Chapter Summaries

Thanos tried to reach the Heart of the Universe amid the melee, while Hela and Captain Marvel struggled to stop him. As the gathered powerhouses began attacking the heart, Thor escaped with the unconscious Apocalypse, but Silver Surfer and Sentry blocked his rescue.

• Thanos used the melee to slip toward the Heart of the Universe, but Captain Marvel and Hela intercepted him before he blended into the crowd.
• Hela warned the powerhouses that Thanos had refined the heart, and the crowd discovered and attacked him as he tried to approach it.
• Thanos warned that an unconscious Earthling inside the heart could recover by absorbing its energy, prompting some powerhouses to enter while others tried to refine it from outside.
• Captain Marvel stayed to hold off Thanos while Hela went to help Thor, but the Heart of the Universe beat and pulverized countless powerhouses.
• Thor emerged from the heart carrying the bloodied Apocalypse and called for Heimdall to take them away, but Silver Surfer cut off the Bifrost light as Sentry demanded that Thor leave Apocalypse behind.

While Apocalypse remained unconscious, rival powerhouses gathered to seize his soul imprint, and Thor was nearly overwhelmed until Arishem and the Celestials intervened. As factions from across the universe arrived to protect Apocalypse, the gathering became a vast standoff, with the battle still poised to begin.

• Parallel Universe powerhouses attacked Thor as they sought Apocalypse's soul imprint, but Arishem arrived with the Celestials and rescued him.
• Three Parallel Watchers challenged Arishem, refusing to let the Celestials take Apocalypse away, and Uatu arrived with other Watchers to oppose them.
• Valkyrie led Asgardian warriors through a portal and declared that they had come to welcome their prince.
• Doctor Strange, Wanda, Iron Man, and Earth's other heroes arrived in battle suits, while Black Widow flew to check on Apocalypse.
• Star-Lord and the Guardians of the Galaxy joined Earth's forces, and Star-Lord revealed that Ego's Cosmic Brain had made him a true god.
• The Sovereign, Kree, and Nova fleets arrived to defend their universe, with Adam Warlock, the Kree, and the Nova Empire pledging their support to Apocalypse.

Universe-616’s forces struggled against an overwhelming invasion of parallel-universe powerhouses as more enemies poured into the battle. Just as Heimdall was wounded while trying to evacuate Thor and the unconscious Apocalypse, Apocalypse woke up and addressed the battlefield.

• A Parallel Watcher struck Arishem, starting a vast battle between the parallel powerhouses and Universe-616’s defenders.
• Earth’s superheroes, Asgard’s warriors, the Celestials, and the Watcher fought to protect Apocalypse, while the Ancient One erased Thanos’s passageways.
• As Universe-616’s defenders suffered heavy losses, Hela left Captain Marvel to reinforce the Asgardians, and Valkyrie asked Heimdall to take Thor and Apocalypse away.
• The Silver Surfer pierced Heimdall as he prepared to use his rainbow power, seemingly ending the evacuation attempt.
• Apocalypse woke from his nap and complained about the noise.

Apocalypse awoke after developing his own Way of Truth and effortlessly defeated the Parallel Watchers and Sentry. He slaughtered the invading beings from parallel universes and left the central Milky Way filled with their remains and abandoned artifacts.

• Apocalypse woke from his dream, embraced Black Widow, and explained how his recovery had led him to develop the Way of Truth.
• The three Parallel Watchers attacked Apocalypse, but he casually dispersed them, killing them and scattering their remains across space.
• Sentry charged Apocalypse with the power of a million exploding suns, and the resulting blast devastated many weaker beings from parallel universes.
• The invading beings fled, but Apocalypse spread a force that killed those who were not native to Universe-616.
• Apocalypse dragged back those who had escaped through wormholes and killed the remaining invaders, filling the central Milky Way with seas of blood, continents of flesh, and divine artifacts.

Apocalypse captured Thanos, stripped away the Heart of the Universe, and sentenced him to ten thousand years of torment in Hell. After recovering the Heart and speaking with the Watchers and Celestials, Apocalypse reunited with the superheroes and prepared to return to Earth to meet someone.

• Captain Marvel returned without Thanos, so Apocalypse pulled his wounded body from the aorta and took the Heart of the Universe from him.
• Apocalypse sentenced Thanos to endure the bites of Hell's undead souls for ten thousand years, and Hell dragged him into its passageways.
• Apocalypse shrank the Heart of the Universe, sealed it in a box made of Uru Metal, and told the Watchers he still lacked a key thing to take the final step.
• Apocalypse told the Watchers and Celestials he could eventually lead them into the Creator Dimension, though each would have to take the final step for themselves.
• Apocalypse greeted the gathered superheroes, reassured Loki that Odin had pleaded for his life, and restored Thor's Hammer with his Way of Truth.
• Apocalypse announced that they would return to Earth to meet someone.

Apocalypse confronted Paul, the bartender who had given him his system, and learned that Paul was a remnant of the dead OAA. Paul explained that OAA encompassed both sides of every paradox, leaving Iron Man unable to name anything beyond OAA’s omniscience and omnipotence.

• Apocalypse brought the superheroes and Celestials to a New York bar and asked the bartender to explain his system and identity.
• Paul revealed that he had created systems across many worlds and that Earth-616 had become a center because he carried OAA’s energy.
• Paul said that OAA had died and described himself as an introduction, unsettling the Celestials, Watchers, and superheroes.
• Paul explained that OAA could know and alter every part of the universe’s history, then asked whether that truly meant omniscience and omnipotence.
• Iron Man raised the unliftable-stone paradox, and Paul answered that OAA encompassed both sides of every paradox.
• Iron Man admitted that he could not think of anything OAA was not omniscient and omnipotent about.

Paul explained that OAA escaped the curse of omniscience by destroying himself and leaving behind the worlds and life, while Apocalypse learned that Paul could begin the cycle again. Offered the final step, Apocalypse chose not to become OAA and instead opened the way to the Creator Dimension, where he reunited with his former life and invited Natasha and Tony to play a game.

• Paul explained that omniscience and omnipotence could be escaped only through death, and Apocalypse concluded that OAA had condensed the previous era into himself and exploded, leaving all worlds as remnants.
• Paul revealed that he was the trigger who could collapse the worlds and return to being OAA, and that true death would occur only if someone replaced or killed him.
• Paul offered Uatu the key to transcendence, but Uatu could not touch it; Apocalypse picked it up and hesitated over whether to take the final step.
• Apocalypse put down the key and opened a door to the Creator Dimension, bringing the group to the real Earth among the Celestials.
• Apocalypse merged with his sleeping former-life body, then called out to Natasha and Tony to ask if they wanted to play a game.