As Sukuna in Invincible-Chapter 39: The War Begins

Earlier

In a reinforced cell deep beneath the Global Defense Agency headquarters, Angstrom Levy thrashed against his restraints. His skin glistened with sweat, his eyes darting wildly as if tracking unseen horrors.

"No, no, no," he muttered, his voice hoarse from hours of screaming. "It's happening. He's changing. Evolving. Becoming what he was always meant to be."

The monitoring equipment surrounding his bed recorded his elevated heart rate, his spiking brain activity, the strange dimensional energy fluctuations that emanated from his body in waves.

Through the observation window, two GDA scientists watched with clinical detachment, making notes on tablets as they observed their subject's deterioration.

"Subject's episodes are increasing in frequency and intensity," Dr. Wilson, the older researcher noted. "This is the third major event in the past hour."

"Stedman wants a full report by morning," Dr. Chen replied, adjusting her glasses. "He thinks there might be a connection between Levy's condition and the battle happening downtown."

"You mean the one with that four-armed guy?" Wilson asked. "The footage is all over social media already. Some kind of monster fight in the business district."

"That's the one," Chen confirmed. "Stedman thinks Levy's dimensional abilities might be reacting to whatever's happening there."

Inside the cell, Levy's consciousness was far from his physical body. His mind floated through the multiverse, tethered to countless alternate versions of himself, experiencing their realities in disjointed fragments.

And in that moment, across the dimensional barrier, he felt it - a surge of power so distinctive, so terrifying, that it sent shivers through every iteration of Angstrom Levy across the multiverse.

"Sukuna," he whispered, the name itself seeming to draw blood from his lips. "The King of Curses. He's awakened. Fully awakened."

In his mind's eye, he saw it - the transformation, the four arms, the marked skin, the multiple eyes. The true form of the demon who had haunted his dimensional visions for weeks.

"No, no, no," Levy repeated, his restraints creaking as he strained against them. "Not here. Not in my world."

The monitors began to beep more rapidly as his heart rate accelerated, his blood pressure spiking to dangerous levels.

"He's going into distress," Chen said, reaching for the emergency button.

"Wait," Wilson cautioned, grabbing her wrist. "Stedman's orders were explicit. No intervention unless his vitals indicate imminent death. He wants to see how far these episodes go."

"This is inhumane," Chen protested, pulling her hand away. "Look at him! He's suffering!"

"Science isn't always pretty," Wilson replied coldly. "Besides, after what he tried to do with those summoning rituals? He's lucky he's not in a regular prison."

Inside Levy's fractured mind, memories that weren't his own flooded through him—experiences of alternate Levys who had encountered Sukuna across the multiverse.

A laboratory in ruins, equipment shattered, papers scattered across blood-soaked floors. Sukuna standing amid the destruction, holding aloft the severed head of Angstrom Levy, four eyes gleaming with amusement.

"You thought to study me?" the demon laughed in the memory. "To categorize me? I am beyond your comprehension, little scientist."

"No," Levy moaned, his body convulsing.

A suburban home, once peaceful, now a charnel house. Sukuna seated at the dining table, consuming human flesh with deliberate appreciation while an alternate Levy, bound and forced to watch, screams as his family is devoured piece by piece.

"The love you hold for them seasons the meat," Sukuna observed in the memory, tearing flesh from bone with elegant precision. "Your despair is the perfect accompaniment to their flavor."

"Stop, please," Levy begged, tears streaming down his face.

A young woman - a daughter he never had but an alternate Levy cherished - violated by the demon while her father watches, unable to look away, unable to help, unable to die despite his desperate pleas.

"This is the price of curiosity," Sukuna explained calmly in the memory. "You sought to understand the King of Curses. Now you understand: everything you love belongs to me."

"ENOUGH!" Levy screamed, his voice cracking with the force of his desperation.

The scientists jumped as the monitoring equipment suddenly malfunctioned, screens flickering with static before displaying incomprehensible data.

"What the hell?" Wilson muttered, backing away from the window.

"I'm calling Stedman," Chen decided, reaching for her phone. "This is beyond our clearance level."

"Look!" Wilson pointed at Levy through the observation window. "He's... glowing?"

Inside the cell, Levy had gone eerily still, his eyes open but unseeing, fixed on the ceiling. His lips moved in a silent chant, words from a language that had no business being spoken by human tongues.

"Azarath metrion zinthos," he whispered, his voice taking on a resonant quality that seemed to echo despite the room's soundproofing. "Klaatu barada nikto. Ash nazg durbatulûk."

He didn't understand what he was saying, but something from deep within was guiding his tongue, and Levy in his desperation, knew nothing but to follow it.

"I need to stop him," Levy muttered, his voice shifting between lucidity and madness. "Before he becomes what I've seen. Before he does to this world what he's done to so many others."

The green glow intensified, casting eerie shadows across the cell. The restraints holding Levy began to smoke, the metal heating to a dull red where it touched his skin.

"I need help," he realized, his fractured mind racing through possibilities. "I need... myself."

With a sudden clarity that cut through his madness, Levy reached out with his dimensional awareness - something he had recently been able to consciously do -

searching across the multiverse for a specific version of himself - one he had glimpsed before, one with resources, with power, with an army at his disposal.

In another reality, another Angstrom Levy - scarred, deformed, his brain partially exposed through a cracked skull - paused in his plotting.

This Levy had been gathering various versions of Invincible to execute his revenge against Mark Grayson, using them to destroy the hero's reputation.

"Times Square is in ruins?" he asked, addressing the alternate Invincibles gathered in his warehouse headquarters.

"Yeah, it's dust," Mohawk Mark replied with a dismissive shrug, leaning against a support beam. "Just like you wanted. Made a real show of it too, made sure plenty of cameras caught 'Invincible' destroying public property."

His costume was similar to the original Mark's, but with a spiked hairstyle and more aggressive design elements. His attitude matched his appearance - cocky, aggressive, with a perpetual sneer.

"Don't act like you didn't enjoy it," Mustache Mark commented, cleaning blood from his gloves. This older, grizzled version with facial hair and battle scars had seen more combat than most of his counterparts. "You were laughing the whole time."

"Of course I enjoyed it," Mohawk Mark shot back. "Doesn't mean I care about Levy's stupid revenge fantasy."

"The hospital evacuation went perfectly too," Astronaut Mark reported, his costume modified with elements of space gear. More strategic than the others, he approached their arrangement with Levy as a military operation. "Everyone saw 'Invincible' endangering patients. The media's having a field day."

"Good," the scarred Levy nodded, observing the chaos on multiple monitors. "And the mayor's office?"

"Left enough evidence to frame the original for corruption," Sinister Mark replied, his costume darker with black accents where the original had blue - with a cape.

His voice carried a permanent undertone of cruelty. "His reputation is being systematically destroyed, just as you promised would happen."

"And once it is," Viltrumite Mark added, a version who had embraced his alien heritage more fully, with a costume incorporating elements of Viltrumite battle armor, "you'll hold up your end of the bargain? Access to the realities we each requested?"

"That was our deal," Levy confirmed, his attention still on the monitors. "You help me destroy Mark Grayson's life, and I'll-"

He stopped abruptly, a strange sensation washing over him.

"What is this?" the scarred Levy murmured, feeling an intrusion into his consciousness. "Who dares?"

"Something wrong, brain-case?" Mohawk Mark asked with mock concern. "Having another episode?"

"Silence!" Levy snapped, concentrating on the mental intrusion.

"Or what?" Sinister Mark challenged, stepping forward. "You'll send us home? Good luck finding more willing pawns for your pathetic revenge scheme."

"I said SILENCE!" Levy repeated, his exposed brain beginning to glow green. "Someone is... contacting me. Another version of myself."

The assembled Invincibles exchanged glances, unnerved by the green glow but not particularly concerned for Levy himself.

"Great, another you," Mustache Mark grumbled. "Because one wasn't annoying enough."

"Is this going to delay our payment?" Viltrumite Mark demanded, his eyes narrowing. "I have a worlds to conquer back home. The only reason I am here is because this opens up the potential for even more."

"And I have a Cecil Stedman to kill," Sinister Mark added.

"Everyone shut up and let him concentrate," Astronaut Mark ordered, his tactical mind recognizing the potential significance. "This could be important."

Levy ignored them all, focusing on the mental contact. "Who are you?" he demanded silently. "What do you want?"

Help me, a voice projected across the dimensional barrier. Our worlds are in danger. Sukuna has awakened.

"Sukuna?" Levy muttered aloud, sorting through his vast knowledge of the multiverse. "I know no such being."

The King of Curses, the imprisoned Levy explained, his mental voice tinged with desperation. A demon from ancient Japan who devours worlds. He exists across multiple dimensions, always different yet always the same. Always hungry. Always cruel.

"And why should I care about your problem?" the scarred Levy demanded. "I have my own vengeance to complete."

"He's talking to himself again," Mohawk Mark stage-whispered to the others. "Just what we need, our meal ticket going even more insane."

"Shut up," Astronaut Mark hissed. "Whatever's happening, it's affecting his powers. Look at his head."

Indeed, the scarred Levy's exposed brain was now pulsing with green energy, the same color that had characterized his dimensional powers before his injury.

Because if he isn't stopped, there will be no vengeance for either of us, the imprisoned Levy insisted. No worlds left to conquer. Nothing but ash and bone and his laughter echoing across the void.

"This Sukuna," Levy said aloud, "what exactly is he capable of?"

"Who the hell is Sukuna?" Sinister Mark demanded. "Are you making deals with other dimensions now?"

"I think another version of him is warning him about some kind of threat," Astronaut Mark explained, watching Levy carefully. "Some kind of enemy."

"Great," Viltrumite Mark sneered. "Just what we need. More complications."

"Show me," Levy commanded his alternate self. "Show me this threat."

The imprisoned Levy opened his mind fully, sharing the horrific visions that had plagued him for weeks - the destruction, the death, the casual cruelty of a being who viewed humans as nothing more than toys to be broken or food to be consumed.

The scarred Levy recoiled physically, staggering back against his control console as the images flooded his mind.

"What's happening to him?" Mustache Mark asked, not out of concern but pragmatic self-interest. "If he dies, how do we get back to our worlds?"

"He's not dying," Astronaut Mark observed. "He's... receiving information. Psychically, it seems."

"This... this is beyond anything I've encountered," Levy gasped, addressing the Invincibles. "A being of immense power. A destroyer of worlds."

"Sounds like our kind of challenge," Mohawk Mark said with a grin. "Point us at him. We'll take care of it. For the right price, of course."

"It's not that simple," Levy replied, sweat beading on his malformed brow. "This entity... this Sukuna... he exists across multiple realities. And now he's fully manifested in my counterpart's world."

Yes, the imprisoned Levy pleaded. Free me first, then together we can direct your Invincibles against Sukuna. Before he grows too powerful to stop.

The scarred Levy hesitated, sensing something off about this request. "You're not telling me everything," he accused aloud. "What aren't you saying?"

"He's definitely losing it," Sinister Mark said to the others. "Maybe we should consider finding another dimensional traveler to get us home."

"Good luck with that," Viltrumite Mark replied dryly. "They don't exactly grow on trees."

"We need him functional," Astronaut Mark insisted. "At least until he fulfills his end of our bargain."

In his cell, the imprisoned Levy's expression twisted with frustration. The restraints around his wrists and ankles had begun to melt, the metal dripping onto the floor in glowing pools.

"There's no time!" he shouted aloud. "He's fully awakened now! We must act immediately!"

Outside the cell, alarms began to blare as the facility's sensors detected the rising energy levels.

"We need to evacuate," Chen insisted, grabbing Wilson's arm. "Whatever's happening in there, it's beyond our control now."

"But the data-" Wilson protested.

"Screw the data!" Chen snapped, dragging him toward the exit. "I'm not dying for Stedman's obsession with this guy!"

Inside the cell, Levy's body had begun to levitate several inches above the examination table, the last of his restraints giving way as the metal melted completely.

"If you won't help willingly," he snarled, addressing his alternate self across the dimensional divide, "then I'll take control by force!"

In his headquarters, the scarred Levy staggered as he felt a foreign consciousness attempting to seize control of his mind, his powers, his carefully gathered army of alternate Invincibles.

"You dare?" he growled, fighting back against the intrusion. "You would steal from yourself?"

I would save everyone! the imprisoned Levy countered, pushing harder. Even if it means sacrificing you!

"What's happening to him now?" Mustache Mark demanded, watching as Levy clutched his exposed brain, green energy pulsing more intensely.

"Looks like a psychic attack," Astronaut Mark assessed. "Another version of him is trying to take control."

"Of what? Him?" Mohawk Mark scoffed. "They can have him."

"No, you idiot," Viltrumite Mark growled. "Of his powers. Of us. Of everything."

Sinister Mark's eyes narrowed. "Nobody controls me. Not Levy, not some other Levy, not anyone."

"He's trying to... take control... of my powers," Levy gasped, confirming Viltrumite Mark's assessment. "Of all of you!"

"Like hell he is," Mohawk Mark snarled, stepping forward aggressively. "We're not anyone's puppets."

"Who is this other you?" Astronaut Mark demanded, his tactical mind seeking information. "What does he want with us?"

"He's from a dimension where... where this Sukuna exists," Levy explained, still fighting the mental battle. "He wants to use you... to fight it."

"A real fight instead of this reputation-destroying nonsense?" Sinister Mark considered, a cruel smile spreading across his face. "That actually sounds more interesting."

"No!" Levy's voice rose in panic. "He's hiding something! This isn't just about fighting some demon! There's more he isn't telling me!"

"When is there not?" Viltrumite Mark replied dismissively. "You dimensional travelers are all the same. Always with your schemes and half-truths."

"Maybe we should hear what this other Levy has to offer," Mustache Mark suggested pragmatically. "Might be a better deal than what we've got here."

"You would betray our arrangement?" Levy demanded, still struggling against the mental invasion.

"Betray implies loyalty," Astronaut Mark pointed out coldly. "We have a business arrangement, nothing more. If your counterpart offers better terms..."

"You have no idea what you're dealing with!" Levy shouted, blood now trickling from his eyes and ears as he fought the mental battle. "This entity, this Sukuna - he's beyond anything you've faced before!"

"We've heard that before," Mohawk Mark yawned theatrically. "Everyone thinks their big bad is the biggest and baddest. When we're the baddest of them all."

The two versions of Angstrom Levy, connected across dimensional barriers, engaged in a mental battle for supremacy. Their consciousnesses intertwined, memories flooding between them, powers merging and separating in chaotic pulses.

In the GDA cell, Levy's body began to rotate slowly in midair, the green glow surrounding him intensifying until the observation window cracked from the pressure.

"Evacuate the building!" a security officer shouted over the intercom. "Unknown dimensional event in progress! This is not a drill!"

Scientists and agents fled through the corridors as the facility began to shake, structural supports groaning under dimensional stresses they were never designed to withstand.

Meanwhile, across the multiverse, other entities began to notice the disturbance. The barriers between realities, normally solid and impermeable, were thinning as the two Levys fought for control.

In a ruined Tokyo, standing amid the devastation of what had once been Shibuya, a figure paused in his slaughter. Ryomen Sukuna, possessing the body of Yuji Itadori but with fifteen of his twenty fingers consumed, tilted his head as if listening to a distant sound.

"Interesting," he murmured, his split-pupil eyes narrowing as he perceived a rift forming in reality itself. "A door opening where no door should be."

Around him, the remains of Shibuya smoldered - buildings collapsed, streets cratered, bodies strewn across the landscape. The strongest sorcerers of the modern era had tried to stop him and failed. Only Fushiguro had escaped, taking the remaining fingers with him.

"How convenient," Sukuna remarked, observing the dimensional rift that had appeared before him. "I was just wondering where my next entertainment might come from."

He approached the rift, cursed energy swirling around him as he examined the phenomenon. Through the distortion, he could see glimpses of another world - a modern city, not unlike Tokyo, but different in subtle ways.

"A new playground," he decided, a cruel smile spreading across Yuji's face, twisted by Sukuna's control. "How thoughtful of someone to provide it."

Without hesitation, he stepped toward the dimensional anomaly, drawn by instinct and curiosity - as well as a feeling that this will aid him to control the brat more thorougly somehow.

In another reality, in ancient Japan during the Heian Era, a different Sukuna - this one in his original body, four-armed and marked with patterns that signified his divine lineage - paused in the act of consuming a defeated sorcerer's heart.

"A summoning?" he wondered aloud, dropping the partially eaten organ as he sensed the dimensional disturbance. "No... something more interesting."

His court of terrified subjects prostrated themselves as he rose from his throne of human bones, cursed energy swirling around him like a crimson aura.

"My lord," a brave courtier ventured, forehead pressed to the blood-soaked floor. "What troubles you?"

"Nothing troubles the King of Curses," Sukuna replied, his four eyes fixed on the rift that had appeared in his throne room. "But something... intrigues me."

He approached the dimensional tear, studying the images visible through it - a modern world, with strange structures of glass and steel, machines that moved without horses, people dressed in unfamiliar garments.

"A new realm to conquer," he mused, a smile spreading across his face. "How delightful."

"Great Lord," the courtier pleaded, "the conquest of our own land is not yet complete. The northern sorcerers still resist your divine rule."

Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.

Sukuna turned, fixing the man with a cold stare. "Are you presuming to advise me?"

"N-no, Divine One," the courtier stammered, pressing himself flatter against the floor. "Merely... observing."

"Then observe this," Sukuna replied, gesturing casually. The man's body erupted in blood as invisible cutting forces sliced him into perfect cubes of flesh and bone. "The consequence of wasting my time with obvious statements."

He turned back to the rift, his interest rekindled. "A new world," he repeated. "And something... familiar waiting there. How curious."

Without further hesitation, he stepped through the dimensional tear, leaving his court in stunned silence.

And in yet another reality, in modern Tokyo, a third Sukuna stood over the broken body of Satoru Gojo, the most powerful sorcerer of the modern era. Victory was his at last, his rivalry with the Six Eyes bearer finally concluded.

"Was that all?" Sukuna asked the corpse at his feet, disappointment evident in his tone. "After all that talk, all that anticipation... this is how our battle ends? With you broken and me unsatisfied?"

He kicked Gojo's body, sending it rolling across the destroyed landscape of what had once been Tokyo Jujutsu High. The school was now nothing but rubble, the barrier that had protected it for generations shattered by their battle.

"What now?" he mused, sensing the dimensional rift forming nearby. "Another challenger so soon? Or something more... entertaining?"

He approached the tear in reality, curious despite his post-victory melancholy. Through it, he could see another world - similar to his own in some ways, yet different in others.

"A parallel reality," he observed, his interest growing. "How fascinating. And there's something there... something like me, yet not me."

The prospect of meeting another version of himself - perhaps one who might provide a greater challenge than Gojo had ultimately offered - was too intriguing to resist.

"This has potential," he decided, stepping toward the rift. "At the very least, it should relieve my boredom."

Back in the headquarters of the scarred Levy, the mental battle had reached its climax. Both versions of Angstrom Levy were exhausted, their powers strained to the breaking point as they fought for control.

"Stop this madness!" the scarred Levy shouted, blood trickling from his nose and ears. "You're tearing apart the multiverse itself!"

Better that than allowing Sukuna to devour it world by world! the imprisoned Levy countered. Look! Look what's happening because of your resistance!

Through their shared consciousness, both Levys became aware of the consequences of their struggle. The dimensional barriers were failing, not just between their two worlds, but across multiple realities.

And through those failing barriers, things were beginning to move.

"Something's happening to the monitors," Astronaut Mark announced, pointing at the screens that had been showing their various destructive activities across cities. The images were now distorting, showing strange green rifts opening in the sky.

"What the hell is that?" Mohawk Mark demanded, leaning closer to one of the screens. "Are those... portals?"

"Not just portals," Viltrumite Mark observed, his enhanced vision allowing him to see details the others missed. "Something's coming through them. Multiple somethings."

"This is your fault," Sinister Mark accused Levy. "You and your dimensional meddling."

"Not just his fault," Mustache Mark corrected, watching the dimensional energy surrounding Levy grow more chaotic. "Looks like both versions of him are causing this. Fighting each other instead of working together."

"Typical," Viltrumite Mark sneered. "Self-destruction through self-obsession."

"What have you done?" the scarred Levy whispered in horror, addressing his alternate self.

In his cell, the imprisoned Levy began to laugh, the sound high and broken. "Not just me. Us. We've done this together. We've opened the way."

The green glow surrounding him expanded explosively, shattering the reinforced walls of his cell and spreading throughout the GDA facility. Scientists, agents, and security personnel fled in terror as the building itself began to warp and twist under the influence of dimensional energies.

And soon it poured through all and engulfed the worlds - the war begins.

The war of invincibles and kings.

----------------------------

(Author note: Yep, my own version of the Invincible war is gonna happen, and this one more fleshed out, since so many of them died when they had so much potential.

By the way, tell me of the 3 coming Sukuna's which one is the most dangerous? I believe I kinda made it obvious.

So yeah, I hope to see you guys later,

Bye!)