Doctor Strange and the Punisher

Crack—!

With a single swing, the sharp axe, imbued with terrifying magic, instantly cleaved a deformed monster before him in two.

"I told you, Frank, fighting unknown lifeforms from other dimensions is my field of expertise. And in my field, you have a lot to learn!"

Doctor Strange braced himself against the ground with the axe handle, gasping for breath. The prolonged, intense battle had pushed his body—no different from an ordinary person’s—to its limits.

"You still have the strength to spout that nonsense. Looks like you can hold on a while longer."

Elsewhere, Punisher Frank leaned behind a car for cover. He had emptied another magazine just now and swiftly pulled out a fresh one from his combat pack. He realized he was nearly out of ammunition.

Honestly, for the Punisher, working with Doctor Strange had not been as effective as he had expected. Doctor Strange’s magic was clearly not as powerful as before. Still, if there was anything left to hope for, it was that Doctor Strange had at least not forgotten how to swing an axe.

"I only have one magazine left, Doctor. If you can’t come up with something soon, the two of us will probably be trapped to death in this damned place!"

The Punisher did not know where they were, but according to the well-traveled Doctor Strange, they currently existed in the gap between the real dimension and the Mirror Dimension. Strictly speaking, this place could not even be called a "dimension."

Clearly, some even more powerful entity had laid a trap for the Sanctum Sanctorum. Once Doctor Strange broke free of his rigidified thoughts and Cognitive Contamination, the trap would activate, dragging the entire Sanctum Sanctorum into the reverse side of the real world and erasing every trace of the two men’s existence from reality.

Fortunately, although Doctor Strange’s magic was far weaker than before, he still had contingencies in place. He had set up soul projections in many locations, including Kamar-Taj. Even if he himself were erased from reality, the magical power of those projections would preserve traces of his former existence.

Those projections were not powerful, but they could at least ensure that people in reality would not "forget" him. That was also their only hope that reinforcements might come to save them.

In this bizarre world identical to reality, Doctor Strange and the Punisher had been attacked by deformed monsters the moment they stepped out the door.

They were creatures that resembled "people," yet could absolutely never be called "people."

The first thing they saw was an elephant-like creature. But terrifyingly, that "elephant" had been pieced together from countless human upper bodies. It mimicked elephant-like sounds, as if deliberately disguising itself as a real elephant.

Yet anyone who saw that deformed creature knew there was not the slightest resemblance between it and an elephant anywhere on its body.

Besides that, they had seen "frogmen" made up of children’s upper bodies and adults’ lower bodies. It was hard to imagine what a small child with the thick, powerful legs of an adult would look like, but now they had seen it with their own eyes.

Though calling them frogmen was not quite accurate either, because the child’s eyes were blood-red, scarlet as though blood might drip from them. Two arms also grew from its head, hanging long behind it like rabbit ears.

The Punisher had thought his mind was strong enough that even seeing such things, he could suppress the discomfort in his heart and fight them with everything he had.

But when he saw a white lion with an enormous human head and countless arms serving as its "mane," even the Punisher felt his SAN value reach its breaking point.

"Sorry for dragging you here. This place was actually designed by that thing specifically to target me." Doctor Strange sighed. "And you’re right—your guns are no use here, Frank."

As he spoke, Doctor Strange removed a wand from his belt and tossed it directly to the Punisher, then explained, "Someone once said that magic must be defeated with magic. This should come in handy!"

Taking the wand, the Punisher emptied his final magazine, taking down a humanoid monster in the distance that looked normal aside from having seven or eight eyes. He knew that, at this moment, he could only trust Doctor Strange.

As one of Earth’s most powerful sorcerers, every tool Doctor Strange used was a divine relic that had left behind a legendary reputation throughout history—even if this wand looked no different from an ordinary branch.

"Don’t worry, this isn’t the kind of wand where ‘the wand chooses the wizard.’ You just need to aim at the target and imagine the attack you want to unleash. You can shout it out loud if you want. It’ll understand what you mean."

Doctor Strange gave the Punisher a serious explanation, then took out a pocket watch and continued, "Buy me some time. It won’t take long!"

"All right. Hurry up." The Punisher gripped the wand and took a deep breath.

Then the Punisher suddenly charged out from behind the car. Not far away, one deformed monster after another slowly approached, swaying their grotesque bodies and letting out waves of meaningless howls.

"Come on. Let me see what you can do." The Punisher swallowed with difficulty. After glancing back at Doctor Strange, who had already begun chanting, he firmed his resolve.

He leaped up onto the roof of the car, drawing the attention of nearly every Aberrant Monster nearby.

The Punisher steadied himself. Looking at the nearest deformity, which was trying to disguise itself with two calves as goat horns, he slowly raised the wand in his hand.

"Blazing fire!"

Nothing happened.

Five seconds passed.

The Punisher and the aberration stared wide-eyed at each other.

"I knew it." The Punisher’s mouth twitched.

Then he struck without hesitation, driving the wand straight into the aberration’s eye.

Though the wand was made of wood, its material was exceptionally sturdy. Meeting no resistance whatsoever, its tip pierced directly through the aberration’s brain.

"That wand is very rare," Doctor Strange could not help saying as he watched the Punisher abuse it.

"Instead of wasting time talking, hurry up and finish your spell!"

The Punisher treated the wand entirely like a combat knife. After taking care of the "goatman," he immediately pounced toward another monster beside him.

"By the Vishanti—"

Doctor Strange murmured, then charged out from cover as well. He aimed the pocket watch in his hand at the battling Punisher and shouted.

"Frank, look at me!"

The Punisher turned at the sound.

The next instant, the pocket watch erupted with a massive burst of light!