#214 - The Highest Heaven

"What's wrong, Peter?"

The sudden voice interrupted Peter's thoughts. He snapped back to reality and saw Luke Cage, his upper body wrapped in bandages, looking at him.

"Nothing, Luke." Peter shifted, trying to find a more comfortable position on the bed. Their entire team was injured and currently resting in the infirmary of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.

"Your face says otherwise." Ava Ayala, the White Tiger, shook her head from the next bed.

"Really?" Peter touched his face. "Am I that easy to read?"

"Stop trying to be profound." Nova, Sam Alexander, rolled his eyes as he wheeled over in his wheelchair.

"You weren't scared by that fishbowl head, were you?"

"What? Of course not!" Peter quickly denied.

"Then what is it?" Luke asked.

"I'm just..." Peter hesitated, unsure whether he should voice his thoughts.

"Your heart is wavering." Iron Fist, Daniel, spoke up from the opposite bed. He was the most injured on the team, with multiple fractures all over his body, practically mummified, with only his head exposed.

"You're worried about us?" Daniel asked tentatively.

"What!" Sam exclaimed before Peter could say anything, looking at Peter with disgust. "Seriously? Don't mess with me, that's gross."

"Hey!" Peter glared at Sam.

"Stop being a drama queen, Sam." Ava sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Let Peter finish."

Sam shrugged, gesturing for Peter to continue.

Peter scratched his hair, finally saying with frustration, "I just... I just feel like you guys got so badly hurt because of me, so I..."

"Peter!"

Everyone looked towards the voice and saw Nick Fury standing at the entrance of the infirmary.

"Come here, I need to talk to you. The rest of you, rest up."

"Coming." Peter looked at the others awkwardly, internally complaining about why Fury hadn't come sooner, while also wondering what Fury wanted to talk about.

"A multiverse crisis involving Spider-Man?" Peter looked at the assembled Avengers in shock.

"Yes." Tony nodded, then pointed to the monitor beside him. "However, according to that guy, the crisis is already over."

"Over?" Peter scratched his head. He had just begun to feel a strong sense of mission, thinking there were other worlds waiting for him to save, but he didn't expect the mission to end before it even started.

"Although the crisis targeting you is over, another crisis targeting the world has begun." Fury waved his hand, the lights dimmed, and a three-dimensional image of Daemos appeared before everyone.

"This guy is called Daemos, he's the brother of Karn we captured." Fury explained.

"According to Karn, this guy obtained a new power, and then used that power to kill his entire family. Now Karn is the only one left alive."

"Why would he kill his own family?" Peter asked, puzzled.

"Because Daemos wants to use Karn's soul to exchange for a greater reward." Strange interjected, having more authority on matters of magic.

"Karn suspects that his brother sacrificed his soul to a powerful being in exchange for the power to kill their family, and now Daemos is preparing to offer the souls of his entire family for even greater power."

"Once Daemos gets a taste of it, he might not limit his sacrifices to just his family."

"Sounds like something demons would do." Thor said with disgust.

"If it were demons, that would be better." Strange sighed.

"At least demons are enemies we're familiar with, but the energy Daemos uses is something none of us have ever seen before, which means we might be facing enemies we've never encountered before, and that's what's giving me the biggest headache."

"Can't we ask Karn?" Peter raised his hand to ask.

"Unfortunately, Karn doesn't know the whole story either." Steve shook his head.

"He can only get information from Daemos's fragmented words. What we just told you is all he knows."

"But we're not completely without countermeasures." Fury pointed to Karn on the monitor. "Daemos's target is Karn. As long as we protect Karn, Daemos will never be able to get his soul."

Karn slumped weakly on the restraint bed. After talking with S.H.I.E.L.D., he had been maintaining this low-energy mode because ordinary food couldn't satisfy his hunger.

Karn didn't necessarily have to eat Spider-Man; he could absorb the energy of any living being. Karn had told S.H.I.E.L.D. about this, but S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't responded, so he had no choice but to endure.

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But Karn knew that S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't just watch him starve to death. Who knew if Daemos had the means to summon souls from afar? If he died, and Daemos summoned him, then Daemos's next target would be hard to predict.

But Karn waited and waited, and still didn't get S.H.I.E.L.D. to feed him. Instead, he waited for an unexpected guest.

"Karn~."

A distant voice came, and Karn thought he was hallucinating from hunger. He opened his eyes and found that he was no longer in the S.H.I.E.L.D. prison, but in a space he had never seen before.

The sky was purple, and rocks floated around. It was the new dimension opened up by Yang Le, but Karn didn't know that.

"Where is this?" Karn subconsciously turned his head. When he came back to his senses, Karn found that he could move, and the restraints that had restricted his freedom had disappeared.

"Karn."

The voice sounded again, Karn turned his head and found a huge skull burning with purple flames floating in the sky. It was obviously him who was calling himself.

"Who are you?" Karn asked, then he found that the huge skull in front of him looked a little familiar, but he had never seen him before.

No! It wasn't the skull that looked familiar, but the energy emitted by the skull looked familiar. It was the energy that Daemos had used.

"Daemos's power comes from you?!"

"That's right!" Yang Le said slowly.

"I am the source of power for your foolish brother. I am the master of this dimension, I am the dimension demon god - Supreme Heaven."

"Supreme Heaven..." Karn murmured, searching his brain for this name, but he couldn't find anything.

That's right, Supreme Heaven is the name Yang Le gave to the fusion hero of the Annihilation Star and the Whirlwind Turtle. This Supreme Heaven of course does not refer to a series of skins in a certain online game, but the ancient Hebrew definition of heaven.

The ancient Hebrews believed that there were ten layers of heaven, and the highest tenth layer of heaven was the Supreme Heaven.

Yang Le named it after this, first because he was in charge of a new dimension, and second because his current strength surpassed that of the gods.