Earth's core pulses, Eternity race.
After the turmoil in the multiverse completely subsided, life returned to a rare period of peace.
The dimensional monitoring system established by Strange was functioning well. Occasionally, tiny wormholes would appear around the world, but they would usually close on their own after a few seconds, bringing nothing with them.
Occasionally, one or two unlucky extradimensional creatures would fall in, but they were all minor characters posing no threat. SSC's field agents could handle them, and Lynn didn't need to lift a finger.
Little Peter returned to a normal school life. He went to school during the day, trained at the training base after school, and occasionally went out on dates with MJ on weekends. His days were fulfilling and peaceful. He was no longer as tense as before, and he was much more relaxed, with more smiles on his face.
Tony was busy upgrading the SSC's equipment system, Banner was working on his gamma-ray research in the lab, Hawkeye was home with his wife and kids, Wanda and Quicksilver were on a long mission, and Natasha was handling the base's daily affairs—everything was running smoothly.
That morning, Lynn was sunbathing on the terrace as usual.
He closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of the sunlight on his body, looking languid and as if he could fall asleep at any moment.
But if someone looks closely, they will notice that his chest area is emitting an extremely faint, almost imperceptible halo.
That was the Infinity Stones set in his chest.
Since the Thanos incident, the Infinity Stones have been healing at an increasingly faster pace.
Lynn could clearly feel that those powers were gradually returning. His control over space was more precise, his perception of energy was more acute, and even the flow of time became clearer in his perception.
Like a deposed king, gradually reclaiming his rightful throne.
Lynn opened his eyes and looked down at his chest. Through the thin T-shirt, he could see the outline of the gemstone, its faint halo slowly swirling, like a star awakening.
He muttered to himself, his tone calm, neither revealing whether it was anticipation nor emotion, "I'm almost recovered."
He reached out his hand and gently clenched it in mid-air.
The air remained unchanged, but Lynn knew that the moment he clenched his fist, the space within his palm was compressed by one ten-thousandth.
He released his grip, and the space returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.
Natasha's voice came from behind. She walked over with two cups of coffee, handed one to Lynn, and then sat down on the recliner next to him. "You got up early today."
"I can't sleep." Lynn took the coffee, took a sip, and said, "I'm getting old, I need less sleep."
Natasha glanced at him but didn't respond to the joke. She had known Lynn for so long and had never really figured out how old he was. He looked to be in his twenties, but sometimes he spoke like an ancient monster who had lived for thousands of years.
"Have you... changed at all lately?" Natasha hesitated for a moment before asking.
She was a perceptive person, and over the past month, she could sense a change in Lynn's demeanor.
Lynn turned to the side, casually wrapped her arm around her waist, and smiled, "How did you know?"
"I feel..." Natasha said, "You give off a different vibe. Before, although you were strong, it always seemed like... you were holding back. Now it's different, you're more... natural."
"Won't there be any danger?" That was all she asked.
Lynn smiled and said, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
Natasha nodded, picked up her coffee, took a sip, and said nothing more.
The two sat quietly on the terrace, watching New York slowly awaken in the morning. Cars began to drive by on the distant streets, and the clouds in the sky were tinged with a warm orange by the rising sun. Everything was peaceful and beautiful.
But this peace did not last long.
Late at night three days later.
Lynn was reading a book in his room, an ancient magical tome borrowed from the Sanctum Sanctorum.
He suddenly stopped halfway through the page.
His spiritual energy, which he usually spread out around him, was suddenly tugged gently by something coming from underground.
It was a very light touch, yet extremely clear.
Lynn put down the book, closed his eyes, and extended his perception deeper along the wave of energy.
From underground.
It was an ancient, vast, and more fundamental fluctuation.
It was as if something deep within the Earth had just taken a slow breath.
Lynn's senses continued to extend downwards, through the crust, through the mantle, through the scorching magma layer, all the way towards the Earth's core.
Then he "saw" it.
Deep within the Earth, at the boundary between the core and the mantle, a colossal, suffocating life form lies dormant.
It is larger than the entire Mount Everest, with a dark golden metallic texture and a surface covered with complex, circuit-like patterns. Its outline vaguely resembles a human figure, but its proportions and structure are completely different from any known creature.
Its head is extremely small in proportion to its body, its limbs are as thick as mountains, and in the chest cavity there is a huge core that emits a dark golden light and is pulsating at an extremely slow frequency.
That's the source of the fluctuations.
Even though it is still dormant, even though it is just an immature embryo, the energy fluctuations it emits are enough to suffocate any planet-level powerhouse.
Lynn slowly withdrew his senses, opened his eyes, and his expression was somewhat complicated.
"How could I have forgotten about that?" he muttered to himself, a hint of helplessness in his voice. " The Eternals Celestials..."
He remembered.
Millions of years ago, the Celestials implanted an embryo into the core of Earth. This embryo fed on the energy of Earth's intelligent life forms and grew slowly. When it matured, it would hatch. And Earth, the Cradle that nurtured it, would shatter completely the moment it hatched, turning into cosmic dust.
The Eternals were created by the Celestials to protect this embryo. Their mission is to ensure that there are enough intelligent life forms on Earth so that the embryo can grow successfully. The Deviants, on the other hand, are failed experiments by the Celestials. They feed on intelligent life and threaten the embryo's growth. Therefore, another mission of the Eternals is to fight against the Deviants.
For thousands of years, the Eternals have remained hidden among humanity, silently carrying out the tasks assigned to them by the Celestials. They have watched humanity progress from the Stone Age to the Information Age, witnessing the rise and fall of civilizations, yet they have never interfered with humanity's development.
Until the embryo is almost mature, the Emergence " is about to occur.
Lynn stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the night view outside.
New York is ablaze with lights and bustling with traffic. Eight million people in this city are sleeping, working, and living. There are seven billion people on Earth, each with their own story, their own joys and sorrows, and their own life.
Deep underground, a dormant cosmic-level life form is slowly growing, feeding on the life energy of these people. The day it awakens, these seven billion people and this blue planet will vanish in an instant.
Lynn remained silent for a long time.
Then he made a decision.
He wanted to see it for himself.
Lynn left early the next morning.
He didn't tell anyone, only leaving Natasha a note that read, "Going out to take care of some business, will be back in a few days." Then he opened the portal, stepped inside, and disappeared in the light.
On the other side of the portal lies an uninhabited area in the central Pacific Ocean.
Lynn chose this place as the entrance because the earth's crust was the thinnest here, and it was rarely visited by people, so it wouldn't attract attention. He hovered above the sea, glanced down at the deep blue water below, took a deep breath, and slowly sank down.
The seawater parted around him, and a faint energy barrier enveloped his body, insulating him from the pressure and low temperature of the seawater. He continued to sink, passing through the solar layer, the twilight layer, and the midnight layer, finally arriving at the pitch-black seabed.
The seabed was pitch black, with only a few luminous creatures flickering in the distance. Lynn didn't stop and rushed straight down. The rock layers in front of him seemed to melt, slowly parting to create a passage.
After he passed through, the rock wall behind him gradually closed in again, sealing the passage once more.
The deeper you go, the higher the temperature and the greater the pressure.
As they passed through the Earth's crust, the surrounding rocks had turned a deep red, with temperatures exceeding one thousand degrees Celsius. Lynn's energy barrier flickered slightly but remained stable.
Upon entering the mantle, the surroundings transformed into semi-molten magma. A viscous, red liquid flowed slowly along the sides of the passage, occasionally bubbling and hissing. The temperature exceeded three thousand degrees Celsius, and the pressure was high enough to crush any ordinary matter into basic particles.
But Lynn's speed did not slow down. His body was enveloped in a layer of dark golden light, which was the power surging from the gem in his chest. In the face of this power, the high temperature and pressure of the mantle were as insignificant as a spring breeze.
He kept going down, down, down.
After an unknown amount of time, the surrounding lava suddenly disappeared.
Lynn stopped in his tracks and found himself standing in a huge, empty cave.
The cave was immeasurably large, with dark red mantle rock above and a flat, dark golden surface beneath. In the very center of the cave, the enormous life form lay there quietly, fast asleep.
Upon closer inspection, its size was even larger than Lynn had perceived from a distance. Its head was like a small mountain, its limbs were as thick as skyscrapers, and its core in its chest cavity emitted a dark golden light, causing the entire cave to tremble slightly with each pulse.
Lynn hovered in front of it, as small as an ant standing in front of an elephant.
He reached out and gently touched its skin.
It feels hard and warm to the touch, like a piece of heated metal. The energy fluctuations emanating from my fingertips are vast and primal, the purest life energy belonging to cosmic-level life forms.
Lynn closed his eyes and carefully sensed for a while.
Then he opened his eyes, a knowing look on his face.
He said in a low voice, "About... fifty years. At this rate of growth, it will mature in sixty years at most, and the Emergence will occur."
Fifty years.
It's neither a long nor a short time. For a normal human being, fifty years is most of a lifetime. But for a cosmic embryo that has lived for billions of years, fifty years is just a blink of an eye.
Lynn flew around the embryo once, carefully observing its condition.
The embryo is developing healthily, absorbing energy steadily without any abnormalities. The heat provided by the Earth's core and the spiritual energy of intelligent life on Earth are nourishing it at a stable rate. Following this trend, the Emergence in fifty years is almost inevitable.
Unless someone intervenes.
Lynn stopped in front of the embryo's head, looking at the face that was as huge as a mountain, with its eyes tightly closed.
He was thinking.
The Celestials are among the oldest beings in the universe. They create stars, galaxies, and life, and are the maintainers of cosmic order. Emergence is their way of procreation; the birth of a Celestials brings new stars, new galaxies, and new life to the universe.
From a cosmic perspective, the destruction of a planet in exchange for the birth of a new god is entirely worthwhile.
But what about from Earth's perspective?
The lives of seven billion people, the civilization of the entire planet, all history, culture, art, and emotions... will vanish in the moment Emergence.
But he couldn't simply kill the embryo.
Putting aside whether it's even possible, a Celestials embryo that's about to mature, even if it's still dormant, isn't something that can be killed easily. Even if it could be killed, killing a Celestials is tantamount to declaring war on the entire Celestials. The consequences would be far more severe than the Emergence itself.
We must find a way to achieve the best of both worlds.
Before that, he needed more information.
Regarding the Celestials, the Eternals, the Emergence, and whether there is a way to stop the Emergence without killing the embryo.
There is a group of people who know this information best.
The Eternals that has lived on Earth for seven thousand years, guarding this embryo.
Lynn took one last look at the sleeping embryo, then turned and flew upwards.
He needs to find them.
After returning to the ground, Lynn did not immediately go back to the SSC base.
He found a quiet place, closed his eyes, and spread his senses, searching the globe for traces of the Eternals.
The Eternals possess unique energy characteristics. They are artificial life forms created by the Celestials using infinite energy, and the energy fluctuations within them are unlike any other life form on Earth. That energy is pure, stable, and almost never decays, like a battery that will never run out.
Normally, Eternals would deliberately conceal their energy signature and blend into the human population undetected. But to Lynn's perception, such concealment was meaningless.
In less than ten seconds, Lynn located all the Eternals remaining on Earth.
There are ten in total.
Scattered around the world: one in London, one in Australia, three in the United States, one in India, one in South Korea, and three more somewhere in South America.
Lynn thought for a moment and decided to go find the nearest one first.
London.