Less than three minutes after Venom became distorted, the distortion ended. Venom tapped his chest in disbelief, looking with some distaste at the red spider emblem before turning it back to white. Strange was about to ask a few questions, but Thor was a step faster.
"Is it all over?"
"Oh, hold on. Peter refused to become the God of Symbiotes, which extinguished Knull's consciousness. Knull can't be revived now unless I or Peter dies," Venom explained, retracting his wings. He then demonstrated his new abilities—after consuming Grendel's codex, he gained the ability to shapeshift, growing giant wings from his back, turning into a puddle of liquid to move quickly, and transforming his arms into various weapons like Riot, finally giving Peter a boost in combat power.
Venom excitedly showed off his new tricks, diving in to become a nearly invisible black puddle on the ground, then swiftly moving through the matter, seeping through a wall on the other side. He then "bled" out of the wall whole, cheering excitedly. Then, seeing Strange and Thor staring at him, he immediately switched back to Peter, donning the new version of his suit.
"Sorry, guys, he's a little excited. But I think it's all over now."
As Peter said, the symbiotes all took on a grayish-white hue and quickly changed from viscous liquid organisms to solid matter. They then turned to ash and were scattered by the wind. All the superheroes, including Captain America, looked very confused, but seeing the few heroes standing and chatting, they understood one thing:
The crisis was over.
The symbiote frenzy, sparked by Knull, which had lasted from the night of October 31st to midday on November 1st, had come to an end. The Avengers had once again protected the Earth, just as always. They would simply clean up the battlefield, get themselves ready, and then return to their daily lives. Most of the factions that had been monitoring the crisis would also shift their attention elsewhere now that it had subsided.
Only a few were an exception.
"Set the timeline to 201211010637." A man wearing purple armor made of a strange material sat on the throne of his warship. He nonchalantly arrived in a laboratory. This was Doctor Octopus Otto's lab, where he was studying new symbiote samples. These samples, made entirely by Knull, loyal only to him, and without a consciousness of their own, had captured Otto's attention.
Spider-Man was getting stronger and stronger, and to avoid being bothered by that annoying spider when he sought revenge on Osborn, he had to increase his own abilities. If he could control these symbiotes just like Knull, that would be one way to do it.
Doctor Octopus was engrossed in his research, but Kang, standing beside him, had no intention of waiting. A progress bar appeared before him, and Kang pulled the timeline. The surroundings began to change rapidly, showing the moment when the symbiotes were about to turn to ash. In his panic, Doctor Octopus touched a symbiote sample, then merged with it.
His nervous system, enhanced by his surgical modifications, had managed to form a link with the symbiote while Knull's consciousness was sealed. A symbiote suit was born, one that belonged only to Otto Octavius, had no consciousness of its own, and allowed him to stand once again.
But this was not the person Kang was looking for.
"Set the timeline to 201211010911."
Pulling the timeline back, Kang saw the Defenders protecting a man named Martin Li. His ability could instantly kill the symbiote grunts while freeing the people inside. The Defenders believed this man was the key to dealing with the symbiotes and wanted to protect him on his way to the Sanctum Sanctorum.
This person, like Doctor Octopus, was closely related to Spider-Man. However, it still wasn't him; the time flow on his person was very stable. Kang then switched targets and continued to browse for the next possible candidate.
He jumped the timeline back to a little after 4 a.m. At this time, most of the mobsters had been taken over by symbiotes, and their headquarters were empty. A lithe cat burglar infiltrated the Tombstone gang's treasury and found evidence of their illegal drug sales—throughout the entire event, this thief named Black Cat had been carrying out similar heists.
But it wasn't her either.
Kang was silent, returning to his throne and sitting down.
"Great Kang. You have lingered at this point in time for a considerable amount of time. Have you found the person you need?"
One of his underlings came to report. Kang the Conqueror, having conquered the Earth in the distant 31st century, had become the greatest emperor in the universe. He had then traveled through various eras, integrating himself into history. Kang the Conqueror could be said to be the most powerful and greatest time traveler, the only one who could alter history without creating a new timeline.
But recently, he had been repeatedly traveling through post-2012 Earth with his most elite troops, seemingly searching for something.
"No. Spider-Man is not the one who caused the multiverse collision crisis, at least not yet. While he was born three years early, his impact on the timeline is less than that of Steve Rogers."
Kang sat on his throne, flipping his hand to reveal the Time Stone. He looked at the New York Battle projected within it: "I have investigated the anomalous time points of Captain America and Spider-Man, but their energy spectra do not match the temporal distortion that occurred in 2015."
In 2015, a terrible disaster occurred on Earth-616. The continuity of the timeline was broken and torn, causing the spacetime structure of the entire multiverse to become unstable, leading to a multiverse-level collision crisis. What was even more terrifying was that due to the tearing of spacetime, no time traveler could enter the entirety of 2015.
If it couldn't be stopped, in the future, Earths from different multiverses would collide with each other, triggering one cosmic annihilation after another. As an emperor, Kang would not tolerate this. He needed the Time Stone to stop all this from happening and protect his empire from the multiverse collision crisis.
"Where is the next temporal anomaly?"
"November 13, 2012, Great Kang."
Kang leaned back in his chair, narrowing his eyes.
"Prepare to depart."
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