Silver Surfer and Thor's combined attack tore through Galactus's armor. The high-dimensional energy beam pierced through the body of this cosmic deity, and the three people present watched as cracks spread from the opening in Galactus's armor, expanding across his entire body.
With a roar from the ancient god, his body shattered apart, turning into nothingness and merging with the fabric of the physical universe.
Gungnir flew back through the void. After catching the never-missing Spear of Destiny, Thor's face was filled with disbelief and excitement:
"Did we win? Did we kill Galactus?"
[No.]
"He's still here."
"Be careful of the spatial turbulence."
Ultraman, Superman, and Silver Surfer present all possessed higher-dimensional perspectives. From the terrifying distortions in space and time around them, the three of them immediately understood that things would never end this easily.
Everything seemed to be developing in a positive direction, except for one unavoidable question:
Just how powerful was the true Galactus?
The three individuals present had already reached levels of power that allowed them to defy natural laws. At full strength, they could extinguish stars and travel through black holes.
But no matter what, nuclear fusion would always produce light and heat, and the accumulation of mass would always create gravity. These were the natural laws of the universe—objective truths that could never be changed.
What they could defeat were only stars and black holes.
Not the fundamental principles behind stars and black holes.
And Galactus just happened to be one of those 'fundamental principles.'
Cosmic energy began gathering once again. Amid a distortion of space and time, Galactus—who had just been blasted through the chest by the Specium Ray and seemingly destroyed—appeared intact in the exact same location.
"I have witnessed your courage."
"But I have yet to witness your strength."
Put in simpler terms, Joey was certain Galactus was basically saying:
"Did you three even eat breakfast before coming here?"
Mockery from someone overwhelmingly stronger was always difficult to refute.
After all, whether it was Joey, Ultraman, Silver Surfer, or Thor, every single one of them had unleashed their strongest possible attack at their current peak.
And the truth was that no matter how hard the three of them tried, they still could not threaten Galactus's existence, which stood above the entire multiverse.
Galactus was nearly omnipotent and invincible.
Every injury and every death was nothing more than a thought for an existence capable of manipulating reality with his consciousness.
The only thing he could not control was his endless hunger.
"Enough."
"My patience has run out."
With a single thought, the previously destroyed energy conversion tower was restored completely and immediately resumed absorbing Earth's energy.
After enjoying the spectacle, Galactus was finally ready to begin feeding.
"Stop!"
Kryptonian bio-field surged through the pathways of the Ultraman body.
A Specium Ray amplified by billions of times erupted from the arm of the giant of light, sweeping toward both Galactus and the energy conversion tower beside him.
Thor summoned lightning once again, raising Mjolnir and pointing it directly at Galactus himself, while the Silver Surfer used his cosmic energy to clear a path forward.
Under these circumstances, all three of them could only continue pushing beyond their own limits.
Ultraman Joey and Thor especially grew stronger as they fought against the cosmic god, gradually exploring the true limits of their own power.
"Now this is more like it!"
From Galactus's perspective, their attacks had finally reached a level where they could genuinely threaten him without relying on tricks.
"Perhaps, given enough time, you may even surpass the infinite universes and gain a glimpse of my true form."
"But not now."
Galactus casually waved his hand.
The billions-fold Specium Ray and even Mjolnir's eternal lightning were instantly transformed into pure cosmic energy, scattering throughout space before being captured by the collection system at the top of the energy conversion tower.
As for Silver Surfer and Thor charging toward him, Galactus simply swatted them away with two effortless strikes, sending them beyond the boundaries of the solar system like a person brushing away a few annoying insects.
Against a god capable of freely rewriting reality itself, energy attacks manifested within the physical universe were simply insignificant.
An attack containing enough energy to destroy a planet was, compared to his hunger, not even worthy of being called an appetizer.
Only the true consumption of a planet could temporarily soothe his hunger.
This was also part of the laws of the universe.
During this extremely intense battle, Galactus had expended a tremendous amount of his cosmic energy.
Such an energy deficit brought more than just a slight sense of weakness—it also triggered an almost uncontrollable hunger, a desire to consume everything.
And speaking of appetizers...
Tormented by his hunger to the point of losing some of his rationality, Galactus stared at the enormous being before him with bloodshot eyes—the giant of light formed by the fusion of a Kryptonian and an Ultraman.
He opened his enormous mouth, and it was as if an infinite force of suction erupted from within his body.
Now, Galactus has decided to eat a small snack first.
Joey could only feel the energy maintaining this Ultraman body rapidly disappearing, flowing into Galactus's mouth through a method of energy transfer that neither he nor Ultraman himself could understand.
"Is this even reasonable?!"
Under this terrifying suction force, Joey and the original Ultraman could only barely maintain their forms.
Whether it was the five-dimensional energy structure manifested within the three-dimensional world or the Kryptonian bioelectric field, both were rapidly being drained away.
The eternally shining silver-white skin of the giant of light gradually dimmed.
The layer of red and blue energy patterns covering his body—representing the life force of a Kryptonian—also began to fade.
Galactus's ability to strip away energy from a distance was so efficient that Joey even felt as if his very soul was about to be pulled out of his body.
[That might not be an illusion. My consciousness exists within the fifth dimension, but yours does not.]
The bitter voice of the original Ultraman echoed inside his mind.
[Your consciousness must merge with the energy of the giant of light form. Only then can you control my body. But now, my power has already declined to its limit. I can barely hold onto you anymore.]
Then doesn't that mean...
Realizing the seriousness of his situation, Joey finally understood how dangerous his current position was.
From his perspective, Galactus's enormous mouth seemed to be growing larger and larger.
He turned his head and looked back.
The giant of light was gradually shrinking in his vision as it moved farther away, and he was losing his ability to move. The light surrounding his body was slowly fading.
Which meant that this truly meant...
"No! I don't want to be eaten by Galactus!"
Resistance was useless.
Joey's consciousness was ultimately dragged along with the energy of the giant of light, rushing directly into Galactus's body.
Everything went dark.
When Joey opened his eyes again, the first thing he saw was not flesh, organs, or some kind of digestive system as he had expected.
Instead, what appeared before him was an endless sea of stars.
---
"This is bad, Mr. Stark!"
The Spider-Men who were helping evacuate civilians around the city had witnessed the complete defeat on the battlefield.
The Indian Spider-Man, Pavitr Prabhakar, hurried over to deliver the news.
"They lost!"
"What?"
Tony was still reconstructing the weapon design based on the description from another universe's Spider-Man.
He had just finished forcing the bald, unlucky director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to gather the necessary materials and was preparing to put the blueprint into actual production.
But after hearing the news, cold sweat immediately covered Tony's forehead.
He activated the remote scanning system.
The first thing he saw was the enormous gray-white statue standing in the center of the city—a stone giant with no energy readings and no remaining light.
The scene struck Tony like a bolt from the blue.
His mind buzzed, and for a moment, the entire world seemed to freeze.
"Abnormal heart rate detected. Would you like medical assistance?"
JARVIS's electronic voice appropriately pulled Tony back to reality.
But this was not the reality Tony wanted.
"This is absolutely impossible!"
He had previously witnessed that earth-shaking battle between giants in another universe, and he knew that the enormous giant of light had been Joey.
But now, the giant whose energy readings had previously exceeded every limit had become a stone statue, with all energy reactions reduced to zero.
Tony pushed his armor's sensors to maximum capacity and repeatedly scanned the battlefield countless times.
Yet he still couldn't detect even the slightest trace of the familiar energy field.
That could only mean one thing:
"Superman... is dead?"