Reed Richards stared at the massive tactical monitor in the throne room, the screen washing his face in a harsh, pulsing light. Outside, a golden god was tearing the sky apart.
"Can you go out there and help him, Victor?" Reed asked, his voice tight.
Doctor Doom didn't uncross his arms. He stared at the telemetry data scrolling down a secondary screen. "There is a vast, quantifiable difference between heroism and suicide, Richards," Doom stated, his metallic voice dripping with cold pragmatism. "Look at the atmospheric energy parameters that creature is generating. If you wish for my death, simply ask. Eradicating the rest of the undead horde outside is a trivial chore compared to fighting that."
Before Reed could argue, the air pressure in the throne room violently dropped. The distinct smell of ozone and burning incense flooded the space.
Golden sparks materialized in the center of the room, spinning rapidly into a circular, crackling gateway.
Doctor Strange stepped out. His Cloak of Levitation snapped angrily behind him.
"I told you!" Strange barked, brushing ash off his lapels. "Spider-Man! Unless the Web of Fate is actively dragging you by the neck, do not wander into the multiverse! What circle of hell is this?!"
Strange paused. He watched a horde of terrified refugees sprinting through Doom's dimensional archway. He sighed, rubbing his temples, before his gaze locked onto the armored monarch.
"Ah. Victor Von Doom," Strange said dryly. "The prized pupil—and lover—of Morgan le Fay. I suppose you have business here as well."
Reed blinked. He turned slowly to look at Doom. "Morgan le Fay? As in, King Arthur's half-sister? The one who gave birth to Mordred?"
Doom stood completely rigid. He said absolutely nothing.
Taking the rare, stony silence as a confirmation, Reed shook his head and looked back at Strange. "Sorcerer Supreme, is multiverse travel truly this catastrophic? Perhaps a warning would have been useful before we calibrated the machine."
Strange stepped closer to the console. "Magic and technology operate on fundamentally different physics, Reed Richards. Your mechanical traversal doesn't respect the barriers of reality. If reality is a brick wall, your machine is a sledgehammer punching a crude, temporary hole through it. Magic, however, seeks out the natural, permanent fault lines and pathways."
Strange noticed Ash Williams clutching the flesh-bound Necronomicon. The Sorcerer Supreme's eye twitched, but he chose to ignore the cursed artifact, turning his attention to the monitor. Even Strange frowned when he saw the golden blur of the Sentry.
Reed pointed to the golden portal Strange had just walked through. It had shrunk to the size of a dinner plate, but it was still sparking, tethered to the room. "Why did you leave your doorway open?"
"Because a guest from deep space has come to our world," Strange said, his tone grim. "An entity seeking Spider-Man. He is the ancient nemesis of Knull, the symbiote god. And right now? He is using that dimensional tether to summon his counterpart from this dead universe."
Outside, in the sky.
Peter Parker hovered amidst the storm clouds, Mjolnir vibrating violently in his grip.
"If it's fresh meat you want, buddy," Peter yelled over the thunder, "I've got a whole buffet right here!"
Peter hurled the hammer. It broke the sound barrier, striking the Zombie Sentry square in the chest.
The undead Sentry didn't shatter. He simply caught the Uru metal handle, his momentum carrying him backward a few hundred yards. The Sentry floated there, tilting his rotting head.
Deep inside his fractured, decaying mind, a terrifying secondary persona used to exist. The Void. A dark, whispering shadow that terrified the golden god. But now? The Void was gone. The overwhelming, all-consuming virus had eaten it entirely. There was no fear, no inner conflict. There was only the gnawing, acidic burn of hunger.
Meat is good, the Sentry thought.
"Meat!" the Sentry shrieked, his jaw unhinging. "Give me meat!"
The Sentry tossed Mjolnir aside like a child's toy and rocketed toward Peter.
Peter thrust both hands out. His right hand recalled Mjolnir. His left hand conjured a jagged, blinding spear of pure blue bio-electricity. He hurled the lightning spear point-blank.
The Sentry didn't dodge. He flew straight through the plasma, letting the lightning shatter harmlessly against his indestructible chest. A decaying hand clamped around Peter's throat.
The Sentry slammed Peter down out of the sky, driving him into the muddy courtyard with the force of a meteor. A massive crater spider-webbed outward from the impact. The Sentry loomed over him, opening a lipless, blood-stained mouth.
Peter gasped for air, gripping the golden wrists. "Dude... seriously... do you know how long it's been since you flossed?"
The Sentry lunged to bite.
A split second before teeth met flesh, Mjolnir returned. The enchanted hammer slammed directly into the side of the Sentry's face, entirely tearing off his lower jaw.
The Sentry was thrown off. Peter scrambled to his feet, snatching the hammer out of the air. He coughed, rubbing his bruised neck.
"Sorry, buddy!" Peter wheezed. "But dentists are basically free during an apocalypse! You should really get that looked at!"
The Sentry stood up. The torn flesh and shattered bone of his face began to writhe. In seconds, his jaw molecularly reconstructed itself, snapping perfectly back into place.
Peter stared, completely baffled. Wait. If his body can molecularly reconstruct itself on a cellular level... why doesn't it just reconstruct the necrotic tissue? Does the virus override the healing, or does he just not want to be cured?
He didn't get time to ponder the biology. The golden zombie charged again.
Peter swung Mjolnir. The Sentry didn't block it. He grabbed the head of the hammer mid-swing. With a casual flick of his wrist, the Sentry hurled Peter—and the hammer he was holding—straight through a crumbling stone wall.
Peter crashed into the debris, his suit sparking. A blinding flash of solar energy erupted from the Sentry, scorching the courtyard and blasting Peter further back into the ruins.
[We haven't even reached thirty seconds yet], Venom's voice rumbled darkly in Peter's mind.
"Yeah, I know. I know!" Peter grunted, pushing a heavy stone block off his chest.
Behind him, a decaying Zombie Mockingbird crept from the shadows, raising her battle staves. Peter didn't even turn around. A thick, black symbiote tendril shot out from his shoulder blades, violently piercing the undead Avenger through the chest and pinning her to the masonry.
Peter stared through the dust. The Sentry was standing in the center of the crater, holding Mjolnir.
"Are you ready?" Peter muttered to his suit. "We need that hammer."
[Do you know what the optimal tactical outcome is right now, Peter?] Venom asked. [The Sentry kills us. That releases Knull into this universe. Knull fights the Sentry, and the rest of our team escapes safely through the portal while the gods tear this reality apart.]
"Wow. What a supportive partner you are," Peter smiled grimly behind his mask.
He launched himself out of the rubble, sprinting straight at the Sentry.
The Sentry didn't look at him. The undead god stared down at the enchanted hammer in his hands.
He squeezed.
An endless, blinding brilliance erupted from the Sentry's palms. Countless hairline fractures spider-webbed across the ancient, indestructible Uru metal.
With a deafening, reality-shaking explosion, Mjolnir shattered into a thousand glowing shards.
The concussive force of the dying magic hit Peter like a freight train. He felt the power of Thor instantly rip away from his cells. He was blasted backward, tumbling violently across the dirt before coming to a dead stop.
Peter's ears rang with a high-pitched whine. His vision swam. He couldn't hear Venom screaming in his mind. He just lay there on his back, staring up through the polluted clouds.
Was it his imagination, or did the stars suddenly look... closer?
A shadow blocked out the sky.
The Sentry pinned Peter to the ground. The golden zombie opened his gaping, reconstructed maw, diving down to tear Peter's throat out.
Teeth snapped shut. But not on flesh.
The Sentry's head was abruptly halted.
Peter blinked, his vision clearing just enough to see a hand gripping the Sentry's jaw, holding the monster back with effortless, terrifying strength.
It wasn't the red and blue mesh of a Spider-Man glove.
It was a hand made of flawless, gleaming silver.