With the world completely devoured, Galactus was now more powerful than before.
Antiphon had given them the location of the Proemial Gods.
Galactus raised one hand. A vast portal formed before them, its edges burning with purple and blue energy. Beyond it, Max could see only darkness and the faint outline of another world.
"It is time," Galactus said.
"Wait."
Galactus looked down at Max.
Max raised both hands and focused through the ring. Emerald light spread around them, gathering into a growing army of constructs. Most resembled Galactus himself, towering figures in heavy armor with horned helmets and glowing eyes. They were smaller than the true Devourer, but each still stood tall enough to look down upon mountains.
Galactus studied them for a moment, then his eyes and hands began to glow.
The Power Cosmic flowed from him into the constructs. Emerald light mixed with purple, filling their bodies and reinforcing them.
Max flew upward and landed on Galactus's shoulder. The Devourer entered the portal, and their army of constructs followed close behind.
There was complete darkness for a moment. Then they emerged above a barren world.
The planet was little more than dark stone and dust. A colossal arch crossed its surface from one horizon to the other, rising so high that its upper curve reached beyond the atmosphere.
Beneath the arch waited an army.
Thousands of metallic humanoids covered the plain. Their bodies were smooth and featureless. They stood in perfect ranks around a raised altar at the center of the arch.
Three of the Proemial Gods waited there as well.
Aegis stood in her golden armor, the Power Stone still embedded in her palm. Beside her was Tenebrous, the black-and-white-armored god who carried the yellow Mind Stone within his chest.
Between them stood Diableri. He was roughly the same size Vnn had been at the height of his power, muscular and broad, with dark blue skin and a mass of sharp hair of the same color. His red eyes turned toward Galactus as he held the Ultimate Nullifier in one hand.
"Galactus," Diableri said. "You are too late."
Max leaned forward from the Devourer's shoulder.
"Look, my guy, let's skip the villain monologue. I already know how this ends, so let's wrap it up quickly."
Diableri's gaze shifted toward him.
"And who are you supposed to be?"
"One who can see the future." Max rose into the air as green energy gathered around him. "And I know you won't live to see tomorrow."
He gave the command.
The Galactus constructs attacked.
They descended upon the metallic army. The first ranks were crushed beneath their feet, while others were swept aside by enormous hands. Energy beams crossed the battlefield as the constructs tore into the army, breaking the soldiers apart.
Galactus went directly for Diableri.
The two collided above the altar with enough force to fracture the arch behind them. The light of the Power Cosmic spread across the world as Galactus drove Diableri backward, but the blue-skinned god raised the Ultimate Nullifier and forced the Devourer to stop.
Max went after Aegis and Tenebrous.
Aegis raised her hand. "You have already lost," she said. "Even with the Devourer beside you, you cannot defeat us."
The Power Stone flared. Max sent one of the Galactus constructs toward Tenebrous before the black-armored god could use the Mind Stone. The construct struck him from the side and carried him across the battlefield, smashing through hundreds of metallic soldiers along the way.
Max turned back to Aegis.
"Honestly, Galactus being here is overkill. I would have been enough."
He opened both hands.
A cloud of tiny green constructs formed around Aegis. They moved like a living swarm, slipping through the gaps in her armor. Some entered through her pores, while others wrapped around her joints and nerves, locking her body in place.
Aegis screamed as violet light erupted around her, destroying the swarm in a single burst. She tore free and charged Max before he could create another construct, driving her shoulder into his chest and carrying him through the air. He caught her arm and twisted aside, sending her past him. A giant green fist formed overhead and slammed her toward the ground, but she released a blast from the Power Stone that shattered it before it could land another blow.
Tenebrous returned.
The Galactus construct pursuing him had been torn apart. The yellow gem in his chest glowed as he focused on Max.
Max was not prepared for another assault from the Mind Stone.
His thoughts broke apart. He saw images that horrified him, heard Firehair calling his name as she died, and watched Aurora being ripped from his hands. His concentration faltered, and Aegis's next blast caught him in the side and hurled him across the world.
Aegis pressed him with direct attacks while Tenebrous remained behind her, using the Mind Stone to weaken his focus. Max blocked a strike with a shield, formed a blade in his other hand, and slashed across Aegis's armor. She answered with a violet explosion that threw him backward.
Tenebrous attacked his mind again.
Max felt his constructs across the battlefield weaken. Several Galactus copies collapsed, but he forced many of them back into shape and kept fighting.
Above them, Galactus battled Diableri. The Devourer struck with overwhelming force, but Diableri held the Ultimate Nullifier before him like a shield. Every time Galactus moved closer, the blue-skinned god threatened to activate it.
"Surrender," Diableri said. "Is this not what you want, Devourer? I can end your curse. In my universe, you can live free of it."
Galactus answered by firing a beam from both hands. Diableri twisted away, and the blast carved through the arch behind him.
Aegis caught Max with a blow to the jaw while Tenebrous drove another wave of fear and confusion into his mind.
The two gods attacked together.
Aegis struck him with the Power Stone as Tenebrous slashed him with his blade. The combined impact drove Max into the ground.
He fell through layers of rock, smashing deeper until the planet closed over him.
=======
Max tried to move, but he could not. His body was buried beneath millions of tons of stone, and his thoughts were still reeling from the Mind Stone's assault. He could feel Aegis and Tenebrous above him, their power gathering as they prepared to finish what they had started.
He might truly die.
Max would die, yes, but Ion would survive.
The Entity of Will could not be killed. It would continue beyond this body, vast and eternal. But Max would be gone. His mind, his memories, and his humanity would dissolve into that endless consciousness like a drop falling into an ocean.
Max closed his eyes. He did not want to die, but if he wanted to live, he would have to face his greatest fear once more.
Max found himself standing once again in the black void that was the Source. Ion waited before him, its immense emerald body motionless against the darkness.
Ion looked at him as if asking him to join it, to embrace his true power.
He had spent years since waking in the past resisting that call. Every time he touched the entity, he felt his humanity shrink beneath an awareness too vast to contain.
There is nothing to fear, Veridion had told him.
Ion was not trying to erase him.
Ion was him.
"I won't disappear," Max said.
The void trembled.
"I won't lose myself."
Ion reached toward him.
Max closed his eyes and made his decision.
He stopped resisting.
Green light rushed into him.
Every boundary between them vanished. Max felt the will of countless living beings across the universe. It all passed through him.
He was Ion.
Ion was Max.
Neither had to destroy the other.
Above the crater, Aegis and Tenebrous approached the mound of stone covering him.
"End this quickly," Tenebrous said. The Mind Stone glowed inside his open chest. "The Devourer remains."
Aegis raised her hand. Violet light spread from the Power Stone.
BOOM!!!
The stones exploded outward.
Aegis threw up an arm as debris shot past her. Before Tenebrous could react, an emerald hand emerged from the dust and drove straight through his chest, splitting his black-and-white armor apart.
Max stepped out of the crater, his entire body bathed in burning emerald light.
His arm remained buried in Tenebrous's body.
When Max pulled it free, the Mind Stone rested in his hand.
Aegis stared at him.
Tenebrous tried to speak, but Max opened his other palm and released a point-blank blast. Green light tore through the god and hurled his lifeless body across the plain. He struck the ground several miles away and did not move again.
Aegis fled.
There was only dread in her retreat. She flew toward the upper atmosphere as fast as she could, using the Power Stone to increase her speed and refusing to look back at the emerald presence behind her.
She did not get far.
Max appeared in front of her in an instant.
Aegis stopped so abruptly that the air ruptured around her. She swung at him with the hand containing the Stone, but Max caught her wrist before the blow landed.
His fingers tightened.
Aegis screamed as he tore her hand away.
The severed limb dissolved under the force of the energy pouring through it, leaving the Power Stone suspended between them. Max caught the violet gem, then struck Aegis with a blast that drove her back toward the planet.
She crashed beside Tenebrous, her golden armor breaking apart on impact.
Max turned toward Diableri.
The Proemial God hovered above the battlefield, the Ultimate Nullifier still clutched in his hand. For the first time, his confidence had broken. He stared at Max, trying to understand what had just killed his allies.
That hesitation gave Galactus the opening he needed.
The Devourer struck Diableri and sent him hurtling across the battlefield. Max moved at the same moment, crossing the distance before the blue-skinned god could recover. He seized the hand holding the Ultimate Nullifier and ripped the weapon from his grip.
"No," Diableri said.
Galactus raised both hands.
The Power Cosmic gathered between them, bright enough to drown the barren world in white fire. Max moved beside him, emerald energy expanding from his body until it filled the sky. The two forces converged around Diableri.
Galactus fired, and Max released his power alongside him.
Diableri screamed as the combined attack struck. His body came apart beneath the force, erased layer by layer until nothing remained.
The energy did not stop with him. It spread across the planet, fracturing it from pole to pole.
The last thing Diableri saw was Galactus and the Entity of Will standing together.
Then the planet, its star, and the entire system were destroyed.
.
.
.
When Max woke inside Taa II, a full week had passed.
He had spent most of that week drifting in and out of consciousness.
He had brought Ion fully into physical reality.
For a brief time, there had been no separation between the man and the Entity of Will. Max had become the point through which that vast cosmic presence entered the material universe, allowing him to overwhelm Tenebrous, Aegis, and Diableri alongside Galactus.
It had worked.
It had also almost killed him.
His body was immortal, strengthened by repeated exposure to primordial energies. It was significantly more durable than it had been before. Even so, it had barely endured the full presence of Ion.
According to Galactus, Max had come close to breaking apart on every level. His body had begun losing its physical structure while his mind dissolved into the greater consciousness behind it.
Only his will had brought him back.
As Max moved in and out of awareness, he remembered struggling inside an endless emerald ocean. There had been no clear boundary between his memories and the will of every living being in creation. He had fought to remember it all.
Despite the danger he had survived, Max felt hopeful.
Had he attempted this when he first woke, the entity would have consumed him completely. Max would simply have vanished into the greater being. But now, after spending years connecting with Ion, things were easier.
Veridion had been right. He only needed to understand his other side.
The experience also helped him think about how to prevent this from happening again. If he strengthened his body enough, it might one day be able to channel Ion safely, even without the ring.
He could draw upon the full force of will while remaining human in thought and identity.
When he was finally able to move around, Max left the recovery chamber and flew through the corridors of Taa II.
The ship was a world unto itself. Entire artificial landscapes existed within its structure. It took him a while to find Galactus.
The Devourer turned his head as Max approached.
"You have recovered," Galactus observed.
"Mostly," Max said.
"You came close to losing your physical form."
"Yes. Yes, I did."
Galactus looked toward the ring on Max's hand. "The device requires repair. It acts as a conduit, allowing your current body to direct energies far beyond its natural capacity. Had it been fully functional, your condition might not have deteriorated so severely."
Max glanced down at the ring.
"I doubt it would have made much difference. What I did back there was new. I didn't merely draw power from Ion. I brought the entity into physical reality and became one with it."
Galactus studied him in silence. "Had you awakened during the final age of my universe, perhaps your power could have aided us."
Max smiled. In the Fifth Cosmos, a powerful sorcerer had attempted to tame the Emotional Spectrum. His efforts had created something else, an absence where emotion, meaning, and life should have been. That absence became an entity in its own right, and when the time came, it destroyed the Sixth Multiverse as well.
"I don't think anyone could have stopped it then," Max said.
Galactus's expression did not change.
"The Black Winter," Galactus said. "That is what we called it."
Max wondered whether the being was similar to Nekron, a physical manifestation of the absence of emotion that was also tied to death.
A tense silence settled between them. After a time, Max floated closer, stopping near Galactus's head.
"I need your help, Galactus. I need to grow stronger. I need this body to become more powerful."
"What do you require?"
"Strengthen my body further with the Power Cosmic."
Galactus regarded him for several seconds.
Max continued. "My body can channel Ion, but not for long. If you reinforce it with your power..."
"The reasoning is sound," Galactus interrupted. "Your physical form has already been altered by primordial energy. The Power Cosmic would further strengthen its structure and increase the amount of green light you could safely channel. It would not remove the danger, but it would expand your limits."
"That's all I need. Now, what can I give you in return?"
"You owe me nothing," Galactus said. "You aided me against the Proemial Gods and recovered the Ultimate Nullifier."
"I know, but I have a few million years to kill, and I need something to do."
Galactus's eyes narrowed slightly.
"If you give me the Power Cosmic, I'll serve as your Herald for a while," Max said. "I'll find suitable worlds and prepare civilizations for your arrival. It should make your life easier."
"You would serve me?"
"For a while."
"You stand above me in the cosmic order."
Max shrugged. "Like I said, I need something to do. It would also give me an opportunity to map the universe."
"For what purpose?"
"I have plans..."
Galactus considered him. His gaze moved from Max to the stars beyond the chamber.
"Very well."
He raised one hand.
"I will grant you the greatest portion of the Power Cosmic that your present form can contain."
Blue-white energy gathered in Galactus's palm, and the chamber shook.
Max braced himself.
Galactus released the power.
The beam struck Max and swallowed him completely.
Power flooded into every cell of his body. It moved through bone, blood, and thought. Max felt his senses expand beyond himself, reaching toward nearby planets and stars.
His eyes blazed green as his body shone with an ever-brighter emerald light.
Max threw back his head and laughed.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
Galactus stopped.
It was done.
Before him stood the Green Lantern.
The first Herald of Galactus.
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Max and Galactus
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You can read up to chapter 92 here.
p.a.t.r.eon.com/Illusiveone (check the chapter summary i have it there as well)