Max appeared in his base along with his clones carrying the two unconscious girlsonly to find the once proud structure completely caved in. The Gedo Statue lay half-buried under collapsed stone its body riddled with burn marks. Even so, Max wasn't worried—it would heal itself in ti.
The battle with Thena had been far too destructive. His base was trashed, and it would need massive renovations.
He walked out into what used to be dense forest. Now, nothing remained but scorched earth and a barren horizon. The wind carried the sll of ash.
"This won't do," Max muttered.
He levitated into the air, using the Deva Path's gravity manipulation before landing in the center of the desolate land. He inhaled deeply, clasping his hands together. His shredded cloak fluttered violently in the gusts of wind stirred by the pressure of his chakra. The ground beneath him cracked.
"Wood Style: Great Forest!"
The earth quaked as roots and vines erupted from the soil, twisting and surging skyward. Massive trees burst to life in an expanding wave of green until the wasteland was reborn with lush forests and vibrant vegetation.
When the tremors finally subsided, Max fell to one knee, exhaling heavily. Even for him, the technique was taxing after such a brutal fight.
Floating above the canopy, he looked out across the rejuvenated landscape. He'd managed to restore only a few kiloters of the forest—beyond that, the damage wasn't as severe, and nature would recover on its own.
Satisfied, Max descended and created ten shadow clones.
"Start the renovations," he ordered.
The clones scattered instantly. The two carrying the unconscious girls approached, and Max placed a hand on their shoulders. With a thought, all three vanished in a flash of light—Flying Thunder God.
Hours Later,Nanda Parbat
Pain descended from the night sky, thrusters dimming as his tal feet touched the courtyard stone. In his grip dangled Zetsu, who wriggled free and looked around with wide eyes.
"What is this place?" Zetsu asked in awe.
"This," Pain replied, scanning the shadowed temples, "is my empire."
Shapes moved in the darkness—silent guardians approaching fast. Zetsu shifted uneasily, but Pain didn't flinch.
"It would be best if you changed your appearance," Pain said without turning. "Your existence must remain known only to ."
Zetsu nodded and instantly morphed into a young man with short black hair—the sa face he'd once copied at LexCorp. The shadows halted their approach, recognizing Pain. They bowed low, so whispering quick apologies before signaling to stand down. Pain waved them away and continued walking.
He and Zetsu entered his quarters, a dimly lit chamber sealed with complex runes. Pain pressed a hand to the marking on the door, releasing a small pulse of chakra. The seal glowed, then locked into place.
"For now, I rest," Pain said, lying back on a mat with his hands folded on his chest. "We'll speak tomorrow."
Zetsu flopped onto the floor beside him.
"Hey, boss… can you tell what it's like to poop?"
Silence.
Zetsu blinked. Then sighed when he realized the link had been severed.as he then grinned as a thought ca to mind.
Max's Apartnt
Max sat at the table in the lounge, a dim lamp casting light across sheets of paper scattered around him. His hands moved quickly, brush gliding over sealing parchnt as he drew the final stroke of another intricate formula.
He was trying to perfect the Flying Thunder God—to refine it until he could perform Guiding Thunder, the advanced variant of the technique. His focus was sharp, but exhaustion lined his eyes.
Since his base had been destroyed, he had nowhere else to stay. Every bedroom in the apartnt was occupied: the two guest rooms were taken—one by Terra, the other now permanently claid by Thena. Even his own room wasn't his anymore; future Thena was resting there. That left him the couch, not that he minded much.
When he finally finished the new seal, he placed it carefully atop a pile of others—each one etched with different modifications and experintal patterns. Testing them would have to wait.
Max leaned back, rubbing his eyes. He couldn't sleep anyway. His mind wouldn't let him.
The revelation still weighed on him—the existence of a being powerful enough to kill his future self, one who had mastered the Goku Black template and even wielded a Ti Ring. Soone had hunted down that version of him… and won.
The thought was a storm in his chest.
He sighed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a crumpled piece of paper—the sa one he'd skimd through hours ago. He unfolded it slowly, staring down at the handwriting that belonged to a future version of himself.
The clock ticked softly in the background
Max unfolded the wrinkled paper carefully, his tired eyes scanning the familiar handwriting. The faint sll of smoke and dried blood lingered on it — remnants of another version of himself, from another ti.
He began to read aloud under his breath, the words heavy and uneven.
"I think I ssed up real bad. In one of my travels to the future, I drew the attention of a very powerful entity. And since we exist on a single tiline at a ti… if I die, my death will unravel my universe. But I'm not willing to die without a fight, so I'll give it my all. When this letter gets to you, don't make the sa mistake I did."
Max stared at the words for a long mont, his brow furrowed.
"That's it?" he muttered.
It was too vague.
He had to give props to Thena for managing to piece together so much from such a cryptic ssage. Still, how was this supposed to help him now? He flipped the letter around, scanned the edges, and then noticed it,barely visible scripture at the back of the letter.
Frowning, he activated his Sharingan, but the text remained blurred.
With a sigh, he switched to his Rinnegan—and the ink flared faintly, becoming legible at last.
"I guess the letter has finally reached you, because I made sure that only soone with the Rinnegan could read this part. And I doubt Thena can awaken it or forcibly seize it from you."
"If you're reading this, then I didn't make it. That's the only reason you'd have this letter in the first place."
"Things weren't good in my ti. Darkseid was coming for after killed his avatar. And yeah, I killed him and nothing happened. But before his death, he swore that he'd co back for again."
"And since I was an anomaly, the other gods wouldn't interfere. I knew I was screwed. I barely survived that battle, and after that, there was no one left on Earth to push further. Training what I already had wasn't enough. So… I decided to go to the future."
"With the Ti Ring, I could jump across tilines where events unfolded without my interference. The worlds followed the sa path as in the movies, so I could fight anyone… kill anyone. And when those tilines collapsed because I erased beings fixed in ti, the Ring always bailed out."
"But the gains beca smaller and smaller. My progress slowed. So I went further , to the tilines of the Infinite Earths , seeking soone on my level. I found him. The Anti-Monitor."
"That… was a mistake."
"The mont I arrived, his attention shifted to . To say I lost would be an understatent. I barely escaped, hopping between tilines to shake him off but everywhere I went, the tilines crumbled behind ."
"I knew it was only a matter of ti before he caught up and killed . So I returned to my universe to prepare. I wrote this letter, and passed on the Ti Ring."
"The revival thod I used was a gift from the Morningstar himself — think of it as a one-ti 'revive' button but i don't think you'll be getting it because he said i was the first and last ti he was helping "
"If you're alive right now, it's because you were revived at a point of temporal flux — probably right after Flashpoint. That event created the perfect storm in ti to bring you back."
"The mories you have… of torturing and killing Amazons, fighting along the resistance… they aren't yours. They were mine."
"When Flash fixed the tiline, I had to create a new identity since everything had gotten rewritten. I didn't want to be Max anymore, so I called myself Pietro Maximoff as a joke. You should still be using that as a legal na, which proves everything I'm saying."
"It might sound confusing now, but you'll understand in ti. I was desperate, and I made a mistake — a terrible one. To fix it, I had to involve Thena… my precious daughter. I can only imagine the pain she must be in because of ."
"I hope you don't repeat my mistakes."
"Please… unseal the last part when you are with Thena. And Thena alone."
Max blinked as he reached the bottom of the page, his gaze falling on the faint blood seal pressed into the corner. He exhaled slowly.
His eyes traced the blood seal ,a lock only his blood could open.
End of Chapter
I hope with this chapter any lingering confusion about the tilines.till next ti,
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