Unless one is omniscient and omnipotent, a universal truth holds: everything follows a linear logic.
Without omniscience and omnipotence, actions must unfold in a sequence. For Knull, His sequence was clear, first reclaim His body and restore His power, then retrieve His Necrosword.
Knull's betrayal by the symbiotes led to a cascade of humiliations, compounded by relentless mockery from those on Earth. The Necrosword, the first symbiote drawn from the abyss and forged into His personal weapon, was critical. Had Knull sought it before recovering His strength, who knows how the Necrosword might have reacted?
But after arduously restoring His might, Knull discovered the Necrosword had abandoned Him, pledging itself to a new master.
Knull was utterly shocked.
"Hmph, it seems your reputation in this universe is beyond tarnished. Given the chance, everyone betrays you, even your weapon."
Captain America, entwined by countless symbiotes, sneered coldly.
"Your will is impressively steadfast, but no matter how strong, it's still mortal."
Knull pointed, and more symbiotes surged onto Captain America, drowning his consciousness entirely.
The last assault on Earth had yielded little, but capturing this Captain America, imbued with a fragment of the Cosmic Cube, was a prize.
Knull's roster of capable lieutenants was thin. This Captain America was one.
Loki was another.
"It must be Adam's doing."
As a fellow trickster god, Loki stood with utmost deference. He was the only one under Knull who could command symbiotes without being parasitized.
Loki continued, "I know Adam. When he sets his mind to something, he orchestrates it from multiple angles, never relying solely on brute force. The timing is too perfect, you reclaim your body, take control of Klyntar, and lose the Necrosword. Adam must have done something."
"Whether it was Adam or not, be it him or the Necrosword, I'll cast them into the abyss to suffer eons of torment."
Knull's expression twisted, though His visage was already terrifying.
The past thousand years were the most humiliating sliver of His long existence, etched indelibly into His memory.
Knull's rising fury caused Klyntar to quake violently. Countless symbiotes writhed, emitting incomprehensible shrieks.
Under His terrifying divine power, it seemed the very stars of the cosmos might collapse.
Loki bowed his head deeply. This was his first close encounter with a Cosmic Being, a true deity wielding universal laws, far beyond the Skyfathers.
The Skyfathers he'd seen, capable of shattering planets and traversing time, were insignificant compared to Knull.
The gap was staggering.
This was a true Cosmic Being, so powerful that even Loki trembled. Every scheme he'd devised to betray Knull had been scrapped, plunging him into despair.
Was he doomed to serve Knull forever? Serving wasn't the issue, Loki couldn't tolerate his body and mind being wholly under Knull's control.
Even plotting against Knull required weaving his true intentions through a tangle of extraneous thoughts, linked by obscure calculations to conceal them.
If there was any hope, it lay with Adam.
Though Loki disliked Adam, he had to admit the man was terrifying. No one could fathom what Adam was thinking.
"I just received word from the cosmos, Odin is dead." Knull revealed, baring His jagged teeth.
Loki froze, then said nonchalantly, "That old fool should've died long ago. Not choosing me as Asgard's king was his greatest mistake."
"Once Adam is dealt with, I'll help you slaughter all of Asgard's dissenters. You will be its king." Knull said, His smile ghastly.
Whether Asgard would remain a realm of the Asgardians or become a symbiote-dominated world was another matter.
"The Necrosword betrayed me. After I deal with Adam and Earth, it's next. Even if it flees to the universe's edge, I'll find it. No symbiote can escape my control."
Knull now harbored deep distrust for the symbiote species.
If he could defeat Adam and claim the Xenomorphs, replacing symbiotes with Xenomorphs might be a fine alternative.
As a conquest-driven cosmic evil god, Knull needed a steady supply of expendable forces to subdue countless planets.
He couldn't personally intervene in every matter.
"If we attack the Yggdrasil again, we'll provoke hostility from all its realms, possibly facing an onslaught from multiple Skyfathers." Loki cautioned.
Knull replied coldly, "No number of Skyfathers matters. I already have loyal servants within the Yggdrasil."
Servants? Who? What race would be deranged enough to ally with a being like Knull?
The Yggdrasil's pantheons had witnessed Adam's rise, his repeated triumphs against the odds. Which race was so reckless as to bet on Adam's defeat?
Loki couldn't fathom it.
Knull offered no explanation.
The vast symbiote legion mobilized once more.
This was, without question, the largest expedition Knull had launched since creating the symbiotes.
With His power restored, Knull made no effort to conceal His murderous intent.
A terrifying darkness, like a tangible veil, dimmed the light of countless nearby star systems in an instant.
This terrifying power, as if overwriting and reshaping the fundamental rules of vast swathes of the universe, sparked panic among countless beings and drew the gaze of myriad gods.
Many ancient entities, merely sensing this disturbance and attuning themselves to the spreading darkness, instantly knew who was responsible, groaning with exasperation.
"Knull? That guy's been quiet for over a thousand years, and now he's stirring up trouble again."
"Knull… I've heard of him. Seems he roams the cosmos with his legion, recklessly challenging every god. The deities who've fallen to him are beyond counting."
"From the Celestials above to the common gods of various star systems, he's fought them all."
In the universe's elite circles, Knull was utterly reviled.
He was either fighting or on his way to a fight.
Yet, the gods capable of defeating Knull rarely could kill this being who carried an abyss within him, often allowing him to escape.
Gods who couldn't match Knull were slaughtered, while those who could never finished him off.
No deity wanted anything to do with Knull. He was simply too vile.
Across the universe's roughly ten billion years of history, no god had a combat record as extensive as Knull's, nor such an absurdly vast "social circle."
Even the Celestials, tirelessly forging stars to create light and life across the cosmos, paused their labors, turning their gazes toward a distant corner of the universe.
Many gods watched the Celestial Prime, Arishem, curious to see how these beings would react to Knull's brazen display of presence.
Would they, as they did billions of years ago, assemble to hunt Knull down?
"Arishem, what should we do?"
"Continue creating new stars. Light fosters life. The age of darkness is over."
"But this creature was born from darkness, intent on slaughtering gods born of light. We do nothing? Countless planets will be destroyed by him."
"Judging by Knull's trajectory, he's likely heading for Earth, that's our critical experimental site. I hear the Deviants and Eternals we sent there have been eradicated by Earth's natives. This could jeopardize Tiamut's emergence."
"I heard Arishem's champion, Hyperion, sent to Earth, is dead too, our mightiest warrior."
The Celestials communed across countless light-years.
Arishem silently regarded the direction of Earth.
After a long pause, the Celestial declared, "Ignore Knull. Ignore Earth. We cannot account for every variable."
As for a racial war between Knull's symbiote legion and Adam's Xenomorph army, who would survive?
Truthfully, for simplicity's sake, Arishem wouldn't mind if both perished.
Either's destruction would be a boon.
Still, Arishem favored Knull. Knull's countless years of battle, surviving relentless assaults and emerging from near-death, proved his dominance. His track record suggested a higher chance of victory.
Knull was a true Cosmic Being. Adam was not. By origin or power, Adam had no business matching Knull. They weren't even in the same league.
"Once Knull and his legion are defeated, we can consider intervening, banishing Knull and preserving Earth and Tiamut."
Arishem issued the command to all Celestials.
At that moment, the gods, stunned by the Celestials' inaction, turned their attention to Adam, this human.
Gathering scattered cosmic intelligence, the deities pieced together past events, learning of Knull's repeated defeats on Earth, humiliated by Adam twice.
"Adam and his Xenomorph legion… Dormammu and Knull both suffered at this human's hands."
"No matter how formidable he was, facing Knull's full onslaught, he can't survive. Don't compare Knull to Dormammu, who relies on an external dimension. Knull himself is a walking dimension."
In that moment, most gods became aware of Adam's existence, eagerly anticipating the outcome of this clash.
An ancient cosmic evil god against a Skyfather-led species?
No matter how you looked at it, the result seemed predetermined. The only question was how Adam would struggle.
Countless portals opened, and an endless tide of symbiotes, like a black flood engulfing the cosmos, poured through, crossing space to enter the Yggdrasil's domain.
If it were just the symbiotes, it might be manageable. But when Knull, in his complete form, nearly tore space apart, his colossal presence loomed within the Yggdrasil, naturally warping time, light, and the established order.
Virtually every realm felt the arrival of a Cosmic Being.
As Knull moved casually toward the Yggdrasil's core, his sheer mass exerted a natural pressure, squeezing and dazzling the cosmic structure.
The Yggdrasil's branches trembled faintly, radiating divine light in response.
Unexaggeratedly, Knull was, at that moment, the most radiant presence under the Yggdrasil.
"Hmph, the Yggdrasil… this wretched place, and those two wretched realms." Knull's eyes blazed with malice, piercing Asgard to see the grim-faced new God-King, Thor, sneering disdainfully before settling on Earth.
Loki watched anxiously, fearing his impulsive brother might charge out with all of Asgard's warriors to confront Knull head-on.
This war demanded observing Adam's move first! Whatever Adam did, Thor should follow with Asgard's might, never acting alone.
His brother, after all, wasn't the fallen Odin, lacking that overwhelming power.
"Tch, he's here fast. But I'm not slow to act either."
Adam felt the faint tremors of the Earth, not merely the planet shaking but the entire solar system quivering under Knull's oppressive presence.
All eyes turned to Adam. At the Weyland Corporation's headquarters, phones rang off the hook.
As people observed through various devices, seeing the endless black tide seemingly enveloping the solar system, they knew who had come.
Knull, the God of Symbiotes, had arrived in his full form, leading all his symbiotes to attack.
At the same moment.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill resolved to deploy the agency's final measure: activating the mother platform at the sun's edge, dispatching countless advanced Sentinel robots to Earth to fend off the Xenomorph onslaught!
"This was meant to be Fury's trump card against mutants, but I never imagined we'd use it against Xenomorphs…" Hill's heart ached. Under her leadership, S.H.I.E.L.D., facing even a minor detachment of Adam's forces, had been forced to flee globally.
Adam had likely forgotten S.H.I.E.L.D. entirely.
No matter. With rapidly iterating Sentinel robots, S.H.I.E.L.D. could still…
"Director, bad news! The solar system's experiencing abnormal spatial vibrations. A massive swarm of symbiotes has arrived."
"So?" Hill's heart sank, a sense of déjà vu creeping in.
"So, the mother platform's solar orbit has shifted, and it's plummeting toward the sun!"
"Damn it!"
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