Chapter 277: Your Relative is Here!
Everything that existed in the present was successively destroyed by Du Wa's sudden move.
This, of course, included Chthon's ever-extending dark magic and consciousness.
"Hmph, you'd best never stand on the side of the Vishanti. Otherwise, you will be drawn into a conflict you cannot possibly win."
Chthon delivered one last threat to Du Wa and then slipped away.
This embodiment of dark magic, after much deliberation, helplessly realized that it truly had no effective means to restrain Du Wa.
Did it really have to rely on the Scarlet Witch? What a joke. No matter how strong the Scarlet Witch was, she was merely an avatar for Chaos Magic. The upper limits of Chthon and Chaos Magic determined the upper limit of the Scarlet Witch. Against Du Wa, she held no advantage whatsoever.
"Coming and going as you please? You have a rather beautiful misconception of how things work."
Du Wa began to use his own power, launching an invasion against dark magic on a multiversal scale.
Chaos Magic is a system unto itself, a primordial force that exists naturally in the multiverse. Even if it weren't controlled by Chthon, other deities would attempt to master it to become the God of Chaos.
But dark magic was different. The source of dark magic was Chthon alone; this point was absolutely certain.
"My last invasion of a multiversal-level power never reached a definitive conclusion. But perhaps repeating that tedious work now might lead to a brand-new discovery," Du Wa sneered.
Du Wa had yet to completely master the Emotional Spectrum from the DC side. After all, it was one of the seven forces of creation that Perpetua had brought from the Omniverse. Even though Du Wa had captured Volthoom, it would still take some time to wield the Emotional Spectrum.
But on the Marvel side, Du Wa had never fully unleashed his own concept to invade a multiversal-level power entity. What he was about to do now was to repeat the process he had used on the Emotional Spectrum.
And so, Chthon's luck ran out. The perfectly fine dark magic was now suffering a full-scale invasion from Du Wa.
With Du Wa's ascension to a multiversal plane, the parasitic ability of the Xenomorphs had evolved. It was now capable of infesting even intangible things, overwriting and replacing them with the Xenomorph concept. It was the same process he had used on tangible individuals before reaching the multiversal level, only now it was upgraded in scope.
As Chthon suffered Du Wa's conceptual strike, he wasn't the only one who was unlucky; so too were the countless Black Magicians across innumerable universes.
In many universes, the Ancient One, Strange, and other Sorcerers Supreme were originally leading the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj in a battle of wits and courage against the Black Magicians. But they were soon astonished to see these irredeemably evil Black Magicians cry out in agony as a terrifying, black, smoke-like substance billowed from their bodies.
"It's dark magic! What's wrong with these guys? Has the deity they worship reclaimed the power bestowed upon them?"
Immediately after, these Sorcerers Supreme realized they had guessed wrong. Because some of these Black Magicians, after losing their dark magic, had a Xenomorph suddenly materialize in their chest cavities. From the inside out, they had become Du Wa's subordinates.
Of course, Chthon wouldn't just sit and wait for death. He was also clashing with Du Wa across the multiverse. As a result, some of the Black Magicians who had already turned into Xenomorphs would scream again as the Xenomorphs in their chests evaporated, and they would revert to being Black Magicians...
Over and over, like a never-ending cycle.
"A single grain of dust, carelessly discarded by a deity, becomes an unbearable weight when it falls upon these poor mortals," Strange from Universe 199999 muttered, looking with pity at the poor souls before him who were flip-flopping between the two factions of dark magic and Xenomorphs.
The only saving grace was that he himself hadn't studied much dark magic, or his fate would have been just as miserable. However, the Chaos Magic that Wanda used also seemed to be the power of the God of Dark Magic. Would Wanda be affected?
Strange glanced up at outer space. Wanda, challenging Thanos once again, looked as if she had gone mad. He couldn't help but sigh.
This time, Wanda would surely defeat Thanos. Thanos had given all his artifacts to Thanoseid and could now only wield the Tyrant battle-blade he had previously reshaped with the Reality Stone. He was being beaten so badly by the rampaging Wanda that he couldn't even lift his head.
"The power of Chaos Magic is still rising... Has it still not ended over in the Alien Universe? I hope Thanos can hold out a little longer." Strange shielded the Earth and calmly watched the one-sided battle in outer space.
And this was just an insignificant episode. Wanda going on a rampage for no reason in multiple universes and Du Wa using the multiverse as a battlefield to invade Chthon—as soon as these events erupted, they immediately attracted the attention of countless ancient entities.
With a single glance, they knew that the freed Chthon had had an unpleasant encounter with Du Wa. But this unpleasantness wasn't enough to make the two multiversal gods fight to the death without any regard for the consequences. At most, they were currently clashing on the level of concepts and rules. This would be a complex and ever-changing struggle.
"Heh, it's all like an exciting story. Shuma-Gorath challenged Du Wa for some reason and ended up losing everything. But the commotion from that battle was so great that it allowed Chthon to slip from the Vishanti's sight and escape, only to have his talks with Du Wa break down..."
"Brilliant, truly brilliant. Both Shuma-Gorath and Chthon are infamous evil gods and Demon Gods who have traversed the multiverse for countless years. Innumerable worlds have suffered at their hands. Yet, when faced with a newly ascended deity like Du Wa—who is even more ferocious and refuses to back down even half a step—they wilted in an instant."
Divine thoughts communicated with one another, letting out sounds of schadenfreude. Shuma-Gorath and Chthon had simply offended too many beings; no one would like characters such as them.
But this didn't mean the gods would favor Du Wa because of it. They weren't qualified to hold such a view. Being able to crush Shuma-Gorath and force Chthon's retreat already proved what a remarkable fellow Du Wa was. Not long after his promotion, he was already able to make veteran deities of the same level suffer a great loss.
Combining this with Du Wa's growth trajectory, the gods had thoroughly figured out his temperament and were even more unwilling to provoke such a ruthless character. Who knew if Du Wa had prepared contingency plans for different situations? When the time came, what kind of power and means would he pull out to deal with it?
Meanwhile, in the Alien Universe.
The battle between the rampaging duo was coming to an end. Chthon, who was busy trying to deal with Du Wa, no longer had the mind to waste precious energy on Wanda.
And Jean Grey's power wasn't strong, either. The history of this universe was too ordinary, so very few Phoenix fragments had entered it, let alone the fragments that landed on Jean Grey.
"It's nothing more than a pathetic squabble. Aside from being novel, it's not worthy of much attention."
Thanoseid glanced indifferently at the two women tearing each other apart. He then looked down, pried the six Infinity Stones belonging to the Universe System 199999 from his gauntlet, and tossed them forward, returning them to the Universe 199999 Thanos, who was on the verge of being beaten to death by Universe 199999's Wanda.
Upon hearing the indignant and furious curses from Universe 199999's Wanda, Thanoseid's mood instantly brightened.
"Stop it. The battle between you two is just too painful to watch. You haven't even reached the level of a Cosmic Celestial."
Thanoseid clenched his fist. The Power Stone flared with light, and a single blow pierced the atmosphere, forcibly separating the two disheveled women.
Wanda regained a sliver of her self-awareness. She stared blankly at the devastated surroundings, then looked around in a daze, her eyes meeting those of the many people who had been trying to stop her.
Jean Grey, however, did not recover. Her negative personality remained dominant. She floated cautiously in mid-air. Realizing the limitations of her current strength, she remained silent as hatred and rage surged within her.
"Lord Thanoseid, please use the Mind Stone to help Jean return to normal." Professor X immediately initiated a psychic link, full of hope, but that hope was instantly shattered.
"Return to normal? Her state is perfectly normal. In the words of you Earthlings, you can't treat a real, existing alternate personality as a tumor that must be eradicated." Thanoseid caressed his fingers, and one by one, the stones began to glow. This sense of pure power was something he had never felt in the DC Universe.
Unfortunately, as useful as these Infinity Stones were, they were essentially like Demon Strange's position as a Hell Lord—they could only unleash their greatest might within a specific universe.
This was truly a shame.
"How does Du Wa plan to deal with me?" Jean Grey asked, looking at Thanoseid with pitch-black eyes.
"He has no time to waste on you. Only beings on the multiversal level can capture his attention."
"Perhaps I should be honored by that." Jean Grey gave an ugly smile. The Phoenix was proud, with an incomparably noble origin and power without an upper limit, but that was the complete Phoenix Force.
Jean Grey, possessing only a pitifully small Phoenix fragment, had no confidence to display her pride before Du Wa. She could only repeatedly suppress the insane aspect of her personality.
"Jean, come back! In this world, you absolutely cannot do as you please, not even if you go to other universes! Du Wa is ignoring you because you haven't truly angered him yet! And we will absolutely not stand by and watch you continue down the wrong path!" Professor X cried out, even putting on Cerebro, clearly prepared to go all out.
Jean Grey was incredibly agitated. She glanced at Wanda, who was gradually returning to normal opposite her, and immediately became even more irascible. "Get out of my head! I'm an alternate personality, not some idiot who knows nothing! Do I need a guy like you to lecture me again?"
Magneto and a large group of others surrounded her, on high alert. In truth, at this point, this was all they could do.
"I'm once again thinking that having Du Wa up there, violently suppressing all agitation, isn't entirely a bad thing. It keeps those with ill intentions but insufficient power from crossing the red line," Magneto said as he flew down to Professor X's side.
The first time he had such a thought was when the man named Reynolds made his move.
Under the gazes of countless eyes, Jean Grey had no choice but to descend back to the ground with a grim expression.
Hum!
Thanoseid activated the Time Stone, restoring the ravaged land to its original state.
The confrontation between Chaos Magic and the Phoenix Force seemed to have come to a temporary end, but its effects were only just beginning.
Tiamut, located in the Earth's Core, had been stirred by this conflict. Its underlying program began to run, which meant Tiamut had fully matured and could emerge from the core at any moment.
Under normal development, the more sentient life there was on Earth, the more intellectual energy they would provide, and the faster Tiamut would develop.
As Du Wa rose to power and repeatedly protected the Earth, ensuring that a large population could survive a succession of crises, all of this ultimately became Tiamut's nourishment.
"I have slumbered for long enough!" The lights on Tiamut's head began to flash, one after another.
Last time, Arishem had sent it a message, ordering it to remain in slumber and not to awaken under any circumstances.
Several years had passed, and the newborn Tiamut could endure it no longer.
The battle between Chaos Magic and the Phoenix Force was by no means limited to the purely physical plane; even the rules were affected. This battle, fought by combatants with insufficient strength levels but wielding power of an extremely high caliber, greatly stimulated Tiamut's cognitive system.
This abnormally developed Celestial knew little of the upheaval on the surface. It could only sense that over the years, many strange creatures had appeared, providing it with only a negligible amount of sustenance.
Now, the confrontation of powers exceeding normal specifications had made Tiamut determined to awaken completely.
Beams of light transformed into energy blasts, effortlessly piercing the surface. Immediately after, Tiamut opened its gigantic mechanical hand, large enough to crush mountains, and violently tore through the surface, an act that should have triggered a global earthquake.
When Tiamut's head also emerged, its thought system instantly began operating at full capacity, searching for all useful and useless information. The search results caused it to crash instantly.
"Xenomorphs? The God of Xenomorphs? Multiversal Gods? Shuma-Gorath? What in the world are these things..." Tiamut was stunned, frozen in place.
Information that broke the upper limits of its cognition, incomprehensible energy indexes, a reality that was changed beyond recognition... all of it fried Tiamut's CPU.
The whole Earth was in an uproar, watching in shock as the giant emerged from underground.
"Tony, look! It's your relative!"
"Damn it, I don't have any relatives like that! This guy is clearly one of the Celestials! The one that was gestating in the Earth's Core!"
Piloting his Celestial Armor, Tony descended from the sky and landed with a heavy thud in front of Tiamut. He opened his palm, and an energy cannon began to charge. "Buddy, you really picked a bad time to show up. It's rare for all of us to be gathered together, fully armed... This means there's a big problem with your logic-assessment program. How about I give you an update?"
(end of chapter)