Marvel's Kryptonian Scientist Chapter 178 178

Not long after Black Queen finished establishing the three Umbrella divisions, trouble found Drex Valen from the far side of the cosmos.

And this ti, it was the kind of trouble that made even him feel the weight of sothing vast.

A clear, haunting phoenix cry rang out across the universe.

It ignored the emptiness of space and exploded directly inside Drex's mind.

At the sa mont, he sensed a mysterious force pulsing with impossible vitality.

It was terrifyingly powerful.

A force carrying both creation and destruction, as if it were the living concept of life itself.

A red glow soared upward.

The fla brightened.

Then massive wings spread open, one impossible span after another, until they seed to cover the sky itself.

Light burst outward through the void.

The wings unfurled fully.

Energy rolled across everything around it in a vast, crushing tide.

Wherever that power passed, space itself trembled.

The darkness was swept away.

Destruction gave way to rebirth.

It was as if an entirely new world was being born.

Only then did Drex fully understand what he was looking at.

A phoenix-shaped manifestation of unknown energy.

Not ordinary fire magic.

Not a simple cosmic fla.

This was sothing deeper.

Sothing closer to a law of reality.

Or rather, a primordial force beyond anything he could easily explain.

Drex recognized it imdiately.

The Phoenix Force.

"I didn't expect you to attract the Phoenix Force," Ancient One said from behind him.

"Master Ancient One, you really need to stop appearing out of nowhere like that. You'll kill sobody one of these days."

Drex didn't look back.

He didn't dare.

The mont he turned his head, he had a strong feeling the Phoenix Force might simply erase him.

Seeing it with his own eyes made him finally understand why it was so terrifying.

The Phoenix Force ca from the primal universe.

It was born at the beginning of all things.

Chaotic and immortal.

Eternal and ever-changing.

It was a child of the cosmos.

A living embodint of life and emotion, a force tied to everything that existed, everything that had existed, and everything that would ever exist.

It was the spiritual and ntal link between all life across the infinite multiverse.

The source and creator of psychic power.

The reservoir and ruler of emotional and life energy for generations yet to co.

It could create and manipulate coordinates across space and ti, moving through any point in the universe, in any era.

It could also erase those coordinates entirely.

It could destroy tilines, sever dinsions, and delete entire parallel universes from a given reality.

The Phoenix Force was one of the most feared entities in all of existence.

Its passion could beco the Phoenix's judgnt, burning away sin, desire, and corruption to remake or annihilate anything in the universe, including the universe itself.

But it had weaknesses too.

If Phoenix drew on too much of its power, it would consu the energy reserved for the continuation of life and future generations.

As an incarnation of life and emotion, it possessed supre cosmic awareness and intuition.

It could perceive the past, the present, and the future at the sa ti.

As the nexus point of all minds across the multiverse, it also wielded imnse psychic power.

Telepathy.

Telekinesis.

Multiversal mind arts.

All of it.

With a power like that, the Mind Stone beca a much smaller concern. In fact, the Mind Stone might not have been able to stand against the Phoenix Force at all.

And because it also governed the energy stored for future generations, it could draw upon that reserve and thereby deny the existence of those future lives altogether.

That ability made its destructive potential even more absurd.

The Phoenix Force could manipulate any form of energy in the multiverse.

Absorb it.

Convert it.

Release it.

It could swallow energy attacks whole, whether they ca from Cyclops's optic blasts or other high-tier energy projections.

It could even drain entire stars, galaxies, or universes to fuel itself.

It could siphon energy and life force directly from enemies.

Its judgnt could also beco fire strong enough to rebirth or destroy all things in creation, including the universe itself.

That, of course, was the complete version.

What had co for Drex was only a fragnt.

One shard among billions.

No one could tell how many fragnts had gathered into this particular piece, but it was still enough to make the universe feel small.

As the fragnt locked onto Drex, the Dragon Force inside him suddenly responded.

Hundreds of dragon souls awakened across his body.

They had been sleeping until the Phoenix Force provoked them.

Then they opened their eyes.

And Drex felt his strength begin to surge at a terrifying rate.

"These dragon souls all have their own strengths," Ancient One said quietly. "When all of them gather within one person, that person becos… nearly impossible to stop."

Drex could feel it too.

Each dragon soul carried sothing different.

So gave him wisdom.

So gave him power.

So gave him speed.

And so, simply, gave him more power.

A great deal more.

Even as a Kryptonian, he could feel the difference imdiately.

His strength was climbing.

His body was changing.

His capacity was expanding.

One dragon soul after another fused into him, and the cumulative effect beca obvious in seconds.

Drex Valen was getting stronger.

Much stronger.