Chapter 101: The Xenomorph Legion Spreading Across the Universe
Regret is an emotion everyone experiences, but for those without the ability to manipulate time or warp reality, it is also the most useless emotion of all.
The moment Nick Fury's corpse fell and was devoured by a swarm of Xenomorphs, it was all over.
No one was surprised by this outcome. On the contrary, if Du Wa had done nothing, that would have been the most shocking thing, leading one to suspect that he was brewing an even larger plan.
That would surely be a future more terrifying than the Symbiotes overrunning Earth.
"Nick is dead. What a shame. But for him to have lasted this long is impressive enough. If I were Du Wa, I would have struck sooner and faster."
Alexander Pierce stared impassively at the screen as Fury's life signal completely vanished.
As a member of Hydra and the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D., he had no fondness for Fury; their relationship was purely one of utility.
"What a pity, Nick. You were so close to discovering the existence of Hydra... or had you already found out? But you no longer have the chance to deal with us. I had originally wanted to kill you with my own hands."
Pierce felt a slight tinge of regret, then quickly dialed a number.
Make no mistake, he had no intention of stepping forward in an official capacity to seek justice for Fury. He only needed to look up at the electronic world map before him, at the countless, densely packed red dots, to know how absurdly large the Xenomorph population was. Even Hydra lacked the ability to clean up so many of them.
As for the possibility of prioritizing Du Wa's assassination... well, setting aside Du Wa's own strength, the strange manipulation abilities he had displayed in multiple great battles were enough for a person like Pierce to form a deduction.
Even if they succeeded in killing Du Wa, could they kill the enormous number of Xenomorphs in one fell swoop? Don't be ridiculous. That would only lead to a complete loss of control over the global situation. If it reached the point where even humanity was being frenziedly subjected to parasitism and chestbursting by the Xenomorphs, resulting in the extinction of mankind, what the hell would be the point for Hydra? With no people left, what would be the meaning of ruling Earth?
"Our Earth has not yet become a Xenomorph planet. This is the best outcome," Pierce said to the person on the other end of the phone.
"The best outcome for Earth, but not for us. I've been trying to use Magic to deal with Du Wa, for instance by directly altering his thoughts and cognition. But the moment I think of that Eternal named Druig, I know how difficult that would be. I might even end up being brainwashed by Du Wa myself, becoming someone like Druig."
"So what you're saying is..."
"The Tesseract. This thing has been continuously emitting strange energy pulses throughout the Universe. This might be a dangerous signal, meaning some of the top players in the Universe know the Tesseract is on Earth. But if we can use it properly, we can in turn win over some extraterrestrials. After all, no one would want to confront Du Wa for the Tesseract while knowing nothing about Earth. But it would be a different story if they allied with us Earthlings."
"What? This is completely different from the plan I'm familiar with!" Pierce was aghast. What the hell kind of plan was this? Just the thought of numerous dangerous races, like the Symbiotes, coming to Earth one after another made his scalp tingle.
"We have no other choice. Besides this plan, how else can we deal with such a massive number of Xenomorphs? Are we really going to bombard the whole world with nuclear bombs and create a nuclear winter? But that would only kill the ordinary Xenomorphs; it's not as effective against those of the middle-tier and above. Besides, as long as Du Wa wants to, he can continue to expand his species' numbers at any time."
The difference in strength, and even in life-form level, between the lower-tier and upper-tier Xenomorphs was astonishingly large. This was perhaps a peculiarity of the Alien Species, rather than a true problem. It was just unknown whether Du Wa had devised a solution.
Pierce quickly hung up. He had always been wary of this ruthless Madame Hydra, but her madness still exceeded his expectations.
Faced with two terrible choices, she had chosen the one that seemed even worse?
Pierce looked out the window at the swarms of Xenomorphs hunting down the fleeing Symbiotes and fell silent.
In a planet-level war like this, the death of someone like Fury was fundamentally insignificant. He was just a small splash in a boundless, raging sea, making a tiny ripple before quickly disappearing.
Across all of Earth, and even in many other galaxies, the people paying close attention to this battle now had their eyes on only one person.
It was this person who had once again faced a major event of raging waves and personally brought it to an end.
"Hmm, Fury's dead? I finally found that flea jumping all over the place and crushed him. The next step is to destroy the secret outposts he set up all over the world, to ensure there are no tricks like clones, and most importantly, not to let him be resurrected."
Du Wa issued a command to all the Xenomorphs in the world, ordering them to search for various secret strongholds during their hunt.
Compared to this insignificant little interlude, Du Wa's eyes were fixed on the endless, deep Cosmic Starry Sky.
He didn't know if it was his imagination, but Du Wa felt as if, from time to time, gazes of unknown meaning were prying here from the depths of the Universe.
Perhaps it was the Celestials? The enmity between those guys and Knull was immense, so it was normal for them to pay attention to Knull's movements. Likewise, the Celestials and Du Wa also had some history.
The Eternals and Deviants sent to Earth by Arishem had all been eliminated by Du Wa, taking down the strongest Eternal, Hyperion, as well.
He was a genuine Skyfather-level powerhouse, and one who had not yet fully realized his potential. Had he been given the opportunity to develop, he would have become even stronger.
"No matter who it is, whether they are Celestials or Demons, anyone who stands in my way will not escape unscathed... For this, I'll need a better set of teeth, otherwise I won't be able to chew through these guys who will only become more and more difficult to deal with."
Du Wa took a deep look at the dark Universe, filled with countless stars, and genuinely felt that this scenery was breathtakingly beautiful.
It would be a terrible waste not to transform such a magnificent world into an Alien Universe.
Du Wa then looked down at the Earth beneath his feet. Although it wasn't yet a Xenomorph Earth, it was getting there... At the very least, Du Wa had saved these people from the disastrous fate of becoming residents of a Symbiote Earth. It was a reasonable request to demand that certain restless individuals offer up their very flesh and blood to sustain his Xenomorphs.
...
"The result of the battle is in. That Expeditionary Force from Klyntar has been completely defeated. We've also received preliminary confirmation that Hyperion did indeed die in a place called Earth. This remote little planet possesses power beyond imagination."
Corvus Glaive, shouldering his scythe-like weapon—or perhaps, his main body—walked up to a purple-skinned descendant of the Eternals.
Corvus Glaive quickly swept his dangerous gaze over this person before lowering his head in a show of reverence.
Thanos, however, was perfectly aware of the petty thoughts of his number one enforcer, the second-in-command of the Black Order. He knew even better that every single one of the Cull Obsidian were traitors. They maintained their loyalty now only because he was powerful enough. The moment he suffered a defeat, an injury, or even just a lapse in will, these guys would likely think their opportunity had come and backstab him without hesitation.
But Thanos was confident enough, firm in his belief that he would remain powerful and never give others an opportunity to strike when he was vulnerable.
"Hyperion... that guy isn't necessarily dead. Genetically speaking, he has merely transformed into another creature... How interesting. No wonder more and more people throughout the Universe are talking about the Xenomorphs. To think they can even parasitize the likes of Hyperion... However, under normal circumstances, if Du Wa hadn't defeated Hyperion first, it would have been impossible for him to be parasitized. He would have crushed the foreign object with his powerful muscles the instant it entered his body."
Thanos, of course, knew of Hyperion. As fellow descendants of the Eternals, they were both notorious figures in the Universe.
Thanos was called the Cosmic Butcher for slaughtering planets, and as for Hyperion, he was notorious in his own right as Arishem's loyal enforcer, specializing in dirty work.
"He kept calling himself the strongest Eternal, yet he died such an ignominious death before me, his body, trained for so many years, becoming the enemy's spoil of war."
Thanos suddenly found this deeply ironic. The arrogant, indomitable Hyperion, who had never failed against countless powerful enemies, had instead fallen in a place like Earth. He had failed just once, yet his entire being now belonged to the other side.
"We have indeed detected the pulse signal from the Tesseract. We can confirm it is on Earth."
Corvus Glaive was also a cold-blooded and cruel individual, but this time, a rare look of hesitation appeared on his face.
If it were any other planet, he would have already led the Black Order to storm it, cutting down all obstacles. But this time, the target was Earth...
Over the past two years, the news coming from that planet had been simply dizzying. The more one learned, the more astonished one became, feeling that many subversive events were happening one after another in a small place like Earth, making one suspect they were all rumors.
"Recently, Xenomorphs have also appeared in many parts of the Universe. According to our investigation, this is the work of a Magician named Kruger. It's no secret that he studied Magic at Kamar-Taj on Earth. He then accepted Du Wa's command to periodically deploy Xenomorphs to various parts of the Universe."
Beside them, Ebony Maw spoke with his fingers steepled, his gestures elegant.
Anyone facing Xenomorphs that had already spread across the Universe would feel a headache. How were they supposed to fight this?
An astonishing reproduction rate, exaggerated growth potential, and powerful adaptability, and they were already distributed across many planets.
This was clearly a powerful species that had branched out across the Universe. It would be very difficult for their Black Order to launch a targeted offensive.
Dealing with a single branch of the Alien Species was one thing, but confronting the entire species... well, even though the Chitauri under the Black Order's command were also renowned throughout the Universe for their vast numbers and ferocious nature, when compared to the Xenomorphs, their only advantage was probably in high technology.
At least the Chitauri could wear equipment and fight for extended periods in the vacuum of space.
In the Main Universe, the Chitauri, relying on their vast numbers, once managed to wear down and kill members of Alpha Flight, like Captain Marvel and Hyperion, in the outer space of Earth.
Thanos remained expressionless, as if completely unburdened, but in reality, he knew very well that in his current state, without the Mind Stone, he was no match for Du Wa.
If nothing else, a single Hyperion Xenomorph was enough to be incredibly vexing.
What's more, Du Wa had more than one such being under his command.
And as the one who could simultaneously control these beings, how strong was Du Wa himself?
The intelligence they had gathered was still insufficient; at the very least, they had no actual case files of Du Wa personally taking action.
In almost every battle that shook countless planets, it was mainly Du Wa's subordinates who did the fighting. But there was also ambiguous intelligence suggesting that some of the abilities displayed by those subordinates were in fact the will of Du Wa himself. This was a terrifying thought, as it meant that every single Xenomorph was actually a vessel for Du Wa.
It sounded incredible, but it was logically sound, not to mention the living example of Knull, the god of the Symbiotes.
This reminded Thanos of several notoriously difficult races in the Universe, such as the Annihilation Wave and the Phalanx.
All of them possessed a supreme core individual with absolute authority and absolute control.
"It seems I must first acquire more of the Infinity Stones and become a universal-level life form. Only then will I have enough confidence to deal with the threat on that planet and seize the Tesseract and the other stone."
That place, Earth, had not only Du Wa and his Xenomorphs, but also troublesome individuals like the Ancient One and Odin.
As for claims of being the strongest Eternal, Thanos no longer paid them any mind.
It wasn't just Thanos; many other powerful beings had learned of Du Wa's name, etching it deep in their minds, and had become aware of the rapidly spreading Alien Species.
It had to be said, Kruger was truly willing to get things done. He would open a portal with Magic at a moment's notice and deploy batch after batch of Xenomorphs. He probably couldn't even remember which planets he had sent the Xenomorphs to.
But that didn't matter.
"Another batch of new facehuggers has been born? Looks like someone's in for some bad luck. I hope these guys in Knowhere don't do anything stupid, like spouting crazy talk about catching a few Xenomorphs to sell for money."
Kruger muttered to himself. Even if something did happen, it was beyond his control.
He had even heard that the master of Knowhere, the Collector, one of the oldest Skyfathers in the Universe, had recently publicly expressed an interest in Xenomorphs. Perhaps someone had already caught a Xenomorph and sent it to the Collector for his collection.
These bounty hunters who lived on the edge knew very well that the Collector was a generous spender.
Kruger anxiously glanced from afar toward the Collector's museum. He certainly didn't want to see a Xenomorph disaster break out in Knowhere.
Kruger had figured it out: every Xenomorph was essentially a potential thought container for Du Wa. Everything it encountered could be perceived by Du Wa.
If the Collector had really done it, didn't that mean this veteran Skyfather had already exposed himself to Du Wa's perspective?
In a place unseen by Kruger, the Collector was heaping praise.
"Beautiful, just too beautiful! So this is a Xenomorph? It's as if the beauty of slaughter is written into its very bones. To think that a place called Earth could birth such a lovely little thing."
The Collector's eyes widened in sheer delight.
Did he not know that Xenomorphs were dangerous? Did he not know how difficult Du Wa was to deal with?
He knew. He knew it all perfectly well. But knowing was one thing; as the Collector, if he could suppress his penchant for collecting, that would be far too abnormal.
His fanatical collecting of rare items was the fundamental reason he hadn't gone mad after more than ten billion years of life. Without this hobby to sustain his soul, he would have collapsed long ago.
A Skyfather-level being ultimately has its limits; they are not like a universal-level Cosmic Celestial, a being who has practically become the rules of the universe itself.
Even one as strong as Odin, who could stand against multiple members of the Celestials, was already overwhelmed after living for a mere few million years. As a fellow Skyfather who had lived for tens of billions of years, it was impossible for the Collector to not have any side effects.
The Collector even had designs on the other Elders of the Universe, wishing he could just collect the Grandmaster, the Gardener, and the rest all at once. But unfortunately, he never had the chance, and his strength was insufficient to overpower the other Elders of the Universe.
But looking at the exquisite Xenomorph before him, the Collector rubbed his hands together as if he saw a golden path unfolding.
"However, an ordinary adult Xenomorph lacks the ability to survive and move in the vacuum of space, unless you provide it with a powerful host from the very beginning... This is the factor that limits the species' ultimate potential."
What the Collector regretted even more was that the Xenomorph before him was not the last one in the Universe. He made it a point to collect only the most precious things. If only there were a way to wipe out all other Xenomorphs in the Universe at once.
But that was something only universal-level Celestials were likely capable of.
Of course, he could think about it differently. For example, by directly capturing Du Wa for his collection.
(end of chapter)