Su Yi finally ceased his rampage, floating amidst the impossible, inverted wreckage of the Mirror Dimension. The sheer euphoria of fully unleashing his power—a torrent of energy and force he usually suppressed to a whisper—left him breathless.
The cityscape around him was fractured, shattered, and utterly unrecognizable. He was an Earthen Monster, a force of nature limited only by the reality he inhabited.
The Sorcerer Ancient One, who had expertly shielded Wanda and herself behind a shimmering, arcane barrier, finally lowered her hands. The effort to constantly restore the environment and contain Su Yi's power was beginning to tell, manifesting as a faint tightening around her eyes.
"That is sufficient, Mr. Su," the Ancient One said gently, her voice echoing strangely in the folded space. "Your growth rate is indeed alarming. However, it might still not be enough to deal with Thanos."
Su Yi snapped out of his power haze. "Is Thanos really that strong? I admit, I don't know much about him personally." He tried to reconcile the imposing, purple alien he remembered from the films—a villain who seemed to rely more on the Infinity Stones than his own might—with the Ancient One's grave warning.
"You know very little about him, indeed," the Ancient One confirmed, floating closer, the air around her suddenly heavy with cosmic weight.
"As a Titanian Eternal, Thanos is an exceptional being, far from the common thugs or even the enhanced humans this world often produces. He is a special existence. In terms of raw, unaugmented might, he currently possesses a physical constitution and power output that approaches Skyfather level. He is a peer of beings like Odin in terms of durability and force."
Su Yi frowned, genuinely taken aback. "Seriously? His physical fitness is no weaker than mine? It might even be stronger?"
He recalled the image of Thanos, seemingly struggling against a non-powered Hulk in an early skirmish, and later, the easily blocked strike from Captain America wielding Mjolnir. The movies truly did dilute the cosmic scale of things to an absurd degree, he thought.
"I can tell you doubt me," the Ancient One observed, a subtle amusement in her voice. "Seeing is believing. Punch me."
Su Yi blinked. "Sorcerer Ancient One, you can't be serious. I'm not going to hit you just because you asked. I'm not Loki."
"I will use magic to defend myself," she insisted, extending her hands and beginning a complex, rapid gesture. "You need to understand the true strength of your opponent, and the resilience of an opponent who is prepared."
Su Yi weighed the risk. The Ancient One had never given him a reason to distrust her. He took a wide, deep stance, focusing the entirety of his Lv7 Strength—which, while not quite 100,000 tons in lifting power, could certainly deliver that much sheer concussive force.
"Alright, get ready! I'm going to control this, but my punch carries the force equivalent of a heavy missile!"
As the Sorcerer Ancient One finished her incantation, a thick, orange-gold shield of incandescent arcane energy formed before her. Su Yi threw a fierce, hyper-accelerated punch. His fist blurred, ripping the air apart with a deafening sonic boom that shook the very foundations of the Mirror Dimension's constructed reality.
The blow slammed into the magic shield with the force of an extinction-level event. A wave of force radiated outward, making the entire fractured dimension tremble and lighting the sky in a flash of gold and crimson. Yet, the shield did not shatter.
The Ancient One, maintaining her focus, was merely pushed backward about ten meters, gliding along the distorted ground before coming to a complete stop.
"Is that all?" she challenged, her voice steady. "Continue."
Su Yi grinned, his competitive spirit roaring. He flew toward her in a rapid blur, unleashing a relentless barrage of strikes. His arms became windmills, executing a rapid-fire sequence of punches—Ora ora ora...—each one carrying seismic force.
The Ancient One simply maintained the shield, slowly retreating a few more feet with each impact, demonstrating that magic offered a defense of unparalleled efficiency against raw brute force.
Su Yi stopped. "Impressive. Truly formidable defense."
He immediately shifted his focus, calculating a route around her shield, utilizing his near-Mach 10 speed to feint and then strike from an unexpected angle, hoping to catch her during the brief mental lapse required for the transition between defensive and offensive magic.
"I was merely allowing you to understand the principle of magic," the Ancient One said, her eyes calm as she stared directly at Su Yi. "And you, Mr. Su, are already thinking of a sneak attack against an old woman who is centuries old?"
Su Yi didn't even flinch. "It was just a thought experiment. If you were an enemy, I would have to find a way to defeat you. In a formal, open fight, I would know that your reaction speed prevents me from using a close-quarters sneak attack."
The Ancient One chuckled softly. "Indeed. In close combat, with time to prepare, your speed would not give me time to cast a proper spell. Therefore, in a formal battle, I would not give you such an opportunity to begin with."
Su Yi couldn't help but internally mutter, "Except when Kaecilius backstabbed you, of course." He hastily steered his thoughts away, knowing she could still read his surface intentions.
"Sorcerer Ancient One," Su Yi quickly changed the subject, "can this Mirror Dimension be used as a permanent prison, or a place of exile?"
"It requires too much continuous power to maintain an active prisoner here," she explained patiently. "While effective for training and temporary captivity, banishing an enemy to other, naturally hostile dimensions is far more suitable for permanent exile."
"Speaking of banishment," Su Yi asked, his mind jumping to the most powerful cosmic villain he knew was sealed away, "wasn't Hela, the Goddess of Death, banished to a certain dimension by Odin?"
The Ancient One's gaze hardened momentarily at the mention of the Asgardian threat. "Indeed. But I cannot open that specific dimension. That realm was personally sealed by Odin Allfather himself, secured by power that exceeds the authority of the Sorcerer Supreme. It is a door only Asgard's magic can unlock."
"What a pity," Su Yi sighed dramatically. "I was looking forward to challenging Hela. After all, she is the Goddess of Death; her strength must be immense, right? A true test of power."
The Ancient One simply smiled, refusing to call out his obvious desire to challenge his biggest, baddest theoretical opponent. "If you wish to travel that far, you must first learn the magic of the Dimension Door."
"Let's stick to sparring for now," Su Yi said, eager to see more of her techniques.
The sparring continued, with Su Yi now focused on dodging, analyzing, and enduring the Ancient One's offensive spells. He watched in awe as she unleashed a terrifying variety of magic, realizing how drastically the cinematic portrayals had undersold the raw power of the Mystic Arts.
Two spells, in particular, left a deep impression on him:
The Crimson Bands of Cyttorak: With a precise gesture, glowing crimson bands of pure arcane energy instantly materialized, wrapping around Su Yi's torso and limbs. The binding power was immense—a metaphysical entanglement that felt like liquid concrete.
Su Yi roared, exerting tremendous force, barely managing to snap the bands after several tense seconds. He knew instantly that the Ancient One had held back a significant portion of the spell's true strength; had she committed fully, he might have been restrained indefinitely.
The Bolts of Balthakk: This was the spell that truly shocked him. Unlike the thin, almost decorative beams Doctor Strange sometimes conjured, the Ancient One unleashed two thick, writhing bolts of sapphire-blue lightning. They crackled with such furious energy that the air itself screamed.
As they flew toward him, the bolts split mid-flight, transforming into a dense, rapid swarm of serpentine lightning that multiplied, covering every angle of attack. It was a torrent of silver dragons dancing wildly, a genuine, thunderous force that defied the laws of physics.
"Damn, the movies absolutely misled me!" Su Yi exclaimed, realizing the sheer energy required to animate such a complex, wide-area attack. He knew he couldn't dodge the entire storm, even with his speed.
Instead of dodging, Su Yi relied on his ultimate defense: his own physical endurance and the Energy Devour skill. He activated the Devour, channeling the incoming energy, and absorbed a fraction of the barrage.
The overwhelming energy still caused minor, superficial burns and massive internal trauma—a sharp, sickening pain—but his body, utilizing his rapid healing factor, began recovery immediately. Within a minute, the minor injuries were completely gone.
"Devouring energy is effective, but the yield is low," Su Yi muttered to himself, analyzing the data. "I need more raw power to truly boost my energy attributes beyond Lv6."
His mind immediately leapt to the most massive source of pure energy in the known universe: Dormammu, the ruler of the Dark Dimension, an entity of pure power that had consumed countless worlds.
"If I could devour Dormammu," Su Yi mused internally, "my energy would definitely exceed Lv10! He's a being made of pure power. It's the ultimate energy feast!"
He immediately felt a sudden, cold wave of awareness wash over him, like a spotlight turning on his deepest, most dangerous thought. The Ancient One's expression remained placid, but a subtle twitch in her left eyebrow betrayed her.
"My apologies," the Ancient One repeated, though her eyes were now narrowed with respect. "Your aspirations are becoming significantly more... ambitious. Your strength is already profound."
She paused, measuring him carefully. "In terms of raw, unaugmented physical fitness, you still do not reach Hela's level of sheer cosmic durability. But at your current growth rate, it will not be long before you might be her equal."
Su Yi grinned, his eyes burning with challenge. "Equal? That's not good enough, Sorcerer. What I want is to conquer her."