The moment Peter detached from the rocket, he utilized his few remaining nanobots to form flight thrusters to maintain stability. He then opened a Sling Ring portal to escape the blast radius. Casting a spell to keep himself levitating in mid-air, he watched silently from a distance as a vast stretch of the ocean was bombarded by the S.W.O.R.D. base-ship.
Because Korvac had rewritten reality before his departure, Kang's flagship had been seized without sustaining significant damage. Subsequently, the United Nations convened a meeting and established S.W.O.R.D. using this future warship—whose principles humans still could not fully comprehend—as its base, specifically tasked with diplomacy and defense against extraterrestrial civilizations.
Naturally, this ship became Earth's most powerful weapon, and Peter had called upon it to bombard Carnage.
Peter didn't think it likely that Cletus could survive a bombardment of this magnitude. However, just to be safe, once the shelling ceased, he used the Sling Ring to open a portal and returned to the site of the strike to ensure that Cletus was truly dead.
"Not even a scrap of the rocket itself is left. It's likely Cletus is truly—"
Peter's Spider-Sense didn't trigger, but his suit's radar detected an object flying toward him at hypersonic speeds. He immediately spun around to evade, only to witness an unbelievable sight: a man who was almost entirely charred, devoid of any body hair, with wings condensed from the symbiote growing from his back, was charging at him. His legs, right arm, and more than half of his body had vanished; most of what remained was crystallized and carbonized.
But this did nothing to stop Cletus from staying alive, gasping for breath, and even accelerating his self-healing.
Cletus's secret to survival was exactly what he had calculated earlier: a contingency plan for the possibility of being launched into space with Spider-Man. By consuming the remaining energy of the Carnage symbiote, he accelerated its cellular division, continuously using newly divided symbiote material to harden and block the laser bombardment while simultaneously undergoing constant self-regeneration.
Through this nearly suicidal method, the man had actually managed to survive.
"I've returned alive from hell! Spider-Man!"
Harnessing extraordinary speed, Carnage closed the distance to Peter. Peter transformed the last of his nanobots into mechanical claws on his back, then attempted to use precognitive magic to predict Carnage's trajectory and intercept him, only to find the prophecy failing once again.
It seemed that Knull's residual consciousness was still clinging to a desperate hope even now.
At this point, Carnage had essentially stopped thinking about how to survive in the long run. If Spider-Man had truly believed he was dead, he might have escaped, but since Spider-Man was here, there was no choice but to fight to the death. He had lost all control over other symbiotes, which meant he couldn't even transfer his own consciousness.
To live, he had to kill Spider-Man!
"To think of a way like that to survive... are you some kind of ultimate lifeform?"
Peter spoke while retreating through the air. He turned and fired a web line that stuck to Carnage, then unleashed his bio-electricity at full power, sending currents surging over Carnage's surface. Carnage, meanwhile, laughed maniacally as he swung a blade hardened from the symbiote, stabbing it into Spider-Man's body.
"Are you just tickling me? It's all over!"
Cletus laughed wildly. The moment he felt his blade pierce Spider-Man's body, he seemed to see a supreme, glorious, and ultimate world. Here, he could feel absolute freedom; here, he could make his art reach perfection; here...
He suddenly froze. He looked around and found himself in a vaguely familiar, recognizable place. This was where he had first encountered the deity when he first met Carnage. But why had he come here?
Where was Carnage?
He felt his beloved was still here, but...
He looked toward the ancient throne. Sitting there appeared to be an aged corpse. Knull sat there silently, and everything returned to stillness.
Suddenly, Cletus felt a prickle of alarm. He looked back and saw people he either remembered or didn't—those he had infected—appearing all around him. More terrifyingly, they were actually able to control Carnage, able to tear at Carnage.
"What are you doing?! What are you doing?! What's happening!!!"
Amidst his terror, Cletus seemed to realize something. Where was this? Why had he come here?!
In his overwhelming fear, he failed to notice that on the throne, the fingers of that body twitched ever so slightly.
The symbiote planet, Klyntar.
The countless symbiotes living on this planet were going about an ordinary day. As a peace-loving species that enjoyed interacting with others, their daily tasks involved repelling aliens who came to Klyntar to kidnap symbiotes, discovering and exiling followers of Knull, or finding noble warriors to fight alongside them.
The most powerful lifeform on Klyntar, and their leader, was Klyntar itself. In the symbiote language (though it was hard to say they truly had one), this word meant "cage." It was a collective of the symbiotes who had once sealed Knull by making themselves part of the planet. They had now become a single, independent symbiote hive mind to isolate Knull's corruption from other symbiotes.
Then there were the Agents of the Cosmos. This organization consisted of noble warriors from across the galaxy and the strongest symbiotes of Klyntar, aimed at listening to the Voice of the Universe and defending cosmic peace. Now, these agents, who were usually scattered across the stars, were returning to Klyntar one after another.
"Has Knull awakened?" one Agent of the Cosmos asked the question of greatest concern. Ever since Knull's consciousness was sealed by an unknown deity eons ago, the symbiotes had remained vigilant against his possible return. Regarding this question, another Agent shook his head. "Only a tiny fragment of consciousness has returned; he is nowhere near awakening. However, from that same direction, a large number of symbiote hosts are dying."
Everyone fell silent. They began to discuss what should be done and quickly reached a conclusion. In the past, they might have turned a blind eye to the greatest threat on Klyntar, but now, they needed to make a change. They would proactively travel to the planet where Knull was sealed to check if the seal remained secure.
If possible, they might need to implement special measures.
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