The Five Cosmic Entities and the Living Tribunal.
The administrators of the multiverse.
For most of existence, these multiversal heavyweights remained in the background, observing rather than acting. Many of them had accumulated their fair share of embarrassing defeats over the eons.
The most infamous example was Galactus.
The Devourer of Worlds had become something of a cosmic measuring stick. Every time a new powerhouse appeared, someone inevitably ended up beating Galactus to prove a point.
Yet appearances were deceptive.
As administrators operating beneath the level of the Omniverse, they possessed extraordinary authority. They were not merely powerful beings. They were embodiments of fundamental laws and concepts.
Compared to opponents like Sentry or Gladiator, enemies who could be solved with enough force, these entities were far more troublesome.
The moment Drex Valen appeared, the entire multiverse stopped.
Everything.
Time ceased.
Movement ceased.
Causality ceased.
Because Drex did not permit anything to continue.
And so nothing did.
Of course, he wasn't abusing his newfound power recklessly.
If he pushed too far, there would be consequences.
He simply wanted a moment of peace.
And, more importantly, freezing the multiverse made it significantly easier to locate Rune.
The multiverse's administrators found that acceptable.
Drex was in an excellent mood.
He had finally surpassed the level of a single-universe entity and ascended into the ranks of true multiversal beings.
He now stood on a level where he could stand alongside the Living Tribunal.
But advancing further?
That was a different matter entirely.
The difficulty increased exponentially.
Even Golden Superman, a being rooted in the Fifth Dimension, ultimately occupied only the summit of multiversal existence. He had never truly stepped beyond the framework of the story itself and entered the realm of the Omniverse.
The only Superman that might genuinely qualify for that level was Cosmic Armor Superman.
The sentient Thought Robot formed from the fusion of fifty-two parallel Supermen.
Even Mandrakk, the vampire god who consumed entire universes, had acknowledged that Cosmic Armor Superman stood second only to the Presence itself.
Rune, meanwhile, was still hunting Galactuses across the parallel universes.
With the multiverse frozen in place, hiding became impossible.
Drex found him almost immediately.
He reached into reality and pulled Rune out.
The moment Rune was captured, the multiverse resumed moving.
Drex glanced at the Living Tribunal and the remaining Cosmic Entities nearby.
The Galactus of Earth-616 was dead.
That left only four of the traditional five cosmic overseers.
"God of Destruction and Ruin."
The Living Tribunal's expressionless faces regarded Drex simultaneously.
"Will you assume the role of the new Devourer?"
Drex stared back at the Tribunal's three faces.
Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure which one he was supposed to look at.
Still, he understood the meaning behind the question.
If he refused to take on Galactus's function and authority within the cosmic balance, the beings gathered here would never allow him to freely enter Eternity's body again.
A single-universe dimensional lord wandering openly through Eternity was already disruptive enough.
Now he was a multiversal demon god.
And a particularly dangerous one.
More importantly, the remaining Cosmic Entities had already realized something unsettling.
They probably weren't stronger than him anymore.
Most of the gods collected within the God Quarry had been relatively insignificant on their own.
But there had been an absurd number of them.
And every one of them represented a concept.
By absorbing them, Drex had effectively gathered a massive portion of the multiverse's conceptual authorities into himself.
The concentration of power was unprecedented.
He wouldn't claim to be the strongest multiversal entity in existence.
But he no longer feared any of them.
Not one.
"No."
The answer came instantly.
Drex had absolutely no interest in chaining himself to a single multiverse.
He was a multiversal demon god now.
Why limit himself to Marvel?
There were countless realities worth exploring.
The DC Multiverse.
The Dark Horse Multiverse.
The Warhammer Multiverse.
And many more.
Though getting into DC remained somewhat problematic.
The Source Wall wasn't exactly easy to bypass.
The Living Tribunal and the Cosmic Entities exchanged no visible reactions.
Then they left.
Drex tossed Rune into his Black Hole Dimension.
The moment Rune entered, everything began to change.
Reality twisted.
The dimension transformed.
And Drex smiled.
"From this day forward, I am the Multiversal Demon God..."
"Havoc."
The god of destruction.
The god of ruin.
The god of violence.
Bloodshed.
Death.
His Black Hole Dimension became something entirely new.
A Chaos Realm.
A world without time.
Without space.
Without up or down.
Without direction or structure.
It overflowed with chaos energy created from the immense negative energies he had harvested from within Eternity itself.
Truthfully, Drex had wanted to become a Chaos God for a very long time.
Negative emotions accumulated far faster than positive ones.
Their scale wasn't even comparable.
The only reason he hadn't done it earlier was because he had once been too weak.
Back then, becoming a Chaos God felt like an excellent way to have a brass skull dropped on his head by Khorne.
Now things were different.
They were both multiversal demon gods.
Khorne wasn't dropping anything on him anymore.
So Drex wasted no time creating a Chaos Realm entirely his own.
His personal Warp.
Because of the infinite nature of time and interconnected reality, the Chaos Realm existed beyond ordinary concepts of space and chronology.
To humans and even most gods, it was fundamentally incomprehensible.
A place balanced somewhere between dreams and nightmares.
It did not exist through conventional matter.
Nor through traditional dimensions.
That was Chaos.
Unbound by physical laws.
Unconstrained by logic.
Answering only to itself.
Drex considered the matter briefly.
Then he began creating demons.
His demons.
The Havoc Demons.
Each carried his mark.
His signature.
His exclusive design.
The defining feature of every Havoc Demon was its right arm.
It transformed into a massive bladed claw resembling the enchanted talons of a supreme warrior.
The left arm remained more conventionally demonic.
Their appearances were savage and monstrous.
Flesh and biomass twisted into living armor.
Drex had always liked exoskeletons and armored creatures.
As a result, his Havoc Demons looked surprisingly similar to Chaos Space Marines.
Every one possessed enormous wings.
Some had bat wings.
Others had pterosaur-like dragon wings.
Some bore flesh wings.
Others carried feathered wings.
Yet every set of wings shared one common trait.
At their center sat a gigantic eye.
Their heads also featured a single horn resembling that of a unicorn.
Only one horn.
Never more.
"Offer your loyalty to Havoc."
"Tear apart all enemies of Havoc."
The Havoc Demons were created from negative energy fused with the souls of fallen gods and angels.
As for Rune...
Rune became the first among them.
The Chief Archdemon of Havoc.
Drex had little interest in creating endless classifications and hierarchies.
For the most part, all Havoc Demons were equal.
Their primary gift was simple.
Killing was sacrifice.
Any being slain by their claws or attacks would have its blood and soul automatically offered to Drex.
As a Chaos God, Drex considered himself remarkably generous.
He only claimed ninety percent.
The remaining ten percent was returned to the demon responsible for the kill, strengthening and healing it.
Every Havoc Demon therefore began from essentially the same starting line.
Except Rune.
Rune was different.
Even before being transformed, he had already been a dimensional entity approaching multiversal levels.
Drex's blessing only made him stronger.
And Drex needed powerful subordinates.
So he gave his Chief Archdemon a unique appearance.
A crimson halo floated above Rune's horn.
Another crimson halo circled beneath his feet.
And unlike ordinary Havoc Demons, Rune possessed four enormous wings.
Drex's ranking system was straightforward.
Simple.
Elegant.
The strength of a Havoc Demon could be determined at a glance.
Halos represented favor.
Great wings represented power.
And Rune possessed both.