Chapter 690: The Infinite U Event (VI) (Patreon)

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When several symbiotes crawled out of the spaceship, they had wholly devolved into puddles of rotten mire.

It wasn't that their form had changed due to motion sickness. Instead, it was because, before their journey, Polaris had taken their hosts, the young mutants, and given them a ride, leaving the symbiotes bereft.

Only one human was left: Helen. She had hidden inside the spaceship, undetected by Polaris. When she set foot on the surface of Klyntar, her eyes met a desolate landscape of craters and colorful piles of rotten muck that had just fallen from the sky.

"Ugh... Well... Regardless, welcome to my abode," Thunderbolt's voice trembled. The golden rotten mire had lost even the strength to move. The green muck behind him was slightly better off, slowly shifting its mass, then speaking to Helen, "Young lady, I must say, your driving skills are... Is this how all Earth people drive?"

Helen pondered briefly before replying, "My father told me speed equates to passion... But of course, you need to remember to close the sunroof."

She continued forward, the other symbiotes trailing behind her. Blue Spirit muttered as he moved, "Honestly, after spending so much time on Earth, it feels strange coming home. Being without legs feels really odd..."

"Stop complaining," Thunderbolt grumbled along. "Nothing compares to home. That's an eternal truth."

Helen reached the summit of the nearest, highest crater. She gazed into the distance and realized this didn't look like a normal planet at all. These so-called craters weren't formed by meteorites.

Below her, every bulge on the ground was composed of symbiote bodies.

The planet under her feet was a spherical entity formed by countless intertwined symbiotes. Every part of the ground was a symbiote.

"It's impressive, isn't it?" Blue Spirit stepped beside Helen. "Countless symbiotes sacrificed their freedom, weaving together into a prison to confine Knull with their bodies."

"Is it really worth it?" Helen asked.

The planet was not small. Forming such a massive body required billions of symbiotes. Now, these vibrant creatures on the surface lived atop their predecessors.

"Perhaps it doesn't seem worth it to you. We sacrificed the majority of our species to seal away our creator, which sounds foolish, right?"

"No civilization would willingly do this, as losing two-thirds of its population essentially means its demise," Blue Spirit commented casually, as if the topic was of no great concern.

"After Knull returned from the Nine Realms, defeated, countless symbiotes were cut off. One tiny symbiote fell onto a remote planet, where people still lived primitively, in tribal times."

"Then, a symbiote parasitized one of them, and from him, it learned an ability unprecedented among symbiotes."

Helen, observing the barren surface, asked, "What ability?"

"Emotions," Blue Spirit answered.

"Correct. We consider this an ability because we, creations of Knull, weren't endowed with it at our genesis," Blue Spirit's tone softened. "We were indifferent to everything, unchanging."

"But with emotions, we felt sorrow for those slaughtered by carnage, guilt for the survivors, anger at their actions. Despite differences in species and language, we sensed unique emotions from them."

"So, we made a shocking decision, one that astonished all civilizations. Two-thirds of our species sacrificed themselves to create Klyntar's prison, trapping Knull."

"Was it worth it?" Blue Spirit rhetorically asked, "I'm not consoling myself or deceiving you, but we believe it was."

"Because emotions introduce infinite possibilities."

Helen silently surveyed the desolate land. Was it truly worth the sacrifice of two-thirds of a species for one possibility?

"Alright, you can enjoy the view here, though there's not much to see. But we have work to do, ensuring Knull isn't breaking free," Thunderbolt approached to say.

The symbiotes headed in the opposite direction from Helen, Green Thorn querying, "Is it really okay to leave her there?"

"I can't believe you're still stuck on that after our journey," Thunderbolt retorted, quickening his pace without hesitation.

"I wonder why Phantom always finds such hosts. She's probably destined to be a powerful symbiote," Green Thorn mused, then hastened his steps.

Helen, standing atop the hill, didn't remain peaceful for long. Suddenly, she sensed an unusual power fluctuation in the winds of Klyntar.

Looking up at the starry sky, almost without atmosphere, suited only for divine beings, the stars were exceptionally bright, each twinkling clearly.

As the wind stirred Helen's hair, she squinted into the vast cosmos, spotting a massive figure.

It was Solus, father of Morlun and other Inheritors, leader of the Inheritor Family, and now a lonely, displaced elder.

After discovering his family's base had vanished, Solus embarked on a journey to find his home.

Within the boundless Multiverse, the Inheritor Family's base was like a grain of sand on the shore, impossible to find once swept away by waves.

Solus knew it was a conspiracy, but he needed to mitigate his losses. He couldn't afford to lose more.

His journey had just begun.

Even though he was the mightiest in the Inheritor Family, once deprived of his fellow clan members, his strength in the Multiverse was barely sufficient for survival, fraught with perils. Like any social creature, stripped of its group environment, his competitive edge would plummet.

However, Solus knew he still had the means to turn the tide, and the most crucial step now was to mitigate the losses in a timely fashion.

The home was irretrievable, and hence, he had to gain more elsewhere. In doing so, he could partially offset the loss of the family base and members, thereby regaining some of his vitality.

What Solus aimed to do was to seize the Bat Totem entirely.

Their current plight was largely due to the Bat Totem. They had invested too much sunk cost here, and Solus couldn’t stomach the idea of suffering losses both in resources and warriors.

The immediate strategy was clear: capturing the Bat Totem was essential for planning the future.

As the leader of the Inheritor Family, Solus had a profound understanding of Totems. He could effortlessly connect with the Totem through meditation, transforming his internal strength into the Power of Belief, thereby controlling the nascent supreme Totem.

Yet, as he found a relatively safe location to commence his plan to capture the Totem, he discovered another force attempting to control it.

This scenario wasn’t new. Previously, Venom had tried to usurp the Totem, intending to ensure more commitment from the Inheritor Family members. Now, Solus realized the force used by the current contender was identical to the one employed in the last Totem conflict.

It was hard not to suspect a conspiracy: the repeatedly plundered Power of Belief, the elusive Totem, the slain family members, the seized family stronghold, and the re-emergence of this mysterious power seemed to signal to Solus that the owner of this power was the puppeteer behind the scenes.

Thinking of the plundered Power of Belief, Solus's heart bled. The recurrent emergence of this mysterious power drove his fury to the brink. He was determined to reclaim what the thief had taken.

He traced this force back to this singular space and found Knull within Klyntar.

The power within Venom was a dividend given to him by Schiller during the previous "Knull serving" incident. And now, competing against Solus for control over the Totem was Schiller, employing the same power he had intercepted from Knull during that event.

Schiller’s intent was to stir trouble elsewhere. Knowing Solus wouldn’t abandon the Bat Totem, he deliberately used Knull’s power to wrest it away, leading Solus straight to Knull.

Unsurprisingly, Solus indeed found Knull. Unlike Chthon, who had previously sought out Knull over a mere loss of chaotic primal power, Solus considered Knull a mortal enemy.

Robbing of power, murder, and theft – if Solus didn’t avenge these atrocities, he might as well not linger in the Multiverse.

Initially, Chthon, upset over the loss of chaotic energy, had encapsulated all of Klyntar with his power. But now, Solus, fueled by a deeper grudge, invested even more strength.

As the colossal phantom approached the desolate planet, Helen felt a surge of power. The gust of this almost tangible force of power, as it brushed against her, awakened a hunger ingrained in her very instincts.

In Kamar-Taj's meditation room, Schiller set down his tea cup. Strange refilled it, remarking, "So, the enemy you're setting up for the Spider-Men isn't Solus, but Knull?"

"Knull may be trapped in Klyntar, but it doesn’t mean he's weak. On the contrary, he’s much stronger than Solus in terms of power," Schiller responded.

They clinked their tea cups, sharing a knowing smile.

However, in the skies above Klyntar, the first adversary Solus encountered wasn’t Knull, but a little girl radiating a gentle glow.

Helen stood on the surface of Klyntar, looking up at the enormous phantoms of demon gods.

Highly sensitive to power and its nuances, Destruction Day, through the fluctuations of energy in the sky, sensed that the Power of Belief she had absorbed earlier originated from this entity.

The Power of Belief she had garnered from the Inheritor Family had led to her first evolution. But since her creation as the monster known as Destruction Day, she possessed only one ability — infinite evolution.

The hunger etched in her genes drove her to seek more power, to devour, to evolve, and to devour again. This endless cycle was her assurance in facing the likes of Superman, the Kryptonian.

Her tiny figure slowly levitated into the air, seemingly insignificant under the massive demon gods' phantoms.

Rock fragments began to tremble irregularly. The assembled components shattered in an instant, and magnetic forces once again drew them together, only for them to be vibrated apart shortly after.

Magneto, holding the blueprints, turned his head towards the source of the tremors, his eyes narrowing.

In Asgard, Frigga, realizing Helen's disappearance, followed the path of the vanished spaceship. The worried and anxious queen clenched her scepter, ready to strike lethally at whoever had abducted Helen.

Meanwhile, within Klyntar’s Dark Prison, a pair of blood-red eyes illuminated within the profound darkness.

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