Fenris slowly reached out and laid his hand against the broad face of the axe. A biting chill instantly spread into his palm, making him shiver on reflex.
It was hard to believe that only moments ago, this giant battle-axe had gone through an unprecedentedly intense forging heat.
His fingers traced downward along the rough patterns, and before long, a dreamy blue glow began to spread across the axe head.
A sense of perfect harmony and intimacy flowed from it. And the moment the thought crossed Fenris's mind that the axe was still a little too big, a strange will immediately answered from within it.
In the next instant, under Fenris's stunned gaze, the battle-axe that had been deeply embedded in the earth actually shrank by an entire size.
Its original length of nearly twenty meters became just a little over ten.
"It really can change?"
Fenris's eyes flew wide open. He circled the shrunken axe twice, staring at it in disbelief, delight written all over his face.
"It's still a little big. Smaller would be even better."
The moment the words left his mouth, the huge axe shrank again, this time by nearly a factor of ten.
In the next instant, the axe trembled on the ground, looking as though it were about to roll down into the depths along the crack it had made earlier.
Fenris reacted at once. Following that faint, mysterious connection, he stretched out his right hand from afar.
Brilliant crimson light flowed across the axe haft. Answering Fenris's call, the axe's downward slide abruptly halted. Then it rose into the air and shot toward him with a heavy rush of displaced wind, slamming squarely into his palm.
Fenris's arm immediately sank.
The weight of the battle-axe far exceeded his expectations, and its size was still much larger than an ordinary axe, with an overall length close to five feet.
The broad, heavy blade and the sharp rear spike balanced each other perfectly. The icy edge stood in striking contrast to the long, thick haft, which instead carried a faint warmth in his grip.
The light in Fenris's eyes was practically spilling over. He casually swept the axe across the surrounding rock walls. Wherever the blade passed, it cut through like a hot knife through butter, and he felt not the slightest resistance in his hand.
"What an axe!"
Fenris exclaimed in amazement as he tested the weight of the weapon in his hand. The smooth, solid feel of it made him reluctant to let go.
Looking at the somewhat dim blue glow flickering across the blade and sensing the familiar burning aura upon it, Fenris thought for only a moment. Then, in the next instant, a torrent of heat surged up from deep inside his body.
The searing energy rose bit by bit, and a low hum echoed through the dark underground space, growing sharper and sharper.
Fenris suddenly opened his mouth and, in human form, exhaled a narrow beam of atomic breath.
The destructive blue blast struck the broad axe head and dispersed. Even the small amount of leftover heat was enough to raise the surrounding temperature once again.
An indescribable delight flowed back from the battle-axe. The blue glow on its surface, dim only a moment ago, was rapidly growing brilliant before his eyes.
Bright blue light spilled out, turning the dark depths underground as bright as day.
The axe began trembling faintly on its own. Feeling the growing force building through the haft, Fenris's delight surged. Without hesitation, he dropped his arm, twisted at the waist, and swung the massive axe in a smooth, perfect arc.
"Hah!"
A sharp shout burst from his lips. In the next instant, a brilliant blue arc of light was violently hurled from the gleaming blade, shooting straight toward the cavern ceiling.
Boom!
The blue axe-light plunged into the mountain without the slightest resistance. This underground space, which had existed in stability for countless ages, instantly began to shake violently.
Layer upon layer of solid rock was cleanly severed. The tremendous shock spread out from the underground ceiling in all directions.
Watching the blue glow on the battle-axe dim once more and hearing the constant rumbling around him, Fenris jolted in alarm.
At the same time, the axe in his hand began shrinking again. It did not stop until it was less than four inches long, at which point he casually hooked it onto his belt.
"Let's hope Wakanda doesn't notice."
Clicking his tongue softly, Fenris quickly raised his right hand and began tracing circles in the air. In the blink of an eye, the space before him once more gave off the faint sound of breaking.
Fenris stepped into the Mirror Dimension and vanished from where he stood.
Boom!
In the next moment, countless massive stones came crashing down, completely burying the underground cavity.
All light vanished with them, plunging the place back into a long, endless darkness.
Bang!
Inside the Wakandan royal palace's council chamber.
Magneto, a man who had weathered every storm imaginable in his life, suddenly felt his heart pound violently. His right hand instinctively slammed down hard onto the armrest of his seat.
In the heavy atmosphere of the chamber, the sharp impact sounded especially loud, instantly drawing every eye in the room.
"Mr. Lensherr, are you feeling unwell?"
King T'Chaka, who had just been chatting pleasantly with Professor X, felt his own heart leap as well.
Unlike the well-regarded Professor X, Magneto's reputation in the outside world could only be described as infamous.
Although after everything today it was already obvious that Professor X was hardly as easygoing as the rumors claimed, a sudden outburst from Magneto was still far more intimidating.
"It's nothing."
Magneto calmly forced out a smile, and only then did T'Chaka let out a breath and nod with a smile of his own.
But in the very next moment-
"Father, something's wrong!"
Another piercing alarm rang out above Birnin Zana, and T'Chaka's communicator lit up at the same time.
"Shuri, what happened now?"
Answering with a blank expression, T'Chaka heard Princess Shuri's voice come through his Kimoyo bead once more.
"Father, just now, another small subterranean tremor struck deep beneath Bashenga Mountain with no warning at all."
"Another earthquake?"
T'Chaka frowned.
Wakanda could go years without a single tremor. Yet somehow, in the span of a single day, it had now been hit by two.
"And more than that, some attack of unknown origin erupted from deep beneath Bashenga Mountain and sheared off an entire section of the mountain summit…"
Shuri's voice suddenly dropped, as though she had just witnessed something utterly unbelievable.
"Our energy shield, which only just resumed normal operation…"
"Nearly thirty percent of it was directly destroyed by that strike, and its stored energy dropped by almost seventy percent in a cliff-like collapse."
Shuri's voice carried with startling clarity through the silent council chamber.
"What?!"
On the throne, T'Chaka was so shocked by the news that he nearly sprang straight to his feet.
Wakanda's energy shield embodied an immeasurable investment of effort and resources. As the primary reason Wakanda had been able to remain hidden in peace for so long, it had never suffered damage on this level since the day it was built.
On the other side, the moment Professor X heard what had happened next, his eyes turned almost instinctively toward Magneto.
Faced with his old friend's scrutiny, Erik grinned and flashed a perfect row of white teeth.
"Don't look at me. I honestly have no idea what happened."
(End of Chapter)
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