The shadow gods had no experience dealing with this kind of situation. Faced with an impossibly stubborn Adam, they were momentarily at a loss for words.
Their massive forms, seemingly made entirely of shadow, exchanged silent glances. None of them spoke.
Adam was incredibly annoying—that much was true. In the shadow gods' original expectations, the moment they appeared, Adam would have desperately prayed to them for power to survive the crisis, offering up his soul like a drowning man clutching at straws.
The soul of the Xenomorph Lord would have been quite valuable. Even a portion of it would have let them gain some control over the xenomorphs and analyze Adam's and the xenomorphs' abilities.
It would have been perfect preparation for the future. The shadow gods had already been considering how best to trigger the next Ragnarok, and xenomorphs had become their ideal weapon of choice—at least since Cul had been defeated and imprisoned by Adam.
It would have been a win on multiple fronts.
Instead, Adam's reaction had completely blindsided them. It almost felt like they were the ones begging him.
On the other hand, if Adam was this difficult, then Knull—who was currently charging toward the solar system in a murderous rage—would be even more hated and repulsive to the gods.
At least Adam could be negotiated with. Knull offered no such possibility. That mad god would simply slaughter every deity in his path and paint the entire World Tree black.
Knull had been born from darkness. He had awakened from his long slumber because the Celestials had spread light and heat across the universe, birthing countless lives and turning the once-silent cosmos into a noisy mess.
One of the reasons he waged endless wars and slaughtered gods was to drag the universe back into that perfect darkness and silence.
Of course, satisfying his own lust for slaughter was an equally important part of it.
The Black Winter would probably have nodded in deep agreement if it heard about Knull's exploits.
The shadow gods stared at Adam, who stood with his head held high and an expressionless face. They could sense no unease or anxiety in him. This being—who could hardly be called human anymore—seemed to have prepared multiple contingencies from the very beginning. He wasn't afraid of their refusal at all.
It looked like Adam was genuinely ready to abandon a batch of xenomorphs and slip his main consciousness away. There were already xenomorphs stationed on various planets across the universe—backup bodies he had prepared for himself.
"The priority is stopping Knull's invasion. We cannot let that madman discover us."
"Adam may be disrespectful and unwilling to offer his soul or faith, but he is still the best weapon we have right now. If we don't choose him and he really abandons Midgard and Jotunheim before fleeing, what then? He can ignore the World Tree's troubles. We cannot."
"If we empower Adam to fight, the World Tree remains ours. The divine power we grant him will still belong to us. But if Knull comes, the World Tree itself will no longer be ours."
At their core, the shadow gods' goal was simple: remain hidden while preserving the World Tree, so they could continue drawing upon it indefinitely, harvesting the apocalyptic energy of the Nine Realms to grow stronger.
As embodiments of the World Tree's shadowy side, they held immense authority over it. But that did not mean they would allow Knull to turn everything into dead, silent void.
If the universe became that kind of wasteland, how could they continue hiding in the dark, secretly triggering Ragnaroks and reaping vast amounts of doomsday energy?
Adam watched the colossal gods communicating in the shadows with cold indifference. He didn't have much patience and refused to waste more time or energy on them.
"You are unreasonable, arrogant, and even more pathetic than the parallel-universe Cul or Mephisto from Hell."
"You are the one who brought Knull here and plunged the entire World Tree into crisis, yet you show no remorse. You act like demanding power from us to fight him is only natural."
"As you wish. We will grant you divine power beyond imagination. The World Tree will not allow an outside evil god to claim it."
The shadow gods spoke with icy detachment.
Adam looked up, his face showing neither surprise nor shame. "I don't care how you were born. At this moment, having me solve the crisis is your best option—unless you plan to spend countless more eons accumulating power until you become Celestials bold enough to challenge Knull directly."
"We will."
"You, who only became a god by borrowing our power, have no right to interfere in our affairs."
The shadow gods uttered obscure whispers and vanished one by one. The all-encompassing shadows receded, and light returned to the world.
"What a bunch of clowns sitting on their high perch of power… Still, clowns have their own way of living. The position they occupy is something countless gods would kill for, but I have no interest in it."
Adam observed the scene returning to normal. Everything that had just happened felt like an illusion that had never occurred.
Logically, if the shadow gods could truly remain hidden for long periods, regularly triggering Ragnaroks and growing stronger through the destruction of worlds and the deaths of countless beings, then after a few billion years they might actually produce a single-universe-level cosmic god…
It was power gained purely through time and the annihilation of countless lives.
What they were actually doing was far too ugly.
"What are you looking at? You've been silent for so long—did you shift your soul somewhere else?"
Thor glanced around suspiciously. At his current level, he had instinctively sensed something, but no matter how hard he tried, he detected nothing.
It felt like something had happened, yet also like nothing had.
"I ran into something, but it's been handled. I now possess the power needed to deal with Knull," Adam said calmly.
"What do you need me to do?"
"Take your people and start clearing out the symbiotes. Their numbers are growing rapidly." Adam added casually, "Don't let the symbiote legions reach Earth comfortably."
"Are you sure you don't need me against Knull? Like how you supported the Ancient One against Dormammu?" Thor still looked eager for battle.
Adam turned and looked the Odin-powered Thor up and down. "The times have changed. Don't compare me from back then to who I am now."
As he spoke, a scene that left Thor utterly stunned unfolded.
A colossal tree, formed from the illusory light of countless gathered stars, manifested across the vast region of space centered on Midgard.
Its dense branches didn't just cover real star systems—they pierced through countless dimensions.
"The World Tree?! How did you do this?!" Thor's eyes widened in shock. As King of Asgard, he knew the World Tree was real, but seeing it appear in full like this because of Adam's actions was terrifying.
Even more astonishing was the surge of divine light pouring from the tree—pure divine power, the very essence of the World Tree. A single drop would be enough to transform an ordinary being into a superhuman.
Yet now, all those points of light converged into a brilliant galaxy that poured densely into Adam's body.
Adam accepted the vast, pure divine power without issue. It came from the World Tree's own reserves as well as the shadow gods channeling it through their authority.
"So this is what it means to be a god."
Adam looked down at his own hands. The sensation was completely different from anything before.
He had descended into various xenomorphs and xenomorph hosts before and was intimately familiar with the level of a Skyfather.
Only after stepping beyond that did he truly understand the gulf between Skyfather and single-universe level.
Adam flicked a finger. The spark of light at his fingertip carried the power to erase reality.
Even a single strand of this divine power was unimaginably heavy, capable of exerting direct pressure on the universe itself.
The entire World Tree rose and fell in time with Adam's breathing, responding to him naturally.
Countless strange runes—each one a real, existent force—flooded into his body and wove themselves together in specific patterns.
"This level should be more than enough to handle Knull."
Adam ignored Thor's shock. His gaze extended outward, beyond the solar system.
Knull was coming.
The moment the cosmic god approached the solar system, he sensed the unusual change.
"Hmm? In such a short time, this guy has already become a god and reached the same level as me?"
One look told Knull everything. He saw the countless runes swirling around Adam—the physical manifestation of various divine powers.
At this moment, the core of the World Tree was Adam himself. Endless divine power rushed to him, competing to enter his body.
Knull's expression darkened instantly. He stared fixedly at Adam, unable to comprehend why this human always pulled out something that caught even gods off guard.
This could no longer be explained by luck.
Once one reached the level of cosmic god, luck itself could be considered part of their divine authority.
"You've surprised me again. But don't think you'll win every time. I've killed more gods than you've even heard of in your lifetime!"
Knull took a single step forward, ready to invade the World Tree proper. His wide black cloak billowed gently in the vacuum, while his long white hair whipped about like a nest of furious snakes.
Behind the evil god surged an endless tide of symbiotes. He had flung the entire planet Klyntar into the solar system.
From the depths of space, it looked like a massive black planet writhing and stretching countless tentacles toward Earth.
Everyone with any fighting ability had prepared for the worst.
Most people were terrified—the scale this time was absurd, hundreds or thousands of times larger than the previous symbiote invasion.
Even Black Bolt had brought the Inhumans into the fight. No one could sit this one out.
Then people saw the figure rising into the sky, and their spirits lifted.
"Look! That's Adam, right? He's going out himself! He left Earth!"
"I'm not seeing things, am I? That's not one of Adam's subordinates or a regular xenomorph—that's Adam himself?!"
"This is unbelievable. In my memory, Adam has never fought personally. He's actually going out there this time? Without a single guard? Reynolds and the others didn't even follow him!"
"Xenomorph Adam… His personal strength is actually this terrifying? Just flying out of Earth into the vacuum at that speed… Oh my god, he's accelerating even more!"
Countless eyes were watching, which only made the sight more shocking.
Many had studied Adam's rise. A lot of information was public. Naturally, some uninformed people had wondered: what if a bunch of superheroes ignored the xenomorphs, assassinated Adam himself, and ended the threat?
What happened to the xenomorphs after Adam died—whether they went completely out of control and ruined Earth—was someone else's problem.
But a very small number of people, like Hill, knew killing Adam would accomplish nothing. He could abandon his human body and possess other xenomorph heroes or drones to "respawn."
Assassinating Adam was pointless and would only shatter the current logic governing the xenomorph race.
Still, even those who hated Adam the most were seeing him take the field personally for the first time. They were stunned, wondering if their eyes were playing tricks.
Was the world ending? Adam, who never fought himself, was leading the charge!
An overwhelming pressure that shook the soul radiated from him, making the normal workings of the starfield feel sluggish and strained.
When Adam appeared before Knull, the confrontation between the two gods made the nearby rules of the universe flicker in and out of visibility.
Knull was already in a foul mood.
When he saw Adam raise his hand and manifest the Necrosword, his mood grew even worse.
"The Necrosword was in your hands?! You knew it was my weapon and took it first!" Knull roared in fury.
"Surprised? This symbiote should have been in a distant star system where you could only vaguely sense it. Yet now it has crossed half the universe and sits in my grasp." Adam weighed the powerful artifact—one of the top weapons in the cosmos.
"You turned the one who took my Necrosword into one of your xenomorphs?"
"Very clever. Billions of years of slaughter hasn't rotted your brain. Anything my subordinates possess belongs to me from the moment they obtain it."
Adam leveled the Necrosword, its tip pointed directly at the god of symbiotes.
He had instantly transferred the blade from Gorr to himself. He would use it against Knull.
Of course, the Necrosword wasn't the only card Adam had prepared. He had far more in store. After all, he still needed Knull to achieve one critically important goal.
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