Garus closed his eyes. His mind expanded outward, sensing the shattered remains of the universe—what was once a vibrant, intricate cosmic tapestry now lay in ruins.
Where Earth of the Prime Universe once resided, a black hole now churned violently, expanding at a terrifying speed. In the blink of an eye, it had devoured the entire Milky Way and then collapsed into an impossibly small singularity.
Garus frowned. "Why is it happening this fast?"
"Time flows differently there," came the reply. "Over a year has already passed on that side."
"Is all we can do just… watch?" The Marvel Multiverse was gone. Was he to spend the rest of existence within the unfinished world embedded inside Frostmourne?
Moyu's form flickered between presence and absence, his tone half-joking, half-resigned. "What else is there to do? The universe will restart itself eventually. You don't need to worry too much—it just takes time. In the meantime, I'm handing this temple over to you. It's the key to controlling this new universe. Do me a favor and manage it well. I really don't want to go through this again."
Despite Moyu's light tone, Garus could hear the veiled threat beneath the words.
"What about you?" Garus's voice turned cold. "Who are you really? Are you just using me?"
Moyu threw up his hands in frustration. "You think I wanted to be in this mess? My father disappeared off who-knows-where, leaving me to clean up his cosmic screw-ups. TOAA and the Beyonders lost control. They're a threat to every other universe now. I'm just glad you showed up. And no—it wasn't me who brought you here. Honestly, I have no idea what you are. When I realized you didn't belong to any of the nine created realms, I built a system and embedded it in your consciousness. But that link is severed now."
Garus was stunned. "You didn't bring me to Azeroth?"
"Of course not. Who the hell knows how you ended up on Azeroth? All I do know is, you're not from my world—or any of the nine created ones."
Moyu had run every possible scan on Garus but found no signatures matching any known universe. Nothing.
A stray thought struck Moyu: If Father could build a micro-universe in the lab… could someone else have done the same? What if Garus came from one of those?
He shook the thought away. Whatever. I've got bigger things to worry about—like tracking down Father and making him pay up.
Garus had more questions—why he vanished for a time, if there was any way back to his world, whether his parents were still alive. But before he could speak, Moyu waved him off.
"Later. I'm heading back. The multiverse is yours now."
Before Garus could protest, Moyu's form went fully transparent, and he was gone.
"…What the hell was that? In a hurry to reincarnate or something?"
Just then, Garus sensed something—an anomaly in space. He reached into a sudden tear beside him and pulled out a radiant orb of white light.
"You bastard! Let me go!" a furious voice bellowed from within.
It was TOAA—the One Above All—reset and reformatted by Moyu. Although stripped of his control over the Marvel Universe, his self-awareness had survived the purge.
Garus ignored the cries. He stuffed the orb into the universe housed within Frostmourne, where the Soul Stone would be more than happy to keep TOAA company.
What now? The multiverse had been utterly obliterated. Was there anything—anyone—left?
Then, he saw it. A new universe—freshly born—formed from the fusion of several old ones. Survivors gathered there, building anew.
A name surfaced in Garus's mind: Battleworld.
It had been forged by God Emperor Doom, using the power of multiple Molecule Men drawn from nearly every parallel universe, combined with fragments of Beyonder essence.
Garus had once believed the Molecule Man to be unique. Now, he saw it had all been a lie. A grand manipulation. But one of the Molecule Men—the strongest—had refused to obey the Beyonders.
Doom's achievement wasn't small either. He had become a creator. Even the most powerful Molecule Man, stronger than Doom himself, had fallen under his control.
"Hey, Garus," the Soul Stone chimed in. "Don't forget the temple. Use it. You can control Battleworld with that thing. Doom won't stand a chance against you."
"Hmm?"
Garus began storing the temple, ready to leave—but paused, eyes narrowing as he locked onto something. There was nothing visible, yet a strange presence stirred in that space. It wasn't alive. But it wasn't undead, either.
"Show yourself!" he snapped, sealing off the space.
A figure burst forth, suddenly enlarging—a tattered humanoid wearing a grotesque red suit.
A shriek followed. "Raaagh!"
It looked… zombified. Horrific. Ravaged.
Zombie Ant-Man?
Garus remembered. That alternate reality. He had encountered this being before. It made sense—surviving the collapse of the multiverse would take immense cunning. Somehow, this version of Ant-Man had evaded Death itself.
Without hesitation, Garus drew forth the Heart of the Universe and purged the zombie virus from him. Ant-Man returned to normal.
But Garus didn't remove the Pym Particles from his body. Instead, he extracted a portion for study. The fabled Quantum Realm intrigued him. He had a hunch it might hold the secret to returning home.
"Soul Stone, can we fuse Battleworld into my Frostmourne universe using the temple?"
"Of course," it said with excitement. "Just add the Heart of the Universe. That way, your universe will stabilize rapidly—and the temple will give you full control. This is going to be glorious."
"Good. Do it. Merge Battleworld—and then we find a way home. I think I'm finally onto something."
Before Ant-Man could even speak, Garus tossed him into the Frostmourne universe for safekeeping.
Inside, Garus reunited with Wanda and the others, explaining what had happened. He didn't want them to worry.
The destruction of the old universe—and the appearance of this new, alien realm—left them stunned.
Was this truly the same man they knew? Had Garus really become this powerful?
"I'm heading out," he said at last. "Oh, and one more thing: there's a temple on a microplanet orbiting in deep space. No one—no one—is to enter. I've placed guardians there. If anything goes wrong, I'm not responsible."
His tone turned deadly serious—so much so that the others stared at him in silence. None had ever seen him this severe.
The temple was now bound to his universe. It was the control mechanism. If someone tampered with it, they could trigger another reboot.
Though much of the authority over Battleworld remained in God Emperor Doom's hands due to the system reset, Garus planned to take it all back.
Trying to lighten the mood, Wanda offered, "Alright. I'll have people monitor the area. No one's getting close. But… what about the politicians still left on Earth?"
"Unify them by force," Garus said flatly. "After that, we'll make further arrangements."
Truth be told, as long as no one crossed a line, Garus didn't care to get involved. His very existence disrupted balance.
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TN: This fanfic has been fully translated and is available on my Patreon —— PATREON.COM / PRIMALDEMON