipating the shield's failure, the Ancient One smoothly sidestepped the devastating punch. Her hands moved in a blur, rapidly conjuring two highly concentrated, offensive Eldritch shaping spells, which she violently hurled directly at Dormammu. 

The spells slammed into Dormammu's chest... and completely failed to even scorch his outer layer of cosmic magma. 

The Ancient One frowned deeply. Her standard, low-tier rapid-fire spells completely lacked the necessary armor penetration to damage Dormammu. She desperately needed several seconds to actively prepare a devastating, high-tier magical assault, but Dormammu was relentlessly, aggressively pressing his attack, completely refusing to grant her any distance or time to cast. 

She briefly considered deliberately absorbing a hit to buy the necessary casting time, but suddenly realized Dormammu had completely halted his aggressive assault! 

Dormammu looked down in profound confusion. A massive, incredibly muscular serpentine tail had silently, aggressively wrapped itself tightly around his legs! 

He quickly looked over his shoulder and saw Luke offering a highly sadistic smile. 

"Thanks for the tactical advice," Luke smirked. 

Before Dormammu could react, Luke violently, aggressively yanked his massive serpentine tail, instantly sweeping Dormammu's legs out from under him! 

As Dormammu crashed heavily onto his back, Luke aggressively pounced! 

Drawing upon the specialized, highly restrictive wrestling techniques of the massive Troll Ninjas, Luke aggressively utilized his heavy serpentine tail to firmly pin Dormammu's legs to the ground. Simultaneously, he straddled Dormammu's chest, raining down a brutal, relentless barrage of highly concentrated, dark energy-infused punches! Furthermore, he aggressively flared his massive skeletal wings, attempting to utilize his localized gravitational control to violently hoist Dormammu into the air! 

Dormammu roared furiously, desperately attempting to violently throw Luke off with massive, sweeping punches! 

However, Luke instantly seamlessly transitioned to the highly evasive, hyper-flexible combat style of the Squid Ninjas! His physical form contorted and bent at impossible, physically unnatural angles, effortlessly, smoothly dodging Dormammu's devastating strikes! 

Recalling the numerous times he had watched the slippery Squid Ninjas effortlessly evade the clumsy, overpowering punches of the Troll Ninjas, Luke found dodging Dormammu's attacks incredibly easy. 

The Shadowkhan genuinely mastered energy-based combat tactics long before I did. 

While effortlessly evading the wild punches, Luke's brilliant tactical mind coldly analyzed the situation. 

Since he is a pure energy entity, causing generic, widespread physical damage is completely pointless; he will simply regenerate. I need to specifically target highly concentrated sensory nodes to temporarily blind or disorient him, restricting his combat effectiveness without triggering massive energy expenditure. 

Focusing his gaze on Dormammu's colossal, burning eyes, Luke identified his primary target. 

Smoothly dodging a particularly violent, sweeping backhand, Luke aggressively drove his right hand forward, utilizing the terrifyingly sharp, armor-piercing claw mutation of the Spike Ninja! He plunged his claws directly into Dormammu's left eye! 

Dormammu roared in genuine, agonizing pain as his localized sensory node was violently ruptured! 

Luke fluidly dodged Dormammu's frantic, instinctive counterattack and aggressively prepared to plunge his other claw into Dormammu's remaining eye to permanently blind him. 

However, anticipating the strike, Dormammu desperately crossed both of his massive, burning arms directly over his face! 

With his primary sensory targets completely shielded, Luke knew his current physical strength was insufficient to violently pry Dormammu's arms apart. 

Sensing Dormammu's violent struggling was temporarily reduced as he focused entirely on defense, Luke aggressively flared his skeletal wings! Combining his physical strength with localized gravitational manipulation, he violently hoisted the colossal Dimensional Lord completely off the ground, suspending him helplessly in the air! 

Keeping Dormammu firmly bound and suspended, Luke relentlessly continued his physical assault, targeting the joints and limbs to maintain absolute control. Dormammu remained entirely defensive, refusing to lower his arms. 

Finally, after several agonizing seconds, Dormammu successfully regenerated his ruptured sensory node. Believing he had an opening, he rapidly lowered one arm, preparing a devastating, point-blank counter-strike! 

Luke instantly, aggressively clamped both of his hands directly onto Dormammu's arm, violently immobilizing it! 

Just as Dormammu prepared to strike with his remaining free arm... several highly concentrated, incredibly powerful Eldritch blasts violently slammed directly into his face, instantly rupturing both of his eyes again! 

"Flawless execution!" Luke yelled, praising the Ancient One's perfect timing. 

The Ancient One offered a small, highly satisfied smile. Taking advantage of the massive tactical opening Luke had successfully created by perfectly immobilizing the Dimensional Lord, she had spent the last several seconds meticulously, methodically preparing a highly complex, devastatingly powerful barrage of high-tier offensive magic! 

She unleashed the devastating barrage directly at Dormammu! The high-tier spells easily, violently pierced his dense cosmic magma armor, inflicting massive, widespread structural damage! Dormammu roared in agony, forced to rapidly expend massive quantities of his internal Origin Essence to frantically heal the continuous, devastating magical bombardment. 

Damn it! They are systematically, aggressively draining my Origin reserves! 

Realizing he was trapped in a highly lethal war of attrition, Dormammu ceased his physical struggles. 

Just as Luke assumed Dormammu was preparing to formally surrender and retreat, he felt a massive, terrifying surge in pressure! 

Dormammu's physical avatar was rapidly, violently expanding! He was actively utilizing his massive Origin reserves to exponentially increase his physical mass! Within seconds, he was expanding so rapidly that Luke's massive serpentine tail was struggling to maintain the binding hold! 

He's attempting to forcefully break the grapple by exponentially increasing his size! 

Realizing the hold was failing, Luke's tactical mind raced. He instantly executed a flawless, highly aggressive counter-maneuver. 

He violently twisted his upper body downward, combining his momentum with the restrictive grip of his lower tail to violently, aggressively slam the massively expanding Dormammu directly into the ground! 

Instantly releasing the grapple, Luke utilized the momentum to launch himself high into the air. 

He aggressively summoned his dual Death Scythes back to his hands. After executing a brief, rapid aerial rotation to maximize kinetic force, Luke plummeted downward, swinging the massive scythes with apocalyptic force directly toward Dormammu's exposed neck!