Marvel: Empire of Power-Chapter 117 - 116: Cosmic Echoes, a Symbiote’s Strain, and the Unseen Gauntlet

The psychic scream from the Klyntar-bonded Marcus "Nox" Thorne, as Mistfall Island and its primordial inhabitant were vaporized by Kree orbital bombardment, was a cataclysmic event in itself. Elias Thorne, an ocean away in his Montreal Sanctum, felt it as a physical blow, his amplified psionic senses reeling from the raw, undiluted terror and ravenous hunger of the symbiote, now amplified by the cosmic energies unleashed. Nox collapsed aboard the Sea Serpent, his symbiotic armor writhing uncontrollably, black tendrils lashing out, his golden Legionnaire eyes now blazing with a terrifying, alien crimson.

[KLYNTAR SYMBIOTE (NOX THORNE HOST) – EXTREME PSYCHIC TRAUMA/ENERGETIC OVERLOAD (EXPOSURE TO OMEGA-PLUS COSMIC EVENT). BOND STABILITY: CRITICAL (25%). HOST CONSCIOUSNESS SUBMERGED. SYMBIOTE PRIMAL URGES (HUNGER/AGGRESSION/FEAR) DOMINANT. IMMEDIATE INTERVENTION REQUIRED TO PREVENT PERMANENT HOST CORRUPTION/LOSS OR UNCONTROLLED SYMBIOTIC ENTITY MANIFESTATION.]

Elias swore, a rare display of raw frustration. His carefully constructed "Terrigen Deception" had backfired spectacularly, awakening a cosmic horror and now threatening to unleash another, his own Klyntar-bonded champion corrupted into a mindless beast.

"Thomas!" Elias's voice was a lash of pure will across the comms to the Sea Serpent, still reeling from the shockwave of Mistfall's obliteration. "Secure Nox! Use full bio-stasis restraints if necessary! O'Malley, get the Sea Serpent out of Kree sensor range, deepest stealth possible! Finch!" he projected psionically to Montreal, "Prepare the Klyntar containment vault and your most potent necrotic binding rituals! We are bringing him home. We are saving him."

He couldn't lose Marcus, not now. Not only was he one of his most powerful Legionnaires, but the Klyntar itself was too valuable, too dangerous, to fall into Kree hands or simply be destroyed. And Elias knew, with a chilling certainty from the fragmented Klyntar racial memories he'd touched during Nox's bonding, that an uncontrolled, traumatized symbiote, especially one that had tasted cosmic power, was a threat capable of consuming worlds. The "Devourer of Worlds" it had whispered of – Galactus – was a name now seared into Elias's consciousness. This dormant entity on Mistfall, whatever it was, might have been a herald, a fragment, or something else entirely, but its destruction had unleashed energies that were now dangerously unbalancing his prized asset.

The Kree light cruiser Kree Vigilance, having "sterilized" Mistfall Island, began a slow, systematic sweep of the surrounding ocean, its sensors likely picking up the residual energies and the Sea Serpent's hasty retreat. Admiral Varr-Gohl was clearly not satisfied. Earth had proven far more troublesome, far more... potent, than Kree intelligence had anticipated. The destruction of two of his frigates, the neutralization of his ground teams, the sheer audacity of Earth's "primitive" defenders, and now this inexplicable, island-shattering energy release – it all pointed to a significant, undocumented power on this backwater planet. He would want answers. He would want retribution.

Elias now faced a desperate, multi-front crisis.

Stabilize Nox Thorne: This was paramount. It would require Elias's direct, personal psionic intervention, combined with Finch's necromantic bindings and O'Malley's bio-stasis technology, and likely, another significant expenditure of his newly reacquired [5.1 Prime Essence Shards] (the Mistfall Kree had yielded a surprisingly potent bounty).Evade Kree Retaliation: The Kree vanguard fleet, though damaged, was still a formidable force. They would be hunting for the Sea Serpent and any other "anomalous" Earth assets. Earth's orbital defenses were shattered.Assess the "Mistfall Entity": What had they awakened? Was it truly a herald of Galactus? Or something else? The System was still analyzing the chaotic energy signatures.Manage the Terrestrial Fallout: The Kree attack, though focused on Mistfall, would have registered on global seismic and energy sensors. S.H.I.E.L.D., the Soviets, every major power would be scrambling for answers, potentially leading to a new wave of panic and superhuman arms races. Captain America, Anya reported, was already demanding answers from Peggy Carter and Nick Fury about the "off-world energy spikes."

Elias began issuing rapid-fire commands.

Namor, who had felt the Mistfall cataclysm resonate through the deepest oceanic trenches like a death knell, was already moving. "The balance is broken, Thorne!" his mental voice seethed with ancient fury and a new, profound fear. "Something primordial has been disturbed. The Old Abyssal Ones stir in their slumber. This is beyond your Kree. This is a wound upon the world!"

Elias leveraged Namor's terror. "Help me contain the immediate fallout, Prince Namor. Use your hydrokinetic mastery to create oceanic disturbances, rogue waves, localized storms – anything to mask the Sea Serpent's retreat from Kree sensors and obscure the true nature of the Mistfall event from surface-world observation. Atlantis has technologies, legends... guide us."

Namor, seeing the existential threat, reluctantly agreed, unleashing controlled chaos across vast swathes of the Pacific, creating a "natural disaster" screen that baffled both Kree and human sensor arrays. [NAMOR – ALLIANCE ACTION: PLANETARY SCALE DECEPTION SUPPORT. Loyalty +3% (Total: 85% - Shared Existential Crisis; Mutual Dependency Deepens).]

Logan and Miller, fresh from their Greenland victory, were diverted. Their hunt for Strucker would have to wait. "Logan," Elias's mental link was grim. "Nox is... compromised. Something was awakened on that island. I need you and Miller aboard the Sea Serpent yesterday. Your combined resilience, your feral senses... you may be the only ones who can get close enough to Nox to help Thomas and O'Malley restrain him if he fully... detaches."

The thought of a Klyntar-corrupted Marcus Thorne, with his Tier 3 Prime Legionnaire abilities amplified to Omega-Plus cosmic levels, rampaging unchecked, was a nightmare Elias couldn't afford. freёwebnoѵel.com

Anya Petrova and Wraith (Bucky Barnes) in Washington had a different, equally critical task. "Anya, use your S.H.I.E.L.D. influence. This Mistfall event will be misinterpreted. Frame it as a failed Kree superweapon test, an experimental planetary bombardment that went awry. Feed them data from the 'Resolute Hammer's' salvaged logs that suggests the Kree were testing a 'geothermal destabilizer.' Keep them looking up at the Kree fleet, not down at what we might have accidentally uncaged. Wraith, I need you to ensure certain... overly curious American scientific or military personnel who get too close to the truth... are discreetly discouraged or their data corrupted."

It was damage control on a global scale.

Elias himself, once the Sea Serpent with its precious, volatile cargo reached the secure, heavily shielded Blackwood Skunkworks deep-sea submersible pen off the coast of British Columbia (a facility so secret even Namor wasn't fully aware of its exact location), prepared for the fight of his System-enhanced life.

Marcus "Nox" Thorne, when brought into the Klyntar containment vault (now reinforced with layers of Element X shielding and Finch's most potent necromantic wards), was a terrifying spectacle. The Klyntar symbiote was fully dominant, Marcus's human consciousness submerged beneath a tide of alien hunger and cosmic terror. The black armor writhed with sentient tendrils, its eyes blazing crimson, lashing out with raw, uncontrolled psionic and bio-photonic energy. He was a caged god, a living black hole of power.

Elias knew this wasn't a battle of brute force. This was a war for Marcus's soul. He would need every ounce of his psionic strength, every Shard he possessed, every scrap of knowledge Finch had gleaned about symbiotic control.

He stepped into the vault, Thomas MacIntyre and the five remaining True Legionnaires (David, Dubois, Macgregor, Lemaire, Elena Scythe – Aegis was not present, likely the next host for Finch's study if Nox was lost) forming a grim, golden-eyed cordon behind him. Their loyalty was absolute, but even their Tier 3 Prime senses recoiled from the sheer cosmic wrongness radiating from Nox.

System, Elias commanded, his voice a calm island in the storm of his own racing thoughts. Analyze Nox/Klyntar destabilization. Identify primary psychic schism points. Allocate 4.0 Prime Essence Shards to fuel "Project Chimera Reintegration" – a targeted psychic/energetic intervention to reassert Marcus Thorne's consciousness, re-establish Finch's Psionic Leash at an amplified level, and purge the corrupting cosmic terror from the Klyntar matrix. My willpower and Omega-Tier healing will act as the primary conduit and stabilizer.

His remaining [1.1 Shards] were held in reserve for emergency healing or a desperate final gambit.

[PROJECT CHIMERA REINTEGRATION INITIATED. CONSUMING 4.0 PRIME ESSENCE SHARDS. HOST AT CRITICAL RISK. LEGIONNAIRE SUPPORT STANDING BY FOR PHYSICAL RESTRAINT IF HOST INTERVENTION FAILS AND SUBJECT BREACHES CONTAINMENT. SUCCESS PROBABILITY: 30%. FAILURE PROBABILITY (PERMANENT HOST CORRUPTION/DESTRUCTION, UNLEASHING OF OMEGA-TIER SYMBIOTIC ABOMINATION): 70%.]

Thirty percent. The worst odds he had ever faced. But the alternative was unthinkable.

Elias Thorne closed his eyes, his own form beginning to glow with a fierce, internal light, the combined power of Wolverine's resilience, Namor's elemental depth, and his own System-forged godhood. He reached out with his mind, not to command, but to connect, to find the buried spark of Marcus Thorne within the raging, cosmic inferno of the corrupted Klyntar.

The true battle for Earth's future wasn't being fought against Kree warships in orbit, or Hydra remnants in forgotten bunkers. It was being fought here, in a shielded vault beneath a Canadian mountain, for the soul of one super-soldier, against the primal terror of the void. And Elias Thorne, the architect of shadows, knew that if he failed, the gauntlet of cosmic horrors Earth now faced would be a mere prelude to unimaginable annihilation. The price of his ascension was about to be collected, one way or another.

----------------

Guys check out my other novel Echoes of Tomorrow: 2015