"Now… it's your turn."
Kingpin's voice carried the inevitability of death.
Spider-Man burned with fury.
He stared at Daredevil lying amid the rubble — chest grotesquely dented inward — listening to the shallow, ragged breaths struggling beneath the mask.
Fear trembled inside him.
But anger burned hotter.
"Hey, white suit," Peter snapped, forcing bravado into his voice. "Didn't your tailor warn you that color shows stains?"
He dropped into a fighting stance. Loose. Mobile.
But his voice shook.
"I'm going to shut that mouth of yours myself."
Kingpin cracked his knuckles.
Like a lion savoring its prey's last struggle, he watched.
"In this city," he said slowly, "there are always insects who think a mask makes them equal."
"You misunderstand."
"Order is not built by cowards hiding in shadows."
He raised a fist the size of a cooking pot.
"It is built on this."
"Absolute power."
Kingpin Moves
He exploded forward.
Too fast.
Peter's body reacted before thought could form.
He flipped backward, wrists firing in rapid succession — dozens of web-lines forming a layered net around Kingpin.
Kingpin didn't slow.
He simply tore through the webbing with brute force.
"Your web cannot hold a shark."
He was already inside Peter's guard.
The punch came straight for his face.
Peter twisted midair, planting both feet against Kingpin's chest and launching himself backward.
The recoil jolted through his legs.
Like kicking a mountain.
He landed atop a broken steel beam, chest heaving.
It was useless.
Strength.
Durability.
Power.
This was nothing like the criminals he fought before.
"Give up," Kingpin said, approaching slowly.
"Kneel. Tell me who hides behind your mask."
"Then I may allow you to die alone."
At the Center of Darkness
"Ora ora ora ora ora ora!"
Star Platinum's blows did not slow.
Each strike purified swathes of darkness.
Yet the Beast flowed endlessly — an ocean connected to a bottomless abyss.
Joren could feel Ripple energy draining at an alarming rate.
"Hahahaha!" Madam Gao laughed.
"Do you feel it, Iron Fist?"
"The Beast is the embodiment of every terror in this city!"
"All souls who died in fear and despair have nourished it!"
"As long as death exists — it cannot be destroyed!"
"The brighter your light, the stronger its hunger!"
"Surrender! Become divine sustenance!"
Here we go again.
More incomprehensible raving.
Joren's brow tightened.
He didn't care about gods.
Or eternity.
He just wanted silence.
He wanted the sticky darkness gone.
He wanted to go home.
Watch the humpback whale documentary.
Why did simple wishes always attract cosmic nonsense?
The irritation exploded inside him.
A pure, absolute desire formed:
Stop it.
Stop everything.
Stop the noise.
Stop the chaos.
Stop the world.
Awakening
The will surged through the spiritual bond between user and Stand.
Deep within his bloodline, something dormant answered.
The Beast sensed the change.
Its condensed Void Star expanded violently.
Darkness formed a colossal maw.
It snapped toward him.
Everything would end—
No.
Stop.
Time Stilled
Buzz—
The world fell silent.
Madam Gao's fanatic smile froze.
Kingpin's fist halted inches from Spider-Man's skull.
Dust hung motionless in air.
Sparks froze mid-flight.
Collapsing debris suspended like sculpture.
Time had been stripped of motion.
Color faded into a monochrome stillness.
Only two things retained color:
Joren.
And Star Platinum.
Radiant in gold.
The vast dark maw stood frozen before him.
Within its vortex…
he saw it.
At the center.
A fractured crystal core emitting an eerie glow.
The anchor.
The source.
The hidden heart sustaining the Beast.
A word surfaced instinctively from the depths of his bloodline memory.
"The World."
Time itself bent to his will.
Joren exhaled softly.
So that's how it works.
The World Within the World
"Tap."
His footstep echoed alone.
Star Platinum moved with him.
Its fist burned with solar Ripple energy.
Golden radiance condensed into absolute force.
Joren's eyes locked onto the exposed core.
"Ora."
No thunder.
No explosion.
Just a perfect strike.
The fist connected.
Crack.
A fragile sound.
Like glass breaking inside eternity.
Joren turned away.
Hands slid back into his pockets.
"Time… resume."
Reality Returns
The silent world shattered into motion.
Sound, color, and force exploded back into existence.
A soul-piercing scream tore through the theatre.
Madam Gao's ecstatic expression collapsed into horror.
She coughed black blood.
The light in her eyes dimmed.
"No… my god…"
She stared at the vanishing darkness.
The Beast disintegrated.
Collapsed.
Erased.
As if it had never existed.
Kingpin's Blow
Kingpin's punch completed its trajectory with unstoppable momentum.
But—
an invisible force shoved his back.
Spider-Man twisted midair as the fist missed by inches.
BOOM!
The punch cratered the stage.
Peter hit the ground, gasping.
He had no idea what had happened.
Only that the giant missed.
He looked toward Joren.
Was it him?
Kingpin lifted his head from the crater.
His eyes burned with fury.
Madam Gao lay collapsed.
The darkness was gone.
His killing blow had failed.
"You… what did you do?!"
He roared.
"You damned insect!"
He abandoned Peter and charged Joren.
Joren didn't turn.
Star Platinum flashed forward.
"Ora."
A low, final strike.
BANG!
Kingpin's feet left the ground.
His massive body arched backward unnaturally.
He blasted through a wall.
And vanished into the night beyond.