"No!"
As the severed head hit the floor, a shrill scream unlike anything human suddenly rang through the spacious laboratory.
On the screen, Bolivar's oversized head twisted until all his features were squeezed together. His expression was hideous, his blood-red eyes filled with disbelief.
This was the essence of decades of his research, the culmination of his life's work. It was a great killing machine that had gathered the strengths of countless generations of upgraded Sentinel robots.
According to combat simulations, it truly possessed the overwhelming power to fight a thousand enemies alone.
As a machine with the same kind of one-against-many combat strength, it should, in theory, have been able to fight Fenris to a standstill. How could it possibly be destroyed so easily?
"No. Impossible!"
"Absolutely impossible!"
After despair came utter confusion.
Separated by a huge screen, Bolivar's digital image painfully dropped to its knees and stretched a trembling hand toward the massive mechanical head on the floor.
"I don't believe it. I refuse to believe this..."
"Accept reality. There isn't that much to believe or not believe."
A dimensional gate opened, and Fenris directly packed up the robot and sent it back to Hank's laboratory.
"What, did you think this was a storybook? That I had to wait until you were completely ready, then fight you for three hundred rounds?"
Fenris sneered. "Letting you get the first move once was already ridiculous luck."
"Titan, devour him!"
"Yes."
At Fenris's command, an ugly-cute Godzilla image appeared behind Bolivar on the screen at some unknown point.
"No. No!"
"Ah!"
As Titan approached step by step, the expression on Bolivar's face quickly shifted from grief to fear and horror.
As a digital life-form, even with Fenris's world-shaking combat power, Fenris would have found it difficult to truly destroy him.
But when faced with a strong artificial intelligence produced by Tony, he had no ability to resist at all.
Crack. Crunch.
A series of crisp sounds rang out. Bolivar's data was being eaten away bit by bit in Titan's mouth.
"I am Bolivar. I must study mutants, then exterminate them completely!"
"I am... a mutant. I must exterminate Bolivar!"
"Mutants... who are they?"
As time passed, his screams grew weaker and weaker.
"Just the memory data of a human."
Fenris raised his head and watched coldly from the side.
This "Bolivar" was only a pile of memory data, but he possessed thought patterns no different from a human being's.
After Titan studied the neural pathways of a top scientist and conspirator like Bolivar, its potential would certainly far surpass what it had been before.
It probably would not take long before Titan could fully catch up to Tony's JARVIS and overtake him on the curve.
"Mission complete, Master."
A moment later, Titan's voice came from the watch.
The instant Bolivar's memory data was completely erased, the thick mechanical arm lost all support and crashed heavily to the floor.
The screen it had been holding shattered instantly as well, leaving wreckage scattered everywhere.
Not far away, the computing center that had been running at full speed suddenly seemed to freeze. The indicator lights marking the machine's operation went out in unison.
"Good work."
Fenris turned and prepared to leave.
There was no earth-shattering finale, nor did any distant legend known to all remain behind.
Among the humans outside the base, aside from a select few, no one knew that there had once been an incredibly brilliant scientist who had devoted his entire life to the conflict between humans and mutants.
No one would sing his praises, and no one would thank him.
"But I won't forget you."
At the doorway, Fenris turned back and gave the laboratory one last deep look.
Even mutants thought the sudden appearance of the Sentinel Program was only a moderate disturbance, but in this world, only Fenris knew that Bolivar truly would have succeeded.
Bolivar's intelligence had indeed driven mutantkind into a desperate situation. It was only that they had resolved it in another way.
"Bolivar died a long time ago. What remained here was nothing more than his old obsession."
"No matter what grand ambitions you had in life, that doesn't mean you'll be granted a good ending..."
"It's all over."
"Goodbye. A fairly qualified opponent."
A brilliant radiance slowly began lighting up in Fenris's palm.
When the light filled every corner of the laboratory, a massive impact suddenly erupted.
Boom!
After a deafening explosion, everything in the laboratory was easily torn into dust.
Countless fragments fell in a rustling cascade, burying the place completely.
"Fenris, where is Bolivar?"
Magneto's voice sounded at just the right moment. "That man is treacherous and cunning. We cannot let him off easily."
"He died a long time ago."
Fenris turned and gave Magneto a meaningful look. "Probably decades ago."
"Decades ago?"
Magneto froze, then shook his head, clearly not understanding.
Outside the base.
The X-Men had already arrived in Antarctica aboard the Blackbird and were orderly handling the aftermath.
A silver-white greatsword was planted in the ice field. Fenris and Magneto stood quietly on either side of the crossguard.
"What do you plan to do with this base?"
Fenris glanced at Magneto's shifting expression. "Bury it again?"
"No."
Magneto turned his head and gently removed his helmet. "There are quite a few good things hidden inside. I plan to take it back and have people study it properly."
"You don't need my help? You're just going to carry it and fly back like this?"
"Aren't you afraid someone will cause trouble?"
"Who would dare stop me?"
Magneto suddenly grinned, revealing a bright smile. "Kid, getting along with you during this period has been rather pleasant. I hope we do not become enemies in the future."
"Don't let my daughter get bullied at the academy, or I'll make you regret it."
"I'm leaving."
Magneto lightly flipped both hands, and his entire body immediately floated into the air.
After this period of time, as his face became younger and younger, his mentality had also unknowingly begun to grow more lively.
After giving Fenris a carefree wave, the vibranium greatsword beneath Fenris's feet suddenly began shaking violently.
The next moment, the greatsword abruptly shot into the sky. After letting out a clear, ringing sword cry, it obediently settled beneath Magneto's feet.
Magneto stood on the greatsword and stretched his right hand toward the enormous base on the ground from afar.
Amid ear-piercing roars, one man, one sword, and one base slowly rose into the air. They set out directly from Antarctica, without the slightest attempt at concealment, swaggering openly before the eyes of the entire world as they flew toward the depths of the Pacific.
"That's you, all right, Erik. You have to make a scene no matter what you're doing."
As his wings of light gently fanned, Fenris watched Magneto's back and could not help clicking his tongue.
"Not a single word about that brat Pietro. So Wanda really is the only one who's your biological child, huh?"
(End of Chapter)
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