Ignoring Peter's complaints, the Gorgon turned his gaze toward Moon Knight. Although the spider totem was a creation of Neith, and Neith was the daughter of Gaea, such a shallow divine aura was not enough to catch the attention of this Beast.
Instead, he noticed Moon Knight—or more accurately, Khonshu, who acted as Moon Knight's master. His serpentine eyes locked onto Moon Knight, who stared back but did not turn to stone.
Or rather, the Gorgon, possessed by the Beast, had lost the power to petrify others.
"I see... I have finally found this place, found this universe, after all these countless eons."
The Gorgon muttered to himself. Peter's Spider-Sense buzzed slightly, but it consistently indicated that the enemy before them was not powerful. In contrast, Moon Knight asked his boss with confusion, "I feel like he's looking at me, or is he looking at you?"
Khonshu fell into silence, or rather, a stunned silence.
Everyone descended from the web Peter had spun. The dust kicked up by the collapse of the keep had begun to dissipate, and the enemies were almost all down. Typhoid Mary and Lady Bullseye lay unconscious to one side, and the several elderly Japanese men appeared to be dead as well.
Only the Gorgon remained, muttering to himself as the heroes formed a circle around him.
Finally, someone broke the silence. Ghost Rider took a step forward, arriving right in front of the Gorgon. He grabbed him roughly, hoisting him up, and stared directly into his eyes. "I don't care who you are, but I see wickedness within you. Repent for your sins, and face judgment!"
"Wickedness... Ah, I see. You fight using such primitive concepts, don't you? Insignificant insect."
The Gorgon smiled. In that instant, Peter's Spider-Sense seemed to trigger for a split second, but it quickly fell quiet again. Hoisted up by Ghost Rider, the Gorgon opened his mouth wide and inhaled sharply. The hellfire enveloping Ghost Rider was sucked entirely into the Gorgon's mouth. The massive skull lost its blazing flames, and Ghost Rider lost consciousness, carelessly tossed aside by the Gorgon.
Peter couldn't help but tap the side of his head. Beside him, Moon Knight asked curiously, "What's wrong? Is there someone else talking inside your head too?"
"Not exactly..." Peter continued tapping his head. "Normally, I have a Spider-Sense that warns me of danger. But for some reason, even under these circumstances... it's still not ringing."
Peter wasn't particularly worried about whether Johnny was dead. After all, the skull had only flamed out rather than reverting to human form, which meant the Spirit of Vengeance was still bound to Johnny; it had just been utterly humiliated by the entity opposite them. Theoretically, the Beast should have vastly enhanced the Gorgon's power... yet it didn't seem to have enhanced much of anything. If the Beast relied on corruption to manifest, the Gorgon wasn't any more corrupt now than he was before.
Could it be that this guy was actually very weak?
The Gorgon glanced at the surrounding people once more before locking his gaze onto Moon Knight. "You are an emissary of the gods, are you not? And I can sense that your master is not far from me... No, he is not far from the one who stole my name and drove me out of this world."
"Set."
This time, a voice that did not belong to Moon Knight emerged from his mouth. Peter immediately recognized it as Khonshu's voice, but he reacted even more quickly to the meaning behind the name Khonshu had spoken. "Set? The Hydra one?"
"Legend has it that in a distant era, before the universe began splitting into the multiverse, shortly after the Earth had just formed, a pool of extraordinary life energy was bestowed upon this unique world. It was called the Demiurge, the embodiment of creative force. The Demiurge sowed his energy across this new world, and thus the first life forms of Earth were born, extraordinary beings known as the Elder Gods."
Khonshu began to recount the history using Moon Knight's mouth, continuing, "The Elder Gods were different from the newer gods; they were the physical manifestations of primitive and natural concepts. They were meant to be extraordinary, radiant life forms, born as gods and noble cosmic entities—until a certain moment when one among them decided to consume and permanently destroy his own kind to seize their power."
"That was Set."
The primordial, oldest corrupted one, the first sinner among the gods, the culprit who instigated the war of the Elder Gods.
The Hydra, Set.
"...Then why hasn't my Spider-Sense reacted at all?"
"Because his descent was a failure. His followers tried their absolute best to please him, but all it earned them was a mere glance from him, and even that failed. Without a sufficient amount of corruption as a sacrifice, he merely ended up arriving here... but even this is terrifying. I am not referring to the avatar before us. This avatar before us probably can't do anything other than corrupting people upon physical contact."
Khonshu added a detail at this point, "Oh, and don't use mental or spiritual attacks. Set's true body is vastly larger than an entire universe; no mortal can withstand it."
After listening to this, Peter felt it was... very surreal. Even if Khonshu described it in such grand terms, and even if this entity possessing the Gorgon sounded so powerful, it couldn't be felt right now.
"Based on what you're saying, it just means the Gorgon lost his petrifying gaze and gained a corruption ability similar to Mister Negative—and that's it? No wonder my Spider-Sense is completely quiet."
Although it sounded hard to believe, that was the reality. The Gorgon's desperate, final gamble didn't seem to have granted him any significant enhancement. Set picked up the katana, unable to unleash slaughter across the battlefield, and could only aim at the heroes surrounding him, preparing for combat.
But following that, a more awkward problem arose.
"Alright, we have another issue now."
Matt, who had raised his fists, thought for a moment before asking, "If his corruption mechanism functions through physical touch, much like Mister Negative's inverse healing, we need to defeat him without making contact. So, here's the question: do any of us specialize in ranged combat?"
In that instant, everyone focused their gaze entirely on Peter. Peter looked at the crowd, then helplessly looked toward the Gorgon—no, Set—who had drawn his blade ahead.
"Seriously? I don't know how to perform exorcisms. Which one of you has a way for me to finish him off?"
Right at that moment, Peter heard Matt's startled cry.
"Watch out! He's already moving!"
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