Whetstone

The Living Tribunal was roughly equivalent to the Jade Emperor of the primordial world, overseeing the entire multiverse. It was destined to be a heavyweight among heavyweights.

Mephisto said the Living Tribunal was the biggest kid on the playground, no different from everyone else. It was stronger only because it knew the principal.

That was a rather sour remark, but no one could dispute that the Living Tribunal was the strongest being in the current multiverse.

The Living Tribunal was Adam Warlock's future. Right now, the fellow was still in the early stages of suffering and hardship; it would be a long time before he became "It."

The Truth Cult's actions seemed both accidental and destined.

As an artificial lifeform, Adam Warlock possessed incredibly powerful genes, but he lacked one thing: a soul. Earth's scientists could not create souls.

That was why Adam Warlock had yet to be born.

The Truth Cult had helped them make up for that shortcoming. They sacrificed vast numbers of followers and captives, lives counted in the hundreds of millions, tens of billions, even hundreds of billions, turning them into the purest, most fundamental strands of origin. Those streams eventually converged, becoming the final nourishment for Adam Warlock's birth.

Daisy went to the medical bay to observe the unconscious Gladiator. This time, after deliberately reaching out with her senses, she felt the aura of an Infinity Gem. It was faint and ethereal, but unmistakable.

It was the Soul Stone. The Soul Stone, which should not have existed in this world, had affected Gladiator.

Adam Warlock had used the life fire of billions upon billions of people to complete his soul. Vaguely, he had also fused with a portion of the Soul Stone.

The situation was somewhat like Malekith's state after obtaining Aether. Infinity Gems did