After hearing the Ancient One's words, Strange slowly withdrew his hand. The eerie green light that had been tethering him to Kaecilius unraveled like smoke and faded into nothingness.

Kaecilius's soul, which had been dragged halfway out of his body, drifted back with visible reluctance, as though weighed down by invisible chains. When it finally sank into his flesh, Kaecilius staggered, his chest rising and falling in ragged breaths. His body had reclaimed its spirit, but the years of vitality that had been torn away would not return.

He felt hollow, aged in ways no spell could conceal.

As soon as strength returned to his limbs, Kaecilius resummoned his weapon and raised it defensively. His face no longer carried the smug confidence of a man who believed he understood every page of the mystic arts. Instead, there was tension, fear even.

His eyes darted between Strange and the Ancient One, his knuckles tightening around his weapon.

Strange's strange technique had rattled him deeply. The ability to directly consume another's life force, it was not a spell, not even sorcery as he knew it. It was something more sinister, more primal. How could anyone stand against such power?

Kaecilius licked his lips, his throat dry. "Who is he?" he demanded again, though this time his gaze slid away from Strange and locked onto the Ancient One instead.

The Ancient One did not immediately reply. She just watched him with the calmness of someone who had already seen the path unfold. When she finally spoke, her tone was light, almost conversational: "He is my new disciple. Just like you once were. And he, too, is very talented."

Her words carried neither pride nor mockery, just fact, as if she were remarking on the weather.

Kaecilius's brow furrowed. His grip on the blade slackened for a moment, confusion cutting through his fear. "Your disciple? Then what kind of sorcery did he just perform?"

He had studied under her for years, learning every spell, every discipline she permitted. He knew the limits of what she taught. But this was no spell he had ever seen. It wasn't conjuration, or binding, or transmutation. No, this had been a sort of theft, pure and unnatural.

"Don't lie to me," Kaecilius spat. "That wasn't the mystic arts. That was witchcraft!"

The Ancient One stepped forward with measured grace, her robes whispering across the floor. As she moved, a soft but unmistakable glow kindled in her eyes, two emerald sparks, flickering like the heart of a fire.

"Kaecilius," she said, her voice quiet yet heavy, "after you abandoned Kamar-Taj, the world did not stand still. Great changes have taken place since then."

Her words seemed to pull the air taut around them. She raised her chin slightly, the green fire in her eyes deepening. "A master unlike any you've known came to me, Gul'dan, the great Fel warlock. He imparted to me a new source of power. A power beyond the Dark Dimension. Beyond time itself."

Her lips curved faintly, almost imperceptibly. "The power of Fel."

Kaecilius froze. The name struck him like a blow. Though he had sworn himself to Dormammu, his own ambitions still burned beneath that oath, ambitions Dormammu could not smother from a distant dimension. He had sought immortality all his life, craved it more than anything.

And yet, the Ancient One, his master, the one who had once sworn to guard balance, now claimed to wield such a sinister force. A force she dared to call greater than Dormammu.

His thoughts spiraled. 'What happened in Kamar-Taj after I left? What has she become?'

"Fel energy?" he muttered, incredulous.

"Yes." Her eyes narrowed slightly, their green brilliance intensifying. "Fel. The great Gul'dan will return to Earth soon. When he does, I will stand at his side. And you…" she stopped just two paces from Kaecilius, so close he could see the swirling motes of green swimming in her pupils, "you could join us. You could command armies beneath him."

Kaecilius's breath caught. That same green energy now radiated from her like heat from a furnace, and it was the very same he had seen Strange wield.

Yet his pride surged. He straightened, blade rising once more. "No. Only Dormammu can save our world. Only he can release us from the tyranny of time!"

But even as he spoke, doubt crept into his voice. The Sorcerer Supreme standing before him was no longer the same serene guardian he once admired.

She was different now, darker, and yet… impossibly stronger.

The Ancient One tilted her head. There was no anger in her, no sorrow, only the faintest smile of inevitability. "Since you will not believe my words, then feel the truth yourself."

Her hands lifted. A pulse of green energy flared to life between her palms.

Kaecilius lunged forward instinctively, weapon raised high, yet the moment he moved, he froze in place. His body locked mid-swing, every muscle refusing to obey as his eyes widened in horror.

'Impossible…!'

The Ancient One was faster. In her hand, threads of green coalesced into a living tether of light, snaking forward and binding themselves to his chest.

Kaecilius's first thought was terror. She's going to drain him again. He'll wither away, he'll crumble to dust before Dormammu ever sets him free!

But then, something unexpected happened.

The light that entered him was not cold and hollow like Strange's. It was warm. It surged into his body with incredible force, flooding his chest, his limbs, his very bones.

Kaecilius gasped. Wrinkles smoothed from his face; his skin tightened with youth. His hair, which had been streaked with white, returned to a lustrous black. His spine straightened, his heart pounded with vigor he hadn't felt in decades.

"I… I feel…" His words trailed off, breathless.

He felt alive, no, even better than alive, he felt reborn.

His eyes widened as realization dawned. This power could restore what time had stolen. It could stretch his life endlessly forward. Immortality, his true obsession was no longer a dream. It was now within reach.

Before he could steel himself, the flood of Fel pressed further. His vision blurred, then sharpened, and in that haze he saw something vast, something monstrous yet divine. A towering figure cloaked in green flame, radiating dominion and power.

Gul'dan.

The image slammed into Kaecilius's mind, leaving him trembling. Worship rose unbidden in his chest. The oaths he had once sworn to Dormammu began to wither like old parchment.

Two minutes passed before the last filament of green light faded away.

Kaecilius opened his eyes. They now blazed with emerald radiance, steady and unyielding. When he looked at Strange and the Ancient One again, all hostility was gone. The black streaks of Dormammu's corruption had vanished from around his eyes.

Dormammu's hold on him was broken.

In its place was something new, devotion to Gul'dan, whom he had never even met in the flesh.

But he didn't need to. For Kaecilius, the choice was already made.

Meanwhile, Strange stood in silence, his chest rising and falling heavily. He had completed his first true act of absorption, his first taste of life stolen. Two of Kaecilius's former zealots lay nearby, reduced to pitiful husks, their bodies shriveled like dried leaves.

And still, he felt like it wasn't enough.

The sensation of drinking in another's life, of strengthening himself with every heartbeat they lost, it was intoxicating, addictive.

His gaze slid instinctively toward Kaecilius, hunger flashing in his eyes. But when he saw the green fire burning within Kaecilius's own gaze, he stopped short.

No, Kaecilius was one of them now. He was Fel-touched, an ally.

Strange's jaw tightened. He turned his eyes outward instead, toward the streets beyond the Sanctum's windows. He could see them, pedestrians moving, bustling, carrying groceries, chatting, laughing. Each one radiated with vitality, their lives practically calling to him like a feast laid out on silver platters.

His feet moved toward the doors without him realizing. Step by step, drawn by an insatiable craving…

"Enough."

A hand landed on his shoulder. The Ancient One's touch jolted him like ice water. His breath hitched, sweat forming instantly across his brow. His eyes widened as he realized how close he had been to surrendering to his desires.

The Ancient One's gaze was steady, her voice even: "When Gul'dan departed, he commanded us to remain low-key. To grow in shadow, not in fire. Do not act rashly, Strange. If you let the hunger control you, you will expose us long before we are ready."

Her words cut through the haze clouding his mind. Strange lowered his eyes, his heart hammering in his chest.

After tasting vitality, he realized the danger was not just in others, but in himself as well.

…