"When did I ever say I was giving away the Heart-Shaped Herb and vibranium?"
Magneto's words made T'Chaka's heart jolt. "No... how does he know about the vibranium and the Heart-Shaped Herb?"
"Could it be..."
A sudden sense of dread rose in his chest. T'Chaka's hand tightened on the arm of his throne, and his expression turned ugly at once.
But because of the nature of the occasion, he ultimately did not reveal any outward sign of it.
"Mr. Lehnsherr, there is simply no way to forcibly remove that chip. To be safe, wouldn't it be better to hand him over to us..."
T'Challa lowered his voice as he tried to persuade him. "As friends, Wakanda will absolutely do everything in our power to help you."
"No need."
Magneto refused flatly, then slowly placed his right hand over the man's head.
Where the naked eye could not see, an invisible magnetic field had already quietly enveloped the man's brain. Under Magneto's precise control, countless tiny forces began acting directly on the chip that had given Wakanda so much trouble, attacking it from the inside.
"..."
The man noticed that his brain had suddenly begun to feel heavy. He clenched his back teeth, bracing himself for the agony he expected to come next.
But as second after second passed, the anticipated pain never arrived. Instead, he felt his head gradually becoming lighter and lighter.
"This..."
Though the man could not see it himself, everyone in the council chamber had already fixed their eyes on Magneto's hand.
When Magneto slowly lifted his hand from the man's head, countless particles too fine for the eye to clearly follow gathered in his palm. Within moments, a small, unremarkable-looking chip had reformed there.
"You thought using non-magnetic materials meant I'd be helpless?"
Magneto raised the chip to eye level, examined it for a second or two, then curled his lip in disdain. "A crude anti-magnetic design. That's all."
As he spoke, his right hand clenched tight. With a muffled explosion, the chip, which even Wakanda had been unable to do anything about, was completely destroyed by the miniature explosive built into it.
Under the gaze of dozens of eyes, Magneto slowly opened his hand. Protected by his force field, it was completely unharmed.
Countless fragments clattered to the floor. In the vast, silent council chamber, the sound was especially harsh.
"It came out that easily?"
Watching it happen from only a few steps away, T'Challa's eyes widened. He rubbed them in disbelief.
So the scene he and his father had imagined, with these people eventually turning back to Wakanda for help, had all just been wishful thinking?
Bang.
From the throne, T'Chaka's hand struck the armrest, neither too hard nor too light, his expression shifting unpredictably.
The other Wakandans nearby simply stared in stunned fascination. For the first time seeing this famous mutant leader's abilities up close, they were shaken no less than an ordinary person visiting Wakanda for the first time.
"Stop overthinking it. You're not losing anything."
Magneto took in all their reactions and chuckled.
He had lived too long not to understand exactly what these people were thinking.
Still, for the sake of the vibranium and Heart-Shaped Herb they had contributed to mutantkind, Magneto let it slide without a second thought.
"He actually removed the chip?"
As his head continued to feel lighter and lighter, and that large hand gradually moved away, the man's eyes were filled with disbelief. His gaze flickered rapidly.
He knew his own situation best. Without the chip in his head, there was no way he could keep the intelligence hidden.
The thought of that cold, bloody base, and the consequences of letting its secrets leak out, flashed through his mind. Taking advantage of the moment when no one's attention was on him, the man suddenly gritted his teeth. Every muscle in his body exploded with force as he hurled himself toward a pillar only a few meters away.
"Hm?"
"Trying to kill yourself?"
The man's sudden movement caught everyone off guard. In an instant, just as he was about to smash headfirst into the vibranium pillar, Fenris's eyes flickered from the guest section. After casually hooking the delicate little axe at his waist, his figure vanished from the seat.
Bang.
A dull impact rang out. The man kept his eyes squeezed shut, only to feel a cold touch against his forehead. But the sensation was not hard.
"I'm not dead?"
At some point, a tall figure had already stepped in front of him. The newcomer had casually extended a hand, moving after him but arriving first, stopping him dead in his tracks.
The half-smiling look on the newcomer's face made the man freeze. After a brief dizzy spell and a moment of blank confusion, he finally realized he had been lifted off the ground.
Thud.
Fenris casually tossed the failed suicide onto the floor. Another heavy impact echoed out.
Only then did everyone finally begin to come back to their senses.
"What terrifying speed..."
As the only person here with peak human physical ability, T'Chaka had not even seen Fenris move before the young man had crossed dozens of meters and appeared on the far side of the hall.
That ghostlike movement, almost like teleportation, made cold sweat break out instinctively across his back.
If Fenris had truly wanted to make a move on him, he likely would not have had time to react at all.
At that moment, the corner of T'Chaka's eye happened to catch Professor X looking at him with a strange expression.
Disdain, mockery, and even a trace of pity.
T'Chaka's face immediately fell.
"Professor?"
On the other side, Professor X heard Fenris call to him softly.
He turned his head and quickly understood what Fenris meant. Shifting his gaze to the man sprawled on the ground, he stirred a thought, and the man instantly rolled back his eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
"Now that we've confirmed this is the man we were looking for, and the situation is urgent, we won't continue imposing on Wakanda any longer."
As he spoke, Professor X had already risen from the guest section, with Scott following close behind him.
"You're leaving already?"
Hearing that Professor X was about to say his goodbyes, T'Chaka wiped at the sweat that was not actually there on his forehead and, for once, finally breathed a little easier.
He forced a reluctant smile onto his face and tried to keep them there. "You came from so far away, and you haven't even tasted Wakanda's cuisine. We've truly been discourteous."
"There's no need. Though we haven't tasted the food, we've already received Wakanda's most precious treasure."
Magneto nodded in satisfaction and echoed the sentiment.
"Most precious treasure?"
T'Chaka froze.
"What Erik means, of course, is the friendship between us."
Professor X reacted quickly. He smoothly picked up the thread of the conversation and smiled as he smoothed things over.
(End of Chapter)
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