For the first time, Galactus's vast body stiffened in the void.
The Destruction Origin coursing around him was bound layer upon layer by the Temporal Force. The black-hole rifts capable of devouring stars were forcibly frozen, stripped away, and sealed.
"The Time Origin?!"
This time, the utter indifference in Galactus's voice finally gave way to genuine shock and wariness.
"You are not a being of this universe. You are an arbiter of the Multiversal Temporal Order!"
He had lived through cycles of the universe and seen countless supreme beings and primordial gods, yet the Temporal Force was the one thing he deeply feared.
Energy could be countered, bodies could be broken, and rules could be overpowered. But time and causality were shackles shared by every god in the universe.
Loren walked slowly through the void, calm and upright. He stood at the front of the assembled forces and faced the cosmic calamity head-on.
Silver-white streams of temporal light wound around him. His eyes were as deep as an ancient galaxy, and his voice was calm but carried unshakable authority.
"Galactus, you feed on stars and make civilizations your sustenance. You are part of the universe's balance, a natural part of its cycle."
"But you listened to the Celestials' provocations, crossed into a lower-dimensional universe, and seized stars before their appointed end. You interfered with the established flow of time and causality. You have overstepped."
As his words fell, Loren raised a hand and clenched it.
Hum—!
Countless temporal threads tightened in an instant, wrapping fast around Galactus's vast body.
This was nothing like the shallow temporal stasis that had held the Silver Surfer. These were supreme Temporal Shackles.
Loren precisely severed Galactus's link to this universe's origin, cutting off the energy he drew from it.
At the same time, he