The single-family villa carried a cold, minimalist Nordic design that gave off an air of quiet wealth and distant superiority. Everything inside the house looked meticulously arranged, from the polished marble floor to the modern glass furniture, creating an atmosphere that felt more like a showroom than a home.
After easily dealing with several stubborn farmers that day, Rick Rickman returned home in a relaxed mood. He tossed his car keys onto the coffee table and loosened his collar slightly. The negotiations had gone smoothly, just as they usually did.
He headed down toward the underground wine cellar and selected a bottle of expensive red wine. Carrying it upstairs, he poured himself a glass and prepared to enjoy a peaceful evening.
As he lifted the glass, something in the reflection of the coffee table suddenly caught his attention.
Behind him stood a figure.
The man had appeared silently, as if he had always been there.
Rickman froze. A jolt of fear ran down his spine as the hairs on his body stood on end. He staggered backward several steps, gripping the edge of the table.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
The stranger was tall and broad-shouldered. He wore blue overalls that looked like a lumberjack's work clothes, along with heavy brown boots. A crude blue hood covered his head, leaving only two holes for his eyes.
The strange man deliberately lowered his voice.
"Mr. Rickman, don't be afraid."
"What do you want?" Rickman snapped.
Seeing that the stranger was not holding a gun, Rickman slowly regained some composure. His fear faded slightly, replaced by irritation.
"You used abnormal means to control farmers and trick them into selling their farms and homes without even realizing it," the masked man said calmly. "That's not fair."
"Control?" Rickman frowned, though a flash of unease briefly passed through his eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Then he forced a smile.
"If you want money, there's no need to play games like this."
"I don't want your money," the masked man replied firmly. "I want you to terminate the contracts you obtained through deception and stop causing trouble for those farmers."
Clark stepped forward.
His tall and powerful build created a heavy sense of pressure in the room.
Rickman pretended to be intimidated and slowly backed away. But the moment Clark moved closer, Rickman suddenly lunged forward.
His hand shot out toward Clark's neck.
Whoosh!
Before Rickman could touch him, Clark vanished from sight.
Rickman blinked in confusion.
Clark was suddenly standing behind him.
"I know what your ability is," Clark said calmly.
Rickman froze.
"I don't think you can activate it without physical contact," Clark continued.
Jonathan had initially refused Rickman firmly. Only after shaking hands with him had Jonathan lost his memory and signed the contract.
If Rickman could control people with a single thought, he would not have needed to rely on something as obvious as a handshake.
Just like the man who had attacked the school before, whose ability required direct physical contact to absorb body heat.
"If you don't want your ability exposed," Clark said quietly, "you'd better do as I say, Mr. Rickman."
"Y-you—"
Rickman spun around to face him. His eyes widened in shock as he stared at the masked figure who had somehow appeared behind him.
"You have abilities too."
"Cancel the contract," Clark said.
His voice remained steady.
"Or would you prefer that I send news about your abilities to every major newspaper in the country?"
Clark was unknowingly using the exact same tactic that Frank had once used against him.
"The choice is yours, Mr. Rickman."
Rickman's expression darkened.
His mind raced quickly through the consequences.
On one side, his greatest secret would be exposed. His company worth hundreds of millions would collapse under public suspicion and fear. Every business partner would begin looking at him with caution and distrust.
On the other side, the only thing he would lose was a piece of land worth a few hundred thousand dollars and a factory that had not even been built yet.
Rickman hesitated for several seconds.
Finally, he lowered his head.
"I… I promise."
Clark watched him carefully.
"Wise choice."
Clark stepped back slightly.
"I'll be watching you, Mr. Rickman. If those contracts haven't been canceled by tomorrow morning, the front pages of every newspaper in this city will be reserved for you."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Clark moved.
A gust of wind swept through the room and blew the curtains violently aside.
The tall blue figure vanished like a ghost.
Rickman remained standing alone in the living room.
His fists slowly clenched as his expression darkened with resentment.
Then something caught his eye.
On the shiny black-and-gray marble floor, exactly where the masked man had been standing, lay several small pieces of soil mixed with fragments of grass.
Rickman's eyes suddenly lit up.
He quickly stepped forward and knelt down, carefully picking up the pieces.
"Fair?" he muttered coldly.
"You know who I am, but I don't know who you are."
"That's not very fair, is it?"
Rickman stood up slowly.
He pulled out his phone and dialed a number.
When the call connected, a faint sneer appeared on his face.
"Hello," he said calmly. "Is this the Metropolis Geological Survey Department?"
"I'd like to send some soil samples in for analysis."
…
Deep within the forest, Victor stared at his hands while feeling the immense power surging through his body.
He stepped forward and punched a massive tree directly in front of him.
Crack!
The several-ton trunk snapped instantly under the terrifying force.
The broken tree slid between two others before crashing to the ground, sending a cloud of dust into the air.
Victor turned and punched another tree.
Wood chips exploded outward.
The shattered trunk flew several meters through the air before crashing down heavily.
"I used the same amount of force in both punches," Victor said thoughtfully.
The difference was that the second punch carried additional kinetic energy he had absorbed from the first impact.
That was the power of the Black King.
The ability allowed him to absorb many different forms of energy and convert them into his own.
He could release that energy freely or temporarily enhance his strength, speed, and endurance.
The energy he could absorb included kinetic energy, heat energy, electrical energy, and even magical energy. The ability also granted him incredibly powerful defensive capabilities.
"The upper limit of the Black King's power can drain a small nuclear reactor without effort," Victor said quietly.
"That's definitely a powerful template."
The energy inside his body surged like a vast ocean.
After merging with the Thanos template, the upper limit of energy absorption had increased dramatically.
Thanos was a variant of the Eternals.
Every drop of his blood and every cell in his body contained cosmic energy. His body itself functioned like a massive energy reservoir.
"However," Victor muttered while examining his abilities carefully, "right now I seem to mainly absorb kinetic energy."
He began testing his newly acquired power.
Absorbing kinetic energy felt as natural as breathing.
Victor raised his hand and released another beam of energy that ignited the broken wood scattered across the ground. Flames quickly spread across the debris.
Victor reached his hand into the fire.
After a moment, he frowned slightly.
Absorbing that energy felt much harder.
"It's like trying to swallow dry grain when your throat hasn't had water for days," he said, shaking his head.
"It's possible… but it's not smooth at all."
Victor withdrew his hand from the flames.
"It's probably because the template integration level is still too low."
He took a deep breath.
A powerful gust of wind burst from his lungs, instantly extinguishing the fire before it could spread through the forest.
"When the fusion level increases," Victor said thoughtfully, "I should be able to absorb heat, electricity, and other physical forms of energy."
"And once the integration reaches its peak…"
He smiled faintly.
"I might even be able to absorb magical energy."
At that point, his resistance to magic would become terrifyingly high.
Most superheroes and supervillains had no special resistance to magic.
Clark was a perfect example.
Compared to his nearly invincible physical durability, Clark's resistance to magic was extremely average. Some people even joked that his magical resistance was practically negative.
"Originally, the Black King's ability had some weaknesses," Victor continued.
"But after merging with the Thanos template, those flaws have almost disappeared."
Victor felt the cosmic energy inside his body restoring itself naturally.
His eyes flashed with excitement.
Normally, if the Black King exhausted his stored energy, his power would weaken. Without energy to draw on, he would be nothing more than an ordinary human.
To maintain enough energy, he would constantly need to absorb kinetic force by being attacked or by striking objects himself.
It was a troublesome limitation.
But Victor did not need to worry about that anymore.
His Eternal physiology continuously restored cosmic energy throughout his body.
"That means my body will always stay fully charged," Victor said quietly.
"There's another problem the original ability had."
If the absorbed energy exceeded the body's limit, the power would spiral out of control.
In the worst case, the user's body could be torn apart or completely destroyed.
If someone deliberately targeted him with overwhelming energy attacks, it could easily overload the body.
But Victor's Eternal physiology made that far less dangerous.
Even if his energy temporarily exceeded the limit, the worst result would likely be minor injuries.
"And after the fusion of these two templates," Victor continued, flexing his fingers slowly, "I don't even need to rely on physical contact to absorb energy."
Normally, the Black King absorbed energy in a similar way to how other mutants used their abilities, much like Magneto or Professor X relying on concentration.
But Victor's body was different.
Every cell in his body could store energy.
That meant he rarely needed to consciously activate the ability.
Victor clenched his fists again.
"The fusion of two templates with my body…"
He smiled faintly.
"The result of one plus one is far greater than two."
....
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