Chapter 191: Entering DC Comics
The Hyperion Xenomorph escorted the Super-Soldier to Du Wa.
This time, it finally let go, tossing the man, who had been beaten beyond recognition, in front of Du Wa.
"How miserable. Your head has swollen to twice its size. If it weren't for your red trunks and shattered shield, I almost wouldn't have recognized you," Du Wa said, looking at the man with some regret.
"Your subordinates are strong. Perhaps you're even stronger, who knows. I suspect a higher being like you is actually very weak, relying entirely on unknown means to control these creatures, such as curses, magic, or mind control."
The Super-Soldier struggled to speak clearly, "But no matter what you're planning, don't think you can defeat me with violence. These injuries are nothing. I'll be fully healed soon—I can do this all day!"
"I know, I know. Hearing the same line from your mouth gives me a strong sense of dissonance. The real Superman doesn't need to fight all day, nor does he need so much time to repair his injuries. A few seconds would be enough to completely heal superficial wounds like yours," Du Wa said.
"I'm not this 'Superman' you speak of, nor do I know anything about my parallel universe counterpart."
The Super-Soldier desperately absorbed solar radiation, and his condition clearly improved a little. His head wasn't as swollen anymore. He raised a hand, signaling to the heroes in the distance not to do anything foolish. Rushing in would be suicide, a meaningless gesture that would prove their courage but accomplish nothing else.
He had already realized that he couldn't even defeat what seemed to be the weakest monster, so how could he face the creature that defeated Thanoseid? And how could he possibly take down Du Wa?
What was more terrifying was that Thanoseid was extremely calm, appearing to have already submitted to this foreign deity. This was what perplexed the Super-Soldier the most.
"To think the master of Apokolips would surrender out of fear of death. I regret it. I should have agreed to Steel Lantern's plan back then and led Earth's heroes to attack Apokolips first, instead of passively defending and waiting for you to attack us."
The Super-Soldier tried to provoke Thanoseid. If there was a chance to team up with Thanoseid against Du Wa, then perhaps a slim chance might emerge.
The Super-Soldier was not one to give up easily. He would grasp at even the faintest hope, firmly believing that through will and courage, one could always create miracles.
But Thanoseid remained stone-faced. The Super-Soldier had no idea what a difficult struggle Thanoseid was waging internally, only to be forced to accept a useless outcome.
But the Super-Soldier understood in the next moment. His expression changed as he sensed a living being suddenly appear inside his body.
In an instant, he understood Thanoseid's predicament and realized that once the creature in his chest completed its parasitic process, it could control his every move.
Subconsciously, the Super-Soldier tried to control his muscles and internal organs, attempting to crush this newly born and still relatively weak creature. But the Hyperion Xenomorph struck again, whipping its tail at faster-than-light speed to quickly tap the Super-Soldier's chest, destroying any possibility of him controlling his own body.
Without a doubt, the Super-Soldier's fate was the same as Thanoseid's.
"Not bad. It seems this didn't trigger an overreaction from certain individuals." Du Wa carefully sensed his surroundings for a moment, confirming that no other changes had occurred in this universe.
According to the information he knew, the separation of Universe 9602 from a hybrid universe back into two independent universes was an inevitable future outcome. A very small number of insiders who knew the universe's secret had been making long-term preparations for this future separation.
The universe fragment inside the Super-Soldier was prepared to ensure that the two reborn universes could maintain a stable structure when Universe 9602 split apart again.
After completely controlling the Super-Soldier, Du Wa reached out, his hand phasing directly into the Super-Soldier's body, and pulled out two minuscule points of light.
If one were to observe them with super vision, they would see many planets within these two points of light, but there were no signs of life.
"What are these? What did you do to me?" The Super-Soldier himself wore a look of astonishment.
"These are good things, and also a failsafe key I desperately need," Du Wa said with a smile, taking the two universe fragments for himself.
If Universe 9602 were allowed to develop freely, it was still unknown when it would split from a hybrid universe into two normal universes.
And since Du Wa had now entered the stage, he would delay the splitting event as much as possible, turning Universe 9602 into his own transit base.
Of course, this transit base wasn't like his conquest of Universe 1543681 or Mephisto's Hell Domain, where he would thoroughly convert the billions of lives in Universe 9602 into xenomorphs.
One day in the future, perhaps Du Wa would do so, but not now.
Because the ones who created Universe 9602 were the Living Tribunal of the Marvel Multiverse and The Spectre of the DC Multiverse. Du Wa, in his current state, could not deal with either of them.
Completely controlling Universe 9602 was too drastic a move and held no practical significance for now.
But stirring up some trouble was still fine. The Living Tribunal and The Spectre were the creators of this universe, but they weren't its babysitters.
Du Wa taking the universe fragments from the Super-Soldier was only the beginning.
He immediately launched the next step of his plan: to obtain the "portal" that had existed since the birth of this hybrid universe.
"As expected, this being knows about the special nature of our world." Doctor Strangefate watched it all unfold.
If at first he hadn't dared to draw a conclusion, after carefully observing Du Wa's actions, he was now completely certain: Du Wa had come for that one specific thing.
"Capturing Clark Kent, obtaining the fragment hidden in his body, and now he wants to get that gate... This being wants to travel to another multiverse! But how does he know this universe's secret? Even a cosmic overlord like Thanoseid didn't know about the existence of the universe fragments and the portal!"
Doctor Strangefate's figure immediately vanished, teleporting himself to an abandoned dark alley.
This was an abandoned area that even the homeless wouldn't visit, piled high with all sorts of worthless, ancient trash.
"A very clever move, hiding the portal in a place like this, and even setting up some magical arrays further out to monitor the area, minimizing the possibility of exposure. If the portal were hidden in some skyscraper or sanctum, it would have only attracted the attention of more troublesome individuals."
Unsurprisingly, Du Wa had already arrived, holding a glowing, broken cardboard box.
If Du Wa hadn't precisely fished this thing out, it would have remained mixed in with a huge pile of trash, forever looking unremarkable.
Doctor Strangefate fell silent. He truly didn't know how to deal with a deity who was not only mysterious and terrifying but also intimately familiar with the universe's secrets.
"How did you know? Ever since Access hid the portal, no one should have been able to find it," Doctor Strangefate's voice was hoarse.
"Your tone betrays your feelings. There's no need to be dejected or regretful, and certainly no need to feel remorse for failing to protect the portal. You and I both know you did your best."
Du Wa looked down at the glowing box, then looked up at Doctor Strangefate before him.
"Are you planning to come after me too? To turn me into someone like Thanoseid and the Super-Soldier? Or simply make me into one of those monster-like things?"
"I'm not interested in you. To be precise, I have no interest in chestbursting a magic user like you, even though you are somewhat special and have made progress on the path of destiny."
Du Wa left with the glowing, broken box, brushing past Doctor Strangefate like an unfamiliar passerby.
Just this simple act left Doctor Strangefate drenched in cold sweat, as if he had just had a brush with death.
Du Wa's figure completely vanished from sight.
"What a madman. Aren't the existing multiverses enough to satisfy his appetite? Or has he become so powerful that the known multiverses can no longer contain him, forcing him to take a risk and enter another vast world?"
A deep sense of helplessness rose in Doctor Strangefate's heart. Access had left the portal behind, but he, the one entrusted with the mission of guarding it, could do nothing.
He could only watch as the entire Earth was about to fall under Du Wa's dominion.
But there might still be a chance to change all of this.
"Neither time nor destiny can deal a fatal blow to a deity of this level. I can't do it. However, if this being ventures into another multiverse, perhaps he might just die over there..."
Doctor Strangefate put himself in that situation and imagined the scene: if he were a deity in another multiverse and sensed an outsider breaking in, he might take some interest.
A deity of that level must be stronger than one like Du Wa, right? And with a home-field advantage, as long as they could kill Du Wa, the disaster he brought upon Universe 9602 could be undone.
At the same time.
"Those who have some idea of what I'm about to do are surely hoping I'll die in the other multiverse. That's a perfectly normal assumption."
Du Wa held the glowing box, running various tests on the portal, and commented casually.
His only audience consisted of the Super-Soldier and Thanoseid.
"You'd better die in the other world. But before you do, you must tell me your method of traversing universes," Thanoseid offered Du Wa his sincere "blessings."
"I won't die. Even if some bored, multiversal-level being decides to attack me, the most they could do is severely injure me. They couldn't kill me completely. Because *He* can't cross from one multiverse to another to completely erase me. And besides..."
Du Wa chuckled lightly and didn't elaborate further.
These beings, limited to a single universe, would find it hard to comprehend a reality where countless new concepts are born every moment in the multiverse.
There were simply too many miscellaneous newborn concepts, so many that few gods would be bored enough to specifically focus their attention on examining them.
Only when certain concepts gradually grew and reached a certain level might they attract the gaze of powerful gods.
Under these circumstances, Du Wa just needed to open the portal and slip through. As long as he didn't recklessly expose himself as a single-universe god—an external conceptual entity—the moment he entered, and as long as he didn't directly attract the attention of a multiverse-level deity, he would most likely be safe.
"Alright, this should be enough. I have the universe fragments, and I've obtained the portal."
Du Wa was finally ready to go to the DC Multiverse. He had prepared for so long, all for this moment.
But before departing, Du Wa glanced at the Earth below.
He needed to make some appropriate modifications to Universe 9602.
"What are you trying to do? Why aren't you leaving already?" A sense of foreboding rose in the Super-Soldier's heart. He growled, his body completely immobilized.
"I am going to bestow a gift upon this world," Du Wa said, and then began to generously share his power.
At this moment, Dark Claw was organizing people from all over the world to establish a resistance force, vowing to resist Du Wa to the very end, without compromise.
"Immediately activate the doomsday project, codenamed 'Dark Sun.' Although the opponent isn't Apokolips as we anticipated, and Earth appears peaceful, unfortunately, we are still facing a crisis of extinction..."
Dark Claw was issuing orders, dispatching a large number of superheroes. But as Du Wa's concept was deployed, without a second word, he extended his claws and performed open-chest surgery on himself, pulling out the xenomorph larva.
His technique was so exquisite that he didn't harm the xenomorph larva in the slightest, but he soon discovered it was useless. A new xenomorph larva immediately materialized out of thin air in his chest cavity, integrating with his genes at an even faster rate.
Similar events unfolded across the world. Many superheroes fell victim, becoming coordinates and anchor points for Du Wa to locate Universe 9602.
With that, Du Wa was finally satisfied.
In an instant, the cardboard box began to expand continuously, finally coalescing into a golden gate.
Entering from one side led to the DC Multiverse, and from the other, the Marvel Multiverse.
This was Universe 9602's greatest secret, and for a concept god like Du Wa, it was also the most valuable thing.
After a moment of contemplation, Du Wa had the Mephisto Xenomorph stay behind to guard Universe 9602. With its sheer power, it was more than enough to intimidate the entire universe and fully capable of protecting the portal.
In any case, if Du Wa truly needed it on the DC side, the Mephisto Xenomorph could rush over at any time.
As for the Super-Soldier and the Hyperion Xenomorph, they would act as attendants, brought along with Du Wa.
Du Wa stepped through the portal, feeling the rapidly expanding concepts and rules of DC Comics, and the gradually receding concepts and rules of the Marvel system.
It felt as if billions of years had passed, yet also like a mere instant.
Du Wa had passed through the portal and set foot on the ground of another world.
"Even I don't know the landing point. Let's see..."
The moment Du Wa entered the DC Comics Universe, he immediately tried to determine his location.
(end of chapter)