“That only when von Doom leads them does the human race survive!” Victor von Doom shouted out into the face of his teacher’s domineering Source Aura. “A million different futures I sifted through on multiple worlds! All ending in death and destruction of our race, unless a von Doom stepped forwards to save them!”

Bushy eyebrows rose ever-so-slightly, and von Doom thought he had scored a true point.

“Only a million, von Doom? We are on twenty million and rising.”

Doom twitched under his armor again. His master had so many who worked so blindly for him... and he did not...

“I reviewed your chronal files. You were ignoring the effect of perception and expectation upon causality, and your own unconscious biases filled in the rest.

“I noted the utter failings of the von Dooms on all those worlds to cooperate and work with others in a greater cause. Pride and arrogance even led them to sacrifice victory in the long term for short term survival, dooming those worlds to failure. The heroes never ‘got serious’ in time to deal with threats, for only the von Dooms there could see the clear risks and do the things needed to win and make war as was needed...

“And even then, what was the success rate of your counterparts, von Doom?” Doom hesitated, the number caught on his tongue. “Yes. .03%. Three of every ten thousand alternities. And you know what else was common among those timestreams?” The Great Bear bent forward ever-so-slightly. “Humanity stagnated and died, bound by the iron fanaticism of Doom, crushed under his will being the only permissible way, and their grand destiny faded into the cold galactic night forever.”

Doom had nothing to say to that.

“And what of those worlds where von Dooms played nice? Where their knowledge was shared, their observations verified, their words believed, and the Dooms were respected among their peers, and respected them in turn?!” Briggs' voice rose then, making Doom’s heart pound, feeling an awful truth twisting there.

“Yes, von Doom. Humanity reached the stars, and its future was glorious! Oh, not all of the worlds, of course. Sometimes fate is fickle, and disasters happen. But when the von Dooms of the multiverse made true common cause, the odds rose to a phenomenal 34%!

“It was those inspirational von Dooms who bought you your life, hoping that you could be one of them.” Briggs’ voice dropped low again, and von Doom felt his heart sinking with it.

“The world does not need a von Doom, of course. Everything you do and are capable of, others can do better.” Dr. Doom went deathly pale at the insult to his own pride and arrogance, but his master did not blink. “What a von Doom is, is a marvelous tool for bringing disciplines together and creating a greater something out of them, which can spread to the whole world in time.

“But that, too, can be done by others, albeit with greater effort. Heroic characters and champions can also become soldiers, it has been done throughout history. All that is needed is teamwork, wisdom, and willpower. The tragedy of the von Dooms is that they refuse to admit the first is of importance. They only think of ‘I dictate, they obey’, and the roads they go down fail appallingly as a result.”

Doom began to snarl, and Briggs went on, “Do you know what the success rate was in those worlds that never had a von Doom?” Briggs asked in a low, grim voice.

Despite himself, Doom paused. Naturally he had not looked at any worlds where he did not exist. How could they possibly endure without him?

“3.4%, von Doom.” Doom stared in disbelief. “One HUNDRED times more likely to succeed, almost as if... having a von Doom was incredibly detrimental to the survival of humanity. Wearing down and eliminating the best defenders of humanity so that he might rule and not worry about their defiance, perhaps?” Briggs’ words echoed cold and lonely in the room for long moments.

“Is that why you prevented me from wielding the power of the Beyonder?” Doom finally spat, the bitterness of that moment of losing absolute power surging forth.

“Did you never find out what happened if you took it, von Doom?” Briggs replied coolly. “No? I did, albeit after the fact. But your sheer inability to wield the power properly, your instant resorting to slaughter when using it, and your previous failures all assured me that I had made the right choice. You have fallen far, far into the mode of the ruinous von Dooms, who absolutely fail at wielding power well, and are absolutely catastrophic when they wield absolute power.

“And you, you have fallen even faster than most of them, already turning to Hell to gain the power and knowledge they gained by time-traveling.” Briggs shook his head slowly. “Von Doom, you have run out of chances before me. I can see the road of sacrifices you will make for power. I have seen it in other worlds, played out before me in siren songs of pride and arrogance, the deaths of those you should love and cherish, of emotions you think are weakness buried under the grasping claws of a lust for power. Were I not certain of your apprenticeship to the Ancient One, I would have long thought you a great student of the Dragon.”

“And so you think yourself qualified to judge me as you see fit?” von Doom sneered. “For breaking your laws, your commands?”

“Ah.” That one word made his blood go ice cold, and still the pale violet eyes didn’t move. “No, von Doom. Let us reword all such things in the cold, brutal truths you want to deal in.

“You have defied me. I, who taught you, spared you, and raised you up. Who treated you openly and fairly, gave you a respect that in time you actually earned, and believed in you.

“You have repaid my teachings with blasphemy, my mercy with death, and my beneficence with greed. You returned benevolence with exploitation, respect with arrogance, and faith with treachery.

“I do not care how you view this, von Doom. I am past the point of caring about your perspective, or coddling your ambitions. No, this is about pure and iron truth at this point.

“I gave, you took, and you not only did not give back, you seek to take it all. You are a rabid dog, and I am, at heart, merely a farmer and a smith. What I do to rabid dogs is crush them under my heel.

“Goodbye, von Doom. Worry not of your soul, your masters in Hell will not receive it. Worry not of your mother’s soul: I could have long since retrieved it, had you but asked.”

Victor von Doom’s jaw dropped in shock and horror, and he made an aborted attempt to stand, to call on the systems of his suit as his master’s face, sad but determined, pained but resolute, rose before him in terrifying detail, every emotion plain, but regret standing first and foremost.

There was a gentle rush of pressure, like the passing of a summer breeze. Victor von Doom, armor and all, broke apart into ashen flakes, flutters of unwhite fire scattering between them, and was gone utterly from this world.

The personality inlays, the clones, the encoded programs, the back-up magical copies, even his Pact for his soul, all failed in the same instant. Every doombot in existence collapsed at the same moment, falling apart and burning away as had their master, as did all the organic, mechanical, psychic, and magical backups meant to preserve a record and earn a second life for Victor von Doom of Earth-1832.

Hell would not get his soul, because the soul of Doom in Hell was a danger, not a punishment. His own Pact made him vulnerable to vivic fire, and so his soul was gone, reduced to base energy, and all that made it Doom was purged from it, as the nature of wood is purged from the ash left behind.

True Death, and even Death Herself could respect an ending so complete, worthy of one word... Oblivion.

The Great Bear of Russia bowed his head and closed his eyes. He had withheld his hand for so long, trying to guide the man on a better path, but such proud arrogance, the highest virtue of Hell itself...

“This is the Great Bear of Russia, speaking to the people of Latveria.”

---

All around the country, the people turned to the grim voice in the sky. It was not heard often, but those who heard it never forgot it, and they recognized it now.

“Victor von Doom has failed myself and the people of this land utterly, and has been removed from power. His wife Valeria yet has my full faith and confidence, and will continue on in his stead.

“Carry on in your day.”

==========

Eesh. Briggs had taken out Doom, in the end.

I looked at the reports, the manipulations, and noted that Dealer had actually been brought in to verify the links to Hell that had been established.

Someone had given the Deviants the knowledge and resources to make a move, too.

The power of a polymath like Doom was knowledge, and the time needed to gain, learn, and master it. Unable to play chronal shenanigans, he had grasped for power in the only avenue that was left, seeking to rise above and dominate someone who had a century and more of a headstart on him.

The fucktard had been discussing matters with Annihilus!

He had failed, and now he had paid the price.

Pride cometh before the fall...

I’d seen a lot of those chronal files. I knew the evils von Dooms had done in pursuit of power, the love they had given up, those they had betrayed in search of power for themselves. The few who had learned their lessons had been heroes of the highest caliber, leaders for the whole world to admire.

Ours had not been one of them, his ego unable to bear the knowledge that the Great Bear was more than he was, and he had devolved to dealing with Hell to close that gap. Perhaps losing the power of the Beyonder to his master had been the final straw, the leap to absolute power that he had lost, and Briggs had intervened to make sure he could not regain it.

The news of Dr. Doom being removed by the Great Bear was rocking the world. After all, Doom had given himself a high profile with some of the shenanigans he’d been pulling off, and to those in the know, even more crap behind the scenes or through intrigue and subtle machinations.

The Great Bear hadn’t made a direct move like that in years, even if those in the know knew he was always busy with something, somewhere, somehow, moving forward with the Great Plan to advance humanity.

-Hey, Briggs, whatever did you do with the Beyonder’s power, anyway?- I had to /ask him as I was sitting out in the void, counting galaxies and the potential threats that lay within them, shaking my head to myself.

Of course, a lot of the threats to those places were the same ones to us...

-I Infused it into Eternity,- he /replied. -I already have a Cosmic Cube.-

I blinked, and then my lips drew back, and I began to laugh.

An Eternity... supplemented with Beyonder power! If Beyonders came to this alternity, they would just be crushed... and Eternity could take their power and grow stronger yet, quickly becoming invincible in the metacosmos axis of power. It would not stave off stagnation, but in terms of vulnerability to outside forces, Eternity would be beyond them all, except perhaps the Creator.

Briggs didn’t give Eternity the Beyonder Cube. He had directly Infused the power into Eternity, like an Artificer Infusing a new magic item... or a Smith making a Weapon.

If Zom or the Elder Gods got antsy, or the Beyonders came intruding into our reality, Eternity could simply smack them down now. The Beyonders were basically a version of Elder Gods who looked bright and shiny, after all...

But that Cube was still tied to that power, which meant it was now tied to the power of Eternity.

Briggs had his hands on the Cube of Eternity, the grand-daddy of all Cosmic Cubes, if the need was great enough.

What was going to be powerful enough to destroy Eternity now, and force a continuity reboot? Nothing from outside, and on the inside... hmm...

Briggs and Sama had their eyes on that stuff, and were taking actions to get around everything. That was what they were playing at, while I dealt with the more mundane, broad-scale in-universe stuff.

Layers on layers of defenses. Apprenticing Ben Parker off to Galactus had been a moment of inspiration, we’d have to see where it led...

Still wondering what the Widow in the Web had in store for me, or was all this it, a universe deviating so much from standard, and seeing where it went?...