The impossible battle was over.
The void finally quiet.
For exactly nine seconds.
"FRIENDS!" Thor boomed. "Let us celebrate with a firework bright enough to be seen from all Nine Realms!"
Superman exhaled. "A wholesome idea."
Tony perked up. "Finally—something that doesn't explode in my face. I'm in."
Loki slowly turned his head, smile forming.
"Oh? A firework for the Nine Realms…? Then let's light them up."
Thor grinned wide.
"Aye! Light them up— Wait… what?"
Loki's smile widened. "Let's light up the Nine Realms."
Thor froze.
"…Loki. Brother. Explain."
Loki casually pointed outward.
"All nine. Boom. Big flash. Everyone sees it up close."
Thor's eyes widened. "YOU MEAN TO DETONATE A FIREWORK ACROSS ALL NINE REALMS?!"
Loki shrugged. "Just a little one."
Tony: "THAT IS NOT A LITTLE—"
Thor swung Mjolnir down, pointing it at Loki.
"BROTHER, YOU ARE NOT BLOWING UP NINE REALMS FOR A CELEBRATION!"
Loki scoffed. "Oh please, it's symbolic! A gentle illumination. Maybe a minor reality vibration—"
"No vibrations!" Thor shouted. "Last time you 'vibrated' a realm, Yggdrasil sneezed and Midgard flooded!"
"That was ONE time."
"And Jotunheim froze solid!"
"It thawed."
"And Nidavellir ORBITED ASGARD!"
"That was artistic."
They leaned forehead to forehead, both glowing with power, ready to argue for eternity.
From a distance, Superman and Black Adam exchanged a look—the universal 'we need to intervene' look.
Thor pulled back slightly, eyes wide with realization. "...Brother. I knew you were reckless. I did NOT know you were brain-empty reckless."
Loki's scandalized gasp echoed. "EMPTY?!"
His eyes flared brilliantly green.
"Brother, my mischief burns brighter than the Bifrost—"
"STOP! Your eyes are doing the THING again!"
Loki leaned closer. "Make me."
Superman and Black Adam floated in before Thor could explode, arms crossed—trying to look intimidating.
Would've worked...
...if Superman's cape wasn't 80% burnt and Black Adam wasn't drifting slightly crooked from earlier impacts.
"We are NOT igniting nine realms," Superman declared.
"No realm combustion," Black Adam reinforced.
Alien X suddenly materialized beside them, three voices arguing simultaneously.
Serena: "You have violated 4,731 safety protocols."
Bellicus: "Protocols are for the WEAK."
Ben: "STOP. We are NOT HELPING!"
Tony snorted. "Okay, so we've got burned dads blocking the liquor cabinet while a three-way conference call screams at itself. Cool. Very intimidating."
Superman stiffened. "We are being serious."
Which only made the whole thing funnier.
In the corner, the seven Galectors snored in synchronized formation—helmets tilted, capes singed, completely done with the universe.
Tony pointed at them. "Look at that. Even the Space Power Rangers tapped out. That's how bad Loki's idea is."
Superman frowned. "They are NOT Power Rangers."
"They're color-coded, dramatic, and travel as a squad," Tony replied. "Legally speaking, that's a Power Ranger starter pack."
Tony floated between everyone with both hands up.
"Timeout. Loki—I know that expression. No multi-realm detonations. No cosmic vibrations. NO fireworks that involve plural realms. If we let you, YOU WOULD light the realms up, fill out the paperwork, and then pretend to be shocked when everyone panics."
Loki brightened. "Ah! Someone understands my—"
"Not praise. Threat assessment."
"...Oh."
One Galector let out a tiny electronic beep of exhaustion.
Tony nodded. "See? Agreement. And I still haven't forgotten about the soap portal yet, soap-er man."
Superman gritted his teeth, fist clenched.
Tony's HUD shifted to Loki. "We're not giving you license to commit multi-realm arson. I don't have the insurance."
Loki blinked. "Mortals invented insurance?"
"Yes, because gods keep breaking everything."
Loki pouted. "You mortals ruin all my best ideas."
Thor grumbled. "BROTHER! I thought you were merely a madman… but you are beyond hope! Your ideas nearly end the universe."
Loki only grinned harder, eyes flaring bright green.
"When it comes to teasing you, Thor, my imagination shines brighter than the Bifrost!"
Tony slid between them, pointing accusingly.
"Hey! Sparkles! Knock it off!"
Thor jabbed a finger.
"You are doing it again!"
Loki blinked innocently. "Doing what?"
Thor sputtered. "That GREEN EYE THINGY! Stop it!"
"BORK?"
Doremano dog-paddled over, staring at Loki's glowing eyes.
Tony patted him. "It's just family drama, buddy. Best thing we can do is pretend we understand."
Doremano barked again, judgmental.
Loki rolled his eyes. "I'm fine! The glow is for DRAMATIC EFFECT!"
Another bark.
Weird human imitation attempt detected.
Back at Alien X, the internal argument had somehow escalated.
Bellicus: "Illuminate, not explode."
Ben: "That's the SAME. THING."
Serena: "Motion to intervene—"
Bellicus: "Motion to let chaos reign—"
Ben: "We're not voting for this!"
Tony looked at them. "Watching you guys is like dialing into a conference call that hates itself."
Ben suddenly raised a hand.
"Hear me out GUYS! I actually have a NORMAL idea!"
Everyone froze.
Tony squinted. "Ben. Normal? Last time someone said 'normal' around Loki, he tried to reorganize the solar system."
Loki suddenly found the distant stars very interesting.
Ben groaned. "FOCUS! I'm saying: one flare. Local. Harmless. We shape it how we want. No destruction."
Silence.
Thor leaned in. "...Nothing explodes?"
"Nothing."
Superman lowered his stance. "No collateral damage?"
"Zero," Alien X confirmed.
Tony crossed his arms. "No dimensional tears?"
"None."
Loki sighed theatrically. "Fine. We shall make... tasteful light."
Thor raised Mjolnir. "THEN LET IT BE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL OF ALL LIGHTS!"
Doremano spun. "BORK!"
Magic intertwined with tech, cosmic energy, and resonance.
Loki shaped it.
Thor empowered it.
Alien X stabilized it.
Tony tuned it.
Ben fed it.
A seed of light flickered...
Bloomed...
Transformed into a perfect cosmic butterfly.
Golden wings shifting to rose, rose to violet, violet to deep starlit blue.
Soft.
Harmless.
Visible across whole star systems.
Thor choked. "By Odin... BEAUTIFUL."
Loki blinked rapidly. "...Okay. Even I didn't plan for it to look that good."
Doremano spun in happy circles. "BORK BORK!"
Superman floated closer, soothed.
Black Adam pretended not to smile.
Even the Galectors cracked open an optic, beeped approvingly, and went right back to sleep.
Tony recorded everything.
"JARVIS—file this under 'Non-Apocalyptic Events.'"
"Done, sir."
The butterfly folded gently, dissolving into drifting sparkles.
Tony pointed at Loki. "New rule: butterfly fireworks only."
Everyone agreed instantly.
Loki shrugged. "I still think nine realms—"
"LOKI!"
He grinned innocently.
Later... On Earth
In a university solar observatory, two astrophysics students monitored Solar Cycle 25 data. Routine work—mapping sunspot migration on the Sun's surface.
Suddenly the screen lit up.
"Uh... professor? You need to see this."
The professor hurried over. "What now—?"
He froze.
On the display was the Sun's corona, captured in a specific wavelength—Fe XIV 530.3 nm, the "green coronal line." A real emission line used in solar physics.
And there it was:
A perfect butterfly-wing symmetry pattern—emerging months earlier and clearer than predicted.
The professor stared.
"This... this matches the Solar Cycle butterfly diagram, but it's too clean. Too sharp. Solar activity doesn't form wings like this."
A student zoomed in.
"It's not just sunspot migration... the coronal loops are bending into a mirrored shape. Like someone guided it."
"Impossible," the professor whispered.
But the data didn't lie.
The shape matched known solar cycle "butterfly" patterns—but looked far too intentional. Almost like a flare had once imprinted a template on the Sun's magnetic field.
A student laughed nervously. "Looks like a giant cosmic butterfly landed on the Sun."
The professor exhaled slowly, baffled.
"...We'll publish it. But we'll call it an 'anomalous symmetrical coronal butterfly signature.' No one will believe anything else."
Across the cosmos:
Thor suddenly sneezed so hard Mjolnir sparked with lightning.
"...huh."
Loki, floating nearby, also sneezed—then smirked for absolutely no reason he was willing to explain.
"Something amusing, brother?"
"Oh, nothing. Just... enjoying the void."
"You look like you know something."
"I always know something. I'm the God of Mischief. It's literally my job."
"Loki..."
"Thor?"
"Did we just... leave evidence?"
Loki's smile widened. "Evidence of what? A completely harmless light show? That would be ridiculous."
Thor narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
But before he could interrogate further, Tony's voice crackled over their communication link:
"If you two are done sneezing mysteriously, the God wants to talk to us. Says it's time for the 'final revelation' or whatever. Sounds ominous. Everyone to the center of the arena."
Thor and Loki exchanged one last glance—Thor suspicious, Loki insufferably smug—before flying off to rejoin the team.
Behind them, in the space where the butterfly had bloomed, a few sparkles of light still drifted slowly through the void.
Harmless.
Gentle.
And yet somehow, impossibly, still there.
[END OF SIDE MINI-CHAPTER]
The butterfly became part of seventeen different civilizations' religious texts as "The Sign of Coming Change."
The God of Mischief took no responsibility for any cosmic phenomenon.
The God of Thunder took all the credit for the beautiful firework.
Tony Stark had everything on video and was absolutely keeping it for blackmail purposes.
Dr. Sarah Chen's paper would be published six months later and would win three awards while simultaneously making her the subject of intense scientific debate.
Just another Tuesday in the void.
Just another impossible thing on a Tuesday afternoon for humanity.
The universe kept spinning.
The butterfly kept shimmering in solar data.
And somewhere, a cosmic dog wagged his tail, content.
CHAPTER 13: THE GOD'S FINAL REVELATION,
Where the truth about the Void Beyond is revealed, the God's origin is discovered, and the Cosmic Champions learn that everything they've faced so far has been training for a threat that makes 3,000 cosmic entities look like a warmup.
The real journey is about to begin.