The moment Chaos appeared, Drex Valen felt a spark of excitement.
Compared to the Void, whose grasp of Single-Universe-level power had been crude and underwhelming, Chaos possessed the strength of a true cosmic entity.
Drex doubted the primordial god could actually defeat him, but at the very least, this promised to be an interesting fight.
Chaos extended a massive hand into the endless void.
Boundless nothingness condensed in his grasp, forming an enormous axe-sword. It resembled the weapon Tartarus had wielded before, yet the difference between the two was like comparing a candle to a star.
The power contained within Chaos and his weapon was the power of an entire world.
The instant Chaos emerged, the Olympian gods dissolved into nothingness and became part of him.
Even if Chaos had not reached Multiversal status, within the confines of a single universe he stood above the vast majority of dimensional entities.
And this was the Universe of the Gods.
A universe where Earth's pantheon could crush nearly every supervillain that existed.
"Chaos."
Drex issued the warning through the Quantum Realm itself.
At their level, ordinary speech had become hopelessly inefficient. Their speed of thought and reaction surpassed physical communication by an immeasurable margin. Without using quantum-level transmission, a simple conversation could take an eternity.
Chaos responded instantly.
The axe-sword descended.
The strike tore through the void itself.
Time split apart.
Space shattered.
Energy unraveled.
Matter ceased to exist.
Even the Quantum Realm trembled beneath the attack.
The blow reached backward into the past and forward into the future simultaneously.
In the ancient Olympian world, where the Ten-Year Titan War still raged, gods vanished into nothingness beneath its influence.
Countless future iterations of Olympus suffered the same fate.
Everything touched by the attack was erased.
Unless Chaos chose to recreate it personally, Olympus no longer existed.
A Time Stone could not restore it.
Traveling into the past would reveal nothing.
Traveling into the future would reveal nothing.
Only a higher Multiversal existence could reverse such destruction.
A Single-Universe-level being could do only one thing:
Resist.
"As expected..."
Drex watched the attack with genuine admiration.
"This is how true gods fight."
"The Sentry and the Void only understood destruction at the material level. They possessed Single-Universe-level power but lacked the perspective to use it properly."
He shook his head.
"At this point, Odin could probably kill the Void by himself."
Time could not slow the strike.
Space could not block it.
Dodging was impossible.
The moment the weapon was swung, the result was already determined.
It would hit.
It could not be defended against.
It would kill.
For anyone beneath this level of existence, that outcome was absolute.
But not for Drex.
He no longer relied on anything external.
He was complete unto himself.
His existence was self-sustaining.
That was the essence of the Single-Universe realm.
Once one reached this level, true immortality became possible.
When planes died, they remained.
When worlds perished, they remained.
When all things faded into nothingness, they remained.
Such beings no longer depended on outside sources of energy.
The core of their existence supplied everything they required.
Enough to endure for billions upon billions of years.
They were their own heaven.
Their own earth.
Their own universe.
The clash between Chaos and Drex was not merely a collision of power.
It was a collision of paths.
A collision of truths.
Anyone beneath their level could only witness superficial phenomena.
To mistake those surface appearances for the actual battle would be fatal.
One would die without ever understanding how.
Long before becoming the God of Destruction and Ruin, Drex had already reached this state through his own efforts.
Divinity had merely deepened his understanding.
Chaos showed no reaction whatsoever when Drex blocked the axe-sword.
The two immediately entered a battle impossible for lesser beings to observe.
The conflict became so intense that even Drex's own Black Hole Dimension began suffering disturbances.
A body composed purely of resonant energy formed through microscopic particle entanglement...
Such a construct would likely be obliterated instantly if it entered this battlefield.
Drex found the idea amusing.
A useful technique.
The inspiration had come from Doctor Manhattan.
As he fought Chaos, the universe revealed itself in ever greater detail.
Both of them observed the flow of reality at its most fundamental level.
The world in Drex's eyes had become pure quantum structure.
Particle streams stretched endlessly before him.
Through those streams, he could see the past.
He could see the future.
Reality had stripped away every illusion and laid bare its true form.
For countless living beings, this would have been the ultimate realm of enlightenment.
For Drex and Chaos, however, it was merely the beginning.
Every particle stream approaching them became silent.
Or rather, not silent.
Controlled.
Without any visible action, the countless microscopic currents of reality fell under their influence.
The particles shifted.
Changed velocity.
Altered direction.
Reorganized themselves according to different laws.
Many powerful entities throughout existence could manipulate rules.
Such beings possessed authority granted by their worlds and could employ those rules in battle.
Odin's spear was a perfect example.
Its attacks were fated to strike their target.
An ability that made Odin seem nearly invincible.
Yet there were levels even among those who wielded laws.
The difference between Drex and Chaos and those so-called gods was not a matter of degree.
It was a difference in kind.
Like comparing an ant cultivating fungus to humanity wielding advanced technology.
Both were using tools.
Yet the methods existed on entirely separate planes.
The Sentry and the Void were even worse.
They were like someone using state-of-the-art scientific equipment to peel an apple.
Possessing incredible power while barely understanding how to apply it.
The battlefield surrounding Drex and Chaos lacked any concept of up or down.
It was not space.
It was not time.
There was no energy.
No matter.
No spiritual sea.
Everything there existed as pure abstraction.
Like imagination made manifest.
Except far more real than imagination had any right to be.
This was the fundamental nature of the Multiverse.
Their battle had already broken beyond their respective dimensions.
They now fought at the deepest level of Multiversal existence itself.
Countless hostile gazes turned toward them.
Single-Universe-level entities.
Dimensional Demon Gods.
And other indescribable beings.
All watched.
All observed.
Neither Drex nor Chaos paid them any attention.
Using the space beyond the Multiverse as a battlefield was something that had not occurred for untold ages.
The reason was simple.
It was dangerous.
Such conflicts inevitably attracted the attention of Dimensional Demon Gods.
A single mistake could result in annihilation.
Drex, however, felt no concern.
He had already surpassed his own Black Hole Dimension.
In truth, he was a Dimensional Demon God burdened by his dimension rather than empowered by it.
That made him fundamentally different from ordinary dimensional entities.
Most Dimensional Demon Gods depended entirely upon their dimensions.
Drex did not.
Entering a dimension ruled by another Dimensional Demon God would not weaken him in the slightest.
If anything, it made destroying that dimension easier.
Within their own realms, Dimensional Demon Gods appeared omnipotent.
But omnipotence was an illusion.
They were far from invincible.
After all, the Ancient One had repeatedly entered the Dark Dimension and beaten Dormammu into submission on his own turf.