Chapter 79

Lucifer stepped through the portal, and upon arriving in the Marvel world, he calmly observed his surroundings, quickly realizing they were on Earth. He scanned the area in silence, then tilted his head to the sky, studying the stars. Even if they weren't directly in his line of sight, he could still see everything.

After a while, his gaze fell to his own body. He noticed the shift immediately—he had grown weaker. Outside his father's omniverse, he had lost the power granted to him. Not that it mattered much—he rarely relied on that power. Still, this world wasn't shaped by his hands. Space and time here did not bend to his will.

Lucifer's gaze swept across the world around him before shifting back to Ashborn and the others who had followed him through the portal.

"Seems like the other abstracts of Him aren't all that creative," Lucifer said mockingly. Ashborn just rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the surroundings, scanning the area. It didn't take him long to realize which universe they'd entered—this was the same Marvel universe he had once conquered.

The confirmation came easily. He could feel it—his strength had multiplied a hundredfold the moment his feet touched Earth.

"The Living Tribunal repaired all the damage caused," Ember said lightly as her body began breaking apart, returning to the Hot White Room. Across the multiverse, her avatars followed suit, vanishing one by one—though a few couldn't return for reasons.

"This is my universe… I have to go die," Ashborn muttered before opening a portal. On the other side, he appeared before a well—ancient and silent.

Lucifer, Supergirl, and the others stepped through the portal moments later, arriving before the legendary Well of Mimir.

"Interesting," Lucifer said, his eyes calmly studying the well.

Everyone turned their attention to it, curiosity gleaming in their eyes. But Ashborn's gaze lingered with deeper purpose. He wasn't just looking—he was thinking. The Well of Mimir could grant him wisdom, but the question was: what should he sacrifice?

There was a difference between wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence. And what Ashborn sought now was the wisdom needed to become a true Shadow Sovereign.

"You're not going to get in the way, right?" Ashborn asked, casting a glance at Lucifer, to which Lucifer rolled his eyes. 

"I'm not so bored as to get in your way. I might even help you out if things go wrong," Lucifer said with a light smile.

Ashborn nodded at that, fully trusting him—Lucifer was too arrogant to lie.

Without hesitation, Ashborn's body shifted, becoming half spiritual, half physical. He clenched his jaw, then gritted his teeth and reached for his right eye. The pain would be immense, both physical and spiritual. That's why he didn't try to ease it out slowly.

With one swift motion, he yanked the eye free. A scream tore from his throat as the pain hit like a crashing wave.

Lucifer held Supergirl and the others back, stopping them from interfering as Ashborn dropped his right eye into the well. Gasping for breath, Ashborn steadied himself before reaching for his left eye. The second scream was worse than the first, raw and guttural.

Thankfully, he was only as strong as a normal human at the moment—otherwise, all of eternity would have felt the weight of his agony.

But he didn't stop at just his eyes. Next, he sacrificed his sense of taste, then his sense of smell. By then, he was too weak to continue on his own.

He turned to Raven and the others, asking for help with the remaining sacrifices. He couldn't do it alone.

Taking a deep breath, he sacrificed his sense of touch. Instantly, everything vanished. He couldn't feel his body, couldn't feel movement, or even tell if his commands were being obeyed. The only confirmation of his existence came from sound—yet even that felt fragile. He had to breathe intentionally and loudly, just to hear it, just to remind himself that he was still alive.

Then he sacrificed his hearing. That was when the real silence began.

The moment his sense of hearing faded, he was completely blind to the world. He couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel. Not even his thoughts carried sound. It was as if he had been erased from existence.

He felt nothing. He was nothing. And what made this void unbearable was time. His sense of it warped beyond recognition. Had it been seconds since the last sacrifice? Years? Billions? There was no way to tell.

That uncertainty… that timeless, formless state… that was true torture.

"Hurry—his sense of time is completely unanchored. The longer he stays like this, the more his mind will dissolve into nothingness," Lucifer warned, watching as the well began to overflow.

At his words, Raven moved fast. She drew the water from the well and carefully guided it into Ashborn's mouth, helping him drink—because his body certainly wasn't going to do it on its own.

Suddenly, Ashborn's eyes shot open. Everyone except Lucifer instinctively stepped back, startled by the sight. His eyes… they were missing, but in the void left behind was something hard to put into words… they held no color. Not black—black was still a color. Not white, nor gray. They were not beyond color, for they were nothing. 

What now stared back at them were eyes made to perceive nothingness—eyes that could look directly into the void and see it in all its glory.

But it wasn't just his sight—every one of Ashborn's five senses had evolved. He could now sense nothing. And that, in itself, was everything. Ashborn had gained nothing, and as that was the most valuable thing he could ever possess.

"What is nothing?" Lucifer asked with genuine curiosity, his eyes gleaming with intrigue.

Ashborn didn't answer right away. Instead, he looked toward the sky. His eyes pierced through all barriers—through space, time, and concept—until they landed on a distant, watching presence.

Oblivion… And Oblivion… was staring back in shock.

"Nothing is nothing. Nothing isn't anything—it's just… nothing. Yet, from nothing, something can be born. But at the end of the day, that something is still nothing. Everything is nothing. What is… is nothing. What can be… is nothing. All isn't, for it is nothing." Ashborn said with a faint smile.

Lucifer nodded, understanding the words. Supergirl and Wonder Woman exchanged confused glances, while Raven remained still, a thoughtful expression forming on her face.

Without another word, Ashborn summoned darkness and floated into the sky, ascending toward the branches of Yggdrasill. From nothing, he forged a rope—one made not of matter, but of concept. He tied it to the root of the World Tree, then made himself completely mortal.

And then… he hanged himself. He didn't just die. He offered himself—a sacrifice not of body, but of being.

Because death didn't exist in this universe, Ashborn's death was… unique. He didn't pass on. He became nothing.

His body vanished. His soul was erased. All that remained was his will—drifting, conscious, and alone within Nothing… also known as Oblivion.

"You dare to come," Oblivion laughed, its voice like crumbling galaxies as it took the form of a vast, coiling serpent. It swallowed Ashborn's will whole, trapping him within its boundless emptiness, allowing no escape.

But Ashborn didn't resist. He didn't struggle. He was busy—his will gaining the power of the runes etched into the very fabric of Oblivion.

What are the Runes? The Runes are not just magic—they are the keys to knowledge beyond comprehension. They grant their wielder access to understanding that would otherwise remain eternally out of reach.

But the knowledge the Runes bestow isn't fixed. It's shaped by who you are… and what you've lived through.

When Odin mastered the Runes, he became all-knowing in the ways of the gods. Every divine secret, every celestial truth—he knew it all.

But Thor… Thor was different. He had lived as both a god and a man. Because of that, the Runes granted him more than just godly wisdom—they gave him omniscient understanding of gods, mortals, animals, minerals, and even the underlying nature of reality itself.

He knew everything. And the power didn't stop there. The Runes also granted powerful spells—spells so potent they bordered on divine authority. One such spell allowed the wielder to will other beings into nothingness.

But what about Ashborn? The Runes didn't just show him the ways of gods or mortals—they granted him the knowledge of humans, gods, and even the Shadows themselves. Every whisper of fear, every secret hidden in the dark, every truth only a shadow would know… all of it became his.

"Arise." The command echoed across Nothing.

Ashborn's will ignited—his will exploded with darkness, erupting from the void like a cosmic storm. Oblivion was thrown back, unable to consume him. From nothingness, Ashborn reshaped himself, piece by piece, until he stood reborn.

The power of the Runes began to fuse with everything—his shadow force, his Anti-Crisis energy, his dominion over darkness. It was wild. Untamed. Unstable. But none of that mattered. In this moment, Ashborn was reborn..

"Round two?" Ashborn asked with a smirk. Oblivion didn't respond right away. Instead, it summoned the full weight of its domain, letting the crushing silence of Nothing press down on reality itself. But then… it paused.

It saw through the illusion. Yes, Ashborn could influence it. Yes, he held command over shadows. But that truth was only half the story.

With a grin that stretched across infinity, Oblivion took on a humanoid form, stepping forward like a god come to pass judgment. It rejected Ashborn's call for control.

Even as Ashborn commanded it, through will, through sheer force of dominance, it was useless. Because at the end of the day… Oblivion wasn't a shadow.

It was the primordial source, the birthplace of shadows. Light and darkness may have clashed to birth the first shade, but Oblivion was the silent void that cradled both before time even dared to crawl.

And now, the fact that it once feared Ashborn? That truth enraged it more than anything. Why should a god fear its descendant?

Oblivion's fist slammed into Ashborn's face, only to pass through it without resistance. Oblivion's eyes widened. Ashborn was already gone.

In the split second before Oblivion unleashed its full might, Ashborn had vanished, slipping from its domain like a shadow fleeing the light. It had been a bluff all along. Ashborn knew he wasn't ready.

"Ashborn!" Oblivion's voice thundered across existence, shaking the walls of creation itself as it roared toward the Omniverse. But it was too late.

The Living Tribunal had already reinforced the barriers. They shimmered like an eternal firewall, repelling the reach of the void. Oblivion snarled, trapped for now. But it knew the truth. If Ashborn were left unchecked, he would rise.

He would keep growing, until even the primordial void would be forced to kneel. Because at the end of the day… Shadows are born of light and darkness, and Ashborn was Sovereign of both.

"So, you conquered this universe… why didn't you make some changes to it? Turn it into a shadow realm or something?" Raven asked, walking alongside Supergirl and Wonder Woman as they followed Ashborn toward Asgard's prison.

"Well, I never had time," Ashborn replied with a shrug. "Besides, I'm not planning on staying here long anyway."

They arrived at the prison, only for Ashborn to come to a sudden stop. His eyes narrowed as he took in the scene before him. All the gods of death he'd once locked away… were gone.

"What a pain… looks like someone stopped by while I was gone. But who?" Ashborn muttered with a frown.

It had been a while since he'd given the gods he imprisoned any thought. Back then, during his time in this universe, he was focused on finding the Sentry and the Molecule Man.

That was when he discovered the gods of death had already been imprisoned by someone else. And since he was curious about who imprisoned them, he left them locked away… for the time being, since he was busy worrying about Gorr and incoming danger. Now, the real question was—who was behind all of this?

"Well, let's look for a universe… By the way, where's Lucifer?" Ashborn asked.

The others only shrugged. Lucifer had suddenly said goodbye and taken off without warning. Ashborn just shrugged back, unfazed, and opened a portal to a random universe.

Within a graveyard, in that universe, a blonde-haired young man was found crying his eyes out before a tombstone, a letter clenched tightly in his hand. He looked broken, like life had hit him harder than he could handle. Rain poured down, mixing with his tears, when suddenly, he froze, as his 6 sense suddenly went off.

{A/N: The fusion between all of his energy and such things will be finished soon}