Chapter 167: Not as Good as the Previous Universe's Designation
Thanos stood motionless. Although the power of Infinity still swirled around him, his body had already suffered widespread annihilation.
Most of his body was permanently necrotic, destroyed by Du Wa on a fundamental level of being. Normally, Thanos's life would be on a countdown. Even if no one else did anything to him, it wouldn't be long before he would die.
He was now holding on by a thread, sustained only by his formidable life force.
Appearing before Thanos, Du Wa reached out and took the Infinity Sword from his hand. After a moment of sensing the divine artifact's power, he casually tossed it aside, showing no particular attachment.
In the end, it was merely a divine artifact meant to complement the Infinity Stones.
*Swish!*
Du Wa placed his hand on Thanos's Infinity Gauntlet and pulled off the three Infinity Stones.
Just like that, all six Infinity Stones were obtained by a single person. In the history of this universe, such a thing had never happened before.
But no god found this particularly inconceivable. The gathering of the six Infinity Stones wasn't even as shocking as Du Wa's promotion to a concept god.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Du Wa moved to save Thanos. His method of treatment was to bestow a Xenomorph upon Thanos on the spot.
A divine-level art was activated—a forced boon.
Du Wa glanced at Thanos, and a Xenomorph larva was implanted in Thanos's chest, turning him into its host.
In an instant, the Xenomorph's genes fused with Thanos's, sustaining Thanos's rapidly fading life.
Du Wa was extending his own concept, attempting to replace Death's control over Thanos.
This action was extremely bold, causing all the gods to widen their eyes. This was a clash between two concept gods.
"Death will definitely win, right? Although they're both concept gods, Death has accumulated over ten billion years in this universe. How could a newborn god like Du Wa possibly contend with that?"
"It's not just about that. In terms of cosmic positioning, the concept of Death is clearly higher than Du Wa's Xenomorph concept. The universe can exist without Du Wa and Xenomorphs, but it absolutely cannot exist without death and an end."
Moreover, Death itself was a crucial component of this universe; to a large extent, it *was* the universe itself. Normally, it was not something a newly promoted god like Du Wa could challenge head-on.
Death did indeed react. Previously, during the battle between Du Wa and Thanos, It had consistently played the part of a silent, motionless figure.
Now, Death spoke.
"How spectacular. Among the countless newborn conceptual entities in the multiverse, you rank among the foremost."
"What an honor. Perhaps I should address you as 'Lady'? However, I believe Death has no gender. Only a fool like Thanos would wishfully orbit around you." Du Wa didn't stop what he was doing in the slightest, continuing to speak while slowly squeezing out the concept of Death within Thanos's body.
Hearing Death's voice, a glimmer of light flashed in Thanos's eyes as he looked toward Death with hope.
But Death had no intention of paying him any mind, causing the light in Thanos's eyes to quickly dim again.
Thanos didn't care about his own life or death, but he cared deeply about Death's attitude toward him.
"Congratulations, Thanos. It seems you've finally sobered up a little, but your awakening came a bit too late. I'm not so merciful as to let you go."
Du Wa pointed to the other shadowy figures in the distance. "Perhaps you can ask your grandfather to save you? As the god of time, maybe he can ask Eternity to step in and help you."
"Eternity will not come. With me here, he will not deliberately appear. Otherwise, it would be easy for an unnecessary conceptual collision to occur." Death developed a hint of interest in Du Wa. "Are you interested in joining my side? The Xenomorphs have established a firm foothold in this universe and Universe 199999, but in the context of the entire multiverse, they are still not something that powerful gods would take seriously."
In the multiverse, there are far too many concepts of all sizes. New concepts are being born at every moment, while others perish.
Beings like the Men in Black, Transformers, Predators, and so on can be found in an infinite number of universes.
What truly made Death take slight notice was Du Wa, who had advanced to a concept god relying on the Xenomorph concept, not the Xenomorphs themselves.
To put it bluntly, Death has an infinite number of avatars spread across the endless universes. Many of the concepts It has seen are far more powerful in terms of destructiveness and influence than the Xenomorphs.
At the very least, zombies, the Cancerverse, AI, Venom... any one of these, picked at random, is more worthy of attention than the Xenomorphs.
It came back to the same point: the Xenomorphs themselves are not a threat even to the gods. It was Du Wa who brought the Xenomorphs to a height they should not have reached. He has been on a rampage from the beginning and will continue to expand at high speed in the future.
"You want to take me in as your subordinate god? What an appetite."
"Not a subordinate in the truest sense, but you would be my subordinate deity. I will permit you to exist under the name of Death."
There was no warmth in Death's voice. "Join me. From now on, your Xenomorphs will continue to exist in relative independence. You will also be able to elevate the Xenomorph concept by another level and even have the opportunity to dabble in a multiversal status. You know very well that this is a precious opportunity."
Du Wa understood completely.
Relative independence meant a relationship of inclusion. From a macroscopic perspective, as long as he nodded, he could lead all the Xenomorphs to become a relatively independent concept within the domain of Death.
Death would encompass Du Wa, but Du Wa would not be Death.
It was like being a vassal, but not entirely.
Not only that, but through Death, Du Wa could also glimpse what a multiversal status truly was, finding an opportunity for his own path of promotion—just as before he advanced to a concept god, he had first become the god of the World Tree, gaining a clear understanding of the single-universe level. This was what led to his subsequent methodical, steamrolling path to godhood.
Had it been anyone else, they would have surrendered without a second thought. No one could refuse an olive branch extended by a creator god.
This was not an invitation from a mere avatar, but an invitation from Death with its multiversal status.
"Is that so? How tempting. But I have no intention of placing the Xenomorphs under Death."
Du Wa spoke with a deadpan expression, not taking it to heart at all.
To put it bluntly, if Oblivion and Infinity had come to him, he might have actually considered it seriously.
Infinity represents the concepts of space and existence.
Oblivion, on the other hand, is the most powerful and terrifying creator god. It is the antithesis of the four beings—Eternity, Infinity, Death, and Galactus—combined.
Du Wa's preference for these two wasn't because their overall strength ranked in the top two among the creator gods, but purely because these two weren't as troublesome and remained silent most of the time.
As for the other guys, no need to elaborate on Galactus. A survivor from the destruction of the previous multiverse, he hasn't even developed a main body in the current multiverse. This results in every Galactus in every universe actually being an independent main body, with no connection to the other versions of Galactus in parallel universes.
Eternity? He's bogged down in a mess of unresolved issues with the first-generation Eternity, the First Firmament—who is also the first multiverse itself—and it's still a tangled web to this day.
These two Eternitys from different multiverses are bound to fight it out to a final conclusion sooner or later.
As for Death?
Du Wa was certain that even if he were infected with a zombie virus, contracted the cancer of the Cancerverse, and madly sought refuge with Galactus, he would never give this thing called Death a second glance.
This creator god is a complete lunatic.
It's completely incomparable to the Death from the neighboring DC Multiverse, who originated from the Vertigo Universe, integrated into the DC Multiverse through the Flash's Flashpoint event, and leaped to a status that earned extremely high praise from DC's supreme and quasi-supreme beings.
"I have no interest in becoming the next Thanos, but I am interested in helping you solve the problem of all the Thanoses," Du Wa said.
"All of them? Just like what you did to the Thanos of Universe 199999?"
"The Thanos from that system was a normal case. I wasn't a concept god when I parasitized him, so there was no conceptual conflict with you."
But there had been, ever since he attained godhood.
This was also why the contact and collision between concepts was extremely perilous.
There is no turning back on this path. With every step forward, even if the actions taken are identical to those before attaining godhood, a qualitative change has occurred, forcing a direct confrontation with other concepts.
Death slowly vanished. There was no anger, no dissatisfaction. It departed silently, like a cold, unfeeling program.
Thanos, abandoned by Death, was now completely reduced to Du Wa's vassal.
But Du Wa didn't waste another word on this Thanos, erasing him directly.
"What just happened? If I'm not mistaken, Death should have intervened, but I'm not sure what happened between It and Du Wa, or why It left so quietly. Was that a voluntary retreat? Or did It reach some agreement with Du Wa?"
Kronos watched his grandson die with his own eyes, feeling no grief, only endless anxiety.
He was very worried that he would follow in Thanos's footsteps, that his backer, Eternity, might abandon him as mercilessly as Death had just abandoned Thanos.
"Kronos, you're in for it now. Du Wa is not the type to repay grievance with virtue. He definitely won't let you off."
The other gods all turned to look at the famous god of time. One of the immensely vast beings spoke.
"Enough, Arishem! How are you any better than me? Don't think I don't know that you ordered that fool Hyperion to go to Earth and kill Du Wa. In the end, you just provided Du Wa with a superior host, giving him another loyal guardian when he was weak."
Kronos, Thanos, and Hyperion were all Eternals.
Kronos had originally had his eyes on Hyperion too, but he suffered a loss at Arishem's hands and had to give up. He was forced to personally create a 'Drax the Destroyer' to act as his enforcer, but he rarely used him. This was originally his trump card, specifically created to deal with Thanos.
As for joining the Guardians of the Galaxy or anything of the sort, none of that happened. Kronos kept a tight grip on Drax and never let him go.
After all, as the great god of time, it would be an insult to him to personally intervene in every matter.
Even Du Wa, before his godhood, didn't personally handle every matter. Most of the time, he would order the Xenomorph vassals under his command to do it.
"While we were all taking action just now, why didn't we see you make a move? You didn't act, so what about the other Celestials? Are they still busy creating life at a time like this? Or did you want to reap the rewards without lifting a finger? I get it. You Celestials are all mechanical lifeforms, completely unafraid of Du Wa parasitizing you... I'd like to see how you're going to ensure that the Celestial on Earth is born normally!"
Seeing Du Wa begin to move, Kronos was terrified. He fled at the first opportunity, merging with the time of the entire universe and hiding himself in the depths of time.
The massive Celestial, Arishem, watched the rapidly fleeing god of time.
However confident this guy was when he arrived, that's how pathetic he was when he fled.
But Arishem didn't mock him. He would not waste precious computing power on expressing meaningless emotions.
It wasn't that He didn't want to act, but that He couldn't.
According to the results of Arishem's calculations, even if He had intervened, he wouldn't have made much progress. Du Wa would certainly have dispatched other forces to block him.
Just being able to hold him off would have been enough.
This also illustrated just how difficult it was to become a concept god.
Even if one miraculously found the right path and could smoothly advance, one still needed various top-tier forces at hand that could be dispatched at critical moments to withstand the siege of a large group of cosmic Celestials.
Du Wa had achieved it.
"Du Wa..."
Arishem fell silent for a moment, then personally descended to Earth.
His massive body overshadowed the rapidly repairing cosmos.
Du Wa stood on Earth, gazing up at the firmament.
"Are you here to declare war?" Du Wa asked.
"No. I must ensure the safety of my kin. Every member of the Celestials has their mission: to continuously create new stars, generating gravity, light, and heat."
"The Celestial on Earth has not yet accumulated enough energy. Let It remain in its long slumber," Du Wa said.
Arishem's figure slowly vanished in silence.
Because an agreement had been reached.
Du Wa would not move against the Celestial at Earth's core—and he indeed had no intention of proactively meddling with a robot, as that would be a complete waste of his time.
However, Du Wa would ensure this machine remained in a long slumber. Nominally, it would not die. As for when it might be smoothly born into the world, that would depend entirely on Du Wa's mood.
If Du Wa ever had a whim, he could drag the Celestial out from Earth's core in minutes, while still ensuring the integrity of Earth.
"Becoming a conceptual being makes doing things much more convenient... Now, first, I'll clean out this universe. I'll drag out every single one of those scheming fools. Those that can be hosts will all serve as a source of soldiers. Those that cannot, like robots and energy beings, will either be expelled or killed."
The most important thing for Du Wa to do now was, in fact... to give this mediocre universe, which should have been obscure and was destined to become a mere backdrop, a proper cosmic designation.
(end of chapter)