Deadpool had done what few dared—crashing the cult's gathering in a whirlwind of gunfire, explosives, and jokes no one asked for. When he torched the asylum, he didn't just destroy a building—he humiliated Carnage.
And that made him a priority target.
"He will die screaming," snarled Dark Carnage, watching the flames consume his throne. "He holds the codex of the Hybrid symbiote. I will tear it from his soul."
---
Retreating to his underground lair beneath Grand Street, Cletus regrouped and unleashed his plague.
The streets of New York began to choke with red, as symbiote-doppelgangers erupted from the sewers and shadows—seeking out anyone who had once bonded to a symbiote.
"Flush them out. Burn the cowards from their holes. Let them bleed."
His generals moved with purpose:
Demogoblin and Man-Wolf tracked Misty Knight, her cybernetic arm barely holding off the twin monsters hunting her through the wreckage of Chinatown.
The Knull-corrupted Riot, Agony, Phage, and Lasher tore through Queens in search of Normie Osborn, desperate to claim the Carnage codex buried in his young body.
Norman Osborn, now a Carnage duplicate, was sent after Scorpion, seeking to tear from him both the Venom and Mania codices.
The newly resurrected and corrupted Scream, her body slithering with black-red tendrils, closed in on Andi Benton, determined to rip the Mania codex from her by force.
Meanwhile, Deadpool—still unaware he'd made himself enemy number one—found himself dodging a new trio of horrors: Will o' the Wisp, Conundrum, and Freak, each warped by Carnage's influence.
Their mission was simple: bring Deadpool in alive—or at least alive enough for the codex to be extracted.
Not far behind came Osborn, laughing with every step, drawn by the scent of vengeance.
---
Elsewhere, Spider-Man, Eddie Brock, and a desperate alliance of former symbiote hosts had taken shelter in a decrepit warehouse, using stolen tech to operate a last-ditch machine known as the S.C.I.T.H.E. (Symbiote Codex Identification and Targeted Harvest Extraction.)
It could remove a codex non-fatally, giving them a fighting chance against Carnage's horde—if they had enough time.
But time had already run out.
---
Disguised in a borrowed face, Dark Carnage crept inside.
He moved like a shadow, his mass condensed, tendrils wrapped tight, masking his monstrous form. He watched them from the rafters—Eddie, Peter, Andi, Normie, and others—all unaware that death was already among them.
His eyes glowed faintly as he prepared to strike at the heart of resistance.
"Let them scream," he whispered. "Let them feel what I felt...before the end."
Spider-Man approached the hooded figure inside the warehouse, not realizing the truth.
"Hey—new guy. You lost or part of the rescue crew?"
Cletus didn't speak at first. He just smiled. Watching. Learning.
From Peter's words and concern, he learned something priceless—Dylan Brock wasn't just another survivor…
He was Eddie Brock's son.
That piece of knowledge lit a fire inside Cletus. A weakness. A tool.
Then Eddie arrived.
"Pete, get away from him—he's not one of us!"
"Wait… Eddie?" Peter blinked. "How do you know who I—"
"Too late," growled the imposter.
Dark Carnage exploded outward, his disguise shredding into black tendrils.
The air turned cold. Blood red tendrils tore through the walls as dozens of Carnage Doppelgangers burst in from every side. The warehouse, once a refuge, became a warzone.
Eddie lunged at him, but he wasn't fast enough.
Carnage drove him into the floor, cracking concrete with the impact. With a snarl, he gripped the Venom symbiote and ripped it from Eddie's body, ignoring his scream of agony.
"We hunt together, old friend," Carnage hissed, staring into the writhing black mass. "You've grown... bitter."
The Venom symbiote twisted, resisting—but not enough. It was broken. Weak. Alone.
And Carnage's will was too strong.
As he bonded with it, Dark Carnage began to change.
His form grew monstrous. Wings like a dragon, horns curling from his skull, shoulders armored like a fallen god. His chest gleamed with Knull's spiral.
The combined force of Carnage, the Grendel symbiote, and now Venom made him unstoppable.
"Now," he rumbled, voice no longer just Cletus but something deeper, darker.
"Knull... will rise."
And with that, Dark Carnage took off, tearing through the ceiling and vanishing into the storm-choked skies.
But someone had been watching.
From a distant rooftop, Ben, the universe-traveller, stood motionless.
His eyes glowed softly, studying the chaos, feeling the raw power.
And then he appeared in front of Cletus Kasady.
Cletus Kasady narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
He studied Ben's face—not familiar, not from any Avenger, X-Men, or even villain group he'd ever met.
Ben didn't answer right away. He just stared at the fusion of Carnage and Venom, watching how the tendrils moved like hungry snakes, how the spiral of Knull pulsed with dark energy.
Kasady snarled. "Whatever freak you are, move. Or I'll tear your head off."
Ben raised a hand slowly, tilting his head. "You see... I have a mild fascination with symbiotes. Their biology. Their potential. Their... unpredictability."
He stepped closer, eyes locked on Dark Carnage like a scientist inspecting a rare beast. "This one… is a rare blend. Carnage's chaos, Venom's resilience, and Knull's taint. Very interesting."
Dark Carnage chuckled, dark and guttural. "Then try it yourself, genius."
With a sudden growl, Carnage launched a tendril, laced with the Carnageized Grendel symbiote, straight at Ben's chest—sharp, screaming, alive.
But Ben didn't flinch.
"I prefer to take things my way," he whispered.
Suddenly, something shifted. A ripple passed through Ben's body, and from his back, a green symbiote surged forward, wrapping around him in fluid motion.
In seconds, he stood transformed—a sleek green suit, shimmering like emerald armor. A fierce dragon emblem glowed white across his chest.
Carnage's tendril hissed and recoiled, unable to latch on.
Kasady's eyes widened. "What the hell is that?"
He staggered back slightly, sensing a shift in the air—an energy that was ancient, heavy... and hungry.
"What kind of symbiote is this?" he growled, staring at the sleek green form wrapping around Ben.
Ben tilted his head, as if amused by the question.
"Its name is Symbitech Wyrm," he said. "It was just one of my little pet. But now…"
His eyes glowed.
"Now, it's time it grows up."
With a sudden surge, green tendrils shot forward, latching onto Dark Carnage like chains of light.
The grin disappeared from Kasady's face.
"What—no—NO!"
The Wyrm didn't just attack—it crawled over him, layer by layer, invading and ripping the Grendel symbiote off his body like it was peeling old skin.
Kasady screamed as the connection broke. The crimson spiral faded from his forehead. The horns, the wings, the monstrous form—all vanished, leaving him a weakened, broken man, collapsing to his knees.
Across the city, the effect was immediate.
The symbiote-infected townspeople, the Doppelgangers, even Norman Osborn—all of them let out a collective shriek as their powers flickered and vanished.
The Carnagized Grendel symbiote had been cut off from its source.
Silence fell. Shock and confusion rippled through the cultists.
Then—fire erupted.
Ben raised his hand, and with a wave of his fingers, flames burst from the ground. A wall of green fire, swirling unnaturally, swept across the battlefield.
The fire ignored humans—but devoured any trace of corrupted symbiotes, burning them down to ash in seconds.
"Cleanse the infection," Ben said quietly.
The cult screamed. Monsters vanished into smoke. The sky turned orange with the firelight.
But amidst the chaos, Ben spared one figure—Kasady, now stripped of Dark Carnage, kneeling, wheezing, burned... but alive.
Ben walked toward him slowly, his green symbiote rippling like a cloak.
Kasady's bloodied face twisted into a crazed grin. "Ha! Even if you burn us all, Knull's awakening has already begun. You're all too late!"
"Don't do anything reckless," Peter warned, glancing at Ben. "Knull's no ordinary villain. If he breaks free, it's game over."
But Ben wasn't listening. His voice was calm and deadly. "I'll handle Knull."
Before anyone could react, Ben unleashed a massive wave of pyrokinesis. The flames consumed everything—burning through the remaining symbiotes in a sweeping inferno. Only Carnage, Grendel, and Venom remained, struggling but intact.
Eddie stepped forward, eyes wide. "Who the hell are you? What did you just do?!"
As the fire crackled around them, Eddie's new symbiote whispered truths—about Knull, about the danger they'd all unleashed. Fear gripped him.
They hadn't saved the world... they might've summoned something worse.
"I said, I've got this," Ben replied confidently, his eyes glowing as he focused on the three surviving symbiotes. Symbitech Wyrm pulsed and writhed over his body, reacting. The merging had begun.
The green symbiote flared and shifted, evolving right before their eyes. "It's adapting," Ben said, "becoming something more."
The creature covering him morphed into the Symbitech Dragon, infused with both his DNA and the powers of Carnage, Venom, and Grendel.
Peter stepped back, tense. "Don't! It's too dangerous. You don't know what you're dealing with!"
Ben only laughed. "Come on. Like that freak show could hurt me?"
A biomechanical titan—half symbiote, half god—forged from pure hatred and void energy.
"WHO DARES CHALLENGE MY DOMAIN?" the monster boomed. Its voice was a roar of death and galaxies dying.
Ben's eyes lit up, full of anticipation. "Finally," he grinned. "A real fight."
Eddie's voice trembled as he raised the Necrosword. "This... this is bad. Knull wants that blade. He'll stop at nothing."
Knull hovered above, eyes locked on the weapon. Hunger. Vengeance. Destruction.
And so, the final war began.