Green points of light flashed wildly across the dimensional monitoring system.
Levi didn't hesitate. His figure flickered, vanishing from the command center in an instant.
Clark instinctively tried to follow, only to be forced back three steps by the aftershock of the spatial tear.
By the time he regained his footing, a streak of gold and crimson light had already appeared beyond the viewport, racing toward the strange green energy package at faster-than-light speed.
"Has he lost his mind?"
Tony stared at the screen, his fingers flying across the holographic keyboard.
"The energy readings from that thing are completely unstable. It could be a trap!"
Reed Richards pulled up an energy analysis chart, his pupils abruptly contracting.
"No. Worse than a trap."
"The structure of that energy... I've seen similar fluctuations before in Council archives."
"It's the signature of a dimensional bomb. If triggered, it'll tear open the spatial barrier across a thousand-kilometer radius."
Wanda held Adam tightly in her arms as Chaos Magic danced uncontrollably at her fingertips.
She could feel the malice contained within that green light.
It was the contempt and mockery of a higher-dimensional existence—as though it were saying:
Your struggles are nothing more than the final thrashing of insects drowning in mud.
The golden Eye of Agamotto on Strange's forehead operated at full power. The strength of the Vishanti condensed into intricate runes within his pupils.
He saw branching timelines.
He saw countless catastrophic futures that the energy package could unleash.
But what unsettled him most was that in every timeline...
Levi chose to face it alone.
"He knows what it is."
Strange spoke quietly, a rare note of tension in his voice.
Thor tightened his grip on Stormbreaker as lightning erupted along the axe blade.
"Then let me help him!"
"Don't move."
Nathaniel suddenly spoke, urgency filling his voice.
"The dimensional corridor is being forcibly locked. Only Levi can pass through."
"This is... this is a targeted dimensional lockdown. They predicted our response from the beginning!"
The command center fell into suffocating silence.
All they could do was watch through the screen as Levi intercepted the green mass within the void between dimensions.
And within that chaotic dimensional current, an unprecedented pressure erupted from his body.
The Phoenix Force and the Dominion Authority activated simultaneously. Gold-crimson and silver-white light intertwined into a colossal web, forcibly stabilizing the surrounding space for dozens of kilometers.
Levi raised his right hand.
His fingers spread.
Then he clenched toward the incoming green package.
Space froze.
Time seemed to stop.
The violent energy mass was instantly suppressed the moment it entered Levi's domain of laws.
Layer after layer of green light was stripped away like unraveling silk, revealing the creature imprisoned within magical restraints.
A Cartographer.
But unlike any he had seen before, this Cartographer's core had been corrupted by strange green runes.
The runes writhed like living organisms, radiating a nauseating sense of distortion.
Even worse, floating at the center of the wreckage was a thumb-sized holographic crystal.
Inside the crystal stood a figure clad in a green cloak and metal mask, gazing down at Levi with unmistakable superiority.
Levi stared at the figure, his eyes cold as ice.
"Rabum Alal."
He spoke the name softly, each syllable carrying restrained killing intent.
The green figure inside the crystal gave a slight nod.
A deep, magnetic voice emerged from beneath the mask.
The sound had been distorted by some unknown means, as if rising from the bottom of an abyss. Every word seemed to strike directly against the soul.
Doom looked at Levi tinkering with some device, apparently intending to challenge the Beyonders with it.
His mockery was completely undisguised.
He openly dismissed the idea as a form of fundamental naivety.
Then he offered an analogy.
A perfect one.
Trying to fight the Beyonders with that invention was like a primitive tribesman attempting to withstand a nuclear explosion with a wooden club.
The absurdity of such a notion surpassed all logic.
Levi didn't respond.
Instead, he raised his left hand.
A cluster of gold-crimson flames appeared in his palm.
The Phoenix Force.
Compressed to its absolute limit, like a miniature star burning in his hand.
He gently pressed the flame against the Cartographer's wreckage.
The strange green runes immediately emitted shrill screams, writhing desperately as they attempted to escape.
"Your magic is exquisite."
Levi spoke calmly as the temperature of the flame surged.
"But before absolute power, technique is merely decoration."
The green runes began disintegrating into wisps of black smoke.
Doom's holographic projection flickered slightly, apparently surprised.
But he quickly regained his lofty demeanor.
"Interesting."
"It seems you are indeed more valuable than fifty thousand Reed Richardses."
He paused, amusement entering his voice.
"Which is why I've decided to give you a gift."
The Cartographer wreckage suddenly trembled violently.
Beneath the burned-away runes, a deeper structure emerged.
Levi's gaze sharpened.
He saw what lay beneath.
The foundational code of the Beyonders.
Not simple energy circuits.
Not ordinary systems.
The very logical architecture that formed the basis of a Cartographer's existence.
The structures were arranged in ways that violated common sense. Every line connected to a fundamental law somewhere within the Multiverse.
And at the core of those structures were hundreds of signs of deliberate modification.
The alterations were precise and uniform.
Clearly the work of a single individual.
Doom had cracked the Beyonders' code.
And the depth of his understanding far exceeded expectations.
Levi remained silent for several seconds.
Then he grabbed the Cartographer wreckage, tore open a spatial rift, and dragged it back toward the Void Fortress.
The holographic crystal remained suspended in place.
Doom's voice sounded once more.
"Do you see?"
"That is my sincerity."
His tone carried a hint of pathological pride.
"You wish to build a vessel? To attack the Beyonders with a logical virus?"
"Then you must understand their essence."
"This Cartographer has been completely dissected by me."
"Every line of code. Every logical node."
"I have rearranged them all."
"Your Iron Man friend and Mister Fantastic should appreciate this gift."
Levi turned and stared coldly at the crystal.
"What do you want?"
"Smart."
Doom sounded pleased.
"My desires are simple."
"I want to see how far you can go."
"The Beyonders' experiment has continued for countless epochs. No one has ever truly threatened them."
"But you, Levi... you are the first variable to make the Ivory Kings uneasy."
"I'm curious."
"Just how much chaos can you create?"
Levi silently stared at the green-cloaked figure.
He could tell every word Doom spoke was true.
And simultaneously a lie.
Someone who called himself the Great Destroyer would never offer something this valuable out of mere curiosity.
There was another scheme hidden beneath the surface.
But at the moment...
He needed this gift.
Levi raised his right hand.
A pitch-black vortex appeared in his palm.
The embodiment of the Concept of Greed.
A force capable of devouring all energy and information.
He pressed the vortex against the holographic crystal.
Black tendrils spread instantly, invading the crystal and attempting to forcibly extract every piece of data Doom had left behind.
The projection flickered violently.
For the first time, Doom's voice wavered.
"You dare invade my will-anchor in reverse?"
His tone carried surprise.
But even more excitement.
"Good. Very good!"
"Now that is the kind of opponent I admire!"
Blinding green light erupted from within the crystal.
Countless bizarre runes grew like vines, attempting to consume Levi's Greed Vortex.
The runes possessed terrifying corrosive properties.
The moment they touched the black tendrils, they began rewriting the logic of their existence.
Levi's eyes turned cold.
His left hand slammed onto the opposite side of the crystal.
The Phoenix Force and Dominion Authority erupted simultaneously.
Gold-crimson and silver-white light surged like twin dragons, assaulting the runes from both sides.
The entire space twisted into knots.
Time itself became chaotic.
The battlefield between them wasn't a physical world at all.
It was a realm composed entirely of concepts and thought.
Its dangers were beyond anything ordinary beings could comprehend.
Every exchange.
Every collision of power.
Was akin to rewriting the very definition of existence itself.
Only now did Levi truly understand the depth of Doom's mastery of magic.
It far exceeded anything he had imagined.
The knowledge hidden within those runes was terrifyingly profound, touching upon some of the deepest secrets underlying the entire Multiverse.
But Levi was stronger.
The flames of the Phoenix Force began burning away the runes' core logic.
The Dominion Authority forcibly rewrote their operational rules.
The Greed Vortex seized the opportunity to burrow deeper, tearing apart Doom's will imprint like a starving beast.
Finally—
After thirteen consecutive clashes—
The green runes collapsed completely.
The crystal shattered into countless motes of light.
And as the light dispersed, a vast torrent of information flooded Levi's mind.
Doom had left it there deliberately.
Partial coordinates to Battleworld.
And a glimpse into his research on the Beyonders.
Levi closed his eyes and processed the information.
Three seconds later, he opened them again.
A complicated expression flashed through his gaze.
Doom was indeed using him.
That madman wanted Levi to test his theories.
He wanted to see whether an individual who had fused countless powers from across the Multiverse could truly oppose the Beyonders.
If Levi succeeded, Doom would gain critical data and perfect his Battleworld plan.
If Levi failed, Doom would lose nothing.
It was a gamble.
And Levi was a piece on the board.
At the same time, however...
Levi was using Doom as well.
The analysis of the Beyonders' foundational code.
The modified logical nodes.
Those things were priceless.
With them, Tony and Reed could perfect the logical virus in a fraction of the expected time.
They might even discover a superior method of attack.
As for the Battleworld coordinates—
That was an unexpected bonus.
Though incomplete, combined with fragments extracted earlier from Black Swan's memories, they were enough to roughly pinpoint Doom's hiding place.
After the Beyonders were dealt with...
Levi intended to personally meet the Great Destroyer.
Grabbing the Cartographer wreckage, Levi tore open another spatial rift and vanished into the void.
The next moment, he appeared inside the command center of the Void Fortress.
The Cartographer's remains slammed heavily onto the metal floor.
The half-destroyed body was even stranger than expected.
Its silver liquid-metal surface was covered with countless green cracks.
A faint glow pulsed within each crack as though something alive were breathing beneath.
Tony was the first to rush forward.
His nanotech armor's scanners immediately activated at full power.
Streams of data flooded across his vision.
Three seconds later, even JARVIS sounded stunned.
"Sir... this is impossible."
"The Cartographer's core architecture has been completely rewritten."
"Not damaged."
"Reconstructed."
"Someone has altered the Beyonders' foundational code into an entirely different logical system using methods I've never encountered."
Nearby, Reed Richards was kneeling amid a pile of dismantled equipment, both hands flying across a holographic keyboard.
When he finally reconstructed the target's energy circuitry and saw the completed diagram—
His pupils shrank sharply.
The energy nodes, which should have been distributed randomly, now formed an almost perfectly symmetrical structure.
More astonishingly, every single node corresponded precisely to one of the Multiverse's fundamental laws.
"This..."
"This is art."
Reed's voice trembled.
Whether from fear or awe, even he couldn't tell.
"Doom didn't merely crack the Beyonders' code."
"He inserted his own logic into it."
"This Cartographer is no longer a creation of the Beyonders."
"It is Doom's creation."
Levi stood nearby, silently watching the two geniuses descend into a frenzy of research.
He didn't interrupt.
Because he knew every second mattered.
This Cartographer wreckage would become the perfect reference model for the logical virus.
Clark walked over and lowered his voice.
"Why would he help us?"
"He isn't helping us."
Levi answered calmly.
"He's testing us."
"Or rather, testing his own theories."
"Doom wants to know whether a Cartographer modified by him can become a weapon capable of opposing the Beyonders."
"If it works, his Battleworld plan gains validation."
"If it doesn't, he loses nothing but a disposable experiment."
Strange frowned.
The golden eye on his forehead flashed.
"So we're doing his work for him?"
"We're using each other."
Levi turned toward a laboratory platform in the corner.
Three masses of silver liquid metal rested there—the core materials previously extracted from other Cartographers.
"He gave us tools."
"We give him data."
"But who has the last laugh..."
He raised his right hand.
A gold-crimson flame appeared in his palm.
Not ordinary Phoenix Force.
This was highly compressed pure energy.
Every strand of fire contained enough heat to burn dimensions.
Levi slowly pressed the flame toward one of the liquid-metal masses.
The metal instantly began boiling, releasing piercing shrieks.
Yet beneath the scorching Phoenix Force, the lingering Beyonder imprints hidden deep within gradually peeled away, dissolving into black smoke.
At the same time, Levi raised his left hand.
A silver-white manifestation of Dominion Authority appeared.
Two opposing powers attacked from both sides.
One destroyed.
One reshaped.
The liquid metal began changing form.
From a formless mass, it slowly condensed into the outline of a humanoid figure.
The silhouette remained vague.
No face.
No details.
Only the most basic skeletal framework.
Yet everyone present could sense it.
The energy density contained within that skeleton had already surpassed anything any of them could comprehend.