Shiller immediately realized that if both sides were truly righteous superheroes, the battle wouldn't have been so fierce. With a Reed and a White Can involved, it's no wonder things got chaotic.
"That's right." Peter nodded and said, "Earlier, Tony developed a Symbiotic Battle Armor, but it had a fatal weakness. Bruce exploited this weakness and used flames to destroy the armor, which really ticked Tony off."
Shiller thought to himself, it's probably more than ticking him off; he likely couldn't hold it in anymore. Although he probably didn't intend to pretend initially, otherwise he wouldn't have resumed his old habits. It's just that there are too many superheroes in the Fusion Universe, so he couldn't use the Extremis Virus; otherwise, he would have done it long ago.
Many people have the stereotype that Iron Man has a bad temper, while Captain America is gentle and accommodating, but it's actually the opposite. Iron Man's temper is okay, though he's picky and sometimes sharp-tongued, which at most makes him a tsundere. Captain America, on the other hand, is more assertive.
However, in the Multiverse, there are versions of Iron Man that fit the stereotype, like White Can. The axis of good and evil is reversed, so his temper is reversed too. White Can's temper is quite explosive.
He probably thought he was getting along well with Spider-Man, but at a crucial moment, Spider-Man didn't side with The Avengers. Out of anger, he took action, ended up losing the fight, and was utterly embarrassed. Naturally, he had to regain his face.
"Actually, that's not a big deal." Peter continued, "But Bruce somehow brought in another Iron Man, and to deal with the previous Iron Man, the new Iron Man sided with the Justice League..."
What Peter said sounded a bit confusing, but upon reflection, Shiller remembered. In this Prime Universe, there should be three Iron Mans: the past White Can, the future White Can, and the consciousness backup of Justice Iron Man.
Two of the White Cans might have already merged or one might have left, but one remained. And the consciousness backup of Iron Man was still around, so the two of them clashed.
Shiller couldn't help but shake his head. They said it was Marvel and DC superheroes fighting, but in the end, it was Marvel versus Marvel, with DC just innocently caught in the mix. Indeed, the fundamental logic of superheroes is to battle at the airport.
"Anyway, the conflict escalated more and more. It started with verbal attacks and escalated to physical fights, although everyone was holding back at that time. It was at most a skirmish, as no one truly wanted to destroy Earth. But then something else happened…"
"What?"
"In order not to go into the cosmos to deal with the Kovard Army, and also to show the other side some strength, Iron Man somehow brought over a Possibility Universe, which is a Pocket Universe, and released the Three Great Empires inside it."
This time, Shiller was truly confused. He asked, "The Three Great Empires? Weren't the Three Great Empires already in the cosmos?"
"That was in our universe." Peter obviously knew this was getting confusing as well, so he carefully explained, "When it was restarted, our universe, the original Prime Universe, was already destroyed, and only Earth came over."
"After Earth came here, it merged with this universe's Earth to become New Earth, and Gotham and New York fused into Forward York City. At this time, the cosmos only had Darkseid and the Lantern Corps and other local forces."
"This universe is too empty, with no interstellar civilizations, which made it defenseless against the attack of the Kovard Army. So, more and more people supported the Justice League, believing Earth had an obligation to resist the Kovard Army."
"And Iron Man's thinking was that if you think there's no one to fight in the cosmos, I'll just bring some people over. So, he somehow got a Pocket Universe and released the Three Great Empires."
Peter said Iron Man didn't know where he got the Pocket Universe from, but Shiller knew it should be the Possibility Universe where the White Can was.
As is well known, in Marvel, a single thought is a universe, and a possibility can also be a universe. The timeline of the axis of good and evil is such a Possibility Universe. Earlier, it was in this Possibility Universe that he pulled White Can out and threw him into the Prime Universe. White Can likely brought over his hometown.
"I was wondering why I hadn't heard any news of Thanos." Shiller paused for a moment. It was previously heard that the Three Great Empires were confronting Darkseid, but logically, Darkseid's opponent should be Thanos, or rather, Darkseid was the prototype of Thanos, they are similar and would clash head-on.
Shiller originally thought that Thanos was stuck in the storyline where he was frozen in the timeline by his own son, which coincided with the Infinity saga, so he didn't show up to confront Darkseid. It turns out he simply wasn't here.
"The good news is there's no Thanos." Peter said, "The bad news is Darkseid is harder to deal with, even with two of the Three Great Empires joining forces, they can barely hold on."
"What did you do? Right?"
Peter sighed deeply, "I can only say it's fortunate I'm not Spider-Man anymore. They were too busy fighting to notice me."
"Did you bring Darkseid?"
"No way." Peter widened his eyes, "I'm not crazy; the Civil War was already chaotic enough, if I brought Darkseid, it would be a total disaster!"
Shiller paused and said, "Then was it Asgard?"
"You know Loki, the God of Stories, right?" Peter said, "I made a deal with him, he gave me a World Tree Seedling, which was the key to attracting Darkseid."
Shiller squinted slightly. Peter continued, "During the Multiverse war, the Prime Universe's Darkseid lost his Apocalypse Star, which made him almost unable to compete with Batman in the Prime Universe. And the status of the Prime Universe is very important, he absolutely cannot give it up."
"Darkseid is very clever. From the moment the Apocalypse Star was destroyed, he knew that the Apocalypse Star was no longer safe. He needed a better way, such as the Nine Major Kingdoms."
"The nature of the World Tree is very special. It is rooted in the fundamental structure of the cosmos and cannot be easily erased. If the Scarlet Witch wants to erase the World Tree, she'd need at least the permission of the Universe administrators. This is a treasure to Darkseid."
"I planted the World Tree. If Darkseid wants to seize it before the World Tree stabilizes, he must come and fight for it, otherwise, once the World Tree takes root, even if he has Multiverse level strength, he won't be able to uproot it without administrator permissions. That's the reason he's in a hurry to come over."
"Now that Darkseid has arrived, things have become more urgent. Thor had no choice but to merge with the growing World Tree, forcibly elevating his status to drive Darkseid away. Now, Thor is the World Tree, and the World Tree is Thor. He alone represents the entire Nine Major Kingdoms."
"Sounds powerful."
"Perhaps the strongest in the Multiverse," Peter said. "I haven't seen too many Thors, but among those I've seen, none can match the power of World Tree Thor."
"Be modest, Peter." A voice suddenly sounded. Shiller turned his head and saw Thor standing in the living room of the suite, emitting a faint glow, looking like a projection.
"Long time no see, Professor." Thor once met Shiller in Battleworld. "You came just in time. If you'd come a bit earlier, you would have seen us all beat up."
"I promise I won't make fun of you." Shiller smiled and said, "How are you feeling?"
"Very good." Thor also smiled, "If it weren't for me, they wouldn't have been able to welcome guests from the Multiverse this quickly."
"What can you do?"
"You know about the relationship between the Apocalypse Domain and Darkseid, right?" Thor held up a finger as an example, "In the Apocalypse Domain, Darkseid is an omnipotent deity. As long as no one can shake the Apocalypse Domain, no one can shake him. Now, my relationship with the Nine Major Kingdoms is the same. I am the only god in the Nine Major Kingdoms."
"You are also omnipotent?"
"Yes," Thor said, "Those superheroes aren't unwilling to fight anymore; it's just that if they continue to fight, I'll have to fight them."
No wonder. Shiller nodded. He thought it was strange that these people had reconciled so easily.
Conflicts among superheroes are not so easily resolved. Most organizations split right down the middle; it's unheard of for a superhero organization not to have split. Even if they still exist nominally, some members will surely leave to form a new organization.
Yet, here in this universe, the superheroes shook hands at light speed after the fight. Not only that, they all became well-behaved, setting aside past grievances to work together on city reconstruction. This isn't a fairy tale, so how could it be so rosy?
Let's not talk about others; does White Can seem like someone who knows he's wrong and changes his ways? If not for some other factors interfering, even when the war is over, he'd stay stubborn, refusing to stay in Forward York City, and what's wrong with going to the West Coast?
It turns out it's because Thor became a true god and a rightful Lord of the Nine Major Kingdoms. Even together, these superheroes on Earth can't defeat him. You can move from the East Coast to the West Coast, but you can't move out of Earth, right? If you want to live together on Earth, you can only accept the Lord's mediation, otherwise, being exiled will leave you with interstellar wanderings as the only option.
"Brilliant idea." Shiller looked at Peter and said, "How did you come up with this idea?"
"It wasn't entirely my idea," Peter turned to look at Thor.
"Loki misses home," Thor sighed and sat on the sofa beside them. "No matter what, Asgard is our homeland, but we're further away from it than anyone else. Although I don't mind much, Loki doesn't feel a sense of belonging to Earth. He must return ultimately."
Shiller understood. Originally, it was Thor who wanted Asgard to rise from the ground and find his home again, coincidentally meeting superheroes fighting a civil war. He and Peter concocted a scheme for Darkseid.
On one hand, it let Darkseid discover that the World Tree Seedling was growing, compelling him to rush over to seize it. When he came, the superheroes certainly wouldn't dare to fight because they didn't yet know about the World Tree situation back then. They assumed it was a looming disaster and quickly united to make a stand.
And after they united, when Darkseid truly made a move, Thor fused with the World Tree, directly becoming the God of the Nine Major Kingdoms. No one could defeat him in his domain, so Darkseid was driven away.
After Darkseid left, the superheroes would fall apart. But at this point, Thor, the rightful Lord of the Nine Major Kingdoms, came to speak with them with his hammer.
In truth, if there were a proper Batman, Thor might have been cautious, but the problem is that there wasn't in this universe. Bruce Wayne became Spider Man, Thomas hadn't come yet, and The Avengers were each doing their own thing. The only one with any authority was Doctor Strange, who had withdrawn from worldly affairs. The superheroes had no choice but to sit down for talks.
During the subsequent reconstruction, Thor clearly also contributed a lot. After all, such a large city requires massive demolition and construction, but if there's a true deity helping at the side, it becomes much easier. No wonder the entire city's construction style is so unified without visible construction sites or debris. Thor truly paid a great price to ensure Forward York City's progress.