American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

“This is yours.” Strange took a thick book from behind him, walked to Luke's side, and handed it to him.

“Still, according to the rules, leave it at Kamar-Taj.” Luke looked at the [Book of Energy] that had been recovered, but didn't reach out to take it. To him, it didn't matter where the Book of Energy was, who had it, or if it was in anyone else's hands, as long as it wasn't in his own.

“Can you help solve the Abyss?” The girl who came back with Strange stepped forward and asked.

“Dormammu's daughter.” Strange repeated.

“Of course, we can't solve the Abyss.” Luke spread his hands, and under the girl's disappointed gaze, said, “We can only temporarily control its spread.”

Luke's change of tone made the girl's emotions fluctuate. Her gaze subconsciously turned to Strange, her eyes full of inquiry.

“I can vouch for that. He can indeed do it.” Strange confirmed.

“If he can control the spread of the Abyss, then Dormammu is willing to negotiate the conditions you mentioned.” The girl, Clea, said without hesitation. The Abyss was expanding too quickly. Her father, the Lord of the Dark Dimension, had initially studied it, which led to a growth period for the Abyss energy, greedily absorbing the power of the Dark Dimension and growing like a bone-deep maggot.

Even though Dormammu had considered various methods and even sacrificed the lives of countless dimensional beings to try to gradually send the Abyss energy away, it was to no avail.

In fact, this method was quite effective at first. However, the Abyss energy seemed to be conscious, hiding, constantly evolving, and actively assimilating everything around it. It even deceived Dormammu.

By the time Dormammu realized something was wrong, the Abyss energy, which had unknowingly expanded to a terrifying extent, had become a deadly threat.

Sacrificing lives was no longer effective against the rapidly expanding Abyss energy, and using a large amount of Dark Dimension energy to offset and annihilate the Abyss energy was extremely ineffective, even having the opposite effect of adding fuel to the fire and injecting energy into the Abyss energy.

As for magical seals, Dormammu, as a master of magic, used all his magical means at the first opportunity, but it only barely managed to control the disorderly expansion of the Abyss Dimension, slowing down its expansion.

Cure and control?

That was impossible!

Dormammu now hated the ones who brought the Abyss energy in, including Kaecilius and his ilk, and even held a grudge against the new Sorcerer Supreme, Strange, believing that his deception had led to all of this, making him an even more detestable opponent than the Ancient One.

At least the Ancient One, although annoying, was at most stealing energy without asking and quietly hanging a dimensional authority for herself, overall, she was just scavenging. But Strange was directly smashing his rice bowl!

If the Midgard Barrier hadn't been reinforced once again, Dormammu would have rushed over to teach Strange a lesson and torment him again.

So when Strange brazenly reappeared in the Dark Dimension, and in front of him, he really wanted to kill him. After all, the culprit had taken the initiative to deliver himself to his doorstep, and he didn't need to be tolerant.

However, Strange seemed to have anticipated this scene. After being killed many times, he still made his intentions clear.

Dormammu wasn't sure if Strange was telling the truth about having a way to help him solve the Abyss problem, but he knew that even if he tortured and killed Strange here thousands of times, the threat of the Abyss would not be eliminated.

“Is he coming in person?” Luke heard a certain meaning in the girl's words.

“No, he can only send an avatar.” Clea sighed. She wasn't sighing for her father, Dormammu, anyway, she didn't have a good relationship with him. She just didn't want the lives of the Dark Dimension to suffer from the threat of the Abyss.

Clea paused and added, “He can't leave the Dark Dimension now because only he can control the large-scale expansion of the Abyss. As for me? I'm just a positioning coordinate.”

Luke nodded.

After a moment of silence, Clea looked somewhat helplessly at Luke, who was silent, and Strange, who was watching his cloak and Luke's ribbon fighting in mid-air, and tentatively asked, “When will we start negotiations? Although I don't want to say it, the Abyss in the Dark Dimension has become a threat that cannot be ignored. If left unchecked, one day, the entire Dark Dimension will be swallowed by the Abyss, and those dimensional worlds connected to the Dark Dimension will not escape the erosion of the Abyss either.”

“Don't worry, we need to communicate internally, and it will take time to notify them.” Luke calmly comforted the somewhat anxious Clea and winked at Strange. “Let Sorcerer Strange stay with you during this time. You can rest here for a while.”

Watching Strange persuade the girl away, Luke immediately sent a message to God-King Odin and the others: 'The fish has taken the bait.'

……

Asgard.

The Palace of the Immortals.

The familiar conference table.

Odin and the others, who had been meeting frequently recently, took their seats.

Among them, Mephisto was particularly excited. As soon as he appeared in his seat, he couldn't wait to ask Luke, “Did that Dormammu guy take the bait?”

“He wants to talk to us and confirm the conditions.” Luke repeated the information he had gleaned from Clea in the past few days.

“It seems he's in big trouble.” Mephisto's face was full of schadenfreude. Seeing other demon gods in trouble, and his side about to usher in a wave of great harvests, Mephisto's inner emotions were almost uncontrollable.

“Strange is coming soon.” The Ancient One said softly.

Now she had relinquished her responsibilities and focused all her attention on researching new energy. Even monitoring Mephisto had become a convenient side task.

With the permission given by Luke, she now had the attitude of becoming one of the sources of power for the Sorcerer Supreme lineage. Anyone who used the new energy would be keenly grasped by the Ancient One, who would decide whether to allocate or reject the power.

So when Strange borrowed the new energy, as a key target of attention, the Ancient One almost immediately noticed what magic Strange used, how much energy he used, and where the landing point of the teleportation energy was, and so on.

After the Ancient One finished speaking, Mephisto sensed the spatial fluctuations around him, as well as the teleportation door that suddenly opened in the air, emitting sparks of energy particles.

After the teleportation door stabilized, Strange walked out of the door with a girl and appeared in front of everyone.

“Is this Dormammu's daughter?” Mephisto looked at the girl. Quite a few dimensional demon gods had their own heirs in various senses, including him. But the embarrassing thing was that the relationship between the heirs and them was generally not very good.

[Filial piety between father and son], [killing relatives righteously], [elbowing outwards], these were all the routine operations of the heirs. Examples of little cotton-padded jackets, relying on knowing their father's information and weaknesses, leading outsiders to beat their demon god fathers, had been happening frequently throughout the multiverse.

As a master of manipulating minds and emotions, Mephisto immediately felt some of Clea's inner thoughts and emotions. The other party was too naive, so naive that she simply didn't know how to protect her heart from intrusion.

After a wave of energy flashed across Clea, a dark energy, with Odin's permission, connected to the conference room.

A huge face made of energy suddenly floated above an empty seat, and then the dark energy continuously poured in from the void, building bones and muscles under the neck. Finally, a little giant three meters tall sat in a seat that adapted to his size.

“You're not dead, Ancient One! Did you orchestrate all of this behind the scenes? Damn it, this is a trap?”

Dormammu's pupils, shimmering with brilliant energy, swept over everyone present one by one. After seeing the Ancient One's face, which was so familiar that it made his teeth itch, he gnashed his teeth and roared with a bit of realization.

Dormammu instinctively regarded the dead Ancient One as the mastermind.

“Has his brain been eroded by the Abyss energy?” A mocking energy frequency was converted into language and entered Dormammu's ears. It was Mephisto who spoke.

“You released the Abyss!” Dormammu's gaze fell on Mephisto, and the energy rampaged unstably around him, booming and saying, “Are you targeting my Dark Dimension and want to start a war with me!”

“We are here to help you solve your problem, Mr. Dormammu.” Luke had to interject. If Mephisto continued to provoke him, the unstable Dormammu might explode on the spot. It was clear that the Abyss had tormented him quite a bit during this time.

“I can't believe you! You released the Abyss! I must declare your despicable and shameless behavior in the multiverse!” Dormammu glared fiercely at the Ancient One and Mephisto, roaring.

“Everyone here is a victim of the Abyss energy.” Luke explained, “We experienced the threat of the Abyss earlier than you. In fact, if you hadn't invaded Midgard, you wouldn't have been entangled by the Abyss energy. Ultimately, this is your own trouble. We are willing to lend you a hand because we are also victims of the Abyss erosion.”

“Ha, do you think I believe that?” After hearing Luke's words, Dormammu, although his face still showed anger, his tone unconsciously softened. After all, he came here to find a way to solve the Abyss, not to fight Luke and the others. He was now overwhelmed by the Abyss, and he didn't have the mind for a meaningless battle.

“In fact, the Abyss was summoned by a man named Malekith. He is the king of Vanaheim, one of the Nine Realms, and an ancient Dark Elf who wants to completely return the Nine Realms and the universe to eternal darkness. He wields the Aether particle, an artifact of the Dark Elves.

When fighting Odin, the King of the Nine Realms, he summoned his subordinates from a certain dimensional world. That subordinate brought the Abyss to this universe. At that time, the races of the Nine Realms, including some demons who came to prey, were contaminated by the Abyss.

Nidavellir, one of the Nine Realms, was deeply eroded by the Abyss energy and was activated by the Abyss to produce self-awareness, establishing an unbreakable connection with it. God-King Odin had no choice but to exile Nidavellir from the Nine Realms after some processing.

After accepting the returning contaminated demons, the Hell Dimension was also eroded by the Abyss energy. However, Mephisto discovered it early and tried his best to control the situation before it completely spiraled out of control.

Midgard suffered the least erosion, but some mages may have been affected, and their spirits were a little abnormal after being contaminated. And after you established contact with those mages, it was obvious that you had been infected by the Abyss, but it was in the incubation period and you didn't notice it.”

Luke spoke eloquently without changing his expression, incidentally placing the black pot squarely on the head of a certain Dark Elf King who was fleeing desperately away from the Nidavellir Abyss across the universe.

Mephisto greatly appreciated Luke's shameless behavior and added, “If we released the Abyss, would we use it to blow up our own home first? We were the first direct victims! So far, we have only found a way to control the expansion of the Abyss, but we cannot completely solve it without hidden dangers. You have seriously damaged my dignity, Dormammu! I need compensation!”

Dormammu's energy pupils almost rolled to the sky. He could believe that they might not have released the Abyss, but dignity? They didn't have such a thing.

“I need you to help me solve the Abyss in the Dark Dimension. State your conditions.” Dormammu was too lazy to argue with Mephisto any longer. He now just wanted to quickly solve the big trouble of the Abyss and restore the Dark Dimension to normal!

“You need……” Mephisto coughed twice, took out a piece of parchment from his clothes, and pulled it out while reading.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Ten minutes.

The length of the parchment had already piled up a thick stack on the table, and Dormammu's face became more and more ugly with the length of the parchment. Finally, looking at the parchment that still had no end, Dormammu couldn't bear it and roared out.

“Enough! Don't go too far!”

Mephisto glared dissatisfiedly at Dormammu, who stood up, looked around at Luke and Odin who were staring at him, coughed awkwardly, cut off the parchment, and rolled it up.

“That's all.” Mephisto threw the thick roll of parchment to Dormammu and took out another sheepskin contract that made Dormammu's eyelids twitch.

“Also, this is the contract. As long as you sign it, we will immediately go and help you solve the problem of the Abyss's spread.” Mephisto guaranteed with a sincere face, “I will personally take people over to solve it for you!”

PS: Thanks to the reward from classmate Ji Jingde Feng.