Chapter 382: The Avengers: Civil War (Part 1)

In the empty, dark universe, the light of stars shone like lighthouses above a harbor; before a glowing orange sphere brimming with heat, several tiny black dots sped through solar particles, slicing through the star's surrounding storm and leaving wave-like ripples.

Around the star, an energy field visible to the naked eye churned like surging tides; as the ripples spread, the tiny black dots slowly drifted away from the planet, and as they drew nearer, it became clear they were vessels shaped like octopuses.

The front half of each vessel was an oval cargo hold, while the rear split into several longer, slender tentacles housing the main control rooms, where crew members with monstrous heads were complaining.

"I can't fathom what the Governor is thinking—surface crime cases are now our responsibility? He revoked the agreement to fire on the surface; soon we might have to blast a city with our cannons. If the capital planet finds out, we could be executed!"

A slightly taller monster-headed creature slapped his shoulder and said: "You know as well as I do that recent parasitic host supplies are running low. Look, your body is already rotting away. Only the Governor has the authority to allocate host slots. If we work hard for him, maybe next month we'll get a new body."

"I heard the senior agents have lowered the threshold for reserve hosts. Maybe soon we'll have a steady stream of bodies. Forget it—let's get back quick, before something actually goes wrong on the surface."

At that moment, a shrill alarm blared. The clustered monster heads turned their heads left and right; one hurried to the wall, grabbed the communicator hanging there, and asked: "What's going on? Why is the cargo ship alerting? Oh, damn! What is that?!"

As he looked out the vessel's observation window, he saw a colossal, unfamiliar ship silently floating ahead of them, like a great shark poised to devour.

The monster head stood frozen, clutching the communicator, when the Governor's irritated voice crackled over the ship's intercom: "Organize immediate counterfire! Where is your professional discipline?!"

The monster head's hands trembled, but he quickly set down the communicator, turned, and rushed back into the control room. The pilot was already frantically working the console. The monster head glanced around—defensive shields were active, cannons were charging—they'd probably be…

Suddenly, a silent, blinding flash consumed the entire control room. In an instant, all the octopus vessel's tentacles, along with the Brood inside, vanished amid unimaginable heat and particle collisions.

The Five Dynasties: Wind, Moon, and Mountains

In the Governor's office, Stark stared at the panel on his arm as JARVIS's voice echoed in his ear:

"Firing complete. This strike activated two vessels and four secondary cannons. The enemy vessel has been annihilated."

"Firing vessels have returned to position. Cannons are cooling. Estimated time until next firing: 3 minutes 31 seconds…"

Stark looked at the Governor, whose face had turned ashen, and said: "You know, the hardest part was controlling our secondary cannons to low power—so we wouldn't reduce you to too fine a paste."

The Governor's tentacles trembled, yet he remained defiant: "Are you humans really going to declare war on the Brood?!"

"I've already contacted our capital planet. Troops are en route. You'll face endless Brood fleets!"

"But you won't live to see that day." Stark floated upward, hovering in midair, and opened the cannon port on his gauntlet. A beam shot out with a *whoosh*, aimed straight at the Governor.

The monster-headed Governor panicked, dodged behind his desk, sprinted to the opposite wall, smashed open a storage cabinet, and pulled out a weapon.

It was a handheld cannon with a large bore. The Governor hastily mounted it on his arm, aimed at Iron Man's armor, and fired. Energy coalesced at the muzzle with a faint hum, then erupted in a violent explosion.

The entire office collapsed under the energy blast, but Stark maneuvered his armor to evade the shockwave and relentlessly pursued the fleeing Governor.

Missiles, calculated for trajectory, chased the monster head's figure relentlessly. No matter how he dodged, missiles always caught up, detonating beside him and knocking him down.

Standing at the edge of a high-rise, looking down, he saw streets flooded with rain. Damp air seeped into his lungs. The Governor had never lived in such a humid environment. A hazy fog clouded his vision, muddling his thoughts.

Amid flickering neon lights, the screen on the opposite building showed that familiar smiling mask again. It seemed to gaze directly at him, saying: "Chased like a rabid dog, huh? When you hunted down those panicked, fleeing humans, did you ever imagine this day would come?"

He stepped back, revealing the scene behind him: a control room familiar to the Governor, filled with countless control panels and monitoring devices. The man wearing the Joker mask burst into a fit of laughter, then said:

"You thought my first stop here was the TV station? That was just what I told you—and you believed it."

"I introduced myself there, told you I'd just arrived. But in truth, I came from somewhere else…"

"Where is this?" The man placed his hand behind his ear, as if listening. The Governor whispered: "The weather control tower… you madman! This damn weather is your doing!"

The man on screen couldn't hear the Governor—but as if anticipating his words, he replied: "Exactly. This is where you control the weather."

"You've developed this planet so thoroughly you can manipulate its water cycle. After subduing the staff here, I convinced them to do me a small favor…"

"Look up at the sky. See those beautiful, glistening raindrops? Don't they look like salt sprinkled from a shaker?"

"Can you smell that intoxicating scent of alcohol? It comes from across the water—the deepest chaos and madness…"

His tone softened, like reciting a romantic poem or singing a requiem. The man in the Joker mask stood upright, stepped back, and another dark figure emerged on screen.

He turned and faced the man with bat-like ears, asking: "When justice and evil, order and chaos, begin to reverse—when a madman uses his madness to do what is just—who do you call evil?"

"Look at the monsters moving through these dark streets. They're shameless vermin—stealing human bodies, parasitizing them, killing them, controlling them…"

"Yet those ordinary people you swore to protect—their minds, hardened by order—are these very vermin…"

"Have you seen? They infiltrate human bodies, manipulating thoughts and actions, forcing them to commit unspeakable atrocities. And I—the pathetic madman you despise…"

"I am their savior. I am expelling these ugly, vile creatures from their hosts. Look—just like this…"

Flames blazed through rain-slicked floor-to-ceiling windows as another building ignited. A monster-headed figure grinned, mouth wide open as if laughing.

Watching this madness, the locals felt no fear. They slowly gathered, gazing at the rising flames. The thrill of breaking order took root in every heart; the illusion of freedom brought them joy.

In a daze, Eddie saw it was all illusion. The so-called monster heads weren't monstrous at all—they were ordinary people. But the euphoria of sin twisted their faces into monstrous shapes.

He shook his head violently, but Venom rasped: "Because evil always festers within order, let everything return to chaos. Do you think you're delivering justice? No—you're just venting your madness…"

"Do you plan to save them? Restore order, as you've done countless times before? Are these people truly worth saving?"

Through Eddie Brock's eyes, he saw rolling, layered tides. Unlike the awe-inspiring light of the star, the black ocean was calm and endless, stretching beyond sight.

Like a sea breeze sweeping across the waves, it reached the distant shore, where another soul stood on the beach.

His gaze pierced through vast space, through the veil of reality, seeing the race with monstrous heads and human bodies—and from them, he perceived deeper philosophy, heard those mad words.

"Humans are monsters parasitized by thought, unable to fully control their own bodies. Are you saving their flesh—or their souls? Which is truly worth saving? Which justice is worth upholding?"

Eddie saw the man in the Joker mask slowly approach a shattered window. Rain, blown by wind, drifted inside, shrouding him in mist. When light touched him, his voice blended with the glowing haze.

"Human flesh can be healed, but their minds are hard to change. Their circumstances can be altered—but their nature cannot be rewritten."

"In the universe's descent into chaos, building a sanctuary to protect flesh changes nothing…"

Eddie heard another burst of laughter, gradually shifting from manic to somber. He saw the man stretch his arms wide before the window, flames blazing behind him in the night sky.

Suddenly, he fell silent, then grinned and pulled a button from his pocket. "What did I just say? My first stop on this planet was the weather control tower? No, no, no—I'm sorry, I lied. But I had no choice…"

He turned to the camera, raised the button, and said: "Guess where I planted a big bomb?"

At that moment, atop the Governor's high-rise, Stark heard those words—and bolted.

But it was too late. The blast wave hurled him through the air. Once stabilized mid-flight, Stark pressed his palm to his mask and said: "That damn madman! I told you he was off his rocker!"

At that instant, JARVIS's voice came: "Warning! High-energy reading detected. Locating… 1, 28 meters underground. Rising rapidly. Evade immediately! Evade immediately!"

"900 meters… 500 meters… 300 meters…"

Stark rocketed his armor to several kilometers altitude. In his view, a colossal tentacle burst from the ground, followed by an endless sea of tentacles. Soon, a gargantuan creature crawled up from beneath the earth.

Stark squinted and said: "The Hive…"