Chapter 699: U: The Infinite Event (Fifteen)

Death does not use any curses; those who die by curses do come to her, but she never uses death to curse anyone—her authority may be vast, but it does not include directly killing a life.

If Death could kill at will, how could any living thing still exist in these universes?

Death represents only death, not killing, and certainly not curses—these actions merely result in death, and Death herself cannot control them.

Do absolute fatal curses exist in the universe?

To Death, they do exist—for example, in one universe there is a toxin that can absolutely kill a certain kind of being; once exposed, death is inevitable.

From the mystical side, there are indeed curses capable of achieving 100% lethal effects on a target; these curses can be cast in many ways—by wizards or priests, or even bound to objects.

But such curses have special traits—for instance, most only function within a single universe; once moved to another universe, where even the fundamental energy rules differ, the curse naturally fails.

But what Death saw was that everyone who had ever said to Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility," had died.

Individually, each of these deaths posed no issue—Death could not possibly track every word spoken before each person's death, so when accepting them, she detected no anomaly.

But when viewed together, their deaths clearly resembled a curse: say a certain phrase, and you die. If this truly were a curse, the one who cast it must be an extraordinarily powerful being.

Yet Death scoured the multiverse and found no trace of any curse—something nearly impossible for an entity capable of freely observing and traversing timelines.

If the curse truly existed, there must be a hidden hand behind it, and to make the curse affect Spider-Man, that being must have interacted with Spider-Man and those around him.

Death needed only one glance to see all causal relationships, yet among all connections, she found no clue related to the curse.

If not a curse, then what else could it be?

Death found no link between the phrase and death—it was unthinkable, for she was Death itself, yet could not find the connection between the words and him.

But the event had already occurred—Shiler had died after saying those words. So now, if one wished to prevent his death, one must ensure he never spoke those words.

As previously explained, the multiverse is composed of infinite single universes—but why "infinite"?

In Marvel's lore, every choice spawns a possibility, and every possibility is a universe.

Simply put, when you choose whether to drink milk for breakfast, if you choose yes, that's one single universe; if you choose no, that's another.

Even a passing thought is a universe; a dream is also a single universe.

Thus, within the multiverse, infinite possibilities exist—no empty space lies beyond single universes; every location is an infinite universe of possibilities.

In this current possibility, Shiler has already spoken those words and died. To undo it, Death must return to the moment before Shiler ever spoke them.

Then, prevent him from saying those words, create a new possibility, and overwrite the current universe with it—thus, Shiler would not die.

For Death, this was not difficult at all. She first returned to the moment Shiler first spoke those words, then created minor accidents to divert his attention.

Leaving the hospital, Shiler had no chance to tell Peter, "With great power comes great responsibility," and thus never said it.

But just as Death was about to overwrite the current universe with the newly generated possibility, she discovered that Shiler in this new universe had vanished.

Yes, vanished into thin air—and Death could not find where he had gone.

Death pondered endlessly, then recalled that within the multiverse, there exist unique entities—singular, called "The One."

If Shiler were "The One," his sudden disappearance could be explained: as "The One," no matter how many single universes or possibilities exist, only one instance of him can exist.

Creating another instance of "The One" is not impossible, but Death is not a creator god—she is a conceptual deity, and such power does not fall under her domain.

Yet this did not frustrate Death. By this point, whether Shiler lived or died no longer mattered—what mattered was winning.

So if she could not create a possibility where Shiler never spoke those words, she would create a universe where Shiler never existed, then overwrite the current universe with it—if Shiler never existed, he would not die.

But Death could not create a new universe from nothing; she had to return to a specific moment in the original universe and influence events or people to generate a new "possibility."

To make a universe without Shiler, Shiler must never have crossed over to Marvel in the first place.

That is, only if the system had never sent Shiler to this Marvel universe could this universe possibly lack him.

But what if Shiler had never come to Marvel, and instead remained in the DC universe? What would happen?

Through prior contact with the Dreaming, Shiler knew that on the night he crossed over, DC's Fate had been holding his Soul Book, attempting to write Shiler's name upon it.

If Shiler had never crossed over to Marvel, and had stayed in the DC universe that night, then DC's Fate would not have failed to write Shiler's name into the Soul Book due to Shiler's passage through the Wall of Origins.

That is, if Marvel's Death created the possibility where Shiler never crossed over, then Shiler's name would now be written in the Soul Book.

When Death enacted this possibility, Fate, working inside the Wall of Origins, suddenly sensed an anomaly in his Soul Book.

He picked it up, opened it, and his face twisted into a look of utter disbelief.

On one page, a name was being slowly written.

Fate slammed the Soul Book shut, opened it again moments later, and found several letters of the name already inscribed.

Fate stared at the sudden name—he recognized it: Shiler?

When I tried to write your name before, you stopped me—now you're trying to write it yourself? If you succeed, how am I supposed to do my job?

So Fate decisively refused—he waved his hand and erased Shiler's name.

But no sooner had he erased it than some unseen force began rewriting it. He erased again; the force rewrote again.

Fate was not without temper—he ignited a glow in his hand and blacklisted the name "Shiler Rodriguez."

By refusing Shiler, Fate severed him from Fate's domain—but the entire DC universe lies within Fate's domain, meaning Shiler could only go beyond DC.

Yet Marvel's Death's current action seeks not to send Shiler beyond DC, but to return him to a state where he never crossed over at all.

A being cannot be both outside Fate and not outside Fate—that is a paradox.

The only way to resolve this paradox is for Shiler to die within the DC universe.

The powers of the Endless are non-overlapping—if DC's Death takes Shiler, the contradiction is resolved.

Now, Marvel's Death seeks to forge a new possibility, but DC's Fate refuses—both are locked in a stalemate, perhaps due to their similar tiers.

The two timelines clashed, producing a paradox: each pushed against the other, until a third timeline emerged—DC's Death takes Shiler.

But this third timeline requires DC's Death's consent.

When the request reached DC's Death, she did not hesitate—she flatly refused.

Do not forget: in the DC universe, as a child, Shiler plucked a feather from Lucifer, forging a connection—and that feather still resides within his soul.

DC's Death could take Shiler's soul—but she could not take the feather within it.

Lucifer is above DC's Death; Death has no authority over him, and thus cannot claim his power as her own.

Just as you can withhold a boss's driver's salary, but not the boss's own salary—Lucifer is DC's Death's boss.

Now, the first, second, and third timelines all fail. To avoid paradox, they begin pushing against each other.

In the end, after endless pressure, the demand was passed to Lucifer in the DC universe.

In a Beverly Hills hotel room, Lucifer slowly opened his eyes and gazed at Cloyn, still asleep—her long hair, like silk, slipped from the pillow.

Lucifer rolled over, intending to sleep more, when suddenly he heard a faint "humming."

He sat up and gently nudged Cloyn. "Hey, sweetheart, is that your police radio? It seems to be ringing."

"Radio? Why would the radio ring?" Cloyn mumbled, half-asleep. "We're too far from the station—no signal reaches here."

Lucifer frowned, puzzled, but dismissed it, pulled the blanket back over himself, and lay down again. Moments later, the "humming" returned.

Annoyed, Lucifer sat up, walked to the bedside table, and picked up Cloyn's radio—but as he held it, he realized it was not the radio making the sound.

He searched everywhere, pressed the hotel call button, but the attendant said he heard nothing.

Rejecting the attendant's offer to call a doctor, Lucifer went to the bathroom, splashed water on his face, trying to calm himself.

But the "humming" grew louder—finally, he could not bear it. He activated his unique ability and looked directly into the truth and essence of this world.

He realized: the "humming" was a phone call—someone was making a demand of him.

"Neither inside Fate nor outside Fate, and cannot die? Shiler, are you deliberately causing trouble????"

He hung up immediately. In his view, Shiler had surely caused another bizarre mess and now came begging for help—he would never satisfy such absurd requests.

After washing his face, Lucifer still felt drowsy. He returned to bed, hugged Cloyn, and prepared to sleep.

But just as he was drifting off, the "humming" returned.

Lucifer sat up in rage, shouting into the air: "Shiler!"

"Are you insane?!"

"Stop calling me!"

!

He slammed back down, pulled the covers tight, frowned, and tried to sleep again.

And just as he was about to fall asleep—yes, the phone rang again.

Marvel's Death, endlessly attempting to create this possibility, did not know who Lucifer was, nor did she realize her actions would route the demand to him. After her first failure, she began repeating the attempt.

The result: over the next week, Lucifer received over two hundred harassing calls per day. Finally, he could take no more.

Elsewhere, in a mysterious hall within the Marvel universe, Eternity, having just concluded a meeting with the various Kastris, summoned the most exceptional among them.

This Kastri differed from the others—her body had been transformed into a radiant, luminous spirit, and she was the strongest of all. Eternity brought her into his chamber and said: "I feel someone is drawing upon chaotic energy again. Investigate—find out what's happening. We cannot—"

At that moment, above all universes, above all such halls and entities, came a series of loud "bangs."

After the thunderous, furious knocking, a voice filled with rage echoed across the Marvel universe:

"Shiler!"

"You've got the nerve to make harassing calls!"

"Now open the damn door!"

!