By the time Peter returned home, it was already past ten o'clock. Aunt May had long grown accustomed to his late nights and early mornings, having already gone to bed herself. Peter quietly slipped into his room, stripped off his gear, washed up briefly, and finally collapsed into bed.
Staring at the ceiling, he couldn't help but reflect on what Strange was actually plotting, and what Mephisto truly intended to achieve.
As for what the Sorcerer Supreme was thinking? Peter couldn't make heads or tails of it for the time being. But regarding Mephisto, Strange's words at least made a great deal of sense: the demon lord must have already achieved his objective.
Judging from the known information, the entire operation was so abstract and the plan so chaotic that Peter couldn't quite piece it all together; this Roxxon-Stark corporate war involved far too many moving parts. But if one were to consider what Mephisto gained from it—as of right now, it seemed to be just those few unlucky corporate souls possessed by the Black Cartel.
"What does he want with these few executives? If he wanted to use their capital, status, and influence to achieve something, he should have corporate assets backing them... Hmm, could it be that he anticipated Illyana would handle the Black Cartel? That doesn't seem to make sense either..."
However, considering that this operation was so vast, even from Mephisto's perspective, what he sought felt entirely too minor.
No, that was wrong. It wasn't that Mephisto created such a massive situation for a minor requirement. Rather, he first found a way to acquire exactly what he needed, and then built a massive global event around that hidden method. No one pays attention to the opening prelude of a corporate war, and that was exactly Mephisto's goal. Considering the twisted nature of demons, perhaps this was also simply a way for him to have some fun at humanity's expense.
As usual, amid his reflections on cosmic conspiracies, Peter gradually drifted off.
Unfortunately, he wasn't so lucky tonight. He didn't know how long he had been in a state of light sleep—in any case, it hadn't been long—when his Spider-Sense suddenly flared like a siren, and a dazzling crimson light pierced through his closed eyelids.
Peter snapped awake instantly, realizing the energy flare was coming from right outside his window. Becoming fully alert, his body was already enveloped by the Anti-Venom suit. He grabbed his watch, rapidly deployed his nano-suit as well, and threw open the window.
Peter vaulted out. What's the play here? Aliens? Another Hydra cell? Did Fury send a strike team?
In that fleeting second, Peter pondered a vast multitude of worst-case scenarios, but the moment he dropped into the alleyway, the scene before him left him utterly shocked.
Illyana, whom he had parted ways with just a few hours ago, was currently standing there with her blonde hair loose, wearing a beige set of pajamas, a nightgown, and slippers. She was clutching her massive Soulsword, locked in a fierce, destructive duel against a terrifying female demon over two meters tall.
Upon closer inspection, that demonic entity looked remarkably familiar. It was Illyana's corrupted, demonic form—the Darkchild.
Peter surged forward with blinding speed, using his enhanced strength to catch and hold the Darkchild's giant blade just before she could swing it down.
Are you kidding me? This girl can shatter an entire residential block with a single strike of her sword; give Queens a chance to survive!
Exerting his full power to hold back the colossal blade, Peter demanded an explanation in sheer bewilderment, "What is going on with you?! How the hell did this fight reach my house?!"
"Oh, wait... this is your house?" Illyana, who was actively attempting to slash her dark reflection to death, actually carried a hint of genuine surprise in her tone. "Sorry, I can only teleport to coordinate markers I've been to before. Now that you mention it, I forgot I once ran a mutant tracking op near your neighborhood."
Is that your justification for bringing a literal demon to my backyard?!
For a moment, Peter was utterly speechless. He chose to treat the Darkchild like a standard supervillain, firing a massive barrage of high-tensile webbing to bind her giant body tightly, finally finding a split second to breathe. "So, what's the story with this freak?"
"I don't know! Theoretically, she's an identical counterpart formed from the corrupted half of my soul," Illyana snapped, continually dodging the flames radiating from her demonic self. "Dealing with this fiend was already straining my limits, and back in Limbo, Strange was too busy dealing with Belasco to bother sealing her!"
Peter was thoroughly perplexed. "You should have gone to the Sanctum Sanctorum to let Strange sort this kind of magical crap out, shouldn't you?"
"The defensive shields of the Sanctum Sanctorum violently repel the existence of pure demons. As it happens, she's a demon, and her soul signature is practically identical to mine!"
Consequently, Illyana and the Daughter of Darkness had been deflected together by Doctor Strange's house defenses, causing the two to continuously warp across New York while engaging in brutal hand-to-hand combat. They just happened to bounce directly to Peter's coordinates.
"So, it's another split-personality demon story. Seriously, Peter, how do you have so many friends with severe mental illnesses?"
Gwen's sudden, sarcastic voice gave Peter a genuine fright. He spun around rapidly and discovered her standing on a nearby rooftop, already clad in her white and magenta Ghost-Spider suit. "Gwen?! How did you get here so fast?"
"Well, hard to say. My Spider-Sense went off, and then it just wouldn't stop ringing. I put on the suit and came to make sure you weren't getting killed." Peter felt a bit guilty; in the chaos, he had completely forgotten Gwen lived just a few blocks away. Of course, Gwen's next sentence made him freeze. "Tsk. To think a pretty blonde girl would run all the way over to Queens in her pajamas just to ask you for help."
"This is an accident! And I am practically dead tired today," Illyana groaned helplessly, parrying another strike. "All I want right now is to sleep; I still have classes at the institute tomorrow!"
Peter sighed, firing web-lines to assist Illyana in pinning down the creature. Gwen naturally dove into the fray as well, her acrobatic kicks keeping the demon off-balance. Whether considering the rest they desperately needed for school or the safety of the neighborhood, they needed to wrap this up immediately.
"No, no, no—don't slash her here!" Peter once again caught the brute force of the Darkchild, anchoring her arms with webbing. He looked at Illyana, "Can you transport her out of here? This isn't a convenient place to fight! There are too many ordinary citizens sleeping. Move us all away, and we'll help you beat her."
"Then I need to lock onto a proper pocket dimension first—let's just hope it's not another residential zone!" After parrying a vicious swipe, Illyana blinked as she looked at Gwen. "Oh, wait... do you two live together? Another spider-hero shows up this fast?"
"No, we just live relatively close to each other!" Peter yelled, pulling a web-line taut. "Alright, have you prepped the portal yet? We can't hold her much longer!"
"It's already set!"
Illyana violently plunged her Soulsword into the concrete ground. A massive, blinding beam of stepping-disc light enveloped the three heroes and the demon.
When Peter opened his eyes once more, the suburban streets of Queens were gone. What met his eyes was the familiar, jagged, and crimson sky of Limbo.
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