Chapter 116: Feel the Power of the Shockwave!

The Kree are an absolutely rational dystopian civilization, ruled by a superintelligent life-form known as the Supreme Intelligence.

Although the Kree Empire is one of the most powerful civilizations in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it has virtually no sense of artistic beauty—as everything before them made abundantly clear.

Without a doubt, this underground city had been built by the Kree, or by ancient humans manipulated by the Kree. The entire city was composed of countless concentric circles and straight lines, utterly devoid of artistic touches. Every horizontal and vertical line was precise to an almost inhuman degree.

It was less a city than a fortress—a colossal underground fortress, bearing some resemblance to the city-states of ancient Greece.

Fitz’s three-dimensional map was extraordinarily accurate. Guided by his memories, Old Wang soon found the temple.

Six towering, timeworn stone gates supported the ceiling, much like Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, filling the place with an air of mystery.

At the very center stood a cylindrical stone platform of modest height. A beam of light, no one knew from where, passed through some ingenious mechanism before shining down from the ceiling onto the platform.

“Go on in, Skye. I’ll stand guard outside.”

Old Wang’s eyes were filled with encouragement. “Place the obelisk on the platform and welcome the future that belongs to you.”

Old Wang disliked using the word fate. He did not believe that fate truly existed in this world. It was impossible that everything had been arranged at the instant of the Big Bang. Otherwise, how could parallel universes and endless timelines be explained?

The future of any individual—or even of the entire universe—could be altered by the slightest change. Quantum mechanics told us that clearly:

God played dice. Not everything was governed by absolutely rational chains of cause and effect. Chaos truly existed.

Matter determined consciousness, but consciousness also exerted an opposing influence upon matter.

We created our own futures.

“You’re not coming with me? I…” Skye hesitated, clutching the obelisk. “I’m a little scared.”

“The Terrigen Mist only works on abnormal people like you. If a normal person like me comes into contact with it, I’ll die.”

Although he was confident that he could use his internal energy to shield himself from the Terrigen Mist, what if he was wrong?

Old Wang had no interest in courting death. With a smile, he said, “Don’t be afraid. Even if you die, I can bring you back to life—whole and intact. One hundred percent health, not ninety-nine-point-nine percent. You know what I mean.”

“…Lecherous King, you’re the abnormal one!”

Skye burst out laughing. Somehow, she felt a little more at ease as she walked into the temple.

The moment she reached the stone platform, the obelisk suddenly grew hot. Its silvery-white surface turned golden-red, revealing the patterns carved upon it with startling clarity.

A wondrous force surged through the chamber.

Skye’s fingers loosened. The obelisk rose into the air on its own, then descended onto the stone platform.

There were no high-tech devices anywhere nearby. Even when Old Wang released his spiritual sense, he could detect nothing. All he could say was that Kree technology truly stood far beyond that of humanity—and his own abilities were simply too limited.

If Fitz or Tony Stark had been present, perhaps they might have guessed what was happening.

Suddenly—

The earth began to tremble faintly. The six stone gates shifted along tracks set into the floor, moving toward closure.

“Wang!” Skye cried out.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll be waiting for you outside.”

Old Wang wore a warm, reassuring smile, and it eased Skye’s fear somewhat.

She fixed her enormous eyes upon the obelisk and waited patiently.

After a dozen seconds or so, the six gates had shut completely, turning the stone chamber into a sealed room.

The beam of light descending from above struck the golden obelisk.

The obelisk began to change.

Its irregular surface—one that neither Hydra nor S.H.I.E.L.D. had ever been able to open—finally reacted.

Its outer shell peeled away, revealing a cluster of tiny pale-blue crystal columns.

At first, there was only one.

Then it began to grow and branch at a speed visible to the naked eye. Before long, dozens of columns had formed, gathering together into a crystal cluster filled with scientific beauty. Within its simple structure seemed to lie knowledge capable of driving mathematicians, physicists, and chemists completely mad.

And then?

Skye tried to move closer for a better look.

A force that was not particularly strong pushed her backward, sending dust swirling across the floor.

Amid the dust, wisps of pale-blue vapor drifted out of the crystal and seeped into her skin.

“Is this the Terrigen Mist?”

Remembering Old Wang’s instructions, Skye knew very well what would happen next.

She lowered her head and saw a layer of strange black material spreading across her hand. It was hard and dense, yet strangely weightless.

The black substance seemed almost alive. It slowly crawled up her arm, then spread across her chest and back, covering her entire body before finally reaching her head.

In less than ten seconds, Skye had been sealed inside the black material, transformed into a stone statue.

Her head held high, tilted forty-five degrees to the left as she gazed toward the heavens, both arms extended to the sides, her feet slightly spread apart, her figure full and shapely.

Everything before Skye’s eyes was darkness.

She seemed to hear the sound of air currents sweeping past, unaware that the obelisk had already dissolved into gas and vanished—something far beyond the explanatory reach of Earth’s science, something like a myth.

Her bodily functions appeared to have come to a halt.

She did not need to breathe, and even her heartbeat was extraordinarily faint. Yet she remained alive. Most importantly, she could still think and sense everything happening outside.

Lonely. Isolated. Cold and desolate—but not despairing.

The process was not painful. She had no idea what was happening to her.

According to Old Wang, the genes within her body that had been altered by the Kree were now being activated by the Terrigen Mist, transforming her entire body.

The change was random, like Schrödinger’s cat. Until everything ended, no one could know the answer.

Perhaps she would become a dog. Perhaps her head would sprout quills. Perhaps she would never be able to speak again. Perhaps angelic wings would grow from her back.

Perhaps nothing would happen at all.

Skye did not know what awaited her.

But she trusted Old Wang.

Since he had sent her here, he certainly would not harm her.

Time passed, second by second.

Suddenly—

Skye heard the sound of stone cracking.

Cracks appeared across the black material. They widened, spreading over her entire body.

A wondrous power surged from within her.

Unable to control herself, she stretched out her limbs.

An invisible wave erupted from her body. In an instant, the black material shattered completely, exploding into countless tiny fragments that shot outward like bullets.

“I succeeded?”

Skye stared at her hands, then examined her legs and feet, before touching every part of her body.

There seemed to be no change.

The trembling continued.

First, cracks appeared in the stone platform. Then they spread across the six stone gates.

Even beyond her sight, the invisible waves had affected most of the underground city. Vibrations of different frequencies had opened fissures throughout its structures, causing collapses of varying severity.

“What’s happening?”

Skye did not understand, but her instincts told her that it was connected to her.

Large amounts of soil and gravel rained down from above.

Skye looked up and saw cracks spreading across the immense rock overhead. It could collapse at any moment.

Around her, even the six stone gates had begun to fracture.

“Am I going to be buried alive?”

Fear seized Skye, and she hurriedly shouted, “Wang!”

The instant the word left her mouth, a tremendous boom resounded.

She turned around just in time to see one of the stone gates explode, bursting into countless fragments.

Through the billowing dust, Old Wang strode inside.

“Having an entire obelisk to yourself instead of sharing it with Flower-Skirt Rena… It seems your powers were activated far more thoroughly than I expected.”

Old Wang wrapped one arm around Skye’s waist. His substantial internal energy transformed into a golden protective shield, enclosing them both.

He could feel the vibrations radiating from Skye’s body. Their amplitude was small, but their frequency was extremely high. Clearly, her troubled state of mind left her unable to control her newfound power. She would need some time to become familiar with it.

The sounds of collapse echoed in from every direction. Old Wang sighed.

Just as he had guessed.

Now that Skye had cultivated internal energy, her physical attributes were far stronger than they had been in the television series. She could withstand vibrations of much higher frequencies, which meant that the seismic waves she produced unconsciously were also far more powerful than those in the show.

Bigger waves. More of them.

This underground city, which had existed for who knew tens of thousands of years, had likely reached the end of its history. Before Skye’s seismic waves, it was fulfilling its final purpose and bringing itself to a perfect close.

Skye’s vibrations shattered the obstruction at the mouth of the underground passage.

The surging seawater began flooding inward, preparing to drown the entire city.

“Let’s go.”

Old Wang once again exchanged for a teleportation spell.

The two of them vanished.