"Huh?"
After being stunned for a few seconds, Shiller turned his attention to Adam, an image flickered from the deepest corners of his memory archive; the warlock Adam, a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
He wasn't a particularly obscure character in Marvel, even mentioned in the Guardians of the Galaxy film series. Although he wasn't as well-known as Thanos, he was occasionally mentioned.
His backstory was simple, a creation of the Enclave Company. His abilities were nothing unique. If it hadn't been for turning into the host of the Court of Adam Life during the Oblivion event, his relevance wouldn't even rate higher than some of New York's secondary heroes.
It was only after considerable thought that Shiller remembered he was referring to Warlock Adam, primarily because the Adam before him bore little resemblance to his comic book and film depictions.
Currently, half of Adam's cloak was tattered, skewed hanging behind him, his clothes torn at the chest. Even the intact patches were smeared with dust. His face was scorched with char marks, and his right cheek appeared to be bruised and swollen, as if he'd been punched.
More importantly, his expression was a mix of self-despair, resentment, confusion, and even a hint of self-pity.
Shiller wasn't sure about the connection between Adam of this universe and the Court of Adam's Life, but he thought even Warlock Adam shouldn't be in such a deplorable state.
"Hello, Mr. Adam. Let's discuss the Pope later. What happened to you?"
Shiller was curious. From Adam's ability to breach his defences, ignoring the Oblivion envoys, it could be inferred that he had some connection with the Court of Life. But then his appearance was even more puzzling–who could reduce the universe administrators to such state?
Adam, flustered, stared stonily at Shiller, his silence screamed, "And you dare to ask?".
Shiller coughed lightly and said sincerely, "Recently, I've been staying here doing nothing. You surely don't think all the chaos in the universe has something to do with me?"
Adam's eyes widened even more, his eye muscles twitching and his mouth corners downcast, the look of reproach was evident on his face that seemed to say, "How could you utter such cold words with warm lips?".
Shiller tilted his head slightly and looked away. "Well, let's see. It is possible, with a minor and indirect, coincidental connection at some small segment of some part of my plan that is non-lethal, to your unfortunate predicament."
Adam opened his mouth, seemingly at a loss for words–he had no idea how to narrate the sequence of events he encountered.
Blaming Shiller seemed incorrect; besides being the cause, Shiller didn't involve himself intentionally, impacting him. But blaming himself was unappealing too; as it makes him look like an imbecile, and it would seem like he messed up, even having the end solution in his grasp.
But Adam didn't believe he had made any mistakes; he had checked the timelines carefully before executing any actions, ensured that nothing was overlooked, handled situations smoothly, and even in chaos, he tried his best to maintain composure. How did he end up in this situation?
Was he truly an imbecile?
None would willingly admit to being an imbecile. At this juncture, Adam highly required acknowledgment, and thus he sought out Shiller in his perturbed state.
Shiller had devised numerous grand schemes, always achieving perfect success. How was it impossible to emulate during his execution?
The more Adam dwelt on it, the more aggrieved he became. Deciding to abandon explanations, he swung open the doors to Shiller's Tower of Thought, yelling as he pounded the doors, "Shiller! I hereby formally appoint you as my pope! Open up, don't pretend ignorance. I know Khonsu and Yemengade are in your brain. Open the door! Let me in!!!"
Shiller was astounded. This man was sliding down slippery slopes!
Nonetheless, Shiller let him enter the Tower of Thought, bringing Strange and Whirlpool along into his mental Tower. Together, they entered the theatre.
Adam promptly strode to the front row and took a seat, completely at ease. He glanced over his shoulder at the unhurried Shiller and felt a perverse satisfaction, figuring that he too wouldn't be able to remain so relaxed after witnessing the chaos in the universe.
However, considering that his fretting might bode ill for himself and the universe, he nervously said, "Just so we're clear. No matter what you're about to see, you can't blow up this universe or use it to blow up anything else."
Shiller looked at Adam incredulously, "Mr. Adam, there must have been misunderstandings regarding my conducts…."
Adam coldly huffed, "I hope it is indeed a misunderstanding."
Shiller took the seat left to Adam while Strange sat to his left. Strange sighed as soon as he settled down, "It seems quite interesting things happened outside while we were at the end of time."
"More than just interesting." Whirlpool's murmur echoed from the back row.
Soon, images began to reflect onto the theatre's projection screen, Adam started to show Shiller the occurring events in the universe.
He didn't start with the cause of the events but directly showed the damage caused in Shi'a Empire's Grand Teleportation Star Zone.
Shiller, again taken aback, looked at the endless worm nests on the screen in confusion, "Is this our universe? Where did these insects come from?"
"Hold on!" Shiller's eyes widened slightly. He compared the images in his memory and the slight differences in it. Then he asked, "They look somewhat like the Oblivion worms. Who released them?"
Strange immediately snapped his head to glare at Shiller. Shiller looked back, looking confused, "Eh, don't look at me. I haven't even put my plan into action yet."
"You better not have."
"I really didn't!"
Strange squinted his eyes, presenting a skeptical expression, while Schiller lowered his head and muttered, "I didn't...did I?"
"Schiller!" shouted Strange with a raised voice: "Did one of your alternate personalities escape again?"
"Don't be absurd, they're not interested in this stuff," Schiller responded absent-mindedly as he thought, glancing over his notebook. "I don't think I've put my plan into action yet? Could I have sleepwalked it?"
"Are you planning to use me as your alibi again?" Strange warned.
Suddenly he tensed up, looking at the hand he's lost, fearfully screaming at Schiller, "Didn't you orchestrate this too? Schiller Rodriguez!"
"I..." Schiller choked a little, then retorted, "Do you really think I could make you willingly sever your own hand?"
"Why are you acting like you've never done something like this before? Isn't everything going according to your plans?
Schiller pursed his lips, moved his gaze away, and said, "Believe it or not, I didn't do it this time."
"So you're admitting that everything before was your doing?"
"Do you really think you're any smarter than that imbecile Tony Stark in unveiling my plot and grilling me about it, Stephen Strange?"
Adam intentionally cleared his throat loudly as if to say "Can anyone spare me some attention?"
Schiller was the first to turn to him, "Aren't you going to tell us what's going on, Mr. Adam?"
"This indeed is our universe, and what you see are indeed the Destroying Worms, but to explain why they are here, we need to start from the beginning."
The images on the theatre's screen began to rapidly rewind along with Adam's narration, highlighting faces one after another, Reed, Bruce Banner, Betty, Gwen, Peter, Shadow Spider-Man, Nick, and finally Schiller himself.
"This is an absolute frame-up!" Schiller slapped the armrest of his seat: "What does this have to do with me?"
Yet, the images that followed rendered Schiller silent. He was shown leaving after Strange, while Nick was scrutinizing the modified plan of action that Eddie had brought from Schiller, saying with utter solemnity: "This might be the hint that Schiller left for me..."
"I didn't, it's not me, stop making things up!"
Soon after, Nick summoned the killer Spider-Men, Shadow Spider-Man and the others, to act as assassins, carrying out the purge he perceived from Schiller's plan.
Noticing Strange's increasingly angry stares, Schiller widened his eyes and raised his hands in surrender, saying, "Blame Nick for overthinking things. Fine, even if his thoughts coincidentally aligned with mine, I didn't command him..."
Afterwards, the screen focused on the face of George. Due to the appearance of the Shadow Spider-Man, Gwen's father George tracked down Schiller's hideout in Hell's Kitchen because of Hugie's death case.
By now, Strange's expression towards Schiller clearly read, "You still dare say it wasn't you?"
Schiller also frowned. Even if it had been a coincidence, wasn't it all too convenient? Was everything really going according to his plan?
What followed left both Schiller and Strange dumbfounded.
George did find the clues left by Schiller, but his focus was entirely off. He did find out that Gwen might have had a romantic relationship with Spider-Man, but he mistook her former lover to be the deceased first-generation Spider-Man.
James, the leader of the haters, was mumbling about the ghost of Spider-Man and with the help of the Overton window effect, George quickly accepted the fact that Peter Parker was the third-generation Spider-Man and was currently dating his daughter.
"That worked?" exclaimed a shocked Schiller.
Strange snorted at him and looked away, his actions clearly saying "keep pretending."
What transpired next was even more ludicrous. Unable to bear her father's incessant babbling, Gwen went to Los Angeles to meet Peter.
However, Stark who was originally vacationing with Pepper in Los Angeles became embroiled in Loki's honey trap. This led to Thor seeking him out. Both of them, one turned into an Iron Demon God and the other became King of Brightness, started to battle in front of a group of Multiverse Spider-Men.
This universe's Nine Major Kingdoms had an abundance of energy, so their fights always included impressive special effects. Regardless of the actual damage, the light and shadow effects alone were enough to make it seem like the cosmos was about to be destroyed, scaring the Spider-Men.
"Very good," Strange turned to Schiller and said, "You've achieved your multiverse-level target. Now their notoriety is going to spread across the Multiverse."