"Don't…"
As Andrea watched Muse approach with that still-bleeding limb, she desperately wriggled backward. Her whole body trembled.
Anyone, please, just save me!
"Why are you refusing?" Muse asked, genuinely confused. "Why say no?"
"You'll become part of my great art. That's a good thing." Beneath that terrifying face, his voice was strangely gentle.
He truly couldn't imagine why anyone would reject something so glorious, so magnificent.
He kept closing in on Andrea, thinking about where to stitch the hand onto her body for the best effect.
Then Bant arrived.
"The way you shamelessly disgust me is honestly impressive."
The moment Bant stepped into this space, even though he'd been mentally prepared, he was still shaken by the scene.
Hundreds of people piled together. This place was like Muse's slaughterhouse. Blood and chunks of flesh were everywhere…
To be honest, Bant didn't consider himself a good person, and he hadn't acted tonight purely to save anyone.
But faced with a scene straight out of hell, he still felt angry.
Thankfully, he hadn't brought Peter with him. If Peter saw this, the psychological impact would be far too intense.
Bant's sudden intrusion put Muse instantly on guard and also gave Andrea hope.
"Spider-Man!"
Tears welled in her eyes as she shouted.
Bant was wearing an upgraded suit, and the blue had been modified to black, but down in the sewer where the lighting was already terrible, the difference wasn't obvious. It also made him realize his current suit wasn't very recognizable.
He didn't care about that right now.
What he cared about was Muse.
This man felt hollow. The moment he stood there, Bant's senses seemed to be swallowed and gnawed away. He was like something close to nothingness.
"You don't understand my art at all!" Muse said coldly.
He actually didn't take Bant seriously.
In this era, superpowered people weren't nearly as common as they would be later. He assumed Bant was just an ordinary guy in a weird outfit, like that so-called Daredevil.
So not only did he refuse to surrender, he attacked.
Muse raised his left hand, and a throwing knife shot straight at Bant's face.
Swish!
Bant ducked fast and dodged it.
Since he already knew spider-sense didn't work, Bant had stayed on high alert from the start.
In the next instant, Muse grabbed the saw and chopped at Bant!
Honestly, in Bant's eyes, the motion was painfully slow.
He shifted aside, dodged the strike, then his hand clamped onto Muse's wrist. With a light twist.
Crack!
Tens of tons of force snapped Muse's arm in an instant.
Disabling one arm in the first exchange shocked even Muse. Even Bant was surprised.
He'd thought the enemy Peter ran into would be something terrifying.
And this was it?
Even with his arm broken, Muse didn't show pain. He didn't make a sound, as if Bant hadn't snapped an arm but merely twisted off a dead branch.
No pain response?
Bant frowned.
And while he wasn't paying attention, the blood that sprayed from Muse's arm splattered onto the surface of the Little Broken Watch.
[Defective gene detected. Repair?]
"Defective gene?"
Bant looked down in surprise, saw the bloodstains on the watch, then raised his gaze to Muse.
So this guy had become this "monster" because of a genetic defect.
But Bant had no intention of curing him.
"I'm not interested in your art," Bant said with a smile.
Art, art, art all day long. Who do you think you are, some little mustached man?
"But I am pretty interested in that defective gene of yours."
He couldn't be bothered listening to a lunatic's rambling. With a flick of his hand, he shot out webbing and stuck Muse's foot right as he tried to run.
Then Bant sprang lightly and planted a foot on Muse's back.
"Alright. Tell me, what exactly are you?"
A few minutes later, Bant had learned everything he wanted.
"Inhuman?"
Getting information from Muse was even easier than he expected. This pervert didn't care about any of it. The only thing he cared about was his art.
Unfortunately for him, his arm had already been snapped by Bant. He would never create again.
Bant had heard of the Inhumans.
This race was similar to mutants, both products born from outside interference.
He just hadn't expected the Little Broken Watch to label Muse's ability as a genetic defect.
Defect or evolution, Bant was very interested in Inhuman genes either way.
That said, he never planned to let Muse live.
Muse was a good subject for experimentation and observation, but Bant had nowhere to imprison him right now.
"Sure, the Null Void always has jailbreaks… but it looks like I really need to build one."
Not to hold criminals, but to research certain special criminals.
Ironic, really.
In the end, Bant killed Muse and took a large amount of Inhuman blood from him.
This sick freak who painted with human blood finally received the same kind of retribution.
Not far away, Andrea watched in horror.
She never knew Spider-Man could be this ruthless. So even though Bant had saved her, she couldn't help feeling afraid.
Still, she wasn't heartless.
"Thank you for saving us, Mr. Spider-Man," she said quickly.
"No need," Bant replied.
He put away the Inhuman blood, glanced at Andrea, and said nothing more.
Instead, he had Eunice place a call to her mother, Councilwoman Andrea.
There was no way he would expose his identity to a councilwoman. In a situation like this, having Eunice contact her using an encrypted call was the best approach.
When he needed her later, he could contact her through Eunice's number.
Then Bant left.
Not long after, he returned to Primus and locked the blood away at the very bottom of the freezer vault.
"Finally done for now, Eunice," Bant said, dusting off his hands, then looking up. "Book me a plane ticket to New Mexico."
Not long before that, at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
"You doing alright, Captain?" Nick stood by the hospital bed and looked at Steve, who had only just woken up, and asked.
"I'm… alright," Steve said, shame written all over his face.
He hadn't expected that not long after waking up, his first enemy would send him right to the edge of death.
"The times really have changed," he sighed, unable to finish the rest.
"I spent millions of dollars buying a self-healing serum from Osborn to drag you back from the brink. Not so you could tell me depressing lines, Captain," Fury said, pulling out a thick stack of files.
"I've got a new mission here. Why don't you go try it?"
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