By the riverbank in the Ivi Tribe village.
Hawk and Peter stood side by side, chatting while waiting for Felicia, who was talking to the Ivi Tribe High Priest not far away.
Once Felicia finished speaking with the High Priest, they could leave.
Hawk had originally intended to speak himself.
But…
He didn't know how to start, and Peter was as introverted as him, so they could only ask Felicia to do it.
At any rate, the High Priest had not hidden anything, and Hawk had indeed found the adamantium based on the clues the High Priest provided.
Although Hawk felt that the Ivi Tribe people could no longer return to their so-called ancestral land to live again.
After all, without King Kong's protection and with them having degenerated into primitives, if they were to return to their ancestral land, they would probably be devoured by the terrifying creatures there, which were no less dangerous than those on Skull Island, in no time.
But Hawk could not make decisions for the Ivi Tribe people, nor did Hawk want to make decisions for them.
Respecting others' destinies.
So, after returning, Hawk still told Peter and Felicia about the origin and truth of the Ivi Tribe's ancestral land, and then the three voted 2-1 to have Felicia tell the High Priest about it.
Hmm.
Very democratic.
Peter, standing beside him, whispered with some confusion, "I still can't quite understand why the Ivi Tribe's ancestor, the Ikaris you mentioned, would personally kill his own descendants."
Hawk shrugged, "Perhaps he didn't want his bloodline to suffer."
Hawk had a rough guess as to why Ikaris did this, combining what he had seen and heard with the plot he had once read.
The Eternal, created by the Celestials to eliminate the Deviant and guard the final completion of the Emergence, had their memories wiped after each Emergence, and then went to a new Planet to guard the next Emergence.
Therefore, the Eternal did not know the truth of the Emergence.
The Eternal members knew they were sent to clear out the Deviant, and once the Deviant were cleared, they would wait for a new Celestial to be born, and then their mission would be complete.
But they did not know the true cost of the Emergence.
The birth of a new Celestial came at the cost of the destruction of a life-bearing Planet.
However, even if they knew the truth, it would be useless, because their memories would be completely erased afterward, and they would enter the next cycle of Emergence.
However…
Ajak, the leader of the Eternal, was an exception.
As the leader, Ajak's memories were always preserved, and she had always known that the cost of the Emergence was the destruction of a life-bearing Planet.
No joke!
Over millions of years, Ajak had faithfully carried out her mission to uphold the Emergence, but after arriving on Earth to execute this Emergence plan, she suddenly fell in love with Earth, couldn't bear to destroy it, and even began to question whether her mission was correct, gradually wanting to prevent the Emergence.
To this end, she found Ikaris and told him the truth of the Emergence plan.
After all, Ikaris was her chosen future leader of the Eternal.
So she hoped Ikaris would also refuse the mission and protect Earth, just like her.
But…
Ikaris flatly refused and began to criticize Ajak for wavering in her sense of mission.
Ajak, helpless, could only delete Ikaris's memories related to the truth, but Ajak still hoped that Ikaris, whom she had placed great hopes on to succeed her as the new leader of the Eternal, would reconsider during his time living on Earth and make a new choice.
Later, Ikaris followed Sersi and settled in the Lost World beneath Skull Island.
And then…
Ikaris's memories spontaneously recovered, and he also made a choice.
He chose to continue fulfilling the mission that the Celestials created them to perform.
To bring about the Emergence!
But Ikaris, with his memories restored, was conflicted.
On one hand, he wanted to continue fulfilling his duty.
On the other hand, he had an inseparable emotional attachment.
Because he knew that if he chose to fulfill his duty, he would eventually go to war with his companions.
And Sersi.
His love.
Because he knew Sersi loved Earth, and if he chose to continue fulfilling his mission, then in the future, he would personally destroy everything his beloved loved.
So…
After struggling, Ikaris chose to leave without a word.
Just as recorded in the murals of the Ivi Tribe temple in the Lost World, Ikaris chose to leave alone.
Because his love for Sersi was his greatest weakness.
Just like in the original plot, Ikaris appeared in London and still chose to protect Sersi, and even during the final battle, he had the chance to kill Sersi and bring about the Emergence, but ultimately chose to give up.
But that's a story for later.
In short!
In this current timeline, between fulfilling his mission and his inseparable emotions, Ikaris chose the former.
But before that, he had to clear all obstacles that might prevent the Emergence plan.
And facing his inseparable emotions and his once beloved friends and family, Ikaris also thought of a very good solution.
The Deviant.
He planned to use the Deviant to assassinate Ajak, the leader who had begun to question their mission.
But the Deviant had already been completely wiped out by them in the beginning, so where could he find newly hatched Deviant?
Fortunately, Ikaris found two Deviant eggs beneath the ice cap in Antarctica.
But the eggs had no life left.
But it didn't matter, he knew a place with rich life energy, which was the Lost World where he and Sersi had spent happy times and where he finally chose to leave without a word.
So he returned here and successfully hatched new Deviant using the life energy here.
And as his first accomplice, without a doubt, it was naturally the Ivi Tribe, born from him and Sersi.
Rather than letting his and Sersi's descendants be exterminated in the Emergence, he might as well personally bury them.
Of course.
This was all deduced by Hawk based on the murals he saw in the Lost World and the plot of the Eternal movie.
After all, Ikaris didn't say many words to him.
But Hawk felt that the course of the story should be pretty much like this.
Peter opened his mouth.
"So, inside our Earth, there really is a Universe God, and in the future, he will emerge and destroy our Earth?"
"Roughly."
"Hiss!"
Peter gasped, then looked at Hawk, "Hawk, we must stop all of this from happening."
Hawk heard this, looked at the somewhat excited Peter, and smiled, "Alright, how do you plan to stop it? Tiamut is down there, and there is indeed a way to kill Tiamut."
Peter's eyes lit up.
"What?"
"Destroy Earth."
"What?"
"Tiamut is gestating in the Earth's core. The only way to stop his emergence is to interrupt his life energy. The only way is to destroy Earth ourselves before Tiamut destroys it, just like Ikaris did to his and Sersi's descendants."
"No."
Peter heard this and shook his head like a rattle, "No, this can't be, this isn't right. Is there no other way?"
Hawk looked at Peter, who seemed genuinely eager for an answer, and the playful expression on his face disappeared.
Peter was still Peter.
The Spider-Woman whose power might be limited, but whose responsibility was infinite.
Hawk thought to himself, looking at Peter, who genuinely wanted to know if there was a way to prevent the Emergence.
"Yes!"
"What?!"
"Trust the wisdom of future generations."
"…"
Peter heard this, somewhat bewildered, and looked at the serious Hawk, "This… what kind of solution is this?"
Hawk's peripheral vision caught Felicia, who had finished speaking with the High Priest and was walking towards them. He smiled at Peter, "Then I'll give you a different answer. Do you trust me?"
Peter nodded without hesitation.
"Of course."
"Then that's it. Don't worry, don't I still have me? I'm not even worried right now, why are you?"
"You're right."
Peter unconsciously nodded, then breathed a sigh of relief.
Just then.
Felicia also walked over.
Because of Hawk's not-quite-a-guarantee, Peter, relieved of his worries about Earth's future destruction, looked at the approaching Felicia, curious about the High Priest's choice.
"How about it? Will they go back?"
"No."
Felicia shook her head, walked in front of the two, then turned to look at the High Priest, who was leaning on his staff and walking towards the Ivi Tribe Temple.
Then she looked at Hawke and Peter and said, "The High Priest already understands that it's impossible for them to go back.
Perhaps he just wants to know the truth that has troubled his people for generations."
Hawke's gaze also fell on the High Priest's hunched figure as he walked towards the Ivi Tribe Temple: "The High Priest has had his suspicions passed down through generations, otherwise, the first High Priest wouldn't have stayed behind and waited for death instead of leaving with them."
He thought of the first High Priest, whose skeleton was found sitting in the Ivi Tribe Temple in the Lost World, in front of ten adamantium statues that resembled Gods.
That was Ikaris and Sersi's first child.
He must have known something, so he chose to walk into the Temple, then smiled and calmly welcomed his father, who walked in from outside to finally take his life.
My life was given by you, so if you want to take it, come and take it yourself.
Hawke speculated on the first High Priest's thoughts before his death.
This was also why, when collecting adamantium, he only collected the mountain bodies and did not collect the Temple, which was entirely made of adamantium, nor the ten adamantium statues.
It wasn't for Ikaris or Sersi's sake, but for the first High Priest's sake.
Facing death, fear is the instinct of all living beings.
But the courage to look death in the eye is a hymn to being human.
Ikaris might not be human, but that first High Priest was a human.
He was just a bit pedantic.
If it were Hawke, there'd be no question: where there's life, there's hope.
Of the thirty-six stratagems, running away is the best.
A gentleman's revenge is never too late, even after ten years.
Three thousand Yue soldiers could swallow Wu.
He would endure hardship for decades, and after fully developing, he would emerge to personally kill Ikaris.
That's what he thought, and that's what he did.
Before having the ability to seek revenge, the best way is not even to entertain the thought of revenge, just as he never exposed his hatred to anyone before his Little Universe was activated.
But…
Although he didn't agree with the first High Priest's choice, one thing was certain.
He had guts!
Hawke thought of the first High Priest, who maintained his sitting posture even after turning into a complete skeleton, and after giving him the highest compliment a man could give another, he shook his head and ended the topic, looking at Peter and Felicia: "Alright, things here are settled.
Are you ready to go?"
Peter and Felicia exchanged glances, then nodded at Hawke.
"Ready."
"How do you plan to…"
"Ah!"
As Felicia's words were cut short by a scream, Hawke instantly looked up, using his telekinesis to envelop Peter and Felicia, and shot straight into the sky.
Boom!
A sonic boom cloud suddenly appeared above Skull Island.
Hawke, at supersonic speed, plunged into the massive storm system in front of them, which seemed to connect the sky above to the seabed below, with Peter and Felicia enveloped by telekinesis on either side.
The next second.
Rumble!
The massive storm system seemed enraged at this moment, with various colorful lightning bolts constantly striking around the three, led by Hawke in a V-formation, rapidly passing through the clouds.
Red linear lightning.
Blue spherical lightning.
Black thick lightning.
Amidst the sudden appearance of countless lightning bolts, Peter and Felicia, protected by telekinesis, gradually calmed down from their initial panic.
The massive storm system, neither long nor short, was almost instantaneous.
As the huge storm cloud spewed them out, Hawke, with Peter and Felicia enveloped by telekinesis, had already broken through the clouds.
It was like a World away.
The surface of the Pacific Ocean was turbulent, and the constantly roaring wind, the continuous thunder in the sky, and the saint cloth of the heavy rain hitting the Water pulled Hawke, Peter, and Felicia completely into the real World.
Hawke's speed did not decrease.
He rapidly flew towards the Osborn experimental Base platform in the Pacific Ocean, carrying Peter and Felicia, who had been successfully retrieved.
At this moment, the power system of the Osborn experimental Base platform had been repaired.
Looking from afar.
Under the ravages of the storm, the Osborn experimental platform, built on the Pacific Ocean, was brightly lit, like a beacon in the vast ocean.
Soon!
Thump!
Hawke's feet landed steadily.
Immediately after, Peter and Felicia's feet, enveloped in telekinesis, also firmly stepped onto the platform floor beneath them.
The next moment.
A group of ten armed guards rushed out of the platform Base, and the infrared laser dots from their firearms all fell on Hawke, Peter, and Felicia.
Just then, a voice came from inside the Base, accompanied by hurried footsteps: "Stop, put down your guns quickly."
Before long.
A woman quickly exited the Base, urgently calling for the guards to put down their guns, then quickly ran to Felicia and, incredibly excited, hugged Felicia: "Boss…"
The person who came was none other than Felicia's personal assistant.
Although the old butler contacted Hawke immediately, and Hawke set off, the old butler later contacted the assistant, recruited an international security team at the first opportunity, and then the assistant led them here.
They met the experimental personnel who had survived the disaster here and learned from him that Hawke had already been here and left again.
So the assistant led the international security team to repair the power system here and then settled down.
The international security team expressed indifference to this, as their salaries were paid hourly.
And so.
It had been seventeen days.
In a room at the experimental Base, Hawke raised an eyebrow as he listened to the assistant recount the time of his departure.
"Seventeen days?"
"Approximately.
You stayed there for a day and a night, and then we left around ten in the morning, so the time difference really exists."
Peter explained from the side, then, with a somewhat inexplicable expression, said to Hawke: "So am I a year older now?"
Although he had only been missing for a little over a month outside, he had actually spent a full year on Skull Island.
Hawke listened to Peter's sudden question and said with a smile: "I think you should worry about how to tell Aunt May that she's going to be a great-aunt in six months."
Peter's expression visibly froze at Hawke's words.
Hawke chuckled, then redirected his gaze to the assistant who was with them: "Has anything special happened in New York City these past few days?"
The assistant thought for a moment, then shook her head: "As far as I know, nothing particularly sensational has happened."
Hawke nodded at that.
Just then.
Felicia also returned from outside, holding a satellite phone.
She had just gone out to call the old butler at home.
The old butler had originally wanted to go himself, if not for the concern that his old bones might kick the bucket halfway through a plane ride.
So, when the old butler received Felicia's call, he was incredibly excited.
"Hawke, are you going back by yourself, or with us?"
"With you all."
Anyway, nothing major had happened in New York City, and flying back would be tiring, especially since he had just fought a tough battle with Ikaris.
So, being able to hitch a ride back on a plane would naturally be great.
Hawke said, while borrowing the satellite phone from Felicia, intending to also inform his fiancée at home that he was safe.
Although he had mentioned before leaving that he might be delayed for some time, now that he was out, to prevent Gwen from worrying further, the call still needed to be made.
The result…
The call could not be connected.
Hawke listened to the dial tone on the other end of the satellite phone, and his sword-like eyebrows couldn't help but twitch!
…
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