“BE NOT AFRAID,” the being said, its voice reaching through the planet and the space around it. “FOR I AM THE IN-BETWEENER.”
Its crimson eye settled upon the assembled Elders.
“AND I REQUIRE YOUR HELP.”
Max looked at the others. They looked back at him, then at one another, none willing to be the first to admit that the sudden arrival had unsettled them.
The Grandmaster broke the silence.
“Oh, we are not afraid,” he said, catching his dice in one hand. “It is simply that this was meant to be a private gathering.”
The Collector stepped forward, studying the stranger with open interest. Max recognized that look. Tivan was already deciding whether the being counted as something he could collect.
“You call yourself the In-Betweener,” the Collector said. “Yet I have never heard of such a being. What are you?”
The Contemplator opened his eyes and turned toward Max.
“Guardian, have you encountered one like him before? You are the oldest among us.”
Max looked up at the figure.
Ever since he had awakened in the past, Max had possessed a form of cosmic awareness that allowed him to identify certain beings without ever having encountered them before. When he first met Eternity, the knowledge had appeared inside his mind with absolute certainty. He had known the being’s name, nature, and place within creation simply by standing in its presence.
Now, he found nothing.
The black-and-white figure stood before him like an empty space within that awareness, visible but undefined.
Max shrugged.
“Never heard of him.”
The Elders shifted at that. Tryco’s folded arms loosened, while the Obliterator stopped adjusting his launchers and gave the newcomer his full attention. If the Guardian could not identify something, that was reason enough for caution.
The Gardener stepped beside the Collector.
“Even the oldest among us does not know you,” Ord said. “Reveal your origin. Then we may discuss the assistance you seek.”
The being lowered its raised hand.
“I EXIST BETWEEN ALL DICHOTOMIES. LIGHT AND DARKNESS. LIFE AND DEATH. ORDER AND CHAOS.”
Space bent around his body, folding one way along his white side and another along the black half of his form.
“I WAS CREATED BY MASTER ORDER AND LORD CHAOS TO MAINTAIN THE BALANCE OF THIS UNIVERSE AND TO ACT AS THEIR AGENT WHEN THAT BALANCE IS THREATENED.”
The Astronomer’s artificial eye narrowed as it examined the distortions surrounding him.
“And what has threatened it?” Seginn asked.
“The master of the Nameless Ones seeks entry into this universe. If he succeeds, corruption will spread from world to world until all creation kneels before him. Only you, the great Elders, possess the combined power required to prevent his crossing.”
Max frowned.
“The master of the Nameless Ones?”
The In-Betweener’s crimson eye brightened.
“THE WORST OF THEIR KIND.”
A name entered the air with enough weight to make the platform beneath them tremble.
“SHUMA-GORATH.”
“Oh, fuck,” Max said as he recognized the name. Shuma-Gorath was one of Marvel’s Lovecraftian horrors.
Every Elder turned toward him.
The Champion took one step closer, a smile beginning to form despite the danger being described.
“Are you frightened, Guardian?”
The Obliterator looked between Max and the In-Betweener.
“What is this Shuma-Gorath?”
“I’m not frightened,” Max said, though the speed of his answer earned a raised eyebrow from the Grandmaster. “The Nameless Ones are ancient, powerful, and almost impossible to kill. Shuma-Gorath is one of the strongest among them.”
“How strong?” the Trader asked.
Max’s expression changed.
“Strong enough.”
That removed the amusement from several faces.
Max looked around the circle. Their titles and declarations had strengthened them, but they had not yet accomplished anything together. They were still a collection of powerful immortals testing the idea of brotherhood.
This could change that.
“We should help him,” Max said.
The Champion’s hands closed into fists as the Power Primordial gathered around them.
“I agree.”
“What better way to announce our new council to the cosmos?” Max continued. “Our first act as the Elders of the Universe will be defeating something that believes this reality belongs to it.”
The Collector nodded and turned toward the others.
“The Guardian is correct. Let us show all of creation what our union means.”
Agreement passed through the circle. The Runner bounced once on his heels. Maht Pacle checked the ammunition feeding into his launchers, while the Grandmaster began to limber up.
Tryco looked at Max.
“Our battle will have to wait.”
“We’ll get to it.”
The In-Betweener descended until he hovered just above the platform.
“SHUMA-GORATH WILL SOON CROSS FROM HIS REALM INTO OURS. IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO DRIVE HIM BACK. HE MUST BE WEAKENED AND BANISHED IN A MANNER THAT PREVENTS HIS RETURN.”
“How?” the Possessor asked.
“The Collector possesses an artifact capable of severing Shuma-Gorath’s connection to this universe.”
Tivan blinked.
“I do?”
“I WILL REVEAL IT TO YOU.”
The Collector’s uncertainty lasted only a moment before curiosity took over.
“Very well.”
“THE ARTIFACT CANNOT BE USED WHILE SHUMA-GORATH REMAINS AT FULL POWER. SOME OF YOU MUST CONTAIN HIM WHILE THE OTHERS COMPLETE THE BANISHMENT.”
“I can handle the weakening,” Max said.
The Champion stepped beside him.
“As can I.”
The Obliterator struck the sides of his launchers, and their chambers began to glow.
“I will join you.”
The In-Betweener turned toward the Astronomer.
“YOU MUST IDENTIFY THE PRECISE POINT IN THIS UNIVERSE FROM WHICH THE BANISHMENT CAN BE COMPLETED. THE ALIGNMENT MUST BE PERFECT.”
Seginn’s artificial eye rotated through several lenses.
“I will find it.”
“The rest of you will combine your power with the artifact,” the In-Betweener said. “No single Elder can seal the passage. Together, you may succeed.”
Max rolled his shoulders and looked toward the sky.
“All right. Where is he arriving?”
“I SHALL TAKE YOU THERE, IF YOU CONSENT.”
The Elders exchanged glances.
One by one, they nodded. The Champion and the Obliterator did so first, both already prepared for battle. The Collector tucked his hands inside his sleeves, while the Grandmaster made his dice disappear and moved closer to the others.
“Do it,” Max said.
The In-Betweener brought his hands together.
Black-and-white light folded around the Elders. The empty plain vanished, replaced by a rushing pressure that stretched Max’s senses across impossible distances. For a moment, he felt himself moving in two directions at once, every motion divided between opposites.
Then the distortion released them.
They stood upon a frozen world beneath a dark sky.
The Champion looked around.
“Where…”
The sky broke apart.
There was no gradual tear, no portal forming at a single point. The heavens split from horizon to horizon, as though an invisible hand had ripped open the universe. Red light poured through the wound, staining the snow and turning the distant mountains into black silhouettes.
Something moved beyond it.
Tentacles pushed through first.
Thousands of them spilled into the universe. Some struck the planet and bored through its crust. Others coiled around the moon overhead, cracking its surface beneath their weight. More continued emerging from the dimensional wound, covering the sky with twisting flesh.
Then the eye appeared.
It filled the opening, a single vast orb surrounded by ridged red flesh. Its pupil narrowed as it looked down upon the frozen world and the immortals waiting below.
“All right,” Max said, keeping his eyes on the thing pushing through the sky. “The rest of you get the artifact. We’ll hold Shuma-Gorath here.”
The Collector hesitated, as did several of the others, who now stared up at Shuma-Gorath.
“Go.”
The In-Betweener raised both hands, and black-and-white light gathered around the remaining Elders.
The Champion launched himself forward before they had fully disappeared.
He released a battle cry as the Power Primordial erupted around him, carrying him toward the nearest tentacle. The Obliterator followed, firing thousands of missiles from the launchers mounted upon his shoulders.
They struck first.
Maht Pacle unleashed a storm of missiles toward the Nameless One. They crossed the distance in seconds, each warhead carrying enough force to flatten a city. The barrage struck one of Shuma-Gorath’s descending tentacles and tore through it in a chain of explosions.
The severed limb crashed into the frozen world below, splitting a mountain beneath its weight.
Tryco followed through the opening. The Power Primordial gathered around both fists as he drove himself toward the vast eye hanging beyond the dimensional breach.
Before he could reach it, crimson light erupted from Shuma-Gorath’s pupil.
The beam struck the Champion directly.
It hurled him into the moon wrapped in the Old One’s tentacles. Tryco disappeared beneath the impact, but only for a moment. He tore free from the shattered lunar surface with smoke rising from his body and answered with a blast of his own.
The two energies collided above the planet.
Max moved beneath them, weaving between the tentacles. Scissor constructs formed around his hands, expanded across miles, and snapped shut. One limb fell away, then another, but more continued pouring through the breach.
They spread across the surface like roots wrapping around the planet’s crust. Wherever they touched, the frozen land changed. Black growths spread beneath the ice, while the air filled with whispers that pressed against Max’s mind.
He ignored them and flew higher.
Emerald light expanded around him as he created Unicron once more. The construct grew beyond the clouds, beyond the atmosphere, until the frozen planet looked small beneath its feet.
The Champion stopped in the middle of another charge.
The Obliterator lowered his launchers.
Both stared at the giant now standing before Shuma-Gorath.
Unicron was three times the size of the world beneath them. Max floated within the enormous construct’s head, directing its every movement.
“Hey!” Max called.
Shuma-Gorath’s eye shifted toward him.
The response came from everywhere at once, filling the world, the void, and the thoughts of every being present.
“WHO DARES STRIKE SHUMA-GORATH?”
More of the Old One pushed through the wound in reality. Flesh spread across the stars as tentacles coiled around the Unicron construct.
“I HAVE FED UPON THE SCREAMING SOULS OF UNIVERSES. I HAVE GUZZLED THE COLOSTRUM OF DEAD STARS. I AM THE MANY-NAMED GULF BEYOND ALL COMPREHENSION, THE HOPE-GLUTTON, THE UR-LORD OF MIDNIGHT.”
The eye widened.
“I AM GARGANTOS. YOUR SORDID SOULS SHALL BE A FEAST.”
Max stared at him from inside the construct.
“Mm. Okay.”
Unicron raised both arms and brought them down.
His fists struck the mass of Shuma-Gorath with enough force to send the Old One crashing into the planet. The frozen world buckled beneath the impact. Continents split apart, oceans buried beneath the ice burst upward, and molten stone poured through the widening cracks.
Shuma-Gorath’s tentacles wrapped around Unicron’s torso.
Max answered by locking the construct’s arms around the Old One and dragging him away from the surface. They wrestled above the dying world. Shuma-Gorath slammed the construct against the planet once, then again.
While Max held most of the Old One’s attention, the Champion and the Obliterator attacked its eye.
Tryco hammered the pupil with blows strengthened by the Power Primordial. Maht circled the eye and fired continuously, drilling explosions into the flesh surrounding it.
Shuma-Gorath shrieked.
Max tightened Unicron’s grip and tore away several more tentacles, throwing them into space. Shuma-Gorath responded with another blast from his eye. Crimson energy tore through the construct’s shoulder and crossed its chest, ripping away layers of emerald armor.
A psychic assault followed.
A lesser mind would have broken beneath it, but Max had spent millions of years strengthening his mind while channeling the Power Cosmic and communing with Ion. He had survived direct attacks from the Mind Stone.
He kept fighting.
The next beam tore Unicron apart.
Max burst from the construct’s collapsing head before the fragments faded. The containment chamber in the armor covering his chest opened once more, revealing the Power Stone.
He combined its energy with his own.
Several enormous spears formed around Shuma-Gorath. Violet power ran through their emerald edges as Max drove them forward, impaling the Old One and pinning parts of his body against the remains of the planet.
The Champion and the Obliterator attacked the eye together.
Tryco drove both fists into its center while Maht emptied every weapon he possessed. A section of the eye burst beneath their combined assault, spraying black fluid across space.
Shuma-Gorath struck back.
A tentacle swept through them and sent both Elders tumbling away. Max caught them inside a wide emerald hand before they could disappear into the void.
The Old One’s damaged flesh was already reforming.
Tentacles grew from severed stumps. The ruined eye closed around the wound, rebuilt itself, and opened again.
“NOTHING YOU DO MATTERS,” Shuma-Gorath said. “I AM HERE. THIS UNIVERSE IS MINE. YOU WILL SERVE ME, AS ALL THINGS MUST.”
The Champion pushed himself upright inside Max’s construct hand.
“Well,” Tryco said, looking at the restored eye, “that was all for nothing.”
“We were only supposed to hold him back,” Max replied.
Space folded behind them.
The In-Betweener returned with the other Elders.
They appeared in a wide circle around an elliptical object suspended between them. The artifact was smooth and metallic, with a narrow opening running through its center. Pink light pulsed beneath its surface as each Elder directed power into it.
The Astronomer stood with both hands raised, his artificial eye cycling rapidly.
“I have found the alignment,” he said. “It must be done now.”
Max looked at Shuma-Gorath’s restored limbs spreading toward them.
“I think we should move.”
He extended both hands.
Unicron formed again, larger than before. The emerald giant appeared behind Shuma-Gorath and wrapped both arms around the Old One, locking him in a crushing hold.
Shuma-Gorath thrashed, tearing pieces from the construct, but Max rebuilt each section as quickly as it broke.
“Now!” Max shouted.
The In-Betweener raised his hands.
The Collector, Gardener, Grandmaster, Runner, Contemplator, Possessor, Astronomer, and Trader released their power into the artifact. The pink light became blinding.
A single beam struck Shuma-Gorath.
The Old One screamed.
A dark portal opened behind him. Shuma-Gorath’s tentacles clawed at the edges of reality as the artifact pulled him backward.
“YOU CANNOT BANISH ME!”
Unicron’s arms tightened.
The beam intensified.
Shuma-Gorath’s vast eye remained fixed upon the Elders until the final moment, burning with hatred as the darkness closed around him.
Then he was gone.
The elliptical artifact cracked down the middle and fell apart.
“What a battle,” the Champion said as the Elders gathered once more.
Tivan hovered nearby and lifted one of the broken fragments.
He turned sharply toward the In-Betweener.
“You said the artifact would not be destroyed.”
“I SAID THERE WAS A CHANCE IT WOULD SURVIVE.”
The Collector glared at him.
Max landed beside Tivan and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“You might find another one.”
Tivan looked down at the ruined artifact.
“Do you know how rare this was?”
“Rare enough to help us save the universe.”
The Collector gathered the remaining pieces with a sigh.
“I suppose the universe surviving is some consolation.”
The In-Betweener faced the assembled Elders.
“YOU HAVE PRESERVED THE BALANCE. MASTER ORDER AND LORD CHAOS WILL REMEMBER YOUR SERVICE.”
His gaze settled upon Max for a moment longer than it did upon the others.
Then he gave a final nod and vanished in an explosion of black-and-white light.
Silence filled the void where they floated, surrounded by the debris of the shattered planet and its moon.
Max looked around at his new brothers.
“So,” he said, “party back on Tivan’s ship?”
The Runner agreed immediately. The Obliterator fired his launchers in approval, and the Champion demanded that the promised rematch remain part of the evening.
The Grandmaster smiled.
“And I have several new songs for all of you to hear.”
Max laughed as he created a ship construct around them and carried the Elders toward Tivan’s vessel.
.
.
.
The center of the universe was not a place where life formed naturally.
Matter collided without order. Gravity shifted without warning. Rivers of radiation crossed one another while unstable stars ignited and collapsed before they could become part of any lasting system. At the true center stood the Altar of Eternity, sometimes called the Gates of Eternity, where the abstract entity known as Eternity resided.
A Celestial, however, could impose order upon chaos.
Veridion had spent years clearing a region several light-years across. He had stabilized the surrounding space, diverted the worst of the radiation, and forced the conflicting gravitational currents into predictable paths. What remained was an empty pocket near the center of creation, large enough to hold a solar system and protected from the violence beyond it.
A permanent base for him and Max.
“So this is it?” Max asked.
He floated beside Veridion, looking across the space they had claimed.
There was no ordinary sky here. No familiar spread of stars against an endless black. It felt more like standing inside a vast nebula. Cosmic light moved around them in slow currents, violet and blue folding through pale gold, with occasional gaps revealing the darkness between. Distant stars appeared as scattered sparks beyond the stabilized region.
It was beautiful.
Firehair would have loved it here.
The thought came without warning. Max’s hand tightened at his side before he forced it open again.
Veridion turned toward him. Golden lines moved across the Celestial’s emerald armor as streams of information passed through his systems.
“We possess sufficient knowledge of the ring to begin constructing the Central Power Battery you described.”
“The structure itself can be created,” Veridion continued. “The greater difficulty is its connection to the Source. If the Battery is to distribute green energy throughout the universe, you must open and maintain a channel between it and the Entity of Will.”
Max looked down at his ring.
“So I’ll need to spend a lot of time inside the Battery.”
“Yes. You will serve as the bridge until the connection becomes self-sustaining.”
Max had expected that answer. The Central Power Battery would need to touch the Source itself, draw power from Ion as he did, and make that energy accessible throughout the entire universe.
That meant Max would have to deepen his connection with Ion again.
Not briefly.
He would have to remain joined to it long enough for the Battery to recognize the path and hold it open.
Veridion’s attention shifted toward him.
“There is a danger to consider.”
“The others,” Max said.
“The other entities that share the Source with Ion. Because each contains traces of the emotions that separated from you during the Spectrum’s creation, they may recognize your consciousness as part of themselves.”
“And try to influence me.”
“Or claim you.”
Max’s expression hardened.
Veridion continued. “The other entities may attempt to use your limited connection to entice you away, separate this avatar from Ion, or reshape the bond for their own purposes.”
Max had considered the possibility many times.
Ion and Max were the same being, divided only by scale. The other entities did not possess mortal avatars in the same way, but they could attach themselves to living hosts. They could whisper, manipulate, possess, and eventually force part of themselves into the physical universe.
He would need to deal with them. He had to ensure they could not interfere with his Corps or create competing forces of their own. Max did not want Yellow Lanterns or Red Lanterns appearing in the future. He knew he could not prevent it completely. Doom had managed to wield the orange light in another universe. Eventually, an individual or group might discover how to use blue, indigo, violet, red, or yellow light without the entities’ direct assistance. Blue indigo or even violet may be less problematic but still, Max intended to contain the entities and prevent everything from spiraling out of control. He had seen what happened in too many Green Lantern stories, where every color of the Spectrum eventually created a Corps of its own.
“I have a plan,” Max said. “Especially for Parallax.”
Veridion tilted his head.
“Parallax?”
“The Entity of Fear.”
“You have encountered it?”
“I dealt with its influence when I was still in my own time, in the future. Yellow is the strongest part of the Spectrum after green, and Parallax is especially dangerous to any future Green Lanterns. It also seems to have an enmity toward me specifically.”
“Then linking yourself to the Source may provide it with an opening.”
“It might.”
“Parallax could attempt to possess you.”
“Probably.”
“Your lack of concern is irrational.”
“I am concerned. I’m just trying not to make it my entire personality right now.”
Veridion watched him in silence.
Max sighed.
The Celestial remained unmoved.
Max waved one hand.
“We can argue about this after we build ourselves a home.”
He flew farther into the empty region and raised both hands.
Emerald light spread through the void. A model of a star formed first, suspended at the center of the space Veridion had cleared. Max adjusted its size and position until the construct burned like a small green sun.
Then he moved several hundred million miles away and created a planet.
It was three times the size of Earth. Max added three moons around it, then moved outward and shaped more worlds across the system.
Veridion moved toward the construct sun.
He placed both hands around it without touching its surface. Cosmic energy gathered across his body, flowing through the golden lines of his armor and into the shape Max had created.
The green construct began to change.
Hydrogen formed where there had only been light. Gravity gathered the newborn matter inward. Pressure built inside the core, increasing until the first true reactions began.
Max watched the emerald outline disappear beneath white fire.
The star ignited.
Light spread across the empty system, touching every constructed world and driving back the surrounding darkness.
Max smiled.
“And let there be light.”
.
.
Max and Veridion complete the creation of Oa and then begin constructing the Central Power Battery. During the process, Max is visited by an abstract cosmic entity.
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Shuma-Gorath vs Max