Strange turned to look at himself in the mirror. The thick beard on his face had vanished, and his previously messy hair now looked like it had been carefully groomed.
He tugged at his cheeks in shock, trying to wake himself from what he thought might be a dream—but the pain from his skin told him otherwise.
Everything he was seeing now was real. This wasn't an illusion.
"Mm, much more presentable now. Strange, are you ready?" Alan looked at the newly tidied-up Strange with satisfaction.
This appearance—this was how the confident Stephen Strange should look.
Strange nodded. The pain he felt was enough proof: everything he was experiencing now was real.
When the portal once again appeared in front of Stephen Strange, he saw a different scene on the other side.
They were clearly inside a high-rise building—so how could the portal be showing a view of the street outside?
"You didn't... come this way last time," Strange remarked. What puzzled him was that Alan must've used the same method to arrive and leave the last time they met.
But when Alan left, there had been no portal at all.
"I have my own ways. Go on in. Ancient One is already waiting for you," Alan replied calmly.
He didn't need magic circles to travel—he could move between dimensional spaces by other means.
At first, Strange couldn't quite believe it. Could a simple glowing circle really allow someone to step from a skyscraper to street level?
But what he saw was undeniable—it forced him to believe.
When Strange turned around, he saw a large closed door. Was the sorcerer named Ancient One just behind it?
This was actually Alan's first time entering through the front door.
In the past, he had always just appeared directly at Ancient One's side—he had never bothered with a formal entrance.
But today was different. Since he was bringing Stephen Strange to meet Ancient One, he wouldn't ignore proper etiquette.
"This is the place?" Strange asked in confusion.
"Knock," Alan answered simply. There was no need to say more—the answers lay behind that door.
Just as Stephen Strange raised his hand to knock, the door suddenly opened on its own. Standing in his line of sight was a man wearing an unusual robe.
"You must be Stephen Strange?" The man spoke his name immediately.
When Strange looked up and noticed the man scrutinizing him—and also saw the people behind him—he realized this man clearly knew something.
The man remembered that Ancient One had said the Emperor would be coming.
But... why wasn't he among them?
"Excuse me, and you are?" Strange asked. He hadn't introduced himself yet—had Alan told everyone his name ahead of time?
"Karl Mordo. Ancient One has been waiting for you for a long time. Are those your friends behind you?" Mordo asked, briefly eyeing Alan—but he didn't dare make eye contact.
The overwhelming aura radiating from Alan made Mordo's hand, which was still resting on the door frame, tremble slightly.
He tried his best not to let it show.
"You could say that," Alan replied casually.
This was also his first time appearing before Karl Mordo without his armor on.
It wasn't surprising that Mordo hadn't recognized him. Very few people knew his true identity.
"Please, come in." Mordo quickly turned his eyes away from Alan and the others.
He was afraid that if he looked at them too long, his legs might go weak and he'd be unable to walk.
Inside, an elderly man in traditional robes sat cross-legged before a low altar, incense smoke curling upward in front of him.
...
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