"Hahaha!"
After listening carefully to his son, T'Chaka unexpectedly burst into hearty laughter. "My son, you are still too young. You stepped out of Wakanda and went to the most prosperous lands across the ocean. You have only seen the most beautiful side of the world, without realizing the darkness hidden beneath that beauty.
"You still do not understand how cruel this world truly is."
"Do I really not?"
T'Challa asked in return.
He still felt that if Wakanda possessed such power, then it ought to do something for the world.
Rather than simply shutting itself away and caring only about its own little patch of land.
"My son, let me tell you something. Not long ago, the Dora Milaje captured a smuggling ring on an island in the Atlantic. They were trying to profit from trafficking vibranium."
T'Chaka smiled faintly. "That group had set its sights on Wakanda, and before this, they had already succeeded many times."
"I am giving you a task now. You may try interrogating them yourself and see how these people think."
"Alright, Father."
T'Challa did not hesitate. He accepted immediately, then turned and left the room.
He still believed his own ideas were completely right.
"My child, when the day comes that you truly understand what it means to be a king, and that you carry the life and death of all Wakanda on your shoulders, not just your own, then you will understand everything I said today..."
Watching his son's tall figure disappear from the room, T'Chaka could not help letting out a quiet sigh.
In a place no one could see, Fenris slowly withdrew his gaze from T'Chaka.
Compared to the vague, blurred image he had seen the last time he spied on this place, the effect this time was clearly far stronger.
And after hearing the exchange between father and son, Fenris instinctively recalled a clue Magneto had mentioned to him not long ago.
Following a few scattered traces, members of the Brotherhood had also tracked down a secret smuggling ring tied to the Sentinel program, one that had been moving a mysterious material out of Wakanda.
"So there are actually this many people on Earth keeping an eye on vibranium?"
Fenris could not help murmuring in surprise. He had thought Wakanda's secrecy was nearly flawless.
Hum...
As the reception hall gradually fell silent, a faint buzzing sound rose, and Fenris's vision was once again swallowed by white light.
"Sir, all information related to Mr. Fenris gathered over this period has now been compiled. You may review it at any time."
Accompanied by a pleasant mechanical male voice, Fenris found himself once more inside a luxurious mansion.
A rosy-faced man sat casually in a chair inside the lab, continuously adjusting a device that looked like part of a leg armor assembly.
"Jarvis, what do you think of this mysterious Mr. Fenris?"
Tony never stopped moving his hands as he asked the question without even turning around.
"Sir, my answer is: Fenris is very strong."
Jarvis's reply was brief.
"Very strong?" Tony arched a brow. "That's it?"
"Fenris. Full name, Fenris Etherreal. At age nineteen, he awakened his mutant ability. His body could grow spikes and claws resembling those of a marine iguana, and he possessed fairly good regenerative ability."
"A marine iguana?"
Tony let out a surprised sound. It was a kind of lizard that could live underwater, looked fierce, but was actually herbivorous.
"Yes, sir."
Seeing that Tony was busy, Jarvis dutifully began reading Fenris's file aloud.
"After being captured for several months by a biological genetics research institute called Alkali, Fenris's abilities underwent a dramatic transformation. His strength and speed surged, and after transforming, his height exceeded two meters.
"With these mutated abilities, he nearly slaughtered everyone inside a heavily guarded military base by himself.
"Afterward, he intervened during the Liberty Island incident and displayed even greater power, though the data from that event is incomplete.
"A few months later, Xavier's School was subjected to a targeted military operation. Fenris intervened again. At that time, his transformed height had already approached five meters, and he demonstrated an even stronger long-range attack method.
"With that method, he single-handedly stopped an elite force and wiped them out completely."
"What?"
At that, Tony frowned, and his hands stopped moving. "Pull up the footage."
"Yes, sir."
As Jarvis's voice fell, a segment of satellite footage appeared before Tony.
In the video, a massive stream of blue breath melted countless armored vehicles into slag in a very short time. Then, without losing momentum, it nearly pierced straight through an entire forest.
At the sight of it, Tony's eyelids began twitching violently.
As a genius physicist, he simply could not imagine how a living organism could possibly release that level of energy.
"That makes no scientific sense."
Tony ran a hand over his slicked-back hair and frowned as he thought for a long moment. "What, did he grow up eating nuclear bombs?"
"That possibility cannot be ruled out, sir."
After seriously analyzing it for a moment, Jarvis replied, "You may want to look at this as well."
The Stark satellite feed suddenly switched to the Arctic ice field.
"This..."
Watching nearly a thousand robots spread across the ice plain get wiped out by a single blast of Fenris's breath, Tony fell silent again.
"No way!"
After thinking it over again and again, Tony suddenly slammed a hand down onto the table. "That kind of temperature is impossible for an ordinary biological body to withstand, let alone spit out through its mouth.
"What does he think he is, a flamethrower?"
...
Standing off to the side and silently spying on all of this, Fenris could not help glancing at Tony.
"Then what's the point of me even building Mark II?"
After replaying the footage several times without blinking, Tony suddenly looked a little defeated as he turned toward the leg armor unit, which was already in a fairly advanced stage of completion. "Even if the suit is built, would it be able to handle an opponent like Fenris?"
"No."
After analyzing for a few seconds, Jarvis gave the answer without hesitation. "Unless you carry a large arc reactor on your body and fire all of its energy at once, there is only then a possibility of injuring the target.
"Of course, that assumes the target does not move and simply stands there allowing you to attack."
Jarvis added the last part.
...
Tony sighed. "Jarvis, that last sentence really didn't need to be said out loud."
"Yes, sir."
Jarvis obediently agreed.
"Look into the background of those robots Fenris was dealing with just now. Send Fenris a message and tell him that if he needs backup, I can step in to help."
After thinking for a moment, Tony gave another instruction. "Also invite him over in a couple of days. I want to talk to him about a few things."
"Message sent."
Jarvis moved quickly.
"Also, start a new project after the Mark line. Call it..."
Tony suddenly hesitated halfway through. "Call it the Anti-Fenris... no, the Fenris Series Armor."
"Project created."
Jarvis asked, "Sir, should this project be kept confidential from Mr. Fenris?"
(End of Chapter)
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