Chapter 177
"How did you—"
"Come on," I looked at Dreykov, thoroughly disappointed.
"Telepathy and Telekinesis. It seems the rumors about your Clairvoyance are greatly exaggerated."
I shrugged. "Everybody needs a schtick."
I stretched my hand forward and was surprised when Dreykov hit a button on his table. A row of metal with red etching rolled forward, joining to form an intricate array, and most of my demon magic vanished.
Dreykov grinned, using the chance to hit a second button that opened a trap door in the ground. Yelena surged forward, rushing to reach him before he went through, while I rolled my eyes and fired Ophion at him, yanking him to the side.
Several Adamantium daggers fanned out, pinning him to the wall while I summoned a wind blade and blasted the array of figures. They fizzed out, and I was restored.
"That was anti-climactic," I said, taking a step closer. Dreykov put up a brave front, but I could tell he was thoroughly rattled.
"Now. Are you going to tell me how to free the Widows, or am I going to have to rip it out of your head before she takes it?"
"You're going to kill me anyways," Dreykov said with a deep gasp. The pain from the slam must've really taken a lot out of him. You know, for a mastermind. He really was fragile.
Yelena put her blade to his throat. "After everything you've done. You're lucky we didn't flay you first."
The look in her eyes changed, and she smiled and looked my way.
"Why don't you give him the same treatment you gave me?"
"Remind me never to get on your bedside."
"Too late."
Heh. I lazily raised my hand and joined our minds. I was surprised to find a Mind Palace. A complicated structure filled with multitudes of doors guarded by faceless female silhouettes who charged me immediately.
I snapped my fingers, pancaking all of them in an explosion of gore that was manifested on the outside. Dreykov spurted blood from his nose, ears, and mouth.
"Great defense. Weak body," I said to Yelena. "I could crack him like an egg, but that'll likely kill him before we get the answers we're looking for."
Alarms suddenly went off around the facility, and Yelena got a look on her face.
"What is it?"
"Self-destruct sequence on our Nuclear Core," Dreykov wheezed. "Only I have the passcodes. Leave now without Yelena, and I will shut it down. Don't, and we all die."
Yelena and I shared a look before I turned to him. "What's stopping me from just coming back when you turn it off?"
"The same threat I just made. The Reactor comes back on," he said. "The Widows scattered around the base are under explicit instructions."
I looked back at Yelena with a face that clearly communicated my intentions.
"You can't be serious."
"I'm fast, but not that fast," I said.
"You promised," she spat, removing her blade from his throat.
"You shouldn't believe everything you hear."
She swung at me, and I froze her with Telekinesis before plucking the dagger holding Dreykov to the wall back.
"So, we have a deal, Mr. Sparda," he said, picking himself up with some strain.
I flashed him a bold smile. "No. We don't."
Mind Cloak flared to life alongside Devil Trigger. The world slowed down before Dreykov could react, and I entered his mind and grabbed hold of one of his sentries and searched its mind. It had no information about the codes in particular. But it did hint at the most protected areas of Dreykov's mind palace. It was Child's play to track it down, the codes to the formula, and the hypnotizing mist he uses on the Widows and the counteragent.
When I was through with him, he was a vegetable, and Yelena was free again.
She shot me a dirty look. "Try that again, and I'll chop off your dick."
"You could've just asked if you wanted to see it," I said, turning to Dreykov. "Anyway, you got what you wanted. Put him out of his misery while I'm working on the gas and the countdown. There's a lot of work to do before we can leave this base and very little time. I have a feeling SHIELD is only a few hours behind us."
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Wanda's POV
"I knew the boy had dark forces fueling his powers, but an Outer God was the last thing I would've expected," Magneto said in his seat in our tower.
After our fight, I'd told him everything against the warnings of my Brother and Rin. Both were adamant that Dante deserved a chance to defend himself, but they didn't see what I did. The monster had held nothing back.
I saw visions of a world between universes and caught part of the conversation between the Outer God pulling Dante's Strings and his bare Soul—it was like staring into a Sun.
It was obvious he was being coerced into some deal, but the Alien, Ulyetrix, pointed out that it didn't matter as long as the end result was the same.
The things he's bartered for are fundamental pieces of reality that hold your Universe together. If he gains even one of those stones, so does his Patron, and at that point, he'll be far too powerful to stop.
You think he's impressive now; wait until he can bend reality to his whim with a single thought.
Regardless of his intentions, you have to kill that boy before he becomes too powerful. Stone or no stone, Shin has his claws in him, and Dante Sparda is no ordinary Champion. He has no limits.
"I'm not ready to write him off just yet," Pietro said. "He's been good to us, even after everything."
"Toad might've gotten a little physical, but it's the cost of operating underground," Mystique said. "We've more than repaid our debt. I say we heed the monstrosity's warnings."
Sabertooth grunted, and Night Kat quietly stared on. Pyro shrugged.
"Perhaps," Magneto admits, his eyes lingering on Pietro, "but we should also consider his parting words for what they were…an attempt to turn us against each other and put us at odds against one of the most powerful assets on the planet. He elevated Pietro from a middle of the rank Alpha level mutant to close to Omega. From what you tell me, your speed is still growing, Pietro?"
"Every day," he said with an uncomfortable look on his face.
"Imagine how much more powerful we could all be if we underwent the same treatment," he said. "The brotherhood will finally triumph. No longer bowing to humans. No longer fearing their weapons. Even blocked, the new strength, regeneration, and pyrokinesis would guarantee our safety."
"You said it yourself, Erik. His powers come from somewhere profoundly dark, and at the cost of all of us, it would seem," Mystique pointed out. "On that basis alone, we should put him down on principle."
"I've heard similar rhetoric and vitriol from Purists and Haters," Magneto defended. "We should at least hear him out before we decide. Otherwise, we're not better than the humans."
"So, you want to exploit him before you kill him," I said in a small voice. All eyes turned to me. Pietro practically scolded me with his eyes, but the risk had been too great.
"She has the right idea," Night Kat said. "Been waiting to pay that pretty boy back for ages now."
Sabertooth opened his mouth, but Magneto shut him up before he could voice his opinions.
"That is an awfully crude way to describe a multi-faceted issue, young Wanda. I hope we're right about him. The boy has certainly shown our kind more kindness than most humans these days. He's closer to us than humans will ever be, but our rules remain very clear. We remove all threats to the flourishing of mutant kind, even if they happen to be one of our own."
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