"Wake up, Peter Parker, wake up now!"
In a seemingly boundless space, the unconscious Spider-Man was jolted awake by a voice that rang like a massive bell echoing through his mind.
The instant he opened his eyes, radiant light surged toward him.
Everywhere he looked was filled with pure, mysterious brilliance.
Strangely, it was not blinding at all.
Instead, it felt gentle, warm, and soothing.
It was as if his entire body had been submerged in a comforting sauna.
"Did… did I go to heaven?" Peter muttered.
"Then does that mean I can see Aunt May again? And Mr. Stark?"
He paused only briefly before accepting his own conclusion and adapting to it.
Slowly, he stood up and looked around.
There was nothing but light, endless and uninterrupted, with no sign of another person.
"Why is no one here?" he wondered aloud.
"Are they all sleeping? Is heaven always this bright, even at night? This doesn't look very comfortable for sleeping."
"Hey!" Peter shouted.
"Is anyone here? God? Mr. God, are you home?"
There was no reply.
Above Spider-Man, Malrick, manifesting in the form of Rejedo, fell into a moment of silence.
"Behind you, Spider-Man. Look up."
Malrick reduced his height to sixty meters.
Peter turned around and looked up, his jaw dropping wide open.
"God… is God supposed to look like this? It's kind of like… like… what was it again?"
Malrick ignored the rambling and spoke calmly.
"Spider-Man, your sense of justice, your determination, and your kindness have awakened me."
"I answer your call and grant you the power you require."
Peter blinked in confusion.
"Wait, what? Did I rub a magic lamp or something? So this isn't heaven? Then do I get three wishes… hey, hey, what are you doing?"
Before Spider-Man could continue his nonsense, Malrick extended an arm and grasped him.
---
Outside.
Thanos pressed his ear against the stone wall, listening to the crisp sounds of bones snapping within.
Saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth as hunger twisted his expression.
He waved a hand, signaling the others to move toward the palace and search for the remaining survivors who had arrived in the jet.
As for himself, he prepared to open the stone wall and claim his meal.
Thanos clenched his left fist, and the sealed stone wall slowly parted.
There was no feast behind it.
Instead, an overwhelming radiance erupted outward.
Under the blinding light, the zombies instinctively shut their eyes or raised their arms to shield themselves.
For a moment, it was as though the entire world had been illuminated.
When the light finally faded, Thanos lowered his arm.
Standing before him was an impossibly tall giant.
The pure brilliance clinging to the giant's body gradually receded, revealing a form that was both mysterious and awe-inspiring.
"Ga… ahem…" Thanos let out an incoherent sound.
The giant radiated an indescribable temptation, like the most perfect delicacy imaginable.
"Roar!"
After a brief pause, the zombies surged forward.
They rushed the giant like feral hounds fighting over food, clawing and tearing at one another in their frenzy, terrified of losing even a single bite.
Bodies stacked upon bodies, forming a towering tide of undead that leapt toward the giant.
The mysterious figure simply extended his palm and released a low, resonant roar.
Every zombie froze in midair, completely motionless.
Rejedo had stopped them.
Malrick had halted time and space around every zombie.
Thanos was frozen as well, though his left fist remained clenched.
The Time Stone and Space Stone embedded in the Infinity Gauntlet flared to life.
With their power, Thanos forcibly broke free from the temporal restraint.
He clenched his fist tighter, forming a condensed sphere of fused energy, and hurled it toward Malrick.
Malrick did not change his posture.
The instant the energy sphere touched his palm, it was absorbed.
Less than a second later, the power surged back out, amplified many times over, and shot straight back the way it came.
"Roar!" Zombie Thanos howled, charging forward as all five Stones on his gauntlet lit up.
In his mind, there was only one thought: the most delicious prey imaginable.
He did not dodge.
He collided head-on with the rebounding energy.
Boom!
A catastrophic explosion erupted, instantly ripping through the Earth's crust.
A beam of light spread outward from Malrick, enveloping the planet and isolating the destructive aftermath.
At the same time, Malrick turned his palm.
The enormous hand calmly caught the Infinity Gauntlet as it was blasted free from the explosion.
As for Thanos, not a single trace of his body remained.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Spider-Man exclaimed inside a small internal space within Rejedo.
As the temporary human host, Peter had been shouting nonstop from the very beginning.
"It's so warm in here!"
"So strong!"
"I remember now, Ultraman! I'm the human host, right? Can I try it?"
Because of this constant chatter, Malrick had muted him earlier.
Now that the crisis in Wakanda had been resolved, Malrick lifted the restriction.
Before Peter could continue, Malrick spoke.
"Spider-Man, you already know how to resolve the zombie crisis, don't you?"
"Fix the zombies? Yes, yes, yes!" Peter nodded rapidly, immediately focusing.
He understood that this Giant of Light had come to help save the world.
"Vision ran experiments," Peter said quickly.
"He found that infected zombies become agitated and resistant when exposed to the Mind Stone's energy."
"He thinks the quantum zombie virus is actually similar to a neurological disorder that overloads the cerebral cortex, which then disrupts the entire body."
"And he tested it.
Using the Mind Stone's radiation frequency can cure zombies, but most of the infected tissue has to be removed."
Peter continued, "We were planning to use Wakanda's technology to spread the radiation across the entire Earth."
His expression suddenly changed.
"Oh no. T'Challa and Scott. We have to save them!"
This time, Malrick did not silence him.
He turned toward the palace, stepping over vast stretches of ruined stone.
As Peter exclaimed about how long his legs were, Malrick reached down and pushed aside the collapsed palace debris.
Inside were dozens of frozen zombies.
Among them was T'Challa, newly infected.
From their frozen movements, it was clear they had been chasing Ant-Man Scott, who had been reduced to only a head.
Scott's head was sealed inside a large glass jar.
The jar was being carried erratically by Doctor Strange's enchanted cloak.
At this moment, it too was frozen in place.
Malrick gently hooked a finger.
Wrapped in the cloak, the Mind Stone flew into his grasp.
"T'Challa's infected," Peter said anxiously.
"But it's okay. Next we just need to find the equipment. If we spread the radiation, we can save everyone."
Malrick nodded, though he had no intention of searching for any equipment.
He closed his grip around the Mind Stone, and boundless light erupted from his body.
The light carried the exact radiation frequency of the Stone and instantly spread across the entire Earth.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Peter cried out again, sounding like an overexcited rooster.
A few seconds later, the light that filled every corner of the planet slowly faded.
Across the world, zombies began to regain their sanity.
Malrick released the freeze over Wakanda, and people immediately collapsed to the ground.
After a brief moment of disorientation, reason gradually returned to their eyes.
Peter cheered in relief.
But before he could celebrate for long, a new problem emerged.
The residual virus inside the former zombies began to surge again.
The clarity they had just regained was rapidly swallowed by confusion once more
____
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