Dark Red Scratches Beneath the Troop Carrier, Wanda Personally Investigates the Cold Storage
The dark red glare slowly crawled along the molten asphalt road surface.
The temperature was hovering around zero degrees Celsius, but the pungent smell of diesel fuel in the air was forcibly suppressed by a sweet, rusty odor.
Hela's fingernail, resting on the edge of the lead box, paused.
Before the eerie green Death Energy could fully penetrate the box lock, it was shattered by the dark red energy seeping from the ground.
Hela withdrew her hand, slightly raised her eyelids, and looked at the Xian-094 Troop Carrier that was now just a frame.
Thirty paces back in the armored battalion's position, the superchargers of the tanks roared out again with a chaotic sound.
Monk stood on the running board of the command vehicle, his hand instinctively reaching for the holster at his waist, his knuckles turning white.
What was that noise?
Monk growled, and his adjutant behind him, holding binoculars, sweat beading on his forehead and trickling down his greasy face.
"Sir... the Thermal Imager is broken; the temperature scale across the entire image is jumping to its limit!"
Before he could finish speaking...
Beneath the twisted drive shaft of the troop carrier, the sewage pipe, which had been blown to pieces, suddenly bulged upwards.
The sheet metal did not break; instead, it softened and turned red like boiling wax, eventually turning into red fly ash without a sound.
A deep, dark rift with no edges was torn open in the void.
The Scarlet light did not gush forth, but rather slowly seeped out from the crack, like viscous blood blood hanging in the cold wind.
A hand, concealed within the sleeve of a dark red robe, emerged first.
The hand was clad in a special dragon-skin protective glove, and the edge of the notch at the base of the thumb was swirling with a visible dark red flame.
Wanda stepped out of the void.
She stepped onto the still-warm, charred steel plate, the hem of her robe brushing against the scattered pebbles.
The howling wind around her stopped abruptly the moment she landed.
The Gauss Long Halberd wielded by dozens of Black Crow Honor Guard emitted faint self-checking noises, and a layer of dark red frost condensed on the metal spears.
The riot control plates suspended on the front of the Monk command vehicle groaned under the weight of the load.
Wanda didn't look at Monk, nor at Hela, who was covered in scales.
She turned her head slightly, her eyes bloodshot, and her gaze pierced through the floating smoke and dust, landing precisely on Lynn.
Gwen Stacy took a half step forward, her body slightly hunched, the muscles beneath her tactical trench coat taut.
"Don't move."
Lynn's voice was very low, his right hand still steadily holding the lead box.
Wanda raised her index finger.
Within a ten-meter radius, fragments of infantry fighting vehicles, broken machine gun barrels, and prefabricated ventilation shaft slabs weighing tens of tons were all suspended in mid-air.
Enveloped in a dark red glow, the steel was molded into regular metal spheres by an invisible force.
Suspended debris obscured half the sky, casting shadows that covered the entire slope.
"Director Lynn."
Wanda's voice was soft, yet it pierced through the low growls of dozens of diesel engines.
"How did the stolen goods from the Department of Technology end up under a cargo truck in the Seventh Defense Zone?"
Monk felt his throat go dry.
He had experienced all the frontal engagements, but he had never seen such a method of crushing tens of tons of Heavy Armor out of thin air with sheer willpower.
"Minister Maximoff."
Monk gripped the microphone of the car's loudspeaker, forcing his voice to sound befitting a major general.
"This is the wartime control zone of the Seventh Defense Zone. The explosion resulted in significant casualties among the district's military police. The district has the right to..."
Wanda didn't even turn her head.
A metal ball made of riot shields, suspended in mid-air, trembled slightly.
The next second, the iron ball shot through the air.
A compressed solid iron ball weighing half a ton slammed into the right side of Monk's car, three steps away.
Boom!
The ground was smashed into a crater two meters square, and the violent shockwave cleanly severed the communication antenna on the side of the command vehicle.
Monk was jolted off the pedal, the microphone in his hand flying into the mud, emitting a sharp whistling sound.
"Shut up."
Wanda uttered two words.
The twelve infantry fighting vehicles of the armored battalion simultaneously shut off their engines, and the soldiers huddled behind the observation windows, not daring to even touch the firing pins with their fingers.
Hela stood still, her dark green cloak drooping under the weight, without causing the slightest ripple.
She looked at Wanda, a cold smile playing on her lips.
"The reactor at the Ministry of Department of Technology has shut down, yet the minister has the leisure to come to the ground to enjoy the cold wind."
Hela raised her hand and brushed it against the hilt of the short sword at her waist.
"The Stability Maintenance Office has taken over the Seventh Gate; the contents of the box are to be verified by the Internal Control Inspection Group."
"Internal Control Inspection Group?"
Wanda finally turned her head, her gaze sweeping over the Black Crow Honor Guard beside Hela.
"Is it also a privilege of the Stability Maintenance Office for Ke'er to lead people to the sixth basement level to extract my Magic Circuit?"
A glint flashed in Hela's eyes, but she didn't reply immediately.
The two women's gazes met above the scorched slope.
Hundreds of metal spheres suspended in mid-air emitted slight high-frequency vibrations, instantly draining the humidity from the surrounding air, and the withered grass began to Carbonization and turn black without any open flame.
Gwen Stacy stood beside Lynn, lowering her voice:
"The residual magic matches up."
"The energy extraction waveband she sensed in the reactor at the Department of Technology was completely synchronized with the fuse left on the chassis of the troop carrier."
Lynn remained calm and pulled his left hand out of his pocket.
There was neither a gun nor a sword in his palm.
His palm rested on the radiation-proof lock of the lead box.
"Minister Wanda."
Lynn met those bloodshot eyes and spoke.
"The eight sets of card cores in the box were retrieved from a hidden compartment in the offline engraving machine at the Seventh Repair Workshop."
"The engraving machine was salvaged from Stark Industries ' energy core."
"The stamp on it is an abandoned seal from the district's military police company."
Lynn enunciated each word with remarkable steadiness, each syllable landing clearly before the deathly silence.
The blood-red glint in Wanda's eyes hardened slightly.
Her gaze followed Lynn's arm down to the lead box.
Only eight sets?
Wanda took a step forward.
As the boot landed, the hard frozen soil instantly cracked like a spiderweb, and scalding red light surged from the cracks.
Where is the parent stock?
Lynn did not back down.
The parent stock was taken away prematurely.
"Two minutes before the troop carrier detonated, someone used an old-fashioned radio transmitter to send a forced short-circuit command from a ground-based broadcast tower."
"Only these eight control cards were left in the car as bait to buy time."
Wanda took another step forward.
The two were now only five steps apart.
Hela's fingers tightened around her short sword, and the thirty Black Crow Honor Guard simultaneously assumed their fighting stances.
Wanda seemed completely oblivious to the murderous intent around her; her gaze shifted from the lead box to Lynn's left chest.
A faint warmth emanated from the hidden pocket inside the uniform's lining, seeping through the fabric.
That was the ninth crystal card that Lynn had personally pried off with his broken sword in the abandoned pump room on the sixth basement level.
Wanda slowly raised her left hand.
She ripped off her protective gloves on the spot and tossed them aside.
The pale palm was exposed to the biting cold wind, and a very subtle and complex Scarlet swirling mark suddenly appeared on the palm.
At the same instant.
The crystal card in Lynn's breast pocket emitted a crisp buzzing sound through the double-layered lead cloth.
Buzz--
Two perfectly synchronized magical forces resonated, creating an invisible ripple in the air amidst the ruins of the gate.
Wanda's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints.
She looked at Lynn, her lips trembling slightly. The violence and murderous intent in her eyes faded, replaced by an almost twisted, morbid obsession.
You touched it.
Wanda extended her index finger and pointed it at Lynn's chest.
"That's my etching circuit."
"You took my things underground."
Hela's gaze suddenly turned cold, her eyes abruptly shifting from Wanda's palm to Lynn's collar.
Gwen Stacy's hand rested on the hilt of the tactical knife at her waist, her knuckles drained of color from the force.
Outside the slope, Monk, who was sprawled in the mud, struggled to his feet and, through the broken periscope, saw the red glow emanating from Lynn's chest.
Everyone's breath caught in their throats for a moment.
Wanda clenched her fingers, the Scarlet mark on her palm burning like blood.
Instead of trying to snatch the lead box from Lynn's hand, she reached out her hand directly to Lynn.
"Lynn."
Wanda's voice was soft, yet it carried a chilling obsession that sent shivers down the spines of everyone present.
"Take it out."
Let me see how many traces of me remain on you.