Chapter Summaries

Su Ming and his companions entered Chaos Fort after a neutron attack incapacitated most of its defenders. They found the Blood King’s collection of imprisoned doors to parallel worlds and continued searching the building for him.

• The Adjutant Doll reported that the neutron exposure had devastated most organic creatures, and Su Ming decided to finish off the remaining enemies himself.
• Su Ming and Magik crossed the rose field, joked about Mouse’s pocket watch, and entered Chaos Fort after he destroyed the pursuing minions.
• Magik examined the black crystals inside the building, and Su Ming explained that they were manifestations connected to Merlin’s power.
• Deathstroke used an employee card to pass through the security checkpoint, then led Magik toward the stairwell instead of taking the elevator.
• On the second floor, Su Ming found doors to parallel worlds chained inside the rooms and told them they would soon be free before continuing upstairs.

Su Ming and Magik searched the Blood King's building for survivors and found the Blood King healing on a bone throne with Merlin's Rainbow Crystal Balls. Su Ming prepared to kill him and take control of Chaos Fort so they could reach the Dark Tower.

• Su Ming used Strangle to search the blood-soaked building as he and Magik climbed through floors filled with twisted decorations and the remains of the Blood King's minions.
• Su Ming explained that the Blood King demanded cruelty from his army, while Su Ming's own army needed loyalty.
• Magik asked about Polaris, and the Adjutant showed Polaris laughing during a television interview with Starlight in The Boys' world.
• Su Ming warned Magik that Terrigen Mist could incapacitate her despite her immunity to disease, then led her toward the Blood King's vibration source.
• Su Ming and Magik entered the twenty-third floor and found the Blood King healing on a throne of bones, with six Merlin's Rainbow Crystal Balls floating above him.
• Su Ming told Strangle to serve the meal as he prepared to fight the Blood King and Merlin.

Su Ming confronted the Blood King, who remembered his repeated deaths and agreed to die if Su Ming promised not to forget him. Su Ming killed him, threw his remains from the building, and destroyed the Crystal Balls, leaving the Blood King's fate uncertain if the cycle remained unbroken.

• Su Ming sent Strangle after the Blood King, but the king teleported away before Magik sealed the floor.
• Su Ming spoke with the Blood King and helped him recall the pleasure he had felt dying repeatedly at Roland's hands.
• The Blood King recognized Walter as Merlin's incarnation and asked Su Ming to remember him after killing him.
• Su Ming agreed, then beheaded the Blood King and kicked his corpse through a window.
• Su Ming crushed the Crystal Balls left on the throne.

Su Ming explained how the Blood King’s death broke Merlin’s cycle and revealed that the four Light Rivers could guide them to the Dark Tower. With Adjutant’s calculations, he began using the bone throne and the castle’s doors to redirect the light toward Chaos Fort.

• Illyana returned after killing the pursuers, and Su Ming told her the Blood King had chosen to die after remembering Merlin’s cycle.
• Su Ming explained that Roland’s repeated choices reset the world and that the Blood King had used his death to clear the way for him.
• Su Ming told Illyana that the Dark Tower could be reached by guiding the four Light Rivers into the End World’s sky.
• Adjutant calculated how to use the castle’s doors and the bone throne to redirect the beams, and Su Ming ordered Strangle to activate a skull.
• A chained door in a cell opened by itself, and a beam of light refracted from it onto another door.

Su Ming used the skulls of dead destroyers to open Doors and redirect light through Chaos Fort, restoring the four Light Rivers. He and Magik followed the light backward and arrived at the Dark Tower, where its gate opened before a vast field of roses.

• Su Ming ordered Strangle to activate skulls and open Doors, redirecting beams of light through Chaos Fort.
• Su Ming had Adjutant take over the work as Doors opened and light spread across the worlds connected to the Dark Tower.
• Deathstroke left the throne with Magik, and they followed the Light Rivers backward with their eyes closed.
• Su Ming and Magik found themselves before the towering Dark Tower, its enormous gate opening beside a vast Rose Field.

Su Ming and Illyana waited outside the Dark Tower after Su Ming refused to enter Gan’s closed cycle, repeatedly demanding negotiations. They camped in the Rose Field, leaving Gan and Merlin to decide how long they could endure the standoff.

• Illyana prepared to fight as the Dark Tower opened, but Su Ming stayed outside and called for Creator God Gan to negotiate.
• Su Ming explained that entering the tower would place them inside Gan’s cycle and send them back to the beginning, so he and Illyana waited at the gate.
• Su Ming reasoned that refusing the ending cutscene had frozen Merlin’s multiverse game and that Gan would have to respond if they wanted to live.
• Su Ming had Strangle repeat his demand for negotiations while he and Illyana set up camp in the Rose Field.
• Su Ming and Illyana prepared spicy red-oil Instant Hot Pot and settled in to wait for millennia if necessary.

Deathstroke negotiated with Gan over the Dark Tower’s stalled cycle while sharing hot pot with Magik. After learning that Gan’s shadow was Merlin, Deathstroke offered to replace Merlin as Gan’s representative.

• Deathstroke and Magik ate hot pot among the roses while Strangle broadcast an invitation to negotiate.
• Gan answered Deathstroke and formed a humanoid body from light, accompanied by a dark shadow.
• Deathstroke identified the shadow as Merlin and discussed how human nature and memories shaped people’s shadows.
• Gan acknowledged that Deathstroke had stalled his world’s cycle and agreed to hear his terms.
• Deathstroke offered to become Gan’s new representative in place of Merlin.

Su Ming negotiated with Gan to become the multiverse’s new spokesperson, gaining control of its darkness and freeing Gan to pursue a new future. Gan cast Merlin aside, leaving Su Ming and his allies to confront the former spokesperson in the Rose Field.

• Magik worried that Su Ming’s new contract with Gan might conflict with his contract with Vishanti, but Su Ming assured her there were no such restrictions across multiverses.
• Su Ming offered to replace Merlin as Gan’s spokesperson and leave Gan’s multiverse, and Gan accepted the deal immediately.
• Su Ming absorbed the multiverse’s power of darkness, then withdrew it to restore the balance between the black and white halves of the sky.
• Gan abandoned Merlin, who was cast out into the Rose Field, and left Su Ming to deal with him.
• Su Ming approached Merlin with his sword as Magik, Cloak, and Strangle prepared to flank him.

Su Ming tricked Merlin into teleporting himself into The Totality, a prison for multiverse-level beings. Back in Sepulk, Su Ming and Magik watched Merlin meet the Upside-Down Man and set the prison’s next arrangements in motion.

• Merlin used the Crystal Balls’ remaining energy to teleport toward the world he believed he could steal from Su Ming, while Su Ming and Magik revealed they had baited him.
• Merlin arrived inside The Totality and planned to use the Psionic children and willow trees to rebuild his power.
• The Upside-Down Man told Merlin that The Totality was a prison for Creator God-level beings and that Deathstroke had captured them both.
• Su Ming explained to Magik that he had planted spatial coordinates and drawn Merlin’s attention so Merlin would teleport into the trap.
• Su Ming told the Adjutant to handle Gan as planned and to make The Totality’s inhabitants and snow move like a snow globe.

Doctor Doom explained that Element Zero could not remain stable in conventional space and asked to borrow the Cosmic Cube to create a suitable experimental environment. The chapter ended with Doom describing his research as Deathstroke listened in his underground laboratory.

• Deathstroke met Doctor Doom at the castle and followed him to the underground laboratory to discuss Element Zero and the Cosmic Cube.
• Deathstroke greeted Doom’s children, Franklin and Valeria, and gave them game consoles while they watched a Biohazard Crisis movie.
• Doom told Deathstroke that his research into the Negative Zone’s portals had led him to discover Element Zero in the Beyonders’ library.
• Doom explained that Element Zero’s atoms broke down in conventional space and said he needed the Cosmic Cube to create an environment where it could form.

Su Ming agreed to lend Doctor Doom the Cosmic Cube to investigate its connection to the number seven, and brought him to the Antarctic Sanctum Sanctorum to conduct the experiment safely. Doom began examining the Cube while Su Ming left him with Kaecilius, and he declined to attend Wade’s wedding.

• Su Ming accepted Doctor Doom’s request to borrow the Cosmic Cube and insisted they conduct the experiment in the Savage Land Dimension.
• Su Ming and Doom traveled through Antarctica to the Antarctic Sanctum Sanctorum, where Kaecilius had prepared a secure laboratory.
• Kaecilius assured them that the experiment site and its defensive barriers were ready, and Su Ming handed Doom the Cosmic Cube.
• Doom reacted to the Cube’s powerful energy and began the careful verification process.
• Su Ming asked whether Doom would attend Wade’s wedding, and Doom refused, recommending antacids and vomit bags for the guests.

Su Ming visited Carol at the farm, where she explained S.W.O.R.D.'s new operations and invited him to hear about her team and a fan comic. He returned home to Gin, shared news of his plans, and asked how the wedding preparations were going.

• Su Ming left Doom and Little Ka to discuss their experiment and stopped to check on Zhao Si, Bigfoot, and the other naturalized natives.
• Su Ming found Mary training Little Joe to dance with a Taser while Carol relaxed at the farm.
• Carol told Su Ming that she had become director of S.W.O.R.D. and described its mission and new Superhuman recruits.
• Carol showed Su Ming a fan comic featuring Ms. Marvel, Nova, and Little Black Spider, and confirmed that she and several others planned to attend Wade's wedding.
• Su Ming returned home, where Gin served him roasted bear and asked whether his work had gone smoothly.
• Su Ming told Gin about his plans to capture Darkseid and upgrade the Spectre Universe, then asked how his cousin and Shakara were preparing for the wedding.

Su Ming explained to Gin his theory that Element Zero was the multiverse’s unchanging caul and described Doom and Kaecilius’s plan to recreate the transition between Firmaments using the Cosmic Cube. He remained focused on waiting for Doom’s experiment before confronting the Beyonders, while Gin questioned whether Doom could be trusted.

• Gin told Su Ming about Deadpool and Shakara’s wedding photos being delayed after the photographer became violently ill.
• Su Ming said he would attend Wade’s wedding, wait for Doom’s results, and then take people to deal with the Beyonders.
• Su Ming explained how he believed the caul surrounded each universe’s collapsed state and burst open when a new Firmament began.
• Gin inferred that Doom and Kaecilius planned to use the Cosmic Cube to recreate the transition between Firmaments, and Su Ming confirmed it.
• Gin questioned whether Doom was reliable, and Su Ming argued that Doom’s child and hope for the future would keep him from betraying their arrangement.

Su Ming investigated Wade’s disappearance from Shakara’s home in Monster Metropolis, but neither the Adjutant’s scans nor the first witness revealed what had happened. He began questioning the many monsters who had shared Shakara and Wade’s bed, leaving the search unresolved.

• Su Ming found Shakara’s servants searching her home and learned that Wade had vanished sometime after spending the night with her.
• Su Ming asked Shakara to gather the servants who had slept with them, then faced more than two hundred female monsters.
• The Adjutant scanned Earth, the 40K Universe, other dimensions, Parallel Earths, and Pocket Dimensions but found no sign of Wade.
• Su Ming ordered the Adjutant to keep monitoring Deadpools across Parallel Worlds and began questioning the servants in order.
• An Orc maid said she had been first in the bed but had passed out around one in the morning and did not know where Wade went.

Deathstroke questioned the monsters who had been with Wade before he disappeared, but none of them knew where he had gone. Shakara asked Monark to use magic to find her missing fiancé, Little Deadpool, whose wedding was scheduled for the next day.

• Deathstroke dismissed most of the monsters after learning they had slept through the night or left before four in the morning.
• Little Spider said she had left Wade's bedroom before four, and the Slime Monster admitted she had served as his lubricant.
• Deathstroke was left questioning an ordinary cow, who could not answer him.
• The Adjutant told Deathstroke that Monark was in London feeding rabbits, and Deathstroke had him teleported to Monster Metropolis.
• Shakara asked Monark to find Little Deadpool and bring him back before their wedding the next day.

After Monark located Deadpool’s soul, he told Su Ming that Wade was alive but had been abducted into a multi-layered Dream Dimension. Su Ming set off to retrieve him, arriving in Dreaming and asking Daniel to lend him his mask.

• Monark’s divination spell failed, but a cow vomited up Deadpool’s Teleportation Belt, giving him an item to use for Person-Finding Magic.
• Monark cast the spell and learned that Deadpool was alive and had been abducted into a multi-layered Dream Dimension.
• Su Ming left Shakara to prepare for the wedding and teleported with Monark to Sepulk before continuing to Dreaming.
• Su Ming found Daniel by the Faceless Men’s slide and asked to borrow his mask.

Deathstroke and Monark planned to use Dream’s mask to find Deadpool and investigate who was targeting him, suspecting the Plot Continuity Gem was involved. Meanwhile, Deadpool wandered through a dreamlike corridor, where a painting showed him victorious over his allies, and he cut it down and pocketed it.

• Deathstroke returned to Loyalty Academy with Monark and told him to learn how to use Dream’s borrowed mask.
• Deathstroke and Monark concluded that a schemer had kidnapped Deadpool, possibly to exploit the Plot Continuity Gem and rewrite their story.
• Monark warned that Deadpool might not be able to keep the Gem hidden for long, and Deathstroke prepared to leave in his armor.
• Deadpool walked through a dark corridor, joking about his situation and pretending he had been trapped in an artist’s maze.
• Deadpool saw a painting depicting himself on a throne made from the corpses of Deathstroke, Captain America, Spider-Man, and others.
• Deadpool praised the painting, cut it out of its frame with swords, and stuffed it into his pocket.

Deathstroke and Monark fought through dream creatures formed from Deadpool’s subconscious while following his soul through the Dream Dimension. They reached a prison-like maze, while Deadpool remained alone in the gallery and dressed as Marilyn Monroe before heading into the darkness.

• Deathstroke and Monark battled malformed plush toys in a decaying corridor, and Monark explained that the creatures came from Deadpool’s subconscious.
• Deathstroke and Strangle cleared a path through the dream creatures, and Deathstroke used Cosmic Energy to blast a way forward.
• Deathstroke and Monark emerged into a prison-like maze, where Monark realized they might be on a different dream layer and that Deadpool’s subconscious wanted to kill them.
• Deadpool complained that he had lost communication with the Nonexistent Audience and wished for beautiful companions to appear.
• Deadpool decided the gallery’s unseen creator could not provide women, dressed himself as Marilyn Monroe, and limped deeper into the corridor.

Deadpool remembered that he had come to clear a job and found a strange book in the maze of his subconscious. Deathstroke and Monark followed him into the book, entering the next layer of his dream.

• Deadpool recalled that a client had asked him for help and searched the gallery for them.
• Deadpool found a floral-covered book, which sucked him inside and vanished.
• Deathstroke and Monark arrived at the spot and determined that Wade's subconscious maze had led to another dream layer.
• Monark used the Dream Mask to summon the book, and Deathstroke warned that the next layer would mix together stories from Wade's childhood reading notes.
• Deathstroke and Monark touched the book and were pulled into icy water.

Su Ming and Monark arrived in the Dream Dimension and found Deadpool fighting undead aboard the Flying Dutchman with a mermaid. Deadpool explained that he had entered the dimension for a paid job, and the group remained aboard the ship as Monark vomited from seasickness.

• Su Ming and Monark surfaced near a ship and sensed that Deadpool was nearby and fighting.
• Su Ming reached the Flying Dutchman and found Deadpool battling undead Skeleton Soldiers while holding Katana and a mermaid.
• Deathstroke cut Deadpool down, immobilized the skeletons with the Black Lantern Ring, and contained the mermaid in a Green Lantern sphere.
• Su Ming told Deadpool that they were inside his distorted dream and asked how he had entered the Dream Dimension.
• Deadpool said he had taken a job to earn money for a hairstyle, and Su Ming criticized his plan and his three strands of hair.
• Wade tried to comfort Monark, who vomited from seasickness after seeing Wade's face.