The War Rooms Beyond Reality
Location: The Apex Continuum – Throne of the Prime Architects
Beyond the limits of any known universe, past the final frontier of thought, a realm without time pulsed with eerie stillness. Monoliths spun like gears across a void made of collapsing paradoxes. This was The Apex Continuum—the seat of those who wrote the cosmos.
Here, the Prime Architects convened.
Seven thrones.
Seven presences.
Not gods. Not machines.
Something worse: the authors of reality itself.
They had no faces, no forms—only symbols: ∞, Ω, 0, I, ?, Ʃ, and ∂.
They watched Redactor Zero's failure unfold through a stream of corrupted data—Sentry killing an aspect of Origin. A forbidden act. A rewrite that could unravel the Core Narrative of the Multiverse.
> "The Void-Sentinel has violated Rule 0.6: Causality is immutable," spoke Architect ∞.
> "This instance must be collapsed," echoed Architect ∂.
But then, Architect Ʃ—keeper of multiversal balance—interrupted.
> "And yet, he resists deletion. He consumes entropy. We must not treat him as anomaly…"
A pause. Even the stars beyond their chamber flinched.
> "…but as candidate."
---
Meanwhile – Fortress of Solitude
Superman stood before an ancient beacon—an artifact left behind by the Forger of Worlds, once thought lost in the Metal Wars. He activated it, and a projection of The Monitor's Codex filled the room.
He whispered:
> "I need help. Not just power… but truths."
From the Beacon, a reply came—not from Earth, not from this Multiverse:
> "The Throne of the Bleeding Star hears your call, Kal-El."
Suddenly, a portal opened—and from it stepped a being in crimson armor, silver eyes burning like dying suns:
Val-Zod, from Earth-2.
Behind him, two more figures arrived:
Superman Prime—golden, immortal, and battle-worn.
All-Father Clark—his beard wild, wielding the Cosmic Axe.
Kal-El stared, stunned. "You answered?"
Superman Prime nodded. "The Multiverse is bleeding again, Kal. And the infection this time... is intelligent."
All-Father Clark growled, "Where is Reynolds?"
---
Meanwhile – Rocky Mountains
Sentry hovered over Redactor's dissolving remains, still glowing with untamed energy. But then the sky shifted again.
Something massive descended.
Not Redactor.
Not an Architect.
A Vessel.
A throne of living code, descending like a starship forged of dying universes, piloted by the will of Architect Ω.
Its voice echoed through every soul in existence:
> "The Test begins. Let us see if this universe is worthy of contradiction."
Sentry turned, grinning.
> "About time."