Superman looked around. His force cell was apparently located within some kind of central chamber. All around him, monitors displayed thousands of alien troops leveling Khazan. Suddenly, Superman heard a door open and turned only to see the Magus enter the room. Behind him was Thanos, carrying the unconscious body of Adam Warlock.
"Magus, what have you done to Warlock?" asked Superman in a rather demanding tone.
"For the moment he is merely unconscious. Thanos was under orders not to kill him. As with you, I want him alive to witness the obliteration of reality."
"Orders? Thanos works for you."
"Why yes, at least this Thanos does. Sadly, this is not the actual Thanos, but merely a doppelganger of the mad titan. While only the guile and cunning of the real Thanos could possibly match my own, I do not need his treachery or deceit. So I was able to engineer this duplicate, equally as cunning and powerful, and identical in appearance. Exactly like the real Thanos in everywhere, except loyal only to me. It was he who I had collect Adam Warlock for me."
Superman was thinking fast, his mind racing. From what he had heard, the Magus was supposed to the abomination of evil within the soul of Adam Warlock. A long time ago in Warlock's dimension, he had gathered five devices known as Cosmic Cubes and used them to gather the six infinity gems. But he had heard that Adam and the real Thanos had managed to trick him and Adam had imprisoned him within the realm of the soul gem. So how could he be here, and why was he using War World. This seemed very unlike the Magus that he had heard of.
"Alright Magus, what are you doing. Why use War World to conquer Khazan. And how did you escape the soul gem."
"Ah my dear Superman, though we have never met, I recognize your tone all too well. No matter, War World is just a pawn. When I found it, it was randomly floating through the cosmos, looking for warriors to fight in its arena. I saw potential and acquired it for my own purposes. As it is, War World means nothing to me, nor do its inhabitants, so long as they keep Khazans' defenders from noticing this."
As the Magus talked, he walked over to a console and pressed a button. On one of the view screens, Superman's face lost its color as he saw the image on the view screen. It was a large, sphere shaped ball of pin energy. It was like a pod, large enough for a human being to fit inside, yet completely transparent.
"The cosmic egg!"
The cosmic egg had been created a long time ago in Adam Warlock's universe by a creature known as the goddess. She was the exact opposite of the Magus, the abomination of all the good in Adam Warlock's soul. She had gathered together thirty cosmic cubes, including five which she stole from the Magus, and merged them all together to form the cosmic egg, which she then tried to use to destroy the universe and then recreate it in her own image.
"You have the cosmic egg!"
"Ah very good Superman, I see you have done your homework."
"But I don't understand, I was told that Thanos destroyed it."
"My dear Superman, I have underestimated your intelligence. Surely you don't believe that the real Thanos would ever be so wasteful. True the original Thanos did decided against using the egg to try and rule the universe, but I suspected that he might at the very least hide it somewhere for safe keeping. Once I escaped from the soul gem, it was a simple matter of finding the egg. A simple matter for one of my intellect, and as it is, Thanos is so predicable once you understand his mind and how it works as I do. As for my escape from the soul gem, that I owe to Adam Warlock himself. It seems that some time ago, Adam Warlock nearly lost control of the soul gem and its desire to consume souls, and when he did, I used that chance to escape from my prison. Now that I am free, I fully intend to succeed where I have for so long failed. While War World soldiers keep Khazan's defenders occupied, the cosmic egg is charging, gathering its power. When I tell it to, it will release a high amount of energy and focus it right on Khazan, destroying it. When that happens, it will send a shock wave of sort down the dimensional rift, unhinging all realities and ultimately wiping out all existence across the multiverse. After that is done, I shall use the egg to rebuild the multiverse in my own image."
Superman couldn't help but nearly kick himself in the head. He had been played; everyone in Khazan had been played. What they thought to be a simple invasion on Khazan was turning out to be much worse. A madman was attempting to wipe out all existence, and anyone who could stop him was on Khazan fighting off wave after limitless wave of invaders. This was bad. This was really bad.

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