According to the Ancient One, Drex Valen's increasing mass functioned similarly to Iceman's mutation.
Iceman could generate ice from nothing, effectively creating matter out of thin air. Even among Omega-level mutants, that ability was terrifying once you thought through the implications.
But Drex was far worse.
He wasn't creating new mass.
He was consuming the mass of the universe itself and adding it to his own existence.
Even if the process wasn't intentional, the consequences still spread across reality like cracks in glass, affecting not only this universe, but neighboring parallel universes as well.
"Can it be stopped?" Drex asked.
He couldn't suppress the phenomenon himself.
His biofield could isolate ordinary gravitational influence within physical reality, but if this attraction extended into higher-dimensional layers of existence, then conventional control methods became meaningless.
More importantly, there was no precedent for what he had become.
A Black Hole Kryptonian had never existed before.
Doomsday at least provided a rough template for adaptive mutation.
But Drex's self-evolved Black Hole Kryptonian state had already surpassed anything remotely comparable to Doomsday.
That made finding a solution much harder.
"You could try consuming the Infinity Stones," the Ancient One said.
Drex blinked.
"The Infinity Stones?"
That was not the direction he expected this conversation to take.
"The power contained within an Infinity Stone is not inferior to the energy of a universe," the Ancient One explained calmly. "Most beings simply lack the capacity to fully utilize them. But for you, they can function as fuel."
She looked directly at him.
"Even you would require an extremely long time to digest one completely."
Drex considered it for a moment before nodding.
To anyone else, the idea of eating an Infinity Stone sounded suicidal.
To Drex?
With the combined evolutionary traits of Doomsday and a Black Hole Kryptonian, it barely even qualified as a life-threatening risk.
"So how exactly do I eat one?"
"I recommend starting with the Power Stone."
That made sense immediately.
The Power Stone amplified the output of the other Infinity Stones. In many ways, it was the foundation that allowed the others to unleash their full potential.
It possessed effectively limitless physical energy.
An individual wielding it could manipulate and dominate nearly any form of force or energy imaginable.
It could reinforce the other Stones.
Copy physical superpowers.
Push offensive and defensive capabilities to absurd levels.
And most importantly…
The Power Stone itself contained an incomprehensible reservoir of raw energy.
Of course, "eating" it wasn't literal.
Otherwise Drex could simply swallow the gem whole and explode five seconds later.
Following the Ancient One's instructions, Drex released the restraints on his biofield.
The effect was immediate.
The temporary Mirror Dimension around them shattered apart instantly under the pressure of his unleashed mass.
Drex had become so impossibly dense that even reality warped violently around him.
For a fraction of a second, his gravitational pull threatened to annihilate everything within billions of light-years.
Then the Power Stone intervened.
Its energy flooded into the void like a cosmic dam sealing a collapsing star.
Brilliant purple light erupted from Drex's body.
The radiance surpassed a million suns.
No.
Far beyond that.
The raw radiation alone could exterminate countless lifeforms instantly. Even the Green Hulk probably wouldn't survive prolonged exposure to something like this.
Drex himself felt something entirely different.
Fullness.
Saturation.
As though a starving abyss inside him had finally been fed for the first time since his transformation.
The sensation was almost intoxicating.
As the Power Stone's energy fused into him, hundreds of new abilities surfaced instantly within his awareness.
But at this point, Drex barely cared.
Compared to what he already possessed, individual superpowers had become almost irrelevant.
"The Power Stone should sustain you for several centuries."
The Ancient One visibly relaxed.
From her higher-dimensional perspective, Drex no longer resembled the living embodiment of universal destruction.
Before this, what she perceived wasn't truly a person.
It was a black hole projected across higher-dimensional reality.
Even within subspace, Drex existed as an immense gravitational shadow radiating absolute force and death.
Just looking at it inspired instinctive dread.
Now, at least temporarily, that endless abyss had been sealed.
Agamotto's request had finally been completed.
Drex rolled his shoulders slightly, purple energy flickering beneath his skin.
"'Several centuries' doesn't sound especially reliable," he said dryly. "My growth rate isn't exactly slowing down."
The jump from single-universe existence to higher universal tiers wasn't something measurable with ordinary numbers.
It was infinity layered upon infinity.
A conceptual leap impossible to quantify.
But Drex had a feeling that if he underwent another major mutation, he might cross into multiversal territory outright.
Especially considering what future Franklin Richards had once said.
Uncle Drex was his hero.
Whether that admiration came from personality or sheer power remained unclear.
Still, by that future point, Drex would almost certainly have surpassed single-universe limits already.
He was dangerously close even now.
"These were the conclusions reached by Agamotto and the Vishanti," the Ancient One replied.
In truth, when she first realized Drex might eventually trigger universal collapse, her original solution had been very different.
She had considered turning him into a dimensional entity.
There were countless unclaimed dimensions scattered throughout existence. She could have sealed Drex inside one easily enough.
Eventually, he would likely evolve into a true dimensional god.
At that point, interfering with physical reality would become far more difficult.
Dormammu would probably have lost his mind hearing that plan.
The man had clawed and struggled his way into becoming a dimensional ruler.
Meanwhile Drex could apparently achieve the same thing by accident and still get to choose his dimension afterward.
Unfortunately, Agamotto and the Vishanti rejected the idea immediately.
Because Drex had another option.
He could simply consume the dimension itself.
If that happened, his total mass would exceed the mass of the current universe entirely, accelerating either universal collapse or universal fusion catastrophically.
Thankfully, the Infinity Stones offered a safer alternative.
The Power Stone alone could buy several hundred years.
Even if each remaining Infinity Stone only delayed the problem for another century, that still created a massive buffer.
Drex narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
"Agamotto and the Vishanti seem unusually interested in me."
Being watched by entities on that level rarely meant anything good.
Drex strongly suspected at least part of them wanted to trick him into some abandoned dimension and lock him away forever.
Not that he was especially worried about it.
After all…
What prison in existence could truly contain a being created from the fusion of Doomsday evolution and a Black Hole Kryptonian?