Chapter 208: The Destruction of the Arrowverse
The Anti-Matter Universe, thirty-two trillion light-years in diameter, was a true behemoth.
On its own, the Anti-Matter Universe's sheer volume was equivalent to the sum total of many universes, comparable to a small multiverse.
There was a reason for this universe's vastness: the Anti-Matter Universe was the antithesis of all other universes.
In the ancient era of creation, before the Source Wall, the Creator Goddess Perpetua constantly faced threats from powerful enemies in the Omniverse and was in desperate need of a bodyguard. Thus, the Anti-Matter Universe was born.
Perpetua commanded her youngest son, the Anti-Monitor Mobius, to control the power of anti-matter, preside over the Anti-Matter Universe, and act as the Multiverse's first line of defense against all external threats.
With the passage of time, Perpetua's three offspring, in league with visitors from the Omniverse, launched a rebellion and sealed the Creator Goddess within the Source Wall. As a result, the Anti-Matter Universe lost its value as a "bodyguard."
The entire Anti-Matter Universe, in truth, should not exist. Within the sealed World Within the Wall, it was a super-bomb that reacted violently to any normal matter it encountered, existing only for destruction.
"I will not accept this! This should not be my fate!"
The moment Mobius thought about his awkward predicament—having lost his purpose, with the very world he relied on for his existence now marked for erasure—he seethed with rage.
How was He in any way inferior to his eldest brother, the World Forger, or his second brother, the Monitor?
Why was it that those two could control the higher dimensions and rule the positive-matter universe respectively, remaining unscathed after sealing away their mother, while His Anti-Matter Universe was left in such a passive position?
Things were not supposed to be this way.
Of course, the World Forger was later backstabbed and apparently killed by the pet he had raised, Barbatos, the current master of the Dark Multiverse. But that was the World Forger's own problem and had nothing to do with Him!
At this point, the most crushing defeat the Anti-Monitor had ever experienced was still the famous Crisis on Infinite Earths. Back then, in His rage, He had attacked the positive-matter universe, slaughtering universes until only five remained—and this didn't even count the host of fallen, dark, and incomplete abnormal universes of the Dark Multiverse.
But even that could not be considered a success, as He was subsequently killed and then resurrected by a group of heroes.
This time, however, was different.
"Just as I predicted, the Anti-Life Equation exists within the Anti-Matter Universe. It was always one of the sources of my power, but I never discovered it, nor did I ever truly unleash the power of this formula."
A trace of excitement flashed in the Anti-Monitor's eyes.
From the core of the Anti-Matter Universe, He had successfully unearthed the Anti-Life Equation—a formula capable of calculating and erasing every mortal and god in existence!
The Anti-Monitor eagerly absorbed the Anti-Life Equation. With a piercing scream, His already imposing form began to change.
The heavy armor He wore twisted and contorted, and the battle helmet on His head shattered, revealing His true face.
His entire body became like a rock's surface, covered in strange cracks.
That's right, it was somewhat similar to Darkseid, who had also changed his form after absorbing the Omega Effect.
After learning the structure of the Anti-Life Equation, the Anti-Monitor understood that the formula was incomplete and could be made even stronger.
The missing part was...
"So that's how it is. The Omega Effect... No wonder that New God named Darkseid was searching for the Anti-Life Equation like a madman. He knew from the very beginning that the Anti-Life Equation had to exist."
The Anti-Monitor understood. He now knew exactly what He had to do.
Kill more life, use the Anti-Life Equation to rapidly increase His strength, and then seek out Darkseid for a decisive battle!
The only problem was that Darkseid's main body resided in the Sphere of Gods and would never voluntarily enter the Multiverse, as doing so would trigger chaos and collapse.
Perhaps He needed to fight Darkseid's avatars first, kill all of them, accumulate enough power, and then enter the Sphere of Gods to challenge Darkseid's true form?
Without killing every version of Darkseid, it was impossible to seize the Omega Effect.
"When I slaughter life to accumulate power, Darkseid will know. He will come for me on his own initiative." The Anti-Monitor's gaze was icy. The master of the Anti-Matter Universe, the offspring of a creator god, immediately left his territory, setting out once more after countless years.
The entire Multiverse would once again face His slaughter. If all went according to plan, this time, He would become a supremely powerful deity and accomplish the feat He had failed to achieve during the Crisis on Infinite Earths: the complete destruction of the positive-matter universe.
"Where to begin?"
The Anti-Monitor stood in The Bleed, surrounded by flowing, crimson energy of high dimensionality, density, and intensity, like rivers of blood.
The Bleed, similar to the "superflow" of the Marvel Multiverse, is the space between universes. The numerous universes of the Multiverse are like black spheres soaking in the red pond that is The Bleed.
The renowned Monitor race, sharing the same status as the Creator Goddess's second son, the Monitor, possess the most advanced technology in all of DC. The energy that drives their high-tech devices is the red energy from The Bleed.
The Anti-Monitor had originally intended to start with the 52 numbered universes. These universes were the cornerstones and anchor points of the Multiverse, possessing the most complete rules, the most powerful heroes, and the most abundant life forms.
But doing so would also invite the strongest resistance.
After some thought, the Anti-Monitor gave up on the idea. At this critical juncture, with The Endless having just established themselves in the DC Universe, the various gods were on high alert. He needed to destroy some universes as quickly as possible to increase His strength, rather than waste too much time on a group of powerful cosmic gods and heroes.
He turned and headed for the Arrowverse. In that cluster of universes, there were plenty of weak targets for His slaughter.
"What's happening? Why has a huge rift appeared in our universe? It's as if something has split it in two!"
"The physical laws of the universe have been thrown into chaos, and a large number of scientific instruments are failing."
"It's here! That monster is here! It has reached Earth..."
The heroes of the Arrowverse struggled to fight back. Green Arrow and the Flash stood together, but they could only watch in despair at the world-ending scene before them.
"It's too fast. I see cities dissipating in a flash of light, countless people dying horribly." The Flash's face was pale. "Even if we went to other universes to get Clark and Kara, there's no time."
In this small multiverse, most of the famous superheroes were not in the same universe. To assemble a team on the level of the Justice League, one would have to travel across many universes just to barely scrape one together.
But even if they managed it, it would be useless. Given the scale of the Arrowverse, facing an opponent on the level of the Anti-Monitor was simply too much to handle. There was no possibility of victory.
"Even if we die, we will die as heroes protecting our world! If we don't step up, who will?"
Green Arrow picked up his useless bow and arrows and charged forward with his team. He saw the Anti-Monitor's true form and caught His attention. Then, he took a single punch. His body evaporated, his soul dissipated, and everything—including his memory and thoughts—turned into a ball of light that was absorbed into the Anti-Monitor's body.
With every life form He killed, the Anti-Life Equation would perform a computation. It would reverse-engineer the essence of that life, and the resulting calculated power would be used to empower Him.
The more He killed, the stronger He became; the stronger He became, the more He killed. It was the most simple and brutal method of leveling up.
"Excellent! This is perfect! Just like this!" The Anti-Monitor was stunned, becoming completely addicted to this method of enhancement, so pure in its extremity.
This was so much easier than the path of expanding the Anti-Matter Universe or destroying more positive-matter universes. It was enough to get even an ancient being like the Anti-Monitor hooked!
The Anti-Monitor completely surrendered to the upgrade logic of the Anti-Life Equation. Who wouldn't be intoxicated by this?
Besides, He had always wanted to eliminate the countless lives in the positive-matter universe anyway. This was just a better way to achieve His goal.
"This can't go on! I can't die!"
The Flash began to run, but even upon entering the Speed Force, he could feel the Anti-Monitor's terrifying power.
One by one, the speedsters whom the Flash had fought desperately to imprison all came running out of the Speed Force.
"Hahaha, Flash, I'm out! I've come for my revenge!"
"Barry, poor Barry, I'm back!"
"ROOOOAR!!"
One after another, speedsters escaped: Reverse-Flash, Black Flash, Savitar, and more...
Some had run out from different timelines, while others had escaped directly from the terrifying Speed Force prison.
Moreover, a large swarm of Time Wraiths scrambled out of the Speed Force, attempting to erase any individual who caused temporal chaos.
But the mockery on their faces as they looked at the Flash quickly froze. To their horror, they discovered that all of reality was collapsing!
"What in the world is going on, Barry?! What did you do?!"
One by one, the speedsters died horribly on the spot, becoming energy to fuel the Anti-Monitor.
Even the Anti-Monitor's own projection in the Arrowverse was killed by its true self in a daze, becoming pure energy to be fed into the equation's complex computations.
The Flash himself fell into despair.
Just then, another red figure ran out of the Speed Force, trailing blue lightning.
"So it's this cluster of universes that's being destroyed. No wonder I felt a subtle fluctuation in the Speed Force. But it looks like no matter what I do, it's too late."
The Flash from the DCEU ran over. He was surprised to see the scene of massive world destruction before him, but he remained relatively calm.
The tall figure wreaking havoc amidst thunder, lightning, and a terrifying white light was certainly fearsome, but no matter how powerful it was, could it kill Du Wa and his group?
The Arrowverse's Flash wanted to say something, but he only saw the regretful expression on the DCEU Flash's face. In the end, he did not flee with the DCEU Flash, but died there.
"That extremely fast Flash who escaped seemed to have something different about him... No matter. He will be killed by me eventually. It's only a matter of time."
The Anti-Monitor's very cognition was showing signs of being influenced by the Anti-Life Equation. His mind was filled with thoughts of 'killing monsters to level up,' pushing the might of the Anti-Life Equation to its limit to become the greatest god within the Source Wall.
At the same time, in the DCEU.
Du Wa looked at the Flash before him, who was still shaken with lingering fear, and a look of realization dawned on his face.
"So that's how it is. The Anti-Monitor has begun his slaughter of the Multiverse again, faster than I expected. And he chose the weakest target for his hunt, the Arrowverse... He probably doesn't want to attract the attention of anyone troublesome, especially since The Endless has only just established a foothold in this Multiverse."
Soon, Du Wa had a rough idea of the Anti-Monitor's thoughts.
He had dispatched the DCEU Flash to trigger the Flashpoint event first, which had produced a series of chain reactions.
The most subtle change, when magnified to the scale of a multiverse, becomes infinite.
As for the utterly unlucky Arrowverse... if it was destroyed, it was destroyed. A small multiverse cobbled together from a bunch of TV shows, left forgotten in a corner of the DC world, a place where even assembling a Justice League was a painstaking effort—it held no value worthy of Du Wa's excessive attention.
Du Wa was no saint, obsessed with saving every single world that suffered a disaster. He only did what was appropriate.
"Sending Thanoseid to lie in wait on Earth-3 ahead of time seems to have been the right decision," Du Wa smiled.
Ever since arriving in the DC Multiverse, he had been pondering exactly how he could accumulate enough concepts to advance to the multiversal level.
This was not as simple as just eroding a few universes. If advancing to the multiversal level were that easy, it would be far too cheap.
Furthermore, an individual like Du Wa, who had advanced step-by-step from being a mortal, was extremely rare. He couldn't compare to those deities who were born already grasping concepts, rules, divine artifacts, and dimensions. This made it even harder to find a reference point. Du Wa needed to find something useful from countless clues and then apply it to himself.
Now, he had found it and was about to obtain the key weapon.
"Thanoseid, haven't you always wanted to break away from me? I look forward to your spectacular performance." Du Wa's gaze crossed The Bleed and fell upon Thanoseid, who was fighting with all his might on Earth-3, currently hunting that universe's Darkseid.
This was an incredibly dangerous attempt, but for Du Wa, it was all worth it.
"If nothing goes wrong, the Anti-Monitor should now be gradually enslaved by the Anti-Life Equation. This time, I'll find an opportunity to kill Him and send Him back to the Sixth Dimension."
Du Wa mused.
DC's higher dimensions are power itself in a very real sense. The higher the dimension, the more terrifying the strength its inhabitants—even ordinary ones—can display when facing "lower" dimensions, which include the Sphere of Gods.
(end of chapter)