Chương 250: Celestial Bargains
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4th October 2012, Eternal Star Ship (Domo)
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
He stayed silent so I continued, "Grave events are unfolding. And the entire universe, no, the entire multiverse, is in danger. I need your help, and you'll need mine."
"Celestials do not interfere in the matters of parallel universes."
"But that's the thing, everything is centered around our universe. The others will just end up paying for our mistakes."
In his usual monotone voice he ordered, "Elaborate!"
"The cosmic entity Entropy has taken a human form and is currently living in the universe. He aims to use the six infinity stones to propagate his essence throughout the multiverse to achieve the ultimate Entropy. I cannot stop him alone. I will need all the help I can get."
The Celestial stayed silent at this. He was probably processing the implications of my statement. After a minute of silence, Arishem spoke up, "Are you sure about this?"
I nod, "Yes, I fought him a few years ago. He was involved with the cosmic event a few years ago. Surely, you must have felt it."
"Yes, the universe locked itself entirely from the multiverse. Someone messed with the time continuum and caused a paradox. Reality reacted by erasing the disturbance and locking itself off to prevent it from spilling to the rest of the multiverse. We have been trying to find the source of the disturbance to prevent it from happening again. What do you know of it?"
It was good to see that even the Celestials seemed worried about the implications, "Well, it originated from Earth. Entropy from the future, manipulated a reality manipulator and used a dangerous multiversal artifact called 'the Darkhold' to send himself back in time. Apparently, he was defeated at the time and wanted another chance at achieving his goals. He also used this method to blind his siblings and to stop them from interfering in this universe. As far as we can tell, the cosmic entity has a tremendous advantage, and with my future sight being compromised, I won't be able to do this alone. This is why I'm asking you for help. You know that I wouldn't have anything to do with your kind if I had any choice."
I hoped that my little impassioned speech would at least help me convince him somewhat. Celestials were very cagey in interfering with mortal affairs. They wouldn't care about Thanos collecting the infinity stones and snapping his fingers, because while it would destabilize the flow of energy in the universe, it could easily be righted again if they got involved, and the population issues would solve themselves in a few centuries which is barely more than a second to beings as old as them.
I never did understand why Thanos even wanted to kill off half the life in the universe. It wouldn't really affect anything. Human population has tripled in the last fifty years and the rest of the universe shouldn't be that different. At best, everything he would have accomplished would have been undone over time and he would be remembered as the mass murdering monster that thought that killing millions of trillions of lives was a good idea.
Unless he had this weird relationship with Death, but I don't think that's very likely. Death isn't a person, She's the concept of the end of everything. She doesn't have emotions and she doesn't give a flying fuck about Thanos. She's a multiversal being which means that there are an infinite number of Thanos who have achieved whatever the one in this universe dreams of doing, some even more so. He's not special, not in a way that Death appreciates, at least. Cosmic entities who exist on the same scale as Death would only be interested if the person is unique in the multiverse itself. Someone like me, like America Chavez, only exist in a single universe. In the end, Thanos is not that special.
Perhaps Thanos is just mad. It's in his title after all, the Mad Titan. He's a plague in the galaxy, and He's probably someone Entropy is using. Because, in the end, Thanos is crucial to his plans. The cosmic entity needs the snap to happen and the only person capable of gathering them before reality rights itself and the universe is unlocked to the rest of the multiverse, which means that the other entities can stop him.
As I spent contemplating Thanos' probable involvement in Entropy's plans, the Celestial in front of me was also thinking about what I had just said. In the end, my musings were interrupted when Arishem spoke up, "We have not interfered with mortals for billions of years, we will not start doing so now."
I stood there, wide eyed, mouth open, gaping at the hypocritical being in front of me, "Are you serious, right now? Isn't your goal supposed to be to cultivate life, to make sure that it propagates in the universe. And now, when I'm showing you that someone is planning to threaten everything, planning on making what Knull planned a reality not just for us but for every single existence in the universe, including you, Celestials, you will do nothing."
"We have agreed to not interfere in mortal matters."
Now, I was getting angry, "What a load of bullshit. Every time you want to hatch one of your special Celestial eggs, you kill off a planet, how is that not interfering?" he stayed silent at my accusation before I gasped, understanding what's happening, "You're afraid, aren't you? That's it, you know how powerful cosmic entities are and you don't want to fight them."
"It would be illogical to fight one of their kind. The situation will resolve itself when the Living Tribunal interferes. No one can handle a cosmic entity, especially one as powerful as Entropy. They're ideas, concepts given conscience, we cannot destroy them, as long as their concept exists, they cannot die and Entropy is eternal, it's what represents the Death of a universe, the ultimate stabilization of energy."
I glared at the Celestial, "He's taken a physical form, he's weakened, and with the cosmic lock, no one will be able to interfere. We can't kill him, that's true, but we can delay him, imprison him. I was able to do so briefly. It is possible and with your help we could stall him long enough that we can wait for the other cosmic entities to deal with him permanently."
"If the matter is so pressing, then why did you wait so long to contact me? The cosmic lock happened years ago."
"I was caught in a temporal explosion when I trapped him for a while."
The Celestial seemed to accept the explanation, "I cannot make a decision to break our agreement to not interfere in mortal affairs. As Celestials, our words, our promises have weight. I am the judge, so this applies to me even further. I cannot help you in this matter, even as serious as it is."
This was horrible. I needed the help of the Celestials. Even one of them would be enough to stop the Thanos' snap, or at least to keep Entropy occupied enough for us to trap him. Something on the scale of a Celestial's power and experience would be an immeasurable boon for the coming conflict. I need this meeting to end in my favor, even if I have to lose my dignity for it, "I am begging you, not as the mortal I used to be, but as the Celestial I could become. I am prepared to ascend fully, to join your ranks as a new Celestial, should you help me in this fight. I will figure out Ego's method of giving birth to other Celestials and I will reveal it to you. I will help you save your race, our race."
The Celestial froze at my offer, "You're prepared to lose your precious mortality for this?"
"Yes, I am. This is worth losing myself for. The entire multiverse is at risk, not just my world or our universe. I am prepared to do anything to stop it."
I waited Arishem's decision with bated breath, "I cannot break my word, but I will speak to the Council of Celestials on your behalf, a youngling Celestial, to interfere this once. I will do my best to convince the others of the danger. In exchange, you will join our ranks when the situation is resolved."
I sigh in relief; at least he didn't completely reject my proposal, but unfortunately, he wasn't done there, "In exchange, you will kill the person Entropy used to cause the cosmic lock, and you will give me the Mind Stone as a boon of goodwill to give to the Council."
I froze at that. I didn't care about the Mind Stone. I only needed a single infinity stone to lure Thanos here and force a final fight against him and Entropy. Plus, there were too many infinity stones on Earth. With the convergence getting closer, the Reality Stone was soon accessible from Earth. Add in that the Time Stone is still being used by the Sorcerer Supreme to protect our reality, the only expendable infinity stone was the Mind Stone, since I could already use my telepathy to do practically everything it could, outside of using it on a planetary scale, or against a Celestial, that is. Additionally, giving the Celestials the Mind Stone, practically forces their hands on the issue since they're bound to be attacked by Thanos so that he would get access to the stone, meaning that they'll have to help. Even Entropy couldn't fight through Celestials like it was nothing. The stone would be well protected in their hands.
But the main issue was the fact that Arishem wanted me to kill Wanda, my daughter. Sure, she could sometimes be rash, and make mistakes, but she does learn from them. I have already taken measures of stopping Wanda from doing something like this in the future. But even then, her possible connection to the Darkhold posed a threat. I wasn't prepared to kill my own daughter.
I looked at the being in front of me, "is there no other way? Aren't we judging her too early by condemning her for a crime she hasn't committed yet?"
"She presents a danger for all of reality. Her termination is necessary to safeguard that a similar event isn't likely to happen."
"What if I give you the artifact instead, the multiversal one that corrupted her and taught her how to do it? Without it, she's harmless."
The Celestial wouldn't be swayed, "Perhaps that would have been the case, but I need to see your commitment to our order. Threats to the universe like hers shouldn't be tolerated. You are also proving to me, to the others, that you can be a Celestial. Because being one of us is more than just having powers. You need to be impartial, to be detached from the matters of lesser beings, for they do not concern us."
He said it before, a promise to a Celestial is binding, not just in words but in intent. I must intend to kill Wanda. If I was objective, then Wanda wouldn't be worth the entire multiverse. If I was purely pragmatic, then I would kill Wanda without a fuss, but I wasn't. I had worked for thousands of years to make sure that I don't become a cold emotionless pragmatic being. I loved Wanda with all my heart, and I just couldn't bring myself to kill her. Instead, a small idea popped in my head.
I nodded, and I said the word solemnly, "Deal!"
Thankfully, Arishem didn't notice the slight shift of posture and in power as I used Death's power for a fraction of a second as our cosmic energy entwined to bind our words. I stifled a smug grin. I had won that round, even if he didn't know it.
Honestly, I didn't care about the Celestials outside of their help against Entropy. In the small chance that I survive the encounter – unlike the me from the alternate future, that future Wanda destroyed – I don't mind going against the Celestials, if my planet is protected from their wrath.
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