"Swish!"
Before the grin on Knull's face could fade, Robert vanished from his position, reappearing directly in front of Knull before the latter could even react.
"Boom!"
Robert's fist collided with Knull's chest, sending him flying backward. Only then did Knull's expression shift.
Disbelief. Incomprehension. Knull couldn't accept what had just happened. Despite knowing from the Necrosword's perspective that Robert was strong—strong enough to reach him—he had never expected this. Based on their earlier conversation, Knull assumed Robert was powerful, perhaps on par with the Celestials. But to Knull, that was nothing worth fearing.
After all, he had claimed to kill Celestials with a single strike. How could a mortal stand on equal footing with him?
However, the force of Robert's attack shattered that arrogance. The blow was far beyond what Knull had anticipated, even surpassing the strength of a typical Celestial.
"Wh-what just happened?!"
Gorr, watching from the sidelines, stood in stunned silence. He hadn't even seen Robert move, only realizing what had happened when Knull's body was hurled through the air. Inwardly, Gorr felt a wave of relief.
Thank the void he hadn't foolishly tried to fight Robert earlier. With this kind of overwhelming power, Robert could have ended him in mere moments. In fact, Gorr silently admired Robert's restraint; if he were in Robert's position, anyone who dared challenge him would have been executed without hesitation.
"Interesting... very interesting."
Knull slowly got to his feet, his eyes blazing with fury. His previous smirk had transformed into a savage snarl. The power within him surged uncontrollably, and the Necrosword began to emanate a terrifying, bloodthirsty aura.
"Is that all you've got?" Robert said, his tone calm but laced with disappointment. He could sense Knull's rising energy—stronger than that of the Celestials—but still far from the level needed to back up his boast of killing them so easily.
"Is that all I've got?!"
Knull roared, his fury exploding like a powder keg. His aura intensified, becoming wild and chaotic. The markings on the Necrosword glowed a deep red, as if channeling the power of countless slain gods. The air around him seemed to bleed with malice.
"Hmm... now that's a little better," Robert muttered, nodding slightly. He could sense that Knull's power had reached the threshold of a universe-creating entity—though still weaker than beings like Clark Kent or Darkseid.
"Swish!"
Without warning, Knull unleashed a devastating attack. A crimson river of energy surged through the darkness, stretching as far as the eye could see. Within the blood-colored torrent, Robert saw countless spectral forms—gods whose lives had been claimed by the Necrosword.
Some were unfamiliar to him, while others were recognizable, including those who had perished in Indigel. Among them was the Flora God who had led Gorr there, now a ghostly figure locked in the river's endless flow. These souls, bound to the Necrosword, lunged toward Robert with maddened rage.
Robert could sense that these spectral gods retained not only their original powers but also seemed to have been augmented in some way. Their destructive potential was immense.
"Sizzle!"
With a flash of golden light, Robert transformed into a Super Saiyan. His aura blazed brightly, illuminating the surrounding darkness. The energy radiating from his transformation incinerated the approaching spirits, reducing many to vapor almost instantly.
However, their destruction was short-lived. Moments later, the spirits reformed within the blood river, their attacks relentless. It seemed that as long as the river remained, these souls could not be truly annihilated.
"Pointless. What you face now is the ultimate weapon I've prepared for the Celestials!" Knull sneered. "The symbiotes may be weaklings, but I learned from that failure. Since I was overwhelmed by the Celestials' sheer numbers, I developed my own countermeasure—this endless tide of divine specters!"
"You should feel honored, Saiyan. You're the first to witness this technique!"
"Honored?" Robert chuckled as his aura continued to flare, burning away the specters again and again. "It's clever, I'll admit. But it has a glaring flaw."
"Oh? And what would that be?" Knull asked with a smirk, still confident in his creation.
"Simple. How do you stop someone who can bypass your defenses entirely?"
"Bypass...?"
Before Knull could finish processing Robert's words, the Saiyan vanished from sight. A split second later, Robert materialized directly in front of Knull, bypassing the river of souls entirely.
"Boom!"
Once again, Robert's fist slammed into Knull, sending him crashing into the distance. This time, the impact left Knull far more battered and shaken than before.
"Damn it! How the hell did you do that?!" Knull spat, staggering to his feet. He couldn't comprehend how Robert had bypassed the barrier of souls. He hadn't sensed any spatial fluctuations—how was such a thing possible?
"If you can't handle me in this form, you're in no position to challenge the Celestials," Robert said with a shake of his head. "Even their strongest warriors, like the Eliminator, could hold their ground against me like this. You? You're not even close."
"Impossible!" Knull's eyes burned with rage and denial. "I slaughtered Celestials in the past—none could stand against me! And now I'm even stronger! How could they possibly defeat me now?!"
"Stronger? Maybe. But what makes you think they haven't improved as well?" Robert responded, his tone full of quiet amusement. "And who said their numbers have dwindled? In fact, there have been many new Celestials born in recent times..."
"New... Celestials?!"
Knull froze, disbelief washing over him. The idea that the Celestials could reproduce, that their numbers could increase, was something he had never considered.
"Did you think they were an extinct race?" Robert scoffed. "Far from it. The Celestials plant seeds within planets, allowing those worlds to nurture their offspring. Once a planet's life force and civilizations are exhausted, a new Celestial is born. It's a slow process, yes, but it's been happening for eons."
"They've been growing their population… using entire planets as incubators?" Knull growled, his hatred for the Celestials reigniting. "Those self-righteous hypocrites! They always claimed to guide the universe's development for the greater good, but all along, they were just feeding off its resources for their own survival!"
Hearing this, Gorr's eyes widened. "Planets as incubators..." he whispered, his mind racing. "If that's true, then... my homeworld, where my civilization was destroyed... could there be a Celestial growing beneath its surface?"
Robert's ears perked up at Gorr's quiet revelation. "You might be onto something," he said thoughtfully. "If there's a Celestial gestating on your planet, I could track it to find out where the rest of their kind fled after they abandoned this universe."
"Wait—what did you just say?" Knull cut in, his voice trembling with shock. "The Celestials... fled this universe?"
Once again, Knull found himself reeling in disbelief. For all his strength and cunning, he could never have imagined that the mighty Celestials—his greatest enemies—would abandon their domain entirely. What could have driven them to such an extreme? Could it be… was Robert the reason?
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