Chapter 122: This is Absolutely Impossible!
Unless one is omniscient and omnipotent, there is one truth in this world: everything follows a linear logic.
If one cannot achieve omniscience and omnipotence, then whatever they do will inevitably have a sequence. For Knull, his sequence of actions was to first reclaim his body to restore his strength, and then retrieve his All-Black the Necrosword.
It was precisely because of the Symbiotes' betrayal that Knull suffered a series of humiliating consequences and was even repeatedly shamed by those from Earth.
And the All-Black the Necrosword, as the first Symbiote Knull pulled from the deep Abyss, was forged into his personal weapon. If Knull had chosen to seek out the Necrosword first, instead of regaining his formidable strength and body, God only knows how the Necrosword would have treated him.
But just as Knull finally managed to recover his strength, he discovered that the All-Black the Necrosword had abandoned him and defected to a new master.
Knull was greatly shocked.
"Hmph, it seems your reputation in this Universe is utterly rotten. Given the chance, everyone will choose to betray you, including your own weapon."
Captain America, entangled by a mass of Symbiotes, spoke with cold sarcasm.
"Your will is truly firmer than I expected, but no matter how strong a will is, it's still on a mortal's level."
Knull lifted a finger, and even more Symbiotes coiled around Captain America, completely submerging his consciousness.
If there were any spoils to be had from the last failed invasion of Earth, it was the capture of this Captain America, who carried a fragment of the Cosmic Cube within him.
All things considered, Knull had no decent fighters under his command. This Captain America now counted as one.
Loki was another.
"It must have been Du Wa's doing."
As a fellow evil god, Loki wore an expression of utmost reverence. He was the only one besides Knull who could command the Symbiotes without being subjected to their parasitism.
Loki said, "I know Du Wa. When he decides to do something, he will lay out his plans from multiple angles, not just rely on a single means—power—to achieve his goal. The timing is too coincidental. The moment you reclaimed your body and regained control of Klyntar, you lost the All-Black the Necrosword. Du Wa must have done something."
"It doesn't matter if it was Du Wa or not. Whether it's him or the All-Black the Necrosword, I will make them sink into the Abyss and suffer billions of years of torment."
Knull's expression was somewhat ferocious, though his appearance was already incredibly terrifying.
The past 1000-plus years were undoubtedly the most humiliating period in his long life, something he would remember for all eternity.
The fury rising from Knull caused the entire planet of Klyntar to tremble violently. Countless Symbiotes squirmed madly, letting out screeches of unknown meaning.
Under Knull's terrifying divine power, it seemed as if an entire cosmic expanse could collapse at any moment.
Loki bowed his head deeply. This was his first time in such close proximity to a Cosmic God, a true Deity who was superior to any Skyfather and commanded the very rules of the Universe.
In comparison, the Skyfathers he had seen before, each capable of easily destroying planets and traversing space-time, were simply not worth mentioning when compared to Knull.
The gap was simply too immense.
This was a true Cosmic God, so powerful that even Loki trembled. The various plans he had formulated to betray Knull had to be overturned one after another, which at one point made Loki feel despair.
If this continued, was he doomed to serve Knull forever? Of course, merely serving wasn't the issue, but Loki could not tolerate having both his body and spirit firmly controlled by Knull.
It reached the point where, if he wanted to secretly plot against Knull, he had to simultaneously entertain a myriad of miscellaneous thoughts, hide his true intentions among them, and then cryptically link them together using a specific calculation method.
If there was any hope, it rested on Du Wa.
Although Loki disliked Du Wa, he had to admit one thing: Du Wa was truly terrifying. No one knew what Du Wa was truly thinking.
"I just received a piece of information from the Universe. Odin is dead." Knull bared his sharp teeth.
Loki was stunned for a moment, then said nonchalantly, "That old geezer should have died long ago. Not choosing me as the God-King of Asgard was the biggest mistake of his life."
"After I deal with Du Wa, I will help you slaughter all opponents in Asgard. You will become the king of Asgard." Knull's smile was terrifying.
As for whether Asgard at that time would be a World dominated by the Asgardians or a World led by the Symbiotes, that was hard to say.
"The All-Black the Necrosword betrayed me. It will be its turn after I'm done with Du Wa and Earth. Even if it flees to the edge of the Universe, I will find it. As long as it's a Symbiote, it can never escape my control."
Knull was now filled with intense distrust for the Symbiote species.
If he could take down Du Wa and acquire the Alien Species, perhaps replacing the Symbiotes with Xenomorphs would be a good choice.
As an inherently aggressive cosmic evil god, Knull needed a group of high-quality expendables to conquer countless planets for him.
He, a Deity, couldn't possibly handle everything personally.
"If we attack the World Tree again, we will incite the hostility of all the Worlds within it, and may even face a siege from many Skyfathers," Loki reminded him.
Knull said coldly, "It doesn't matter how many Skyfathers there are. I already have a group of solid and reliable servants on the World Tree."
Servants? Who? What race from which world would be insane enough to associate with a guy like Knull?
The many divine races within the World Tree had watched with their own eyes how Du Wa had risen, repeatedly defeating stronger opponents. Which race was so short-sighted as to think Du Wa would surely fall to Knull?
Loki couldn't figure it out.
But Knull had no intention of explaining.
The vast Symbiote Legion moved out once more.
This could be described as the largest-scale expedition Knull had launched since his awakening and the creation of the creatures known as Symbiotes.
Moreover, Knull, having reclaimed his power, made no effort to conceal his overwhelming killing intent.
The terrifying Darkness seemed to coalesce into a tangible dark curtain, instantly dimming the light of countless nearby galaxies.
This terrifying might, which seemed capable of overwriting and correcting the fundamental rules of a large region of the Universe, immediately triggered panic in countless lives and drew the attention of numerous Gods.
Many ancient beings only needed to perceive this commotion and carefully sense the spreading Darkness to immediately understand who was responsible, and they all felt a major headache coming on.
"Is that Knull? That guy has been quiet for over 1000 years, and now he's stirring up trouble again."
"Knull... I think I've heard of him. It seems this guy wanders the Universe with his legion, madly challenging various Gods. The number of divine beings who have died at his hands is simply countless."
"From the Celestials above to the ordinary gods of various galaxies below, he has fought them all."
In the high-end circles of the Universe, Knull was universally loathed.
He was either in a fight or on his way to one.
Yet, the Gods who had the ability to defeat Knull rarely managed to truly kill this being who carried an abyss within him, as Knull would often escape.
The Gods who couldn't defeat Knull would be cut down by him, while those who could couldn't kill him.
No Deity was willing to get involved with Knull; the guy was simply too repulsive.
Looking back at the ten-billion-plus-year history of the Universe, no divine being had as rich a combat history as Knull, or such an absurdly extensive 'social circle'.
Even the Celestials, who were constantly creating new stars across the Universe to bring light and heat, now paused their work, all looking up towards a certain direction in the Universe.
Many Gods were watching the movements of the Celestials, wanting to see what these beings would do in the face of Knull, who was openly proclaiming his presence.
Would they team up to besiege and kill Knull, just like in that battle billions of years ago?
"Arishem, what should we do?"
"Continue creating new stars. Light fosters life. The era of darkness is a thing of the past."
"But this guy was born from Darkness and has always wanted to kill all the Gods born from light. Are we just going to do nothing? Many more planets will be destroyed by him."
"From the looks of it, Knull is probably heading to Earth this time. That's our crucial experimental site. I heard that the Deviants and Eternals we sent to that planet have already been wiped out by Earth's natives. This could affect the birth of Tiamut."
"I heard that the Hyperion Arishem sent to Earth is also dead. He was the strongest warrior we ever cultivated."
The group of Celestials communicated across countless light-years.
Arishem silently gazed in the direction of Earth.
After a long while, the Celestial spoke: "Pay no mind to Knull, and pay no mind to Earth. We cannot account for everything."
As for whether Knull's Symbiote legion or Du Wa's Alien Army would be the last one standing in a racial war?
To be honest, to save himself the trouble, Arishem would be delighted if both groups wiped each other out.
The elimination of either would be a good thing.
Still, Arishem was more optimistic about Knull. After all, Knull had proven himself with his feats over countless years. His hardcore track record of repeatedly surviving sieges and brutal beatings, always managing to escape death, suggested a higher chance of victory no matter how one looked at it.
Knull was a Cosmic Celestial through and through. Du Wa was not. In terms of both origin and strength, Du Wa was completely unqualified to rival Knull. The two were not opponents on the same level.
"After Knull and his legion are defeated, we can consider stepping in to expel him and protect Earth and Tiamut."
Arishem issued the command to all the Cosmic Celestials.
At this moment, seeing that the Celestials remained inactive, many more ancient Gods were extremely surprised.
This was the first time that those numerous, lofty beings began to turn their gazes toward the human, Du Wa.
After gathering scattered information from across the Universe, the Gods also learned what had happened in the past, and more importantly, that Knull had repeatedly suffered setbacks on Earth, being brutally beaten twice by Du Wa.
"Du Wa and his Alien Legion... Both Dormammu and Knull have suffered at this human's hands."
"No matter how strong he was in the past, he cannot possibly survive against Knull's full-scale assault. Don't mistake Knull for someone like Dormammu, who relies on the power of an external Dimension. Knull himself is a mobile dimension."
At this moment, the vast majority of Gods became aware of Du Wa's existence and eagerly prepared to watch the outcome of this battle.
An ancient cosmic evil god was about to deal with a faction led by a Skyfather?
No matter how you looked at it, the result seemed predetermined. The only question was what kind of struggle Du Wa would choose to put up.
Massive spatial portals opened, and countless Symbiotes poured through like a black tide engulfing the Universe, completing their spatial transit and entering the region of the World Tree.
If it were just these Symbiotes, it would have been manageable. But when Knull in his perfect form practically tore space apart, standing within the World Tree with his immense mass, naturally distorting space-time and light, and destroying the established objective order...
Nearly every World felt the arrival of a Cosmic God.
As he moved casually, migrating into the World Tree, the sheer mass Knull carried was naturally squeezing and crushing the World Tree itself.
This caused its branches to tremble slightly, transmitting the effect and causing them to erupt with divine light.
It was no exaggeration to say that at this moment, Knull was the most dazzling spectacle under the entire World Tree.
"Hmph, the World Tree... this damned place, and those two damned Worlds." A vicious glint shot from Knull's eyes. His gaze pierced straight to Asgard, where he saw the new God-King, Thor, with a solemn expression, and sneered in disdain. Then his gaze fell upon Earth.
Loki was deeply worried, truly afraid that his foolish older brother would get hot-headed and lead all the warriors of Asgard to rush out and fight Knull head-on.
In this kind of war, they should first see what move Du Wa makes! Thor and Asgard should just follow whatever Du Wa does. They absolutely must not entertain the thought of acting alone.
His brother, after all, was not the deceased Odin; he didn't possess that kind of formidable strength.
"Tsk, they're fast. But, I'm not slow to act either."
Du Wa felt the slight tremor of the earth. This wasn't just the trembling of Earth itself, but a strange phenomenon affecting the entire solar system under Knull's oppressive presence.
Everyone looked towards Du Wa. Inside Weyland Tower, phones were ringing like mad.
When people used various observation devices and saw the endless black tide that seemed to envelop the solar system, they instantly knew who had come.
Knull, the God of the Symbiotes, had arrived this time in his perfect form, leading all of his Symbiotes in for the kill.
At the same time.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Hill officially made her decision. She would activate S.H.I.E.L.D.'s final measure: activate the Mother Mold platform at the edge of the Sun and dispatch countless new-model Sentinel robots to Earth to resist the Xenomorph siege!
"This was supposed to be what Fury left behind to deal with the Mutants, but to think it would have to be used against the Xenomorphs..." Hill's heart ached with grief. The S.H.I.E.L.D. she led had been beaten into a global retreat by a mere small detachment sent out casually by Du Wa.
Du Wa had probably long forgotten about S.H.I.E.L.D.
But no matter. As long as they had the rapidly iterating Sentinel robots, S.H.I.E.L.D. could still...
"Bad news, Director! There's an abnormal spatial vibration in the solar system. A huge swarm of Symbiotes has arrived."
"And so?" Hill's heart skipped a beat. She had a strong sense of déjà vu.
"So, the Mother Mold platform's orbit around the Sun has deviated, and it's falling towards the Sun again!"
"Fuck!"
(end of chapter)