R Batman Incident (18)

Over Brooklyn District, Peter once again came face-to-face with a superhero’s pain.

Just as he had once faced Matt, this was the first time he had heard Stark speak of his fears in person, and the first time he had felt the struggle within him.

Peter suddenly realized that those worthy of being called heroes seemed to share the same traits. Daredevil Matt and Iron Man Stark were driven by the same force.

Peter had also never agreed so deeply with one saying as he did today—"Nobility is the epitaph of the noble."

Heroes were always trapped by a moral sense greater than that of ordinary people. Even knowing there was only a dead end ahead, they would still go.

But that did not mean they felt no fear or pain. Peter could sense that Stark was afraid.

And he had every right to be. No one in this world could be unafraid of death.

Yet it was as though something drove him onward, like a moth flying into a flame, toward that predetermined path.

Even though Peter had already described Stark’s death to him in detail, telling him about the fall from the top of the skyscraper, Stark still flew there without hesitation, as if he had long since picked out his own grave.

Just like that night in Matt’s apartment, Peter felt the same anger burning up from his chest.

But this time, Peter thought, he absolutely would not watch another tragedy unfold.

The same disaster would not happen a second time. He was no longer the immature Peter Parker from back then, no longer hesitating and giving up amid contradictions. He had seen the path he wanted to take clearly. No matter the cost, he would stop all of this.

Peter suddenly felt as though his brain had been injected with a sedative. That boiling anger gradually calmed, then condensed into a deeper force that surged endlessly within him.

Suppressing that emotion, Peter said to Stark, "Let’s go up together."

Steve, who was clearing vampires at the foot of the building, saw Stark and Peter fly together to the roof of Highland Tower.

It was already very late at night. The moonlight gradually brightened, its cold glow shining on the blood and giving it an eerie purple hue. The bats’ wings and claws gleamed with a mysterious luster.

Soon, several helicopters carrying mutation serum dispersal devices flew to the roof of Highland Tower. The devices resembled enlarged UV emitters, all shaped like flower buds.

Once the devices landed, Stark stood before one of the machines and made a few adjustments. A red light came on, and the flower bud slowly opened.

Meanwhile, Peter dealt with the bats flying toward them. Such a conspicuous entrance could not possibly escape the enemy’s notice, and the vampires sent roughly a dozen bats over to harass them.

Stark muttered to himself, "Activation will take about five minutes. It’ll keep going until all the gas is used up, around twenty minutes. We need to hold this place for half an hour, until the mutation serum takes effect."

Steve had no ability to fly and was better suited to ground combat. The ground forces desperately needed him as well. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were also mostly stationed on the ground. Without them, ordinary people had an extremely difficult time dealing with those giant bats. With the battle at such a stalemate, there was no support to spare anywhere. Any forced redeployment could cause the entire defensive line to collapse.

Five minutes passed quickly. The flower-bud-shaped dispersal devices gradually opened. Soon, Peter felt the air become moist. Then Stark stepped back, and a fierce gale swept through. The emitters directly disintegrated, and spherical storms swept over the entire battlefield.

Peter leaned over the railing at the edge of the building and looked down. At first, the bats showed no changes. But in less than two minutes, some began to gleam with the sheen of scales. After roughly three minutes, the mutation erupted completely.

Many bats grew a lizard claw from their heads, while a leg suddenly sprouted from their wings. Peter shuddered, because he realized these mutations were truly hard to look at. Put bluntly, they were disgusting.

Imagine a bat flying perfectly well through the air, suddenly shrieking as seven or eight lizard legs burst from its abdomen, then plummeting downward. The entire bat became a ball of flesh tangled with scales and claws.

Steve rolled aside, dodging a lizard-flesh ball monster that fell from midair. His throat felt a little uncomfortable. He spoke into the communicator, "Connors, this thing is just too disgusting. My God, I’ve lived this long, and I’ve never seen anything so…"

Indeed, the combination of bats and lizards was simply unbearable. This aesthetic was far too early for any carbon-based life-form. Quite a few frontline soldiers were not injured by the falling bat-lizard monsters, but they suffered a considerable mental blow and squatted where they were, dry-heaving.

But it had to be said that this mutation attack was extraordinarily effective. Most infected bats directly lost their ability to fight. After all, one could hardly expect a monster with seven or eight legs growing from its body and wings to keep flying normally.

Most mutated bats fell straight to the ground, either smashing into pulp or rolling around where they landed.

The bats’ Self-Healing ability was useless as well. Essentially, they were not injured; they had merely acquired extra parts. Self-Healing could close wounds, but it could do nothing about the extra scales, claws, and legs.

However, while most bats had been infected, some escaped unscathed. Seeing this, Deacon roared furiously, "Hurry up and attack the device on that rooftop!! Can’t you see it?! That thing is causing all this!!"

He was nearly frantic. Most of their living forces capable of fighting had been infected, and Deacon could not crack this mutation anytime soon.

In less than half an hour, the situation on the battlefield had almost become a one-sided slaughter. Humanity encountered no resistance as it retook the Brooklyn Bridge. If this continued, the vampires would surely be wiped out.

Deacon cursed loudly, but the situation did not improve at all. At last, he said coldly, "It seems we can only bring forth the great Bat Guardian ahead of schedule."

He stared coldly at the roof of Highland Tower and said, "The great Bat Guardian will destroy that damned device for us."

On the rooftop, Stark and Peter were focused on dealing with several surviving bats when Peter’s Spider-Sense suddenly went off. A hazy image flashed past, and Peter shouted, "Fall back!! Danger!! Get back, now!!!"

Stark retreated at once, but it was still a little too late. A violent red light erupted from the center of the roof, and a red beam shot into the sky, nearly dimming even the starlight.

Stark was blasted straight off the rooftop by the light. Peter nearly fell as well, but luckily he used his webbing to hang from the edge of the building and quickly climbed back up. Stark’s armor had suffered some damage from the impact, but its propulsion system still functioned. He clung to the edge of the roof before jumping back up.

After the red light in the center of Highland Tower’s rooftop gradually faded, a figure appeared. Peter saw a male figure with long black hair, dressed in formal wear, red light shining from his eyes, standing in the center of the beam.

This was indeed the common image of a vampire. Peter’s Spider-Sense had nearly reached its peak.

The overwhelming sense of danger was driving him mad. Every cell in his body told him to run, to leave this place. If he did not leave now, he would die.

The Bat God Guardian’s first words were, "Spider… where are you? Oh, there you are, my sacrifice…"

It was as if Peter’s throat had been seized. He slowly collapsed, feeling an enormous suction coming from that vampire. He clutched his neck and struggled desperately on the ground.

Great physical strength could not resist this suppression of the soul. Peter had possessed the power of Spider Mutation for far too short a time. He had no way to resist a Cosmic Vampire that roamed the Multiverse hunting Spider-Men.

Seeing this, Stark rushed over. He held Peter down, tore off his mask, then looked into his eyes and said, "Wake up! Peter! Wake up! You have to resist him!!!"

But Peter only kept convulsing, his eyes rolling back as he remained completely unable to respond to Stark.

Stark knelt on one knee and looked up. The figure calling himself the Bat Guardian had extended one hand, seemingly drawing something out of Peter’s body.

Without a second thought, Stark raised his palm and fired a repulsor blast at the vampire. But this vampire was not like the bats of Earth. A magical barrier appeared, effortlessly blocking all of Stark’s attacks.

Seeing that ranged attacks were ineffective, Stark charged at the vampire. Morlun had also noticed that there was someone besides Spider-Man on the roof, but he did not take Stark seriously at all. During his hunts for Spider-Men, many local forces had resisted him, but none had succeeded.

With a wave of his hand, Iron Man was sent flying. Stark saw what appeared to be something drawn from Peter’s body. He knew it was probably Peter’s soul, and he knew even more clearly that if this continued, Peter would certainly die.

Stark said to Jarvis, "Eject me from the armor! Then trigger the self-destruct! We have to interrupt him!!"

"There is a dedicated self-destruct armor nearby. You…"

"There’s no time! Use this one!" Stark shouted.

In an instant, Stark was ejected from the armor as it flew backward, and the armor shot straight toward the vampire.

The instant Peter regained consciousness, he saw Stark eject from the armor. The sight gradually overlapped with the image of Stark’s death that he had seen in his mind.

Peter shouted, "No!!!!"

Before he could finish shouting, black fluid surged from one of his arms, directly wrapping around Stark. It yanked back hard, throwing Stark before Peter.

But the violent impact and sudden stop at high speed still dealt a massive blow to Stark’s internal organs. Blood poured from his mouth, nose, and ears. Almost instantly, Stark lost consciousness.

Peter gasped for breath, nearly losing his mind. The image of Stark’s death replayed endlessly in his mind. It had almost happened…

That overwhelming fear swallowed Peter’s reason. His Spider-Sense began ringing wildly, and Peter’s mind became a chaos.

Suddenly, the vampire saw Peter, half-kneeling on the ground, raise his head to look at him. That gaze felt utterly unfamiliar. There was no fear or despair in it.

He had never seen any Spider-Man with such a look in his eyes. Throughout his hunts, he had seen too much fear, unwillingness, and resentment in the face of death, but never this calm as deep as a black sea.

"You damned vampire…" Peter slowly rose from the ground. He lowered his head, strands of hair falling before his eyes and blocking the bright moonlight, leaving his eyes shrouded in shadow.

"Don’t compare me to those bats," the vampire said. "I am a member of the great Morlun Family. I am the god of bats!"

"Bats? No…"

An endless black tide surged through the space of consciousness. In a daze, a flock of shadowy bats streaked across an unfamiliar night sky.

Morlun heard the Spider-Man before him speak in a deepened voice, as though it overlapped with another cold, ruthless voice:

"You have never seen a real… bat."

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