At this moment, less than three minutes had passed since the battle began.
Yet the live global comment section had completely shifted its tone:
"WTF! Am I seeing things?! Since when was Iron Man this absurdly powerful?!"
"Ghost-Spider is far too awesome!!! Truly worthy of being my goddess!!!"
"By comparison, I still prefer that warrior goddess. She's the only one not wearing a mask, and slurp~ those looks, those long legs... they're longer than my lifespan!"
"I get all of that, but why did these superheroes suddenly become so ridiculously strong?"
"They weren't anywhere near this terrifying during the Battle of New York!"
"Is that even a question? The invincible Arbiter must have buffed everyone!"
"Yeah, no wonder the Arbiter is just standing back there without moving an inch! It turns out these small-time bottom-feeders aren't even worth his personal attention!"
However ecstatic the live comments and cheers were across the world, Gravik's mood was equally disastrous.
His Super Skrull army—twenty-seven hundred super-warriors obtained by gambling his entire species' future—was suffering casualties at a speed visible to the naked eye. Less than three minutes into the clash, over eight hundred of them were already dead or incapacitated.
Meanwhile, the opposition—a mere fifty earthlings—didn't have a single injured individual among them!
How could this be right?
This was completely upside down!
His gaze crossed the battlefield, landing squarely on the man standing comfortably in the rear, drinking water and watching the show.
It was all because of him!
This damned Arbiter kept ruining his grand design over and over again!
"No, I haven't lost yet!"
"I, the great Commander Gravik, cannot lose!"
Gravik grit his teeth until they nearly shattered, immediately shouting with harsh cruelty toward the two figures behind him:
"Move! Kill that guy right now!"
Wanda and Pietro.
His ultimate secret weapons.
Not a single ripple of emotion could be seen in their hollow, vacant eyes. Receiving Gravik's absolute directive, they stepped forward like mechanical automata.
Wanda struck first.
Scarlet, ominous Chaos Magic poured from her fingertips, cutting straight across the battlefield, driving directly toward Peter.
At that exact second, Pietro's figure vanished from his spot. He moved at a speed so extreme that even high-speed cameras failed to capture a single frame of his silhouette.
His target was also Peter.
Wanda was tasked with heavy crowd control, while Quicksilver handled the execution.
This was the lethal combo Gravik had specifically tailored for Peter—using Chaos Magic to pin down his mind, then sending the supersonic Quicksilver to deliver a decisive, fatal strike.
As long as he could kill that damned Arbiter in a single stroke, these empowered humans would naturally reveal their limits! When that happened, he could still turn the tide!
Under his tense, expectant gaze, the scarlet energy struck Peter dead-on.
Peter's body instantly froze in place.
It worked!
At that moment, Gravik was so thrilled he nearly opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate on the spot.
Simultaneously, the feed showing Peter hit by Wanda's Chaos Magic broadcasted across global screens into the eyes of every single viewer.
The live chat lost its mind instantly:
"The Arbiter got hard-cc'd?!"
"Damn it, who is that girl in red anyway?! She looks pretty decent, so why is she acting as a traitor to humanity?!"
While people argued frantically, Quicksilver materialized right behind Peter.
His fist was clenched tight around an energy dagger, driving straight toward the exposed nape of Peter's neck!
Closer! Even closer!
Seeing Quicksilver's blade less than three inches away from Peter's throat, Gravik was already daydreaming about his dramatic comeback.
Yet right at that critical moment, Quicksilver's movement ground to a complete halt.
A golden web matrix stood horizontally between him and Peter.
The web's extreme adhesive properties snared the energy dagger in Quicksilver's hand, entangling him completely on the web matrix, rendering him unable to twitch an inch!
Naturally, this was Gwen's work.
After receiving the Celestial energy boost, her Spider-Sense allowed her to "pre-cognitively track" Quicksilver's trajectory. Before Quicksilver's toes even left the ground, Gwen had already predicted his exact arrival coordinate, setting up the golden energy web in advance.
Meanwhile, the exact second Quicksilver failed, the Chaos Magic binding Peter dissolved into nothingness.
Chaos Magic?
To be fair, Wanda's Chaos Magic was indeed one of the most troublesome mental abilities on this planet. If it were the Scarlet Witch from the future—who had lost her brother and Vision—using this move, Peter might genuinely struggle to resist it without relying on the Horse Talisman.
But right now?
Trying to control him using un-awakened Chaos Magic was like having an infant who hadn't learned to walk try to pin a world champion martial artist to the ground.
An absolute pipe dream!
"Peter!" Gwen called out to remind him. "Those two are being mind-controlled by drugs! It's not voluntary!"
"I know."
As he spoke, Peter flicked his wrist. The Fire-Rat Robe fabric shot out from his sleeve, wrapping tightly around Wanda's slender waist, pulling her straight into his embrace.
Holding her securely, he glanced back toward Gwen:
"Perfect. One each—let's wake them up."
As he spoke, the pure white radiance of the Horse Talisman washed over Wanda.
Under the divine influence of the Horse Talisman—which purges all abnormal conditions and mental afflictions—Wanda's body shuddered violently. Her clouded eyes rapidly cleared, a look of profound confusion surfacing on her face.
Simultaneously, Gwen activated Santen Kesshun / Shun Shun Rikka on the trapped Quicksilver.
Two golden flower petals floated down from Gwen's fingertips, spiraling around Pietro's body.
"Santen Kesshun—I reject!"
The power of absolute rejection—capable of rejecting causality itself in this world—acted upon Quicksilver, forcibly extracting the dark green neuro-toxins from his body bit by bit, venting them through his pores as fine green mist.
"Ugh..."
Pietro let out a painful groan, his vacant eyes slowly regaining focus.
Meanwhile, Wanda—having snapped back to her senses—realized her proximity to Peter. She broke out of his arms, her fingertips igniting with scarlet Chaos Magic once more.
This time, it wasn't mental control, but a direct magical blast!
Though freed from the neuro-toxin, the seeds of hatred Gravik had planted through manipulation still lingered. The naive Wanda still believed Peter was the ultimate symbol of American hegemony; only by eliminating Peter could the oppressed people across the world regain true freedom.
Facing Wanda's incoming magic, Peter neither dodged nor retaliated.
To his current constitution, Wanda's raw Chaos Magic felt like nothing more than a mild massage. Taking the full impact of her magical blast head-on without moving a single inch, he spoke casually, as if nothing had happened:
"Take a look behind you. Take a good look at what kind of creatures you were fighting for."
Wanda's hand froze mid-air.
Pietro's frantic struggles ground to a sudden halt.
Both siblings turned their heads simultaneously, beholding the true appearance of Peter's opponents—monsters with vicious, reptilian expressions, undeniably non-human.
Right at that second, Peter's voice drifted into their ears once more:
"Are you two absolutely certain... you want to stand against humanity?"