An unknown, mysterious space.
Above, below, left, and right were all darkness—endless darkness stretching on without boundaries.
Like a corner of outer space, only without any starlight.
Iron Man sped through the space, drifting like a steel phantom. The dazzling white light from his chest reactor and engines cut through the haze, dragging a distinct pale trail of flame behind him.
No matter how he flew, he could not reach anywhere he could land.
"Jarvis, answer me. Jarvis." Stark, inside the Iron Suit, repeated the call for the fifth time.
But as always, no voice answered.
From the moment he entered this place, Stark had lost contact with Jarvis, the Artificial Intelligence. The network signal displayed—
None.
Logically, Stark used his own company's exclusive satellite signal. So long as he was anywhere on Earth, this bizarre loss of connection should not have happened.
"Could it be that this place really isn't on Earth anymore?" Stark felt an inexplicable panic. Even before he became Iron Man, when criminals had imprisoned him in a cave, he had never felt this frightened.
Because if this was not Earth, there was nothing he could do.
There would be no possibility of saving himself or returning to Earth.
"What is that?"
Just then, Stark suddenly saw something floating toward him through the darkness ahead and immediately approached using the Iron Suit's engines.
As he drew near—
Stark froze in shock. They were actually several corpses!
The corpses had apparently existed in this space for an unknown length of time. Their humanoid flesh had long decayed, exposing white bones. They wore spacesuits from an unknown civilization, with strangely designed laser guns pinned to their chests.
These corpses even had structures like tails or wings!
Stark's eyelids twitched as a storm surged through his heart.
They were alien corpses!
Inside the hotel.
The lights had gone out, leaving the room dark and silent, with only a few strands of silvery light falling across the windowsill.
Kara, lying on the bed, suddenly opened her eyes and slightly turned toward the window.
Was that an illusion?
Just now, she seemed to have heard the growl of an unknown creature coming from the other side of New York City, and the roar carried an intensely evil aura.
Kryptonian super-hearing had one downside. Sometimes, information she did not want to hear would pour into her ears.
It caused Kara to wake from her sleep, often wondering whether she was hallucinating and unable to tell if the sounds she heard were real or merely part of a dream.
When it came to controlling her abilities, she was far inferior to her cousin Carl. After all, Carl, as Superman, had fully brought out his Kryptonian powers and could wield them with perfect control. Meanwhile, to adapt to and blend into the human world, she had always concealed her Kryptonian abilities.
If that roar had been real...
Senior, he isn't in trouble, is he? Kara thought as she was about to get up. But at that moment, the girl's hand and leg beside her suddenly draped over her body.
Kara stiffened and looked back.
It was Gwen, who had long since fallen asleep. She had happened to turn over and, in the process, hugged Kara like a stuffed pillow.
Sleeping Gwen's posture was nowhere near as refined and elegant as when she was awake; it was even a little unrestrained. Her blanket had slipped open, her dress was disheveled, and her pale belly was exposed.
Kara inexplicably sighed and reached out to cover Gwen with the blanket.
Gwen did not know what dream she was having. Hugging Kara as if she were her own plush toy, she muttered with a sweet smile, "Xi Nian..."
"Senior, you're the one who truly has no shame." Kara frowned slightly and could not help muttering. She glanced at the windowsill, then ultimately closed her eyes.
After all, even if that growl had been real, it was far too distant from the streets of Queens.
No matter what, it could not possibly have anything to do with Senior Xi Nian, right?
After dealing with the second symbiote.
Xi Nian lowered the unconscious Peter to the ground. Aunt May, whose ears were still ringing, immediately rushed forward and pulled Peter into her arms.
"He's fine."
After leaving those words behind, Xi Nian's black feline body leaped forward, stepping on a lamppost and the outer wall of a building in succession. After several nimble leaps and bounds, he vanished from the street at great speed, though he was far slower than in his previous Tri-Symbiotic Form.
There was still one last symbiote left—the leader of the symbiotes.
Until it was dealt with, this could not be considered over!
From the symbiote Venom earlier, Xi Nian had already obtained the location of the final symbiote. That night, the symbiote's position had remained fixed in one place without moving.
Five minutes later.
Bronx, Drake Industries research base factory.
When Xi Nian, in his symbiotic state with the Essence Devourer Beast, arrived at the factory entrance, he felt the ground throughout the area shake violently. His feline eyes, their vertical pupils faintly gleaming green, lifted upward. Deep within the sealed base factory, with flames erupting from its tail like a volcano, a spacecraft was in the process of launching!
The third symbiote, the leader of the symbiotes that had descended upon Earth, was actually trying to flee...
At that moment, inside the spacecraft.
Dr. Drake, the founder of Drake Industries, stood alone at the spacecraft's control console. His eyes and neck were suffused with inky black, marking him as the host parasitized by the final symbiote!
As for why he was piloting the spacecraft away from Earth now—
Naturally, it was because he had sensed the deaths of his first and second symbiote subordinates in succession, then seen the overwhelming power displayed by Tri-Symbiotic Xi Nian in the news reports.
No matter how arrogant the symbiote leader was, it knew it could not defeat Xi Nian. It understood perfectly well that it would be Xi Nian's next prey, and so it could only flee Earth!
"What kind of monster is Venom parasitizing? How can it be this strong?!" Dr. Drake's expression twisted. Being frightened into fleeing the planet would be the shame of its life!
"Just wait. I will definitely come back!"
Dr. Drake roared inwardly, while outwardly remaining as calm as ever as he operated and adjusted the spacecraft's launch trajectory.
The spacecraft continued spewing flames as it took off, about to rise more than a hundred meters into the air.
But suddenly—
The ascending spacecraft jolted for no apparent reason, as though something had struck it viciously.
"He's here." Dr. Drake's face changed drastically.
Outside the spacecraft.
The Black Cat clung to the spacecraft's coated hull like a tiny thumbtack.
"Since you came, don't leave." Xi Nian opened his mouth, extending eight ferocious tentacles filled with tiny teeth. Protected and armed by the symbiote's dark proliferating layer, the tentacles became even tougher and more powerful, like the eight claws of the legendary Kraken!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The tentacled claws lashed out wildly, smashing violently against the spacecraft. Its metal shell immediately dented and ruptured, while streaking electricity sparked into flames!
"No! Don't!!" Inside the spacecraft, Dr. Drake felt an agonized despair and frustration, as if he were about to die before even making his entrance, and screamed madly.
If the third symbiote had known that Xi Nian was no longer in his previous Tri-Symbiotic Form, but merely in a form symbiotic with the Essence Devourer Beast alone, then if it had chosen to fight head-on, it would have been difficult to say who would win or lose. Who knew what it would have thought.
But that was only an if.
What greeted the third symbiote was a surging sweep of high-temperature flames inside the sealed cabin!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The spacecraft, having risen five hundred meters, exploded all over and became a gigantic blazing fireball. The tremendous explosions also drowned out the shrill howl of the symbiote named Riot from within!
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