Life and Death

"White Queen."

Kingpin roared as he wildly swung his longsword, sending blade-like gusts of air shooting in all directions. Unfortunately, neither Psylocke nor White Queen appeared.

Just then, Yuriko appeared out of thin air by Kingpin’s feet and thrust her claws toward his knee. Kingpin stomped down hard, shattering the floor with a crash, and both of them fell toward the floor below.

In midair, Kingpin swung his longsword fiercely at Yuriko. Yuriko narrowly dodged, then the two landed one after the other. Kingpin raised a foot and stomped toward Yuriko.

Yuriko grabbed Kingpin’s calf, spun around, and drove her claws at his groin. Even a tough brute like Kingpin felt a chill down his spine and hurriedly flung Yuriko away.

Yuriko flipped through the air and landed on the ground. Then she gave Kingpin a cold smile and suddenly vanished.

"You vermin."

Kingpin took a deep breath, his throat suddenly swelling. Then he opened his mouth and unleashed a roar even more terrifying than a thunderclap. The air churned, rubble flew everywhere, and the entire building shook.

"Ah!" White Queen appeared out of thin air, clutching her ears and screaming. Psylocke and Yuriko also appeared nearby. Psylocke immediately used her armor to seal her ears, while Yuriko directly destroyed her own ears with her nails.

Kingpin stopped roaring, then pushed off with his feet and shot toward White Queen like a cannonball. The spot where he had been standing instantly collapsed.

White Queen was startled and hurriedly shifted into diamond form. The next second, Kingpin’s longsword struck her shoulder with the force of a thunderbolt, producing a loud clang.

The floor beneath White Queen could not withstand the immense force and shattered on the spot. White Queen fell through, smashing through three floors with loud crashes before hitting the ground. At the same time, spiderweb-like cracks appeared across her alluring diamond body.

"Original Sin Envoys really aren’t easy to deal with."

Seeing Kingpin about to pursue White Queen, Psylocke hurriedly conjured a purple blade and slashed repeatedly, sending streams of blade light at Kingpin. Kingpin turned around and hurled his longsword at Psylocke with all his strength.

Driven by Kingpin’s terrifying power, the longsword howled through the air with rings of sonic booms around it. Psylocke was shocked, but only had time to avoid a fatal hit. The next second, the sword pierced her shoulder and violently nailed her to the wall.

After dealing with Psylocke, Kingpin prepared to jump down and kill White Queen. At that moment, a blood-red figure suddenly appeared behind him, tore a large chunk of flesh from his back with one claw, and reappeared some distance away.

Kingpin spun around and saw that Yuriko had attacked him. However, unlike before, Yuriko was now surrounded by blood-red energy, her face twisted in a vicious expression that made her look utterly bizarre.

Kingpin stopped the bleeding with his muscles and sneered. "You look more like a demon than I do."

"I’m merely drawing out my potential. In BOSS’s words, this is Opening Gene Lock."

Yuriko tossed aside the chunk of flesh in her hand and said coldly, "Anyone else in my state would die within a second, but I won’t, because I possess the strongest self-healing ability in this world. As long as I don’t want to die, I won’t die.

"I call this move ‘Life and Death.’"

A few days ago, Wang Bert had helped Yuriko complete her regeneration gene. Not only had she gained self-healing abilities several times stronger than before, she had also created this move, ‘Life and Death’—more commonly known as Opening Gene Lock.

"What a fine move, Life and Death. Let’s see whether your Life and Death can withstand my immense strength."

Kingpin grinned savagely and charged at Yuriko like a ferocious war chariot. Every step shattered the ground beneath his feet, as if an envoy of destruction had descended.

Yuriko showed no fear. Her figure appeared beside Kingpin as if she had used Teleportation, and one claw tore away a chunk of flesh from his arm. Kingpin swung back at Yuriko, but all he hit was an afterimage.

The real Yuriko circled behind Kingpin and plunged a claw into his back, then retreated before Kingpin could trap her nails with his muscles.

Like this, Yuriko relied on speed akin to Teleportation to continuously injure Kingpin. Though Kingpin was immensely powerful and invincible, he simply could not hit Yuriko.

Kingpin was enraged. He controlled the muscles across his body to vibrate the air at once, causing airwaves to surge wildly around him. One wave grazed Yuriko, slowing her for a moment. Kingpin seized the chance to blast her away with a punch.

A smile appeared on Kingpin’s face, only to immediately freeze. Yuriko stood up completely unharmed and grinned. "Kingpin, the same move only works on me once."

With that, Yuriko flickered rapidly and attacked Kingpin with a mix of feints and real strikes. Even Kingpin found her incredibly troublesome.

Normally, agile assassins were fragile and died after a few hits. The problem was that Yuriko possessed both extreme speed and an immortal body. How was anyone supposed to fight that? "I refuse to believe you can keep healing forever!"

Kingpin roared as he attacked without pause. The surrounding walls, pillars, office desks, and floors shattered one after another beneath his savage assault, and the building itself was starting to teeter on the verge of collapse.

"It would be one thing if Kingpin were a monster, but I never expected Yuriko to be one too."

The pale-faced White Queen appeared beside Psylocke. As she helped pull out the sword, she complained.

"She really is quite monstrous."

Enduring the intense pain, Psylocke said, "BOSS must have given her some kind of cheat. Uh, it seems her cheat is a little better than mine."

"A cheat?"

White Queen blinked and forcefully pulled out the bloodstained longsword. Then she asked, "I knew you two had something going on. Did BOSS make you this strong?"

Psylocke glanced at White Queen and said, "Sorry, your clearance is too low. You aren’t authorized to know that."

White Queen glared at Psylocke, wanting nothing more than to shove the extracted longsword back into her body. I helped you this much, and you say something like that to me?

Psylocke took back the longsword from White Queen and said, "Just kidding. You’ll find out someday."

"That wasn’t funny at all."

White Queen snorted. Looking down at the increasingly intense battle below, she asked, "What do we do next? We can’t just stand here as spectators, can we? Yuriko is too fast. I can’t help at all."

"Make Kingpin ignore our presence."

Psylocke said, "Yuriko has an ultimate move, and so do I."

"Are you people about to turn this into a game? Every last one of you has an ultimate move."

White Queen complained, then said, "I’ll make Kingpin ignore us. He may possess immense strength, but his mind isn’t particularly strong."

"Good."

Psylocke nodded in satisfaction. She took a deep breath and dismissed her armor. Then she gripped the Adamantium Longsword with both hands. Purple light lit up on the blade and gradually grew more intense.

White Queen felt as if her skin were being sliced by blades and hurriedly stepped back several paces.

It’s so bright and so slow. Without me, what use would this ultimate move be?

As she complained inwardly, White Queen wondered curiously, Both Psylocke and Yuriko have become much stronger. How exactly did BOSS do it? Mutant abilities are supposed to be fixed.

Along with her surprise, a longing rose within White Queen’s heart. She wanted to become stronger too.

Let us turn back time a little. At God’s City’s waterworks, Greed and Angel were waiting out the final hour.

Just then, mirrors appeared around them one after another, enclosing them within. Immediately afterward, Wang Bert appeared before them.

"Iron Man."

Greed and Angel cried out at the same time. Before they could do anything, Wang Bert pulled out a stack of Banknotes and shouted, "Destroy all of Greed’s eyes except those here."

The next moment, fifty million US dollars vanished from Wang Bert’s account. At the same time, Greed let out a shrill scream as every eye he had placed outside was destroyed.

Greed was a cautious man. For this plan, he had prepared many contingencies. Yet before the battle had even begun, Wang Bert had destroyed every one of them.

Greed felt both grief and indignation. Iron Man, you’re cheating! Wang Bert said coldly, "Greed, your time is up."

Angel cried out in slight panic, "Iron Man, how did you know we were here?"

You told me.

Wang Bert said, "You don’t need to know that. You only need to know that today, both of you will die."

"Iron Man, you think you’ve won? No, you’ve lost. I gave the other Evil Believers orders long ago. If anything went wrong, they were to immediately activate the Water Vapor devices."

Greed shouted, "Once those devices are activated, all the tap water in the city will turn into Water Vapor and rapidly spread throughout the entire city.

"I poisoned the tap water long ago. The poison will blanket all of God’s City along with the Water Vapor. When that happens, everyone will die."

"Aren’t you being a little too detailed? Aren’t you afraid I’ll go destroy those devices?"

Wang Bert asked with a half-smile, "Or are you deliberately telling me so much to lure me away from here to destroy the devices? Greed, it seems you aren’t very devout toward the Doomsday Master."

Greed studied Wang Bert’s expression and asked in shock, "You knew about our plan all along?"

"That’s right. With my help, the Baxi Military has already been teleported beside those devices and is dismantling them now."

Wang Bert said calmly, "As for your Evil Believer subordinates, my people are dealing with them. I doubt they have time to activate the devices."

Greed asked in disbelief, "How do you know so much? It makes no sense. I made the entire plan flawless, without the slightest loophole."

"If you don’t want others to know, don’t do it in the first place."

Wang Bert said calmly, "Greed, die."

As Wang Bert spoke, a massive black hole suddenly appeared behind Greed, pulling him and Angel toward it.

Greed had prepared for this. The eyes all over his body gathered together and transformed into a beam of light that landed between Angel’s brows. Then Angel beat her wings with all her strength, breaking free of the black hole’s pull at astonishing speed and appearing before Wang Bert.

At the same time, Greed’s body was swallowed into the black hole and disappeared.

"Iron Man, look at who I am."

All three of Angel’s eyes lit up. Wang Bert’s vision blurred, and Angel suddenly turned into Wanda—the Wanda he had been searching for. His consciousness gradually became hazy. He forgot where he was and what he wanted to do. Only Wanda remained in his eyes.

As the domain of lust, Angel possessed only the power of seduction. Facing Iron Man, she did not dare hold back and immediately used her strongest mental seduction, making him see her as the person he loved most.

Greed’s eyes amplified Angel’s ability. Greed secretly said to Angel, "Hold on. Pride and the others will be here soon. When they arrive, the four of us together may be able to defeat Iron Man."

"I think we can handle Iron Man ourselves. He’s already completely captivated by me."

Angel said smugly. She realized she was stronger than she had imagined.

"Don’t be careless. Iron Man isn’t so easy to deal with. We must play it safe."

Angel snorted and ignored Greed. She raised her hand and said to Wang Bert, "Bert, what are you waiting for?"

"I’m waiting for you to die. Impersonating her to seduce me is a sin among sins, lady. You really know how to court death."

Wang Bert sighed. What, he had not been seduced? What kind of joke was that? A mere Original Sin Envoy thought she could seduce him, a Creator God?

A Creator God was not so cheap, even if he was only a drop of blood.

"What?"

Angel froze. At that moment, the space beside her shattered and transformed into a giant mouth that swallowed her whole.

Wang Bert had not done this. It was the Goddess Blessing left on Wang Bert that had done it.

"No!"

Angel desperately beat her wings, trying to escape, but she could not break free from the suction of space. At that moment, the eye between her brows lit up and she burst forth with all her strength to flee outward. Having lost the enhancement of the eyes, Angel was pulled deep into the giant mouth.

Greed had done it deliberately. His instincts told him that the giant spatial mouth was targeting Angel, not him.

Just as Greed was about to escape, a finger appeared before his eyes. Greed cried out in terror, "No!"

Unfortunately, Wang Bert showed no mercy. With one finger pointing down, Space Power transformed into a storm that enveloped Greed and instantly ground him into fragments.

At the same time, Angel was swallowed by the giant spatial mouth. Original Sin cursed and used the power of its origin to try to bring Greed’s and Angel’s souls back to Hell.

"Don’t even think about it."

Wang Bert snorted and drew Space Power into two black bolts of lightning, striking them toward Greed’s and Angel’s souls. Original Sin hesitated, abandoned Greed, and fled back to Hell with Angel’s soul.

Original Sin did not choose this because Angel was more important than Greed. It was because Greed was too close to Wang Bert, making him impossible to save. Since that was the case, it naturally saved whoever it could.

Everything is going according to plan.

Wang Bert sneered inwardly. Then the lightning struck Greed’s soul, instantly reducing him to ashes.

How could this happen? I still have to destroy the world… I refuse to accept this. I refuse to accept this…

Greed’s heart was filled with resentment and unwillingness. Though he was not devout, he sincerely wanted to destroy the world, because this world was simply too rotten and filthy. It was not worth preserving.

Wang Bert had no interest in what Greed thought. Having successfully killed him, Wang Bert was in quite a good mood. He snapped his fingers, and all the surrounding mirrors shattered. Then he returned to the real world and saw Black King and Wrath fighting Wade and the others.

Wade teleported to Wang Bert’s side and said while panting, "BOSS, you finally came. These two guys are incredibly hard to deal with."

"Iron Man!"

Black King and Wrath narrowed their eyes and stopped moving at the same time. Then Wrath asked, "Iron Man, where’s Greed?"