Everything happened incredibly abruptly. The arrow pierced through a few light years of space around the binary star system. In the cosmos, this was nothing more than a minor explosion, ordinarily causing minimal harm.
The universe is indeed vast. Most celestial bodies do not lie on a single plane, much less in a straight line. But the Spider Nebula has two distinguishing characteristics.
Firstly, the Kree refer to this place as the cradle of stars and for good reason. The area is densely packed with stars, illuminating the entire star zone. When observed by the human telescope, it radiates in a bright, spider-like pattern.
The stars are natural bombs, especially the unstable ones in their early stages of birth. They can explode in a chain reaction when subjected to a massive impact, causing more widescale devastation.
Secondly, in order to prevent any underhanded maneuvers, the three great empires have invited fleets from various civilizations to bear witness. Not every race can traverse the cosmos in their physical form like the Asgardians. The majority of them still need spaceships.
In interstellar society, barring special incidents like the theft of the Polaris by Gana, lone spaceships rarely roam the universe. Most of the ships are equipped with scout and escort vessels, and head out in fleets.
As many civilizations are technologically advanced and do not skimp on spaceship materials, most of their interstellar territories are vast and their energy sources abundant. Their spaceships are large and majestic, occupying a considerable amount of space.
Spaceships cannot be aligned like cars in a row. Massive spaceships must account for the influence of gravity. If two huge vessels are too close to each other, there could be detrimental effects on their gravity regulation systems.
If there is a star port, these ships could dock in different areas according to their types. The star port would have special facilities to counteract the influence between ships.
This is why Shiller and Stark wanted to procure a star port for the human race. Humans, after all, already have several spaceships. Leaving them floating alone in space presents a huge maintenance issue.
However, the only star port from the Kree Empire in the Spider Nebula was obliterated and left no traces or debris behind. Not even a temporary docking point remained.
Unable to demarcate parking lots, the ships had to randomly find spaces in the cosmos. The vast emptiness of space meant there was no necessity to park near others. As such, the majority of the massive ships in the Spider Nebula were evenly distributed, and any given attack could devastate multiple ships at once.
Many civilizations use stellar energy and preferred parking their ships near stars. While attending the ceremony, they could replenish their energy. This proved to be a misfortune when the supergiant star exploded. Not all civilizations possess the Shi'ar Empire's technology that can withstand a stellar explosion.
Most of the spaceships were instantaneously melted. Some, made from superior materials, were able to retain their remnants. But most ships were not defensive vessels with high, surgical intensity. After the explosion, nothing was left.
A few lucky spaceships out of the range of the black hole remained unscathed. However, the majority of civilizations, in their confusion, scattered and fled at the moment of the explosion.
Beyond the fear of natural disasters, their greater concern was the possibility that one among the three great empires planned to keep everyone there. All other civilizations knew that they had both the potential and maybe even the inclination to do so.
Therefore, their first reaction to narrowly escaping was to step on the gas, as it were. They left no stone unturned, leaving their scout ships and escort vessels to fend for themselves. What could be more important than survival?
Upon witnessing the complete destruction of the safety base, many civilizations realized that tensions among the three great empires were escalating. They had to return to their own civilizations and prompt their peers to stay alert and be prepared.
Therefore, within a short period, most able civilizations had left. The fleets of the three great empires, all stationed around the safety base, disappeared with the eruption of the black hole.
After some time, a portal opened within the unremarkable, dark space of the Spider Nebula. Stark was the first to fly out, followed by Shiller, Strange, Polaris and a host of mutants.
"I believe everyone is familiar with the process. I won't say more. Start moving," Shiller took the lead, his instructions succinct.
Polaris stepped forward first, closing her eyes and spreading her magnetic field detection. However, she soon frowned and said, "The magnetic field here is too chaotic. It's probably the trace left by the spaceships accelerating to leave. I can't make a good judgment…"
As she was saying this, she felt a different, stronger magnetic field ripple spreading around.
Polaris opened her eyes. An instinctual look of fear flashed across her face, but she quickly realized that this was Magneto's magnetic field.
Polaris shook her head and said, "…since he's here, let him handle it. I cannot…"
Suddenly, she looked puzzled because that strong power disappeared abruptly. Magneto's figure flashed in the cosmos and then vanished.
He did not utter a word, but within the scope of Polaris's renewed sensitivity, the chaotic magnetic field had been manually adjusted. Numerous marked locations were evident in her view.
Polaris's expression turned subtle, as if she hadn't done her homework and her parent had secretly completed it for her, only realizing it when she had to hand it in to the teacher the next day.
Soon after, her expression changed again. She passed this information onto Stark's Mecha and said, "All locations with valuable wreckage have been marked. You can go straight there to collect it."
Looking at the area map provided by Polaris and the marked locations of the valuable wreckage, Stark said, "I have to say, this ability is uniquely advantageous."
"I'm not sure how many civilizations can scan such a large area of the cosmos to perfection in an instant, but I know, whether for interstellar exploration or war, this ability has immense strategic value."
The expression on Polaris's face became even subtler, like a parent who did a child's homework and got praised with full marks by the teacher.
Other than feeling guilty, he also felt a hint of indescribable pride. Although the teacher wasn't explicitly praising him, it was as if he was being praised implicitly.
Strange ignored Polaris's emotional changes and led a few mages toward the nearest location with a swirl of his cloak. Before leaving, he snapped his fingers and said to Stark,
"Remember our previous agreement? Whoever gets it, owns it. Don't talk to me about fair distribution. The mages have been tolerating Stark's fairness for too long! This time, whatever we get is ours!"
Stark made a disdainful face, scoffed, and then said, "You took half of Star Port but didn't make any significant changes, and in the end, it's still the original structure of the Star Port that maintains stability, right? You think that just because you put a shiny magic cloak on it, it's fixed?"
Seeing the tense atmosphere between the two, Peter, who trailed behind them, scratched his head. He was in another awkward situation.
By rights, he should follow Stark, but the symbiont in his body, called Red Bee, had undergone a specialized evolution after absorbing the Faith Powers that were provided by the Successor Family.
Now, he should be the second symbiont to master magic, following Blue Spirit. Consequently, Peter also learned to use magic.
Recently, he was engrossed in deciphering the mystery of magic. He wanted to study magical abilities with Strange, but it was embarrassing for him to say it. After all, it wasn't the first time that Stark and Strange had argued over the distribution of equipment and spaceships.
At that time, Shiller waved at Peter and said, "Peter, come over here and help me, help me inscribe a symbol here..."
Peter flew over, utilizing the power of the symbiont, and saw that Shiller was pointing at a planet on the edge of the explosion area. He took over the blueprints from Shiller and asked with some confusion, "...is this some sort of logo? Is the brand called Thanos???"
"Consider it a logo, just help me engrave it on this side of the planet, make it bigger… yes, make sure to convey the power and domination of the logo. The bigger, grander, and more eye-catching, the better."
"The more eye-catching the better?" Peter pondered, gesturing to his chin and said: "I think the magic energy is eye-catching enough. However, if we use magic energy, there's no need to engrave words on the planet. I can make a sign directly in the cosmos."
"What do you mean?" Shiller looked at him and asked, "Have you made any breakthroughs in using those Faith Powers?"
Peter nodded and said, "Watch, Doctor..."
After speaking, he held out his hand and lit a point of light at the tip of his finger. He used this finger to write letters in the air. He casually wrote the line "I am Spider Man", then waved his hand and erased it.
The light at his fingertip brightened, then he wrote another brighter line of "I am Spider Man" and pointed to it telling Shiller, "You see, like this, without any energy interference, this line of text will stay here. I think it's conspicuous enough."
Shiller crossed his arms, studying the line of text. He found that, as Peter had mentioned, in the dark universe, the bright line of text was indeed eye-catching.
Most celestial bodies are chaotic, whereas ordered complex texts appear strikingly prominent. Moreover, the magic energy gave the text a dazzling glow. While it wasn't as hot and radiant as a star, it was much easier to recognize.
So, he asked, "Can you write anything?"
"Yes." Peter said confidently, "Having accumulated so much Faith Power last time, Red Bee hasn't fully absorbed it all. It slept a while but only digested less than half, my body can't store that much energy, the surplus has been dissipating, I've been wondering how to use them..."
"Alright," Shiller showed a smile, and then took out his communicator, addressing Stark, "You know the language database of those three empires you found on the Kree Escort Ship, is it still available?"
"Don't ask me what I'm going to do, help me translate a few sentences... okay, I'll send them over to you soon…"
Then, Shiller turned to Peter and said, "Can you help me write a few lines of alien language?"
"No problem, just give me the blueprint." Peter nodded, then asked, "How big?"
"The bigger, the better."
Peter's eyes widened, but after thinking for a moment, a halo extended from his fingertips to his entire body, then spread several kilometers outside his body. He looked like a giant firefly. In this host starless dark space, he was exceedingly conspicuous.
After receiving the text message sent by Stark, Peter started writing texts of the three empires in space.
When the fleet sent by The Supremacy arrived to investigate, the first thing they saw was an enormous lighting billboard, situated right on the ruins of the safe base.
It read:
"Hand over the Infinity Gems! Otherwise, the destruction will never end! — Universal Overlord Thanos."