"Wanda, what don't you believe?"
The space behind everyone suddenly twisted without warning, and a teasing voice quietly sounded beside Wanda.
"Mr. Fenris?"
Wanda jumped in fright.
"Heh."
After awkwardly snuffing out the red light in her hand, she stiffly turned her head, only to see Fenris smiling at her with great interest.
"N-Nothing."
Wanda shrank her shoulders in embarrassment. Her lively eyes darted, and with a light shift of her feet, she had already tucked herself prettily behind Pietro beside her.
"What are you looking at?"
Pietro met Fenris's gaze and puffed out his still-thin chest. While chewing on one of Hank's specially made energy bars, he curled the corner of his mouth into a high arc.
"Pfft."
Fenris burst out laughing. After shaking his head with a smile, he turned his gaze toward the giant Godzilla statue in the center of town.
Hundreds of mutants and ordinary people were cheering there. The noise drifted over from afar, making the corners of Professor X's mouth lift unconsciously.
Was this not the scene he had dreamed of?
Noticing Fenris, who had appeared at some unknown point, the smile in the professor's eyes became even clearer. He silently came to Fenris's side. "Fenris, these people are here because of you."
"They have gathered together. Some are mutants, and many are even humans."
"More and more people are learning of your existence. They take Godzilla as a totem and see you as redemption and hope."
"How does that feel?"
Professor X stood shoulder to shoulder with Fenris and looked at the tall young man beside him. In a daze, he seemed to see the younger selves of himself and Erik.
Only this child had greater potential, and he was far stronger.
If Scott was the successor he had chosen for himself and the heir to the school, then Fenris was the true pillar of the future for mutants, and even humanity.
"It's fine, I suppose."
Fenris gave a light chuckle, but his expression did not change in the slightest.
"Oh?"
Professor X let out a surprised sound, somewhat startled by Fenris's calmness.
"Whether they like me or not has nothing to do with me. I'm only doing what I think I can do. How other people see me doesn't matter to me."
Fenris gazed at the distant statue and spoke indifferently.
Just like Godzilla always maintained Earth's balance in his own way, he had never cared how humans on Earth viewed him.
A guardian god of Earth, or an unbeatable monster?
None of that mattered. There was no need to care.
"But..."
When Fenris focused on the statue, for some reason, he could faintly sense a stream of power continuously flowing from the crowd, then gathering inside the statue.
In a daze, it seemed as if a barely perceptible connection had linked him to the statue, and that power was following the bridge of that connection toward Fenris's body.
The moment the two came into contact, a flash of seven-colored light abruptly crossed Fenris's skin. But after only an instant, it vanished completely.
"Mothra?"
As that strange power entered his body, Fenris felt an indescribable ease spread through him. Even his mind became a little lighter.
In that instant, he caught the source of the change and murmured in confusion, "Strange. Why would Mothra's power suddenly activate?"
"Could it be..."
After thinking for a while without finding an answer, Fenris stopped dwelling on it.
After a moment of silence, he said, "Professor, I'll be leaving for a while."
"Fenris is leaving?"
Not far away, Wanda's ears instantly perked up.
Under Pietro's speechless stare, she pressed her lips together, rose slightly onto her toes, and carefully inched toward the two of them.
The professor smiled and nodded. He was just about to speak when a low, piercing hum suddenly came from beside him.
"Fenris, you..."
The professor's nose twitched slightly, and a sharp sense of dread suddenly surged through him.
He abruptly turned his head, only to see the exposed skin on Fenris's body begin to crack. Strange black-purple patterns spread across him, leaving horrifying wounds deep enough to reveal bone.
A thin layer of black mist appeared out of nowhere and covered Fenris's body, giving him an even stranger aura.
"You're hurt?"
Seeing such an eerie scene suddenly appear before his eyes, Professor X instinctively took half a step back, his pupils shrinking sharply.
"Just a small problem. I can handle it myself."
Violent pain swept through Fenris's entire body. His muscles spasmed, and for a moment, he bared his teeth in pain.
"What a strange power..."
This unfamiliar power was unlike anything Professor X had ever seen. His eyes filled with concern as he looked Fenris up and down.
Ever since the two of them had met, he had never seen Fenris suffer a setback in any battle, nor before any enemy. Even someone as powerful as Magneto could not gain the slightest advantage against him.
What was the origin of this strange power? How could it reduce Fenris to this state?
"Mr. Fenris."
Wanda had somehow already moved beside Fenris. "I can help you!"
She covered her mouth, staring in horror at the terrifying wounds covering his whole body.
Looking at Fenris, who seemed like porcelain that might shatter at the slightest touch, Wanda did not even think. She suddenly stretched out both hands, glowing with scarlet light, and gently pressed them against Fenris's face.
"Don't!"
A surge of pain hit him, and Fenris's body stiffened. He instinctively tried to stop Wanda, but a pair of slightly cold hands had already reached out without asking.
As Wanda's power spread across Fenris's body, the black mist formed from the power of the hell dimension was driven away bit by bit.
"It's working?"
Joy rose in Wanda's heart, and the light in her palms grew brighter. But the black mist suddenly seemed to suffer some kind of provocation. Its volume swelled violently, and it abruptly began to bite back.
The black mist expanded in an instant. Wanda had no time to react. She was about to be swallowed whole.
"Let go!"
Fenris gritted his teeth. His hand turned, then pressed hard against Wanda's shoulder and shoved her away.
"Thud!"
With the soft sound of her landing, the strange phenomena around Fenris began to withdraw in the next instant.
The black mist disappeared into thin air as if it had never existed the moment it came into contact with Wanda, while Fenris's skin and muscles repaired at a visible speed.
"Wanda, how are you?"
Feeling his body quickly return to normal, Fenris instinctively sensed something was wrong.
Sure enough, a deliberately suppressed groan of pain suddenly sounded.
Fenris hurriedly lowered his head and looked over. At some unknown point, Wanda's originally fair skin had been quietly covered by a layer of black mist exactly like the one that had been on Fenris.
"Damn it!"
The familiar aura emitted by the power of the hell dimension made Fenris's expression instantly turn ugly.
(End of Chapter)
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