Drex Valen had reached the absolute summit of mortal existence.
The world before his eyes no longer resembled the one ordinary beings perceived. He could see the finest streams of particles, reality stripped down to its most fundamental quantum state. Every fluctuation, every interaction, every hidden process lay exposed before him.
By tracing those particle currents, he could even glimpse echoes of the past.
Reality itself had unfolded completely.
Using the immense black hole singularity that now formed the core of his existence, Drex simultaneously embodied the infinitely large and the infinitely small. Existence and nonexistence coexisted within him.
Space and time around him twisted violently.
Matter on the planetary surface shattered apart and drifted upward as though gravity had reversed. Then the distortion expanded further.
The Earth itself began to disintegrate.
Countless fragments of matter stretched, compressed, and refined themselves near the black hole-like gateway until they were reduced beyond observation and vanished entirely.
Using the black hole core's naturally occurring tunnel-like properties, Drex repeatedly extracted energy through a specialized process and injected it into the quantum vacuum. Corresponding energy oscillations formed on the negative-energy side of reality.
For the first time, he caught a glimpse of the realm countless scientists had dreamed of discovering.
Negative Space.
Its physical laws differed dramatically from those of normal space, yet the two realms were still inseparable, like opposite sides of the same coin.
Different in appearance.
One in essence.
With his vast scientific knowledge and virtually limitless computational ability, Drex quickly identified the physical principles governing this alien environment. By comparing similarities, inversions, and corresponding constants between the two realities, he established entirely new systems for identifying matter and describing physical phenomena.
The process greatly expanded his understanding of existence itself.
Gravity, or perhaps spacetime itself, seemed to be the one property shared almost perfectly between both realms.
Using gravitational analysis enhanced by shallow four-dimensional displacement, he rapidly mapped the structure of Negative Space.
"...So small."
Compared to the boundless expanse of normal space, the distribution of matter here was almost laughably compact.
The density of matter and energy had reached terrifying levels.
Even the regions with the lowest energy output rivaled the interior of a star.
With this new data, Drex finally understood the true nature of dark matter and dark energy in normal space.
They were macroscopic manifestations of the connection between positive and negative space.
In normal space, dark energy consumed dark matter and drove the universe's accelerating expansion, pushing everything toward the ultimate fate known as the Big Rip.
Negative Space followed the opposite trend.
Here, "dark matter" continuously accumulated, pulling all matter together.
The result was an incredibly dense cosmic mass with almost no true vacuum remaining, collapsing endlessly toward an infinitely small singularity.
One universe expanded.
The other contracted.
One marched toward disintegration.
The other toward absolute collapse.
According to Drex's calculations, if the process continued uninterrupted, the two realms would eventually exchange roles during a catastrophic cosmic transition.
Negative Space, after collapsing into a singularity, would explode outward in a new Big Bang.
Positive Space would halt its expansion and begin collapsing inward.
"It feels less like two universes and more like some bizarre spacetime spring."
He paused.
"Or a cosmic seesaw."
On the scale of the universe, the final collapse remained unimaginably distant.
For ordinary lifeforms, however, even minor environmental changes on a cosmic scale would trigger astronomical chain reactions capable of wiping them out countless times over.
After completing his initial observations, Drex organized and archived everything he had learned.
Then he turned his attention to something even more important.
Vacuum zero-point energy.
More specifically, how to extract it more efficiently.
A span of time passed in Negative Space.
Whether years, centuries, or something far longer, even Drex no longer cared.
Starting from scales too small to observe, vast quantities of energy began emerging from the quantum vacuum's ground-state field.
The energy condensed into recognizable particles.
Particles became matter.
Matter warped spacetime.
Finally, a miniature sun appeared above his palm.
The tiny star radiated enough energy to destroy an entire universe ten to the ninetieth power times over.
Drex swallowed it.
A moment later, he frowned.
He felt full.
For perhaps the first time in a very long while.
Even for a lifeform whose every cell contained a black hole singularity, digesting that much energy at once proved difficult.
Of course, vacuum zero-point energy extraction wasn't without limitations.
First, the process consumed energy to sustain itself.
Second, the greater the amount extracted, the faster both positive and negative space moved toward their ultimate endings.
Ordinary extraction was insignificant on a universal scale.
Creating a temporary passage capable of allowing matter to travel directly between the two realms was another matter entirely.
That would require energy measured against the total mass-energy content of the universe itself.
At that level, the consequences became impossible to ignore.
"So this is how Doctor Manhattan sees reality..."
Drex casually restored the Earth he had accidentally erased earlier.
Then he remained in Negative Space and continued refining his extraction methods.
Since he had already mastered mass-energy conversion, infinite energy effectively meant infinite matter.
Infinite matter meant unlimited production.
An endless army could be created whenever he wished.
Yet that wasn't what interested him most.
What truly caught his attention was a realization that had been growing in the back of his mind.
If he abandoned his current body entirely...
Then reconstructed himself from scratch...
He could become a genuine four-dimensional lifeform.
A being equivalent to Doctor Manhattan within the Marvel multiverse.
The temptation was enormous.
Still, after only a brief moment of consideration, Drex dismissed the idea.
"Tempting, but I'd rather keep my emotions. Becoming a perfectly rational god sounds incredibly boring."
He filed the possibility away for later.
There was no rush.
Reaching Multiversal status came first.
Everything else could wait.
Back on Earth, life appeared unchanged.
The Fantastic Four, who had been trapped across distant dimensions and timelines, had also been returned by Drex with little effort.
The Kryptonian Empire, however, underwent major changes.
Since mass-producing super soldiers was no longer necessary, Drex took the opportunity to completely restructure the empire.
The Ultramen divisions were dissolved.
Instead, he created vast numbers of ordinary humans to serve as standard Kryptonian citizens.
Above them stood a smaller population of true Kryptonians.
Super-Kryptonians.
Then came the final addition.
Every Kryptonian would receive a personal "spacesuit."
The inspiration came from Guyver.
A living biological armor system.
The concept was elegant.
And now that Drex had reached the Super-Singularity level, he could perceive the universe's underlying structure with perfect clarity. At the microscopic level, he possessed complete particle manipulation capabilities and could generate annihilation reactions at will.
He had never seen an actual Guyver unit in person.
That hardly mattered.
Replicating the concept was easy.
The biological control cells could be replaced with symbiote-derived materials.
Add Wolverine's healing factor.
Add Extremis Virus enhancements.
The resulting armor cells would allow the wearer to regenerate even if only a single living cell remained.
Any ordinary human equipped with the armor would gain strength roughly fifty times greater than normal.
Still nowhere near the Hulk.
But more than enough to transform them into a formidable superhuman.