Renzo quickly crossed his arms together to block the violent swing of the tentacles. Green corrosive gas flowed from the sticky suckers, and the foul stench surged across Renzo's face.
"You should take a shower, Brother Squidward!" After taking a few so-called heavy blows, Renzo discovered that the Beholder's clone was surprisingly weak. Those attacks just now were not even stronger than the Hulk's.
Renzo simply stopped blocking. An attack of this level could not harm him at all. A beam of light pierced through the wildly waving octopus tentacles. The scorching heat melted the brown-gray skin, and the soft, boneless flesh turned into pus. It crashed to the ground, and the disgusting rotten stench corroded the ground made of flesh and blood.
Renzo seemed to hear the wails of the innocent souls beneath his feet. The dripping pus seeped into their flesh and blood. The undead souls imprisoned in the corpses screamed in pain, like crows in the dark night flying over a deserted city, while wild dogs roamed the streets, biting and devouring one another...
Golden light shrouded his mind, blocking out those mysterious wails and roars. His body turned into an explosive. The majestic purple power rose like a tide, and a huge wave swept into the sky, swallowing the entire altar. The Beholder's clone, Wanda, and Hill were all knocked away by the force.
At such close range, the Beholder's clone had no time to escape. It was shattered into powder by the purple light wave. A dark shadow flashed past, and the Beholder's enormous body scattered with the wind, like a weathered mountain standing in yellow sand. With only a touch, the rock turned into the dust of history.
Hill was knocked straight away and fell into a house made of corpses. Skeletons pressed down on her body, and she passed out.
"Chthon! Get out of Wanda's body!"
As soon as "Wanda" got up, she felt her throat tighten, and a strong sense of suffocation spread through her body. Her feet struggled off the ground, her eyes nearly bulging out as she stared mockingly at the man whose defenses had finally broken.
Renzo was anxious. He was truly anxious.
He could not tolerate another person controlling his girlfriend's body. Even if this was only a body identical to his girlfriend's, they looked the same, possessed the same abilities, and even their physical structure was no different.
Renzo's eyes seemed to pierce through her body, peeling away her heart bit by bit and revealing her bloody true self.
She seemed to stand naked before Renzo. He understood everything about her—her suffering, her sadness, her dreams, her love... Renzo hugged her tightly in his mind, wishing he could press her into his own body, unable to bear seeing her surrounded by suffering again.
He did not love her, but he loved his Wanda.
Renzo tried his best to save this lost girl and purify her from the tragic memories and distorted reality.
A rope would only break at its thinnest point, and misfortune would always seek out the miserable.
"Come back, Wanda! Come back!" Renzo's roar echoed through the sky. Golden light flashed, and mysterious black-and-red energy continued rising from Wanda's body. Renzo's anxious call made the girl's consciousness return briefly. Tears flashed in her eyes.
"Save my children!"
The girl sealed deep within her own consciousness finally saw a glimmer of light. In the small prison made of red and black, she could not even perform the simplest act of thinking. It was as dark as ink. She could not see a trace of light, not even her own fingers.
She was afraid of the dark, just like before...
The skinny Wanda lay filthy beneath the rubble, and beside her were the mutilated bodies of her parents. Beneath the late-night sky, it was difficult to tell whether the twinkling stars above were actually missiles.
She was the only one left in that dark space. Her brother, her children... all had disappeared. The dazzling stars, wanton fire, collapsed ruins, burning corpses... everything in her fearful eyes turned into nothingness.
A hand, a hand of distinct colors, broke through the infinite darkness imprisoning her. At this moment when no one cared about her, it was like a strong beam of sunlight passing through tightly closed curtains, trying to pull her out of sleep.
A strange yet familiar man desperately reached out to her. His face was funny and odd, but his determination was astonishingly strong. He roared in fear, "Come out! Come out quickly!"
Every word shook her traumatized heart, like melting hot wax pouring into her cold chest.
"How could someone risk their life for me?"
Wanda looked at the man with confused eyes, but she still could not help stretching out her hand, taking his with humble and expectant intent.
"You can't go, Wanda..."
Just as Wanda was about to hold that hand, another male voice came from behind her, gently taking her outstretched arm and pulling her back.
"Stay here with me, okay? Wanda..." Chthon had changed into Paul's appearance and spoke affectionately.
He knew very well that Wanda's weakness was Renzo, the man who had accompanied her out of her childhood hardship for a long time.
Although this Wanda was not the Wanda from Renzo's universe, memories... could be connected.
Chthon gently touched Wanda's head, and Wanda's memories from Universe 199999 were transmitted into her mind.
Those precious memories, those happy moments of playing around, the way she was chased and coaxed when she was angry, the gentle smile when saying goodbye, the heartfelt roar when they were separated...
The enormous amount of information from the past three years directly overwhelmed Wanda's mind. She sat there blankly, letting Chthon hold her hand and slowly lead her toward the darkness.
"That's not me..." Wanda knew this clearly in her heart, but she could not accept it.
Wanda looked at the large number of memory fragments floating around her. It felt like watching a movie. It was the same as in Reed's laboratory, with countless light screens suspended in the air, wrapping the person in the middle.
"Then... is it really me?" Wanda looked suspiciously at the memory fragments. In them, she was laughing, playing, and making trouble, but she was not crying or screaming... That quiet and happy self was completely different from her.
She casually swiped down a fragment. She was wearing a deep red dress, her face as fair as frost, her red lips as bright as fire. Her eyes were full of smiles as she tilted her head and leaned gently against the man beside her.
That man looked exactly like the "Paul" behind her.
"Come with me, Wanda. Let's go back together, back to that happy place!"
"Paul" called softly and brought his mouth close to Wanda's ear. A mysterious red breath was swallowed and exhaled, gently drifting across Wanda's face, tempting the girl to leave with him and go to the utopia in those memories—a place without sadness or misery, a place full of joy and love, that warm little home...
"Don't go! Wanda! That's not you... that's not your life!" Renzo roared, trying his best to reach the child who had lost herself.
She should have her own life and her own experiences, instead of staring at herself in other universes, silently envying her, or even replacing her...
Chthon would not grant that to her and would not send her to utopia. What would be left for Wanda would only be an even darker bottomless abyss. By then, no one would be able to save her. No one...
Wanda stopped. She was confused. The self in those memories seemed to be her, yet also not her.
So what should she do...
Two voices kept calling her name. One asked her to go to the quiet, stable life she dreamed of. The other asked her to stay, to remain in this dark place and crawl desperately toward the faint light.
Chthon glared fiercely at Renzo, who was still trapped in the gap and unable to break in, then smiled contemptuously. He casually waved his hand, and another series of screens appeared in the dark space.
Unlike the warm memories, these screens were almost uniformly suspended before Wanda's eyes. They showed a bloody duet of red and black: houses piled with bones, towering pillars made of flesh and blood, crimson walls, and countless black-smoke souls wailing in the air with harsh, hollow cries...
Every scream was like a sharp sword piercing her heart.
She saw countless people in the streets going mad and dying because of the red mist she had released.
Mad people randomly attacked others on the streets, killed their wives and children, and massacred entire households. Tears of anger flowed from their scarlet eyes, but they were helpless, allowing the mad thoughts to continue surging and controlling all their actions.
She saw the superheroes searching for the cause fall one after another, wailing under the erosion of the red mist. Then they became irrational madmen, attacking the comrades they had spent their days and nights with, causing even greater destruction.
She saw a man who did not want to become a monster resolutely swallow a bullet. Red and white burst out suddenly, and his life ended abruptly.
And she... sat high upon the throne of the altar, like a monarch, watching everything happening outside with arrogance and mockery. Crazy laughter continued spilling from her mouth, and the frenzy in her eyes almost seemed ready to tear her apart.
"Ah!" Wanda shattered the memory before her in horror, covered her head in pain, and fell to her knees.
Scarlet power unconsciously emerged from the woman's body, entangling and lashing out...
These painful memories almost tore her apart, and Wanda refused to admit that she was responsible for that hellish scene.
"Come back, Wanda. I can make up for all of this with you!"
"Come with me, Wanda. That dream world is real. He will drag you into hell and into endless self-blame and regret. We can go back to that little home. It's warm there, isn't it?"
"Don't listen to Chthon. He's deceiving you. That happiness..." Renzo paused. He could not bear to make Wanda return to this miserable reality, but reality was reality, an unavoidable truth.
"That happiness is an illusion. It doesn't belong to you! You..."
"Nonsense!" The huge power of chaos knocked both Renzo and Chthon away. Wanda stood there, her bones creaking, her blackened fingers twisting and stretching, her eyes full of anger and hatred.
She refused to believe the corpse-littered scene had been caused by her, and she refused to believe that she was living such a miserable life.
"That life... that happy expression is my life, and the reward I deserve!"
Crimson magic poured from her hands, grabbing Renzo, who had finally torn open a crack. The strange and powerful force pierced his body bit by bit.
Renzo looked in surprise at the red mist filling his body and felt a tingling sensation from his soul.
Helpless, he had to withdraw from the depths of Wanda's consciousness. He could not do anything to Wanda anyway, but he would not give up so easily.
The golden light let out a loud roar and actually shot out a blazing, dazzling divine radiance, penetrating Wanda's body. An extremely comfortable, warm sensation seeped into her bones.
"Damn it!" Chthon glared, cursed angrily, and placed his hand on Wanda.
"Ah!" An indescribable stinging sensation frightened Chthon into retreating repeatedly. He spread out his palm, and a burning pain came into view along with scorched black flesh.
"Still worried before you leave? You even gave the children a layer of protection. You've really learned to use the Mind Stone." Chthon bared his teeth, extremely vicious hatred hidden in his eyes.
This thing, not even truly human, dared to ruin his plans again and again. Even Dormammu did not dare oppose him like this, yet a mere stream of data...
Chthon buried his hatred deep in his heart, smiled lightly, pretended not to care, and led Wanda toward the "utopia" he had created.
"Come with me, Wanda. As soon as you walk through that door, your pain, sorrow, and grief will all disappear."
"Your children, parents, and brother are all waiting for you there. Your old cabin is there. The people who love you and the people you love are there. There are good sitcoms, bright sunlight, a boundless starry sky, and a brilliant moon..."
Chthon smiled warmly, displaying Paul's tenderness before Wanda's eyes. Everything was beautiful... except Wanda.
"Ha..." Wanda lowered her head and let out a strange laugh. "Hahahahahaha!"
The woman laughed crazily, her eyes filled with wild passion. "You are not that person." She tapped her fingers across those happy memories. There were many reasons for her joy, but one person appeared in every image without exception. That person looked exactly like the man in front of her.
Wanda knew very clearly that this man was not the person in those images. Some smiles... could not be faked.
"Stop pretending. I can clearly see that disgusting smile of yours and the malice hidden beneath your face!" Dry, messy red hair hung in front of Wanda's forehead. She still let out an eerie laugh and waved both hands. The chaos power around her rushed toward her.
Chthon's pupils shrank, and he instantly returned to his original appearance. His superb acting had failed to deceive this crazed and confused woman.
"You don't deserve that face!" Wanda laughed mockingly and locked the chaos magic around Chthon.
Naive!
Chthon sneered disdainfully. He was the master of chaos magic, the ancestor of black magic, and the source of Wanda's power. How dare a vessel resist him?
Chthon gently waved his hand, but he did not expect the chaos to disobey his orders. Instead, it blindly attacked him.
"How could this happen?" Chthon stared at the floating red mist with an ugly expression and tried to separate his consciousness from Wanda's mind the way Renzo had.
"Want to run? Such courage!" Wanda became even more disdainful when she saw this. Chthon was horrified to discover that he had lost contact with his true body, which meant... he had no way to escape.
"You come when you want and leave when you want. Do you think my body is a place anyone can enter?!" Wanda's face instantly turned cold, and chaos magic turned into chains, binding Chthon and suspending him in the air.
"You're the culprit behind all this, right?" Wanda casually summoned an image, showing exactly what was happening in the outside world. "Did my body work well for you?"
"Wanda... you had better let me go. Otherwise, the entire universe will suffer disaster because of you." Seeing that he was controlled, Chthon directly revealed his identity and threatened her.
"Then you'd better do it." A very alluring smile bloomed on Wanda's face, and she gently clenched her hands.
Chthon's body suddenly exploded, as if stirred in a blender, bursting into a mass of red mist. Wanda pulled it toward herself, and it floated into the woman's body, where she absorbed it completely.
"Delicious. I wish there were more..." Wanda smiled strangely and looked up at the memory images.
In the memory, Wanda smiled happily, holding flowers in her hands. She leaned against Renzo and kissed him gently...
Click!
The screen shattered.
Everything calmed down, leaving only the woman's crazed laughter...
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