“He consumes a tremendous amount of energy, but he can unleash it as well...” Thanos rumbled, trying to hide an odd note in his voice.

I just shook my head. “Well, he’s got to go. I’m assuming you provided him with biospheric harvesting devices, given he’s going to be even more inefficient than Galactus at the task, and he probably can’t even harvest a Celestial Seed without destroying himself?”

He looked at me again, pointing out yet another flaw in his creation. Including his genetics in it had made it unable to even do Galactus’ main job!

“Yes.” I crossed my arms and waited for it. “There is a method to destroy Omega...”

“His physiology can’t be anywhere near as tough as Galactus, as he’s definitely finite. So, just obliterate him with an explosion bigger than his energy reserves, and he’s toast. Given how fast he’ll go through energy, he can’t have more than one or two planets of reserves at one time...” I made some calculations. “Probably really dependent on his energy-conversion equipment, too, and if it’s like the rest, too stupid to make another set.” I looked at Morgan.

“Has to have a fake Worldship too, right?” she sighed, pinching her nose.

Thanos had That Look again. “Yes...”

“Uh-huh. Given the nihilists the lot were hanging with, they still have your timely motivation to end the universe and kill Death, right?”

“That...” he trailed off again, and somehow pulled off looking totally defeated while being totally arrogant. “He wants to kill me. I can easily lure him to a location where he can be destroyed,” he said, sidestepping the issue.

“Oh. I assume you have a location in mind, because there’s no way you wouldn’t. What is so special about this location?”

His smile was slow, but very wide, and could be quite intimidating. “An entire planet made of fissionable materials.”

“A waste.” I shook my head and reached out with my Cosmic Awareness. -Hey, Mr. Parker, you still there with Galactus?-

-We’re doing some surveys of the Crunch. Strange stuff out here,- Ben Parker /acknowledged at the touch of my Awareness. -What’s up, Dynamo?-

-There’s a bad clone-up of Him running around out here, eating biospheres. Wondering if Galactus would like to suck the thing dry if we can put a hole in it?-

There was only a slight pause. -Someone made a clone of GALACTUS?- Ben Parker had to /ask in some disbelief.

-I didn’t say it was a very good one. Still, should make good beer’n’pretzels for the old fart, right?-

Another pause. -He’s inclined to help. Where does He need to be?-

----------

I screamed the Sublime Chord all the way up to Heaven, and I pulled down a Sacred Spear of the Seraphim from a looooong distance away, giving it all sorts of time to accelerate.

More pointedly, I ran it through a sort of tube in space composed of seven angled Rings rolling against one another, which accelerated it incredibly as it went through.

“May the Sacred Spear of the Seraphim

Called from Heaven to here go boom,

Through the Rifling Rings of Raggadorr,

Find yon target and deal its doom!”

I might have been a bit more irreverent than was advisable...

“May the Sumptuous Service of the Seraphim,

Present Galactus a gourmet meal,

And the Final Feast of Farallah

Spice up and Seal the Deal!”

Morgan tended to be the same way for some reason.

Its fake Worldship was blown to smithereens from within, mostly Thanos’ work, as we had to make him do at least something. The towering amalgamation he’d made was kind of flailing around at the Spiders, and indeed was so limited in its abilities that freaking webbing up its eyes was enough to actually render it blind.

I just shook my head as a blazing golden platter appeared underneath this Omega, and a shining light extended all the way up to the sky... where the shadows peeled back and an ominous head the size of a planet appeared, gazing down at this thing that dared to imitate Him. A large and mighty hand the size of a moon reached out to intercept that beam...

Omega looked up as four vicious claws snapped up out of the Service, locking it in place and biting into the thing. It probably began to scream as the being it was meant to contest with looked down upon it, and it realized it really had no chance at all...

Then the Spear of the Seraphim, moving way faster than light speed, blew through the Rifling Rings, picked up even more speed, and went through its armored chest as if it wasn’t there.

Some very nasty cosmic and necroic energies vented out of the big hole in its chest, and then were sucked into the offering column, spiraling up to the outstretched hand as the Omega began to crack, and to howl...

Then the Sumptuous Service let forth a solid blaze of Light and biospheric energies, and all you could see of Omega was the creature crumbling away as the Devourer of Worlds chowed down on this mockery of Him with casual ease.

I turned my Cosmic Awareness to its Lived-Line and the path it had carved across this galaxy. It had marched from one world to the next to ceaselessly feast on the energy it could not process efficiently, and which it had consumed far too quickly.

Thirty-seven goddamn inhabited worlds, their biospheres and far more completely obliterated by this thing in its frenzied hunger to live, leaving nothing but hollowed-out shells in space. It was less than four years old, and it had still slaughtered over a hundred billion sapients, and their entire worlds with them.

It wasn’t like Thanos couldn’t do more, but that was one entity, basically killing a living world every month. Galactus at His worst didn’t do that.

It was a petulant little experiment proving that Thanos could make something that killed more and faster than Galactus did, because its hunger was so much greater, and unable to eat fast enough to satisfy it.

No limits on what he could do or had done. Thanos definitely took mad genius to all the extremes. His Thanosi had desired to wipe out the whole universe, and could have done it if they’d gotten to the new Custodian.

The image of Galactus closed His fist, golden light running through Him for a moment. Our eyes met across the distance, there was recognition, and for a moment great square pupils of energy lingered on the gaze of Thanos, who simply stared back, unrepentant, before the Devourer of Worlds faded away.

And this idiot was the Champion of Death...

I gave him a look, and he just stared back silently, only his clenched fists indicating any worry. Nine more digits of deaths to heap on his doorstep, and nearly an ending to reality...

“Let’s go, Dyna,” Morgan muttered, the Spiders already next to her and waiting to get out of there.

I shook my head as she brought the Portal up, and we headed back to Terra, leaving Thanos sitting out there in a galaxy a billion light years from Sol, considering what he’d seen, how easily his Omega had been killed, and what he was going to come up with next in homage to Lady Death...

======

Time Passes...

“So, what’s going on now?” I inquired, kicking back as Morgan poured. Different Cores really lent themselves to different tastes in wine, I’d found.

“That bet of the Octessence?” she prodded me, and I nodded. “Yes, well, the original terms of it were who would have the greatest showing and success in conquering Terra.”

I blinked once. “Well,” I said to that bit of nonsense.

“In their muddle-headed defense, they had no idea Terra would be breeding so many Epsilon-class defenders and the like when they made the bet a couple thousand years ago.”

“There were freaking Celestials running around!” I pointed out. “And how many active Pantheons?!”

Morgan just threw up her hands. “Best showing language, success or failure. After all, only the mortal champions of each of them would be punished for it, so all in good fun.”

Of course, then you threw someone like Sama into the mix, who was perfectly happy to go from a Chosen Champion to the Power behind them and put THEM to the Sword.

I grabbed the bridge of my nose and sighed as I went through a LOT of scenarios, none of which actually resulted in the conquering of the planet, only the deaths of a lot of normal people. I took another drink of Freya’s The Western Slope rosé wine, nodding approval despite myself. QL 32, enough to have any human raving about it, and decent enough for a common drink on a Divine table.

She had QL 40 stuff, but that stuff didn’t hit the public. The High Slopes would instantly turn a normal person to an addict, and even the rote Students on the Colosseum had to be very careful if they bid for a bottle. Even Asgardians treasured stuff like that.

Anning could make even better wine, but needed appropriate raw materials. Mortal-grade fruits couldn’t get past 40, even with Alchemy, and the kind of vintners who grew that stuff naturally prized them accordingly. Even Divine realms didn’t have that much stuff, so even Volstagg’s best was nominally at 40.

“So, what’s happening with that all now?” I had to ask, defeated in my appreciation of interdimensional asshattery.

“Cain’s mercenary troop!” she half-smiled. “The other seven of the Octessence picked their champions, and are seeing who can accrue the greatest reputation in their battles across the cosmos!”

The Colosseum was an ideal place to work from for that, as it had Students from literally all over the cosmos from cultures who venerated battle, so there were contacts and literally endless amounts of battle for them to prove themselves.

As long as Champion let it slide, with the unspoken agreement that such warriors were also his to call on at need, everything was hunky-dory, and they were also going to keep their shenanigans away from Terra in the ongoing future. The Avatars of the Octessence were out fighting with techno-barbarians who loved to fight.

“Black Tom went with Krakken, didn’t he?” I asked fatalistically, not even bothering to check.

“He’s always wanted more power, and freedom to do whatever he wants. So now he’s a slave to a demon pirate, wreaking havoc across the stars...” Morgan mused coldly.

“Competing with the only man who’s ever called him a friend. Such a twat.” And after Bloodstone spent so much effort to free the Isles of the Demon Pirate Krakken back then. Black Tom could have fed millions, been one of the greatest breeders of crops for different environments, helped alleviate world hunger... but no, must shoot things loudly and explosively, weaponize grass and trees, and gloat about his mighty power.

Well, the Octessence had to flex on one another, and their egos were going to compete, despite their alliance. There were going to be wars and violence, and there was no stopping the pageantry of conflict for beings with ancient mindsets like them.

Hells, like a lot of modern humans. Some of us just loved to fight.

“At least they got it out of their systems,” Morgan said, her scarlet hair fluttering over Levy, exchanging caresses, sometimes blending in so well you couldn’t tell them apart. “Of course, there are the real considerations...”

“Naturally. They want to spread their names in the mortal realms, and infamy is totally as good as fame as far as that goes. Who needs a Seven Spheres War when you’ve got free advertising across endless galaxies?”