Chapter 179: Let Me Have a Taste!
No one could understand the sheer "what the fuck" going through Superior Spider-Man's mind right now.
He had only pulled some of the Peter Parkers he despised to his side to avoid being taken out while alone, all to fight those even more detestable vampires.
Well, this was just great. He'd been calling for backup from all over, and now he'd accidentally summoned someone far more terrifying than the vampires—strictly speaking, the other party had used some unknown means to reverse-locate them and forcefully cross over.
Normally, the Spider-Men were the ones who teamed up and actively sought out people in various universes.
It reached a point where Superior Spider-Man felt an extreme sense of dissonance seeing this dangerous monster wearing a spider-suit.
What was the point? In any case, he certainly didn't expect this monster to shoot webs from its wrists.
Superior Spider-Man subtly retreated, blending into the ranks of the other Spider-Men.
In reality, the arrival of the Alien Spider-Man didn't have much of an impact on the newly established team, because no one recognized the Xenomorph.
There was no Spider-Man from Universe 199999 or anyone else who would recognize a Xenomorph here.
The Xenomorph, carrying Spider-Man's genes, successfully infiltrated the Spider Alliance and was initially accepted by everyone except Superior Spider-Man.
The Spider-Men were still in a state of tension and panic. Any Spider-Man who could stand up against the Inheritors was a hero and a comrade to be recruited.
The genetics didn't lie, either. It had smoothly passed the automatic detection of the space-time shuttlecraft, confirming to them that this Xenomorph was also a Spider-Man.
Du Wa, through the eyes of the Alien Spider-Man, watched these boisterous little spiders with great interest.
"So that's how it is. The last time I was hunting down Cul, I made my presence known to the folks from the 616 Main Universe, which left a deep impression on Superior Spider-Man's body. So, he's remembering it now?"
Du Wa only needed a single glance at the scene in Universe 13 to notice Superior Spider-Man's small movements and guess the reason.
In a daily life that involved dealing with gods at the drop of a hat, observing this bunch of spiders from the Spider Alliance was an interesting diversion.
The life of a conceptual god was just that boring and dull. What others saw as a disaster, in Du Wa's eyes, posed no problem at all.
From Du Wa's perspective, the confrontation between the Spider-Men and the Inheritors was nothing special—it was basically child's play.
Even the famously powerful Spider-Men, like Captain Universe Spider-Man or the one who piloted a Gundam, were not worthy of Du Wa's attention.
Perhaps only the origin of the Spider-Men, the Spider Totem, could truly capture Du Wa's interest.
The power that every Spider-Man possessed was, in essence, derived from the Spider Totem.
That's right. To be blunt, the relationship between the Spider-Men and the Spider Totem was remarkably similar to the relationship between mages and a magical entity of multiversal status. The commonality was that their power was borrowed from a superior being.
However, as the chosen avatars of the Spider Totem selected through the Web of Life and Destiny, the Spider-Men didn't have to pay a price each time they used their power, unlike mages.
This totemic power was coveted by the Inheritors. This group of vampires elevated their own strength by feeding on the Spider Totem within the Spider-Men.
However, Du Wa had no intention of wasting too much time on the Spider Totem right now. His Alien Spider-Man had no connection to the Spider Totem whatsoever. It had no totemic power within its body, only his Xenomorph power.
Du Wa's purpose in creating this Xenomorph version of Spider-Man was simply to achieve his own goals... The Spider Alliance and the Spider Totem itself were insignificant. The real objective was to use this multiversal organization to find his desired target.
"Next, it's time to watch the spectacular performance of these little spiders. They will recruit more members and wage war against the Inheritors again and again. In the process, all the knowledge they possess will be mastered by me, and the parts of them connected to the Web of Life and Destiny will be unraveled by me."
Du Wa lay comfortably on his deck chair, sunbathing. He was now just one step away from achieving his goal: finding the coordinates of a specific universe.
If he couldn't find this universe, he would settle for the next best thing: finding a key person.
The Alien Spider-Man, having infiltrated the Spider Alliance, immediately got to work. It approached a computer and began typing rapidly, quickly searching through a massive amount of information, but ultimately failed to find the universe number it was looking for.
"It's not here? Right, the scale of this Spider Alliance is still not large enough."
Du Wa wasn't disappointed. As expected, only the Spider Alliance established during the "Across the Spider-Verse" period could be called truly grand in scale.
There were tens of thousands of Spider-Men alone, and those guys even built a Future-Tech City.
The technology to determine a universe's designation by checking genes was developed by that Super Spider Alliance.
But then again, one didn't need to mobilize tens or hundreds of thousands of Spider-Men to deal with the Inheritors.
Superior Spider-Man had been closely monitoring the Xenomorph's every move. Just as he was about to say something, he saw the space-time shuttlecraft activate. The group of Spider-Men who had gone out to retrieve people had returned, and his brow furrowed.
"Damn it, not again! Can't you fools stop acting on your own? This will get us all killed! The spider-scent on you is the perfect set of coordinates for those Inheritors!" Superior Spider-Man whipped his head around, furious at the group of Spider-Men who had just crossed over from the other side.
What made him equally uncomfortable was the one leading them—Peter Parker from the 616 Main Universe.
In Superior Spider-Man's mind, this guy was a Spider-Man from a past timeline in Universe 616—the *real* Peter Parker, from a point in history before he had his body stolen.
In reality, however, this Peter came from a point even further in Superior Spider-Man's future. It was a future where the main universe's Spider-Man was resurrected, and Superior Spider-Man—or rather, Doctor Octopus—voluntarily returned the body to him.
"We need more people to deal with these unprecedentedly powerful enemies. We don't even know how many parallel-universe versions of us these guys have devoured, or what kind of incredible power they've accumulated."
The Main Universe Spider-Man looked at the Doctor Octopus currently using his body, his expression under the mask extremely complicated. "You're clearly doing the same thing. I saw you have a few new recruits over there."
"I have an information-shielding device that I developed myself! But look at you lot, the spider-scent on you is probably wafting across who knows how many dimensions! That's the difference between you and me. You always take things for granted. Naive, childish! You don't even know how complicated the situation on my end is."
Superior Spider-Man quickly glanced at the Xenomorph, which was completely engrossed in searching for information on the computer. He inadvertently revealed a deep sense of dread, which was quickly noticed by the Main Universe Spider-Man.
A Spider-Man that even Otto was afraid of? That was a rare sight indeed. The Main Universe Spider-Man immediately became vigilant, observing carefully, and spotted several new figures among the large group of Spider-Men present.
But when he saw the Xenomorph with its back to the crowd, his muscles instantly went rigid. His spider-sense, which had been completely silent, now screamed as if it had just been activated, as if encountering a natural predator.
To be clear, this hadn't happened even when he had a one-on-one fight with an Inheritor a short while ago.
"You actually recognize it? Now that's a problem. Although we are both Spider-Men from the Main Universe, you should be from a timeline well in my past. Why are you so familiar with it? Or... are you actually from my future? A future where I actually give my body back to you?"
Superior Spider-Man's mind was sharp. He figured out the logic in an instant, becoming both shocked and enraged. He dropped the pretense.
Not much time had passed since the event where Du Wa terrified the Main Universe. In any case, Superior Spider-Man refused to believe it was a coincidence that this annoying Peter Parker hailed from the brief interval between that event and their body-swap.
In the eyes of a top-tier scientist, all coincidences were likely premeditated, especially when facing an equally intelligent person he knew very well.
"I'll cut to the chase. Whatever grudges we have, the primary enemy right now is the Inheritors! Having such a powerful guy join us is a good thing for this fragile alliance," Superior Spider-Man said quickly.
"True, but we also have to be wary that 'that one' sent it here as a scout, lest it become an enemy more terrifying than the Inheritors in the end," the Main Universe Spider-Man said.
The conversation between the two Main Universe Spider-Men completely bewildered the other Spider-Men.
You see, most Spider-Men firmly believed one thing: only the Spider-Man from the Main Universe possessed the great power needed to fight the Inheritors.
This was normal, not only because the two Spider-Men from the Main Universe were the founder of the Spider Alliance and someone who had fought off an Inheritor head-on, respectively, but also because beings from many universes believed in this truth. In most cases, individuals from the main universe could always produce extraordinary results and possessed greater strength and will than their variants from other parallel universes.
Before this, they had assumed one of the two Main Universe Spider-Men was a clone, so they didn't ask too many questions.
But now it seemed only one was the real Spider-Man, and the other was someone occupying his body?
"Whoa, looks like the situation in the Main Universe is more complicated than we thought. Timeline brawl? A body-swap game? This is more trouble than parallel universes."
Monkey Spider-Man mocked in a derisive tone. He was on Superior Spider-Man's side.
"A talking monkey jumping around."
"What? You damn bastard, you're a pig yourself, how dare you talk about me?"
"Speaking of which, who exactly is that weird Spider-Man that has both of you Main Universe Spiders so on guard? Have you dealt with this Spider-Man before, or with the strange race this guy represents?"
Spider-Men generally have extremely high IQs, and someone quickly pinpointed the crux of the issue.
But then, a powerful and sacred white light pressed down on everyone.
Captain Universe Spider-Man, who couldn't even be bothered to wear a mask, was shrouded in the formidable Creation Force, floating in mid-air and forcefully interrupting the conversation.
"No matter where any of you Spider-Men come from, or what your purposes are, in my Universe 13, you only need to do one thing: stay put. No one can harbor ulterior motives in my world."
Captain Universe Spider-Man displayed immense confidence. Possessing the Power of the Universe, he was a genuine Deity, with the capital to look down on Spider-Men from other parallel universes.
Only, the two Main Universe Spider-Men reacted with excessive indifference, which greatly displeased the overly confident hero.
"But if we're facing that Deity..."
"Indeed. It seems we're on the same page."
The same image replayed in the minds of both Main Universe Spider-Men:
From within the spatial rift, the terrifying, mysterious monster had forcibly dragged the miserable-looking Cul the Serpent back through, like yanking a fleeing loach from the water.
That scene was too horrifying, too soul-shaking.
But now, no matter what they discussed, they found that this Alien Spider-Man remained very quiet, focused solely on reviewing various data.
"A Deity?" Captain Universe Spider-Man looked at the Xenomorph in confusion.
"Excellent! So not only is there so much delicious food here, but there's also a Deity-level Spider? Looks like I'm in for a feast! It's been years since I enjoyed a banquet like this!"
A spatial portal abruptly appeared, and several fanged Inheritors burst through.
This wasn't even a conventional form of space-time travel, as the space-time shuttlecraft was completely unable to detect this method of traversal, let alone mount a defense.
"What???"
"We've always kept the coordinates of Universe 13 well hidden! How did the Inheritors find us?"
"Maybe these damn vampires have mastered a technology more powerful than the space-time shuttlecraft that can lock onto our positions! But how is that possible?"
The group of Spider-Men turned pale with fright, some even panicking.
Many among them had fought the Inheritors before, and some had even lost comrades.
"Vampire... I don't care for that term. We just had a Vampire Spider-Man for dinner. Makes it sound like we're cannibals."
The long-haired, burly Daemos flashed a chilling smile.
"Where is the God? Let me think, that useless Karn killed a god-like Spider-Man in Universe 1771. What was his name, Ai Er Parker? I was so envious. Looks like I'll have the chance to eat a God now, too!"
Any and every Spider-Man was meant to be eaten by the Inheritors, even a Deity.
Using the Web of Life and Destiny manipulated by the Master Weaver in Universe 001, the Inheritors could easily pinpoint the whereabouts of any Spider-Man. At this moment, they had used the Web of Life and Destiny to effortlessly enter Universe 13, their eyes greedily scanning the food present.
They first glanced at Captain Universe Spider-Man, confirming that this fellow must be the Deity.
But then they were puzzled. The moment they arrived, why were all these guys staring at that somewhat strange, tall Spider-Man?
Could that guy be a Deity too?
"Hahaha, I don't sense a strong, appetizing aroma for now, nor any powerful divine energy. You must be good at hiding. Let me have a taste, and I'll know if you're a Deity!"
Daemos charged forward, willing to forsake Captain Universe just to take a bite of the Xenomorph and see how it tasted.
(end of chapter)