The far side of the Moon. The eternal night zone.
Levi sat cross-legged at the bottom of a crater, surrounded by gray-white dust untouched for billions of years.
Earth hung overhead, its blue glow piercing the darkness.
His eyes were closed.
Inside his body, the fragment of the Anti-Life Equation was going berserk.
That thing wasn't matter—it was a concept. The ultimate law capable of erasing all free will and turning living beings into puppets.
It screamed within Levi's mind, trying to wipe away his consciousness.
Levi didn't resist.
Instead, he used thirteen laws to forge a furnace around it.
The Law of Alchemy dismantled its structure. The Law of Devouring digested its energy. The concept of Greed tore into it like a starving beast, ripping and consuming.
It hurt.
Cold sweat streamed down his forehead. Black veins bulged beneath his skin—the Anti-Life Equation's corruption spreading through him.
But every time the darkness reached a certain point, golden alchemical energy forced it back.
A tug-of-war.
Time passed slowly.
The black markings spread more and more sluggishly.
Meanwhile, the concept of Greed inside Levi began to evolve. It had once been able to devour only energy and matter.
Now it was touching something deeper.
Will. Concepts. Existence itself.
The lunar dust suddenly trembled.
Levi opened his eyes, golden light flickering deep within his pupils.
Space tore open.
Green energy poured out alongside mechanical roaring.
Hundreds of Parademons flooded from the portal, shrieking as they circled above the lunar surface with energy weapons in hand.
Then—
A massive figure emerged.
Three meters tall. Gray skin. Red eyes. Worn battle armor. A gigantic electro-axe resting on his shoulder, its blade stained with blood.
Steppenwolf.
Darkseid's uncle. Conqueror of Apokolips.
Standing at the edge of the crater, he looked down at Levi and grinned.
"So you're the insect who stole my nephew's property?"
His voice was deep and hoarse, transmitted through some kind of energy vibration despite the vacuum.
He raised his electro-axe, arcs of green lightning dancing across its blade.
"Darkseid ordered me to bring you back. Alive or dead—he doesn't care."
Levi slowly rose to his feet, brushing moon dust from his clothes.
The black markings had vanished completely.
"You're late," he said calmly. "It already belongs to me."
Steppenwolf laughed—the kind of laugh reserved for watching weaker beings struggle.
He leapt down from the crater's edge, slamming into the ground ten meters in front of Levi. Lunar dust exploded outward.
"Yours?"
Resting the axe on his shoulder, he strode forward step by step.
"Little insect, do you even understand what you're saying? That is a fragment of the Anti-Life Equation—the treasure Lord Darkseid has pursued for a thousand years. You think a mortal body like yours can withstand it?"
He stopped three meters away, his red eyes scanning Levi.
"Though perhaps this works out well. Since you swallowed it, I'll simply bring all of you back. Lord Darkseid can personally carve the fragment out of your corpse."
The electro-axe came crashing down.
Its energy carved a green trail through the void. The strike could split warships apart—could cleave asteroids in two.
Levi raised his right hand.
Five fingers spread open.
Clang—
The sound of metal collision echoed through space.
He caught the axe barehanded.
No energy shield. No law barrier.
Just flesh and blood—five fingers gripping the blade itself.
Steppenwolf's grin froze.
He pushed downward with all his strength. Muscles bulged. Every energy circuit in his armor flared to life.
The axe did not move an inch.
"How… impossible…"
"The power of your New Gods comes from Mother Box technology," Levi said evenly.
"Energy circuits. Matter reconstruction. Spatial transition. At their core, they're all applications of the universe's fundamental laws."
His fingers tightened slightly.
The energy circuits on the axe began to flicker.
"But you merely use those laws."
Levi looked into Steppenwolf's eyes.
"I already understand their essence."
Crack.
The axe shattered.
Not snapped apart.
Disassembled on the molecular level.
The Apokoliptian alloy was reduced to elemental particles under the Law of Alchemy, reforming into drifting metallic dust.
Steppenwolf stared at the broken haft still in his hand.
"Impossible! That's the strongest alloy on Apokolips! Even a Kryptonian's heat vision—"
"Quiet."
Levi released the remains of the weapon. Metallic dust drifted away in low gravity.
Then he looked upward toward the Parademon army circling overhead.
"How many did you bring? Three hundred? Five hundred?"
Steppenwolf took a step back and raised his arm.
Every Parademon instantly turned toward Levi, energy weapons fully charged.
"Kill him!"
Hundreds of beams fired simultaneously, weaving a deadly net across the Moon's surface.
Levi closed his right hand into a fist.
An invisible wave erupted from him, spreading across the battlefield.
It was the core frequency of Mother Box technology—the foundational protocol of all Apokoliptian creations.
The Parademons froze.
Hovering motionless in the air, weapons still charging, bodies completely locked in place.
Steppenwolf's expression changed dramatically.
"What did you do to them?!"
"Nothing much," Levi replied casually. "I just rewrote the control permissions."
He snapped his fingers.
"Now they listen to me."
Every Parademon turned.
Their weapons aimed directly at Steppenwolf.
"No—!"
Steppenwolf roared as immense energy exploded from his body. He was a New God, a general of Apokolips. His own army betraying him was impossible.
Then—
The roar abruptly stopped.
A far greater force descended upon him.
Not physical suppression.
Conceptual domination.
Steppenwolf felt his will being torn apart, corrupted, devoured.
He lowered his gaze and met Levi's eyes.
Something burned within them.
Not flames.
Something purer.
An endless desire to possess everything. Bottomless greed. An abyss capable of consuming all things.
"Kneel."
Levi's voice was soft.
But each word struck Steppenwolf's soul like a hammer.
This was not an order.
It was a rule.
The absolute authority granted by the Anti-Life Equation.
Steppenwolf's knees began to bend.
He resisted desperately, drawing upon every ounce of strength he possessed.
It was useless.
His will crumbled. His sense of self dissolved.
Until only one thought remained.
Obey.
Boom.
Steppenwolf knelt upon the lunar surface, forehead pressed into the dust.
Levi walked over and placed a hand atop his head.
"Let me see where Apokolips is."
---
Steppenwolf's consciousness tore apart like fragile cloth.
Apokolips' coordinates. Defensive structures. Military deployments. Locations of energy cores.
All of it poured into Levi's mind.
He saw the steel world floating in the void. Endless Parademon factories operating day and night. Darkseid seated upon his throne, gazing down upon all existence.
More importantly—
He saw the manufacturing process of the Mother Boxes.
The technological core of Apokolips. The source of the New Gods' power.
Countless runes unfolded within Levi's consciousness. Spatial folding. Energy conversion. Matter reconstruction. Biological modification.
Every secret laid bare before him.
Levi withdrew his hand.
Steppenwolf collapsed onto the ground, bleeding from his nose and mouth, eyes unfocused.
His consciousness remained intact.
But his spirit had been completely shattered.
"Interesting."
Levi looked down at his palm as golden runes flowed beneath his skin.
"Darkseid's Mother Box technology truly is exquisite."
He glanced toward the still-open Boom Tube.
On the other side lay Apokolips' teleportation nexus, where thousands of life signals awaited news of Steppenwolf's victory.
Levi smiled.
He planted a foot on Steppenwolf's back, grinding him into the moon dust.
Then he raised his right hand toward the Boom Tube and slowly clenched his fingers.
Space twisted.
The Boom Tube, originally under Steppenwolf's control, began reversing direction under Levi's manipulation.
On the Apokolips side, the teleportation hub shook violently as alarms blared.
Levi grabbed Steppenwolf and tossed him into the portal like garbage.
"Tell Darkseid something for me."
His voice spread through the Mother Box frequencies across the entire hub.
"I'll personally visit Apokolips."
"Tell him to wait for me on his throne."
With a flick of his finger—
A massive surge of energy flooded the Boom Tube.
The teleportation nexus instantly overloaded. Explosions erupted on the other side as thousands of soldiers were reduced to ash.
The Boom Tube collapsed.
But just before it fully disintegrated—
Levi saw a pair of eyes.
Crimson red.
Filled with destruction and conquest.
Darkseid.
Seated upon his throne, he stared through the collapsing dimensional fracture directly at Levi.
No anger.
No shock.
Only the cold gaze of a predator examining prey.
Then the portal vanished completely.
---
Silence returned to the lunar surface.
Levi stood at the center of the crater, surrounded by hundreds of Parademons lying powerless on the ground.
He lowered his head and looked at his hands.
The runes on his palms had vanished.
But the power still flowed within him.
The fragment of the Anti-Life Equation had been completely digested.
It was no longer an independent concept—it had become part of him.
Now Levi could do more than devour energy and matter.
On a conceptual level, he could seize control, willpower, even existence itself from his enemies.
He looked toward Earth.
"Darkseid…"
He murmured the name softly.
"Looks like I'll have to meet you sooner than expected."
But he didn't leave immediately.
Closing his eyes, he examined the new power within him.
The Anti-Life Equation fragment had fused entirely with the concept of Greed. Yet the fusion brought more than increased power.
There was resonance.
A familiar resonance.
Levi frowned as his consciousness sank inward.
The thirteen laws revolved at his core, each emitting a distinct fluctuation.
But when he focused on the Anti-Life fragment, he sensed something strange.
This power resonated with something from the Marvel Universe.
Not the Space Stone.
Not the Power Stone.
The Mind Stone.
The essence of the Anti-Life Equation was the erasure of free will.
The Mind Stone's core ability was control over consciousness.
At the conceptual level, the two were connected—two sides of the same coin.
One represented absolute domination.
The other, subtle guidance.
"Interesting."
Levi's eyes narrowed.
"If the two could be fused…"
He stopped there.
Now wasn't the time.
Darkseid had set his sights on him. The armies of Apokolips could descend at any moment.
And more importantly—
The Council of Kangs remained unresolved.
The Anti-Monitor still lurked within the void beyond reality.
Levi raised his right hand. Intricate Mother Box runes appeared in his palm, weaving together into a fist-sized golden cube.
A beacon.
Constructed using Mother Box technology.
As long as Darkseid stepped into the main universe, the beacon would lock onto his position and transmit the coordinates to Levi.
At that point, Darkseid wouldn't be hunting him.
Levi would be hunting Darkseid.
He stored the beacon within his body and tore open a spatial rift.
On the other side lay the Avengers' headquarters in the main universe.
But just as he was about to step through—
The lunar surface trembled.
Not physically.
Spacetime itself was vibrating.
Levi stopped and looked upward.
A tiny crack was slowly spreading through the void.
It wasn't a Boom Tube.
Nor spatial teleportation.
It was a higher-dimensional force tearing reality apart.
Purple light flickered along the fracture's edge. Countless distorted figures could be vaguely seen within.
Levi narrowed his eyes.
He recognized the nature of that power immediately.
Temporal paradoxes.
The Council of Kangs.
They had finally found him.
Levi wasn't alarmed.
He simply stood there quietly, watching the crack widen little by little.
Beyond it, he could sense dozens of Kang variants.
Each wielded the power of different timelines.
Each waiting for the perfect moment.
Because Levi had become the greatest variable in the multiverse.
His very existence threatened the Sacred Timeline.
Levi smiled.
Then he raised his hand and flipped the crack off.
After that, he turned and stepped through the spatial rift, vanishing from the Moon's far side.
The crack stopped expanding. The purple glow slowly faded.
But just before the fracture fully sealed—
A voice echoed from within.
"Interesting."
Young.
Playful.
Curious.
"We'll meet again."
The crack closed completely.
Silence reclaimed the Moon.
Only the fallen Parademons remained as proof of what had occurred.
---
Meanwhile, on distant Apokolips—
Darkseid slowly rose from his throne.
The floor of the throne room trembled.
Across the planet, countless Parademon factories activated simultaneously.
All of Apokolips entered a state of war.
"An interesting insect," Darkseid murmured.
Crimson Omega energy ignited within his eyes.
"To think it dares deliver itself to me willingly."
He raised one hand and clenched it toward the void.
"Then I'll show you…"
"…what a true god really is."
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