Its entire body was covered in a rough black carapace, split with cracks and ridges.
From those fissures glowed a dim golden light, as if molten lava flowed beneath the surface. Its limbs were uneven—some sprouted multiple arms, others writhing tendrils.
When Hawk looked upon the two Deviants before him, Felicia's description came back instantly.
Not close. Identical.
But these two, roaring in challenge, hadn't attacked.
Not because they didn't want to.
Because they couldn't.
They were chained.
Yes—captive.
Hawk's eyes instantly caught the silver chains binding them. Gleaming with a shine much like adamantium, the links locked tight around their waists, the other ends anchored deep into the mountain itself.
No matter how the Deviants struggled, the chains strained taut, but the mountain didn't so much as quiver.
"Deviants… chained?"
"Good god."
Hawk sucked in a breath. But that wasn't the shock.
The shock came as the Deviants thrashed, their rage shaking the chains, tearing away layers of glowing moss—exposing what lay beneath the mountain's surface.
Silver light gleamed.
Hawk's eyes widened. He pressed his hand against the stone, senses flaring—
And froze.
The entire mountain… was adamantium?
Unbelievable.
His mind raced back to the countless floating mountains he'd seen when he descended here.
He'd come hoping to find some, imagining himself digging like a miner for scraps.
But there was no need. These suspended mountains weren't hiding adamantium veins. They were adamantium. Eons of petrification had only disguised them as stone.
Heat rushed through his veins.
Without a second thought, Hawk turned his back on the two chained Deviants.
He didn't care what had happened here.
He hadn't come to solve mysteries.
He'd come for adamantium.
That was enough.
He stepped through the white veil of light, returning to the temple—
Boom!
Twin beams of golden energy slammed into his chest. Unprepared, Hawk was blasted back like a meteor, crashing through into the valley where the Deviants were held. His body smashed against another adamantium mountain, shaking its surface until more moss fell away, exposing even greater expanses of silver gleam.
The Deviants roared, sensing prey. Like rabid hounds on chains, they lunged the instant Hawk fell within range.
Hawk's cosmos blazed. His fist punched through one's torso with a thunderous crack. In the same breath, his body twisted, leg sweeping down. His kick smashed the second Deviant into the ground.
The impact drove its skull against the adamantium floor—
Between the two, which was harder?
There was no contest.
With a sickening crack, the skull burst like a melon. Both captives lay broken corpses.
From the gut of the first spilled something even fouler: the remains of a malformed Skullcrawler.
So that was it.
The Skullcrawlers outside, even those reaching Skull Island—they were offspring. Hybrids spawned by these Deviants, their blood mixed with monsters.
Hawk's thoughts churned. His gaze shifted from the bodies to the white veil of light.
Then footsteps echoed.
From the glow emerged a tall man—dark-haired, blue-eyed, his features unyielding. A blue-and-gold uniform clung to his powerful frame.
His eyes first swept the fallen Deviants.
Then they locked on Hawk.
Golden energy burned within them. Twin beams, like Superman's heat vision, lanced toward him.
"The same trick doesn't work twice on a Saint."
Boom!
Hawk vanished in a blur, his Phoenix Cloth snapping into place with metallic whispers as he reappeared before the man. His fist crashed into the stranger's chest.
Politeness demanded he return the greeting.
The man's face twisted in shock before he was hurled back, smashing into one of the colossal statues. Stone crumbled, and beneath—again—the gleam of adamantium shone through.
Good lord.
Even the statues were forged of adamantium?
Hawk gaped for a heartbeat, then blinked across the air, striking again.
Boom!
"You'll regret that!"
The man's eyes flared golden once more. His beams met Hawk's fist midair.
The collision rocked the entire temple.
Crystals blazed. Moss and petrified layers fell away. Everywhere Hawk looked—walls, floor, ceiling—the truth was revealed.
The temple itself was adamantium.
More durable, rarer, more absolute than vibranium.
Here… it was common as stone.
Another blast sent them both hurtling back—Hawk steadying at the temple's entrance, the stranger at the veil.
Suspended in midair, they stared at one another across the vast chamber.
Cosmos burned. Hawk's eyes narrowed.
The name leapt to his lips.
"Ikaris!"
…
The man froze. His glowing eyes dimmed, though coldness lingered.
"Who are you?"
Hawk smiled faintly.
"So it really is you."
His gaze flicked to the murals, the statues, the broken skeleton with its pierced chest.
"The two figures in the paintings—that was you and Sersi, wasn't it?"
"The Iwi… they're your descendants."
Ikaris' eyes hardened. His voice was low, the same question repeated.
"Who are you?"
"Hawk. Just a passerby."
"A passerby?"
His gaze lowered, then lifted again. "No one on this planet wields power like yours."
"I have my own destiny," Hawk said lightly.
He thought back. Before he obtained the Reality Stone, Mephisto had seen him clearly for what he was—an anomaly from beyond.
But now, with his energy shaped and refined, even Ikaris couldn't discern it.
And Hawk understood now.
Long ago, when Ajak led the Eternals to destroy the last Deviant, she had ordered them to scatter, awaiting the Emergence.
Ikaris and Sersi had stumbled upon this hidden world, settling here, birthing the Iwi.
Later, they had left. The tribe endured alone.
But at some point, Ikaris returned. And with him—these Deviants.
The Iwi fled to Skull Island, dwindling under warped time. Only their priests remembered the truth.
As for why Ikaris did this… who could say? But one thing was certain: he had brought the Deviants back.
In the film, when Sersi demanded the truth, asking if it was him who released the Deviants, Ikaris' silence had been answer enough.
Just like now.
Ikaris sneered at Hawk's words.
"No matter who you are—since you know, you can't leave."
Boom!
…
(End of Chapter)
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