Previously: Kaine Parker joined the Web-Core after facing a corrupted memory of Gwen. With five members united, Peter leads the team to Earth-1999 — where the ruins of Doctor Strange's Sanctum may hold the Loomkeeper's final clue… and the key to surviving what comes next.
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🌀 Location: Earth-1999 — New York, Ruins of the Sanctum Sanctorum
The streets of Manhattan were silent. No sirens. No civilians. No sky.
Just fog. Thick and choking.
Peter led the Web-Core through the fractured remains of Bleeker Street, once the seat of Earth's greatest sorcerer.
Now? A blackened skeleton of swirling chaos and crumbling stone.
> 📘 SYSTEM STATUS
Realm Integrity: 23%
Temporal Flow: Fragmented
Risk: Extreme
Warning: Dimensional Anchor unstable
> 🧠 DUMAS: "Okay, so either Strange really let the house go, or something very nasty took a bite out of his magic."
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Wanda paused at the gate, fingers trembling. "I remember this place. Before… everything."
Miguel scanned the building with his temporal lens. "There's a pulse of Loomkeeper energy inside. Buried. Sealed."
Kaine cracked his knuckles. "Then let's unseal it."
Peter stopped them. "Careful. This place isn't just broken. It's cursed."
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🧭 Inside the Sanctum
The main hallway was warped like a Salvador Dalí painting — doorways curved sideways, floors looped, windows showed versions of Earth collapsing into threads.
They passed a suspended clock tower, a floating piano that bled music notes, and — in the center — a staircase winding both up and down at once.
At the end of the stairs was a circular room: the former Chamber of the Vishanti.
And on the floor… was the Loomkeeper's hand, petrified in golden silk.
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> 📘 DATA FOUND:
Loomkeeper Remnant: ✴️ Thread-Heart Shard
Memory Fragment Available — Accessing…
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🔮 Vision Triggered — "The Death of the Loomkeeper"
Peter fell to his knees as the vision hit.
He saw Strange, older and desperate, battling a corrupted being stitched from Spiders, cloaked in void — The Unweaver.
Beside Strange: the Loomkeeper — a six-armed spider god formed of pure thread and magic, unraveling as he tried to hold the Web together.
Strange screamed, "You can't control fate!"
The Unweaver hissed, "I don't want to control it. I want to restart it."
Then the Web shattered — and Strange sacrificed his soul to seal the shard of the Loomkeeper here.
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Peter collapsed, gasping.
Wanda caught him. "You saw it?"
He nodded. "The Loomkeeper is almost gone. But Strange left a piece of him here."
Miguel stepped forward, scanning the shard. "This… this is powerful enough to stabilize one universe. Or restart another."
America glanced back. "And we've got five Spiders with fraying timelines."
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Suddenly, the shard glowed red.
> 📘 WARNING: Intrusion Detected
Identity: Cosmic Thread-Bearer Incoming
Alignment: Unknown
Name: Araknos
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The ceiling above ruptured — and a massive figure descended.
He wore golden armor lined with pulsating web-veins, his helmet shaped like a spider's face, his eyes glowing silver.
In one hand: a spear forged of multiversal thread.
In the other: a scroll bearing the Unweaver's seal.
Peter stepped forward, stunned. "Who the hell are you?"
The figure's voice echoed like a thousand spiders crawling across drums.
"I am Araknos. Firstborn of the Loomkeeper. And this shard… belongs to me."
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⚔️ Combat: Araknos vs. Web-Core
Miguel fired a dimensional disruptor — Araknos absorbed it.
Wanda unleashed Chaos Hex — Araknos deflected it with a gesture.
America tried to portal-punch him — he blinked across time and caught her wrist before impact.
Kaine snarled. "Your boss is the one tearing the Web apart!"
Araknos didn't blink. "The Unweaver was right. The Web is flawed. Variants like you... dilute destiny."
He hurled his spear — Wanda blocked it with a hex-shield, but the blast knocked them all back.
Peter stood, panting. "You were the Loomkeeper's son."
"I am his evolution," Araknos growled. "And I will finish what he was too weak to do."
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Peter activated Multiversal Glimpse again:
> 📘 GLIMPSE: Earth-000 (First Web)
> Learned: "Thread-Reversal Strike" — A counter-move that reflects fate-bound energy back on attacker
He lunged forward, catching Araknos's next strike mid-air — and twisted the energy backward, shattering his spear.
Araknos hissed — for the first time, wounded.
Peter yelled, "The Web isn't perfect. But we protect it — because it matters."
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The Loomkeeper's shard flared — and surged toward Peter.
> 📘 THREAD-HEART SHARD ABSORBED
System Boost: +1 Chaos Rank
Trait Gained: Weaver's Resolve — Once per battle, negate a timeline-critical strike
Web-Core Status: Reinforced
Araknos vanished in a flash of golden thread, growling:
"We will meet again. At the Loom's Fall."
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🕸️ Aftermath — Within the Sanctum Ruins
Miguel examined the glowing Web fragment now embedded in Peter's chest like a second spider-emblem.
"It chose you."
Peter nodded. "That's five. But we still need the last."
America looked toward the unraveling horizon.
"There's only one place left."
Wanda's voice dropped to a whisper. "The Watcher's Den."
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> 📘 SYSTEM UPDATE
Web-Core Member Count: 5
Thread-Heart Acquired: ✅
Cosmic Thread-Bearer: Araknos — Status: Hostile
Final Candidate Detected:
➤ Codename: The Silent Spider
➤ Location: Earth-0 — The First Thread
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⚠️ Elsewhere — The Watcher's Moonbase
Uatu stared through the multiversal glass, watching Peter.
He turned.
Behind him, in shadow, stood a man in a tattered black-and-white Spider suit… his mask cracked.
He said nothing.
Uatu nodded solemnly.
"It's time, child. The Web is calling you back."