In the endless cosmic war.
A massive, radiant, purple figure opened her gaping maw and swallowed the Brood Queen whole in a single bite!
The Brood Queen had been thrashing wildly just moments earlier, but the next instant she was gone, devoured in one gulp!
One bite—and the battlefield fell silent.
Under Galacta's enormous jaws, that entire region vanished, leaving the Brood Queen without even the chance to resist.
From afar, Godzilla stared in shock, dumbfounded. It raised a claw, touching its own massive mouth. They both had gaping maws—so why was there such a difference? Why didn't mine work like that?
After swallowing the Brood Queen, Galacta canceled the effect of her fully enlarged form, returning to her usual super-colossal size. But even "usual" for her was anything but small—her presence remained overwhelming.
For gods, shifting size is child's play. Some abilities even require a giant form to activate. Even Galactus sometimes shrank down to only a few meters, while at his largest, he could stretch tens of thousands. After all, he could devour entire planets.
And Galactus was Multiversal-level—though admittedly the weakest of them all, ahem—but as long as one was Multiversal-level, strength no longer depended on physical size. Large or small, it made no difference. Many multiversal gods didn't even have physical bodies at all. So what meaning did size even have? Controlling it was effortless.
Now back in her colossal form, Galacta savored the influx of life energy, her expression flickering with both satisfaction and a faint sense of emptiness.
"Hmm..."
She couldn't explain why that lingering lack gnawed at her. It was as if something was missing. Her stomach was full, but her spirit remained unsatisfied. Just satiety, nothing more.
After a moment's thought, Galacta muttered,
"Forget it. Better finish off the swarm first."
Vacuum cleaner in hand, she charged back toward the Annihilation Wave!
Deprived of their queen, the swarm showed no sign of fleeing. Instead, their eyes burned with hatred and madness as they hurled themselves at Galacta. They weren't afraid of death. They charged brainlessly, as if determined to overstuff her to bursting.
But for Galacta...
"Hoo hoo, right to my door, such good little ones~"
She raised the vacuum cleaner and began sucking with abandon. Each insect sucked inside was refined into pure life energy, instantly absorbed by her. The vacuum cleaner was less a weapon than a refinery—absurdly convenient!
And with the swarm attacking mindlessly, her vacuuming went uninterrupted, relentless.
In the distance, seeing her fight so fiercely, Hela crossed her arms and curled her lip.
"So Galacta's this strong? I thought she was just a little tougher than Surtur at best."
Hearing from an old friend that she was actually this powerful wasn't painful exactly, but it did feel strange—especially given how close they'd once been.
Gwen patted Hela's head.
"Galacta's the daughter of a Multiversal-level god. How could she possibly be as weak as you thought? You're too young, Hela."
"Young?"
Hela slapped Gwen's hand away.
"I'm older than you!"
Gwen tilted her head, thought for a moment, then puffed out her chest.
"Really?"
"..."
Hela glanced over at Wanda. Wanda wasn't looking their way, but when she noticed Hela's gaze, she folded her arms, making her figure look even more striking.
Those curves—anyone could tell her future children would never need formula. One person eating their fill, the whole family wouldn't go hungry. Cough cough.
Seeing this, Hela pouted and fell silent, though her pale green eyes shifted as though plotting something.
Beside Lorien, the Ballerina Twins Aria and Bella projected real-time panels.
On the display, the Transformers' casualty rate had slowed drastically. Losses were now negligible, and when damage occurred, it was mostly among the machines, not the Transformers themselves.
The Annihilation Wave, on the other hand, suffered terrifying losses. In the first four hours, their casualties had dropped steadily in stages until reaching 30%. The only time it fluctuated was when Godzilla unleashed his shockwave—each one cut into their numbers.
The battlefield had seemed balanced. But with Galacta's arrival, everything changed.
From the moment she appeared, the swarm's losses skyrocketed. The instant she brought out her vacuum cleaner, their numbers began plummeting at a sharp angle. When she swallowed the Brood Queen whole and followed up with her vacuum, their decline nearly shot down vertically.
Of course, not literally so extreme, but the losses were visible to the naked eye.
Meanwhile, in the Transformers' camp, the Collector and the Elders monitored the data.
The Elders showed little reaction. They had already been informed by Aria and Bella—Galacta's strength was enough to force the Transformers to pull back. Knowing this was tied to the Creator, they simply ordered a defensive contraction.
The results spoke for themselves. A war that should have dragged on endlessly was already drawing to a close.
But while the Elders remained calm, the Collector could not.
Watching that purple light devastate the swarm, he sank into troubled thought.
Who was she? How could she be so strong? What was that vacuum cleaner weapon? How could she devour her enemies? What species was she? What in the world was going on?
Even the Collector, with all his centuries of life and vast knowledge, could only stare, wide-eyed and baffled. He had no idea who Galacta was—nor even the faintest clue what her abilities resembled.
"Sigh..."
After a long silence, the Collector shook his head with a bitter smile. His experience was simply too limited.
...
On the other side, under the watchful eyes of Lorien and the others, the Annihilation Wave were dwindling faster and faster.
Once their numbers dropped past fifty percent, every further decrease became visibly obvious.
On the Ballerina Twins' statistics panel, the numbers were spiking sharply.
[61%] [74%] [86%] [98%]
But progress stalled once the counter hit 98%. In truth, it had already slowed after 80%. The Annihilation Wave had scattered too far, making Galacta's devouring inefficient.
So, after most of the swarm on the battlefield had been consumed, Galacta stopped in space and slowly turned, scanning her surroundings.
"That's it?"
After confirming there were no more Annihilation Wave nearby, she put away her vacuum, shrank back down to human size, and flew toward Lorien.
When she landed, Galacta rubbed her small belly happily.
"Tonight was absolutely amazing! If something like this happens again, you'd better call me."
Hela frowned at her, stepped forward, and patted her belly with an annoyed huff.
"...You're stuffed now, aren't you? I really don't get how your stomach can hold so many bugs."
Her words drew nods from Cindy, Peni, and Mayday. Billions of Annihilation Wave had been devoured by Galacta—where did it all go? Did her stomach hide a black hole?
Galacta rubbed her belly again, just as puzzled.
"I'm kind of full, but not really. Still, I feel like something's missing... not like last time, when you... uh..."
She cut herself off mid-sentence, suddenly realizing there were three ladies here she didn't recognize. She turned toward them with a smile.
"Hello, I'm Galacta, an alien who loves Earth."
Seeing her greet them, Cindy, Mayday, and Peni quickly introduced themselves.
"I'm Cindy, a member of the Spider-Alliance, from New York in a parallel universe."
"I'm Mayday, same as Cindy."
"I'm Peni, same as them."
Hearing their introductions, Galacta blinked in surprise. She turned to Lorien.
"They're all from parallel universes?"
"Yes," Lorien confirmed with a nod.
"Then that's bad..." Galacta pulled out her phone and tapped on it.
Hela overheard and asked, "Why is that bad?"
Galacta tapped again, opened a memo, and after checking it, explained,
"Because once people start crossing between universes, it means reality has started developing breaches.
My dad can travel to this universe or that one, but not wherever he pleases. If there's interference, both universes could collapse.
And he told me once, if universes start collapsing or too much trouble gets stirred up, there's a very strong chance an even higher power will come to judge them!"
As soon as Galacta finished speaking, everyone realized that traveling between parallel universes was the start of such breaches.
Lorien knew well the higher entity she was referring to.
The Living Tribunal.
The Living Tribunal was authorized by the One-Above-All to oversee and maintain balance across all realities, including every Multiverse.
It resided within the Omnipotent Universe, which contained all infinite universes.
That made the Living Tribunal the absolute judge, openly acknowledged as such.
It existed above the Multiversal level, at the Omniversal level.
Its judgments could affect the entire Omniverse—that is, all Multiverses at once.
So, the entity Galacta's father—the Devourer of Worlds—had warned her about was the Living Tribunal.
Multiversal-level beings could travel between parallel universes, but not recklessly. Stirring up conflict between Multiverses could lead to disaster.
As for breaches themselves, Lorien shook his head.
"Don't underestimate the universe's ability to heal. Breaches aren't a big issue, as long as the target universe's timeline is still moving forward.
And this isn't something you need to worry about anyway.
Even if the sky falls, the tallest ones take the hit first.
Like Galacta's father."
Galacta: ???