The wind howled madly through the deep shaft, like countless invisible hands dragging relentlessly at the two people suspended in midair.
"Don't move." Lynn's voice was quiet, but carried an unquestionable, icy hardness.
The tactical dagger flashed coldly in the darkness, its sharp edge already pressed firmly against the precarious white web strand. One slight push of his wrist would sever the lifeline keeping them both alive.
"Lynn! Are you insane? Put the knife down!" Gwen Stacy's voice warped as the wind tore at it, her eyes beneath her mask instantly becoming bloodshot.
She dug her fingers into Lynn's shoulders, her knuckles turning a frightening bluish white beneath her suit from the force. Overwhelming panic gripped her heart like a giant, icy hand.
"Rrrip..."
Another faint sound of a fiber snapping. Their bodies abruptly dropped.
The tremendous strain tore another gap in the damaged web strand. The mounting slot of the launcher on Gwen Stacy's wrist gave a metallic scrape under the unbearable load, as though it might shatter at any moment.
"It can't hold both our weight." Lynn lifted his eyes, his deep gaze resting calmly on the girl inches away.
There was no fear of death, no panic at falling from such a height, only an almost cruel rationality.
"I can do it! My launcher's about to restart! Just give me two more seconds!" Gwen Stacy shook her head desperately, tears mingling with sweat as they slipped down and soaked the lining of her suit.
One hand clutched the main web strand, its coarse fibers cutting through her glove as warm blood ran down the strand. Her other hand reached desperately downward, trying to snatch the knife from Lynn's hand.
"There's no time."
Lynn let her warm palm cover his wrist, but a gentle smile curved his lips.
He understood their situation all too well. The roar of Green Goblin's glider engine was rapidly approaching from above, and the acrid smell of burning engine oil had already reached his nose. If they kept hanging here, they would only become live targets, riddled with bullets.
More importantly, he knew this "vessel" was ready.
To make a proud superhero fall completely, even cross the multiverse with her memories to find him, he had to carve the deepest possible mark into her soul.
With blood, with death, with the ultimate sacrifice.
"Listen, Spider-Girl." Lynn turned his hand to grasp Gwen Stacy's trembling palm, then pulled her sharply toward him.
They were so close in midair that they could even feel each other's racing heartbeats. The freezing air high above the ground pierced his thin coat, yet could not obscure the steadiness he exuded.
"This world needs you." Lynn's voice was low, carrying a fateful resolve, his gaze fixed deep in Gwen Stacy's eyes. "And my job is to make sure you survive."
"I don't need you to save me! I want you alive!" Gwen Stacy screamed hysterically, the seeds of obsession taking root and sprouting wildly at that moment.
The superpowers she took such pride in, the conviction to protect New York that she had always upheld, seemed so ridiculous and powerless now. She could not even hold on to the man in her arms!
"Hehehe! What a touching final farewell! Too bad you're both going to die!"
Green Goblin circled overhead on his glider, its eerie green exhaust illuminating the shaft's crumbling brick walls. He raised his rotary machine gun, aiming its dark muzzle downward once more.
Lynn ignored the noise above.
He tilted his head up slightly and gently pressed his lips to Gwen Stacy's forehead through her thin white mask.
An exceedingly tender kiss, yet one tinged with the taste of blood.
Gwen Stacy's pupils abruptly contracted, her mind going briefly blank. The wind, the roar of gears, and Green Goblin's wild laughter all seemed to recede at that moment.
"Don't forget me."
Lynn whispered.
The next second, his gaze suddenly turned cold. He wrenched free of Gwen Stacy's hand, tightened his right hand around the tactical dagger, and slashed without hesitation!
Cold steel flashed.
"No-!!!"
Accompanied by Gwen Stacy's heart-rending scream, the half-length of web strand connected to Lynn was instantly severed.
Weightlessness swallowed Lynn in an instant, like the abyssal maw of a monstrous beast.
His body plunged straight into the Clock Tower's dark, deep shaft like a tattered kite with its string cut. The wind whipped his black coat into snapping folds, like a ragged flag.
Lynn kept his eyes open amid the rushing wind of his fall, his gaze piercing the darkness and locking firmly onto the white figure above.
Gwen Stacy hung in midair, leaning halfway out and reaching futilely, trying to catch the corner of his coat that had already vanished into the darkness. The wind had torn her mask halfway off, exposing her pale, contorted, tear-streaked face.
Her once clear, resolute eyes now churned wildly with utter despair, remorse, and a rapidly unraveling murderous intent.
It was the all-destroying obsession unique to a yandere.
Lynn plummeted through the darkness, the wind in his ears becoming a piercing shriek. Enormous gears meshed beside him, the roar of interlocking metal deafening.
Just before his back struck that fatal steel axle, before his bones were crushed completely, that cold, mechanical voice finally sounded in his mind.
[Ding!] [Host detected to have fulfilled the ultimate sacrifice condition.] [Target's emotional fluctuation value has exceeded the critical threshold: 200% (extreme darkening state).] [Simulation instance: "Clock Tower Battle" has ended.] [Calculating evaluation...]
Darkness swallowed him completely. All his senses were forcibly cut off at that instant.
A safe house on the outskirts of Brooklyn, New York.
The dim yellow floor lamp still radiated warmth, and the faintly bitter scent of freshly ground coffee had yet to dissipate.
Lynn's eyes snapped open, and he gasped for breath.
His back was already drenched in cold sweat, his muscles instinctively taut from the lingering sensation of falling weightlessly in the simulation.
Only an instant had passed in the real world.
Wanda was still curled up in his arms like a cat desperately lacking a sense of security, her cheek pressed tightly against his chest, her breathing even. The scarlet chaos barrier that isolated everything still enveloped the entire room steadily.
Lynn steadied his breathing, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes.
The investment had paid off. That obsessive Spider-Girl had definitely crossed the line called reason by now.
He leaned back against the sofa, preparing to check the SSS-rank completion reward on the system panel.
Yet, in that tenth of a second when he let his guard down.
"Bzz-!!!"
An intensely sharp pain suddenly erupted deep in Lynn's brain!
The top-tier Spider-Sense he had just brought back from the simulation issued an unprecedented, utterly shrill warning of mortal danger!
This sense of danger was ten, a hundred times stronger than when he had faced Green Goblin's machine-gun fire in the Clock Tower!
Every hair on Lynn's body stood on end, his muscles instantly tightening to their limit. Without betraying anything, he glanced out the window.
Beyond the barrier completely sealed by Chaos Magic.
In the night less than fifty meters from the safe house, a ghostly blue rift was suddenly torn forcibly through space.
A hand clad in a white suit, its fingertips stained with dried blood, reached out of the rift and dug firmly into the edge of reality.
Beneath a mask, a pair of bloodshot eyes, filled with an utterly sick possessiveness, locked onto Lynn sitting on the sofa through the darkness.
Before you continue