"Less talk—kill him already, you nine idiots!" Illyana snapped.
Summoning this thing wasn't cheap. She'd owe it blood-debts later—human souls, offerings, the whole headache. If she could've handled the bald guy herself, she wouldn't have done it.
"Very well, very well—remember, our blood tithe must be paid in full," hissed one head.
A serpent maw lunged for Saitama, jaws wide enough to bite him in half.
It never closed.
Saitama's fist met the tongue with a wet, tomato-squash crunch. The head detonated into gore.
"What?!" Illyana stared, stunned.
Everyone else lost their words. Last time, hundreds of X-Men had swarmed this thing and still been thrown around. Now—one punch, one head, gone.
Saitama just rolled his neck and walked toward the hydra.
"Whaaa! What is that monster?!"
"Second brother got popped!"
"This is a setup!"
"Illyana, this is murder! We call breach of contract!"
Nine throats shrieked at once. In Limbo they were named, feared, and fed on legend. Here, they had been certain they towered over the world.
Certainty burst like a blister.
"What? Are you… scared?" Saitama sighed, and another lazy punch erased a second head. Black blood sheeted outward, spattering Illyana head to toe.
Colossus dropped Cyclops with a start and lunged, planting himself between Saitama and his sister. "If you want to hurt her, you go through me!"
Saitama rolled his eyes and swatted him aside with a single, echoing slap.
He looked at Illyana. "Alright. Anything else?"
Anything else? Illyana wanted to cry but had no tears. Her trump card—deleted in seconds?
Before she could gather her wits, Saitama murmured, "Right—where did you send Professor X?"
"I'll never let you kill Charles! Dream on!" Illyana gritted.
Saitama covered his face. This woman wouldn't hear a word. He was still wrestling with the headache when new voices cut in.
"Saitama… what did you do?"
Magneto and his people had arrived. They'd hustled fast—but not fast enough to beat Saitama. A third of the complex lay in rubble. And there he was, chatting with the X-Men's teleporter like they were discussing lunch.
Saitama sighed. "Something awkward happened. She… teleported Professor X away."
"What?" Magneto's face chilled. He turned to Magik. "Teleported—so Saitama, did you defeat Charles?"
"He wouldn't fight me," Saitama said, scratching his head. Honestly, the bigger problem now was how to make humans accept mutants—everyone, not just some. That was the real snag.
Illyana suddenly screamed. She rose into the air, pinned by an invisible force. Magneto looked up at her with contempt. "Enough. Where is Charles?"
"Let him go!" Colossus charged and was flung aside by a flick of the wrist. Metal versus magnetism—the gap was brutal.
"I—I…" Illyana gagged.
Saitama pressed a hand to Magneto's arm, weary. "Don't do that to your own people."
Own people. Magneto's brow creased. True—mutants. But mutant fights were bloodier than human ones; powers made restraint rare, fatality common.
He exhaled and nodded. "Fine. We don't touch them."
If this had been any other day, storming the X-Men's base would have been suicide. With Saitama standing there, it felt like walking under a giant umbrella. Nothing could touch them.
Saitama, the natural airhead, only sighed. "I'm not here to kill Professor X. I just need to beat him. That's the quest, okay? A quest."
"Quest?" Magneto and Jean both stiffened.
A powerhouse they could process. But a man who said he was here to "complete a quest"…?
(End of Chapter)
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