Michael's eyes narrowed just a fraction. "Now? I wait. Because there are worse things coming — and I'll be damned if I let you people fumble the ball again."
The group exchanged looks, tension hanging heavy in the air.
"Leaving aside whether you're a threat or not," Bruce suddenly interjected before anyone else could speak, "I was just trying to ask — how is the Darkhold so much more dangerous than the Tesseract?"
He leaned forward slightly, eyes focused. "I mean, I've worked with the Tesseract. I've seen its power firsthand. And you're saying a book is more dangerous than that?"
Michael actually smiled faintly, a glimmer of respect in his eyes. "Finally, a valid question," he said. "That's why I also like to converse with scientists, rather than political idiots."
He walked slowly toward Bruce.
"The Tesseract? It's raw cosmic energy. A weapon, yes, but straightforward. What you see is mostly what you get."
He held up a finger.
"But the Darkhold… it rewrites the rules. It doesn't just bend reality — it corrupts it. The more you read, the more it reads you. It feeds off desire, desperation, even curiosity. It doesn't just give power — it changes you."
Michael's gaze swept across the Avengers.
"That book could turn even the purest hero into something monstrous. Not because it forces them… but because it tempts them. That's why I took it. Because I know how weak people truly are when they're told they can have everything."
The courtyard went silent.
"Any more 'valid questions'?" Michael asked dryly, folding his arms.
"Yes. Why should we believe this corrupt nonsense of yours?" Natasha shot back, eyes narrowed.
Michael looked at her with a faint smirk. "Surprised to get a valid question from the Black Witch."
"Um, it's Black Widow," Thor corrected from the side.
"Black Widow, Black Witch — same thing," Michael shrugged casually. "Anyway, time to blow your minds."
Before anyone could react, he made a flicking motion with his hand. "What are you—" Tony began, only to freeze as his soul began to rise out of his body.
It wasn't just him. The others, too, suddenly found themselves floating, ghost-like, above their physical forms. Their real bodies remained seated or standing — but now hollow, unmoving.
"What sorcery is this?" Thor shouted, confused. He reached for Mjolnir instinctively, but his soul-hand passed right through it. The hammer fell to the floor with a dull thud.
"Relax," Michael said calmly, his own soul now fully separated from his body, glowing slightly in the dim light.
"To see the things I'm about to show you, you need to leave behind your physical senses. You must look with what's real — your soul."
He drifted slowly toward them, the spectral version of himself weightless and eerily calm as their own souls adjusted to the strange, detached state.
"This is the plane of Souls," he continued. "Here, one can see many things not visible to naked eyes."
" So, what are you going to show us?" Bruce asked there was no caution or fear in his voice just pure curiosity.
Even Tony no longer looked alarmed. He now stared at Michael with a growing curiosity.
"Warning," Michael said calmly, glancing at all of them. "Don't get scared easily."
He raised his hand and made a slow, deliberate gesture. The space around them shimmered, shifting like heat waves. Then the scene transformed — they were no longer in the courtyard, but standing somewhere vast and desolate space.
"This… is Earth," Bruce said, eyes widening as the Earth came into view.
"Yes, that's how it looks in normal eyes," Michael nodded. "But now…"
He snapped his fingers.
Suddenly, the air turned reddish, pulsating with a low hum. Strange shapes shimmered on the horizon, and turned into an reddish orange barrier around the Earth.
"This… is what it looks like through the eyes of Mystic Arts. Or, as some call it, the eyes of a sorcerer like me," Michael said.
Bruce stepped forward, cautiously looking at the Barrier "What… is this?"
Even other avengers looked at the barrier as they wondered what is this.
"A boundary," Michael replied.
"A boundary against what?" Natasha asked, narrowing her eyes.
"These guys," Michael said simply, pointing to the horizon. The shadows twisted — and then something began to emerge.
Dark shapes loomed and then retreated, until finally a massive, terrifying face pushed through the veil — huge, with glowing orange eyes and a flaming crown of energy.
The Avengers instinctively stepped back, their spectral forms trembling as they faced it.
"His name is Dormammu," Michael said grimly. "Eater of dimensions. Ruler of the Dark Dimension."
"He consumes other realms and folds them into his own… erasing them, rewriting them. And Earth is one of the many on his list."
"And the Darkhold—what role does it play in all of this?" Captain asked, arms crossed as he studied Michael closely.
"It's a key," Michael replied simply, his voice low. "A key that could open the door for something far worse than Dormammu to enter Earth."
"So... you're saying the Darkhold could invite Dormammu by weakening the barriers around our dimension?" Tony asked, brow furrowed.
Michael gave him a crooked smile. "Who said I was talking about Dormammu?"
"Huh?" several of them said at once, confusion spreading across their faces.
"I'm talking about him," Michael said darkly, turning his gaze toward the crackling red sky. A shadow flickered across the horizon—something ancient, immense, and malevolent.
Michael pointed to the rift behind them as a twisted, horned silhouette began to form. "That," he said, "is the Dark God Chthon."
The name dropped like a hammer. Even Thor's expression turned grim.
"And yes," Michael added with a bitter edge, "he's called a 'god' for a reason. His power predates Dormammu by ages. He wrote the Darkhold—poured his essence into every word."
"And you're telling us SHIELD had this thing in their vaults?" Clint muttered.
"Oh, they had no idea what they were sitting on. To them, it was just another magical relic to catalog and lock away," Michael said. "But to Chthon, the book is a tether. A backdoor. A whispering voice in the dark, calling him home."
*******
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