[Flashback]
The planet had no name because it had never earned one. Names were for places that fed you, that remembered you, that let you believe tomorrow was possible. This world did none of that. It was stone and ash and wind sharp enough to flay hope from bone. Hunger was the first lesson Gorr learned, and it was taught daily.
As a child, he prayed.
The elders told the children to pray. They said the gods watched from the sky and rewarded faith. He pressed his forehead into the dust and whispered to the sky until his throat cracked. He prayed for rain. He prayed for food. He prayed for his parents when their bodies grew too weak to rise again. When they died, the elders told him it was the will of the gods. Gorr believed them because belief was lighter than despair and easier to carry through the long days.
Years passed. He grew strong because weakness died quickly here. Against reason, he found love. Arra's laughter cut through the heat like shade. Together, they built a small life from almost nothing. Children came. Children died. Disease took some. The sun took others. Together, they buried them. Each loss carved him thinner, quieter.
When the earthquake came, it swallowed Arra whole. The ground split, and she was gone with their unborn child. Gorr screamed until his voice broke, but the desert did not care.
In the end, only Agar remained.
Agar was small even for their people, his ribs always visible, his eyes too large for his face. When the boy could no longer walk, Gorr carried him across the desert. When Agar stopped asking for food, Gorr knew how close death was.
Agar whimpered softly, each breath a fragile thing. Gorr bent close and lied with tenderness.
"There's a forest ahead," Gorr told him with a painful smile. "Green as far as you can see. We'll eat until we're full. You'll see."
Agar smiled, trusting him completely. He died before the lie could be proven false.
Gorr held his son until the heat stole the warmth from his body. When he finally set Agar down, something inside him collapsed. Like a prayer unanswered for the last time.
"There are no gods."
The words came out rough, torn from somewhere deep in Gorr's chest. He looked up at the white, empty sky, his hands shaking, Agar's small body still cradled in his arms.
"No gods," he said again, louder this time. "Do you hear me? If you were ever there, you would hear this."
The wind answered him, dragging sand across the dunes.
"I prayed to you," Gorr shouted. "I prayed when I was a child with nothing but dust in my mouth. I prayed when my mother died, and when my father followed her into the ground." His voice cracked, but he did not stop. "I prayed when my children screamed from hunger. I prayed when my wife was taken beneath the earth."
He tilted his head back, eyes burning.
"Where were you?" he screamed. "Did you sleep while they died? Did you watch and turn away?"
His grip tightened around Agar. "Look at him," Gorr cried. "He believed in you. He had faith in you. He waited for you. I lied to him because you never spoke. You never came."
The sun blazed overhead, silent and cruel.
"Answer me," he screamed. "Strike me down if I am wrong. Send fire and storms. Send anything at all. Prove that my faith was not a lie."
Nothing happened.
Gorr laughed, a broken, hollow sound. "That is your answer, isn't it?" he said softly. "Silence. Always silence."
He sank to his knees in the sand. "You want people to worship you. You demand faith. And you give nothing back." His voice rose again, raw and furious. "Not food. Not mercy. Not even a lie to cling to."
Gorr pressed his forehead to Agar's hair. "There are no gods," he whispered. "Only stories we tell children so they do not see the truth."
For that, his people cast him out. Faith was all they had left, and Gorr had broken it.
He wandered the desert alone, no longer searching for food or shelter. He wanted to die. He begged the sun to finish what it had started.
Instead, the sky split open.
Two figures fell from the heavens like meteors, slamming into the sand with enough force to shatter stone. One was a giant covered in shadows and black armor. The other was wearing golden armor; his skin was purple and glowing.
Gorr watched from the ridge, too tired to run, too hollow to feel fear.
"I am Knull. God of the void. Slicer of worlds. You can not defeat the void with the power of creation and light..." The shadowy figure pointed his sword at the wounded god. "Today, the Enigma Force shall disappear once again."
The god rose first, light spilling from him in blinding waves. The air thickened, vibrating with power that made Gorr's teeth ache. Symbols burned across the god's skin, alive and shifting, as the Enigma Force answered his will. With a roar, he hurled himself at Knull, fists blazing like small suns.
Knull met him head-on.
The clash shook the desert. Stone ruptured beneath their feet. Light and shadow tore into each other, each blow tearing chunks from the land. The god struck faster, each hit exploding with cosmic force, driving Knull back step by step. Sand turned to glass. The sky fractured with thunder.
Knull laughed.
It was a cold sound, sharp and delighted.
"You borrow power from light," Knull said, his voice rolling like a grave opening. "I am the abyss that existed before the light."
The golden god answered with an energy punch. He drove Knull through a ridge of stone, burying him in rubble, then followed, slamming down with enough force to flatten the remains. Light burst out, chasing away the shadows.
For a heartbeat, it seemed over.
Then darkness surged.
Knull rose from the crater, shadows knitting his armor whole again. In his hand, the sword writhed like a living thing, edges dripping darkness that swallowed the light around it.
For a moment, the reality seemed to have lost all color... All that remained were shadows...
Knull moved faster than thought.
The blade was aimed at the god's heart.
Light exploded outward, cutting through the darkness. The god somehow managed to shift his body in that exact moment. The sword avoided his heart. However, the Enigma Force screamed, flaring wildly, its glow stuttering like a dying star. The god gasped, mouth opening in a soundless cry, hands clawing at Knull's arm.
Knull leaned close.
"Creation always breaks," he whispered. "That is its purpose."
He wrenched the blade free.
"In the end... All that remains is Knull..."
The god staggered, light spilling from the wound like blood, each step weaker than the last. He tried to rise again, to summon the Force, but it flickered, unstable, slipping through his grasp.
Behind Knull, space twisted.
A tear opened in the air, spilling cold darkness that swallowed sound. From within it, chains burst forth, black and gleaming. They looked sticky and alive. They struck Knull from behind, punching through armor and flesh alike, bursting from his chest and shoulders in sprays of shadow.
Knull roared, a sound of pure rage.
The chains wrapped tighter, dozens of them, binding his limbs, his throat, his sword arm. He hacked at them with the living blade, severing some, but more replaced them instantly, anchoring him to the howling void beyond the tear.
"No," Knull snarled, digging his heels into the sand as the ground buckled beneath him. "You think cages can hold the abyss?"
The chains dragged harder.
Knull lashed out one last time, hurling his sword toward the wounded god. The blade struck the sand short of its target, embedding itself deep, screaming as if denied something it craved.
With a final, furious howl, Knull was pulled backward.
The chains tightened, yanking him into the tear. Darkness swallowed him whole. Before the portal closed, Knull stopped resisting. His eyes glowed bright red. "When freedom is mine, I will punish all who kept me imprisoned… starting with disobedient children, like you…"
The portal snapped shut with a sound like a coffin lid slamming closed.
Silence returned.
Gorr stood frozen, his heart hammering. The gold-armored god stood up, but collapsed to one knee, clutching his chest where the blade had pierced him. Light flickered weakly around him now, the Enigma Force unstable and fading.
He turned his gaze to Gorr.
"You are a god?" Gorr asked as he walked closer.
"Yes." The god reached out, bloodied fingers trembling. "Help me."
"Help... You? Help YOU!? Where were you!? Where were you when my children were starving!? When my wife was screaming for your help!? When my mother died praying for a drop of water! WHERE WERE YOU WHEN WE NEEDED OUR GODS!?" Gorr yelled in rage. "You are no god. I renounce you."
The sword Knull had thrown began to move.
It trembled where it was buried, the sand around it blackening and sinking inward as if afraid. A low sound crept through the air. The blade softened, its rigid shape melting, flowing, becoming something wet and alive. Darkness spilled from it in slow waves, crawling across the ground toward Gorr.
The darkness reached Gorr's feet and entered his body. It did not burn or hurt him. Instead, it clung to him, exploring his skin, his grief, and his anger. Gorr did not pull away. He felt it searching him, slipping into the empty spaces in his chest where hope had faded.
The darkness formed a blade in his hand.
All-Black had chosen him.
Gorr looked at himself. The weapon showed him the truth. Gods screamed in the sky. Worlds burned while prayers went unanswered. Gods were bloated and careless, feeding on belief while mortals starved below them.
He laughed softly.
The gold-armored god crawled backward, dragging himself through the sand. "You do not understand what you hold," he said. "Put it down. I can still save you."
Gorr stepped forward.
"Now, I understand. My family is the lucky one. They do not have to live and grow up in a world of suffering and pain, run by wicked gods."
He simply walked forward and drove the blade forward.
All-Black slid into the god's chest. The light flared once, blinding and desperate, then shattered. It spilled out in fragments, fading into the air like dying sparks. The god gasped, eyes wide, mouth open in silent disbelief.
Gorr leaned close.
He whispered before twisting the blade. "This is my vow. All gods will die."
...
[Present time]
Gorr stood over a dying god. The Necrosword was plunged deep into the god's chest. "Who do gods pray to when they are on the verge of death?"
Suddenly, thunder rumbled in the dark sky as a hammer flew and struck Gorr so hard that it sent him flying across the burning world, but Gorr used the darkness to disappear for a moment before reappearing again.
He looked up at the sky as a bolt of thunder crashed on the land, sending out debris and dust, creating a massive crater. A blond man in armor walked out of the crater. He extended his hand, and the hammer flew toward him.
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