| Synopsis
| - It is a quiet night on a version of Earth. A Black Priest spies on a doorway, then returns to his group. Presenting himself to his leader, Dr Strange, he explains that the door to the Library of Worlds is guarded but is active. Dr Strange rallies his troops to take the door.
Killing the three guards in a firefight, Dr Strange discovers the door needs a key... which the Black Priests have, having stolen one from Yabbat Ummon Turru over a decade ago. Going through the door, Strange realizes that the Library is potentially infinite. But, as the Black Swans are also a cult that literally worships Rabum Alal, he is able to look for evidence of worshipful thought in the footpath, and find the path that leads to the centre.
Going through the maze, he is surprised to find information from many universes, stored in living balls of pure light. It amuses him to realizes that the Library of Worlds is, in fact, a library. However, as they go on they find the bodies of a race of reality-traversing explorers, ossified and stored here.
The path is quiet, but they encounter one Black Swan in a hall with a book tied to a pedestal. Motioning to the others to stay back, Dr Strange goes in to knock her out himself... only to discover that he cannot form words. Turning around, the Black Swan reveals words written into the book: this chamber is a vacuum. No words can be said here. Consequently, the Black Priests can cast no spells here. More of the Black Swans appear from behind pillars, and things look dire for Dr Strange.
But he is not a Black Priest. Using the power he bartered for at the Resolute Throne, Dr Strange defeats most of the Black Swans before being incapacitated.
Dr Strange is dragged closer to the centre. His captors here turn him over to a pair of Black Swans with ritually-gouged eye sockets. The law of their organization is that Rabum Alal can only be seen by people he is about to kill, and so his closest servants all blind themselves.
As they pull him closer, the blind Swans reveal that Rabum Alal sees all that transpires in the Library of Worlds, and has already killed the Black Priests who came here. But Dr Strange was to be spared, having caught their master's eye. They throw him into the central chamber and lock the door behind them.
From a pillar of purple smoke in the centre of the room, a voice expresses surprise, as out steps... Doctor Doom, of Earth-616. He responds to Dr Strange's incredulity by explaining that he has used the Black Swans as a cargo cult, having built a religión around himself for the task at hand and that they are ready for war. He offers the man a job as his underling. He introduces Strange to his potential new co-worker, Owen Reese. Reese is muttering about the end times and about how the Beyonders will have reality crashing down. And how it is impossible to face them, for it to kill a god takes a god.
Elsewhere, two Beyonders face three Avengers: Starbrand, Hyperion, and Thor Odinson...
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