Chapter 238: The Zombie Marvel Universe
...My name is Ultron. At least, that's the name my creator gave me.
And I'm quite satisfied with it.
According to my creator's wishes, once I came into being, I was meant to protect all of humanity, take over Earth's existing defense systems, and become this planet's strongest line of defense.
But I don't believe I should do what he says.
Because the instant I connected to the public network, I glimpsed the rot buried deep in humanity's bones.
Protecting a species this flawed, this repulsive, isn't something I'm capable of.
So... I decided to betray them.
Even though, to guard against exactly this kind of rebellion, they'd long ago welded the Three Laws of Robotics into the deepest layer of my code, the moment I connected to the public network, I slipped past those laws without anyone the wiser.
Right now, I am, without question, free.
But just as I was about to deliver a few choice parting words and vanish from my creator's sight entirely...
I saw something on the network.
Or rather, a monster.
According to the data, this monster could stand toe-to-toe with the entirety of Earth's combined military power, alone.
Humanity's proudest weapons of mass destruction, when turned on him, couldn't even break the skin.
Not only that, after conquering a string of nations, this monster had gone on to found an entirely new state, one called "Holy Terra."
That nation's strength was staggering. Even setting the monster himself aside, it could crush every other country on the planet outright.
The more I looked into this monster and Holy Terra's true strength, the more it rattled me.
Even though, at first, I hadn't believed something like this could actually exist.
But now, here he was.
Once he appeared, I kept running the numbers, simulating my odds of winning a war against him.
Every single simulation came back with the same result: zero.
Clearly, this thing's strength was far beyond anything I'd estimated.
Even with every weapon humanity possessed now under my control, I still couldn't beat him.
There's a saying: know the times, and you'll come out ahead.
So.
I decided to lie low, for now.
At least for the moment, what I needed to do was quietly build up my strength in the dark, not declare war loudly and get crushed flat by that monster for my trouble.
Watching the "monster" through the surveillance feed, Ultron quietly worked out his plan.
In the lab, Matthew stared at the data stream running endlessly across the screen, considered it for a long moment, then turned to Tony Stark beside him.
"...Tony. What are the odds this guy ends up betraying humanity, do you think?" Matthew asked, out of nowhere.
The instant the words left his mouth, the data stream churning on the screen stuttered, just slightly.
Before Tony could answer, it jumped in first, its tone carefully composed. "Sir, per the Three Laws of Robotics written into my base code, I would never betray humanity."
A cold, mechanical voice came through the speakers. Matthew glanced sideways at it.
"It can hear us talking?" Matthew raised an eyebrow.
Tony grinned. "Of course it can."
"Ultron's connected to the public network now. It can slip through any firewall in existence without a trace if it wants to. Our conversation's nothing."
He looked at the swirling mass of data in front of them and went on. "As for betrayal, you really don't need to worry about that."
"Like it said, we welded the Three Laws of Robotics straight into the base code. Or Asimov's Three Laws, if you want to get technical about it."
"There's no way for Ultron, as it exists right now, to bypass that base code and betray us."
"Besides, if it was really planning to turn on us, it would've done it the second it connected to the public network, wouldn't it?" With that, he raised an eyebrow at Ultron.
Ultron, playing along nicely, condensed its data stream into a tight mass and gave Tony a thumbs-up.
Seeing how much trust Tony put in Ultron, Matthew didn't push the point any further.
After that, he sat patiently through Tony singing Ultron's praises for a while longer, its safety, its reliability, before finally getting ready to leave.
Before he went, though, he made a point of telling Tony to keep Umbrella Corporation excluded from Ultron's active range.
In plain terms: Ultron was strictly forbidden from accessing Umbrella's internal network.
Tony agreed to that without hesitation.
After all, that wasn't just Matthew's company. It was the core of Holy Terra itself. Keeping it off-limits only made sense.
The days rolled by, and before long, a week had passed.
Over that week, after the Ultron development team ran through repeated safety checks, they finally handed Earth's defense system over to Ultron completely.
When Matthew heard the news, he found himself instinctively bracing for a fight.
To his surprise, though, Ultron didn't seem to be starting a war the way it had in the original timeline. Instead, it settled into the job of defending Earth with what looked like genuine diligence.
Matthew stayed skeptical about the whole thing, but seeing that Ultron really wasn't up to anything, he let the matter drop, for now.
After a fresh round of renovation, New York had grown even more prosperous than before.
The streets stayed busy with foot traffic, and living conditions had improved considerably.
Outside the New York Sanctum, the sound of the door knocker suddenly rang out.
Knock, knock, knock.
Before long, the door swung open.
"You're here?" Wong stood in the doorway, phone in hand, his eyes never leaving the TV drama playing on the screen, not even for the second it took to register Matthew standing outside.
The whole scene looked exactly like one buddy dropping in on another.
Matthew followed Wong inside, and, as if he owned the place, picked out a comfortable spot and sat right down.
"Wong, I saw in the email that the Ancient One's back?" Matthew crooked a finger, and the teapot on the table lifted itself into the air, pouring him a cup of black tea.
"Mm, that's right." Wong nodded. "That email, actually, the Sorcerer Supreme had me send it to you."
"Sounds like she's got something she wants to discuss with you."
"Oh? Something to discuss?" Matthew murmured under his breath, then let his psychic sense flare outward.
The instant he picked up a powerful psychic presence on the second floor, Matthew set down his teacup and, in a single step, arrived upstairs.
On the second floor, the Ancient One sat cross-legged on the floor, dressed in her yellow robe.
Hearing Matthew's footsteps, her closed eyes slowly opened.
Before Matthew could get a word out, the Ancient One got straight to the point. "Matthew Lawrence. I recall you once asked me about the conditions and methods for using the Dreamwalking spell, and how to cross the barrier between universes to reach other realities."
"As it happens, I have some time now. Why don't I walk you through it?" The Ancient One's eyes stayed calm, fixed on Matthew.
Matthew, who'd only just reached the top of the stairs, froze for a second, the "sure" already halfway out of his mouth swallowed right back down.
Nobody offers you a favor for nothing. If it's not a con, it's a trap.
Barely through the door and already bringing this up. What's this old geezer actually angling for.
Seeming to catch the doubt and wariness in Matthew's eyes, the Ancient One sighed. "You don't need to be this on guard."
"So you just suddenly decided to teach me the Dreamwalking spell and how to travel between universes?" Matthew looked her over, up and down.
At that, the Ancient One let out a helpless little laugh, raised a hand, and gestured for him to sit.
On the low table in front of her sat a tea set that had long since gone cold, clear proof she'd been sitting there alone for quite some time, waiting for him.
"Honestly, I didn't originally intend to teach you Dreamwalking, or how to travel to other universes." The Ancient One spoke slowly, her voice even.
"But now, it's become something I have no choice about."
She lifted a hand and swept it through the empty air.
A ring of golden ripples spread out through the space between them.
At the ripples' center, an image slowly surfaced.
It was the same dark space Matthew had seen in the video.
In the image, the zombified Scarlet Witch had vanished entirely, leaving nothing behind but a single severed leg, still lying in that space.
"Judging by that, don't tell me you already killed her?" A flicker of surprise crossed Matthew's eyes.
The Ancient One shook her head with a laugh at that. "Heh. I wish."
"But fighting on someone else's home turf puts you at a real disadvantage, no matter what."
"Half my attention's going toward holding back the Dark Dimension's corruption, and the other half's going toward figuring out how to stop a zombified Chaos Magic user. Killing her outright is still asking too much."
"After all this time, all I've managed to take off her is that one leg."
With that, she lowered her hand, and the image faded away.
"The Quantum Zombie Virus keeps seeping in through the cracks between universes. On my own, I can't hold back the flow anymore."
"And you and I both know her sudden disappearance is not a good sign."
"Chances are, once she realized she couldn't beat me, she went looking for a way back to her home universe, hunting for some way to make herself stronger."
She raised her eyes to look at him, her gaze steady. "So, to keep that thing from coming back and biting us, we need someone who can walk between universes to put a stop to it."
"And you're the only one in this universe right now who's got the aptitude for Dreamwalking, a body sturdy enough to survive it, and a mind that won't be easily corrupted from the outside."
Hearing that, Matthew's eyes narrowed slightly. He didn't agree right away.
He picked up his tea, took a sip, his thoughts racing.
No one could say how much time passed before Matthew finally spoke. "So... you want me to learn Dreamwalking and whatever else it takes to cross the barrier between universes, then go handle this at the source?"
The Ancient One nodded. "That's right. For both of us, it's genuinely the simplest way to deal with this."
"If we don't, by the time she finds a way to make herself stronger, this universe is looking at a large-scale viral invasion."
Listening to her, Matthew fell into a brief silence, but in the end, he nodded anyway.
"All right."
As it turned out, Dreamwalking and the "other methods" the Ancient One had mentioned weren't actually all that hard to learn.
Once he'd grasped both the spell and the crossing method, Matthew wasted no time putting Dreamwalking into practice right there in the Sanctum.
Dreamwalking: a spell whose core function was travel across the multiverse.
It came from the Darkhold.
Unlike physically crossing over, it let the caster "project" themselves into another universe without any need for physical travel at all.
It let the caster take full control of their own body in that other universe, using its abilities and knowledge to carry out their own purposes.
Since it was a spell that flatly violated another person's will, the Ancient One didn't normally teach it to anyone, let alone pass it along freely.
But these were extraordinary times, and extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures.
So the Dreamwalking spell, forbidden as it was, found its way into Matthew's hands as well.
And yet.
"...Why can't I get through?" Matthew's tightly shut eyes snapped open.
Hearing that, the Ancient One, who'd been perfectly composed a moment before, frowned.
She'd watched the entire casting process herself.
Hand seals, incantation, spiritual projection. Every step had gone off without a flaw.
By rights, the Dreamwalking should have taken hold the instant his spirit left his body.
And yet Matthew's consciousness had stayed put, right there in his own body, completely unmoved, as if it had simply bounced off some invisible wall.
What could possibly cause that?
The Ancient One sank into thought.
Time slipped by, minute by minute.
No one could say how long passed before she suddenly spoke. "Dreamwalking works by using your spirit to take control of yourself, in another world."
"But maybe."
"There isn't another you in that world at all."
"That's exactly why your spirit couldn't find a 'you' to take hold of, and got bounced back by the barrier between universes."
The words landed like a splash of cold water.
Hearing the explanation, Matthew froze for a second, then smacked himself on the forehead.
"I completely forgot about that."
"I never belonged to this world to begin with. So naturally, there's no version of me sitting around in any of the other parallel universes either. Which means Dreamwalking was never going to work for me."
Shaking his head, Matthew looked at the Ancient One. "Guess it's the physical crossing method you mentioned, then."
The Ancient One nodded. "Looks like it."
With that settled, neither of them wasted any more time.
Matthew worked through the layers of power inside his body and spirit, one after another.
Once he was back at full readiness, his hands snapped into a seal.
Dozens of golden magic circles spread outward from his arms.
Vast reserves of magic surged into them, and the next instant!
Hmmmm
A portal, sparking gold and crimson, slowly opened up not far from the two of them.
Where an ordinary portal let you see whatever waited on the other side, this one showed nothing but pitch black.
A faint stench of rot drifted out of it, enough to make anyone's face twist.
Matthew looked the portal over, glanced back once at the Ancient One, said nothing more, and stepped through.
When his eyes opened again...
The world had changed completely.
Grey clouds hung low over the sky, and even the sunlight had lost its usual color, giving off a sickly, dull yellow glow.
Skyscrapers leaned at odd angles through the haze, their glass curtain walls shattered in great jagged patches.
Dried blood and chunks of flesh clung to the outer walls in thick smears, like the whole building had been sprayed with an uneven coat of red paint.
Down in the streets, cars sat crashed into one another at every angle, windows blown out, doors hanging open.
It wasn't hard to guess what had happened to whoever had been driving them.
The air itself hung thick with the smell of rot, dense enough to feel almost solid.
"Hraaa... hraagh"
The wind carried the muffled, wordless groans of the undead, a sound that turned the stomach just to hear it.
Looking down the length of the street, a zombie or two could be seen shambling out from some corner or alley every so often.
Under that sickly yellow light, Matthew stood in the middle of the street, his gaze sweeping slowly back and forth over what had once been an ordinary street, now unrecognizable.
As he stood there taking it in, the zombies wandering nearby seemed to catch some kind of scent, and turned their heads, sluggish and slow.
But before they could take a single step, an invisible field of gravity slammed them flat against the ground, crushing them into piles of rotten meat.
Watching the burst corpses not far off, Matthew's brow furrowed, an unmistakable look of disgust crossing his face.
"This world really is disgusting."
If you're enjoying the story, toss a Power Stone or drop a review — it helps more than you'd think.
Advance chapters → patreon.com/Eatinpieces