Chapter 95 The Evil Curse of the Three-in-One
Jotunheim Research Facility, inside the laboratory.
The Thinker stared in horror at the shattered wall of reinforced glass, destroyed in a single strike by the black kitten-shaped Xi Nian. As if he had foreseen his own end, he mumbled in terror, "No, don't kill me, I don't want to die here…"
"I was wrong, please, don't—"
The next instant.
A massive starfish tentacle slammed outward against the cracked glass wall, shattering it into countless shards. The tentacle lashed across the air above the crouched black kitten and coiled tightly around the Thinker, Gaius Graves. His pitiful scream of agony echoed through the lab before he was violently dragged into the sealed containment chamber.
From this moment on, the Thinker lost all ability to think.
"RAAHHH!!!"
The colossal alien in the form of a giant starfish let out a furious roar. Even killing the director of Project Starfish could not erase the two decades of humiliation and rage it had endured in captivity.
Two massive tentacles slammed down on either side of the broken wall, and cracks spread like veins across the building's very structure.
The entire facility shook violently.
The ceiling and floor of the laboratory split like a spider's web, rubble and dust raining down into the collapsing space.
"Get out of here!" The surviving members of Task Force X turned pale and bolted for their lives, escaping the collapsing lab.
Harley Quinn was the only one who turned her head. In the depths of the sinking laboratory, the black kitten remained seated calmly on the collapsing floor.
Those beast-like eyes, like ghostly blue flames, seemed to relish watching the destruction unfold.
…
Outside Jotunheim, military vehicles roared up. Hundreds of rebel soldiers disembarked, forming a triple-layered perimeter around the facility.
Their leader, General Mateo Suárez, was seething with rage. His commander, Silvio Luna, had been killed, and now the research facility was under attack.
"No matter what comes out, shoot it on sight!" The general's mustache twitched as he gave his cold, commanding order.
"Yes, General!" the rebel troops answered in unison.
At that moment, a deafening crash shook the earth. Cracks spread through the outer walls of the facility, heralding its total collapse. Entire corridors and laboratories inside crumbled downward, floor by floor.
The remaining members of Task Force X scattered in every direction. Some leapt to still-standing structures, while others plummeted with the collapsing floors, each displaying their own desperate survival skills.
Just as the section Harley Quinn was on tilted and began to collapse, she leapt to another piece of intact flooring. But before she could steady herself, a pair of black boots appeared in front of her.
"Hand me the chip."
Peacemaker, clad in his red shirt and steel helmet, looked down coldly at the girl sprawled on the floor.
"Smith, you're really stubborn, huh? Even now, when everything's going to hell, you're still covering for the U.S. government?" Harley sneered, her clown makeup twisting into mockery.
"No matter what it takes. Even if I sacrifice my life, I will eliminate anything that threatens peace in this world." Peacemaker's voice was flat, mechanical. He reached down suddenly and clamped his hand around her throat.
"Ugh!" Harley clawed at his fingers, struggling in vain to break free as her breath was cut off.
"Hurry, give me the chip! Otherwise, you'll die here!" His icy eyes burned into her, a merciless machine following orders.
But neither of them noticed.
The moment Peacemaker's hand touched Harley's skin, some hidden mechanism was triggered.
The black cat's paw-shaped mark on the side of Harley's neck suddenly faded from her skin and reappeared right where Peacemaker's palm gripped her throat.
Ssshhk!
Countless invisible dark tendrils, finer than the thinnest needle, sprouted from the paw mark. Peacemaker hissed in pain as they stabbed into his flesh, forcing him to release her.
He looked down, horrified to see his palm shredded, as if pierced by countless tiny needles.
And worse—an unknown black liquid seeped into his wounds. Like a neurotoxin, it spread visibly along his veins, racing up his arm and flooding his entire body.
"What… did you do to me?" His breath hitched, his heart seized, and his eyes, now veined with black, stared at Harley in terror before his body went limp. He toppled backward, rolling down through the broken floor into the collapsing depths.
"What just happened?" Harley blinked in confusion. She hadn't even fought back, yet Peacemaker had suddenly released her and fallen. The cat paw mark had silently returned to the side of her neck, as if it were just a tattoo.
But this was no ordinary mark.
It carried the incurable wound left by the Flerken's claw, and the corrosive venomous properties of a symbiote's tendrils.
It was a brand that only Xi Nian in his three-in-one form could leave behind—an eternal, unremovable curse.
…
Boom!!!
The rebel soldiers outside Jotunheim froze in terror as the collapsing facility revealed the monstrous figure within—a titanic starfish over twenty meters tall.
The general's face went pale, but he shouted anyway, "What are you standing around for? Fire!"
Bullets poured forth in a storm of steel, raining against the starfish.
It roared in pain, then raised its suction-cupped arms. From its brightly colored tentacles, countless smaller starfish spewed forth, like bubbles bursting into the air.
The palm-sized creatures floated downward, attaching to the soldiers' faces—covering their eyes, mouths, and noses. The rebels toppled like wheat in a harvest, unable to even scream.
Revenge had only just begun, and already it was a massacre.
"It's over…"
General Suárez stared blankly as one of the starfish clamped onto him, draining his life.
Then—
A small black shadow streaked down from the sky, landing atop the giant starfish's head.
It was a black kitten.
"Let's talk, Starro…" Xi Nian's voice rasped from within his three-in-one form.
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