Chapter 690

Several symbiotes crawled out of the spaceship, already reduced to piles of slime.

It wasn't because they were motion-sick and changed shape, but because before they arrived, Polaris had taken their hosts—the few mutant children—and sent them on their way.

The only human left was Helen, who had hidden inside the ship and escaped Polaris's notice; when she stepped onto the surface of Klinta Star, all she saw were barren craters and piles of colorful slime that had just fallen from the sky.

"Ugh… well… anyway, welcome to my home." Lei Ting's voice trembled; the golden slime had lost even the strength to move, while the green slime behind him was slightly better—he slowly shifted his body and said to Helen, "Girl, I have to say, your driving skills are really… do all Earth people drive like this?"

Helen thought back, then replied, "My father told me, speed is passion… but remember to close the roof."

With that, she walked forward on her own; the other piles of slime followed behind her. Lan Ling, as he oozed forward, said, "Honestly, after staying on Earth too long, coming home feels strange—being legless is really weird…"

"Stop complaining," Lei Ting grumbled as he oozed along. "Nowhere compares to home. That's a truth."

Helen reached the summit of the nearest tallest crater and gazed far into the distance, realizing this wasn't a normal planet—these so-called craters weren't formed by meteor impacts.

Every bump beneath her feet was made entirely of symbiote bodies.

The planet beneath her was a spherical body formed by countless entangled symbiotes; every patch of ground here was symbiote.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Lan Ling stood beside Helen. "Countless symbiotes sacrificed their freedom to weave together this cage—its walls are their own bodies, imprisoning Nal."

"... s this really worth it?" Helen asked.

This planet was no small one; forming such a massive celestial body required billions of symbiotes. Now, every living symbiote on its surface lived atop the remains of their ancestors.

"Perhaps to you, it doesn't seem worth it—we sacrificed the vast majority of our kind just to seal our creator. Sounds foolish, doesn't it?"

"No civilization would willingly do this. Losing two-thirds of your population means the end of your culture," Lan Ling said lightly, as if the topic meant nothing to him.

"After Nal suffered a crushing defeat across the Nine Realms, countless symbiote connections were severed. Among them, one tiny symbiote fell onto a remote planet, where the inhabitants still lived in primitive tribes, eating raw meat and drinking blood."

"At that moment, the symbiote parasitized one of them—and learned from him a capability never before experienced by any symbiote."

Helen looked at the barren landscape and asked, "What was it?"

"Emotion," Lan Ling answered.

"Correct. We regard it as a power, because Nal, our creator, never gave us this ability," Lan Ling's voice softened. "Back then, we felt nothing about anything in this world, and nothing ever changed our thoughts."

"But when we gained emotion, we felt sorrow for those slaughtered, guilt toward the survivors, rage at the acts committed—despite different species and languages, we sensed emotions unlike any we'd known from those people."

"So we made a decision that shocked every civilization: two-thirds of our kind sacrificed themselves to form the cage of Klinta Star, imprisoning Nal."

"Was it worth it?" Lan Ling asked and answered himself. "I'm not comforting myself or deceiving you—we all believe it was worth it."

"Because emotion brings infinite possibilities."

Helen stood silently, gazing at the barren land. Two-thirds of a race's population—for a single possibility. Was it truly worth it?

"Alright, you can look around," Lei Ting walked up and said. "There's not much to see here, but we've got work to do—we need to check and make sure Nal hasn't broken free."

Several symbiotes walked away from Helen. Lv Ci asked as they moved, "We're just leaving her there? Really no problem?"

"I can't believe you're still worrying about this after that ride," Lei Ting scoffed, then immediately sped up.

"I don't get why the Illusion Demon always finds hosts like her. Probably destined to be a power-type symbiote," Lv Ci mused, then quickened his pace too.

Helen, standing atop the mountain to admire the view, didn't remain still for long. Suddenly, in the wind of Klinta Star, she sensed an unusual surge of power.

She looked up at the stars. Klinta Star had almost no atmosphere—only suitable for divine creations—but its one advantage was the clarity of the sky: every star shone sharply visible.

As the wind stirred Helen's hair, she squinted—and in the depths of the endless starfield, saw a colossal silhouette.

It was Solus, father of the Heirs and leader of the Heir Family.

Also, a lonely old man in his twilight years.

After discovering his entire Heir Family base had vanished, Solus embarked on a journey to find his home.

In the vast multiverse, the Heir Family's base was like a grain of sand on a shore; when the tide came, the sand vanished—and could never be found again.

Solus knew this was a conspiracy, but now he had to minimize losses. He couldn't afford to lose more.

Though he was the strongest in the Heir Family, without the others, his power in the multiverse was barely enough to survive—and perilously so. Once a social creature loses its group, its competitiveness plummets.

But Solus knew he still had a chance to turn things around. Right now, the most urgent thing was to recover his losses.

The home was gone. So he had to gain more elsewhere—enough to partially offset the loss of the base and his family members, and restore some of his strength.

What Solus intended to do was seize the Bat Totem completely.

Half the reason they'd ended up here was the Bat Totem. They'd poured too many sunk costs into it. Solus couldn't accept losing both his wife and his money.

The only way forward now was to seize the Bat Totem in one decisive move.

As head of the Heir Family, Solus understood the Totem better than anyone. He could easily communicate with it through meditation, and even convert his own inner power into faith energy to control a newly born Peak Totem.

Just as he found a relatively safe location and began executing his plan to seize the Totem, he suddenly sensed another force attempting to control it.

This had happened once before. Venom, to force the Heir Family to invest more power, had once used his own energy to wrest control of the Totem. Now, Solus realized—the force being used was identical to the one from that previous attempt.

It was impossible not to suspect a conspiracy: repeatedly stolen faith energy, an uncontrollable Totem, dead family members, stolen family territory, and now this mysterious force again—it seemed to be telling Solus: the wielder of this power was the mastermind.

Thinking of the stolen faith energy, Solus's heart bled. The repeated appearance of this mysterious force pushed his rage to its peak—he would reclaim what this thief had taken.

He followed the power, returning to this single universe, and found Nal on Klinta Star.

Venom's power came from the dividend Nal had given Shi Ler during the Nal's Banquet incident. The second force challenging Solus for control of the Totem was Shi Ler himself—using the same power he had intercepted from Nal during the Nal's Banquet incident.

Shi Ler wanted to divert the trouble. He knew Solus wouldn't abandon the Bat Totem, so he deliberately used Nal's power to break free from the Totem's control. Solus, following this trail, would inevitably find Nal.

As expected, Solus found Nal. And unlike Siseon, who had come before merely to investigate, Solus, from his perspective, held a mortal grudge against Nal.

Stealing power, killing his kin, stealing his home—unless he avenged this, Solus had no place left in the multiverse.

Earlier, Siseon had merely sensed the loss of Chaotic Primordial energy and came to investigate, wrapping the entire Klinta Star in his power. Now, Solus's grudge was greater—and so was the power he invested.

As the colossal spectral figure neared the barren planet, Helen felt the surge of power. That wind of raw force, brushing against her, awakened a hunger etched into her biological instinct.

In the meditation chamber of Kamar-Taj, Shi Ler set down his teacup. Strange poured him another cup. "So the enemy you've set for the Spider-Men isn't Solus—it's Nal?"

"Nal is trapped on Klinta Star, but that doesn't mean he's weak. On the contrary, in raw power, he's far stronger than Solus."

"Same as always: chaotic beings grow everywhere—except in their brains. No better punching bag exists."

The two clinked teacups and exchanged a knowing smile.

But high above Klinta Star, Solus's first opponent wasn't Nal—it was a small girl radiating soft light.

Helen still stood on Klinta Star's surface, gazing up at Solus's demonic specter.

Destruction Day was highly sensitive to power and aura. Through the fluctuations in the air, she sensed the faith energy she had absorbed before came from this being.

The faith energy she gained from the Heir Family triggered her first evolution. But since Destruction Day was created, her only ability had been infinite evolution.

The hunger etched into her genes drove her to seek more power—consume, evolve, consume again. That was her greatest confidence in facing Superman, the Son of Krypton.

Her tiny figure slowly rose into the air, dwarfed beneath the colossal demonic specter.

Rock fragments began trembling irregularly, assembling into components that instantly shattered into shards. Magnetic forces reattached them—but soon, they were torn apart again.

Magneto, holding blueprints, turned toward the source of the tremors and slowly narrowed his eyes.

In Asgard, Frigga, who had noticed Helen's disappearance, followed the trail of the vanished spaceship. The worried and anxious goddess gripped her staff tightly, ready to deliver a fatal blow to whoever had taken Helen.

Deep within the dark prison of Klinta Star, in a blackness so profound it swallowed all light, a pair of blood-red eyes ignited.