Crisis upon crisis cascaded like falling dominoes across the interdimensional battlefield.
After Morlun's transformation, he had become a ferocious predatory beast that moved with lightning speed. His razor-sharp bat wings sliced through the air with a sound like tearing silk, aimed directly at Spider-Ham's exposed throat.
Gwen desperately fired a beam of pure Mana at the attacking Inheritor. Though the energy blast was split apart almost instantly, it bought Spider-Ham precious seconds to react. A Spider-Man with four arms, a slender frame, and an elongated tail suddenly swung in with extraordinary agility, grabbing Spider-Ham's stubby legs and landing safely several yards away.
"Since when can monkeys become Spider-people?" Spider-Ham gasped, sweat pouring down his cartoon features as he made his inappropriately timed complaint.
It was Spider-Monkey who had rescued him, one of the more unusual members of their interdimensional alliance.
"Aren't you a pig yourself?" Spider-Monkey retorted with obvious irritation.
"I keep telling everyone, I'm not a pig! I'm a humanoid spider with pig-like features!" Spider-Ham shouted indignantly. This marked roughly the hundredth time he'd been mistaken for an actual pig, and his patience was wearing thin.
"Can you please stop arguing about taxonomy when we're about to die? Morlun's coming back!"
Middle-aged Peter and blonde Peter coordinated their attack with practiced precision, unleashing a barrage of web-bullets that shot toward Morlun like machine gun fire.
"Get out of my way!" Morlun roared, using his bat-like wings to continuously slice through the incoming webbing. But like trying to remove glue with bare hands, the sticky spider-silk inevitably adhered to his transformed body, gradually slowing his movements and restricting his range of motion.
"Now's our chance, let's trap him!" Blonde Peter's eyes blazed with sudden hope as he shouted the command.
The Spider-heroes around him immediately understood the strategy and surrounded Morlun from every direction, shooting webbing at the transformed Inheritor as if ammunition were unlimited and time was running out.
Morlun found himself completely unable to react to the coordinated assault. Just as he lunged toward one Spider-hero to create a breakthrough, several web-lines instantly covered his eyes, blinding him completely. Before he could attempt to tear away the webbing with his claws, dozens of silk threads had been twisted together into thick ropes, binding his limbs with unbreakable restraints.
Within moments, he resembled a massive bat tied up with chains and suspended in midair. The webbing coming from all directions had been braided into wrist-thick cables that pulled Morlun's limbs taut, threatening to tear him apart through sheer mechanical force.
This reminds me of an ancient execution method, someone might have observed under different circumstances.
An overwhelming tearing sensation filled the air as each rope of spider-silk was anchored by more than five Spider-heroes pulling with desperate strength. Their feet seemed to dig into the very fabric of space-time itself as they leaned backward at impossible angles, every hero straining as if trying to stop a runaway freight train.
However, even with the combined strength to halt more than twenty locomotives, the Spider-heroes found themselves unable to successfully dismember Morlun's incredibly durable body.
This Inheritor continued to resist using his overwhelming physical power, his four limbs alone possessing enough strength to crush several Spider-people simultaneously.
"You miserable insects!" Morlun roared in fury. The scene was something for the history books, if ancient heroes had pulled trains and ships, and Captain America had stopped helicopters, now Morlun was single-handedly restraining twenty Spider-heroes in a space tug-of-war.
Gwen was screaming with desperate effort as she gripped the braided spider-silk rope with both hands. Her feet had already carved deep grooves in the dimensional substrate, but she was still being gradually dragged toward Morlun's position despite her best efforts.
"He's almost, breaking free, " Middle-aged Peter spoke through gritted teeth, his words punctuated by strain. He could see Morlun slowly bending his arms with tremendous effort. If the Inheritor managed to get back into a position where he could leverage his full strength, all of them would be hurled away like children.
Seeing the critical situation developing, Spider-heroes who had been engaged with other Inheritors began desperately seeking ways to assist. Spider-Noir ducked low to avoid Bora's slashing attack, then drew an antique revolver from within his dark coat and fired a bullet directly at Bora's eye.
The projectile failed to penetrate Bora's superhuman skin, but the action of aiming at her eyeball made the female Inheritor instinctively flinch and close her eyes.
Spider-Noir seized the opportunity to slip away and join the space tug-of-war, while Superior Spider-Man deployed several mechanical arms to grab additional spider-silk lines.
The main universe Peter and other primary combatants continued struggling to restrain the remaining Inheritors, preventing them from providing assistance to their trapped family member.
Takuya Yamashiro deserved special recognition for his efforts. Even without Leopardon, his combat capabilities remained extraordinary. While he might not possess greater raw strength than other Spider-heroes, his nearly supernatural recovery ability allowed him to maintain a position at the very front of every engagement.
As more and more Spider-heroes joined the coordinated effort against Morlun, even the transformed Inheritor found himself completely overwhelmed. His limbs were stretched into grotesquely exaggerated positions while suspended in midair, and he released a shrill, horrible wail that seemed to echo across multiple dimensions.
At this critical moment, Morlun desperately tried to reach the Nemetrix core attached to his body, but his restraints made any movement impossible.
Maybe we can actually win this!
Hope began flowering on every Spider-hero's face as they witnessed their enemy's apparent helplessness.
Morlun was acknowledged as the most powerful member of the Inheritor family, and he possessed that terrifying transformation ability. If they could eliminate him here, it would obviously represent a devastating blow to the entire Inheritor clan.
More importantly, that mysterious device would fall into their hands and become a weapon they could use against their enemies.
However, before they could celebrate their apparent victory, a streak of black lightning shot out from an unexpected angle.
A silver-gleaming dagger severed one of the crucial spider-silk cables. Gwen instantly felt the enormous opposing force in her hands disappear completely. She and several other Spider-heroes rolled backward uncontrollably, tumbling into a pile like bowling pins struck by an invisible ball.
"What happened?!" Everyone immediately looked toward the direction from which the thrown blade had originated.
Daemos had just knocked one Spider-hero to the ground with a devastating left hook while simultaneously breaking another hero's spine with his elbow. He gazed at the bound Morlun with what appeared to be malicious amusement.
"What a shame. I was looking forward to killing you myself," he said with obvious sarcasm.
Of course, this was merely dark humor. The Inheritors would never engage in internal strife under these circumstances, it had been Daemos who threw the knife to cut the spider-silk, and this action had freed up one of Morlun's arms.
"I'll remember to reward you before our father, Daemos!" Morlun spoke with genuine appreciation, then turned to regard the Spider-heroes with eyes that blazed with anger and bloodlust. A terrible aura exploded from his transformed body, and the predatory pressure from their position in the space food chain momentarily paralyzed the Spider-heroes with instinctive terror.
"I'm coming to help!" When Takuya Yamashiro saw that Morlun was about to use his freed arm to cut through the remaining restraints, he leaped forward without hesitation and launched himself directly at the Inheritor.
Powerful force erupted from his spider-themed wristband as he managed to grab Morlun's head. His body wrapped around the transformed villain like a determined octopus, attempting to lock down Morlun's newly freed arm.
"It's you again, emissary of hell," Morlun glanced at him with a sneer of contempt.
"Without that giant robot of yours, you're nothing special."
As he spoke, Morlun began bending Takuya's body with overwhelming force, threatening to snap the hero's spine like a dry twig.
Seeing this development, Peter from the main universe also sprang into action. He leaped up and grabbed onto Morlun's wing membrane while driving his feet into the Inheritor's waist, trying to force him downward through leverage.
"Start wrapping!" Peter's veins bulged as he shouted commands to the other Spider-heroes.
Superior Spider-Man immediately understood the strategy and began shooting webbing to encase all three combatants. The other heroes quickly realized that Peter intended to trap Morlun within a massive cocoon.
Given the incredible tensile strength of spider-silk, once a cocoon several feet thick was formed, it would require thousands of tons of force to break through, more than enough to completely immobilize Morlun.
The only problem was that both Peter and Takuya would also be trapped inside with their enemy.
But they had no time for hesitation. With Superior Spider-Man taking the lead, the others moved with desperate efficiency.
"Gwen, go stop the other Inheritors!" someone shouted.
Gwen's mind went blank as she acted on pure instinct. Her divine energy transformed into several invisible arms that slammed toward the other Inheritors who were preparing to support their trapped family member.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
For reasons she couldn't explain, Gwen's Mana seemed significantly more powerful than before. While the difference hadn't been obvious during her fight with Morlun, when facing the other Inheritors, the true strength of her divine energy became apparent.
Several pink energy constructs instantly expanded to enormous size and swatted the Inheritors like flies, sending them tumbling across the dimensional battlefield.
Watching Gwen single-handedly suppress all the remaining Inheritors, Superior Spider-Man exhaled with relief.
"We should have done this from the beginning!" he declared with grim satisfaction.
The strategy was finally working, let Gwen, who possessed unique abilities, hold back the other family members while they used overwhelming numbers and coordinated tactics to neutralize Morlun. Once their primary threat was eliminated, everything else would fall into place.
As for the necessary sacrifices...
Every Spider-person present had already accepted that possibility.
Including Superior Spider-Man himself.
As the main universe Spider-Man from the past timeline, he had personally trapped himself and Morlun in the same cocoon. From his perspective, once his future self died, he would also disappear due to temporal paradox.
"It's finally over..." he murmured.
"That young woman has become much more adept at wielding her special energy," someone observed.
Looking at the massive white cocoon before them and the Inheritors held fast by Gwen's divine power in the distance, Superior Spider-Man couldn't help but marvel at how quickly the situation had reversed. They had achieved victory in what seemed like an instant.
Of course, the cost had been enormous.
Indian Spider-Man, and many other who had barely survived previous encounters with Morlun had all been killed in action. 616 Peter and Takuya were trapped in a cocoon with their enemy. Morlun might not die, but those two heroes might not be able to survive much longer in close quarters with such a monster.
Most of the other surviving Spider-heroes were also seriously wounded, their costumes torn and stained with blood.
Although Gwen had successfully restrained the other Inheritors, she was clearly exhausted to the point of collapse. Penny supported her to prevent her from fainting from complete energy depletion.
Blonde Peter walked up to Superior Spider-Man and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. He seemed to want to offer some words of consolation, but ultimately said nothing meaningful. "We should imprison them as quickly as possible. I'm afraid Gwen can't maintain this much longer."
"I'll leave that to you," Superior Spider-Man replied, his expression complex with conflicting emotions.
"My future self is dead. I suspect my own life has entered a countdown phase. I don't know when I'll simply cease to exist."
Blonde Peter found himself speechless in the face of such grim acceptance.
But another voice responded to Superior Spider-Man's resignation.
"You're correct, but you're going to die by my hand!"
A cold, menacing voice suddenly emerged from within the white cocoon.
Blonde Peter was startled and attempted to pull Superior Spider-Man away to safety, but before he could take any action, an explosive burst of energy erupted from the silken prison.
BOOM!!!
Scorching heat waves swept through the void beyond this dimensional space, instantly vaporizing everything in their path and hurling debris in all directions.
Then, to the horror of every witness, the white cocoon began melting due to the incredible heat. Morlun, now resembling a walking volcano made of living rock, stepped out with one massive foot planted on the unconscious form of the main universe Peter.
His enormous, transformed body pressed down on Takuya Yamashiro, who could only raise his arms like a mantis attempting to stop a charging rhino.
"What a pity. If it weren't for the Nemetrix, you might have actually succeeded in killing me," Morlun said with casual amusement.
But in a flash, his expression shifted to pure rage. "Now it's my turn, insects!"
Morlun roared, and from his rock-like skin, scorching flames formed terrible pressure waves that struck the assembled Spider-heroes with the force of a solar flare.
The heat was so intense that it caused the space outside this universe to visibly distort and warp! This creature could not only devour fire but release it in concentrated bursts that rivaled supernova explosions in their intensity!
"Everyone gather around me!" Gwen screamed.
The terrible heat wave caused the very fabric of space to spontaneously combust. Gwen had no time to worry about the controlled Inheritors, she desperately squeezed every remaining drop of Mana from her exhausted body to form a spherical protective barrier around the surviving Spider-heroes.
BOOM!!!
The flames swept over them like a tsunami of pure destruction.
In the raging inferno, terrifying black shadows twisted and released countless agonized screams before being reduced to ash in mere seconds.
"That maniac killed even his own family members..." Blonde Peter felt as though all the moisture in his body was being extracted. Even with Gwen's barrier protecting them, the heat was sufficient to cook a person alive. The Inheritor siblings outside the barrier had been incinerated by Morlun almost instantly.
"Do you think there's any humanity left in that creature?" Superior Spider-Man knelt on one knee, his four robotic arms paralyzed due to thermal overload.
His expression was uncertain and conflicted.
During the moment when the flames first struck, he had attempted to rescue both the 616 Peter and Takuya from the inferno, but his reaction had been too slow. The fire had consumed them both in an instant.
Logically, he should be dead now, but somehow he wasn't...
The paradox confused him, but there was no time to analyze the temporal mechanics involved.
"I may not be able to hold on much longer..." Gwen's breathing had become extremely labored, and dense cracking sounds echoed from her energy barrier.
Gwen felt as though her entire body had been hollowed out, her arms feeling as heavy as if two planets were hanging from them. Her nano battle suit had long been soaked with perspiration and clung uncomfortably to her skin. Her consciousness was already blurring at the edges, and she found herself desperately missing the time when she had worn the symbiote uniform.
It had felt like being embraced within Ben's protective presence, completely safe and supported.
"I'm sorry, Ben... this time it really is over..." she whispered.
CRACK!
The barrier shattered completely!
Crimson flames came crashing down toward them like an avalanche of molten death. Gwen's vision spun as she watched the fires of annihilation approaching, and she found herself hoping that the atoms of her disintegrated body might somehow cross universal boundaries to reach Ben one final time.
However, a gentle but firm pressure against her back was accompanied by a hoarse but achingly familiar voice speaking directly into her ear.
"It's not over yet."
Gwen's eyes flew open as her heart, which had seemed strong enough to face any challenge, was instantly overwhelmed with emotion. A surge of renewed strength burst through her exhausted body, allowing her to turn her head and see the beloved blue figure she had thought she might never see again.
The wings of Big Chill enveloped her delicate frame protectively, and blessed cold air pushed back against the consuming flames with supernatural effectiveness.
"As an old friend used to say, "
"The hero always appear late!"