As though it had finally fulfilled the role history had destined for it, the mottled, fragile outer shell covering the meteorite began to crack apart and fall away piece by piece, striking the ground with mournful clatters.
At the same time, the true form of the vibranium meteorite, glowing with a dim blue light, gradually revealed itself before Fenris's eyes.
Crack, crack.
Dense bursts of splitting echoed without end, and as the transformation continued, this deep underground space suddenly began to tremble violently as well.
Broken stone flew everywhere, but Fenris stood firm in the middle of it all, his tall figure steady and unmoving.
Beep. Beep.
A shrill alarm suddenly rang across the skies above Birnin Zana, and panic quietly began to spread.
Fortunately, Wakanda's emergency response plans were effective enough that the disturbance was quickly brought under control.
But the piercing alarm kept blaring, and unease spread through the city.
"What in the world is that kid doing?"
Inside the council chamber, Magneto sensed the magnetic field shift in the depths underground almost immediately.
"Erik?"
Professor X noticed at once that something was wrong and turned toward his old friend, whose brow had drawn tight.
"It's Fenris…"
Magneto rubbed at his forehead and let out a sigh.
Just moments ago, the strange life-magnetic field around Fenris had suddenly intensified severalfold. A powerful force had wrapped itself around him, so strong that even Magneto could not easily probe through it.
Fortunately, the violent magnetic fluctuation died down soon enough. And as Wakanda's warning alert was withdrawn, everything gradually returned to normal.
"Shuri, what happened?"
T'Chaka contacted his daughter at once. As the head of Wakanda's science division, Shuri would receive the most detailed report the moment an alarm was triggered.
"It wasn't an earthquake caused by tectonic movement."
Shuri had only just arrived at Wakanda's science center.
Tectonic activity in Wakanda's region was extremely rare, and even when it did occasionally happen, the science center would detect it in advance and issue a warning.
A tremor that appeared this suddenly was most likely not a natural disaster.
"If it's nothing serious, then fine. Go take proper care of our guests."
Listening to T'Chaka's instructions, Shuri could only let out a helpless sigh after hanging up.
She still had not even caught sight of the two of them, much less had a chance to "take care" of them.
"But this quake definitely has something to do with them."
Thinking of Fenris and Scott mysteriously vanishing earlier, Shuri clenched her teeth and made her way down through the science center until she reached its core section, her own laboratory.
"They have to be nearby. I want to see exactly what's happening down there."
As Shuri spoke with certainty, a small drone silently flew out of her lab and shot downward at high speed toward the depths below.
…
Deep underground.
At this point, Fenris had no idea how much of an impact he had just caused outside.
As the tremors gradually subsided and the brittle layers of stone were stripped clean from the meteorite, the true core of the vibranium mass finally revealed itself before him.
In the stillness, Fenris's senses kept probing deeper and deeper into the meteorite, and the bond between them seemed to be growing ever stronger.
At the same time, a faint blue glow began to shine on the meteorite's surface, pulsing brighter and dimmer in rhythm with Fenris's breathing. It had even started to give off an aura astonishingly similar to his own.
The instant their rhythms of life completely merged, Fenris seemed to feel a strange joy. The warm current flowing out of the Titan Index grew scorching hot almost at once.
That power began expanding rapidly inside the meteorite until it wrapped around the entire thing.
The giant meteorite, more than fifty meters across, seemed to transform under that force into a blazing furnace. Molten red light began flowing across its surface like lava.
An extreme heat poured out from it without end, and in only a few breaths, the air around it had already begun to boil.
Even with his extraordinary physique, Fenris felt a long-forgotten discomfort under that heat.
Vast amounts of steam began to rise. At the same time, the huge meteorite core actually began to shrink under the refining power of the Titan Index.
Its original irregular shape also started to change with time.
The lower half of the meteorite condensed further and further, gradually taking on the shape of a long haft.
The upper half flattened out, yet still retained an unmistakable heaviness, while its edges grew extraordinarily sharp.
"This is…"
Watching the meteorite's shape slowly transform, Fenris could barely tear his eyes away. He stared at it without blinking, afraid of missing the slightest detail.
The Titan Index's power still had not stopped flowing in, and the temperature of the meteorite kept rising. Fenris's hands pressed against the lower portion of it as he gritted his teeth and endured the searing heat burning into his palms.
Who knew how long passed before the meteorite seemed to reach the utmost limit of refinement under that heat, and suddenly burst into brilliant light. Its original mass had been compressed by more than half, leaving it now less than twenty meters in size.
At last, the outer shell wrapped around it could no longer resist the refining power. It gradually peeled away from the surface, and beneath the rock, a magnificent metallic sheen abruptly emerged.
The moment the last obstruction vanished, a dazzling silver light burst from within the meteorite into the black depths underground. In the next instant, the meteorite, now finally revealing its true form, slowly rose into the air in Fenris's hands.
The molten red glow of forging gradually receded, and the surrounding temperature quickly dropped with it.
Boom!
A massive shockwave suddenly erupted from inside the meteorite, surging outward in every direction with overwhelming force and sending the surrounding ground into another fit of trembling.
Fenris stared upward without blinking.
Under his gaze, the hazy radiance shrouding the silver light slowly dispersed.
And when the last layer vanished completely, a massive axe more than twenty meters long suddenly appeared before his eyes.
"It's actually an axe?"
The shape of the giant axe was crude and primal. Its upper half gleamed with refined silver, and under the shimmering reflection of that silver light, the sharp blade revealed patterns strikingly similar to Godzilla's dorsal spines.
Those patterns extended all the way to the sharply tapered back of the axe, making the entire weapon look strangely harmonious.
As the silver light on the blade gradually faded, a dim blue glow, identical to atomic breath, flickered across its broad surface.
The haft was laced all over in black and crimson, with brilliant red light endlessly flowing across it, making it look both savage and majestic.
Its lava-like coloring and strange patterns made it feel as though one's entire mind might be drawn into it with a single glance.
Against the backdrop of that giant axe, Fenris's tall figure seemed almost tiny.
"What a beautiful axe."
Fenris stared fixedly at the giant weapon, which combined exquisite splendor with a wild, brutal presence.
Even after being completely reforged from the inside out, the sense of intimacy he had felt from the meteorite had been perfectly inherited by this new form.
"So this is my new weapon?"
Fenris stepped forward slowly and looked at the giant axe floating silently in the air.
He could clearly sense the imprint of his own power within it. As a strange resonance rose from the axe, Fenris slowly extended his right hand.
Bang!
As though it had answered some kind of summons, the giant axe's mountain-like stillness abruptly changed. Its sharp back edge came crashing down toward Fenris like a collapsing peak.
"What?"
Fenris jumped in shock.
He had only wanted to try calling the axe through that faint resonance. He had not expected it to try to crush him to death.
The axe fell incredibly fast, but Fenris's movements were even faster, and he dodged it with ease.
Under its own massive weight, the sharp back of the axe plunged deep into the hard rock beneath the ground. A thunderous impact followed, shaking the entire floor and kicking up clouds of dust.
The sheer destructive force made Fenris's heart jolt, his eyelids twitching.
"That is one huge axe…"
The giant weapon, more than twenty meters long, lay across the ground, glinting with a cold, fearsome light that made the skin crawl at a glance.
Fenris walked up to it slowly and quietly examined the axe forged by the Titan Index.
"This thing is more than twice as big as I am even when I turn into Godzilla. There's no way it'll feel right to use…"
"It'd be a lot better if it were a little smaller."
(End of Chapter)
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