---
"When you notice an insect on the ground, do you stop to consider it a fool? The life of an insect is so beneath you that it would be a waste of your time to even consider judging it. That would be an accurate summation of my feelings towards you, humans."
- Father (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
---
<(Omniscient POV)>
"Reed, why are you freaking out?" Johnny Storm asked, his voice laced with forced bravado. "We've been through worse. Remember Galactus? If we could take him down and turn him into a war engine for our masters, we can handle this unknown enemy, too." The corrupted Human Torch, his demonic features twisting into a frown, kept his burning gaze on Reed, who was nervously tinkering with an antimatter rifle, his hands unsteady.
But even though Johnny tried to project confidence, doubts gnawed at him. He'd seen that dimensional invader tear through the Revengers like paper. He'd watched him end Doctor Strange as if the Sorcerer Supreme were a helpless child. None of them knew yet how Lord Mar-Vell was holding up, but Johnny doubted even the Kree warlord could make it look easy against a monster like that. The blast that had obliterated the moon minutes ago—courtesy of the ongoing battle between them—was proof enough.
"You're not getting it," Reed shot back, his tone tight. "That thing is far more dangerous than I thought. I figured Strange could counter his supernatural abilities with dark magic, but I was wrong. He's got some kind of antimagic field which wipes out ninety percent of my contingency plans. We were only able to beat Galactus because he was starved, corrupted, weakened—and because we had the Revengers, the Defenders, the Ex-Men, and even the corrupted Silver Surfer backing us. And the Master was with us too." He exhaled sharply.
"We knew everything about Galactus, but this one... even though he is at the same level as Galactus, too, we know nothing about him. He ambushed us like he's been studying us for years... But none of that matters anymore. I've already alerted the Master. He'll be out of his chamber soon to deal with the threat. He might be furious at our failure, but in the end, he won't lose. After all, he's the most powerful being in this universe."
"Oh, darling, don't beat yourself up over failing to impress the Many-Angled Ones," Susan Storm said, her smirk as cold as her eyes. "You're a disappointment, but I'm sure they won't discard you entirely. I'll even put in a good word. Tell them you… have your own uses." Her grin sharpened. "And honestly, this is an opportunity. The invader not only culled the weak ones among us, but also showed us that there are other places still intact for us to spread our master's influence. Universes and dimensions we still haven't managed to open a doorway to. As a matter of fact, we should be celebrating."
"You got that right, Susie," Ben Grimm, aka The Rock, growled, his jagged, rock-like form shifting as he cracked his knuckles. "I was starting to get bored with nobody left worth smashing. Now? I can tear into something again."
"Wow… and here I thought I'd met twisted people before," a new voice cut in, dripping with disdain. "I actually know demons with more pleasing thoughts than you." The sudden interruption made them all turn toward the shadowed corner of the room—where a familiar, armored figure was steadily phasing into view.
***
<(Atem POV)>
"Well, sorry for dropping in uninvited," I said, my tone casual as I scanned the room. "But your threat detection systems clearly aren't built to handle… non-physical or astral entities. But still, you're not quite as pathetic as my universe's version of you. At least you've got some psionic safeguards in place to keep your brains from being puppeteered. I'm guessing that's built into those suits, right?" I finished with a disarming smile as I eyed Susan's tight, blue, and black-themed costume.
*Zip!* Without a word, Reed quickly snapped the antimatter rifle up and fired—his shot lined perfectly with my head.
Credit where it's due, it was smart for him to give me no warning. Even for someone like me, dodging something that moves as fast as—or faster than—light isn't exactly simple. And while it wouldn't have killed me outright, antimatter weaponry should theoretically have a nasty bite for all physical beings who are made of matter... even gods. Of course, there was a chance I might be wrong since science seldom mattered in universes like DC or Marvel, but I didn't want to test that theory out, not unless I absolutely had to. But the Ftaghn Four didn't get the satisfaction of watching me bleed, because something else moved before I even could.
My 'Spawn cape'—dormant ever since it was damaged during my battle against Odin—had finally restored itself to full strength. It had drunk deep from my armor's reserves, which in turn had soaked up the cosmic energy from Lord Mar-Vell's earlier full-powered strike. Now at full power and functionality, it lashed out instinctively, cocooning me in its folds. The necrotic energy barrier it generated tanked the antimatter round like it was nothing, unraveling and completely nullifying the annihilation energy before it could even touch me.
Right now, my appearance was something out of a nightmare—like Sauron from The Lord of the Rings… that is, if Sauron's armor was forged from black and gold metal superheated until it glowed red, with what looked like literal molten veins of magma pulsing across its surface.
"Well, if talking like civilized people is off the table, and you'd rather throw punches like a bunch of brutes, I can play that game," I said, letting my ice manipulation—courtesy of a few devoured Frost Giants—freeze the moisture in the air around me. A dozen spears of ice quickly took shape above me, spinning like drills under my telekinetic control before launching toward Reed.
Predictably, Reed had already foreseen that he would be my first target since his intelligence was the biggest threat to me among the four. So, he was ready to dodge my attack at a moment's notice with that elastic body of his. But before he could even twitch, my telekinesis locked him in place. "Wait—no—" he managed, right as the first ice spear reached him. It didn't pierce. Instead, it melted on contact, flooding his form with subzero energy that froze him solid in an instant.
The rest was academic. The next wave of spinning ice spears drilled clean through his hardened body, shattering him like stone. "Physics 101, Richards," I said, shaking my head. "Drop the temperature far enough, and elasticity simply doesn't matter anymore." I turned toward The Thing, who was charging like an enraged bull, and flicked an Avada Kedavra his way. His hide was tougher than the Hulk's and even protected his mind to some extent, but spiritually, he had next to zero defenses.
'Well, they don't look like they have too much empathy and love for each other like the original team of the Fantastic Four is supposed to have, since they don't even react much when I kill one of them. They barely even feel like a family. I guess otherworldly corruption of one's soul doesn't do any favors to their soul.' I thought to myself as I noticed the lack of sorrow or pain on any of their faces.
"... Are you trying to create a forcefield inside my brain?" I asked Susan without even looking at her, feeling a unique type of invisible energy press against me, trying to enter my head. Unfortunately, for her, my body wasn't just flesh—it was threaded with divine energy, a built-in shield against magic, psionics, and spirit-based attacks. "Sorry, but that trick doesn't work on me. You have an almost cheat-like power, just against the wrong god." I started to raise my hand toward her—only for Johnny to cut in with a blast hot enough to vaporize the building.
Flames roared through the structure as Susan covered herself inside a forcefield bubble so that her brother could pour out everything he had. The heat climbed past anything mortal, melting floor and walls into bubbling liquid while the air itself shimmered in yellow heatwaves. He was slowly approaching the temperatures of a supernova.
"You can take him, right?" I whispered to my cape. It answered with a single ripple before peeling away from me, streaking toward Johnny, and wrapping him tight. Spawn's necroplasmic cloak didn't care about mundane extremes—supernova heat wasn't even close to its limit. In its own world, it had endured far worse—true hellfire. The only reason Odin's blows had nearly destroyed it before was that divine/holy energy was one of its few weaknesses, and Odin's Odinforce attack was full of that shit.
As my cape smothered Johnny's flames with waves of green necroplasm, swallowing the heat and choking off the inferno, I closed in on the now-invisible Susan Storm. She was clinging to her forcefield like a lifeline, the only thing that had been keeping her from being roasted alive. Her brother's supernova had been her cover to escape, but at this kind of heat, flying, breathing—existing—everything was a losing battle.
"You know," I said, my voice low and cold as I stared at her invisible figure, "if someone can make themselves invisible, odds are they have got a way to see others who do the same." My eyes burned with a red glow as I pressed my hands against the smooth curve of her shield. My fingers sank into it, warping the construct as if it were pliable clay. Blood streamed from her eyes, nose, and ears as she fought to hold me back, every second draining her. She was quite brave and tenacious, too. Quite unexpectedly, she was actually able to hold on until I was using more than half my strength. However, in the end, her body gave out. My hand broke through the forcefield like brittle glass and drove straight into her chest like a Viltrumite hand-spear. 'Killing the doppleganger of a girl who is my lover in an alternate universe was a little unsettling, though.'
"And that makes four," I murmured before removing my hand from her chest and glancing at my cape—now finishing its feast on Johnny Storm, who had become a living inferno in a final attempt to burn me down, only to be consumed to fuel my cape's necrotic energy reserves.
It occurred to me then that I'd never named my cape. Calling it "cape" or "Spawn's cape" just felt… lazy. But I had just the name for it.
"From now on, you're Capey," I declared. The fabric straightened midair, then swooped back to my shoulders, fastening itself to my armor a little too tightly as if it wanted to strangle me or something, though I dismissed the thought instantly since there was no way it would ever try that. "Yeah… you like that, huh? As expected, I have never disappointed anyone with my unique ability to give cool names." My naming sense, as always, was unmatched.
"Anyhow, it's a shame I lost that Rinnegan devouring ability," I said with a sigh. "With the body count in this universe, I'd have an entire catalog of new powers by now. Losing it right after I got here? It's almost like someone played a practical joke on me, like they are trying to screw with me." I glanced up at the roiling black clouds overhead—the firestorm had burned the entire building to cinders by now while taking most of the block with it.
"He's finally here." The words slipped out as my cosmic senses flared, locking onto a presence floating above me—a presence that hadn't existed a second ago.
"Enjoy the show?" I asked, my voice dripping with sarcasm as I flew up to meet the figure above. "Me, taking out your followers one at a time while you sat back and just watched? You almost strike me as a bit of a voyeur... Am I wrong?" For the first time since I'd arrived in this universe, I was looking at someone completely untouched by corruption. Franklin Richards looked exactly as he should have, as a normal teenager—young, handsome, wrapped in a blue spandex suit with an 'F' and a '4' drawn on his chest, much like his parents. The only thing off was his eyes… which were glowing, ominous yellow, like a Sith Lord who'd just traded the last bit of his happiness for a false sense of power.
"...Yes," he answered, his tone warped, layered, as if thousands of otherworldly eldritch voices spoke through him in unison. "We were watching. It would have been… impolite to interrupt. Death sent you here. So killing you without letting you play a little first would've been an insult to her. But don't worry—once we end you, we'll turn back time, reset reality, restore our perfect world without death again." His gaze never wavered.
*Snap* With a casual snap of his fingers, the world around us warped and New York was gone—erased—and in its place stretched an infinite, lifeless desert under a pitiless sky.
At first, I thought Franklin had teleported us to contain the damage in a desperate attempt to keep it to a minimum. But it was then that I realized… he hadn't moved us at all. He had simply annihilated the entire city and replaced it with a desert with that single snap of his.
"Tell me the truth," I suddenly interrupted him while narrowing my eyes, "you a disciple of Thanos or something?"
---
GIVE me POWAH-STONES💎💎💎.
You can join my Discord channel using the link below:
https://discord.gg/WYVfYe2KNS
Also, you can check out my Patreøn page as well to read ahead or to support your amazing author.
pátreon. com/God_Doom
(replace the á with a)
Right now, I have about 20chapters in advance there.
(My Patreøn uses the new billing method, which means if you pledge on the 15th of this month, you will have to pay again on the day you pledged, i.e., the 15th of the next month. So, whenever you subscribe, you will get a whole month.)