"Thank you, Your Majesty, for handing these people over to us. We will remember this favor."
Professor X's gentle tone made T'Challa's smile grow even brighter. "If Wakanda ever faces danger in the future, you may come to New York and find me."
"If it is within our power to act, we would also be willing to do our part for our friends."
After all, they had benefited quite a bit from Wakanda, so Professor X spoke generously.
And the promise he gave was indeed precious, and weighty enough.
Even if Wakanda one day truly faced annihilation, whether from foreign invasion or internal rebellion, to him it would be nothing more than a trivial matter, something he could settle with ease.
"Hahaha, as it should be. It was only a small gesture. No need to thank us."
Wasn't this line exactly what all that effort had been for?
At those words, T'Chaka immediately laughed in complete satisfaction.
"Our friends, farewell."
T'Challa, sharp enough to know when to step in, came forward and made sure to show his face one more time before them. "May your journey be a smooth one."
"Mm."
Professor X nodded. At once, the six vibranium smugglers beside them seemed to receive some unspoken command and lined up neatly behind the group.
Magneto understood immediately. A slight movement of his fingers, and a massive force field instantly enveloped all of them.
In the next moment, under the gaze of dozens of eyes, they vanished from the council chamber without the slightest warning.
"What..."
"They just left like that?"
As soon as Fenris and the others were gone, the Wakandan officials who had just been sitting quietly in their seats suddenly seemed as though some invisible restraint had been lifted. The once-silent council chamber immediately erupted into noise, voices buzzing all at once.
Such bizarre methods were completely unheard of to them before today. They had always believed they possessed vibranium technology far beyond the outside world, and because of that, they had long looked down on anything beyond Wakanda as insignificant.
Yet at this very first encounter, the mutants had already given them a deeply unforgettable shock.
Recovering from their amazement, these people almost instinctively turned their eyes toward T'Chaka and T'Challa, who had just obediently catered to Fenris and the others.
"T'Chaka!"
A man with large disks embedded in his lips and earlobes was the first to attack. He slammed a hand on the table and rose from his seat, shouting angrily.
"Just now, Wakanda faced an unprecedented crisis. But as the current Black Panther, and as Wakanda's king, your conduct has greatly disappointed us!"
"When faced with a powerful enemy, you completely failed to shoulder the responsibilities a king ought to bear. The enemy marched openly from the border all the way into our royal palace, and what did you do?"
Once one person spoke, others quickly followed.
"Not only did you fail to resist the invaders, you flattered them. You accompanied them and allowed them to trample all over the holiest place in Wakanda!"
"You were cowardly and weak. You even let Wakanda's future ruler bow and scrape beside you, giving the enemy everything they demanded, no matter how unreasonable. Do you even understand what you were doing?"
"You... you people?!"
At the side, T'Challa had never dreamed that the same Wakandan elites who had just sat there with their necks tucked in, barely daring to breathe, would turn their spears on his father the instant Fenris and the others left.
Still young and lacking experience, he found his eyes reddening at once. He roared at them, voice nearly hoarse. "Where were all of you just now? When those people were still here, none of you dared say a damn thing. But now that they're gone, you turn around and start attacking my father?"
"Aren't you all so eager to face the enemy bravely?"
"Fine. Then get in your fighters right now. Fly to New York. Go find Professor X. Go tell him to his face that you want to duel him!"
"Go on!"
T'Challa was breathing like a bull, rage boiling in his chest. He had never imagined that Wakanda, which he had always believed to be united and kind, could have such a disgusting side beneath the surface.
"T'Challa! You are not king yet. This is not your place to speak!"
The man on the dais rebuked him mercilessly. "Our silence was itself our form of resistance. That was our courage, unlike your spineless groveling."
"That's enough. Why argue with a child who understands nothing?"
Someone else stepped in to smooth things over. "T'Chaka, the failure of the energy shield this time, the utter uselessness of our military in battle, and your own failure to serve as a king's example - these are unforgivable derelictions of duty."
"We unanimously believe that if you continue to hold all power in your own hands like this, Wakanda will sooner or later be destroyed by you!"
"The king's power is too great. For Wakanda's glory, our council cannot allow this situation to continue."
"So that was your real purpose all along?"
Seeing that they had finally shown their true hand, T'Chaka was so furious he laughed instead.
Bang!
Just as he let out a helpless sigh and was about to speak, a huge metallic impact suddenly rang through the council chamber.
The shrill reverberation echoed again and again through the hall. The sudden turn of events instantly silenced everyone.
"What happened?"
When the sound finally faded, someone who still had no idea what was going on finally managed to ask.
"It's that person..."
"He didn't leave!"
Everyone followed the voice and looked off to the side.
There, a battle-axe nearly one and a half meters long had appeared at some unknown moment and slammed viciously onto the platform beside them.
As faint blue light flickered along its surface, the floor, laced with vibranium, had been split open with ease.
Gulp.
The sound of someone swallowing hard rang out clearly. Less than five centimeters from the edge of the blade, the Black man with the disks in his lips stared at the axe that had seemingly appeared from nowhere, drenched in sweat.
The cold blade was right in front of him. The pure chill radiating from it made his legs seem to stop obeying him entirely. His whole body shook violently, and in the next second, he collapsed to the floor.
"Where is he?"
"They clearly already left..."
"Shh... don't talk!"
The dozens of people who had been shouting so boldly earlier had, at some point, all quietly sunk back into their seats again. Even their voices were now as faint as gnats, as though they feared that speaking any louder might disturb Fenris.
Silence.
A silence unlike anything before.
Hummm-
In the stillness, the battle-axe slowly floated upward right before everyone's eyes.
A thunderous tearing sound split the air as the axe shot forward, smashed through the council chamber glass, and disappeared from sight.
But the atmosphere in the hall did not return to its earlier clamor.
From the moment the axe had appeared to the moment it vanished, only a few short minutes had passed. And though not a single spoken threat had been uttered the entire time, those few minutes had turned them all into frightened birds at the mere twang of a bowstring. None of them dared make a sound for a long while after.
"Hahaha!"
A loud, mocking burst of laughter suddenly rang out.
Looking at these people shrinking into themselves, T'Challa felt both absurdly amused and strangely bitter.
"So this is your courage?"
"This is the resistance you were just talking about?"
"Huh?!"
Beep. Beep.
At the other side, T'Chaka's communicator suddenly sounded. When he answered it, Shuri's urgent voice immediately came through.
She reported everything she had just seen and heard, one detail after another.
A fifth of the Heart-Shaped Herb was gone.
The tremors deep below Mount Bashenga.
And that astonishing streak of axe-light...
"Father, none of this is simple. I have every reason to suspect that they stole our Heart-Shaped Herb."
"As for how much vibranium is missing, our reserves are too vast to verify in a short time. But I have every reason to believe they took quite a lot of ore as well."
"Father, did you hear me?"
T'Chaka listened expressionlessly to Shuri's report from beginning to end.
Just when Shuri thought her father was about to lose his temper, T'Chaka suddenly laughed out loud.
"What do you mean, stole?"
"I told them to take it. I told them to take it!"
"They are my friends!"
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]