As one of the ancient Elders of the Universe, the Collector had lived countless lifetimes.
He had seen galaxies rise and fall, civilizations burn, and time itself stretch and twist. His immortality gave him patience, but also pride.
And right now, that pride was clearly bruised.
His eyes narrowed at Soren. The courteous tone from earlier had vanished.
"Few dare to speak so boldly in my domain."
"You should consider that a privilege you won't enjoy much longer."
But Soren merely smiled, calm and unshaken.
"Mr. Taneleer Tivan." He said smoothly,
"Surely one so refined wouldn't greet a sincere guest with such hostility. Is this how you treat everyone who arrives without offering tribute?"
The Collector snorted, his expression icy.
"You call yourself sincere, yet you walk into my vault and speak as if you're my equal. Arrogance that thick is rare… and intolerable."
Soren's smile faded, and a faint shroud of darkness began to coil around his figure like living smoke.
"Then perhaps I've been too polite."
"You don't seem to understand who I am… or what I've done."
The Collector's gaze flickered to the tendrils of shadow gathering around Soren. Ancient instincts stirred in him, dangerous ones.
"I've encountered many beings drunk on borrowed power," He said dismissively.
"If you're yet another of Dormammu's cultish pets, trying to intimidate me with dark-space theatrics, I suggest you try harder."
Soren chuckled darkly.
"Dormammu?" He echoed, voice like chilled steel.
"I'm not his servant."
He lifted a hand, and with a subtle twist of his fingers, the air in front of him tore like fragile silk. A crack opened midair, an abyssal slit into Dark Dimension, pulsing with an unmistakable energy.
The shadows that poured out were suffocating… even in their diluted form.
The Collector's eyes widened. His casual arrogance wavered.
"That energy… That breath—that's…" He took an instinctive step back. "Dormammu's essence…"
But Soren wasn't finished.
He turned to the breach and spoke softly, almost mockingly.
"Say hello, Dormammu."
From within the crack, a voice emerged warped and strained with desperation.
"Let me go, Earthling! I swear it… I will never touch your world again!"
The Collector went rigid.
A silence fell over the hall, thick with disbelief.
The moment Dormammu's voice echoed from the time rift, the Collector's expression twisted from disdain into sheer horror.
To him, Dormammu wasn't just a cosmic menace, he was a walking catastrophe, a living embodiment of annihilation across dimensions.
And now that same being… was begging.
"Let me go! I will serve you, I swear it! Just let me out!" Dormammu's thoughts, frail and frantic, bled through the rift.
The Collector could barely believe it. Dormammu... imprisoned?
Used as a mere battery for someone else's power? Impossible.
And yet… the rift pulsed with the unmistakable essence of the Dark Dimension.
Soren remained impassive. He let the wound in reality begin to close, ignoring Dormammu's pleas.
"Stay where you are." He said telepathically, his voice like a locked vault.
"Maybe… if I'm feeling generous, I'll accept your loyalty someday. Until then, suffer."
A tortured, guttural roar echoed from the other side just before the rift sealed completely, the last remnants of Dormammu's despair fading into the silence.
Soren turned to the Collector, now visibly shaken.
"Do you believe me now, Mr. Tivan?" He asked with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
Taneleer was speechless for a long moment. He had felt it. That was no illusion.
The dark energy, the dimensional anchor, the raw, restrained power… it was all real.
But his pride wouldn't let him surrender so easily.
"An impressive illusion." the Collector said at last, voice unsteady but trying to regain composure.
"You almost had me convinced. But I still see no reason to..."
He didn't get to finish.
The temperature dropped as Soren raised his left hand, and with it, a glowing golden Time Sigil spiraled into existence.
At its center, the unmistakable green light of the Time Stone shimmered through the air like a heartbeat from eternity.
The Collector froze. His pupils contracted.
"T-Time Stone…" He whispered.
Before he could react further, Soren lifted his right hand.
A second sigil bloomed, this one blue, cold, and humming with cosmic frequency. At its center: the Tesseract, pulsing with the power of space itself.
"And this one… surely you recognize it too?" Soren said softly.
"T-The Space Stone…" The Collector staggered backward, nearly tripping over his own feet as he collapsed into one of his lavish sofas, his face drained of all color.
The two Infinity Stones hovered in perfect harmony in Soren's hands, time and space, bent to his will.
And above it all, the lingering aura of Dormammu's broken pride hung like a noose.
"Still think I'm bluffing?" Soren's voice had lost its charm. Now, it was ice and thunder.
"Do you finally believe I can and did subdue Dormammu?"
Soren released a controlled wave of pressure, just enough to collapse the air around the Collector, making his precious relics rattle and vibrate across their shelves.
The floor itself groaned under the force.
The Collector gritted his teeth, his pride crumbling beneath the crushing aura.
"Enough… please, Soren." He gasped, clutching the armrest of his seat like a lifeline. "Let's… talk."
"No more posturing. Just tell me what you want."
Soren arched an eyebrow, letting the pressure intensify for just another second, then eased it slightly, watching the Collector gasp for breath like a man pulled from drowning.
"Now you want to talk?"
"Weren't you the one playing god a few minutes ago? Treating me like some peddler beneath your notice?"
The stones dimming but still active, threat implied with every footstep.
"Tell me, Collector. Since you know so much now… should I just shatter your palace across time and space? Rip your immortal shell into a thousand temporal loops and leave you suspended in nothingness forever?"
"Even the Goddess of Death couldn't save you."
The Collector turned pale. His throat worked, but no words came.
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
PhantomDream