The stalemate between Wonder Woman and Ernst was short-lived.
Almost simultaneously, they abandoned their weapons, letting them drop to the sand, and resorted to bare-knuckle brawling.
Anticipating the sheer force of her strikes, Ernst finally engaged his supernatural abilities.
He absorbed the kinetic energy from her blows, though the sheer impact still left him bruised.
Wonder Woman, despite her legendary Amazonian training, wasn't immune to his enhanced speed.
Ernst slipped past her guard and drove a heavy punch directly into her eyes, sending her screaming and flying backward.
Displaying incredible willpower, Diana dug her heels into the sand, swiftly halting her retreat and stabilizing herself.
Ernst couldn't help but admire her resilience, though he felt a brief twinge of embarrassment recalling how easily she had headbutted him earlier.
As they locked eyes, the intensity between them flared. This was the second time Diana found herself at a severe disadvantage against him.
Accustomed to victory, she found it impossible to accept defeat, especially after a decade of rigorous training following their first encounter.
The atmosphere grew heavy. Both warriors were visibly fatigued, their bodies battered from the intense exchange.
After a tense pause, they charged. They leaped high into the air, colliding violently above the beach.
Wonder Woman grabbed for Ernst's knife sheath, while Ernst locked his grip around her fist. Grappling in mid-air, they began to fall.
Calculating their trajectory in a split second, Ernst twisted his body.
He manipulated their momentum, sending them into a rapid spin.
Just before they hit the ground, he forcefully threw her off.
Boom! Boom!
They hit the earth. Ernst landed skillfully on the soft sand, sustaining only minor scrapes that healed instantly.
Wonder Woman, however, crashed brutally into a massive jagged reef. The impact shattered the stone and left her temporarily pinned in the rubble.
Ernst strode toward her, a triumphant smirk on his face.
Despite the devastating impact, Diana refused to stay down. Gritting her teeth, she rose unsteadily, her battered body betraying her fierce determination.
She crossed her arms, violently slamming her indestructible bracers together.
A massive, blinding bolt of divine lightning erupted from the metal, hurtling straight at Ernst.
Ernst didn't dodge. He opened his arms and embraced the blast. The violent lightning surged over him, but instead of burning his flesh, he effortlessly corralled the energy.
He compressed the crackling electricity into a glowing sphere between his hands, then seamlessly inhaled the energy into his body.
"Last time, your lightning actually hurt me," Ernst taunted, savoring the charge.
"I realized it was a divine energy, something my body struggled to process back then. But now? I've parsed it. I can easily digest your divine energy. How could it possibly harm me now?"
A flicker of despair crossed Diana's eyes, but her inherent resilience pushed it aside. She refused to surrender.
Ignoring the excruciating pain in her muscles, she lunged forward and managed to land a solid punch across Ernst's jaw.
Ernst rolled with the punch. Facing her now-flawed and exhausted attacks, he effortlessly dodged her follow-up strike and countered with a brutal, driving kick directly to her stomach.
"Ouch," Ernst mocked softly.
He had tactically used his absorbed energy to send a vibrating shockwave through his kick, bypassing her muscular armor to inflict visceral, internal damage.
Diana collapsed to her hands and knees, retching violently as the wind was knocked completely out of her.
"How does that feel? Unpleasant, isn't it?" Ernst taunted, standing over her.
"Are you ready to admit defeat?"
Though she was still gasping for air, her eyes glared up at him with absolute, stubborn defiance. A deep sense of shame fueled her anger.
Suppressing her body's desperate need to rest, she forced herself to stand and threw another wild punch.
"You truly have a short memory," Ernst sighed.
He caught her wrist effortlessly, swept her legs out from under her, and slammed her hard onto the ground, tossing her aside like a rag doll.
Collapsed on the beach, Wonder Woman struggled to rise, completely spent. She was spared from mortal danger, but her body simply refused to stand.
"Is it really so hard for you to admit defeat?" Ernst asked, looking down at her.
"Winning and losing are normal. Everyone faces failure..."
Mid-sentence, Ernst froze. His expression contorted.
He sensed something terribly wrong. As he expanded his mental perception toward the grounded submarine, a shockwave of cold dread hit him.
His father, Sebastian Shaw, was on the absolute brink of death.
His vitality was fading rapidly, his consciousness dissipating into the void.
How? Ernst thought, utterly astounded.
Shaw was wearing the psychic-blocking helmet, encased in the mutant battle suit, and brimming with nuclear energy.
How could anyone have breached those defenses?
Abandoning Wonder Woman without another word, Ernst vanished in a blur of phantom magic.
The Submarine - The Reactor Room
Ernst materialized inside the submarine.
The sight before him made his blood run cold. Shaw lay motionless on the metal floor, dark blood oozing from his mouth.
Standing over him was Erik Lehnsherr.
Ernst's eyes immediately locked onto the fatal wound. A metal coin had been driven straight through his father's skull, penetrating the brain.
Even with the Cradle of Rebirth, this was a catastrophic, incurable injury.
Ernst slowly turned his gaze to Erik.
His blue eyes emitted a cold, terrifying light, brimming with pure, unadulterated murderous intent.
—-----
Minutes Earlier...
Erik had successfully navigated the submarine's corridors, bypassed the defeated Riptide, and reached the core.
Under Charles Xavier's telepathic guidance, he successfully shut down the nuclear reactor.
He searched frantically for Shaw, finding no trace until Shaw voluntarily stepped out of the shadows.
"Erik, what a surprise," Shaw said smoothly.
"Can I ask you a question? Why are you on their side? Why fight for a race that is already on the brink of extinction? Once humans realize their vitality is waning, they'll seek to exterminate us."
Shaw had intended to use this quiet moment to reveal that Erik's mother was still alive, hoping to finally reconcile their differences and bring his "heir" into the fold.
But Erik, entirely consumed by decades of festering revenge, ignored the speech.
He launched himself forward, throwing a heavy punch directly at Shaw's face.
Noting Erik's unstable, violent state of mind, Shaw sighed.
He decided to impart a lasting, physical lesson to his stubborn protégé.
He grabbed Erik by the throat and threw him brutally against the steel bulkhead, initiating a one-sided beatdown.
"I apologize for what happened in the concentration camp," Shaw said calmly, dodging a metallic swing and delivering a punishing blow to Erik's ribs.
"But it was all for you. It was necessary to unlock your abilities."
Despite his supposedly apologetic words, Shaw continued to beat Erik relentlessly.
Battered and bleeding, Erik fought back by magnetically condensing every loose piece of metal in the room, hurling them at Shaw like missiles.
It was entirely futile. Shaw simply absorbed the kinetic energy of every strike without sustaining a single scratch.
Finally, Erik found himself pinned against the wall, utterly powerless.
"You still have a long way to go," Shaw remarked, adjusting his cuffs.
"Initially, you could barely twist an iron gate. Now, you've grown incredibly powerful. I feel reassured leaving the future in your hands..."
Watching the scene unfold through Erik's eyes, Charles Xavier noticed the heavy Soviet helmet resting on Shaw's head.
He realized it was blocking his telepathic connection.
He covertly whispered into Erik's mind, instructing him to remove it.
Seizing a momentary distraction, Erik magnetically manipulated a metal pipe behind Shaw, using it to knock the helmet clean off his head.
As the helmet clattered to the floor, Shaw felt a sudden, familiar chill brush against his mind. Charles Xavier was trying to invade.
Shaw had his "black hole" mental defense ready. He could have easily shattered Xavier's astral form. But a dark, twisted curiosity overtook him.
He decided to feign paralysis at the telepath's command, freezing perfectly still, just to see what Erik would do with the upper hand.
Believing Shaw was completely incapacitated, Erik's true, ruthless nature surfaced.
Ignoring Charles's frantic telepathic protests echoing in his mind, Erik picked up the fallen helmet and placed it on his own head.
The telepathic connection with Charles was instantly severed.
Then, drawing a simple metal coin from his pocket, Erik drove it slowly and deliberately through his paralyzed mentor's brain.
-------------
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