The Second Battle with T’Challa

T’Challa had been run off his feet these past few days. If he had not already reached the Fifty Heavens, with a body and mind far beyond those of ordinary humans, he would probably have collapsed from exhaustion.

Erik had left behind a huge mess, but T’Challa lacked Erik’s decisiveness to cut through the confusion with a single stroke. He could only handle things through conciliatory methods within the rules, which merely emboldened people to push him further until he was driven into a corner.

Now, people had come from everywhere to cause trouble outside Wakanda.

When Erik had been there, no one had dared say a word of opposition. But once it was T’Challa’s turn, all of these people suddenly came crawling out of the woodwork.

Every day, there were countless protest marches outside: protests against the wanton slaughter of civilians, protests against the seizure of wealth, memorials for their murdered countrymen, and demands that Wakanda pay national reparations… There were all kinds of them.

What saddened him was that among these protestors, there were not only white groups, but black groups as well.

Even more troublesome was that some people had begun demanding that the murderers be severely punished. The murderers they wanted punished were not merely Erik, but every warrior who had taken part in the wars and massacred the gangs during Erik’s reign.

Those warriors were all Wakanda’s elite. T’Challa could not hand them all over, even if they had indeed committed crimes.

T’Challa had already dealt with them internally, stripping them of their status as guards, sentencing them to hard labor, imprisoning them, and so on. But he could not hand them over to the victims’ families to vent their anger, or the border tribes would be the first to rebel.

He had tried to mediate, informing everyone of the verdicts and having the relevant people sincerely apologize in hopes of earning the victims’ families’ forgiveness. But it was obvious that everyone stood on different ground. No one cared about his opinion, and no one was willing to forgive them. They simply wanted the murderers sentenced to death.

T’Challa truly wanted to keep these people outside the national border, but he could not. He was the "Wakandan Saint," and he had to set an example for his people.

Not only could he not drive them away, he also had to provide them with food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and even medical care. These matters alone had already kept Wakanda frantically busy every day.

T’Challa had been tormented by this matter for days, but starting today, he was free of it, because… Erik had returned.

When Erik returned to Wakanda, he saw a group of people with all kinds of skin tones gathered into separate protest marches in front of the ruins of the palace, which had yet to be rebuilt. They waved flags and shouted slogans.

He listened carefully from the sky and heard an earful of utterly suicidal nonsense. He even saw someone recklessly throwing stones at the guards at the palace gates. Yet those guards could only defend themselves with their Vibranium Cloaks, grim-faced, without striking back.

"T’Challa, you damn loser!"

"You’ve turned Wakanda into a weakling that anyone can bully!"

"Perfect. It’s much better to have these bastards step into the light than scheme behind the scenes. Watch me rid Wakanda of a bunch of pests today!"

Erik let out a cold snort, then plummeted from the sky and crashed heavily into the protest march.

He already regarded Wakanda as his property, so to prevent the shock wave from injuring his subordinates, he deliberately controlled his strength.

The impact produced by his fall turned the protestors nearby into piles of mush. But by the time the shock wave reached the Wakandan warriors maintaining order around the outskirts, it had weakened considerably. As long as they raised their Vibranium Cloaks, it was naturally as harmless as a spring breeze brushing against their faces.

"Haha… T’Challa, I’m back again!"

"You useless piece of trash!"

"You actually let a bunch of garbage bully you right at your doorstep. They can insult and hit you all they want, and you still won’t fight back. Why didn’t you stay in your basement eating slop? What did you come out for?"

"Wakanda’s warriors! Your king, Erik Killmonger, has returned! Are you ready to overthrow the useless King T’Challa?"

A white beam of light rose from somewhere behind the palace and rapidly flew toward Erik. It stopped in midair before him, revealing T’Challa in his White Panther Armor.

Both of them were concerned that their battle would affect Wakanda, so they were extremely restrained.

"Erik, let’s fight in outer space! This time, we must decide who lives and who dies. There will be no end until one of us is dead. Do you dare?"

"Fine! It’s a deal! We fight until one of us dies!"

When old enemies met, their eyes burned with fury. Neither wasted any more words, and they headed straight for outer space.

After leaving the atmosphere and entering the void, the two of them violently collided, bringing out all their strength and vowing to blast the other to death on the spot.

Judging solely by their cultivation realms, both of them were currently at the Fifty Heavens. But with his White Panther Armor at the Seventy-Five Heavens, T’Challa had the advantage. With only his first strike, he blew Erik’s arm apart, sending blood and flesh flying. Yet within the shattered arm, what was exposed was bone wrapped in a Vibranium Membrane.

With the support of the Vibranium Membrane, Erik managed to withstand the first strike without losing the use of his right arm.

After surviving the first strike, Erik’s confidence soared. He threw his head back and laughed, then screamed, "T’Challa, did you see that?"

"Your White Panther Armor is impressive, but it’s only outer armor. What I’m wearing is inner armor!"

"Your outer armor grows stronger through technology, but my inner armor grows stronger through battle!"

"Your outer armor has a limit, but my inner armor has no limit!"

"What’s so great about the Seventy-Five Heavens?"

"Watch me power up!"

"Magnetic Field Rotation… Fifty-First Heaven!"

Amid his feverish shouts, Erik broke through right at the start of the battle.

"Did you see that?"

"This is the power beyond one’s limits!"

"The power that belongs to me!"

"Soon, you’ll understand what the saying ‘the weakness of all armor is always the person inside it’ means!"

"Come and fight me again!"

"Help me break through!"

Erik screamed wildly as he attacked T’Challa like a madman. He showed no fear in the face of T’Challa’s counterattacks, meeting him head-on blow for blow.

Even after being blasted until his body was mangled and his flesh flew everywhere time and again, Erik stubbornly endured through the existence of his Vibranium Inner Armor.

After being repeatedly blasted apart, healing, blasted apart again, and healing once more, Erik’s realm rose with the tide. His aura grew stronger and stronger, which in turn bolstered his confidence and made him increasingly deranged and crazed.

"Exhilarating!"

"This is how a battle should be!"

"Go eat dust, T’Challa!"

T’Challa also realized how serious the problem was and struck harder and harder. But the existence of the Vibranium Inner Armor was practically a bug. It always managed to keep Erik’s body from being destroyed. His head and chest, especially, were tightly wrapped in Vibranium Inner Armor, without the slightest gap.

The battle between the two once again turned into a prolonged war of attrition lasting several months.