The Hammer of Judgment struck Ashborn dead-on, sending him rocketing through the void… Yet, there was no damage.
A stunned silence followed.
"W-what?" The Living Tribunal's voice trembled with disbelief, his eyes narrowing as he looked down at the hammer in his grasp… And then, it hit him.
His cosmic senses expanded, analyzing the battle, tracing back every action Ashborn had taken. He had done nothing wrong. Or rather, he had been allowed to do everything he did.
The balance of existence had indeed been shaken, but most of the destruction had been in self-defense. The Tribunal could not pass judgment on a being that had merely fought to survive.
A long silence stretched between them as the Tribunal deliberated. He could still act. He could throw the hammer aside and erase Ashborn by sheer force alone. But as he gripped his hammer, considering that very thought…
…he found that he couldn't.
A deep sigh left him. He turned, preparing to depart, yet just as he did—his senses flared, catching something.
A gateway to the Far Shore tore open, a rift in existence itself, and from its depths, a force shot forward, aiming straight for Ashborn. The Living Tribunal watched, his expression unreadable, contemplating whether to intervene. For a brief moment, he considered ignoring it—letting fate take its course. But in the end, he made his choice.
BOOM.
The Hammer of Judgment came crashing down, colliding against the incoming force.
"DON'T YOU DARE!" The Living Tribunal roared, his three voices merging into one, his golden aura flaring as he clashed with Oblivion itself.
But this time… something was different. In the past, the Tribunal had bested Oblivion, beaten it back into the void where it belonged. This time, Oblivion did not flee.
The full might of the Void surged forth, pressing against the Tribunal with an intensity unlike anything before. The Tribunal staggered, his grip on his hammer tightening. For the first time in eons, he was being forced back.
His rage erupted. "YOU DARE!" All three heads of the Living Tribunal spoke at once. The cloth that had long covered the two hidden faces was suddenly torn away, revealing their true forms… And with them, a power unlike anything the multiverse had ever felt before.
"In the name of the One Above All, I revoke your right to ever step beyond the Far Shore!" The Living Tribunal roared, his three faces glowing with celestial authority as existence itself bent to his decree.
BOOM.
A force unlike any other surged forth, shifting the very laws of reality, binding Oblivion, and hurling it back into the Far Shore, a realm from which it should never have emerged. But then… Oblivion ignored the laws.
CRACK.
Reality fractured as the primordial void forcefully willed itself back into existence. The Tribunal's command, an absolute law upon which the multiverse stood, was shattered as if it were nothing. And in the midst of it all, Ashborn ran.
By now, he could move again, and he was fleeing as fast as possible, wanting nothing to do with a battle of this scale. This was beyond him.
"YOU!" The Living Tribunal's rage erupted, golden energy surging as he turned his fury toward Oblivion. How dare it? Who was he? He was the LAW. The absolute force of balance.
The cosmic judge of existence. And yet… Oblivion was his counterpart. His equal. For too long, Oblivion had never fought back with its full might. For too long, it had let itself be pushed away with ease. And the reason? It had never seen the time as "right" for the End to arrive.
A battle that shook existence itself began, as Oblivion refused to relent, its will absolute—it wanted Ashborn dead at all costs. The Living Tribunal, the embodiment of the law of existence, would not allow such a disruption, for no one could defy the balance he upheld.
Their clash sent shockwaves rippling across all of reality, shaking the very foundation of creation as forces beyond comprehension collided in an all-out war of cosmic magnitude.
Despite his best efforts to remain uninvolved, Ashborn quickly found himself caught in the chaos. The battlefield was beyond the limits of space and time, stretching across creation.
Then, it happened.
A deep, resounding CRACK echoed through the Omniverse as fractures spread across the fabric of existence. These weren't mere disruptions in space or time, but something far worse—something that shouldn't have been possible. The Omniverse itself, the highest concept of all that was, had begun to break apart.
(Fun Fact: Eternity is considered to be an omniverse instead of a multiverse. So, in the comic when Odin tora the fabric of the multiverse, that wasn't a multiversal-level feat.)
And before Ashborn could react, before he could even consider escaping, one of those cracks expanded and swallowed him whole.
The Living Tribunal, despite noticing this, did nothing. His duty was to the balance, not to individuals, and he would not waste his power protecting someone. His golden gaze remained fixed upon the abyss, unmoved, indifferent to Ashborn's fate.
But then… A sudden burst of golden flames erupted into the void, flooding the darkness with divine radiance.
The True Form of the Phoenix Force had arrived.
Unlike its many lesser manifestations, this was the Phoenix in its purest, most absolute state, and it moved with purpose, reaching out with an unparalleled surge of power, seeking to pull Ashborn back from the unknown.
Yet, despite its immeasurable might… It was too late. For some unknown reason, the crack in reality vanished. Not just the one that had taken Ashborn… But all of them.
Across every plane of existence, every dimension, every reality, the fractures that had threatened to unravel creation were erased in an instant, as if they had never existed to begin with.
Oblivion, the Living Tribunal, and the Phoenix Force all froze in place, their titanic struggle forgotten as an unsettling realization settled over them.
Their eyes turned, not toward the multiverse, not toward the Outside, not even toward the Far Shore where the primordial void loomed, but beyond. Far beyond.
The House of Ideas.
(A/N: I hated how the fact the Living Tribunal was defeated so easily by the 3 Beyonder. TLT would have 3 forms mainly because of his name, which is the Heart Of Creation. Another thing that is linked to this name is the White Hot Room, also known as the Heart Of Creation, which exists beyond everything. The two would be linked, as well as the Living Tribunal and the true form of the Phoenix force.)