Interlude: World Devourer

If one were made of an indestructible substance, could he feel the solar winds across his face?  If space were curved like Einstein theorized, could one surf it like a wave? If one could ride the crest of a galaxy and soar through the heart of a sun, could one believe himself an Angel?  These were not questions to the Surfer, they were facts. And when his master hungered nothing could bar his way. 

The great metallic sphere of the World Devourer actually bent space and time around itself because of the incredible density of the Galactian metal, which rotated in a counter clockwise position.  The Surfer came through several light years from his former position to get to his master position (total elapsed time three seconds) and then from that point soared through another fifty miles of the great sphere he encountered just coming out of hypertime to appear before his ominous master, like Moses before his God.   He bowed and prepared to receive the dread Ten Commandments of the force of nature that was known only as Galactus (total elapsed time five seconds).

When the Surfer looked at Galactus, he did not see a man or even a member of his own race as most sentients did. Instead, he saw an outline containing indescribable energies that cried for escape. Yet deep within the raging energy field was the schematic for a mortal man: A man who went by the name of Galan, at least that would be the closest translation since he came from another universe with a physics and linguistics that was unknowable to any save Galactus himself. Lore had treated Galactus with many names and many titles: the Harvester, Tester, the Great Destroyer. Even his name, Galactus, was but a shortened form of a word used by the very first planet he encountered which meant the end of all things.

When Galactus spoke to the Surfer, it was not words; the thoughts simply appeared in the Surfer’s head. When Galactus chose a world, nothing could stay his mighty hand and the world he had chosen was the one the Surfer had just left.  It was the one where he encountered the powerful being locked in a stasis tube. The Surfer did not question his master’s command, he knew that he had by his own choice given himself over to Galactus and was duty bound to perform as instructed or else risk the very safety of his own world  

Five seconds elapsed and the Surfer was once again hovering over the planet he had just came from, his cosmic senses magnifying the jungle planet and just watching. After a few minutes, a cosmic flare erupts from his silvery form and then he just waited for the inevitable - for Galactus to come and another world to fall.

Chapter Seven: LOVE TRIANGLE

He was called Dagon by many and was nearly immortal. He had garnered vast mystical might and knowledge. He conditioned his mind until it was like a Razor. So sharp was it that he could kill by thought alone. He cloaked himself in a raiment of darkness and ice and was nearly completely given over to being a shadow.  Mistress Death had allowed him to interact with her realm as she did to all those who were loyal and worshipped her ways.

Dagon was terrible to behold and when he spoke, it was like a whisper riding the lightning and its timbre. Resounded in the firmament. 

"TELL ME IS IT TRUE! DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER PARAMOUR?!” The Realm of Death was more silent then usual as Dagon spewed his threat in her dark lap

Mistress Death was not unlike most lovers who had grown weary of the same old thing. Though Death did not speak, it was clear that she had found a replacement. Her socketless gaze devouring the distance between her and her former paramour. Dagon’s eyes burned crimson with indignity heaping upon him by his former lover. Mistress Death's mouthpiece was a rat like creature with terrible teeth that would grow forever unless it had something to gnaw on. And when it spoke, it was as if it refused to chew on the words he was currently using any longer

"Restrain yourself, surely you know who's presence you are in, and how lucky you are to still be able to leave. But if you continue your present course, the invitation may be rescinded."

The terrible rat like creature paused and even Dagon, who had put fear in many, whose very name had literally been used to cast certain spells by sorcerers, knew that if he wished to leave, silence must reign.

His tone was more reserved, his demeanor was humble.

"Is there something I can do to win your favor I have worshipped and served you for centuries."

The ratlike mouthpiece spoke and Dagon began to wonder if his mistress had a voice at all. He wondered if perhaps she needed a conscious servant to work through. Perhaps her terrible language of unconsciousness could not be discerned by a conscious mind. He wondered if only a living soul could understand her morbid thoughts, the necrosyntactical structures that made up her alien thoughts.  Thanos alone was not the sole being considered, there was another. The rat like creature gestured and an aperture was opened in Death’s realm to reveal a planet and a being made of liquid metal hovering above its horizon. The rat like creature smiled to reveal crooked and yellowed teeth. 

"The Surfer has also been considered. If you wish to prove yourself over the others, perhaps a courtship ritual could be arranged."

"What do you speak of?” said Dagon evenly.

At the end of one rotation of the sphere, Mistress Death will have only one paramour. The only question will be who will bring her the Ultimate Nullifier. The scene shifted and Mistress Death dismissed the paramour and looked planet ward to her newest chosen - the Mad Titan.

Dagon used his mystic might to open a gate into Galactus’ mighty ship. Clearly, Mistress Death had aided him or even he would have been unable to unlock such a vessel without being summarily removed by the cosmic sage who called himself Galactus. Even he was in awe as he looked at his surroundings, even one who had seen Death’s realm could not help but be overwhelmed by technologies that bordered on mysticism itself. However, Dagon knew that he must rid himself of his awe if he and he alone were to be Mistress Death’s paramour there was much work to be done. Love was a strange thing he thought and he now risked it all, even oblivion.

He had traversed a sphere called earth, a world that seemed to have a special place even for cosmic beings and he remembered the mortal beings whom he looked down on so much, because of their emotional weakness. Nevertheless, he now saw himself doing the very same things. Was the nullifier not a gift to soothe over his lover's anger? At first, he sought only power would appease, now he was powerless as he sought the affection of Death itself. Truly he thought the universe was a conundrum. To be held in her embrace was now all he desired - How far the mighty have fallen. He looked about for something he might use against his rival but the ship was vast and even his mystic senses seemed confounded. Then he spotted it - a sample kept in a cylinder. A creature he knew well for it was quite dangerous and capable of causing great damage. In fact there was an entire zoo. Yes, he thought to himself, this would be the weapon to use against his rival - the Brood would be perfect.

Thanos stood like one who had just seen freedom for the first time, but this was not strange considering it was the first time he had ever left the home world of Titan. He had been banished and was now a stranger in an even stranger land. The sun beat senselessly on Thanos’ mighty brow as his eyes looked heavenward and saw a flash in the sky. But there was something unusual within this flash, the outline of a man and he seemed to be hovering in space. Thanos rigged his vessel of banishment into a makeshift computer system, for Mentor had seen fit to remove Thanos of all things to show that he was ever a citizen. Even the machinery that would enable him to farcast (a gate developed by Titan to trade with other systems). His makeshift computer he had developed with the machinery also showed a great starship of immense proportions. His mind began the work of deciphering how to get from this world and back to Titan where he would make Mentor pay. Even though it was Mephisto, thought Thanos to himself, (see last issue for details).  Thanos had now been acknowledged by Death herself and it was only proper for him to introduce himself to the rest of his people. After all, if Thanos was nothing, he was a gentleman. Thanos worked feverishly but kept looking over his shoulder, as something appeared to be watching him. No doubt, he thought, it was some form of wild life of which a being of his stature could simply dismiss.

He noticed it again but kept working. Soon he was surrounded on all sides by a group of strange creatures that were a combination of insect and reptile.

"You will be taken as a host to our Queen,” they stated as their insect like bodies cut off all avenues of escape from the Titan. Thanos’ optics narrowed and his eyes glared malevolently.

"I already have a queen and she is jealous but if you wish I can introduce you." Thanos’ fists began to glow as the Brood launched their first assault against Thanos, striking him with their stingers repeatedly. Thanos was lost under a barrage of Brood bodies, their vast number quickly pouring over the Mad Titan with his smile as the only thing left showing.

The Surfer watched as his master began to leave his starship and descend planetward. It would not be long, thought the Surfer, and another world would be extinct so that Galactus may go on. But his gaze turned toward the planet where he saw the one he had freed and he was in a struggle. At first the Surfer thought to turn a blind eye, after all were they not all going to fall before his master? The Surfer buried the sight deep into his conscious. Galactus was an amoral being if such a thing existed and if he were to be his herald he too must turn off his conscious, otherwise he would go mad. But his attention was drawn toward his mastership, where his cosmic senses detected an intruder. The Surfer moved swiftly, his senses focusing on the strange creature's energy signature until he came upon the shadowy being called Dagon.

"I cloaked myself with an intricate spell, how could you have sensed me?"

“Even the energies you used to cloak yourself can be detected if one has the appropriate senses. If you are to cloak yourself truly, you must cloak yourself against all senses not just the ones like your own."

"I begin to see why my Mistress was so enthralled by you. Your point of view is unique and when someone like my Mistress seeks a paramour it is not merely for power, she is more then capable of imbuing her paramour with what ever he needs. Yes I begin to see it all now, my Mistress is for all practical purposes unconscious, who better to choose than one whose phenomenology transcends all others - you are the ultimate in consciousness, your experience of the universe would allow her to truly savor what she had killed through her, she could be both life and Death.”

Dagon did not have a physical body in the strictest sense, as his raiment seemed to hang on the air with only two crimson orbs to give it sentience.

“I could never compete against one such as you, I envy you but I won’t allow you to continue - no matter what the cost.” In his hand was the weapon of legend, the weapon called the Ultimate Nullifier.

"You do not know what you do, the origin of that weapon is lost in obscurity and only its guardian, Galactus, may wield it without hope of sending himself to oblivion along with everyone else." The Surfer’s very presence infuriated Dagon, he was rather plain compared to the complex creature before him. Dagon knew in his blackheart that he was doomed the moment he let warmth back into his being.  But he would have Death or no one would and the very universe would follow him to oblivion if necessary.

Their bodies were strewn everywhere the eye could see, their death cries filled the landscape. Thanos surveyed his handiwork while his massive bulk crushed the head of his enemies.  One of his hands reached into an abdomen of one of the creatures and pulled out its entrails and scattered it to the wind. Thanos’ laugh filled the air and he now realized being labeled monster was a relative thing like everything else in existence. A monster was merely defined by the strength of the fear it produced in another. To most, the Broods were killing machines, but to Thanos they were not but birds trapped in a web, on the tree of eternity. Thanos seemed to be able to pull back and observe from a distance and yet he was still there while he ripped apart the bodies of two attacking Brood who did not know that this conflict was long ago decided. A putrid brown substance covered Thanos’ body. In truth he realized that unless you wore your victim’s flesh and adorned yourself with your enemy's blood, unless you were clothed in its innards you were not truly experiencing your victim's Death. Too many so-called killers detached themselves so that there were without any conscious. But for Thanos this was not the case, he wanted to kill yet still have a conscious. He wanted to experience every moment, hear every scream, feel every struggle and smell the gathering corpses. In that moment, Thanos experienced a first person account of another's Death.  

However, the Broods were not yet through with their would-be destroyer despite the great pile of bodies that had gathered during the conflict.  For some had assimilated very powerful mutants. Some of those with great power. In addition, some of those with powerful connections and a vested interest in Thanos’ destruction.

"So you are the newly chosen, are you? We shall see how you handle this, Titan, as I extend my consciousness through the Brood's body, becoming an embodiment of pestilence itself."

Thanos felt the Brood’s grip, which was like iron. Soon the creature's mind locked into the Titan's mind and for the first time felt an attack he had not encountered. The Brood was in his skull, rummaging through his memories until he came across what he needed and Thanos was wracked with terrible pain. It was almost more than he could bear as the image of his own birth was used to unbalance him. While the other warriors began to attack Thanos who was now helpless in Dagon’s psychic tendrils, Dagon was using the force of his will to crush Thanos’ brain. But the Titan did not even wince as blood sprayed from his nose, and crimson tears erupted from his ruptured ducts.  Dagon could get no screams from Thanos, no satisfaction from Thanos, merely a smile - truly he was terrifying to behold.

"But you will pay for the perverse image you implanted, but not before I transform your memory into an image of Death."

The two lovers of Death faced each other on a psychic plane of reality, there two astral forms on a necroscape of aborted fetuses, there umbilical cords wrapping around the leg of Thanos as if they were his father, their lives hanging somewhere between life and Death, beginning and end.

"You have no experience in this type of combat, Titan, and you will be lost to the powers of Chaos and Order. Observe, Thanos, as I send your mind to a place where reality and illusion are blurred. It will be much like viewing yourself in two mirrors where you will be lost within an infinite set of recursions you will forever be trying to awaken only to find you are still in a dream, and when you truly awaken, it will be with a new host as the egg of the alien is planted within slowly you will began to feel his thoughts invade your will until you are no more"

"I am Thanos and my name means Death, I will surrender my individuality to no one or nothing,” Thanos’ head grew immense on the psychic plane as he by force of will alone separated himself from the illusions.

The Surfer noticed that Dagon was distracted, his mind clearly somewhere else. The Surfer contemplated using a cosmic blast to end the conflict. He did not wish to remove the Nullifier for fear of activating it by accident, but the Surfer had no choice.  There was a terrible click and Dagon soon learned that not even the paramour of Death could use it without ramifications and was sent to oblivion and the Surfer had to wonder if perhaps that was Death’s plan all along as the Nullifier’s terrible energies took his body completely.

The Surfer then prepared to out race Death but found that the Nullifier could not be out run and was sent to oblivion along with Dagon’s former body.

Dagon’s death scream was terrible but at the last moment, he managed to transfer his consciousness completely to the Brood but not without ramifications - for without his prime body he was beginning to feel himself become another.  Dagon shook as each synopsis in his brain began to be replaced one by one, it was all a matter of time before the transfer would be complete. Thanos cleared the battlefield of all remnants with a series of energy spears, for without Dagon’s mental assault the others fell easily. The cosmic energies were of such intensity during the assault that the egg which was implanted in his body by the Brood while he was in mental combat immediately perished.

“It appears that the beast could not take the heat."

Thanos’ eyes met Dagon’s eyes for the last time as the alien life form slowly took Dagon over and a strange look crossed his face.  Then he was Dagon no more.

They met upon the plateau, Death and Galactus. "Your herald is quite formidable. I had not expected him to create another body out of cosmic stuff and transfer his consciousness and I do not think he could have done it without your help, Devourer?"

“If that is a threat, it falls on deaf ears. I will transfer your newly acquired paramour to a different world - that will make us even."

"You are my servant, Devourer, do not forget that,” Death’s hollow gaze stared callously at Galactus.

“I am Galactus, the first and the last, The Alpha and the Omega, and I fear not even you." With that, Death was gone but Galactus then contemplated, was he truly beyond Death’s, touch was not Galactus once Galan.

Thanos found himself floating in the cold vacuum of space, obviously transported by the devourer Galactus. But Thanos was Death’s paramour, what need he fear from anything alive. Thanos was caught in the clutches of a powerful tractor beam from an oncoming star cruiser. And from afar, Mistress Death sat on her throne of bone and flesh and observed her newest addition. A gift from her new paramour, an alien life form known as a Brood. But as the Brood looked into her Mistress’ terrible gaze, for he now knew her thoughts and realized even an unconscious being can scream.

Continued in Thanos: Dead Men Tell No Tales #8

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