After the birth of this universe, countless eons had passed.
Across the tapestry of stars and voids, Galactus's had consumed worlds, devoured civilizations, and beheld knowledge beyond mortal comprehension.
What he had seen, heard, and understood belonged to the highest echelon of cosmic truth.
And yet now, in this moment, the duplication of Galactus trembled.
At first, when it sensed the signature of the Time Gem and Space Gem within Soren's grasp, it had been elated, nearly delirious.
Those were treasures it had long wanted, fragments of infinite law made manifest. It had come prepared to claim them.
But the fusion… the perfected integration of their powers…
That was heresy to the laws of the cosmos… and it worked.
"This… should not be possible." Galactus' mental voice whispered across the Aether.
"You… fool… what have you created?"
Soren's lips curled into a grin, equal parts excitement and awe.
Even he hadn't fully anticipated the magnitude of what his fusion spell had achieved.
The Blue~Green light now seething between his palms radiated no pressure, yet space itself bowed before it, and time whimpered at its presence.
He raised both hands skyward, the celestial runes across his arms igniting like a symphony of dying stars.
The twin magic circles interlocked, and the lattice between them became one grand, divine seal.
"Galactus!" Soren shouted across the void.
He pulled his hands apart, and the spell activated.
"Time and Space…. ABSOLUTE ERASURE."
A brilliant explosion of Green-Blue light erupted like a new sun birthing itself inside the void.
The light wasn't heat, nor energy, nor fire it was absence of nothing, a collapse of reality's two greatest pillars.
"NO!" Galactus's howled.
"That's not possible~THAT IS FORBIDDEN! You DARE?!"
The dark matter cloak surrounding Soren disintegrated instantly. The clone's will snapped, not out of strategy…
In a desperate move, it began to retreat, pulling its massive form backward through dimensions, trying to fold into hyperspace.
But it was too late.
The Time and Space Disappear spell spread outward faster than light, a dome of unbeing, with Soren at its calm and still origin.
The very fabric of reality warped, unweaving around the edges of the spell.
"This power… it suppresses even the laws!" Galactus's mental voice cried, half in awe, half in despair.
Contact.
The edge of the spell touched its body.
Galactus' massive frame lit up in a cascade of prismatic color, like a dying aurora unraveling into entropy.
The colors flickered once, then dimmed, then vanished.
"RAAAHHHHHHH!" Came the last echo, not of pain, but of helpless finality.
Then… nothing.
Soren hovered alone in the aftermath, eyes wide, chest heaving.
The once-vibrant sea of his dark magic, empowered by Dormammu's corruption, flickered… and then went out.
Every drop had been spent.
"I… I did it!" He gasped, staring at the trembling folds of reality around him.
The spot where Galactus' clone had stood was now a sphere of nothing.
A hole carved through time itself.
"A concept was just erased."
"And this… this was only the incomplete version."
The Galactus's duplication, the one that had so arrogantly wrapped around
Soren like a serpent of death, the same one that had devoured an entire infinite life planet not moments ago.
No more.
The void it stood in had shattered, like fragile glass under divine weight, and everything within, Galactus's clone included, was crushed into non-existence.
Not even dust remained. Not even memory.
Soren floated, breathless.
He scanned the space again. Silence.
Only the smooth, eerie stillness of reality reforming around a hole that should not be.
"That power... If my energy hadn't burned out, and the spell kept expanding… would it have taken the entire galaxy with it?"
He chuckled dryly.
"I created a weapon even I can't fully control." He admitted, closing his fists.
"Magnificent."
But the silence did not last long.
Across the universe, the ripple was felt.
Elsewhere…
On a desolate planet deep within the domain of Thanos, an oppressive silence blanketed the red-soiled wastelands. Then, without warning, a pair of eyes opened in the shadows of a throne carved from dead stars.
Crack!
Bolts of cold, violet lightning danced from the Mad Titan's irises, briefly illuminating the crumbling skulls around him.
"The Time Gem… and the Space Gem." Thanos said slowly, as if savoring the impossible.
"Are not on Earth…"
He stood, towering, expression unreadable.
"Such force… no being below godhood should wield that."
Then his lips curled into a rare smile, cold and absolute. "But if one can… then I shall."
At the edge of another dying star…
Within the lush, ever-shifting bio-surface of the Planet Ego, the Celestial himself stirred.
His consciousness flooded through roots, veins, molten cores. He felt it, the pulse of pure time-space fusion, and the terror hit him like a collapsing star.
"That power…" Ego muttered, his planetary body quaking.
"It could obliterate me… like I never existed."
He glanced inward at the slowly blooming seed-cores planted on thousands of planets, his legacy in gestation.
"No. I won't be outdone. I must feed. I must evolve."
His monstrous will echoed through space.
"And the one who dares wield such magic…"
"Will either become my greatest threat… or my most precious fuel."
Back with Soren…
The magic circles had long since faded. His palms were still scorched.
The stars above twinkled, unaware of what had just occurred, or perhaps pretending not to know.
Soren sighed.
"All that power… burned up in seconds." He grumbled, flexing sore fingers.
"Dormammu's dark space will take time to replenish… and so will I."
There was a trace of frustration in his tone, that came from realizing just how fleeting ultimate power could be.
He looked out into the void, the stars stretching endlessly, galaxies shimmering like tiny lighthouses in a sea of secrets.
"So many worlds."
"So many civilizations… and if the real Galactus is still out there, I need to grow stronger."
A smile crossed his lips.
"The Earth was only the beginning."
His cape fluttered behind him as he turned, already weaving a portal of folded dimensions and corrupted starlight.
"Let's see what this universe has to offer."
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
PhantomDream