Beyond the Solar System, at the barren, lifeless edge of deep space.
Billions of shattered asteroid fragments hung in the black void. The ruined starfield had long since lost every trace of life, leaving only cold cosmic dust and stagnant silence.
In this forgotten corner of the void, Galactus lay hidden, healing his wounds and gathering the power of destruction.
Ever since Loren had grievously wounded him with the Temporal Origin and a temporal backlash had permanently shackled his own origin, the Cosmic Level calamity had abandoned his reckless plan to assault Earth head-on. He had chosen to hide and bide his time.
He no longer vented his destructive fury at will. Like a patient hunter of the void, he silently devoured every scrap of energy in the surrounding barren starfields.
He quietly healed his body, replenished his depleted origin, and consolidated his Destruction Authority.
Only a few days had passed, a negligible span on the near-eternal scale of the cosmos. Yet Galactus's terrifying rate of recovery had already restored seventy percent of his combat strength.
Now, not a trace of peace remained in the dead starfield.
Deep in the dark void, a murky black sea of mist spanning tens of thousands of starfields pulsed slowly. At its center crouched a humanoid figure of staggering size.
His body rivaled a small star. Black flames of destruction wreathed him, annihilating all they touched. With every breath, vast clouds of cosmic dust and shattered stellar debris dissolved, while the void itself collapsed, folded, and trembled.
Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, was one of the Marvel Universe's four primordial creator gods. Rooted in the origin of cosmic balance, he embodied the universe's ceaseless destruction and rebirth.
He existed beyond life and death. Ordinary cosmic attacks, washes of law, and energy bombardments could not