Chapter 103: Solus
AN: Sorry for the delay. Been too busy lately and also had work last weekend :(
Anyway, here's the chap!
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Chapter 103: Solus
With Solus’ signal, the rest of the Inheritors charged to the nearest Spider and started attacking them.
At the same time, the Spiders did what they do best. Beat up the bad guys.
Solus grinned and took out a pouch from his inner pocket before tossing it to another Inheritor.
“Morlun. Find the Prodigy and wake her. Once she’s awakened. Eat!”
“My pleasure.”
Morlun laughed and ignored the rest of the Spiders as he left the scene with a powerful jump.
Just as he was about to leave, an angry voice called out to him and intercepted him.
“MORLUN!”
That figure had spikes all over his body and his mouth morphing into that of a spider’s.
Two stingers appeared from his wrist as he charged towards Morlun.
“Ah! The Other! How nice of you to deliver yourself to me!”
Morlun sneered as he faced Kaine.
Solus saw this as well and was about to join their fight to speed things up when a Spider got in his way.
It was Cosmic Spider-Man.
“I told you, you made a big mistake coming here.”
“Ah, that smell. So full of life! How delicious!”
Solus cheered in excitement upon feeling the intense life energy within Cosmic Spider-Man.
Cosmic Spider-Man’s eyes and fist started to glow as he sent out an energy beam straight towards Solus.
He expected Solus to be instantly disintegrated but was surprised to see him blocking his power with just an arm!
“That’s impossible! That’s the force of creation itself!”
Solus chuckled and approached him while Cosmic Spider-Man kept firing the energy beam at him, seemingly trying to push him back.
Alas, Solus was unfazed and only kept nearing him until…his hand clenched into a fist and smacked Cosmic Spider-Man straight to the ground.
The next moment, he grabbed Cosmic Spider-Man by the head and laughed at him.
“Your precious Primal Force of Creation? You poor fool! That is Pure Life Force! The power that my broon feasts on. And while it may be too much for any of my children to handle…I am the first of my kind, and my hunger knows no limit!”
Solus opened his mouth and suddenly, Cosmic Spider-Man seemingly turned into pure light as Solus inhaled it bit by bit, leaving nothing but a husk that was once the most powerful Spider-Man in the multiverse.
“No…I had ultimate power…ultimate responsibility…”
As Cosmic Spider-Man fell, the other Spiders fell as well one after the other.
Kaine was broken in half by Morlun who soon started drinking his blood.
Silk was killed by multiple Inheritors surrounding her and began feeding on her.
Spider-Girl died trying to protect her little brother Benjie.
One after another…the Spiders began to fall…until no one was left.
Morlun came to Solus.
“We’ve won. Now, all that’s left is to find the Prodigy.”
“...”
“My lord, is something wrong?”
Morlun asked Solus who was frowning as he looked at the corpses laid before him.
“Something…feels off…”
As if on cue, a voice suddenly resounded around them.
“Well done. That was some fight. Alas, if only it were real.”
“WHO!?”
Morlun growled as he looked around but found no one.
“Well, you know what they say. Reality can often be quite…disappointing.”
Suddenly, red mist began to show all over them.
As if rewriting the reality they once knew.
In their surroundings, they were no longer in the Spider-Refuge, but in a dark cave. Each of them being placed inside a cell of their own.
Occasionally, they would hear the screams of pain and misery from one of the cells.
Solus charge straight for the iron bars as he tried to break free, only to find the bars not budging at all from his power.
“WHERE IS THIS!? WHO ARE YOU!?”
*Step*Step*Step*
A person’s footsteps could be heard as a figure slowly emerged from the darkness and in front of his cell.
“Benjamin Freed, EPD. You’re under arrest for crimes against the Spiderverse.”
Solus was enraged and slammed his fists on the iron bars but it still wouldn’t break.
“GET ME OUT OF HERE, BOY! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT FORCES YOU ARE DEALING WITH! I AM YOUR DEATH!”
“Hooh.”
Before Benjamin could say anything, a cold voice suddenly sounded from behind him.
This time, two more figures appeared. Both looked identical as if they were the same person.
“You dare claim to be Death in front of us?”
“Worm, it is you who has no idea who you are dealing with.”
The two Deaths gave him a cold smile.
Solus was confused at first but his eyes suddenly widened as if he saw something.
He stumbled a few steps backward and fell on his ass.
“Y-you…! N-No! This is impossible! H-how!?”
Mors smiled and narrowed her eyes.
“Don’t expect you will have a pleasant death.”
Mara added with an evil smile.
“You’re our toy now.”
Looking at the two of them, Benjamin was a bit speechless.
They seem to be enjoying this too much?
Well, these two beings have lived for so long and should be pretty bored…
I wonder if Mara would turn into another shut-in like Mors?
“Well…you two have fun playing.”
“Umu, go do your thing.”
“Thanks for the toys!”
While Mors returned to her loli form for who knows what reason, Benjamin left the two to deal with the prisoners while he left the Soul Realm and returned to reality.
Back in reality, Peter was poking Solus’ body curiously.
“So…what happened? They just suddenly dropped dead.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I used the Reality Stone to trap them in another reality then used the Soul Stone to take their souls in a soul prison of mine.”
Benjamin answered.
Hearing him answer so nonchalantly about using the Infinity Stones, everyone was dumbfounded.
Miguel was the first to react.
“Hold on a sec! Reality Stone? Soul Stone? Where did you get these? Aren’t Infinity Stones not supposed to work in another universe? Did you take this universe’s Infinity Stones or something!?”
Benjamin shook his head.
“No. Mine is just special. Don’t worry about it.”
“...”
Everyone was speechless again.
Benjamin saw their awkward looks and realized.
“Oh, right. Sorry. I should’ve let you guys fight as well. My bad.”
“...”
“Don’t worry. I only dealt with the Inheritors who traveled here. There’s plenty more of them in their homeworld!”
Suddenly, more figures appeared from the portal.
It was…Solus, Morlun, and the others again?
“Huh?”
Benjamin was confused.
Seemingly sensing his confusion, Mors answered him by speaking directly in his mind.
“Those are clones. Set to replace the originals when they die. According to these guys, they have a separate world to produce all sorts of clones. Get another one of each so me and Mara can have one each. I think we can play Inheritors Chess afterward. Oh, you can directly kill them after the third time, we don’t need them.”
“...”
This time, it was Benjamin who was speechless.
Those two are really treating them as toys…
With a wry smile, Benjamin waves his hand and directly sends their souls into the Soul Realm’s prison so the two Deaths can play chess with them as their pieces.
After that, more clones began to appear.
Seeing the third batch appear, Benjamin explained to the others about the clones.
Kaine immediately formed a team of clones with Ben Reily and Jessica Drew’s clone to attack the clone world and destroy the clone manufacturing site while the other Spiders charged towards the Inheritors homeworld to bring an end to this once and for all.
In the meantime, Benjamin squatted down on Solus’ body and took a pouch in his inner jacket.
Opening it, he was surprised to see a terrigen crystal inside.
That coupled with what Solus said about awakening the Prodigy led Benjamin to believe that the Prodigy wasn’t really their Peter Parker, but someone else.
Someone who needed a terrigen crystal to awaken.
“...Leah?”
Benjamin was amazed.
It seems that Leah’s Inhuman power will let her become another Spider Totem.
One that is probably even more talented than Silk.
Benjamin looked at everyone and saw that the situation was more or less stable.
The only problem was Solus’ clone as he was too powerful.
Benjamin thought for a moment and decided to give Peter an Untainted Symbiote to boost his power.
When Peter got it, he was so excited that he quickly bounded to it and started to wreak havoc among the Inheritor clones.
What was even more surprising was the fact that he could take on Solus on his own now!
Seeing as it should be okay to leave them be for now, Benjamin took little Benjie to protect him and keep him away from the fight as he left the scene.
He looked for MJ and Leah who had left before the meeting started as Leah was hungry at the time.
Sure enough, they were still in the cafeteria, not knowing that there was a fight ongoing.
“Mr Freed! Did you get hungry too?”
Benjamin showed a wry smile and shook his head.
“The Inheritors have invaded. I’ve already dealt with the ones that came here and the rest are preparing to defeat the third wave and bring the fight to them. And here you’re still eating cakes.”
MJ blushed in embarrassment.
“This is one good cake, you know! Also, there’s a fight!? I need to be there too!”
“...Figured you’d say that. Give me Leah. I’ll protect her and little Benjie here together. Go have fun.”
“...I feel like you’re the only one who’s not taking this whole Spiderverse-Inheritors war thing seriously…”
“Says the girl with cake still on her cheek while everyone’s fighting.”
MJ blushed again.
“Shut up! I’m going now aren’t I!?”
With a thwip, MJ swung to where the fight was, leaving Benjamin alone with the two kids.
Leah looked at Benjamin and asked.
“Is Spider-Man fighting the bad guys?”
Benjamin smiled.
“Yeah. And they’ll win.”
“Yeah! Spider-Man always win!”
Leah cheered.