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Adam Warlock Lore

Golden Sail

In the beginning, there was darkness.

The universe was no more than an endless void — a vast expanse of silent nothingness — until celestial forces shaped the stars and nurtured life into being.

Just as the universe began in darkness, so did I. Created within a protective cocoon from which I burst forth, fully-formed. A golden guardian designed to bring peace to the galaxy with my vast cosmic might. But there is a cycle to life. And just as I was born from this cocoon, now I have returned to it, much sooner than I could have anticipated.

My cosmic awareness sensed that something was amiss — a great disturbance in the fabric of time and space itself. As multiple realities and timelines became entangled, I reflexively shielded myself within this protective shell. If I truly hoped to fulfill my ultimate purpose, then I would have to bide my time and build my strength for the trials ahead. But what would they be? Even with my deep connection to the primal forces of the universe, I was both literally and figuratively in the dark once more.

As I slumbered within my restorative sheath, it became a wayward vessel floating through the cosmos. I was no longer in control of my own destiny, merely a passenger adrift on the currents of fate. The silence out among the stars brought a sense of tranquility I had not experienced since before my birth. The serenity would not last long.

"Adam."

A voice called my name, echoing not in my ears, but inside of my mind. Whoever was calling me was reaching out across the void with a psyche even more powerfully attuned than my own.

"We are not so different, you and I," the voice continued. "We both slumber while the Multiverse burns around us. Some gods we are..."

As the powerful words pulsed within my brain, an image began to form in my mind's eye. A man confined to a sacred chamber. Not quite a cocoon like my own — his was nearly as old as time itself — yet similar in many ways. The bearded man within was frail and weak, devoid of power. But he was not always so. As my mind was flooded with brief glimpses of his storied past, it became clear that he was once a mighty king that ruled a glorious realm for centuries on end.

"Time is something I have never feared," he said inside of my mind. "Not until now. Time and space are twisting around us, and I am trapped here within the Odinsleep, unable to do a Bor-damned thing about it."

The Odinsleep? Of course! I knew the voice was familiar, even if the man himself no longer was. It belonged to the All-Father of Asgard, Mighty Odin. Had he fallen to the same forces that had caused me to reflexively retreat into my cocoon?

"Nay," Odin replied, reading my own thoughts, "I was brought low by the machinations of my own son—the trickster known as Loki. The foul child has usurped the throne of Yggsgard and is set to destroy our proud legacy for his own selfish ends yet again."

Did he say... Yggsgard? How curious. But the proper name of his realm was the least of my concerns. While the rage that the All-Father felt about his son's actions was palpable, there was something more beneath it. A deep concern that spanned far beyond the realm he once ruled.

"You too are preparing for a battle when you awaken, golden one," Odin said. "And while my son may indeed test your mettle, he is naught but a distraction from your true enemy. There is a darkness in the cosmos, Adam — one far deeper than that of our slumbers. I have felt it trying to creep its way into my realm. Even into my own dreams. Should it be set loose, I fear that it will corrupt all it touches, snuffing out the starts themselves until nothing remains."

What could he be speaking of? I called out to Odin for an answer, but his voice had muted to nothing more than a distant echo. As my cocoon drifted far past the embattled realm of Yggsgard, I left a small fraction of my soul's energy behind with the sleeping Odin — a hint of light to keep the darkness he spoke of at bay. I prayed it would be enough.

Now that my cosmic awareness had been fully awakened, I could sense another empire on the horizon. This one was not nearly as ancient as Odin's realm, yet its own god seemed just as eager to call my name.

"Warlock," she said with a growl of disdain. "You have come a long way to die."

Was I being threatened merely for passing through this space? How rude.

"The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda shall not harm you, traveler," the voice continued. "But those beyond our borders will not be nearly as kind. Of that, you have Bast's word."

Bast. The panther goddess. A member of the Orisha, a pantheon of deities worshipped by the people of Wakanda. But last I recalled, Wakanda was merely a nation on the planet Earth, not an interstellar civilization. Could I have drifted into another reality?

"More precisely," Bast interrupted, "other realities have drifted to you. This Timestream Entanglement has brought us together from across a multitude of plains. What is left of each universe is converging into one, as if we have been gathered..."

Gathered? For what...?

"For the feast."

As Bast snarled her final words into my mind, it became clear that her divine presence had somehow been corrupted. Could she have been tainted by the very same darkness that Odin had warned me of? I had no way of knowing, as my journey across the spaceways had already continued deeper into the heart of this strange patchwork galaxy.

"Child of the light," a third voice suddenly echoed within me.

This one I could identify without hesitation. It spoke with such raw power that it could only belong to a Celestial — an ancient being spawned at the dawn of time. But yet, even though its words passed through my consciousness with tremendous force, they were softer than other Celestials I had encountered. Muted. Faded. Like distant memories.

"You would be wise to listen, lest my fate end up being yours as well," the Celestial implored, though I had little choice to give it anything less than my undivided attention.

"As you know, we Celestials were born at the beginning of all that is," it continued, "but we were not the first. There was a primordial force that came before us. A creature of pure darkness, so powerful that he could strike down any who threatened to shed light upon the endless oblivion he ruled."

Even the Celestials themselves? I struggled to imagine a foe so formidable...

"Few can wrap their minds around his nihility. And yet, here I am, slain by his sword, with nothing left of me but an empty husk and the echoes of consciousness."

But there was more than just the remains of a fallen Celestial in the void beyond my cocoon. I could sense that now. There was also a hint of corruption, not unlike the one that had tainted Bast. But this was not found in the disembodied mind of the slaughtered Celestial. Rather, it lingered on the great being's lifeless body, like an infected sore that had been festering for millennia.

"You feel him, too," the voice echoed. "His tainted touch has stained my corpse for eons. But now, as time collapses around us, he has awoken once more, eager to revel in the oncoming oblivion. I have called out to others like you — great cosmic forces, ancient warriors, even the gods themselves — for help in containing his eternal blackness, but they have either retreated... or succumbed to his poison. Perhaps you will fare better... "

Hoping the Celestial was right, I reached out with my mind, desperate to identify the source of this cosmic impurity. But my thoughts became clouded as I heard the Celestial scream a final warning.

"Beware, child of light! He has found you!"

Who? Who has found me? The Celestial did not answer. But another voice did, with a tone a thousand times darker than the blackness within my cocoon.

"Knull."

As he spoke his own name, I could feel his dark tendrils digging into my mind. This ruler of the void — this King in Black — had awakened somewhere, and was dragging me towards him. Try as I might, I could not escape his grip.

"Do not give up hope, child," the Celestial said, its voice rapidly fading. "You will not be alone..."

Suddenly, a burst of cosmic fire erupted through the heavens, producing a flash so brilliant that it permeated the walls of my cocoon. The light lasted only a second, but its unusual shape forever burned itself into my mind — a majestic bird, its flaming wings spanning across the cosmos. Before I could process what had happened, the vessel that was meant to protect me now hurtled through space towards a destination unknown.

My body was still confined, but my mind was in a heightened state. Where there had once been blinding light, now darkness and despair had slithered their way in. I was overcome with images of the horrors that Knull had once committed, and those he had yet to unleash upon the universe. I could see his past and his future... but what of his present? That, it seemed, was shrouded in mystery — a void greater than Knull himself.

Suddenly, my journey across the galaxy came to a violent end as my vessel made impact against a most unusual surface. Was this a planet? No... I could feel it writhing around me, as if it were alive. And more, I could feel Knull's sinister presence, closer than ever. Wherever I was, he was as well.

Before my cocoon could be dragged beneath the churning sea of oblivion surrounding it, a single crack appeared above me. Where before there was nothing, now there was the faintest glow. The faintest hope. I pushed through, emerging from my cocoon to gaze upon the surface of a world teeming with alien life.

And as my mind touched their hivemind, it all became clear. This was Klyntar, the planet of the symbiotes. It was here that Knull was once worshipped as a god. It was here that his own followers imprisoned him eons ago. And it was here that he was biding his time, regaining his strength, in hopes to break free and claim his prize once more.

Perhaps he had dragged me here to snuff out my light before it could drown out his shadows. But he made a grave miscalculation:

I broke free first. And as I stood upon Knull's planet-sized prison, I made a solemn vow to do anything in my power to make sure that his infinite blackness would not go unchecked.

In the beginning, there was darkness.

But in the end, there will be light.

And I shall be the one to help it shine.