Chapter 679: Dad

In a hidden space somewhere in the multiverse, within a blood-red Gothic castle, the light was dim, and a long carpet stretched from the staircase all the way to the hall.

Torches hanging on the walls emitted a faint, cold glow, illuminating the oil paintings on the walls, making the figures in the paintings appear especially sinister and terrifying.

This castle, identical to those in vampire literature, was the stronghold of the Heir Family—the Malon Family.

The Malon Family had appeared once before, but seemed utterly insignificant; yet in the Spider-Man comics, they were already among the top villains.

The Malon Family, also known as the Heir Family, bore the codename Cosmic Vampires; they hunted Spider-Men across the universe to harvest the power of the Spider Totem, but their hunting was not solely for power—it was also driven by a prophecy.

The prophecy was simple: in the future, the Heir Family would be destroyed by Spider-Man. To prevent their own annihilation, members of the Malon Family began killing Spider-Men across the multiverse.

In the comics, Spider-Men frequently vanished, alerting others, who formed a legion to confront the Malon Family—but the outcome was far from favorable.

The Malon Family could suppress the Spider Totem; even powerful Spider-Men on Earth were utterly powerless against them, and in most one-on-one encounters, Spider-Man was at a complete disadvantage.

The Heir Family had another major achievement: they once severely wounded Black Panther. But this Black Panther was the leader of Wakanda, not the Panther God Bast who dwelled on the savannah.

Viewed solely within the Spider-Man comics, this made them an extremely formidable enemy—after all, to most people, Spider-Man was New York's friendly neighborhood hero, facing off against the Sinister Six at most, and most comics carried a humorous tone suitable for all ages.

Thus, the Malon Family, requiring the united efforts of many Spider-Men to oppose, was already sufficiently menacing.

But viewed within the entire Marvel universe, their accomplishments were pitifully few: aside from effortlessly defeating Spider-Men, severely wounding Black Panther, and instantly killing a version of Wolverine, these were their only notable feats; if forced to pick their greatest achievement, it was once defeating Eastman's Spider-Man 400 Grandma.

At this moment, inside the Malon Family's castle, there were no scenes typical of vampire literature—no figures in formal attire dancing under moonlight, no scheming by the fireplace.

Throughout the grand hall, many Malon Family members lay sprawled haphazardly—still alive, but utterly exhausted.

They did wear formal attire, but now it was disheveled; their meticulously styled hair was unkempt; they looked utterly disheveled, completely unlike the grand villainous image portrayed in the comics.

To understand how they had come to this state, one must return to the earlier Bat Invasion incident.

The dark power from Batman infected one Malon Family member, who then activated the family's internal psychic communication network, causing the power to spread infinitely.

All Malon Family members connected to this network were infected—but not everyone kept their psychic link constantly open; many powerful members narrowly escaped.

When these Bat believers returned to the Malon Family, a massive battle erupted; eventually, the uninfected members gained the upper hand, defeating the infected Bat believers at an enormous cost—and discovering on their bodies an unfamiliar totemic power.

As is well known, the Malon Family and the Spider Totem were mortal enemies; they were intimately familiar with totemic power. The emergence of this new beast totem instantly dispelled the gloom left by their heavy losses.

Having long dealt with totems, they recognized this as a newly born beast totem—and they also knew that newborn totems were unstable and could be controlled.

To combat the Spider Totem, they had devised countless methods; now, a newborn totem lay before them like a delicious dish emitting fragrance—of course, the Malon Family members wanted to control it.

How powerful beast totems were could be seen in all the Spider-Men across the multiverse; if they could control this newborn totem, they would gain an army of bats as formidable as the Spider-Men.

The Malon Family had ambitions to expand their power—but there were too many cosmic heavyweights in the multiverse; their achievements might be impressive in a single universe, but in the multiverse, they barely ranked.

If they could obtain a complete totem, their strength would surge dramatically, making the hunting of Spider-Men far easier—this was Grandfather Solus's plan.

They had their own methods for controlling totems: they knew totems grew stronger through faith energy, and a newborn totem would gradually mature after absorbing sufficient power.

But faith energy also influenced totems in reverse; if a group provided enough faith energy to a totem, they could use that energy to control the totem in return.

After controlling the totem in its newborn stage and continuously supplying faith energy, once it matured, they could let the totem select believers across the multiverse—and then control those believers through the totem.

The plan was sound and initially went smoothly. The Malon Family possessed a unique talent: they could absorb the life force of other beings. This ability was devastating against Spider-Men, but could also be used on other lifeforms—including various demonic gods.

They could never defeat multilayered demonic gods; if they dared enter the Crimson Dimension, they'd be nothing but prey. But Malon Family members who could freely traverse the multiverse could easily bully the native demonic gods of single universes.

Especially weaker or newly born demonic gods: the Malon Family could use multiverse portals to appear directly on their doorstep, swarm them, and use their life-draining ability to suck them dry.

If the Kree were called the Cosmic Locusts for their warfare methods, then the Malon Family could be called… Cosmic Mosquitoes.

Though each member could drain only a small amount of power, with enough members, they could rapidly weaken demonic gods, making them far easier to defeat.

For years, the Malon Family had stored vast quantities of such energy, and through prayer, they could convert the energy within their bodies into faith energy, then channel it to the totem.

The Malon Family members gathered in this hall were among the strongest—they could store more energy, making their prayers more effective.

In the preceding period, through prayer, they had already infused immense energy into the Bat Totem; the golden light was nearly engulfing the entire bat figure—when suddenly, Helen, without instruction, mastered the secret of power theft, and with one sweep, erased all their prior efforts.

Immediately following came Venom, equally ruthless; having already absorbed N'Gai's energy and tasted its sweetness, Venom showed no mercy, using prolonged struggles and psychological warfare to force Malon Family members to willingly surrender the last drop of their strength.

Only now did the Malon Family realize this might have been a trap.

It wasn't that they were careless—they had fortified their stronghold extremely well, because most cosmic wars were direct confrontations; wars between cosmic gods were, in another sense, turn-based: you hit me, I kick you—this held true across the multiverse too.

Having witnessed countless such wars, they naturally prioritized physical defenses; they never imagined someone would sneak in through the network to steal power—not just once, but twice in succession, and not petty theft, but nearly outright robbery.

The only Malon Family member still barely standing was Grandfather Solus at the main dais, who slammed his staff hard against the ground and said: "Damn thieves! They don't just want to steal our power—they want to steal the entire totem! We cannot let them succeed!"

"Find out immediately—where is the faith energy flowing?!" Solus roared. "We must reclaim what is ours!"

The sprawled Malon Family members barely dragged themselves up and staggered back to their posts.

Venom's final pull had drained every last ounce of their strength in the struggle for totem control; now, each of them was completely hollowed out.

But work must continue—the sunk costs were too great. First, they had fought a brutal battle against the Bat believers, losing nearly half their members; of those remaining, half had lost all their power; rebuilding to full strength would take unknown time.

If they failed to reclaim all the faith energy and the totem at once, they would be truly crippled.

A Malon Family in this state could only gamble everything—and once a gambler went red-eyed from loss, rationality was impossible to expect.

Soon, the Malon Family traced the energy channel and detected the transmission trail. Solus led the team directly through a multiverse portal to the universe of the culprit.

As they stepped out of the portal, they heard a violent explosion, followed by clashing combat sounds, then a roar:

"Ancient One! This is Asgard's affair—why are you interfering?!"

Another "boom"—a planet shattered. Solus hurriedly led his people to dodge flying planetary debris, as another female voice spoke calmly:

"No matter the reason, you cannot fight here. Speak your peace—gentlemen settle disputes with words, not fists…"

Ancient One's voice echoed across the universe. Soon, a sinister laugh rang out, and a demonic shadow wreathed in endless flames appeared—Mephisto said: "Ancient One, you still love meddling…"

The Ancient One, who had just spoken of "gentlemen settling disputes with words," instantly struck with a palm. Mephisto showed no fear; flames filled the sky, terrifying in power. After a moment, a strong, resonant voice rang out:

"Thor, Loki—stop fighting! You bring shame to Asgard!"

A raven circled the battlefield as Odin arrived with lightning, followed closely by Frigga. The goddess queen gently advised: "Loki, you should take little Helen back to Asgard for a few days. Both of you need to calm down…"

Solus and the Malon Family members, just arrived, stared in bewilderment, unable to comprehend why this single universe was so chaotic—but Solus said: "Ignore them. Just a bunch of cosmic prisoners. Quickly find the energy's endpoint…"

Suddenly, a familiar figure appeared in Solus's vision—his physique was agile, his speed extraordinary, clad in a red-and-blue suit. Solus squinted—it was the Spider-Man of this universe!

But this Spider-Man's actions were strange: he held a peculiar energy core, glowing with magical radiance. Even from afar, Solus felt the intense magical energy emanating from it.

Then he heard the Spider-Man shout: "Mr. Stark! Your power supply—remember, the essence of magic is… wish fulfillment!"

The energy core flew to a figure on the battlefield, and instantly, a massive shadow engulfed the entire universe.

Solus stiffly looked up—he saw, above the universe, a pair of colossal, iron-made eyes fixed upon him.