Knull faced five battlefronts at once. One, where he fought against the Enigma Force—the very cosmic principle created to counter him, to keep his primordial hunger in check and maintain the fragile equilibrium of the seventh cosmos. It now wore the face of a man who had lost everything and sought only redemption, a conviction so pure it burned brighter than any star. Knull wrapped the Abyss around himself, a shroud of living darkness, battling Captain Universe not just in physical space, but across the very fabric of reality, countering every attempt by the hero to rewrite the laws of this dark domain.
The second battlefront was the fury of the now new All-Father. Any other time, even imprisoned, Knull would have shrugged off the divine lightning with little more than annoyance. But now, rage of a slighted king, Thor's thunder hurt. Each bolt was a distraction, a crack in his concentration, and the golden-wreathed Captain Universe took every opening, every microsecond of diverted attention, to land blows that resonated with the pure, anathemic power of light.
The third was a nuisance, a matter of pest control. His own creations, the traitor symbiotes and their mortal hosts, flitted at the edges of the conflict. None were worth his direct attention, except perhaps for the child gleaming of metal and science, bonded with his weakest offspring, yet it was the one that showed the most... unpredictable potential.
But Knull didn't care for potential. Potential was a promise, not a fact. He had seen beings capable of becoming Celestials die in their cradles, and he believed these traitors would too. His power merged with the Abyss, and from its depths, he let loose another of his children—the cannibal hunters of his army, the Xenophages—to hunt down the traitors that had dared to bind him to his throne. And for the child with potential, he sent a beast from among his creations, a name whispered in terror even amongst the hive mind. A monster the other symbiotes feared.
The fourth was a subtle tremor in the grand tapestry of fate, a whisper he caught almost on instinct. A fisherman. A single, patient fisherman, casting his line into the swirling chaos of this battle, angling his bait to catch something vast. Were it another time, Knull would have torn the threads of destiny apart to find this interloper. Yet, at this moment, he could do no such thing. He let it be. What was stolen would be returned. And if it wasn't, the cosmos would be lathered in the color of Knull.
And the fifth, the most fascinating and infuriating battlefront of all, was the mortal king. The child of the color Emerald. No, he was the color Emerald. Knull knew one thing with absolute certainty: this mortal would not attack him, not while his chosen champion was still fighting. It would be an eternal wound to his pride, a pride that even Celestials and abstract concepts could never match. A pride that would shape all laws itself.
Yet, still Knull kept a fraction of his ancient consciousness on the mortal. For this mortal had turned half of his sanctuary, half of his home, half of his kingdom, into his color. For this mortal had turned the immaterial Abyss into material. For this mortal was cause and effect, and from the looks of it, Knull's own fate was now inextricably aligned with whatever grand, arrogant design this mortal planned.
For this mortal was DOOM.
---
Venom wrapped around and inside Peter's body, a desperate, invasive act of battlefield medicine. The symbiote's tendrils fixed its host the only way it knew how. With brutal, agonizing efficiency.
The tendrils brought the bones to their original place, shattered or broken, it didn't matter. Then they mashed the bones together. The black goo moved, flowed, a living, regenerative cement, healing the fractures. Every time it happened, Peter wanted to scream, a raw, primal sound of pure agony.
But he couldn't. For one, it wouldn't matter. None could hear him over the cacophony of cosmic war. For another, he was a little busy. He was busy fighting for his life against a horde of dragons that blotted out the non-existent sky. His Spider-Sense, a constant, screaming siren in his skull, was a blur of incoming threats, the suit's HUD flashing them in a real-time, terrifying numerical cascade.
Even the crystalline heads of the symbiote dragons on which he stepped were slowly corroding his suit. The only place he could stand for more than a few seconds was the emerald green floor Doom had created. And even then, he couldn't stay there for long, as the dragons would swarm him, a tide of claws and fangs.
He punched a symbiote dragon, the impact shattering its jaw, and used its collapsing body as a springboard to land on the emerald ground. He pulled hard, his webs, thick and glowing, bringing two more dragons crashing down. He promptly grabbed one by its serpentine tail and, with a roar of effort, used it as a monstrous club, smashing it into the other and then into the oncoming horde.
He jumped high as a volley of corrosive goo splattered where he had been, his webs latching onto the leathery wings of a flying dragon. Peter pulled as hard and as fast as he could, not just dragging the dragon to the ground, but using the tension to propel himself even higher, a red and blue comet in the black. His wrist pointed at a direction, a clear patch of emerald ground, but he didn't shoot his web as his Spider-Sense went haywire. He contorted his body in mid-air, dodging several goo attacks and a trio of diving dragons, before firing his webs where his senses now told him he would be safe.
The web line latched onto the emerald ground, a lifeline amidst the chaos. The dragons were no slouches, either. They descended upon the web line, their claws and fangs tearing, trying to cut off the one escape he had found.
"WEB-ster, now might be a bad time, but… I ne…"
"**Commencing Strength Mode.**"
"...ed a little helppp…"
The suit's AI responded instantly. Peter's costume bulked out, reinforced plating flowing over his limbs with a soft, satisfying hiss. His weight increased dramatically as he fell, slamming onto the back of a dragon with enough force to render it incapable of flight. Then he pulled. His augmented strength stretched the web line to its absolute limit. He could feel the polymer groaning, the feedback vibrating up his arm. A little more, and he would break it. He had a lot more. Then he let go.
He was a catapulted missile, a blur of red, blue, and raw power, launched straight through the storm of corrosive goos and into the heart of the dragon horde. The first few impacts didn't register, his augmented durability shrugging them off. But then they swarmed him, a crushing, clawing, biting mass. He could feel every impact now, his suit's integrity percentage dropping with every blow. He powered through, a living battering ram, and finally reached his destination. The emerald ground.
He rolled a few times upon impact, the world a dizzying smear. But he was fine. For now. Venom's eerie white eyes poked out from his shoulder, its form still partially integrated with his own.
"**Boy. Your suit's a few dragons away from breaking into scraps. Bond with us. As you did previously. We can both heal you and fight at once. Half-bonded, we are useless. But together…**" Venom's voice slithered, a sweet poison of logic and desperation amidst the fight. "**We can survive.**"
Before Peter could answer, a sound interrupted them. A sound that was not a sound, but a feeling, a psychic presence so potent, so utterly vile, that all the Agents of the Cosmos, scattered across the battlefield, froze. A sound that made them feel more fear than even the all-consuming gaze of Knull.
"**Venom. We've been wanting to meet you ever since you made the Hive Mind glitch. We want to thank you, Father. After all, you helped us escape. Helped us meet our creator.**"
Venom stopped, its white eyes widening in what could only be described as pure, absolute terror. The surrounding symbiote dragons mattered not. Not now. A single word, a name, a designation, uttered telepathically in a chorus of dread from every Agent of the Cosmos on the field, echoed in Peter's mind. All uttered the same thing.
**"Oh, shit."**