Vi didn't waste any time equipping her Hextech gauntlets. The heavy metal locked around her arms with familiar weight, the low hum of power settling into her bones like an old bad habit. She flexed her fingers once, then twice, testing the grip.
Not because she expected a fight.
Because expecting nothing was how people got blindsided.
Adriel noticed, of course. He noticed everything. But he didn't comment. Probably the smartest thing he'd done all morning.
The moment they stepped into the street, movement flickered from a nearby corner.
Small. Fast. Careful.
A child peeked out from hiding.
Isha.
She was tiny, wearing that metal hat of hers, her blue-painted hair done badly enough that it was obvious she'd done it herself—or someone with very little patience had helped her. The color was uneven, messy, and a little ridiculous.
But the intention was obvious.
She was trying to look like Jinx.
And judging by the way Jinx's expression softened the second she saw her, the effort mattered more than the result.
"There you are," Jinx said, her voice shifting into something lighter. "Was wondering if you got swallowed by the floor."
Isha didn't answer with words. She only stepped closer, eyes flicking from Jinx to Vi.
The little girl's expression tightened.
Yeah. She still didn't like Vi.
Vi couldn't exactly blame her.
After what happened before, after that whole disaster of a fight, the kid had every reason to look at her like she was one wrong move away from becoming a threat. Isha tolerated her because Jinx did. That was about it.
Then Isha looked at Adriel.
And froze.
Her eyes went wide.
Not scared wide.
More like she'd just seen something she didn't know how to categorize. Her gaze traveled up his frame, stopped at his face, and stayed there with the shameless intensity only a child could get away with.
Jinx saw it immediately.
A grin spread across her face.
"Oh my god," she said, dragging the words out with vicious delight. "No way."
Adriel glanced at her. "What?"
Jinx pointed at Isha, who still hadn't stopped staring. "She thinks you're pretty."
Adriel blinked.
Isha's face flushed. She looked away instantly, almost offended that she'd been exposed.
Jinx, merciless as ever, leaned closer to Adriel's side. "Careful. You're gonna steal my sidekick."
Adriel looked down at Isha, then back to Jinx. "I don't think I have the emotional stamina for that."
Jinx snorted. "Weak."
Vi rolled her eyes and pushed past them. "Can we move?"
"Wow," Jinx said, falling into step beside Adriel. "Still allergic to fun. Good to know some things don't change."
Vi didn't answer. She just kept walking.
Their destination was Zaun.
The route down was familiar in that ugly, aching way places could be familiar. Piltover's polished edges gave way little by little, the air changing first, then the architecture, then the people. The city above carried tension like perfume. Zaun carried it like scar tissue.
As they walked, Jinx wasted no time catching up with Adriel.
And apparently, she had years of questions stored behind her teeth.
"So," she said, looping one arm around his like it was the most natural thing in the world, "where have you been?"
Adriel glanced down at her arm.
He didn't pull away.
That annoyed Vi more than it should've.
"Busy," Adriel answered.
Jinx stared at him. "That's a terrible answer."
"It's an accurate one."
"Boring."
"It was not boring."
"Then start with the not-boring parts."
Adriel sighed like he regretted existing within range of her curiosity, but there was no real irritation in it. "I fought monsters."
Jinx perked up. "Big monsters?"
"Very big."
"How big?"
"Bigger than buildings."
Isha's eyes widened again.
Jinx looked delighted. "Did they explode?"
"Some."
"Did you make them explode?"
"Sometimes."
Jinx looked at Isha and nodded solemnly, like this confirmed something important. "See? This is why he was cool."
Adriel gave her a sideways look. "Was?"
Jinx grinned. "Still deciding."
For the first time since leaving the apartment, Adriel actually laughed.
Not loud. Not dramatic. Just a low, tired sound that didn't seem forced.
Isha smiled at that. Small, but clear.
The little girl drifted closer after that, walking on Adriel's other side. She didn't grab his hand—not at first—but she stayed near enough that her shoulder almost brushed his arm. Something about him seemed to settle her. The same thing that had settled so many people without them realizing why.
That quiet, impossible sense that being near him meant the world might not fall apart in the next second.
Jinx felt it too. Vi could tell.
Because Jinx kept looking at him like she was afraid he'd vanish if she blinked too long.
Adriel talked as they walked. Not about everything. Vi could tell he was leaving things out—either because they were too complicated, too painful, or too insane. Probably all three.
But he told enough.
Fragments of other places. Other wars. Strange cities. Monsters that sounded like nightmares someone gave muscles. A giant lizard thing that fought Ace for decades. A spider-themed enemy that was currently making Adriel's life hell. Something about saving entire regions outside Piltover while Piltover sat sealed off from the rest of the world.
Jinx listened like every word was a spark.
Isha listened like Adriel was telling bedtime stories with explosions in them.
Vi pretended not to listen.
She kept a few steps behind them, gauntlets heavy at her sides, eyes fixed ahead like she didn't care.
She did.
That pissed her off too.
Because she didn't want to care about what Adriel had been doing. She didn't want to care where he'd been, what he'd fought, how he'd survived, or why he looked so different now.
But curiosity was a stubborn thing.
And Adriel had always been a walking pile of unanswered questions.
Years ago, his eyes had looked heavier. Burdened in a way Vi hadn't understood back then. He'd carried pain like it was welded to him, but he'd also carried arrogance with it. Distance. That cold, horrible way of making everyone around him feel like they were smaller pieces on a board only he could see.
Now?
Now he still looked tired.
But not the same way.
There was less venom in it. Less sharpness. More effort. Like he was still dragging the weight, but he'd finally realized other people existed under it too.
Vi hated that she noticed.
Jinx leaned closer into Adriel's arm, almost swinging herself off him as they walked. "So you're, like, way stronger now, right?"
Adriel's mouth twitched. "That depends on what you mean by 'way.'"
"I mean, could you punch Piltover into the sky?"
Vi snapped, "Don't give her ideas."
Adriel immediately said, "No one is punching Piltover into the sky."
Jinx pouted. "Cowards."
Isha silently mimed an explosion with both hands.
Jinx pointed at her. "See? She gets it."
Adriel looked between the two of them and sighed. "I am surrounded by terrible influences."
Vi scoffed from behind them. "You're one to talk."
Adriel glanced back at her, and for a second their eyes met.
Not warm.
Not fixed.
But less hostile than before.
He didn't fire back. He just looked ahead again.
That restraint bothered Vi almost more than if he'd argued.
Jinx kept yapping. Adriel answered when he felt like it. Isha occasionally tugged at Jinx's sleeve or made a gesture, and Jinx translated it without thinking, like they'd built a whole language between them.
Vi watched it all from a few steps behind.
Jinx, clinging to Adriel like a long-lost friend.
Isha, already trusting him too much.
Adriel, letting both of them orbit him without complaint.
Of course, Vi thought bitterly.
Of course he came back even more impossible than before. More powerful. More handsome. More annoyingly calm. More Adriel.
His charisma was still above the clouds.
Maybe worse now.
And Vi had to tolerate the three of them talking the whole walk down to Zaun like the world wasn't about to do what it always did.
Break something.
Eventually, the road carried them deeper.
Piltover's cleaner edges faded behind them, replaced by the rougher bones of Zaun—metal stairs, stained stone, rusted beams, old pipes sweating chemical condensation into the cracks below. The air shifted too, growing heavier with every step, thick with damp and smoke and the kind of industrial rot that never truly left the Undercity's lungs.
They descended a few flights of stairs until the path narrowed.
At the bottom, tucked into a shadowed stretch of stone, was an old mine entrance.
Blocked off.
Wooden planks had been nailed across it in a careless pattern, more warning than real barricade. The boards were old, scratched, and warped from moisture. A few had graffiti on them. A few looked like they'd already been pried up once and shoved back into place by someone too tired to care.
Vi stopped at the top of the last few steps, eyes narrowing.
Jinx, Isha, and Adriel moved ahead.
"Well," Jinx said, tilting her head at the boards. "That's inviting."
Adriel stepped close, studied the nails for half a second, then lifted one hand.
A faint pull rippled through the air.
The nails jerked free all at once, snapping out of the wood with sharp metallic pops. They floated for a breath, suspended in front of his palm, before dropping neatly into a little pile at his feet.
The planks sagged loose.
Jinx blinked, then looked at him. "Show-off."
Adriel shrugged. "Efficient."
"Still show-offy."
She grabbed the loosened boards and dragged them aside, one after another, tossing them against the wall with a clatter. Isha helped with the smaller pieces, moving fast and quiet, glancing at Adriel every few seconds like she still hadn't decided whether he was a person or a miracle with legs.
Vi didn't come down right away.
Her gaze had caught on something painted across the wall beside the entrance.
Graffiti.
Large. Bright. Loud.
Jinx.
Not as a criminal. Not as a warning. Not as a monster.
As a symbol.
The painting showed her with one hand pressed against her chest and the other raised toward the sky, her face turned upward like some kind of prophet. Around her, the strokes twisted into smoke, sparks, and reaching hands. Hope and chaos tangled together until it was hard to tell the difference.
A savior.
A rebellion.
Zaun's answer to Piltover.
Vi stared at it and felt something sour twist in her stomach.
She didn't know what to feel.
Anger was easiest. Anger always showed up first.
But underneath that was something else. Something closer to grief.
Because Powder had wanted to be seen once.
Now the whole Undercity was looking.
When Vi finally turned, the other three were watching her.
Jinx didn't look proud, exactly. More indifferent. Like she had never asked people to make her into anything. Like the whole prophet thing was just another weird joke the world had decided to tell with her face.
Adriel's expression, though, was different.
He looked at the mural like he understood the weight of it.
The worship. The expectation. The way people could look at you and stop seeing the person underneath.
Vi thought of the Spider-Man memorial in Piltover. The flowers. The notes. The clean stone kept polished by strangers who loved someone they didn't actually know.
They loved Spider-Man.
Not Adriel.
And somehow, Vi suspected he preferred it that way.
"Coming?" Jinx called.
Vi looked away from the mural and descended the last steps. "Yeah."
Jinx moved the final plank aside, and the four of them entered the mine.
Darkness swallowed them almost immediately.
The light from outside thinned behind their backs, leaving only the faint outlines of stone, old tracks, and support beams fading into black. Adriel lifted his hand, already preparing to make a small flame.
Jinx beat him to it.
She clapped.
The sound cracked through the tunnel and echoed forward.
A second later, the walls answered.
Tiny mushrooms clinging to stone and timber began to glow—first in little pulses, then brighter, one patch after another lighting the path like stars waking underground. Blue-green light spilled across the tunnel, soft and eerie, turning the damp walls into something almost beautiful.
Adriel lowered his hand slowly.
"Huh," he said. "Okay. That's cool."
Jinx's grin returned. "Right?"
Isha clapped next.
The glow pulsed brighter.
She took the lead after that, clapping in a steady rhythm as they walked, each sound waking more light farther down the tunnel. The mushrooms reacted like they were listening, their glow swelling and fading with the echoes.
Adriel watched them with genuine interest. "What are they?"
Jinx walked backward for a few steps, clearly pleased to know something he didn't. "Mushrooms."
Adriel gave her a look. "Wow. Thank you, professor."
She stuck out her tongue. "Don't get smart with me, Mr. Came-Back-From-The-Dead."
He glanced at the walls again. "Are they safe?"
"Totally."
"You sound very sure."
"I am very sure."
To prove her point, Jinx pried one off the wall and popped it into her mouth.
Adriel, Vi, and Isha all stopped at once.
Jinx chewed.
Her face changed instantly.
Pure disgust.
Her eyes widened. Her nose wrinkled. Her whole body stiffened like her soul tried to leave through the nearest exit.
Adriel stared at her. "Still sure?"
Jinx held up one finger like she needed a moment.
Then she spat the mushroom out onto the ground.
Isha made a face of absolute betrayal. Adriel wore almost the exact same expression.
Jinx wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Okay. Not toxic."
Adriel facepalmed. "That is not how that works."
"Didn't die."
"Again. Not how that works."
Vi passed them with a tired scoff. "You two done?"
Jinx's smile faded a little as the tunnel stretched ahead.
Adriel noticed.
His voice softened. "This is where you last saw Vander?"
Jinx nodded.
The playfulness drained from her shoulders. "Yeah. Here. Or... around here." She looked deeper into the tunnel, jaw tightening. "I lost him down here."
Vi's steps slowed.
Jinx kept going, but her voice became smaller. "I didn't know who else to bring. Didn't know who'd believe me."
Her eyes flicked toward Adriel.
Then, for just a second, something like relief crossed her face.
"But then you were there."
Adriel didn't make a joke. "Good timing."
Jinx huffed faintly. "Stupidly good timing."
Behind them, Vi looked more exhausted with every step. She had tolerated the entire walk down—Jinx and Adriel catching up, Isha silently orbiting them, the three of them acting like some weird little unit Vi had been dropped into without warning.
And now this.
An abandoned mine. Glowing mushrooms. Jinx claiming Vander was alive.
Vi couldn't keep her mouth shut.
"Why the hell would Vander be down here?" she asked. "In an abandoned mine?"
Jinx didn't look back. "Don't know. Ask him when we find him."
Vi's expression tightened. "That supposed to be funny?"
"No," Jinx said. "It's supposed to be an answer."
Vi let out a bitter laugh. "Right. Sure. Because this is normal."
Adriel's eyes shifted toward her, warning already forming in them.
Vi ignored it.
"So when are you gonna admit this is another one of your delusions?" she asked, voice sharp. "Or are we pretending you're not saying that in front of the kid?"
Jinx stopped walking.
Isha's clapping faltered, and the tunnel dimmed slightly.
Jinx didn't turn around right away. When she did, her face had changed. Not explosive yet. Colder.
"You didn't used to be this angry all the time," Jinx said.
Vi scoffed. "You didn't used to be this crazy."
Jinx's lips twitched without humor. "You used to be cool. Before I kicked my ass."
Vi's jaw tightened. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that. You were trying to kill Caitlyn."
"You were trying to kill me."
Vi stepped closer. "Don't act like you're innocent."
Adriel felt his patience start to splinter.
Not crack.
Splinter.
There were few things that exhausted him faster than people using pain as permission to be cruel. And Vi had been doing it all morning—throwing punches with words because she didn't know what else to do with her anger.
He opened his mouth.
Jinx beat him to it.
"I wish I was seeing things," she said, voice suddenly raw. "Really. Would make my life way easier."
Vi's eyes narrowed.
"But I'm not," Jinx continued. "I'm not making Vander up. I'm not making this up." Her mouth curled. "You know what I did see, though? You hanging around with the same people who murdered Mom and Dad."
Vi froze.
The tunnel went colder.
Jinx tilted her head. "Now that was a sight."
Vi's face twisted. "At least they didn't get to see what kind of psycho their daughter turned into."
Jinx's expression sharpened instantly.
"Which one?"
The words hit like a blade.
Vi flinched before she could hide it.
Jinx stepped forward, eyes glowing faintly in the mushroom light. "Because while you were busy drowning in a mug and getting your face smashed in pits, I busted half of Zaun out of Stillwater."
Vi's nostrils flared.
Jinx pointed at herself, bitter and proud and hurt all at once. "They look at me like I'm something now. Like I matter. Like I did something right for once."
Vi barked a laugh. "You think that makes you a hero?"
Jinx's eyes flicked briefly to Adriel. "Zaun seems to think so."
Vi's gaze hardened. "You're not Spider-Man."
Adriel's face went still.
Jinx smiled without warmth. "No. But apparently I'm what they got."
Vi stepped closer. "Without your gadgets, you wouldn't last five seconds."
Jinx looked down at Vi's gauntlets, then back up, unimpressed. "Funny coming from someone wearing oversized mittens she didn't even build."
That one landed.
Vi's shoulders tensed.
The Hextech gauntlets hummed.
Isha shrank back a little, fear creeping into her eyes. She looked to Jinx first. Then Vi.
Then Adriel.
And for the first time since meeting him, Isha looked scared of him too.
Because Adriel's face had changed.
The softness was gone. The patience was gone. The tired charm, the little teasing edge, all of it disappeared under an expression of pure, unfiltered annoyance.
Not rage.
Worse.
A person who was absolutely done hearing the same pain weaponized over and over again.
Vi's gauntlets hit the tunnel floor with a heavy metallic thud.
A challenge.
A stupid one.
"I don't need them," Vi said, flexing her bare hands. "Not to beat your ass."
Jinx's grin widened, but her eyes were too bright. "Try it."
Neither of them saw Adriel move.
One second he was behind them.
The next he was between them.
His back faced Jinx. His eyes were locked on Vi.
The tunnel seemed smaller with him there.
"What the actual fuck do you think you're doing?" Adriel asked.
Vi glared up at him. "Get out of my way."
Adriel scoffed right in her face.
"Oh yeah?" he said. "And how exactly are you planning to move me?"
Vi's fists clenched.
Adriel leaned down slightly, voice dropping into something calm enough to be dangerous. "Calm yourself before I flick your forehead and put you on the ground."
Vi's eyes widened with fury.
He didn't stop.
"And don't test me, Vi. I mean one finger. That's it. One little tap, and you're spending the rest of this conversation with a concussion because apparently that's the only way either of you is going to shut up long enough to remember why we're here."
Jinx went quiet behind him.
Even Isha stopped breathing too loudly.
Adriel's gaze cut from Vi to Jinx, then back again.
"I am tired," he said, each word controlled. "I am tired of arguments. I am tired of trauma being used like a competition. I am tired of every conversation turning into who hurt who worse. Vander is suffering somewhere in this mine, and you two are standing here trying to speedrun another family disaster."
Vi's jaw worked.
Adriel pointed toward the tunnel ahead.
"So for my sanity, for your sanity, and for whatever is left of Vander, we are going to keep walking. Nobody swings. Nobody shoots. Nobody makes another comment about dead parents, dead friends, exes, gadgets, or who's crazier."
His eyes narrowed.
"Understood?"
Vi looked like she wanted to spit in his face.
Jinx, for once, took the easier route.
She turned away first.
"Yeah," she muttered. "Fine."
She moved toward Isha, who immediately hurried ahead and started clapping again, slower this time. The mushrooms lit in nervous pulses along the walls.
Adriel kept his eyes on Vi.
His expression returned to neutrality so fast it was almost more unsettling than the anger.
"Pick up your gauntlets," he said. "Let's move."
Vi's lower lip caught between her teeth in frustration.
She wanted to argue. She wanted to swing. She wanted to say something that would cut deep enough to make him regret stepping between them.
But what the hell was she supposed to do?
Against him?
Exactly.
Nothing.
With a sharp breath, Vi crouched, grabbed her gauntlets, and locked them back onto her arms.
Then she followed.
Behind Jinx. Behind Isha.
Behind Adriel, who kept walking like the argument hadn't happened.
Like he hadn't just shut both sisters down with one look.
The tunnel glowed ahead of them, beautiful and sickly, leading them deeper into the dark.
Before they could continue deeper into the tunnel, Adriel slowed.
At first, none of them noticed.
Jinx, Vi, and Isha kept moving ahead beneath the soft glow of the mushrooms, their footsteps echoing through the old mine. Jinx was still tense from the argument, Vi still fuming in silence, and Isha stayed close to Jinx like a shadow with small hands and sharper instincts than most adults gave her credit for.
Adriel, however, looked down to his side.
There, smeared against the wall, was a handprint.
Bloodied.
Fresh.
His expression went still.
The print dragged slightly at the edges, like whoever had left it there had been stumbling, crawling, or trying to keep themselves upright. The blood hadn't fully dried yet. It glistened faintly in the mushroom light.
A few possibilities crossed Adriel's mind.
None of them were good.
He'd been expecting something since the moment he entered Piltover. An ambush. A trap. A hidden attack. Anything. But so far, nothing had happened. No sudden enemy. No attempt to stop him. No direct move from Anansi.
And that worried him more than an attack would have.
Whatever the hell Anansi was planning, he was taking his sweet time.
That meant one of two things.
Either he wasn't ready yet...
Or Adriel was already late.
His jaw tightened.
"Adriel?"
Jinx's voice snapped him out of the thought.
He looked up.
She stood a few steps ahead, staring back at him with narrowed eyes. Vi glanced over her shoulder too, impatient but suspicious. Isha only watched quietly.
Adriel gave them a small shake of his head. "Nothing. Keep moving."
Vi didn't look convinced. "That's comforting."
Adriel ignored the jab and followed.
A few more minutes passed.
The signs became harder to miss.
Deep gashes carved through old wooden supports. Scratches across stone that looked too wide and too uneven to belong to tools. Heavy footprints pressed into the dust and grime of the tunnel floor—too large, too deep, too wrong.
Something had passed through here.
Something big.
Something angry.
Eventually, they reached an old office built into the side of the mine. The door was still standing, technically, but a deep slash had torn across it from corner to corner.
It was locked.
Or it had been.
Adriel stepped forward and pressed one finger against the wood.
The door gave out instantly.
It didn't burst. It didn't splinter dramatically. It simply collapsed inward like it had been waiting for permission to stop existing.
Vi stared at it.
Jinx looked at him. "Subtle."
"I tapped it," Adriel said.
"You murdered it."
"I tapped it."
"Door's dead."
Adriel didn't answer.
Inside, the room was old and stale, covered in dust, fungus, and the kind of quiet that made every breath feel too loud. It looked like an office someone had abandoned in the middle of a thought. Papers. Broken drawers. Old tools. A desk left crooked in the corner. Clothing hung to one side. A pile of gauntlets rested nearby, covered in grime and time.
Isha slipped in first, heading toward a hanging lamp.
With practiced ease, she pulled out a lighter and sparked it.
The flame caught.
Warm light spread through the room, cutting through the cold glow from the tunnel and revealing everything more clearly.
Jinx entered after her, eyes scanning.
Vi followed slowly, gauntlets humming at her sides.
Adriel stayed near the doorway.
He didn't step fully inside.
He already knew what this room was meant to do. What it was supposed to uncover. What memory it was supposed to press on. He let the three of them inspect it without him hovering over their shoulders.
For now, he waited.
Jinx drifted toward the clothes hanging on the wall.
A jacket.
Her fingers brushed the fabric, and she stopped.
Inside it was a symbol.
A V.
And just below it, an S.
Jinx stared at the letters for a long moment.
"Vander," she murmured.
Her thumb passed over the lower mark.
"Silco."
Her voice changed around the second name. Not softer exactly. More careful. More tangled.
A wave of nostalgia seemed to pass through her body, dragging her somewhere Adriel couldn't fully reach. Silco had taken care of her after Vi disappeared from her life. Raised her. Twisted her, maybe. Loved her, definitely, in the broken way broken people knew how.
Jinx grabbed a small piece of the fabric and lifted it close.
Then she smelled it.
Adriel's brows lifted slightly.
He looked away.
Not judging. Not exactly.
Just... choosing not to comment.
On the other side of the room, Vi's gauntlets hit the floor with a heavy metallic thud.
She had spotted something on the desk.
A paper.
Dusty. Pinned beneath a glass cup.
Her hand hovered over it for a second, hesitant in a way Vi rarely allowed herself to look. Then she moved the cup aside and picked up the note.
Her eyes flicked over the words.
The room went quieter.
Jinx turned toward her. "What is it?"
Vi didn't answer immediately.
Then, rougher than before, she said, "A note."
Jinx's eyes sharpened. "From who?"
Vi swallowed. "Vander."
Jinx took one step closer.
Vi looked at her, then held the paper out.
"For Silco."
Jinx snatched it fast—too fast—then moved to the single chair in the office and sat down like her legs didn't fully trust themselves anymore.
She started to read.
Adriel tuned it out.
Not because it didn't matter.
Because he already knew the note mattered to them.
For him, something else was louder.
His Spider-Sense wasn't screaming yet.
But it was tingling.
That low, crawling warning at the base of his skull. Not immediate danger. Not a blade at his throat.
Future danger.
Something approaching.
Something inevitable.
His gaze drifted back toward the tunnel. Toward the dark beyond the office. Toward the bloodied handprint still sitting in his mind like a bad omen.
He thought about Vander.
The beast he had become.
The thing this story had done to him.
Then he thought about the blood.
And the gashes.
And the way the Darks loved themes.
Adriel bit the inside of his cheek.
A bloody handprint could mean many things.
But if the enemy was playing on theme—if something had been invited into this already broken place—then one name came to mind.
The Hand.
Which version, he didn't know.
How strong, he didn't know.
And that uncertainty made the warning behind his skull sharpen.
Inside the office, Jinx finished reading.
Her expression had shifted. Conflicted. Hurt. Nostalgic in a way that looked like it physically pained her.
Vi saw it.
For a second, she looked like she might say something. Might comfort her. Might bridge the gap with one careful word.
Instead, Vi looked away and reached for her gauntlets.
Not a word left her mouth.
The three of them started moving toward the exit.
Adriel's thoughts accelerated.
He watched them approach—Jinx still holding the note, Isha close to her side, Vi putting her gauntlets back on like armor could protect her from emotion.
His leg tapped once.
Then again.
His Spider-Sense blared.
Not loud enough to mean now.
Loud enough to mean soon.
Adriel made his decision.
The moment the three of them stepped near the doorway, metal and bedrock surged from the sides of the tunnel.
The entrance sealed shut in front of them.
Vi reacted instantly. "What the—"
Jinx jumped back. "Adriel?"
The barrier formed fast—layers of stone, rusted metal, and reinforced debris locking together into a thick wall. Adriel left one narrow opening near the center, just large enough for them to see him through.
Vi slammed a gauntlet against the stone.
Nothing happened.
Then she tried again.
The gauntlet sparked weakly, power stuttering.
Vi looked down at it. "What did you do?"
Adriel didn't flinch. "Disabled them."
Her head snapped up. "You what?"
"Temporarily." His voice stayed calm, but his eyes didn't. "Those were made for mining. If I left them working, you'd eventually break through."
Jinx gripped the edge of the opening, eyes wide. "Adriel, what the hell are you doing?"
"Something's coming," he said.
Vi's face twisted with fury. "Then let us out."
"No."
Jinx shook her head, panic creeping in. "No, no, don't do that. Don't pull the dramatic hero crap. We just got you back."
Adriel's expression softened for half a second.
Then hardened again.
"The enemy coming here isn't one you can fight," he said. "And I can't risk any of you getting hurt."
Vi barked a laugh, sharp and angry. "You can't risk us? Are you serious?"
"Yes," Adriel said. "I am."
Jinx pressed closer to the opening. "Let us help."
"You can't."
"You don't know that."
"I do."
The certainty in his voice made her flinch.
Vi slammed her fist against the sealed entrance again, this time with her bare hand. "Open it."
Adriel looked at her. "No."
"Open the damn wall, Adriel!"
"I said no."
Jinx's voice cracked. "Please."
That one almost got him.
Almost.
He stepped closer to the opening, close enough that they could see the worry in his eyes.
"I'll come back," he said. "I promise."
Vi's anger faltered for half a heartbeat.
Jinx looked terrified.
Adriel hated that.
"I don't know exactly what's coming," he continued, quieter now. "That's the problem. Whoever sent it is being careful. Maybe they sent something strong enough to stall me. Maybe something clever. Maybe both. But I am not letting you three become leverage."
Vi's jaw clenched.
Jinx whispered, "Adriel..."
He took a breath.
"I'll be back," he repeated. "Hold on."
Then the cave shook.
Not physically at first.
Reality shook.
A surge of dark pressure flooded through the mine like a pulse from a dead heart. The mushrooms dimmed. The air thickened. The walls groaned.
Adriel staggered.
His knees hit the ground.
"Adriel!" Jinx screamed.
Vi grabbed the opening with both hands. "What happened?"
Adriel's System flashed in front of his vision.
Warning after warning.
His eyes scanned the information, and the moment he understood, rage cut through his expression.
"Fuck," he hissed. Then louder, furious, "Damn it! They used that?"
A dark field had wrapped around the entire cave.
Not a normal barrier.
An item-based suppression field.
Unknown origin. Unknown exact parameters.
His abilities were being restricted. Not all of them. Not fully. But enough for him to feel it—like invisible chains tightening around parts of his body and soul. Some abilities blocked. Others weakened. His output lowered by an unknown amount.
He hadn't dealt with something like this since Mr. Negative.
And even then, this felt different.
Weaker, maybe.
But still dangerous.
Adriel forced himself back to one knee, breathing through the pressure.
Vi and Jinx kept yelling through the opening.
"What the fuck is going on?" Vi demanded.
"Are you okay?" Jinx asked, voice far more scared than she wanted it to sound.
Adriel stood slowly.
He didn't look convincing. He knew that.
But he turned his head just enough to meet their eyes.
"I'll handle it."
Jinx shook her head immediately. "No."
"I'll handle it," he repeated, firmer this time.
Vi looked like she wanted to break the wall with her teeth.
Adriel gave them one last look.
Then he turned away from the sealed office and walked deeper into the tunnel.
Behind him, Jinx and Vi screamed his name.
He didn't look back.
Because if he did, he might hesitate.
And he couldn't afford that.
Not now.
Ten seconds.
That was all it took.
The tunnel ahead darkened first—not because the mushrooms stopped glowing, but because something moved through the black so densely it swallowed the light.
Then came the sound.
Footsteps.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
The soft glow of the cave mushrooms pulsed violently with every impact, flickering in waves down the cavern walls until the whole tunnel strobed with sickly blue-green light.
Adriel looked forward.
Then behind him.
The path they'd taken was filling too.
Ninjas.
The Hand.
They poured into both ends of the tunnel like shadows given blades, their dark uniforms blending into the cavern until only the glints of steel and the rhythm of their movement gave them away.
Adriel's eyes narrowed.
"Of course," he muttered. "Ninjas."
The first wave didn't give him time to be annoyed.
A flurry of shurikens ripped through the air.
His Toxin symbiote reacted before he even fully raised his arm, red mass crawling over his forearm and hardening into a layered shield. Metal screamed against the surface as each star struck and bounced away, some snapping in half, others embedding into stone behind him.
Adriel barely shifted his stance.
His gaze swept the tunnel.
Roughly a hundred ahead.
More behind.
And he was nerfed.
He clicked his tongue.
"Alright," he said under his breath. "Let's make this quick."
The closest ninja lunged first.
Adriel moved like a fired bullet.
Bioelectricity cracked around his legs, and a lateral burst launched him forward so fast the mushrooms along the wall flared from the pressure wave. His knee drove straight into the ninja's face.
The impact didn't just break bone.
It collapsed the man's skull inward.
The body snapped backward and hit the floor without a sound except the wet drop of blood against stone.
The Hand reacted instantly.
Blades came out.
Swords. Short spears. Sickles. Spiked chains. Nunchucks wrapped in metal studs.
They surrounded him in a tight ring, disciplined and fast.
Adriel didn't look impressed.
The symbiote crawled over him like living armor, sealing into a sleek red shell over his body. His shoulders rolled once.
Then the first sword came for his neck.
Adriel raised one hand.
The blade struck his palm and shattered.
Before the ninja could react, Adriel stepped inside his range and drove an uppercut beneath his chin.
The punch lifted the man off his feet.
His head tore free from his neck in a red burst, blood spraying upward and splashing across the cave ceiling like someone had opened a valve.
Adriel was already moving.
A second ninja whipped spiked nunchucks toward his temple.
Adriel leaned back just enough for the first strike to tear past his nose, then slipped left as the second came around. The chain whistled by his ear. He ducked under the third swing, dropped low, and his right arm reshaped into a red blade.
One clean cut.
Both legs came off below the knee.
The ninja hit the ground screaming, body folding where his legs used to be.
Adriel didn't finish him immediately.
Because someone tried to flank him.
The mace came down toward the back of his skull.
Adriel vanished.
Not with teleportation.
Speed. Deception. A solid afterimage left behind just long enough for the attacker to believe he'd landed the hit.
The mace passed through the decoy and slammed into the crawling ninja instead.
The screaming stopped under the crunch of his skull.
The attacker froze for a fraction of a second.
Adriel reappeared at his side.
Electricity coiled around his fist.
He drove the punch into the ninja's ribs.
The body split around the impact, torso folding inward before tearing in half from the force. Blood and broken bone sprayed across the cavern wall, staining the glowing mushrooms until their light bled red.
More came.
Adriel met them head-on.
The first tried to stab low. Adriel caught the wrist, twisted until the elbow snapped backward, then dragged the man into a short elbow that caved in his cheekbone. The second tried to cut across his back. The symbiote rose in jagged spikes, catching the blade and ripping it from the attacker's grip before Adriel's arm whipped back and pierced through the man's chest.
A third jumped from the wall.
Adriel turned, grabbed him by the ankle midair, and slammed him into the ground hard enough to crack the stone. Before the body could bounce, Adriel's heel came down on the chest and flattened it with a wet crunch.
The tunnel became a storm of steel and blood.
Adriel's arms stretched and reshaped with every movement—blades, hooks, tendrils, shields. He cut through the mob with brutal efficiency. A slash took three hands at once. A backhand snapped a neck so hard the body spun before dropping. A tendril shot from his shoulder, skewered a ninja through the stomach, and yanked him into a punch that burst his spine against the wall.
The Hand kept coming.
They were trained not to fear death.
But training only went so far when death started wearing a red suit and walking through them like weather.
From behind the sealed office, Vi and Jinx could hear everything.
Steel breaking.
Bodies hitting stone.
Men screaming.
Something wet splattering too close to the wall.
Jinx gripped the small opening Adriel had left, eyes wide, unable to see enough but hearing far too much.
"What is happening out there?" she shouted.
Vi slammed her shoulder into the sealed entrance, her gauntlets still useless. "Adriel! Open this damn thing!"
No answer.
Only another scream.
Then silence.
Then more footsteps.
Then more bodies.
Adriel drove his knee into a ninja's ribs, folding him over, then brought both fists down onto the back of his neck. The spine snapped. He turned with the momentum, caught a sword slash against his forearm, and let the blade scrape uselessly across the symbiote before his hand clamped over the attacker's face.
The wall-crawling adhesion in his palm activated.
He pulled.
Skin peeled.
The ninja's scream turned into a choking gurgle as Adriel ripped him forward and slammed him into another attacker, sending both bodies crashing into the stone.
A spear thrust toward his stomach.
Adriel shifted sideways, trapping the weapon beneath his arm, then yanked the wielder into range. His forehead smashed into the ninja's nose, collapsing it. A red blade extended from Adriel's other hand and punched through the man's throat.
He pulled free.
Blood steamed faintly in the cool cave air.
The last handful of ninjas hesitated.
Ten remained.
They stood among the ruin of their own ambush, surrounded by corpses, severed limbs, broken weapons, and organs slick across the stone floor.
They had used a suppression field.
They had nerfed him.
They had locked away most of his abilities.
And still, he was standing there.
Breathing steady.
Barely winded.
The last ten knew there was no escape.
So they chose to fight.
One of them threw a chain.
The bladed end whipped past Adriel's head, missing on purpose. His senses flared, and he tilted slightly as the chain bent unnaturally behind him, curving back toward his neck.
Adriel caught the blade between two fingers.
The sharp edge bit into the symbiote and stopped.
He looked at the ninja holding the chain.
"Cute."
Then he pulled.
The ninja flew toward him, dragged off his feet with a startled grunt. Adriel's arm reshaped into a spike, and the man impaled himself face-first onto it. The blade punched through his mouth and out the back of his skull.
Adriel tore him free and hurled the body into the others.
Four went down under the corpse.
Adriel raised one hand.
Bioelectricity gathered in his palm, crackling brighter and brighter until the cave lit up white-blue. The mushrooms recoiled from the surge, their glow drowned under raw voltage.
The remaining ninjas tried to scatter.
Too late.
Adriel pointed down the hall.
The blast tore forward.
A ball of compressed electricity expanded into a violent beam, filling the entire corridor from wall to wall. It swallowed the ninjas whole. Their bodies locked in place for half a second, silhouettes flashing inside the light.
Then they burned.
Armor, flesh, bone—everything vanished in the roar.
When the energy died, only smoke remained.
Almost.
One ninja still crawled.
Half his body was ruined. His legs didn't work. One arm dragged him forward inch by inch, leaving a red trail behind him. His breath came in ragged, panicked bursts.
Adriel walked toward him casually.
The ninja tried to crawl faster.
Adriel placed one hand against his back.
His palm stuck.
The man froze.
Adriel pulled backward.
Skin came first.
Then muscle.
Then the wet crack of bone separating under impossible force.
The ninja's back tore open as Adriel peeled him apart, exposing the spine and the lower portion of his skull. The body spasmed once.
Adriel lifted his foot and brought it down.
The skull burst beneath his heel.
Silence returned.
The cave was no longer a tunnel.
It was a slaughterhouse.
Bodies littered the floor. Blood dripped from the ceiling in slow, uneven drops. Shattered blades gleamed among severed limbs. The glowing mushrooms pulsed faintly under layers of red, their light dimmer now, as if even they were tired of witnessing this.
Adriel looked around.
Then he cringed.
"Gross."
He glanced down at his hands.
The Toxin symbiote slowly drank the blood off his fingers, crawling over itself until the red surface looked clean again.
He flexed.
Most of his abilities were still locked.
He could feel the absence like missing limbs. No full arsenal. No easy reality-warping solutions. No casual overpowered nonsense.
What remained was enough.
Spider abilities.
Bioelectricity.
Toxin.
His body.
His martial arts.
Adriel clicked his tongue.
"Could be worse."
He turned, ready to go back and free Vi, Jinx, and Isha—
Then stopped.
A presence entered the cave.
Different.
Heavy.
Strong.
Adriel's eyes shifted.
Behind him, only corpses.
To the sides, stone.
Ahead—
Footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Metal touched rock with each step.
The dark at the end of the tunnel moved.
A figure emerged through the glow of the mushrooms.
Red samurai armor. Devil-like horns curving from the helmet. Batons gripped in both hands. Dark aura crawling off him like smoke, red flames coiling around his body in a second skin.
Adriel froze for half a second.
Not from fear.
Recognition.
There were heroes he admired.
Spider-Man had always been first.
But second?
Daredevil.
And now the Devil of Hell's Kitchen stood in front of him, twisted into something darker. A version that looked painfully close to the one from Marvel Rivals, only warped by corruption and wearing the Hand's shadow like a crown.
Adriel slowly looked around at the carnage.
Then back at him.
"Do you like what I did to the place?" he asked.
A sarcastic joke.
A weak attempt at breaking the ice.
Because he already knew they were going to fight.
Daredevil didn't react.
The red flames around him curled tighter.
"The Hand failed."
His voice was low. Calm. Unimpressed.
"I should have expected it. Even with your abilities suppressed, you are still a Guardian."
Adriel rolled his shoulders. Electricity flickered faintly around his fists.
"Yeah. We're kind of annoying like that."
Daredevil stepped forward, batons hanging loose in his hands.
"I underestimated you."
Adriel's smirk sharpened behind the mask.
"I will not make that mistake again."
The air between them thickened.
Behind the sealed office wall, Vi and Jinx had gone quiet.
They could hear the new voice.
They could feel the pressure in the cave change.
Adriel lowered into a stance, fists raised, electricity crawling over his knuckles.
"Alright then," he said. "Let's throw hands."
Daredevil raised his batons.
For two seconds, neither moved.
Then they vanished.
Their fists collided at the center of the tunnel.
The impact detonated through the cave.
A shockwave ripped outward, slamming into stone, shaking dust from the ceiling, and making the sealed office tremble hard enough that Jinx screamed.
"What the hell was that?!"
Vi grabbed the opening, trying to see. "Adriel!"
Adriel and Daredevil strained against each other, fist against baton, power pressing into power. The cave groaned around them.
Then the pressure between them couldn't hold.
It exploded.
Both were thrown back.
Neither fell.
Their feet carved trenches through the stone as they slid, stopping at opposite sides of the cavern.
Adriel lifted his head.
Daredevil did the same.
For one breath, the cave went still.
Then both became blurs again.
They collided halfway down the tunnel.
Adriel came in low, fist snapping toward Daredevil's ribs with electricity crawling over his knuckles. Daredevil twisted around the strike like he heard it before it existed, one baton catching Adriel's wrist and redirecting it into the wall.
Stone cracked.
Adriel planted his foot, turned with the redirected momentum, and drove his other elbow back toward Daredevil's jaw.
Daredevil ducked under it.
The horned helmet skimmed beneath Adriel's arm, and one baton hammered into the inside of Adriel's thigh. The strike was sharp. Precise. Not meant to break him—meant to take his balance.
Adriel barely shifted.
The symbiote hardened around his leg, absorbing most of it.
"Cute," Adriel muttered.
He snapped his knee upward.
Daredevil leaned back just enough for the knee to graze the front of his armor, then answered with two brutal baton strikes—one to Adriel's shoulder, one to the side of his head.
Adriel's head jerked slightly.
The second baton sparked against the Toxin mask.
Adriel caught Daredevil's wrist before the third strike could land and squeezed.
Metal groaned.
Daredevil's fingers tightened around the baton instead of releasing it. His other hand came up fast, the second baton cracking into Adriel's forearm, not to hurt him, but to hit the nerve beneath the armor.
Adriel's fingers twitched.
That was enough.
Daredevil ripped himself free, dropped low, and swept Adriel's ankle.
Adriel jumped over the sweep, stuck one hand to the cavern ceiling with his wall-crawling, and twisted his body midair. His leg whipped down like an axe, heel aimed for Daredevil's collarbone.
Daredevil crossed both batons above his head.
The impact forced him down to one knee.
The ground cracked beneath him.
For a fraction of a second, Adriel pressed down harder, hanging upside down from the ceiling, electricity crawling across his foot.
Daredevil's head lifted.
Through the red visor, Adriel could feel him listening.
Not seeing.
Listening.
The heartbeat. The muscle tension. The tiny shift of symbiote fiber across Adriel's skin.
Daredevil shoved upward with both batons, throwing Adriel's leg off-line, then spun beneath him and drove one baton into the ceiling where Adriel's hand had stuck.
The stone shattered.
Adriel dropped.
Daredevil was already there.
He hit Adriel before his feet touched the ground—three strikes in a blur. Rib. Throat. Temple.
Adriel blocked the fourth with his forearm, shoved it aside, and answered with a straight punch that would've caved in a normal man's chest.
Daredevil leaned just enough for it to miss by a breath.
The punch tore through the air beside his head and blew dust off the wall behind him.
Daredevil stepped in close, shoulder brushing Adriel's chest, and drove his knee into Adriel's stomach.
The symbiote rippled.
Adriel didn't fold.
Instead, he grabbed Daredevil by the shoulder and slammed him into the cavern wall.
Stone burst around the impact.
Daredevil grunted, but before Adriel could pin him, his legs wrapped around Adriel's arm. He twisted his hips, dragging Adriel's balance sideways, then used the wall itself to kick off and roll free.
Adriel turned.
Daredevil's baton came flying at his face.
Adriel caught it.
The second baton came from below, hidden in the shadow of the first strike, and cracked against Adriel's jaw.
His head snapped sideways.
For a second, the cave went quiet.
Then Adriel slowly looked back.
"Oh," he said. "You're good."
Daredevil's red aura curled tighter around him.
"You admire this body."
Adriel's eyes narrowed.
Daredevil tilted his head slightly, like he could hear the shift in Adriel's pulse.
"The hesitation. The recognition. The disappointment."
Adriel rolled his jaw once. "Don't flatter yourself. I'm disappointed a lot."
He lunged again.
This time he didn't swing first.
He feinted with his right shoulder, watched Daredevil react, then shifted low and drove his fist into the ground between them.
Electricity exploded through the stone.
The shock crawled across the floor in jagged veins, lighting up the tunnel.
Daredevil jumped, twisting sideways, but Adriel was already moving beneath him. A black tendril shot from Adriel's arm, wrapped around Daredevil's ankle, and yanked him down.
Daredevil hit the ground hard.
Adriel stepped in to finish the exchange—
And Daredevil threw one baton straight into his face.
Adriel tilted aside.
The baton missed.
Then it curved back.
A thin line—almost invisible in the dark—snapped taut behind it.
The baton whipped around Adriel's neck.
Daredevil pulled.
Adriel staggered forward half a step, not because the line could choke him, but because the timing was perfect.
Daredevil rose into him with a vicious upward kick to the chest.
Adriel slid back.
Daredevil followed, relentless now, baton and fist and knee moving in a chain so clean it looked rehearsed by violence itself. He struck the same points again and again—not trying to overpower the symbiote, but irritate it. Dig beneath it. Make it react.
Adriel blocked one baton.
The second hit his ribs.
He caught Daredevil's elbow.
Daredevil headbutted him.
The horned helmet slammed into Adriel's mask with a crack of sound that shook loose dust from above.
Adriel snarled and shoved him off.
Daredevil landed smoothly, dragging his batons along the stone floor until sparks curled behind them.
"You are slower than you should be."
Adriel breathed out. "Suppression field."
"Excuses."
Adriel's fist tightened.
Daredevil heard it.
The faint creak of knuckles beneath symbiote armor.
"There it is."
Adriel didn't like the way he said that.
Daredevil stepped forward, calm and cruel.
"Anger. Shame. Guilt. You bury them under jokes. Under apologies. Under the illusion that if you save enough people, the dead will stop calling your name."
Adriel's shoulders stiffened.
Behind the sealed office wall, Vi and Jinx went silent.
They couldn't see the fight.
But they could hear every word.
Daredevil continued, circling him slowly.
"You left them behind. Then you returned and expected forgiveness because you suffered elsewhere."
Adriel's voice came low. "Careful."
"Why? Because it is true?"
Adriel attacked.
Fast.
Too fast for the mushrooms to track.
His fist came for Daredevil's jaw with enough force to turn bone into dust. Daredevil slipped inside the punch and slammed both batons into Adriel's exposed side, one after another, each blow carrying dark fire that seeped through the symbiote like poison.
Adriel hissed.
Daredevil didn't let up.
A baton struck the back of Adriel's knee. Another hit his wrist. Then his throat. Then his temple again.
Not random.
Every strike was placed where Adriel's body had already moved. Where his anger would make him overcommit. Where Toxin would harden too late.
Adriel swung wide.
Daredevil ducked.
The baton cracked under Adriel's arm, into the ribs.
Adriel tried to grab him.
Daredevil rolled around his side and drove an elbow into the back of his neck.
Adriel stumbled.
Just one step.
But it was enough to make Daredevil press harder.
The Devil of Hell's Kitchen moved like sound given a body. He slipped around Adriel's guard, reading heartbeat, breath, muscle. Every time Adriel's anger rose, Daredevil was already waiting at the opening it created.
A baton smashed into Adriel's face.
Another into his sternum.
A knee drove into his stomach.
Then Daredevil hooked one baton behind Adriel's neck and yanked him down into a headbutt.
The impact rang through the cave.
Adriel staggered back, one hand hitting the wall.
Blood slid from beneath the edge of his mask.
Toxin twitched.
Daredevil heard it.
His head tilted.
"Ah."
The symbiote crawled sharper across Adriel's shoulders, small black spikes rising and sinking back into the surface like teeth behind skin.
Adriel forced his breathing steady.
Daredevil stepped closer.
"It hates restraint."
Adriel didn't answer.
"It wants to tear. To punish. To feed on every insult you pretend does not hurt."
Adriel's fingers dug into the wall.
Stone cracked under his grip.
Daredevil's aura flared, red flames licking across his armor.
"Tell me, Guardian. How many people have you failed while wearing a hero's face?"
Adriel moved.
Not cleanly this time.
Violently.
His fist crashed into Daredevil's guard and drove him backward. The batons crossed to absorb the hit, but the force still sent Daredevil sliding across the stone.
Adriel followed with a roar.
Toxin surged.
His arm expanded, black mass twisting into a heavy blade. He swung it in a brutal arc, carving through the tunnel wall when Daredevil ducked beneath it. Stone exploded. The mushrooms along that section went dark, crushed under the blow.
Daredevil spun behind him and struck Adriel's spine.
Adriel barely felt it.
He turned and backhanded him.
Daredevil blocked with both batons, but the hit still launched him into a wooden support beam. The beam snapped, and part of the ceiling groaned above them.
Jinx screamed from behind the sealed entrance. "Adriel!"
Vi shouted after her. "What's happening?!"
Adriel didn't hear them.
Or maybe he did and didn't care.
Toxin crawled higher, thicker, the mask distorting around his mouth. The clean lines of his suit became jagged. His fingers lengthened into claws.
Daredevil rose slowly.
"There you are. Let the Devil out."
Adriel's answer was a snarl.
He lunged.
Daredevil moved aside at the last second, but Adriel caught his shoulder with three claws. The symbiote tore through red armor and dragged blood into the air.
Daredevil grunted.
Adriel slammed him into the ground.
Once.
Twice.
The third time, Daredevil twisted, hooked his legs around Adriel's arm, and used the momentum to flip over his shoulder. He landed behind Adriel and drove both batons into the sides of his head.
Adriel stumbled forward.
Daredevil kicked the back of his knee.
Adriel dropped to one leg.
The baton came for his throat—
Adriel caught it in his teeth.
The symbiote's jaw formed over his own, black fangs clamping down on the weapon.
Daredevil froze.
Adriel ripped the baton away and spat it aside.
Then he grabbed Daredevil by the face.
His palm stuck.
Wall-crawling adhesion activated.
Daredevil's hand shot up, grabbing Adriel's wrist before he could rip.
For the first time, his calm cracked.
Adriel could feel it.
Daredevil was strong.
But not stronger.
Adriel drove his knee into Daredevil's chest.
Armor dented inward.
Daredevil coughed blood inside his helmet.
Adriel hit him again.
This time Daredevil flew back, crashed into the wall, and dropped to one knee.
Adriel charged, dragging one claw along the stone as he came.
Daredevil threw his remaining baton.
Adriel slapped it aside.
But the baton exploded into red fire midair.
The blast swallowed his upper body.
Adriel roared and burst through it, smoking, mask cracked around one eye, Toxin already stitching the damage back together.
Daredevil was waiting.
He drove two fingers into the exposed seam near Adriel's ribs, where the symbiote had thinned after the explosion. Dark energy pulsed through the strike.
Adriel froze.
Pain lanced through him.
Daredevil leaned close.
"You are not angry enough."
Adriel's eyes snapped open.
Electricity exploded outward.
Daredevil was thrown back, but he landed on his feet, boots scraping across gore-slick stone.
Adriel stood fully.
The cave seemed to shrink around him.
Toxin spread like a living shadow, crawling up the walls behind him, tendrils whipping against stone. The air trembled. Bioelectricity coiled around his body, no longer neat sparks but jagged arcs snapping like broken lightning.
"Enough," Adriel said.
His voice was quieter now.
That made it worse.
Daredevil raised his guard.
Adriel vanished.
He appeared directly in front of him and punched.
Daredevil crossed his arms.
The impact shattered one baton and drove Daredevil backward so hard his heels carved into the rock.
Adriel didn't pause.
He stepped in, shoulder-first, and rammed him into the wall. The stone caved around Daredevil's back. Before he could fall, Adriel grabbed the front of his armor and headbutted him.
Once.
Twice.
The horned helmet cracked.
Daredevil stabbed a broken baton into Adriel's side.
Adriel looked down at it.
Then back at him.
He grabbed Daredevil's wrist and crushed it.
Bone folded under his grip.
Daredevil grunted, but instead of pulling away, he drove his forehead into Adriel's face again. The cracked helmet broke further. Blood spilled from beneath it.
Still fighting.
Still adapting.
Still refusing to fall.
Adriel respected that.
He hated that he respected it.
Daredevil kicked off the wall, spun, and wrapped his legs around Adriel's neck, trying to drag him down. Adriel slammed him into the opposite wall. Daredevil held on. Adriel slammed him again. The third hit loosened his grip, and Adriel caught him by the ankle.
He swung him across the tunnel.
Daredevil hit the stone floor and bounced, but rolled with it, somehow rising to one knee.
Adriel charged.
Daredevil reached for the last intact piece of baton.
Adriel stomped on it.
The weapon shattered beneath his foot.
For one second, Daredevil had nothing.
Adriel's fist drove into his stomach.
The blow lifted him off the ground.
A second punch cracked his armor.
A third sent him crashing through the broken office debris farther down the tunnel.
Vi and Jinx screamed as the sealed wall shook from the force.
Adriel grabbed Daredevil before he could rise and dragged him back into the open.
Daredevil's helmet was broken now. One horn cracked. Red fire leaking from the seams like blood made of flame.
Still, he lifted his head.
Still, he smiled faintly.
"Better."
Adriel froze.
Not because he was afraid.
Because that tone—
There was something underneath the corruption.
Something tired.
Something human.
Daredevil coughed, blood running beneath the mask.
"Tell me..."
Adriel's grip tightened.
Daredevil's voice rasped, quieter now.
"How did I become this?"
The cave went still.
Adriel's anger faltered.
Behind the red aura, behind the dark flames, behind the Hand's shadow and the corrupted armor—
For one moment, he saw him.
Matt Murdock.
The hero.
The man who fought in alleys and rooftops and churches, who bled for people the world forgot. The devil who was never supposed to become the monster.
Adriel's throat tightened.
He didn't have a joke.
He didn't have an answer.
Daredevil's head tilted, broken mask facing him.
"Was I weak?"
Adriel's voice came out low. "No."
"Then why?"
Adriel closed his eyes for a fraction of a second.
"Because they use the best of us," he said. "And they make us watch what they turn us into."
Daredevil was silent.
Then he laughed softly.
Not cruel.
Empty.
"Then end it."
Adriel's hand trembled once.
Toxin shifted eagerly, wanting violence.
Adriel forced it still.
Then, with one clean motion, he drove his symbiote blade through Daredevil's chest.
The red flames flared.
Daredevil's body arched.
For a second, the dark aura screamed louder than he did.
Then it broke.
The flames guttered out.
The pressure in the cave vanished.
Daredevil's head lowered against Adriel's shoulder.
"Thank you."
The words were barely a breath.
Then he went still.
Adriel held him there for a moment longer than he needed to.
Then he lowered the body to the ground.
The Devil of Hell's Kitchen lay among the corpses of the Hand, red armor cracked, horns broken, darkness finally gone.
Adriel stared down at him.
His chest rose and fell hard.
Toxin slowly receded from the jagged frenzy, pulling itself back into cleaner lines around his body.
From behind the sealed office, Vi's voice cut through the silence.
"Adriel?"
Jinx followed, smaller. "Are you... okay?"
Adriel didn't answer immediately.
He looked at Daredevil.
At the hero he admired.
At the monster the Darks had made.
Then he whispered, barely audible:
"No."
But he still turned toward the sealed wall.
Because there was no time to fall apart.
Not yet.