Chapter 88: Sokovia event part 5
Black lightning coiled and writhed around William like sentient serpents, slithering through his aura, their jagged arcs lashing out at the battlefield. Each bolt that struck the ground didn't just scorch, and it erased, unraveled reality itself, leaving nothing but emptiness in its wake.
"CRACK!"
The sound ripped through the battlefield, a deafening rupture that sent tremors through the terrain. Floating debris, remnants of the shattered earth, disintegrated midair, unable to endure the suffocating force radiating from his body.
Then, his gaze, two searing crimson stars of destruction, lifted toward the heavens.
Above, the sky had turned into a maelstrom of darkness, swirling with an ominous, churning storm. Black clouds twisted violently, drawn toward the singularity that was him. Thunder boomed like the war drums of gods, shaking the atmosphere with its wrath.
And then—
"KA-BOOM!"
A colossal bolt of lightning descended from the heavens, an unholy spear of pure cosmic fury. The instant it struck William like a celestial spear, the entire battlefield was swallowed in a blinding white light. The impact sent a shockwave outward, flattening what little remained of the surroundings.
Yet, as the aftershock faded, the silhouette of something monstrous emerged from the glow.
William.
Still standing. Unharmed.
Black lightning now surged through his body, dancing wildly across his frame, enhancing his already-terrifying visage. His hair stood on end, his muscles pulsed with barely contained power, and the Omega symbol on his crown blazed like the mark of an eldritch king.
The storm above continued to churn, but it was clear now, it was no longer a force of nature.
It was a reflection of him.
"GRRRR!"
A deep, guttural growl rolled from his chest, reverberating through the battlefield like the final warning of a predator at the peak of the food chain. Sulfuric smoke billowed from his mouth, thick and suffocating, as if his presence was corrupting the very air around him.
His gaze snapped downward.
Zola.
The machine had barely managed to recover, stabilizing himself with his gravity powers. But even in his artificial mind, something resembling primal fear began to creep in.
The Omega symbol flared.
Its energy rippled outward, distorting space itself, pulsing with a hatred so deep it felt ancient.
And then, William moved.
Fast. Unstoppable. Terrifying.
His charge was not reckless, not blind fury, it was the measured, deliberate advance of an apex predator, fully aware that its prey had no escape.
Zola's sensors screamed warnings, but it no longer mattered.
The hunt had begun.
"WHOOSH!"
Zola raised a metallic hand, his fingers spreading wide, and then, one by one, miniature singularities erupted at his fingertips. Each one pulsed violently, swirling masses of gravitational destruction, tiny yet containing the weight of collapsing stars.
Then—
"THU! THU! THU! THU! THU!"
The singularities launched toward William at blinding speeds, twisting and warping the air as they traveled. As they neared, they expanded explosively, growing from the size of a thimble to a basketball, then merging together into a swirling, chaotic mass of pure gravitational doom.
It didn't stop.
The sphere ballooned further, engulfing the very fabric of space, until it became a monstrous black mass, the size of a small car, pulling in shattered terrain, loose debris, and even the very light around it.
Yet, standing before it, William only grinned. A wicked, knowing grin.
The black lightning slithering around his form crackled in anticipation. His crimson eyes, pulsing with destructive hunger, reflected the approaching attack.
And then—
"SHING!"
With a single swipe, William's claws ignited, the same hate-filled energy that burned within the Omega symbol on his crown now radiating from his fingertips. He dove forward, slashing into the massive singularity without hesitation.
"KKCCHHH!"
The very earth beneath him shattered, split open into deep canyons, the force of Zola's attack pushing him back with seismic pressure. The battlefield trembled, entire chunks of land ripped from their foundations, sucked into the ever-hungry abyss of the singularity.
But something was wrong.
The singularity was shrinking.
Faster.
Faster.
Faster.
It wasn't consuming William.
William was consuming it.
At some point, his movement had stopped entirely. He now held the black hole with one hand, his claws still carving away chunks of pure gravitational destruction.
And then, in the most nightmarish display yet—
He brought a piece to his mouth.
"KCH!"
His demonic fangs sank into the raw spatial energy, chewing it with an audible crunch, as if it were nothing more than brittle ice. His expression twisted into something darkly amused, savoring the taste before swallowing the cosmic force whole.
"BURP!"
The air rippled violently as William exhaled, a deep, sulfuric belch laced with the stench of magma and brimstone. But that wasn't all—
The Omega symbol on his horned crown blazed brighter, its very center becoming a vortex of concentrated, gravitational devastation. The stolen power coalesced, growing denser, more compact, until—
He smiled.
A slow, deliberate, monstrously satisfied smile.
Then—
He spread his arms wide.
"GGGGRRRR…!"
The air seized, as if the world itself was holding its breath. Then, in a voice dripping with absolute command—
"DIE."
The concentrated mass of twisted gravity erupted forward, twisting and spiraling chaotically through the air, zig-zagging dozens of times in random, unpredictable angles—
Before slamming into Zola's back.
"BOOM!"
The force was immediate, overwhelming, and cataclysmic, Zola's robotic form was sent hurtling through the battlefield, the very fabric of his body groaning under the sheer pressure of his own stolen attack.
And waiting for him—
William.
His hand outstretched.
Like a predator waiting for the final strike.
"BANG!"
Zola's metallic skull smashed into the ground, a massive crater forming on impact. Shockwaves blasted outward, shaking what little remained of the ruined terrain.
Zola's processors struggled to register what had just happened.
But deep inside his artificial mind, one thing was clear—
He had never been more afraid.
"BOOM!"
A monstrous force smashed into William's side, sending shockwaves tearing through the battlefield like an earthquake in the sky. The sheer impact was like a meteor strike, splitting the very air apart with a violent sonic boom.
And standing where William had been just moments ago—
Hulk.
His massive, green form was hunched forward, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles cracked like snapping trees. His eyes burned with a violent red glow, a telltale sign of his mind being twisted and warped by a higher force.
High above, perched on a crumbling ledge outside the palace, Scarlet Witch watched.
Her fingers twitched, her chaotic crimson magic swirling in a hypnotic dance around her hands as she continued to dig her influence deeper into the Hulk's already rage-fueled mind. His perception twisted, and altered, William was the enemy.
The monster that had to be destroyed.
"RAAAAA!"
Hulk threw his head back and roared, his bellow carrying such raw fury that the very air shuddered in response. Then, he slammed his colossal fists against his chest.
"BANG! BANG! BANG!"
Each thunderous impact sent violent ripples of kinetic force outward, shaking the floating island like a drum under the might of an unstoppable war god.
Then, his bloodshot, rage-fueled gaze snapped onto William.
But William was already standing, his posture completely relaxed, his expression one of utter indifference.
His chest, where Hulk's devastating blow had landed, was completely unscathed, not even a dent, not even a mark.
That simple fact infuriated the Hulk beyond reason.
"GRRRR!"
Hulk's body twitched, his muscles bulged, his rage feeding his endless strength. Veins pulsed violently along his arms and neck, his sheer size swelling until he now stood just a head shorter than William.
And yet—
William didn't move.
Didn't flinch.
Didn't react.
It was as if the monstrous emerald behemoth before him was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
Hulk's lips curled, revealing fang-like teeth.
"HULK SMASH TALL MAN!"
With a roar of unrestrained fury, Hulk raised both of his titanic fists high, his entire body coiling with limitless force before he brought them down in a devastating hammer blow, aiming to crush William into the core of the island.
"BANG!"
The very air ruptured, the shockwave from the impact traveling outward in all directions. Cracks spiderwebbed across the floating landmass, entire boulders erupting into the sky from the sheer concussive force.
The island trembled, as if the planet itself had felt the attack.
And yet—
Hulk's expression changed.
Confusion.
Then, disbelief.
His massive fists weren't moving.
They were locked in place.
And then, slowly, Hulk's wild eyes drifted downward.
William was holding them.
With one hand.
And he was doing it with such effortless ease that it sent an unfamiliar chill crawling down Hulk's spine.
For the first time in his existence, he felt it.
A momentary, almost alien sensation, fear.
William's ominous, demonic voice slithered into the air, vibrating across the battlefield like a chorus of voices whispering from every direction at once.
"So much anger... so much rage..."
His blackened claws flexed, his grip tightening on Hulk's fists. The Omega symbol on his crown burned with a malevolent, living hatred, pulsating like a beating heart of raw annihilation.
Then, his lips curled into something between a grin and a snarl.
"I like that."
"BOOM!"
In one fluid, devastating motion, William slammed his knee into Hulk's sternum.
The impact was monstrous.
The very space around them warped violently, the force crumpling Hulk's torso inward like steel, meeting an unstoppable force. A shockwave tore through the battlefield, sending debris, shattered rock, and even the air itself blasting outward in concentric waves.
Hulk's eyes bulged, a choked grunt of shock escaping his lips, his lungs struggling to function as his entire chest caved inward for a fraction of a second.
For the first time, his indestructible body had been overwhelmed.
"BOOM!"
Hulk's massive form was launched backward like a missile, his body cutting through the sky like a green meteor, shattering floating debris in his wake. The sheer force of William's blow had broken the unbreakable.
But before the echoes of destruction could even settle—
"SCHWOOOM!"
A sudden, violent distortion ripped through the battlefield, sending waves of gravitational pressure surging outward.
From the wreckage, Zola had risen.
The cold, inhuman glow of the Mind Stone burned with newfound power atop his synthetic forehead, the sheer force of its energy distorting the air around it. His metallic body hummed, his systems now fully activated, surging with an unnatural, unholy power.
He had witnessed the impossible.
William, a being who had casually overpowered the Hulk, laughed in the face of gravity itself, and devoured singularity energy like a mere snack.
And yet—
Zola refused to accept it.
His arrogance, his programming, and his very existence rebelled against the mere thought of inferiority.
His metal fingers twitched, and then—
"SCHHHHH!"
A storm of singularity orbs materialized in the air around him, each one a pulsing, unstable core of pure gravitational destruction.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
The sheer density of their combined gravitational pull made the air tremble, the floating battlefield itself warping as space twisted unnaturally around them. The very fabric of reality screamed in protest.
And standing at the center of it all, Zola.
His robotic eyes burned with maniacal determination, his voice crackling like a war machine awakened from the abyss.
"Fall before Zola… fall before the NEW REICH!"
And then—
He unleashed hell.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
A relentless barrage of singularity orbs shot forward in a chaotic, apocalyptic storm, each one containing enough gravitational force to crush mountains into dust.
They screamed through the air like black holes forged into bullets, each one bending the light around it, warping the battlefield in real-time as they all homed in on one single target.
William.
And yet—
He didn't move.
Didn't flinch.
Didn't react.
His burning crimson eyes flickered with something almost akin to boredom, as if Zola's attack was nothing more than an amusing spectacle.
And then, as the singularities closed in—
William smiled.
Deep within the floating island's abyssal corridors, the rhythmic click-clack of heels against stone echoed like an eerie metronome, each step deliberate, each movement drenched in an unsettling, predatory grace.
The air itself twisted in her wake, the unseen tendrils of her presence caressing the very fabric of reality.
And at the center of it all—
A woman.
Jean Grey.
No, something far worse.
A being wrapped in an aura of living flame, her wild scarlet hair billowing as if kissed by an invisible inferno.
Her golden, slit-like eyes shimmered with something primal, something that existed beyond morality, beyond reason, beyond sanity.
Phoenix had awakened.
She exhaled, inhaling the countless whispers of the lifeforces pulsing around her, their invisible threads intertwining and stretching toward something far, far greater above.
She could feel it.
The vast, overwhelming sea of life above.
A playground.
A feast.
And she smiled, a slow, sultry curl of the lips, before dragging her delicate, rosy tongue across them, savoring the thought.
"Mmm... Yummy~."
Her voice was both sultry and sinister, vibrating with an eerie undertone, like the purr of a predator in the moments before it pounces.
Then—
"CLACK!" "CLACK!"
A sudden flurry of heavy footsteps.
The cold, metallic hum of weapons being drawn.
She barely tilted her head before she found herself surrounded.
Dozens of heavily armed guards, faces obscured beneath visors, each one brimming with resolve and fear in equal measure.
"ON YOUR KNEES!" One barked. "SURRENDER NOW!"
A pause.
Then, laughter.
Soft. Sweet. Deceptive.
Phoenix Jean's head tilted ever so slightly, her gaze dripping with amusement.
Then, with a mere flick of her wrist—
"THRUMMM!"
The world stopped.
The guards froze in place.
Not even the faintest tremor of movement escaped them.
Their bodies remained upright, but their eyes, their eyes told the tale of absolute, soul-consuming terror.
They couldn't move.
They could barely breathe.
Jean's outstretched fingers curled lazily, her psychic hold unyielding, squeezing the very essence of their existence between her fingertips.
Then, golden light began seeping from their pores.
A radiant, liquid energy, like molten sunlight being extracted grain by grain, their very life force drawn out like sand in the wind.
It swirled, coalescing into her palm, its glow pulsing, alive, desperate.
Until—
"FWOOSH!"
The last of their souls fused together, reshaping into something new.
Something divine.
A golden peach.
The guards, now lifeless husks, stood for a mere second longer before collapsing into the wind, not bodies, not bones, just dust.
As if they had never even existed.
Phoenix Jean smiled.
She lifted the glowing fruit, admiring its radiance, the way it pulsed like a miniature sun, bathing her skin in its warmth.
Then, without hesitation, she bit into it.
"CRUNCH."
Juices burst forth, golden ichor dripping down her lips, trailing along her porcelain skin in a grotesque yet tantalizing display.
Her eyes fluttered.
Her breath hitched.
For a single moment, ecstasy.
"Mmmhh~."
The taste of pure, condensed life itself.
Then—
"FWOOSH!"
Her aura exploded outward.
An infernal conflagration of gold and crimson, tendrils of cosmic fire twisting and writhing around her as her body drank in the stolen vitality.
Her power, rekindled.
Reforged.
Reborn.
And as she exhaled, her fingers slowly released the blackened pit of the peach.
It hit the ground with a whisper, a thing of pure void, a dead, meaningless husk.
And then, like the lives she had taken, it crumbled into nothing.
Jean didn't even glance at it.
She was already moving forward.
The real feast was yet to begin.