Darkness.
Void.
It was as if he had arrived in a land of nothingness. When Fenris's consciousness finally returned, what greeted his eyes was a darkness thick as ink.
"Where is this?"
Still dazed, Fenris looked around. After a moment, the dense darkness around him gradually began to dissolve, and tiny points of light slowly flickered into existence.
An ancient, unadorned book emerged from the darkness and floated quietly before him.
"The Titan Field Guide?"
Fenris froze for a moment, then stepped forward and gently placed his right hand on the cover of the old tome that had nearly changed his fate.
Whoosh...
The instant he touched the Titan Field Guide, Fenris suddenly heard two heavy breaths above his head, booming like thunder. Startled, he jerked his head up.
In the dim light, two enormous shadows loomed so close they nearly filled his entire vision.
Two pairs of faintly glowing eyes lit up in the dark, silently watching him.
Amid the soft sound of wings stirring, a strange sense of familiarity welled up in his heart. Fenris instinctively reached out, following the hot breath he felt against his palm, and laid his hand against a patch of rough, rugged skin.
Hum...
In the next moment, a strange pulse descended without warning and swept through the entire space in an instant.
Within that nearly imperceptible hum, a single point of green light suddenly flared to life in the farthest depths of the darkness.
As time passed, that glimmer became brighter and brighter, until it quickly drove away all the surrounding darkness.
A gentle green radiance covered everything nearby, and the figures of the two giant beasts were finally revealed before Fenris's eyes.
"Godzilla. Mothra."
Intense radiation poured down from the green light high above. The gamma radiation, lethal enough to kill an ordinary person, was completely absorbed by Godzilla, and his body slowly began to expand.
That same powerful feeling of comfort flowed into Fenris's body as well, making him narrow his eyes in contentment.
This was different from the radiation released by the reactor, and even more different from the weak Phoenix Force inside Jean. The power released by the Time Stone naturally carried a deadly kind of attraction, making Fenris unable to resist devouring it greedily.
After an unknown length of time, Godzilla let out a satisfied belch, closed his eyes, and lazily curled up his enormous body. He rubbed against Fenris, then settled beside him and quietly fell asleep.
Mothra drifted down lightly onto Godzilla's back. She spread her two long wings and quietly covered his massive body.
Within her beautiful compound eyes, the savage shape of the giant beast beneath her was reflected with perfect clarity.
The flickering light from above continued to descend. Without anyone noticing, Mothra's size began to increase as well, and her wings quietly grew a little heavier, taking on more of a hardened, solid texture than before.
At the same time, the plume-like antennae on her head were tinged with threads of dazzling green light, making them appear even more brilliant.
But as time passed, that radiance gradually faded away, as if everything that had just happened had only been an illusion.
"Kyaa~"
As all the changes slowly disappeared and the green glow of the Time Stone began to fade, with everything around them on the verge of sinking back into darkness, Mothra suddenly let out a soft cry, gently pulling Fenris's consciousness out of that overwhelming sense of comfort.
"What is it?"
Fenris slowly opened his eyes, but before he could react, he felt his consciousness blur once again.
Mothra's wings rested lightly on him. A strange power surged out, and Fenris's vision flashed. It felt as though his soul had left his body. With a single shift of perspective, that dark space vanished completely.
A beautiful blue planet appeared before his eyes once more.
Threads of many different colors streamed out from every person, crossing and linking above Earth. Among them, nearly a thousand bright points of light shimmered, each representing a different individual, standing out with striking clarity.
"This is..."
The familiar sight before him made Fenris pause instinctively. "I came back here again?"
Ever since he had accidentally arrived here that one time before, Fenris had tried countless times to project his soul again, but he had never succeeded.
He had even wondered whether it had been the Ancient One's doing.
Yet now, with the power of the Time Stone and Mothra working together, he had somehow returned here once more.
"It looks like the power of every Titan is not to be underestimated. Mothra's potential hasn't even come close to being fully uncovered yet."
A glint flashed in Fenris's eyes. Just as he was about to extend his consciousness again and peer into those points of light, Earth suddenly began to expand rapidly in his vision.
In the next instant, a bright white light enveloped Fenris once more.
"Father, is Wakanda really going to stay hidden like this forever?"
When everything before his eyes became clear again, Fenris instinctively lowered his head and looked at his hands, only to discover in shock that his entire body seemed not to exist at all. A man in luxurious royal robes was holding the hand of a young man, and the two of them passed straight through him as lightly as smoke.
"Yes, T'Challa. We must."
Fenris looked up and swept his gaze across the room, discovering that he was standing inside an opulent reception hall.
A middle-aged man sat calmly at the seat of honor, earnestly instructing the young Black man beside him.
"Once Wakanda's vibranium and our technology, which far surpasses the outside world, are exposed, they will inevitably awaken those people's greed and demands.
"They will come at us like hyenas on the savanna, tearing at us in a frenzy. They will want to eat our flesh and drink our blood...
"We hide ourselves not because we are afraid, and not because we are timid, but because we know that only this way can the world avoid falling into chaos."
T'Chaka looked at T'Challa and warned him sternly, "We could defeat them. We could reveal our claws and rule over them. But we did not choose that path. We chose peace. We chose stability. That is Wakanda's wish, the wish of our ancestors, and it is also for the peace of the entire world.
"It is not difficult to reveal one's strength. What is difficult is choosing to sheath your claws when there is no meaningful reason to bare them. T'Challa, I hope you can understand that..."
"But, Father, what I learned outside tells me that the wise build bridges, while fools build walls. Can't we help them?"
The young T'Challa looked deeply confused.
"If Wakanda offered its help, then our African brothers, and even all humanity, could enjoy lasting peace. Wouldn't that be a good thing?"
(End of Chapter)
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