Chapter 330: Chapter 330: Spoils of War and the Godslayer
The lights in the command chamber gradually brightened again.
Standing at the center of the room, Levi casually flipped his right hand.
Three masses of silver liquid metal emerged from the depths of his inner universe and floated into the air.
Each was roughly the size of a human head.
The metallic masses resembled living organisms.
Fine streams of light flowed across their surfaces, constantly reorganizing themselves as though attempting to repair the damage left behind when the Cartographer had been destroyed.
Tony Stark had still been absorbed in the grim reality of the Multiverse’s impending collapse.
But the instant his eyes landed on the three silver masses, he looked as though he’d been struck by lightning.
His armor’s scanning systems activated automatically.
Blue beams shot from the Arc Reactor in his chest and enveloped the silver metal.
Data exploded across his displays.
Molecular structures.
Energy spectrum analyses.
Material composition readings.
Every result that appeared on screen took another swing at the scientific worldview he’d spent thirty years building.
Tony practically sprinted across the room.
His eyes blazed with near-maniacal excitement.
He reached out to touch the metal.
Levi raised a hand and stopped him.
Not because it was dangerous.
The material still retained fragments of the Cartographer’s operating protocols.
Without purification, anyone touching it risked having their consciousness contaminated by residual Beyonder data.
Levi activated the Source of Dominion.
Golden strands of light pierced deep into each silver mass.
One by one, the hidden Beyonder directives buried in their cores were erased.
The entire process happened absurdly fast.
Less than thirty seconds later, the strange silver-white sheen faded into a pure matte silver.
Every trace of foreign will vanished.
Only then did Tony carefully pick up one of the metallic masses as though it were the greatest treasure in existence.
The metal writhed within his palms, seemingly adapting itself to his touch.
Doctor Strange watched with a frown.
He could still sense traces of Beyonder presence lingering within the material.
Although purified, the pressure of that higher-dimensional existence remained enough to make him uncomfortable on an instinctive level.
Clark stood nearby.
His enhanced vision allowed him to see the impossibly intricate microscopic structures inside the metal.
Every layer performed independent calculations.
It was as though millions of supercomputers were operating simultaneously.
Wanda held Adam in her arms.
The little boy stared curiously at the floating silver metal, waving his hands excitedly as though trying to grab a collection of new toys.
Levi glanced at Tony’s fascinated expression and smiled slightly.
He knew exactly what was happening inside Tony’s head.
The man had probably already devised seventeen different applications for the material.
And that was exactly what Levi needed.
The enemy they were facing next could no longer be defeated through brute force alone.
They needed a true Godslayer.
---
Tony wasted no time.
Almost immediately, he rushed toward the Void Fortress’s temporary laboratory, carefully carrying the three silver masses as though they were priceless relics.
Levi followed.
Clark and Strange joined them out of curiosity.
The laboratory itself had been constructed from a mixture of Uru and vibranium alloys.
Dense energy circuits covered every wall.
Those circuits connected directly to the Void Fortress’s core power source, providing enough energy to sustain virtually any research project imaginable.
Tony placed the three metallic masses onto separate analysis platforms.
J.A.R.V.I.S. immediately began running comprehensive scans.
With a wave of his hands, dozens of holographic interfaces unfolded around him.
Molecular structures.
Energy frequencies.
Quantum entanglement states.
Temporal stability metrics.
Every test Tony could think of was launched simultaneously.
Standing nearby, Levi could clearly sense that the metals were far more complex than they appeared.
They weren’t merely materials.
They were compressed technological constructs.
Every individual molecule contained fragments of the Beyonders’ understanding of material laws.
Tony’s eyes widened further with every result.
The scans revealed a form of molecular bonding unlike anything he had ever encountered.
Not covalent bonds.
Not ionic bonds.
But dynamic structural bonds capable of actively adjusting their strength and configuration based on external conditions.
Things became even stranger.
When Tony attempted to cut the material with a high-energy laser, a reflective layer instantly formed across the surface and redirected the beam.
The cut failed completely.
He switched tactics and attempted cryogenic freezing.
The surface temperature dropped below negative two hundred degrees Celsius.
The internal structure remained perfectly stable.
It even generated heat to maintain its own form.
Tony tried everything.
Physical cutting.
Chemical corrosion.
Energy bombardment.
Dimensional separation.
Nothing worked.
No conventional method could damage the material in the slightest.
Taking a deep breath, Tony turned toward Levi.
His voice trembled with excitement.
"The technological level of this stuff..."
He swallowed.
"It’s at least three dimensions beyond any material I’ve ever studied."
"Compared to this, nanotechnology is a child’s toy."
"Even Uru metal gets left in the dust."
Levi nodded.
"The Cartographer was a tool created by the Beyonders to clean up universes they deemed failures."
"This material forms the core structure of its body."
Tony slammed both hands onto a console.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., pull up the Mother Box core database and the energy spectrum analyses from the Infinity Stones."
"I want to integrate all three technologies."
He turned toward Levi, speaking at machine-gun speed.
---
Levi didn’t immediately respond.
Instead, he walked toward a massive holographic projection suspended on the far side of the laboratory.
With a wave of his hand, the projection expanded until it filled the room.
The entire Multiverse appeared before them.
Countless glowing nodes shimmered like stars.
Yet nearly one-third had already gone dark.
Dead.
Silent.
Extinguished.
And above almost every remaining light glowed a crimson countdown timer.
Tony froze.
His face gradually paled.
Strange’s third eye opened slightly.
Golden light swept across the projection as his expression darkened.
Clark clenched his fists.
Silver-white conceptual energy flowed across his body.
Every black node represented the death of countless lives.
Levi’s voice echoed through the silent laboratory.
"Our previous strategy was simple."
"When a universe was threatened, we rushed in and put out the fire."
He traced his finger across the projection.
The extinguished nodes began flashing.
Data streams appeared beside them.
"The Beyonders are accelerating."
"At first they erased one universe per day."
"Now they’re erasing three every six hours."
At that pace...
Nearly seventy percent of the Multiverse would collapse within three months.
Tony swallowed hard.
"So you’re saying..."
"We abandon defense?"
Levi turned toward him.
His crimson-gold and silver-white eyes gleamed coldly.
"Not abandon it."
"Change it."
He reached into the holographic projection.
A model of the Void Fortress appeared before everyone.
"The Void Fortress is currently nothing more than an outpost."
"I’m going to transform it into an Ark."
"A Noah’s Ark capable of surviving the collapse of the Multiverse itself."
Golden lines spread across the model.
New structures appeared.
Energy shields.
Dimensional anchors.
Temporal stabilizers.
Reality-warping cores.
Every component exceeded the limits of modern understanding.
"We stop fighting reactively."
"We go on the offensive."
"We find universes that can still be saved."
"We evacuate civilizations and survivors worth preserving and bring them aboard the Ark."
His voice grew colder.
"As for the universes already marked by the Beyonders..."
"We hunt their executors."
"We seize their technology."
"We take their power."
"And we use it to strengthen the Ark."
Tony’s eyes lit up again.
Now this felt familiar.
Rather than waiting to die, they would turn the enemy’s weapons into their own strength.
Strange frowned.
"If we do that, we’ll completely expose ourselves to the Beyonders."
A faint smile appeared on Levi’s lips.
"They’ve already noticed me."
"The Ivory King has already seen my existence through the Eye of the Void."
"If we’re going to be hunted regardless..."
His gaze swept across the room.
"...then they may as well learn that someone in this Multiverse refuses to wait quietly for death."
---
At that moment, Adam suddenly began struggling in Wanda’s arms.
Before she could react, the child broke free with strength no infant should possess and floated directly toward the laboratory table.
Floated.
His body hovered in midair.
A faint silver-gray aura surrounded him—the result of his Void Origin fusing with Beyonder energy.
Tony instinctively moved to intercept.
Levi raised a hand.
Tony stopped.
Adam landed atop the workbench.
His tiny hand pressed directly against one of the silver metal masses that even high-energy lasers had failed to damage.
Everyone held their breath.
Then something unbelievable happened.
The metal that had resisted every test Tony could devise softened in Adam’s hands like clay.
One moment it became a teddy bear.
The next, a spaceship.
Then a five-pointed star.
The metal offered no resistance whatsoever.
Instead, it seemed eager to obey him.
Tony’s jaw nearly hit the floor.
He had thrown the laboratory’s most powerful cutting systems at the material and failed to leave so much as a scratch.
And yet this diaper-wearing toddler was casually kneading it like modeling clay.
Strange’s third eye widened.
He could see the Void Origin inside Adam resonating deeply with the lingering Beyonder energy embedded within the material.
This wasn’t physical manipulation.
It was conceptual authority.
Adam was effectively telling the metal:
"You belong to me now."
"Change shape."
And the metal obeyed.
Immediately.
Clark stepped closer.
His enhanced vision revealed the material’s internal structure reorganizing itself at Adam’s command.
The restructuring occurred thousands of times faster than even Tony’s nanotechnology.
Levi watched quietly.
A complicated expression crossed his face.
He had always known Adam was special.
But even he hadn’t anticipated something like this.
A Child of the Void.
A being who had absorbed Beyonder energy.
Combined, those traits placed Adam naturally above creations forged by the Beyonders themselves.
Wanda approached nervously.
She could feel the tremendous power stirring within her son.
Yet Adam remained completely calm.
In fact, he was smiling with the innocent delight unique to small children.
To him, these materials that had driven Tony nearly insane were simply new toys.
Tony inhaled deeply and attempted to calm himself.
Then he looked toward Levi with a defeated expression.
"Honestly..."
He shook his head.
"Your son is making me feel insecure about being called a genius."
A faint smile appeared on Levi’s face.
Before he could answer—
An alarm suddenly sounded throughout the laboratory.
Not a danger alert.
A communications alert.
Nathaniel quickly approached the main console.
His fingers moved rapidly across holographic interfaces as a complex waveform appeared on the display.
He frowned.
"Looks like an interdimensional distress signal."
He continued decoding it.
Then his expression changed.
"The source is..."
"The Council of Reeds."
Tony’s face immediately became serious.
The Council of Reeds.
A collective formed by Reed Richards from countless parallel universes.
One of the greatest concentrations of intelligence in existence.
Their scientific capabilities surpassed most cosmic civilizations.
If even they were sending a distress signal—
Nathaniel’s face suddenly went white.
"The signal disappeared."
