Dark red energy particles drifted through the air like snow without temperature.
Wanda's pale, slender fingers hovered less than a centimeter from Lynn's cheek. The faint chill from her fingertips pierced the scorching air around them, registering clearly in his senses.
Lynn kept his head lowered, his shoulders shaking violently. He played the part of a low-ranking agent terrified out of his wits before a world-destroying god to perfection. Large beads of cold sweat fell from his temples onto the scorched concrete. His pupils were unfocused, and even his breathing carried extreme panic.
But beneath that trembling exterior, Lynn's mind worked calmly at an unprecedented speed.
This woman's mental state is already on the brink of collapse. Lynn sensed the rich rose fragrance in the air, mixed with the acrid smell of gunsmoke-a tangible manifestation of Wanda's overflowing Chaos Magic. I absolutely cannot reveal that I have power right now, much less show any resistance. Go along with her. I have to go along with her.
He secretly activated his newly acquired chaos energy affinity, silently absorbing and assimilating the violent magic particles trying to tear his skin apart, protecting his heart and meridians.
A deathlike oppression hung over their surroundings.
Crossbones, Brock Rumlow, knelt nearby, his shattered kneecaps digging into his flesh and sending his entire body into spasms of pain. His bloodshot eyes remained fixed on the utterly bizarre scene before him, his brain completely unable to process what was happening.
Why would a terrifying being who had torn space apart and destroyed the S.H.I.E.L.D. Building in a single strike show such... almost abject attachment to a Level Three Logistics Agent who did not even qualify for field duty?
"M-monster..."
A distorted howl suddenly erupted in the silence.
It came from a Hydra Assault Trooper behind Crossbones. After several minutes under that absolute pressure, this battle-hardened elite agent had finally snapped. Fear crushed his reason, twisting his survival instinct into a frenzied urge to attack.
He suddenly drew a large-caliber backup pistol from his tactical boot. His eyes rolled back as he roared like a wild beast, aiming at the dark red figure three meters away.
"Die! Die!!!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three piercing gunshots shattered the deathly silence of the landing pad.
Crossbones's eyes stretched wide, his heart plunging into an icy abyss. "Idiot! Stop!"
Too late.
The instant the bullets left the barrel, Wanda's fingers, which had been hovering beside Lynn's cheek, abruptly stilled.
She did not turn around. Her shoulders did not so much as twitch.
But Lynn clearly saw the trace of sickly tenderness that had just surfaced in Wanda's eyes swallowed in an instant by boundless scarlet killing intent.
"Who gave you permission-"
Wanda's voice was as soft as a sigh, yet carried dimensional laws that permitted no defiance.
Hum!
Three bullets powerful enough to pierce light armor stopped half a meter from Wanda's back, as though they had struck an invisible wall of sighs, freezing in midair. Their tips glowed red from the intense friction, yet could advance no farther.
Then Wanda slowly turned her head.
Her eyes, formed entirely of scarlet energy, swept coldly toward the agent who had fired.
Crack!
Without warning, the agent's gun-wielding right arm snapped backward at a grotesque angle that defied human anatomy. Before a scream could escape his throat, dark red Chaos Magic had already coiled around his body like a venomous snake.
"Making noise within my sight." Wanda looked down at him as though regarding a revolting insect. "You deserve to die."
Her fingers abruptly clenched.
Squelch-!
A horrifying, muffled sound rang out. The fully armed man, who weighed over two hundred pounds, was forcibly compressed inward in midair by a terrifying force, together with his gun and bulletproof vest!
Bones shattered. Metal twisted. In barely half a second, a living person was brutally crushed into a ball of flesh and metal no bigger than a basketball!
Thick blood burst outward in all directions, raining down around them in a bloody storm.
A few drops of scalding blood splashed toward Lynn.
Wanda frowned, the hem of her dark red coat stirring without wind. A scarlet barrier instantly rose before Lynn, holding the filthy blood a full three meters away and preventing even a single drop from staining his cheap S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform.
Thud.
The ball of flesh struck the ground and rolled in front of Crossbones.
Crossbones stared at the indescribable mass still seeping blood before him. His stomach churned, and his extreme terror made him forget even to breathe. He finally understood that her earlier words, "Whoever touches him dies," had not been a threat at all.
They were a law of physics this woman had established.
"Get lost," Wanda spat coldly.
Boom!
Violent Chaos Magic swept outward from her, becoming a tangible tsunami of energy.
Crossbones and the dozens of remaining agents were flung away like trash in a gale, utterly powerless to resist. They slammed into rubble and aircraft wreckage dozens of meters away, bones and tendons breaking as they vomited mouthfuls of blood. Not one could get back up.
The center of the landing pad was forcibly cleared into an absolute vacuum zone fifty meters across.
No noise, no threats, none of those eyesore insects.
Only her and her Lynn.
Wanda turned around, the cloak of energy behind her slowly drawing inward. That world-destroying pressure ebbed like a receding tide. She approached Lynn again, her steps actually faltering a little, as though the demonic god who had casually crushed an agent to death had been nothing but an illusion.
She reached Lynn and slowly crouched down.
Lynn remained slumped on the ground, gasping for breath, letting just the right trace of "terror and bewilderment" show in his eyes.
"Y-you... who are you..." Lynn delivered the line in a dry, trembling voice.
At those words, Wanda's body abruptly stiffened.
Without warning, tears spilled from her scarlet eyes, slid down her pale cheeks, and fell onto the back of Lynn's hand. The tears were frighteningly hot.
"You don't remember me... It's all right. It's all right." Heartbreaking hurt filled Wanda's voice. Like a little girl who had finally found a match in a blizzard, she reached out with trembling hands. "As long as I remember you. You've come back to life... My Lynn, you've really come back to life."
No longer able to restrain the madness and attachment within her, she lunged forward and locked Lynn in her arms.
Lynn felt a surge of dark red energy envelop him in an instant. Wanda's arms squeezed him so tightly that she seemed intent on kneading his entire body into her own flesh and bones, never to be separate again.
The rich fragrance of roses instantly took over all the space he had to breathe.
"This time, no one is taking you away from me. No one!"
Wanda buried her face in the crook of Lynn's neck, murmuring with sickly obsession. As her emotions fluctuated, the surrounding Chaos Magic spontaneously formed a dark red spherical barrier, cutting the two of them off from the outside world completely.
Inside the barrier, the air pressure began skyrocketing.
Lynn's face instantly flushed red. He realized that Wanda, in her extreme insecurity, was unconsciously contracting her magical defensive perimeter. That chaos energy, powerful enough to withstand a nuclear explosion, was pressing relentlessly against his chest.
"Cough... let... let go..."
Lynn tried to struggle, but Wanda had his hands locked firmly in place, leaving him unable to move at all. The oxygen in his lungs was rapidly depleted, and his vision began to darken.
System, you bastard!
Lynn cursed inwardly.
I didn't die in Hydra's purge or under Ultron's gunfire, and now this yandere witch is actually going to suffocate me to death with love?!
Before you continue