Free Web NovelChapter 305: Chapter 305: The Zombie Universe
On the lawn of the Avengers Compound, a silver-white pillar of light descended from the sky.
As the radiance faded, Clark Kent appeared before everyone.
His skin carried a faint metallic silver sheen. Stars seemed to revolve within his pupils, and the aura emanating from him was enough to make Tony’s armor automatically enter combat mode.
"The dimensional purification is complete," Clark said calmly, yet the pressure in his voice seemed capable of freezing the very air. "The contaminated star region has been cleansed."
Tony instinctively took half a step back.
His armor was flooding him with warnings. Every scan indicated that the man standing before him possessed an energy level far beyond the system’s ability to measure.
"So that’s the Silver Superman?" Steve asked quietly.
Levi nodded, a trace of satisfaction in his eyes as he looked at Clark.
"I’m heading out for a while," Levi said. "Three days. At most."
Clark didn’t ask any questions. He merely inclined his head.
"I’ll guard this place."
His gaze swept over Arthur, the infant in Wanda’s arms, before moving to the assembled Avengers.
Before Levi returns," he said flatly, "anything foolish enough to approach this place will regret ever existing."
Tony opened his mouth as if to say something, then merely sighed.
Once upon a time, he had considered himself among Earth’s strongest defenders.
Now?
A man capable of crushing him with a flick of his hand was willingly standing guard for someone even stronger.
The world had changed so quickly that he could barely keep up.
"Nathaniel, have you found the source of the virus?"
Levi turned toward the young boy staring at a holographic projection.
Nathaniel’s fingers danced through the air. Streams of information from Kang’s inherited database flashed before his eyes.
"Found it."
His voice was tense.
"Universe Z-2149. The outbreak originated in... the Quantum Realm."
"The Quantum Realm?" Tony frowned.
"Hank Pym of that universe," Nathaniel said as he projected a blurry image, "encountered something he never should have touched while searching for his wife there."
The footage showed a figure in an Ant-Man suit floating deep within the Quantum Realm.
A cloud of black mist drifted slowly toward him.
"Anti-Monitor residue."
Levi recognized it immediately.
"A fragment of the hand I severed fell into the Quantum Realm."
He should have thought of it sooner.
The Quantum Realm connected countless parallel universes and formed one of the foundational structures of the multiverse. It was perfectly normal for fragments to be swept there by spacetime turbulence.
"It fused with a native virus from the Quantum Realm," Nathaniel continued, his voice growing quieter. "Creating a... conceptual-level infection."
"Conceptual infection?" Steve asked.
"Simply put," Levi explained, "ordinary viruses infect your body. This thing infects your existence itself."
"The infected don’t just become zombies. Their very nature is rewritten into something else."
He raised a hand and tore open a spatial rift.
"I’ll take a look."
Wanda approached with Arthur in her arms, concern evident in her eyes.
Levi reached out and lightly pinched her cheek.
"Relax. Think of it as visiting the neighbors."
Then he stepped through the rift and vanished.
---
Universe Z-2149, New York
The moment Levi emerged from the spatial crack, he was greeted by the overwhelming stench of blood and decay.
The city was dead.
Overturned cars littered the streets. Broken glass covered the ground. The windows of skyscrapers stared out like hollow, lifeless eyes.
Distant screams and gunfire echoed through the city.
Then they were drowned out by a far more horrifying sound.
Chewing.
Levi looked up and frowned slightly.
A figure dressed in a star-spangled uniform crouched beside a police car, stuffing something into its mouth with both hands.
The shield that once symbolized hope and justice lay discarded nearby, stained dark red.
Zombie Captain America.
Steve Rogers—or whatever remained of Steve Rogers—seemed to sense him and abruptly looked up.
Half his face had rotted away, exposing pale bone beneath.
Yet his eyes burned with ravenous hunger.
"Fresh... meat..."
Zombie Captain America tossed aside what he was eating and lunged toward Levi with movements that defied human anatomy.
He was fast.
Much faster than an ordinary zombie.
The Super Soldier Serum was still working.
Its purpose had simply shifted toward feeding endless hunger.
Levi stood motionless.
When the zombie’s claws came within three centimeters of his face, they struck an invisible barrier.
His Law Domain.
An absolute defense woven from fourteen fundamental universal laws.
A spherical space three meters in radius surrounded him.
Within that space, Levi alone defined reality.
Zombie Captain America clawed frantically at the barrier.
His nails shattered.
His flesh tore.
Not even a ripple appeared.
"What a waste."
Levi looked at him calmly.
"In my universe, you’re a good man."
He lifted a finger.
Tap.
The zombie’s body split cleanly down the middle as though sliced by an invisible blade. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
Both halves collapsed to the ground.
Yet even then, the remains continued writhing, trying to crawl toward him.
"The corruption is deeper than I expected."
Levi crouched and examined the black threads spilling from the wounds.
"It isn’t merely physical. Even the soul has been rewritten."
His psychic senses extended into the threads, analyzing the virus.
It truly was unusual.
Ordinary viruses infected cells.
This conceptual zombie virus infected existence itself.
It rewrote the host’s fundamental logic.
The meaning of life shifted from survival to consumption.
Thought became hunting.
And deep within the virus, Levi sensed a familiar presence.
The Anti-Monitor.
Fragments of the severed hand had fallen into the Quantum Realm and merged with a native pathogen, creating this monstrous infection.
"Interesting."
Levi stood.
"You’re trying to lure me."
The trace of will hidden within the virus trembled slightly.
As though mocking him.
Or inviting him.
---
In the distance, a red-and-gold figure was chasing a group of fleeing survivors.
Zombie Iron Man.
Tony Stark’s armor still functioned perfectly.
The man inside no longer did.
He was nothing more than a corpse driven by hunger, armed with cutting-edge technology.
Levi didn’t intervene.
He waited.
As expected, the next second, a tiny figure emerged from a crack at his feet.
It expanded instantly to normal size and swung a punch toward the back of his head.
Zombie Ant-Man.
Hank Pym.
The source of the disaster.
Levi didn’t even turn around.
His Law Domain rippled slightly.
The Law of Alchemy activated.
Zombie Ant-Man froze midair.
The Pym Particles within his body were forcibly stripped away. The microscopic structures responsible for his size-changing abilities became completely exposed before Levi’s analysis.
"The entrance to the Quantum Realm."
Levi turned toward the immobilized zombie.
"It’s inside you."
"Take me there."
---
Rather than killing Zombie Ant-Man, Levi lifted him like a chicken.
Most of Hank Pym’s body had already rotted away, but the Ant-Man suit remained intact.
The Pym Particle regulator on the chest still blinked faintly.
There was still power left.
"The key to the Quantum Realm."
Levi stared at the regulator.
"It’s right here."
Back in the Invincible universe, he had spent considerable time studying Smart Atoms and their control over microscopic reality.
That experience now proved invaluable.
The essence of Pym Particles lay in folding space to alter size.
The Quantum Realm was the endpoint of infinitely folded space.
His Alchemy Law seeped into the suit and began dissecting the particles.
The structure was even more complex than expected.
Ordinary Pym Particles were merely tools.
These had been contaminated.
Every particle contained traces of black void-like energy.
"I see."
Levi understood.
"The virus didn’t come from outside."
"It crawled out of the Quantum Realm."
While searching for his wife, Hank Pym had encountered Anti-Monitor fragments swept there by spacetime currents.
Those fragments merged with a native Quantum Realm virus and created the conceptual zombie plague.
And Pym Particles became the perfect carrier.
Anyone who used them became infected.
"No wonder the heroes of this universe died so quickly."
Levi shook his head.
"Ant-Man. The Wasp. Everyone connected to Pym technology."
"The first victims."
He tossed Zombie Ant-Man aside and began walking deeper into the city.
---
Far away, Zombie Iron Man was still hunting survivors.
His armor gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight.
The sounds coming from within were those of a beast.
Levi’s psychic senses swept over the area.
There were more survivors than he’d expected.
A teenager in a red-and-blue suit was pulling people onto a skyscraper using webs.
His movements were quick and practiced.
His face was full of terror and despair.
Spider-Man. Peter Parker.
Beside him stood a man in a black suit, using vibranium claws to fend off Zombie Iron Man’s attacks.
Black Panther. T’Challa.
"Interesting."
Levi quickened his pace.
"Spider-Man and Black Panther are still alive in this universe."
Zombie Iron Man’s arc reactor flared with blinding light.
A repulsor blast charged.
Peter’s spider-sense screamed warnings.
But he was exhausted.
Days of fighting and fleeing had drained everything he had.
"T’Challa! Take them and go!"
Peter shouted.
"I’ll hold him off!"
T’Challa didn’t move.
He knew Peter couldn’t stop him.
He also knew he couldn’t either.
The repulsor fired. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
A blue-white beam capable of leveling a building shot forward.
Then—
It disappeared.
Not blocked.
Not deflected.
Simply gone.
Peter and T’Challa stared.
A black-haired man now stood before them.
His right hand was casually raised.
A blue-white sphere rotated slowly above his palm.
The repulsor blast.
Compressed into a ball.
"The arc reactor’s output is roughly equivalent to three nuclear power plants."
Levi examined the sphere.
"In my universe, Tony Stark used this technology to power all of New York."
His fingers closed.
The sphere vanished.
"Unfortunately."
"Here, it’s just a zombie’s toy."
Zombie Iron Man roared in rage.
Every weapon system activated simultaneously.
Missiles.
Lasers.
Micro-bombs.
A storm of destruction rained toward Levi.
He remained still.
Every attack stopped three meters away.
An invisible wall blocked them.
Then the weapons twisted, warped, and transformed into harmless scraps of metal that fell to the ground.
"Existence Replacement."
Levi spoke softly.
He waved a hand.
An invisible force spread outward.
Within a radius of ten miles, every trace of the zombie virus was erased.
Black spores floating in the air.
Rotting fungal growths clinging to corpses.
Virus particles hidden in bloodstreams.
All of it was replaced by pure oxygen.
Zombie Iron Man froze.
Tony Stark had long since died.
Without the virus animating him, only a corpse remained inside the armor.
Peter Parker and T’Challa stood speechless.
They had survived too long in this hellish world.
Seen too much death.
Too much despair.
They thought miracles no longer existed.
What this man had just done surpassed miracles.
"Who... who are you?" Peter asked, his voice trembling.
Levi turned toward them.
"You don’t need to know who I am."
"You only need to know that I can solve the problem in front of us."
---
Levi did not leave immediately.
He crouched beside the remains of Zombie Ant-Man and removed the still-blinking Pym Particle regulator from the damaged suit.
This was the key to the Quantum Realm.
His Alchemy Law flowed into the device once more, dissecting its contaminated structure.
At the core of every particle lurked traces of black void energy.
Anti-Monitor residue.
Levi frowned.
Something felt wrong.
The contamination wasn’t random.
The particles were arranged according to a pattern.
Invisible threads extended from every corrupted particle.
All converging toward a single destination.
The depths of the Quantum Realm.
More importantly, when his consciousness touched those threads, he felt a familiar emotion.
Hunger.
Not the blind hunger of zombies.
Something deliberate.
Something intelligent.
A desire with purpose.
The threads trembled.
Responding to him.
Inviting him.
Come.
Come deeper.
Levi rose and looked across the area he had purified.
Peter Parker and T’Challa were carefully searching the ruins for additional survivors.
This universe could still be saved.
But the source of the infection—
Whatever lurked in the depths of the Quantum Realm—
Had to be dealt with.
Levi stored the regulator in his dimensional space and turned toward another part of the city.
He needed to find this universe’s gateway to the Quantum Realm.
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