Spider-Man : The Story of a Hero

Thinking back on the symbiote's various weaknesses, Peter's mind raced. Fire came to him first: it would probably be the most effective way to destroy this thing and tear it away from his body for good. But what would happen to him in the process?The damage could be considerable, perhaps even irreversible. The risk was far too great. Frustrated, he quickly dismissed that possibility before focusing on the second weakness he knew about: vibrations.

His gaze slowly lifted toward the enormous bell standing before him. His features hardened as his fingers tightened slightly around the black mask still held in his hands. After a few seconds of hesitation, he stepped back and got into position, ready to strike.

— "This is going to hurt."

He thrust his fist forward and struck the bell with enough force to make it swing violently. A deafening roar immediately erupted through the church, followed by several more reverberations that spread throughout the entire building, loud enough to be heard in the surrounding streets.

The instant the first sound rang out, the symbiote reacted… and Peter with it. The black mass covering his body began to tremble and ripple uncontrollably, almost as if convulsing, while a brutal pain tore through Peter from head to toe. He let out a groan through clenched teeth, doing everything he could to endure the suffering and not give in.

At the same moment, Professor Connors' notes came rushing back to him. The bond connecting the symbiote to its host wasn't only mental: it was physical as well. If the symbiote suffered damage, its host would feel the consequences too. Peter gritted his teeth as he fully realized what that meant for what came next.

— "Just my luck!"

Realizing it wasn't enough, he struck the bell again. Another series of deafening vibrations surged through the church, again and again, making the black mass tremble and distort more and more around him.

But as the symbiote suffered, Peter paid the price as well. The pain became so intense that he soon felt as though blades were running through every part of his body, slicing through his flesh from the inside until he slowly began to bleed.

— "S-Shit! It hurts…!"

Unfortunately, even then, the vibrations produced by the bell still weren't enough to completely detach the creature from his body. Peter took a deep breath despite the pain crushing his chest, then lunged forward once again and struck with far greater force than before.

This time, the moment the bell began to ring, his legs almost gave out beneath him. Peter collapsed onto one knee, his breathing growing more difficult while his entire body trembled slightly from the intensity of the pain.

The symbiote, meanwhile, was finally beginning to detach from Peter's body in certain places. Small portions of the black mass lifted away from his skin, as though unable to withstand the vibrations any longer, but it still wasn't enough.

Worse still, just when Peter thought he had finally weakened the creature enough, it seemed to deliberately cling to him, reattaching itself with almost terrifying determination every time part of it began to give way. Despite all the pain it was suffering, it refused to leave its host. And that resistance was slowly beginning to drive Peter insane.

Without even meaning to, his thoughts turned toward Gwen, May and everyone he cared about. Then came the memories of what he had done recently… of all the people he had killed. No. He couldn't keep going like this.

He couldn't keep this thing on him. His teeth clenched so tightly that he almost felt as though they might shatter under the pressure. Gathering what little willpower he had left, Peter got back to his feet and threw himself at the bell again, unleashing several devastating strikes.

Every movement now required a superhuman effort because the pain caused by the symbiote had become unbearable. So he screamed, both to release the agony and to give himself the strength to keep going. One strike. Then a second. He kept going again and again, until on the fifth impact, small cracks slowly began to appear across the bell.

Meanwhile, Peter felt as though his entire body was literally being pierced by a hundred blades. The pain reached such an intensity that tears began running from his eyes without him even realizing it.

And yet, he continued. Several times, his knees threatened to give way beneath his weight, but each time, he forced his body to remain standing and continued attacking with the relentless determination of a wild animal refusing to give up.

Faced with all of this, the symbiote was terrified. It understood perfectly now: Peter was truly determined to get rid of it, no matter how much pain he had to endure to succeed. The vibrations had become so violent that, for one brief moment, the black mass was almost completely torn away from the young man's body.

From his feet up to his hips, the symbiote had already almost entirely detached, and there was now very little time before the upper half began to give way as well. Despite the deep interest the creature had in the young hero, it could no longer endure vibrations of such violence, repeated again and again without the slightest break.

Realizing it wouldn't be able to hold on much longer, the symbiote finally decided to intervene directly in Peter's mind to put an end to all of this. Just as Peter was about to bring his fist down on the church bell once again, his movement suddenly stopped.

His arm remained suspended for a few moments, then dropped. Peter slowly stumbled backward several steps before collapsing, as though his body were gradually shutting down, like a computer being switched off.

At first, there was only darkness. Absolute darkness, so deep that Peter felt as though he had been thrown into a place where nothing could be seen with the naked eye. He looked around, but found no landmark, no shape, no light. Maybe there was simply nothing there. As he was still trying to understand where he was, a voice suddenly rose from within the darkness.

— "Peter… why are you doing this? Why are you putting us through this?"

The young man immediately looked around, confused, instinctively searching for the source of the voice without being able to locate it. It didn't seem to come from any specific direction. It was as though the darkness itself were speaking to him, as though the creature's presence extended through everything around him.

Doing his best to remain calm despite the situation, Peter finally answered in a cold voice.

— "Let me out and I'll explain."

— "I don't understand… we do so many things together. Why are you acting like this?"

— "We do good things together? Are you kidding me?! What about those people I… that YOU killed! Was that good too?!"

For several seconds, no answer came. Peter didn't know it, but somewhere within that darkness, the symbiote was silently watching him.

— "That's not fair."

— "That's not fair? That's not fair?!"

An incredulous laugh escaped Peter. He almost felt as though the symbiote were mocking him, and the absurdity of its answer only fueled his anger even more.

— "What the hell do you know about justice? All you want to do is kill!"

— "And Gwen? May? They're alive because of our actions—"

— "No! Shut up! Stop trying to manipulate me! It's not going to work anymore!"

Peter almost instinctively brought his hands to his ears, as though he could somehow stop the voice from penetrating any deeper into his mind. Faced with his complete refusal to listen, the symbiote began to feel frustration rising within itself as well.

Then, without the slightest warning, something changed. Peter suddenly froze, his mind slipping into some kind of trance as the darkness around him seemed to fade away. Before he could even understand what was happening to him, distant memories from his own life began resurfacing, pulling him along with them.

TO BE CONTINUED.

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