Xia Luo had barely raised his hand before Wade jumped in front of him.
“Hey! I’m the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. You lookin’ for me?” Wade leaned against the wall, hands on his hips, though his balance on just one leg made him wobble unsteadily.
The portly mage gave Wade and Xia Luo a dubious look. “But… his suit has a spider logo.”
Wade: “…”
“Fine, you got me. I’m Batman.” He threw up his hands, and, with only one leg, leaned dramatically to the side until he toppled over.
The mage shook his head and turned to Xia Luo. “Hello, I’m Wong. The Sorcerer Supreme sent me to bring you to Kamar-Taj.”
Xia Luo nodded politely. “Nice to meet you. I’m Xia Luo Parker. I’ve been expecting you.”
“Good, Xia Luo Parker. Follow me.”
With a wave of his hand, Wong created a portal ringed with golden sparks.
“Whoa, what an awesome teleportation gadget!” Wade exclaimed, lying on the ground and propping his chin up with both hands.
“It’s magic,” Wong corrected before stepping into the portal.
Xia Luo followed, and Wade scrambled to his feet, hopping along to catch up.
On the other side of the portal lay a smoking ruin of a village. The buildings lay in ashes, thick with black smoke. Scattered stones and splatters of blood marked the ground, and deep claw marks marred the shattered tiles.
Under a gray sky, groups of exhausted sorcerers huddled together, dressing each other’s wounds and casting healing spells.
“What happened here?” Xia Luo asked, frowning.
A shadow passed over Wong’s face. “A monstrous beast from another universe attacked us without warning. The Sorcerer Supreme led us in a desperate battle, but it could split into clones, making it impossible to defeat. In the end, the Sorcerer Supreme sacrificed herself to seal it away.”
Just then, the portal behind them closed—cutting off Wade, who had only half-stepped through. With a yell, his lower half was severed, and his upper half fell to the ground with a dull thud.
“Great…every portal leaves me a little less whole,” Wade sighed, shrugging helplessly.
Wong stared in horror. “Hold on, I’ll heal you immediately.”
“No need,” Xia Luo interrupted, patting Wong on the shoulder. “He’ll survive.”
“Survive…?” Wong hesitated, glancing down at Wade, and then nodded slowly.
“Oh… I get it.”
“Get what?” Xia Luo raised an eyebrow.
“Anyone in matching suits must be a kind of Spider-Man…he must have Spider-Man’s immortality.”
Xia Luo: “…Close enough.”
He limped over to examine the claw marks gouged into the ground.
“What sort of creature could force the Sorcerer Supreme to sacrifice herself just to seal it away?” he murmured.
“A crocodile. A huge, talking crocodile.” Wong’s face was grim. “It called itself the Supreme Sorcerer of the Nine Realms—a god above all gods.”
“Crocodile Loki?” Xia Luo’s eyes narrowed, remembering the strange absence of Loki during the last tournament.
“So, Loki showed up here instead of New York during the last resurrection tournament…”
He frowned, thinking it through. If Loki had become the Supreme Sorcerer, there’s no way Thanos could have wiped him out. But if he wasn’t all-powerful, then why did it take the Sorcerer Supreme’s sacrifice to stop him?
Unless…Thor had lied.
Setting the thought aside, he turned to Wong. “The Sorcerer Supreme knew I’d come to learn magic. Did she leave any other instructions?”
Wong’s expression turned odd. “She said if you learned magic… you could save her.”
Xia Luo paused, considering. Could the Sorcerer Supreme have sensed the “reset” ability?
But unlike Professor X, the Sorcerer Supreme’s premonitions were vague. She couldn’t have fully understood the resets, and even if she did, she’d have no power over them.
Except for one person who might.
Xia Luo glanced at Wade, then turned back to Wong. “Let’s get started.”
Wong led him to a quiet area and pulled out a well-worn spellbook.
“The library was destroyed, so this is the only spellbook I have. You’ll need to study its contents to start learning the basics.”
Xia Luo stroked his chin. “How long would it take the average person to begin casting basic spells?”
“Three years.”
“That’s way too long,” Xia Luo replied. “I need to learn portal magic in the next twenty-four hours.”
“Impossible.” Wong shook his head. “Opening a portal doesn’t require deep magical knowledge, but only the Sorcerer Supreme ever learned it in under a week.”
Xia Luo smirked. “What if I told you someone learned it the moment they encountered magic?”
“Then I’d call you a liar,” Wong replied flatly.
“Fair enough.” Xia Luo looked at the ring Wong handed him, then thought to himself, Impossible or not, it has to work.
In the movies, Ned had opened a portal right off the bat—enabling the legendary three Spider-Men team-up.
Wong handed him the Sling Ring, explaining, “Focus your mind on a place, and the ring will open a portal. But it takes some innate magical talent. Your first attempts are almost certain to fail, but if you build your knowledge and draw support circles—”
Before he’d finished, a dazzling red-and-blue portal of sparks appeared in front of Wong.
On the other side lay the ruins of New York.
“Wait…what?” Wong was stunned. “Don’t tell me… the one you mentioned who could open portals on their first try… was you?”
“Actually, no.” Xia Luo looked down at his fingers, bemused at the magical aura now coating the ring and the glowing spider symbol on his chest.
In the Marvel universe, magic was just a way to channel power from ancient gods or dimensions. The strength of the spell depended on factors like the user’s intelligence, mental focus, and even luck. And since Xia Luo had the power of the Spider Totem, it seemed he could channel it.
However, he frowned, realizing one problem. Without this ring, I wouldn’t be able to create portals in the next tournament reset.
When he asked Wong about this, Wong replied, “In theory, as your magical abilities deepen, you won’t need the ring. But only the Sorcerer Supreme has achieved that.”
Xia Luo patted Wong’s shoulder. “You’ll get there one day. Have some faith.”
“Me?” Wong shook his head with a smile. “My talent is nowhere near the Sorcerer Supreme’s.”
“Time will prove it.” Xia Luo began leafing through the spellbook, absorbing every intricate diagram and arcane symbol.
The daylight waned as Hydra’s forces exposed their reach to the world, but Xia Luo remained unbothered, his focus solely on studying the spellbook.
Wong watched him, a quiet smile of pride tugging at his lips. “The Sorcerer Supreme never chose wrongly.”
Then he felt a tug on his robe. Glancing around, he saw no one and frowned.
“Who’s playing pranks?” he asked, annoyed.
“It’s me.”
Looking down, Wong went still in shock. Wade’s lower half had regenerated into baby legs.
“Uh… what do you need?” Wong stammered.
Wade gave him a pitiful look. “I need a diaper. Real bad.”
Wong: “…”
—
Back in the Web of Life and Destiny, Xia Luo reflected on the contents of the spellbook.
Though it was just the basics, the information was as complex as the artificial sun experiment—and just as hard to understand.
Maybe I need a new approach.
The Spider Totem could replace the power of the ancient gods, so maybe there was something that could replace the Sling Ring as well.
Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind.
Reset!
Round Six: The Resurrection Tournament.
At the top of the Empire State Building, as the timer hit zero, Xia Luo called forth his spider companion.
“Ch-ch-ch!”
The spider clamped down on his hand, and a rush of magical energy flooded his body.
Zzzmmm!
With a single motion, Xia Luo drew a circle in the air, and a portal opened.
“It worked!”
Using the spider as a conduit for the Spider Totem’s energy was a success!
With a look of excitement, he leapt through.
At the News Station.
“Hahaha! This is perfect! The Goblin’s back, the nightmare returns—”
Before Norman could finish, a blazing streak crashed through the wall, sweeping him away.
The fleeing workers paused, bewildered.
“What just happened?”
“I think… it was Spider-Man.”
“Yes, he saved us.”
Queens, Blake Street.
Hydra’s Steve Rogers and Bucky jumped down from a rooftop, drawing startled gasps from onlookers.
“Oh my God, it’s Captain America!”
“Wait, wasn’t he killed by Spider-Man?”
“I heard he was actually a double agent…but S.H.I.E.L.D. never confirmed it.”
Hearing this, Hydra Steve understood everything instantly. He shot a quick glance at a street sign and smirked cruelly.
“We’re back. What a pleasant surprise.” He turned to Bucky. “Parker’s house is close by. It’s time to make him pay for what he’s done.”
Bucky frowned. “This method seems…low. Are we sure about this?”
Hydra Steve scoffed. “Compared to Spider-Man, are we really that low?”
Bucky thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Yeah, actually, Spider-Man’s the real jerk here.”
The two shared a look and immediately steeled their resolve.
Just as they began to move, a brilliant portal shimmered into existence above them.
“What…is that?”
They looked up, confusion giving way to horror.
“No…there’s no way he found us this fast—”
The next instant, a comet-like figure descended from the heavens, warping the sky with its fiery speed.
“Friendly Neighborhood Atomic Kick!”
“No!!”
Boom!!
The magical energy exploded, sending two black spines flying through the air.
“Carter, I’ve taken care of the Hydra Captain. You can retrieve their black spines.”
“What?” Carter sounded shocked over the comms. “That was… fast.”
Xia Luo: “…Let’s not phrase it that way, thanks.”
He cut the connection, then opened another portal.
Empire University Rooftop.
Gwen had just been dragged to the rooftop by Mysterio.
“Gwen, it’s a shame you’re not Spider-Man,” Mysterio sneered, the sinister grin on his helmet’s faceplate stretching wide. “But I know you’re connected to him somehow. And capturing you will definitely bring him here.”
Gwen’s face turned pale, but she forced herself to remain calm.
“You’re wasting your time. I barely know Spider-Man. There’s no way you can use me as leverage.”
“Oh, really?”
Mysterio laughed coldly, flipping through her phone. The name “Xia Luo Parker” appeared on the screen, confirming his suspicions.
“Xia Luo Parker. I know who he is. He showed up briefly in my universe too. Steve told us the truth—he’s Spider-Man.”
The words shook Gwen to the core.
“There’s no way… Xia Luo is Spider-Man?”
Disbelief flooded her face, but there was no time to process it.
Zzzmmm!
The portal burst open above them, and Mysterio’s sensors immediately detected a red-and-blue figure speeding out of it.
“Spider-Man!”
Seeing the aura of magical energy surrounding Xia Luo, Mysterio reacted instinctively, shoving Gwen off the edge of the building.
“No!!”
As she fell, Gwen’s vision blurred as she plunged toward the ground below. Yet, she felt no despair.
Because she saw Spider-Man.
“Xia Luo…” Her eyes sparkled, her heart pounding.
In that instant, she felt a surge of something she couldn’t define.
And as he zeroed in on her, Xia Luo’s gaze was determined.
This time, fate was about to change.
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