Chapter 228: Rushing to the Main World
Thanoseid hated Du Wa to his very core.
"It's happening again! You're putting on that 'everything is under control' act again!"
Thanoseid struggled unwillingly, hating the injustice of Fate. "This isn't fair at all!"
"A variant of Darkseid, who is supposed to eliminate free will, is now talking about fairness... It's truly something else..."
Everyone who knew anything about Darkseid now silently watched the broken Thanoseid. From another perspective, Thanoseid had encountered a monster like Du Wa, who never acted according to normal logic; there was simply no solution.
Thus, the impotently raging Thanoseid ultimately returned to Du Wa's thrall.
He now regretted it deeply. Perhaps if he had dug out the alien larva from his body from the very beginning, instead of deliberately keeping it to make it easier to find the mysteriously vanished Du Wa, things would be better now. Maybe he would have had a chance to escape?
But alas, Thanoseid could not reverse the entire history of DC Comics. He was destined to never return to that moment.
"Fate is illusory. Better to believe in me than in it. At least I exist in reality as a physical entity."
Du Wa consoled Thanoseid, but it only made Thanoseid so depressed he nearly vomited blood.
Alexander Luthor watched this entire scene unfold.
"Just as I deduced. That Du Wa fellow isn't so easy to get rid of... Even someone as strong as Thanoseid couldn't do it! We need someone stronger!"
"Stronger? Become one of those few Multiversal Gods? I think we should be more clear-headed. First, let's figure out Du Wa's background, find out how many trump cards he holds, and then discuss launching a rebellion. I have no desire to end up like Thanoseid, failing my rebellion only to be enslaved again. That's worse than death." Lex Luthor couldn't even be bothered with Metron anymore. He bit his finger, his eyes flashing as he was lost in thought.
It seemed he had made a wonderful discovery, but he wasn't certain.
"I can see that every one of you has extremely lofty ideals, but right now, we have a civil war to fight first—who has the right to become the master of the Mobius Chair? I believe it is I."
Dark Claw looked at Metron, who had been suddenly yanked from the chair only through their combined strength, a surprise attack, and perfect tactical coordination.
Instantly, he revealed his vibranium claws and pounced toward the Mobius Chair with a howl.
Whoever could sit on the chair would be the new God of Knowledge, becoming a god in the truest sense of the word!
Compared to becoming a god, what was more important was the endless knowledge. Perhaps something of value could be found within that vast sea of knowledge.
For these intelligent people who lacked great strength themselves and could only indirectly wield power through their clever brains, the Mobius Chair held a fatal attraction.
Whether they acknowledged Du Wa or tried to resist him, advancing to become the God of Knowledge and reaping the knowledge of the entire Multiverse was undoubtedly a golden path.
The group of intelligent people immediately fell into a civil war.
"No! That's my chair, you despicable thieves! The chair and I are one; together, we are the God of Knowledge! This is a universally acknowledged fact!" Metron scrambled up, his eyes instantly turning red.
How many years had it been? How many years since He had suffered such a great loss? As a member of the New Gods, existing outside the two great factions of Apokolips and New Genesis, He was a renowned being of the third generation. When had He ever been bested by a group of such extremely clever individuals?
Even the treasure that was the foundation of His existence was about to be stolen.
What was even harder for Metron to accept was that when these people joined forces to ambush Him, they hadn't even used their full strength. Now that the civil war had started, they immediately whipped out all sorts of high-tech weapons.
Lacking power, they made up for it with technology.
"Don't fucking make me laugh. We all know damn well that the Mobius Chair is the key to becoming the God of Knowledge, not you. This is the information Du Wa passed to us. How could it be wrong?"
Dark Claw backhanded Metron with a slash of his claws. The vibranium claws only left three gashes on Metron's body, not enough to tear through his flesh.
Shocked and enraged, Metron slapped Dark Claw away, blocking the divine power thrown by Alexander Luthor with his other hand, and struggled to lift his foot to re-ascend the chair.
But the other Xenomorphs, Superman and the others, all made their moves to stop him.
"It seems everyone is full of energy." Du Wa paid no attention to these guys at all.
The God of Knowledge? Du Wa had no shortage of such gods. If there was anything worthy of his attention, it was the Mobius Chair's function of transferring crisis energy.
When the numerous heroes besieged The Batman Who Laughs, who had transformed into The Darkest Knight, it was the Mobius Chair that was used to transport anti-crisis energy to the third-generation Flash, Wally West. They attempted to make him the god who would save DC Comics. However, the chair's programming had been modified in advance by The Darkest Knight, causing all the anti-crisis energy to be intercepted by him.
It could be said that this chair's value was never just about collecting the knowledge of the entire Multiverse; it had other wonderful uses. However, for Du Wa, it was rather superfluous. With his status as a Concept God, he could spread his Concept everywhere. Even if he needed to transport some kind of energy, it could be accomplished through teleportation between Xenomorphs.
Du Wa couldn't care less about these guys clamoring and fighting over the Mobius Chair. He didn't care who became the God of Knowledge.
No matter how powerful a god they became, they were destined to be a god within a vast system—the Xenomorph system. Just like Yuga Khan, Darkseid, and the Skyfather within the New Gods, or Zeus and Ares within the Old Gods.
Thanoseid lowered his head in despair, his heart like dead cinders, but Black Hand had not given up.
The confrontation, which had been decided in an extremely short time, did not affect Black Hand. The skull-headed being once again swung his scythe and stubbornly charged at Du Wa.
Without the Life Entity, without the great power to shake the Emotional Spectrum, it was theoretically impossible to do anything to Black Hand. At most, he could be suppressed, but there was no way to truly drive Black Hand out of the Reality Dimension.
Black Hand was already "dead" to begin with. Within the Reality Dimension, how could one kill "death" without special means?
Thanoseid had fallen, but Black Hand bravely stood up, showing no sign of retreat as he launched futile attacks against Du Wa again and again.
This is truly... boring.
"What trouble... I can't perform parasitism on the Emotional Spectrum yet. My Conceptual volume is not yet Multiversal, and my Conceptual level has not reached the realm where I can parasitize a specific rule or energy. But that doesn't mean I can't deal with you."
Du Wa calmly raised his hand, and Thanoseid appeared before him, becoming his most loyal shield.
Although Thanoseid was completely unwilling to do so, he was already numb and didn't care what he was doing anymore, remaining deathly silent.
Perhaps, if there was even a chance to be killed by Black Hand's scythe, Thanoseid would do it without hesitation. To embrace Death was countless times better than being driven by Du Wa without a sliver of hope.
"Universe 3 has been smashed to pieces. If I don't step in and initiate a reboot, I don't know how long it would take for it to barely recover into a complete universe. But I can just introduce the power of the Life Entity from other universes and use it to deal with you."
Where there is Black Hand, there is the figure of the Life Entity. The Black Lantern of Death is forever on the path of slaughter, and the Life Entity is forever on the path of destroying it. These two gods, at opposite ends of the Emotional Spectrum and arguably the most powerful Lantern entities, are in a state of endless battle.
The battle between Light and Darkness, and by extension between The Presence and The Great Darkness, is endless. The Presence's side was even at a disadvantage at one point, nearly overwhelmed by the Darkness. That was during the 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' event, when the Anti-Monitor nearly achieved the feat of destroying the DC Comics Multiverse, which meant Darkness had triumphed over Light. In the end, Light managed a last-ditch comeback, forcing the Darkness to retreat temporarily.
The two top bosses above were fighting for their lives, even creating a host of clones and projections like Michael, Lucifer, the Eye of God, and The Great Evil Beast to carry on their confrontation.
As for the gods below, they had, from the moment of their birth, unknowingly been caught within this struggle. Unable to escape, they had unwittingly chosen sides in a state of confusion and ignorance.
Black Hand stands on the side of The Great Darkness, bearing a portion of its power. The Life Entity, on the other hand, is on the side of The Presence's Light, shouldering the mission to combat the Darkness. The results of the battle between these two Lantern entities would ultimately contribute to the outcome of the war between The Presence and The Great Darkness.
Now, Du Wa was capable of entering the fray. As for whether to stand with Light or Darkness? Du Wa had no intention of choosing a side for now.
The fact that he hadn't schemed to bring the One Above All, The Fulcrum, the Original Beyonder, and CAAT over to arm-wrestle with these two from DC Comics was already a sign of considerable restraint.
"By making you fall into Death, I will gain unprecedented power..."
Black Hand finally sent this message.
He originally would not engage in communication with any living person, or rather, anything on the side of Light. He always maintained a machine-like silence. After all, he was already dead, so how could he converse with a living individual?
"Not only will I be instantly filled with energy in Universe 3, but in other universes, I will also instantly possess immense power... I will no longer need to spread Black Lantern rings from scratch and convert more living beings into zombies to accumulate my initial energy," Black Hand added. The entire process of transmitting the information was extremely obscure and difficult to understand.
However, Du Wa could understand. This fellow was not a native of the DC Comics world to begin with, and he had been transformed into the Lantern Entity of Death, unknowingly becoming a servant of The Great Darkness. It was likely that at this point, Black Hand himself didn't even know he had become a pawn in the struggle between The Great Darkness and The Presence.
Du Wa nodded in deep agreement. "That's right, your brain isn't dead after all; you're unexpectedly witty. If you could turn me into a Black Lantern zombie, all the versions of me that are constantly emerging in other universes would naturally become your energy source, providing you with death energy. But unfortunately, you are too weak right now. And after your battle with Thanoseid, how much death energy do you have left to burn?"
Black Hand's idea was good, but it wasn't feasible. He was limited by the death wavelength of the Emotional Spectrum. Every time he entered a new universe, he had to accumulate a massive amount of energy from scratch. This required him to kill trillions of lives.
For instance, in that Dark Universe that Black Hand had already conquered, where even the Life Entity was helpless and could only watch as an entire universe became a territory of darkness, there were a full 19 trillion Black Lantern zombies!
Black Hand wanted to continue pestering Du Wa. He could fight until the end of the third generation and the shattering of the Source Wall.
However, Du Wa no longer had the patience to waste time on this guy.
"Volthoom..."
"I can't do it! I can't communicate with the Life Entity either! The Life Entity won't pay attention to someone evil like me! Great Master, I need your power!" Volthoom said quickly, afraid of being thrown out to face Black Hand directly.
"Not that. I know better than you that there is no Life Entity in this universe. For it to arrive here, it would need a medium, but we both know that's impossible."
The entire universe was either smashed to smithereens, with all life wiped out, or it was under Du Wa's protection, with everyone turned into Xenomorphs. Even those who remained free beings were constantly under Du Wa's Concept. If Du Wa wished it, he could convert them at any time.
Under these circumstances, how could the Life Entity choose a spokesperson? Choose an existing Xenomorph? Or choose a free being, only for them to become Du Wa's vassal the next second?
Facing Black Hand, no matter how powerful he was, the Life Entity could still put up a struggle, because its very purpose was to deal with him. But Universe 3 was not that Dark Universe; it hadn't been swallowed by Darkness but was ruled by Xenomorphs. There was absolutely no opportunity for it to intervene.
It was understandable that the Life Entity would simply give up. After all, Universe 3 was completely beyond saving. As long as Du Wa didn't truly defect to the faction of Darkness, the Life Entity wouldn't go out of its way to target or help him.
"Volthoom, your true battlefield is in the Main Universe. That is the place where the Emotional Spectrum converges, and it is also where your main body resides. Only there can you truly display your talent."
Du Wa looked at Black Hand, who was being beaten back steadily by Thanoseid, and shook his head. He had absolutely no interest in this guy.
In the final period of his sprint toward a multiversal standing, it was time to head to the Main Universe and use the special status of the DC Comics Main World to fill in the last puzzle piece of himself.
"I am about to become a great god and descend upon the Sphere of Gods. No one can stand in my way."
Du Wa looked up and gazed into the distance, his sight piercing beyond Universe 3 and landing on Universe 0.
He saw the people of Maltus imprisoning the First Lantern, Volthoom. He saw the superheroes of the Main World reclaiming their origins as heroes of the Main World. He saw the indifferent face of the Darkseid of Universe 0 looking over at him.
And that was just what was on the surface.
"Let's go, Volthoom. Go where you're supposed to be."
Du Wa pointed forward, and a massive vortex appeared out of thin air. This was the path leading directly to the Main Universe.
"Dark Walker, you stay here and deal with Black Hand. Swap Thanoseid out; he needs to be on a battlefield of value."
Leaving these words behind, Du Wa lifted his foot, took a step forward, and his figure disappeared into the vortex.
The Power Ring immediately flew up, following Du Wa to the Main Universe with an excited heart.
"He's gone?"
"Yes, he's gone. He left Black Hand and us behind."
"That's not important. My Mobius Chair is what's most important."
"Damn it, that's my chair, it's mine! Even the Anti-Monitor never raised any objections! What right do you mortals have!"
"On the fact that we are Xenomorphs now."
(end of chapter)