Chapter 46
***
I greeted the morning sitting on the porch and admiring the fiery ball of the sun rising from behind the edge of the horizon. That state of emptiness and joy was no longer in me, but a certain peace still lingered.
I slowly sipped a decoction of some herbs from Suo's supplies from a clay mug. She specifically keeps a separate pouch of this mixture for me, which I brew myself when the desire arises. I take it from this pouch and brew it. I'm weaning myself off alcoholic beverages.
Not that they had any effect on me at all, but Suo doesn't like their smell, or rather, when I smell of them. So my wife and I spent a couple of evenings looking for an adequate replacement that suited us both. Me for the taste, her for the smell.
Actually, this "tea" was supposed to have some kind of effect too, but my body completely neutralized it. Only the taste remained. And I liked the taste.
The decoction in the cup ran out. I sat motionless for some time longer, enjoying the aftertaste and the peace, then got up and started my morning exercise-training.
After some time, Logan, who had woken up, joined me. He too, after ending up at Xavier's and taking on teaching duties, had picked up such a habit.
About half an hour later, the rest of them, having woken up, also trickled to the porch. They arrived just in time for the moment when the "reds" started the morning removal of bodies from the houses of the settlement.
I finished my exercises, doused myself with well water from a bucket, toweled off, and approached Suo, who had come out onto the porch.
"What is happening?" Xavier looked in surprise at the businesslike bustle of the "reds." "Why? From where? How?"
"This is the Battle of Dragons, Charles," Raven answered him gloomily. "There are no rules here. Killing people in their sleep right in their houses is par for the course here."
"But how can that be?.." the telepath couldn't even find words to say to this.
"And what about us?" Erik frowned. "Could we have been attacked too?"
"We are in a house and under the protection of the Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth Dimension. You'd have to find fools to climb in here, since mages are especially strong in stationary defense on their own or temporarily their own territory," Raven explained. "The house is surrounded by traps, right? Am I right?"
"A full security perimeter," Suo shrugged. "Did you go somewhere during the night, honey?" she asked me quietly. Apparently, she remembered that this very perimeter had triggered on me, notifying her of the crossing.
"Couldn't sleep," I shrugged. She shook her head disapprovingly, but didn't pester me or read me the riot act.
Suo left us for a while, going in search of a "red." She returned quickly, since there were plenty of "reds" nearby. We were brought a large basket of food.
Accordingly, the next item on our morning routine was a hearty breakfast, after which Suo left on some business of her own. Charles and Hank started a game of chess, and I called my brother aside.
"Erik," I addressed him.
"Yes, Vic? Did you want something?"
"Your help is required," he immediately gathered himself and became serious, because I rarely ask anyone for help.
"Alright," he nodded. "What is required of me?"
"Let's go," I replied and moved towards the jungle.
***
Raven was worried about her husband with this stupid Battle of Dragons that nobody needed. No, she acknowledged the justice of Victor's reasoning that it was better this way, under the supervision of him and his wife, unexpectedly the Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth Dimension (I recall, seeing them for the first time in a photograph in the newspaper, Raven experienced real shock, because unlike her husband she imagined who Sabretooth was, what he was known for in certain circles, and who the Ancient One was. But what doesn't happen in life?), than if he climbed in here alone, not knowing the realities, the written and unwritten rules, how everything was arranged here. However, this still didn't stop her from worrying about her husband.
And so now, when Victor called Erik aside and led him somewhere into the jungle, Raven couldn't contain her anxiety, and didn't even try. Trying to remain unnoticed, and she was good at that, she moved after them. They didn't go far. No more than a kilometer through the jungle. Their destination was located in a small clearing next to a stream. And that this was exactly their destination, the woman understood immediately: a man was hanging on a tree. Or rather a mutant, since a man with such injuries could not remain alive, but this one was alive: twitched, tried to roar or say something, it was difficult to make out because of a foot shoved into his mouth all the way to the heel. A foot. A real one, cut off neatly at the ankle joint. At first the woman thought that it was his own foot, but all four limbs were present in a complete set.
This mutant's arms were tightly "sewn" to his ribs and spine with pieces of very thick rebar. The legs were fixed one to the other in a similar way, right through the meat. The foot inserted into the mutant's maw was also fixed—screwed to the lower jaw through the chin. The neck was pierced with another piece. This piece formed a loop around the spine, was twisted behind his back, and it was on this that the body hung, as the upper end was thrown over and twisted around a thick branch of the tree.
In this mutant, albeit with difficulty, Raven recognized Victor's opponent from yesterday in the Arena. The one who, it turns out, had the stupidity to turn his back to Sabretooth, having spat at his feet before that. It turns out he didn't get far from that Circle.
"Romulus?" Erik also recognized the hanging martyr. "But why, Vic? He didn't fight you, did he?"
"Just because he somehow decided he could leave doesn't mean I let him go," Victor shrugged. "He is an enemy. He clearly indicated this position. And an enemy..."
"...is destroyed at any time, in any place, by any means," with a sigh, Erik finished the phrase for his brother. "And what do you need my help with? I see you are doing quite well on your own?"
"Can you extract all the adamantium from his body?" Victor voiced his request.
"Adamantium? Like Logan has?" Erik was surprised. "Is this guy from 'Weapon X' too?"
"This guy organized 'Weapon X'," Victor corrected Erik. "Perfected the technology on ones like Logan, and then applied it to himself."
"Adamantium, you say?" Erik rolled up his sleeves to gather his thoughts and concentrate on the task. Actually, he controlled metal without the use of additional gestures, by the power of thought alone.
Then the body hanging on the tree shook, twitched, thrashed, tried to scream, even despite the foot that hadn't gone anywhere from his mouth. Apparently, Romulus was in a lot of, a lot of pain.
Then it was bloody, disgusting, and scary. Raven felt sick, and she turned away from this sight.
A minute passed, and everything quieted down. The mutant, covered in blood from head to toe, continued to dangle on the branch of the tree. Nearby lay a "skeleton" of foil-thin metal with blades on the "hands" and "feet".
"Thank you, Erik," Raven heard Victor's voice. "I'll take it from here," with these words, he unscrewed the rebar from the tree and dragged the limply twitching body further into the forest by it.
Erik shivered and turned back to the settlement. Raven looked around and froze: about fifty meters to her left, also behind a tree, stood the Ancient One, shaking her head disapprovingly, examining the obscenity left in the clearing by her husband.
***
Romulus is a dangerous enemy. Cunning, resourceful, vile. Moreover, he rarely shows himself personally, more often acting through others' hands. He made a mistake twice: the first time when he came out into the Circle to face me. The second time, when he stayed to watch the Battle.
Catching him turned out to be easy. He practically wasn't hiding, considering himself sufficiently "tough" and invincible for that. I, however, wasn't ashamed to hide and camouflage myself, setting up an ambush for this body.
An anti-tank rifle with a night optic attached to it and sighted in for a hundred meters. One single shot... The bullet flew into Romulus's brain through the right eye socket, ricocheted off the back wall of the adamantium-coated skull, then off the front, again off the back... it didn't exit outwards, just like mine once a long time ago, almost two hundred years ago. Only here the bullet itself would be larger. And its energy is not comparable to the energy of a musket ball.
Romulus fell. I didn't wait for his brain to regenerate, and began to "sew" the limply twitching body with previously prepared rebar. And that's the whole fight.
Yes—it's ugly. Yes—it's vile. But hunters rarely play noble with game at all. What did he call me in the Circle? A "herbivore"? If only...
I didn't wake Erik in the middle of the night, since Romulus wasn't going anywhere for a few hours. I'm not even sure his brain would have time to fully recover from that puree the bullet turned it into. I remember it took me more than a day to recover from a similar injury.
I spent these hours somewhat more usefully. Essex. He also made a mistake. He decided to spend the night in the settlement. That was a mistake... Even if he set traps, mines, alarms, sleeping during the Battle of Dragons is a mistake in itself. There can always be a craftsman like me who will climb in and sneak through. I just "jumped". And carefully, even gently, placed on his chest a trophy Hydra grenade from one of my stashes. A couple of seconds and instead of a bed with a supervillain, a handful of ash, neatly collected by me into a prepared urn.
What did I do with Romulus after Erik extracted the adamantium from his body? I went further into the jungle until the feeling of an alien gaze disappeared (that Raven was watching us, I found out by her barely noticeable scent, which the fickle breeze brought to me, but besides her someone else was watching. I suspect my wife, but God helps those who help themselves, as the proverb says), after which I "jumped" to Japan, where I had spent the last nineteen years, where I orientated myself well and knew the situation.
There, for a very large bribe, I got one of the crematorium ovens at my disposal... The iron pieces I took to scrap metal for melting down, the ash, just as neatly as Essex's ash, I collected in an urn.
Both urns I respectively poured steel over from the inside and outside at a steel mill, obtaining neat cubes with a side of half a meter, which I transported to one of the caves near the monastery where I was once the abbot.
Having finished the business, I returned to the settlement, where I was met by the disapproving gaze of my wife. Not condemning, but disapproving.
"En Sabah Nur has lost his close associate," she said to me. "Do you know anything about this?" I shrugged vaguely. "He is very upset by this. The disappearance of this Essex disrupted some serious plans of his."
"Disappeared or died?" I clarified with her. "Apocalypse is supposed to be able to feel this?"
"Died. And the body disappeared," Suo looked with suspicion. "Keep in mind, En Sabah Nur is a very dangerous enemy. And very vindictive, Victor."
"Earlier, later," I shrugged again.
"You can't do without this, can you?" she sighed disapprovingly.
"Without what?" I didn't understand.
"Without the Wild Hunt," she answered.
"It's in my nature," I replied. "Or do you also consider me a 'herbivore'?"
"No," she looked away. "I've known you for too long for that."
"Saw him, yes?" I chuckled, making sure that the second gaze was still my wife's.
"I saw him," still without looking me in the eyes, she answered. "Why, I just didn't understand. When did he manage to become your enemy?"
"When he kidnapped James. I was next on his list. You didn't realize that?"
"No," she shook her head negatively.
"Now it doesn't matter."
"Perhaps," she decided not to continue this conversation. "Are you planning to participate today?"
"No," I answered. "I would even prefer to leave here, but I can't leave my brother alone here."
"He's a big boy already."
"Exactly," I chuckled. "He can do big stupid things. Need to keep an eye on him."
"Alright," Suo agreed.
***
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