After confirming that Ultron's soul had really died, that the AI consciousness had been completely and utterly erased from existence, Elric directly sat down in the snow where he'd been standing. His legs gave out from the mental exhaustion, and he just... collapsed.
The Goal of All Life Is Death.
It wasn't actually a spell in the traditional sense. It was a class skill learned at the 5th level of [Eclipse], which was a job class limited to Overlords who had fulfilled a bunch of strict prerequisites. You couldn't just learn it—you had to earn it through specific achievements and conditions.
It wasn't even any kind of attack skill, which made it even more terrifying. No, it was a support skill. A buff, technically.
But its effect? He had nothing to say about how absolutely broken it was. It could directly strengthen any death-related magic to guarantee a one-hit kill, bypassing virtually all defenses. Even in the Overlord world, where everyone and their grandmother had instant death resistance built into their character sheets, where resurrection magic was commonplace and death was often just an inconvenience, this skill was still completely overbearing.
You could only revive later, after the fact. But you couldn't avoid the death itself. It was inevitable, absolute.
After being enhanced by The Goal of All Life Is Death, his magic could even directly kill and obliterate inanimate objects—things like air itself, the earth, concepts that weren't even truly "alive" in any conventional sense.
And he'd used it with a magic that was particularly effective against souls, specifically designed to target consciousness and spiritual existence. And it hadn't disappointed him in the slightest.
He didn't know exactly how strong Ultron's soul was—the AI had been touched by an Infinity Stone, after all, elevated beyond normal digital consciousness. But it had been directly wiped out anyway, not leaving even the faintest traces behind. No remnant data, no backup consciousness, no fragment that could rebuild itself. Just... gone.
It could be said this was his most powerful offensive capability currently. Not the most destructive in terms of raw firepower—he had spells that could level cities or split mountains. But definitely the most deadly, the most absolute in its finality.
Looking around at the pristine snow surrounding him, at the untouched landscape, it seemed there were no side effects visible in the environment. The spell hadn't corrupted the area or left any lingering death energy.
That was good. Very good.
Using this skill was very dangerous, you see. There was a big boss who sat somewhere above the cosmic hierarchy, an entity called Lady Death. Elric was always afraid that using death magic of this magnitude might attract her attention, might make her aware of his existence. So he really hadn't wanted to use it, had kept it as an absolute last resort.
But without it, he genuinely couldn't have killed Ultron. The AI's soul was too well-protected, too resilient. Normal soul magic would have just scattered it, allowing it to reform later.
And also, this was a different universe entirely. He wasn't going to stay here permanently. So he really didn't care if the Lady Death of this universe came to find him—he'd be leaving soon anyway, returning to his own world where different rules applied.
But before he could rest any more, before he could even catch his breath properly, Professor X's voice sounded in his mind, the telepathic communication cutting through his thoughts.
Mr. Elric, is Ultron defeated?
Elric closed his eyes briefly.
Professor, I'm pretty sure I told you not to contact me unless it was urgent, Elric thought back with some irritation. But yeah, Ultron is dead. Completely dead. His soul is gone.
Elric opened his eyes and stared at the grey sky above him.
Sorry, I really didn't intend to disturb your rest, Professor X's mental voice carried genuine apology. But something really important came up. We need you here immediately.
What now?!
It wasn't even a question. It came out flat. Resigned.
Elric got up groaningly, brushing snow off his clothes. He'd just gone out to see the Universe, to explore and have some adventures. Why was he getting hit with trouble one after another? Was this some kind of cosmic joke?
It was like the saying went: a man went out only to get beaten down by society, even without leaving his neighborhood. If he'd known something like this would happen, let alone going to explore the universe, he wouldn't have even gone outside his house. He'd have stayed home, safe and sound, playing games in peace.
Sighing heavily, he opened a portal, the dimensional gateway crackling to life in front of him.
Stepping through, he emerged to see everyone discussing something intensely. Mainly Jean and Logan were having what looked like a heated debate, their voices raised. Hela stood beside them looking at the argument coldly, her arms crossed and her expression unreadable. Magneto had been unceremoniously thrown to the side—he was now leaning against a tree, still unconscious from the mental battle.
Looking around at the surroundings, Elric realized something. At the time when he'd been in a hurry to evacuate everyone, he hadn't really looked at where he was sending them—just "far away" had been his only criterion. It turned out he'd deposited them in a deep forest, surrounded by towering trees and thick vegetation.
The moment the portal opened fully, everyone's eyes immediately focused on him.
Jean quickly rushed over to him, her face pale with worry. "Mr. Elric, there's huge trouble. A massive problem."
"What now?" Elric asked, already feeling a headache coming on.
"Let me explain," Vision's calm voice came from the side, cutting through the tension. He stepped forward, his synthetic face grave.
"After you sent Ultron out of Magneto's body and I confirmed the AI was truly gone, I quickly went toward Ultron's base. I accessed his systems and directly hacked into them, breaking through his security protocols."
"My intention was to see if I could find anything useful," Vision continued. "Information about his plans, data caches, anything that might help us understand what he'd been doing in this universe."
"There, I found something... troubling." Vision's glowing eyes dimmed slightly. "A reality bomb. And its activation condition was specifically set to trigger after the base lost connection with Ultron's main body consciousness."
"Likely his plan was this: after he left this universe, after he escaped back to wherever he came from, the bomb would directly trigger. It would annihilate all traces of him being here, erase all evidence of his presence and his experiments."
"A bomb?" Elric's eyebrows rose. He'd thought this was some serious metaphysical matter, but it turned out to be just a bomb? "What kind of bomb are we talking about here?"
He could just throw the thing out into the open universe, into the empty void between galaxies. What was the big deal about it? Bombs he could handle.
"It's a bomb capable of destroying the entire universe," Vision said quietly.
"...Fuck."
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