[Third Person's PoV]
"I'm sorry, Daddy… I—," Aria said somberly, her voice barely above a whisper. But Peter raised a hand and cut her off gently.
"It's fine, Aria," Peter said, his tone soft but firm. "None of this is your fault. You have absolutely nothing to apologize for." He reached for his mask and pulled it back over his face. Though his features were hidden, the weight of sorrow and the burn of pain still lingered deep within his soul like a festering wound. His jaw was tight beneath the mask, a grimace frozen in place.
"I don't want to be that person who brings bad news in the middle of a crisis, but... I have something important to report," she said, her voice sheepish and hesitant, as if unsure whether now was the right time.
Peter inhaled slowly, centering himself before speaking. "What is it?" he asked calmly, his tone even as he adjusted the mask into place once more.
"It's Kraven," Aria began. "He's just received a shipment of weapons. Heavy ones. And his men… they're moving. Fast. It looks like they're preparing for something big."
Peter's brow furrowed beneath the mask. "Weapons? What kind of weapons?" he asked, his voice tense with concern.
"The military kind. Full-scale heavy artillery—rocket launchers, automatic rifles, explosives. But here's the strange part: they weren't stolen. Every single piece of gear was acquired legally and is registered under Kraven's name. It's all legit."
Peter let out a long, exhausted sigh, his breath ragged. This wasn't just physical pain—it was the anguish of failure weighing him down. He had just failed the people he was meant to protect. And now, before the grief could settle, a new crisis loomed ahead.
"Wonderful," he muttered sarcastically. "Just what we needed… After this is over, I'll rally the others. We'll deal with Kraven, and we'll drive him back underground where he belongs. For now, let's move to Nightwing."
With that, Peter summoned a swirling portal of golden light and jumped through without hesitation.
---
Meanwhile…
Harry flailed violently, his legs kicking at the air as he was suspended above the ground. Pain surged through every nerve in his body, but he wasn't flailing in vain. He was building kinetic energy, converting every desperate movement into raw power.
The energy pulsed through him, climbing from his feet, surging through his core, and finally saturating every fiber of his being.
The demon standing before him merely laughed, his voice like nails against the walls of hell. Flames crackled from his skin as he intensified the blaze. "A futile attempt!" the demon roared. "I'll savor every scream, every cry. I'll burn your very soul from existence, mortal!"
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!" Harry's scream tore from his throat, his eyes rolling back until only the whites showed. The pain was indescribable, a torment beyond reason. But even as agony consumed him, his instincts took control.
His body, desperate to survive, moved on its own. Emerald chi flared violently from his hands like a storm unchained. Twin orbs of pure energy, each the size of a tennis ball, crackled to life in his palms.
With a primal shout, Harry released the spheres. They shot forward like bullets, slamming into the demon's chest. The resulting explosion lit up the graveyard in a blinding green flash, blasting debris in all directions.
From within the cloud of emerald smoke, two figures emerged—Nightwing from one side, the demon from the other.
The demon's skin was scorched, peeling away to reveal raw, glistening muscle beneath. But it healed quickly, steam rising as his body knit itself back together.
Harry dropped to the ground, landing in a crouch. He clutched his sides in agony. His entire ribcage was exposed, the skin and muscle around it blackened and charred. The smell of burnt flesh hung in the air.
He gagged and blood mixed with bile spilled from his mouth, splattering the ground. Sweat soaked his face, and his chest heaved with shallow, painful breaths.
Still, he didn't stop. Gritting his teeth, he wiped his mouth with the back of his trembling hand and focused inward. His chi surged once more, glowing weakly as he forced it to accelerate his healing. The price was steep—most of the kinetic energy he had built was drained in an instant.
But the pain remained.
His vision blurred. A throbbing headache flared in his skull as his body tried to process the sheer magnitude of injury and effort.
The demon chuckled again, his voice low and condescending as he took a step forward. "Congratulations," he said mockingly. "I might've actually felt something… for a moment."
Harry's eyes brimmed with tears. Not of fear—but frustration, pain, and fury. He forced himself up, staggering. Then, without warning, he began to bounce lightly on the balls of his feet, flicking his hands as if trying to shake the pain loose.
"You haven't felt anything yet," he growled through clenched teeth. "I won't rest until you feel at least a fraction of the torment you've put me through."
His body shimmered with renewed energy. Kinetic power surged through his veins, and his green eyes glowed with fierce light beneath his mask.
The demon sneered, unimpressed. With a sudden burst of speed, he turned into a blur and launched himself at Harry.
But Harry didn't flinch. Instead, he stood tall and extended his hand. Emerald spheres of crackling chi formed around him in a protective storm. As he pointed, they launched forward in complex spirals, darting like intelligent missiles.
The demon cackled, his claws and tail igniting in roaring hellfire. He danced through the air, slashing the orbs apart with explosive force, each detonation lighting up the area around them.
The demon's tail whipped toward Harry's face—but before it could strike, Harry caught it mid-air with one hand.
Growling, Harry twisted his body with brutal force and flung the demon like a ragdoll, sending him crashing through the graveyard fence with a thunderous BOOM.
Splinters flew. Gravestones shattered. But Harry stood tall—shaking, bleeding, burning, but alive and still fighting.
Harry chased after the demon without hesitation, his boots slamming into the ground as he raced forward with raw fury in his veins. The demon twisted in midair, flipping backward before landing in a low crouch. Dirt skidded beneath his clawed feet as he slid to a stop, then charged at Harry with murderous intent.
An overhead slash came screaming down, but Harry weaved aside just in time. The two clashed in a brutal flurry of close-quarters combat—feral, unrelenting, and fast.
Harry blocked the first strike with his forearm, countered the next with a palm to the demon's jaw, parried the following blow with his elbow, then swatted away a tail swipe that would've gutted him. His movements were fluid, reactive, calculated. Every parry, every impact built kinetic energy within his body, emerald arcs crackling over his skin like controlled lightning. With each movement, he grew faster, more dangerous.
But the demon wasn't slowing down either.
If anything, he was enjoying this. His monstrous smile widened, fangs gleaming with sadistic glee as he matched Harry strike for strike.
Harry ducked under another flurry of swipes. His fists trembled with stored power. Chi surged around him like a storm about to burst. With a roar, he swung upward, his right fist glowing with violent, wild energy.
He struck the demon square across the chest.
A deafening boom rang out. A blinding flash exploded from the point of impact as the demon's body folded like paper. The sheer force of the punch lifted him off the ground and sent him rocketing backward. Nearby car windows shattered in a chorus of crashing glass as shockwaves rippled outward.
The demon hit the ground hard, digging his clawed feet into the asphalt, gouging deep trenches to slow his momentum. When he finally came to a halt, he spat a glob of blood onto the cracked pavement and growled, his voice dripping with venom.
"Why you little shit…"
He extended his arms and summoned glowing orbs of hellfire. They hovered around him, radiating heat so intense that the very fabric of the Mirror Dimension began to splinter. The sky cracked. The air rippled.
Harry responded in kind. Orbs of emerald chi surged into being around him, humming with barely contained power.
And then, without warning, both unleashed their volleys.
The orbs collided mid-air. Each impact erupted in a thunderous explosion that shook the very streets. Smoke, fire, and dust filled the battlefield.
But Harry didn't wait.
He burst through the smoke like a human missile, spinning through the air with a double kick that caught the demon across the face and launched him like a ragdoll. The demon smashed into the side of a building, cracking its outer wall.
The environment shifted violently as Harry manipulated the Mirror Dimension. The ground twisted and rotated—the wall the demon crashed into became the new floor, while the road above flipped and stretched into the sky.
The demon groaned, embedded into the brick like a broken nail. The structure around him began to shift—bricks morphing and reshaping to trap him in place like a living coffin.
From above, Harry came streaking down like a green meteor, legs tucked in tight.
And then—impact.
He drove his knee straight into the demon's gut.
A sickening CRUNCH followed as the demon's body bent grotesquely. Blood exploded from his mouth as the two smashed through the brick wall and tumbled into the office building beyond, crashing through floors, desks, and concrete pillars.
The demon howled and slashed at Harry mid-fall, his fire-claws carving a diagonal line across Harry's chest. Sparks flew as fabric tore and blood sprayed. Harry growled through the pain and responded with a barrage of wild punches, each one smashing into the demon's face with furious strength.
They burst through the other side of the building, flying into the open night sky before crashing into yet another wall that acted as the ground. They rolled violently, crashing and tumbling like brawling titans, until finally breaking apart—both landing hard.
They lay there for a moment, breathing heavily, bruised, bloodied, each barely able to move.
Slowly, both began to rise again.
But before the fight could resume—a whooshing sound cut through the air.
The demon looked up.
Spider-Man dropped from above like lightning, landing perfectly on the demon's shoulders, his weight collapsing the creature slightly under him.
"Just dropping in. Don't mind me," Peter quipped.
Before the demon could react, Peter pressed both fists to the sides of his head. A sharp shtnk sounded as twin metal claws sprang from Peter's wrists, stabbing out on either side of the demon's face.
"Tonight's special…" Peter said with a savage grin, "Fried demon shishkebab."
Electricity exploded from Peter's body, blue arcs crackling and dancing along his limbs and into the metal claws. The current surged like a thunderstorm made flesh.
The demon screamed in agony.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!"
Electric bolts wrapped around them both, flashing so brightly that the entire rooftop glowed with blinding light. The demon convulsed violently, his skeletal frame visible beneath his flesh as the energy coursed through him. The very air around them pulsed with power.
The demon's roars became gurgles. His body began to deteriorate, layer by layer, disintegrating into charred ash. His skin, muscle, and bone all burned away until nothing remained but smoking embers.
Peter floated gently back to the ground, his boots touching down silently amid the dying sparks. The Mirror Dimension stabilized around them. Silence settled like a blanket.
Harry stood frozen in place, chest heaving, eyes wide in disbelief.
"…What the hell," he muttered under his breath, blinking rapidly as if unsure whether he'd hallucinated what just happened.
Peter turned to face him, brushing ash off his shoulder.
"Guess you could say he… couldn't take the heat."
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