Another ancient god had fallen, crushed beneath Martin's feet.
And this… this was no ending. Merely a prelude.
Inevitable as the ticking of time, more would come, more ancient, more terrifying gods of old. But the moment they stood in Martin's way, they would face the same fate: conquest or extinction.
Live, or die.
Dormammu's enormous corpse sprawled across the husk of a dying star. Even in death, waves of terrible, churning dark energy still pulsed from his remains.
Martin stood upon the collapsed star. The impossible gravity warped space around him, yet he felt no discomfort, not even a tremor.
He stared down at the fallen giant in silence.
"You've done what even gods who've lived for eons failed to do," said the Ancient One quietly, gazing at the corpse of her long-standing nemesis. "You've created yet another miracle, Martin."
Martin glanced at her with cool indifference.
"To you, it's a miracle. To me? Just another day. Don't use your narrow view to measure the length of my stride."
The Ancient One's smile froze for a moment, then returned, serene, but with a flicker of unease deep in her eyes.
She had fought this man not long ago, believing she could defeat him, even imprison him if necessary. Looking back, it was laughably naïve.
Martin's abilities were endless, impossible to predict, impossible to contain.
"You dared to battle me back then… plotted step-by-step how to take my Infinity Stone… You risked everything on that gambit," Martin said as he turned to face her. "So tell me, Ancient One, what exactly did you see through the Time Stone that made you act against me?"
"And if I refuse to tell you?"
"Then I'll take the Time Stone from your corpse and see it myself," Martin said coldly, stepping forward.
The Ancient One didn't flinch.
"It won't work," she said. "What I saw was based on where I stood in the timeline. Even if you took the Time Stone now, what you'd see would be entirely different. Because… the moment I failed to steal the Infinity Stone from you, the timeline fractured. What comes next is unknown to anyone."
"Then tell me, what did you see that terrified you so much you chose to fight me?"
Martin's voice was low, but charged with quiet fury. He advanced on her, step by step. His presence was suffocating.
The Ancient One held his gaze for a long moment, then finally spoke.
"I saw Death," she said. "I looked into the future… and Death looked back."
"I saw Thanos snap away half of all life in the universe… and neither the Avengers nor the X-Men could stop it. They fell. Forever."
"I saw Hell itself devour the Earth. Demons danced in the remains of the dead. And on a throne of bones, Cyttorak, Lord of Demons, watched your broken body with arrogant disdain."
"I saw the God of Black Magic, Chthon, return to the multiverse for your sake. I watched as his darkness consumed the World Tree and slayed the last dragon of light. And yet… in all of that horror, the Vishanti were nowhere to be seen."
With every sentence, Martin's expression darkened.
To meet the gaze of Death itself, there could be no doubt. The Ancient One had encountered a projection of Death, the cosmic embodiment, one of the fundamental abstracts of the universe.
And Thanos... his success in wiping out half of all life implied something far worse:
Martin had lost the Infinity Stones.
Despite everything, Thanos, the so-called Chosen of Destiny, had claimed ultimate victory in that timeline.
But what chilled Martin even more… were the last two visions.
"Cyttorak and Chthon?" Martin murmured, eyes narrowing. "Multiversal-class gods, entities capable of defying even the Five Cosmic Abstracts, and they moved for me?"
The Ancient One nodded slowly.
"I can't think of any other reason they would return."
Martin scoffed, but inwardly, tension began to coil within him.
Cyttorak, the most feared demon of the Marvel Multiverse. His power was the source of the Juggernaut's might. If Cyttorak ever chose to descend directly through his Crimson Gem, Earth's plane would be the first to fall.
But Chthon… Chthon was something far worse.
He was the origin of all black magic across the multiverse. The prime wielder of Chaos Magic, one of the Three Primal Forces of the cosmos, fully mastered and perfectly controlled.
His status?
One of the Four Elder Gods, far beyond even the likes of Odin or Zeus. While gods like Odin and the Jade Emperor could be replicated infinitely across the multiverse, Chthon and his peers were singularities; irreplaceable, unduplicated, and eternal.
"If that's the case…" Martin muttered, "then it's time I paid that woman a visit, the Scarlet Witch…"
He drew a deep breath.
There was no denying it now: Chthon was the most terrifying adversary imaginable. A walking extinction-level event, whose very existence carried an apocalyptic rating.
Originally, Martin had planned to avoid Wanda Maximoff altogether. She was too dangerous, with her body being a vessel of Chthon's Chaos Magic. Any emotional trigger could send her spiraling into an uncontrollable rampage, capable of annihilating reality itself.
"Ancient One," Martin said, stepping forward and pressing a finger against her shoulder. "When the time comes, I will take the Time Stone from you. And you know what happens to those who deceive me."
"Forget the future you saw. It's already changed. Try using the Time Stone again, and what you see won't match what came before. You had the Time Stone… and you still couldn't defeat me."
The Ancient One frowned.
"What exactly are you planning?"
Martin turned away, smirking coldly.
"Plans far beyond your imagination. No matter how grim the future is, I'll use my fists to tear down anyone who stands in my path, and kill them all. Honestly, Ancient One, just train Stephen already and retire. You should really go explore the multiverse. It's more incredible than you could ever imagine. Besides…"
He looked her up and down.
"…your body's already decaying beyond repair. Might as well toss it."
With a flick of his hand, a spacetime vortex opened before him. Martin stepped through, leaving only a parting laugh behind—a cruel, echoing sound.
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TN: Honestly, in these past few chapters, I'm not sure if the author read a different marvel comics, or if these details actually exist in canon. The author repeatedly mentions things like "World Tree" and "Yggdrasil," saying this or that deity is a second or third generation of it, and so on.
Man, i tried searching, scoured the fandom, but I couldn't find any mention of Dormammu or any other deity we've seen so far having a connection to the World Tree. Chthon, for example, is born from the Demiurge, not from some World Tree, yet the author says otherwise.
Frustrated, I'm left with no choice but to either modify them or erase the sentence altogether. They don't matter that much anyway. They were only passing remarks of Martin. But that detail frustrates me as I read.
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