Chapter 461: Fusion
The moment her fingers touched the hilt, a silver-white light surged from the sword.
It spread along her fingers to her arms, shoulders, and whole body.
It wasn't an attack, nor was it corrosion; it was a fusion.
The sword was sensing her body, analyzing her energy, and finding a way to coexist with her.
Eve closed her eyes, feeling that energy flow through her blood vessels.
It wasn't pain, but a strange feeling, like being wrapped in a warm tide.
She could feel the existence of the sword, not as an external object.
But as a part of her body, like her third arm, like another sense extending out from her.
She opened her eyes and raised the sword to her eyes.
The body of the sword gleamed with a silver-white luster under the laboratory lights, and subtle energy ripples pulsing like breathing flowed along the blade.
"It is called all-black the necrosword," Loren said. "It was once attached by the consciousness of Loki, but now it is clean. It is yours."
Eve's dark brown eyes looked at the silver-white light on the sword, and her fingers tightened slightly on the hilt.
"It is very strong."
"Very strong," Loren said. "No matter how strong it is, it is just a tool. What truly matters is the person who uses it."
Eve raised her head and looked at him.
"Do you trust me?"
"I created you, so naturally, I unconditionally trust you."
Eve was silent for a moment, then she smiled—a heartfelt smile as if she had finally found a sense of belonging.
Her smile appeared particularly bright in the white light of the laboratory, like a flower blooming in the dark.
She sheathed the sword into the scabbard at her waist. The scabbard was part of her body's energy field, automatically condensing and forming when the sword approached her waist.
Then she walked up to Loren, reached out, and placed her hand on his chest.
Her palm felt the rhythm of his heartbeat—steady, powerful, and matching the calm in his gray eyes.
Her fingers stroked lightly across his shirt, feeling the texture of the fabric and the temperature of his chest.
Then Eve stood on tiptoe and kissed his lips.
It wasn't a tentative kiss, nor a hesitant kiss, but a firm one, like the kiss of someone who had finally found what she had been searching for for a long time.
Her arms wrapped around his neck, her body pressed against his, and her breathing synchronized with his in that instant.
Loren's hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer. Her body in his arms was warm, alive, and real.
The laboratory lights shone quietly around them, the cabin of the Life Cradle was still open, and the steam was slowly dissipating.
The holographic screen on the console had dimmed, with only a few indicator lights flashing a faint green light.
No one came to disturb them.
Tifa was in the kitchen, brewing a new pot of tea, preparing to send a cup to everyone.
Number 18 was on the terrace, looking at the star she named "Number 18".
Alice was in the study, holding a monograph on quantum physics.
Nymph was in the garden, squatting in the flowers, chatting with a firefly, her antennae swaying gently in the firefly's light.
Everything was quiet.
Everything was wonderful.
The night was deep.
Loren and Eve lay side by side on the bed in the bedroom, and the moonlight spilled in through the window, laying a layer of silver-white carpet on the floor.
The curtains swayed gently in the breeze. On the lawn outside the window, dew drops flashed with a fragmented light under the moonlight.
all-black the necrosword leaned against the bedside table, the silver-white light of the blade pulsing faintly in the dark, like a quiet heart.
It had established a certain deep connection with Eve's body. Without needing her to hold it, it could sense her existence and state.
She was resting, and it was resting too.
Eve turned sideways and looked at Loren's profile.
His gray eyes were half-closed, and his silver-white hair was scattered on the pillow, reflecting a soft luster in the moonlight.
His breathing was light and steady, like the tide of the distant sea.
Loren opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her.
The gray eyes looked deep in the moonlight, but there was a warm and reassuring light.
Loren reached out and pulled her a little closer.
Her head leaned against his chest, listening to his heartbeat.
Her black hair was scattered on his shoulders, like a flowing river in the moonlight.
Eve didn't speak, just closed her eyes.
Her fingers drew circles gently on his chest, feeling his heartbeat and body temperature.
The moonlight moved slowly over the two of them, from the foot of the bed to the head of the bed, from the head of the bed to the windowsill, and finally disappeared behind the curtains.
In the east, on the horizon, the first ray of morning light was quietly emerging.
A new day had begun.
In the kitchen of Morgan Manor, Tifa had already started preparing breakfast.
The aroma of bread wafted from the oven, and the coffee pot made a gurgling sound on the stove.
She wore an apron, her black hair tied into a low ponytail behind her head, and a few stray locks hanging by her ears.
There was a small, relaxed arc at the corner of her mouth.
Number 18 walked down from the terrace, entered the kitchen, took a cup from the shelf, and poured herself a glass of Water.
She didn't speak, but Tifa knew she was there.
"Was that star bright last night?" Tifa asked.
"Bright," Number 18 said. "It has always been there."
Alice walked out of the study, holding the unread monograph on quantum physics, sat down at the dining table, opened the book, and continued reading.
The gemstone between her eyebrows emitted a faint blue light in the morning light, complementing the sky outside the window.
Nymph ran in from the garden, stepping barefoot on the wooden floor with pattering sounds.
She held a firefly in her hands, its abdomen still emitting a faint light.
"Tifa, Tifa! It's still glowing! Look!"
Tifa bent down, looked at the firefly, and smiled.
"Mm. It's still glowing."
Hela's voice came from the door, hoarse and lazy: "You Earthlings get up really early."
She walked in from outside, her long black hair fluttering in the morning breeze, her dark green battle suit replaced with Earthling casual clothes.
A dark gray sweater and black trousers. Her green eyes swept over the people in the kitchen, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly upward.
"What's for breakfast?"
"Bread, coffee, fruit," Tifa said. "And fried eggs."
"I'll take one of everything."
Hela sat down at the dining table and glanced at Alicesitting opposite her.
Alice didn't raise her head, but the gemstone between her eyebrows flashed, which was her way of greeting Hela.
The corners of Hela's mouth moved slightly as a response.
In the distance, the water of the Hudson River rippled with gold in the morning light. A few white seagulls hovered over the river, making crisp cries.
A new day.
Loren walked down from upstairs, followed by Eve.
Eve's black hair draped over her shoulders, wearing a simple white shirt and black trousers, with all-black the necrosword hanging at her waist.
The sword body gleamed with a silver-white luster in the morning light, complementing her dark brown eyes.
Chapter 462 Symbiote Planet!
Deep within the Universe, the darkness was thicker than anywhere else.
Here there was no starlight, no galactic glow, no existence of any known celestial bodies.
There was only pure, absolute darkness, heavy like physical matter.
In this darkness slumbered an entity older than the history of most civilizations.
His body stretched across the void, and countless horn-like protrusions grew upon his head.
Some were as towering as mountains, others as sharp as swords.
Every single horn was entwined with dark red, blood vessel-like patterns.
His eyes were closed, his eyelids like two heavy stone gates, isolating his consciousness from the World.
His breathing was the tide of the Universe, and every inhalation pulled the surrounding darkness toward his body.
Knull.
Ancient Loki, the Creator of the Symbiote, the true Masterof all-black the necrosword.
His consciousness drifted slowly in the darkness, dreaming chaotic dreams within his long slumber.
He created the first Symbiote, imparting it with life and hunger through his will.
He fought the Celestials, slew one of them with all-black the necrosword, and cast its skull into his throne.
He was exiled, betrayed by his own Symbiotes.
Stripped from their hive mind, forced to slumber in this darkness where even starlight could not reach.
Then, he saw a beam of light.
A silvery-white, blinding light that cut through his dark dream like a sharp blade.
That light surged from the core of all-black the necrosword, piercing through his fragments of consciousness.
Completely evaporating that portion of his soul attached to the sword.
It was not burning, not corrosion, but erasure, as if someone had used an eraser to wipe away the traces of his existence from paper.
Knull's eyes opened.
His stone-gate-like eyelids slowly lifted, revealing two dark red eyes underneath like two burning abysses.
The starlight of the Universe was reflected in his pupils, not because he saw the starlight.
But because the moment he awoke, the surrounding space warped.
The light of distant stars was bent into a ring-shaped halo rotating around him.
His consciousness floated up from the depths of his slumber, like a giant whale rising from the deep sea.
Information flowed slowly through his nerves, and every tentacle transmitted the same message to his brain.
all-black the necrosword had been stolen, his consciousness had been erased, someone had touched what belonged to him.
Knull's body moved.
Not rolling over, not sitting up, but those black tentacles entwined around his body moved.
The tentacles protruded from beneath his skin, twisting slowly in the void like snakes just waking up from hibernation.
Dark red patterns pulsed on the surface of the tentacles.
That was his blood flowing faster, his heartbeat accelerating, his anger surging from the depths of his bone marrow.
"Loren Morgan." Knull's voice did not come from his mouth; his mouth did not open.
The sound emanated simultaneously from every cell of his body.
From every tentacle, from every horn crown, from every inch of skin.
Low-frequency, heavy, like the entire Universe vibrating simultaneously.
This name burned in his consciousness.
He did not know how long he had slept, perhaps thousands of years, perhaps tens of thousands of years, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years.
Time had no meaning before an entity of his level.
But the first second after he awoke, he knew one thing: someone had snatched all-black the necrosword from his hands.
Someone had erased his consciousness attached to the sword, someone dared to touch his belongings.
His anger was not fire, not an explosion, not anything intense and out of control.
It was a coldness like absolute zero, a calmness that froze the surrounding space in his anger.
He did not need anger to drive himself; he only needed to know the target.
Knull raised a hand, five huge, sharp-tipped, claw-like fingers spreading open in the void.
Dark red energy surged from between his fingers, condensing into a dimly glowing sphere in the darkness.
The surface of the sphere had Symbiote textures flowing across it, like countless tiny lives writhing.
His hand clenched the sphere, and the sphere shattered in his palm.
The fragments transformed into countless tiny filaments of light, shooting in all directions of the Universe.
He was sending a signal to the Symbiote Planet.
The Symbiote Planet - Krunar, floating on the other side of the Milky Way Galaxy, was a living Planet composed of Symbiotes.
Its surface was covered with black, liquid-like Symbiotetissue.
Its interior was countless individual Symbiotes sharing a single hive mind.
Krunar had no rotation, no revolution; it merely suspended in space like an embryo slumbering in the womb of the Universe.
Its leader was the King of the Symbiotes, a powerful individual known as "Tyrant".
In the Symbiote hive mind, Tyrant's voice was the voice of Krunar.
Tyrant's will was the will of all Symbiotes.
He was the most perfect individual evolved by the Symbiote race after Knull left.
Powerful, ruthless, merciless, having no sympathy whatsoever for any life that was not a Symbiote.
Tyrant opened his eyes the moment Knull's signal arrived.
His body was the strongest and most massive among Symbiote forms.
His height exceeded three meters, and the surface of his black skin was covered with dark red patterns.
That was the manifestation of the energy flowing within his body beneath his skin.
There were six curved horns on his head, like a black crown.
His eyes were pure white, without pupils or irises.
There were only two glowing white balls in the darkness, like will-o'-wisps.
He received Knull's command.
Not language, not text, but a brand-like instruction directly injected into his consciousness.
Knull's voice echoed in his consciousness, every word feeling like a red-hot knife carving letters into his brain.
"Symbiotes of Krunar, your Creator commands you to go to Earth, find Loren Morgan, and then kill him.
Transform all life on that Planet into hosts of the Symbiotes, letting human civilization perish in the embrace of the Symbiotes.
Do not leave any survivors, do not leave any traces." A dark red light flashed in Tyrant's white eyes.
"As you wish, my great Creator!"
On Earth, peaceful days had not lasted long.
New York, Manhattan.
Ten in the morning, sunny, people coming and going on the streets.
Lines queued at the doors of coffee shops, and children chased pigeons in the park.
The glass curtain walls of office buildings reflected blinding light under the Sun.
Everything was normal, everything was ordinary.
Then the sky darkened.
It was not clouds covering the Sun, not a solar eclipse, not any natural phenomenon; something was blocking the sky.
A huge black, irregular shape appeared outside the atmosphere, falling toward Earth from space.
Its diameter exceeded ten kilometers, and its surface was covered with flowing, liquid-like black matter.
It was burned red by the heat generated from friction when passing through the atmosphere.
But those burned parts were covered by new black matter the next second.
New York's air raid sirens immediately sounded.
Chapter 463: Symbiote Battle!
At Avengers headquarters, alarm sounds echoed through the corridors, and red lights flickered across the white walls.
Tony Stark rushed out of the laboratory.
The nanoparticles of the Mark LII armor surged out from the arc reactor on his chest as he ran.
They covered his entire body.
The faceplate closed, and the red eyes lit up.
"Jarvis, give me the data. What is that thing?"
"Unable to identify temporarily, sir. The surface of the object is covered with a layer of unknown biological tissue, and its mass is continuously changing."
"Its fall trajectory points to Manhattan, and it is expected to touch the ground in five minutes."
Steve Rogers rushed out of the training room with his shield on his back, his combat uniform still carrying the moisture of his sweat.
His blue eyes stared at the falling black object on the holographic screen, his brow furrowed tightly.
"Everyone, assemble!"
Natasha Romanoff walked out of the communications room, her red hair bouncing on her shoulders, holding a baton in her hand.
Her green eyes looked at the holographic screen with a stern expression.
"Clint is already on his way, and Bruce is rushing over from Wakanda."
"Carol is in Earth orbit, and she saw that thing."
"She said its energy signature is different from any known alien creature."
Thor walked out of the Bifrost Bridge with stormbreakergrasped in his hand.
His left arm was still wrapped in bandages, but his blue eyes were bright, and the corners of his mouth curved into a grim, battle-ready smile.
"No matter what it is, Asgard will not sit idly by."
Hela followed behind him, her green eyes looking at the black object on the holographic screen, her brows slightly furrowed.
"Symbiote." Her voice was low, carrying a vigilance that only she could recognize.
"I have seen them in the cracks of the underworld; they are creations of Knull, parasites in the dark."
"They attach to living bodies, devour the host's will, and turn the host into their vessel."
Thor turned his head to look at her.
"Knull, the true Master of the all-black the necrosword? The ancient evil god who transformed Gorr into the God Butcher?"
"Yes, back then at the edge of the Universe, I saw a Planetcompletely devoured by Symbiotes."
"All life was transformed into hosts for the Symbiotes, and the entire Planet turned into a living, breathing monster."
Underneath Tony's armor faceplate, his expression changed.
"You mean that thing, the thing that fell from space, has a Symbiote inside it?"
Hela looked at the falling black object on the holographic screen.
"It is not that there is a Symbiote inside. It is itself a Symbiote—a living spaceship composed of countless individual Symbiotes."
The black object crashed into Manhattan.
There was no explosion. No Impact. No fire.
Like a drop of black ink falling into Water, the moment it contacted the ground, it spread, permeated, and extended in all directions.
Black Symbiote tissue surged outward from the crash point.
Covering the streets, covering the buildings, covering the cars, and covering everyone who didn't have time to escape.
The people covered by the Symbiotes began to scream.
It was not a scream of pain, but that kind of desperate, heart-wrenching scream upon losing self-awareness.
The Symbiotes seeped into their bodies through their skin, mouths, noses, and eyes.
Connecting their nervous systems with the collective consciousness of the Symbiotes.
Their bodies began to change under the control of the Symbiotes.
Their skin turned black, their eyes turned White, and flowing textures unique to Symbiotes grew on the surfaces of their bodies.
One, ten, a hundred, a thousand.
In less than five minutes, the central area of Manhattanwas completely occupied by the Symbiote army.
Thousands of humans became hosts to the Symbiotes, and their bodies were modified.
Their wills were suppressed, and they turned into mere pawns in the collective consciousness of the Symbiotes.
When the Avengers arrived in Manhattan, what they saw was a black, living ocean spreading in all directions.
Tony hovered mid-air, his repulsors fully charged, but his finger had not pressed the launch button.
He looked at the humans parasitized by the Symbiotes; their eyes were White, hollow, and devoid of any emotion.
Their bodies made various movements that violated human physiological limits under the control of the Symbiotes.
Their arms bent backward ninety degrees, their necks twisted one hundred eighty degrees, and their legs crawled on the ground like spiders.
"Are they still saveable?" Tony's voice rang out in the communicator.
Hela's voice came from the communicator, cold and objective: "Symbiotes can be separated."
"But it takes a powerful energy Impact to strip them from the host's body."
"If the energy is too small, the Symbiotes will not detach; if the energy is too great, the host will die."
"Then use an intermediate amount of energy," Steve said.
He rushed from the ground toward the nearest Symbiotehost, his shield spinning as it flew out and struck the host's chest.
The black tissue of the Symbiote was cut open under the Vibranium edge of the shield, producing a sharp sound like rubber being torn apart.
The host's body was exposed from the Symbiote, and his eyes returned to human color.
His mouth opened, letting out a muffled, terrified cry.
Steve caught the rebounded shield and pulled the host behind him.
"He's still alive!" Steve shouted. "Use physical attacks! Cut off the connection between the Symbiote and the host!"
The Avengers began to move.
Tony flew in the air, his repulsors not firing energy beams, but instead emitting a low-frequency, diffusing sonic wave.
As the sonic wave propagated through the air and hit those Symbiote hosts...
...ripple-like vibrations appeared on the surface of the Symbiotes, and some weak parts began to detach.
Not all Symbiotes were sensitive to sonic waves.
But those low-level, unenhanced individuals began to peel away from the host's body under the Impact of the sonic waves.
Natasha moved quickly on the ground, her baton shuttling between Symbiote hosts.
Her attack was not to knock them down, but to stimulate the nerve endings of the Symbiotes with high-voltage current.
Causing them to temporarily lose control of the host under the shock of the current.
Those electrocuted hosts fell to the ground, their bodies twitching, and Symbiotes surged out from their mouths and noses.
Wriggling in the air, and then falling back to the ground to search for new hosts.
Thor's stormbreaker released lightning.
Blue electric arcs exploded in the air, hitting dozens of Symbiote hosts.
The high temperature of the lightning had extremely strong lethality against Symbiotes, and those hit were instantly charred.
Detaching from the host's body, turning into black ashes drifting in the air.
The hosts' bodies were burned by the aftermath of the lightning, but they were still alive; their hearts were still beating, and their consciousness was still there.
Hela used her spear to draw green arcs in the air.
Her energy was neither lightning nor sonic waves; it was death itself.
In front of her energy, the Symbiotes began to wither, shrink, and die.
For those Symbiote hosts she hit, when the Symbiotes detached from their bodies, they had already turned into withered, dead-leaf-like fragments.
Chapter 464: The Descent of Eve
But the number of Symbiotes was too great.
From that black falling object, the speed at which the Symbiotes poured out did not slow down.
They poured out from the center of the crash like an endless tide.
Covering more streets, more buildings, and more people.
Every second, new humans were parasitized by the Symbiotes, and every second, new hosts joined the ranks of the Symbiote army.
Tony Stark's energy was dropping, and his Mark LII armor had endured too many Symbiote attacks in this battle.
They wrapped their black tentacles around his legs and arms, trying to crawl into the gaps of his armor and parasitize his body.
The armor's energy shield continuously consumed energy to burn away those tentacles, and the energy readings were dropping rapidly.
"Jarvis, how much energy is left?"
"Thirty-two percent, Sir. According to the current consumption rate, the estimated remaining combat time is eleven minutes."
"Eleven minutes is not enough!"
Steve Rogers's shield was covered in the black liquid of the Symbiotes, his breathing became rapid, and his right arm was trembling.
Not because of fatigue, but because the Symbiote's liquid had a weak corrosiveness.
His combat suit began to develop tiny holes after contacting the Symbiotes too many times.
Natasha Romanoff's stun baton ran out of power.
She drew her dagger and physically slashed at the Symbiotes trying to approach her.
But the number of Symbiotes was too great; one was cut open, and ten rushed up.
Ten were cut open, and a hundred rushed up.
She began to retreat, not because she wanted to retreat, but because she had to retreat.
Thor Odinson's lightning was weakening, the wound on his left arm split open during the battle, and blood seeped out from his bandages.
Golden blood dripped onto the ground, burning small holes into the black tissue of the Symbiotes.
But he did not stop; stormbreaker spun in his hands, and blue electric arcs leaped around his body.
"Heimdall!" he shouted, then remembered that Heimdallwas dead.
No one would answer to his name, his eyes reddened for a fraction of a second, and then he swung the battle-ax even harder.
Hela also felt the pressure in the battle.
Her energy came from Asgard, and Asgard was on the other side of Earth, too far away.
Her energy recovery speed could not keep up with the consumption speed.
Her spears went from two to one, and from one to a physical spear that needed to be held by hand.
Instead of an energy-condensed weapon.
Her green eyes looked at the center of that black ocean, looking at the falling object.
There, a figure, huge and larger than all the Symbiotes, was walking out of the darkness.
Three meters tall, black skin, dark red patterns, six curved horns.
And that pair of pure white, pupiless eyes like ghost fires.
The leader of the Symbiotes - Tyrant.
He walked out, black liquid flowing all around from under his feet.
His white eyes swept across the entire battlefield, sweeping across the Avengers who were fighting.
Sweeping across the humans parasitized by his compatriots, sweeping across the buildings that had already become breeding grounds for the Symbiotes.
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, revealing a cold and cruel smile.
"Avengers."
Tyrant's voice did not come from his mouth, but was directly injected into everyone's brain from the Symbiotecollective consciousness.
Deep, slow, like rusted gears turning.
"You think you are protecting Earth, you are only delaying the time of death."
His right hand raised up, five fingers spread open, and black energy poured out from his palm.
Transforming into countless tiny tentacle-like energy bands, shooting toward every Avenger.
The speed of the tentacles was too fast to dodge, TonyStark's ankles were entangled, and Steve Rogers's wrists were entangled.
Natasha Romanoff's waist was entangled, Thor Odinson's stormbreaker handle was entangled, and Hela's spear was entangled.
Their bodies were pulled toward Tyrant's direction by the force of the tentacles.
Tony Stark's thrusters operated at full power, trying to break free from the bondage of the tentacles.
But the power of the tentacles was too great, and his armor issued an overload warning.
Steve Rogers stuck his shield into the ground, using the strength of his body to fight the tentacles.
But the shield plowed a deep ditch on the ground, and his body was still sliding forward.
Natasha Romanoff cut the tentacles with her dagger, but the tentacles regrew new ones the moment they were cut open.
Her dagger fell into endless cutting.
Thor Odinson bombarded the tentacles with lightning, and under the burning of the lightning, the tentacles turned black, carbonized, and shattered.
But new tentacles grew from the shattered parts, re-entangling his axe handle.
Hela pierced the tentacles entangling her with her spear, but the number of tentacles was too many; she pierced one, and ten wrapped around.
Tyrant stood in place, his white eyes looking at the struggling Avengers, the arc of the corners of his mouth growing a bit larger.
"You are tenacious, but tenacity cannot replace strength; your strength is not enough."
His fingers closed.
The tentacles entangling the Avengers tightened abruptly, pulling them up from the ground and hanging them in mid-air.
Tony Stark's armor issued a structural damage warning, and Steve Rogers's shield slipped from his hands.
Natasha Romanoff's dagger dropped to the ground, and Thor Odinson's stormbreaker slipped from his hands.
Hela's spear shattered into energy fragments under the pressure of the tentacles.
Tyrant pulled the Avengers in front of him, his white eyes sweeping across their faces one by one.
"I will turn you into hosts of the Symbiotes, and your bodies will become our vessels."
"Your strength will become our weapon, and your wills will be swallowed by our collective consciousness."
"You will forget who you are, forget what you once wanted to protect, and forget why you are standing here."
"You will become—us."
Under Tony Stark's mask, his brown eyes looked at Tyrant's white eyes.
"You might not know who you are talking to." Tony Stark's voice was hoarse but steady.
"Earth is not a place where you Symbiotes can casually invade."
Tyrant's white eyes narrowed slightly.
"Is that so?"
Just at the moment when his fingers were about to close completely, a silver-white light shot down from the sky.
A black light hit the tentacles entangling Tony Stark, cutting the tentacles in half from the middle.
Not burned off, not cut off, but cleanly and neatly cut off like cutting tofu with an extremely sharp knife.
The cut tentacles slid off Tony Stark's ankles, wriggled a few times on the ground, and then turned into black liquid, seeping into the ground.
Tony Stark fell from mid-air, and his thrusters restarted the second before falling, stabilizing his body.
He looked at the source of that black light, looking at the sky.
A black figure descended from the sky.
Jet-black long hair fluttered in the wind, and the white shirt and black trousers shimmered with a soft luster under the sunlight.
Hanging at her waist was a sword, the hilt embedded with a gem glowing with a dark red light.
Her dark brown eyes looked at Tyrant, as calm as two rippleless lakes.
Eve.
She slowly descended from the sky, stepping barefoot on the black tissue of the Symbiotes.
The moment her soles touched the ground, a black light spread from under her feet, completely evaporating the surrounding Symbiote tissue.
Before being evaporated, those Symbiotes let out a sharp, mouse-like squeak, and then dissipated into black smoke.
Tyrant's white eyes looked at Eve, his pupils contracting slightly.
"Who are you?"
Eve did not answer; her right hand grasped the hilt of the sword at her waist, all-black the necrosword was slowly drawn from its scabbard.
The blade gleamed with a black luster under the sunlight, with subtle energy ripples pulsing like breathing flowing along the edge.
The dark red gem on the hilt lit up the moment the blade was fully unsheathed, like an opened eye.
all-black the necrosword.
Chapter 465: Symbiote Monster
The moment the Tyrant saw that sword, his white pupils suddenly contracted.
"all-black the necrosword." The calmness in his voice vanished, replaced by fear and something that wasn't entirely fear.
"That is the divine artifact of the Creator. How do you have the Creator's sword?"
Eve raised the sword to her eyes, her gray eyes watching the black glow on the blade.
"It is mine."
She took a step forward.
The black Symbiote tissue retreated away from her feet in all directions, not because she was driving them away, but because they themselves were retreating in fear.
The energy field of all-black the necrosword was fatal to the Symbiotes; it was an extension of Knull's will and the sword of the Symbiotes' ancestors.
They could not resist it, could not approach it, and could not even look directly at it.
The Tyrant released the other Avengers; the tentacles that had entangled Steve, Natasha, Thor, and Hela fell from his hands and retracted back into his body.
The Avengers fell from mid-air and crashed to the ground with a dull thud.
They were not eroded by the Symbiotes, but their bodies had exhausted most of their stamina while bound by the tentacles.
Steve climbed up from the ground, picked up his shield with his right hand, grabbed Natasha's arm with his left hand, and pulled her up from the ground.
Thor reached out and recalled stormbreaker, the blade of the axe smashing a small pit into the ground.
Hela stood in place, her green eyes looking at Eve's back, her brows slightly furrowed.
The Tyrant's body began to change, and the dark red veins on his black skin began to flow faster.
His six horns began to glow, and his white eyes began to change.
They changed from white to dark red, and a small black dot like a needle tip appeared in his pupils.
He was gathering all his power, preparing to deal with this woman holding all-black the necrosword.
"It seems you are the one who stole the Creator's artifact. You have no right to possess this sword. Does it only belong to our Symbiote race?"
The Tyrant's voice came from the collective consciousness, deeper and more oppressive than before.
"I am the leader of the Symbiotes. My power comes from Knull's collective consciousness, and my body is composed of tens of thousands of individual Symbiotes. You cannot kill me."
Eve looked at him, her dark brown eyes devoid of any ripples.
"Try it."
Her body turned into a beam of black light and vanished from the spot.
The next second, she appeared in front of the Tyrant, less than a meter away.
all-black the necrosword swung upward from below, and the blade drew a black arc across the Tyrant's chest.
The Tyrant's body was cut open from his chest to his shoulder with a wound so deep his bones were visible.
Black Symbiote tissue gushed out from the wound—not blood, but countless individual Symbiotes escaping from the Tyrant's body.
Under the blade of all-black the necrosword, they lost their vitality, turning from black to gray, from gray to white, and then turning into dust.
The Tyrant's body fell backward.
Not because he was chopped down by the sword, but because the Symbiotes within his body tried to leave him in fear, causing his body to lose its balance.
He knelt on one knee on the ground, supporting the ground with one hand and covering the wound on his chest with the other.
His white eyes looked at Eve.
"You... impossible... This sword should be in the hands of my lord Knull..."
"Now it is in my hands," Eve said.
She raised all-black the necrosword, the tip of the sword pointing at the Tyrant's throat.
"Make your Symbiotes leave these people, retreat back to where you came from, and tell Knull that Earth is not on his menu, and never will be."
The Tyrant looked at her, a fury bordering on madness burning in his dark red eyes.
"You think that defeating me means you can defeat Knull? You have no idea who Knull is. His power is not something you can imagine."
"He created the Symbiotes, created all-black the necrosword, and your sword used to be his sword."
"You think that by erasing his consciousness, he can't take it back? He can take it back at any time."
A trace of light flashed in Eve's dark brown eyes.
"He cannot take it back."
The Tyrant laughed, his laughter coming from the collective consciousness.
It echoed in everyone's brain—a sharp, harsh sound like metal scraping across glass.
"You will see. When Knull fully awakens, he will come to Earth in person."
"He will tear you to pieces, take back the sword in your hands, and turn everyone you care about into hosts for the Symbiotes."
"You are nothing. You are just a pathetic woman holding a sword that does not belong to you."
Eve did not answer.
The black glow on the blade of all-black the necroswordgrew brighter and more dazzling as the Tyrant spoke, like a star being born.
Her dark brown eyes turned black in the light, and her black hair fluttered in the energy field.
Her white shirt became transparent in the light, revealing the black skin beneath, flowing with energy patterns.
She was absorbing the Tyrant's power—no, all-black the necrosword was devouring the Tyrant's power.
The dark red gemstone on the blade pulsed, and with every pulse, it drew a wisp of black energy from the Tyrant's body, injecting it into Eve's body through the blade.
The Tyrant's body began to shrink; his three-meter-tall body shrunk to two meters in a few seconds.
His six horns began to fall off, and the dark red patterns on his skin began to dim and disappear.
His white eyes turned gray, gray turned black, and then completely went out.
But his body did not fall.
Because his body began to change—not shrinking, but expanding.
From shrinking to expanding, from two meters to five meters, from five meters to ten meters.
The Symbiote tissue throughout Manhattan converged on him from all corners, and all the Symbiotes were returning to the Tyrant's body.
Those Symbiotes parasitic on humans stripped away from their hosts, turned into black liquid flowing on the ground, and converged toward the Tyrant.
Those Symbiote tissues covering the buildings detached from the walls, turned into a black torrent, and surged toward the Tyrant.
The Symbiotes gushing out from the falling debris stopped spreading outward and instead flowed back toward the Tyrant.
The Symbiotes throughout Manhattan were converging onto the Tyrant's body.
Infused with Symbiotes, his body began to expand—from ten meters to twenty meters, from twenty meters to fifty meters, from fifty meters to one hundred meters.
His body was no longer in the shape of a human; he had turned into a huge, demon-like monster with four arms, two legs, and a tail.
Countless horns grew on his head, and the surface of his body was covered with dark red lava-like patterns.
His eyes were two huge, white-glowing light sources without pupils.
The Symbiote Monster.
The Tyrant's voice came from inside the monster, no longer an echo in the collective consciousness.
But a real, deafening sound emitted from that huge mouth full of sharp teeth.
"You think your sword can kill me? I have fused the power of all Symbiotes."
"My body is no longer a collection of Symbiotes, but a complete, indivisible entity."
"I am no longer afraid of fire, no longer afraid of noise, and no longer afraid of your sword. Your sword no longer works on me."
The monster's four arms swung toward Eve at the same time.
Chapter 466: "It's over, you can go die!"
Eve took half a step back, putting some distance between herself and that Symbiote monster.
all-black the necrosword spun half a circle in her hand, blade facing downward, tip pointing at the ground.
Her dark brown eyes watched the Symbiote monster rushing toward her, her expression unchanged.
Her body squatted down slightly, her center of gravity shifted forward, her dark hair fluttered in the energy field, and the hem of her white shirt made a snapping sound in the wind.
The monster's first arm smashed down.
Not a fist, but a palm, with five huge, sharply-tipped, claw-like fingers spread open, covering down toward Eve like a net.
Black energy danced between the fingers, forming arcs of electricity that ionized the dust and Water vapor in the air, making a crackling sound.
Eve's body turned into black light, leaving a black afterimage on the ground.
The afterimage passed beneath the monster's palm, drilled out from under its arm, and circled around to its back.
all-black the necrosword drew an arc in her hand, the blade chopping into the monster's back heel.
That was a spot she deliberately chose; it was the only place on the monster's body not covered by dark red patterns.
That was the weakest connection point left behind during the Symbiote's fusion.
The blade cut into the monster's heel.
Black Symbiote tissue gushed out from the wound, splashing onto Eve's white shirt, leaving dark red, smoking marks on it.
Her shirt was not corroded; all-black the necrosword's energy field protected her body, and those Symbiotes were bounced away the moment they touched her skin.
The monster let out a low roar like a massive earthquake splitting open.
Its body twisted violently in pain, its four arms waving backward simultaneously in an attempt to grab Eve.
Eve's body shuttled through the gaps between the arms, like a black fish swimming through the crevices of reef rocks.
As she moved, all-black the necrosword constantly slashed out, leaving one wound after another on the monster's body.
The monster turned around.
Not turning slowly, but at an incredible speed.
Although its body was huge, its reaction speed did not slow down due to the increase in size.
Four arms swung toward Eve simultaneously from four directions, blocking all her retreat routes.
At the end of each arm condensed a black energy sphere, which kept growing larger as they swung.
Growing from the size of a fist to the size of a basketball, and from a basketball to the size of a car.
The four energy spheres exploded simultaneously, and black energy converged toward the center from four directions, forming a hemispherical cage that trapped Evein the middle.
Numerous Symbiote tentacles writhed on the inner wall of the energy sphere, attempting to grab Eve's body, sword, and anything else they could catch.
Eve did not attempt to escape; she raised all-black the necrosword high above her head, blade pointing to the sky, hilt pointing down.
Black light surged out from the sword, forming a protective shield that blocked the intrusion of those black tentacles.
The tentacles retracted the moment they touched the black light, as if scalded, leaving charred black marks on the surface of the energy sphere.
"Your sword is protecting you."
The monster's voice came from all directions, low and slow, like distant thunder.
"But it cannot protect you for long. My energy is increasing while yours is depleting. Once your sword's energy is exhausted, you will be devoured by my tentacles."
Eve did not speak.
Her dark brown eyes looked through the black protective shield at the monster's body.
She was searching for its weakness. All the Symbiotes had fused into a huge body; its strength was increasing, but its weaknesses were also multiplying.
Because the fusion was not perfect, minute connection points that could not be completely eliminated existed between the different individual Symbiotes.
She found it.
On the monster's chest, where those dark red patterns converged, was a fist-sized point emitting a faint white light.
That was not part of the Symbiote; that was the Tyrant's true body.
That three-meter-tall core in the leader form.
All the Symbiotes extended outward from his body, and his true body was the hub controlling this giant monster.
Smash him, and the monster would disintegrate.
Eve moved.
She withdrew all-black the necrosword from above her head and held it horizontally across her chest.
Black light surged from the sword body, condensing into a pair of black light wings around her body.
The light wings unfolded in the air, every single feather condensed from energy, shining with a dazzling light under the sunlight.
The cage of energy spheres was torn apart by the light wings.
Eve flew out from the crack, even faster than before.
Her body left a trail of black light in the air, extending from the center of the energy sphere to the monster's chest.
all-black the necrosword spun in her hand, tip forward, energy flowing on the blade like black liquid light.
The monster's four arms grabbed toward Evesimultaneously.
Eve did not dodge; under her will, her light wings extended forward, transforming into four black light spears that stabbed toward the monster's four arms from four directions.
The light spears struck the joints of the arms, pinning them to the monster's body.
The monster's mouth opened, emitting a painful, deafening roar.
Its four arms were unable to move fixed by the light spears, and its body lost balance, tipping forward.
Eve's light wings retracted, recondensing behind her back.
She flew to the monster's chest, stopping in front of that core emitting white light.
The tip of all-black the necrosword pointed at the core, the black light on the sword body appearing exceptionally bright amidst the core's white light.
"It's over," Eve said.
The sword stabbed into the core. The moment all-black the necrosword's blade touched the core, as if sucked in, it slowly and unstoppably sank deep inside the core.
The two became entangled, biting and fusing within the core, emitting a harsh sound like metal friction.
The monster's body began to disintegrate.
Starting from the chest, spreading outward in all directions.
The black Symbiote tissue peeled off from the monster's body, turning into black liquid falling toward the ground.
Before that liquid hit the ground, it evaporated into black smoke, blown away by the wind.
The monster's limbs snapped off at the joints, crashed to the ground, and turned into smoke.
The monster's head broke off from the neck, smashed onto the ground, and after bouncing twice, turned into smoke.
The monster's tail snapped off from the base, twitched a few times in the air, and then turned into smoke.
The Tyrant's true body was revealed from the disintegrating body.
His body was no longer three meters tall; he had shrunk back to two meters.
The dark red patterns on his black skin had almost completely disappeared, five of his six horns had broken off, and the remaining one was also covered in cracks.
His white eyes dimmed, like two lamps about to go out.
His body trembled, his breathing shook, his lips moved, but he could not make any sound.
Chapter 467: The System Rewards Are Here Again!
Eve stood before him, the all-black the necrosword pulled out from the already vanished monster core, and the black glow on the sword's body was brighter than before.
Because the all-black the necrosword devoured the monster's power, the collective consciousness power composed of tens of thousands of individual Symbiotes was all absorbed by the all-black the necrosword.
Eve could feel that energy flowing through her body.
Not a foreign invasion, not erosion, but fusion.
The all-black the necrosword was transforming the devoured energy into a form she could accept, injecting it into her body, and strengthening every single one of her cells.
Her dark brown eyes turned black in that instant, her black hair fluttered in the energy field, and her skin exuded a soft, black glow all over.
"You…" The Tyrant's voice squeezed out from his chapped lips, hoarse, weak, like a flickering candle in the wind.
"You devoured my power… My Symbiote… My… Everything…"
Eve looked at him, her dark brown eyes returning to their original color.
"The all-black the necrosword needs to feed, and you are its food."
She raised the sword.
The Tyrant looked at the sword in her hand, watching the black light flowing from the sword's body.
Looking at the weapon that once belonged to his creator, now belonged to someone else, and was even more powerful than him.
A trace of anger flashed in his white eyes.
"Knull… will find you…" The Tyrant said. "He… will… kill… you…"
"Hmph, I'll be waiting for him!" Eve sneered and nodded, the sword falling.
The Tyrant's body was sliced diagonally from shoulder to waist by the all-black the necrosword.
His body was split in two under the blade, the two halves falling to either side, turning into black smoke during the fall, and blown away by the wind.
Nothing was left.
The leader of the Symbiotes, the Tyrant, vanished.
The Symbiotes throughout Manhattan disintegrated simultaneously at the exact moment he vanished.
Those individual Symbiotes still crawling on the streets stopped moving, their bodies turning hard and brittle, then shattering into countless pieces.
Those Symbiotes parasitic on humans peeled away from their hosts' bodies, turning into black smoke in the air.
Those Symbiote tissues covering the buildings detached from the walls, turned into black liquid, and then evaporated.
Sunlight shone once again on the streets of Manhattan.
People climbed up from the ground, walked out of buildings, and woke up from the state of being controlled by the Symbiotes.
Black traces left by the Symbiotes still lingered on their bodies, but those traces were fading and disappearing.
Their eyes recovered human colors, their wills regained freedom, and their lives returned to normal.
Eve sheathed the all-black the necrosword back into the scabbard at her waist.
The moment the sword body was inserted into the scabbard, it let out a low, satisfied hum, like the purring of a well-fed Beast.
The dark red gem on the hilt was still glowing, but much softer than before, like a glowing night pearl shining quietly in the dark.
She turned around and walked toward the direction of the Avengers.
Tony flew up from the ground, his armor stained with the black liquid of the Symbiotes, with tiny holes corroded in some places.
His mask opened, revealing a tired face as he looked at the strange woman before him.
"Miss, who are you? Why have I never seen you before?"
"There are plenty of people you haven't seen; do you expect every single one of them to report to you?"
"No, I don't mean that. I just wanted to thank you, but I don't know your name yet."
"My name is Eve, sent by my Master, Mr. Loren."
"Are you also Loren's subordinate?"
"Not only a subordinate, but also one of his wives. Well, the task is finished, I should go!"
With that, Eve leaped forward and flew straight up into the sky, disappearing from sight.
Watching Eve's departing back, Tony tutted and shook his head: "Loren this guy is actually more romantic than me, with so many top-tier women around him, can his body handle it?"
"You think he's like an ordinary mortal like you? His body is extremely strong!" Just at this moment, Natasha walked over and said meaningfully.
For the question of whether Loren's body could handle it, she and Hill had the most say, considering that even when the two of them joined forces, they were no match for Loren.
Now with one more woman, naturally there's zero pressure. After all, she knew Loren's highest record was soloing a dozen or so of them by himself.
"Loren took a mysterious potion given to him by my father; in that respect, it's no less impressive than even compared to me, so you don't need to worry about that."
"Proud to be like you? Are you strong? My name as the Playboy of New York is not for nothing!"
"Heh, whether I'm strong or not doesn't need to be proven to you, after all, I'm not gay."
"Thanks, I'm not either!" Tony shrugged and laughed.
Because the Symbiote monster was dead, they all relaxed and started teasing and joking with each other.
"Hey, having Loren on Earth is truly Earth's blessing; his people never disappoint."
Hela stood behind him, her green eyes looking at Eve's vanishing back with a complex expression.
She had seen the all-black the necrosword before. In the legends of the underworld, that was Knull's weapon, the ancestor of the Symbiotes, and one of the most evil existences in the entire Universe.
But at this moment, that sword was actually completely controlled by a human woman; this was simply astonishing.
That man truly shattered her imagination again and again. It turned out that in this World, there really was someone whose strength could be powerful enough to make even her look up to.
On the avenue, those people who woke up from the Symbiotes were searching the ruins for their relatives, friends, and lovers.
Some people hugged and cried, some knelt on the ground to pray, and some stood blankly, not knowing what had happened.
Everything was over.
The Symbiote invasion was ended under Eve's sword.
Morgan Manor, study.
Loren stood in front of the window, his gray eyes looking at the sky outside that was dyed golden-red by the setting sun.
He held a cup of tea in his hand; the tea had already gone cold, and he didn't drink it.
His consciousness was deep within the system, in that void only he could enter, looking at the text on the panel.
The system panel floated in his consciousness.
[Detected Symbiote Invasion Event]
[Event Assessment: The combat power dispatched by the Host (Eve) successfully repelled the Symbiote army, annihilated the Symbiote leader Tyrant, and protected Earth]
[Evaluation Grade: S]
[Reward: 50 system points]
50 points. Not much, but not a little either.
Coupled with the 100 points saved previously, he now had 150 points.
He didn't rush to use them, saving them for when they were needed later.
Withdrawing from the depths of the system, Loren opened his eyes.
The setting sun outside the window cast a golden light into his gray eyes, and his black hair fluttered slightly in the evening breeze.
The door was pushed open.
Eve walked in.
Chapter 468: Eye of the Firmament
Her white shirt was still stained with the dark red liquid of the Symbiote, and her black trousers had small holes corroded in some places.
Her black hair was a bit messy, and there were faint traces of fatigue left from the battle on her face.
But her eyes were bright, shimmering with an amber luster in the setting sun's light.
The all-black the necrosword hung at her waist, its black glow barely visible in the setting sun.
But Loren could feel its pulsation—steady, satisfied, like a well-fed Beast.
She walked up to Loren, stopped, and looked at him.
"Master, the mission is complete," Eve said.
Loren reached out and tucked a stray lock of hair hanging by Eve's ear behind it.
His fingertips gently brushed across her auricle, and her ears flushed slightly.
"I know, I've been watching you all along."
The corners of Eve's mouth curved up slightly.
"Are you getting used to this sword?" Loren asked.
Eve lowered her head, looked at the all-black the necrosword at her waist, then raised her head and looked into Loren's grey eyes.
"Very well, it and I... are as one."
Loren nodded.
"Knull will not let this rest. The Tyrant was merely his vanguard; he himself is still slumbering, but his power is recovering.
When he fully awakens, he will come to Earth in person."
A flash of light crossed Eve's dark brown eyes.
"If he dares to come, I will definitely kill him."
Loren looked at her, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly.
"That guy isn't so easy to kill. With just your strength alone, I'm afraid you won't be able to do it, but you don't need to worry; I have a way to enhance your strength."
"Thank you, Master. By the way, the sisters said that there are rewards for successfully completing missions. May I ask when I can claim mine?" Eve changed the subject and asked with anticipation.
"When would you like to claim it?" Loren looked at Evewith a half-smile.
As he spoke, he walked from the window back to his desk and put down the cup of tea that had already turned cold.
"I want it now!" Eve quickly said.
Hearing this, Loren nodded, "No problem, then let's give you your reward right now!"
With that, he turned around, faced Eve, and opened his arms.
Eve was overjoyed and immediately walked into his embrace, pressing her face against his chest and listening to his steady heartbeat.
At this moment, Loren gently moved her so that her back was facing him, and said, "The reward is about to begin!"
"!!!!" Eve.
The setting sun outside the window cast a golden glow over the two figures, and their silhouettes slowly merged together under the light.
...
The death of the Tyrant did not trigger a carnival on Earth, but rather reflection.
In the S.H.I.E.L.D. conference room, the lights were pale, and satellite images of the damaged areas in Manhattanand detailed analysis reports of the Symbiote invasion were spread out on the long table.
Director Natasha stood at one end of the long table, sweeping her gaze over everyone present.
Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, as well as Thorand Carol Danvers participating via holographic projection.
"The Symbiote invasion lasted for forty-seven minutes, thirty percent of the buildings in central Manhattan were damaged, and twelve hundred civilians were parasitized by the Symbiote.
Although everyone was eventually rescued, six people died of cardiac arrest during the parasitism. If LorenMorgan's people hadn't intervened in time, that number would be multiplied by a hundred."
Tony leaned back in his chair, the nanoparticles of the Mark LII armor flowing slowly in the arc reactor on his chest like a red cloud.
There were deep dark circles under his brown eyes; in the three days since the Tyrant was eliminated, he had barely closed his eyes.
"So I made this." Tony pressed a button on the table, and the holographic screen lit up, displaying the blueprints of a brand-new armor.
The color scheme of the armor was no longer the classic red and gold, but a mix of black and dark red, its surface covered with dense, scale-like energy nodes.
There were pulse thrusters at the joints of the armor, and the face of the helmet had no eyes, only a single horizontal red light band running across it.
"Anti-Symbiote Armor," Tony said. "Mark LIII. The design concept is not to combat the Symbiote's physical attacks, but to sever the connection between the Symbiote and the host.
The energy nodes on the surface of the armor can release an electromagnetic pulse of a specific frequency, which has an extremely strong interference effect on the Symbiote's nervous system.
The Symbiote hit by the pulse will be stripped from the host's body and unable to reattach within thirty seconds."
Steve looked at the armor on the holographic screen, a hint of worry in his blue eyes. "You're wearing it yourself?"
"Of course, this armor needs to be directly connected to my nervous system to precisely control the frequency and range of the pulse; nobody else can wear it."
Natasha tapped her fingers lightly on the desktop. "You mean you're going to rush into the Symbiote army wearing this armor?"
"Is there a problem?"
"The problem is that the Symbiote's attack speed is very fast. Are you sure your reaction speed can keep up?"
The corners of Tony's mouth curved up in a conceited arc. "Things that my reaction speed can't keep up with, Jarviswill handle."
Natasha shifted her gaze from Tony to the other side of the holographic screen.
There was another project there—not an armor, but a huge spherical network covering the entire periphery of Earth.
The network was composed of thousands of satellite-sized nodes, each equipped with magic sensors and energy weapons.
The connecting lines between the nodes were not cables, but invisible filaments made of magic energy, weaving a huge, multi-layered net around the entire periphery of Earth.
"This is a project I collaborated on with Strange," Tony said. "A dual defense system of magic and technology. The magic part is responsible for space blockade.
Any alien creature attempting to enter Earth's atmosphere via spatial teleportation will be recognized and intercepted by the magic network.
The technology part is responsible for physical defense; if the magic interception fails, the nodes will automatically fire high-energy beams to destroy the invaders outside Earth's atmosphere."
Thor's voice came from the holographic projection, carrying a hint of the suspicion typical of an Asgardian.
"You Earthlings always like to use complicated machines to solve simple problems. Sometimes, an axe is enough."
"Your axe was almost crushed by Gorr," Tony said.
Thor fell silent for a moment. "... Fine, what is your system called?"
"Eye of the Firmament."
Steve frowned. "The name is a bit edgy."
"I came up with it," Strange's voice came from the doorway of the conference room.
Stephen Strange walked in, wearing blue robes, the Cloak of Levitation fluttering gently on his shoulders.
The eye of agamotto was not around his neck; that Time Stone had already turned to dust in Loren's hands.
But his magic power had not weakened due to the disappearance of the stone. His hands were crossed in front of him, and the rings on his fingers flashed with golden light under the lights.
Chapter 469 Knull Has Arrived!
"The magical part of the Eye of the Firmament was jointly constructed by me and the legacy of Ancient One.
Its sensors can identify the energy signatures of all known organisms in the Nine Realms, including Symbiote, Dark Elves, Frost Giant, and things you have never seen before.
If any extraterrestrial creature attempts to enter Earth via spatial teleportation, the Eye of the Firmament will lock onto their location before they enter the atmosphere."
"What if they don't teleport through space, but fly over directly instead?" asked Natasha.
Strange glanced at Tony.
"Then we'll shoot them down outside the atmosphere," Tony said.
"Each node is equipped with three high-energy cannons, with a range covering Earth synchronous orbit.
The energy source is my new element reactor and the Vibranium energy core provided by Wakanda.
One system, two sets of power sources. If one fails, the other automatically takes over."
Fury nodded. "When will it be completed?"
"The Eye of the Firmament is already operational. Mark LIII still needs two days." Tony stood up from his chair and walked toward the conference room door.
"If there's nothing else, I'm heading to the laboratory."
He walked out of the conference room. In the corridor, his footsteps echoed and gradually faded away.
Steve looked at his back. Something flashed in those blue eyes—not worry, but understanding.
In the battle against the Tyrant, Tony had seen the horror of the Symbiote, the fragility of Earth, and his own shortcomings as a protector.
He built the Eye of the Firmament not to show off, nor to satisfy his desire for control, but to prevent a repeat of what happened in Manhattan.
"Meeting adjourned," Natasha said.
Deep within the Universe, the presence in the darkness completely awakened.
Knull sat up from the slumbering void.
The moment his gigantic body, spanning across the void, sat up, it pushed the surrounding darkness outward, forming a vacuum region millions of kilometers in diameter.
Within this region, there was no light, no matter, no energy, only his existence.
His eyes opened.
Dark red, pupil-less eyes like two burning abysses.
Wherever his gaze reached, space began to distort, time began to disorder, and the laws of physics began to fail.
His very existence was a challenge to the rules of the Universe.
His consciousness scanned the entire Universe, searching for the location of all-black the necrosword.
Found it, on Earth.
In the hands of a woman, the energy signature of all-black the necrosword had changed.
His consciousness fragments had been completely wiped out—not suppressed, not sealed, but completely deleted from the level of existence.
"Loren Morgan." His voice echoed in the void without a medium, yet space itself vibrated.
"You took my sword, you wiped out my consciousness, you killed my Symbiote, you disgraced my name in the Universe, do you think you can bear my wrath?"
He stood up from the void. His body constantly shrank in the process of standing up.
Eventually, he transformed into a humanoid entity over two meters tall.
Black skin, dark red markings, countless horn-like protrusions on his head, each horn entwined with dark red, blood-vessel-like energy lines.
He held no weapon in his hand, but his body itself was a weapon.
He reached out and tore a crack open in the void.
Not the blue of the Space Stone, not the gold of the Bifrost Bridge, but a more primitive, more violent black crack, like fingernails slicing open a wound on the skin of the Universe.
On the other side of the crack was a blue Planet wrapped in a faint golden network of light.
Earth.
Knull stepped into the crack.
On the periphery of Earth, the Eye of the Firmament system detected his presence within the very first second Knull entered the Solar System.
Not through sensors—Knull had no energy radiation, no heat, no electromagnetic signals, and no known sensors could capture his presence.
The Eye of the Firmament detected him because his very existence distorted space.
The magic sensors on the node captured a massive, rapidly moving spatial distortion point the moment Knull tore open the crack, the intensity of the distortion exceeding hundreds of times the system's design upper limit.
Alarms sounded simultaneously at the Avengersheadquarters, the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, and Tony Stark's laboratory.
Red lights flashed in the corridors, and lines of warning text popped up on the holographic screens.
[Eye of the Firmament Warning: Unknown spatial distortion detected]
[Distortion intensity: Out of measurement range]
[Speed: Out of measurement range]
[Energy signature: None]
[Threat level: Unknown]
[Automatic defense protocol activated]
Thousands of nodes on the periphery of Earth turned their directions simultaneously.
The muzzles of the energy cannons lit up with blue light, each cannon automatically locking onto the black figure rapidly approaching Earth.
The magic sensors released a spatial blockade field, locking the entire near-Earth orbit outside Earth's atmosphere into a giant, invisible cage.
Knull stepped out of the crack, standing at the altitude of Earth synchronous orbit.
His feet stepped on the void as if stepping on solid ground.
His dark red eyes looked at the energy cannons turning toward him, and at the spatial blockade field contracting toward him, the corners of his mouth curving slightly into a ruthless arc.
"Toys of ants," he said.
The energy cannon of the first node fired.
A blue energy beam shot toward Knull at the speed of light, dragging a bright blue pillar of light in the vacuum.
The energy beam struck Knull's chest, bursting into a cluster of blue electric arcs on his black skin.
Knull did not move.
After the energy beam vanished, no trace was left on his chest.
It wasn't a shield blocking the attack; his skin directly absorbed the energy beam.
The energy fired by that cannon, the moment it hit him, was assimilated, decomposed, and stored by the Symbioteenergy within his body, becoming a part of his power.
Other nodes fired as well.
Dozens and hundreds of energy beams shot toward Knull from different directions, weaving a blue net of death in the vacuum.
The energy beams struck Knull's body, bursting into cluster after cluster of blue electric arcs, submerging his entire figure in a dazzling blue light.
The blue light dissipated.
Knull was still standing in his original place. His black robe fluttered in the shockwave of the energy beams, but his body remained completely motionless.
He reached out, spread his five fingers, and aimed at the nearest node.
A stream of dark red energy shot out from his palm, striking the node.
The moment it was hit, the node exploded from within, the fiery light of the explosion silently blooming in the vacuum as fragments scattered in all directions.
One node after another shattered under his attacks.
Tony Stark rushed out of the laboratory, the Mark LIII anti-Symbiote armor already worn on his body.
The black and dark red battle armor gleamed coldly under the corridor lights, and the red light band on the mask shone in the darkness like a glowing eye.
In his hand, he held an energy weapon composed of energy nodes that could transform shapes.
"Jarvis, give me the real-time feed of the Eye of the Firmament."
The holographic screen lit up inside his mask.
He saw Knull destroying the nodes of the Eye of the Firmament, one after another, as easily as picking fruits.
His dark red eyes shone in the darkness, like two lamps burning in the depths of hell.
"Sir, the magic spatial blockade field is ineffective against the target, and energy weapons are ineffective against the target.
The Eye of the Firmament system is rapidly collapsing; estimated time to complete failure: two minutes."
Tony clenched his teeth.
"Enough. Two minutes is enough for me to fly up there."
His thrusters ignited, and his body lifted from the ground, accelerating, breaking the sound barrier, and flying toward the exterior of the atmosphere.
Chapter 470: "You're done? My turn!"
Chapter 470
Knull destroyed the final node, standing at the altitude of Earth's geosynchronous orbit, looking down at the blue Planet.
His dark red eyes pierced through the atmosphere, through the clouds, through the city lights and the rural darkness, falling upon an estate in northern New York.
Morgan Manor.
He could feel that Loren Morgan was there.
It was not an energy signature; he had no energy signature.
Nor was it a sense of presence; his presence was obscured by some higher power.
It was intuition!
He had an instinctive perception, one that could not be deceived by any disguise, of the entity that had erased his consciousness.
He was about to step downward.
Two figures appeared before him.
The first was Thor, stormbreaker spinning in his hands, blue arcs of electricity bursting from the blade, emitting a silent light.
His blue eyes looked at Knull, expression stern, lips pressed tightly together.
His left arm was still wrapped in bandages, but his body stood very straight, and stormbreaker was held very steadily.
The second was Stephen Strange.
The Cloak of Levitation fluttered on his shoulders, golden magic energy condensing on his hands, forming two rotating, glowing magic circles.
He looked at Knull without fear, only the calmness unique to the Sorcerer Supreme when facing an invincible enemy.
"The Thor of Asgard, the Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj." Knull's voice was not loud, but it clearly reached the ears of the two people.
Thor's stormbreaker lit up.
The blue arcs of electricity condensed on the blade into a huge, rotating energy sphere, the surface of which had white lightning jumping across it.
"It's truly surprising that you actually know us!"
"Since you know us, you should know what to do; hurry up and leave Earth, this is not a place for you to run wild."
Thor said full of conceit, and then stormbreaker flew out of his hand, carrying the force of a thunderbolt, striking toward Knull's chest.
The blue energy sphere on the blade kept growing during flight, changing from the size of a basketball to the size of a car, and from the size of a car to the size of a house.
The energy sphere illuminated the surrounding space as brightly as day.
But Knull did not dodge.
He stretched out his left hand, spreading two fingers, and pinched the blade of stormbreaker.
Lightning burst between his fingers, blue arcs of electricity crawling across his black skin, but his skin did not change at all.
It wasn't blocked; it was directly absorbed.
The energy of stormbreaker, the moment it hit him, was assimilated, decomposed, and devoured by the Symbioteenergy within his body.
Thor's blue eyes widened.
"You couldn't even beat Gorr, yet you conceitedly attacked me, who gave you the guts?" Knull sneered.
"I am stronger than any enemy you have ever seen, because I am not a god, I am the entity that created gods."
He withdrew stormbreaker from between his fingers, holding the blade like a handleless knife.
He looked at the blade of stormbreaker, looked at the lightning flowing on the blade, and then gave a strong throw, tossing stormbreaker toward the direction of Earth.
The blade dragged a blue band of light through the air, smashing into the Atlantic Ocean and stirring up a column of water hundreds of meters high.
Thor's hands were empty.
Strange moved.
His hands drew a huge, golden magic circle in the air.
The edge of the magic circle consisted of complex, constantly changing magic runes, and the center of the circle was a rotating, glowing golden vortex.
He pushed the magic circle toward Knull; the magic circle continuously split during its flight, one becoming two, two becoming four, four becoming eight.
Eventually transforming into hundreds of small magiccircles, surrounding Knull from all directions.
Every single magic circle shot out a beam of golden energy.
The energy beams hit Knull's body; it was not an attack, but restraint.
The golden energy wound, contracted, and intertwined on Knull's body, forming dense layers of cocoon-like energy nets.
Knull looked down at the golden energy net on his body, the corners of his mouth slightly rising into a cruel arc.
"Each generation of the Sorcerer Supreme is worse than the last; your master Ancient One wasn't bad, but you are far inferior."
His body shook violently. Dark red energy surged out from under his skin, shattering the golden energy net into pieces.
The fragments drifted in the vacuum, turning into golden points of light, and then extinguished.
Strange's body was pushed back hundreds of meters by the Impact, the Cloak of Levitation spreading out behind him like a pair of huge wings, stabilizing his body.
Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
"Strange!" Thor shouted.
He recalled stormbreaker; the column of water in the Atlantic Ocean was split open along the path of the returning blade, and stormbreaker returned to Thor's hands covered in seawater.
The blue arcs of electricity lit up again on the blade, brighter and denser than before.
Thor poured all the lightning into stormbreaker.
His body glowed under the infusion of energy, and blue arcs of electricity surged out from under his skin.
Shooting out from his eyes, spraying out from his mouth and nose.
His hair stood on end in the current, and his muscles expanded by a circle under the infusion of energy.
The energy field beneath his feet formed a visible blue halo of light in the vacuum.
"This axe," Thor's voice came from within the lightning, low and deep like the echo of distant thunder, "is Asgard's gift to you."
He threw stormbreaker out.
It didn't fly out spinning; it shot straight toward Knull like a bolt of lightning.
The lightning on the blade drew a dazzling, blue-white pillar of light in the vacuum.
The diameter of the pillar of light expanded from the size of the blade to several meters wide, completely illuminating the space between Thor and Knull.
Knull looked at the pillar of lightning shooting toward him, his dark red eyes completely without
ripples."Thor. Your strength is top-tier among mortals. But what you are facing is not a mortal.""I am Knull. I am the darkness. I am the ancestor of the Symbiote. I am the void before the birth of the Universe."He didn't dodge, nor did he catch it with his hand; he just stood there, letting the pillar of lightning hit his body.The pillar of light exploded on him, blue arcs of electricity dancing wildly on the surface of his body, illuminating his black skin like a blue night sky.The arcs of electricity crawled on his skin for a few seconds, and then extinguished.His body did not move, suffered no injuries, and showed no changes whatsoever.Thor's stormbreaker slipped from his hands.It wasn't knocked down; he let go of it himself, because his hands were shaking, his entire body was shaking, and his blue eyes were filled with despair.At that moment, he realized the gap between himself and Knull.It wasn't a gap in strength, but a gap in hierarchy.Just like a person trying to shatter a mountain with their fists, that was simply an impossible thing.Knull looked at him, the arc of his mouth growing a bit larger."You're done? My turn."