After returning from the Hall of Heirs, Bora found herself at a complete loss for words to describe her feelings.
One of her damned brothers—Jenix, the one who guarded the secret of their resurrection—had actually ordered the spiders to destroy the cloning facility.
This meant that in their future operations, even the slightest mistake that cost them their lives would result in true, permanent death. They would no longer have the chance to be resurrected.
And worse, during their previous incursion into Earth-13, none of them had achieved their objectives.
Not the artifact, not the bride, not even a descendant—none had been brought back.
If they'd managed to retrieve even one of them, they wouldn't be in such a passive position now.
After all, the prophecy had made it clear: as long as they brought one back, the others would naturally be drawn here.
At that point, all they had to do was eliminate those damned Spider-Men.
But right now, that was what made Bora so uncomfortable.
Once reckless and uninhibited, she now had to act with caution and restraint.
Bora took a deep breath. But she knew that no matter what she said now, it would be meaningless. What they needed was proper rest—time to prepare for the next hunt.
As for whether the spiders would dare come to their world, not a single Heir believed those little insects had the guts.
Even now, they could easily crush those bugs like nothing.
Still, thinking this, Bora stretched lazily. A faint pain in her back made her frown slightly.
But it only lasted a moment. The next second, her face was already lit with a smile.
Because she knew there was someone waiting for her in her room.
As Bora pushed open the door, Bruce stood quietly in the center of the room, waiting for her return.
He hadn't touched anything, hadn't meddled in the slightest. Everything was exactly as she had left it.
This made Bora's fondness for Bruce grow even stronger.
Her previous servants had never waited for her this quietly.
"Miss, you're back." Bruce bowed with his hand over his chest.
He wasn't sure if this Heir cared for such formalities, but figured it couldn't hurt to show proper etiquette.
She wouldn't likely say anything about it.
At this moment, Bora had no patience for such meaningless pleasantries.
She stepped forward quickly, grabbed Bruce by his tie, and kissed him on the lips.
"Let's enjoy our time together properly," Bora said with an enchanting smile as the kiss ended. Still holding his tie, she led Bruce toward the bathroom.
When night fell, Bora lay nestled in Bruce's arms, quietly enjoying a moment of peace.
"You're the first servant who's ever made me feel so satisfied," she said, gently stroking his face.
"If I could, I'd like to stay here a little longer with you. But I have other preparations to make. Be good and stay here. I'll be back soon," she said softly before sitting up. The wound Bruce had stitched up earlier was now completely gone.
The Heirs' ability to recover was truly astonishing.
Bruce, displaying the qualities of a top-tier personal attendant, immediately rose to prepare Bora's clothes and helped her get dressed.
"You really are a sweetheart. I hope we can get along well in the days to come." Bora kissed him again before turning to leave.
But just then, a sharp alarm suddenly blared throughout the castle.
Bora's expression turned vicious in an instant. She knew exactly what that sound meant.
And she could already smell it—the scent of the spiders. Those fools had actually dared to step into their world.
But in a way, this was a good thing. She could wipe them out once and for all. With this threat to the Heirs removed, she could finally enjoy her life here.
Bruce's expression showed a hint of surprise. Though he didn't know what the alarm meant within the Heir family, it clearly signaled something urgent.
Bora Zecko observed Bruce's reaction and noted his confusion, concluding that her servant had nothing to do with this situation.
"Stay in my room and don't wander around. I'd hate to have to spend a long time searching for another manservant as suited to me as you are," she warned seriously.
Without waiting for a reply, she vanished.
Which was exactly what Bruce needed.
As soon as Bora left, Bruce activated his symbiote metal, letting it spread across his body.
"Let's see what this place is really like."
The symbiote metal crept up his face, forming a fully sealed helmet.
While heading toward Bora's room, Bruce had already sent parts of the symbiote metal into the shadows of the castle's corners to begin mapping its layout.
He had quite the experience with large castles—after all, he housed quite a few castle-dwellers in his head.
(Of course, one particular LEGO Batman disagreed, insisting he just lived in a really big house.)
The symbiote metal didn't disappoint Bruce—it quickly scanned the entire castle and constructed a detailed 3D model for him.
Everything was now laid out before Bruce's eyes.
Though the symbiote recorded the castle's guards and general staff, the Heirs themselves were like ghosts—elusive, impossible for the symbiote to properly track.
And the only Heir Bruce had direct access to was Bora.
That woman was now speeding toward the outer parts of the castle. They must have encountered someone who dared to invade their realm.
Dressed in his jet-black Bat-suit, Bruce moved through the castle like a ghost.
Most of the guards had already been taken outside by the Heirs, clearly showing how seriously they took the matter.
Bruce made his way to the Hall of Heirs without encountering any resistance.
As he'd noted before, despite mastering the technology of immortality, these people still insisted on using candles for lighting.
As if they had some strange obsession with them.
But now wasn't the time to ponder that. Bruce had found someone important.
"The Master Weaver," Bruce said, gazing at the figure weaving a massive web on the ceiling.
The lower half of the creature was a large metal spider body.
The upper half was a human torso.
The Master Weaver looked down at Bruce.
"A bat? No… you are darkness," he said. At first glance, he had assumed Bruce was a totem of the bat.
But on closer inspection, the only thing radiating from Bruce was a thick aura of darkness.
It was a darkness that instilled fear.
If the Heirs emanated simple bloodlust, then Bruce embodied all forms of darkness.
This disturbed the Master Weaver enough that the web he was weaving faltered for a moment.
A portal suddenly opened.
On the other side stood a man holding a steel trident.
"Home?" The man stared in disbelief at the portal that had appeared beside him. He could feel the scent of home.
Yet not long ago, his father had refused to allow him to return to the family.
So why now?
Cautiously, Karn stepped through the portal.
When he realized no one was trying to drive him away, he knew—he was finally allowed to return.
"After all this time… I've finally come home!"
Karn shouted loudly, gripping his trident.
The only problem was… where were the other Heirs to greet him?
All he saw was a bat.
Bruce had heard from the other spiders about a Heir who wore a diving mask.
But he hadn't expected to meet him under these circumstances.
"The scent of spiders?" Karn had already picked up on the overwhelming smell of spiders in the air outside.
And this wasn't the scent of some spider his siblings had hunted before.
The spiders had come to this world.
They had begun their counterattack.
"Who are you?" Karn noticed the bat in front of him.
Even though he hadn't been home for a long time, Karn still knew—this wasn't a place just anyone could enter.
Even lovers of his siblings wouldn't be allowed in.
Let alone those guys—how could they possibly have lovers?
"Darkness. Pure darkness." The Weaver took the liberty of introducing Bruce.
Those words made Karn pause for a moment.
But the next second, a figure crashed through the castle wall and landed directly in the main hall.
It was Brix.
"Karn?" Brix looked at the man holding the steel trident and said in disbelief, "Looks like your exile is over. We need you now."
Brix wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. These spiders were indeed just pests, but even pests could cause harm when there were too many of them.
Even to a natural predator.
Bruce quickly picked up on the information in Brix's words—this successor standing in front of him had been exiled.
That explained what the Ultimate Spider-Man and the others had said earlier—why members of the inheritor family would fight among themselves.
Because they didn't see Karn as one of their own.
They even wished Karn would die out there.
Or rather, it wasn't just them—it was their patriarch who wanted Karn dead.
"I want to know—is my clone, Jessica, on comms right now?" Bruce began trying to contact Jessica from the clone squad.
"Boss, miss me?"
"Is there a clone named Karn in the cloning facility? I believe you should have a backup of the data," Bruce asked, looking at the two people in front of him.
Brix saw Bruce's wrist device and immediately rushed at him. "A friend of the spiders?"
Unfortunately, before he could get there, the Spider-Men who had been holding him back surged in and dragged Brix back into the battle.
"No, Boss."
Jessica from Earth-1610 conducted a search as fast as possible. Not only was there no clone named Karn in the cloning facility, there wasn't even anyone with that name on Genix's employee list.
That confirmed it for Bruce—the person standing before him was someone the inheritor family had abandoned.
They called it exile, but in reality, they just wanted him to die out there.
Karn looked at Brix, who was locked in a difficult fight, and instinctively wanted to rush forward to help.
But Bruce was already blocking his way.
Karn didn't care about the bat in front of him. Anyone who stood in the way of him saving his family deserved to die.
He raised his steel trident and thrust it straight at Bruce's face.
"Are they really your family?" Bruce calmly looked at the trident aimed at him, not caring in the slightest whether he'd die beneath it.
The next moment, just before the trident could pierce Bruce's head, it stopped.
"What do you mean?" Karn didn't understand what Bruce was trying to say. Did he think it would save his life?
"Your brothers, your sisters—they can all die and come back. But why is there no backup of you in the clone factory?" Bruce extended a finger and gently pushed the trident away.
"Clone factory? What are you talking about?" Karn had been wandering outside for so long, he knew very little about what had happened within the family.
But instinctively, he felt that what Bruce said was important.
"Hunting Spider-Men—you must know how hard it is to kill these chatterbox pests with spider totems," Bruce said. Just then, Peter Parker and the others burst in, and couldn't help but roll their eyes at Bruce's description.
"He kind of sounds… mean," Peter Parker commented to the Ultimate Spider-Man beside him.
Ultimate Spider-Man didn't say anything.
In fact, he quite agreed with Bruce. Even he thought having so many Spider-Men gathered together was a headache.
"You were probably seriously injured—almost died. But guess what? Have your brothers and sisters ever truly died?" Bruce stepped closer to Karn.
He was now standing very close.
Karn didn't know how to respond.
Because it was true—he had nearly died a few times at the hands of Spider-Men. And afterward, he had met his siblings again. Given how powerful some of those Spider-Men were, it was hard to believe they could've survived encounters with them.
But at the time, he hadn't thought too much about it.
"They never saw you as family. What they really wanted was for you to die out there," Bruce said, gently patting Karn on the shoulder.
"Boom!!!"
At that moment, Solus burst in with a giant spider.
The enormous spider was actually overpowering the patriarch of the inheritor clan.
Karn looked at Solus.
After barely managing to overturn the spider in front of him, Solus suddenly saw Karn standing there, looking at him.
But his first instinct upon seeing Karn wasn't to tell him to kill the nearby spiders.
It was to frown—almost reflexively.
He hated Karn.
It was a clear expression.
"Now do you understand?" Bruce also saw the look in Solus's eyes. He was sure Karn had seen it too.
Someone who had lived for hundreds of years and killed countless spiders—how could he not notice the hatred in his father's eyes?
"So the whole exile thing… it was all a lie, wasn't it?" Karn looked at Solus.
The Ultimate Spider-Man beside him was about to act, but was stopped.
Jessica from Earth-1610 shook her head.
She more or less understood what her boss was trying to do.
(End of Chapter)
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