The liquid metal flowed slowly within Levi's palm, breathing as though it possessed life of its own.
The temperature inside the command center dropped by seventeen degrees.
Tony stood before the laboratory platform, cold sweat trickling down his forehead.
His gaze remained fixed on the silver substance, a mixture of obsession and unease flickering in his eyes.
Reed Richards' fingers moved so quickly across the holographic keyboard that they left afterimages.
He had already been working for thirty-six straight hours, yet the fire burning in his eyes was brighter than ever.
Before him, three masses of liquid metal floated within containment fields, their surfaces continuously generating strange runes.
Those runes reorganized themselves.
They learned.
They evolved.
Clark stood beside the viewport, fists clenched.
His super-hearing picked up low-frequency pulses emanating from inside the metal. The sound resembled a heartbeat—or perhaps the call of some ancient creature.
He glanced toward Levi, wanting to speak.
In the end, he remained silent.
Wanda retreated into a corner with Adam in her arms.
Chaos Magic flickered uncontrollably at her fingertips.
She could feel it.
The aura radiating from the three masses of metal was nearly identical to the Beyonder energy that had almost consumed her son.
Though purified, the fundamental danger remained.
The golden Eye of Agamotto on Strange's forehead operated at maximum output.
He saw countless timelines converging at this very moment.
He saw innumerable catastrophic futures that could result from the metal.
Yet what disturbed him most was that in every single timeline...
They had no alternative.
Thor gripped Stormbreaker tightly as lightning raged across its blade.
He didn't understand the Beyonders.
He didn't understand logical viruses.
But he knew one thing.
The thing before them was more dangerous than any enemy he had ever encountered.
The air inside the command center seemed frozen.
Everyone waited for Levi to speak.
But Levi merely stared at the liquid metal in his palm.
Within his intertwined gold-crimson and silver-white eyes reflected countless distorted lights.
He could feel the terrifying energy contained within the substance.
This was the core material the Beyonders used to construct their multiversal enforcers.
Although Doom's modifications had stripped away most of its control protocols, its inherent danger had only increased.
It was too intelligent.
So intelligent that if it were granted a complete self-awareness, it might betray everyone in an instant.
But they needed it.
Levi took a deep breath.
The Phoenix Force and Dominion Authority erupted simultaneously from his palms.
Gold-crimson flames intertwined with silver-white radiance like twin dragons coiling around the liquid metal's surface.
What he intended wasn't simple purification.
It was reforging.
He would completely rewrite this creation of the Beyonders into a weapon that belonged to them.
"Let's begin."
Levi's voice was calm, yet carried unquestionable resolve.
Tony and Reed exchanged a glance.
Then both pressed their activation switches simultaneously.
Above the platform, three massive mechanical arms slowly descended.
Each arm contained technological achievements drawn from the pinnacle of different universes.
On the left was the conceptual core of an anti-Celestial armor design Tony had uncovered deep within Stark Industries archives.
It was a mad theory left behind by Howard Stark during his Cube research—a vision of the ultimate weapon capable of opposing creator gods.
At the center stood the collective wisdom of fifty thousand parallel-universe Reed Richardses.
The cross-dimensional stabilization technology purchased with the lives of the geniuses slaughtered by Doctor Doom.
On the right was a Beyonder energy-transmission system reverse-engineered from the Cartographer remains.
Golden light.
Blue light.
Silver light.
The three beams fired simultaneously and flowed directly into the liquid metal resting within Levi's palm.
The metal instantly seemed to come alive.
Countless ripples spread across its surface.
Each ripple triggered a complete restructuring of its internal composition.
Calling it restructuring was an understatement.
The previously chaotic molecular arrangements began reorganizing themselves in utterly unreasonable ways.
This wasn't thermal motion.
It wasn't electromagnetism.
It wasn't any conventional force.
Higher-dimensional laws themselves were directing the process.
Veins bulged across Levi's forehead.
The Phoenix Force and Dominion Authority were draining far faster than anticipated.
The metal's self-awareness was simply too powerful.
It instinctively resisted external modification.
Every infusion of energy triggered violent backlash from within.
The resulting shockwaves became visible distortions rippling throughout the command center.
Clark reacted first.
He rushed forward, spreading his arms protectively before Wanda and Adam.
His Kryptonian physiology activated at full capacity, creating a silver-white energy barrier.
The shockwave struck.
A screeching tearing sound echoed through the room.
Clark's boots carved deep trenches across the metal floor as he was pushed backward.
Thor roared and slammed Stormbreaker into the ground.
All six Infinity Stones ignited simultaneously.
Lightning expanded into a vast net that enveloped the command center, forcibly suppressing the runaway energy.
Even so, cracks appeared across the walls.
Metal ceiling panels twisted and warped.
Strange gritted his teeth and formed hand seals.
The power of the Vishanti transformed into layers of golden runic formations that reinforced the room's spatial structure.
The golden eye on his forehead flashed frantically.
Time itself flowed through his fingertips as he attempted to freeze regions on the verge of collapse.
Wanda unleashed Chaos Magic as well.
Dark crimson energy surged outward like a tide, forming seven layers of defensive barriers before her.
Adam whimpered softly in her arms.
Instinctively, his Void Authority emerged.
The black aura merged with Wanda's Chaos Magic, creating a strange equilibrium.
Reed's voice echoed through the communication channel.
Urgent.
Far more urgent than usual.
"Energy transmission efficiency is only sixty-two percent of projected levels!"
"The Beyonder imprints inside the metal are still resisting!"
Tony's fingers flew across his holographic controls.
His armor's computational systems had already been pushed beyond safe limits.
"The rejection response is three times stronger than the model predicted!"
"If this continues, the metal will self-destruct!"
Levi didn't answer.
He closed his eyes.
His consciousness sank deep into the liquid metal.
Within that microscopic world, he saw the traces left behind by the Beyonders.
They were not simple energy imprints.
They were laws of existence engraved into the deepest essence of matter itself.
Every atomic nucleus had been rewritten into a miniature logical node.
The nodes interconnected to form a conceptual network spanning the entirety of the metal.
At its core lay an incredibly sophisticated command system.
And the foundational principle of that system was simple:
Absolute obedience.
First to the Beyonders.
Then to the Ivory Kings.
And ultimately to the Creator whose will overlooked the entire Multiverse.
Levi opened his eyes.
Gold-crimson fire exploded within them.
"If your marks are carved that deeply..."
"Then I'll rip them out by the roots."
He spread both arms wide.
No longer suppressing the Phoenix Force.
He detonated it completely.
Gold-crimson flames erupted from his body and swallowed the liquid metal whole.
This was not ordinary fire.
The Phoenix Force wasn't burning the metal itself.
It was burning the Beyonders' commands etched into the nuclei of every atom.
At that instant—
One of the most fundamental physical constants in the surrounding space was forcibly rewritten.
The cost?
The command center's temperature rose by three hundred degrees in less than a second.
Alarms screamed.
Warning systems erupted.
Reed's voice became fragmented beneath the chaos.
"Levi! Are you insane?!"
"You'll destroy the entire structure!"
Levi ignored him.
In his left palm, the Dominion Authority poured forth as silver-white radiance.
Like the finest surgical instrument imaginable, it rewrote new logic into the blank spaces carved out by the Phoenix Force.
No longer obedience.
Autonomy.
No longer a tool.
A weapon.
The liquid metal shrieked.
A piercing scream capable of rupturing eardrums.
Caught between two opposing forces, it struggled violently.
The Beyonder imprints refused to disappear quietly.
They launched a desperate counterattack.
Strange runes crawled from the metal's surface like serpents, racing along the energy pathways toward Levi's hands.
Clark's heart clenched.
He knew exactly how terrifying those symbols were.
Back in Void Seven, brushing against a single rune had nearly rewritten his existence itself.
Now hundreds—perhaps thousands—surged toward Levi simultaneously.
"Levi!"
Clark roared and moved forward.
A hand stopped him.
Wanda.
She shook her head.
Trust filled her eyes.
"He knows what he's doing."
And Levi truly did.
The moment the runes touched his skin, they were devoured by the Concept of Greed.
Pitch-black vortices spun across his hands.
Every Beyonder imprint that approached was crushed, absorbed, and transformed.
The knowledge and power contained within those marks became nourishment.
Fuel for Levi's understanding of the Beyonders' true nature.
The light in his eyes intensified.
And intensified again.
Until it seemed as though two miniature stars were burning within his sockets.
Then—
After enduring the seventy-third energy shockwave—
A clear cracking sound emerged from deep within the liquid metal's core.
The sound of chains breaking.
The final restraint left behind by the Beyonders shattered completely.
The liquid metal stopped struggling.
It no longer boiled.
It no longer screamed.
Instead, it flowed gently across Levi's palm with something almost resembling reverence.
The once-violent energy circuits calmed.
The twisted logical nodes reorganized themselves.
It was learning.
Adapting.
Accepting a new definition.
It no longer belonged to the Beyonders.
It belonged to the being who had liberated it from its cage.
Levi felt the pulse coming from within the metal.
Not mechanical vibration.
Something primitive.
Something almost alive.
He knew the time had come.
"Open the Inner Universe."
Levi clenched his right fist.
A black fissure exploded into existence above his palm.
No larger than a fingernail.
Tiny.
Yet everyone present felt as though an invisible hand had seized their hearts.
The sensation pouring from the crack wasn't darkness.
It was consumption.
Matter.
Energy.
Light.
Nothing could escape it.
An absolute black zone formed around the fissure.
Most disturbing of all were its edges.
Countless tiny tendrils writhed there, twisting and probing like a starving beast sniffing for prey.
Tony inhaled sharply.
He had seen Levi's Inner Universe before.
He knew it was a miniature reality with complete physical laws.
But what emerged from this fissure was far more terrifying than anything he had witnessed previously.
This was not creation.
It was destruction.
Something deliberately cultivated to consume the Void itself.
Reed's fingers froze over the keyboard.
His pupils contracted sharply.
He remembered Levi speaking about earlier experiments.
After the collapse of Time City, Levi had used Void Authority to create life.
Creatures capable of feeding on the Void.
Creatures able to survive any extreme environment.
And now—
What Levi was summoning was clearly the strongest among them.
A black claw emerged from the fissure.
It possessed neither flesh nor skin.
Only pure void.
The claw rested lightly against the edge of the crack.
The command center's temperature instantly plunged to absolute zero.
Black frost spread across the walls.
The frost reflected no light whatsoever.
Even photons seemed frozen within it.
Clark instinctively stepped backward.
His Kryptonian instincts screamed warnings.
The creature that had yet to fully emerge was more dangerous than any enemy he had ever faced.
Not because of its power.
Because of its nature.
Its existence itself was the negation of life.
A second claw emerged.
Then the head.
A head with no eyes.
No mouth.
No organs whatsoever.
Its smooth surface reflected everything around it like a mirror.
Yet every reflected image appeared twisted, corrupted, fundamentally wrong.
A Void Walker.
One of the ultimate lifeforms Levi had created within the Inner Universe.
A being designed solely to consume Void energy.
Slowly it crawled from the fissure.
Its shape solidified.
Roughly two meters tall.
Humanoid in outline.
Yet every line of its body radiated something profoundly inhuman.
No gender.
No racial characteristics.
Only pure functionality.
Long powerful limbs.
A perfectly streamlined torso.
A body engineered solely for hunting.
The Void Walker stood before Levi.
Then lowered its head slightly.
A gesture of submission.
Levi extended his hand.
The liquid metal flowed from his palm like living mercury.
Droplets fell onto the Void Walker's head.