Chapter Summaries

Ronan learned about the Heavenly Court’s ranks and vast power while Gladiator defeated Golden Lion and drew the attention of Saitama and other Star Gods. In the Mortal Realm, Captain Marvel Carol Danvers discovered its people lived peacefully and struggled to buy a handmade sugar figurine because the seller asked her to tell a joke.

• Ronan listened as an immortal explained the Heavenly Court’s citizens, Earth Immortals, Heavenly Immortals, and Star Gods.
• Gladiator overwhelmed Golden Lion, who recovered and reported the powerful newcomer to the Star Gods.
• Saitama decided to meet Gladiator, and Sakazuki warned him not to cause destruction while a blond man offered to accompany him.
• Carol Danvers explored the Mortal Realm and found its inhabitants peaceful despite their devotion to martial prowess.
• A sugar-figurine seller offered Carol a figurine in exchange for a joke, but she could not think of one.

Carol Danvers investigated the Mortal Realm’s unusual economy and education system, then observed children who studied at their own pace and played with dangerous strategic ideas. She was left convinced that the children’s frightening ingenuity had to be corrected.

• Carol Danvers learned that assembly-line goods were cheap, labor-intensive goods were costly, and students could study freely so long as they passed their assessments on time.
• Carol Danvers watched a group of children skip afternoon lessons to play hide-and-seek, where the strongest child caught another using an electrical burst and keen hearing.
• The children discussed how their strengths made games unfair, and the child playing seeker blamed himself for not having fully awakened his sensory power.
• Carol Danvers approached the children and asked why they were not in class; they explained they had mostly finished their lessons and were taking a break.
• The children showed Carol Danvers Monster Fighting cards and exchanged practical strategies involving nuclear leaks, biological weapons, viruses, and mutant creatures.
• Carol Danvers recoiled at the children’s dangerous ideas and decided that their behavior had to be corrected.

Carol Danvers confiscated a child’s card set because she believed its scientific formulas were dangerous, but a boy challenged her assumptions about children and reality. Their argument over the cards became a clash of civilizations, and Carol refused to return them.

• Carol Danvers recognized the card set’s formulas as potentially powerful and seized it from a child.
• The children explained that the cards were a toy, but Carol argued that children should not learn dangerous ideas.
• A boy dressed as a ghost called Carol an outsider and defended his world’s teachings under The Emperor.
• The boy argued that children in his world could imitate extraordinary feats because they were real and attainable there.
• Carol restrained her anger but insisted the knowledge was too dangerous, while the boy accused her of avoiding it through ignorance.

A young boy challenged Carol Danvers with his convictions and was caught while trying to reach a vending machine, which automatically reported her for damaging public property. After Carol released him, the boy unleashed the Conqueror's Haki of the old era, the sign of those awakened in the new era.

• The boy argued that strength and conviction mattered more than Carol Danvers's attempts to lecture him, provoking her to prepare to use force.
• Carol Danvers rushed at the boy as he ran toward a vending machine, but she caught him by the ankles before he could escape.
• The boy struck the vending machine, whose camera recorded the damage and summoned the Enforcement Squad to arrest Carol Danvers.
• Carol Danvers set the boy down and questioned why he would risk his life over a trivial matter.
• The boy declared that conviction mattered more than life and released the Conqueror's Haki of the old era.

Carol Danvers learned about the Human Realm’s awakened soul power and strange laws while being taken away by robotic police. Before parting, she met a determined youth whose ambition reminded her of the dreams she had lost.

• A youth awakened powerful soul energy, knocking several children unconscious and briefly suffocating Carol Danvers.
• Robotic police arrived, assessed the children, and let the youth go after warning him to cherish his life.
• Carol Danvers asked the youth his name, and he declared his ambition to become a Martial God and meet the Emperor.
• Carol Danvers entered a police car willingly and questioned the officers about the Human Realm’s laws.
• The robotic police explained that adults could register as professional criminals, while victims killed by them could earn resurrection through work in Hell.

Carol Danvers learned how the Human Realm managed death, reincarnation, work, and competition while RoboCop explained its rules. The chapter ended with her hearing that people spent their lives striving to win a Dragon Ball in a deadly tournament held every forty years.

• RoboCop explained that the Human Realm controlled struggle through professional criminals and offered several ways for the dead to return to life.
• Carol Danvers saw Rebirth Hall and Samsara Palace and learned how expensive reincarnation with memories was, how people bought bodies for future lives, and how orphans became a common reincarnation identity.
• Ling Donglai observed the Human Realm's reincarnation system without trying to change it.
• At the police station, Carol asked RoboCop what work living people did when robots handled most jobs, and he described intellectual careers and martial arts training.
• RoboCop told Carol that the World Martial Arts Tournament awarded a Dragon Ball that could grant a wish, and that it had become a deadly event held once every forty years.

Carol Danvers was sentenced to twenty years in Sun Prison after her crimes in the Human Realm, but Gladiator arrived and destroyed the guards who were escorting her. The Heavenly Court attacked Gladiator’s fleet, and as he fought back, a Celestial Immortal identified him as a formidable outsider.

• RoboCop found Carol Danvers guilty of stealing an expensive card set and assaulting a child, then sent her to the Heavenly Realm for punishment.
• Two mechanical soldiers sentenced Carol Danvers to twenty years in Sun Prison, but she demanded to see the Emperor and negotiate with the Heavenly Court.
• Gladiator arrived with a fleet and annihilated the two soldiers, prompting a Heavenly Court warning that their attack was a provocation.
• Magnetic interference disabled Gladiator’s warship, which crashed and killed many Shi'ar aboard.
• Gladiator destroyed the Heavenly Court’s Magnetic Field Heavenly Blade and cut through the thunderclouds, then a Celestial Immortal recognized his strength and attacked with a flaming palm.

Gladiator and Carol Danvers confronted the Heavenly Court after Gladiator resisted its officials, but Star Lord Hongyun’s overwhelming power defeated him. Carol learned that the Star Lords governed vast regions and that challenging the Heavenly Court meant facing the strength of the entire immortal realm.

• Gladiator destroyed the Celestial Immortal’s probing attack and prepared to strike Floating Mountain with his heat vision.
• The Celestial Immortal used stacked field energy to transform his pendant into a divine sword that swallowed Gladiator’s heat vision.
• The divine sword pulverized Gladiator, while Carol Danvers escaped its attack range.
• An immortal explained to Carol that Star Lord was an honorific for powerful Celestial Immortals who governed regions of the cosmos.
• The immortal described Hongyun’s status and warned Carol that the Heavenly Court could draw strength from the entire immortal realm.

Carol Danvers abandoned hopes of negotiating with the Heavenly Court and considered using its laws to seek justice for Earth, but learned that the Cloud Palace Immortal Realm had few laws and that suing a Star Lord would likely be futile. Meanwhile, Star Lord Hongyun noticed the Gladiator’s strength was fading unexpectedly and withdrew his power.

• Carol Danvers asked the immortals about the laws and learned that only a few rules governed the Cloud Palace Immortal Realm, while the Empress judged matters not covered by law.
• Carol Danvers revealed how she had arrived in the Heavenly Court, and the immortals said the attack on Earth had likely come from someone at Star Lord level or above.
• Carol Danvers gave up on her mission, deciding to gather intelligence and send it to her allies so they could prepare.
• Star Lord Hongyun noticed the Gladiator was growing weaker than expected and withdrew his power, leaving the Gladiator half flesh and half bare bone.

Star Lord Hongyun subdued and restored Gladiator, while Saitama and another Godman arrived to find the fight already over. Carol Danvers refused to go to Sun Prison and escaped the Cloud Palace Immortal Realm, crossing deep into the Martial God Universe as several Celestial Immortals let her pass.

• Star Lord Hongyun analyzed Gladiator’s will-dependent strength, restored his confidence and body, and covered him with newly formed clothes.
• Gladiator accepted that he would go to Sun Prison but asked permission to notify his country, and Star Lord Hongyun granted it.
• Saitama and another Godman arrived, but Star Lord Hongyun told them he had already subdued the outsiders and then faded away.
• Carol Danvers decided against going to Sun Prison, tore open space, and escaped the Cloud Palace Immortal Realm using the Space Stone.
• Carol Danvers crossed half the Martial God Universe, and several Celestial Immortals withdrew rather than intercept her.

Ling Donglai monitored the fallout from Gladiator’s defeat as Carol Danvers warned the universe about the Heavenly Court Empire. Thanos abandoned his plan to collect the Infinity Mu Jins and prepared to pursue the Cosmic Orb, while Tony saw humanity’s first Black Hole photograph and reacted with bloodshot eyes.

• Ling Donglai watched Carol Danvers and Gladiator leave the Martial God Universe and allowed Carol to go despite her unseen corruption.
• Carol warned the universe about the Heavenly Court Empire, while the Shi'ar Empire dispatched a fleet to negotiate for Gladiator and Ronan left to warn the Kree.
• A colossal Earth-like planet sensed one of its kind and began racing toward the M87 Nebula.
• Thanos decided to abandon his search for the Infinity Mu Jins, mobilize the Black Order, and obtain the Cosmic Orb so he could confront the Guardians of Earth.
• Tony obtained a photograph of a Black Hole in the M87 Nebula and stared at it with bloodshot eyes.

After studying the first photograph of the M87 Black Hole, Tony Stark became consumed by its mysteries and slipped into a strange altered state. As doctors tried to revive him, he glimpsed the Black Hole and indescribable beings watching a blue sphere.

• Tony Stark examined the M87 Black Hole photograph and struggled to explain why his simulations kept producing an almost circular shadow.
• Jarvis warned Tony about his deteriorating condition, but Tony continued calculating until high-energy radiation and an abnormal heartbeat were detected.
• Tony stared into the Black Hole and lost awareness of his body as he perceived strings, stars, and life through an emotionless clarity.
• Tony heard someone call his name and reconstructed a scene of doctors shocking his body while a dark-skinned, bald, one-eyed man watched outside the room.
• A force dragged Tony back toward his body, and he glimpsed indescribable beings gazing at a blue sphere.

Tony woke from months of unconsciousness after perceiving a black hole’s truth, and he hurried to confront a danger threatening Earth. Meanwhile, Ling Donglai faced Ancient One’s preparations for war and met Ego, who had arrived with his planet.

• Tony woke in the hospital, recognized Pepper, and realized that seeing the black hole had changed him.
• Tony strengthened his weakened body by drawing free-floating elements into himself and left despite Pepper and Fury urging him to rest.
• Fury explained that Tony had studied a black hole photograph but had been found unconscious with only a blank sheet of paper.
• Ancient One confronted Ling Donglai, who said Tony had sought out the truth himself, and then left to prepare for war against Earth.
• Ling Donglai learned that Ancient One had been corrupted and that Vishanti had severed its connection with her, prompting a contest for the Sorcerer Supreme position.
• Ego arrived at the edge of the Martial God Universe with his planet, and Ling Donglai examined his origins and wondered why he had brought his whole family.

Ling Donglai recruited Ego by directing his hatred of life toward helping find the Infinity Stones. After Ego learned clues from Thanos’s adopted daughters, he changed course and headed for Vormir to claim the Soul Stone before confronting Thanos.

• Ego asked Ling Donglai to join him in wiping out the universe’s lesser lifeforms, and Ling Donglai discovered that Ego hated them as parasites on planets.
• Ling Donglai told Ego that the Infinity Stones could fulfill his ambition and claimed to already possess two stones.
• Ego agreed to help Ling Donglai and vowed to kill Thanos and the Black Order.
• Ego used his avatars to capture and interrogate Thanos’s two adopted daughters, then killed them after learning what they knew.
• Ego abandoned his plan to attack Thanos immediately and headed for Vormir to seek the Soul Stone.

Ego obtained the Soul Stone and delivered it to Ling Donglai, who added it to his collection of Infinity Mu Jins and studied their power. Thanos began searching for the Heart of the Universe, using an attack on the Guardian of Earth to slip into the guarded region and find what he sought.

• Ego arrived on Vormir, took the Soul Stone from its canyon, and left Red Skull as its guardian.
• Ego gave the Soul Stone to Ling Donglai, who confirmed that only the Mind Stone and Power Stone remained outside Thanos's possession.
• Ling Donglai studied how the four Mu Jins interacted with Cosmic Power and began analyzing what his Grand Unified Field lacked.
• Thanos learned that two of his daughters had died, mourned briefly, and continued his pursuit of the Heart of the Universe.
• Thanos and the Black Order attacked the Guardian of Earth, then Thanos slipped away while the Guardian fought the fleet and searched for the guarded object.

A damaged prawn mining ship fled a catastrophic interstellar war and crashed into Earth’s orbit, where humans rescued its dying crew and studied the vessel. Tony sensed that the ship had been struck by an overwhelmingly powerful being and warned Fury against investigating further as Black Holes turned in his pupils.

• The Guardian of Earth effortlessly destroyed a warship and continued its assault across nearby starfields.
• A prawn engineer ordered the mining ship to jump away from the battle, but an energy beam disrupted the jump and left the ship badly damaged.
• The ship arrived above Africa, and the United Nations sent soldiers aboard, rescued the dying prawns, and collected their DNA-locked equipment.
• Fury asked Tony to decrypt the prawns’ weapons and ship, but Tony refused and warned him not to investigate the powerful being behind the attack.
• Tony examined images of the ship, sensed its attacker, and feared that the being would detect him and descend on Earth.

Tony built Fearless, a field-powered mecha designed to fight the aberrations threatening humanity, and used it to confront vampires. After killing one vampire, he questioned him about the woman’s fate and the vampires’ base, but the chapter left those answers unknown.

• Tony used his superpower and forbidden knowledge to create Fearless, declaring that humanity should decide its own fate even after death.
• Tony ordered Jarvis to search for abnormal field energy and jump Fearless to a new location, exhausting his field force.
• Fearless landed near a vampire attacking a woman, and Tony demanded that the vampire release her and explain what happened to drained victims and where the vampires’ base was.
• The vampire mocked Tony and claimed human weapons could not kill him, so Tony blasted off his head and drove a plasma light sword into his body.

Tony Stark used his Fearless Mecha to destroy vampire clans in the United States and London, then defied Ancient One by annihilating the London vampire nest with a hydrogen bomb in the Mirror Dimension. As war between the dimensional Demon Gods loomed, a mercenary in the Amazon took Cyttorak’s red crystal and transformed into a giant.

• Tony Stark invaded a vampire nightclub, killed the vampires there, and then wiped out the United States vampire clans before discovering Blade.
• The London vampire leaders debated how to stop Tony, while Fortas pushed to summon the Blood God and killed the elders who opposed his plan.
• Tony arrived in London, but Ancient One confronted him in the Mirror Dimension and warned that destroying the vampires could awaken Dracula.
• Tony broke out of the Mirror Dimension, created a hydrogen bomb, and destroyed the London vampire nest, prompting Ancient One to warn that the war between the dimensional Demon Gods had begun.
• A mercenary found Cyttorak’s red crystal in an Amazon temple, transformed into a red giant, and charged through the forest as locals followed his trail.

Tony fought the Juggernauts unleashed by Cyttorak, then received new truths in the Astral Plane that strengthened his field energy and deepened his assimilation. His growing power drew Heaven’s attention, and Zadkiel descended into the Martial God Universe to confront what he saw as a threat to Heaven’s influence.

• The Ancient One explained that Cyttorak’s ruby had created the Juggernauts and that they were targeting Tony as part of the Martial God’s coming war.
• As the Juggernauts multiplied and charged toward America, S.H.I.E.L.D. contained the ruby while the military’s nuclear weapons failed to stop the survivors.
• Tony fought the Juggernauts in his Fearless Mecha, resisted Cyttorak’s taunts, and was transported back to his laboratory through a portal.
• Tony saw the Star Torch in the Astral Plane, received universal truths, and discovered that his growing field energy had formed a magnetic ring around his body.
• Zadkiel traced Ghost Rider’s history and blamed Ling Donglai for his destruction, then descended after noticing Tony’s halo and suspecting him of stealing Heaven’s faith.

Zadkiel’s assault on the Martial God Universe prompted Ling Donglai to invade and conquer Heaven, before Marvel’s power weakened the invaders. Elsewhere, Thanos used the Infinity Stones to defeat the Guardian of Earth and seized the Heart of the Universe.

• Zadkiel entered the Martial God Universe to ask Ling Donglai about the Ghost Rider, but Ling’s forces attacked and invaded Heaven.
• Ling Donglai’s forces overwhelmed the Angel Queen and captured her, while the other Demon Gods wondered where Heaven’s Lord had gone.
• Marvel’s power surged, weakening the Martial God Universe’s divine beings, and churches across Earth crumbled as a miracle descended.
• The Guardian of Earth revealed the Heart of the Universe after destroying Thanos’s fleet and attacked him with a finger that threatened to crush the planet.
• Thanos used an Infinity Stone to blast through the Guardian of Earth’s arm, knocked him down, and grabbed the Heart of the Universe while throwing the Mind Stone and Power Stone at his opponent.