Peter and Miguel waited for a good while before they finally confirmed one thing: absolutely nothing had happened.
"Something's not right. Even if we put aside all accidental factors, Cindy's prior condition proves that it's impossible for there to be nothing here."
Peter recalled Cindy's earlier state and couldn't help but furrow his brows. He then looked toward Leopardon, who was walking over. Even if they excluded the Inheritors and the Web-Warriors, Shathra's influence on Cindy was undeniably real.
Yet, with even Shathra's situation being this quiet, something had clearly gone wrong.
"Then... should we go take a look?"
Gwen asked tentatively, "I ran inside to check just now and didn't feel anything. Maybe I should go in and look again?"
Peter shook his head. Gwen's abilities might prevent Shathra from noticing her, but it wasn't a foolproof method. He had his nano-bots assemble into a spider-shaped drone and sent it into the temple. "Let's use this method to check the situation inside first. Hang on a moment, let's head back into Leopardon first; it's safer inside."
Takuya Yamashiro waited until Peter and the others returned, then looked at Gwen, feeling a bit bewildered. "When did she get here? Oh, wait, has she been inside Leopardon the whole time? How come I don't seem to recall her being here?"
Because he really might not have any recollection; everyone had forgotten.
Peter complained inwardly while standing to one side, projecting the feed captured by the drone onto Leopardon's monitor so everyone could see exactly what the Temple of Shathra looked like.
Through the drone's camera, they saw the interior of the temple, which was still adorned with a vast number of murals in an Egyptian artistic style. These murals primarily depicted Shathra's past. The central theme portrayed the great Shathra creating a space where all souls could grow individually without interfering with one another—the great Hive.
However, Shathra's wicked and greedy sister, Neith, destroyed everything.
She created an evil, chaotic Great Web. Within this Great Web, souls became entangled and influenced one another, which brought about spiritual chaos and degradation. What made it even more infuriating was that this wasn't even Neith's job to begin with; Neith had taken it upon herself to weave the Great Web, and then used sweet words to deceive their mother, the great Mother of Gods, Gaea, convincing Gaea that the Great Web was a superior celestial map for the souls of the multiverse.
Furious, Shathra valiantly challenged her sister for the sake of order, only to fail in the end. She was suppressed by their mother, Gaea, and subsequently sealed beneath the Great Web.
"How should I put this... I can't say this story is identical to the actual facts; I can only say it has absolutely nothing to do with them."
Peter voiced his thoughts, then scratched his head. "No matter how you look at it, this just looks like Shathra putting a golden glaze on herself. Each soul growing in isolation, and only merging into the Hive once fully developed... Personally, I don't really agree with this logic."
"There's something else inside."
Gwen chimed in with a reminder. As Peter controlled the drone to move forward, he asked in return, "What else is in there?"
"Uh, a giant beehive? It looks a lot like one, anyway."
The reality turned out to be exactly as Gwen had described. In the spot where the main idol of worship should have been placed, there stood a massive honeycomb. Peter had the reconnaissance drone perform a brief scan, and the result from the interior sent a shiver down everyone's spine: there was a faint, humanoid silhouette.
"The size of this silhouette is very small; it shouldn't be fully developed yet..."
Miguel leaned over to analyze the data. "This humanoid form definitely has a connection to Shathra. Her actual body is known to be sealed beneath the Web of Destiny, but her consciousness has not fallen asleep. The Sisterhood of the Wasp is the best proof of that. This temple is likely a channel through which she manifests her own consciousness."
"Perhaps even more... It's possible that this humanoid form could continuously grow through the constant expansion of the Sisterhood of the Wasp and the sacrifice of Spider-Totems, thereby allowing Shathra to possess a physical vessel capable of executing her plans..."
Peter stroked his chin in thought, while Takuya Yamashiro simply posed a single question after finishing watching the feed: "Should we chop it down?"
"Uh, it looks like there isn't anything else in the temple besides this large altar. Gwen, did you see anything else strange?"
Seeing Gwen shake her head, Leopardon unleashed its third Sword Vigor Divine Blade of the day, completely shattering the entire temple into pieces. Seeing a troublesome matter thoroughly obliterated, Gwen asked casually, "Hold on a second, does this thing still exist elsewhere in the multiverse?"
Peter and Miguel exchanged a glance. "Theoretically speaking, its presence across the multiverse won't be too large of a percentage, but..."
"But for the multiverse, percentages are meaningless. Unless it is a unique totem like Shathra, or the 'Patriarch' and the 'Bride,' where the quantity is exactly one. For anything else, as long as the quantity is not one, then to the multiverse, the quantity is infinite."
Miguel supplemented this cold, hard reality, causing Gwen to suddenly fall into a silence. However, Peter's thought was that it should be fine. Although the absolute number of the Sisterhood of the Wasp across the multiverse was quite large, from a proportional perspective, the probability of encountering them could be considered exceptionally low.
Still, they couldn't afford to let their guard down, which was also one of the reasons why the Alliance had been established.
Peter was just about to comfort Gwen with a few words, but right at that moment, Cindy, who had been lying down all this time, seemed to show some signs of movement. After the temple was completely destroyed, her condition appeared to improve significantly, and she finally managed to climb up. Peter hurried over to ask about her physical well-being.
"I'm fine... It's just, I wasn't of much help."
"You've already helped a lot."
Peter comforted her from the side, but Miguel coughed twice and then signaled for Peter to step over. Peter asked Gwen to look after Cindy for a bit, then watched as Leopardon transformed into a tank to begin the return journey before looking at Miguel. "What's on your mind?"
"Like I said, you protect them far too well. But you have many responsibilities and missions; it's impossible for you to protect them every second. And judging by the situation this time... your universe can't be considered entirely safe either."
Miguel revealed his underlying motive. "Don't be so quick to disagree with me. Right now, we have a very good opportunity. The multiverse is so vast, and most of it isn't as powerful as Universe 616; in fact, the number of universes stronger than my Universe 928 is also limited. Why don't you take them, or take them one by one, to different universes to resolve issues?"
"...I get it. You're trying to get me to work for you."
"I'm telling you to take a few girls along to help out." Miguel spoke as he shared a file of data with Peter. "For instance, convincing some Spider-Totems who are reluctant to join us to come on board, or checking out the situation in universes that we temporarily cannot enter."