Chapter 183: Du Wa's True Purpose for Focusing on the Spider-Alliance
"New guys have arrived..."
"Are they both Inheritors? The advantage we sacrificed so many teammates to build is about to collapse..."
"Don't be so pessimistic. That semi-transparent, bald man in white... he seems to know the Alien. Maybe he's not an Inheritor, but from the universe ruled by that Du Wa?"
Every time a new space-time tunnel opened, the Spider-Men present would grow tense. Unlike the Inheritors, they couldn't endlessly resurrect. When they died, they were truly dead.
But most of the time, it was just Spider-Men from various parallel universes arriving to join the battle.
"Of these two, one is an Inheritor. I can sense the vampire stench on him. But the other one isn't, and he doesn't seem to be a Spider-Man either..."
Captain Universe knocked down Brix with a punch, nursing a headache over these unkillable Inheritors. The problem was that this group was particularly adept at dealing with Spider-Men. They only needed to get close to forcibly extract the Totem Force from a Spider-Man's body.
Even Captain Universe Spider-Man didn't dare fight the Inheritors for extended periods. The slightest carelessness could result in them siphoning off a mouthful of his Totem Force.
"Ancient One? Are you the Ancient One? I've heard Strange mention you—the Strange from Universe 199999, of course!"
The Spider-Man from Universe 199999 grew excited. He did a backflip and stuck to a collapsed wall, shouting with excitement.
"Is that so? It seems the Ancient One of Universe 199999 is another me."
The Ancient One levitated in mid-air, emanating a soft glow as a vast, volcanic magic brewed within her. She glanced at the large group of Spiders leaping about, her gaze ultimately falling on this extremely young Spider-Man. "But I am not the person you've heard of..."
Traveling through different universes, she had met many different versions of the Ancient One. Some followed Eternity, others the Vishanti, and their strengths varied.
But the Ancient One had no mind for such matters right now. Her gaze ultimately turned to the Alien.
This Alien's form, in its physical details, was unlike any she had ever seen. Since it could mingle with such a large group of Spider-Men, it must be an Alien carrying Spider-Man's genes.
"You always enjoy doing this sort of thing. Now you've brought your parasitism all the way into parallel universes."
The Ancient One nonchalantly passed through the chaotic battlefield like a specter that didn't exist in reality, leaving the Inheritors bewildered. They eventually turned their questioning gazes to Solus.
"Father, who is this bald woman?"
"If I'm not mistaken, she followed Father here... a sorcerer?" Morlun's voice was low.
None of the Inheritors were truly foolish. The fact that the cold-blooded Solus hadn't immediately moved to eliminate the Ancient One, but had instead glanced at her before turning to attack other Spider-Men to feed on their Totem Force, already proved one thing.
This Ancient One possessed a formidable strength that even Solus dreaded.
"She even knows the Alien... Perhaps she's had dealings with that unheard-of Du Wa..."
Daemos was so angry he could have shattered his own teeth. In his attempt to kill the Alien, he had already been killed twice by it and several Spider-Men. He had disregarded the Totem Force, all to snuff out this unpredictable risk.
But now, it seemed, it was too late.
Daemos was hesitating, wondering if he had truly made a mistake. Should he have been like his other siblings and seized every opportunity to devour a few more Spider-Men?
"Fate is an interesting thing."
In the midst of Daemos's hesitation, he suddenly heard the Alien speak, its voice echoing telepathically. Caught off guard, he wore a look of utter astonishment.
The other Spider-Men who had been fighting alongside the Alien Spider-Man also revealed looks of shock.
So this strange teammate could talk?
"But unfortunately, I am not a deity of fate's domain. I know nothing about things like fate, much less do I believe in boring prophecies. As long as one's strength is great enough, all predetermined prophecies can be destroyed."
The Alien Spider-Man suddenly stood up straight. An inexpressible, ultimate Terror began to surge forth, as if a terrifying Monster from beyond was descending upon this place.
The Ancient One stood not far away. She first fired a blast of magic at Solus before saying gently, "Your spiritual projection has become much more powerful. You can now use it more freely than ever before... It seems that in these past few years, I have missed something extremely important."
"You haven't missed anything, because soon, you will see something even more astonishing."
A series of cracking sounds erupted from the Alien's body, as if bones even tougher than adamantium were being forcibly altered by an indescribable power from a higher dimension.
The powerful deity from Universe 1543681 was crossing over, and this container was spontaneously modifying itself into a more suitable form—from the genetic level to its physical structure, everything was changing of its own accord with the descent of a higher Concept.
This was perfectly normal. Du Wa was The Supreme and the end of the Alien concept. Wherever he went, the subordinate concepts that were his vassals would naturally be assimilated without Du Wa needing to do anything consciously.
This was the terrifying aspect of a conceptual system. Once within the scope of the concept, one could not escape its influence.
"It seems the rumors were true. I heard from other Ancient Ones that in some unknown universe, a ruthless character appeared, leading a strange Grand Army to attack Hell. They ultimately succeeded and even hunted down the Hell Lord Mephisto." The Ancient One observed the current Du Wa thoughtfully. Even if this was just a transitional body for Du Wa, it was enough for an experienced Archmage like her to glean a few things.
"It seems the other Ancient Ones have some well-informed news."
"Much more informed than I am. Many of them come from a numbered universe and haven't yet retired as Sorcerer Supreme. They still protect their respective worlds, so it's inevitable they'd have dealings with the demons of Hell."
The Ancient One continued, "Thanks to you, the demons of Hell have been much more behaved recently. I estimate they're afraid of provoking another being with terrifying potential and following in Mephisto's footsteps. This has eased the pressure on many universes."
"It seems I'm famous. You can introduce me to your new friends. Don't worry, I won't easily turn them all into Xenomorphs."
Alien Spider-Man—no, he should be called Du Wa now—had descended upon this universe. That profundity, more despair-inducing than a black hole, seemed as though it would absorb every living being in the world.
This was a being countless times more dangerous than the Inheritors.
The hair on Captain Universe Spider-Man's entire body stood on end. His strength was the greatest, and as the Captain Universe of this world, his senses were far more acute than others'.
For all the Spider-Men present, their Spider-Sense was screaming as if about to explode, frantically issuing endless warnings.
"This is insane! We never felt this way when we were facing those vampires... It's like encountering a natural predator! What happened to him? He can suddenly talk, and I can't really understand what he's saying..."
"It's obvious. That's not the Spider-Man we knew anymore. He's become some other kind of being."
"Is that even possible? To just casually become another person—or a god? Is this a legion or a hive?"
All the Spider-Men had stopped fighting, their bodies stiff with instinctual fear.
It was the same for the vampires of the Inheritors. Their intuition told them that if they made a reckless move right now to show off, they would die a very ugly death.
Solus stared intently at Du Wa, the Spider-Man he had just strangled to death in his hand no longer appealing. A veteran of a hundred battles who had once defeated a Cosmic God, he already realized that this newly descended deity was a monster a hundred times more terrifying than the Ancient One.
And...
"Killed Mephisto?" Solus mulled over the name. Of course, he knew of that notorious demon; the legend of Mephisto existed in far too many universes.
He had just never crossed paths with him.
Even a demon that terrifying was dead? And he was killed while defending his home turf, where he could unleash his peak strength.
Then this Du Wa... just how strong was he?
"It seems you obtained the designation 1543681 for your universe only after you killed Mephisto."
Solus spoke in a low voice, then looked at the Ancient One. "If I'm not mistaken, you are the Sorcerer Supreme from Universe 1543681? Then I must have had some indirect contact with you when I entered your universe and devoured the Spider-Man there."
It all made sense now.
In the Multiverse, the birth and growth of every Spider-Man were manipulated by the Master Weaver, who controlled the Spider Totem, through the Web of Life and Destiny in Universe 001. This meant that every Spider-Man possessed some amount of Totem Force—exceptions like Alien Spider-Man didn't count. Even if it was born successfully, it was overwritten by Du Wa's concept, and the Totem Force had no way of influencing it.
Universe 1543681 had previously been a mediocre world without even a designation, which meant the Spider-Man there possessed very little Totem Force.
Solus had a little snack, finished off the Spider-Man, and immediately retreated, giving the Ancient One—who was far from her current power and still relatively "simple" back then—no opportunity to hunt him down.
Now, this universe even had a designation, and Solus had to face the battle he had once successfully avoided.
This time, he also had to directly face an unfathomably terrifying deity.
"I was right!"
Daemos looked at his family members, who were all facing a great enemy. "You lot should have listened to me from the very beginning and killed this Spider-Man with no Totem Force! If we had killed it earlier, we wouldn't have this trouble now!"
"Killing it wouldn't have provoked Du Wa all the same?" Bora retorted.
"How could a deity possibly care about the life or death of every single subordinate? Didn't you hear? He led an army to attack Hell! In a war of that scale, how many Xenomorphs would die?! I don't believe he could look after every single Xenomorph, let alone resurrect them!" Daemos roared. "If you had just listened to me and killed that Alien first, that Du Wa definitely wouldn't have paid it much attention, and none of this would be happening!"
He was, at least in part, correct.
Du Wa truly hadn't been paying attention to Alien Spider-Man's life or death. He had merely sent the Alien Spider-Man out to acquire the intelligence held by the Spider-Alliance. The moment Alien Spider-Man queried the massive amount of coordinate information recorded on the time-traveling shuttle, Du Wa's objective had been achieved.
In any case, even if Alien Spider-Man died, killed by the Inheritors, its soul could evade death and return to Du Wa.
Du Wa would only need to pay a trivial price to create a new body and resurrect it.
No matter how furious Daemos was, or how regretful the other vampires were, they couldn't reverse the past, not even by using the Time Stone or calling upon Eternity.
"Your brain isn't particularly good, but your sense of smell compensates for that shortcoming," Du Wa gave Daemos a high evaluation. "Therefore, you can have the honor of being killed by me once."
Daemos sneered, "Even if you're some kind of god, there's no way..."
*Slap!*
With a distant slap from Du Wa, Daemos exploded.
This vampire, who had forced a host of Spider-Men to fight to the death, couldn't even survive a single exchange with Du Wa.
"It seems this guy is the 'breakthrough' you mentioned finding," Solus said, looking at the Ancient One.
The Ancient One immediately attacked Solus, completely ignoring the dark scowl that suddenly appeared on his face.
Was he right or wrong? He was most likely right, but Solus no longer had the opportunity to argue. While facing the Ancient One, the moment Du Wa brought down his terrifying conceptual power, Solus died once again.
All the Spider-Men were stunned. The Inheritors, enemies who had filled them with such despair, couldn't last a single round against Du Wa?
Even the most clueless Spider-Man could tell that this Du Wa was merely using Alien Spider-Man's body. He definitely wasn't using his full strength.
Even so, he could easily destroy the Inheritors?
"It's just as I thought. I knew it... I told you all earlier, if we were truly desperate, we should have considered siding with Du Wa. The threat of the Inheritors is nothing at all," the Spider-Man from Universe 199999 declared, as if showing off.
He himself was not an Alien and had no alien larva inside him, but that didn't stop him from considering himself one of Du Wa's people. After all, the entirety of Universe 199999 was essentially Du Wa's sphere of influence. As long as the Celestials weren't provoked into fighting a war to the death with Du Wa and instead continued to maintain their silence and low profile, even Thanos, who held twelve Infinity Stones, was nothing more than a guardian of a universe under Du Wa's command.
"These guys seem to possess a very sophisticated cloning technology that allows for infinite resurrection," said the Ancient One.
"I know. Things like vampires are not worth wasting my time on."
"That's what I thought, which is why I was surprised you would send an Alien to this universe to participate in the Spider-Men's event... Is there something here that interests you?" the Ancient One asked curiously.
"Yes. I'm looking for a special universe."
Du Wa said, "But I didn't find it. The Spider-Alliance failed to record that universe's coordinates with their time-traveling shuttle. Perhaps due to its special nature, it has been hidden by some higher-level deities."
"Interesting. Which universe are you looking for? I followed the Vishanti for a time, perhaps I know of it."
"Universe 9602."
Du Wa replied, "But this universe cannot be found by conventional means. I will activate the second phase of my plan to find someone who knows this universe's coordinates. The key to achieving this goal is... Spider-UK!"
(end of chapter)