Hearing Gwen's declaration, before Peter could even react, Felicia, Natasha, Sif, Daisy, and Mantis immediately grew anxious.
Seeing the worry written across their faces, Peter quickly chimed in:
"Having Gwen stay behind to watch over Tony and Mr. Pietro is more than enough. The rest of you head to a safe location first and wait for my good news."
"Or... do you honestly think I'm going to lose to her?"
Hearing this, the five women exchanged brief glances and ultimately chose to comply obediently.
Moments later, the rest of the allied forces boarded the Quinjet and evacuated to a designated safe zone dozens of kilometers away.
Across the vast, desolate battlefield, only five figures remained.
Gwen deployed the Santen Kesshun barrier, firmly shielding Tony and Pietro behind her back, while Peter locked eyes with Wanda, who was likewise hovering mid-air.
Seeing this standoff, live chat feeds across the internet exploded into a frantic frenzy of comments:
"Can the Arbiter actually pull this off? If he loses, the consequences are going to be catastrophic!"
"Seriously... if the Arbiter falls, Iron Man won't survive either, and Ghost-Spider would probably die right beside him! Who's left to defend Earth after that?!"
"Shut up! The Arbiter never loses!"
While the global audience was frantically debating, Wanda made her move.
She struck.
Without warning, without any flashy wind-up or dramatic incantation.
She merely thrust both palms forward, and in that split second, the entire earth beneath Chernobyl let out an ear-grating, agonizing groan.
Scarlet Chaos Magic erupted from her open hands, yet it wasn't a standard energy beam or concussive ray—it was a literal tidal wave!
A colossal, surging ocean forged entirely from pure Chaos Magic, carrying a terrifying reality-warping force capable of reshaping the fundamental nature of matter, pressed forward layer upon layer toward Peter.
Wherever the wave swept past, the barren soil of Chernobyl—scorched and dead ever since the historic nuclear disaster—instantly bloomed with carpets of ominous, crimson spider lilies (Manjusaka).
Wanda Maximoff, the most gifted magical prodigy on planet Earth, was unleashing her raw, boundless potential without restraint.
With a mere gesture of her hands, she brought the waking nightmare of the underworld straight into reality.
"What kind of freaky power is this?! Is that even something a human can wield?!"
"We're doomed, we're totally doomed... Arbiter, run!"
"Is this the legendary 'tenfold power boost from turning evil'?! If this girl had pulled this out earlier, forget two thousand aliens—twenty thousand wouldn't even be enough for a warm-up!"
Under the suffocating gaze of billions of viewers worldwide, Peter casually tilted his neck.
That simple, effortless motion was enough to shift the very heavens.
Conqueror's Haki—the sheer physical manifestation of pure, unbending willpower, a force exclusive to natural-born rulers perched at the absolute summit of the food chain—erupted outward without holding back a single shred!
The two titanic forces collided dead-center in the sky.
At the exact moment of impact, there was no deafening explosion, nor any concussive shockwave, yet every living soul could feel the bone-deep dread of the clash.
Because... the moment those energies met, the sky above split cleanly in half.
The thick storm clouds that had blanketed Chernobyl for years were sheared down the middle from Peter and Wanda's axis, like a massive invisible broadsword cleaving through the atmosphere, tearing apart rapidly toward opposite horizons.
The rift expanded exponentially, stretching all the way to the edges of the visible skyline.
One half was an apocalyptic firmament dyed entirely in blood-red Chaos Magic.
The other half was a tempest of dense, pitch-black storm clouds summoned by Conqueror's Haki.
As the two sovereign forces ground against each other, arcs of black-and-red lightning crackled visibly across open air.
And all of this... was merely the opening salvo!
Further out, across half the territory of Russia, flocks of birds took flight in sheer terror, blackening the skies as they fled in the opposite direction of Chernobyl.
Herds of wild deer, packs of wolves, and even brown bears deep in winter hibernation clawed their way out of their dens, their limbs trembling as they sprinted frantically for their lives.
Inside the Moscow Zoo, every animal threw itself against the iron bars of their enclosures, smashing themselves bloody without stopping for breath.
Inside the London Sanctum Sanctorum—
A bald woman suspended cross-legged mid-air snapped out of her deep meditation, her pale face turning exceptionally solemn.
It was the Sorcerer Supreme—The Ancient One!
Opening her eyes, she instinctively looked down at the sacred relic passed down through generations of Sorcerers Supreme resting against her chest—the Eye of Agamotto.
The ancient artifact housing the Time Stone was vibrating violently, the emerald gemstone within pulsing with an erratic, panicked light, beating like a terrified heart pushed to its absolute limits.
"Everything has shifted... the Day of Awakening should not have arrived this early."
As she spoke, the Ancient One's body began to twitch and blur uncontrollably, as though her every motion had been accelerated by a fast-forward button hundreds of times over.
She was peering into the branching timelines through the Eye of Agamotto.
After an indeterminate stretch of time, the temporal flickering ceased. A faint, weary smile surfaced on her lips.
It was a smile carrying a profound sense of relief—the feeling of someone realizing a crushing burden carried for centuries could finally be set down:
"Thirty-seven million branching simulations... and not a single definitive conclusion?"
She let out a soft, dry chuckle, murmuring to the quiet chamber:
"Peter Parker... I truly hope you don't disappoint me."
Right then, the heavy wooden doors of the sanctum burst open. Two burly figures stepped inside with grave expressions.
It was Wong, the keeper of the mystic library, alongside Master Mordo.
"Master Ancient One, we sensed Chaos Magic... and this time, the signature is purer than anything recorded in history."
A vein pulsed along Mordo's temple as he asked cautiously:
"Could it be..."
"Indeed. The Scarlet Witch," the Ancient One stated placidly. "The chosen vessel blessed by Chthon in the prophecies of Vishanti, born with the divine authority to rewrite the fundamental rules of reality."
Wong swallowed dryly: "What is our course of action?"
"Let us first see if that young man can handle the situation."
The Ancient One dipped her fingertip into her teacup and lightly flicked a drop of water into the air.
The splashing droplet expanded into a hovering scrying mirror, displaying the real-time satellite feed of the Chernobyl battlefield.
Gazing at the lone figure standing completely immovable against the crimson tide, the warmth in her eyes deepened:
"If he can suppress the violent surge of Chaos Magic... then all remains well."
"And if he cannot?" Mordo pressed.
The smile on the Ancient One's face cooled into iron resolve:
"If he cannot, then I must personally seal her away before the Darkhold fully awakens."
Simultaneously—in the golden realm of Asgard, countless light-years away from Earth.
Within the opulent throne room of the royal palace, a one-eyed elder leaned weakly against the high throne.
Odin.
King of the Nine Realms, the Allfather.
His complexion was ashen, his breath drawn slow and heavy, his entire presence exuding the profound fatigue of an ancient deity nearing the twilight of his life.
The Odinsleep was drawing near far ahead of schedule. Though he had only recently awakened from his prior slumber, the encroaching exhaustion was dragging him down once more.
Yet at the precise second his consciousness was about to submerge into the deep sleep—
His lone eye snapped wide open!
The raw, divine aura that erupted from him in that singular instant caused the entirety of Asgard to tremble violently down to its very foundations.