"Behold—our Holy Speedster."
At that moment, Molecule Man stepped up beside Doctor Doom, both of them gazing toward the other side.
On that side, Bruce appeared to have already anticipated what was happening. His expression remained entirely unchanged, unaffected by the current situation.
Doctor Doom merely cast a glance at Molecule Man, saying nothing. Then, in the next moment, the door to the core chamber of the World Library—the very room of the Great Destroyer himself—was slowly pushed open by the Black Swans.
A figure emerged—a man draped in robes, his temples tinged with white.
Though he was clearly in poor condition, he still forced himself to speak as he stood at the entrance, "Hello, is anyone there?"
"Come in," came the voice of Doctor Doom from within.
The man at the door began to slowly walk forward.
Doctor Doom looked at the man with a touch of surprise. He had considered the possibility of the Bat arriving—but never expected to meet him here.
He turned and walked toward the man, dismissing the Black Swans with a wave.
"Never, in any universe, any world, any timeline, did I expect to meet you. Hello, Stephen. It's been a long time."
Indeed, the one who had arrived was none other than Stephen Strange—also known as Doctor Strange.
But now, he bore another title: High Priest of the Dark Acolytes.
He had long been investigating the identity of the Great Destroyer. Yet, he had never imagined that the Great Destroyer would be Doctor Doom.
Just as Doom hadn't expected to see him here, Strange was equally shocked.
"My God! Doctor Doom… you're the Great Destroyer?" Doctor Strange exclaimed in disbelief.
Doctor Doom stepped up to Strange, looking down at the gray-templed sorcerer.
"That's right. I am the Great Destroyer. I founded a religion—it was that faith which ignited the fire in my heart. And that fire has burned hot enough for me to complete the work at hand," Doom declared, turning slightly to glance at Molecule Man.
At that moment, Molecule Man was pulling Bruce—and another version of himself—from another dimension.
"We're ready for battle, Stephen. We have a plan. But having one more won't hurt. Do you remember Owen?"
Doctor Doom introduced the man behind him to Strange.
"Oh—and there's also a Bat."
Though Doctor Doom felt uneasy upon learning of the Bat's presence, he chose to set those feelings aside in light of the current circumstances.
Strange was well acquainted with Owen. As for the Bat, he wasn't very familiar—but when he saw the golden lightning-emblazoned armor, he quickly pieced together the man's identity.
"The Holy Speedster."
As the leader of the Dark Acolytes, Strange was naturally well-versed in the events of countless parallel worlds.
Though the Bat had never founded a religion as Doom had, many who once caught even a fleeting glimpse of him were so struck by that golden silhouette that they worshiped him like a divine being.
And so, the title of Holy Speedster was born.
That was one of the reasons why Owen had previously referred to Bruce by that title.
However, Bruce and Doctor Doom typically operated in different universes.
Molecule Man had intentionally kept Doom and the Bat apart—because the time wasn't right. But now, things were different. Now, they were about to launch their final counterattack.
Molecule Man had provided Doctor Doom with the coordinates of a universe Bruce was about to enter, instructing him to go there and kill his alternate self.
Given Doctor Doom's nature, he would inevitably notice something strange—and at that point, Molecule Man would explain everything to them.
Strange was about to say something—
—but Molecule Man, Owen, spoke up.
"All the elements are in place. Everything we built before is about to crumble—because the Ivory Kings, the Beyonders… they are waiting." Molecule Man absorbed the body that had been following Bruce, his expression twisted as he stared intently at the floating blocks before him.
"How do we fight them? The only way… is poison for poison. Only divine power can kill a god."
Molecule Man's face was serious. Meanwhile, Doctor Doom—the Great Destroyer—began explaining to Doctor Strange how they had built everything.
It was a story. One strange and somewhat disturbing.
Molecule Man had taken Doctor Doom to the very beginning.
Back to the point where the broken mirror began to be restored. Back to when the end of all things first began.
They witnessed the birthplace of Molecule Man—back when Owen hadn't yet become who he is now.
A machine, powered by both magic and perfect science, was activated. It funneled immense energy into Owen's body, transforming him into the Molecule Man.
It was there that Molecule Man personally killed his first self.
This act drew the attention of the Beyonders, who were curious: how did Molecule Man die?
Molecule Man also led Doctor Doom to a location within the World Library—one built by the Beyonders and later abandoned.
This place, like the Beyonders themselves, existed in an unobservable space. From there, the Beyonders could observe all of creation—and similarly, any activity conducted there would also become unobservable.
In those days, the Beyonders still considered life to be a worthwhile experiment.
But now, they were about to conduct a grander experiment: simulating the collapse of the entire multiverse.
Molecule Man gave Doctor Doom a mission—kill as many versions of himself as possible.
But he gave Bruce a mission that was the exact opposite: save as many versions of him as possible.
At first glance, these tasks were completely contradictory. But Molecule Man was truly doing both.
Doctor Doom needed the help of religion to carry out his task. Bruce did not.
As a speedster, Bruce could instantly travel to different worlds, to different timelines, rescuing the Molecule Men of those realities.
Listening to Doctor Doom, Strange could hardly imagine—how many universes had Doom visited? How many Molecule Men had he killed?
And how many more had his followers killed in his name?
But Doctor Doom had not yet finished speaking.
Ten years had passed since the massacre of the Molecule Men. At last, the Beyonders realized that something had gone wrong with their experiment and began searching for the cause of its failure.
Just as they had previously released self-destruct machines into the multiverse, they now released a virus into real space—one that could potentially solve the problem.
Any sentient artificial intelligence capable of multiversal traversal would be automatically infected. The virus was highly programmatic, able to disguise itself while turning all machines into surveillance tools for the Beyonders.
The Cartographers and Bridge-Builders scouted the worlds where the Molecule Men had died, marking the territories patrolled by the Black Swans of the Great Destroyer—marking the worlds that would be sacrificed.
At the same time, they also protected those universes that would be needed for future invasion incursions.
Doctor Doom finished narrating all of this.
Strange widened his eyes in disbelief.
"This is… this is truly unimaginable. So the Dark Priest—is he just another pawn in the game, or something else entirely?"
"No. What's interesting is that your Dark Priest appeared around the same time as the Cartographers. Although it's difficult to measure precisely, after many years I've come to believe they are a kind of defense mechanism of the multiverse itself," Doctor Doom said seriously, staring at Strange.
Strange, however, cast his gaze toward the distant figure of the Bat. He wanted to see if the Bat could tell a different story.
But Bruce said nothing. He simply stood in place, silently watching the present Doctor Doom and Strange conversing.
Bruce clearly had no intention of speaking, and Strange realized there was no way this Bat would provide another version of events.
It was the Molecule Man who broke the silence.
"No need to be so shocked. But then again, look at humanity. Some people spend their entire lives chasing dreams and illusions. They keep chasing and chasing, never realizing in the end that it was all just a grand illusion. Don't you find that kind of pitiful?"
As Owen said this, he momentarily looked away from the floating cubes before him and glanced at Strange.
At that moment, Doctor Strange suddenly fell silent, recalling the woman who had claimed to be a Black Swan, the one the Illuminati had captured before he left Earth.
"Before I left Earth, Reed and I caught a Black Swan. Logically, she should've been one of yours, but her story differed greatly from yours."
Doctor Doom didn't seem the least bit concerned—he was long accustomed to such things. Even though he used faith to bind the Black Swans to his side, how could there be no traitors?
"All Pathfinders were once believers, Stephen. All divergence stems from misunderstanding—you understand this well. You uphold your sanctum's purity, while in Doom's temple, I am the highest faith." There was little emotion in Doom's eyes as he spoke.
He calmly recounted the swans who had betrayed him.
"There are things they should never have seen. Be it the true form of the Great Destroyer or the radiant light of the coming salvation. But some dared to question. Some dared to seek the truth. For those who knew, I could only send them down another path. A path no different from the Beyonders'—an early end to all things."
Strange quickly asked, "What happened to them? What did you do to those who betrayed you?"
"He did nothing," Bruce spoke up at this point, looking at the bewildered Strange. "The Molecule Man showed them something—something they believed could succeed."
"That's also the reason I exist."
As he said this, Bruce turned his gaze toward the Molecule Man, who was still manipulating the floating cubes.
The Molecule Man suddenly burst into laughter, his expression turning wild.
The ground cracked open, revealing once more what had been shown to Doctor Doom—now presented to Strange.
"In the name of the Land of the Forgotten, and the Seven Layers of Hell!" Strange looked at the sight before him, his face filled with terror.
The Molecule Man leaned in and chuckled as he gazed at it: "Isn't this a work of genius? Of course, you could call it a work of madness—but either way, it's a masterpiece."
"It's time for us to proceed." As he spoke, the Molecule Man began guiding Doctor Doom, Bruce, and the unexpected guest, Strange, onto the time transmission device.
"After all this time, haven't we both started to question the omnipotence of our enemies?" Bruce looked toward Doctor Doom.
"I and the Molecule Man can go back in time and kill those versions of Molecule Men used as bombs. Why can't they?" Doom followed up.
"To go back in time, to strike me down when we first disagreed—putting aside the non-linear and overly simplistic nature of the Pandora effect—I suddenly realized something."
"The Beyonders can't do it. That's their weakness, their limit. Even if they believe themselves omnipotent, they still have boundaries. They cannot traverse the timeline like we can." Bruce looked at Strange as the device beneath their feet activated.
A massive space-time vortex appeared before them.
But the first thing to pass through the vortex wasn't them—it was a massive cube.
The same awe-inspiring object Strange had seen earlier.
They arrived in a void, but the floating fragments and a nearby object resembling Thor's hammer spoke of a fierce battle that had once taken place here.
"I have to ask—what's the point of all this? If the outcome is destruction regardless, how are you any better than them?" Strange truly didn't understand the purpose behind Doctor Doom, the Molecule Man, and the Bat's actions.
In the end, everything would be destroyed. Nothing could be preserved.
"Ask yourself this: if we could avoid our own end, wouldn't that still mean something? Even if we could save just a little?" Doctor Doom's words left Strange silent for a long while, before he finally nodded.
The next moment, Doctor Doom unleashed the energy he had long prepared, striking at the void before him.
The pitch-black emptiness was instantly torn apart, revealing a blindingly brilliant rift. From within that rift poured a white light too radiant to look upon.
"We, who transcend all things—dreamers, destroyers. Our will brings forth all creation. Who dares stand before us?"
"I do! DOCTOR DOOM!!"
And just as Doom shouted at the white light, something shifted in the mental cage within Bruce's mind.
(End of Chapter)
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