Web of the Multiverse - 192 (Patreon)

Chapter 192: The Island Defense Line, Ocean Mutants

The sheer number of Smiling Men showed that Moonstar had nearly mastered her abilities.

Moreover, once Moonstar had summoned a fear entity, she could retain it. Even though Magik no longer feared the Smiling Men, Moonstar could still summon them directly to assist her in battle.

The truly terrifying nature of Moonstar’s abilities was finally beginning to reveal itself.

The sight of such a massive horde of Smiling Men attacking at once left the onlookers stunned. If any of them had taken Magik’s place, they probably wouldn’t have survived the first wave.

In just two weeks, Moonstar had grown frighteningly powerful. Even her old friends could not help feeling the pressure.

But Magik was not about to surrender so easily.

Facing the tide of Smiling Men surging toward her, Magik took a deep breath and summoned her strongest weapons: the Soulsword and her Armored Gauntlet.

The instant the Soulsword took shape, Magik’s hands closed around its hilt.

Then she shut her eyes. Invisible psychic power surged from within her, spreading through the air in unseen ripples.

During this period, Magik had not only continued improving her swordsmanship, but had also reached a new stage in developing her abilities, successfully learning how to harness her psychic power.

Her psychic power certainly couldn’t match Moonstar’s or the White Queen’s, but it was more than enough to take her swordsmanship to another level.

As Magik’s psychic power spread outward, it rapidly locked onto the precise position of every Smiling Man around her. She could even predict their next moves.

It was essentially another version of Daredevil’s abilities.

At the same time, dozens of Smiling Men formed an impenetrable wall in mere moments, completely surrounding Magik.

The Soulsword in her hand became a streak of flickering lightning, darting back and forth through the air and leaving dazzling trails of light in its wake.

Smiling Men fell in swaths like wheat before a scythe. Every one of them was torn apart, their bodies sliced to pieces in midair by the Soulsword.

But there were simply too many of them. No matter how fast Magik wielded the Soulsword, she could not keep up with the speed at which they swarmed her.

In the blink of an eye, Magik vanished completely from sight, like a reef swallowed beneath a crashing wave.

More than a hundred Smiling Men piled on top of one another, forcibly forming an enormous black sphere.

Sunspot and the others could not suppress their startled cries.

Peter, however, remained perfectly calm, standing to the side with his arms crossed.

He knew that Magik’s abilities were particularly well suited to dealing with attacks from large numbers of enemies.

Sure enough, the next second, a deep blue light erupted from within the black sphere formed by the Smiling Men.

The sphere immediately began to collapse inward.

A Portal connected to Limbo had appeared at its center.

The Smiling Men were being sent directly through the Portal into Limbo.

As for Magik herself, she had already escaped through the Portal.

Moonstar instinctively looked up. At some point, a deep blue Portal had appeared high above her head.

Magik burst out of it, accompanied by a small flying dragon perched on her shoulder. It was none other than the magical dragon Lockheed.

Standing on Magik’s shoulder, Lockheed spread his wings and let out a piercing screech before unleashing a dark red column of flame.

The fire came crashing down from above, threatening to engulf Moonstar and burn her to ashes.

But the teddy bear in Moonstar’s arms suddenly flashed a vicious gleam in its eyes. It raised one furry paw and swatted at the incoming flames.

The furry paw expanded at an astonishing speed, growing into a gigantic bear paw comparable in size to a heavy truck.

With a single swipe, it smashed the column of fire apart in midair.

But sharp flashes of lightning suddenly crackled through the air.

Magik had seized the opening to land on top of the enormous bear paw, plunging the Soulsword into it in a reverse grip.

Then she broke into a sprint, dragging the Soulsword behind her and forcibly slicing the massive paw clean in two!

Determination to win burned in Magik’s eyes.

She ripped the Soulsword free, leaped high into the air, and brought it down toward Moonstar with enough force to seemingly split a mountain peak.

Crack!

The sheer brilliance of that strike stunned everyone watching.

For an instant, it seemed as though a bolt of lightning stretching from heaven to earth had appeared directly before their eyes.

Everyone had the same instinctive thought.

Moonstar was going to be killed by that strike.

Yet Moonstar remained perfectly calm, as though she still had one final trump card she had yet to reveal.

Just as Magik’s descending sword was about to cleave her in two, an enormous purple figure suddenly appeared behind Moonstar.

It raised both arms and shielded her beneath them.

Clang!

A piercing impact rang out, loud enough to make everyone’s eardrums ache.

The Soulsword stopped dead in midair.

Blocking it were a pair of massive purple arms.

Those arms were covered in golden armor so durable that even the Soulsword could not pierce it.

Magik’s pupils contracted slightly. Only now did she finally get a clear look at the purple figure before her.

It was a bald man with purple skin. His enormous physique far exceeded the limits of any ordinary human.

It was none other than the Mad Titan King of this Multiverse... Thanos!

“Whose nightmare is this guy?”

Magik’s breathing had grown noticeably ragged. Her previous burst of power had consumed a great deal of stamina, but even so, she could not hide her curiosity about the Thanos standing before her.

He was simply too powerful. And just like the Smiling Men before him, he had clearly come from someone’s nightmare.

“That’s a secret I can’t reveal just yet. I’ll tell you once the war is over.”

Moonstar smiled at Magik.

Thanos’s existence was naturally a top-level secret. Aside from Peter and the few others who had been directly involved, no one else was authorized to know about him.

“All right. I guess my rank still isn’t high enough.”

Magik shrugged and stopped pressing the issue.

“So, should we keep fighting?”

Moonstar apparently wanted to test the strength of the Thanos she had summoned a little further.

But Magik saw no need.

“There’s no point in continuing. This purple-skinned guy’s defense is ridiculous. We can fight again once I figure out how to break through it.”

“Just don’t make me wait too long.”

Moonstar did not insist. She dismissed all the nightmare entities she had summoned.

With a series of soft pops, the nightmare entities dissolved into wisps of smoke and vanished into the air just as suddenly as they had appeared.

The onlookers could not help marveling at Moonstar’s ability once again. It was simply too useful.

It activated silently and required no preparation. There also seemed to be no limit to how many nightmare entities she could summon, and each one could potentially be extraordinarily powerful.

If Moonstar continued collecting several more types of nightmare entities, she would eventually have virtually no weaknesses in her abilities, making her one of the most well-rounded Mutants imaginable.

No wonder the White Queen had said that Moonstar’s potential rivaled Professor X after witnessing her abilities.

If anything, that had been a conservative assessment.

There was a very real possibility that Moonstar could eventually surpass Professor X.

At that moment, Peter, who had been watching from the sidelines, walked over and stopped between the two of them.

“Let’s call this combat exercise a draw.”

Moonstar and Magik nodded at the same time. Neither had any objections.

“Moonstar, your control has improved a lot. The Smiling Men can already carry out efficient encirclement tactics. But next time, you need to keep something in reserve. Don’t reveal all your strength too early.”

“If Magik had been a little more careful just now and opened a third Portal behind you, you’d probably already be dead.”

Peter began by evaluating Moonstar’s performance. His criticism went straight to the heart of the problem, and Moonstar immediately nodded thoughtfully.

“As for you, Illyana, your swordsmanship has basically reached its peak. So from now on, you need to train your Teleportation Ability much more rigorously.”

Magik looked somewhat puzzled by Peter’s assessment.

“Can you give me something more specific to work on? I’m not really sure what I should focus on right now.”

Peter thought for a moment before suggesting a teleportation technique that would still be quite difficult for Magik.

“Can you open several Portals at the same time? Then keep moving back and forth between them so your opponent can never figure out where you’re going to appear next.”

Magik froze as if struck by lightning.

It felt as though a door that had blocked her path for a long time had suddenly been thrown open, revealing an entirely new world beyond it.

“I think I understand. Thank you, Mr. Parker.”

Magik thanked Peter sincerely. By now, she was completely convinced of his ability to guide her.

“Good. As long as you understand. All right, go get some rest. We’ll continue training this afternoon.”

Peter waved everyone off to rest, then climbed onto his Spider-Cycle and headed toward Blackstone City.

...

At that moment, deep within Blackstone City, Sebastian and the White Queen were discussing the deployment of the island’s defenses inside a conference room.

Sebastian stood before a massive holographic nautical chart.

Krakoa was marked at the very center.

The chart essentially displayed the entire Pacific Ocean, while one corner showed a small portion of the west coast of North America.

Numerous red points of light were clearly visible across the holographic chart, densely clustered and blinking around ports along the west coast of North America.

Most of them were still in coastal waters. Only a little over a dozen had appeared east of Hawaii.

Those red dots represented the naval fleet currently controlled by the Poisons.

Each one represented a vessel at least as large as a frigate.

At present, more than three hundred red dots were flashing across the holographic nautical chart.

That meant the Poisons had already assembled a truly formidable naval force.

Once that force launched its full-scale attack, the Mutants on Krakoa would face their first real test.

“The situation is even worse than we imagined.”

Sebastian traced an arc across the holographic nautical chart with one finger.

The arc began on the west coast of North America and stretched all the way to Krakoa.

“The Poisons’ naval forces are still assembling. The aircraft carrier group in San Diego has already assembled in port, and their nuclear submarine force has begun submerging.”

“Based on the information we currently have, we can infer that they’ve already narrowed down Krakoa’s approximate location. Once they launch their attack, they’ll reach the waters around the island in the shortest possible time.”

Sebastian’s tone grew increasingly grave.

Judging from the current situation, the pressure they were facing was almost unimaginable.

However, Sebastian’s ability to obtain such precise intelligence gave the Mutants a major strategic and intelligence advantage.

And all of it was thanks to the third Mutant present in the conference room.

Sebastian turned toward the back of the room, where a young man with short brown hair and a full beard was sitting.

The young man wore a dark green battle suit that looked as though it had been woven from fish scales.

Several deep slits could also be faintly seen along his neck behind his ears.

They were actually specialized organs resembling fish gills, allowing him to remain underwater for extended periods without worrying about suffocation.

“Deep, thank you for everything you’ve done during this time. We wouldn’t have obtained such important intelligence without your efforts.”

Sebastian thanked the young man sincerely.

The young man known as The Deep responded with a modest smile.

“There’s no need to be so formal, Your Excellency. As a member of the Mutants, it’s my honor to do my part.”

Then The Deep revealed another development, and it was particularly bad news for the Mutants.

“My friends told me that a large number of ships around San Diego have already begun leaving port. I’ve had a pod of dolphin friends follow in the aircraft carrier group’s wake so they can keep a close watch on its movements.”

“My whale friends also heard the propeller noise from nuclear submarines in the deep sea. They’ve already started moving out into the Pacific.”