The Marvel world was unimaginably vast.
It contained a number of living beings beyond anything ordinary people could comprehend.
Wherever intelligent life existed, concepts of good and evil would inevitably arise.
At their core, all living beings were selfish.
That was determined by the fundamental nature of biological survival.
Most intelligent beings, however, were capable of restraining their impulses.
Even so—
As long as selfishness existed, intelligent beings would inevitably produce darker thoughts to some degree.
Those thoughts might never be acted upon.
They might remain hidden deep within someone's heart.
But the accumulated thoughts of every intelligent being still exerted an enormous influence on the world.
Those darker thoughts gathered together.
Eventually, they sank into the deepest layer of existence.
That place was known as Hell.
It was the gathering place for all the darkest consciousness produced throughout the world.
It was the most corrupt and sinister place in existence.
Within it were countless dark powers and malevolent wills.
Or, more accurately—
The collective will that had formed within this world was extraordinarily powerful.
It wasn't truly a living creature, yet it was more powerful than almost any living being.
That vast will influenced the operation of the entire world.
If it hadn't lacked the consciousness—or rather, the individual self—possessed by living beings, then even the Living Tribunal might have been corrupted by it.
When the Multiverse was peaceful, even this deepest and truest Hell caused no major problems.
But now—
The First Firmament had thrown everything into chaos.
The entire Multiverse had been plunged into turmoil, accompanied by unimaginable slaughter.
Countless powerful beings had been massacred.
The enormous amount of hatred and evil produced by those deaths caused the terrifying power within Hell to grow even stronger.
To prevent that horrifying will from escaping Hell and influencing the rest of existence, the Five Great Gods were forced to expend tremendous power sealing away the deepest evil within the world.
Naturally, this weakened them.
However—
Not every member of the Five Great Gods was willing to sacrifice their own strength for the sake of the entire Multiverse.
Oblivion, one of the strongest among them, certainly wasn't.
As an abstract entity embodying Oblivion, he represented concepts associated with annihilation and nonexistence throughout the world.
Annihilation.
Destruction.
Erasure.
Anything related to those concepts could provide him with power.
Because he was simply too powerful, Oblivion cared very little about what happened to the Multiverse.
Under circumstances like these, he naturally had no intention of risking his own strength.
In fact—
He refused to contribute even the slightest amount.
There was a simple reason for that.
The more chaotic the world became, the stronger Oblivion grew.
Oblivion had ambitions of his own.
He wanted to push himself toward an even higher level.
"The First Firmament really is an idiot."
"Trying to wage war against the entire Multiverse by himself."
"Does he really think everyone is as foolish as Eternity?"
Oblivion's eyes were filled with disdain.
Even if the First Firmament was a being from the earliest cosmos, an existence from an unimaginably older generation—
Oblivion still looked down on him.
The Multiverse was no longer what it had once been.
The world had changed long ago.
And Oblivion himself was already one of the most powerful existences within it.
He simply wanted to become even stronger.
"I refuse to believe I can't break through this restriction."
Oblivion glared upward.
Abstract entities were born overwhelmingly powerful.
They naturally possessed some of the greatest powers in existence.
But at the same time, they were bound by the world itself.
They could not easily surpass the limits imposed upon them.
Sometimes, Oblivion genuinely envied mortals.
They might be born powerless—
But they could continue growing without end.
Karl was the perfect example.
At the beginning, he had been nothing more than a pitiful mortal.
An existence no more significant than an insect.
Yet now, he had risen to the level of a god.
He had even defeated Chthon.
Why?
How could something that had once been so insignificant rise to stand alongside beings like them?
The thought drove Oblivion mad with jealousy.
He had to break free of his restraints.
Even if it required paying a certain price, he didn't care.
And in Oblivion's eyes—
This was the perfect opportunity.
The will of the entire world had become extraordinarily weak.
If he wanted to break free of his shackles, there would never be a better moment.
After waiting tens of billions of years—
This was his opportunity.
"Not enough."
"Still nowhere near enough."
"The world needs to become even more chaotic."
"Only then will the will of the Multiverse weaken further."
"As long as the great One-Above-All doesn't intervene, I'll be able to break free from this world."
Oblivion thought silently.
He decided to activate a contingency he had prepared countless ages ago.
"After all this time, it's finally time to use it."
"This avatar was created precisely for a moment like this."
"Destroy half of the Parallel Universes in exchange for one opportunity."
Oblivion's thoughts remained perfectly calm.
In truth—
Countless ages ago, Oblivion had already entertained this idea.
He had considered sacrificing half of the Parallel Universes in exchange for an opportunity to advance.
For that purpose, he had spent an enormous amount of time creating an avatar at the level of the Five Great Gods.
He had separated a portion of his own fundamental concept and used it to create an avatar with a degree of independent will.
It was the antithesis of Eternity.
An independent embodiment of a concept.
An existence representing absolute destructive will.
They called it—
Abraxas!
When Abraxas first appeared, the turmoil he caused throughout the Multiverse had been even more terrifying than the current crisis.
Eighty percent of the Parallel Universes had been consumed by Abraxas.
The entire Multiverse had nearly been destroyed.
In the end, even the Living Tribunal had been forced to intervene and subdue him.
Afterward, the Five Great Gods had joined forces to seal Abraxas away.
And now—
Oblivion believed this was the perfect moment to release him.
That madman would undoubtedly unleash another catastrophic wave of bloodshed throughout existence.
Once that happened, the will of the world would weaken even further.
And Oblivion would be able to break free of his own restraints.
That was precisely why he had merely watched the upheaval within Hell from a distance.
He had no intention of helping.
"Do your best."
"Let's see whether you can stop what's coming."
Oblivion sneered toward the stars.
His figure disappeared.
The next moment—
He appeared somewhere deep within the Multiverse.
There was nothing around him but endless darkness.
Countless Laws intertwined throughout this region.
An ordinary Multiverse-level being appearing here would be instantly annihilated by those Laws.
Oblivion simply ignored their terrifying power.
His figure vanished once more.
When he reappeared—
He was already deep inside this realm of Laws.
At the core of that terrifying region was an area of absolute emptiness.
There was no energy.
No Law.
No matter.
Nothing existed there.
And at the very center of that void—
A gigantic seal appeared.
It was the prison that sealed Abraxas.
Oblivion stared coldly at it.
With a single thought—
The seal jointly maintained by the Five Great Gods suddenly lost its balance.
The portion of the seal sustained by Oblivion's power had originally been the strongest.
Now—
That power began to weaken.
Seeing this, a cold smile appeared on Oblivion's face.
Then his entire figure disappeared.
He left behind no trace whatsoever.
(End of Chapter)
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