"Now, it's your turn."
Kingpin's voice rumbled like distant thunder—low, inevitable, and heavy with finality.
Spider-Man seethed.
His eyes flicked to Daredevil, crumpled in the rubble, chest caved in, each ragged breath a wet, broken gasp muffled beneath his mask. Fear clawed at Peter's ribs—but it was drowned out by white-hot fury.
"Hey, White Suit!" Spider-Man forced a quip, though his voice shook. "Didn't your tailor warn you? That fabric stains real easy."
He dropped into a loose fighting stance, posture relaxed but muscles coiled. Inside, his mind screamed: I'll rip that smug mouth off your face with my bare hands.
Kingpin cracked his knuckles—once, slowly. Like a lion savoring the last tremor of its prey before the kill.
"This city breeds insects like you," he said, stepping forward. "Masks and tricks. Shadows and noise. You think that makes you a threat?" He shook his head. "True order isn't built in alleyways. It's forged in absolute power."
His fist—thick as a clay pot, veins like steel cables—rose.
And then he moved.
Too fast.
Spider-Man's body reacted before his thoughts could catch up. He twisted backward, firing webs in a dense net meant to ensnare, entangle, delay.
Kingpin didn't stop. Didn't even flinch.
He plowed through the webbing like it was tissue paper.
"Your net," he growled, already within striking distance, "can't catch a shark."
The fist came like a wrecking ball.
Peter arched his spine mid-air, planted both feet on Kingpin's chest, and kicked off with every ounce of strength he had. The recoil jarred his bones—like kicking a mountain wearing a suit. He landed hard on a twisted steel beam twenty feet away, lungs burning.
Useless.
Strength. Durability. Speed.
It wasn't even a contest. This wasn't some thug with a gun. This was Wilson Fisk in full, unhinged dominance.
"Give up," Kingpin said, advancing like a glacier. "Kneel. Reveal your face. Do that… and I'll only kill you."
—
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
Joren's Stand, Star Platinum, moved faster than thought itself—each punch a golden comet, shredding the clinging darkness with waves of purifying Ripple energy.
But the Beast—that writhing ocean of shadow summoned by Madam Gao—only grew. It drank the light, fed on resistance, swelled with every blow.
"Hahahaha!" Madam Gao laughed, arms spread as if embracing a storm. "Feel it? That's not just energy—it's the Iron Fist of the Abyss! The Beast is the soul of this city! Every scream, every dying breath for centuries—all gathered here!"
Her voice turned ecstatic, unhinged.
"As long as fear exists, the Beast is eternal! The brighter your light, the hungrier it becomes! Surrender! Let your soul be devoured—become one with the divine dark! That is true immortality!"
Joren's eye twitched.
Here we go again.
Madwoman's babbling. Sticky, endless shadows. And him—just trying to get home in time to watch that documentary on humpback whale migration.
Was that really too much to ask?
A deep, quiet fury surged—not rage, but the cold, sharp annoyance of a man whose peace has been violated one too many times.
Stop it. Just… stop.
That simple, absolute will surged through his bloodline—
—and clicked.
A switch long dormant ignited.
At that exact moment, the Beast sensed the shift. Its core—Void Star, a singularity of condensed despair—expanded.
Darkness erupted into a jagged maw, wide enough to swallow the sky, lunging for Joren's head.
It's over.
No.
STOP IT!
—
BUZZ—
Silence.
Sound vanished. Motion froze.
Kingpin's fist hung mid-swing, inches from Spider-Man's skull. Dust hung in the air like suspended ash. Sparks froze mid-flight. Rubble ceased its fall.
The world had become a monochrome ukiyo-e—still, silent, stripped of time.
Only two things remained vivid:
Joren.
And Star Platinum behind him—now blazing not just with gold, but with something deeper, older, brighter.
The colossal, yawning maw halted mere inches before him.
At its heart—suspended in the still, silent vortex—floated a crystal core unlike any he'd ever seen. It shimmered with a fragile, prismatic light, like fractured glass catching moonlight.
And it was fully exposed.
To Star Platinum.
Too delicate. Too vital. Too vulnerable.
A single word surged through Joren's mind—not as thought, but as ancestral instinct, echoing from the marrow of his bones:
"ORA!"
Ya re ya re…
A knowing glint flickered in his eyes.
So that's how it is.
He stepped forward.
"Despair."
His footfall was the only sound in the hollowed-out world.
Star Platinum, perfectly synchronized with his will, raised a fist drenched in solar radiance—rippling with the weight of mountains, blazing like a fallen star.
Joren's gaze locked onto the exposed core.
"ORA!"
No thunderous roar. No world-shattering shockwave.
Just precision.
The golden fist struck the core dead center.
Click…
A soft, crystalline chime—like a bell tolling the end of an age.
Joren turned slowly, slipping his hands back into his coat pockets.
"Time begins to flow."
The words were barely a whisper.
Then—
CRACK!
The gray void shattered with a deafening roar. Color, sound, light, and shadow rushed back into the world like a dam bursting.
"—AAAAGH!"
A scream ripped through the theater—raw, soul-rending, tearing from the depths of Madam Gao's being.
Her fanatical grin twisted into abject horror. She convulsed, coughing up thick black blood. The light in her eyes guttered and died.
"No… no… my god…"
She stared at the space where her divine beast had once dwelled—now empty, hollow, erased.
The entity that had tormented Joren, that had defied mortal comprehension… was gone.
As if it had never existed.
---
On the other side of the chaos, Kingpin's fist still hurtled downward like a piston of doom—aimed to pulp Spider-Man into paste.
But at the very last instant, an invisible force shoved Peter aside.
The moment time resumed, Star Platinum—blurring past in a streak of violet—gave Peter a precise, non-lethal nudge before vanishing back to his user.
THOOM!
Kingpin's punch missed by a hair, cratering the concrete instead.
BOOM!
Peter hit the ground hard, gasping, ears ringing. He had no idea what just happened—only that the hulking brute had stumbled mid-swing, as if yanked by unseen strings.
His eyes darted to the tall figure in the coat.
Did… he do that?
"What… what did you do?!" Kingpin snarled, wrenching himself from the rubble.
He hadn't seen it. All he knew was that Madam Gao—the "invincible monster"—had vanished in an instant… and his kill shot had failed.
"You… damned bug!"
Abandoning Spider-Man, Kingpin charged Joren with berserk fury.
Joren didn't even turn.
Behind him, Star Platinum materialized in a flash of violet lightning.
"ORA!"
A single, devastating uppercut.
BAM!
Kingpin's feet left the ground. His spine arched violently backward as he rocketed through a concrete wall—shattering brick, steel, and doubt alike—vanishing into the ruins beyond.
Silence.
Then, a slow exhale.
Joren adjusted his coat collar.
"Don't interrupt."
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