Chapter 333: Chapter 333: The Greatest Legacy
Levi floated in the center of the void, slowly spreading his arms.
Golden-red Phoenix Essence flowed from his left palm, transforming into millions of flaming threads that wove themselves into a colossal net spanning tens of thousands of kilometers.
Silvery-white Dominion Essence surged from his right palm like liquid starlight, flowing along the fiery strands and activating the entire construct.
The moment the two fundamentally different powers met, they erupted in dazzling brilliance, illuminating the dead battlefield ruins.
The fifty thousand corpses floating in the void, the shattered remains of Reality Distortion Devices, the dimmed Infinity Gauntlets, and the data storage units overlooked by the Black Swan Cult—all of them were enveloped by the immense net.
Ten meters behind Levi, Tony stood with his armor’s energy shields running at maximum output.
He could clearly feel the surrounding space undergoing violent distortion, as though the entire dimension itself were being forcibly rewritten.
Nathaniel tightly gripped a piece of metal salvaged from the Council’s wreckage—a stabilizing device created by one of the Reeds before his death.
His inherited temporal perception from the Council of Kangs warned him that the flow of time in this region had become chaotic.
Some areas were accelerating.
Others were slowing down.
At the center, where Levi stood, time was nearly frozen.
Reed Richards leaned against a floating fragment of machinery. Though the injuries on his chest had healed, his body remained too weak to stand.
He looked up at Levi, whose figure was wrapped in gold-red and silver-white radiance, and a complex emotion flickered in his eyes.
Awe.
Respect.
And a deep sense of unwillingness.
As one of the greatest minds in the multiverse, Reed had spent his life believing that intelligence could solve every problem.
Yet now he was witnessing someone accomplish through sheer overwhelming power what fifty thousand geniuses of the Council had failed to achieve after two centuries of effort.
Levi’s voice echoed through the void, calm as if he were stating the most ordinary fact in the world.
"These things will only be reclaimed and reused by the Beyonders if left here. Rather than letting them have them, I’ll take everything."
He suddenly brought his hands together.
The gigantic net contracted instantly.
Golden-red flames erupted wildly.
But what they burned was not matter itself.
They burned away causal connections, temporal imprints, and spatial coordinates attached to the objects.
Reed watched the nearest corpse.
It belonged to a Reed from Earth-8311, a specialist in biological augmentation who had once independently developed a gene-enhancing serum.
The blue uniform covering the corpse began melting in the flames.
The body itself, however, remained unharmed.
Instead, it dissolved into pure genetic code, wrapped in silver-white light and transferred into Levi’s Inner Universe.
Tony’s armor scanners immediately began screaming warnings.
Data streamed across his display faster than it could be processed. J.A.R.V.I.S. was operating beyond capacity, yet still failed to fully analyze what was happening.
Every fragment of the destroyed Reality Distortion Devices contained technological cores capable of rewriting the laws of physics within an entire universe.
Now, under the refinement of Phoenix Essence, their outer shells and protective systems were stripped away.
The deepest dimensional blueprints hidden within were exposed as pure information.
Then Dominion Essence seized them, compressed them into fist-sized spheres of light, and sent them flying one after another toward Levi.
Tony counted them.
There were three hundred seventy-two core Reality Distortion Device blueprints alone.
Each originated from a different Reed.
Each represented a completely different technological pathway.
Even more astonishing were the Infinity Gauntlets.
Hundreds upon hundreds of gauntlets embedded with all six Infinity Stones floated within the flames.
The radiance of the Stones was being forcibly extracted.
Those supreme authorities that could rewrite everything within a universe appeared before Levi’s Concept of Greed like fruits being squeezed dry, leaving behind only shriveled shells.
The blue light of the Space Stone was refined into fragments of pure spatial law.
The green brilliance of the Time Stone condensed into particles of temporal origin.
The violet energy of the Power Stone compressed into thumb-sized crystals.
As for the red mist generated by the Reality Stone—literally a mist—it was molded into runes capable of altering the rules of existence.
The yellow halo of the Mind Stone transformed into seeds of psychic power.
And the orange flames of the Soul Stone were refined into the purest soul essence.
Every bit of it was sent into Levi’s rapidly expanding Inner Universe.
Reed struggled to stand, but his legs refused to obey.
Watching the technological treasures once regarded as the Council’s highest secrets being seized by a single individual, he felt an indescribable emotion rise within him.
It wasn’t anger.
Because Levi was right. Leaving these things behind would only benefit the Beyonders.
Nor was it grief.
As a survivor, he had already cried away every tear the moment the Council was destroyed.
It was something far more complicated.
The helplessness of a genius standing before absolute power.
The frustration of knowing someone is right while still being unable to accept it.
Nathaniel suddenly spoke, his voice trembling.
"Those corpses... are their consciousnesses still there?"
Without turning around, Levi answered calmly.
"Their consciousnesses dispersed long ago. What I’m extracting are only genetic codes and the essence of life itself—the purest crystallization of the wisdom belonging to the name Reed Richards, without memories or personality."
Reed’s body trembled slightly.
He understood.
Those fifty thousand versions of himself—the fifty thousand Reed Richardses with different experiences, choices, and destinies—were truly gone.
Their personalities and memories had died completely.
They could not be resurrected.
Nothing could bring them back.
Yet the extraordinary intellect etched into the deepest layers of their genes had been preserved by Levi in another form.
Was that salvation?
Or merely another kind of exploitation?
Reed didn’t know.
Nor did he want to dwell on it.
Because in a multiverse on the verge of collapse, morality and ethics had become luxuries.
Survival.
Preserving the spark of civilization.
Those were the only goals that mattered.
The refinement process continued for ten full minutes.
When the final corpse dissolved into particles of light...
When the last machine fragment was fully refined...
When the final Infinity Gauntlet lost its luster and drifted into the void...
Levi finally lowered his hands.
The intertwined gold-red and silver-white radiance gradually withdrew into his body.
Yet everyone could feel it.
The pressure emanating from him had become far more terrifying than it had been ten minutes earlier.
It was a qualitative leap.
A fundamental evolution.
Tony’s scanners showed Levi’s energy levels climbing into completely incomprehensible territory.
The number displayed so many zeros that Tony suspected the system had malfunctioned.
Levi turned and looked toward Reed.
Within his mismatched eyes shone an extraordinarily complex emotion.
There was profound respect for the dead.
But far more than that, there was unwavering determination for the final war that lay ahead.
"The Council’s legacy," he said quietly, "I accept it."
His voice was calm yet powerful.
"But this is not plunder. It is inheritance. The wisdom purchased with the lives of fifty thousand Reed Richardses will become a weapon against the Beyonders. I promise their sacrifice will not be wasted."
Reed remained silent for a long moment before nodding with difficulty.
He knew he had no leverage to negotiate.
And he knew Levi was telling the truth.
On this brutal multiversal battlefield, allowing the dead to leave behind something meaningful was already the best ending imaginable.
Levi raised his right hand.
A golden rift tore open in the void.
Its edges burned with Phoenix Essence, radiating frightening heat.
"Let’s go," he said. "Back to the fortress. The real preparations for war begin now."
Tony entered the portal first.
Nathaniel followed.
Reed tried to stand, but his legs still lacked strength. Levi reached out and supported him, sending a gentle stream of energy into his body that rapidly repaired the weakness caused by blood loss.
The four stepped through the portal.
The sight before them caused Reed’s eyes to widen instantly.
For the first time, he saw the Void Fortress in its entirety.
It was a colossal stronghold floating between the cracks of the multiverse, more than fifty kilometers in diameter.
Its structure consisted of countless planetary remnants fused together with the remains of Beyonder Cartographers.
At its core floated a gigantic Void Eye that rotated slowly like a living organism, radiating suffocating pressure.
The fortress’s surface was covered with densely packed shield generators and weapon systems.
Every cannon glowed with enough power to tear dimensions apart.
What shocked Reed even more was the realization that the fortress was alive.
Beneath its seemingly metallic exterior flowed an energy-rich liquid resembling blood.
The entire stronghold felt like a massive living organism.
Inside the command center, Clark Kent stood before an enormous display screen.
His gold-red cape fluttered gently in the currents of energy.
Turning around and seeing Levi return with three companions, concern flashed across his blue eyes.
"Finished?" Superman asked in a deep, steady voice.
Levi nodded and raised his right hand.
A massive golden sphere emerged above his palm.
Within it lay everything he had just refined.
The wisdom crystals of fifty thousand Reeds.
The core blueprints of thousands of super-devices.
The law fragments extracted from hundreds of sets of Infinity Stones.
All compressed into a sphere barely three meters in diameter.
Tony stepped forward and touched its surface.
The instant his fingers made contact, J.A.R.V.I.S. sounded a piercing warning.
A flood of data poured into the armor’s storage systems.
Technological blueprints from countless universes flashed before his eyes.
Each represented a new scientific pathway.
Each pathway alone could propel Earth’s civilization forward by thousands of years.
Levi leaned against the command room wall, gazing at the sphere with unreadable eyes.
He knew exactly what was inside.
Two centuries of the Council’s efforts.
The legacy purchased by fifty thousand versions of himself.
And now it would be used to transform this fortress into a weapon against the Beyonders.
Levi gently pushed the sphere toward the central holographic platform.
The moment it touched the platform, golden light exploded outward, transforming into countless streams of data that spread throughout the fortress.
The entire Void Fortress trembled.
Previously disconnected planetary fragments began fusing together.
Neural-network-like patterns spread across metallic surfaces.
Energy transmission efficiency skyrocketed at a visible rate.
Clark stepped beside Levi and lowered his voice.
"These resources are enough to upgrade the fortress?"
Levi nodded and swept his gaze across everyone present.
Tony.
Clark.
Reed.
Nathaniel.
Every face reflected equal parts anticipation and anxiety.
He knew the next words would determine the future direction of their team.
Would determine how much preparation they could make before the arrival of universal extinction.
"The Ark Project officially begins."
His voice echoed through the command center.
"Using the Council’s cross-dimensional engine technology and Reality Stabilization Anchors, we’re going to transform this fortress into the ultimate warship capable of sailing through the Void itself."
He looked toward Tony and Reed.
"You two are responsible for integrating the technology. Start building the framework for the Logic Virus."
Then he turned to Clark.
"Gather everyone else. Thor, Strange, Wanda—everyone capable of fighting. I need to explain the situation."
At that moment, Reed spoke up.
His voice was still weak, but the stubbornness within it remained unmistakable.
He raised the issue of the Logic Virus’s carrier.
He wanted to know exactly how Levi intended to handle it.
The moment he heard the question, Levi’s expression darkened.
He had always known the issue would have to be faced eventually.
But not yet.
Because he could feel something.
A terrible sensation.
In some unimaginably distant dimension, a gaze was fixed upon them.
Watching.
Observing.
The feeling sent a chill down his spine.
The owner of that gaze was the being who called himself Labum Aral, the Great Destroyer.
The creature lurked in the darkness, monitoring their every move, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
"I’ll solve the carrier problem."
Levi did not answer directly.
Instead, he turned toward the observation window and stared at the drifting cosmic wreckage scattered throughout the void.
"Right now, survival comes first. Everything else can wait until we have the power to fight back."
Reed opened his mouth, wanting to press further.
In the end, he remained silent.
Watching Levi’s back, a sense of foreboding rose within him.
It felt as though an immense shadow was slowly approaching from the farthest edge of the multiverse.
And perhaps all of their preparations would still seem laughably insignificant before it.
But at least they still had hope.
They still had a chance to fight.
That alone made them far luckier than the fifty thousand versions of Reed Richards who had already perished.
