Deep within the First Firmament's Universe, there existed a colossal and awe-inspiring cosmic void—the loneliest place in the First Firmament's Universe.
Like a stellar graveyard, galaxies were scarce, almost entirely absent.
But this was merely an illusion.
Beneath the surface, dark matter, invisible to the naked eye, filled the entire cosmic void, with dark energy surging within it.
However, at this very moment, in this immense cosmic void, this dark matter and dark energy, invisible to ordinary humans, were disappearing at an incredibly rapid pace, turning this cosmic void into a true void.
In this void, the First Firmament, leading the Dark Celestials, blocked Lucas's path.
"You damn bug, I've got you!"
In the void, a faint blue glow flickered, and the First Firmament's avatar emerged from it.
Lucas looked around, noticing similar faint blue glows flickering all around him, both near and far.
Teams of Dark Celestials also materialized with the flickering ghostly glows. Their positioning was precise, scattered yet orderly. The light on their chests illuminated in unison, and black energy beams shot out, connecting with each other to form a mysterious pattern.
At the center of the pattern was Lucas.
Lucas observed the Dark Celestials' formation with interest and chuckled, saying, "First Firmament, you've definitely never lived as an ordinary person. If you were an ordinary person and a bug got into your room, at most you'd have 'discovered' me. Catching me is still a long way off."
As his words fell, Lucas transitioned from stillness to extreme speed, transforming into a silver stream of light and shooting out.
"Stop him!"
Without the First Firmament's command, the Dark Celestials, already in their battle formation, sprang into action.
Countless black light beams lit up, instantly slicing the cosmic void into innumerable small spatial blocks, and adding a barrier to the edge of each space.
In the Dark Celestials' plan, these barriers at the spatial edges would not hinder them and the First Firmament's movements, but would effectively restrict Lucas's escape.
But a plan is, after all, just a plan.
Lucas's energy signature suddenly changed. The characteristic translucent white faded, replaced by a multicolored black, identical to that of the Dark Celestials.
Whoosh!
As if merely passing through a water surface, without any obstruction, Lucas consumed a small portion of dark matter and dark energy in one space before passing through the barrier to the next space.
First Firmament, chasing behind him, was furious at this sight.
Consuming energy from his Universe right in front of him, its master?
"You damn bug, I will crush your skull, break your ribs, and hollow out your soul!"
A faint blue glow flickered, and the First Firmament teleported again, aiming to get in front of Lucas and block him.
This time, his teleportation point was no longer ostentatious. There was no movement whatsoever.
However, Lucas raised an eyebrow, as if he knew in advance where the First Firmament would land, and abruptly changed direction to bypass him.
"You damn bug, can you only run?!"
Upon hearing this, Lucas slightly altered his route, and as he passed a Dark Celestial, he punched out through the air, and a terrifying black energy beam shot out.
The Dark Celestial had no time to react before the black energy beam crossed space and arrived before him, fiercely striking the energy barrier on his body, which connected countless Dark Celestials.
This energy barrier was formed by the combined strength of all Dark Celestials, and it had the added boost of the First Firmament's home advantage. This Dark Celestial firmly believed that this invader could not shatter his energy barrier with a single punch.
Therefore, facing this attack, he ignored it, instead wanting to raise his hand to target Lucas, to control the space Lucas was in and form a cage.
The Dark Celestial's conjecture was correct. Lucas's casual strike was indeed insufficient to shatter the energy barrier formed by the combined power of all Dark Celestials, but he didn't need to shatter this energy barrier.
The Dark Celestial's body surface energy barrier merely flickered slightly, allowing Lucas's attack to pass right through it.
Rumble!!!
A roar spread, and the Dark Celestial exploded on the spot, becoming a cluster of starlight illuminating this empty, deep, black cosmic void.
Of course, this process would take hundreds of millions, or even billions, of years—provided the First Firmament's Universe still existed then.
"Damn it, why can he pass through the obstacles you set, and why are your energy barriers useless against him!" First Firmament shouted angrily.
He felt exhausted at this moment. His opponent was a slippery bug, and his teammates were a bunch of slackers who had served no purpose whatsoever.
No, perhaps, without his knowledge, the Dark Celestials had even had a negative effect.
First Firmament remembered.
When he dispatched the Dark Celestials to invade Eternity's world, the Dark Celestials deliberately allowed themselves to be captured so that 1610 Mister Fantastic could obtain information fragments from the First Firmament's Universe, and from them, research a method to integrate the Multiverse into a single Universe. This was a deliberate act by the Dark Celestials.
This action indeed had an effect.
1610 Mister Fantastic ultimately, as the Dark Celestials and the First Firmament wished, transformed Eternity into a single Universe, which gave the First Firmament an opportunity. The First Firmament seized the chance to devour Eternity into his body.
But equally, this also led to the leakage of some of the First Firmament's information and most of the Dark Celestials' information.
On the other side, Lucas continued his erratic movements in this immense cosmic void of the First Firmament's Universe. He dashed left at times, right at others, entirely at his whim.
As for the Dark Celestials blocking his path...
If not for their fear of the First Firmament, they would have fled long ago.
They couldn't fight, they simply couldn't!
All their methods had no effect whatsoever on this invading enemy.
The Dark Celestials' information was almost completely deconstructed by Lucas. Their attacks were completely harmless, and even the more, the better. It's just that Lucas currently had a large table of delicacies, so he temporarily couldn't bother with these few scraps.
...
Inside Taa II.
Everyone looked at the projection, their eyes unblinking since Lucas left Eternity's Universe and entered the First Firmament's Universe, seemingly completely oblivious to the dry, itchy discomfort in their eyes.
"How is sorcerer Lucas doing now?" Susan asked.
The main subject of the projection was still the First Firmament and Eternity, she couldn't get any effective information from it.
"I don't know."
"Can't see anything."
"Me neither."
"Me neither."
Susan: "..."
Seeing everyone looking so serious and focused, she had thought they had discovered something.
Suppressing the urge to complain, she turned her gaze to Lifebringer, who remained silent, and repeated, "Lifebringer, do you know Sorcerer Lucas's current situation?"
Lifebringer slowly shook his head. "I don't know either. I cannot detect the situation inside the First Firmament's Universe. The part of this projection showing the First Firmament is my inference based on Eternity's situation."
Susan asked, "Then what do we do? We don't know anything. Are we just supposed to wait here for the outcome?"
Tony withdrew his gaze from the projection. "Calm down, beautiful lady. Even if we knew the current situation, there's nothing we could do."
If he had known that the First Firmament part wasn't live footage but an inference by Lifebringer, he wouldn't have bothered staring at it all this time.
Not just Tony, but most of his variants felt the same.
"Perhaps, we could prepare a will."
"For whom? If the world ends, we won't be the only ones suffering."
"Then, should we all go home now and say goodbye to our families?"
"Uh... let's not. What if the Universe doesn't get destroyed in the end? Wouldn't that be embarrassing?"
"Embarrassing is fine, it's better than dying with regrets."
One Iron Man stood up, then a group of them.
They requested Lifebringer to send them back to their respective Earths to spend their last moments with their families before this Schrödinger's apocalypse arrived.
Lifebringer nodded gravely.
Since Lucas entered the First Firmament's Universe, the First Firmament's speed in tearing Eternity apart had not slowed, which gave Lifebringer an ominous premonition.
"Although sorcerer Lucas is as powerful as a cosmic being, even stronger than most cosmic beings, trying to directly participate in this cosmic war is still too much."
Muttering to himself, Lifebringer was about to call Taa II AI to activate the spaceship and send these Iron Men back to their respective Earths as quickly as possible.
"I have a way."
1610 Mister Fantastic suddenly spoke.
When everyone looked at him, he explained, "A long time ago (before Eternity was devoured by the First Firmament), I sent several probes beyond everything. I just successfully contacted one of them and am currently processing the data it transmitted back."
A moment later, the data processing was complete, converted into video footage and played inside Taa II.
The many Iron Men who had previously wanted to leave sat down again to watch carefully.