Chapter 171: The Number One Great Demon of Marvel, in a Fit of Rage, Actually...
A person with a sufficiently high intellect possesses the ability for instantaneous computation, capable of processing all the information and evolutionary paths of an entire universe, and even the multiverse.
Different intelligent people have their own areas of expertise.
Du Wa wouldn't dare call himself one of them. His powerful brainpower was built upon a foundation of hundreds of millions of Xenomorphs acting as his computing terminals, sharing the computational load. This was what gave others the impression that he was so difficult to fathom.
If it were a contest of sheer instantaneous computational ability, Du Wa felt that as time went on, his own level of intelligence would become quite formidable, and it would only grow stronger in the future.
And this strengthening, in fact, didn't affect certain outcomes he had intentionally arranged from the very beginning.
For example, a few years ago, when he was just starting to make a name for himself on this planet, he had struck a brief bargain with Magneto.
Magneto captured Deviants for Du Wa in exchange for secrets.
"It all feels like it happened yesterday. I still clearly remember the cautious manner with which you spoke to me back then."
As Magneto walked alongside Du Wa on the island of Krakoa, he watched Du Wa's every move out of the corner of his eye. Although Magneto knew this was of no practical use—he wasn't that kind of intelligent person; it was impossible for him to deduce the thoughts of a deity like Du Wa.
Everything seemed to have been reversed.
In the past, Du Wa had led a group of Xenomorphs that had just begun to grow in scale, the strongest of which was merely an Abomination-type Xenomorph. These creatures couldn't last a single round against Magneto. This forced Du Wa to be extremely cautious when dealing with Magneto, constantly prepared for him to turn hostile.
But now, though they were merely strolling on the island, Magneto found himself having to look up to Du Wa.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Magneto knew he would likely never be able to catch up to Du Wa in his lifetime, even if he mastered the electromagnetic force to its absolute limit. It wasn't as if he could master it to the point of becoming a Cosmic God, could he?
Did such a deity even exist in this universe? The God of Magnetism?
What a terrible-sounding title. If someone called me that every day, I'd probably go mad, Magneto thought, his mind wandering.
"Erik, without even deliberately using my psionic powers, I can sense your scattered consciousness," Professor X reminded him earnestly.
"You're so noisy. I know what I'm doing. Or would you rather I throw you and this damn wheelchair into Krakoa's mouth?" Magneto said coldly.
Professor X placed a hand on the handle of his wheelchair, guiding it forward, a gentle expression on his face. He didn't mind bickering with his old partner.
In a way, the fact that they could live together on this living island after decades of fighting, providing shelter and peace for tens of thousands of their mutant compatriots, was already a wonderful thing.
It was hard to say whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, but Earth had suffered many calamities in recent years. Skyfathers would appear at the drop of a hat, and even deities had fallen, leaving the people of Earth with absolutely no desire for internal conflict.
Coupled with the Xenomorphs spread across the globe forcibly maintaining peace, the Mutants, a group that had been oppressed and had once lived on the brink of extinction, were now able to enjoy a normal life under the sun.
Although this unprecedented sense of freedom was built upon a suppressive atmosphere of global anxiety, at least they finally understood what freedom tasted like.
All of these changes were directly related to the young man before them—no, it would be more accurate to say, this absurdly young god.
Now, at the moment Du Wa descended upon the Kingdom of Krakoa, the Mutant councilors, including the two of them, immediately realized that another indescribable, major event was about to erupt. Was it perhaps related to them, the Mutants?
Otherwise, they couldn't believe that a young god like Du Wa would come to their home for a casual stroll without a purpose.
He could have simply dispatched a single Xenomorph. Moreover, Du Wa only needed a single glance to see everything on Krakoa.
"Has another major event occurred?" Professor X asked gently. "I can feel many Xenomorphs disappearing from this planet. Perhaps you've dispatched them somewhere?"
"It's war. I sent them to Hell to battle the innumerable demons," Du Wa said casually. "Mephisto has committed all sorts of sins across various universes. Many beings from those universes want him dead. Considering all the trouble he's caused me, he must pay the price. I don't mind lending my friends from the parallel universes a hand."
"The mythological demon, Mephisto... you plan to kill him and occupy his Hell?"
"Killing him is a certainty, but occupying Hell? I won't be doing that. If any Xenomorph has such an idea and wants to try, I will generously help them achieve it," Du Wa said.
"Is that so? I thought you would abandon Earth, or even this universe, to find a better, grander territory worthy of you," Professor X said, his hands crossed and resting on his lap.
Du Wa shook his head. "Anywhere there is a Xenomorph is my territory. Even a single Xenomorph is equivalent to me."
Lord of Hell? It was a decent idea, but being the lord of just one Hell dimension wasn't enough to pique Du Wa's interest.
Du Wa was now a concept god. He didn't need to rule a dimension or world to increase his strength, unlike Mephisto or Dormammu.
He, as a concept god, was the pinnacle of strength itself.
There was one possibility, however. If the greater concept of Hell needed to select a true master, and Du Wa had the opportunity to become the master of countless Hell dimensions—Satan—then Du Wa might give it a second thought. He wouldn't mind adding another branch of demons to the world's lore—the Xenomorph.
Of course, if that day ever came, all other demons would eventually cease to exist, for they would all become Xenomorphs, existing within Du Wa's concept. It would not be the other way around, with Xenomorphs becoming just another type of demon.
As for Satan, it didn't refer to a specific great demon, but rather to any demon who became the master of Hell and the king of demons.
One whose strength approached this position was Marvel's number one Great Demon, Cyttorak, a bona fide multiverse-level being.
But that guy had absolutely no interest in such things.
Therefore, the one who was nominally closest to this position was, in fact, Mephisto, a single universe-level great demon who possessed both strength and ambition.
But Mephisto lacked the overwhelming power to dominate the other single universe-level demons.
At the very least, being cornered and restricted by Du Wa's large-scale invasion would only make the other great demons despise him all the more, fueling their determination to fight him to the end.
A Satan who couldn't even keep his own Hell dimension stable? This would be the laughingstock of all Hells. The denizens of the multiverse would die laughing if they saw Hell in such a pathetic state.
In a practical sense, Mephisto had already lost the ability to compete for the title of Satan, because he could not overcome the great mountain that was Du Wa, supported by countless Xenomorphs.
"I have a question. What does this have to do with that Deviant? I remember in the intelligence you gave me, you said the Deviants were at most directly connected to the Celestials. These beasts are the creations of those Celestials. Did you have me imprison that Deviant who absorbed the Juggernaut because you planned to use it to do something to the Celestials?"
"Even a god cannot foresee all outcomes. Not even a God of Time, otherwise Kronos wouldn't have been beaten so badly by me that he doesn't even dare to show his face. Now, the time is right. It's time to make good use of this one-of-a-kind Deviant—but it has nothing to do with the Celestials."
Du Wa stopped and gazed at the huge Deviant imprisoned in the ultra-high-strength alloy cage before him, which Magneto had painstakingly created.
This was the leader of that group of Deviants from years ago. After being unsealed from the Alaskan Lake, it led a group of Deviants and fought a battle against the Brotherhood led by Magneto.
This creature had even absorbed the Juggernaut, gaining all of his abilities.
But in the end, it still couldn't escape the pursuit of an enraged Magneto.
Sensing that someone had approached, the Deviant Leader stood up and slowly opened its eyes.
At first glance, its gaze fell upon Du Wa and froze.
"This thing possesses very high intelligence, even smarter than most humans," Professor X observed cautiously, looking at the unbelievably strong Deviant. "It almost escaped several times, so we have strictly forbidden any other Mutants from approaching it."
"If this beast didn't possess an astonishing evolutionary ability, it could never have become the leader of the Deviants, because the Deviants themselves are a species whose genes are in a constant state of frenzied mutation."
Du Wa looked at the "old acquaintance" before him with great interest. "It seems you already recognize who I am. You can surely sense the cataclysms that nearly devastated Earth several times in the past few years. Then you should know just how vast the gap between us is now."
With a wave of his hand, Du Wa tore the cage before him into fragments and walked inside.
"You should have ended up like your compatriots, eventually becoming a Xenomorph, surviving in another form as my thrall. But the moment I met you in New Mexico, I had already faintly guessed what you were planning to do."
Du Wa said, "You, a creature awakened from a lake in Alaska, even if you couldn't defeat Magneto's Brotherhood, if you wanted to flee with your kin, how could you have so coincidentally fled all the way to New Mexico? Let me think... it's because you were going to a certain place, right? You obtained that red stone from inside the Juggernaut's body, but you couldn't use it."
A red stone inside the Juggernaut's body?
Magneto and Professor X were both a bit stunned.
One was Juggernaut's superior, the other his blood relative. They were the people most familiar with Juggernaut, yet neither of them knew he had a red stone inside his body.
No, it was likely that even Juggernaut himself didn't know.
But the Deviant Leader, who had absorbed all of Juggernaut's flesh, blood, and abilities, knew about it, because it had obtained that red stone.
"You planned to go south to find the altar of a certain ancient god, to pray to this deity in hopes of becoming his follower. That was your only chance at survival. The Celestials abandoned you. If you wanted to survive on this planet, and even continue to evolve, you could only pray for the protection of a more powerful being. Otherwise, you would eventually be reduced to my host," Du Wa stated plainly.
Back then, he had rushed to New Mexico to meet a powerless Thor because he had already foreseen this.
But coincidentally, this group of Deviants was also nearby. This was unusual. Even if there were chance factors involved, there had to be some kind of inevitability at play.
The Deviant Leader, having obtained the Crimson Gem, followed the stone's own guidance, intending to find Cyttorak's altar in the Southern Rainforest.
That's right, there were all sorts of strange cults, altars, and rituals on Earth.
Back when S.H.I.E.L.D. still existed, it was tasked with the duty of cleaning up these things, and the Ancient One was also constantly monitoring global space-time fluctuations.
If they were left unchecked, who knew what kinds of strange things would pop up on Earth.
The Deviant was clearly struggling, but in the end, it did nothing. Attack Du Wa? That would be an even more certain way to court death.
Du Wa looked it up and down for a moment. "It seems you've already absorbed the Crimson Gem into your body. You haven't been able to unearth its true power these past few years, have you? Then leave it to me."
With a single slap, Du Wa killed the Deviant that had been a container for the stone for years and dug a red stone from its corpse.
It looked somewhat like the Reality Stone, but it emanated an intense, negative fluctuation, giving off an ominous feeling.
"I see now. No wonder Wanda said this monster made her uncomfortable. Is it because of this strange stone? Is this also an Infinity Stone?" Magneto suddenly asked.
"This is not an Infinity Stone, but it's far more interesting than most of them... Look, the beast's body is dead, but its soul hasn't returned to Death. Instead, it's been trapped by this stone. The power of a deity, even a single leaked trace, is not something a mortal life form can withstand."
Du Wa clenched the Crimson Gem in his fist. With this, he could contact Marvel's number one Great Demon, Cyttorak.
...
In the distant Crimson Cosmos.
This world, also known as the Crimson Cosmos, was the world ruled by the multiverse-level being, Cyttorak.
A multiversal standing, able to rival the infinite multiverse with his power alone, meant that no one dared to provoke this great demon.
"Hm? Another ant is eyeing my stone."
Cyttorak only needed to think for a moment to pinpoint the holder of his Crimson Gem in any universe within the infinite multiverse.
If it were some other deity, like the Trinity Vishanti, they might take a look from afar and casually bestow some magic power.
But Cyttorak was a little displeased. He had clearly chosen Juggernauts in various universes to act as the vessels for the Crimson Gem, but in a certain universe, not only had the Juggernaut died, the Crimson Gem had changed hands repeatedly.
Cyttorak was displeased, and that was a serious matter. In a fit of rage, he fumed for a moment and promptly rolled over.
(end of chapter)