The same familiar base.
The same familiar people.
Gwen and a group of soldiers carried Homelander and Hulk's body parts into the room in the back, while Ian remained standing in the main hall, where a crowd of researchers were busy at work, staring each other down with Digital Tony.
"So which one of you is the dimensional demon god? Or did I somehow run into two dimensional demon gods?!"
The demon head's brain had completely crashed. For a while, it genuinely could not tell what was going on.
Tony looked at the demon head.
Ian, meanwhile, very skillfully smacked the demon head a few times.
"Can you shut up already? Do you scream every time you see someone new that you've found another dimensional demon god?"
He seriously suspected the demon head was trying to become some kind of compliment machine.
Maybe in Hell, calling someone a dimensional demon god was just standard flattery, the same way humans casually greet each other with things like "Wow, looks like you're rich again."
"I... I really am not trying to flatter you..."
The demon sounded miserable.
Too angry to stay quiet, too scared to say more.
Deep down, it held on to one firm belief: thirty thousand years east of prison, thirty thousand years west of prison. As long as it endured long enough, one day its bloodline would surely raise it into a great demon.
Hah.
Once that day came,
it would definitely have an indestructible head.
The kind of head that could get hammered forever and still feel nothing.
In that instant,
the demon suddenly felt like life had hope again.
"He really is a dimensional demon god... he's eaten so, so many souls, and he still hasn't finished digesting them..."
Having adjusted its emotions, the demon still could not help insisting on its view.
"Still talking tough? Fine, then let Mr. Stark say it himself. Let's hear whether he really is a dimensional demon god."
Ian smoothly turned and asked Digital Tony the question.
Whether it was possible or not was beside the point.
Since he had already played the bad cop,
not asking would make him seem careless and not cautious enough.
"There are no more dimensional demon gods left in this world."
Digital Tony suddenly projected a full image of himself in front of the mainframe. He looked at the demon head hanging from Ian's waist and answered in a gentle tone.
"However, their souls are all with me."
Clearly, Digital Tony was a little puzzled too. He did not understand why he was still seeing a demon that possessed a soul.
"So you're basically some kind of scientific world tree? When people die, their souls return to you, and then you use some kind of technology to make them again?"
Ian's eyes were shining with curiosity.
Hearing that,
Digital Tony simply had someone bring over a metal box and motioned for Ian to place the demon head inside.
Ian did not hesitate. He dropped the demon head in at once.
It was just an Abyssal Trash Can, after all. There were plenty of unfinished models back in Hell. If Digital Tony lost this one, Ian could just ask him for real hard currency instead.
High-end scientific knowledge.
"Your understanding isn't exactly wrong. I am doing something like that."
Only after signaling the staff to seal the box shut did Digital Tony slowly answer Ian's earlier question.
"For reasons everyone knows, our world was pushed to the brink of collapse and destruction."
With a wave of Tony's hand, the researchers and the hall around them seemed to vanish in an instant.
The walls of the control room transformed into a starry sky, with countless points of light moving through it. Ian felt as though he were standing in the universe itself, able to sense its endless vastness.
"Cool."
Ian knew this was not spatial transfer, only a visual effect similar to a holographic projection. In reality, he was still standing inside the base hall full of researchers.
Standing beneath that starry sky, Tony's face carried the look of someone remembering the past.
"I still don't know what triggered everything. During a certain period, the 'living space' of the endless universes began to shrink. Some weaker universes started merging into ours. Things that were never meant to appear here got forced into our world."
That explanation sounded familiar to Ian. He had heard something similar before from Lady Death.
Clearly, both worlds had encountered the same crisis.
The DC universe just seemed a little luckier.
For some reason,
Ian had not heard Digital Tony mention broken universes invading other universes. He still suspected this was because the Marvel universe had latched onto him and Tony was deliberately hiding part of the truth.
The boy thought silently.
Digital Tony continued explaining.
"At first, nobody thought it was a serious problem. Our universe was vast enough to hold those unfortunate refugees."
"Even the higher-dimensional gods seemed pleased by it. It was as if the situation had actually increased their entertainment. At least in the beginning, they never once thought of stopping it."
Tony's voice turned heavy, though Ian did not feel much real emotion behind it. Maybe Digital Tony was only simulating the proper feelings for the proper moment.
"So this is where the twist comes in?"
Ian played along.
"Yes. A twist, and a huge one."
Tony nodded.
"The moment that crisis began to close in on us, the higher-dimensional beings found themselves unable to deal with it."
"It wasn't destruction. It wasn't invasion. It was simply the constant reduction of the universes' living space, forcing the entire multiverse to collapse uncontrollably toward a central universe."
"The consequences were obvious."
"The multiverse ceased to exist. Those higher-dimensional beings were dragged down with it, reduced into ordinary individuals within a single universe, no longer possessing their former power or authority."
As Tony spoke,
the images around them kept shifting and changing.
Countless parallel universes pressed together and merged like soap bubbles. In the end, even beings on the multiversal level or above were forced to remain trapped inside a single universe.
It was a سقوط in status.
Impossible to guard against.
Utterly sudden.
Even the strongest beings had no power to resist it.
Ian heard roars of unwillingness.
"Uh... Lady Death and the others probably still haven't realized this... right?"
Ian's head was buzzing. What Tony described felt absurd and terrifying the more he thought about it.
The Marvel universe and the DC universe were on roughly the same level. Did that mean the DC universe might end up exactly the same way?
At that moment, Ian's expression was full of shock and disbelief.
"A warning from the echo of a ruined parasitic universe?"
He had no way to judge.
But he did understand one thing: he had to find some way to pass this information on to the big shots in the DC universe without getting himself entangled in it.
That was well within the ability of his superior intellect.
And whether it was true or false,
the higher powers could judge for themselves.
(End of Chapter)
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