Peter felt nothing.
He saw nothing, heard nothing, as if everything in the world had disappeared, as if nothing existed. He couldn't even feel his own body; the only thing he had was his memory. He saw Venom devouring Grendel.
And then everything became like this.
Knull's lack of resistance was a surprise to Peter. Looking back, maybe Knull thought that after Venom devoured him, he could directly control Venom. After all, he had awakened, and controlling a symbiote shouldn't be too difficult. The only challenge would be the host who was bonded with Venom, Peter Parker.
So... this was Knull's way of engaging in a battle of wits with him?
"And the Spider said, let there be light."
Peter raised his hand, releasing his bio-electricity—in truth, he couldn't feel his hand, he was just trying the idea.
So, in the midst of the silence, Peter saw light. But then, the light was extinguished.
The god said, let there be light, but the light was eventually extinguished, because light also had its source, and everything would dissipate.
Peter roughly understood how Knull intended to suppress him. This was a battle of essence. Knull's essence was nothingness, not the kind of nothingness that represented the darkness in people's hearts like the Sentry's, but a tangible, objective nothingness. The state where nothing existed before the birth of the universe was Knull's essence. And now, Knull was reducing everything to nothingness on a mental level.
What Peter needed to do was to mentally and conceptually list things that could resist nothingness.
The first thing Peter thought of was existence. The Big Bang gave birth to a new universe, creating light that was powerful enough to harm Knull. That was why Knull was so angry. So Peter imagined an entire universe, a vibrant, thriving universe in the process of bursting forth. With the birth of the universe, objectively existing things appeared from the void.
However, the existence of a universe wasn't eternal; a universe could also be destroyed and return to nothingness.
What about Eternity?
Peter began to conceive the physical embodiment of the multiverse, Eternity. Although Eternity probably wasn't eternal and indestructible either, Knull shouldn't be a match for Eternity.
But Peter found that he couldn't imagine it. The description of Eternity was too abstract, so he couldn't construct an accurate enough image of Eternity. The same went for beings of similar level, like Infinity, and higher-level beings like the Living Tribunal. So Peter had to settle for something less, trying to construct a Celestial.
This time, there was no resistance. Maybe it was because the Celestials weren't as abstract, or maybe it was because they had indeed left many footprints in the physical universe. In any case, the Celestials appeared. Not only did they appear, but they began to create life and planets.
Knull sneered, and then the Celestials exploded, and they, too, were annihilated.
"...Why does it feel like Knull won?" Peter, who couldn't understand why Knull was sneering, then extended his hand, and a golden gauntlet appeared on his hand, embedded with six gems of different colors. When the Infinity Gauntlet appeared in his mind, Knull let out a surprised "hmm," seemingly completely unprepared for Peter to pull out such a thing.
With a simple snap, the nothingness disintegrated.
Or did it?
It didn't.
Knull wasn't an opponent for the Infinity Gauntlet, just as he wasn't really an opponent for the Celestials. But regardless of what it was, he maintained a consistent attitude: nothingness was a concept, and it was also the end of everything. All things had an end. Whether they were gods like the Celestials or artifacts like the Infinity Gems, they weren't indestructible and eternally existing. They still had the possibility of being destroyed, and as long as that possibility existed, everything would return to nothingness.
Therefore, no matter what Peter brought out, as long as it could theoretically be killed, destroyed, or replaced, it couldn't escape the definition of nothingness. All things die, and the end of all things is nothingness.
And Peter needed to find something that, conceptually, couldn't be annihilated, something eternally indestructible and truly undestroyable, and it couldn't be too abstract, so he didn't end up like with Eternity.
The Cosmic Cube? The Ultimate Nullifier?
After thinking for a while, Peter looked at the space where nothing existed and said, "Nothingness doesn't exist."
Knull seemed to let out a surprised "ah" again, but nothing changed. Seeing this, Peter continued, "All things die, and the end of all things is nothingness. But when everything has reached its end, nothingness also ceases to exist. If there is no existence, there is no non-existence."
"Interesting. I thought you would show your unyielding will or bring out more bizarre things."
Knull finally appeared. The boundless darkness was illuminated by light. The black-clad emperor needed to be in the light to show his darkness. He walked toward Peter with a smile, looking at the young human in front of him: "Very interesting... you not only know a lot of things, but you also try to defeat me with logic. I must say, it's very creative."
"Did I say something wrong?"
"No, but... it's not enough. To defeat the Cosmic Emperor, the Lord of the Abyss, you need... something else."
Knull laughed, seeming to be waiting for Peter's idea. Peter thought about it and quickly came up with the first possible solution. All things might return to nothingness, and perhaps the current black-clad emperor was Knull.
But it was never said that Knull was the only, irreplaceable black-clad emperor. Now that Peter and Venom had devoured Knull's mind and will, he could totally...
No, wait.
Why did he need to defeat Knull?
Peter suddenly realized something. What they had to do was never to fight against Knull's consciousness. Knull's consciousness was actually in Grendel's Codex, and all they had to do was devour the Codex. Venom had said that he could communicate with Riot's Codex, but Peter couldn't hear Riot's words.
This was a trap. Knull wanted him to say the answer: Peter Parker becoming the black-clad emperor.
"Then you can come out when all things are dead, Knull. Maybe you can try here to see if I can waste time with you forever. Trust me, you might regret it," Peter said, staring at Knull. "I know who your opponent is, the God of Light, the Power of the Enigma, the messenger of Eternity, Captain Universe. Oh, by the way, I don't think I've ever conceived of the power of Captain Universe here. Want to give it a try?"
Knull laughed again.
"Foolish mortal, do you think you know a lot? Well, enjoy your victory for now, you hardheaded one. I gave you the chance to become a god, but you gave it up yourself." Knull said as his figure dissipated: "But you'd better remember, the end of all things is nothingness. I will be back, sooner than you think."
"...Anyone can talk a big game."
I have a feeling I can't wrap this up, so I have to handle Knull's feeling this way.