Chapter 125: Rune God Du Wa!
The confrontation between two Cosmic Gods was undoubtedly a major event in the universe.
Generally speaking, there are two types of Cosmic Gods. One is a single universe-level being, a true Cosmic God. If they unleash their full power, it's enough to shake the entire universe, or even go a step further and interfere with the universe's constants and parameters, distorting its rules.
The other type is much weaker. They are unfathomably ancient beings like Ego, who are at most a Skyfather. But because they are so ancient and massive, many also call them "Celestials" or the "Celestial race."
But now, both Knull and Du Wa had reached the rank of Cosmic God. This meant that with a mere wave of their hands, they could directly interfere with the fundamental structure of the universe, posing a significant threat to its stability.
Single universe-level—a being capable of matching an entire, complete universe with their own body. This terrifying scale meant that no matter where they went or what they did, they would become the core of the universe, watched by billions of eyes.
"A fight has broken out outside? Even through this magic array, I can feel the immense pressure from the outside world... but you haven't made a move, which means you haven't used this universe's Infinity Stones."
The three Mephistos opened their eyes simultaneously. One of them cupped his chin with his palm. At this moment, if one were to ignore his long claws and blood-red skin, he almost looked human.
The demon looked at the magic array, which showed subtle fluctuations of chaotic energy, and said to the Ancient One standing outside, "Such an intense battle is raging outside. You, the guardian of Earth, are not going to fight but are standing guard over me here instead. Is that really alright?"
"With my current power, it would be difficult for me to directly participate in a battle of this magnitude. Besides, as of an hour ago, I am no longer the guardian of Earth. Strange's talent is beyond imagination; he has earned the favor of the Vishanti," the Ancient One said.
Another Mephisto, with the appearance of a hippie, couldn't help but let out an evil laugh. "Yes, yes, that's just like Strange. The Stranges of most universes are very good at winning over the Vishanti. Coupled with his own magical talent, he can also ensure he obtains a portion of power from other gods..."
"Demon, I know your plans for Strange are still ongoing. After I die, you will surely try every means to mislead Strange. Du Wa is aware of this as well."
As the Ancient One spoke calmly, the Eye of Agamotto on her chest glowed with a green light, making Mephisto's eyelids twitch as a sense of dread appeared in his eyes.
The Infinity Stones were such troublesome things, existing in so many universes. This was very inconvenient for an outsider like Mephisto, who had traveled through many worlds. Anyone who could perfectly wield the power of a single Infinity Stone could match a cosmic god.
And the Ancient One before him was precisely someone who could wield an Infinity Stone.
"So, you used the Time Stone on Strange to give him a vast amount of time to train? That's a bold move. In other universes, the Ancient Ones who possessed the Time Stone never did such a thing. It's not a good method."
"But it benefits you. When Strange uses the Time Stone in the future to save his loved one, that will be your opportunity to deceive him."
In her calm words, the Ancient One exposed Mephisto's scheming, which made Mephisto fall into a brief silence.
"Did you see this in the Time Stone? Can you use the Time Stone to see the results created by the Time Stone itself?"
"Du Wa told me. He deduced over 173,600 possibilities from all your potential actions and has formulated multiple counter-plans for each one."
"What a terrible opponent. Why must the human I favor the most also possess the most cunning mind? Otherwise, even if he were a Cosmic God, I wouldn't be in such agony."
Mephisto was extremely frustrated.
He disliked solving problems with his fists like other demons. He much preferred using schemes to make proud humans kneel before him, an evil demon, and submit to his commands.
Mephisto would always strike with precision when a favored client was in dire straits, luring them to offer their soul in exchange for his help.
But against Du Wa, no matter what long-term conspiracy Mephisto came up with, it seemed Du Wa would always predict it first and secretly formulate a counter-plan.
"Your reaction is correct. In fact, from your perspective, you shouldn't have come to our world," the Ancient One said.
"What a joke. You don't understand anything. It won't be long before you travel to other universes and deal with many other Ancient Ones. Then you'll understand why I'm so fixated on Du Wa. The more you observe, the more you'll understand what a completely new concept like Du Wa truly means."
Although Mephisto was in a foul mood, he shook his head, maintaining the elegance of a human nobleman. "Perhaps the biggest mistake I made was calling Cul over from Universe 616. I had already devised an extremely meticulous plan for that great serpent. The crisis that Cul the Serpent caused in Universe 616 should have been the perfect opportunity for me to establish a dominant position over the other great demons."
Mephisto was somewhat regretful. Now, a strong Skyfather like Cul the Serpent had fallen in this universe that didn't even have a designation, defeated and imprisoned by someone like Du Wa, a nobody in the entire multiverse.
He estimated that many beings in the Main Universe were now utterly astonished, shocked by the failure of Cul and himself.
At that moment, the magic array flickered violently, as if it could collapse at any second. Mephisto didn't move. He watched as the Ancient One acted with precision, promptly stabilizing the magic array and continuing to keep him under airtight confinement.
"The battle outside has begun. You're maintaining the seal on me while also activating the magic array to protect Earth... The one fighting outside is Du Wa, isn't he? He didn't even take your Time Stone to deal with this powerful enemy. Overconfidence is not a good habit," Mephisto sneered.
The demon sensed the extraordinarily terrifying fluctuation from the outside world. Knowing this was a great battle at the cosmic god level, he actually became a bit anxious. Mephisto was shocked by Du Wa's insane growth rate. He didn't even know how Du Wa had advanced to the Cosmic God level. If not for the power reduction caused by this world's different rules, the current Du Wa could even contend with his main body.
But he was even more annoyed with the unknown Cosmic God who had moved against Du Wa.
What if the opponent really managed to take down Du Wa? Wouldn't that mean his coveted prey would be snatched away? This was the guy he had failed to capture even after losing a large number of clones, giving up the invasion of the Khonshu Era Universe, and losing the precious chess piece that was Cul.
Even if the opponent failed to take down Du Wa, thinking about the other outcome, if this Cosmic God was defeated by Du Wa instead, that would be even more infuriating. Wouldn't that mean Du Wa would experience another explosive surge of power?
"Who is the one fighting Du Wa? Is it a deity of rules? Does it have a body?" Mephisto repeatedly questioned the Ancient One, but his expression grew uglier and uglier.
"With your wisdom, you should have already guessed that the opponent is Knull, the god of the symbiotes. Of course, this evil god has a body, and a fine one at that, which was imprisoned by a swarm of symbiotes for over 1,000 years." The Ancient One couldn't be bothered to play dumb with Mephisto. Conversations between intelligent people didn't require wasting too much effort on deduction.
This meant that once Knull was defeated, even if only a battered and broken body was left, it would be enough for Du Wa to use, giving birth to a terrifying Xenomorph.
Mephisto pondered for a moment. Even if Du Wa only had a broken body and couldn't ensure ascension by enslaving Knull's soul, meaning the newborn Xenomorph might not be comparable to a perfect-form Knull, at the very least, it would have one foot across the threshold of the cosmic god rank, right?
This was major trouble.
Among the elite group of Cosmic Gods, the majority did have physical bodies.
For example, the Celestials. Based solely on the colorful Celestials represented by Arishem, this group of Celestials is divided into two types. One is the ancient Celestials, who were beings of flesh and blood clad in heavy armor; the other, more numerous and common type, had machine bodies, the kind that could be modified by Tony Stark into a Celestial Armor.
If Knull were to be defeated by Du Wa, and even his body fell into Du Wa's possession... just thinking about that picture made Mephisto unable to sit still.
"Don't be anxious. It's useless to be anxious. We just need to quietly await the result of the battle. My mission is to keep an eye on you, to prevent you from making any outrageous moves from Hell that might affect our world," the Ancient One said, offering words of comfort that held no comfort at all.
Meanwhile, Cul, who was imprisoned and dismembered by numerous Xenomorphs, perceived the confrontation between the two powerful deities even more clearly.
The Serpent Cul's hair was disheveled, and his body had been dismembered into several hundred pieces, yet he was still trying to find an opportunity to escape.
When he felt the vast might of the cosmic god level, the serpent was speechless for a long time.
"That bastard Mephisto really screwed me over. My luck is also just terrible. To randomly come to a universe and end up facing the native deity of that universe."
Cul's face was somewhat distorted.
Although he came from the Main Universe and didn't really look highly upon other parallel universes, it still depended on the situation. As a strong Skyfather, he naturally looked down on the Skyfathers of other universes, but if he ran into a local Cosmic God in another universe... Cul knew he couldn't compare, no matter what.
He didn't mind lowering his head a little and showing the most basic respect to the Cosmic Gods of other universes.
But now! The human who had once defeated him had, through some unknown method, become a Cosmic God with the speed of lightning! This was the most unacceptable outcome for Cul. The drastic contrast nearly drove the serpent insane.
But the surrounding Xenomorphs paid no mind to his thoughts. The moment there was any possibility of him using regeneration or recovering his power, the Xenomorphs would immediately act, dicing his body into even smaller pieces, only ensuring that Cul's head remained largely intact.
A terrifyingly loud sound suddenly erupted, seeming to echo throughout the entire universe.
This was not just a clash of energy, but a disturbance in reality itself, caused by the strain on the fundamental structure of the universe.
Du Wa officially clashed with Knull, personally initiating this battle that drew the attention of all the top-tier beings in the entire universe.
This was a genuinely high-stakes game.
Du Wa was seen raising All-Black the Necrosword high. Wielding this constantly squirming symbiote, he made the first move, thrusting it toward Knull.
All the symbiotes surrounding and protecting Knull spontaneously showed signs of scattering. They shrieked sharply, their chaotic thoughts instinctively filled with awe and fear for All-Black the Necrosword.
All symbiotes were born from All-Black the Necrosword. And because Knull had continuously used high-temperature flames and struck it, creating noise, during the process of forging All-Black the Necrosword, all the symbiotes born from it inherited these same weaknesses.
And now, the ancestor of all symbiotes had fallen into Du Wa's hands and was fighting the god they now worshipped. The symbiotes fell into instinctual chaos.
"It seems your control over the symbiotes isn't as strong as I imagined, to be influenced by All-Black the Necrosword." Du Wa thrust the sword forward.
Knull had no intention of dodging. He raised a skeletal palm, brewing endless darkness, and lunged forward to grab it, seizing the longsword firmly in his hand, his face ferocious.
Du Wa didn't pause at all. Strange runes swirled around him, densely covering his body. In the next second, a vast divine power suddenly surged forth, clinging to All-Black the Necrosword, and with it, he cut through the darkness and wounded Knull's hand.
"I understand this weapon better than you. Don't think you can use it to defeat me just because you stole it through some cheap trick."
Knull looked down at the wound on his palm, feeling the invasion of the divine power's runes, which were madly destroying his body's structure from the wound.
Knull's attention was no longer on All-Black the Necrosword.
"There's actually a method like this... You've made the entire World Tree (Yggdrasil) help you. How did you do it? The World Tree doesn't have a unified will. How did you get it to side with you?"
"I promised to kill you, offer your soul to the World Tree, and take your body for myself. It's that simple. Evil God Knull, you may now address me as... the Rune God!"
Du Wa struck again. The madly surging divine light was naturally connected to the vast branches of the World Tree (Yggdrasil). This made his every move using divine power equivalent to mobilizing the vast region covered by the World Tree (Yggdrasil) itself, crushing Knull with the power of the world.
Streaks of rules manifested as divine power runes, transforming into heavy shackles that pressed down on Knull. The bizarre runes were all-pervasive, like living beings, frantically eroding the darkness that Knull represented.
Knull was unfamiliar with Du Wa's state, yet the way he mobilized the World Tree (Yggdrasil) felt very familiar, because he himself had a world called the Abyssal Realm within his body. Wherever he went, he could naturally use the power of the Abyssal Realm. And now, Du Wa possessed an even grander world.
In a trance, the figures of these two beings seemed to expand infinitely, becoming as large as galaxies. Their battle spanned across space-time, their surging forms reaching the edge of the universe, encompassing everything both inside and out.
"This is the first time I've seen the divine power of the World Tree (Yggdrasil) manifest in this runic form... You can stand before me because you have the power of the World Tree. Conversely, if someone who also originates from the World Tree can siphon away its power, it means you will become weaker..."
Knull's gaze became a little more serious, no longer driven by that reckless, insane instinct.
He was going to activate those races that had secretly defected to him.
(end of chapter)