Silence.
A deathly silence.
On the streets of Queens.
When they saw Xi Nian, in his terrifying trinity form, land on the ground alone, countless bystanders filming with their phones, and even media outlets live-streaming, froze as if turned into stone.
Their mouths hung wide open in fear. A chill far colder than the winter frost crawled up their spines.
The man who had become New York's undisputed number one hero within just a year and a half, the one who used the light of next-century technology to awe the world—Iron Man, Tony Stark—
Had just been swallowed alive by some unknown monster?
It was like watching God himself be killed with their own eyes. Faith, hope, belief—shattered in an instant.
Tonight was destined to be a night of despair for countless people in New York City.
…
As for the culprit, Xi Nian didn't think about any of that. He simply found Iron Man's interference too troublesome, distracting him from his real goal—hunting symbiotes. So he just… banned him.
Landing back on the ground, Xi Nian walked over to Venom-Spider, who was shielding Aunt May with his broken body.
Though Xi Nian looked no more threatening than a small black kitten, slightly larger than an adult's palm, Venom-Spider, with Peter's consciousness temporarily in control, knew full well how terrifying and unstoppable this creature was.
Feeling Xi Nian draw near, Venom-Spider's gray-green hands pressed weakly against the pavement, his knees buckling. Half of Peter's young face twisted in pain beneath the writhing symbiote, and he forced out broken words:
"Kill me… Please… kill me now… I can't hold it back any longer…"
As he spoke, the gray-green sludge on his body wriggled like rotten mud, slowly creeping back to cover Peter's exposed face.
"No, Peter!" Aunt May sobbed desperately, trying to tear away the sticky mass, but it was useless.
Peter was about to be fully engulfed again.
Xi Nian, cold and merciless in his trinity state, nodded slightly. He raised his claws. "As you wish."
Click! Crack!
Bone-like sounds echoed as his claws elongated, gripping Venom-Spider's arms from behind and hoisting him up. His black tail coiled forward, binding Venom-Spider's legs.
He ignored Aunt May's cries.
The kitten's mouth split grotesquely, stretching far beyond the limits of its face, revealing a maw lined with overlapping fangs.
Venom hissed in Xi Nian's mind, chuckling. "Yes! Swallow him whole, finish it!"
Xi Nian didn't respond. Instead, he muttered softly, "Endure this for a moment."
"Huh?" Venom froze. A horrible premonition filled him. "Wait—what are you doing?!"
Xi Nian didn't consume Venom-Spider into his devour dimension. Instead, he took a massive breath, so deep that his chest swelled like a balloon, growing five or six times larger.
Venom realized instantly. "You're insane! Stop! Stop right now!"
But Xi Nian didn't stop.
Holding Venom-Spider above his head, Xi Nian tilted back his jaw and roared.
The next second—
Within a five-mile radius, everyone instinctively clutched their ears as countless windows, car windshields, and lightbulbs shattered.
"ROAR!!!"
A terrifying soundwave erupted from Xi Nian's maw, like an ancient monster roaring to the heavens. The air itself quaked, rippling in layered shockwaves that exploded through the night sky.
It wasn't just sound—it was a true ultrasonic attack.
This scene made many recall another figure—far away in Metropolis. The god among men. Superman.
"Zzzzz!"
Venom-Spider writhed in agony as the symbiote armor on his body boiled and cracked apart like water on hot oil.
The gray-green sludge peeled away from Peter in strands, forced back by the ultrasonic waves. The second symbiote began separating from its host.
But it wasn't just that one suffering—Venom inside Xi Nian was writhing too.
"What are you doing?! Stop! You'll unravel me too!" Venom howled, never expecting Xi Nian to use such a reckless, self-destructive method.
Under normal circumstances, no symbiote host could create ultrasonic waves with just a roar. Only in Xi Nian's trinity fusion with the Flerken could this be possible.
"Wait… what is this?" Venom suddenly realized something. "Why isn't it hurting you?"
Xi Nian smiled faintly. "I only copied your powers. I didn't inherit your weaknesses."
Venom froze. Then it understood. From the very beginning, Xi Nian had planned not only to deal with the second symbiote—but to take Venom down with it.
"You little bas—"
Before it could finish, Venom's liquefied body was ripped away, forcibly severed from Xi Nian.
But because Xi Nian was fused with the Flerken, Venom got stuck inside its body instead. And since two symbiotes could not coexist in one host, Venom, weaker and vulnerable to ultrasonics, had no choice but to fall into a forced slumber within the Flerken.
Xi Nian's trinity state ended. He remained fused only with the Flerken, still appearing as a small black kitten.
The violent, corrupting whispers in his mind vanished, leaving only the innocent "meow" of the Flerken.
Xi Nian exhaled in relief. His rationality had fully returned.
Even so, the memory of that trinity state made him shudder. Yes, the power was unimaginable. But the mindset—it pushed him further and further into extremity, bloodlust, evil. Left unchecked, he would have become nothing more than a monster of pure slaughter.
Venom had been pretending to cooperate all along, while actually dragging him closer to the abyss, trying to seize his body for itself.
…
With Venom now dormant, Xi Nian's kitten form lost its sinister aura. He looked like nothing more than an ordinary little black cat.
Lifting his gaze, he spotted the second symbiote, now fully separated from Peter, trying to slither away.
Xi Nian didn't hesitate. His mouth widened once more into a black void, sucking the fleeing symbiote inside.
Devour. Exile.
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