Chapter 269: Brilliant, So This Is How the Xenomorphs Originated
Two universes, both renowned throughout the Omniverse, engaged in close-quarters combat as countless Xenomorphs and Cthulhu monsters became entangled.
If the clash of low-to-mid-tier combatants, aside from its terrifyingly absurd scale, failed to create any truly unforgettable memories, then the moment Skyfather-level combatants personally entered the fray, it was a different story. Wielding immense divine power and carrying the might to shake a galaxy, they rampaged across the battlefield, instantly elevating the war's intensity by an order of magnitude.
One or two Skyfathers were nothing compared to the sheer scale of this war, at most serving as super-soldiers capable of holding off a legion. But the flood of Skyfathers participating in the battle was overwhelming. Each one fought recklessly, unleashing their full power and employing a vast array of abilities. In an instant, they carved one terrifying vortex after another into existence, devouring innumerable soldiers from both sides on a massive scale.
No one was careful enough to exclusively kill enemies while avoiding their own side, because the countless armies of both factions were already mixed together, endlessly propelling the hellish battlefield onward.
Under these circumstances, no one truly held back. They all went all-out, especially when encountering an evenly matched opponent; it was a life-or-death struggle. A single magic spell, a burst of divine power, or the deployment of a high-tech weapon could cause space-time to collapse and dimensions to shift. One after another, black holes would appear out of thin air, madly devouring everything around them.
As the number of Skyfathers grew, they left scar-like gashes across the battlefield that spanned tens of thousands of light-years, serving as a rather spectacular embellishment to this outrageous war.
"Marc, be careful! Another disgusting octopus monster is crawling over. It's got its eyes on you!"
"I know, Khonshu. The Xenomorph that just entered my body also warned me. I also know that the tentacle monster we just painstakingly killed, even though I tore it into tens of thousands of pieces, isn't completely dead. It might be waiting for a chance to interfere with me using what little power it has left."
Moon Knight Marc looked up, seeing an endless ocean of war in every direction. Just a moment ago, he had finally taken down a powerful enemy at the Skyfather level, but he had only managed to defeat and dismember it, not truly kill it.
"We're fighting a group of immortals. We can only defeat them, not kill them. This is truly unfortunate. What's even more unfortunate is that there are so many of these immortals, as numerous as the inhabitants of an entire universe."
Marc spoke quickly, "But there's good news, too: like them, we are also immortal."
It was as if to say, who doesn't have Multiversal-level backing?
The tentacles, brains, and eyeballs of the Cancerverse had Shuma-Gorath, relying on it to overcome death. The Alien Universe, similarly, had the God of Xenomorphs, and had also overcome death.
On this cosmic meat grinder, there were constantly Xenomorphs dying and resurrecting, and monsters being reduced to shattered limbs and fragments. As far as the eye could see, there was only an endless, dense carpet of minced flesh that had become the most common form of matter. The planets and the ubiquitous dark matter had been blasted into nothingness.
But everyone knew this was only the beginning.
The intensity of this war was only truly entering a new stage as one Deity-level combatant after another, radiating terrifying auras, began to make their moves.
"I sense the aura of Mephisto, two of them!"
Khonshu, who was merged with Marc, instinctively roared inside Marc's head.
The Moon God Khonshu hailed from the Khonshu Era Universe. Back then, having seen a terrifying prophecy of Mephisto destroying the universe, he had gone mad, attacking superheroes everywhere to plunder ancient power and enhance his own. He had slain one Mephisto after another; he was all too familiar with the fluctuations Mephisto emitted.
However, these two Mephistos were not the ones he knew. One had become a Xenomorph, while the other was Demon Strange, existing as a Xenomorph hero. Both of them possessed single-universe-level combat power and skillfully wielded demonic power, unleashing it wildly on the battlefield.
Everywhere they passed, even space-time itself dissolved, taking countless Xenomorphs and Cthulhu monsters with it into oblivion.
A single universe-level god personally entering the fray unleashed a terrifying might that caused the two bordering, warring universes to tremble violently. The space-time that should have been the most stable construct began to collapse on a massive scale.
Planets began to deviate from their original orbits, either crashing into a sun or being shattered on the spot. To be fortunate enough to be pushed away by a shockwave into the depths of the vast universe was a rare stroke of luck.
This was especially true for the Cancerverse, where the rules had already been subjected to corrosion and the most extreme distortion. This filled the Cancerverse with unbelievable sights; the disappearance of death, the stagnation of time, and the complete interlinking of space were all normal states for this universe.
But under the assault of a group of single-universe-level beings, even these rules began to buckle under the strain, collapsing one after another. All constants and parameters began to descend into chaos and perish.
The two universes were accelerating toward collapse, but no one had any intention of stopping. The goal of the high-end combatants on both sides was to crush all of the enemy's resistance and destroy their universe along with them before their own completely imploded.
Worlds were tearing apart. Myriad stars exploded in dense clusters, the blooming pinpricks of light their final words.
Beings from other universes were observing through various means, shocked by the terror of this war.
Those universes that had been attacked by the Cancerverse were especially horrified. They saw that, even without Du Wa taking action, the Alien Universe was suppressing the Cancerverse. Whether in numbers or quality, it held the upper hand, leaving them even more aghast.
Only those who had truly fought against Cthulhu could understand how terrifying and troublesome this group of undying sources of corruption was. They spread corruption wherever they went, couldn't be killed, and were incredibly numerous.
They were only stopped when they slammed into the impenetrable wall that was the Xenomorphs, who held the advantage in every aspect.
"The Xenomorphs are also constantly resurrecting. In that case, the only advantage the Many-Angled Ones from the Cancerverse have is their super-strong corruption, which can twist all normal things into their own deformed likeness."
"See that? Now, even that last advantage is gone."
The Queen's Legion had entered the battle.
Queen. Very few had ever truly seen a Xenomorph of this status. This was because the other powerful combatants who weren't Queens were sufficient to wipe out all sorts of large-scale enemies, never letting it get to the point where a Queen needed to step up.
But this did not mean the Queens were weak. In particular, some of these Queens carried special genes. They were originally powerful warriors who, under Du Wa's command, had specially transformed themselves into Queens to produce offspring with transcendent genes, strengthening the power of the Alien Species.
Now, these Queens had appeared, and they were performing a large-scale deployment of Xenomorph eggs, parasitic spores, and creation energy into the Cancerverse.
At once, the Cthulhu monsters fell into chaos. They tried to corrupt these things, but they themselves were swiftly subjected to parasitism.
At this moment, the source of corruption and the parasitic race finally engaged in a true, bloody, close-quarters struggle. This was a collision of concepts, an entanglement of their respective ultimate rules.
Both sides were experts at forcibly converting hostile power into their own. Corruption and parasitism were constantly playing out, layer upon layer, throwing the battlefield into a state of unprecedented chaos.
Even an ordinary god arriving here would be stupefied by the scene. They would see Xenomorphs fighting Xenomorphs and Cthulhu attacking Cthulhu. At times, they might see a Cthulhu helping a Xenomorph hunt down another Cthulhu, or the other way around. In short, everything had devolved into utter anarchy, as if everyone had gone mad, believing all but themselves to be the enemy.
But the problem was, in a great battle that would drive even a deity mad, who could be sure that they themselves were still sane?
This indescribable chaos and madness was a perversion of, and an assault on, life itself.
"How terrifying. These two species, they are truly worthy of being races that originated directly from a Multiversal God, able to ignite such an unheard-of mode of combat."
"A Celestial went in and barely made a tiny splash. I never thought a Celestial could be so… insignificant."
Yes, and this was with the Multiversal Gods not yet having entered the field. The battlefield's upper limit was confined to the single-universe level, and it was already making the Celestials shudder in fear. They discovered with terror that if they were to be tainted by Cthulhu or a Xenomorph, they would inevitably be dragged into one of these two factions.
The only difference was, if one was tainted by Cthulhu, there was still a chance to escape the corruption, because Shuma-Gorath didn't pay attention to every single one of the Many-Angled Ones.
But if one became a Xenomorph, it was a different story. It was inescapable. Every single Xenomorph was Du Wa himself!
With Du Wa's promotion to a Multiversal God, what could an ordinary Celestial use to resist Du Wa's parasitism? Could they even withstand a single glance from Du Wa?
Impossible. It was utterly impossible. This meant that within all the universes in the entire Omniverse, every life form not personally protected by a Multiversal God was, in essence, within Du Wa's hunting grounds!
This also meant that… as long as Du Wa wished it, he could instantly drag the endless life from even more universes into the war as Xenomorphs!
Before Du Wa, a universe was too small and fragile, with no ability to resist. The Celestials and mortals within the universe had even less of a choice.
"The God of Xenomorphs hasn't done so. Should we praise his mercy?"
"Shut up! No, don't even think that in your head! Are you actually praising Du Wa?"
"Ha, you said his name too. I'm pleased to see you haven't turned into a Xenomorph. It proves your heart isn't devout."
Soon, the people of the various universes had no time for fear or arguments, because something truly big had arrived.
Shuma-Gorath had appeared.
A colossal eyeball drifted through the Multiverse, arriving just outside the Alien Universe.
Du Wa also revealed his form, facing Shuma-Gorath directly.
The confrontation between two Multiversal Gods—even if they just stood there doing nothing, these two naturally opposing beings, with a scale comparable to the Multiverse itself, were already causing countless universes to tremble.
These two were like the source of gravity for all things, radiating out to countless worlds while their absolute scale naturally attracted and held sway over them.
"I have been observing you. I discovered you too late." Shuma-Gorath flicked its tentacles, easily stirring massive ripples within the Multiverse that caused one universe after another to vibrate.
Du Wa, however, made no move, calmly watching the big eyeball's performance. After all, this guy was the supreme god of Marvel's Cthulhu-like beings; having a certain air of importance was to be expected.
"It's not late at all. The moment you took the rare occasion to observe the Multiverse and discovered me, it was already too late. Even then, I was already someone you could not kill, though I was not yet a Multiversal God… I believe you also had your reasons for holding back, did you not?" Du Wa said slowly.
"You really do know!"
Shuma-Gorath immediately grew excited, the massive tentacles sprouting from its eye flicking at an even higher frequency. "You aren't worried about being killed by me, you don't care how powerful I am, and you did something right under my watch that even I couldn't perceive, inexplicably becoming a Multiversal God! Then… you are like me, an outsider in essence!!"
"In this Multiverse, outsiders have never been a secret. New things are born at every moment, and old things that cannot keep up with the times perish," Du Wa said, looking at the other being.
The Marvel World accommodated all sorts of messy new concepts, and their number was constantly increasing.
Du Wa was well aware of this, as were the creator gods and the higher-ranked gods.
Shuma-Gorath, however, had a vague inkling. It knew that the things appearing in the countless universes, while seeming to be naturally born native things, were not actually entirely products of this world itself.
Shuma-Gorath found this incongruous. Born of this world, originating from here no matter how one looked at it, yet not originating from here?
This violated logic. Shuma-Gorath was not an omniversal god; it couldn't reverse logic, much less perceive the true origin of these things. It also lacked the ability to distinguish which new things truly originated from Marvel and which were falsely originating here, being outsiders in essence.
"Beyond the Multiverse, there is an even vaster world. It is the void, and it is also everything. It is the endlessness that the gods dread, and it is the entirety that contains countless mysteries. The scale of the Omniverse is far greater than this Multiverse."
Du Wa looked at Shuma-Gorath and said, "You want to ask where I came from, and how I can be a native of this world yet still perceive that I did not originate here?"
"That's right! I am a naturally born god, the origin of all the Many-Angled Ones, yet I don't know why I appeared in this world. I was born with a profound understanding of my own situation, naturally adapted to everything in the Multiverse, yet I cannot find a single trace of my own origin… Finally, not long ago, I found it! And then I discovered you, Xenomorph Duwa. I have already guessed your origin!"
Shuma-Gorath roared, "You are not a product of this Multiverse! You must have originated from the remains of the previous, or even the one before that, multiverse! It was the corpses of those other multiverses, long since replaced by this one, that gave birth to you!"
Du Wa fell silent for a moment, then applauded in admiration.
"Brilliant. So that's how it is."
(end of chapter)