The night is long, the dream is short.
In what felt like a mere instant, Charlie jolted awake from his dream.
Sunlight poured through the window, bathing his face in a warm glow.
Charlie's eyes were dazed, but as the spider totem on his chest flickered briefly, memories of last night flooded his mind.
Recalling the voice from his dream, his brows furrowed, realizing it was time to prepare.
Since returning to this world, the ominous premonition in his heart had already come true.
If not for his evolved spider totem, he might have succumbed to Mary Jane's nightmare powers and completely forgotten what happened last night.
He gently touched the faint glow on his chest, thought for a moment, then threw off the covers and stepped onto the balcony outside.
The weather was clear, the sunlight perfect.
Charlie took a deep breath and called out to Aunt May, who was busy in the kitchen.
"No breakfast for me, I'm late for work."
With that, he swung a leg over the balcony railing and leapt into the air.
Whoosh~
As he plummeted at breakneck speed, hovercars zoomed past him. The passengers, seeing someone jump, reached for their phones to call for help, but with a flash of magical sparks, Charlie's figure vanished in an instant.
Kamar-Taj.
Hum~
In the magic training ground, a portal slowly bloomed, and Charlie stepped through, finding no one in sight.
The area was overgrown with weeds, clearly abandoned for a long time.
The surrounding ancient pavilions bore signs of decay, untouched for ages. Kamar-Taj was utterly deserted.
Charlie's heart trembled slightly at the sight.
Soon, he searched every corner of Kamar-Taj and found not a single mage.
Not even the Ancient One.
Charlie's suspended heart finally sank.
Something was definitely wrong.
It wasn't the Ancient One who had warned Aunt May!
With that thought, Charlie raised his hand, tracing a circle to open a portal.
After one last glance at the desolate Kamar-Taj, he stepped through.
The next moment, he arrived at a forest park near Queens.
In a secluded area stood a few ramshackle huts where the fugitive Ebony Maw and the remnants of the Chitauri soldiers scraped by.
Outside, a bonfire roasted an unknown beast—Charlie guessed it was an unlucky stray cat.
A group of battered Chitauri soldiers, missing limbs, stood guard by the fire, waiting for their leader's command to eat.
Sniff~
At that moment, a canine-like Chitauri soldier caught a strange scent.
He turned and saw Charlie, his eyes widening as he let out a shrill scream.
"No!"
"It's a S.H.I.E.L.D. guy! He's found us!"
"Kill him!!"
Just as the Chitauri soldiers lunged forward, tree branches shot down under telekinetic force, halting them.
"Stop."
Ebony Maw emerged from the hut. Though his clothes were tattered and he looked disheveled, the defeated dog still carried an air of elegance.
Hands clasped behind his back, he approached Charlie, his eyes filled with sorrow.
"Spider-Man, we have nothing left to lose. If you want our lives, make it quick."
Ebony Maw lowered his head. Behind him, the hut trembled slightly as Black Dwarf, missing an arm, limped out.
"Bug, fight me. It's my final wish," the weakened Black Dwarf gasped.
Seeing this, Charlie's frown deepened.
"I'm not here to take you out. I need to see your Thanos," he said.
At those words, Ebony Maw's brow furrowed.
"Lord Thanos gave his life so we could survive. He was killed by your people. You didn't know?"
"Hm?"
Charlie's expression shifted. Was this a cover-up?
It didn't feel like a coincidence.
Glancing at the ragged group struggling to survive, he shook his head.
"Take care of yourselves."
He turned to leave.
"Wait."
Ebony Maw suddenly remembered something. He called out to Charlie, his expression complex.
"Before Lord Thanos died, he entrusted me with a task."
He took a deep breath. "I wasn't going to tell you, since it was your people who killed him. But now I know you're not with them."
Charlie turned back, puzzled.
"So what are you trying to tell me?"
Ebony Maw opened his mouth. "To learn the truth, go down—"
"Down where?"
Charlie listened intently.
But a massive magical sigil appeared overhead, silencing all sound.
"What's that?"
As the enormous sigil spun, conjuring terrifying meteors that hurtled toward Ebony Maw and the others, Charlie's eyes narrowed. His hands formed seals, unleashing a massive spider totem.
"Finally showing yourself! Scatter!"
Hum~
In an instant, the spider totem beneath Charlie's feet spread to Ebony Maw and the others. A fearsome dimensional monster roared out of the totem's magical array, its grotesque limbs smashing the falling meteors.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!
The forest park erupted in a massive explosion. The sigil in the sky pulsed with dense dark energy, shifting from white magic to black in a blink. Countless sinister dark tendrils lashed downward, determined to wipe out Ebony Maw and his group.
Charlie reacted swiftly, his hands weaving spells to summon shadowy duplicates. The shadows solidified into clones.
Zzt! Zzt~
Boom!!
In that moment, magical spiderlings and arc-weaving spiderlings locked onto their clone hosts. Brilliant magical energy sliced through the sky toward the dark sigil, while searing arcs pierced the darkness. The scene descended into a battlefield.
Boom!!
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
Explosions of fire roared endlessly. The dark sigil in the sky teetered on collapse, then shattered into a cascade of dark particles that rained over the surrounding forest, only to reform into an impregnable magical barrier, sealing everything within.
Realizing the space around him was locked, Charlie calmly recalled his clones. His eyes blazed with heat vision, sweeping across the magical barrier. But the barrier was unexpectedly resilient—five thousand degrees of heat left only faint scorch marks, unable to breach it.
"What kind of magic is this?"
Charlie's expression grew grave. With a flick of his wrist device, nanometal enveloped his body. In a flash of light and shadow, a towering red-and-blue giant, over a thousand meters tall, strained against the massive magical barrier, growing larger still.
Crack! Crack~
"Break!!"
With Charlie's thunderous shout, the magical barrier cracked and shattered.
At that moment, citizens across the city witnessed a red-and-blue giant rise like a god.
"My God! That's—"
At the TV station, J. Jonah Jameson, off duty, saw the familiar figure and erupted in excitement.
"Spider-Man! It's him! He's back! Why am I only finding out now? Why?!"
The next second, the red-and-blue giant vanished, as if it had been an illusion.
Back at the battlefield, Charlie returned to normal size. Even after the fight, he couldn't identify the figure behind it all.
As for Ebony Maw...
When the magical barrier was shattered, they had all been pulverized by a mysterious force, leaving no trace.
Amid the wreckage, Charlie stood silently.
Such terrifying dark magic—the Ancient One?
Or a dimensional demon?
Charlie couldn't guess.
This entity clearly had countless chances to kill Spider-Man but chose not to.
Instead, it used its power to eliminate Thanos, seemingly to keep Charlie from learning the truth.
Just for fun?
If the Grandmaster were still alive, this might fit his style.
But the Grandmaster was dead.
For the first time, Charlie felt utterly lost.
The invincible Spider-Man hadn't faced a situation like this in a long time.
Not even knowing who the enemy was—it was intriguing.
As he pondered, Carter arrived at the scene.
"Charlie."
Carter leapt from her hovercraft, her face stern. Seeing Charlie unharmed, she let out a subconscious sigh of relief.
"Come back with me," she said, grabbing his arm to lead him to the craft.
Charlie shook her off. "Go where?"
"Anywhere. Just don't get involved in this."
"You think that's possible?"
Charlie grabbed Carter's arm, locking eyes with her.
"You've changed, but I don't believe it."
"You—"
Carter's gaze wavered. "Forgive me. We can't win."
"Can't win? That, I understand."
Charlie suddenly smiled.
"For your safety, I won't ask what happened."
He let go, glancing at the swarm of drones approaching in the sky before stepping back.
"Tell me, where's the Time Tablet?"
With a wave, he opened a portal.
Carter hesitated. "It—it was stolen."
"Stolen?"
Charlie chuckled. "Great. Bye~"
He stepped into the portal and vanished. Carter's face darkened, as if realizing something.
She activated her internal comms.
"Harry, Steve, Charlie's going after the Time Tablet. We can't let him find it."
"Understood."
…
That night, S.H.I.E.L.D. hovercrafts buzzed endlessly, as if something major was brewing.
In a dark corner of the city, Charlie quietly observed the movements on the floating island above.
His goal was never the Time Tablet.
Instead—
Swish~
Webbing shot out, and Charlie scaled a rooftop without using any magic.
The enemy was a mage, and using magic could expose him.
He knew that well.
So, to divert Carter and the others' attention, he'd asked about the Time Tablet.
Based on Ebony Maw's unfinished sentence, Charlie couldn't discern the full truth.
The truth mattered, but Carter and the others' strange behavior mattered more.
He wanted to know what could make them hide things from him, betraying the trust of their friendly neighborhood hero.
An unimaginably powerful force?
No, not entirely.
From the moment he returned, the truth was destined to be uncovered.
With that thought, Charlie peered at the ground below.
The truth is down there?
Below?
Recalling everything he'd seen and heard, Charlie took a deep breath, shot out webbing, and launched himself downward with a web-slingshot, hurtling toward the ground with all his might.
Boom!
Winds howled as Charlie smashed through the surface.
Bang!!
The next moment, like a mirror shattering, Charlie plunged into a pitch-black world.
Crash~~
Broken glass fell to the ground. Charlie looked up to see a circular hole.
He stood atop an old-era building's rooftop.
An underground world!
Charlie tapped the spider emblem on his chest, the inverted triangle eyes glowing brightly as they scanned the surroundings.
In an instant, his heart was struck with shock.
In this dark world, he saw the city from ten years ago!
Piles of rotting garbage, crumbling skyscrapers, old cars lining the streets, and… "rats" living in the darkness.
A group of scavengers!
As the hole above Charlie's head began to seal itself, the world plunged back into darkness.
Charlie dimmed his glowing eyes, and faint specks of light emerged in the dark world.
The sudden appearance and disappearance of light went unnoticed.
They were long accustomed to darkness and despair.
This was an occasional accident caused by the upper world, quickly repaired, offering no chance to enter the true, prosperous world above.
The underground city—the so-called slums.
Charlie retracted his suit and walked, seeing countless "refugees."
They ate the cheapest food, wore the most tattered clothes, and worked the hardest, most grueling jobs.
Factories dotted the landscape, pollution at an all-time high, yet they produced the finest goods, endlessly shipped to the world above.
It was a stark contrast to the prosperity and beauty of the upper world.
Charlie finally confirmed his suspicions.
Since his return, he'd seen only beauty and prosperity, not a single poor person.
That wasn't normal.
All the poor had been banished to this underground world.
The upper world hid its ugliest side, trapping these people forever in their "place."
So…
Charlie let out a slow breath.
Carter and the others knew.
They knew the truth.
Perhaps they were even part of it.
He couldn't accept it.
In his memory, Carter came from nobility but lacked their arrogance and prejudice. She couldn't ignore the world's injustices and suffering.
Old Steve was the same.
The older he got, the softer his heart.
And Harry, Mary Jane, Dr. Banner…
What could have changed them so?
If it were just an unbeatable evil force, they wouldn't accept such a threat.
From his observations, Carter and the others showed no guilt or unease.
They lived well, enjoying this false prosperity and beauty.
They liked this life.
Charlie's heart was in turmoil.
Before he knew it, he arrived at the brightest-lit area.
Hell's Kitchen.
Kingpin's villa lay in ruins, as if destroyed by advanced weaponry, with only a corner of the ceiling intact.
Through the cracked walls, he saw Skrulls mingling with the crowd.
Here, humans and Skrulls coexisted—a fact of survival.
They banded together for warmth.
Or perhaps fought over scarce resources.
"The food G'iah brought is for us Skrulls! Don't even think about it!" a Skrull roared from the crowd, stirring unrest among the humans.
"No, she said she'd help us! We have a share too!"
"Exactly! You can't go back on your word!"
"Hand it over!"
"Don't waste words—let's take it!"
"It's ours…"
"Everyone, stop! Listen to me—"
"Don't take it!"
A group of Skrulls guarded a crate of supplies, enduring the crowd's pushing and shoving.
Upstairs, a weary G'iah watched, sighing deeply, with no intention of intervening.
She was numb.
Her powers were too weak to save everyone.
If only he were here.
Thinking of that man, G'iah's heart stirred.
"He'll find the truth, defeat that guy, and save the world again, save the innocent."
He will!
Murmuring, she turned and saw that man, her eyes welling with tears.
"You're finally back," G'iah sobbed, throwing herself into Charlie's arms.
In that moment, she could finally breathe.
Feeling the dampness on his shoulder, Charlie raised a hand, then lowered it.
"I'm back," he said softly. "Tell me, what happened?"
G'iah clung to him, choking out, "It's Reed. He tried to help Dr. Banner reverse Hulk's rage. His experiment failed, and it affected all the superheroes.
"They changed—became strangers, terrifying. They want to seize all the world's wealth, to rule it forever.
"I couldn't fight them. I'm too weak. I couldn't save anyone or stop this.
"I'm so tired, so very tired…"
Her voice faded, and she fell asleep.
Charlie's heart sank to rock bottom.
The axis of good and evil!
That was the truth.
In the ten years he was gone, the worst had happened.