He shook his head and added, "I assumed that Iron Man's device would be reliable. I thought I could comfortably sit inside it, watching both of them fight. Instead, it ended up getting blown away. My luck is just terrible."
"But what's the point?" Mephisto asked, "You dragged them here to fight, and then what?"
"Then what? Aren't you quite enjoying the fireworks show right now?" Shiller responded with laughter, pointing towards the distance, "Despite the blast, the spectacle is much bigger than I had anticipated."
Mephisto, however, squinted and stared unwaveringly at Shiller.
Shiller sighed slightly, "Ok, fine. There is an additional plan, just a little extra one."
Mephisto frowned and wore a skeptical expression.
Clearing his throat, Shiller nodded, "Okay, maybe it's a little bigger than you imagined."
Suddenly, a painful shout came from the pile of asteroid debris, causing both Shiller and Mephisto to turn their heads. They saw a figure in a purple bodysuit and green vest crawling out of a pile of white, sticky liquid.
"Oh, damn, what is this gooey stuff? It's disgusting!" Molecule Man Owen exclaimed.
After struggling free from the sticky mess, Owen lifted his head, saw Shiller and, surprised, flew towards him like a drowning man grabbing at a lifeline.
Mephisto was about to intercept him, but Shiller gave him a shake of the head. Owen arrived without obstruction, looking desperately at Shiller, "The Transcendent aims to obliterate all universes. I've come to alert you. I heard you're powerful, think of something quickly!!!"
Shiller patted an empty space next to him, "Calm down first, sit down and tell me slowly."
"There's no time, I ...."
"Let me guess, you have finally realized you're a clone, mass-produced. And you've caught a glimpse of part of the Transcendent's plan through the link with the creator. Then you heard my name from the gods of the larger world and thought that since I can threaten so many rule-governing gods, I naturally might have a solution against the Transcendent. So, you wanted to find me, but you thought searching for one human among all living beings would be too laborious. So you wanted to learn about my whereabouts from the five major gods in this universe ...."
Owen stared at Shiller, dumbfounded.
Shiller sighed, "Mr. Molecule Man, I suppose you know there is a mutant named Professor X?"
Owen reacted immediately, looking at Shiller in shock, "You can read minds? But Professor X is human, he should be on Earth!"
"He is currently in the Andromeda Galaxy. Yes, I know it's quite far from here. But haven't you considered the possibility that the level of technological development across different universes is unequal? The brain wave amplifiers in our universe are now capable of covering such a vast distance."
"What?!"
"And not to mention, we've met before. Do you recall the Dark Elf in the bar who claimed to understand humans very well?"
"You mean that informer?"
"Yes, that was actually me. Well, another me. His body is that of the Skrulls, capable of transforming into any race."
The look of astonishment on Owen's face was about to split open. He spread his hands in front of Shiller, "Then why didn't you come find me before?!"
"Didn't I just come?"
"I mean why didn't you come sooner?!"
Shiller looked up at him and asked seriously, "Don't you feel that something is off about you?"
"I... what's wrong with me?" Owen looked down at himself, looking lost.
"There is something wrong with your brainwaves."
"What?!" A look of fear flashed across Owen's face.
"You are the Transcendent."
Owen seemed like he was being choked, clutching his throat and rolling his eyes back in his head.
"Alright, cut the act, Mr. Transcendent. The moment you entered Professor X's brainwave range, you exposed yourself. You are not Molecule Man Owen at all. You have just dressed up like him, trying to gain my trust."
"Regrettably, you shouldn't have run around the cosmos recklessly. Eventually, you ended up on the Professor X's territory. He understood your intentions, came to my mental world and informed me about it."
Owen slowly released his hand, rolled his eyes back, dropped his hand and looked at Shiller. His expression couldn't be called indifferent, but rather pure curiosity.
"You've heard about me long ago, haven't you?" Shiller cocked his head and asked.
"You're really interesting." The Transcendent said.
"You don't really want to destroy the cosmos. You just let out the news to scare me, to see what I would do. And do you know why I didn't expose you out?"
Upon seeing Shiller's brief surprise, the Transcendent's eyes flickered with a different light. He tilted his head and asked, "You've changed personality, how should I address you? How do you call yourself?"
"We are all Shiller, but you can call me Greed." Shiller gestured the Transcendent to come closer, and he did.
"You've seen through my scheming, so why didn't you expose me and just kept going along with my plan to save the cosmos?"
"Because I realized that you're developing an interest in human nature."
"What do you mean?"
Greed fixed his stare on the Transcendent with gleaming eyes, as if he was looking at a dazzling gemstone, saying, "Your curiosity about how I would react implies that you're harboring expectations towards intelligent life reactions to a certain thing."
"Before I found out about your plan, I indeed planned on annihilating you. But after Professor X told me your real intentions, I used a Skrulls' body to meet you."
"Then I realized that you're not against me, but are still growing, trying to take on this path."
The Transcendent swiveled around and sat next to Shiller. Pointing at the enthusiastically fighting Iron Man, Shiller asked, "Do you find this appealing?"
"Do you refer to it as fireworks? But I've seen things much more brilliant than this, like the explosion of the cosmos."
"No, it's just a celebration. What I'm pointing at is the preceding anger, entanglement, sorrow, despair, the surging mirth and love, and the diverse wonderful reactions they give birth to."
The Transcendent stared at the battle scene and turned his head to Shiller, saying, "The one that started because of you..."
"Don't you feel honored?"
The Transcendent shook his head, "This isn't my doing."
"Then why not do it?"
The Transcendent squinted his eyes. Shiller smiled sincerely at him, but that made him even more inscrutable. Thus, he asked: "It seems like you already have a plan. What do you want to do?"
"Let you grow continuously, abandon forever the tedious evolution of the cosmos, and find eternal joy in the infinite desires and emotions."
"On contrary to my kin?"
"They're not your kin," Shiller said, looking at the Transcendent with sparkling eyes, "I am."
"Why are you so confident?" The Transcendent was puzzled, "Why do you think I'd betray my kin? Not observing the changes in the nature and rules of the cosmos anymore?"
"Because I know you'll walk this path."
"What do you want to do?"
"I have a splendid idea."
The Iron Men fighting fiercely suddenly heard a familiar voice from the battlefield's centre, "Stop! Everyone stop fighting and let me explain!"
Everyone stopped tacitly, all staring at Shiller with a look that read, "if you don't give us an explanation we will all gang up on you."
Shiller stood silently in his place. Just as Stark was about to ask what was going on, a strange voice echoed in the minds of countless superheroes across this cosmos, multiple other cosmoses, and the endless cosmos itself.
"Battleworld has opened. All chosen ones will head to Battleworld - New Earth in three days. Use your wisdom, courage, and unity, uphold your honor, and fight for your cosmos."
"Please remember that only transcendence can lead to rebirth under the destruction caused by transcendence itself. Win this secret war and bring about a new life for all the cosmos!"