Chapter 96: The Floating Throne Strikes

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Several furious roars echoed from outside.

It seemed that the Dark Acolytes had finally discovered Peter's presence—or perhaps his recent actions had triggered the obelisk landing pod's automated defense system.

Regardless of the cause, dozens of hooks that were originally meant to descend to the ground had now shifted direction, heading upward toward him.

With the roars growing closer, a dark figure suddenly lunged at Peter.

At that moment, Peter had just withdrawn his hand from the mainframe.

Thanks to his Spider-Sense, he tilted his body slightly to the side while simultaneously lifting his knee, sending the Dark Acolyte crashing into the ceiling.

Without hesitation, he shot out a web, wrapped it around the acolyte, and yanked it downward with force.

BAM!

The acolyte collided directly with another one that had just rushed in.

Swish! Swish!

Peter's Vibranium Spider-Legs struck out like lightning, piercing through both acolytes and ending their lives instantly.

Without wasting time, he returned to the mainframe and grabbed two half-meter-square components that closely resembled computer motherboards.

He suspected these were the core "motherboards" of the mainframe.

Bringing them back for Shuri and the other tech specialists to analyze might lead to a more efficient way to deal with this technology.

After securing them with his webbing and attaching them to his chest, Peter prepared to retrace his steps back.

The return trip was far more challenging than his arrival.

The distress signal sent out by the mainframe before being destroyed had drawn Dark Acolytes toward his location en masse.

If not for the fact that this area was suspended at the top of the obelisk landing pod—with limited access points—Peter would have likely been completely surrounded by now.

Moving carefully, he took down dozens more Dark Acolytes as he made his way along the walls, finally reaching the bottom—the same entry point he had used to infiltrate the landing pod.

Along the way, he deliberately slowed his pace to observe how the Dark Acolytes reacted after the destruction of their mainframe.

At first, there were no noticeable changes.

But after about a minute, he noticed that many of the Dark Acolytes still in incubation had failed to hatch, dying prematurely.

Even those that were close to full incubation showed severe deformities or outright perished.

This realization filled Peter with excitement.

As he suspected, the entire incubation nest was controlled by the mainframe. Destroying it caused the entire hatching system to collapse. Now, they only needed to deal with the acolytes that had already hatched—no longer having to worry about an endless swarm.

This was an incredible advantage.

"Sam!"

Now that he had his answer, Peter leaped from his hiding spot and swiftly exited the obelisk landing pod.

The Dark Acolytes rushing toward him from below unintentionally became his stepping stones as he made his way upward.

"On my way!"

Falcon responded immediately.

A moment later, his figure swooped down from the sky, gliding just over Peter's position.

Peter shot out a web, latching onto Falcon's back.

With a sudden burst of speed, Falcon ascended, carrying Peter away from the battlefield—leaving behind a horde of furious Dark Acolytes howling in frustration.

Falcon had done this before.

Just moments earlier, he had extracted Ghost from a similar situation.

He had only dropped her off near another obelisk landing pod, scouting ahead for Peter's next move.

The straight-line distance between the two pods was about four to five kilometers, but in reality, navigating through the terrain tripled that.

Running on foot would have been exhausting.

Even using vehicles was impractical, given the constant threat of Dark Acolytes lurking everywhere.

Having aerial support made things much easier—solving all these issues in one go.

A few minutes later, Peter and Falcon landed at T'Challa's location.

As his suit's mask automatically retracted, Peter quickly tore off the webbing securing the two motherboard-like components and handed them to T'Challa.

"Have Shuri take a look at these. I pulled them from the mainframe of those landing pods," Peter said, getting straight to the point.

T'Challa nodded and immediately ordered one of his royal guards to deliver them to the rear as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Falcon led Peter toward the second obelisk landing pod.

However, their enemy wasn't foolish.

Before Peter even reached the location, Ghost's voice came through his communicator.

She had successfully infiltrated the obelisk landing pod once again—but this time, the interior was swarming with an overwhelming number of Dark Acolytes.

Based on her observations, only a portion of the newly created Dark Acolytes had been sent out. The rest had been kept inside the pod.

The reason was obvious.

"Are we still going in?" Falcon asked.

Peter had proven his strength, having already taken down one obelisk landing pod.

But that was when they had the element of surprise. Now that their enemies were prepared, the danger had increased significantly.

Falcon didn't think it was wise for Peter to take such a risk.

"Peter, fall back. Wait for Shuri's analysis," T'Challa advised.

He had been monitoring the situation closely.

Peter hesitated.

From a strategic standpoint, waiting for Shuri's research was the best course of action. That was precisely why he had brought the "motherboards" back in the first place.

But research took time, and time wasn't a luxury they had.

Suddenly, Shuri's urgent voice cut through the comms.

"Bad news! A massive spaceship has appeared in outer space, and thousands of Chitauri warships are approaching Earth!"

"What?!"

Everyone who heard the announcement was stunned.

So, the previous attack was just the vanguard?

Now, the real threat had arrived?

In an instant, anyone who had a moment to spare instinctively turned their eyes toward the sky.

Meanwhile, beyond Earth's atmosphere—

A colossal starship, the size of a small asteroid, had appeared in orbit. Its enormous frame blocked out the sunlight, casting vast portions of the planet into darkness.

It defied the rigid-body Roche limit that typically governed celestial bodies, suspending itself effortlessly above Earth's orbit.

This was Thanos' flagship.

The Floating Throne.

Dread. Oppression. Panic. Helplessness.

Countless waves of fear crashed over the hearts of every human on Earth.

This was it.

The true arrival of Thanos' dark army—a moment of terror that would engulf an entire planet in despair.

This wasn't some brawl in the wilderness.

This was planetary annihilation.

Across the world, governments fell into chaos.

Leaders scrambled to access their satellites to understand what was happening—only to find that all satellite communications had been cut off.

And then, from within the Floating Throne, massive hatches began to open.

Enormous, insect-like warships—known as Leviathans by the Chitauri—emerged, swarming like storm clouds blotting out the sky as they descended upon Earth.

At the same time, a new wave of landing pods broke through the planet's atmosphere, trailing fiery tails as they hurtled toward the surface at terrifying speeds.

The war had escalated.

Earth had entered an entirely new phase of battle.

(End of Chapter)

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