Chapter 147: Alien Legion VS Ultron Legion
Black Strange was an extremely dangerous fellow, and the life fluctuations emanating from his body were utterly chaotic and disordered.
"First time we've met. Welcome to the universe I'm about to control, Strange... If the aura you gave off didn't fall short of a multiversal level, I would have suspected you were an agent of the God of Chaos."
Du Wa sized up the Black Strange before him.
This guy was a real beast. To save the doomed Christine, he rebooted time again and again, trying every method only to fail, because Christine's death was a time node, a crucial pillar supporting the framework of the universe.
Black Strange, to gain enough power to change the universe, frantically devoured all sorts of demonic creatures. He probably didn't even know which universe those ghastly things came from. In the end, he used his skyrocketing power to shatter his entire universe, causing it to collapse into a singularity black hole.
It was a rare opportunity for him to be able to leave the singularity black hole and follow the Watcher on a grand parallel universe adventure.
"`God of Chaos`? Never heard of him. Does the Multiverse have such a god? Sounds like a rotten fellow just from the name." Black Strange was extremely agitated as he quickly surveyed the situation in Universe 199999.
"Forget the sharp decline in population, there are also many strange creatures running amok all over the world. Are they invaders from other planets, or an invasive species from another universe? Did you bring them here? Heh heh heh... it seems the Main Universe has also had major problems, with so many people dead. But the good news is, we should be thankful we don't see a bunch of Ultron robots killing people everywhere."
Black Strange let out a gloomy, strange laugh. "I take back what I just said. Using the Main Universe as a battlefield doesn't seem like such a bad thing. After all, this place is already in such a wretched state..."
*Voom!*
A soft hum, and a four-colored beam of light suddenly blasted over.
But Black Strange raised his hand at the same moment, creating a Ring of Raggadorr that blocked the attack head-on. The impact sent his figure staggering backward.
But he had indeed blocked it.
"Thanos, don't treat our guest like that." Du Wa's voice was transmitted from Thanos's body at the same time.
Thanos slowly lowered his hand and replied coldly, "He shouldn't insult this world with such an attitude. Even you, who is preparing to conquer this world, have never denigrated it in any way."
Even Du Wa hadn't done so. What gave this sorcerer, emanating an evil aura, the right? Was it because his eye circles were dark enough?
However, Black Strange's strength still put Thanos on alert. He had actually blocked the instantaneous blast from four Infinity Stones head-on.
Black Strange and the others were also observing the Thanos of Universe 199999.
"So that's how it is. The Main Universe's Thanos has become your servant, conqueror, from the inside out. My apologies, I misspoke." Black Strange chuckled deeply and even gave a mock bow.
He was beginning to understand Thanos's state. Two mental signatures emanated from one body; he was clearly under parasitic control. A strong sense of dread appeared deep in his eyes.
What horrified Black Strange even more was that the monsters running amok all over the world and the parasite inside Thanos were clearly of the same race.
So, the invaders of the Main Universe are a mysterious parasitic race? Which universe are they from?
He had once opened magic circles to summon and devour countless demonic creatures from various dimensions and universes, but he had never seen such a parasitic demonic creature.
"Thanos? I think I've heard of you. In my universe, you joined the Ravagers. I heard you're a great fighter. You even accepted my invitation to party on Midgard."
Among the group, the irreverent Thor was full of interest in Thanos.
In his universe, he, who loved to have fun, single-handedly turned Earth into the party center of the entire universe, and all sorts of characters came to Earth to dance.
"Enough, don't talk about your business. It was so awful, I regret ever observing your universe." Uatu sighed. Just recalling the scene made his eyes burn.
"The universes of the others are relatively more normal," Uatu said, pointing to the silent Gamora. "In her universe, she killed Thanos. How much more normal is that?"
"But Watcher, you still invited me in the end because I'm strong and can fight against powerful individuals from other universes. And I wanted to come," Thor retorted, looking eagerly at Du Wa and Thanos.
As for Thanos, Thor could tell at a glance that this guy was very strong, and he even wielded four Infinity Stones.
So, the person who could wield such a formidable character, an ordinary-looking Midgardian—just how strong could he be?
Even the numerous unknown creatures outside were under this Midgardian's control?
This was somewhat terrifying. He was valued by a being like the Watcher—who had observed many universes and evaluated all sorts of powerful individuals—to the point that the Watcher forcefully rejected Black Strange's suggestion and chose the crucial Main Universe as the battlefield...
"It seems our Watcher has placed his greatest hope of defeating Ultron on you, sir," the world-weary Black Panther said in a muffled voice. "I'm just worried about whether I can survive this battle. You might not believe this, but I have a universe to save."
Du Wa glanced at him, preliminarily confirming this guy's origin—the Black Panther who wasn't captured by Vision to be fed to Wanda. "His choice was correct. For example, if it were me, pacifying the zombie crisis in your homeland would be a very simple matter, and wouldn't have led to the entire universe becoming a poor man's version of a Zombie Universe."
A poor man's version... of a Zombie Universe?
"You mean, there's a *real* Zombie Universe? Such a terrifying zombie virus... in our universe, no matter how powerful an individual is, they turn into a zombie as soon as they're bitten. So other universes are also suffering from the Quantum Zombie Virus?"
Black Panther was stunned. He knew all too well what it was like to fight against zombies.
The zombies they encountered weren't the slow-moving, low-IQ types from some movies or TV shows, where at most a Tyrant or a Licker might pop out.
The zombies they faced all retained their memories, wisdom, and strength from before they died, but were dominated by hunger, rot, and madness, reduced to gluttonous beasts of desire. If it were just the unending sense of hunger and devouring, that would be one thing, but the zombie virus also gave the infected an extremely terrifying contagious property.
A zombie virus this terrifying had caused a universe to fall so quickly, yet in Du Wa's words, such a desperate, apocalyptic universe was merely a poor man's version of a Zombie Universe?
"The Quantum Zombie Virus you know of is a super-weakened version of the real zombie virus," Du Wa said. "I, on the other hand, know of another Zombie Universe. The zombie virus there is the truly terrifying thing. In just an instant, even the Creator Gods of that universe would be infected and dominated by hunger, even to the point of frantically launching wars of invasion against other universes."
The genuine zombies from the Zombie Universe, like Tony and the others, would even gather a group of intelligent zombies, work hard on R&D together, and after an arduous and epic period of seclusion, successfully create a space-time machine capable of breaking through to parallel universes, specifically to go to other universes to eat fresher humans.
Look, what a bunch of intelligent and hardworking zombies.
In comparison, the MCU's Quantum Zombie Virus was clearly much milder. The damage it caused to this cluster of universes was far less than the destruction the Zombie Universe wrought upon its surrounding universes.
"You seem to be very familiar with many universes, yet we've never heard your name."
Black Widow, who came from the universe that spawned Ultron with Six Gems, stared directly at the seemingly unremarkable human before her.
At this moment, Uatu said coldly, "Don't try to probe his true identity. He is not a person from this Multiverse as you understand it. What you see is merely a common avatar that he is controlling. He can create countless such avatars anytime, anywhere, and they don't necessarily have to be in human form."
This immediately piqued Black Strange's interest. "An avatar? Similar to the Creator Gods, one that can appear in many universes at the same time?"
"I haven't reached the level of the Creator Gods. They themselves are already a core component of the universe. As long as a universe is born, an avatar of theirs is bound to be born as well. This is a natural phenomenon of the Multiverse. I, on the other hand, need to manually create and deploy my avatars to specific points."
"Is that so... But there are many Multiverses? This is the first I'm hearing of it. Then this Main Universe beneath my feet isn't the kind of Main Universe I understand either?" Black Strange fell into deep thought. He clearly had a much stronger interest in knowledge and power he had never encountered before. In contrast, he couldn't muster much enthusiasm for the impending battle against Ultron with Six Gems to save the 'Multiverse'.
"There has only ever been one Multiverse. It's just that the Multiverse you understand is merely a cluster of universes within the true Multiverse, a component of the Multiverse." Uatu was getting anxious. "I can feel Ultron rushing over here at top speed. Are you all really not going to prepare the battlefield? For instance, by setting up a trap in advance."
The others, such as Captain Carter, Killmonger, and the rest, immediately became alert.
The topics Du Wa was discussing with Black Strange, Black Panther, Black Widow, and the others were too intense; they felt a bit out of place. But when it came to fighting, that was no problem at all.
Even if the opponent was an Ultron possessing six Infinity Stones—alright, in truth, these few people had no idea what the concept of having six Infinity Stones in hand even meant, because they had never even seen the full power of a single Infinity Stone.
It was a level that could not be assessed by the human brain.
"You all come from different universes and possess different powers, but at this moment, you share a common mission: to defeat Ultron and save more innocent worlds. Otherwise, all these universes will sooner or later be destroyed by Ultron. Some universes have already suffered its invasion."
The large-headed Uatu looked down at everyone present. "And now, Ultron has arrived."
Instantly, within the range of vision, vast, prism-like barriers appeared, as if a part of space itself had undergone an abnormal change.
This was the precursor to Ultron's spatial traversal. The next second, these prisms suddenly shattered, tearing open an immense hole.
Countless Ultron robots swarmed out from within.
"I originally thought the opponent would be a single person, but I didn't expect to have to deal with so many first. Perhaps I should have realized, it's an intelligent machine. It's only natural that it would create more robots to deplete our strength."
Captain Carter patted her shield. She couldn't deal with so many robots on her own. It all depended on how reliable these teammates were.
"Captain, I should remind you, this is just the number visible to the naked eye, a number that can be estimated," Black Widow said, her expression grim as she held the shield left behind by the Captain of her universe.
"What do you mean?" Captain Carter's brow furrowed. The time point of her universe was shortly after a skinny Steve had died, when World War II had not yet ended. She had absolutely no experience with or concept of the various major events where the Infinity Stones repeatedly appeared.
"It means that among the six Infinity Stones, there is one called the Reality Stone. It can warp reality at will. This means that if Ultron wishes, he can create an even greater number of robots," Gamora said coldly.
Captain Carter was taken aback, then gritted her teeth. "I can do this all day—no, for a whole week! Then we'll just snatch the Reality Stone from Ultron after the battle starts. That should solve the problem, right?"
"Actually, there's still a problem. It also has something called the Time Stone, which can use time reversal to resurrect the robots we kill. And even if we manage to pry the Time Stone away, unfortunately, it also has the Space Stone, which it can use to dispatch even more robots from other universes."
Du Wa spoke up, controlling this body that looked like an ordinary human, and chuckled softly. "In short, the best way to deal with it is to snatch all six Infinity Stones. On this point, Thanos, you are the main force. Use the Infinity Stones to fight the Infinity Stones. As for these Ultron robots, it would be troublesome to let these things run wild. Moreover, Ultron can transfer its consciousness to any robot at any time..."
A thought crossed Du Wa's mind. The next moment, the Xenomorphs scattered across the globe assembled instantly, swarming over like a tide to clash with the frantically pouring-in Ultron robots.
The sky, the ground, the ocean—everywhere were the figures of Xenomorphs and robots locked in brutal combat. This was an unprecedented war between races. From the instant of their first contact, the tempo of the war was pushed to a level that could only be described as madness, with more and more numbers constantly being thrown into the fray.
As far as the eye could see, the entire view was already filled with densely packed figures.
"Truly astonishing. Is this your legion? I imagine this certainly isn't your full strength, or you wouldn't be able to conquer this universe."
Black Strange exclaimed in amazement. "I had originally planned to buy everyone a drink before the battle and even carefully prepared a morale-boosting speech, because I really didn't trust the Watcher. But now, it seems that step can be skipped."
(end of chapter)