"Oh, right. Okay…"
Wanda hurriedly stepped aside from the doorway. She saw Fenris give her a polite smile, then walk leisurely into the room.
"Hm? Where's Thor?"
The suite in the small-town hotel was not spacious. Almost everything could be seen at a glance. Fenris's gaze swept discreetly through the rooms, but he did not find that familiar figure.
After searching to no avail, Fenris turned around and looked at Wanda, seeming somewhat embarrassed.
"Uh, do you know where Thor…"
"So thirsty. Water! I need water!"
A rough voice sounded from the corner at exactly the right time. Fenris raised an eyebrow, then pointed at that spot with a look of sudden realization.
"Sorry. Found him."
With that, he turned naturally and walked toward the small room with the tightly shut door.
"Bang!"
The door was shut heavily. Watching Fenris's back disappear from sight, Wanda opened her mouth.
"You…"
"You're the one who brought Thor back with your own hands. You forgot after one trip outside?"
Muttering softly, Wanda walked to the sofa and sat down. Listening to the utter silence behind the door, where not a single sound came through, she suddenly froze.
"No!"
A faint scent she had never smelled on Fenris drifted into her nose. As her mind rapidly replayed Fenris's behavior just now, Wanda's heart suddenly sank.
"Not good. Thor!"
She shot to her feet and strode toward Thor's room.
"Bang!"
Scarlet light flashed. The door lock was crushed with a click. After kicking open the tightly shut door, Wanda found a refined, handsome face with a slightly delicate beauty appearing before her eyes.
The man did not seem surprised that he had been exposed. Seeing Wanda suddenly barge in, he slapped the dazed Thor on the head, knocking him unconscious again, then revealed a neat row of teeth.
"Surprise!"
"Who are you?"
That unfamiliar face, completely different from Fenris's, immediately startled Wanda. Glancing at Thor, who had fallen asleep again without so much as a sound, she abruptly took half a step back, and red light flared brightly around her.
Seeing Wanda's guarded expression, the newcomer smiled slightly.
"Guess."
…
"Knock, knock, knock!"
A slightly urgent knock sounded. Fenris's voice came from outside the door.
"Wanda?"
"Wanda, open the door."
That was Emma's voice. At the moment, she sounded somewhat caught between laughter and exasperation.
"Fenris brought us several more injured people."
"…"
However, the room remained silent. No response came for a long while.
Fenris knocked again.
"Wanda?"
In the silence, where even a falling needle could be heard, Fenris's ears twitched. His expression gradually turned ugly.
Under normal circumstances, even if that bright girl was inconvenienced, she would have used her ability to open the door by now.
"Watch him."
After a moment of silence, Fenris casually tossed the unconscious Johnny to Emil behind him. Then, after taking a deep breath, his foot moved, and the heavy door was torn apart as easily as paper.
Splinters flew everywhere.
At this moment, Fenris's eyes were no longer human. They had actually turned into a pair of compound eyes identical to Mothra's.
Those beautiful large eyes, which looked so elegant on Mothra, appeared on Fenris's face and made him look like a monster. In an instant, his entire appearance became ferocious and terrifying.
In that cold, sharp gleam, the whole world seemed frozen in Fenris's eyes. Before the flying fragments had even fallen to the ground, he had already barreled into the room with a brutal momentum.
The powerful perception unique to a Titan kaiju spread out in an instant. The next moment, Wanda's familiar aura entered Fenris's mind.
But before Fenris could breathe a sigh of relief, an extreme icy aura suddenly swept out from that direction. In only a moment, the surrounding temperature dropped several degrees out of nowhere. Frost visible to the naked eye spread along the floor and walls.
But…
Where had an ice storm come from inside the room?
The terrifying low temperature made even Fenris's current body shiver despite himself. As for Wanda, whose strength was still far from fully developed, how could she possibly withstand that impact head-on?
"Wanda!"
At that thought, Fenris's heart immediately tightened.
He bent his legs slightly. The hard stone floor beneath his feet instantly burst apart. Facing the surging cold wind, although his movements were slightly affected, he still appeared in front of Wanda in an instant.
"Boom! Crack!"
Only then did the fragments of the door crash to the ground.
But everything inside the room completely extinguished the last trace of hope Fenris had been holding on to.
The small space had almost completely turned into an icy hell. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all covered in a thick layer of solid ice.
Near the doorway, Wanda's slender body was completely sealed inside a massive block of ice.
Through the layer of ice nearly a meter thick, the light in her eyes had been frozen at that very instant. Fenris could even clearly see the astonishment in her eyes, as if she had been given no time to react at all.
With Fenris's arrival, Wanda's gaze finally showed a faint flicker. But the powerful freezing force left her only able to stare helplessly, unable to make any response.
Fenris gently reached out and touched the ice. Cold seeped into his body, and even he felt a stabbing pain, unable to stop himself from shuddering.
Seeing the girl who had always loved smiling most in the past frozen alive right before him, and meeting her sluggish gaze, Fenris's breathing suddenly stopped for an instant.
"Such a beautiful girl. Truly heartbreaking…"
A low, magnetic male voice came from one corner of the room, his tone filled with deep regret.
"I'm sorry, my friend. I grieve for you from the bottom of my heart, because she may only be able to stay by your side in this form from now on."
"But it isn't without its benefits. After all…"
"Even when the day comes that you're old, frail, and gray-haired, she'll always remain as young as she is today. Tsk, tsk. When you think about it, isn't that rather romantic?"
The newcomer seemed especially satisfied with his handiwork. There was even an undisguised trace of pride on his face.
Bang!
However, before he could finish speaking, it seemed as if a sudden breeze stirred within the room. The hard ice that had been strengthened by the frost storm cracked apart with dense, sharp snaps.
The newcomer only felt his vision blur. The man, who was even a little taller than himself, had vanished into thin air before his eyes.
"Hm?"
Before he could react, pain exploded through his body, as if Mjolnir had fallen from the sky and smashed directly into his chest.
Agony swept through his entire body. A vicious gust followed. The next moment, a hand with long, distinct knuckles quietly appeared around his slender neck.
"Wait—"
His pupils abruptly dilated. But with his airway blocked, he only managed to force out a single syllable. Before he could say another word, the world suddenly spun before his eyes.
"Boom!"
(End of Chapter)
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