As radiant light bathed the earth, the surrounding undead began trembling in place, as if struck by lightning.
The plains were teeming with countless spirits, their rattling bones merging into a sound like a colossal machine humming to life.
Su Ming grabbed a nearby desiccated corpse, Stranglehold's feedback telling him the creature was ice-cold.
The undead merely stared blankly at the sun on the horizon, its massive fireball rising at an alarming speed, reaching halfway into the sky in mere moments.
Even when its arm was seized, it strained to turn its head, yearning to gaze at the strange yet familiar sunlight.
"Everyone, hold off! Wade? Taking photos when it's time to fight, and not stopping when it's time to stop? Want a pay cut?"
Wade quickly hid his katanas behind his back, turning to whistle innocently.
"These undead… their consciousness is waking up. Damn it," Magik said, prodding a nearby creature with her greatsword. The monster only fainted, not died, indicating it had gained a personality.
Her Soul Sword couldn't directly harm humans, reflecting her inner gentleness. If it struck demons or undead, they'd turn to ash instantly.
But against a person, even if pierced through the chest, they'd only pass out, not die.
If Illyana needed to kill, she'd have to finish the job with fists or feet, her half-demon strength capable of crushing skulls.
"What the hell is this?!" Ciri rubbed her hair in frustration. These eerie beings weren't alive, but not quite dead either. The situation was too bizarre.
"Loki, to stop me from reviving the undead and drawing 'Death,' altered their forms. Their souls still belong to Death, but they've gained living bodies. You can't revive something that's already alive," Su Ming explained.
While Su Ming was preparing, Loki hadn't been idle, actively blocking Deathstroke's plans.
"He can do that?" Wade, mid-whistle, asked curiously. In his mind, Loki wasn't that impressive—Wade had never been fooled by him.
"With the 'story,' the Reality Stone, and maybe something else… he can. The underworld and Asgard are two sides of the same coin, like a pizza's two faces."
"So which side gets the toppings? The one with bacon and cheese is Asgard, right?" Wade interjected.
Su Ming shoved the half-undead he was holding. Its consciousness was gradually awakening, now observing its surroundings with puzzled eyes.
"On the contrary, if 'time' is the topping, the underworld's the loaded side. Its master is a time traveler."
"Time. I hate time riddles. Can I call Cable?" Wade crouched, fiddling with a small black flower on the ground.
With a slight tug, he pulled it up, a piece of white bone clinging to its roots. A piercing, agonized scream erupted from the soil.
"Mandrake, huh? Did J.K. Rowling visit the underworld? Not what I imagined." Wade dug in his ear; the scream didn't knock him out, but it shook loose some earwax.
Su Ming glanced at Wade holding the black flower. "That's… cough… a spore flower. Try it. It's a magical herb that'll give you the ultimate human pleasure."
Wade looked at the flower, then at his cousin's masked face. "For real?"
"Yup. Dreams have it all," Su Ming said sincerely, his gaze drifting to the distance, as if searching for something.
"Alright, I'll try… munch munch." Wade lifted his mask and swallowed the black flower. "Tastes faint, kinda like lettuce pizza, but the aftertaste… hic… urgh."
Before finishing, Wade collapsed like a sack, motionless, his blackened tongue lolling out.
Su Ming snapped his gaze back, rushing to Wade's side, checking his carotid artery—no pulse. His body was rapidly turning ice-cold.
"Dead," Hamill said flatly. Eating a death spore flower and still commenting before croaking? Wade was the first he'd seen.
"Yup, dead as a doornail."
Su Ming stood, removing his cloak to transform it into a flying carpet, placing the body on it. The group boarded, speeding toward the sunrise where Loki and Hela were likely waiting.
Magik silently climbed aboard, sitting cross-legged, while Ciri looked exhausted.
"He's your cousin, isn't he?"
"Well, no blood relation, strictly speaking, but the world's rules say he's my cousin. It's hard to explain."
"Then why'd you poison him?"
"In this world, dying and living are just part of the cycle. I poisoned him for his own good. Don't believe me? Wait till he wakes up—he'll thank me."
"Uh, I don't buy it."
Forget gratitude—she didn't even believe in the resurrection part.
…
"Told you to learn more instead of running around like a maniac. If you want to revive Vesemir one day, watch and learn."
At the mention of the old man's name, Ciri's eyes reddened. She turned to stare at the black earth and undead army passing below the carpet, falling silent.
Su Ming urged the carpet onward. In the distance, between heaven and earth, a World Tree was slowly materializing from illusion to reality.
"Shaping. The story," Hamill pointed out.
"Manifesting the World Tree's shadow to replicate another using Asgard's roots," Su Ming said, frowning. Loki was planning a bizarre, spinning-top-like world.
The boundary between Asgard and the underworld was blurring—a plan eerily similar to one of Su Ming's own.
"Ah!!!"
Wade suddenly sprang up, nearly tumbling off the carpet.
"Back already? That was quick," Su Ming said, glancing at him before refocusing on the horizon, their new target.
"Slade, I thought you only screwed me over, but you're actually looking out for me. Thanks, man." Wade wiped his eyes, brushing away nonexistent tears. "That was the ultimate high. I didn't know skeletons were that wild. If I didn't know it was a dream, I wouldn't have wanted to wake up."
Su Ming shot Ciri a look. Told you.
Loki thought blocking the soul route would cut Su Ming off from Death, but he couldn't stop Deadpool.
Just toss his strapping, nutty cousin at Death, and how could that lonely widow resist? Death's skeletal face wouldn't find Wade's dried-avocado-and-baby-vomit mug too out of place, right?
Death and Deadpool's first official meeting was likely post-Infinity War, but they'd crossed paths earlier.
During the Weapon X experiments, Wade teetered on death's edge multiple times. In a haze, he felt a soft, cold body, channeling his pain into desire.
That was Death.
Curious about who wouldn't stay dead, Death found Wade amusing, a joker who could entertain her. She wanted him to die for real and keep her company.
Sadly, Wade's cancer-riddled brain was foggy then. He mistook it all for a hallucination, thinking the cold body was Vanessa's, which gave him the will to survive the experiments and seek revenge.
Death left, disappointed, because Wade chose vengeance over her.
Then Thanos, her jealous suitor, found out about her and Wade, cursing Deadpool to eternal life, forever separated from Death.
Wade remained clueless about it all.
He later killed Francis for revenge, moved in with Vanessa, and kept merc-ing, though his wandering third leg got him entangled with plenty of women.
That was Deadpool's original story.
Now, in 1945, Wade shouldn't even exist. Sending him to Death now would turn their future reunion into a rekindled romance, though he'd probably still fail to recognize her.
Skeletons all look alike—pale, with black eye sockets. How's a merc, not a forensic expert, supposed to tell them apart?
But that was Su Ming's plan: have Wade catch Death's attention now, ensuring Loki's moves would fall under her gaze.
Wade was the only known human to visit Death's garden and return safely. Maybe Su Ming could too, but he preferred DC's Death.
Marvel's Death waffled between Thanos and Deadpool, enjoying the purple simp's devotion while craving the red-and-black avocado's thrills.
Problem was, she was too dedicated to her job, always trying to hasten death's arrival, with her purple simp eagerly enabling her.
Even if it left him with nothing in the end.
DC's Death, by contrast, was calmer. As a personified concept, she smiled and waited patiently, never hastening or delaying anyone's end.
Overall, DC's felt more human; Marvel's was more like a program. Neither was better—both were Death.
But if Su Ming had a choice, he'd prefer a normal process when his time came.
The more humanized a concept, the more exploitable it was. No matter how powerful, Death couldn't guard against Deathstroke's calculated schemes.
When Wade faced Loki or even Odin, who would Death side with? The answer was obvious. Sometimes, an unreasonable concept could be quite useful.