Simply put, Earth's people in this era lacked a deep understanding of the symbiotes' true terror.
They were utterly unaware that these creatures could parasitize gods.
Many still viewed symbiotes' capabilities through a narrow lens: bonding with humans, boosting combat prowess, and enforcing control or mental corruption.
They considered Grendel the pinnacle of symbiote strength.
This made sense. Grendel, capable of crossing the cosmos and carrying Knull's consciousness to Earth, only to be felled by Thor's hammer, was undoubtedly among the strongest symbiotes. But aside from Adam and a select few, no one knew of Knull's existence.
Boom!
The Celestial's emergence, though freshly repaired and perhaps half as potent as its peak, shook the globe.
Tony Stark, piloting the hundreds-meter-tall armor, obliterated symbiotes with unmatched ferocity, sweeping all before him with raw power.
Each gesture of the giant cleared swathes of sky-blocking symbiotes, tearing open vast patches of blue.
"Incredible." Tony marveled from within the Celestial's core. "Barely repaired, and it's this strong. If fully restored with meticulous upgrades, how powerful would it be?"
His brilliant mind raced. With this armor, he could challenge gods, couldn't he?
For a fleeting moment, Tony felt divine. Not entirely a delusion, piloting a Celestial's remains, even modified to lower control difficulty at the cost of peak strength, required a superhuman brain to process vast data and react instantly. Tony possessed such a mind.
Like a war god, he unleashed torrents of energy, each stray beam a cataclysmic strike that annihilated countless symbiotes.
Even Ares would bow.
"Tony, the enemy's focus is New York." Banner reported, fingers flying across the Helicarrier's keyboards, analyzing data flooding dozens of screens. He hadn't transformed into Hulk, instead serving as tech support, sharing computational load and monitoring the Celestial armor's status.
Fury stood at the command deck, separated by layers of barriers, his lone eye fixed on Banner's incomprehensible data.
Understanding wasn't necessary. He only needed confirmation that the mysterious robot had been successfully weaponized.
Its current might stemmed from initial modifications. With combat experience, a more refined upgrade plan, advanced tech, and time, its power would soar.
S.H.I.E.L.D. finally wielded a weapon to confront gods head-on.
"Tony Stark, a mortal, can pilot this armor." Fury mused. "Others with superhuman intellects could too. After upgrades, we'll rotate pilots. A multi-user weapon trumps relying on so-called 'heroes.'"
"You want S.H.I.E.L.D. to control the Celestial armor?" The real Captain America, standing beside Fury, interjected. "Tony won't agree. The Avengers won't either. You lost their trust after cloning me with the Cosmic Cube."
"I'll talk to him." Fury said. "I didn't hand him this ancient relic for him to claim or fold into the Avengers."
"And me?" Cap hesitated. "What's your plan?"
"Your clone was a failed experiment." Fury replied. "I'll extract a Cosmic Cube fragment and implant it in you. You'll become a new Captain Marvel, stronger than the one I knew."
Cap didn't know any Captain Marvel, but he stayed silent. Had the world not spiraled into this chaos, with enemies far beyond human limits, he'd never accept Fury's proposal.
But he had no choice. He had to grow stronger, strong enough to face any foe, even gods, to protect Earth.
Fury ignored Cap, his mind swirling with dark contingencies, a spymaster's instinct to assume the worst.
"For now, let's kill these symbiotes before they wreck our Helicarrier." He said. "No one enjoys freefall."
But war didn't bend to Fury's will.
Soon, several symbiote dragons, drawn to the Anti-Celestial Armor, swooped in, agilely attacking.
Their assaults weren't mere bites. Their bodies shed rain-like symbiotes, relentlessly trying to cling to the armor.
"These things want to possess me." Tony said. "Good thing I sealed the armor's breaches with advanced tech. I'd love to see them infiltrate at a microscopic level, passing through the surface to reach me."
Tony boasted, well-versed in symbiotes' capabilities: bonding to hosts, amplifying strength, and dominating minds.
Having accounted for this, how could symbiotes counter?
He'd studied the Celestial's material, an unimaginable feat. Even Tony admitted he couldn't replicate it… yet.
He doubted symbiotes could breach the armor.
Tony triggered an energy wave. The hundreds-meter-tall frame blazed like a sun, incinerating the rain-like symbiotes on its surface into nothingness.
He casually erased a symbiote dragon.
But as he retracted the energy, more dragons pounced, layering atop one another, enveloping the armor.
Tony, and many others, assumed they aimed to infiltrate the Celestial armor, sabotage it internally, or possess its pilot.
"These things don't give up, do they? Single-minded creatures. They must lack complex thought." Banner remarked, peering through his glasses, perplexed.
Compared to Xenomorphs, symbiotes were vastly inferior. Xenomorphs were the perfect organisms.
Any Xenomorph, plucked from the hive, was a high-efficiency unit, even without evolving into a queen to propagate the species. They operated with machine-like precision.
Only Adam issued Tony a warning.
"Their target isn't you, it's the Celestial."
"Celestial? That's this super-robot's name? You mean it's a species?" Tony pressed, intrigued by the machine's origins.
"They're a collective of cosmic deities with shared origins." Adam explained, lounging in his favorite chair, heating a kettle. "Most are mechanical, though a rare few might be flesh-based, I can't confirm. But beware: symbiotes don't just parasitize living beings. They can possess and control machines too. What you're doing now, they could do if they succeed."
"What? That's absurd." Tony scoffed. "These primitive things can operate complex machinery? Even I struggle to control this, needing time to unlock more power. They'd need millennia to learn precise control with their feeble minds."
"Wrong again." Adam said. "It'd take an instant. If you can pilot a Celestial, the god behind the symbiotes can too. His knowledge of Celestials surpasses yours."
Tony's face paled, his understanding shattered.
Symbiotes, meaningful only to organic life, could control machines? A symbiote god could instantly master a Celestial's remains?
Adam said nothing, watching Tony, now swarmed by symbiotes.
This wasn't necessarily Loki's doing. Loki might not even recognize a Celestial, knowing of them would be impressive enough.
But Knull knew. Awakening in darkness, his first act was slaying a Celestial. Over eons, he'd clashed with them, often losing. Knull understood a Celestial's value. In his weakened state, desperate for a powerful asset, the Celestial armor was unmissable.
Adam, however, wouldn't allow it. He had little interest in Celestials, his Xenomorphs likely couldn't parasitize these quasi-silicon lifeforms. Forcing it would spark a costly war, bleeding his elite Xenomorphs dry.
Unless he could breed a Xenomorph strain to parasitize machines, it wasn't worth it.
Adam eyed the Celestial armor, increasingly encased in symbiotes, its movements growing sluggish and erratic.
"Bad news, guys." Tony said urgently. "My control index dropped thirteen percent and keeps falling. We're about to lose this weapon. Should I fly to their hive in space and self-detonate?"
His symbiote-clearing efficiency plummeted.
Fury dispatched the Howling Commandos to aid Tony, hoping the non-human team could ease his burden.
But Loki had stationed millions of symbiotes around Tony, blocking relief.
Even Fury's Helicarrier faced symbiote incursions. Fighters scrambled for dogfights, but their fall was inevitable. The symbiotes were too swift, too numerous. Nowhere was safe, except, relatively, Adam's Weyland Tower.
"This was a massive intel failure." Fury growled. "None of us knew they could control machines. Adam warned us first. We can't let them seize that armor, or we're done."
Heroes rushed to save Tony, but their efforts were dwarfed by the symbiotes' sheer numbers.
As Tony teetered on being overwhelmed, the repaired Celestial risked turning against humanity.
"We couldn't stop them." Adam thought. "We can't let Knull succeed. A Celestial under his control would be a Skyfather-level threat, far stronger than Tony's clumsy piloting, which, despite appearances, is limited and flawed."
With a mental command, Adam unleashed a Xenomorph swarm. They surged toward the Celestial armor, scaling it like ants, efficiently clearing symbiotes.
The giant robot became the epicenter of a localized war.
Low-tier messenger Xenomorphs charged recklessly, tearing themselves apart at the brink of consumption, their corrosive blood splashing to burn through shrieking symbiotes, clearing paths for others.
In a war of millions, individual lives meant nothing, only impactful kills held value.
As Xenomorphs fell in droves, more spawned ceaselessly, emerging from oceans and rainforests, bearing diverse host genes but united by one mission, one will, pouring their fervor into sacrifice to elevate their master.
Xenomorph numbers paled against symbiotes, but as time passed, the gap narrowed. Their total surpassed five million.
Now, giants roared strangely, wielding divine powers and magic, storming toward the Celestial armor in a mighty tide.
"Saved." Tony said, relief tinged with chagrin. "I owe you again, Adam. I overestimated this armor's combat mode. If I survive, I'm upgrading it fully, integrating JARVIS completely."
He'd thought himself a Skyfather-tier god, but reality exposed his shortcomings.
"You're thanking me too soon." Adam replied. "My favors come with a price."
Think you can take my help and run? Not a chance.
---
In outer space, Loki observed the battle's progress from afar, enlightened by the clash of titans.
"It failed." He noted. "So that's the famed Celestial. No wonder Knull was so fixated. But Adam's cunning, giving Knull no opening."
This was a different kind of duel between faction leaders.
Adam had won decisively. But if Knull reclaimed his body, ruling Klyntar as a Cosmic Being, what could Adam do then?
"Not descending to Earth was wise." Loki mused. "If my location were exposed, they'd never let me go."
He resolved that once the symbiotes were depleted, regardless of how many powerful Earth beings they'd bonded or powers they'd stolen, he'd flee. He wasn't dying for Knull.
But countless others wanted him trapped here forever.
Thor, weaving through the symbiote sea, hunted Loki but found no trace.
Adam could. He held Grendel and numerous symbiote-Xenomorph hybrids as conduits.
As his consciousnesses scoured swiftly, Loki sensed the signals and realized too late something was amiss. Two figures, radiating divine power, were already speeding toward him.
"Lady Thor and… Laufey…" Loki muttered.
He reached for the Casket of Ancient Winters, then froze, caught in a dilemma. From the unfamiliar Xenomorph, he felt a bloodline connection, instantly knowing who he faced.
This was a father-son reckoning.
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