CH 0: Origin & the Majestic Multiverse
(A/N: If you want, you can skip CH 0. It's 5.8k words after all lol. If you want to just get to the story, here are the wishes.)
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1) MC asks for his soul to be turned into pieces so he can experience living in all the Multiverses he likes, and there isn't a limit to his souls. The soul pieces can also fuse together, they're not separated permanently.
2) All soul pieces can make a few wishes. But not anything big. Just asking for what power they want to start with, their physical appearance, these things.
3) Every soul piece is a singularity, and no being other than the Crow (R.O.B) can make another one of MC, except MC himself.
4) Each soul piece to be a living paradox. Meaning that basically the past, present and future MC are all disconnected. Hurting or even killing a past MC won't affect present MC at all, being would it affect the future MC.
5) For all records and memories of MC's existence in his previous life to be completely erased. For no one to remember him. Not his parents, siblings, relatives, friends and anybody else. So that they won't miss him, and so that he wouldn't feel guilty for leaving them.
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But then Crow, who gets an even better idea. Which is to turn MC into an actual Multiverse! A Parasitic Multiverse which feeds off of other Multiverses to grow more powerful by sending soul pieces to them to parasitize off of them.
And that's the wish part of CH 0, the important part that's actually related to the stories. Now have a fun read!)
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(CH 0.1: R.O.B)
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"Where... Am I?" Someone... Or to be exact, something groaned out. It was humanoid, but it didn't seem to be human. It was just... Light. It seemed to be a young male, but was just a golden light.
As he gained his vision, he looked around, but was shocked to the point of not being shocked. Wherever he looked, and as far as his eyes could see, it was just space.
He didn't see any land, buildings or anything. The only thing that he could see was the empty void with countless stars in the horizon.
"What...?" He looked, looked, and looked. But didn't see anything but the cold and unforgiving space.
He was on the verge of panicking. In fact, he thought he was gonna have the toughest panic attack of his entire life.
However, he knew that he shouldn't panic. He knew that the more weird and intense a situation is, he has to stay calm no matter what.
But he was struggling. He could feel how he was shaking, how hard his heart was beating, and how he was starting to sweat. He couldn't be blamed either.
He just opened his eyes and he was suddenly in the middle of the damn space. That was definitely something to panic for. But he persisted, took a deep breath and exhaled.
'And why am I not suffocating???' He frowned, rubbing his temples in confusion. However, just when he saw his hand, he was left even more speechless.
'... Why in the hell am I the Glowing Man meme...?' His mouth was open in disbelief as he looked at himself. His confusion was growing by the second, and so was his panicking.
"Ahem ahem." Suddenly, there was another voice in the void. Hearing another voice, he jumped and immediately turned to look. But he just saw the same darkness and stars.
"Up here, Ali." He heard the voice again. This time, from above. As the boy, Ali, raised his head to look, he noticed a shape. It was like just a small part of the space was shaped.
Well, small in comparison to the space. In front of him, it was as big as a two or three story building. When he raised his head, he finally saw what had spoken.
It was a crow. Not a normal crow though. Aside from its size, the most noticeable thing was that it had 4 glowing eyes and was actually space themed. It looked just like Alien X from Ben 10, but just in the shape of a huge crow.
'What in the...' Ali's lips parted, seriously speechless. But his disbelief grew even more when the crow seemed to smirked nonchalantly :"I would've said good morning or something, but time doesn't really have much of a meaning here."
"W-who are you? What are you?" He asked in slight shock, and the crow answered with a smirk :"I think you should know what I am.
Haven't you already heard of the word R.O.B? Well, I'm an Omniversal Being! You're dead, and I pulled you here. You don't remember because I erased the memory of you dying so you wouldn't be traumatized."
Hearing his words, Ali's brain didn't completely register :"... I'm what?" And the crow answered :"Dead. Dead as hell."
A moment of silence went by, and a single sentence left Ali's lips :"Oh." Causing the Omniversal Being to get confused this time :"... What?
Oh? That's it? You hear that you're dead, and that's all you say? Shouldn't you be panicking or something? In fact, why do you look like you're calming down?"
In answer, Ali shrugged and spread his arm :"Well... I don't know. I mean... That kinda explains this whole thing. I mean, I don't know about you, but I don't normally just wake up in space.
So this is either a dream, or I'm really dead. And I don't really know why I should panic about dying. It's the most normal thing anyway. I've never been afraid of death, since it was going to happen eventually."
A look of realization appeared on the four eyed crow's face as he nodded :"Oh! You're one of those kinda people! Alright! I like you already! I got lucky this time."
After glancing around, Ali raised a curious eyebrow :"This time? Whatcha mean?" Causing the crow to sigh in annoyance :"You're not the first person I decided to bring here.
Just before you, I had brought a few more. Sigh, unfortunately, all of them were panicking and crying. Screaming, wailing and cursing me.
A few of them were seriously freaking annoying. I had brought them here separately, like you, but one after another were just disappointments."
With curled lips, Ali nodded :"Sorry for asking then. Guess you really got unlucky. So what did you do with them?" And the Omniversal Being immediately answered :"Erased them from existence."
"..." Silence filled the place again. Ali gulped, and nodded with curled lips :"Alright, I think I should really mind my manners now..."
The crow nodded with a sigh of his own :"Yeah, just don't annoy me, and we're all good. There was actually one that panicked a bit, but calmed down after a little while.
But I disliked her even more than the other ones. Bitch immediately asked "WhAt gENdeR dO YOu iDEntiFy aS?". And I didn't even spare a moment, just erased her right there and then."
This time, instead of panicking or being afraid, Ali actually gave him a thumbs up :"Thank you. I like you. Those bitches are seriously fucking annoying.
Alright. Anyway, is this going where I think it's going...?" He asked, slightly excited and hopeful, causing the Omniversal Being to chuckled in amusement :"Yeah, it is.
Consider yourself lucky, young Ali! Because I'm planning to reincarnate you with 5 wishes!"
Ali's eyes widened :"5?! Seriously?! Why so many?!"
Crow shrugged :"1 is too few, 2 is weird, 3 is overused, 4 is weird too, so it's 5. So go ahead, make your wishes."
Ali smiled, pumping his fist in celebration :"Hell yeah." However, his smile disappeared when confusion took over :"Hold on.
Before we get to that, can I ask you something? It's not something big, just something that I wanna know."
"Go ahead." Crow gestured with his huge wing, and Ali nodded :"Why? Why do you wanna reincarnate someone? And why me?
Please, PLEASE, don't tell me it's because of karma or something. Because I'm sure that I haven't done anything that would give this kinda karma."
Crow shook his wing as he nodded in annoyance :"No. Hell no. That's all bullshit. The only reason why I picked you is because I just chose a being randomly.
I had chosen the previous ones randomly too. Heck, do you think only humans get to meet Omniversal Beings and get reincarnated?
The being just before you was a dragon! But he didn't get reincarnated because he acted like he's some big shit and actually tried to attack me, so I erased him.
As for why I'm doing this, I'm bored. There is really no motive behind it, I'm just bored as hell. Believe it or not, things can get boring around here even if you're omnipotent. I wanted some entertainment, so I decided to just reincarnate someone after I woke up from a long ass nap and saw that it's a late trend.
And for your last question. Why you? As I said, it's because of randomness, nothing else. In fact, why do so many people think it has anything to do with karma?! That's utter bullshit! Why the hell would we care about your karma and nonsense?!"
Ali nodded as he rolled his eyes in annoyance :"I know, right? It's seriously freaking dumb. Why would beings that are literally Omnipotent and can do anything they want, focus on the actions of simple mortals?!"
"Exactly!" Crow pointed with his wing :"Like, put yourselves in our place! No offense to you, my little friend, but humans and basically –every– other beings are literally less than atoms in our eyes! At least atoms have some importance, but most being don't at all!
And it's not just mortals either. We don't care about immortals and almighty beings of Multiverses either.
And that karma is just a whole nother bullshit. Like, do you think good people, or even perfect people, are rare on the big picture?
So you know about Universes, Multiverses, Omniverse and believe in them, right? I mean, look at your situation. Well, think of it like this. Let's not even consider the other beings in common universes and let's just focus on humans.
Just on the Earth of your universe, there are nearly 8 billion people, right? Now combine that many people with another universe. That's 16 billion already.
Combine the people of 100 universes. That's 800 billion. Do you think among that many people, good people are rare? And we're just saying only 100 universes.
There are an infinite number of universes in each Multiverse. That's an infinite number of people right there. Combine that with the humans of other Multiverses, how many are there?
See? When you actually think about it, it's utter nonsense. Alright, sorry for ranting there. I just don't like it when an omnipotent being makes useless excuses just to not say "oh, I closed my eyes and picked someone." Because believe me, that's what happens. If they're going to reward a good person, they'll put them in paradise, or heaven, or Valhalla and whatnot. Why give them another trip down a road of pain of life? Anyway, let's get to wishing already. I'm curious as to what you will wish for."
Ali nodded seriously. As he put his hand under his chin, he began to think before the Omniversal Being spoke :"Also, take as much time as you want.
My perception of time is extremely different from yours. For you, a million or even a billion years is a shit ton. For me, it's like I just took a deep breath."
"Alright, thanks." Ali nodded and got to thinking. But it didn't actually take long to decide. After just a little while, not even half an hour later, he finally decided :"Alright, I've decided!"
Crow smiled :"Alright, let's get to it then. Also, here." He gently flapped a wing, and five numbers, from 1 to 5, appeared going down in the air :"Your wishes will be written here, so you can change it if you don't like something in them."
Ali nodded calmly as he raised his hand and said his wishes while raising a finger with each wish :"Alright, let's begin.
1) I want my soul and existence or whatever to be separated into any number I want with each one of them going to a different Universe.
We are all connected, and can even sense each and join to become one being later on. I just wanna experience everything.
Also, I can separate them to even more numbers if I want to by contacting you. And there is no limit to how many soul pieces I can be separated into.
2) I want each and every one of my soul pieces to be able to also make a few wishes.
3) I want each soul piece to be a singularity, and no being other than you can make another me, except myself.
4) I want each soul piece to be a living paradox. Meaning that basically the past, present and future me are all disconnected. Hurting or even killing a past me won't affect me at all, being would it affect the future me.
5) ... I... Can you please..."
He was fine till the last wish. But when it came to the last wish, his emotions came crashing down because of what he wanted to wish for.
He smiled sadly, as tears began to run down his eyes. He lowered his head, unable to bring out the sentence. But if he wanted to rest in peace and forget about his past life, he had to make that wish.
Seeing his sadness, the wise crow gently asked :"If you can't say it, do you want me to read your mind?" Normally, Ali would definitely refuse something like that.
But he knew that bringing out that sentence, would truly put him into a state of despair for a little while. He nodded, his smile trembling as more and more tears came down.
After a moment, the Omniversal Being nodded with a sigh, but smiled gently :"Alright then, I will grant all of your following wishes.
1) Soul turned into pieces and sent to different universes.
2) A few wishes for all of your soul pieces.
3) Singularity.
4) Living paradox.
5) For all records and memories of your existence in your previous life to be completely erased. For no one to remember you. Not your parents, siblings, relatives, friends and anybody else."
With a shaky form, the young man nodded with tears running down his face :"Th... Thank you... I... Appreciate it..."
As he broke down in tears and sobs, the Omniversal Being brought a wing to his head, and gently patted his head with a soft voice :"It's okay, child.
Let it all out. There is no shame in crying and showing weakness. I will be here, so no need to worry. We will begin the actual wish granting after you've calmed down."
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(CH 0.2: The Creation of Universes)
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"Sniff... thanks, I'm fine now." After letting out the tears inside for a while, the young boy finally calmed down. Although he was sad, many times more because of the choice he had decided to make, he knew that it was definitely the right thing to do for himself. If he hadn't, he knew for sure that the guilt would eat away at him forever. He wasn't one to forget about emotions, and he was sure that his family and close ones mourning his death without knowing about his lucky situation would be sickeningly sad for them.
So, although very sad and rather regretful, he was still happy that they wouldn't be sad because of him. He didn't care about being sad or angry himself. He'd just take it out on someone else to make himself feel better.
"I'm sorry about that." Having calmed down mostly, he grew a bit embarrassed for crying his eyes out in front of a complete stranger. But Crow simply shook his head lightly, a small and gentle smile on his face :"It's alright, don't worry about it. Although I don't care much about the Multiverses and the being inside of them, I still wouldn't be cold and emotionless if I met one in person. Especially not if he or she hasn't annoyed me. I'm omnipotent, now a dick."
"Hm, thanks." He was still a bit embarrassed, but Crow's words still managed to calm him down somewhat. Letting out a light chuckle, he looked up at the huge bird :"You know, I wouldn't have expected you, an almighty and omnipotent being, to actually be caring to me, a normal mortal. A dead one at that. In fact, I would've expected you to be all arrogant and an asshole. That's how it usually goes, right?"
Crow shrugged with a smile :"It's a personality wise thing. Personal behavior, manners and personalities aren't unique to mortals. Luckily for you, although I don't act like a kind saint or grandfather, I'm not a dick either. There are other beings like me with the personality you just mentioned though. Not very likable fellas."
Ali nodded :"Ooh, yeah, yeah, I get you. I guess I got really lucky, huh?"
Crow nodded :"We both did. I finally got a soul that's not an asshole, you found yourself an omnipotent being that's not an asshole."
Ali grinned Leonardo DiCaprio style :"I guess you can say that... birds of a feather flock together?"
Crow deadpanned :"A dad joke? Really? You meet an omnipotent being, and you have the balls to make dad jokes with him?"
Ali laughed smugly :"Hey, dad jokes are eternal! And it only proves that I've got good taste!"
Crow rolled his eyes in amusement :"Alright, fair enough. It is interesting that the kid I'm choosing can make jokes with me instead of being afraid of me though."
Ali wiggled his eyebrows :"You betcha! Nothing like a good old dad joke for some bonding!" As Crow rolled his eyes again, he coughed :"Anyway, before granting my wishes and sending me off, can I ask some questions? It's not everyday that I meet an omnipotent being, and I'm really curious about a few things."
Crow nodded gently :"Go ahead. Ask whatever you want."
Ali :"Alright, so I'm gonna ask this first since I know I'll forget it in a second or two if I don't do it now. You're a lot more expressionate than I'd expect from an omnipotent being. Most people would expect beings like you to be stone cold and without emotions. Since, to be fair, emotions can be considered weaknesses by cringe people."
Crow :"Not true at all. Where do you think your emotions come from? Although we didn't create you humans or any other beings by hand, and you just evolved into existence, just like how every other race had been born, we still did plan it out. Think of it as an automatic equation with you being the answer, the final step. Anyway, for you to have something, we must know of it first to put it there, no? So emotions didn't just pop out of nowhere, and aren't just for humans. We had them first, and the Omniverse had them even before us. Emotions aren't weaknesses, they're what makes life enjoyable."
Ali :"Ooh, I see. Wait... so does that mean humans did evolve from monkeys? Not some sort of religious, right?"
Crow :"Nope. Religion is just a way of people asking for help from someone. A way of coping in desperate situations. Which aren't few, as you know. But no, religions aren't real. If they were, why are there so many of them? If an omnipotent, emphasize on the OMNIPOTENT being, wanted to create a religion, do you honestly think just a single planet, one the size of Earth at that, wouldn't only have that being to worship?
Anyways, final answer, no. The religions aren't real. They –might– be, for certain Multiverses or universes. But regarding the –entire– creation, AKA the real Omniverse, no, they're not real."
Ali :"Ooh, gotcha, gotcha. Alright, can you please explain to me this whole Omniverse and Omniversal Beings thing?."
Crow :"Yeah, sure. It's only to be expected that you're curious about it. Well, alright, I'll explain. But to do that, we'll need to go back to the beginning. To the beginning of it all. The beginning that created everything, and led to creation itself. To the past. A past so long ago that is long even for me. And that's something, since I've already told you about my perception of time.
You see, at first, there was nothing. Absolute nothingness. And by that, I mean literally nothing. Not a void, not even nothingness, not blank, no nothing. I mean, as in even the word empty couldn't be used to describe it, because nothing was there.
Yet at the same time, that nothingness, that emptiness, was everything as well. Don't misunderstand, it wasn't like some sort of dumb xianxia story of there being higher realms and bullshit to prolong the story, such as Martial Peak of your past life which had gone for 3,500 fucking chapters because of that. No, that nothingness was the highest realm, lowest realm, and everything in between. There was nothing beyond, nor beside it.
It was everything, yet nothing.
However, that same nothingness, after who-knows-how-long, gained its own consciousness. Since it was nothing, it would rather be everything instead. But even after that, it still wasn't enough.
Although it was everything, and didn't have anything equal to it because of being everything, it felt lonely. The saddening emptiness, and extreme loneliness of being a single being without anything else being there, made it feel extremely lonely. So, it decided that if there wasn't anything, it would just make them.
And so, the first Omniversal Being was born. It didn't take much effort for it to happen either. Not something you'd expect since it was the creation of an omnipotent being only below the Omniverse. However, that's what omnipotent means. All it took was for the emptiness to wish it, think it, imagine it, and it became true.
Happy and delighted for no longer being lonely, it began to create more children for itself. But wanting to experience more fun, and wanting to share the same feeling with its children, it chose to give the task of creating life to its children, and would reward them for succeeding.
The children, experiencing the fun their parent wanted them to experience, decided to make it even more fun. So inside of a single life that was always weaker than them, because of the limitation of not being able to create something equal to themselves, which only the emptiness could do, they decided to put quantity over quality. And so, it turned into creating races, then planets, then leading all the way to creating universes and Multiverses."
Ali :"Oooh, I see! Thanks for explaining, it makes sense, I guess. But, I kinda knew that already, and I feel like you knew that I knew about it. I just wanted to clarify if it was anything different than what I knew. But there isn't anything different. So, uhh... isn't this the Hand Theory mentioned in the DC comics...?"
Crow smiled in amusement :"It is. But do you know how this knowledge ended up in someone's hand? Sure, imagination is a very powerful weapon, but the chances of it being wrong or off are high. So how come it matches so well with what I told you? Well, that's because we, the Omniversal Beings, thought it would be fun to put this knowledge in some people's minds. If they believed it, good, but nothing changes. If they didn't believe it, once again, nothing changes.
And to assure you, no, not me, you, the Omniverse or any of the Omniversal Beings are fictional characters. It's kind of complicated before I explain something else. But I'll give you a little rundown of things so you won't get nervous. How many universes and Multiverses are there? Infinite. In every Multiverse, there is an infinite amount of universes, and their numbers grow infinitely more with each second for reasons that I'll tell you about. How many Multiverses are there? As I've said, infinite as well.
Each second, either an already existing Omniversal Being creates a new Multiverse, or the Omniverse creates a new one to start making its own Multiverses. So basically, both universes and Multiverses are growing infinitely larger by every second.
Now, why did I tell you? Simple, in this infinite existence, if you think, it exists. If you imagine it, it's somewhere either in your universe, Multiverse, or another Multiverse. So basically, the same writers, animation creators and movie directors that are writing this book, your story, are actually characters of the book of another Multiverse. That's what infinite means. There is no impossible unless the Omniverse or an Omniversal Being steps in.
And it isn't just one universe who is writing your story either. Among the infinite number of beings, there is obviously an unending number of beings who tell yours or another being's tales. Basically, you aren't a character in a book, nor is there a writer for your book. If that was the case, all of you, including all the "writers", would be "characters" in a book, while the Omniverse and the Omniversal Beings are the "writers". While you are the characters, we're the readers and the watchers.
So, yeah, don't get an existential crisis over it. Like, right now, an infinite number of writers and spectators are watching your "story" unfold. As I said a while ago, it will make a lot more sense once I explain something else. So stick around for the next chapter or episode folks, Ali's lore is gonna take an interesting turn."
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(CH 0.3: Multiverses & the Wish)
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"Geez, you're going to make me nervous if you make me notice some other beings are just watching me." Ali tightened his lips, while Crow smirked teasingly :"Not some, but an infinite number of beings. Remember, an infinite number of writers and creators are making recording your story, so what about their readers, watchers and whatnot?"
"Thanks, you just helped so much..." He replied sarcastically, making him chuckle :"You're welcome. But don't worry, you'll learn to ignore them real quick. After all, haven't you lived your entire life thinking that one or multiple almighty and Omnipresent beings were watching you and everybody else all the time?"
"True." He shrugged, before smiling :"So can I continue asking questions?" Crow nodded :"Ask until you're satisfied." Nodding, Ali thought for a moment :"Oh, you said you'll tell me about universes growing infinitely and all. Can you explain now?"
Crow :"Sure. Tell me, how do you think a universe is created, and how the number of universes in a Multiverse continuous to grow with every passing second?"
Ali joked :"Uhh... I don't know, is it automatic or something?"
Crow :"Exactly."
Ali :"...What?"
Crow :"The process of a new universe being created is an automatic feature of every Multiverse. and it's like this, if there's multiple possible outcomes, a new universe will be created for each of those other outcomes. Let me put it as simply as possible. Imagine you're still a normal living human, now raise your hand."
"Uh... okay..." He raised his glowing hand, and Crow made a snapping sound with his feathers :"There, an infinite number of universes was just created." Confusing the teenager :"...Care to explain?"
Crow :"Let me ask you something, what other ways could you raise your hand? You could raise it slightly lower. You could raise it even higher than you did. You could raise it slightly to the right. You could raise it one millimeter to the left. You could have just not raised it and asked me why I told you to raise your hand. You could have just joked around and raised it behind instead. You could have raised it to the right instead of raising it straight up. Since you're just a normal human, you could have suddenly had a heart attack and died. You could have chocked on your own spit and died.
See? There were an infinite number of possible outcomes for just that mere action. And for everything that could have happened instead of you raising your hand like you did, a new universe was created where what didn't happen for you happened there.
Everything before that was exactly the same, but it grew different from that point. And this happens to everybody and everything, even animals and random objects. So when I say "growing by an infinite amount every second", you can imagine what I mean."
Ali :"Oooh, I get it now... wait, what if I had the sudden urge to strangle someone death...?"
Crow :"Well, I think you can imagine what happened in that new universe with the knowledge I just gave you."
Ali :"Ah, fuck... so even the thoughts and urges to do something that I refused to do became reality in a new universe...?"
Crow :"Unfortunately, yup."
Ali :"That's not good news. That's not good news at all..."
Crow :"Yup. And imagine what happened to everybody who had the sudden urge to shit their pants but managed to prevent that. Especially in public."
Ali covered his eyes :"Oh, my fucking god, you're just making it worse..."
Crow laughed :"Yeah, and it's not just one universe either. After all, in one universe, they could have stopped halfway, in another one they shat one milliliter less, in another one they made such a mess the entire street was locked up, the options go forever."
Ali sobbed :"What do you mean "options", those are just nightmares! Can we please move on?! You're about to traumatize me more than my own fucking death did..."
Crow pat his back :"Don't worry, you're safe, you've got nothing to worry about. At least no longer."
Ali :"I don't?"
Crow :"Nope. Singularity, remember?"
Ali was relieved beyond imagination :"Oh, my lord, you have no idea how happy I am to have made that wish, bro."
Crow :"No, I can. Omniversal, remember?"
Ali :"You know what I mean."
Crow chuckled :"Yeah, I know, I'm just messing with you. By the way, about your wishes. I actually have an idea that I think you'll like."
Ali :"You do?"
Crow :"Hm. So we were going to go with me keeping your main soul and sending pieces of it across the Omniverse, right? But how about instead of staying with me, your main soul has its own space in the Omniverse?"
Ali slowly smiled :"I don't get it with you being cryptic, but I feel like I'm going to like the idea... continue..."
Crow smirked :"I'm saying, how about I turn your main soul into a Multiverse of itself?"
"Whoaaa whoa whoa, hold on, homeboy! What?!" He exclaimed, but his smile showed his true feeling :"You want to WHAT?!" Causing Crow to chuckle :"What, you don't like the idea?" His mouth went agape, speechless :"I LOVE it! That's the sickest thing ever! But why the sudden idea though?"
Crow :"I just thought that instead of just experiencing the different Multiverses, since you're already going to get all kinds of powers in each one to begin with, why don't we turn your main soul into a Multiverse where it can copy the powers of other Multiverses and grow by it. Like a Parasitic Multiverse.
You're already planning to go to places like the Marvel and DC Multiverse and such, so why don't you copy their powers and make yourself even stronger than all of them? After all, there are many, many powers in the Omniverse. As long as you grow strong enough in the Omniversal scale, you can even surpass them."
Ali grinned :"After all, that's how parasites are..."
Crow :"Exactly. So? What do you think? Wanna do it?"
Ali's glowing lips turned into an excited, wild and violent smile :"Do you even need to ask?" And so, the Parasitic Multiverse, the Majestic Multiverse, was born. And along with it, millions upon billions and trillions of little weak parasites that would gnaw away at other Multiverses to grow stronger and stronger, until the powers they brought back to the Source let them surpass what they had parasitized.