Chapter Summaries

Deathstroke and Magik learned that Deadlights fed on people's dark thoughts and granted their cruel wishes, making it impossible to destroy while humanity endured. They left Derry Town and entered the basement at 9 Wichham Street to reach the next world, where Deathstroke planned to confront Merlin.

• Deadlights explained that malicious thoughts and hatred empowered it, and it fulfilled people's wishes by killing those they despised.
• Deathstroke explained that Deadlights would return every twenty-seven years and could not be permanently destroyed without eliminating humanity or its capacity for thought.
• Magik asked how they could face Merlin, and Deathstroke said the next world's doorway lay in the basement at 9 Wichham Street.
• Deathstroke and Magik entered the house and headed toward the basement while discussing Deadlights' nature and its comments about puppets.

Deathstroke and Magik reached the Middle World and watched a damaged robotic bear forage in a garbage wasteland beneath a railway that dumped refuse and corpses. They learned that a nearby city-state collected the dried bodies for reuse, while Deathstroke said they would follow the light toward the End World and the Dark Tower.

• Deathstroke identified the giant bear as Kill-Enemy, a damaged creation of the Northern Central Positronic Group and one of their targets, and agreed to let it finish eating before they acted.
• A red Bullet Train passed overhead, dumping garbage into the wasteland, where monsters gathered to feed.
• Deathstroke explained that the train had come from a mad train enthusiast’s dreams and that strange things were common in the Middle World.
• Workers arrived on a smaller train, replaced the corpses hanging in cages along the railway, and crushed the old bodies into powder for reuse.
• Magik vowed not to eat fish sold in the nearby city-state after Deathstroke suggested the corpse powder might be used as fish feed.

Su Ming explained that the Middle World's monsters and Synthezoids suffered from spiritual misery and malfunctioning programming, then prepared to investigate Kill-Enemy. He and Illyana left their picnic ready to take apart the trash-eating mechanical bear.

• Su Ming and Illyana watched wasteland monsters quietly scavenge alongside Kill-Enemy and suspected the bear's memetic infection and electromagnetic waves affected them.
• Su Ming explained that Synthezoids could experience human thoughts and illnesses, and that the Middle World's ruling class controlled nearly all means of production.
• Su Ming shared Big Egg Cake with Illyana and explained that Kill-Enemy stared into the distance because its memory device was damaged and its electronic nerves short-circuited.
• Su Ming called Kill-Enemy experimental material, and Illyana transformed into her Demon Form and prepared to examine the mechanical god.

Magik and Su Ming reached Kill-Enemy on the garbage mountain, where the monsters showed no desire to fight. Magik battled the bear-shaped Guardian Company asset, and Su Ming ordered her to capture it alive.

• Magik and Deathstroke crossed the garbage mountain past monsters that silently moved away instead of attacking.
• Kill-Enemy noticed the humans, charged at them, and repeated a malfunctioning message about protecting Guardian Company property.
• Magik transformed into her demon form and collided with Kill-Enemy, then wrestled it hand to hand.
• Su Ming put away his prepared grenades and told Magik not to kill Kill-Enemy because he wanted it alive.
• Magik threw Kill-Enemy over her shoulder, slamming the bear into the ground.

Su Ming and Magik captured Kill-Enemy, a damaged Guardian God whose gravity powers let it float away, and the Adjutant began dismantling it for research. Su Ming recruited Dr. Holloway to advise a planned Mechanical Deity experiment, leaving the doctor to join the project.

• Kill-Enemy activated a gravity-control program and floated into the air, but Magik restrained it with Limbo magic while Su Ming struck it until its body was shattered.
• Su Ming used a Spider Totem to teleport Kill-Enemy to the Adjutant, where mechanical arms began dismantling the synthezoid bear for reverse-engineering.
• Dr. Holloway arrived at the operating room and declined Su Ming's offer of a synthezoid pet, citing his aversion to bacteria and viruses.
• Su Ming asked Dr. Holloway to advise the Adjutant and the Council of the Sky as they prepared an experiment to create a Mechanical Deity.
• Dr. Holloway agreed to help establish the deities' foundational logic, and Su Ming left him to the work.

Deathstroke explained to Magik how Holloway’s imagination and Little Franklin’s power would help create a god, while the Adjutant and the Council of the Sky would build and enchant its body. They reached Lud, the City of Roses, and slipped inside to seek information about a nearby Wilderness Witch.

• Magik asked why Holloway was the best candidate to create a god, and Deathstroke explained that his lack of belief would let him imagine divine mysteries.
• Deathstroke clarified that the Adjutant would make the mechanical god’s body, the Council of the Sky would enchant it, and Holloway would provide its mystery with help from Little Franklin.
• Deathstroke said they needed a Merlin’s Rainbow Crystal Ball after capturing a Guardian Deity, then spotted Lud ahead.
• Deathstroke described Lud’s hidden Green Palace, its ruler’s obsession with roses, and the city’s many Gray Hairs.
• Deathstroke and Magik entered Lud through the steam-filled streets to ask about a nearby Wilderness Witch.

Su Ming and Magik explored Lud, where exhausted workers lived under brutal capitalist rule and were treated as tools rather than people. They encountered an overseer and asked him to direct them to the city's best bar so they could make inquiries.

• Magik asked Su Ming about Gray Hairs, and he explained that they were clever, human-bodied rat monsters used as spies by the Blood King and Dark Mages.
• Su Ming told Magik that the Blood King sought Merlin's Rainbow Crystal Balls and children with superpower potential to open passages to Parallel Worlds and attack the Dark Tower.
• Su Ming and Magik passed hundreds of numb workers carrying numbered tools, and Su Ming told Magik they should continue toward the Dark Tower rather than intervene.
• An overseer called for workers with specific tools to take two hours of overtime for thirty beans, prompting Magik to comment on the meager pay.
• The overseer recognized Su Ming and Magik as wealthy Gunslingers, and Su Ming asked him where the city's best bar was.

Su Ming and Magik crossed the city’s worker districts and saw how its rulers kept laborers obedient and numb. They reached a lively market where people were openly sold as tools, and Magik began looking for the bar the overseer had recommended.

• Su Ming questioned the overseer, who told him about the city’s bars, brothels, and restaurants before Su Ming left with Illyana.
• Su Ming and Magik discussed how the city’s workers were conditioned into obedient tools and how their lives differed from those in Cyberpunk worlds.
• Su Ming and Magik crossed a guarded industrial square covered in propaganda posters and continued toward the Central District.
• Su Ming and Magik arrived at a market where vendors sold people as tools, and Magik looked for the bar the overseer had mentioned.

Su Ming and Magik gathered information in Lud and tracked the Swamp Hag Lia to a swamp outside the city, where they believed she had one of Merlin's Rainbows. They arrived ready to confront her, with Magik proposing to kill her and take the Crystal Ball.

• Su Ming and Magik questioned people at a Lud bar, where Su Ming obtained a wasteland map and the Adjutant began checking possible locations with drones.
• Su Ming explained that the Green Palace’s rose garden had driven people into the wasteland to find seeds, but Magik declined to visit it and they browsed the market instead.
• Su Ming and Magik traveled about two hundred kilometers from Lud to a dark, foul-smelling swamp identified by their gathered intelligence and drone scans.
• Su Ming told Magik that the Swamp Hag was named Lia and was believed to possess one of Merlin's Rainbows.
• Magik suggested killing Lia so they could take the Crystal Ball.

Su Ming and Illyana collected radiation-mutated willows in a ruined world while Harley and Poison Ivy raced through the Mad Max wasteland with Optimus Prime. The chapter left Su Ming asking Optimus Prime how Harley had brought him along.

• Strangle killed a mutated crocodile after it attacked Su Ming and Illyana, then spat out its radioactive remains in disgust.
• Su Ming and Illyana reached a patch of mutated willows, and Su Ming had Strangle uproot several to give to Poison Ivy.
• Su Ming contacted the Adjutant and saw Harley and Poison Ivy racing in the Mad Max world with Optimus Prime.
• Harley explained that she had found Optimus Prime after failing to borrow a vehicle and deciding to teach their would-be captors a lesson.
• Su Ming asked Optimus Prime to explain why he had joined Harley and Poison Ivy.

Su Ming spoke with Optimus Prime about the Autobots’ renewed exile from Cybertron and gave him advice, then arranged to send unusual trees to Poison Ivy. The Adjutant revealed that Megaverse boundaries were blurring and showed Hal Jordan in a hospital room aboard the Enterprise, leaving Su Ming wondering how he had ended up there.

• Optimus Prime told Su Ming that Emperor Maxim had returned, seized Cybertron with the Decepticons, and forced the Autobots to flee again.
• Su Ming advised Optimus Prime to search for Vector Prime, then learned Harley had persuaded Optimus to join the Madman Rally in a modified vehicle.
• Su Ming showed Poison Ivy the unusual trees he had found and arranged to store them in Sepulk until she returned from vacation.
• After ending the call, Su Ming asked the Adjutant about the blurring Megaverse boundaries, and it showed him Hal Jordan aboard the Enterprise from Star Trek.

Deathstroke and the Adjutant investigated Hal Jordan’s collision with the Enterprise and considered what the encounter meant for Earth-0, while Superman approached the ship. Magik returned with a mind-controlling Crystal Ball, which Deathstroke began examining.

• Magik flew into the swamp to deal with the Swamp Witch while Deathstroke and the Adjutant continued their discussion.
• The Adjutant showed Deathstroke footage of Hal Jordan colliding with the Enterprise and being taken aboard unconscious.
• Deathstroke ordered the footage sent to Justice League members and discussed whether Darkseid had caused the Enterprise to cross into Earth-0.
• Deathstroke concluded that the Justice League could handle the Enterprise as Superman arrived outside its infirmary window.
• Magik returned with a pink Crystal Ball taken from the Swamp Witch, and Deathstroke began examining its mind-control power.

Su Ming discovered that Merlin’s Rainbow was a dangerous magical doorway and destroyed it before continuing with Magik toward the Dark Tower. As they traveled through Middle World, he talked with Magik about Strange and her possible future as Sorcerer Supreme, while she enjoyed the journey.

• Su Ming sensed something repulsive inside Merlin’s Rainbow and crushed the Crystal Ball after identifying it as a living doorway for dark energy.
• Magik understood the danger of the artifact and agreed that the name Merlin’s Rainbow hinted at its connection to Merlin and the Goddess of Night.
• Su Ming and Magik continued toward the Dark Tower, and he told her she might inherit the Main Dimension’s Sorcerer Supreme position someday.
• Magik objected to taking on that responsibility, and Su Ming reassured her that his retirement was centuries away.
• Su Ming and Magik crossed Middle World toward the End World and rode a Water Horse through radioactive pools, delighting Magik.

Su Ming and Magik explored the corporate city Northern Central Positronic Industries Group, then followed the Wolves who were abducting children with Psionic Power. After killing the Wolves and rescuing the children, they learned a route to Lightning-Struck Land and prepared to leave.

• Su Ming and Magik visited a cramped parts shop, where the shopkeeper unknowingly lived with Synthezoid copies of his family, and asked where to find video games.
• Su Ming decided to enter the company tower for research data on Kill-Enemy, but spotted the Wolves leading children into an alley.
• Su Ming explained that the Wolves served Blood King by abducting children with Psionic Power and taking them to Lightning-Struck Land.
• Su Ming and Magik followed the Wolves to a remote alley and shot them down with their Revolvers.
• Magik gathered the frightened children while Strangle read the Wolves’ memories, and Su Ming learned their route to Lightning-Struck Land.

Su Ming brought Magik to a 1977 train station in Our World to show her a story trapped in a loop. He explained the Triangle-style cycle in which a boy and a woman repeatedly killed each other, leaving Magik to wonder whether anyone in the story could be saved.

• Su Ming and Magik traveled through a Doorway from a hidden base to a train station in 1977.
• Su Ming pointed out the station’s endless book-signing loop and continued discussing the Narrative Layer with Magik.
• A woman shoved a boy onto the tracks, and a passing train killed him.
• The boy returned and pushed the woman onto the tracks, where another train killed her.
• The boy and woman repeated the cycle, and Magik identified it as a Triangle-style loop with no apparent way to save anyone.

Su Ming explained how Jack Mort, Greta, and Odetta were trapped in interlocking cycles across parallel worlds, then taught Magik to bypass those cycles by confronting Merlin at a higher narrative level. They left the train station through a New York nightclub and arrived in Lightning-Struck Land, where lightning nearly hit them.

• Su Ming explained that Jack Mort and Greta repeatedly pushed each other onto train tracks across parallel worlds, while Jack’s actions in 1930 created the personalities and events that began the cycle.
• Magik suggested killing everyone at the cycle’s origin, but Su Ming said they should ignore the local loops and kill Merlin, who was involved at a higher level.
• Su Ming and Magik traveled to a New York nightclub, used it as a passage, and entered a vortex to Lightning-Struck Land.
• They emerged in a scorched wilderness beside a dead tree and nearly got struck by lightning.

Su Ming and Magik reached Blue Heaven, a fortified town where the Blood King’s forces brainwashed Psionic children into Breakers. After learning about the place and agreeing to take its liquid batteries, they arrived at the gate and captured a Gray Hair.

• Su Ming used the Cloak of Levitation as a lightning rod while he and Magik planned a route through Blue Heaven, Kangcanore, and Chaos Fortress toward the Dark Tower.
• Su Ming explained that Blue Heaven imprisoned and conditioned children, turning some into Breakers and others into material for Biomonsters.
• Su Ming and Magik spotted Blue Heaven’s blue buildings and glowing liquid-battery tanks, and Magik asked to take the batteries to Limbo.
• Su Ming armed himself with a Gatling gun while Magik drew her greatsword, and they approached the town’s gate.
• Strangle seized a Gray Hair at the gate, and Su Ming pointed out its head as a weakness while Magik began suggesting what to do with it.

Deathstroke and Magik slaughtered the ratmen and mutated soldiers in a town that served as both a school and a prison, then killed its warden and extracted information from his memories. Su Ming ordered the unbrainwashed children taken away with the tree they had dug up, leaving the town cleared and the children awaiting rescue.

• Su Ming ordered Magik to kill every living thing taller than her thigh while Strangle used a Gatling Gun to clear enemies near the gate.
• Su Ming wondered whether Magik understood that Marvel was trapped in a cycle and thought about whether Ancient One would accept being saved.
• Strangle retrieved a ratman's gold pocket watch, and Su Ming found a family photograph containing thousands of ratmen inside it.
• Magik returned with the warden, Pimley Prentice, and Strangle ate him so Su Ming could learn from his memories.
• Su Ming praised Magik for killing the warden's subordinates and ordered Adjutant to take away the children who had not been brainwashed and put them with the tree.

Su Ming and Magik left the ruined Lightning-Struck Land and traveled through Kangkarino toward Chaos Fort, where they encountered the robot maintaining the snowy road. The chapter ended with Su Ming pointing out a twisted red line in the sky ahead.

• Su Ming took the psychic children, the tree, and the strange equipment from Lightning-Struck Land before the lightning destroyed the town’s central buildings.
• Su Ming and Magik landed in Kangkarino, where he explained how Blood King’s Gray Hairs used roses to infiltrate Lud, and gave Magik flowers to preserve.
• Su Ming led Magik out of the town toward Chaos Fort, and Cloak returned to its handkerchief form after leaving the lightning behind.
• Su Ming and Magik met Stuttering William, a repair robot that cleared the only road across the snowfield, and discussed its connection to a boy from another world.
• Su Ming pointed out the twisted red line at the far edge of the sky as they continued toward Chaos Fort.

Su Ming and Magik reached the moat surrounding Chaos Fort and found the Blood King’s enormous, twisted army gathered among the roses. Su Ming activated a brief neutron bombardment that withered the rose fields, leaving the fortress undamaged as the sky opened to space.

• Su Ming and Magik arrived at the moat and saw Chaos Fort, a modern skyscraper once built by King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
• Deathstroke explained that Merlin had gathered or created the many kinds of monsters serving the Blood King.
• Magik asked how they would deal with the army, and Su Ming chose a brief neutron irradiation instead of summoning forces from Limbo.
• Su Ming and Magik raised protective barriers while the Adjutant prepared the Neutron Annihilation Program and warned that the fort must not be damaged.
• Flying Vehicles formed a triangular portal in the sky, and a flash from a distant megastructure struck the planet, instantly withering the roses.