Galancta had never imagined there would come a day when she could actually eat too much.
For most of her life, hunger had been a constant companion.
She couldn't simply devour planets whenever she pleased. That had been her father's role, not hers.
The invading Seraphim, however, were a different matter entirely.
After consuming one of the colossal angels, she immediately realized something astonishing.
They weren't much different from stars.
The same immense mass.
The same stellar heat.
The same abundance of energy.
If anything, they were even more dangerous than ordinary suns because they possessed intelligence.
After eating a single Seraph, Galancta experienced a feeling she had never known before.
Fullness.
True fullness.
The problem was that the creatures infesting the galaxy numbered beyond counting.
Even Drex Valen didn't know exactly how many Seraphim existed.
"Billions" was merely a rough estimate.
A convenient label for something too vast to measure.
After all, the Milky Way alone contained roughly two hundred billion stars.
When Drex had harvested that parallel universe, he hadn't bothered counting.
He had simply reached in and taken a handful of stars on a cosmic scale.
How many?
Even he wasn't entirely sure.
Given those numbers, creating a Marvel-equivalent of a Dark Multiverse Crisis wasn't particularly difficult.
In some ways, the threat he had unleashed might even surpass the one from DC.
The reason was simple.
The two multiverses operated very differently.
DC's Multiverse contained only fifty-two primary universes.
Marvel's Multiverse was a genuine infinity.
The number of parallel realities vastly exceeded even the number of Seraphim.
As a result, countless universes remained untouched.
For now.
Meanwhile, Drex found himself pursuing a different experiment.
He was searching for inspiration.
Answers.
A breakthrough.
To that end, he selected an ordinary person from one parallel universe and rewrote that individual's existence.
The man became him.
Not physically.
Not completely.
But as an extension of his will.
This wasn't an unusual ability among dimensional entities.
Cyttorak used fragments of the Crimson Gem to create agents.
Chthon spread influence through the Darkhold.
Drex preferred a cleaner approach.
He simply rewrote reality.
No corruption.
No temptation.
No elaborate schemes.
Just substitution.
"Three thousand universes."
Drex observed the countless realities before him.
"Let's see if one of you can give me the answer I'm looking for."
Then he split himself.
Three thousand avatars.
Three thousand lives.
Three thousand parallel journeys.
Each one entered a different universe.
Each one searched for a different truth.
One of those worlds lay beneath the towering peaks of Kunlun.
Ancient mountains stretched across the western horizon, their summits eternally covered in snow.
Clouds drifted through the valleys.
Below Jade Void Peak sat the town of Narostai.
At its center, a spring flowed throughout the year without freezing.
It bloomed against the northern bank of the Kunlun River like a lotus carved from crystal.
The water seemed alive.
Ancient.
As though fragments of jade had fallen silently into a sacred pool before continuing downstream.
Danny Rand lay submerged within the spring.
The cold was beyond mortal comprehension.
His body had long since stopped resisting it.
The water originated from glaciers that had remained frozen for ten thousand years.
Guided by the dragon veins beneath Kunlun, the frigid current gathered here and emerged as the sacred spring.
Normally, the waters appeared harmless.
But under the influence of powerful yang energy, the dragon veins awakened.
The spring transformed into an extreme frozen lake.
The ancient glacial current sealed everything in ice.
Anyone trapped within it became a statue.
This was Kunlun's most dangerous trial.
Only by forcing pure yang energy to its absolute limit could a disciple reach the highest realm of Kunlun martial arts.
Pure Yang Infinity.
Throughout history, most who attempted the trial never emerged.
They became nameless ice sculptures buried beneath the glaciers forever.
Three elderly Daoist masters stood beside the frozen spring.
Each possessed flowing white hair and long beards.
They watched the foreign disciple trapped beneath the ice.
These were the legendary Three Elders of Kunlun.
The keepers of its martial traditions.
The shortest among them stroked his goatee and sighed.
"Danny has been frozen for nine days."
His expression darkened.
"Among all previous Iron Fists, the longest anyone endured was thirteen."
"I'm afraid he won't break through."
"Another nameless corpse beneath the glacier."
A second elder shook his head.
"Danny is not ordinary."
"His father was one of Kunlun's own disciples."
"He nearly inherited the title of Iron Fist himself."
"The boy carries sixty years of pure yang internal energy passed down at the cost of his father's life."
"That alone won't guarantee success."
"But it protects his vital organs."
"His chances are far greater than most."
"Otherwise, we would never have chosen him to inherit the Iron Fist."
The speaker was ancient.
His eyebrows hung nearly to his jawline.
Though he had lived for well over two centuries, his complexion remained healthy and vibrant.
His eyes were bright and clear, carrying the vitality of a child.
His cultivation was obviously extraordinary.
The third elder, a broad-shouldered man with a thick beard, frowned.
"Kunlun has always stood apart from the world."
"Our core disciples traditionally came from those who sought us out from afar."
"Even so, we've occasionally accepted outsiders as protectors when necessity demanded it."
His dissatisfaction was obvious.
"But the Iron Fist has always represented our lineage."
"Why choose a Westerner this time?"
The white-haired elder sighed.
"We had little choice."
"The talented candidates who once came here no longer do."
"They've all joined an organization called the Sword Bureau."
"The result is that suitable Iron Fist candidates have become increasingly difficult to find."
"The Sword Bureau..."
The bearded elder stroked his chin.
"Some sort of government intelligence agency?"
"Something along those lines."
The white-haired elder didn't sound entirely certain.
The sun slowly descended.
Golden light spilled across the frozen spring.
As the last ray of daylight touched the ice, movement finally appeared beneath the surface.
A powerful current of pure yang energy surged through Danny's body.
His internal power burst from his meridians and circulated through every inch of him.
The crushing pressure of the dragon-vein frost finally forced both his own energy and the inherited power within his organs to their limits.
Yin and yang collided.
Extreme cold refined extreme heat.
The opposing forces merged.
Then transformed.
Internal energy evolved into true qi.
The newfound power flowed through every limb, every muscle, every bone.
The ice shattered.
The frozen waters of Kunlun exploded outward.
Shards of mystical ice flew in all directions.
Caught off guard, the Three Elders immediately reacted.
Their sleeves snapped through the air.
Pure qi surged outward like invisible walls, intercepting most of the deadly projectiles.
Even so, several fragments slipped through.
The stone pavilion above the spring was instantly pulverized.
Then, almost immediately, the mystical ice evaporated into steam.
A figure rose from the water.
Danny stepped slowly from the spring.
His body looked as though it had been forged from tempered steel.
Pure yang qi flowed beneath his skin.
His physique had reached an entirely new level.
Water droplets slid across sharply defined muscles before falling to the ground.
He opened his eyes.
The confidence within them was unmistakable.
"Masters."
Danny bowed.
"I have not failed your expectations."
"I have mastered Kunlun's supreme technique."
The Three Elders exchanged subtle glances.
None of them spoke their true thoughts aloud.
Supreme technique?
Hardly.
The real treasures of Kunlun were never taught to outsiders.
That was merely a guardian's cultivation method.
Useful, certainly.
But far from our highest inheritance.
Their expressions remained serene.
Not a word escaped their lips.
Unnoticed by anyone present, an ordinary-looking man stood nearby.
He blended perfectly into the background.
Forgettable.
Unremarkable.
Invisible.
Yet his eyes remained fixed on Danny Rand.
One of Drex Valen's three thousand avatars had arrived.
And his search for answers had begun.