A beam of blue light struck the lawn, and the resulting massive shockwave sent Lin Xiao Lin Xiao flying at least ten meters. He was slammed into a solid marble pillar, the force of the impact shattering it as he continued his descent. One, two, three pillars—he crashed into the fourth before finally coming to a stop. Lin Xiao coughed up blood and leaned against a pillar. His nanosuit was badly damaged, crackling with electricity. He was barely recognizable as human, covered in blood and dust, a truly gruesome sight.
Wenwu gave Lin Xiao absolutely no chance to catch his breath.
The nine rings of light intertwined in the air to form a giant net, rushing towards Lin Xiao. As Lin Xiao watched the figure getting closer and closer, the corners of his mouth curled up.
Come closer. Closer still.
His right hand was clenched tightly, his arm trembling slightly beneath the nanotech suit. He was waiting. Waiting for Wenwu to rush in front of him, waiting for that old man to think he was powerless to fight back, waiting for those hands with nine rings to personally grip his neck, and then he would unleash that earth-shattering punch. Normal Punch. Four times the power. Ignoring defense. Unavoidable, a fatal blow.
But Wenwu didn't come over.
He stopped ten meters away from Lin Xiao. Suspended in mid-air, nine rings of light swirled around him, his expression remaining calm, a cold smile playing on his lips.
"You think I'd get close to you?" Wenwu's voice was neither loud nor soft, but tinged with mockery. "I've seen plenty of people like you. The more you pretend to be weak, the more likely you are hiding a trick up your sleeve. For someone like you, I choose to blast you to smithereens."
Lin Xiao's smile froze for a moment.
The next second, Wenwu raised his right hand, his five fingers spread open, and nine rings lit up simultaneously. Red, blue, purple, white, and black light gathered at his fingertips, condensing into a fist-sized ball of light. The color of the ball of light kept changing, and each time it changed, the surrounding air trembled, and the bits of grass and gravel on the lawn were lifted up by an invisible force and suspended in mid-air.
"I'm not interested in playing with you anymore." Wenwu's voice remained calm. "You destroyed one of my rings, so consider your life as compensation."
The sphere of light exploded.
Nine shockwaves were released simultaneously from the nine rings, no longer scattered, but converging into a beam of light as thick as a bucket, which blasted straight toward Lin Xiao. The sound of the air being torn apart was sharp and ear-piercing. Wherever the beam passed, the ground was plowed into a scorched trench, and soil and gravel rolled to both sides. The entire lawn trembled under this attack.
Lin Xiao tried to dodge, but his body wouldn't obey him. The previous slash, combined with Wenwu's attack, had exhausted all his strength. The injuries he had sustained were too severe; all the bones in his body had been shattered. He couldn't even stand up now. The next second, a golden light flew towards Lin Xiao.
The golden light was as fast as a shooting star. It exploded in front of him, forming a shield that collided with the blue-white beam of light.
Carol stood before Lin Xiao, her hands forming an energy shield, her golden hair fluttering wildly in the aftershocks of the shockwave. The tear in her battle suit, ripped by Wenwu earlier, remained. Her breathing was still uneven, and her shield was visibly shattering into dust under the full force of the Ten Rings strike. Yet, she stood before him, unyielding.
" Carol, get out of the way, he's after me..."
"Shut up." Carol didn't turn around. Lin Xiao could see her shoulders trembling slightly, and he could see the edges of her golden shield cracking piece by piece, with golden fragments scattering in the air like flower petals.
Wenwu narrowed his eyes, a disdainful smile playing on his lips. He clasped his hands together, and the light from the Ten Rings surged once more, doubling in diameter and changing from blue-white to a blinding, blazing white. Under this attack, Carol's shield let out a mournful cry of unbearable strain, cracks spreading from the edges to the center, the entire shield resembling a piece of tempered glass about to shatter.
"You can't hold on." Wenwu's voice came from behind the pillar of light, carrying an undisguised sarcasm. "I see. You're just an avatar. Once your energy is depleted, you'll dissipate. Is it worth it for that piece of trash hiding behind that woman?"
Carol didn't answer. She simply moved her foot back half an inch, burying it in the ground to steady herself.
Then she did something that Wenwu had never expected: she flew out of the golden shield and headed straight for the beam of light. The Ten Rings beam of light, now unobstructed, slammed into Carol. Carol gritted her teeth and used her own body to take the brunt of the beam of light, which was enough to destroy everything.
Golden light exploded from her body as she absorbed the energy of the Ten Rings attack in her Binary Form, forcibly locking that destructive power into her body. Before it completely spiraled out of control, she lunged at Wenwu with all her might.
Her body was glowing. It was a blinding white light, almost reaching a critical point. Her golden hair stood on end in the light, and the last golden flames burned in her blue eyes. Her battle suit began to shatter piece by piece under the impact of the energy, revealing the translucent skin beneath.
But she rushed to Wenwu's side.
She opened her arms and hugged his waist tightly.
"Now!" Her voice was so hoarse it didn't sound like her own, but every word reached Lin Xiao's ears clearly.
Lin Xiao saw it.
He saw Carol shield herself from the beam of light with her body. He saw her battle suit shatter under the impact of the energy, and the concentrated burst of destructive power instantly engulfed Wenwu and Carol.
Lin Xiao's eyes were filled with tears; his body reacted before his brain did.
Every muscle fiber in his arm was groaning under the strain. He poured all his strength, all his will, and all the energy he could muster into his right hand.
" Normal Punch!"
Saitama's signature move: dealing damage four times stronger, ignoring all resistance and defense, and unavoidable.
His foot slammed into the ground, creating a crater half a meter in diameter. He launched himself forward like a cannonball, his right fist in front and his body behind, the five-clawed golden dragon on his cloak baring its fangs in the wind. He rushed past the distance between Carol and Wenwu, past the still exploding energy beam, and arrived in front of Wenwu.
Wenwu's pupils suddenly contracted. He saw the fist coming towards him. He tried to break free from Carol's grip, but her arms were like two energy chains tightly binding his waist, and he couldn't shake them off. He tried to activate his Ten Rings defense, but Carol had absorbed too much energy, and her body itself became a source of interference. The light from the Ten Rings ring exploded on her body and was then reflected back, forming a chaotic energy field between his rings.
He had nowhere to run.
Lin Xiao's fist landed heavily on his chest.
When that punch landed, Wenwu's body arched with a muffled thud, a fist-sized hole ripped open in the back of his suit jacket, and the force of the punch pierced through the villa behind him, through the mountain behind the villa, leaving a crack in the ground that stretched to the horizon.
Wenwu spat out a mouthful of blood, which smeared Lin Xiao's face. He looked down at Lin Xiao's fist, still embedded in his chest, then looked up at Lin Xiao's expressionless face. His lips moved, as if he wanted to say something—perhaps a curse, perhaps a expression of resentment.
But he didn't say anything.
His body plummeted from mid-air, crashing onto the lawn. The nine rings of light on his wrists flickered a few times before extinguishing one by one. He lay there motionless, eyes open, staring at the clouds torn apart by the shockwave above him.
Lin Xiao also fell.
The aftereffects of that Normal Punch erupted the moment he landed. Every muscle in his body ached as if it had been torn apart, every bone creaked under the strain, and his heart pounded wildly in his chest, threatening to leap out of his throat. He curled up on the ground, his fingers digging into the dirt, blood seeping from under his nails. He tried to get up. He wanted to go and check on Carol. But his body wouldn't obey him; every muscle convulsed uncontrollably, and his legs felt like they'd been ripped from their bones, dragging limply on the ground, unable to move an inch.
Carol was lying less than three meters away from him, her body mostly transparent. Her blonde hair was still scattered on the ground, but the ends had begun to turn into tiny specks of light, drifting into the sky like fireflies. Her blue eyes were still open, still looking at him, and a familiar smile, a smile of both disdain and indulgence, lingered on her lips.
She is fading away little by little.
"No--no--no--" Lin Xiao's voice was squeezed out of his throat, tears blurring his vision. He used his still-movable left hand to claw at the ground, his fingernails carving five bloody marks in the dirt, dragging his body forward inch by inch. His whole body was still paralyzed, dragging along his side like a dead snake. His legs still couldn't move, so he used his chin, his shoulder, and every other part of his body that he could move to rub against the ground and crawl forward. Three meters. Just three meters. But he crawled for an unknown amount of time, each movement feeling like rolling over a knife's edge, the excruciating pain making his vision go black in waves.
" Carol— " He reached out, his fingertips less than a foot away from hers. He could see her lips moving, saying something, but he couldn't hear them; all he could hear was the frantic pounding of his heart. He strained forward, his fingertips just an inch closer, just an inch more, and he was almost there...
Everything went black before his eyes, and he knew nothing more.
When he opened his eyes again, he was facing an unfamiliar ceiling. Grayish-white metal panels, cold white light bulbs, and the air was filled with the smell of disinfectant and engine oil. The hum of an engine was in his ears.
"He's awake." A voice came from beside him, sounding like Natasha, but he couldn't care less; he just wanted to make sure she was still there...
Lin Xiao tried to move his fingers but couldn't. Waves of intense pain assaulted him, but he couldn't care less. With his last bit of strength, he turned his head and saw Natasha sitting on a folding chair next to him, holding a tablet computer in her hand, with obvious dark circles under her eyes.
"You were unconscious for about twelve hours." Natasha put down the tablet, her voice as soft as possible as she looked at Lin Xiao with eyes full of heartache. "Don't move, Lin Xiao. You have torn muscles all over your body, your heart stopped beating briefly, and all your organs have suffered varying degrees of contusion. It's a miracle you survived."
Lin Xiao didn't reply. His gaze swept past Natasha, around Natasha, but he didn't see the person he wanted to see.
Lin Xiao's lips moved, his voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible. "Where is she?"
Natasha paused for a moment. Her gaze flickered and then shifted away, just as a voice sounded behind her.
"You're the one who caused most of the energy loss; how can I face anyone now?"
The voice came from the other end of the cabin. It was slightly hoarse, with a hint of lazy complaint, and with a nonchalant air that Lin Xiao felt he would never hear again in his life.
Lin Xiao suddenly turned his head, grimacing in pain but not caring at all.
Carol sat by the window, covered by a gray blanket. Beneath the blanket, only half of her body remained solid. The lower half had transformed into translucent golden specks of light, like a slowly flowing Nebula. But she was still there, and that was enough!
Lin Xiao stared at her for a long time. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down several times, before finally squeezing out a sentence from his throat. "Then don't leave. I'll take care of you."
His voice was still hoarse, but the corners of his mouth slowly turned up, forming an arc that he himself was unaware of.
"I'll take care of you for the rest of your life. I have a secret, a secret that can completely restore your energy and turn you back into a true human being."
Carol tilted her head, a hint of surprise flashing in her blue eyes. She paused for a second, as if judging whether he was talking nonsense again.
Then she smiled. Not the casual smile she had shown before, but a smile that carried a hint of slyness, a hint of smugness, and a brightness that Lin Xiao had never seen on her face before.
"You really think the clone is beyond the control of the original body?"
Lin Xiao's smile froze on his face.
Carol leaned back in her chair, pulled the blanket up a bit, and spoke casually, as if discussing a trivial matter. "The clone and the original share all memories and senses, synchronized every second from birth to dissipation. You think you're kissing the clone? You think you're hugging the clone? You think the original won't know what you said and did to the clone?"
Lin Xiao's mouth opened. His brain began processing this information at an extremely slow pace. The clone and the main body shared memories and senses. They were synchronized every second. Every single thing he had done with Carol these past few days—from foot baths and massages to applying sunscreen, from the kiss on the plane to that night's passion—the main body knew it all, and sensed it synchronously. Every single second, every single detail...
Lin Xiao's face turned pale at a visible speed.
Carol watched his changing expression, and the corners of her mouth curved into an even wider smile. She raised her gloved left hand and waved it at him, the golden specks of light on her fingertips scattering like a handful of stardust.
" Lin Xiao, you've gone too far. Kissing and hugging, and saying you'd take care of me for life—who do you think you're talking to? When I get back to Earth, we'll settle this score."
Her body began to dissipate at an accelerated pace. Golden light emerged from beneath the blanket, and her face became increasingly transparent in the light, but her blue eyes remained fixed on Lin Xiao, her smile growing ever deeper.
Then an encrypted message was sent directly into his mind. "Keep those nine rings safe, along with the broken one. I put them in your pocket, and nobody else knows. Remember to keep an eye on the Skrulls for me, and watch them board their spaceship and leave Earth. You promised, so if you mess this up, I'll beat you up later."
Her voice had begun to drift, as if it were coming from a very distant place, intermittent and fragmented.
"Wait—" Lin Xiao struggled to sit up, but the excruciating pain made him fall back into his seat. He gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead, and used his elbows to prop himself up, inching towards Carol. "You—why the hell didn't you say so sooner? If I had known it was you, I would have..."
"You wouldn't dare?" Carol tilted her head, her expression purely mocking. "So, thank goodness I didn't tell you. Otherwise, where would all these interesting things come from?"
Her voice grew softer and softer, as if a gust of wind could carry it away. The cabin suddenly became very quiet, and the hum of the engine seemed to subside.
" Lin Xiao." Her last few words were so soft they were almost inaudible, "Goodbye."
The golden light dissipated.
The seat was empty. The blanket was neatly folded, and on it lay the white glove, still warm from her fingertips.
Lin Xiao stared at the empty seat, stared at the white glove, his lips trembling several times before he finally managed to squeeze out a sentence through gritted teeth.
Is it too late to escape Earth now?