The two black monsters collided, creating a massive hurricane that swallowed everything around them. Black waves rolled up wind, sand, and rocks as thunderous vibrations shook the air, making it seem as though the sky itself were collapsing.
With the blessing of the Black Lantern Ring, Eddie's strength had reached its peak. Every movement carried a powerful aura of death that swept across Gnar's cheek. With only the slightest touch, the skinny, withered flesh instantly collapsed and became lifeless.
The Black Death Sword pressed against the man's neck, its sharp black blade scraping heavily across Eddie's throat. The fierce collision sent sparks of lightning flying. Eddie was startled and immediately retreated.
As expected of a god who had survived from the most ancient era, Gnar's combat experience was far beyond Eddie's. Yet with the Black Lantern Ring, Eddie had already surpassed Gnar in raw power, both in the sheer degree of his evil and the aura radiating from his body.
The title of God of Symbiotes was not something Gnar had simply claimed. He had earned it through countless battles, advancing step by step through endless corpses and rivers of blood.
Gnar had lived for far too long, and his combat experience was far greater than Eddie's. Eddie had the Black Lantern Ring as an artifact, but Gnar had his own Black Death Sword, a weapon capable of slaughtering thousands of gods. When it came to bloodshed and vengeful souls, Gnar was not afraid of this monster who had risen from the dead.
Yes, Gnar had finally decided that Eddie was a monster. Only a monster could fight him to this extent. Even a god was not worthy of being called a monster.
Therefore, the being he admired most in the Dark Council was Mangog, a brainless but extraordinarily powerful monster. In terms of combat power alone, Mangog might have been the strongest existence in the entire Dark Council. After all, he could conquer Asgard by himself. The aggregation of billions of tormented souls had defeated both Thor, the God of Thunder, and Odin, the All-Father. No matter how many times they fought, they would never be Mangog's opponent!
Gnar respected strength, and he himself was one of the most powerful beings in the universe, possessing an extremely cruel nature.
Although Thanos was called the Mad Titan and feared as an executioner, much of his reputation came from his armies, the Black Order, and his history of conquest and slaughter across countless worlds. Those things had elevated his reputation until his name alone could shake the universe.
But a truly powerful planet would still be wary of Thanos and regard him as one of the most dangerous threats imaginable. If he fought alone, however, Thanos would not necessarily be the victor.
Gnar was different from Mangog. Their confidence came from their own strength, not from the legions behind them. Those armies were merely icing on the cake.
As for Mephisto... Gnar despised the demons of Hell even more. Was someone who relied on schemes and tricks really worthy of becoming a dimensional lord? His obsession with collecting souls had also earned him countless enemies, which Gnar considered foolish.
"Let's join forces!"
Nall extended his withered palm toward Eddie and spoke sincerely.
"You are my strongest descendant, and you've surpassed my strength. If we join forces, the entire multiverse will be powerless against us! We can drag those lofty gods down from their altars, and you can have whatever you want."
"Humans are miserable creatures. Their lives are filled with regrets and anxiety. Only by becoming the supreme gods of the universe and replacing those who merely stand by can we completely break free of the limitations of the multiverse and become its masters!"
He understood human weakness and the brevity of mortal life.
If Eddie were still alive, Nall would not be afraid of him. After all, a human lifespan would eventually come to an end. A hundred years later, Eddie Brock would disappear into the dust of history. Give him another hundred years, and it would have no effect on Gnar. To an ancient god who had lived for hundreds of millions of years, a century was merely the blink of an eye, gone in the time it took to sneeze.
But Nall felt a little regretful now. He regretted killing Eddie Brock and inadvertently allowing him to return in the form of a corpse, achieving another kind of immortality.
If Eddie truly remained on Earth, Gnar was not certain he could conquer this blue, life-rich planet. Although he had no particular reason to conquer Earth, perhaps it was simply because it was interesting. Challenging, even. Despite having lived for such a long time, Gnar naturally needed some kind of hobby to occupy his existence.
Just like the Elders of the Universe, the six Elders each had their own interests and obsessions that supported their continued existence. The Collector loved gathering strange and unusual things from across the universe, while the Grandmaster enjoyed gambling. Such pursuits became a form of spiritual sustenance.
Gnar was naturally interested in sending symbiotes to occupy planets one after another. The wailing of living beings as they were devoured was simply the most beautiful music to his ears.
"No one ever told you that you talk too much?"
Eddie could not understand the god's way of thinking. He had not lived nearly as long, nor did he possess that same deep-rooted cruelty and indifference toward life.
"No one..." Nall opened his arms, raised his head, and laughed toward the sky. "You are the first human being who has been able to fight me for this long. You have reached a height that even the gods have never reached! You have surpassed them!"
The Black Death Sword collided with the black light once again. Eddie materialized a Black Death Sword that looked identical to Gnar's, wrapped in a frightening aura of death. The putrid stench almost spread across the entire neighborhood. The two blades collided violently, and a thunderous roar suddenly rang out as the shockwave tore the dark symbiote sky in half.
But the sword created by the Black Lantern Ring was ultimately inferior. A copy could never defeat the original.
Gnar's slash immediately pierced Eddie's chest, leaving a bright hole through his heart. A battle of this level was no longer something Venom could participate in. He obediently withdrew into Eddie's body and continued repairing his wounds. As for the fighting, he would leave it to Eddie to vent his anger.
After all, Eddie had already died once. If he still couldn't vent his anger, that would be ridiculous!
The two black figures continued to clash, and the aftermath of their battle alone destroyed half of San Francisco.
Renzo carried Alexey's enormous body. Nearby lay Morbius, Thompson, Contempt, Black Cat, and the others, all injured and unconscious. Renzo carried them to safety one by one. At the same time, the symbiote sporozoites throughout San Francisco had been eliminated. Fortunately, Gnar had not had time to release the symbiotes into other states. Otherwise, Renzo would not have been nearly this relaxed.
Looking at the two dark lights in the distance, Renzo watched as they swallowed all the surrounding light, making it impossible to see what was happening inside.
The man sat cross-legged, resting his cheek on one hand as he watched from afar.
A battle of this level was already comparable to Wanda's battle with herself, although that confrontation had been grander and more tragic, with far more people dying.
Renzo was not worried. The perceptions transmitted through the Mind Stone were accurate. This battle would end soon. Whether he intervened or not did not matter.
However, he had gained a new assessment of his own strength. He was much stronger now than before. At the level of three Infinity Stones, Renzo was more than a little stronger than he had been previously.
He probably now possessed enough strength to fight Infinite Ultron, but without the Time Stone, he could not restart the planet.
The difference between users of Infinity Stones could be enormous. It was astonishing that Renzo had become this much stronger in only three years. After all, the Marvel Universe was not like a fantasy world with a fixed and rigid leveling system. There was no strict progression where a genius could simply rise from one realm to another in three years.
Suddenly, Renzo stood up and brushed the dirt from his backside. The battle in the distance was over. The outcome had been decided.
The thin body was split open horizontally. Nall's heart had been pierced by his own Black Death Sword, pinning him to the ground and leaving him unable to move. Yet the hole in his chest was empty.
Eddie remained silent, his pupils dyed pure black. Venom slowly emerged from his body, opening a bloody mouth atop his enormous head.
Seeing Renzo approach, Eddie said nothing. Perhaps a person's personality changed after death, or perhaps after experiencing death himself, he simply no longer had anything to say.
"Well enough."
"Ah."
Renzo turned his head toward Nall, who was nailed to the ground yet still wore a sneer. His facial muscles twisted uncontrollably, while his abyss-like pupils stared at the two of them.
"You won. You won... I never expected that I would actually fall here, in such a monotonous and weak universe."
Gnar was somewhat unwilling to accept it. Being surrounded and defeated by a group of gods might have made him feel better. But being defeated by his own descendant and a dead human was simply absurd! Before arriving on Earth, he would never have believed that a human could defeat him, let alone kill him.
There were powerful beings on Earth, but not many. Gnar felt that the strength of Alexey, Thompson, and the others could only be considered average by universal standards. Yet such average combat power represented the peak of Earth's current forces. Gnar could chop apart nuclear weapons with a wave of his hand, effortlessly destroy large armies, and make absolute darkness cover the entire planet in the blink of an eye.
Within a single week, Earth would descend into chaos from the lack of sunlight. Hypothermia and famine would follow. Humans would turn against one another, and countless people would starve to death. In less than a month, the world's order would completely collapse. Humanity would begin tearing itself apart, and most of the population would be lost as the planet approached destruction.
Gnar could easily enjoy the destruction of a planet without deploying a single soldier. To him, war was little more than entertainment.
Eddie pulled the sword from Gnar's heart, and black blood flowed from the wound, giving off a rotten stench.
"Here."
Renzo reached out and took it as the Black Lantern Ring returned to his hand.
"Then you..." Renzo was surprised. Without the power of the Black Lantern Ring, Eddie would return to being a corpse. Venom could not sustain itself on a corpse, but Venom's descendants possessed that ability. His seventh son specifically slept within corpses.
"I took his heart."
Eddie pointed toward his chest. Renzo looked through his lens and saw a black heart beating slowly, a steady stream of black blood spreading from it throughout the body.
Renzo relaxed. He had originally planned to bring Eddie back to the Avengers' universe and use the Reality Stone to regrow his heart. In the meantime, the Black Lantern Ring could have been used to sustain the life force Eddie needed.
That was good. At least Eddie had completely inherited the authority of the God of Symbiotes.
The man waved his hand, and the symbiote canopy covering the entire sky disappeared in the blink of an eye, like a toilet being flushed, leaving nothing behind.
Renzo slipped the Black Lantern Ring onto his finger and brought it close to Nall's forehead. A powerful suction force immediately pulled Nall into the Black Lantern Ring.
Eddie watched from the side, his eyes twitching. Who would have thought that the being who had been so terrifying moments ago would disappear in an instant?
Renzo was not worried. There was a hidden BOSS inside the Black Lantern Ring. Within it, Gnar could only receive the Black Death Emperor's most cordial treatment. There was a high probability that he would eventually be used as nourishment to replenish the Land of the Dead. Even a single-universe entity like the Black Death Emperor could not completely ignore the evil power and souls produced by the death of a high-level god.
Those Egyptian gods alone had barely managed to fill the Black Death Emperor's stomach, and their souls were still wandering through the endless darkness, aimless and mindless like walking corpses.
Gnar's fate would definitely not be pleasant, but it would take the Black Death Emperor a long time to digest such a monstrous god. Renzo did not need to worry about him emerging to cause trouble anytime soon.
A week later.
"Are you really going to leave?"
Eddie looked at Renzo. Compared with his original powerful body, he was now much thinner, and his face was considerably paler.
"Yeah. There are still plenty of things in my universe waiting for me to deal with. I was delayed for too long on the way."
Renzo patted Eddie on the shoulder.
"Take care of yourself. After all, you've died once. Your heart isn't a permanent solution. When I return to my universe, I'll definitely come back and give you a new one!"
Eddie was not too worried. Now he possessed everything Gnar once had. He could even sense the distant symbiote planet and the hundreds of millions of symbiotes living there. From now on, they would all be his subordinates. Eddie, who had mastered the power of the Black Emperor, possessed the highest combat power in the universe!
Thompson and Scorn had been pardoned by him and could now live new lives.
Morbius found Lucis, who was being tortured, and carried him away without saying a word. Renzo had no idea where he went.
Alexey was being monitored by Eddie. After all, a rhinoceros man running through the streets would cause panic among the public.
After experiencing the symbiote invasion of Earth, even though the entire incident had lasted less than half a day, the damage it caused was unimaginably severe. Half the people in San Francisco had been parasitized by symbiotes, and their bodies had aged dramatically in an instant. For a time, hospital beds were in critically short supply. The authorities knew the situation could no longer be contained, so they simply blamed everything on aliens. There was no way ordinary people could handle the truth about the darkness that had covered the sky.
Eddie erased the memories of him from the relevant authorities, and he and Venom returned to a happy life. Unfortunately for Mrs. Chen, her convenience store had been destroyed, forcing her to find a new place to rent.
"Having died once, I've learned a lot."
Eddie lit a cigarette and held it between his lips. The wind on the rooftop was strong enough to make his jacket billow.
"Kasady is dead. He died in prison."
Renzo knew about this. Kasady's beloved Scream had been killed by Gnar, and Kasady had been returned to prison before being transferred to Washington. On the second day of his imprisonment, he broke into the prison guard's office, took the guard's gun, and ended his own life by swallowing a bullet.
Love existed between madmen, too.
The deep portal opened, and Renzo stepped toward it.
"I know an interesting person, a shy big boy who works at a newspaper like you. He has some connections with you. If you get the chance, bring him here next time. Let me meet him."
"You'll like him."
"That's great."
Eddie extinguished his cigarette and spoke sadly.
"Goodbye, teacher..."
The vortex closed completely.
"Wow, wow, wow. Look at what this lonely loser is doing. Did your Miss Seagull kick you to the curb?"
Eddie turned his head and saw Felicia swaying her slender waist as she slowly approached. Every movement was filled with emotion, like a pool of spring water deep enough to make a person sink.
"Handsome man, want a date? I've already booked a room—a double room!"
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