Inside the dark Cocoon, Thor's world was undergoing a change deeper than anything happening outside.
After the black figure vanished, his consciousness floated in a void shrouded in darkness. There was no ground beneath his feet, no sky overhead, only countless fragments of memory slowly revolving around him.
Some were his own: the palace of Asgard, the golden light of the Bifrost, and Odin standing alone in the council chamber late at night.
There was even the smile Frigga had given him when she turned around in the garden. But most of the fragments came from somewhere else.
Scenes of destruction from Knull's past lay beside Thor's own memories, like two sets of books spread across the same table, their pages slowly compared and merged one by one.
Thor felt a mental barrier wrapping around his consciousness, growing stronger by the moment. His perception of the outside world steadily faded, as though an ever-thickening layer of soundproofing were being packed between him and everything beyond.
He could still hear the faint vibrations of Mjolnir in the distance, but the sound had grown muffled and remote, like a recording played at half speed with its volume dropping by the second.
"Give up. You're trapped here." A voice rang out from the darkness, familiar enough to make Thor's back tighten.
It was his own voice, but deeper than he was used to, with the weight of an underground current.
Its owner stepped out of a gathering haze of dark light. He looked exactly like Thor, except for the dull sheen along his outline, as though black liquid had washed over him again and again, leaving him frosted.
Thor watched the black figure reappear. He raised Mjolnir slightly but did not attack. Instead, he stood there and met his other self's gaze, waiting