Mastering the Time Gem, Soren felt the universe unfold like an infinite river beneath him.
He drifted through eddies of past and future, swimming through epochs as if through warm water.
He saw the birth of galaxies… white heat blooming in the cradle of creation… watched planets ignite, evolve, flourish, burn, and die.
Civilizations rose and faded like sparks brushed by cosmic wind.
Mastering the Space Gem, he felt no distance.
No barrier in the Marvel cosmos could restrain him now.
Where others would be torn apart by warped geometry or compressed by stellar gravity, Soren moved effortlessly, as though the universe itself parted for him, offering passage.
The Mind Gem opened further still.
Suddenly Soren perceived consciousness everywhere… every creature, every whisper of thought, every dream and fear interwoven across the cosmic tapestry.
He could observe all of them at once yet remain himself.
The Soul Gem offered deeper dominion.
Soren felt the souls of beings… ancient, young, powerful, weak… as clear as shimmering lanterns in an endless dark.
If he desired, he could bend any of them.
The knowledge alone chilled even him.
The Reality Gem… once the Aether flooded him with omnipotent creativity.
Thought became form. Concept became matter.
His words could shift the laws of existence… and his imagination alone could birth miracles or rewrite the very physics that governed creation.
As Soren drifted through the cosmic panorama, absorbing the Marvel universe in full for the first time… his perception snagged on something.
Someone.
A figure standing outside the flow of all things.
"…" Soren's breath hitched.
The being had four faces, each staring in a different direction…
one serene, one wrathful, one sorrowful…
and the fourth…
…the fourth face was his own.
Soren knew instantly who stood before him.
The Living Tribunal.
The multiversal judge and final arbiter of Marvel's supreme being, the One-Above-All.
"Soren Macaluso." the Tribunal spoke…
All four faces moving without sound, yet the message echoed directly through reality. "The six Infinity Stones must never be wielded as one."
"That is the first command given to me by the One-Above-All. Yet you… are not a native of this universe. Your existence lies beyond my jurisdiction."
The face bearing Soren's likeness shifted, its expression peaceful.
"Why appear before me then?" Soren asked quietly.
"Does the Tribunal intend to kill me?"
The Soren-face shook its head. "No. I am here to deliver the will of the One-Above-All."
"You must depart… leave this universe behind."
"Your path does not end here, and Marvel has reached its conclusion for you… this is the decree."
"…" Soren didn't know what to say.
He had not expected that by gathering the six Stones he would draw the attention of the highest authority in the cosmos.
The Tribunal was the only being who could speak for the OAA.
If the order was to leave… Soren had no room to argue.
"And when you leave," The Tribunal continued.
"You may take nothing with you that belongs to this universe… only what was never part of it."
"…" Soren bowed his head.
He understood immediately… his friends, his Jean and his Freyja, his island, his memories anchored here…
…he could carry none of them beyond this world.
But he did not rage.
For with the Infinity Stones mastering themselves to his will, Soren had begun to perceive the true rules underlying Marvel's fabric.
Rules so deep that even Infinity obeyed them.
This was one such law.
And at that moment of enlightenment, something broke open in him.
His eyes lifted. Through the Tribunal, through the countless branching parallel worlds,
Soren gazed upward… beyond Marvel.
The system chimed faintly in his consciousness, its voice trembling with exhilaration.
Marvel was only one world among many.
Countless universes shimmered like jewels before him…
Naruto, Wuxia realms, xianxia heavens, fantasy continents, apocalyptic futures, sci-fi galaxies… a multiverse without end.
Soren looked higher.
Above all worlds… older than time… vaster than all combined…
was a primordial world, a realm of origin, radiating with a breath so supreme…
Through the system's vision, Soren finally saw the name of the world above all worlds… The Wild World.
Compared to it, the Marvel universe was far smaller than he had ever imagined.
Yes, it contained countless parallel universes branching endlessly outward, each with its own histories, choices, and lives.
But Soren could now see the underlying symmetry… how every being across those parallels had corresponding echoes of themselves.
Except one.
Him.
Because Soren had not been born in this universe. He had entered from outside, and so across all the infinite reflections… no version of him existed.
His path was singular.
His destiny, unfixed.
His future, unwritten.
Soren let out a slow breath. "Before I leave… there is something I must do."
"Speak. You understand the rules." The Living Tribunal's four faces regarded him.
"As long as your request does not violate them, it may be granted."
Soren nodded. "I have friends here. Loved ones. People whose lives I've intertwined with."
"I need… time. Before I go."
…Silence stretched for a heartbeat.
Then the Tribunal's Soren-face smiled. "Very well."
"Complete what you must. But when your affairs are settled, you must depart."
Soren bowed respectfully.
✦••┈┈••✦••┈┈••✦
The war had ended.
The wounded had risen and the world waited breathlessly for the outcome of Soren's clash with Thanos.
Then, above the sky, a space channel folded open like a blooming flower of light.
"I'm back."
Soren stepped through.
Relief washed over Earth, and soon the truth spread, not only across the planet, but the entire galaxy.
The annihilation of Thanos and his elite armies became a storm of news that shook the cosmic stage.
Forces across the stars trembled.
Earth… once ordinary became a sacred star no one dared to provoke.
In the days that followed, Soren did not hide the truth.
He told them everything… the Tribunal's decree, the command of the One-Above-All and the fact that he would soon have to leave this universe.
Grief rose everywhere… among his friends, his allies, his Jean and Frejya, but no one dared to protest.
Even Soren joked and laughed, reassuring them that he would one day return.
The system had already explained… once Everlife upgraded sufficiently, it would gain the ability to cross worlds freely.
Returning to Marvel would become simple.
But that knowledge didn't make parting easier.
Three Months
Three months… short, yet full.
Soren spent them with the women he loved, settling responsibilities, visiting cherished places, and engraving memories that would last beyond universes.
Yet when the final day arrived… it still felt far too soon.
At the moment of farewell, he didn't give a long speech.
He didn't offer hollow comfort.
Soren simply said. "Take care and wait for me."
"I'll be back."
✦••┈┈••✦••┈┈••✦
"System… collect Everlife and send me to our next great adventure." Soren spoke silently.
Light swallowed him and his body dissolved into brilliance that streaked across the sky…
The Marvel universe shrank behind him…
A cluster of stars, a distant glow, a fading memory.
Just before the transition completed~
YOU DARE!!!
"…" Soren blinked.
Only then did he realize… in his hand, still glowing with six impossible lights the Infinity Stones had come with him.
And the Marvel universe was no longer somewhere he remained.
He would never forget it.
THE END