Before long, he reached a clearing at the center of the rainforest.
There were no towering trees here—only an incomparably massive, constantly writhing main root. On that main root bloomed enormous flowers with dazzling colors, beautiful at a glance yet reeking of a deadly poisonous aura.
That was the Vine Queen's core.
Sensing the threat, the core went wild. Vines flailed frantically, poisonous thorns shot out in barrages—yet every attack either slid away automatically when it neared Saitama or was simply ignored by him.
Saitama walked up to the pulsing main root. Staring at the ugly core secreting sticky fluid, he didn't hesitate at all.
He smashed a punch down.
Pshhk!
A dull, wet sound—like pounding rotten mud. The main root twitched violently once, then rapidly withered, darkened, and lost all vitality. The brilliant flowers on it instantly wilted as well.
At the same time, every moving vine in the entire rainforest froze in place at the exact same moment. Then, at a visible pace, they lost moisture, turned yellow and brittle, and finally became ordinary dead vines, snapping and falling to the ground.
The rainforest returned to its former silence, with only the sound of wind brushing through leaves.
Black Panther, T'Challa, broke free from the lifeless vines and rushed to the core—only to see Saitama standing there, looking at the slime on his fist and trying to wipe it off on nearby leaves.
"Kinda sticky," Saitama complained.
T'Challa looked at the completely withered Vine Queen core, then at the now-peaceful rainforest around them. Through the lenses of his mask, he stared deeply at Saitama. Beneath the mask, his expression was shock mixed with an unfathomable, thoughtful weight. He retracted his vibranium claws and slowly stepped forward.
"You… dealt with it," T'Challa said, his voice carrying a faint dryness he couldn't quite hide.
Saitama looked up, saw Black Panther, and nodded. "Yeah, it's handled. There are a lot of bugs here. Can we go back now?"
T'Challa fell silent for a moment, then nodded. "…Of course. Follow me." He glanced once more at the core that had been destroyed by a single punch, and his understanding of "power" was completely rewritten.
Egypt, on the vast edge of the Sahara Desert.
The scorching sun baked the yellow sands, and rows of pyramids shimmered and warped in the heat haze. But an ominous "dark cloud" was advancing from deep within the desert
A legion of hundreds of awakened guardian stone golems.
They were carved from hard granite, wielding enormous stone swords and shields. Their footsteps were heavy and perfectly synchronized. Wherever they passed, the ground was leveled, and modern buildings were flattened into ruins. An archaeological team was trapped at a small oasis directly along the golems' marching route.
Saitama had entered the desert by off-road vehicle with a S.H.I.E.L.D.-organized rescue group, which included Moon Knight, Marc Spector. Looking at the silent, advancing stone army kicking up a sky of sand, Saitama commented,
"Lots of stone guys. They walk really loud."
Moon Knight, Marc, wore a white cloak, his expression grave. "They're magical constructs from ancient Egypt. Their core is obsidian in the chest. If you don't destroy the core, even if you smash them apart, they can slowly regenerate. We need to find the pharaoh priest's tomb that's controlling them—"
Before he could finish, the vanguard of the stone legion had already noticed them and surged forward like a tidal wave! Heavy stone feet slammed into the sand, booming like thunder.
Saitama didn't wait for Moon Knight to come up with a plan.
He opened the car door, hopped out, and walked straight toward the army.
In front of those towering stone golems, his figure looked unbelievably small.
(End of Chapter)
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