Gilgamesh, struggling to hold on, was momentarily stunned by the attack. But when he looked toward its source and saw Odin, he let out a hearty laugh.
Odin smiled slightly in response. Though he had no love for the Eternals or the Celestials behind them, he appreciated Gilgamesh's straightforward and warrior-like nature.
They had arm-wrestled, wrestled, and even had drinking contests multiple times in the past.
Unfortunately... he was old now.
For a brief moment, he found himself lost in memory.
But his fighting instincts never faded. Even in that fleeting pause, he had already summoned Sleipnir, his eight-legged steed, and charged toward Ikaris, Gungnir in hand.
A thousand years ago—no, even just a few hundred—Odin wouldn't have needed Sleipnir. He could have fought Ikaris directly.
But now age had caught up with him. Without Sleipnir's help, he wouldn't be able to unleash his peak strength.
And this time, he wasn't just facing Ikaris—he was facing a strengthened version of him.
"God? You deserve to die too!"
Ikaris, who had just been repulsed, froze for a moment when he saw Odin. But his expression quickly changed to a snarl. With a cold cry, he brandished his arm-blade and lunged at Odin in a furious charge.
Spear and blade collided violently, unleashing a shockwave that instantly carved a massive crater into the surrounding ice, shaving off more than ten meters in each direction.
Sleipnir howled in pain and staggered back several paces. Odin, however, gripped the golden reins tightly and channeled divine power into his steed to calm it.
Ikaris, lacking a solid footing in the air, was sent flying even further. Unlike Odin, who was unharmed except for his horse's exhaustion, Ikaris' arm-blade had been deeply pierced by Gungnir's edge.
But in an instant, his golden flesh rippled like liquid, seamlessly repairing the wound.
—Troublesome as always.
But if they had killed him once before, they could do it again.
Odin let out a low grunt at the thought, then urged Sleipnir forward, charging at Ikaris once more.
Scoffing, Ikaris met him head on.
But this time...
"Ancient One! Now!" Odin suddenly bellowed.
His cry caught Ikaris off guard for a moment. And in that split second, deep crimson tendrils erupted from the void around him, ensnaring his limbs in an unbreakable grip—just like Phastos's earlier device.
These were the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, a binding spell derived from the extradimensional god Cyttorak and cast by the Ancient One.
In Avengers: Infinity War, even Doctor Strange—who had only been Sorcerer Supreme for a few years and was still relatively inexperienced—had used this spell to restrain Thanos's left hand, preventing him from wielding the Infinity Stones. That moment had given the Avengers a chance to subdue Thanos—if not for Star-Lord's impulsive mistake, the entire battle could have ended differently.
And Strange was but a novice compared to the Ancient One.
Of course, Ikaris was no Thanos.
As the strongest of the Eternals, Ikaris, in his normal state, could overpower a Thanos without the stones.
Though both were Eternals, Ikaris and his kind were fundamentally different from Thanos and his brother Starfox.
Ikaris and his fellow Eternals were among the first generation created directly by the Celestials.
Thanos, on the other hand, was a descendant of an offshoot of Eternals—those who had awakened their own will and betrayed the Celestials long ago.
Strictly speaking, Ikaris and his kind were the ancestors of Thanos.
Among the Earth's Eternals, only Ajak—who was now dead—had known this truth.
But no matter how powerful Ikaris was, escaping the Ancient One's spell was no easy task.
The moment he was bound, Odin's spear thrust forward, piercing straight through Ikaris's heart.
Yet Ikaris did not fall.
The heart was not a vital organ for an Eternal.
In fact, as artificial constructs, Eternals had no true weaknesses—unless they were dismembered or had their energy drained like in the film, they simply would not die.
As before, the golden energy that coated his body immediately attempted to repair the damage.
But neither Odin nor the Ancient One were going to sit back and let that happen.
Divine power erupted from Gungnir, attempting to drive out the golden energy that was healing Ikaris.
At the same time, the Ancient One appeared behind him, pressing both hands against his head. Magic surged from her fingertips, flooding into his mind—stimulating his consciousness, forcing his very soul to awaken.
Yes, even as a construct, Ikaris still possessed a soul.
He was, after all, a creation of the Celestials.
Through the combined efforts of Odin and the Ancient One, the golden substance was gradually removed from Ikaris' body. At the same time, Ikaris' consciousness returned to clarity, stimulated by the Ancient One's magic.
"What exactly is that thing?"
As the golden substance was fully extracted by the Ancient One and sealed in a magical cage, Gilgamesh approached Odin and stared curiously at the writhing mass.
"That is Knull—an ancient dark god, an entity on par with the Celestials, and the creator of the All-Black, the Necrosword," Odin said solemnly, watching the golden sphere struggle violently within the magical prison.
Long ago, when the universe was still in primordial chaos and the Celestials had just begun creating life, darkness—just as it did with the Dark Elves who despised the light brought by Odin's father to the Nine Realms—already lurked in the void.
That darkness was Knull.
The act of creation awakened him from his slumber. Driven by his hatred for all life, the first thing Knull did upon waking was forge the Necrosword and immediately behead a Celestial—the severed head would later become Knowhere, as seen in the movies.
But the Celestials were many, and Knull was quickly defeated and cast back into the void.
But he did not give up.
Within the Abyss, using the blood of fallen Celestials, he reforged the Necrosword, creating a new species—Symbiotes, the progenitors of beings like Venom.
With his new weapon and his new army, Knull once again rampaged through the universe.
"You must be joking! A being on a par with the Celestials, so easily defeated?" Gilgamesh's eyes widened in disbelief.
"If this were the true Knull, we would not have stood a chance," Odin said with a faint smile. "But this thing is only a fragment of him—an entirely different matter."
As it turned out, after Knull's second uprising, he faced the combined wrath of the Celestials and many of the ancient primordial gods. This time, he suffered a far worse defeat—losing the Necrosword and having his very soul shattered.
The being before them was but a small fragment of Knull's physical body, which for unknown reasons had drifted to Earth tens of thousands of years ago—long before Odin himself had unified the Nine Realms, when Asgard was still ruled by his grandfather.
The story of Knull had been passed down from Odin's ancestors; he himself had never encountered the dark god directly.
Gilgamesh, on the other hand, might have recognized Knull—had his memories not been wiped.
Odin had encountered fragments of Knull before. He knew firsthand how devastating they could be—entire civilizations had been wiped out because of them.
However, just as Odin and Gilgamesh were deep in discussion, the Ancient One noticed something amiss.
"Wait... this isn't Knull. It's just a powerful symbiote."
Using her magic to peer into the creature's soul, the Ancient One discovered a shocking truth.
"What?! It's not a fragment of Knull? Just a symbiote? Then why is it so hostile to the gods?" Odin asked in disbelief.
"Because its previous host belonged to a civilization on a planet that was seeded with a Celestial embryo," the Ancient One said coldly.
Seeded with a Celestial?
At her words, Ikaris, who had been lost in guilt over his rampage, suddenly stiffened, his eyes going blank again.
Before he could lose control again, the Ancient One slapped him across the head, snapping him out of it.
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Next Bonus Chapter at 200 PowerStones!