After departing from Kang's hiding place, I warped to the universe he showed me according to the map of the aligned alternate universes laying atop each other.
The universe I arrived in was interesting to say the least.
I knew I was taking a big risk by coming here but this was the only thing I could think of rather than siccing Tiamut somewhere else and having him kill billions.
My senses covering the universe told me that almost all life here had been infected. The zombies even started a space exploration program just so they could infect other worlds.
First on my list was killing a few people of interest like Hank Pym, Reed Richards, Strange and a host of others that were known for their bullshittery when it came to finding the unknown. Having gotten the direction of this universe down, I ensured that there was absolutely no one that would be able to find out that a Celestial seed was placed underneath their planet's crust.
With that done, I warped back to my universe to have another talk with Tiamut.
"Hey big guy. How have you been doing?" I asked after connecting my consciousness to his.
"I am buried underneath a planet, so you could say I've been rather grounded." He answered in such a monotonous voice that would have let the intent of his statement fly past my head if I had not been paying attention.
"Did…did you just make a joke?" It felt like I was seeing my very own autobot grow up and start learning the human way.
"Yes, I believe I just did. I have been using my extensive time to learn as much as I can from your race. I've recently come to realize that jokes can be used to 'set the mood'. And judging from your reaction, I'll say it was successful." I was too stunned to do anything else other than nodding along to his words. "Now that we've gotten that out of the way, might I ask what brings you here?"
My focus was brought back to the situation at hand and I gave Tiamut the rundown of the plan.
"It is feasible but there's just one glaring issue I see that you've failed to put into consideration. What will happen if Arishem finds out that my location has been changed?"
Oh.
My expression grew pensive when I realized that I truly didn't think about that. Given how the Celestials were in full surveillance mode, anything that happens to a single one of them was cause for alarm. If they were to find out that Tiamut had been moved to another universe, I honestly don't know how they'll react.
"What if we merged both universes?" His golden eyes bore into me with a gaze I've grown to understand as curiosity. "I already possess the Infinity Stones of that universe so all I need to do is shrink it to a palm-sized ball and connect you right to it, or maybe just stuff it in you. That way you wouldn't have to take a step and you'll have a universe's worth of energy for your emergence." I'd already made sure that there was no way the virus would be able to affect a Celestial as strong as Tiamut with a thorough reality warping ever since I got a hold of the universe. There was a part of the comics where even Galactus was affected after all, so there was no way I was taking any chances.
"I… see. That should work. And since my consciousness is already stirred, I'll be able to warp myself inside that universe when I'm ready for my birth. Quite thrilling the concept of birth if I do say so myself." Tiamut mirrored a tick of mine and started stroking his Celestial armored chin but I was amused by the sight that I didn't even bother to call him out. "Oh that reminds me. A Celestial visited me a while ago and I believe my emergence and you plausible interference is already within Arishem's judging gaze."
I frowned at that because I haven't felt any Celestial near this galaxy so they must have used a form of communication I wasn't aware of. Well, no matter. As much as I think Arishem would love to judge the hell out of my ass, he has more than enough on his plate than spending his efforts on old me. "We'll deal with that when the time comes." I refrained from asking him what he felt about his brethren Celestials because although the comics illustrated Tiamut as different form the others, he was a Celestial in the end. His role was out there in the multiverse.
Clasping my hands together, blinding light seeped out from it in huge amounts before it started receding on its own until a swirl of bright gas hovered above my palm.
This was the zombie universe.
I placed the universe next to Tiamut's consciousness and no sooner did he start absorbing the energy he needed to start his emergence.
"How long do you think it'll take?" I asked.
"A handful of minutes to a few hours I reckon. Would you mind hiding my energy release from the other Celestials? I feel like I should spend a few moments alone before I take on whatever duty is expected of me." I nodded my head at his request and casted a shield over the Earth that'll block every iota of cosmic energy he was releasing.
"See you soon, Draul." He said as his consciousness faded away to focus on his birth.
With nothing else to do I'm, I figured I'll use this time and get familiar with my abilities.
Creation and reality warping was easy for me to understand as there was nothing in this universe I couldn't create and no law I couldn't bend. I could change the fundamental force of the universe if I ever wanted to so reality warping was just another word for who I am.
The problem however laid with my destruction and its ability to turn everything null. Even with over a thousand Mind Stones working together to figure this shit out, I still haven't made as much progress as I'd hoped.
And I haven't even added darkness to the mix.
It felt like it was the exact opposite of what I currently was and in some way, it was true. The universe was born out of light with then birthed creation while what I was trying to wield was destruction and darkness in its truest sense.
I formed an orb of destruction in my hand and saw as the space around it started shrinking and contorting on itself as if it was being burned which created a black hue that surrounded the dark red orb in my hand.
For as far as I could tell, destruction has always flowed through my veins, quite literally in fact, whenever I got angry and looking back at it now, I was resisting the urge to go back in time and give myself a big slap.
I had such a thing flowing through my body at all times and what did I do with it? Shoot omega beams and use it to look menacing as fuck.
With my current mastery, I could use it to erase almost any physical thing in existence be it Vibranium, Adamantium and even Uru but the problem was using it to erase some specific type of energy and even concepts.
To be honest, I had a lot of things to test out in a real fight so I was very much looking forward to anybody who came first for a fight.
I've had various degrees of success in combining destruction and reality since out of all the aspects I possessed, those two had the most similarity out of all of them. Reality in a nutshell was saying 'fuck you' to all preconceived notions of order. Anything it wanted was what it got, like a petulant child.
I was already the perfect embodiment of a few aspects except darkness and destruction. I could control darkness and wreck destruction across multiple planes of realities but I wasn't truly them, not in the sense of how I was with the Infinity Stones.
The orb fizzled out due to my lacking concentration but I didn't pay much mind to it and kept focusing on how to truly be darkness and destruction because one thing I've learned was that they both went hand in hand.
If I were to compare embodiments of darkness and destruction according to some characters I knew then it would be beings like Chthon, Dormammu, Knull and Lord Chaos. These beings personalized their aspect to the point that they became physical manifestations of those aspects. I was not the primal aspect of Space, neither was I the primal aspect of Time, Soul, Mind, Power and Reality – I was simply an usurper and I was quite okay with that. But it would take more than simply usurping to get to the next plane of power.
'The comics always made it look super easy.'
Having gazed at Yog-Sothoth, I finally understood just how vast were the realms of power between me and him. And that wasn't even his true manifestation. His true form, along with that of the rest, resided in the same place with Azathoth as they were too powerful to fully immerse themselves on any multiverse.
I could already see the cracks on Klyntar increasing with every passing moment and the deranged laughter that echoed out simultaneously. Even with the distance between us, I couldn't stop the chill that went down my spine with every laugh he echoed out.
'I guess you really die when you are killed.' Whoever said that quote deserved some sort of accolade for being so fucking obvious.
Not just Celestials, I could also feel multitudes of Gods finally getting out of their golden cities while some went into hiding. It wasn't just Knull that they were coming to fight, it was whatever happened during the fight with Knull. This was not just war. This was chaos, death and… destruction.
I wonder how many Gods will try to kill me? Probably more than a handful.
Will the Celestials try to kill me too?
Or maybe the Elder Gods?
Knull I know will definitely try to kill me. What about those from the Overvoid, the Outer Gods? Which one will try to kill me?
Will one of the stares I constantly feel be the ones to do it?
Or maybe the Abstracts? I'm pretty much on Eternity and Infinity's naughty list that's for sure.
Or maybe the Judge himself will deliver the verdict when the chaos becomes too much.
It was a clusterfuck with promised death at every side, and not just my death but also the death of my family. If it was possible, I probably would have bailed on this fight. The stakes were just too disproportionate and some people were already shifting cards even before the game began. Alliances were being made and dissolved. It was all based on two things – survival and profit.
I had a few hands to play that I was sure could change the flow of the game but when I was playing against over a hundred veteran players, the odds were never in my favor. But I guess the universe had never been in my favor since the beginning but that didn't stop me from owning the bitch so I'm absolutely sure this won't either.
If I die then I'm pretty sure one of the Outer Gods already has dominion over my soul and to be honest, I don't know which one I prefer. Death or an eternal prisoner of the void.
That was a pretty damned hard choice but not one I will be choosing until I'm the last man standing.
My thoughts were pulled to a screeching halt as I felt the familiar energy of Tiamut and one of my universe being obliterated to fine dust which I'm pretty sure wasn't supposed to happen.