A/N: I do not own Marvel.

Time. Space. Reality. It's more than a linear path. It's a prism of endless possibility, where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know. I am the Watcher. I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me, and ponder the question….

What If?

In the Sacred Timeline, the man who would become known as Gorr the God Butcher was driven on his deicidal path of destruction across the cosmos by the death of his daughter, Love. His search for the Gates of Eternity, where he planned to wish for the death of all gods, brought him into conflict with Thor, who convinced him to change is mind and wish instead for his daughter to be resurrected.

But in another universe, rather than waking one morning to find that Love had died while he was asleep, Gorr awoke in the middle of the night to see a strange figure walking across the desert towards him and his daughter. He thought at first that perhaps she was some form of salvation, someone sent by the god Rapu that he so devoutly worshipped to deliver him and his daughter from that barren wasteland.

But as the figure drew closer, and the green torch she held illuminated her skeletal face, Gorr knew without a doubt that he was gazing into the eyes of Death herself. And he knew what it meant when she solemnly pointed down at his sleeping daughter.

"No," he wept. "No, please, please, no, not my Love."

"It's her time," Death replied.

But Gorr was desperate. He threw himself at Death's feet, pleading with her to not take his daughter's life – to take him instead, to inflict any suffering she desired on him, but to spare Love.

And eventually, perhaps recalling a similar deal she had made centuries before, perhaps taking pity on Gorr's wretched state and the pure love he held for his daughter, Death acquiesced. She told Gorr that the best she could do was to grant his daughter more time, but in exchange for turning a blind eye to this cosmic abnormality, she would need something from Gorr. A steady supply of souls. And not just any souls, like the billions that she ushered into the afterlife every day. These needed to be special.

"Who? How?" Gorr asked. "Please, just tell me."

"You'll know," Death said. "Just remember that your gods didn't answer your prayers. I did."

Love started to stir. Gorr glanced down at her, and when he looked back up, Death had vanished.

The following morning, as the sun rose, Gorr glimpsed a forested oasis on the horizo. He and Love set out for it, and upon entering, Gorr heard voices coming from nearby. He and Love approached them and found Rapu and other gods celebrating the death of the Dark Shadow Lord who had come to kill them, much as Gorr discovered in the Sacred Timeline. But after the gods taunted him and his daughter, Gorr recalled Death's words to him from the night before, the special sacrifices she would require. He told his daughter to leave, not wanting her to see what he knew would come next. And then, with the Dark Shadow Lord's symbiotic blade, All-Black the Necrosword, he slew Rapu.

But he knew that would not be enough to satiate Death.

From there, at least at first, his war against the gods unfolded much the same as it did in the Sacred Timeline, with one major difference. In this universe, Gorr did not occasionally leave living victims to spread word of the coming of the "God Butcher." Since the only thing keeping his daughter alive were the deaths of the gods he hunted, he made sure none of them were left alive when he was done with them.

As such, rather than sparing Lady Sif of Asgard at the end of their battle on Falligar, he killed her.

It wasn't long before Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy learned about the God Butcher's rampage. Upon finding Sif dead, Thor returned to New Asgard to help defend them, fearing that they would be one of Gorr's next targets. He was right. And during the battle for New Asgard, Thor, enraged by the death of his friend, fought furiously against the God Butcher and ultimately slew Gorr in battle.

But that was not the ending he thought it was. It was just the beginning.

As Gorr lay dying, the symbiote that had been molded into the Necrosword bonded with Gorr, restoring him to life. And while Thor had his back turned, thinking the fight was over, Gorr stabbed him in the back and killed him. Then, before the other Asgardians could stop him, he grabbed Stormbreaker and used it to teleport to the Gates of Eternity – a mystical location where a single wish, no matter its magnitude, would be granted for the first person to reach the Gates. The Necrosword had whispered tales about the Gates of Eternity to Gorr, convincing him that if he wished for the death of every god in the universe, that would satisfy Death permanently.

And in this universe, when he reached the Gates, Gorr followed through on this wish. And in that instant, every god across the universe ceased to exist.

But what, exactly, constituted a god? It seemed anyone who had ever been worshipped as a god, whether they truly were one or not.

New Asgard and the gods' Omnipotence City were devastated by Gorr's wish.

In London, Jake Lockley, the Moon Knight, was investigating thefts of ancient Egyptian artifacts from museums when he suddenly lost his powers and found himself unable to communicate with Khonshu. He knew something was very wrong, but couldn't possibly have imagined the scope of what had happened.

And in the far reaches of the cosmos, at the World Forge, all the Celestials who weren't in Omnipotence City were also wiped from existence. Also present at the World Forge were Starfox, Thena, Makkari, and Druig, who had infiltrated the Celestials' stronghold to save their fellow Eternals Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo from Arishem's judgment. But when Gorr made his wish, all except Starfox were immediately killed. He was, after all, a prince of Titan, never viewed as a god by the planet's inhabitants. Shocked by the deaths of multiple virtually immortal Celestials right before his eyes, Starfox returned to the Domo and headed for Omnipotence City, believing that if anyone knew what had happened, it would be the other Celestials dwelling there.

But as the Mad Titan's brother raced across the stars and the people of Earth tried to figure out what had happened to the populace of New Asgard, another, even more sinister course of events unknowingly set in motion by Gorr's actions was unfolding across the universe.

When Gorr was killed and resurrected in New Asgard, it created something called a codex – a bond between a symbiote and host, formed when the symbiote brings the host back to life. And billions of light-years away, on a barren planet not found on any maps, this codex was sensed by the creator of the symbiotes, the being of pure darkness known as Knull, the King in Black.

Knull was born of the Void, the darkness that existed before even the Big Bang. And eons ago, when the Celestials brought light to the universe, Knull waged war against them, seeking to restore all of creation to pristine blackness. For this purpose he created legions of symbiotes, including the Necrosword, which he used to personally slay the Celestial whose head would later become Knowhere. But the Celestials ultimately prevailed, scattering Knull's symbiotes across the universe and, finding themselves unable to kill him, imprisoning him on a nameless world. The only way for Knull to ever escape was with the energy contained within a codex.

Despite the slim chances of a symbiote finding a compatible host, this was far from the first codex that had formed in Knull's billions of years of captivity. But any previous codex that he tried to summon to free him was intercepted and destroyed by the Celestials. But now, Knull sensed, the Celestials were gone. There was no one to stop him from breaking free and plunging all of creation back into darkness.

Back at the Gates of Eternity, Gorr summoned the Bifrost and traveled to an idyllic, uninhabited world he had found where he hoped to settle down and live a peaceful life with his daughter. But as he arrived on the planet, Knull's telekinetic influence yanked the codex – a glowing, golden spiral of energy – from him, and pulled it across the stars towards him.

The codex unlocked the mystical barrier encircling Knull's planet and set him free. Knull immediately summoned many of his most fearsome symbiotes and set out across the universe with two destinations in mind: Gorr's planet, and Earth. As the creator of the symbiotes, Knull had access to the near-infinite knowledge of their multiversal hive mind. Through the Necrosword symbiote, he knew of Gorr's campaign against the gods, and that he was the one responsible for the death of the Celestials. Knull intended to propose an alliance with Gorr. As for Earth, Knull had glimpsed countless alternate universes where he gained his freedom, only to be defeated at the hands of the Avengers.

He knew that if he wanted to win, he needed to destroy Earth first.

Knull landed on Gorr's planet and made his offer, but Gorr refused; having succeeded at wiping out the gods, he wanted no part of Knull's war. And although Eternity hadn't recognized him as one, Knull was sounding more and more to Gorr like another god. Knull, incensed at Gorr's refusal, demanded that Gorr hand over the Necrosword. Gorr refused and fought back, but he was no match for the King in Black and his army of symbiotes. Knull took the Necrosword, but he could tell that it was the only thing keeping Gorr alive; without it in his possession, the god butcher would soon perish. Knull left Gorr for dead and continued on to Earth…but not until after bonding Love with one of his symbiotes and taking her with him.

Back on Earth, many of its current defenders – Captain America, Shang-Chi, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, Hulk, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Hawkeye – assembled in Norway to investigate the disappearance of the majority of the Asgardians. The few survivors told them what they had seen and heard – the "god butcher" that Thor had warned them of, and the God of Thunder's death at his hands. They also said that they'd heard Gorr mention the "Gates of Eternity" before departing with Stormbreaker. Strange recalled that the Gates of Eternity were a legend among the Masters of the Mystic Arts, not thought to be real, but that if they actually existed, Gorr could have any wish of his granted upon reaching them. What he didn't know was if there was a way to reverse a wish that had been granted by Eternity.

But they were about to have bigger problems than the missing gods.

For the King in Black had arrived on Earth.

TO BE CONTINUED…