Chapter Summaries

Reed, Susan, Johnny, and Ben returned to Osborn Manor amazed by Earth’s advanced technology and eager to share what they had seen. Big Harry explained how the Data Dimension, New Currency, and Dimensional Games shaped the wider universe, and Johnny learned he could soon register for a game ID; the group remained unable to return to their endangered world.

• Reed, Susan, Johnny, and Ben returned to Osborn Manor with purchases and described Earth’s technology, entertainment, clothing, and toys to Big Harry.
• Big Harry reassured Ben that the group could spend freely because ordinary currency had little value to Osborn.
• The chapter explained how scientists earned New Currency through Data Dimension tasks and how Dimensional Games supported tournaments, dwarven smiths, and career paths into the Time Variance Authority.
• Big Harry told Johnny that he could register for a Dimensional Game ID once he entered the Data Dimension.
• Susan rebuked Johnny for focusing on games while their world was being destroyed, and Johnny said only Reed could save it and urged him to improve his rank and authority.

Big Harry secured Reed and the others access to the Data Dimension, where Reed would undergo an assessment. At the Time Variance Authority, Hela confronted Loki over an invasion, learned the prisoner was connected to Kang, and took charge of interrogating him further.

• Big Harry told Reed and the others that their applications had been submitted and that Reed would undergo an assessment in the Data Dimension.
• Little Harry and the others thanked the two Harrys for arranging the opportunity, then asked Big Harry questions about their new world.
• Hela entered the theater where Loki was watching a play about himself and berated him for allowing the Time Variance Authority to be invaded.
• Loki told Hela that the Invader was imprisoned in Ruins Zone Three, and Hela set out to interrogate him.
• Loki revealed that Kang had once led the Time Variance Authority and that Luke had used him to eliminate Kang and many of his Multiverse counterparts.
• Hela dismissed Loki's defense and left to question the prisoner about Kang's whereabouts.

S.H.I.E.L.D. brought Reed, Susan, and the others to the Data Dimension, where they met Phil Coulson, Prince Arthas Menethil, and Jaina Proudmoore. The newcomers prepared to take a test as Arthas and Jaina began their studies in this world.

• Sitwell arrived at Osborn Manor with five injections that would connect outsiders to the Data Dimension, while the narration explained how Hydra had become a cooperating faction within S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Little Harry received the first injection, and Sitwell injected Reed and the others in turn.
• Reed and the others arrived on a meteorite in the Data Dimension, where Phil Coulson greeted them alongside Arthas Menethil and Jaina Proudmoore.
• Coulson introduced Arthas and Jaina as witnesses to the alliance between Azeroth and their world, and explained that they had come to study.
• Susan spoke with Jaina about magic, while Jaina described the magic system and Black Magic she had encountered in Dragon Tower.

Phil brought Jaina Proudmoore and Arthas Menethil to Kamar-Taj’s Data Dimension office, where King explained the dangers and history of its spell system. After Jaina chose to study it, King sent her and Arthas’s spirits through perilous Dimensional Worlds to demonstrate the risks firsthand.

• Phil opened a portal from the asteroid and led Jaina, Arthas, Susan, Reed, and the others to the Kamar-Taj office in the Data Dimension.
• Phil introduced Jaina Proudmoore and Arthas Menethil to King and explained that they had come for assessment before studying at Kamar-Taj.
• King described how Kamar-Taj’s magic relied on bargains with powerful beings before psionic energy and how it still carried dangers.
• Jaina said she wanted to try studying Kamar-Taj’s spell system despite King’s warning.
• King struck Jaina and Arthas, drew out their spirits, and sent them through perilous Dimensional Worlds where they faced corrupting powers.

Jaina and Arthas chose to learn Kamar-Taj magic after King exposed them to the dangers of dimensional beings and explained how mages managed the risks. Later, Gwen welcomed Phil Coulson and Reed’s group to Hebron and presented them with their assessment question.

• King guided Jaina and Arthas through an astral journey that exposed them to terrifying dimensional beings, then asked whether they still wanted to learn Kamar-Taj magic.
• Jaina and Arthas both chose to become apprentices, and King gave them Calming Liquid to clear their minds and remove possible contamination.
• King explained Kamar-Taj’s current sources of power and described its close-combat style of magic to the new apprentices.
• Phil Coulson arrived at Hebron and learned from Gwen that Quiet was drunk after brewing wine with Emotional Prime Liquid.
• Gwen led Reed and his companions to their assessment and asked how they would program a Chaos World Model as a god.

Reed, Susan, Harry, and the others took Hebron’s Chaos Assessment, creating worlds as Creator Gods while their minds experienced vast stretches of time. Afterward, Gwen explained that their assessment memories had been hidden for protection and that its knowledge could return as inspiration, while Reed learned the system relied on the Data Dimension and required great expense to maintain.

• Gwen explained Hebron’s open-ended Chaos Assessment and sent Reed and the others through a door into it.
• Reed became a Creator God, built a world using his knowledge, and led its intelligent life through disasters until a cosmic catastrophe destroyed it.
• The assessment ended in less than three seconds in the outside world, and Reed and the others returned with their memories of it fading.
• Gwen explained that the assessment memories were hidden to protect their minds and that useful knowledge could return later as inspiration.
• Reed asked how Hebron built the assessment system, and Gwen said it relied on the Data Dimension and that maintaining a personal research system would be costly.

Nick Fury and Stephen Strange tried to reach Luke's Core Laboratories after discovering that Abyss-like monsters had overrun Silent City. They were trapped between monsters guarding the route ahead and the creatures pursuing them from behind.

• Nick Fury and Stephen Strange found Luke's Laboratory in ruins and encountered hooded monsters carrying a despairing energy Stephen recognized as connected to the Abyss.
• Stephen and Nick fled through the hall as the monsters pursued them, and Stephen used Note Psionic Magic to repel one creature when it began draining Nick's Psionic Ring.
• Stephen trapped five pursuers inside an Ouroboros of Notes, buying time for them to escape before the monsters wore down the spell and caught up.
• Stephen and Nick reached the approach to Luke's Core Laboratories and found dozens or hundreds of monsters guarding the way.
• The monsters appeared behind them as well, trapping Stephen and Nick between the advancing pursuers and the guarded route.

Nick and Stephen fled black Spectres that drained energy and provoked despair, escaping only after Nick sacrificed his Psionic Ring. Nick awoke in astral form infected by Negative Psionic Energy, and Betsy revealed the Spectres were her pets before bringing out a white one that began feeding on Nick.

• Nick and Stephen tried attacking the five black Spectres, but their magic and energy had little effect, so they fled toward the Collection Room.
• The Spectres disrupted the Collection Room’s teleportation pattern and drained the Psionic Ring’s energy while stirring violent negative emotions in Nick and Stephen.
• Nick trusted Stephen and threw away the Psionic Ring; the Spectres converged on it, allowing the teleportation pattern to activate and carry them away.
• Nick awoke as an astral projection, and Stephen explained that he had been infected by Negative Psionic Energy and needed Luke’s help.
• Betsy appeared and explained that the black Spectres were her pets, then said Luke was in the laboratory.
• Betsy pulled out a white Spectre, which pounced on Nick and seemed to fill him with happiness as it fed.

Stephen and Nick returned to Luke after Betsy used her White Soul Eater to cleanse Nick’s contamination, and Luke explained how Spectres and their evolved forms worked. The chapter left Stephen and Nick alarmed by Mind Mapping Monsters, which could secretly distort a person’s choices at crucial moments.

• Betsy used Little White to cleanse Nick’s negative energy, then opened a Spatial Gate to Luke’s laboratory while she went to catch the black Spectres.
• Stephen brought Nick to Luke, who identified the creature as a White Soul Eater and confirmed that Nick’s personality remained unchanged despite the intense positive emotions.
• Luke explained that positive and negative psionic energy could both contaminate humans, and Nick accused Luke of watching their escape for amusement.
• Stephen identified the black Spectres’ connection to the Abyss, and Luke confirmed they had been created with Abyssal power.
• Luke explained that White Soul Eaters were evolved Black Soul Eaters and described Mind Mapping Monsters as spirits that could secretly distort choices; Stephen and Nick recognized the danger.

Luke explained that the Mind Reflection Monster was a Concept Life Form embedded in the rules of every universe. When Nick and Stephen reported Darkseid’s invasion and the Anti-Life Equation’s threat, Luke equipped them with allies and a Celestial Series weapon, Uranus, for the coming battle.

• Stephen explained to Nick that the Mind Reflection Monster had become a universe-level concept comparable to Eternity and Death.
• Nick told Luke that Darkseid had invaded Bruce Wayne’s universe, defeated the first reinforcements, and begun targeting their universe after controlling two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with the Anti-Life Equation.
• Stephen explained that Tranquil Blue could weaken the control, and Luke recommended using Betsy’s White Spectre to remove it.
• Luke agreed to lend the White Soul Eater and offered demon legions, Nine Realms mercenaries, and Hebron biological weapons to help fight Darkseid.
• Luke led Nick and Stephen to a sleeping giant named Uranus, a controllable weapon made for high-level wars and equipped with a vast range of powers.

The Justice League discussed Darkseid’s threat after the Data Dimension closed, and Bruce Wayne promised to prepare countermeasures. Reinforcements arrived at Bruce’s Batcave, leaving the League poised to meet them.

• Diana Prince, Arthur Curry, Lex Luthor, and the others discussed the Data Dimension’s closure and the danger posed by Darkseid, his army, and the Anti-Life Equation.
• Bruce Wayne accepted responsibility for provoking Darkseid’s attention, but Diana and the others urged the League to focus on preparing for the coming crisis.
• Clark Kent asked Lex Luthor to develop weapons against the New Gods, and Bruce said he had a way to handle the approaching army.
• Diana explained the threats of the Anti-Life Equation and Darkseid’s Omega Effect, and Bruce proposed that Bai Ling’s Green Lantern ring might counter the latter.
• A girl with twin ponytails arrived at Bruce’s Batcave through a portal with a muscular man carrying a hammer and a thin man with a sphere hanging from his chest.

Stephen, Betsy, and Thor joined Bruce’s group to help fight Darkseid, while Darkseid’s forces prepared for another assault. Steppenwolf received one last chance to attack, and DeSaad revealed a mysterious power he believed could control fate.

• Stephen, Betsy, and Thor arrived in Bruce’s conference room, where Thor introduced himself and assured the group that more reinforcements could come if needed.
• Stephen told Bruce’s group that Luke’s backup plan was in Betsy’s pocket, and Betsy claimed her pets were powerful.
• Steppenwolf returned to the mothership after his defeat and pleaded with Darkseid for another chance to eliminate the people of the planet.
• Darkseid granted Steppenwolf one final opportunity and ordered him to leave.
• DeSaad told Darkseid that the power they were investigating resembled Laplace’s Demon and could reveal everything about the universe’s past and future.
• Darkseid demanded to know whether DeSaad was certain.

Thor accepted that Ragnarok repeatedly destroyed the Aesir across universes, while Stephen established warning measures to help prepare against another attack. Steppenwolf brought an Apokolips fleet toward their system, but a colossal tentacled monster ambushed the fleet and attacked his mothership, leaving Steppenwolf to wound its eye with his axe.

• DeSaad asked Darkseid for a chance to enter the Mystical Dimension, and Darkseid agreed while warning him about the consequences of failure.
• Thor told Diana he had grown numb to news of the Aesir’s destruction and planned to kill Steppenwolf if they met.
• Stephen returned and told Thor and Diana that he had set up distant energy warnings and protective measures using magic and Hebron’s technology.
• Steppenwolf ordered his fleet to threaten the planet rather than destroy it, hoping to capture people who could enter the Mystical Dimension.
• A spatial disruption forced Steppenwolf’s fleet out of its jump, and a colossal tentacled monster drove the fleet into chaos with its gaze.
• Steppenwolf hurled his Sky-Splitting Earth-Shattering Axe into the monster’s eye, drawing blood and provoking an enraged shriek.

Steppenwolf’s fleet was overwhelmed by mind-corrupting octopuses, and Steppenwolf nearly fell under their master’s influence before the Anti-Life Equation restored his awareness. As he recovered his axe, a devastating hammer hurtled toward him through space.

• The octopuses tore through Steppenwolf’s armor and overwhelmed his soldiers as chaos and friendly fire destroyed the fleet.
• The octopuses pinned Steppenwolf beneath their mass and tempted him with power and the chance to overthrow Darkseid.
• Steppenwolf nearly surrendered to the eye-like force corrupting his mind, but the Anti-Life Equation clashed with it and restored his free will.
• Steppenwolf realized the fleet’s defeat would bring disastrous consequences and recognized the Anti-Life Equation as the force that had awakened him.
• Steppenwolf seized his returning axe and replenished his strength, then saw a black-hole-centered hammer hurtling toward him.

Thor destroyed Steppenwolf’s mothership and defeated him in battle, then restrained him with a Black Box after he surrendered. Diana began questioning Steppenwolf about Darkseid and Apokolips, leaving the group poised to learn where the threat was based.

• Thor’s hammer obliterated the Apokolips mothership and its surrounding fleet, injuring the innocent Octopus and drawing Steppenwolf out of hiding.
• Thor fought Steppenwolf while Superman, Diana, Stephen, and Hal Jordan arrived and watched Thor overwhelm him.
• Steppenwolf landed an axe strike on Thor but suffered devastating injuries, then surrendered as Thor prepared to attack again.
• Thor gave Steppenwolf a Black Box, which sealed his powers in a bracelet and left him unable to resist.
• Diana asked Steppenwolf to reveal the locations of Apokolips and Darkseid.

Darkseid learned that Steppenwolf had failed again just as the Abyss opened on Apokolips and began corrupting the planet. As the contamination spread and turned Parademons against one another, Thor questioned Doctor Strange about the risks of unleashing the Abyss.

• Darkseid sensed Steppenwolf’s defeat and noticed a Spatial Fluctuation opening on Apokolips.
• A black spatial gate poured filthy liquid over a city, driving Apokoliptians into madness, slaughter, and uncontrolled transformation.
• The Parademons Army rushed to Apokolips, where the contamination rapidly corrupted its ranks and set them fighting the uncorrupted Parademons.
• Apokolips’s weapons fired into the expanding hollow, but it swallowed the attacks and continued to grow.
• Thor asked Doctor Strange whether opening the Abyss was right, worrying that Bruce and the others might approach it and fail to contain its spread.

Darkseid failed to erase the spreading black stain on Apokolips with the Omega Effect and became interested in claiming its power, though he feared entering it. As Darkseid ordered an evacuation and investigated the surrounding space, Stephen, Thor, and the others arrived to confront him.

• A black flood corrupted and destroyed everything in its path across Apokolips, while Darkseid sensed his Parademons dying in vast numbers.
• Darkseid struck the black stain with the Omega Effect, but it resisted the attack and tried to corrupt the beams before he cut them off.
• Darkseid recognized that the black stain's power might rival the Source Wall and considered how to seize it, but he feared entering its depths.
• Darkseid ordered his subordinates to evacuate and used Omega Effects to erase suspicious spatial nodes.
• Stephen, Thor, and the others emerged through a portal, and Betsy called Darkseid ugly.
• Darkseid recognized the newcomers as humans and suspected they were connected to Steppenwolf's defeats, while Stephen immediately attacked him with a spell.

Stephen and Thor battled Darkseid while Betsy and her summoned creatures held back the Parademons Army. Darkseid’s Anti-Life Equation failed to control Stephen and Thor, and a mysterious barrier protected Betsy, leaving Darkseid to suspect that a hidden power on the planet could strengthen the Equation.

• Stephen and Thor coordinated attacks that battered Darkseid, while his subordinates unleashed the Parademons Army against them.
• Betsy summoned enormous creatures, including Ragnaros, which fought the Parademons as they swarmed across the battlefield.
• Darkseid broke Stephen’s restraints, healed from his injuries, and declared that power belonged to the strong.
• Darkseid used the Anti-Life Equation on Stephen and Thor, but Thor resisted it and struck him, while Stephen said he ignored the competing thoughts it caused.
• Darkseid redirected the Equation toward Betsy, but an invisible barrier blocked it; he then suspected that a hidden power on the planet could make the Equation stronger.

Darkseid learned that Stephen and Thor were connected to the world containing psionic power and the Data Dimension, then attacked them to discover how to enter it. Betsy helped them escape after a summoned giant turned Darkseid’s Omega Effect against him and began crushing the battlefield.

• Stephen explained that his and Thor’s resistance to the Anti-Life Equation came from their experience with psionic power and their methods of protecting their minds.
• Darkseid asked how to enter the Dimensional World and charged at Thor, whose battle with him shook the reinforced satellite and disrupted the Parademons Army.
• Darkseid’s Omega Effect struck Thor and injured him, then bypassed Stephen’s shields; Stephen survived by using the Ancient Body of Hoggoth after seeing a glimpse of the future.
• Betsy summoned a giant to block Darkseid’s repeated Omega Effect attacks, then used Spatial Gates to take Stephen, Thor, and her pets away from the battlefield.
• The giant’s gravity power battered Darkseid and the satellite, and Betsy suggested that the Omega Effect had been forcibly captured.

Darkseid struggled against Giant’s gravitational capture while Thor and Stephen watched, and Stephen realized Giant could manipulate time. The chapter left Stephen suspecting that Giant had trimmed the beginning, process, and result of Darkseid’s Omega Effect from the battle.

• Darkseid resisted Giant’s gravitational pull with the Omega Effect, but Giant’s gravity tore apart the Parademons Army and satellite around him.
• Darkseid sent the Omega Effect toward Thor and the others to open a path out of Giant’s capture, but the attack curved back and hit Giant.
• Darkseid fought Giant at close range, seemingly forgetting important details and failing to use the Omega Effect as Thor expected.
• Stephen noticed an abnormality in time and deduced that Giant possessed the Power of Time Trimming.
• Stephen explained that Giant had edited Darkseid’s Omega Effect out of the battle, leaving Thor to consider his theory.