Marvel: Raising — Chapter 152 - Marvel Zombie Universe

"Theoretically speaking, a single Hydra Captain should have been enough to throw the Avengers into chaos and have a grand old time."

"Add in the Hellfire Club and the Black King."

"Ultron."

"...Why is history so peaceful?"

"There aren't even many records about The Homie."

In some corner of the future, Kang the Conqueror could not understand.

He tossed and turned, unable to sleep. He held the historical texts and scrutinized them carefully for half the night, reading between the lines, until the entire text resolved into just two words: "Fucking absurd!"

"The historical records are vague."

"Is it Loki, God of Stories, repairing the timeline?"

"Or did those people simply never become history at all?"

Kang the Conqueror was shaken.

This was one of his weaknesses. He lacked powerful superhuman abilities himself, which meant his vantage point wasn't high enough.

Originally, Kang the Conqueror could have bent the timeline at will and achieved something close to omniscience.

But not anymore.

The successor to He Who Remains, Loki, God of Stories, had become his obstacle.

Like an arsonist versus a firefighter. A thief versus a cop.

The two of them used the Marvel multiverse's timelines as their stage, playing hide-and-seek across all of history, one breaking things, one patching them back up.

One second ago, Kang the Conqueror let out one extra fart on the primordial Blue Star at the very beginning of all creation.

The next moment, Loki, God of Stories, had to hurl himself into the age of dinosaurs and hold back a meteor shower capable of cracking the planet in half.

Chain reaction after chain reaction.

Every time the butterfly flapped its wings, the elephant had to throw its entire body into blocking the blast.

This war had no smoke, no close-quarters combat. The two sides might not even meet face-to-face in their entire lifetimes.

But every single step was fraught with tension.

Kang the Conqueror loved it.

The problem was, the chain reactions were clearly reaching the Blue Star, and yet there were no results. Nothing to show for it.

If chess were the metaphor.

Kang the Conqueror had huffed and puffed his way through an entire pile of pieces, while the other side sent out exactly one Loki, God of Stories, and Loki wasn't even the one holding the pieces.

He was already nearly out of moves.

"This won't do!"

Kang the Conqueror frowned. "Looks like it's time to deploy something serious."

He reached out to a version of himself on another timeline. The response he got back was, "Hssss... haaa... Human flesh! Delicious, one bite, gulp gulp gulp!"

Accompanied by something that sounded like a beast's roar.

No.

More precisely: a zombie.

A zombie universe, staring over with an insatiable craving for fresh meat.

In this universe, all the superheroes had been zombified.

The zombification was almost conceptual in nature, one bite and you were infected. Ghost Rider, the Hulk, The Thing, Thanos, none of them were immune.

It didn't affect intelligence or cognition. It simply made hunger unbearable, a gnawing madness that consumed everything.

In this universe, humans, and every ordinary living thing — had been devoured.

Tony was still a raging alcoholic, a playboy, an arms dealer.

Steve Rogers had become a shield-toting zombie, scheming against his own teammates for a piece of fresh meat.

Ant-Man was researching the multiverse for one reason: more food.

He'd even imprisoned Black Panther as a live-in food supply, eating him raw.

The most tragic was Zombie Spider-Man, Peter Parker, who was eaten alive by guilt after devouring Aunt May and Mary Jane.

The most absurd was Mr. Fantastic, who had zombified himself voluntarily.

The funniest was Deadpool — the living dead who was already dead.

And now, under Kang the Conqueror's direction, every single one of those zombies had turned their gaze toward the Blue Star.

The timelines pulled, and worlds began to bleed into each other.

...

ROAR!

A zombie shriek. A mouthful of fangs. Twisted, mutated.

Zombie Quicksilver, members of the Zombie Brotherhood of Mutants, Zombie Wolverine, Zombie Cyclops, Zombie Mystique.

They were the first to arrive.

They materialized on the campus of a private university in the United States, where bright-eyed, blissfully oblivious college students were running around everywhere, full of life.

What a delicacy.

Crunch crunch. After stuffing themselves at the all-you-can-eat buffet of fresh meat, Zombie Cyclops clutched his chest and groaned, "We can't keep sinking like this! We have to find a way to save people!"

"You're right," Wolverine said, still holding a chunk of something.

"Absolutely right."

Quicksilver was still eating at full speed, manners nonexistent.

This was the zombie universe's most absurd mechanic: when zombie superheroes were full, they genuinely tried to save the world.

The problem was, zombie superheroes were hungrier than Galactus. A full stomach lasted maybe a few minutes.

So after approximately 3 seconds of moral resolve:

"Zombies live to eat, sleep, and have fun. Why the hell are there so many rules about eating? What kind of bullshit superheroes? I'm just trying to eat — screw saving the world. I'll do a full 360 Thomas flare, sweep through the whole crowd, then hit the streets and bite every pedestrian in sight. Superheroes think they can run? I'll gnaw every last one of them. I'm gonna eat eat eat eat eat eat!"

Everyone lost it again.

The zombie mutant horde ate their way across campus, all the way to the library, and then they saw Wanda.

At this moment, Wanda was in a scarf, JK uniform, and black stockings, buried in her books. She moved her pen occasionally, writing and sketching with a quiet, refined air.

The Darkhold was stuffed under her as a cushion.

When she looked up and saw a crowd of fanged, blood-soaked, deranged things shambling in, she blinked once: "?"

"Whoosh!"

In that single moment of hesitation, Zombie Quicksilver came screaming in. It lunged for a bite, but her magic cloak caught the blow, so it grabbed the next best thing and snatched her book right out from under her.

Then it read aloud:

"The Godfather seized Scarlet by her slender waist, gaze sweeping across the gods of the cosmos and the many mighty beings assembled before him. He did not move. His chest was as warm and unyielding as a star that would never burn out. The corner of his lips curved. His magnetic voice spread across the universe like a beam of light. He said, 'Today I am taking her away. I'd like to see who dares stop me.'"

"Authored by Wanda. 'The Domineering Godfather, Love Me Gently.' Word count: 100,000..."

BOOM!

The words had barely landed before the library was obliterated by a surge of chaotic magic. Layers of mirror dimensions tore open like hell yawning downward, one after another.

The magic cloak whipped and snapped. The black stockings let out a scream. The Darkhold's pages flew in a frenzy.

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

Wanda's eyes went red. Her entire composure collapsed. She smiled, slow and unsettling: "Hee hee. You're not leaving now."

By this point, Wanda had figured it out. The mutants in front of her were nothing like the superhero celebrities she knew.

They were cannibals.

She decided she could uphold a little justice here.

Yes. Purely because her inner sense of righteousness was overflowing. Absolutely nothing to do with silencing witnesses and destroying evidence.

She, Wanda, would never fall into darkness out of embarrassment.

"..."

Meanwhile, in the corner, Zombie Wanda watched everything in silence.

On the surface she was the Zombie Wanda of the zombie universe. In reality, after a series of twists and turns, the Female Ghost Wanda had already taken over her body.

She stared at the JK Wanda across the room, younger, prettier, happier, her power cleaner and purer, completely unburdened by grief.

The Female Ghost + Zombie Wanda's fists clenched until her fingers dug into her palms. Envy. Jealousy. Hatred. Her chest hollow with it.

She scratched her nose, rubbed her chin, shook her head, and let out a bitter smile that carried the weight of everything she couldn't say.

"Why wasn't it me who met him?"

➤ Next: Farm Wanda VS Remote Ghost Wanda