Ten minutes ago.
Light Inksworth lowered his phone, his brow furrowed after his brief conversation with Gwen. He looked back at the System interface floating in his vision.
[Congratulations to the Host! Rewards obtained: Ken Kaneki Fragment x2, Body Replacement Technique, Illusion: Hypnosis, Orihime Inoue Fragment x2, Telescope Technique.]
This was the result of the one-million Fan Value lottery he had initiated right before Gwen's urgent call. The sheer volume of fragments was less than his previous low-tier draws, but the quality was far more beautiful. The skill fragments had been entirely replaced by the full versions of the abilities, eliminating the tedious collection time.
[Synthesizable character detected. Ken Kaneki is in the process of synthesizing.]
Eight puzzle pieces flew out of his System Warehouse, colliding seamlessly with the two newly acquired white fragments. They quickly merged, projecting a dynamic character poster into the air.
The images flickered rapidly before Light's eyes, showing various incarnations of Kaneki: the innocent student, the masked Ghoul, the white-haired half-Kakuja, and even the monstrous, city-sized 'Dragon' form.
Finally, the roulette stopped.
[Character Generation Complete.]
A card emitting a brilliant white light floated gently into Light's open hand.
[Ken Kaneki (Aogiri Tree Period). Possesses four Rinkaku tentacles. Can tap into the unconscious, violent 'Centipede' Half-Kakuja state. Can evolve to the next chronological period by consuming Kakuhou or merging with further character fragments.]
Every manga protagonist started relatively weak and grew stronger. Light tapped the 'Period' column on the holographic card. The next evolutionary stage listed was the 'Centipede' form with a full Kakuja armor manifestation.
Considering Peter seemed to be in over his head, Light decided this was the perfect opportunity to let Kaneki stretch his legs and see how Ghoul biology adapted to the Marvel Universe.
[Would you like to retain the character's original memories?]
"Yes," Light answered decisively.
How could Ken Kaneki truly grow without his past experiences? Even though those memories were forged in agonizing torture, they were the exact crucible that birthed the tragic, ruthless Ghoul he needed.
The card dissolved in a flash of dazzling light. In its place stood a pale, white-haired boy. He slowly scanned his surroundings before his eyes locked onto Light.
'Light,' Kaneki's voice echoed directly in Light's mind, a telepathic greeting built on absolute trust.
This was the System's failsafe. The summoned characters possessed absolute loyalty to Light from the moment of their creation, yet they retained their flesh, blood, and distinct personalities. If the System merely summoned cold, emotionless robots, it wouldn't be any fun.
"Kaneki, do me a favor," Light said, speaking respectfully rather than barking an order.
After Light quickly relayed the situation regarding Peter Parker and provided the exact coordinates extrapolated by Alice, Kaneki simply nodded. Without a word of hesitation, he vaulted over the balcony railing and vanished into the New York night.
'It seems I really need to move,' Light thought, rubbing his chin as he scrolled through the fragments in his Warehouse.
He was accumulating too many summons. It was impossible for everyone to live in this Chelsea loft. Gali and Lorna were highly territorial and naturally repelled outsiders, and Light valued his own privacy. If he summoned someone obnoxious or dense, he wanted the option to house them elsewhere.
He needed to buy a massive, private villa. Luckily, money was no longer an issue.
"Alice, can you monitor the situation at the church?" Light called out.
"Negative, sir," Alice's voice chimed from the computer speakers, though her holographic avatar was nowhere to be seen, likely still watching cartoons with Gali. "There are no security cameras inside that abandoned church. Furthermore, satellite observation cannot penetrate the roof structure."
"Ah, right. Good thing I just pulled the Telescope Technique," Light muttered, remembering the classic ninja peeping artifact. He reached into his Warehouse and pulled out a smooth, clear crystal ball.
Placing the orb on the coffee table, Light focused his mind, locking onto Kaneki's unique biological signature. The glass clouded over before suddenly displaying a bird's-eye view of the violent battle inside the church.
A flicker of red light appeared, and Alice's holographic avatar materialized beside the table, looking at the crystal ball with intense curiosity. "Fascinating. Since it is ultimately rendering light and shadow, I can intercept the visual data and upscale it."
"You can interface with magic?" Light asked, raising an eyebrow. 'The Telescope Technique completely defies conventional science.'
"Visual data is visual data, sir."
True to her word, Alice's eyes glowed blue. A highly realistic, three-dimensional holographic projection erupted from the crystal ball, filling the center of the living room with a perfectly scaled, real-time diorama of the fight.
"A live-action movie," Light chuckled, sitting back in his leather armchair.
He watched the chaotic brawl leisurely. In his mind, Kaneki wouldn't lose to Venom. But as he watched, he decided to continue his lottery streak. He currently had an absurd 11.3 million Fan Values.
He initiated a series of rapid draws.
[Congratulations to the Host! Rewards obtained: Ashura Mode, Rukia Kuchiki's Shunpo (Flash Step), the Apology Bug, Sealed Left Arm of the Forbidden One.]
Light examined the items. The 'Apology Bug' was a piece of bizarre black technology from Doraemon; a tiny, cricket-like device that, when attached to a target, forced them to deeply regret their actions and apologize profusely.
But it was the card in his hand that made his breath catch.
[Sealed Left Arm].
Its function was simple: Collect all five pieces to summon Exodia the Forbidden One.
'A monster card that dictates an absolute, invincible victory the moment it steps onto the field,' Light thought, his heart racing. 'Will Exodia be considered a cosmic entity in the Marvel Universe?'
He thought of the Egyptian God Cards and the Creator God of Light. If they were summoned here, how would they stack up against Marvel's Celestials? Against the Living Tribunal?
'Only one way to find out. Let's do a five-million point draw.'
Light didn't hesitate. Over nine million points instantly dropped to four million. He had no intention of hoarding points. The System would inevitably upgrade, and he needed raw power now.
[Congratulations to the Host! Rewards obtained: Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Uzumaki Naruto Fragment x1, Doraemon Fragment x1, Mikasa Ackerman Fragment x2, Terminator T-800, Rukia Kuchiki's full set of Kido, Sealed Left Leg of the Forbidden One, Sakura Haruno's Hairpin, Make-Out Paradise.]
Light stared at the screen, his face completely blank.
The sheer disparity in value was staggering. He had pulled the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon... right alongside Sakura's hairpin and Kakashi's smutty romance novel.
His attention snapped back to the 3D projection in the center of the room. He frowned. The situation at the church was rapidly deteriorating. While he had been distracted by the lottery, Venom had mutated, gorging himself on his host's life force to become a mountain of muscle and teeth.
'I miscalculated,' Light realized, standing up abruptly. 'This isn't just movie-level Venom. The symbiote is adapting to the comic-level threat Kaneki presents. Even with Deadpool acting as a meat shield, things are not looking optimistic.'
Light quickly sorted through his newly acquired rewards. He selected a single, shimmering card. He walked out onto the cold balcony, the wind whipping his blond hair.
With a flick of his wrist, he threw the card high into the New York sky. The card spun rapidly, igniting into a blinding, celestial white light as a colossal, draconic silhouette began to unfurl its wings.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Low Earth Orbit
"Alert! Alarm! Massive thermal and exotic energy spikes detected over Manhattan!"
The bridge of the Helicarrier erupted into organized chaos as klaxons wailed. Agents scrambled across the command deck, furiously typing at their consoles to isolate the anomaly.
"Put the target on the main screen! How big is it?" Director Nick Fury barked, slamming his hands down on the central command table.
"Director, the target's displacement is too massive, and the atmospheric disturbance is scrambling our optics," Commander Maria Hill reported quickly, her eyes darting across the incoming data streams. "We only have a vague silhouette. But the preliminary sonar and thermal data suggests a body length exceeding several hundred meters."
On the massive ultra-clear display, thick storm clouds swirled over the city. Even with low-orbit satellite imaging attempting to pierce the cloud cover, all that was visible was a gargantuan, serpentine shadow writhing in the moonlight.
"Calculate its exact trajectory immediately!" Fury shouted, his solitary eye wide with disbelief. "Get a strike team in the air! S.H.I.E.L.D. needs to be there yesterday!"
'What the hell is this now?' Fury thought, a cold sweat breaking on his brow. 'Another alien incursion?'
Queens, New York - The Abandoned Church
"ROAR!!!"
Venom's roar sounded like an ancient, primordial behemoth. The sheer sonic force of the shockwave shattered the remaining stained-glass windows, sending a shower of sharp, colorful shrapnel raining down onto the stone floor.
"Wow, baby! How come you can regenerate just like your mother?"
Deadpool, who had been brutally swatted and crushed just moments prior, peeled himself off the ground. He casually popped a dislocated shoulder back into place, watching Venom's sliced neck knit back together with sticky black webbing. "You really are a momma's boy!"
Venom had never been humiliated like this. Deadpool's relentless, vulgar trash-talk was a psychological weapon that dealt infinite emotional damage.
"DAMN YOU! I AM GOING TO TEAR YOUR MOUTH APART!" Venom bellowed.
Driven entirely by monstrous rage, Venom swung his massive, tree-trunk arms downward like a pair of descending meteors.
RUMBLE!!!
With a deafening crash, the gigantic fists slammed directly onto Deadpool. The impact pulverized the solid stone floor, creating a massive crater. Thick, cobweb-like fissures spiderwebbed across the entire foundation of the church.
"Uh... guh..."
Deadpool lay completely flattened at the bottom of the crater, reduced to a gruesome, unrecognizable pulp of broken bones and torn flesh. A literal creek of blood pooled around him. He couldn't move a single muscle.
"Dead? Why aren't you talking anymore?" Venom sneered.
Because the symbiote had completely bypassed Flash Thompson's brain to maximize raw combat power, its intelligence had plummeted. It was fighting like a pure, single-celled predator.
'Opportunity,' Kaneki noted coldly.
With Venom entirely distracted by his hatred for Deadpool, Kaneki dragged his four crimson Kagune across the floor, turning himself into a blurring red meteor. All of his accumulated speed and power exploded outward.
BANG!
Before Venom could even finish his mocking laugh, a flash of red light tore through his guard. Agonizing pain ripped from Venom's abdomen straight up to his neck. Kaneki's strike had practically unzipped the monster. Gallons of black, tar-like fluid poured out of the massive wound like a ruptured dam, splashing heavily onto the floor and writhing unnaturally.
"Hey! Don't forget about me!"
Deadpool, miraculously forcing his pulverized body upright, launched himself out of the crater like a bloody jack-in-the-box. The air shrieked as he swung his katana with terrifying speed, aiming straight for Venom's massive ankle.
The high-speed slash carried immense kinetic pressure. The blade bit deeply into the incredibly dense, armored black shell of the symbiote, sending a shower of sparks flying as it severed tendons.
Simultaneously, Kaneki underwent a horrifying metamorphosis.
The crimson glow of his right Kakugan flared violently, bleeding a sinister, unstable light. Two more Kagune erupted from his back, bringing the total to six. The tentacles mutated, turning a dark, bruised purple-red. They intertwined and fused, taking the grotesque, segmented shape of a massive centipede.
Kaneki's face contorted into a mask of pure, unconscious violence. He leaped onto Venom's massive chest, using his centipede-like Kagune to anchor himself. Like an alien parasite, he rapidly scaled Venom's torso, his Kagune ripping the existing abdominal wound wider and wider as he climbed toward the throat.
From a distance, it looked as if Venom was being brutally, methodically dissected alive.
Peter Parker, still shivering in the corner, watched in absolute horror. His eyes bugged out of his bruised face.
'How is this possible?' Peter thought, his mind reeling. 'This isn't the quiet, tragic Ken Kaneki from the manga! This is a monster!'
Facing the agonizing dual assault, Venom went berserk. He violently ejected his massive tongue, whipping it toward Kaneki with the force of a steel cable. At the same time, thick, black tendrils erupted from his calves, shooting downward to ensnare Deadpool.
Kaneki leaped backward off Venom's chest. His six centipede Kagune uncoiled and snapped forward like whips, colliding with the massive, pink, muscular tongue in mid-air.
BOOM!!
A visible ring of compressed air exploded at the point of impact. The kinetic feedback was immense. After a split-second stalemate, Kaneki was blasted backward like a kite with its string cut. He flew straight through the shattered church wall, crashing out into the dark streets below.
"Kaneki!" Peter yelled.
Seeing their heavy hitter blasted out of the combat zone, Peter realized he was completely useless here without his web-shooters. He scrambled out of the church, desperate to check on the Ghoul.
Back inside, Deadpool had failed to dodge. He was currently wrapped tightly in layers of thick, black symbiote tendrils, hoisted high into the air.
"Hey! Fake Spidey! You're just gonna leave me here?!" Deadpool shouted after Peter. "You deserter! I'm definitely charging you that million bucks!"
He then looked down at the massive, furious face of Venom.
"Baby, let's talk about this," Deadpool said, wiggling his tightly bound legs. He turned his masked head to the side, acting coy. "You can do whatever you want to me, just please, I'm begging you, don't burst anything below the belt!"
He squeezed his thighs together, as if to say, Come on big boy, let's get happy!
"DAMN YOU!!!"
The magma-hot rage in Venom's heart boiled over. He squeezed his massive fist shut around Deadpool with crushing, apocalyptic force.
CRACK!
The sickening sound of every single bone in Deadpool's body snapping simultaneously echoed through the church.
"DIE! DIE!" Venom roared.
"Ah! Harder, daddy! ♂!" Deadpool wailed from inside the crushing grip, the sound muffled but distinctly, uncomfortably ecstatic.
Venom felt the mercenary's body literally liquefy in his grip. He knew the man had unparalleled regeneration, so he didn't stop. He twisted his massive fist, grinding the bones, wringing the flesh like a wet towel until there was absolutely nothing resembling a human form left.
"Finally... dead," Venom panted.
He didn't hear any more screams. With a furious grunt, he violently slammed the pulverized mass of meat and spandex into the stone floor, smashing a new crater with a deafening bang. To be absolutely sure, he ground his massive knuckles into the hole, polishing the remains into the dirt.
Only after performing this thorough execution did Venom finally exhale, his massive chest heaving. No one could endure Deadpool's relentless verbal poison without snapping.
The Streets Outside
Peter limped down the dark, deserted street, searching through the rubble. He spotted Kaneki lying motionless on the asphalt, covered in blood and dust.
"Kaneki, are you okay?" Peter asked, hurrying over. He had grabbed a discarded, oversized trench coat from an alley and wrapped it around his shivering shoulders. He reached out to help the boy up.
"Hah... hah..."
Kaneki suddenly snapped his head up. His single red eye glowed with a feral, terrifying intensity. His pale face was completely devoid of humanity. He stared deeply at Peter, panting heavily.
Peter froze, feeling a sudden, primal dread wash over him. His Spider-Sense wasn't just tingling; it was screaming. He smiled nervously, slowly raising his hands. "Uh, Kaneki? You good, man?"
Having been violently knocked out of his 'Centipede' Kakuja state, Kaneki's consciousness had completely fractured. He was operating entirely on basic, predatory instinct. He was starving.
Grab.
A slender, deceptively strong hand clamped down onto Peter's shoulder like a vice. Kaneki bared his teeth, leaning in, his gaze fixed hungrily on Peter's exposed throat.
'No, no, no,' Peter panicked, his heart hammering against his ribs. 'I don't even have my webs! If he actually eats my flesh, is Light going to pay for my funeral?!'
Just as Peter squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the bite, a massive shadow eclipsed the moon above them.
Clatter.
Three small, green beans dropped from the sky, bouncing lightly off Kaneki's shoulder and landing on the asphalt.
Kaneki paused. His nose twitched. Suddenly, as if smelling the most divine delicacy in existence, he dropped Peter, grabbed the three beans off the dirty road, and shoved them into his mouth.
He swallowed them whole. Instantly, a flush of healthy color rushed back into his pale cheeks.
Peter slumped against a parked car, utterly confused. 'Aren't Ghouls strictly cannibals? Why did he just eat beans?!'
Before Peter could process the absurdity of the situation, the air pressure in the street suddenly dropped. A massive, concussive wave of wind blasted through the avenue.
Peter looked up, and his blood ran cold.
SKREEEEEEOOOONNNKK!!!
A roar like apocalyptic thunder shattered the sky, shaking the very tectonic plates beneath New York City.
_______________________________
Word count: 2833
Comment below on what you think so far.
If anyone of you is interested in reading some advanced chapters, you can check out my p@ tr*on.
p@tr*on.co m/Rai_jin
Thanks for reading guys!