chapter 310 part 1
Chapter 308: The Anti-Death Equation!
The moment Shuma-Gorath entered the DC World, it caused a massive uproar. The Gods personally witnessed a Deity from the World Outside the Source Wall successfully cross over.
Furthermore, Shuma-Gorath's physical form—a giant eyeball covered in tentacles—was vastly different from the vast majority of Gods. Its bizarre shape had many of them racking their brains, trying to find a native counterpart for comparison.
Originally, it should have been simple. Once they confirmed that another Multiverse also contained variants similar to those in the World Within the Wall, many things would become easier. It would mean that many of the multiverses outside the wall were not entirely unfamiliar to these beings who had been imprisoned for so long; there would still be "familiar" aspects that they could deduce and speculate about in advance.
"The Malicious Nobles... No wonder these Gods made a mistake, finding the wrong native reference." Du Wa detached a sliver of his attention to observe this scene, which was destined to be engraved into the history of the DC World.
It wasn't just these Gods who were watching. The Monitors from Outside the Source Wall and the three Monitor Brothers from the Sixth Dimension were all staring intently at this unprecedented scene, seizing the time and opportunity to rapidly assess every possibility regarding Shuma-Gorath.
The Malicious Nobles were a group of eyeball-like beings wrapped in black skin, a band of Villains who appeared during the ancient major event, The Multiversity. They destroyed Earth-7 and were ultimately defeated by a coalition of heroes.
But that was an extremely long time ago. To this day, the DC World had been rebooted many times. A group like the Malicious Nobles, who were at most active in one or several universes, had long been submerged in the overwritten depths of reality after the Flashpoint event. Normally, they would have no way of escaping through their own power.
Shuma-Gorath's arrival might mean it would absorb the Malicious Nobles to first secure a foothold for itself in the DC World.
But this was a deduction based on normal logic. The trouble was, the Malicious Nobles, a seemingly unremarkable group of monsters, actually had a significant background—they were enforcers created by The Empty Hand, a part of The Great Darkness.
"Come, Shuma-Gorath. The promise I made to you will now be fulfilled, one by one. You are about to receive what you deserve," Du Wa's voice resounded throughout the Main Universe.
"I believe in your promise; you never use promises as a means of deception. However, this so-called other Multiverse... is clearly not right. You've concealed some very crucial information from me."
Shuma-Gorath glared with its bloodshot eyeball, looking left and right. It paused for a moment on Multiversal-level beings like The Spectre, the Tenth-Dimensional Beings, Golden Superman, Mister Mxyzptlk, and Bat-Mite. It then glanced at the Quantum Batman, instantly recognizing that this guy was also a Xenomorph—one of its own. Finally, its gaze fell upon Du Wa.
As for those who were only present as clones, or whose main body's strength had not reached the Multiversal level, Shuma-Gorath completely ignored them.
"The overall structure of this Multiverse is very peculiar, and its stability is poor. There's an even vaster space beyond the Multiverse, yet the end of all things is sealed by a golden wall stained with countless Gods..."
As a Multiversal being, Shuma-Gorath's perspective was extremely vast. Having been dispatched by Du Wa to the region beyond the Marvel Seventh Multiverse and having even clashed with the Black Winter, it could naturally sense that this strange Multiverse was clearly different from the form of a Multiverse it had imagined.
Too many aspects were similar yet different. Even the most important beings in a Multiverse, the "Creator Gods," were vastly dissimilar.
"Only now do I understand what you meant back then... You truly are a remarkable fellow. Your discovery has exceeded my expectations!" Shuma-Gorath grew excited, its tone rising. "You actually found another Megaverse! I really don't know how you managed it!"
Indeed, no matter how hard Shuma-Gorath tried to think, it would only assume Du Wa had traversed countless multiverses to arrive at a vastly different, new cluster of megaverses within the Marvel World. It would never have imagined that Du Wa had crossed into another Omniverse entirely.
Shuma-Gorath moved rapidly, its numerous tentacles waving continuously, easily placing immense pressure on DC's incredibly fragile Multiverse. Countless remote universes were the first to meet their apocalypse.
A vast amount of indescribable corruption, even without Shuma-Gorath doing anything intentionally, spread out on its own, causing all sorts of bizarre and strange mutations to appear in many universes. A constant stream of indescribable monsters emerged, clashing with the native Gods and superheroes in the remote universes.
The natives in one universe after another fought bitterly, wailing and screaming as they tried to find the source of all the turmoil and restore their universe to its original state. Yet even as they fought to their last breath, they failed to realize that the cause they struggled for their entire lives was merely a minor corruption that Shuma-Gorath carried with it.
The moment Shuma-Gorath moved, its natural corruption surged forth. The various Gods immediately took action, using all sorts of means to block the spread of this corruption, at the very least to protect the 52-universe system centered on the Main Universe.
Over in the Dark Multiverse, Barbatos cursed madly while being forced to spare a hand to block Shuma-Gorath's corruption. "These guys from the Otherworld are more disgusting than the last! Not only do I have to stop the breeding of Xenomorphs, but now I also have to block some kind of eye monster? No one is to lay a finger on my Dark Multiverse! This is my territory, my life's work!"
If he wasn't careful, Xenomorphs and Cthulhu-like creatures might start spawning in many universes. It was simply too much. For the first time, Barbatos felt that provoking Du Wa might not have been such a brilliant idea.
However, Shuma-Gorath's appearance allowed Barbatos to clearly sense the presence of a kindred spirit. Although it confirmed they were of different types, they shared one thing in common—distortion.
The Dark Multiverse itself was a collection of flawed, distorted, and malformed universes. Shuma-Gorath's arrival seemed to naturally align with the true essence of the Dark Multiverse, which inevitably made Barbatos even more furious.
"My master, this is unfortunate news. Perhaps that eyeball in desperate need of neurosurgery is a better fit for the Dark Multiverse's atmosphere than you are."
The Batman Who Laughs swirled a glass of red wine. He watched the events unfolding in the Main Universe through his spiked visor, letting out gasps of amazement. He truly felt his eyes had been opened.
Barbatos roared, "Shut up, Bruce! Your last failure allowed Du Wa to obtain the Quantum Batman, and to this day, I have yet to see you take any real action to wash away your shame! Are you trying to tell me that the Phantom Lantern wearing the Black and White Lantern Ring is your trump card?"
The Batman Who Laughs's movements paused for a noticeable moment. He stared intently at the swirling red wine, then resumed shaking the glass. "Things are changing too quickly. To deal with a Deity like Du Wa, who has both strength and brains, I need to constantly modify my plans. Look, now I have to modify them again. Hehe..."
Perhaps, getting rid of a guy like Barbatos, who had little talent besides his ancient age and origin, was a good idea when the time was right.
Of course, such a clear and distinct thought couldn't possibly form in The Batman Who Laughs's head. The very instant the seedling of this idea appeared, he buried it within the immensely chaotic sea of thoughts in his brain.
Speaking of which, Barbatos was more inclined toward the role of a "God of Destruction." When he was created by the World Forger, it was to destroy the universes that the World Forger had failed to forge correctly.
Even though Barbatos killed the World Forger and seized the World Forge, gathering the flawed universes to form the Dark Multiverse, his positioning as a God of Destruction had not fundamentally changed.
The more The Batman Who Laughs thought about it, the more he felt that the traits of distortion and Delirium on Shuma-Gorath were a much better fit for the Dark Multiverse than Barbatos.