Chapter 262: The Truth About the Intelligent Xenomorph
Allen led the way, holding a conjured lantern in his hand.
As they walked deeper into the ship through the main entrance, they passed by many moss-like plants growing along the path.
"There's moss—that means there's oxygen."
Allen tried taking off his oxygen mask.
Gag!
"Forget it. Still smells like rotten eggs."
Clearly, unlike in the movie, the spaceship's oxygen system had stopped working.
With the full exploration records retrieved from the AI projection, they headed straight for a place resembling an altar.
The layout was extremely simple—only a circular altar stood there. Originally, a container of black liquid had been placed at the center.
However, the Kryptonian exploration team, driven by curiosity, had taken it for research, leading to their complete annihilation.
In truth, the first batch of Kryptonians hadn't fully explored the interior of the starship—they had only taken the black liquid from the outer area.
Finding no more passageways ahead, the group began inspecting their surroundings, searching for any hidden switches.
"These indented markings on the wall are the language of the Engineers. They also serve a control function."
Allen pointed to the grooves and symbols on the wall, seemingly random in their arrangement, recalling how the android in the movie had operated them to open the hatch.
"You can read it?" Hela asked curiously.
"Nope," Allen replied bluntly.
If you can't read it, then what the hell are you going on about?
And he even looked like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"I saw that! That little glint of disdain in your eyes!"
Allen huffed, "If I don't show off a bit today, I'm gonna lose my position as captain."
As he spoke, he formed a heart gesture with his hands.
Magical streams of light flowed between his fingers, and one by one, runes of the Knowledge Spell transferred to the foreheads of the other three.
Thanos was stunned. "Magic? You actually know magic?"
"What's so strange about that? It's so simple I learned it just by looking at it once."
Allen smugly flipped his hair with a look that begged to be punched. "Wanna learn? I can teach you."
"…"
All three of them rolled their eyes.
This guy just couldn't take a compliment—one word of praise and he was already unbearable.
What shocked Thanos was that on Titan, the Eternals were all born with the potential to awaken magic.
However, their magic typically manifested as golden threads interwoven together.
But the problem was, Thanos had never awakened any magical ability.
Unfortunately, this wasn't a xianxia world where even the weakest protagonist had a glow-up storyline—this was Marvel.
Still, Thanos had an exceptional learning ability and a constantly evolving physique.
If we go by the comic timeline, he might one day gain the power of the Titans and ascend to the ranks of the New Gods.
Uxas (Darkseid), who grew up on Apokolips, had also mastered profound magic. How else could he have forged artifacts like the Mother Box? On Apokolips, however, magic was simply treated as a form of science.
Terms like the "Omega Effect" and "Anti-Life Equation" were clear indicators of its magical roots.
A flicker of surprise flashed in Hela's eyes.
She had clearly recognized the Knowledge Spell as coming from Kamar-Taj. After all, the Sorcerer Supreme Agamotto had not only met Odin but had visited Asgard multiple times. As the God of War of the Realm, Hela certainly had the right to meet the Sorcerer Supreme.
The writing on the wall suddenly became intelligible to them.
Weapon Storage Bay.
Allen followed the control prompts and smoothly opened the door to the armory.
As it turned out, the so-called weapon storage was actually a chamber full of black liquid.
The black liquid was stored in sealed, circular canisters stacked in a radial pattern—there were so many that it was impossible to count. If even one of these were unleashed on a planet, it would be enough to wipe out all life.
From the video retrieved via the AI projection, they had seen the exploration team open one of the canisters, which caused the black liquid to leak—and their total demise.
They had no intention of making that same mistake.
"Let's go, let's go," Allen said dismissively. "Looks like a room full of urns."
No doubt, if someone sold these biochemical weapons to any galactic empire, they'd make a fortune. But Allen had no interest in that kind of trade.
They turned back and entered the next chamber.
The Sacrificial Chamber.
Several cryo-pods were arranged in rows.
Only one contained a body—an Engineer nearly three meters tall. A gaping hole was torn through its chest.
"Tsk tsk… brutal. They really experimented on themselves," Allen said with a hint of awe.
The Xenomorph that had burst out of the Engineer had a name: Deacon.
"Danger!"
A bolt of lightning struck from Hela's hand, hitting a shadow in the corner.
As they looked closer, they saw it was a Xenomorph corpse.
Hela stood alert, Mjolnir crackling with lightning in her hand, ready to strike again at any moment.
"Relax, sis, don't freak out—it's really just a corpse."
Allen conjured a spectral hand and grabbed it, discovering that the dried-out Deacon Xenomorph was nothing more than an empty husk. Its chest had been pierced through by lightning.
Unlike typical Xenomorphs, the Deacon lacked a tail spike.
After thousands of years without food or water, even a Xenomorph would starve to death.
Of course, the Xenomorph Queen locked in the pyramid was preserved using the Yautja's (Predator) cryogenic technology—ready to be thawed at the flick of a switch.
Meanwhile, Thanos studied the writing on the walls and began to understand what the Engineers had been researching.
They were trying to unlock the secrets of creating new life from red blood cells—using the blood of the Deacon as a base.
"There's a video playback function here."
Thanos operated the controls, projecting a holographic video into the air.
Allen frowned at the grainy, snow-filled image. "Seriously? You couldn't spring for a premium membership to unlock 4K?"
In the footage, an Engineer lay asleep on the altar. Several others approached, took out a square container, and removed a large Facehugger, which they placed on the sleeping Engineer's face.
Suddenly, the screen shook, and all the Engineers began retreating from the sacrificial chamber.
The Deacon burst out of its host's body and began prowling the chamber.
The video switched to the Deacon's point of view as it wandered the ship, passing the corpses of countless Engineers—as if a great battle had taken place.
The footage fast-forwarded through the Deacon's daily life.
As time passed, the Deacon's intelligence noticeably increased. It even began studying the Engineers' documents.
Over the course of several centuries, the Deacon mastered the basic operations of the starship and was no longer restricted by any area.
At the end of the video, the Deacon could be seen moving a canister of black liquid to a temple chamber.
It then infused its own blood into the black liquid.
After completing this task, the Deacon returned to the sacrificial chamber and peacefully awaited death.
"Well damn… that was insane."
Allen suddenly realized, "So that's why the black liquid that infected the Kryptonians produced intelligent Xenomorphs! It was already mixed with Deacon blood! I knew something was off with how creative those Xenos were getting!"
Still, judging from the Deacon's learning ability, its intelligence didn't exceed that of a regular human—it had just accumulated experience over time.
"Hey, sis—lemme borrow the hammer. I'm gonna grind that backstabbing bastard into dust."
Allen reached out toward Mjolnir.
Hela hesitated for a moment, then casually handed it over.
Thunk!
The moment Allen took hold of the hammer, it dropped straight to the ground. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't lift it.
In this timeline, Hela hadn't bestowed her blessing upon the hammer—so Allen was naturally unworthy.
"You're not qualified," Hela said coldly.
"Who wants it anyway?"
Allen kicked the hammer in frustration—and immediately dropped to the ground, clutching his foot and howling, thanks to his slippers.