As it turned out, Doomsday's evolutionary ability was not just shown in terms of raw power, her constantly activating passive ability allowed her to absorb talents from those around her much like a sponge absorbing water.
Due to a shared love for video games, Helen frequently visited Schiller's clinic and convalescent home, often playing with various Spidermen and yellow-skinned rodents. Having spent much time with Schiller, she had reaped the benefits of his skills.
Next, Helen demonstrated her tactics to Strange on how to fleece the Demon God with the highest efficiency to fill up her own stomach.
She set up two different portals in two different rooms, with the aim to bully the weak and fear the strong. One of the portals catered to the Literary Faction. In simple terms, this meant that once demons that could not be completely exterminated or swallowed came, they would sit down to talk terms.
The content of the deal was negotiable, the key was to manipulate the rules and contracts. Although few demons were idiots, getting one fooled would be a win.
For those who couldn't be fooled, they could pay in installments and if possible, procrastinate. Once she became strong enough, she could simply default on payment. Whoever dared to come collect would get punched into oblivion.``
The other portal catered to the Martial Faction. It specifically selected some demons that had nothing to do with the rules and did not affect the universe's structure. However, Helen did not, like Strange, swallow the whole. She would cut as much as was stretched out, dismissing the rest. There was no need to finish in one gulp.
Helen seriously explained to Strange: "Even my digestive ability is limited. If I eat too much at once I have to concentrate on digestion, and that time is completely wasted."
"Instead, I could take small bites and digest slowly. Not only does it not affect the combat effectiveness to fleece next time, but as long as the sheep are alive, there will always be wool. If you let them go now, you could summon them back after some time and have another bite, can't you?"
"But they're not that stupid." said Strange, "You summon them over this time, consume their energy, will they still come next time?"
"Of course not, which is why we should manipulate the summoning formation." Helen said confidently with her arms crossed, "If this IP address is blacklisted, won't you switch to another? If you can't cheat one, then create ten accounts. If they dare to accept summons again, they are bound to lose wool."
And so, Strange gradually mastered the skills. In truth, there was nothing difficult about it, Strange had been obsessing over the wrong things.
Previously, in his haste to save his girlfriend, he shoved everything he saw into his mouth, absorbing as much energy as he could and disregarding what he couldn't. Sustainability was not a concept he had considered.
But now thinking about it, there was no need to be so anxious. As long as he could accumulate enough energy for his physical body to undergo a qualitative change, he would have a certain degree of immortality. Even if he tried once a day, he still had an infinite amount of time at his disposal.
If that was the case, gorging on too much energy, causing his own burst or too much consumption leading to the destruction of the cosmos, would then be quite the unfavorable scenario. Once the goal shifted from saving his girlfriend to forever being by her side, the waiting didn't seem unbearable.
Once he had understood this, Strange felt as if he had been enlightened. One moment he was in front of the giant image of the demon, negotiating terms and the next he was leaping in front of the portal, slicing off the limbs of demons reaching out with his golden magic whip.
Before long, Strange was standing in the middle of the library hall, rejuvenated.
His body was brimming with abundant energy, with faint magical brilliance spilling out from his eyes, nose, and mouth. His arms spread slightly apart, the energy dissipating from the periphery was re-absorbed into his body as he clenched his fists. The refined light sparked in his pupils.
Strange landed and Helen and the others cheered and ran over to him. Strange knelt halfway and touched Helen's head, he looked into her eyes and said, "Thank you, I don't know how to express my gratitude."
"You can't possibly think that this is the end, can you?" Helen crossed her arms, and with a raised eyebrow, she said, "You're still far from it."
Then she continued to pace in front of Strange, thinking and speaking at the same time, "The so-called absolute time point, is actually a time-loop on the timeline of a certain universe. The main reason why you can't break this cycle is because you are a grasshopper on this line, no matter how hard you struggle, you are but a grain of sand in the river of time, you must go downstream with the flow."
"To break the cycle, you have to become the person on the shore," Helen stopped pacing, looked up at Strange, and said," And the only way to do so is to upgrade."
Strange frowned, he silently waited for Helen to say more, Helen took the clue and said, "Iron Man in our universe became the Iron Demon God through his wisdom and enough energy, I think you can do the same."
"Firstly, you are already a Supreme Magician, which means you have the top magical talent in the entire universe. Your status in the universe is not much frail compared to Iron Man's wisdom. So, the difference between you two lies in energy."
"How much energy did your father use to upgrade?" Strange asked, seizing the key point.
"An enormous, enormous, enormous, enormous amount." Helen said repeatedly. She shook her head slowly and said, "That in our universe was a gluttonous feast alas, I was not born then, or I would have shown them the power of the biggest vacuum cleaner."
Strange opened his mouth to speak, then stopped. Helen could see what he wanted to say, she shook her head again, "I'm afraid we do not have the conditions to host such a feast right now, it requires the right time, place, people and even more significantly we need a Doctor Schiller, who is not here presently."
"However, I think we have a way to get you enough energy, it all depends on whether you have the guts."
Strange squinted his eyes.
Ten minutes later, Harley "smacked" a book onto the ground, and everyone leaned over to take a look.
Through the gaps between their heads, they could see numerous terrifying images drawn in the book, along with densely-packed text that was overwhelming to take in all at once.
A slightly childish hand rested on the page of the book, then slid down, and Helen began to speak: "The Outer Gods, also known as the Call from the Depths of the Stars, are a group of mysterious, powerful beings whose existence has almost no relation to cosmic rules, and their properties can absolutely be used to our advantage."
Helen licked her lips, and seemingly involuntarily swallowed, as though reminiscing about a delicious meal. Pondering, she said: "For the average person, everything related to this deity system is taboo, and just one glance could cause madness. However, I believe we can grasp the principles of it and utilize the aspects that can be used; just as poison is often used to cure certain diseases."
Strange focused intently on the content of the Necronomicon and turned to Helen, saying: "Explain in detail."
"Firstly, in the legends about the Outer Gods, it is documented that those who have witnessed their forbidden knowledge have subsequently gone mad, and if we consider the previously mentioned theory about brainwaves, could it possibly be that the knowledge-carrying radio waves transmitted by the Outer Gods have disrupted human brainwaves, therefore inciting madness?"
"If that's the case, could we potentially block these knowledge-transmitting radio waves, or use them to locate the Outer Gods, so as to gain power from them?"
"Would they form a contract with humans?"
"Most of them wouldn't." Harley shook her head and stated: "I've read through this entire book, and the majority of Outer Gods exist in an unconscious state, much like mindless stars. There are a few, however, that show interest in humans and will respond to human summons. Their intentions are unclear and they typically engage solely for amusement."
"Our targets should be those insensible and oblivious Outer Gods. Since they're senseless and chaotic, they probably wouldn't even notice if we were to draw a bit of power from them, right?"
Strange nodded, indicating he understood Helen and the others' plans. After considering it for a moment, he said: "In other words, some of the Outer Gods are essentially clusters of power with a built-in self-defense mechanism. Their consciousness and thoughts are inscrutable to orderly life forms, but their power can be harnessed by us."
"So, what we need to do is bypass their self-defense mechanism and obtain their power, correct?"
Helen and Harley both nodded. Helen recalled the power she had felt from the Demon God that had originally responded to Strange's summoning formation.
She turned to Strange and asked, "Which evil god were you initially trying to summon?"
Strange hesitated for a moment before staying silent. As soon as Harley's eyes narrowed, he finally spoke under her intense scrutiny: "I sensed a presence, a very special one. It was powerful, dangerous, but I needed its power."
"Who?"
"The Eye Devil Shuma."
After taking a deep breath, Strange let it out in a sigh. "I've seen how he confronted The Ancient One. In my eyes, my old master is the most powerful human in our cosmos. However, even she seemed somewhat helpless against Shuma."
Harley immediately dived onto the huge book on the floor. She flipped a few pages, and a familiar image appeared before them.
The image depicted a Demon God created from tentacles, one with a round eye in the center. In the records of the Necronomicon, the god wasn't named Shuma·Gras but rather the Eye of Destruction, the Omnipotent Ruler of Polythoth.
Moving up the lineage, Polythoth's father was Curse Xie Kun, referred to as the Dark Silent, leading the Old Day Dominator who was lauded as the Pure Darkness.
Taking it a step further, its kin further up the tree were Ubo·Sasla, known as the Sourceless Source and the Ultimate Ancestor God, believed to be the progenitor of all life on Earth.
Upon reading the description of Ubo·Sasla, everyone realized that it epitomized the concept of a 'blind and foolish' Outer God. It was a vast mass of primordial matter, existing between the physical and ethereal realms, without any consciousness of its own, merely continually splitting off nondescript life forms.
Reading this description, Helen rubbed her hands together. Her eyes were as excited as if she'd seen fresh meat for the taking. Unfortunately, the Necronomicon did not record how to communicate with this primordial Outer God, nor did it provide a corresponding summoning array.
That is to say, if they wanted to connect with Ubo·Sasla, they would likely still need to pass through Polythoth and its father Curse Xie Kun. Although Ubo·Sasla might not be as aggressive, the Eye of Destruction and Pure Darkness were not so easily trifled with.
The situation had circled back to the beginning, how were they to bypass the rampant attacks of the Old Day Dominators in order to obtain their power?
At that moment, Helen suggested a possibility. She proposed: "Could we simulate brain waves through magnetic fields, create a decoy to attract the attack of the Old Day Dominators, and then sneak attack from behind?"