When the dimensional portals beside Peter finally disappeared, the Ultimate Green Goblin, with wings like a Western dragon, was standing on his left, while New Goblin Harry, clad in precision armor and standing on a glider, appeared on his right.
For a moment, it was three against two.
The advantage was theirs.
"Oh my God! It's a full Spider party! Peter, I'm not seeing things, right?!"
New Goblin Harry looked around at all the Spider-People swinging everywhere on webs and started doubting his own sanity.
He had been prepared for other Spider-Men to show up, but this was way too many.
"No, you're not seeing things. This really is kind of a mess."
"Let me guess how many Peters there are here..."
"That middle-aged chubby guy fighting the tentacle lady, that's you, right?!"
"Don't mention him. Bad luck."
"And this Spider-Man with that 1930s movie color palette actually looks pretty cool..."
"He does look pretty cool."
"And that white Spider-Man... wait, is that a female Peter from another universe?!"
Looking at Harry acting like an idiot, Peter really wanted to punch him, but managed to hold himself back.
"That's Gwen. My childhood friend."
"Hey, if Gwen can become Spider-Man, then is there a world where I can become Spider-Man too?!"
Harry asked curiously.
That was actually a good question.
In one of the variant Ultimate Spider-Man universes, even Mary Jane had become Spider-Carnage, and Harry himself had once been possessed by Venom and Anti-Venom. In that sense, he could probably count as half a Spider-Man already.
"Enough talking. Don't leave Norman fighting by himself."
Seeing that the Ultimate Green Goblin was holding his own in a two-on-one fight, Peter patted Harry on the shoulder. The two exchanged a glance and rushed forward together.
Calling it three against two was not really accurate anymore, because Spider-Noir and Porker joined in right after. In an instant, it became five against two, and the two villains were so overwhelmed by getting attacked from all sides that they could barely react.
Compared to the total stomp happening there, the older Spider-Man was having the exact opposite experience.
He was getting completely toyed with.
He kept ripping off Doctor Octopus's tentacles one after another, but they regenerated way too fast, and even the severed tentacles could still wrap around and restrain him. It left him struggling helplessly.
Right now, all he wanted to do was shout for backup.
Anybody would do.
Even one person would be enough.
The older Spider-Man had originally been about to insert the key into the drive, but now he was wrapped up like a dumpling in a heap of slime-covered tentacles and could not move at all.
Doctor Octopus, who had been humiliated by him moments earlier, clung to the ceiling with the suction cups on her tentacles and looked down at her prey with mocking amusement.
"So I caught you after all, Peter. Got any last words?"
"How about you give me one minute to think about it?"
"Oh, and do you have a pen?"
"You're still talking nonsense at a time like this? Peter, I'm going to preserve your body very carefully, but your brain is getting sliced up for research. I want to study exactly how that damned Spider-Sense of yours works."
One tentacle stretched out, ready to end the older Spider-Man's life.
But that tentacle suddenly seemed to stop listening to her. It clenched into a fist and immediately started punching Doctor Octopus in the face over and over, leaving her completely stunned.
Then two strands of webbing swung through the air, and a figure suddenly appeared.
The newcomer was dressed completely in black, with web patterns and stylish graffiti-like designs across the suit.
It was Miles, who had rebuilt his suit and regained the confidence to fight, the second Ultimate Spider-Man.
Miles's arrival shocked everyone present. He kicked Doctor Octopus flying with one strike and rescued the older Spider-Man, who had been tied up like a dumpling.
"Miles! I knew you'd come after all!"
The older Spider-Man said excitedly.
"Of course I came. I promised Peter I'd protect this city for him. Now I've found what I believe in."
"What made you figure it out?"
"I have to thank my uncle. He told me I was the best. So I think... I should become the best Spider-Man, just like he said."
A powerful electric pulse shot out and blasted away Doctor Octopus, who had been trying to sneak attack them again.
Miles said it casually, as if it were nothing.
"You found your uncle?"
"Yeah, I found him. But the situation outside is a complete disaster. Most of the humans have turned into Spider-Devourers. Their abilities aren't that strong, but there are way too many of them. The good news is they still have self-awareness. The bad news is that this power has made the people who already had darkness in their hearts completely lose control. I'm telling you, New York's crime rate tonight is probably the highest it's ever been."
Miles shrugged.
"Okay, that sounds really aweso... wait, what?! The city has fallen already?! What exactly is the Peter of this world trying to do? Turn everyone into the Living Dead or something?!"
While dodging Doctor Octopus's attacks, the older Spider-Man asked in shock.
"No idea. His tongue and throat were already rotted away, so I couldn't understand what he was saying."
"I fought him before coming here, but he didn't seem willing to fight me seriously. My guess is this has something to do with Kingpin. Once I get you all sent home, I think I'm going to be fighting that guy for a long time... even though I really don't want to."
...
The battle had already reached a completely uncontrollable state.
Kingpin had thought his plan was foolproof. To make sure of that, he had gathered every villain under his command and even arranged for three hundred highly trained mercenaries.
Of course, time had been limited. Otherwise, he could have recruited even more villains, and the number of mercenaries would have multiplied several times over.
But logically, the force he had assembled should already have been enough to control the situation.
And yet, just a few minutes ago, reports had come in saying both the front and rear defense lines had been broken. The central section had originally been under Doctor Octopus's control, but so far there had been no updates from there at all.
Worse still, the Sandman and Shocker he had placed such high hopes on were currently getting kicked around by five people without any chance to fight back.
"I believe in you, Miles! Your uncle was right. Even I'm proud of you!"
"Oh man, suddenly I have this weird urge to have a kid..."
The older Spider-Man patted Miles on the shoulder, and then the two of them swung off on their webs together to fight Doctor Octopus.
"So the kid really does qualify to be Spider-Man after all. I thought he wasn't going to show."
Porker, after kicking Shocker away and farting in his face, nodded in satisfaction when he saw Miles arrive.
"Looks like that kid has finally found a reason to fight. Good. He's still immature, but after some experience, he'll become a warrior who can stand on his own."
Spider-Noir took off his trench coat, threw it over Shocker's head, and then started beating him relentlessly in the confusion.
"Who is that guy?!"
"A Black Spider-Man around sixteen or seventeen."
"Hey, do all you Spider-Men specialize in pulling something over a person's head and beating them up?!"
"You'll get used to it."
...
Meanwhile, the riot across New York had already drawn the attention of this world's Avengers, and they all moved out to deal with the crisis.
The Ultimate Universe's Doctor Strange made calculation after calculation but still could not get a clear answer. He only felt that the current situation resembled what had happened in some other universe, though it was not exactly the same.
JARVIS, belonging to this world's Iron Man, also calculated a possible solution: use Spider-Man's serum to create an antidote.
But this world's Spider-Man had already turned into a Spider-Devourer, so his blood did not seem useful anymore.
Unless they could find other Spider-Men.
Doctor Strange said many Spider-Men had appeared in this world, but no one had seen them yet.
The Avengers' arrival brought a brief period of calm to the chaos in the city. The Devourers were not attacking everyone blindly. They were deliberately targeting people they knew, as if they understood that only by doing so could they survive after the world collapsed.
But the spread of infection was far too strong.
If you infected someone you knew, and then that person infected someone else they knew, then sooner or later everyone would end up infected anyway.
So what the Avengers needed to do now was not kill civilians, but restrain them, and if possible, find the source of the riot: the Ultimate Spider-Devourer.
For that reason, Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Thor split into four groups to search for this world's Ultimate Spider-Man, who had become a Devourer.
As for Hulk...
He could just go around smashing things.
At the corner of an alley, Ultimate Gwen, dressed in a New York police uniform, clutched her injured arm and breathed heavily.
As someone who had already become a super-perfect human, dealing with those low-level Devourers had been easy for her.
But just now, she had run into the Ultimate Devourer himself, Ultimate Peter.
Even though he had seemed to retain some awareness and did not want to fight her, she had still been scratched by him.
Was she going to turn into one of those blue-green spider monsters too?
A tearing pain spread through her entire body.
Yet that familiar sensation felt strangely unusual to Gwen. She could clearly sense that the DNA inside her body seemed to be changing, and this change did not feel like it was heading in a bad direction.
It felt like it was changing for the better.
"Is it the effect of Peter's serum?"
"Does that mean... I can become Spider-Woman too?"
Sweating from the heat in her body and the ripping pain coursing through her, Ultimate Gwen felt strange instinctive knowledge appear in her mind.
And despite everything, she could not help feeling a little hopeful as she murmured those words to herself.
(End of Chapter)
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