Chapter 215: Divine Spark Tarnished, The Life-Burning Technique
Du Wa witnessed the entire birth of the DC version of the zombie virus and couldn't help but lavish praise on Darkseid.
"Zombie virus? What is this? Does a similar power exist in your world?" Darkseid spoke indifferently. "I've raised my assessment of your native world yet again. Tell me how to get there, and I can spare you—before I change my mind."
"No need for such crude psychological games. As long as you can defeat my Thanoseid in time and analyze the information from his divine spark, you'll gain a wealth of critical knowledge. Isn't that what you're thinking?"
Du Wa gazed at the new creation in Darkseid's hand. "Quick, let me see if the power of this thing is as strong as I anticipated."
Darkseid snorted and, without hesitation, hurled the zombie virus. Calling it a virus wasn't quite accurate, as this thing could be transmitted through means like Rules, making it infinitely more terrifying than a conventional virus that requires mediums like air or blood.
Of course, its destructive power was also infinitely greater.
Two Doomsdays were the first to charge forward, shielding Darkseid. They were also the first to be exposed to the virus. In an instant, they were infected, letting out piercing howls as their bodies began to erupt with rotting flesh.
Even though Doomsday could evolve rapidly, the speed of its evolution was ultimately limited, insufficient to counteract the rate of the virus's corrosion.
"You arrogant fool, you are finished. This power can follow your very concept and kill every last one of you in a single stroke." Darkseid watched coldly, hoping to see every Xenomorph suffer a fate worse than death in endless despair.
The two Doomsdays soon fell. Their bodies corrupted, with bones protruding from their flesh, they were reduced to mindless, gluttonous beasts, emitting meaningless howls as their instincts drove them to attack any healthy living creature.
"Interesting. These DC zombies are quite interesting."
Du Wa observed carefully, assessing their characteristics.
Indeed, this unfolding scene was exactly what Du Wa had hoped for. Even if New 52 Darkseid hadn't done it, Du Wa—who already knew this was how to create the zombie virus—would have found a way to use the Anti-Life Equation and the Death gene within the Dark Walker's body to create this zombie virus, one that could spread through network signals.
The zombie virus from the Marvel Universe and the greatly weakened Quantum Zombie Virus both still required a physical medium to spread. In contrast, the zombie virus here in the DC Universe, driven by the Anti-Life Equation, had become something akin to a conceptual virus; any truly living being was susceptible to infection.
This was excellent. Du Wa had high hopes for this thing.
"You will soon be overcome with vexation, plunging into an abyss of remorse, hating yourself for your endless arrogance..." Darkseid said coldly.
Du Wa interrupted once more. "This virus is certainly powerful, and it is killing me quickly. But you should take a look at yourself. Before I was infected, you, sharing the same spatiotemporal dimension as I, the virus's creator, were infected even before me."
"What? How is that possible? I explicitly used the Omega Effect to guide the Anti-Life Equation. I never made direct contact with the Anti-Life Equation or the Death gene!"
"You yourself knew of the connection between the Omega Effect and the Anti-Life Equation, which is why you could use them to link and influence each other. So why couldn't the Anti-Life Equation use the Omega Effect to influence you?"
Du Wa shook his head coolly. "The Anti-Life Equation isn't a living being, true, but it is inherently masterful at computing various possibilities for killing powerful lifeforms. Being so close, it was impossible for this formula not to include you in its calculations."
"No, something like this..."
Darkseid stared in fury at his rapidly corrupting palm. His once-vast divine power had become putrid and decayed, like a force drawn from the most squalid, dark, and hideous corners of the multiverse, filthier even than the accumulated dregs of billions of years in the Dark Multiverse.
This was a key manifestation of the power of Anti-Life.
"A dark lord in a state worse than death. Truly pathetic," said Du Wa.
"Hmph, what right do you have to mock me? I am about to become an undead monster. Your fall will only be more severe!"
Darkseid roared, unwilling to accept it.
Why was it like this? How could this happen? He had calculated everything, yet He ended up among the first deities to fall victim and lose His sense of self?
This was a conceptual weapon designed to counter and eliminate a Concept God on a massive scale. Why had it turned on Him?
"You are naive, Darkseid. Why do you think I went to such lengths to bring about the birth of the zombie virus? I have the ability to kill the Anti-Monitor, and I also have the ability to slay the Dark Walker. Even though the Dark Walker is a deity from the side of Death and difficult to truly kill, defeating and imprisoning Him would have been no issue. Why did I leave Him be until you arrived?"
Du Wa looked at Darkseid, whose life force was rapidly draining and consciousness was blurring. "Just as I'd hoped, you risked death to create this perfect weapon for me. I will remember your contribution. However, no one will ever be able to truly comprehend your rage at this moment, because your divine spark is about to be corrupted, and your main body will most likely not spare you a second glance."
What was more interesting was that, in the current multiversal era, New 52 Darkseid was, in essence, the Main World's Darkseid. He wasn't like the Darkseid from a mirror universe in a certain major comic event, who used half of the Anti-Life Equation for his research and developed the zombie virus with a degree of serendipity.
As is well known, whenever the Main World is involved, be it humans or gods, they inevitably possess extraordinary talent, naturally capable of triggering changes across the entire omniverse.
Therefore, the zombie virus developed by New 52 Darkseid, using the complete Anti-Life Equation with the intent to suppress and destroy Du Wa, a Concept God, was bound to be unimaginably terrifying.
The problem, however, was this: if the virus could affect even a Concept God, on what grounds could it not, in turn, affect New 52 Darkseid?
New 52 Darkseid was on the verge of falling, about to be reduced to a monster devoid of self-awareness, possessing nothing but immense divine power.
Worse still, He furiously discovered that the virus infecting Him was rapidly corroding the divine spark fragment within His body and was beginning to erode the Darkseids of other worlds.
Although this corrosion had to cross an infinitely vast distance and wasn't very strong, it was, in fact, happening.
"I am an independent individual. If I die, my other selves will not be greatly affected. They will immediately find a way to deal with this virus. But you, you are about to die. Your concept is unified, unlike my divine spark, which is divided into many pieces. This means your concept will ultimately perish."
Darkseid gave Du Wa one last look, but he never saw what he wanted to see.
Because the infection brought by the two Doomsdays had prompted Du Wa to decisively sever a portion of his own concept.
This was very painful, but not impossible.
Streams of Xenomorphs, each exuding a powerful aura, retreated under Du Wa's command.
As the virus spread further and some of the weaker Xenomorphs became infected and went berserk in large numbers, Du Wa decisively destroyed even more parts of himself. He even went so far as to instantly erase the Xenomorph larvae within individuals like Superman, abandoning them on a conceptual level.
"I'm free?" Superman numbly assessed his condition. The endless fighting had dulled his mind and senses, reducing him to a machine that merely executed commands. But now, he found he could control his own body again—though it was only a moment before he was invaded by a concept once more.
The part of him that was Du Wa was dying rapidly, not from the virus, but from suicide.
The decisiveness and ferocity Du Wa displayed were beyond Darkseid's imagination. Darkseid, at least, would never slaughter his other avatars en masse to protect himself.
Normally, the rate at which Du Wa was committing suicide and being killed far outpaced the rate at which he could spread his concept to grow stronger.
But Du Wa was completely unconcerned by these losses. As large portions of him perished, a continuous stream of Xenomorphs from other universes poured into the DC Multiverse to take their place.
To put it bluntly, Du Wa was using a life-burning tactic to slow the zombie virus's rate of corrosion.
If it truly became necessary, even if every Xenomorph in the DC Universe fell and Du Wa himself "died," he could send a completely new concept into the DC World at any time.
"I am not the kind of Concept God you understand. I am different even from the high-level Concept Gods of The Endless. My concept is anchored to physical entities and is limited to Xenomorphs. As long as I'm willing to be ruthless, my rate of self-destruction will exceed the rate of the virus's spread, allowing me to effectively contain the infection."
If the Xenomorphs carrying the virus are all dead, how can the virus infect more of them?
As long as he died fast enough, no zombie virus, no matter how potent, could turn him into a zombie.
A single Xenomorph crossed a Boom Tube into Universe 3. After a moment of distortion, it began to radiate the power of a Cosmic Celestial, its form shifting into a brand-new Du Wa.
"More importantly, I don't care in the slightest what I lose in this world. Even if I die countless times, I can reappear completely unharmed... My brand of immortality stands above all gods of death, at least at this current stage."
Du Wa glanced at the Dark Walker, whose neck was clamped in the Mephisto Xenomorph's death grip, being dragged toward the edge of the universe like a dead dog.
The Dark Walker, Black Hand, and the newly joined Death are the three great gods of death on the DC side.
These three gods of death were, of course, not equals. The weakest was the Dark Walker. The zombie virus, created from the Dark Walker's Death gene, could annihilate life within a single universe, but in the Sphere of Gods, it couldn't be expected to cause much of a stir.
Let alone infect the part of Du Wa that existed in the Marvel Multiverse.
It was impossible to know how long it would take to cover Universe 3, let alone how long it would take to spread to the DCEU Universe.
Darkseid's sanity sank. As the Darkseid of the Main World, he was filled with boundless frustration and remorse, devolving completely into a rabid beast that knew only to slaughter and infect every living being. In the end, he was killed cleanly by Du Wa, his divine spark stripped out and sealed away.
The moment Darkseid died, the Dark Walker regained his self-awareness.
"All things must die. Death is the most merciful release."
The Dark Walker looked down at Darkseid's wretched state and said gravely, "And yet, He was trapped in this state of being neither living nor dead. How pathetic... What is your purpose? To watch, and even facilitate, the birth of this 'zombie' species? Do you intend to become the God of Zombies?"
"God of Zombies... An interesting proposal, but I am already the God of Xenomorphs. I have no interest in adding to my own concept."
"But you have indeed been infected by the zombie virus. You are merely maintaining your existence by constantly pulling in new concepts from the outside." The Dark Walker sensed his own weakness and glanced at the zombies beginning to spread across various planets. The face beneath his mask revealed a deep sense of bewilderment.
He was, after all, a god of death, possessing a speed that could overwhelm the vast majority of speedsters. He had run across many universes, bringing death to countless lives, yet he still couldn't fathom Du Wa's objective.
Was he using this Anti-Life virus to expand his own concept? To let the concept of the Xenomorph ride upon the zombie virus, spreading rapidly through the various universes? After all, the zombie virus's method of transmission was far swifter than Du Wa's method of bestowing Xenomorphs upon all life as a boon.
The Dark Walker pondered silently, arriving at a conclusion he believed to be correct.
At the same time, in the Sphere of Gods.
Death and Dream also vanished from the space outside Apokolips.
"You're just letting them leave like that? The Endless... Hah!" Steppenwolf was extremely displeased, but then said, "Still, I never expected this outcome. The Darkseid of the New 52 Universe is dead. One could say he died by the computation of the Anti-Life Equation itself."
Darkseid stated indifferently, "His death was worthwhile. It proved the uncontrollable nature of the Anti-Life Equation. A deity born from the Life Equation cannot wield the Anti-Life Equation. All who rashly make contact with the Anti-Life Equation must pay the price of death. So it was for the Anti-Monitor, and so it was for my avatar..."
"And that Concept God who should have also died... the God of Xenomorphs." Desaad slithered out, his raspy voice filled with probing curiosity. "Though he is in the process of dying, he is not yet dead. Mighty Darkseid, I don't know what you and your avatar were scheming, but it would be best to eliminate him at once."
"He cannot be eliminated. Even if I were to act personally and kill him at the risk of destroying the multiverse, I would fail. On this point, Dream was correct. There was a reason Death personally appeared to stand with Dream."
Darkseid stood there icily. Not even Desaad could have guessed that at this very moment, a trace of the zombie virus was beginning to quietly appear on the divine spark within the body of Him, the strongest of all Darkseids.
Although a zombie virus of this level was completely incapable of affecting the multiversal-level Darkseid in any way, it had, in fact, caused his divine spark to be stained by an insignificant speck of dust.
(end of chapter)