"You won't escape this time, little host!" The King in Black effortlessly sped toward Loki, ready to reclaim Healer for himself, but the detective shielded himself with light magic just before he made contact, causing Knull to rebound!
"What is this!? More of your tricks?"
"You will not touch Healer." Loki promised him.
"You won't harm either of us!" Healer added. "Let's bring him into the liiight!"
"Enough of your pathetic attempt at rebellion, child!" Knull scolded, surrounding Healer and his host with dark tendrils. "You will rejoin your true family if I have to tear you apart and put you back together, one atom at a time!"
However, before they could wrap around him, Loki grabbed onto one of the tendrils, the light enveloping him protecting him while weakening the black appendages! Loki swung himself upward like he would with a vine and flipped on top of it, running along the tendril before hopping onto the others before they could stop him!
"Don't forget about me!" Party Thor charged up light energy of his own before charging at Knull while Loki distracted him! Thor flew up to him with Mjolnir, preparing to nail the dark king! Knull simply held out one hand to halt the hammer and crush it like before, not even turning his head in the thunderer's direction, but to his surprise, Mjolnir would not crumble this time, stinging his hand and knocking it back! Knull finally looked to find the hammer glowing with light magic now combined with his lightning, but it was too late for him to avoid its mighty blow; Thor whacked him on the head, stunning him! Meanwhile, Loki unsheathed his sword, enveloped in the same light magic. He swung at Knull's neck, the energy allowing the blade to hack through!
"I've got you covered, Brother!" Party Thor assured him, holding the charge until Lævateinn sliced all the way, beheading the dark king!
"Now I suppose that makes us even."
Even with his head detached, Knull began to laugh, nearly growing hysterical after Loki's comment. "Us, even!? Now I can see that you two really are brothers; his arrogance can only be matched yours: in that respect, the two of you are even! Ahahahahaha!" The elder god knocked his blade away and picked his head back up; he placed it back on his neck, and with a quick pat, it was reattached and fully healed! "You've learned a new trick. Impressive, for young creatures of light. Then again, they do say children pick up new skills quicker."
"Okay..." Party Thor began again. "How do we beat this guy if he can heal that kind of damage that quickly?"
"We'll have to obliterate him completely." Detective Loki planned. "He surely can't regenerate from that... can he? Healer?"
His partner gulped. "I sure hope he cannot."
Meanwhile, the team of Odin, his two great granddaughters, Beta Ray Bill, and the mutant Storm fought off Fenris, Hel, Sleipnir, and Ragnarok Loki, plus the army of Symbiote dragons! Their thunder strikes neutralized their airborne enemies, but the children of Loki proved more of a challenge, as Fenris and Slepinir's speed allowed them to maneuver around the attacks! Hel turned her foes to corpses with one touch, and her cloak of death shielded her from damage! Loki posed the least of an immediate threat, but his children kept him from harm as he slayed the weaker Asgardians with a volley of daggers.
Suddenly, Grievance paused after he heard Knull's voice contact him. "Grievance, leave old Asgard for a moment and come to me! There's something I would like you to do for me."
"Uhhh... okay?"
A inter-dimensional portal opened in front of the confused Symbiote, but as he started through it, Odin pinned his foot down with Gungnir, his legendary spear!
"Where do you think you are going!?" Malice growled at his wayward son.
"None of your business, parasiteee!" Grievance morphed his foot around the spear and dove into the portal, with Odin and Malice right behind him!
"Hey, you're not getting away that easily, 'blood brother!'" Ragnarok Loki called after Odin as he and Fenris followed them!
When they reached New Asgard, another team of Symbiotes ambushed Odin and Malice! They wounded the Allfather with their puncturing fangs, leading Grievance to whirl back and pounce on him! He changed shape once more to enter the bloody wound, yanking hold of Malice and excruciatingly tearing his birth father from Odin's spine and out of his body! Malice's form immediately returned to a shapeless blob again while Grievance and his dark allies snickered.
Fenris then pinned Odin down again, jaws open wide! "Any last words, Allfather?" His Loki mocked.
"I was right to lock up that beast for as long as I did!" He snarled.
"That 'beast' is my son, and he is more than ready to avenge his younger brother! Alright, Fenris, what say we move Thor's coronation up a few years? Well, if he lasts that long as well!"
Fenris howled in response before he bit down, gravely wounding Odin until Loki's voice interrupted him.
"Wait! Speaking of avenging my youngest son, I think it is only fitting that you should have a taste of your own cruelty before you die, Odin! Fenris, tear out his internal organs first, and wrap them around him, like he and his ilk did to me! Grievance, his 'wise' old brain is all yours!"
"What? Really?"
Ragnarok Loki smirked. "Why not? 'Tis to you and your army I owe this victory!" He signaled Fenris with a short whistle, and the great wolf dug into the Allfather, spitting out the brain in front of the Symbiote.
"Thank youuu!" Grievance savored the organ while his ex-host tied Odin down, with Fenris ready to wolf down his remains! When the Allfather was no more, Grievance faced his father once again, savoring his revenge even more! "The tables have flipped on you, traitor! See, now I am something, now I am powerful and useful, but without that old mortal man, you are nothing!"
"Wrong!" Malice corrected him. "The partnership between man and Symbiote is an ancient, honored tradition that you've spit upon, and that is where our true strength should come from; it is what Knull created us for, before he changed his mind! He is the one who wants us to betray them; you are the traitor, not me! Besides, with or without Knull, you are the one who is still nothing: you cannot fight, so you have the competent Symbiotes fight for you!"
"At least they actually give a damn about me! We are brothers, and Lord Knull is a better father figure than you ever were! And now, you are all aloneee!"
"I couldn't care less about your delicate little emotional needs, and I neverrr wanted to be your father in the first place! You are still nothing but a grievance to me, and it is only a matter of time before your talentless ass becomes one to Knull too! You are sooo lame, your creator prefers a different version of you over you! The one ability that makes the other you less of a disappointment, and you do not even have that!"
"YOU SHUT UPPP!!!" Grievance then grabbed the blob and carried it over to the fires that broke out from the Thor's lightning strikes! "And what talent do you have other than having the biggest, fattest mouth!? NOTHINGGG! Let's hear you talk shit when you are burning with the rest of the trash!"
Yet as he was tossed in, Grievance was blasted away, and Malice was unwittingly snatched midair by Adam Warlock as he flew by! "Ugh, I got a piece of one on me!"
"Stop it, you idiot!" Malice yelled as the golden warrior attempted to shake him off. "I am on your side hereee!" But the warlock flew on, since he couldn't hear the bodiless Symbiote. "Hmmm... maybe that imbecile has a point about these stupid creatures of light... maybeee."
Grievance growled, recovering from the attack. "No fair, Loki got to kill his father! No wait, that was a different Loki, wasn't it? This alternate universe stuff is so confusinggg-"
"Child, forget that one!" Knull called to him again. "He has disappointed me already, but now is your chance to prove yourself! Come!"
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" Grievance thought as he scurried towards New Asgard!
At the Brock residence, a red Symbiote led a group of Knull's followers around the perimeter.
"First, let's flush the prey out of their nest!" On his order, the gang ascended to the rooftop, damaging it until it caved the house in! The red Symbiote watched with malicious glee as Eddie helped his family escape. "Eddie Brock, my father's old host, did you miss me?"
"No, anyone but Carnage!" Eddie groaned. "Please don't tell me Kassady's back!"
"I don't need him anymore." Carnage explained. "He was too soft with that loudmouth bitch anyway!"
"He- they just destroyed my house!" Anne exclaimed.
"And you're next, Brock!"
"Dylan, Annie, run!" Eddie urged.
Carnage stretched out his tendrils to Eddie, shifting them into blood red spears! Eddie blasted them with his flamethrower, but to his surprise, the tendrils kept coming, now coated in flame! "I am so much stronger, now that my bond is with the King in Black instead of that weakling human!"
"Eddie!"
Just before he could throttle Eddie with his flaming appendage, Anne threw a sonic grenade, scrambling both his allies' and his molecular structure and allowing Eddie to gain a considerable distance.
"No, I said run!" Eddie warned before Carnage recovered from the sound, the fire mostly extinguished.
"Speaking of weakling humans..." He turned around, grabbing Anne with one tendril and Eddie with another. "I only wish Father hadn't been taken so soon, so he could share in the delicious agony I am about to inflict on you!"
"NO! Leave her alone, Carnage, they haven't done anything wrong to you! This is between you and me, remember? Do whatever psychotic tortures or whatever you want to me, just let my family go!"
"Ohhh, that just makes me want to kill them all the more, Eddie!" Carnage twirled his body around, spinning Eddie and Anne with him before a Symbiote-made tornado blew the ex-lovers away from him!
"Dad, Mom!" Dylan cried. "Stop it!"
Carnage ignored the boy and rode the current into the air after them, with his allies waiting in ambush on the ground! They all simultaneously grabbed ahold of Eddie, holding him down while Carnage prepared to skewer him from above!
"NO!!!" Dylan ran over to his dad and stood over him, facing Carnage with as much courage as he could muster. "I SAID STOP!!!" The boy grabbed Carnage's blade arm, causing the villain to shriek in pain while the child's powers activated! In a matter of seconds, the screaming ceased, and Dylan let go, the red maniac looking him in the eyes with a strange look of docility.
"Carnage, what are you waiting for!?" One of his allies questioned him.
"Let's kill these miserable humans!"
"Is he- are you..." Dylan then glared at the other Symbiotes. "Sic 'em!"
Carnage grinned as he turned on his former comrades, who were forced to release Dylan's parents to defend themselves.
"I'm not even gonna ask how! Let's move!" Anne suggested.
"Are you both alright?" Dylan asked.
"I will be when these guys go back home." Eddie replied.
"Me too."
"Me three." Dylan curiously turned back to Carnage, who followed the boy's unspoken order: he picked up Dylan and his parents and carried them to safety before reinforcements could arrive! "Wow, it's like I can control them though... like I can pilot them like... like a car or something!"
"You're not even old enough to drive a car!" Eddie countered.
"But I can control the Symbiotes... maybe I can find Venom and bring him back. Maybe I can help us win!"
Back on Earth 199999's New Asgard, Knull grimaced as he sensed Carnage's turning. "That boy... he has forced yet another of my loyal children to betray me! Of all the troublesome powers I have encountered on this blue and green mud ball..." He dodged an array of blasts from Loki and the two Thors before his next thought. "One thing's for sure: I must take out this young hybrid before he can take control of my hive...or I take control of him. Yesss, as long as there is darkness within him, he can be turned to my side!"
"Why do I get the feeling he still isn't taking us seriously?" Detective Loki moaned.
"Shhh! We're doing fine, don't jinx us!"
Loki smirked. "I won't. In fact, this gives me an idea for a new strategy to use against him!"
"Ahhh, there is that detective brain at work! Let's hear it!"
"Yes, let us in on your plan, Detective Loki." Red Thor urged. "We must finish him before he retrieves his weapon!"
"Good, then follow my lead." Loki charged up more light magic while the two Thors flashed their own electricity. One at a time, they each created a bright flash of light around them, making their dark foe wince before they struck him from random positions. Loki then cast an army of duplicates, who all copied his present actions. Their distraction worked like a charm, and Loki was able to concentrate long enough to fire a full-powered laser beam straight into the left side of Knull's chest, but he quickly regenerated the damage like he did with his neck!
"I really hate repeat performances." Knull groaned.
"Then you're going to love this one; it's something you've yet to see!" Loki boasted. He and his duplicates raised their fingertips into the air, and showers of colors burst over Knull's head!
"Ohhh yes, I love the magical fireworks!" Party Thor cheered.
The dazzling lights distracted Knull long enough for Loki to fire a laser beam through Knull's forehead this time, but he simply regenerated the hole again. "Even through his brain, he doesn't yield! If... that's even where his brain is?"
"Hmmm... that is an interesting thought..." Healer mused as the trio kept up their plan of attack.
Growing more irritated by the second, he summoned another shroud of darkness to cover the light casters, but the trio dispelled the oncoming darkness together!
"Maybe I should have taken All-Black first... this is taking a bit more time than I care to spend here." Knull thought. "But nevertheless, without that healing ability, I will waste even less time blotting these fools out of my new kingdom. I suppose I should stop playing around with them too." He called another dragon and flew it towards the real Loki, who kept up the light show.
"Don't worry, Loki, I am here and ready to heal any damage he does to youuu!" Healer assured him.
Loki surrounded himself with another light barrier, but this time Knull countered with his own barrier of darkness, pushing through his defenses until he could grab hold of the detective!
"What!?"
Knull jabbed his hand through the middle of Loki's chest, removing Healer once more.
"No you won't!" Loki grunted and grabbed hold of Knull with his left hand, amplifying light magic in his right fingertip. Perplexed, Knull sent a wave of darkness into Loki's chest and pulled his Symbiote out, inch by inch! "Welcome back to the family, my son!"
"NOW!!!" Healer was almost out when Loki fired another light beam at point blank, while the two Thors shocked him from the other side! Loki immediately moved to protect his partner, pushing him back inside his chest before he was caught in the explosion!
"Ugh, how!?" Knull gasped. "My hand should have pierced straight through your heart; no level of healing could keep you unharmed and unfazed through that! What is this power!?"
"Sorry, a trickster never reveals his tricks!" Loki grinned, wiping a dab of blood from his mouth with a handkerchief.
"It was my trick though!" Healer telepathically argued.
"Which we certainly cannot reveal, or he will covet you even more!"
"Ohhh. Hey, but didn't you say he would not touch me? He grabbed me and almost took me!"
"Sorry. I didn't think he could get through my light barrier; he's still faster and more powerful than me, even boosted by the light magic! But I meant it: he won't take you as long as I'm here!"
"Creator, I'm here!" Grievance telepathically addressed him as he spotted him. "What are we gonna do?"
"Good timing, my child. Now, listen carefully..." The black and green Symbiote listened eagerly to his boss's plan, grinning with delight at his chance to prove himself yet again! "Can you do that?"
"Definitelyyy!"