I fell in Marvel with Essence Gacha but I’ve never heard of Marvel

Once Lex and Kom had settled into a more comfortable conversation, he explained to her what Raphael had already told him about this world, filling in the broad details while leaving out anything that was unnecessary for the moment. Kom listened without interrupting, her expression gradually becoming more thoughtful as she pieced together the situation, and when Lex finally finished explaining that this wasn't even his native universe, one perfectly shaped eyebrow rose.

“So this isn't your native world?” she asked, studying him with renewed curiosity.

“No. My native world is completely different from this one, and then there's the world I actually consider home now. This is neither of those, and I only arrived here recently myself,” Lex explained, leaning back comfortably. “I'm basically exploring it while I figure out what I want to do with it.”

“Interesting.” Kom crossed her legs, resting one arm against the side of her chair as she considered that. “So you can simply travel between worlds whenever you please?”

“It's not quite that easy, but it isn't particularly difficult either,” Lex replied. “The important part is that I can do it, and since I'm only going to be here for a week, I'm trying to make the most of that time.”

That brought the conversation naturally toward the reason he had summoned her in the first place. Lex had already explained the basic situation of the world and what he wanted from it, but now he leaned forward slightly, his expression becoming more serious as he looked directly at her. “So, what do you think? Could you conquer this place? Or, more accurately, could you help me conquer it?”

Kom did not answer immediately. Instead, she seemed to mentally calculate the scale of the task, considering the information he had given her and whatever conclusions she had already drawn from the world around them. After several seconds, she gave him a confident smile that carried none of the hesitation one might expect from someone who had just been asked to conquer an entire planet.

“Give me ten years,” she said, then paused as though reconsidering her own estimate. “Actually, I think I could manage it in eight. I'll keep the other two as a cushion in case something unexpected happens.”

Lex stared at her for a moment before laughing softly. “I've got one week.”

That finally made Kom blink.

“One week?”

“That's how long I'm staying here,” Lex clarified. “I could probably figure out a way to travel back and forth if I really needed to, but I'm not planning on spending years in this world. This was supposed to be a trial run more than anything else.”

Kom considered that for another moment, and rather than being discouraged, her expression became more calculating. “Then you won't need to be involved very much. If I have someone capable of moving through the air quickly, preferably several people who can do so, I can divide the work and shorten the process considerably. Eight years was assuming I had to build everything from the ground up.”

“Actually, I do have another candidate,” Lex said, a faint smile appearing on his face. “From what I know, she's quite powerful as well. How about I summon her?”

“Certainly.” Kom's answer came almost immediately, and although she smiled pleasantly, there was something unmistakably commanding in the way she continued. “If she is willing to follow my plan, summon as many capable people as you can. More hands are always useful when there is an entire world to conquer.”

Lex noticed the emphasis on my plan, but he merely smiled. He had a feeling Kom was already beginning to think like a queen again, and honestly, he didn't mind. If she was willing to take responsibility for the conquest, there was little reason for him to micromanage her.

He reached for another four-star card and tore it.

There was no flash of light, no magical circle, and no dramatic disturbance in the air. One moment the space before Lex was empty, and the next, a woman simply existed there, standing as though she had been present all along.

She was enormous.

At nearly seven feet tall, she towered over even Lex's six-foot-four frame, forcing him to tilt his head slightly upward to meet her eyes. Yet height alone was not what made her presence so overwhelming. The woman carried herself with an effortless certainty that made her size seem almost incidental, her posture straight and regal without appearing deliberately imposing, as though the world itself had simply been designed with the expectation that she would stand above it.

Her beauty was severe rather than delicate, sculpted from sharp and elegant features framed by long, dark hair that shimmered with subtle green highlights whenever it caught the light. Her pale skin contrasted starkly against the deep black and emerald tones of her armor, while her piercing green eyes possessed a faint unnatural luminescence that made them seem almost alive in their own right. Behind her head rose an enormous crown-like structure of black-green, antlered projections, spreading outward like the branches of some ancient and sinister celestial tree, making her already towering figure appear even larger. Her armor followed the same dark palette, intricate emerald patterns running across its surface like overlapping blades or the skeletal architecture of something ancient, while a heavy cloak descended behind her and pooled slightly around her boots like a fragment of night given physical form.

There was no confusion in her eyes.

She did not look around frantically, nor did she ask where she was or why she had been brought there. Instead, her gaze moved across the unfamiliar room with the detached scrutiny of someone who had spent an eternity observing civilizations rise and fall, weighing everything she saw against standards known only to herself. Then those luminous green eyes settled upon Lex, and a slow smile touched her lips.

It wasn't a friendly smile.

It wasn't hostile either.

It was the smile of someone who had already reached a conclusion and was now interested in seeing whether reality would confirm it.

Kom had gone still.

Lex noticed the change almost immediately. The Tamaranean queen had been sitting with her usual confidence only moments ago, her posture relaxed and her expression carrying the effortless superiority of someone accustomed to being the most important person in any room. Now, however, she was staring at the newcomer with something much closer to caution.

The difference was subtle, but it was there.

Kom's presence was that of royalty. She had been born to rule, had commanded people, possessed the confidence of a queen and expected others to recognize her authority. The woman standing before them possessed something fundamentally different. There was no need for her to claim authority, because the very idea of someone questioning it seemed almost beneath consideration.

If Kom was royalty, this woman was divinity.

She had the bearing of someone who had watched kingdoms become dust long before Kom had ever drawn her first breath, someone for whom the rise and fall of civilizations was not history but routine. Kom could make mortals feel as though they were standing before a queen; this woman made the concept of a queen feel strangely small.

The newcomer noticed Kom's reaction, and the faintest hint of amusement appeared in her expression before her attention returned entirely to Lex.

Her gaze traveled slowly over him, taking in his face, his posture and everything else about him with an almost clinical assessment before settling upon his eyes.

Lex, meanwhile, found himself having a rather different reaction.

Mommy.

The thought arrived completely uninvited.

If not for the fact that he had already acquired two different Essences that could stop him from embarrassing himself, he might actually have said it aloud.

Instead, he merely maintained his composure and looked back at her with a faint smile.

The woman moved first.

One hand rose, and dark green energy immediately gathered around her fingers. The power was controlled and deliberate, with none of the wildness of someone attacking in anger. She swept her hand forward, and dozens of enormous dark blades materialized around her in an instant, their edges gleaming with supernatural energy as they filled the space between them.

Then they flew toward Lex.

Or, more accurately, they attempted to.

Reality itself seemed to reject the action.

The blades crossed only a short distance before their forms abruptly destabilized, the supernatural energy holding them together unraveling as though the attack had never been permitted to exist in the first place. One after another, the swords dissolved back into streams of dark green energy, which dispersed harmlessly through the air until nothing remained.

Lex didn't even flinch.

He understood exactly what had happened.

It wasn't that the attack had been blocked. It wasn't that he had been too durable for it to hurt him, nor had he consciously stopped the swords himself. The attack simply could not complete its intended action because he had not allowed it to harm him.

He had discovered that particular limitation earlier while experimenting with Gwen. His summons could attack him, but only if he permitted them to do so, and even then, anything carrying genuine lethal intent would simply fail in the same impossible manner. It was almost as though reality itself stepped between Lex and the attack, quietly deciding that the action was not allowed to reach its conclusion.

The woman lowered her hand.

Her smile widened slightly.

There was no disappointment in her expression. If anything, she looked more interested than before, as though the failed attack had answered one of the questions she had been asking since the moment she appeared.

Lex leaned back against the sofa, meeting her gaze without any sign of hostility.

“So,” he said calmly, “I suppose that was your way of saying hello?”

“Greetings are reserved for those who have earned them, and so far, I have found nothing about you that makes you worthy of mine, save for the unusual nature of your powers,” Hela replied, her voice carrying the calm certainty of someone who had already made her judgment.

Lex raised an eyebrow, although the faint smile on his face suggested that her dismissal had done little to offend him. “Oh? And how exactly should I go about earning the greeting of Lady Hela?” he asked, deliberately allowing a hint of provocation into his voice.

It wasn't simply bravado. The instincts granted by the Essence of Ultimate Chad had already given him a surprisingly clear understanding of the woman sitting before him, or at least enough to recognize that backing down now would be a mistake. The Essence had been designed around understanding women well enough to win their favor, and while Lex certainly hadn't expected that aspect of it to be useful in a confrontation with a goddess, the underlying principle remained the same: understand the person in front of you, understand what they respect, and understand what they consider weakness. Hela wasn't looking for flattery, and she certainly wasn't interested in someone who immediately folded beneath her presence, so Lex maintained his relaxed posture and met her gaze without hesitation.

“Perhaps you should fight me,” Hela suggested, her expression becoming faintly more interested. “Without that peculiar restriction of yours.”

There was something almost battle-hungry in the way she said it, but Lex could tell that the fight itself wasn't what she truly wanted. She was measuring him, testing whether the strange powers surrounding him were merely tricks that made him difficult to kill or whether there was actually something substantial behind them. The attack she had used earlier had tested the contract between them; this time, she wanted to test the man who stood at the other end of it.

“As you wish.”

The moment Lex gave his permission, the atmosphere changed.

Space itself seemed to distort around them, although it wasn't teleportation or any conventional manipulation of distance. It felt as though another layer of reality had been placed over the existing one, a separate domain overlapping the mansion and replacing everything within it with something far more ominous. The sky beyond the windows darkened beneath an unnatural green hue, the ground took on the same sickly coloration, and strange emerald energy began permeating everything around them, carrying with it an unmistakable association with death. The air itself felt heavier, colder and strangely empty, as though countless dead things were silently waiting just beyond the boundaries of what Lex could see.

Kom immediately rose from her seat and took several steps away from them, her expression tightening as she looked around at the transformed surroundings.

“Hey, don't involve me in your quarrel,” she complained, attempting to keep her voice casual, although the slight tension in her posture betrayed her. Whatever confidence she had possessed when Hela first appeared had already taken another blow. Standing near a goddess who could casually impose an entire deathly domain upon reality was clearly beginning to make her reconsider exactly where she stood on the scale of power.

“Don't worry,” Lex assured her without looking away from Hela. “As long as I don't allow her attacks to reach you, they won't. Same reason her attack couldn't reach me before.”

Hela didn't comment.

She simply began walking toward him.

Lex remained where he was, watching her approach while his instincts searched for some indication of what she intended to do. She wasn't gathering energy, raising a weapon or preparing some obvious attack, and yet the closer she came, the more oppressive her presence became. When she finally stopped in front of him, she slowly raised one hand, her fingers moving toward his chest with deliberate calm.

Lex allowed her to continue.

Her fingertip touched him.

For a moment, absolutely nothing happened.

Then Hela's eyes widened.

The change was small, but Lex caught it immediately. The goddess withdrew her finger slightly, staring at him with an expression that contained something he hadn't seen from her before: genuine surprise.

“You cannot die,” she said.

It wasn't quite a statement.

It sounded more like she was questioning the reality of what she had just discovered.

Lex smiled faintly. “Apparently not.”

Hela's eyes narrowed as she studied him again, this time with considerably more attention. She had touched him with the power of Death itself, reaching beyond flesh and attempting to grasp the very thing that made him alive, yet there had been nothing for her to take. Lex wasn't merely resistant to death; there was something about his existence that refused to acknowledge it as an applicable condition.

Lex's expression became a little more serious.

“My turn.”

His eyes began to glow green.

Hela barely had time to react before two beams erupted from them.

They were not ordinary heat vision.

Lex had been experimenting with his newly acquired Kryptonian abilities, and the Essence of Ultimate Chad had given him access to more than just physical characteristics. He had been able to incorporate his existing powers into the framework of those abilities, allowing him to use his heat vision as a medium for a drastically reduced form of Nihil Light.

The full power of Nihil Light was something Lex had always treated with extreme caution. He had seen what happened when it was unleashed, and he had no intention of reproducing that level of destruction inside a populated world. This version was different, deliberately weakened and controlled, but even a fraction of that annihilating force was still horrifying.

The beams struck Hela directly.

For an instant, her body seemed to resist.

Then the Nihil Light passed through her.

Two enormous holes appeared through her body, one tearing through her head and another through her upper torso, leaving behind edges that looked less burned than simply erased from existence. Hela's eyes lost their focus, her body staggered backward, and the goddess of death collapsed onto the ruined ground.

Lex stared.

He had expected her to be powerful.

He had expected her to possess strange abilities.

But Nihil Light had always been the one thing he considered nearly absolute. Everything he had ever seen struck by its full power had simply ceased to exist, and even this deliberately weakened version had produced an effect far beyond ordinary destruction.

Yet something was wrong.

Hela wasn't moving, but the green energy surrounding the domain had begun to behave strangely. It started flowing toward her body, first in thin wisps and then in increasingly dense streams, pouring into the wounds that Nihil Light had carved through her. The deathly energy gathered around her like a tide returning to shore, filling the empty spaces in her body and knitting together what should have been impossible to repair.

Lex's eyes widened slightly.

The wounds began closing.

Bone, flesh and everything else that had been erased returned as the green energy reconstructed her body piece by piece. It took nearly half a minute, long enough for Lex to simply stand there and watch in disbelief, before Hela's body was finally whole again. Her fingers twitched first, followed by a slow breath, and then her luminous green eyes opened.

Hela pushed herself upright.

For perhaps the first time since she had appeared, her expression wasn't one of absolute confidence.

She looked at Lex.

Then she looked down at herself.

Then she touched the place where the Nihil Light had passed through her, as though verifying that the body beneath her fingers truly existed again.

Lex remained silent for a moment, his own thoughts turning over what he had just witnessed. Nihil Light had failed to kill her. More importantly, it had failed in a way he hadn't thought possible; the attack had annihilated portions of her body so completely that ordinary regeneration shouldn't have been relevant, yet the energy of Death itself had somehow reconstructed what had been erased.

That was new.

Very new.

He had always regarded Nihil Light as the attack that simply couldn't be survived, and now he had encountered someone who had not only survived it but returned to perfect condition afterward. It was a sobering discovery, although Lex couldn't deny that a part of him was fascinated by it.

“So,” he asked, watching Hela carefully, “do you want to continue?”

Hela remained silent for another moment as she considered him. Her confidence had clearly taken a hit, but there was no humiliation in her expression, only the cold calculation of someone who had just learned that the person she had been evaluating possessed an ability far more dangerous than she had anticipated.

“I suppose not,” she finally replied. “I seem to be at a considerable disadvantage.”

Lex couldn't help smiling slightly.

At least she was honest.

The strange green domain began dissolving around them as Hela released her hold upon it, and the normal appearance of the mansion slowly returned—or what remained of it. Lex's amusement faded as he looked around.

The mansion was gone.

So was much of the surrounding garden.

What remained looked less like the home he had been living in and more like the aftermath of some supernatural disaster. Stone, wood and vegetation had been devastated across the area, leaving a broad stretch of ruined ground where his house and its surroundings had once stood. Thankfully, the devastation had remained largely confined to the property itself, but that did little to improve Lex's mood.

He stared at the destruction for several seconds.

“Great,” he muttered. “Now I need a new house.”

Kom stood nearby, still looking at Hela with a mixture of caution and disbelief. Whatever confidence she had possessed when she first arrived had clearly been shaken; watching Hela effortlessly create a deathly domain, test Lex, be struck by an attack that could annihilate matter and then reconstruct herself had left the Tamaranean queen considerably more aware of the difference between the two of them.

Hela, however, seemed entirely unconcerned by the ruined surroundings.

She rose gracefully to her feet and adjusted her cloak, her expression settling back into its familiar composure. The surprise had not disappeared entirely from her eyes, but something else had replaced the earlier judgment within them. She no longer looked at Lex as an interesting anomaly who needed to prove himself.

She looked at him as someone worth speaking to.

“Very well, Lex Everhart,” Hela said, her voice calm once more. “You have demonstrated enough.”

She turned fully toward him, her gaze steady and direct.

“Tell me. What exactly do you expect from me?”