Chapter 363: Deadpool — "Some Ugly Used-Car-Salesman Deadpool Dragged Me Into the Void"
Ethan had no idea the stolen Infinity Stones had ended up with the Illuminati, no idea they were currently at each other's throats over the two Stones, and no idea their whole reason for wanting the boost was to eventually guard against him.
If he'd known, he probably would've been thrilled — if nothing else, it would've confirmed the Infinity Stones weren't scattered off in some other multiverse entirely.
For now, though, the mood inside Tony's home theater stayed serious, edging into something almost mournful.
The Loki series had reached its halfway point — the climax of Season 1's finale.
Following Loki's perspective, Tony and the others had learned all about the TVA, the origins of the Sacred Timeline.
They'd seen the internal power struggles within the TVA itself, and watched the growing bond blossom between Loki and Sylvie.
They'd watched Loki get cast down into the Void — Hel's own wasteland — and there met countless variants of himself.
The Void marked the very end of time — everything the TVA judged and discarded ended up there.
And waiting for them was something called Alioth — a devouring storm-cloud entity that consumed everything sent into the Void.
Loki and Sylvie's whole goal now was escaping it.
Ethan had already seen how this particular arc ended — but no matter how many times he watched it, he still thought it was genuinely cool.
Here it comes, Ethan thought quietly to himself. The scene he'd been waiting for was about to start.
In the dim theater, the images on screen held everyone's breath. Loki and Sylvie — two travelers bound by fate — pressed forward on their journey toward the very heart of Alioth's storm, determined to unravel the mystery of time itself and confront whoever truly controlled it.
Their silhouettes stretched long across the empty wasteland, every step carrying nothing but resolve and fearlessness.
Alioth, ancient and monstrous, seemed to sense the intrusion — it let out a deafening roar, like the opening note of some coming apocalypse.
Loki moved fast, weaving through the chaos like a phantom, his flaming sword carving brilliant arcs through the air, trying to draw the storm's attention and buy Sylvie an opening.
Sylvie used the momentary gap to slip toward the edge of the storm, readying her signature enchantment technique.
But the storm seemed to possess a will of its own — dismissing Loki's attacks entirely, its hungry attention turning instead toward the far more vulnerable Sylvie. In that razor's-edge moment, a sudden flash of green light tore through the darkness — the signal of Old Loki's return, arriving on the battlefield with the weathered wisdom of untold ages.
The moment Old Loki acted, the effect was staggering. He raised both hands, and immense magical power surged outward — in an instant, an entire vision of Asgard rose up out of nothingness, breathing with life, standing in stark contrast against the storm's darkness.
The sight was a genuine visual spectacle.
With Old Loki's help, Loki and Sylvie worked together to finally complete the enchantment.
The storm kept devouring the conjured Asgard piece by piece, and Old Loki's own magic drained fast — his rate of creation couldn't keep pace with the storm's rate of consumption.
Loki and Sylvie couldn't afford to wait any longer either — they moved to complete the enchantment at the storm's edge once more, but Loki, unfamiliar with this particular kind of magic, couldn't manage to break through into the storm's interior.
That was when Old Loki finally ran out of strength entirely. The Asgard he'd conjured collapsed all at once, dissolving into scattered points of light, swallowed whole by the storm.
With nothing left standing in its way, the storm surged straight toward Old Loki and consumed him without mercy. Then it turned toward Loki and Sylvie themselves — and that was when a bolt of green lightning shot from Loki's own hand, tearing straight through the storm's body.
The next moment, the storm slowly dispersed, revealing an entirely new space beyond it. Hand in hand, the two of them stepped forward, walking slowly toward the truth waiting for them at last.
In the dim, flickering light of the theater, Tony, Thor, and the rest of the group sat stunned, having just witnessed that gripping sequence unfold on screen, unable to shake the feeling of it for a long moment.
The film's sudden cut-off felt like an unresolved riddle hanging in the air, snapping the room's tension taut all over again.
"Why'd it stop there?!" Thor's voice came out sharp with frustration and urgency — he'd clearly thrown himself entirely into this strange, fantastical world, desperate to know what truth lay hidden behind all those layers of mystery, desperate to know who was really pulling the strings.
Beside him, Fat Thor wore an uncharacteristically gentle smile, something warm shining in his eyes. "You go, I go. Hahaha — our boy Loki's finally grown up." His voice was full of genuine, quiet joy, as if he'd just watched his brother take a real, meaningful step forward — finding someone of his own to share his life with.
In Thor's own heart, Loki had always been such a difficult, unreadable presence. He'd never imagined his brother could open up this fully, share something this genuinely sweet with another person.
"That old Loki — I'd call him the single greatest sorcerer across all Nine Realms. Conjuring an entire Asgard out of nothing, just like that. Meanwhile our Loki can't even manage a basic possession spell. Hmph." Doctor Strange, a sorcerer himself, understood exactly how monumentally difficult it was to conjure an entire realm from nothing — and Old Loki had pulled it off. Even a man as arrogant as him couldn't help but be impressed.
"That old Loki, after being away from Asgard for so long, still remembered every last blade of grass, every detail of the place. He must have loved it more than anything." Wanda watched Old Loki's sacrifice with genuine admiration.
Morgan suddenly spoke up, voice thick with tears, tugging at Old Tony. "Daddy, that old grandpa died so sad. Can't we save him?" Her eyes shone bright with unshed tears, her innocent kindness enough to move everyone in the room.
Old Tony gently stroked her hair, brow furrowed, something complicated flickering behind his eyes.
"Morgan, sweetheart, it's just a movie. Besides — that old man might not actually be dead."
The whole room's attention snapped to Old Tony at that.
Thor pushed back immediately. "How could he possibly still be alive? We all just watched him get devoured by the storm."
That was when Ethan spoke up. "Who told you what you saw was necessarily real? Old Loki's illusion magic was good enough to fool Thanos himself. My money's on him having already conjured up a decoy of himself well in advance to fool everyone watching."
Ethan had clocked this the very first time he'd watched the show — there was no way a man who'd spent countless years hiding out, playing the long game, would suddenly throw his own life away for a couple of younger Lokis out of nowhere. It just didn't add up.
The only explanation that made sense: he'd already conjured a decoy of himself ahead of time. The one that got devoured wasn't really him at all.
Hearing Ethan's theory, none of the group pushed back — honestly, they all wanted Old Loki to still be alive too.
"So is this Void thing actually real? Does a place like that genuinely exist? And if we ever run into this Alioth thing ourselves, how are we even supposed to deal with it?" Young Tony asked suddenly.
"The place is probably real, but there's no reason to worry about it — none of us are ever going to run into it in our lifetimes," Ethan said, waving a hand dismissively. Only an idiot would go looking for a place like that. Whoever went there, well — that was on them.
The moment the words left his mouth, though, Ethan spotted a message in the Group Chat that immediately drained the color from his face.
Little Punk: "Ethan, HELP! Some ugly-ass used-car-salesman Deadpool dragged me into some place called the Void, or Void-something! F**K!"
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