MARVEL: RE-DO

Draul was faced with raucous laughter of the being in front of him. A maddening laugh that seemed to warp the very existence of a person, turning them into the most vile and maddening version of themselves. If such a laugh were to be let out in any universe, it would darken the heart of every living being, creating chaos and strife.

In front of something of this nature, things like multiversal constants and concepts were treated as nothing more than Lego bricks. 

“How amusing. So you ventured all the way here, for what? Knowledge?” He had to say he was a little bit impressed. He had watched him since the beginning, or rather since it started. To beings like him, there was no beginning, only existence. The beginning of one and ending of one meant nothing to them if they existed before it ‘began’. 

“Now tell me: what type of knowledge do you seek?” Yog-Sothoth asked even though he knew very well the next words that would emerge from the little black blot before him. 

“My origins. I don’t think I’ve ever made contact with any of your kind nor have I delved into any sort of knowledge pertaining to you or those like you. Even now, I can’t seem to fathom why the ties I have led… here, whatever here is.”

He wasn’t too surprised that even with the vastly limited knowledge the human had, he still wasn’t able to understand his connection to their verse. Even he too was taken by surprise when he found out what had happened. 

“I find it a bit hilarious that you mortals refer to us as the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’, when even that child is nothing compared to us. I guess it must be his influence and interference with mortal lives that made us be dubbed so. As for your so-called ‘connection’, it is nothing but one of the most impossible happenstance that even I couldn’t foresee.”

Draul didn’t know whether he was supposed to be thrilled by that type of answer or terrified by it. According to what he was aware of, his omniscience was mostly covering his home universe and he would have to exert himself to establish any form of presence in other universes. But the being in front of him could do so without any sort of strain if he so willed. And for something like that to say even an occurrence took him by surprise was something that left Draul not knowing how to feel. 

“Every now and then, mostly when a new multiverse is about to be birthed into existence, He stirs awake. It is something most of your kind would call the end of days, when the apocalypse will strike. Wars and chaos will run rampant and multiple planes of existence will drown in their darkest times.” Yog-Sothoth explained to Draul, the young man standing transfixed as he listened to the words that flowed out of what far eclipsed a primordial’s mouth. “I am only telling you all this since you already have an inkling as to what it might really be. During the time he stirred, all connected realities had their veil strained thin and if not for a certain three-headed Goldie, it really would have shattered since someone managed to not only make a pact with an Ultimate God but one of its primogenitors. The One True Ruler of Void – Azathoth, The One Who Dreams… or as you might know him, The Blind Idiot God.”

Draul should be complimented on how little changes his face underwent at the exposure of the little piece of information but something else caught his attention more, or rather he allows something else to take the majority of his attention away. 

“You said ‘One of its primogenitors’, something like you?”

“Something like ‘me’, surely you jest. Hahahaha!” He laughed, not exactly at the words of a man, but at the insinuation of one. “Verily verily I say unto you, there are none like me except that which exists above me.”

“Sheesh sorreee. Must have stepped on a tentacle there.” He joked and became a bit relieved when he heard the snort coming from the once bludgeoning darkness. “What I meant to say was if I did make a pact with a primogenitor as you said, who was it? And why are there ‘others’ who are want to kill me for it, and why don’t ‘you’ want to kill me for it?” If anyone who knew Draul was here, they would have made an apt comment at him not trying to seek death at every turn. He had straight up asked Yog-Sothoth why he didn’t want to kill him when he clearly told him that the others wanted to rip his innards out. 

“Unlike my brethren, I see no reason to partake in a meaningless endeavor that promises only to beget nothingness when I AM nothingness. Their behavior depicts of emotions they’ve clearly assigned themselves to while I sit back and watch all of it unfold.” His ever-changing form swirled over Draul’s, covering him in a gaseous state that bubbled into stars and void as each word resonated with the atmosphere. “I am mostly an observer, only taking action when something threatens to stall the little entertainment I have in this void. The reason why they'll go after you is for nothing else than having a part of HIS spark. Something that draws everything in, threatening to turn them null. It means nothing, at least less, to you as you currently are but to them, as much as they think it is, means so much more. Everyone dreams of taking the absolute power for themselves but so unfortunately forgets one...simple…thing.”

“And I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what that is?” He asked even though he clearly knew the answer. 

“No. I don’t think I will.”

Draul let out a groan, his shoulders slacking as he relaxed in the presence of Yog-Sothoth. He knew an inevitability when he saw one and hearing it from the being himself was enough for him to at least relax before he threw himself into the next awaiting debacle. What he’d learned so far all but confirmed the few theories he’d had and then some he could never think of. So he was in a way, miniscule in importance, connected to the what most might term the ‘True Beginning’, and that some of the other Primogenitors and their descendants are clearly not happy with the fact that he received something like they ALL did and want to take whatever that ‘spark’ was. 

He floated a bit towards where he could feel most of Yog-Sothoth’s presence and cradled there before asking. “Can you tell me when this all began?”

He received no answer in form of words but the void disappeared only for it to show him a sickly room with a man with thick beards and dead eyes and tears flowing down them. Charred and mangled skin as he laid on the bed with his mind screaming out. 

~For whatever deity gave me this curse or unlikely blessing, will I be forsaken if I dream once more?~

The thoughts flowed out to him like water and he immediately understood. 

It was at that moment that chaos and destruction came to him. He once thought that the reason he had those red destructive energy that he used was because he compressed heat to such an impressive degree that it touched upon the fleeting embers of a concept. Thinking about it now, he had been rather foolish. 

Turns out the Phoenix was onto something when she said Adaptation and Evolution wasn’t just his ability and that he had something else but at that point he had thought it would be something entirely different and had discarded the thought until the so-called ability would showcase itself, not knowing he’d been using it since the beginning. 

“So I guess the dream thing is related to him, right?”

“An expected consequence. Dreams are, in a way, windows to the endless possibilities across realities and those who’ve never dreamt since birth only have one reality made for them. You can say they are the most free..”

“Or shackled. It all depends on the perspective of the victim. Mine for example: I only see one path ahead. There is no modeling of my own ideal future or a reality where everything I want I get. It’s pretty shitty.” Who would have thought that the very same entity that gave him nightmares for days was the one conversing with him in such a way. Oh the killing intent and nightmarish outline were still on full display but all those were just a representation of his being. “I want to ask: is this truly your real form? I become something similar when I let all the malevolence flow out, so is this like a default form of beings like you… us?”

“This… is just a representation of what I wish you to see. I’m afraid you are not yet ready to gaze upon my true visage. I can’t enter the multiverse you reside in but that doesn’t mean I can’t pull you out of it into my own realm, so be careful of that.”

“Thanks, I guess.. Is there any reason why you are helping me by telling me all this?” Though he was relaxed in his presence, there was forgetting the point that the being in front of him was not one entitled to answering his questions, not when they involved his kin. 

“I answer because you asked for knowledge. You’ve grown too paranoid that you add a level of expectancy to everything, good and bad. You made it here to me, it is only right that I give you the answers that you need. I can tell you what happened at the beginning of the first creation, what created it and how many multiverses it is away from yours. There is nothing more to it and nothing less of it. Knowledge is free to all who strive for it, fight for it and are willing to plunge their souls into the deepest layers of hell for it. My knowledge is free to anyone, man or demon, spirit or god, as long as they are strong enough to bear its consequence.”

Everything settled down in silence which left Draul to ponder on what he had been told. In order words, he was strong enough to know these things and be responsible for whatever consequence his knowledge brings him as Yog-Sothoth was incapable of differentiating those he found worthy and those who are not. He wasn’t exactly a benevolent being of world peace so if someone like Thanos was to find his way here, well multiple realities would be at stake. 

“One more question. Are you someone that will stand against me one day, because I really don’t like the chances I’m being presented with right now.” Draul asked honestly because his mind has been calculating the probability of him surviving a fight if it were to break out and so far the only answer his mind had given him except the original [0%] was [Error]. 

His omniscience could not even begin to understand the level of existence that Yog-Sothoth was. He had seen the Living Tribunal and what he saw was the best thing he could ever ascribe the words, True Omnipotence, to. But the being in front of him, he couldn’t even begin to comprehend him. It felt like he had been staring into totality. He was Him – a foreign thought that had stuck to his head without him knowing where it came from. 

The dark bubbles burst and reformed and spewed out their madness which further polluted the space they were in. “Fret not, little black. If I ever were to be what you would call an enemy, you wouldn’t have been alive to know what those exact words meant.” Draul finally let out a small laugh of gratitude. This was the first dark being that outright admitted he wasn’t in his enemies-to-kill list and meant it.