It took Ian a long while to fully process it.
Only then did he gradually come back to himself.
"So that's why you collected everyone's souls? The souls of all the people from those collapsing universes?" After thinking for a moment, Ian finally asked the question.
In response,
Digital Tony did not answer directly.
"For beings on the multiversal level, this was merely a fall in the level of existence. But for ordinary life, it was total catastrophe."
His voice turned deep and heavy.
"What do you mean? Too many people? Everybody got packed together? That's fine. They should've just gone to Thanos. This is exactly his field of expertise."
Ian made a guess, though it was only a casual one. His instincts told him the situation definitely wasn't that simple.
Since he knew Tony would explain it anyway, Ian chose to conserve brainpower.
The power and cost of superior intelligence were both enormous, and under normal circumstances, Ian believed it shouldn't be used lightly.
"If it were only that, then yes, Thanos really would have proven he was right." Digital Tony answered every question without fail. He even slipped in a trace of dry humor.
However,
that humor quickly faded.
"When gods no longer have the power to show mercy to life, suffering becomes something we mortals have to bear ourselves."
Tony lowered his head. His voice suddenly turned hoarse.
"What exactly do you mean?"
Ian continued conserving brainpower.
Tony glanced at him, still refusing to answer head-on.
"Can you imagine countless parallel versions of yourself, with all their memories and souls layered onto one single individual?"
That question landed squarely in Ian's blind spot.
After all,
he had always firmly believed there couldn't possibly be another version of himself in any other parallel DC universe.
"I can't imagine it."
Ian honestly shook his head.
"..."
Digital Tony could clearly tell Ian had no intention of using his brain at all. Speechless, he rubbed his intangible forehead and directly showed Ian a scene from the past.
The sky was being torn apart.
The earth was collapsing.
And yet,
no one cared, no one brought salvation. In the twisted streets of the city, it wasn't just humans losing their minds, and it wasn't just superheroes. Even cats and dogs had gone insane.
"I remember... I remember I used to be a doctor... no, I was a firefighter... or maybe a teacher? Right! I was a woman who got into adult films and then had her organs harvested!"
A bearded, scruffy man ran through the street screaming.
"Where's my daughter? Alice! Alice! I'm your mother! Stop hiding! I'm taking you home!"
A wild boar charged around madly, searching for something that didn't exist.
"I remember being an eagle... no, I was that cat chasing the mouse... I'm Voldemort?"
Someone else was cackling wildly while waving around a tree branch.
Everywhere, people were chanting nonsense like "Avada Kedavra! Avada Kedavra!" at whoever they saw.
"I'm Ultimate Cap! I'm Black-and-White Double Fiends! I'm Cosmic Cap! Sorcerer Supreme Cap! Damn it! Why do I have so many identities? Forget it, hail Hydra!"
Captain America was running down the street with a Gatling gun firing blue flames.
No one stopped him, because the other superheroes were just as crazed and chaotic.
How could a mortal body
bear the memories of countless individuals?
A dark soul would inevitably taint a pure one.
Honestly, Ian was so stunned by the sheer chaos of the scene that his mouth practically hung open.
"Oh my God, what is Hulk doing to Black Widow?!"
Ian's shock was completely genuine.
Even Jordan's hidden stash of discs had never shown him something this outrageous.
It was disgraceful.
It was shameless.
But Ian's eyes refused to blink even once.
As if missing even a single second would be the greatest regret of his life.
"Sorry, forgot you're still a kid."
Digital Tony suddenly switched the scene, leaving Ian full of regret. He felt like far too many images were still burned into his mind.
"Now this is real contamination from the echoes of the past! My eyes and brain have actually been polluted!"
Ian shook his head, but still couldn't get rid of it.
Hulk really was fierce.
And Black Widow really was... impressively accommodating.
At the same time,
"What the hell is wrong with these people!? Even those ridiculous do-gooders went insane too?"
In the next scene, a baffled Homelander stood in the middle of the street, staring in horror at everything around him.
For once, even someone as twisted as him looked unable to adapt to a world this deranged.
He looked completely out of place.
"We have to stop these superheroes from going mad."
A man in a red-and-white suit slowly descended from the sky.
Like Homelander, he wasn't supposed to exist in the Marvel universe either.
Omni-Man.
To put it simply, another discount Superman. Except this one was the kind whose full-grown strength was comparable to a conventional Superman, but without the Kryptonite weakness.
He was much stronger than Homelander.
So Homelander looked a little intimidated.
"I just want to find somewhere quiet and stay there. No asylum ever approached me for a partnership, so I don't have any obligation to go round up a bunch of lunatics for them."
"And besides... I don't think any asylum could hold this many crazies. Even the psychiatrists are probably insane by now."
Homelander shrugged and prepared to leave.
However,
he saw Omni-Man sneer at him.
"Look around you! Everyone's gone mad! Even if you escape into space, you'll still die! Do you want to slowly grow old alone in the emptiness of the universe?"
The moment he finished speaking, he shot forward.
The first person he ran into was Captain America.
The deranged Cap actually took two punches from Omni-Man straight to the head before his skull finally shattered and he died.
"Now that's a true destiny-powered fifty-fifty Captain. He can somehow exchange a blow with anyone."
Ian couldn't help commenting.
He watched as Omni-Man seized Rune King Thor, who was electrocuting half the street like some insane thunder god, and shot straight upward into the sky.
At the same time,
in the holographic scene, Homelander was pacing around the street. He kicked away a teddy bear that begged him for help, then cursed under his breath and took off into the air.
"Once this is over, I should run for President. Everyone should be grateful to me. Every single person should thank me once a day!"
Homelander blasted forward at dozens of times the speed of sound toward a distant target.
"Every version of America deserves its own personal Thank-You Hero."
Ian watched Homelander soar upward.
Originally, he had chosen a relatively weak target.
Spider-Man, who was crazily shooting webs between buildings as if trying to build a giant nest in midair.
Unfortunately,
reality and ideals were often just a little bit off.
"ROAR!"
Hulk accidentally crushed Black Widow into pulp, let out a furious roar, leaped upward, and snatched Homelander right out of the sky.
"Let go..."
Homelander didn't even finish speaking.
Crack.
He became exactly as Ian had first seen him.
Head separated from body.
The enraged Hulk fell back to the ground.
"So this really is a magical world. Homelander actually died as a superhero... I think my brain needs a stay in the ICU."
Honestly, this truth was way beyond anything Ian had imagined.
His jaw was close to dislocating from how hard it had dropped.
"When the good turn completely bad, the ones who started bad don't seem quite so bad anymore."
Tony's projection looked at Hulk and finished his oddly philosophical conclusion.
Then,
Boom.
Hulk, who was busy figuring out how to remove Homelander's pants, suddenly took an attack from behind.
He didn't even have time to react before he dropped dead.
The hole in his chest
was the same one Ian had seen before.
"Whose heat vision is that strong? That's practically on par with my father-god's power."
Ian was startled and turned toward the source of the blast.
Floating there was a figure in a yellow suit.
Golden energy swirled around him like flames.
It was Sentry, Robert Reynolds.
Often called Marvel's discount Superman, with the power of a million exploding suns, but in truth he was one of Marvel's real cheat-code monsters with near-limitless power.
"Looks like Stark was right."
Sentry's face was cold and stern. His gaze swept across the ruined world before settling on Hulk's corpse.
"Stark wasn't insane. The world was."
His voice was low and calm.
Then he slowly lifted his head and looked toward the sky.
In an instant, the clouds churned and darkness spread like a tide, swallowing light, buildings, even the air itself.
Everything looked like it was being sealed away.
Where that terrifying shadow passed, all things sank into black emptiness.
Even Sentry himself was no exception.
And yet, he showed no emotion at all.
"I hope you stay right."
Before he was fully consumed,
Sentry's fading face murmured softly.
Whether by coincidence or not,
the direction of his final gaze was the exact same place where Digital Tony's projection was now standing.
Ian waved a hand in front of him and noticed Sentry's eyes didn't move.
That didn't stop him from taking full advantage.
"He agreed! Just now I asked in my head if I could touch his corpse, and he agreed! Quick! Bring his body out here!"
Ian immediately turned to Digital Tony.
"????"
Digital Tony looked completely baffled.
"I said it in my head, and he agreed in his head. You have to believe in Sentry. He really does have that kind of power across time and space. He's the true sun in my heart."
The boy's voice rang out with total conviction.
Absolute certainty.
(End of Chapter)
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