Chapter 270 What is the Trump Card to Defeat Cthulhu? The Suspense is Killing Me!
The Omniverse is vast—so vast it is completely incomparable to the Multiverse as the gods know it. The gods cannot even comprehend what kind of concept the Omniverse truly is.
That is a domain on the level of the Omniverse, not something a multiversal god can understand or reach.
But this does not mean that the ancient gods are truly ignorant of the unknown territories beyond the Multiverse.
The Multiverse itself is constantly giving birth to a large number of new things. Many of these new things, in turn, appear because the Multiverse is so immense that it reflects external influences, thereby imprinting new concepts.
The gods paid little attention to this matter, because even without these imprinted things, the Multiverse itself is constantly evolving and will continuously give birth to brand new things.
But there is one point: all new things born within the Multiverse generally do not possess memories of the outside world; they exist from birth as members of the Multiverse.
Galactus is a classic example. This being, named Galan, was originally a life form from the Sixth Multiverse. When the Black Winter destroyed the Sixth Multiverse, it saw Galan risking his life to save the Multiverse and, in a stroke of luck, fusing with it. To set the stage in the Seventh Multiverse ahead of time, the Black Winter chose Galan as its herald. Thus, it did not kill Galan, allowing him to be reborn in the Seventh Multiverse as Galactus.
In the Multiverse, only a very few ancient existences know that Galactus came from the Sixth Multiverse and only successfully became the famous Planet-Eater in the Seventh Multiverse. But no one holds this against him, let alone resorts to petty tricks like exiling a foreign god.
No matter where one comes from, no matter their origin, as long as one becomes a god, they are a god. Nothing else matters. In the Multiverse, strength is everything. With strength, one can decide all outcomes. Without it, there is nothing more to say, and no one will care.
Shuma-Gorath had been observing the Xenomorphs for some time. Now, facing Du Wa directly, it finally voiced its speculation. It suspected that Du Wa, like Galactus, originated from the corpses of the previous six multiverses. It was only by recently unifying himself that he was able to advance at lightspeed in this multiverse, growing all the way to the multiversal level.
"The only thing I did wrong was miscalculate your rate of advancement. I should have acted sooner, attacking you from the very beginning. I would have had the perfect opportunity to discover your origins."
One of Shuma-Gorath's tentacles rested on its own eyeball, its appearance one of extreme vexation. "Through you, perhaps I can find fragments of the corpses of other multiverses and discover my own origin—at that time, I will be able, just like you, to truly figure out my own history and understand my true origins."
In the Marvel World, Cthulhu has no true origin; the Old Ones System simply appeared out of thin air in this multiverse.
As the supreme god of the Cthulhu mythos, Shuma-Gorath had already realized this after wandering the Multiverse for a long time and invading countless universes.
Most multiversal gods have their own complete, systematic origins, tightly fused with the underlying framework of this Multiverse from the very beginning.
To say nothing of the Creator Gods, none of whom are natives of this multiverse. In a sense, they all originated from the previous six multiverses.
The God of Dark Magic, Chthon; the gods of white magic, the Vishanti; the earth goddess, Gaea; the Serpent God Set—these are all second-generation chaos ancient gods of the World Tree (Yggdrasil) system.
Not to mention others like the Lords of Order and Lord Chaos. They are all beings born to maintain the Multiverse itself and can be seen as multiversal gods with "duties," existing as components of the Multiverse. Among them, the God of Chaos is simply an independent avatar of Oblivion.
But what about Shuma-Gorath? The supreme god of a heap of eyeballs and tentacled monsters?
What necessary components of the Multiverse require these things? Chaos? But the domain of chaos already belongs to Lord Chaos. All domains related to chaos are his territory, so what does it have to do with Shuma-Gorath?
Therefore, Shuma-Gorath suspected that it was essentially an "outsider" born here, not naturally compatible with this multiverse. It was clearly out of place, yet it had no understanding of its own origin and couldn't produce any evidence.
Now, seeing the Xenomorphs, seeing Du Wa, Shuma-Gorath felt that Du Wa must be one of its kind—no, that he was a step further, having obtained his origin and undergone a transformation to become whole. He must have relied on the corpse of a previous multiverse and this one to become the God of Xenomorphs and rise so rapidly!
"I have to admit, your guess is correct, at least partially. The fact that you could discover this proves there's still a brain behind those eyes. A rarity. Most of your kind wear their minds on the outside," Du Wa said with a sigh of admiration.
Shuma-Gorath's guess was partially right, but not by much.
Taking Shuma-Gorath itself and the pile of Cthulhu-esque monsters as an example, every single one of them is essentially an outsider—a tiny microcosm of the complete Cthulhu mythos, reflected into this vast world.
This is quite normal. DC also has its own version of Cthulhu.
Even if one day a Gundam or Ultraman were to pop up in Marvel or DC, Du Wa wouldn't be surprised. Constantly absorbing and gestating things from other worlds is the normal state of affairs for both the Marvel and DC worlds.
Didn't DC just absorb the entire Vertigo Universe?
That bunch from the Watchmen Universe, like Doctor Manhattan and Ozymandias, even did the same thing as Du Wa and stowed away to DC.
Even if, someday in the future, they absorb the universe of The Boys, it would be perfectly normal.
"It's good that you admit it. Now, before anyone else finds out, tell me the coordinates of your origin! I'm going to the remains of other multiverses to find my own origin, my true origin! Then I can become whole, and I will become a truly top-tier deity!"
Shuma-Gorath had even greater ambitions. It wanted to become more powerful, to devour everything, to twist all that was normal into the abnormal—an abnormality not influenced by Lord Chaos, but one that belonged solely to it, Shuma-Gorath!
Otherwise, why would it be so bored as to deploy avatars to invade various universes and engage in an endless confrontation with the Vishanti for countless ages?
Being without a beginning or end in this multiverse was unacceptable. But if it could find its true origin within those corpses—only a naturally flawed and deformed place like the corpse of a multiverse could have given birth to a demon god as twisted and highly corrupting as itself—it could become whole.
"Du Wa, you are very lucky! I don't care if you were born in this multiverse and then used some unknown method to go to the fragments of other multiverses to retrieve your origin, or if you are an outsider through and through, having stowed away directly from the remains of another multiverse to this one! None of that matters! Now, tell me the coordinates of the other multiverses!"
Shuma-Gorath finally couldn't hold back its frenzy. It was a mad being to begin with; to have maintained such patience for so long was already an extraordinary display.
"The coordinates of other multiverses... Heh. Let's not even mention that your guess is only correct in some insignificant part. A creature like you thinks it's worthy of taking something from my hands?" Du Wa shook his head.
Give the coordinates of other multiverses to Shuma-Gorath?
The only other multiverse for which Du Wa truly possessed the coordinates was the DC Universe.
In the future, there might be a possibility of handing over the coordinates, but only on the condition that Du Wa has already decided to undertake that monumentally risky affair. At that time, he would truly need a group of pawns to risk their lives scouting the path, and he would use a creature like Shuma-Gorath along the way without any psychological burden.
But that was a matter for the future. Now? Du Wa would have to be insane to be so eager to create a great Marvel-DC collision right now. The timing was far from ripe.
As for not giving the DC Universe coordinates, but instead giving Shuma-Gorath what it truly wanted—the coordinates concerning the origin of Marvel's Cthulhu... Du Wa didn't have that. Even if he did, he couldn't give it. He had no desire to see Shuma-Gorath unify with its prototype, Saieigya, the Eye of Destruction.
If some channel truly existed, if the Great Old Ones really existed and had the ability to cross over here, it would only make this world even more chaotic and complex.
What other chaotic entities existed in this Omniverse, or even Beyond the Omniverse, Du Wa did not yet have the ability to ascertain.
*Swoosh!*
A massive tentacle whipped over viciously, as if it would cleave the Multiverse in two from top to bottom!
This was only the beginning. More tentacles immediately stretched out, piercing through the universe in an instant, shattering the hyperspace current, and stabbing toward Du Wa.
Before this behemoth, Du Wa appeared incomparably tiny. He simply raised his head, watching the tentacles that blotted out the sky, seeming to envelop the entire Multiverse.
"An attack like this alone has made the corrupting nature of the Cancerverse skyrocket, causing adjacent universes to suffer its taint... The Cthulhu mythos is truly troublesome."
Yes, even Du Wa found it troublesome, because he felt that fighting a Cthulhu-esque creature was, in a sense, similar to fighting himself. Their styles were nearly identical...
No wonder Shuma-Gorath had its eyes on the Xenomorphs. After Du Wa started playing new tricks with them—astral projection, divine possession, and so on—they had long since become completely unrecognizable, bizarre, and indecipherable. It reached the point where Shuma-Gorath felt it might have some slight connection with Du Wa, perhaps even having been born from the same multiversal remains!
"You won't even give me a single coordinate?! Once I get the coordinates, become whole, know myself, and grow stronger, I can help you too!!" Shuma-Gorath was incomparably furious.
"Help me? I really don't know how a creature like you, whose very thoughts are chaos and distortion, would help me. Using you when necessary, however, is a definite possibility," Du Wa shook his head.
The battle between the two multiversal gods thus erupted.
This was a super-upgraded version of the war between the Cancerverse and the Alien Universe, reaching the multiversal level directly. The scope of its impact instantly covered the entire Multiverse.
It was also at this moment that the confrontation between Corruption and Parasitism—two extremely special powers—erupted into an endless escalation.
Corruption attempted to corrupt Parasitism, while Parasitism was constantly parasitizing Corruption, like an endless spiral staircase with no end.
Every being who witnessed this great battle knew that this was only the beginning. Before long, this confrontation would only become more intense and cruel. The entire Multiverse would be affected, an unknown number of worlds would suffer terribly, and no one knew how many life forms would be forced to side with either Shuma-Gorath or the Xenomorphs.
Or, caught in the pull between the two, they would suffer a fate worse than death.
Mortals are just that fragile. Before a multiversal god who can easily alter all of reality, their greatest fortune is to wait for the ultimate victor to grant them some insignificant sliver of space to survive.
"The God of Xenomorphs is doomed to lose. Look closely. The battle has just begun, and he's already at a disadvantage, being beaten by Shuma-Gorath with no way to fight back."
"That's normal. That thing, Shuma-Gorath, is an extremely ancient god, incredibly mysterious. It always repeats the boring trick of creating avatars to invade various universes. It's the most boring demon god I've ever seen. To be honest, I'm actually very surprised that it chose to confront the God of Xenomorphs."
"Shuma-Gorath already has a formidable opponent in the Vishanti. This can be understood as the fundamental opposition between its distortion and white magic. But why is it attacking the God of Xenomorphs? And it chose to make its move precisely after Du Wa became a multiversal god, when it clearly could have acted sooner."
"It's obvious. Shuma-Gorath has confirmed something important from the success of the God of Xenomorphs. It's precisely because the God of Xenomorphs succeeded that it made a move. Though, it's also possible that Shuma-Gorath was simply too late to act..."
Gaze after gaze crossed distant domains, watching Shuma-Gorath's enormous tentacles attack again and again, suppressing Du Wa.
This was normal. Du Wa had only just advanced. With no powerful divine artifacts in his possession, on what basis could he contend with an old-timer demon god like Shuma-Gorath?
It was just a matter of how badly he would lose in the end. Could he escape from Shuma-Gorath's grasp?
As for the Alien Universe and the xenomorphs in other universes... Don't be ridiculous. It wouldn't matter even if they were all wiped out. As long as Du Wa could survive, it truly meant nothing. The gods wouldn't care.
"Hm? Uatu, you're here too? The Alien Universe is your observation post. This battle must be quite satisfying for you, right?" a powerful member of the Celestials said to Uatu.
"Analyzer, you know I don't like to draw conclusions before there's a result. And don't bother trying to get Du Wa's methods from me, because even I don't know them. You won't be able to analyze anything either," Uatu replied coldly. He maintained this cool, detached attitude toward everyone.
Inside, however, Uatu was ablaze with excitement.
In a direct fight, Du Wa is definitely no match for Shuma-Gorath. Du Wa himself must know this. So how does he plan to turn the tables from such an absolute disadvantage?
Could it be that a powerful helper will come to his aid? Who on earth could it be?
Uatu quickly saw Du Wa make a new move, but soon, his expression froze, because...
Du Wa's gaze fell upon the Alien Universe itself, which was something Uatu couldn't understand.
(end of chapter)