At 177A Bleecker Street in Manhattan's Greenwich Village stands a century-old three-story Victorian brownstone townhouse with a French Baroque architectural design and a mansard roof. The skylight on the roof has a strange tic-tac-toe symbol. Peter landed smoothly on the top of the building, which is the residence of the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange.
The Sanctum Sanctorum.
Peter landed on the roof and reached for the door leading to the attic. His Spider-Sense tingled just in time. He turned to see Doctor Strange stepping out of a portal he had just opened with his Sling Ring, landing right behind him.
"Wong just waxed the floor. You'd better not go in through there."
"Oh, uh, my bad."
"Don't apologize, Spider-Man." Strange landed on the ground. "If you're here to ask about the time you tore a hole in the multiverse, that was the choice of the Web of Destiny, and I patched up the tear you made in time, so there's no major issue."
"No, I'm here to ask you about something else." Peter got straight to the point. "S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers have discovered Knull, the God of the Symbiotes, who is sealed on Earth."
Strange stared at Peter in silence for three full seconds before finally speaking.
"What?"
"Uh, I mean..."
"No, I heard you. What I mean is..." Strange sighed in exasperation, opened a portal, and gestured for Peter to follow him. "We can talk about this in detail later. Come on in first."
"So, did we just go from New York to London? Are we at 221B Baker Street?"
"We're still in Greenwich, we just didn't use the front door. I'm the Sorcerer Supreme, not Sherlock Holmes."
Strange, who couldn't understand why Spider-Man would connect him to Sherlock Holmes, snapped his fingers, and the two of them instantly appeared in a sitting room. As Strange led the way, he asked in a tone of bewilderment, "The Sanctum Sanctorum is surrounded by a perception-altering spell. Unless you already know it's here, most people wouldn't notice it. How did you get in?"
There's a spell for that?
The two of them walked to a pair of sofas. Peter looked at the smaller sofa behind him, sat down, and made up an excuse.
"I don't know. I was just thinking of looking for you, and I was looking all over Manhattan for a strange building with a mark like the one on your chest before. My Spider-Sense went off, so I looked over and found it."
Strange sighed. Fine, it's all the choice of the Web of Destiny. What more can I say?
Strange reached out and opened a portal with his Sling Ring, putting his hand through it. He waited for a long time, just like Thor waiting for his hammer, then opened it again. "...Knull, Knull, ah, found it. A record left by a Sorcerer Supreme from the sixth century AD."
"They had books in Northern Europe before the sixth century AD?"
"No, but Kamar-Taj is in the Himalayas, and the Tang Dynasty had books." Strange flipped through the records, seemingly to confirm whether Knull fell under the jurisdiction of the Sorcerer Supreme, or rather, whether Knull was a god.
But unfortunately, Knull was indeed a god, and not a new god born from faith like Thor. Knull was an abstract entity representing the "Void" in the universe, the darkness before creation. In other words, this was definitely within Doctor Strange's jurisdiction.
"The consciousness of this Lord of the Void is sealed within his creation. As long as he's not killed, his consciousness won't return." Strange seemed to understand what was happening and looked at Peter. "So your worry is that the creatures he created will awaken and cause greater destruction?"
"A meteorite carrying a symbiote crashed on Earth, and for decades, these symbiotes have been studied by the US military. But their real goal is to release Knull." Peter voiced his concerns. "And shortly after we discovered the military was studying the symbiotes, one of them was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. As soon as S.H.I.E.L.D. started investigating ways to locate them, it immediately started sending a signal, exposing the ancient symbiote that sealed Knull."
Strange understood. These guys were trying to awaken the symbiote dragon, Grendel, to wreak havoc on Earth. This would force the Avengers and other heroes to destroy Grendel to protect the planet.
But once Grendel was killed, Knull's consciousness, which had been separated from the collective consciousness of the symbiote race, would return to the symbiote's collective consciousness network, thereby returning to its body. At that point, the Avengers would have essentially released a powerful cosmic-level abstract entity. While it's true that the taller guys would take care of it, and other advanced cosmic civilizations would be the first to suffer, that's only if they could actually kill Knull. If they couldn't, Earth would still be in trouble.
So, Grendel couldn't die. That was the most basic rule. Whether the symbiote dragon could be safely captured was another matter. This was the reason Peter came to Strange. As the Sorcerer Supreme, Strange undoubtedly understood what the symbiote dragon was and how dangerous it was. And if he secretly helped, it would likely be a lot safer.
Or maybe a lot more dangerous, but Peter was determined. Either way, it was more reliable than not including Strange.
After a brief sit-down at the Sanctum Sanctorum, Peter prepared to leave. Strange immediately jumped up after Peter left and went into the storage room, where he pulled out a large globe and began to cast a spell.
Wong, who had just finished waxing the floor, walked out and saw this, and walked over with an exasperated look. "I just finished waxing the floor, Strange."
"I know, Wong. I'm using the Orb of Agamotto to observe the situation. A kid just told me that S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers found the location where the Lord of the Void, Knull, is sealed, and they plan to go check it out. I have to keep an eye on them."
Wong was also stunned.
"Who?"
"The Lord of the Void, the King in Black, the living..."
"I know. I've been in the library longer than you have." Wong nodded helplessly and looked at Strange with dissatisfaction. "You know, Strange. Before you became Sorcerer Supreme, there were never any problems on Earth. Ever since you became Sorcerer Supreme, we've run into all sorts of trouble."
Strange rolled his eyes at Wong and continued his divination.
Marvel's pantheon is really a mess. There are Elder Gods, New Gods, Great Old Ones (yes, like Cthulhu), Celestials, abstract entities, Beyonders, and a whole bunch of other things.