By the time everyone regrouped in the church, it was already half an hour later. Almost everyone on the spaceship had been arrested by the Rebirth Alliance, the members of the Court of Owls had to be sent to the hospital first, those priests required special detention, and Black Fire had been shackled with Divine Power Shackles, waiting to go to court once the wedding ended.
The bride and groom's outfits weren't too dirty, and Peter used magic to smooth out the wrinkles. The two of them stood back at the podium, and the Father began to read again.
"Today, we gather in accordance with the Lord's will to witness..."
His voice echoed through the church, when suddenly, a figure among Batman moved, turning to look at the church door. A wisp of mist, so thin it was nearly invisible, slipped in through the gap at the bottom of the door, and then the entire church was engulfed by dense fog.
"Don't move! Nobody move!" The security agents kept shouting. But in reality, no one moved, no one even spoke. Everyone was pondering what kind of new mystery this was and whether it had anything to do with them.
"Close your eyes," Evil God Batman said, "No matter what you see or hear, do not respond."
Logically speaking, with so many superheroes present, there would always be a few who wouldn't follow orders. However, the fog seemed to slice through space and time; almost everyone could no longer see the other guests beside them. The rustling shadows and indistinct murmurs were eerie, and, for a moment, no one dared to move.
Those familiar with Battleworld immediately realized who was causing the disturbance. They obediently closed their eyes, staying put, not seeing, not listening, not feeling.
Of course, Little Superman was an exception. He had no idea what was happening; once the fog rolled in, he began looking around. He took a couple of steps forward, found that the people around him had vanished, and when he took a few more steps, the podium was gone too. Little Superman felt a bit panicked.
Having hung on the Origin Wall for so long, he feared such situations, so he began rushing madly through the fog like a headless fly, until he was grabbed by a large hand in the fog.
"Don't move," Greed's voice came, "It's me."
Little Superman struggled a few times in the air, twisting his neck to look back, but he couldn't see Greed: "Where are you? Where are you?"
"I'm right here," Greed said, "This fog is me."
Little Superman paused: "What?"
"In any case, don't run around. Let me finish my work, and then I'll explain it to you."
With that, Little Superman was set down. However, he didn't plan to stay idle and asked, "What do you mean the fog is you? What's going on? Why have they all disappeared? Where are you exactly?"
Greed seemed a bit exasperated; the fog undulated slightly, creating a path for Little Superman. He instinctively followed along, and at the end, he saw a colossal shape enveloped in ethereal mist.
It was an indescribable twisted creation; fragments of steel and machinery grew like flesh, wires like veins, batteries like organs, tangled together. Dark crevices revealed starlight, akin to countless eyes, flickering incessantly.
In an instant, Little Superman felt an influx of uncountable knowledge into his mind: mathematics, physics, engineering, manufacturing...
"Ugh!!!!!!!"
The flood of knowledge even overwhelmed his super brain, and just when he was about to collapse, the mist supported him. In a daze, he felt someone steadying him, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw Reed's face.
"You are..." Little Superman still felt dizzy.
"Reed Richards," Reed said, "Take a deep breath; you'll feel better soon."
"What was that...?"
"A friend of mine," Reed replied, "We're trying to communicate with him. You'd better not look anymore."
"It's not like I wanted to see it," Little Superman complained, "If I knew it would be like this, I wouldn't have come over."
After saying that, he lay down completely; he needed to work on removing or digesting that knowledge. His head really hurt. After lying there for a while, Little Superman felt somewhat better, though still a bit under the weather. Lying on the ground he asked, "What exactly is happening?"
"We stole the Prime Universe," Greed spoke surprisingly.
Now, no matter how much his head hurt, Little Superman had to sit up and listen. Using his hand to prop himself up, he barely sat up and then said, "What? What do you mean you stole the Prime Universe?"
"Literally. We cut out the Prime Universe from this Great World and fused it with the universe of another Great World, creating what is now the Fusion Universe."
"For any world, the Prime Universe is extremely important. I think you understand that the Prime Universe sets the tone for the entire comic series, and major events happen in the Prime Universe. No comic company would allow the Prime Universe to grow freely."
Little Superman nodded: "Indeed. Some writers who have produced plots inconsistent with the Prime Universe's style often get negated by the company, saying that didn't happen in the Prime Universe."
"So, to liberate the Prime Universe, the entire Great World has to reboot, giving them a new Prime Universe in order to possibly extract the original one."
"So you guys rebooted the world?"
"It's more like a soft reboot," Greed said, "More importantly, by giving them a new Prime Universe, the old one is no longer the Prime Universe, so there's more room for maneuver."
"Sounds like a miracle," Little Superman said, "Hard to imagine how you guys accomplished it."
"It wasn't easy," Greed said with some sentiment, "Many paid a price for it, including the original Prime Universe's Iron Man, who must first break away from the arrangement of destiny."
"But that's almost impossible," Little Superman puzzled over it, "It's like telling me that the files on my computer are going to jump out and hit me; they're inherently part of the system. How could that be done?"
"If you put it that way, perhaps it's akin to saying that although computer files can't jump out to hit you, transferring them to a phone would count as success."
Little Superman seemed puzzled, and Shiller asked again, "Have you heard of the Cthulhu Mythos?"
"I think I have," Little Superman said. "Is it a type of novel?"
"It started that way, but later spawned many different cultural works, including movies, games, board games, and such."
"Sorry, I'm not very familiar with those," Little Superman said.
"In fact, there are many Cthulhu elements in comics too. In Batman's comics, there's even an octopus-like Batman."
"Oh, come on, dinosaurs, monster trucks, and now octopuses. Is the writer Morgan? Does everything have to hybridize with Batman?"
"You know Morgan?"
"Oh, wait, who is Morgan? What's his relation to fruit flies? How do I know that? Why do I feel like there's some knowledge in my brain I'm not aware of..."
"Seems like you're experiencing the aftereffects of directly confronting an Outer God."
"Outer God?"
"A type of god in the Cthulhu mythos, most of whom slumber deep within the stars. Recently, they welcomed a new member, the one you just saw."
Little Superman suddenly stopped talking, as if he fell into some kind of delirium and haze. After some time, he said, "He looks... peculiar."
"Indeed. Outer Gods are mostly blind and foolish, more like natural disasters compared to the wise personality gods. However, steel and mechanical creations are symbols of order; when these two elements combine, there's a captivating beauty."
"I don't understand," Little Superman said. "What's this got to do with Iron Man escaping fate?"
"That's Iron Man."
Little Superman was utterly shocked: "That's Iron Man?! What happened to him? How did he become like that?"
"It's just what you perceive," Greed said. "Outer Gods cannot be directly looked at. What you see is merely your imagination of him. I still see Tony Stark in Iron Armor because that's the version I'm most familiar with, but Reed might see him differently."
Little Superman swallowed: "So to escape fate, he turned himself into this?"
"Cthulhu Mythos is a system independent of comics, but because it's been popular for many years, many comic writers have incorporated it into their plots, even designing unique roles for it, like Cthulhu Batman and Eye Demon."
"You can think of it as an isolated island outside the Great World, with each universe within the Great World having a passage to the island. This connection is bidirectional; people can observe the stars within the universe, and the stars can also hear Earth's call."
"I get it," Little Superman said. "But can you really escape fate just by getting on the island?"
"That's the crux. The fundamental setting for Outer Gods in the Cthulhu Mythos is chaos and disorder, representing the opposite of human order; everything is unpredictable."
Little Superman suddenly understood: "So joining the Outer God system means there's no predetermined path?"
"Yes. Like a document completely changing its format, the original computer can no longer read it, thus escaping fate's control."
"But isn't this a huge price to pay?" Little Superman couldn't help but say, "How can he accept turning into that?"
"Then how can you accept me turning into this fog?"
"Wait, you're not joking?" Little Superman was so shocked that he was about to stand up. "Aren't you hiding somewhere talking to me?"
"No," Greed said. "This is my Outer God form, called The Nameless Fog. You can also call me Naog Sokhup."
Little Superman opened his mouth, gestured for a while, seemingly unsure what to say. Greed continued, "The form of existence is actually not important; what matters is whether you still have Self and cognition."
"Right." Little Superman realized, "Aren't Outer Gods closer to natural disasters? Then how can you still think?"
"Most Outer Gods are like that, but the original Cthulhu Mythos setting includes rational Outer Gods—not only rational but very smart and cunning, adept at changing form to deceive humans. This proves that the blind and foolish setting of Outer Gods can be broken."
"I see." Little Superman, being smart and quick to react, said, "He first went to the Outer God's domain, turned himself into an Outer God, thus using the Outer God's setting to elude fate. Then by cutting out the Prime Universe, he plans to awaken his rationality back, perfectly avoiding fate's trap."
"That's it." Greed confirmed, "Now we have to find a way to retrieve his rationality."
"That's not easy, right?" Little Superman said, "This thing sounds pretty mysterious; can it change back after transforming?"
"We're trying," Greed said. "We probably can't do it alone, and need external force, which is why we chose to act during the wedding."
"You're planning to use God's power?" Little Superman thought.
"Exactly. Though the Cthulhu Mythos is relatively independent, in this universe it can't surpass God, and using God's power to clear some pollution can achieve a balance of rationality and form."
"But I still don't understand, what if God doesn't show up?"
"He's on his way," Greed confidently said.