"Sorry, I must return immediately." Strange said to everyone, "A very dangerous Demon God is rapidly approaching Earth. As the Supreme Magician, I must go back to support, and the Grand Mages must come with me."
No one expressed any objections, considering that you can't expect someone to abandon their own home for this battle. However, Stark gave Steve a look, and Steve nodded, stood up, and said, "This must be Batman's strategy, trying to surround us on all sides to weaken our strength as much as possible. The more this happens, the less we can panic; we must redeploy our defenses. Captain Americas and Winter Soldiers, come with me. The latest defense measures will be conveyed to the Avengers of various universes by Captain America."
Captain Americas and Winter Soldiers all got up and left. Immediately, Natasha also stood up and said, "Agent Romanoff, follow me. Involving the Three Great Empires and the interstellar council, we may need to do some social engineering among intelligent life society, please follow me immediately."
The Black Widows also left quite orderly. Then Stark stood up and said, "The defensive strength has been weakened, and those research personnel with combat abilities must also undertake some defense responsibilities. Iron Man, The Hulk, Ant-Man, Doctor Destruction, and the Fantastic Four, come with me, we need to quickly clarify responsibilities and decide on personnel for battle."
This involved quite a few people; Iron Man got up slowly, some appeared obviously reluctant, but most were rational, knowing that this time it's no joke, and in the end, they also left.
Dr. Banner and Dr. Pym were relatively cooperative and also went with Stark. Most of the Fantastic Four followed, except for Doctor Destruction—Doom of the Central Universe stood up and said, "Doom believes that only Doom understands Doctor Destruction's situation better. Moreover, we can mostly engage in magic research, whereas other researchers cannot. Hence Doom believes Doctor Destruction's team should have some autonomy, Dooms need to sort out personnel by themselves."
"You can talk to the central command." Stark said without turning his head as he led the others away.
Doom quietly communicated with Professor X, seemingly receiving permission after a while, and the Doctor Destructions also followed him.
"Okay, Hawkeyes, come with me." Barton of the Central Universe stood up and waved his hand, saying, "We're not well-suited for cosmic combat, and will likely be sent to Earth for defense operations; just listen to Director Fury's arrangements then."
The Hawkeyes had no objections; they knew that as archers, they were at a disadvantage in space environments, not to mention that they were just slightly stronger ordinary people, and the key issue was that in a chaotic energy flow, it's hard to shoot the arrows accurately. They were better suited for surface combat.
And then there were various heroes like Falcon, Quake, Wasp Woman, most of whom were organized by Coulson to go to the conference room and wait for the command center's defense arrangements.
Quite a few Black Panthers from Wakanda also came; they were the last to leave as many Black Panthers were worried about the situation in this universe's Wakanda.
Unlike other superheroes, the Black Panthers saw the various Wakandas in the Multiverse as one and the same nation, as Wakanda was a tribal state with each tribe having a chief, jointly forming the nation of Wakanda.
And in the Multiverse, different Wakandas were equivalent to different tribes; they used the same name, naturally constituting the same country. So the Black Panthers formed a rather complete council system, with the Central Universe's Black Panther acting as the grand chief, while the Prime Universe and another universe's ones served as equal chiefs, and the others as ordinary chiefs, matters were handled according to tribal council procedures.
Differing from other superheroes who were more concerned about their own Earth, all Black Panthers were also worried about Wakanda in this universe. Upon learning about impending danger, they all wanted to go back to Earth immediately to provide support.
"No need to worry," T'Challa explained to them, "Our universe's Magical Defense Network is very comprehensive, making it impossible for any Demon God to directly invade Earth. Besides, the Eye Demon has already greatly violated the Galactic Ordinance of the Holy Sanctuary, and apart from humans, other members of the Holy Sanctuary will also take action against him."
"That's not what we're worried about," said the Prime Universe's Black Panther, "The last Supreme Magician died at the hands of that Eye Demon, and we heard that you wanted to summon back The Ancient One; we're concerned that this might make her fall into a destined catastrophe."
T'Challa immediately furrowed his brow; he hadn't thought of this point. Despite Wakanda's advanced technology, the Black Panther wasn't exactly a tech hero; he delved into metaphysical matters as well. Because of the presence of the African God System, shamanistic practices were prevalent in African tribes, with many traditions, one of which was the concept of 'destined fate'—to put it in an Eastern perspective, it would be 'facing calamity.'
To explain further: the time a person will die is preordained, and even if he foresees the way of his death and tries various methods to avoid it, he usually can't escape the calamity; on the contrary, the more he resists, the quicker he dies.
The Ancient Ones in most universes were killed by the Eye Demon, and this time the Eye Demon arrives just when The Ancient One is being called back; could this be a predetermined catastrophe?
Thinking about this, T'Challa became unsettled. He quickly called Strange to share his guess. Though it seemed outlandish, this was indeed the logic in the magic realm—otherwise, why else would The Ancient One be summoned back at this moment? Why, among so many Demon Gods, it was precisely the Eye Devi?
While the Ancient One in this universe, due to abundant energy, no one knew how powerful she had become, fate was truly unpredictable, better to believe in it than not.
Before Strange immediately contacted The Ancient One to devise a strategy, the Ghost Rider hurried over and said to Strange, "Mephisto just sent me a message saying his son, Blackheart, has escaped, so we should be on guard."
"Damn," Strange cursed mercilessly, "Batman must have found him. This guy doesn't want to offend Batman and doesn't want to offend us either, trying to please both sides, the scoundrel!"
"No worries, he can't enter the Magical Defense Network. However, it's not good if he causes damage in the Solar System; my brother and I will figure out a way to handle him, you need not worry too much," Johnny the Ghost Rider said.
"Alright, I'm counting on you," Strange nodded.
Suddenly, the phone by his hand rang again. After answering, he said, "Dormammu is acting up too? What did he say?... Okay, he's being sensible. But don't trust him too much, send someone to keep an eye on him."
After hanging up, Strange let out a small sigh of relief. Dormammu had been asleep for most of the time recently, and it was unclear who Batman sent to wake him. However, Dormammu had no interest in participating in this matter, flipping over and falling asleep again.
As for the likes of the Lord of the Crimson Dimension Setorak and the Great Shadow Xeseon, they were all bothered by Batman as well. But either they were uninterested or knew they couldn't win, so they largely did not get involved.
However, there was a somewhat unexpected presence that was causing trouble, and that was the Snake God Seth. This guy is an Earth Ancient God, has a Crown of the Snake God, and had a contract with Lady Hydra. But since that brief appearance, he hasn't surfaced again, though he hasn't given up on his evil intentions.
However, more than that, Strange was curious about who Batman sent to wake up so many Demon Gods—knowing that sometimes even the Grand Mage can't contact those lazy dimension lords. This agent of Batman managed to connect with so many Demon Gods in such a short time, isn't that the Holy Sanctuary's staff chosen by fate?
After some investigation—mainly because Xeseon, who lacked backbone, spilled everything—Strange learned that it was the unique Flash Barry Allen, who had left countless spatial traps on the battlefield that day.
To distinguish this Flash from other Flashes, Strange gave him the codename "Killer Flash." Then he learned from more Demon Gods that this individual used a very peculiar spatial slicing ability to directly break into many Demon Gods' dimensions, kicking them awake right before their eyes.
Most Demon Gods are invincible within their own dimensions, able to control space and time, and cannot tolerate the arrogance of a Divine Speed user. However, this Killer Flash also possesses another rather unique ability, an original power of darkness they had never seen before. The Demon Gods claim this power is highly contaminative and would cause some degree of erosion to their dimensions, so even though he runs around within the dimensions, no one is willing to catch him.
Whether this Killer Flash is too powerful, or the Demon Gods are exaggerating to avoid the Supreme Magician's accountability, Strange does not know. But he knows that Killer Flash will definitely be a trump card in Batman's hand.
For the Holy Sanctuary, tonight was a turbulent night, and Strange was somewhat overwhelmed. Looking at the readings on the magical defense network, he finally dialed the United Nations Security Council's phone number.
"Hello, this is the Supreme Magician. After our research, it would be best if we do not confront the Eye Demon directly. We should avoid its edge and transfer Earth to a safer place."
After hanging up, Strange pressed his hands on the table, gritting his teeth, "Truly, it's Batman, exposing all the cosmos' security vulnerabilities at once."
In the command center of Apocalypse Star, Prime Universe Batman nodded to Barry and said, "Well done, I didn't expect you to contact such a powerful Demon God."
"I also heard from others that the one-eyed monster had killed the Supreme Magician, so I thought to find him. But he seemed to lack reason, and it took quite a bit of effort to lure him over."
Prime Universe Batman turned back to look at the Star Map and said, "The development level of this universe's Earth is high, which is both a disadvantage and an advantage for us. Although they can mobilize more technological forces, they also have a larger homeland to guard. Just having a magical defense network on Earth is far from enough. If they don't want the Solar System to suffer, they'll have to find a way to stop the enemy outside the Solar System."
"Asgard won't be able to help," Barry said, arms crossed. "Although the Three Great Empires didn't all dispatch troops, the two with military forces are still a significant threat. Their attention will be consumed there, and they won't be able to assist Earth much."
"There will also be assistance from Mephisto and Seth later, plus the imminent threat of Thanos. The mages might not be able to oversee the entire Solar System. To ensure the Solar System is not devastated as much as possible, when they're requesting help from the Asgard Base, it will be the perfect time for us to act."
Prime Universe Batman stared at a point on the Star Map and slowly said. Barry, somewhat in awe, said, "I originally thought this universe was pretty safe, didn't expect you to uncover so many security vulnerabilities from such hidden corners, it's like preemptively clearing mines for them."
"That's the significance of this battle," Prime Universe Batman said, as if reflecting on something, lowering his gaze, "Otherwise, why would that clever guy choose his own home as the battlefield?"
"Not good, Batman!" Suddenly, Main Universe Superman flew in through the window and said to Prime Universe Batman, "Earth has run away!"
"...What?"
"Earth! The Earth in this universe! You had me keeping an eye on it, and then I saw a flash of light, and 'whoosh' it was gone!!!"
"...?"