Chapter 332: Chapter 332: The Last Reed
Levi stood at the edge of the warped pocket space.
Crimson-gold light flowed from his palm, winding around the dying Reed Richards like a living thing.
The Law of Life and the Phoenix Force activated simultaneously.
Golden patterns spread across Reed’s shattered body. The horrific wound piercing his chest began healing at a visible speed.
Broken ribs reconnected.
Torn blood vessels sealed themselves.
Even the damage to his internal organs was repaired in moments.
Injuries that should have required months to recover were accelerated as though someone had pressed fast-forward.
Levi redefined Reed’s state of existence, forcibly dragging him back from the brink of death.
Five seconds later, Reed’s eyes snapped open.
His pupils contracted from the lingering agony before focusing on the unfamiliar man standing before him.
The sight of those crimson-gold and silver-white eyes filled him with instinctive fear.
Those were not human eyes.
They were the eyes of something that stood above the laws of the multiverse itself.
Reed subconsciously tried to retreat, but his body had yet to fully recover. He could only lean weakly against the wall.
His mind immediately began racing.
The Council had fallen.
Fifty thousand Reeds were dead.
The Black Swans had been clearing the battlefield.
And now a stranger possessing unimaginable power had appeared.
Was this another servant sent by Rabum Alal?
Or perhaps a new executor of the Beyonders?
Levi saw the caution and fear in Reed’s eyes.
Instead of speaking immediately, he took a step back, giving him room to breathe.
At that moment, Tony stepped forward and removed his helmet.
Reed froze.
He recognized that face instantly.
There were differences, certainly, but the combination of overwhelming arrogance and extraordinary intelligence was unmistakable.
Tony Stark.
Or rather, a Tony Stark from another universe.
Tony crouched down, his voice unusually gentle.
"Relax, Reed. We’re not here to kill you."
"If anything, we’re here to save you."
Reed’s voice came out hoarse, every word scraping against his throat like sandpaper.
"...Who are you people?"
"And whose side are you on?"
Levi finally spoke.
His voice was calm, yet carried undeniable authority.
"My name is Levi."
"I’m from Earth-6160."
"I received the distress signal your Council sent out."
A flicker crossed Reed’s eyes.
He had sent that signal himself.
At the very last moment.
After Rabum Alal had left and the Black Swans began cleaning up the battlefield, he used the last of his strength to activate the emergency beacon.
He hadn’t actually expected anyone to answer.
Most of those capable of receiving it were already dead.
The rest would never dare come here.
And yet someone had.
Reed struggled to sit up, and Tony helped support him.
This Reed Richards from Earth-6160 wore a ruined blue uniform. Blood still stained the wound that had only recently healed.
But the brilliance had already begun returning to his eyes.
The sharp gaze of the greatest mind in the multiverse.
He stared at Levi for a full ten seconds.
His brain worked at incredible speed, extracting every possible piece of information.
Energy signatures.
Physiology.
Micro-expressions.
Every detail was analyzed.
The conclusion terrified him.
The man before him was absurdly powerful.
Far beyond the limits of even Skyfather-level beings.
Perhaps already standing at the threshold of true multiversal existence.
Reed’s voice remained rough, but his words came faster.
"You came too late."
"The Council is gone."
"Fifty thousand versions of me. All dead."
"Rabum Alal destroyed every defense we had. Infinity Gauntlets were toys in front of him. Our reality-warping devices never even got the chance to activate..."
His voice began trembling.
Not from fear.
From frustration.
The despair of a genius realizing that his greatest strength—his intellect—had become utterly meaningless before absolute power.
Levi listened without interrupting.
Tony frowned.
He understood the feeling.
After the Battle of New York.
During the struggle against Thanos.
He too had known that helplessness.
Nearby, Nathaniel stared at the countless corpses floating through the void.
A chill ran through him.
When the Council of Kangs fell, at least some variants escaped.
The Council of Reeds had been completely annihilated.
Only one survivor remained.
---
Levi finally spoke.
"So the reason all of you died wasn’t because you uncovered some divine secret."
"I’m guessing that’s not the real story."
Reed’s head snapped up.
Shock flashed through his eyes.
Levi continued.
"The Black Swans’ speech while they were cleaning up was nothing more than propaganda."
"An excuse fabricated by Rabum Alal."
"The real reason is that you developed something capable of threatening the Beyonders."
Reed’s breathing quickened.
His eyes locked onto Levi.
Searching for any sign of deception.
But Levi’s expression never changed.
Those mismatched eyes seemed capable of seeing through every lie.
Silence lasted nearly thirty seconds.
Finally, Reed nodded.
"You’re right."
"We did create something."
"A logical virus capable of locating and disrupting the Beyonders’ frequencies."
Tony’s pupils shrank.
A logical virus?
One capable of interfering with the Beyonders?
He immediately understood the implications.
The Beyonders were invincible because they existed as the embodiment of laws and rules themselves.
Conventional attacks meant nothing to them.
But a virus that attacked the logical foundation of their existence...
That would be equivalent to discovering a god’s fatal weakness.
Reed’s voice deepened.
"The Council spent two hundred years collecting debris from 3,700 universes destroyed by the Beyonders."
"We extracted traces of Beyonder energy and reverse-engineered their frequency signatures."
"Eventually we built a logical model."
"Using quantum entanglement and flaws in causality itself, we created a viral construct capable of infiltrating Beyonder consciousness."
He pointed at his temple.
"The backup is stored here."
"Deep within my cerebral cortex."
"Protected by biological quantum encryption."
"As long as I’m alive, it won’t disappear."
Tony unconsciously stepped forward.
Excitement flashed in his eyes.
"You’re saying your brain contains two centuries of research?"
"And a weapon that can fight the Beyonders?"
His voice trembled.
This wasn’t mere technology.
This was the combined wisdom of fifty thousand Reed Richardses across two hundred years.
A weapon capable of changing the fate of the multiverse.
Reed laughed bitterly.
"A weapon? Maybe."
"But it was never completed."
"We lacked the most critical component."
"A carrier."
"Something capable of hosting the virus and spreading it into the Beyond Realm."
He coughed several times.
Though healed, he remained terribly weak.
"The carrier must satisfy three requirements."
"First, it must possess Beyonder energy signatures capable of deceiving the Beyond Realm’s defenses."
"Second, it must have independent consciousness and be capable of acting on its own."
"Third, it must survive the conceptual collapse caused by activating the virus."
"Otherwise it will be erased instantly."
---
A thought flashed through Levi’s mind.
Adam.
His son.
The Child of Oblivion.
Beyonder energy flowed through him.
He possessed the Origin of Oblivion itself.
And in the laboratory, Adam had effortlessly manipulated the silver metal controlled by the Mapmaker.
Everything matched Reed’s description.
But Levi immediately rejected the idea.
Asking an infant to carry a virus capable of triggering conceptual collapse?
That was not an option.
There had to be another way.
---
Nathaniel suddenly spoke.
His voice was tense.
"If the Council already created the virus, why destroy you?"
"Why not take it for himself?"
Reed’s expression grew complicated.
A mixture of anger.
Fear.
Disbelief.
"Because he doesn’t need it."
"Or rather..."
"He found something better."
He drew a deep breath.
"When Rabum Alal destroyed the Council, he left us with a message."
> ’You fools believe logic and algorithms can kill gods?’
> ’The only thing capable of destroying the Beyonders is a power greater than theirs.’
> ’And I have already found the source of that power.’
Silence filled the void.
Levi’s eyes narrowed.
He could sense a far more dangerous truth hidden behind those words.
Tony’s mind raced.
A force greater than the Beyonders?
Could such a thing even exist?
Or had Rabum Alal touched something forbidden?
Reed continued.
His voice grew weaker.
"He stood atop fifty thousand corpses."
"Behind him were the burning remains of our reality-warping engines."
"He looked at me like I was an insect."
"Then he said one more thing."
> ’Tell the one who comes to save you that I’ll be waiting in Battleworld.’
> ’If he truly deserves to be my opponent, let him survive long enough to stand before me.’
Levi narrowed his eyes further.
Now he understood.
Rabum Alal had known from the beginning that someone would come.
He deliberately left Reed alive.
Deliberately allowed the distress signal to be sent.
This wasn’t a trap.
It was an invitation.
A twisted challenge.
---
After a moment of silence, Levi extended his hand.
Golden light emerged once more.
This time it wasn’t healing.
It was extraction.
Reed felt a gentle yet irresistible force enter his mind.
The sensation was strange.
As though someone were carefully turning the pages of his memories without causing any pain.
Levi combined the Law of Mind with the Law of Alchemy, delicately extracting the information hidden beneath Reed’s quantum encryption.
The database was unimaginably vast.
Two centuries of research from the Council of Reeds.
Data from 3,700 destroyed universes.
The Beyonders’ frequency signatures.
The complete architecture of the logical virus.
Even predictive models concerning Battleworld itself.
All of it compressed into a single golden sphere floating above Levi’s palm.
He turned toward Tony and handed it over.
The moment Tony touched the sphere, an immense flood of information poured into his armor’s systems.
JARVIS’s processors immediately began operating at maximum capacity.
Data streams moved so quickly they became impossible to read.
Tony instantly understood the value of what he had received.
These weren’t merely records.
They were the key to changing the war.
---
Reed slumped against the wall.
His face was pale as paper.
The extraction had been painless.
Yet losing that information left him feeling hollow.
Those memories had been the core of his existence.
The very reason he was Reed Richards.
Levi looked at him.
His voice remained calm, but carried the weight of a promise.
"These records will be put to good use."
"The Council’s sacrifice won’t be wasted."
"You have my word."
Reed said nothing.
He simply nodded.
His role was finished.
The war to come had already surpassed people like him.
---
Levi turned toward the seven Black Swans still immobilized beneath the pressure of the Origin of Control.
Terror filled their eyes.
They could feel death approaching.
Levi offered no further words.
He raised his right hand.
The Concept of Greed erupted in full.
A black vortex unfolded within his palm.
Terrifying suction engulfed all seven Black Swans.
They didn’t even have time to scream.
Their bodies vanished into the vortex.
Along with the dark matter energy inside them.
Their Black Swan Cult inheritances.
And the data they had stolen from the Council.
Everything became nourishment for Levi’s Inner Universe.
Tony watched the scene unfold.
His emotions were complicated.
The Black Swans deserved their fate.
Yet Levi’s complete lack of hesitation made him realize something.
The ally standing before him was no longer the man who once struggled with moral dilemmas.
---
After devouring the seven Black Swans, Levi surveyed the battlefield.
Countless drifting corpses.
Broken technological relics.
Ruined Infinity Gauntlets.
All of them stood as monuments to a fallen civilization.
Slowly, he raised both hands.
The Origin of Control and the Phoenix Force activated simultaneously.
