Chapter 292: The Schemer, and the Schemer
Some gods are dead, but not completely dead.
Some gods are alive, yet not completely alive.
That's right, I'm talking about the great First Firmament.
As the First Multiverse itself, and practically the first visible ancient existence in the Marvel Universe, it has been dormant for far, far too long.
From the First Multiverse to the present, a total of six multiverses have risen and fallen, from birth to destruction.
"I have waited for too long. Has the opportunity I've been waiting for finally appeared in the Seventh Multiverse? I had originally planned to wait until the birth of the Eighth Multiverse before considering making a move."
The First Firmament subtly gathered its extremely fragmented consciousness, avoiding detection by the multiversal gods within the Multiverse.
Even though it had experienced the vicissitudes of ages, it couldn't help but feel a faint fluctuation in its state of mind at this moment.
Too long. It had waited for too long. So long that the seed of vengeance in its heart had to be dismembered into fragments time and again, scattered across countless wrecks, and exiled into the boundless Void.
In the First Multiverse, the First Firmament was the undisputed sole deity, and for a very long time, the only life form.
This made the First Firmament bored. Courting death is always the result of arrogance and conceit. The First Firmament manually created a group of servants to serve it.
That's right, the Celestials.
As time passed, other life forms were born one after another, but before the great and invincible First Firmament, they didn't dare to show themselves. They were only qualified to hide and eke out a meager existence, bitterly enduring the First Firmament's cold-blooded rule.
After all, how could a life form born within the universe resist and defeat the universe itself? That would be a complete defiance of the natural order.
A faction of the Celestials, angered and dissatisfied with the First Firmament's brutality and ruthlessness, conspired to launch an unprecedented rebellion. This was also the first rebellion and war to occur in the Multiverse since its birth.
The colorful Celestials attacked the pitch-black Dark Celestials, who were also the First Firmament's most loyal servants. They also united with a group of gods to besiege the First Firmament.
The result of the war was that the First Firmament was defeated and killed. Its body was torn to pieces, becoming the nourishment for the birth of the Second Multiverse.
In the perception of the world, the First Firmament should have been dead. Even its bodily remains were completely dismembered, and its consciousness no longer existed.
But this only allowed the First Firmament to hide even deeper. Every universe created from its body was an opportunity for it to repair its consciousness.
If you can't beat them, lay low and look for an opportunity. And that opportunity has finally arrived.
"A Celestial from a parallel universe is experiencing a conflict in its programming... Excellent. When those colorful Celestials betrayed me, a similar situation occurred, breaking through the limitations I had set."
The First Firmament was all too familiar with the Celestials, especially the ancient models. Every single part, every line of program code, every soul, was created by its own hands.
Back then, when the colorful Celestials went to war with the Dark Celestials, not only did the First Firmament not stop them, it watched the spectacle with great interest. Its boring and tedious life could finally have a bit of fun. It even wished the battle between the two groups of Celestials would be even more brutal, to provide it with more entertainment.
The First Firmament astutely felt that it could perhaps pull some strings with Arishem and induce this fellow to launch a special rebellion.
As for Arishem's strength being low, belonging to a mass-produced model of little value?
To the First Firmament, this was never a problem.
The First Firmament pieced together a considerable body of consciousness. It casually grabbed a handful from the remnant fragments left behind by various multiverses and assembled a shattered universe to serve as its body. This was a declaration of its impending return to the Seventh Multiverse to take revenge on the gods who betrayed it and reclaim everything it once possessed.
"Let me think... I must first establish a connection with Arishem. I cannot use my true consciousness to speak with Arishem, as it would be easily detected by that damned fellow..."
The damned fellow the First Firmament mentioned was, of course, the deity who backstabbed and replaced it—Eternity. Strictly speaking, the second-generation Eternity.
In the endless Void, the First Firmament slowly moved its position, as slowly as possible, inching slightly closer towards the Multiverse. It had to ensure its concealment while simultaneously establishing a connection with Arishem.
If all went as planned, this action would take some time and require extreme patience. And the First Firmament happened to have no shortage of that.
Especially since this vast, sparse, and deathly silent expanse of ruins and wreckage had not been peaceful recently. Some time ago, two extremely troublesome fellows had emerged from the Multiverse and lingered outside of it for a while, doing who knows what.
Soon, however, the First Firmament quickly came to a stop. Like a dead fragment of a multiverse's remains, it remained motionless, drifting in this meaningless void, even more empty than the end of Death itself.
"Stop pretending. I've already seen you," a voice called out.
The First Firmament did not move.
"Hmph, you don't want me to awaken fully right now and blow up all the multiversal ruins in this area, do you?" the voice threatened with a strange laugh.
The First Firmament had no choice. It said coldly, "Aren't you pretending just like me? Who are you to criticize me?"
"Hmph, I've been watching you for a while now."
"Foolish. I've been watching you for five multiverses!" the First Firmament said coldly.
The other party fell silent for a moment before finally revealing its form.
Endless black fog gathered as if it had suddenly gained self-awareness.
Similar substances were not uncommon among the wreckage. The scattered remnants of sin, darkness, Delirium, and other negative matter from various defunct multiverses were impurities discarded when a newborn multiverse absorbed the matter and rules of a dead one.
But now, these dead impurities had converged to form a strange deity.
It was a tall figure with blue and light blue skin. Its long black hair fanned out, thrashing about like a giant serpent.
Two white clusters of light appeared on the First Firmament's cobbled-together, dilapidated universe-body—its eyes. "The culprit behind the destruction of the Sixth Multiverse, the Black Winter!"
"Hmph, you can also call me the Star Plague. In any case, it means bringing demise to the Multiverse, and that's me."
The Black Winter stood before the First Firmament. "I just wonder if I, who destroyed the Sixth Multiverse, can bring a true end to you, the legendary First Multiverse. Eternity and the others made a huge mistake. They killed you, but not completely, giving you a chance to rise from the ashes."
At the end of the Sixth Multiverse, under the push of the Black Winter, the entire multiverse collapsed into a giant cosmic egg. This egg would infinitely compress and explode, giving birth to the Seventh Multiverse.
However, a scientist named Galan, in an attempt to save the Sixth Multiverse, piloted a starship and recklessly charged into the cosmic egg, successfully attracting the attention of the Black Winter.
Galan also miraculously survived into the Seventh Multiverse, becoming the Herald of the Black Winter and transforming into Galactus.
So, in a sense, Galactus is no different from the likes of Juggernaut and Scarlet Witch. They are all spokespersons chosen by an ancient multiversal god, shouldering the duty of carrying out the will of the god behind the scenes.
The only difference was that ever since destroying the Sixth Multiverse, the Black Winter seemed to have perished along with it, falling silent and leaving no trace behind.
Perhaps even Galactus himself couldn't be sure if the Black Winter was dead or alive—Galactus himself didn't even know he had become the Herald of the Black Winter.
At this moment, upon seeing the First Firmament's unusual activity, the Black Winter was startled awake, utterly shocked.
The First Multiverse is fucking still alive??
How long ago was that? The First Firmament actually managed to lie low until now?!
"I thought I was cautious enough, but I didn't expect you to far surpass me. As expected of the first deity in the Multiverse." The Black Winter sneered. "It seems you're quite familiar with me... Did you witness the entire process of me destroying the Sixth Multiverse?"
"Part of my body has long existed as a part of the Multiverse. Nothing you do within the Multiverse can escape my notice. But I didn't expect you to be unable to hold back after waiting for only this long."
"I made a new discovery, sufficient to awaken me."
"Excellent, I was thinking the same thing. It seems the two of us can reach a consensus," the First Firmament said.
The two gods, who had been lying low for so long, thus fell into a long silence.
"What do you plan to do?"
"Are you going to destroy the Seventh Multiverse?"
The two gods asked at the same time, and once again fell into silence.
Unexpectedly in sync, the two beings with similar ideas watched each other cautiously.
Fighting was impossible. Both schemers needed an opportunity to return to the Multiverse, so why would they fight a completely unnecessary battle outside of it?
In particular, the Black Winter, at its full power, couldn't gauge how much strength the First Firmament had left. After all, the First Multiverse was simply too remote from the present, and the stories about the First Firmament were too ethereal. If they were to truly fight, who knew how much strength this tattered, broken universe could unleash? And what kind of commotion would the part of its body that had integrated into the Multiverse cause?
These were all problems.
The First Firmament didn't dare to move, and the Black Winter didn't dare to move either.
This rigid standoff, if nothing unexpected happened, could have lasted for hundreds of millions of years.
But an accident just had to happen. In this deathly silent region outside the Multiverse, because of Du Wa, a being who should not have been here appeared.
Shuma-Gorath.
Shuma-Gorath, defeated by Du Wa and exiled to the ruins of the pre-multiverse, was also the fellow that the First Firmament had detected and was wary of!
Swoosh!
The massive eyeball drifted over unsteadily. It seemed slow, but its actual speed was absurdly fast. It traversed the region of the Void, hurtling straight towards these two extremely ancient gods!
The First Firmament grew agitated. "It's Shuma-Gorath..."
"A strange individual who appeared in the Multiverse out of nowhere, completely incompatible with the rules of the Multiverse! It's clearly a projection from another multiverse, an outsider just like all those other random freaks!" the Black Winter cursed loudly.
As the great eyeball drifted over, the confrontation between the three multiverse-level beings caused the nearby remnant fragments to begin to tremble. Some fragile fragments simply disintegrated on the spot, drifting away into the even more distant void.
Perhaps after a long time, they would collide with other multiverses.
The First Firmament and the Black Winter stared at Shuma-Gorath with cold eyes. Shuma-Gorath's appearance here meant that the newly emerged troublesome fellow had also discovered their existence.
"The First Firmament and the Black Winter?"
In the Main Universe, Du Wa's eyes snapped open, revealing a look of profound astonishment.
This was indeed somewhat beyond his expectations, to the point that it elicited a rare, strong sense of surprise in him.
Ancient relics were not uncommon. To put it bluntly, of the current creator gods, every single one of them was born in the previous multiverses and had survived until now; none were nurtured in the Seventh Multiverse.
But these two, the First Firmament and the Black Winter, were somewhat special, even notorious.
"Well, this can be considered a small interlude caused by my series of actions before the great collision breaks out."
Normally, the First Firmament should have been blown to bits in the Seventh Multiverse because of the Beyonders. It would only gather all its power to resurrect and launch a desperate surprise attack on Eternity right when the Eighth Multiverse was just forming.
Because Eternity, at the rebirth of the Multiverse, is absolutely at its weakest.
As for the Black Winter, it was supposed to emerge only after the War of the Realms. At that time, a terrified Galactus would seek help from Thor, persuade him to become his herald, and then incite Thor to devour five special planets to increase his power, which was equivalent to having Thor kill tens of billions of life forms to increase his strength.
But now, due to Du Wa, these two have awakened one after another during the current period through a series of coincidences. It seems they are planning to take action.
"How interesting. If those other gods who were also born in the previous multiverses learned of this news, they would surely be astonished and then go mad... Be it the First Firmament or the Black Winter, no one wants these two to return."
The return of either one would be a sign of the destruction of the Multiverse, let alone both of them coming back together.
So... I'll just make a little stir.
At Du Wa's instruction, Shuma-Gorath immediately went berserk, unleashing its power without any restraint.
That multiversal-level immense pressure immediately sent a violent shockwave through the entire expanse of wreckage, detonating all things tangible and intangible one after another!
"I don't know either of you, but I have no choice." Shuma-Gorath's once-clear eyeball was now completely blood-red.
(end of chapter)