Twins

The instant the enormous magical barrier appeared, an eerie silence fell over Hydra's control center. Everyone fell silent in tacit unison, and the room became utterly still.

On the electronic screens, they watched the barrier descend from the heavens, crashing down upon the energy shield protecting the building with the pressure of a god. The white Magic Circle and blue energy layer violently squeezed against each other. Spilled magical sparks intertwined with blue arcs of electricity as ripples spread rapidly across the shield's surface.

The blue energy shield held on with all its strength for three to five seconds before shattering violently with an overloaded roar, like an eggshell smashed by a heavy hammer. Pale blue energy fragments scattered like shards of glass, and the shockwave pierced through the entire building despite the shield's protection.

At that instant, everyone in the building clearly felt the tremor through their bodies. They heard every brick and tile making up the structure groan dully, while the foundation beneath their feet shook violently, as if it stood on the brink of collapse with only the slightest push needed.

With the shield gone, flames erupted from the back of the steel figure in midair once more as he dove down. He blasted through a heavily reinforced triple-layer alloy gate and charged inside, quickly clashing with the guards stationed behind it.

It was only a matter of time before the control center was breached. Strucker seemed to have no other choice.

He turned to the elderly man in the lab coat.

"Twins," he said in a low voice. "You can send them out. Let me see what they can do."

***

Michael tore through the corridor, blasted through a door, and entered a hexagonal hall. Seven or eight Hydra agents had already set up laser rifles high above the hall, waiting in formation. The moment he stepped inside, laser beams surged toward him like a blue ocean.

But these Hydra agents seemed not to realize that their body heat had exposed their ambush long before Michael entered the hall. Thermal imaging had already revealed every sniper position to him. Only after they poured enough laser fire at the dark figure entering through the door to melt hundreds of tons of alloy steel did they realize that the figure at the entrance was not the enemy himself, but merely some kind of intangible image.

Illusion Spell—a basic yet highly practical spell. Its effect resembled a holographic projection, but it was simpler and more convenient.

As one Hydra agent above fired wildly at the illusion by the entrance, the wall behind him suddenly shattered without warning. A black Gauntlet marked with white stripes burst through the wall, grabbed the agent, and hurled him into the center of the crossfire below. In less than half a second, the unfortunate agent was torn to pieces by his comrades' fire amid a string of piercing screams.

The encirclement formed by the Hydra agents' interwoven firepower immediately collapsed. They hurriedly shifted their fire and repositioned themselves, trying to form a new pincer attack, but it was too late. Within ten seconds, they were knocked from above one after another by pulse cannons, sprawled all across the hall.

With the help of his jet Thrusters, Michael maintained his balance and descended onto the brightly polished floor of the hall. At the same time, Sherry intelligently began switching the vision modes inside his helmet to help him locate the primary target.

"Thermal readings indicate that the core area is below us, sir," she said. "Sonic scans show that the space twenty meters beneath our feet has been hollowed out. Based on calculations, there is an 88.39% probability that Wolfgang Von Strucker is located there."

Michael tilted his head. "That's remarkably precise."

He activated the laser weapon on his Gauntlet again, intending to cut an opening through the floor and enter the level below.

If he had been given another two or three seconds, he might really have done so.

Michael did not see where the attack came from. If he had to describe the sensation, it felt less like an ambush and more like a gust of wind sweeping into the hall from the depths of the corridor. Something struck his helmeted metal head heavily, producing a crisp metallic clang and making him stagger involuntarily.

Michael instinctively looked up in the opposite direction of the attack, only to find nothing there.

"We are under attack, sir," Sherry reminded him.

"What a coincidence. I noticed."

The second wave came after roughly two seconds of respite, this time from the opposite direction. Michael saw the automatic targeting reticle in his helmet's display lock onto an afterimage that flashed past the corner of his eye for a fraction of a second, and the impact followed immediately.

Another sharp blow struck his helmet. Though the force was insufficient to penetrate the composite armor or cause any damage, the supersonic impact still knocked him back a step.

There was no doubt about it—it was Quicksilver. According to the MCU films, he was a young superpowered man who had gained super speed through Baron Strucker's experiments.

But Michael was not surprised in the slightest. He had long expected to encounter the superpowered twins while attacking Baron Strucker's base. In fact, part of the reason he had personally come to attack Strucker's final base was because he wanted to meet the two of them himself.

Speaking of the twins, if Quicksilver was here, then his sister, the Scarlet Witch—at least according to the films—had to be nearby as well.

Sure enough, when Michael turned around again, he found that a girl dressed in black had appeared at the entrance to the hall at some point. She had reddish-brown hair, and dark crimson waves covered her black eyes, carrying a sharp, blade-like aura.

The Scarlet Witch.

If Michael remembered correctly, the Scarlet Witch's abilities in the films were similar to telekinesis. She could create certain forms of force through thought for attack or defense, and she could move objects from afar. But he genuinely could not remember anyone in the films ever mentioning that the Scarlet Witch's powers had anything to do with magic.

Why did he say that? Because right now, he could smell magic—bottomless magic—coming from the girl in black before him.

In fact, he had sensed this strange magical energy back when Strucker had tried to use the Scarlet Witch's abilities to locate Michael. He simply had not been entirely certain at the time. But now, he was one hundred percent sure that the Scarlet Witch was also a mage.

The girl extended both hands, and dark crimson energy wrapped around her pale, slender fingers like flames. She crossed her arms and swept them in opposing arcs, deeply imprinting powerful energy ripples into the air along the path of her movements.

Dark crimson flames burned to their peak within those bright black eyes, and visible ripples bloomed from her standing form. They surged outward like waves at high tide, sweeping across the shining floor like autumn winds, crashing over walls and support pillars like raging breakers. Scarlet light enveloped the entire hall. The ground trembled faintly, dust scattered down, and it was as though the entire building shuddered before the power of this petite girl!

"Extremely high energy fluctuations detected," Sherry said, displaying the immense power of the witch's energy on the interface through an energy curve that soared almost vertically. She continued, "No similar energy reaction exists in the known database. However, based on predictive calculations, this energy's operational form is highly likely to be a special form of magical ability."

"I know," Michael said flatly as he faced the dark crimson magical storm.

Wild, chaotic, dark in aura, and intensely aggressive.

Michael was beginning to recognize the magical power controlled by the Scarlet Witch. Though he had never seen it in person, he had read descriptions of this branch of magic in ancient magical tomes at Kamar-Taj.

The Scarlet Witch might not have realized it herself, but she was wielding the same dark power as Chthon, the god of death among the Elder Gods—Chaos Magic.

(Thanks to reader Wanshui Shuren for the 6,200 Qidian Coins, reader Wang Hechao for the 6,300 Qidian Coins, reader Immortal Living Among Mortals for the 5,000 Qidian Coins, readers Zi Yu Mo and April~Fish for the 2,000 Qidian Coins, reader Ahahahaha Xixixi Haha Ah for the 600 Qidian Coins, and reader Youyue Qifeng for the 100 Qidian Coins.)