In the dim stone corridor, List ran, sweating profusely and panting.
Seeing the emergency exit to the underground garage within reach, a trace of ecstatic relief had just appeared on his old face.
But the next moment, that smile froze on his face.
In the shadows ahead, a man's figure stood silently, appearing from nowhere.
List's heart suddenly constricted. He squinted, staring intently through the dim, flickering wall lamp.
His heart immediately clenched.
It was actually that man named Bronski!
Makima's personal bodyguard!
A strong sense of crisis surged in his heart.
Since that red-haired woman was a bizarre monster, how could her bodyguard be a good person?
Dr. List hastily pulled out a small self-defense pistol he carried with him from his white coat pocket, his hands trembling as he aimed it forward: "Stop! I warn you, don't come closer!"
Facing the dark muzzle of the gun, Bronski merely bared his teeth, pulling out a ferocious, brutal, and evil grin.
Immediately after, under List's terrified gaze, the dense sound of bones shattering and muscles tearing suddenly exploded.
Bronski's body swelled wildly at a visible speed, his expensive suit ripped inch by inch, his skin rapidly hardened, transforming into an indestructible, grayish-yellow, thick keratin layer, and his spine protruded like a row of barbed razors breaking through the flesh on his back.
In the blink of an eye, a humanoid beast over three meters tall filled the narrow corridor.
Abomination
Looking at the terrifying beast exuding an intense oppressive aura before him, Dr. List was so astonished his jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
What the hell kind of monster is this?!
"Bang! Bang!"
His survival instinct made him empty the magazine directly.
But the bullets hit the Abomination's thick skin and were deflected without even leaving a white mark, only sparking a few faint flashes of fire.
A suffocating sense of despair crashed down upon him.
List no longer dared to stay. He threw away the useless gun in his hand and screamed, turning to run.
But how could his old, aching legs outrun such a monster?
The Abomination grinned and strode forward with its thick legs, closing in rapidly.
With each step it took, its heavy weight shook the corridor violently, causing plaster to flake off the walls.
Before he could run much further, a huge shadow enveloped List.
There was no extra mercy.
The Abomination raised its foot, thick as a stone pillar, and ignored List's terrified screams, stomping down hard.
"Pfft—"
Accompanied by a dull, strange sound, the old Dr. was crushed, skin and bone, into a puddle of Rotten meat on the floor.
Only then did the Abomination stop, move its large foot, and glance down at the remains mixed with fragments of the white coat. A insincere, fake smile appeared on its rough face: "Oh, my bad, my bad. I didn't notice there was an old gentleman underfoot, hehe..."
After speaking, the Abomination exhaled a gust of air through its heavy nostrils, then disdainfully spat on the ground.
Clearly, Bronski was also a very vengeful individual.
...
Meanwhile, in the hall, artillery roared and smoke filled the air.
As everyone's attention was drawn to Quanxi, no one noticed that the mutilated body, half-blown away by the energy cannon, was silently healing.
Crimson granulation tissue, like living filaments, rapidly intertwined and reorganized at the severed point, repairing Makima's fatal injuries in the blink of an eye.
Makima lay calmly on the cold stone slab, gazing at the towering ceiling of the ancient castle, her thin lips parting to utter two words:
"Akane."
As soon as her voice fell, the air in the center of the hall violently twisted.
A clear, cold girl's voice was heard—
"Snake, swallow whole."
Accompanied by a nauseating stench, a giant snake descended with a roar.
It opened its abyss-like maw and swallowed several nearby soldiers, along with their armor, in one gulp.
The giant snake coiled its mountain-like body, spanning Makima's front, transforming into an indestructible wall of flesh that blocked all the incoming dense firepower. Protected by the giant beast, Makima stood up again and brushed the dust off her trench coat.
The sudden appearance of the Snake Devil caused the surrounding soldiers to turn pale with fright.
Snake, swallow whole
However, this unit still possessed tactical discipline.
Amidst the roar of tracks, the modified tank quickly turned, aiming its thick Chitauri cannon barrel directly at the giant snake's head.
Just as the gunner was about to press the fire button, the temperature inside the cockpit plummeted to freezing point.
Several pale and swollen hands penetrated the steel as if passing through water, reaching directly into the cabin and tightly clutching the throats of several tank crewmen. They tried to resist in horror, but were terrified to find that they couldn't touch those hands at all!
Yet, those hands could choke them!
If viewed from the outside, the scene before them would be enough to chill one to the bone.
Unbeknownst to them, the Ghost Devil, pieced together from countless limbs, had silently perched on top of the tank.
Hand Control Ecstasy ()
Its countless ghostly hands regarded the thick armor as nothing.
They continuously penetrated the armor plating and drilled into the cramped tank cabin.
The struggles and screams of the crew were soon despairingly drowned out by this pale sea of hands.
The situation was a complete rout.
Even though these HYDRA agents held powerful alien weapons, they were still as weak as infants before Makima's Devil Squad.
Facing these terrifying, cognition-defying monsters, even the brainwashed HYDRA agents, known for their fanaticism, could no longer muster any decent fighting spirit. Panic spread like a plague, and weapons clattered onto the stone floor one after another.
Makima slowly walked onto the giant snake's belly, looking down from above at the trembling faces on the ground.
Her golden, ringed eyes, which exuded an inhuman quality, showed no joy or sorrow, as indifferent as a deity looking down upon the mortal world.
Baron Strucker's ancient castle was officially declared to have changed hands at this moment.
...
Alexander Pierce, far away in Washington, could not have anticipated what a grand gift he had sent to his European colleague—what was the difference between this and sending a hungry wolf directly into a flock of sheep?
Yes, the HYDRA agents who usually ran rampant in Sokovia were like lambs before Makima, only able to line up and wait to be flayed alive and devoured.
Pierce, of course, couldn't have known that his "good brother," Baron Strucker, was currently cursing him with the most vicious words in his heart.
At this moment, outside the castle, a blizzard raged, and the swirling snowflakes reduced visibility to freezing point.
Baron Strucker sat in the back seat of the bulletproof SUV, frantically patting the passenger seat and loudly ordering the driver to speed up, while secretly cursing in his heart: "That old bastard Pierce actually wants to double-cross me!"
Yes, even at this point, his mind was still fixated on Pierce, who was far away in the United States.
He thought all of this was the other party's conspiracy.
What a pair of ill-fated HYDRA agents...
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