The spatial rift sealed itself behind them.

Everyone stopped in their tracks.

Tony’s faceplate slid open. His mouth moved, but no words came out.

Thor’s grip on Stormbreaker trembled—not from fear, but from sheer shock.

Even someone like Strange, who had witnessed countless dimensional wonders, could only let out a low sigh.

Before them stood an altar.

An altar built from planets.

Countless dead planetary husks drifted through the void, rotating slowly in accordance with some bizarre geometric pattern.

Each one was the size of Earth.

Some were even larger.

As though pulled by invisible strings, they were stacked layer upon layer, extending upward beyond the limits of sight.

Levi made a rough estimate.

At least three thousand planets.

Three thousand worlds that had once nurtured civilizations had been reduced to building blocks for this monument.

At the very top of the altar hung a gigantic eye.

More accurately, it resembled an eye socket.

A pitch-black outline with a hollow interior, like a door that had yet to open.

There was no pupil.

No light.

It simply hovered there in silence.

Yet Levi could feel it.

It was watching them.

Watching the entire multiverse.

Wanda instinctively tightened her hold on Adam as Chaos Magic formed a thin protective barrier around her.

Strangely enough, Adam wasn’t crying.

The infant stared unblinkingly at the Eye of the Void, his tiny face carrying an expression that was somewhere between curiosity and something else entirely.

Levi noticed.

The Void Origin within Adam was fluctuating again.

Its frequency was higher than before, almost resonating with the altar itself.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

"So this is their goal?" Clark’s voice came from beside him, heavy with restrained anger. "Using the corpses of countless civilizations to build... this?"

Levi didn’t answer immediately.

His silver-white eyes blazed as his Authority of Observation operated at full capacity. Torrents of data streamed through his vision as he analyzed every detail of the altar.

Three seconds later, his expression changed.

Not anger.

Not shock.

Gravity.

"This isn’t an altar."

His voice was quiet, yet everyone heard it clearly.

"It’s an editor."

"An editor?" Tony’s voice sounded dry.

Levi nodded.

Data continued flowing through his pupils.

He could see the operating logic hidden inside the structure.

Those planetary remains weren’t merely stacked together.

Every planet’s position, angle, and distance had been calculated with extraordinary precision.

Together, they formed an immense runic array.

Its purpose was simple:

To rewrite the source code of the multiverse.

"What do you mean by source code?" Strange frowned.

Levi took a moment to organize his thoughts.

"Think of it this way."

"If the multiverse is a computer, then things like physical laws, causality, and the flow of time are its operating system."

He pointed toward the dead worlds.

"And this altar is a formatting program that’s currently running."

"It’s not destroying."

"It’s filtering."

"Any civilization that doesn’t meet a certain standard gets classified as a virus and deleted."

"What standard?" Thor asked in a low voice.

Levi shook his head.

"No idea."

"But my guess is... the aesthetic preferences of the Beyonders."

Silence fell.

Aesthetic preferences.

Such a subjective, arbitrary concept.

Yet it determined the life and death of countless civilizations.

"So what do we do?" Wanda asked, tension evident in her voice. "Destroy it directly?"

Levi shook his head again.

"We can’t."

His gaze settled upon the hollow Eye of the Void above.

"This altar has already become entangled with the foundational logic of the multiverse."

"Destroying it by force would be like pulling the power plug while the operating system is running."

"What happens then?" Clark asked.

Levi looked at him.

"Best-case scenario? Half the multiverse collapses."

"Worst-case scenario? All of it."

Clark said nothing.

At that moment, a deep rumble emerged from the altar’s depths.

Like a colossal heart beginning to beat.

Levi’s pupils contracted.

"It’s here."

The instant he spoke, a crack split open in the center of the altar.

A hand emerged.

Pitch-black, yet gleaming with a strange silver radiance.

The hand gripped the edge of the altar and pushed upward.

A figure slowly rose into view.

A humanoid being.

Though calling it humanoid wasn’t entirely accurate.

Its body was composed entirely of antimatter.

Its outline wavered like compressed black mist forced into human form.

Its eyes, however, were unmistakable.

Two burning white flames floated upon its featureless face.

"A Transcendent Apostle."

Levi’s voice remained calm, though everyone could hear the seriousness beneath it.

"The altar’s guardian."

The creature stood at the center of the altar, looking down upon them.

It had no mouth.

Yet its voice echoed directly inside every mind present.

"Contamination source identified."

No emotion.

No hostility.

Only the cold efficiency of a machine executing a program.

"Commencing purge."

Before the words even finished, it moved.

So fast that even Levi only caught a blur.

The next instant, the black hand was already in front of Thor, fingers spread wide toward his face.

Thor reacted instantly, bringing Stormbreaker across his body.

BOOM!

Thor was launched backward, tumbling through space over a dozen times before regaining control.

He glanced at his arms and his expression changed.

Fine cracks had appeared across his armor.

They were spreading visibly.

"This thing’s attacks are corrosive!" Thor shouted.

Levi had already moved.

Golden light erupted around him.

Fourteen Laws activated simultaneously, forming a flowing shield around his body.

He charged the Transcendent Apostle and threw a punch.

The two forces collided in the void.

An invisible shockwave exploded outward, reducing dozens of planetary remnants to dust.

Levi’s fist stopped midair.

The black hand had caught it effortlessly.

The Apostle tilted its head, as though examining an interesting toy.

"Peak single-universe level."

Its voice sounded within Levi’s mind.

"Interesting. But insufficient."

Its other hand was already descending.

Levi vanished.

Space Law activated.

He reappeared a hundred meters away.

The Apostle was faster.

It appeared at his new position as though teleporting, bringing its palm down once more.

This time Levi didn’t dodge.

He raised his left hand, pouring all fourteen Laws into a counterstrike.

BOOM!

The resulting shockwave obliterated hundreds of nearby planets.

Levi was blasted backward before finally stabilizing himself. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

He looked down at his hand.

Gray-white spots had appeared across the back of it.

They were spreading rapidly.

Existence erosion.

This wasn’t merely physical damage.

The Apostle’s attacks erased existence itself on a conceptual level.

Levi took a deep breath.

The Law of Greed activated.

The spreading grayness was forcibly devoured and converted into his own energy.

Even so, the process consumed a significant amount of strength.

Thor charged back into battle.

Stormbreaker carved a dazzling arc through the void.

The power of all six Infinity Stones intertwined upon the blade.

This strike possessed enough force to annihilate a galaxy.

The Apostle didn’t even turn around.

A new arm emerged from its back and casually caught the axe.

Thor’s expression darkened.

He could feel his power being drained.

No.

Not drained.

Converted.

His divine power was being transformed into antimatter energy and redirected against him.

Clark struck from the flank.

His silver-white body carried catastrophic momentum as he slammed a fist into the Apostle’s side.

For the first time, the creature staggered.

But only slightly.

The Apostle turned its head.

Its white flame eyes fixed on Clark.

"Interesting."

Its voice echoed through every mind.

"The physique of a Kryptonian, enhanced by the concept of a dead universe. You would make excellent nourishment."

Its body began to expand.

Three meters.

Ten.

Twenty.

Fifty.

The black mass eclipsed half the altar.

Countless tendrils erupted from its body and swept toward everyone present.

Alarms screamed from Tony’s armor.

Strange’s Vishanti Shields trembled on the verge of collapse.

Wanda’s Chaos Magic could barely protect herself and Adam.

Then Adam moved.

The infant slipped free from his mother’s arms and floated into the void.

His eyes turned completely black.

The Void Origin inside him surged wildly.

A visible black domain spread outward.

The Void Domain.

The instant the incoming tendrils touched it, they melted away like ice thrown into a furnace.

The Apostle froze.

Its white flame eyes locked onto Adam.

For the first time, something akin to surprise appeared within them.

"A Child of the Void?"

Its voice became strange.

"The bloodline of the Transcendent Realm flows within you."

Levi’s pupils shrank.

The Transcendent Realm.

Coming from a Transcendent Apostle, the implications were obvious.

Adam’s origins were far more complicated than Levi had imagined.

But there was no time to dwell on it.

Levi raised a hand.

The gate to his Inner Universe opened once more.

This time, ten times as many Void Walkers poured forth.

Within the antimatter environment, they evolved at a terrifying pace.

Their bodies swelled in size.

The gold-red flames covering them darkened, becoming streaked with eerie black.

"Go."

Levi’s voice was calm.

"Eat it."

The Void Walkers surged toward the Apostle.

These lifeforms, created within Levi’s Inner Universe, had undergone another transformation in the antimatter environment.

Their bodies were no longer merely gold and crimson.

Black patterns twisted across their forms, as though antimatter had rewritten their genetic code.

More importantly—

They weren’t afraid of death.

Or rather, to a Void Walker, death itself was a form of feeding.

The first one pounced upon the Apostle and bit down.

A chunk of antimatter flesh was torn away.

The Void Walker swallowed it.

Its body visibly expanded.

For a fraction of a second, the Apostle hesitated.

This was the first time it had encountered something capable of directly devouring its body.

Only a fraction of a second.

Then its form exploded outward.

Countless tendrils pierced the Void Walker from every direction.

Yet instead of dying, the creature climbed up those tendrils and continued feeding.

More Void Walkers swarmed in.

The battlefield became a bizarre tug-of-war.

The Apostle slaughtered.

The Void Walkers fed.

Both sides consumed one another while simultaneously gaining power from the exchange.

Levi didn’t join the struggle.

His attention had shifted elsewhere.

To Adam.

The child continued floating in the void.

His black domain kept expanding.

At its borders, space itself twisted and unraveled, as though reality were being erased.

The Apostle noticed as well.

Its burning eyes remained fixed on Adam.

"Child of the Void."

Levi’s heart sank.

He remembered what it had said earlier:

"The bloodline of the Transcendent Realm flows within you."

The Transcendent Realm.

The home of the Beyonders.

A place beyond the multiverse itself.

And Adam—his and Wanda’s son—carried the bloodline of that place?

Impossible.

Wanda was the Scarlet Witch, embodiment of Chaos Magic.

Levi, despite all his powers, had originally been nothing more than an ordinary transmigrator.

How could their child be connected to the Beyonders?

Unless...

Levi’s gaze fell upon the Void Origin within Adam.

Where had that power come from?

Wanda’s Chaos Magic?

The countless energies fused together within Levi himself?

Or something else entirely?

He had no time to think.

Because the Apostle moved.

Abandoning its struggle against the Void Walkers, it transformed into a bolt of black lightning and charged directly toward Adam.

Levi reacted even faster.

Space Law activated.

He appeared in front of his son.

All fourteen Laws erupted simultaneously, forming a flowing barrier.

The Apostle’s attack slammed into the shield with a thunderous impact.

Levi was forced back several steps.

But the barrier held.

Steadying himself, he stared coldly at the giant before him.

"Don’t touch my son."

His voice was quiet.

Every word sounded squeezed through clenched teeth.

The Apostle stopped.

Its white flame eyes shifted between Levi and Adam.

Then it laughed.

A strange, unreadable laugh.

"Interesting."

Its voice reverberated through every mind.

"The father of a Child of the Void... is merely a mortal."

The Apostle slowly retreated.

It seemed to have lost interest in fighting.

"Let me tell you a secret, mortal."

Its voice became oddly amused.

"Do you believe the Anti-Monitor is the protagonist of this war?"

"No."

"It is merely a janitor."

"The true master still sleeps."

Its gaze settled upon Adam once more.

Within those white flames flickered an emotion Levi couldn’t decipher.

"And your son..."

"He will be the key that awakens the master."

The moment the words ended, the Apostle’s body began dissolving.

Like black mist scattered by the wind.

Levi attacked.

His power passed straight through the fading darkness.

Nothing connected.

The Apostle vanished.

The battlefield fell silent.

Only the Void Walkers remained, continuing to feed amidst the shattered remains of the altar.

Levi turned toward Adam.

The child had returned to normal.

His eyes were no longer black.

He simply stared up at his father with innocent curiosity.

Levi remained silent for a long time.

Then he raised his head and looked toward the hollow Eye of the Void atop the altar.

It still had no pupil.

No light.

Yet Levi could feel it.

It was watching him.

Watching Adam.

Waiting.

For something.

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