"Deviant? What is that?"
"According to the High Priest, it's a terrifying creature called Despair. Its entire body is covered in a rough, black, keratinous shell, riddled with cracks and crevices, from which a dark golden light emanates, as if magma flows within it. Its limbs are asymmetrical; some have multiple arms, while others have multiple tentacles."
"But that's not the most terrifying part."
"The High Priest said that this terrifying Deviant possesses powerful evolutionary capabilities."
Felicia thought about the terrifying creature the Ivi Race High Priest had just described to her in the Ivi Race temple, with a tone as if he had experienced it firsthand. As she relayed the description, she involuntarily shivered.
Hawk's eyes, however, flickered.
"Evolution?"
"Yes."
"The High Priest said that the Ivi Race was not so weak in the beginning. They were descendants of God and were born with incredibly powerful strength. But those Deviants could acquire the abilities of their clansmen after killing them."
"After a Deviant devoured an Ivi Race member who could breathe Fire, that Deviant evolved and also learned to breathe Fire."
"It was under such circumstances that the Ivi Race retreated steadily, eventually having no choice but to escape from their ancestral land."
"Hiss!"
Hawk lowered his gaze, silent.
Peter, who was sitting nearby and listening to Felicia's account, gasped: "Devouring evolution? Do such terrifying creatures really exist? If that terrifying creature devoured Hawk, then…"
Hawk snapped back to attention, raised an eyebrow, and looked at Peter with a hint of exasperation.
"Hey, can you wish me something good?"
"Sorry!"
Peter, realizing his mistake, quickly apologized.
But in his mind, he couldn't help but imagine what would happen if this Deviant, as described by Felicia, gained Hawk's abilities.
Good heavens.
That would be the end of the World.
Peter couldn't help but think.
Hawk ignored Peter and looked at Felicia: "Do you have a general idea of what this creature looks like?"
Felicia nodded.
"There is a mural of that terrifying creature on the walls of the Ivi Race's temple."
"Let's go see."
"Okay."
Felicia looked at Hawk, who was getting up, and also stood up from her seat.
Peter, seeing this, shook his head, cleared the images from his mind, and also stood up.
As night fell.
In the Ivi Race village, the clansmen gathered around bonfires, chanting unknown but mysterious and beautiful songs.
In the temple, the bonfires on the walls burned brightly.
According to the Ivi Race, as long as the temple's bonfires never extinguished, the souls of the Ivi Race would be able to follow the bonfires back home.
Hawk was currently standing in the temple, looking up at the colorful murals, which appeared lifelike under the bonfire's glow.
A terrifying creature, exactly as Felicia had described, bared its teeth, as if about to leap out of the mural on the wall.
Peter, standing nearby, looked around at the other murals: "I'm still curious how these murals have maintained their colors for so many years without fading."
Felicia said: "The High Priest said these murals were painted by the first group of clansmen who escaped. In his words, they are descendants of God."
Peter shrugged.
"I reserve judgment on that."
"They might actually not be lying."
Hawk, hearing Peter's words from behind him, came back to his senses, turned his head, and said to Peter: "But they are definitely not descendants of God, though they are very likely descendants of the Eternal."
He looked at the so-called Deviant in the mural before him and realized what this thing most likely was.
It wasn't a Deviant; its official name in the comics was the "Anomalous Race," and in the movies, it was called the Deviant.
Leaving aside the comic origins for now.
In the movies, the Deviant were nearly immortal, unique life forms created by the Celestials through genetic modification.
The Celestials initially used the Deviant to clear top predators on life Planets, thereby ensuring that life could develop.
But perhaps even the Celestials didn't anticipate that the Deviant would evolve through predation, starting from only hunting top predators and then transitioning to hunting and eliminating all life forms.
This put the Celestials in a difficult position.
They used the Deviant because they wanted life to continue, to achieve their so-called "Emergence."
But if the Deviant consumed all life on a life Planet, how could new members of their race be born?
So…
The Celestials once again created the Eternal, a life form specifically designed to hunt the Deviant. Whenever they completed their mission, which was the Emergence, these Eternal members would be brainwashed and then deployed to the next life Planet to continue hunting the Deviant, ensuring that life could multiply until the Emergence was successful.
It was a cycle.
Until these Eternal members, due to excessive brainwashing and an overload of information, became a senile species.
They would then be mercilessly discarded by the Celestials, who would create a new batch of Eternal to fulfill their mission.
And after realizing that this Deviant might be the Deviant, and that the Ivi Race here might be descendants of the Eternal, Hawk suddenly felt as if a fog had lifted, revealing the Sun.
Because if that were truly the case, then the metal that seemed to be Adamantium earlier was likely genuine Adamantium.
No other reason.
tiamut, a new Celestial member gestating within the Earth, possessed a massive amount of Adamantium.
Or rather—
tiamut itself was Adamantium.
This was mentioned in Captain America 4.
At the same time, this also explained why, when he first arrived at Skull Island, he felt a pressure of power from a superior being.
Without any doubt, this divine pressure was likely the pressure from tiamut, the new Celestial member who had not yet emerged.
Moreover…
tiamut was not yet at the point of awakening. The pressure it emitted in an unconscious state was already so terrifying. What about the awakened Celestials?
No!
After returning, he must acquire the Mind Stone as soon as possible.
For some reason, when he thought of the Celestials, his Sixth Sense signaled a sense of crisis.
Although this sense of crisis was very slight.
But!
His intuition told him that if he were to meet the Celestials, they would likely be enemies, not friends.
Hawk's expression was silent.
Peter and Felicia, standing nearby, heard Hawk mention "Eternal" and exchanged glances, both seeing confusion in each other's eyes.
Felicia spoke.
"Hawk, this Eternal is…"
"A pitiful race used as tools by God."
Hawk came back to his senses and succinctly described the Eternal's position.
That was the truth.
He was not exaggerating.
Peter heard this and looked at the terrifying creature in the mural.
"Then this Deviant?"
"Deviant."
Hawk withdrew his gaze from the mural: "Also created by God to be tools, but unwilling to be used as such, they eventually rose up in resistance, leading God to create the Eternal specifically to hunt them."
Peter blinked.
"Is there something wrong with this God? Creating two races to fight each other? If he wants to play, fine, but why throw them on our Earth?"
"Not just Earth."
"What?"
"Throughout the Universe, on all Planets with life, there are traces of these two races."
"…"
Peter opened his mouth, then finally came to a conclusion.
"This God must be sick, very sick."
"Haha."
Hawk laughed, looking at the ignorant and fearless Peter, and said: "When he comes to Earth in the future, I support you in cursing him like that."
Peter was slightly stunned.
"Come to Earth? He will come to Earth?"
"Of course."
Hawk shrugged: "But that's several years from now."
Bad news.
He was certain that his encounter with the Celestials would be as enemies, not friends.
Good news.
There were still several years before the Celestials appeared. Thanos hadn't even snapped his fingers yet, so Arishem the Judge, that Celestial member, hadn't yet set his sights on Earth. He still had several years to develop.
The Celestials.
A race said to have been created by the creator God, Eternity, to maintain the main multiverse.
Gods created by the creator God.
These were Gods that even awakening the Seventh Sense Golden Little Universe couldn't defeat.
It was fine to truly become a God.
Fortunately…
There was still time!
Hawk's thoughts raced, then he took a deep breath and smiled at Peter and Felicia: "Alright, you two go to bed. When you wake up, we'll go home."
Peter and Felicia's faces showed joy.
The next second.
Felicia reacted and looked at Hawk: "Then you tonight…"
Hawk smiled slightly: "I'm going to check out the underground passage."
Since the existence of Adamantium was confirmed.
What to do next?
Of course, start digging.
Sleep?
Later, when he could kick OAA and punch the Five Creator Gods, there would be plenty of time to sleep.
Now—
It was the age to strive!
If he didn't strive now, when Arishem the Judge came to collect him in the future, he wouldn't even be able to cry.
First, accumulate Adamantium, then Uru, and finally, as long as he found materials compatible with gammanian, he could forge the true Golden phoenix cloth that possessed the Sun and the Phoenix Force.
Hawk thought to himself, then, after telling Peter and Felicia not to worry, his figure vanished from their sight the moment he turned around.
Peter and Felicia watched Hawk, who had suddenly disappeared before their eyes, blinking.
Peter was already used to it and said to Felicia: "Let's go, let's go back."
Felicia reacted, nodded, and walked with Peter out of the Ivi Race temple. As if remembering something, she asked in a low voice: "Is Hawk a God?"
Peter shook his head.
"He said he isn't?"
"He said?"
"Yes, last time in London, a very ugly guy who tried to destroy asked Hawk if he was a God, and Hawk said he wasn't a God yet."
"Yet…"
"Yes, that's what he said."
"…"
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