The wind in the alley began to flow again.
William could feel the nano-cable, stretched to its limit in his hand, suddenly slacken.
The insane, colossal force had vanished.
Completely vanished.
The other end of the cable was connected to a rapidly cooling corpse.
His client had committed suicide right in front of him.
William's mind was blank.
He looked down at the precise "foolproof plan" device on his left arm.
This thing... is it a murder weapon now?
Should he add a small line to future product brochures?
"contract."
His voice was dry.
"Client 'Matt Murdock' vital signs confirmed."
"Target life signal has disappeared. Confirmed dead."
William closed his eyes.
It's over.
He's thoroughly dead.
A client dying in an incident related to his own product—if word got out, how would he ever make a living in the New York insurance World again?
"Tony!" William roared into the comms channel, "Your dash cam... no, your armor's recording function, was it off just now?!"
"...No." Tony's voice was also a bit dazed, "What's wrong?"
"Delete it! Immediately! Right now! Format it!"
William felt his blood pressure soaring.
Just then.
"No—!"
A shriek, so shrill it sounded inhuman, tore through the deadly silence of the battlefield.
The sound was filled with extreme fear, unwillingness, and despair.
Everyone's gaze was instantly drawn to it.
From the shadows across from the church, a well-dressed, elegant woman rushed out.
Alexandra.
One of The Hand's supreme leaders.
She stumbled to the front of the church, looking at the corpse kneeling on the ground, still with the cable wrapped around its neck, her whole being like a soul had been drawn from her.
Her face no longer held that composed, strategic demeanor.
Only pure, apocalyptic terror remained.
"No... impossible..."
She mumbled, reaching out as if to touch the dissipated "god."
"How could he die... how *could* he die..."
Then.
A sudden change occurred.
Wisps of black smoke, like living vipers, furiously seeped from Alexandra's pores!
"Ah..."
She let out a painful groan, abruptly looking down at her hands.
Those well-maintained, smooth-as-jade hands were rapidly losing moisture at a visible rate.
Her skin began to shrivel and loosen.
Wrinkles, like cracks on a dry riverbed, quickly spread across the back of her hands, then her arms, her neck...
"My... my power..."
She fearfully touched her face.
That beautiful face was rapidly aging.
Collagen was lost, muscles atrophied, and her cheekbones protruded sharply.
Her lustrous black coiled hair turned white in an instant, then withered yellow, finally becoming a deathly pale, disheveled mess.
In just over ten seconds.
The peerless woman had transformed into a decrepit old hag, her skin layered like dry tree bark.
The black smoke around her grew thicker.
The dark energy from the "Beast" that had sustained her life across centuries was rapidly dissipating.
The host of the "Beast" had left this World.
Its energy returned to nothingness.
And she, a "client" who relied on this energy to extend her life, was naturally forced into "shutdown."
On the rooftop, William watched this scene, his heart unmoved, even feeling a slight urge to take notes.
To put it simply.
It was like buying a phone, only for the carrier to go out of business and the signal to disappear.
And this was a draconian clause: if the carrier went out of business, the phone had to be scrapped along with it.
Too much of a scam.
"No... I don't want to die..."
Alexandra let out a desperate wail.
She knelt on the ground, her body convulsing violently, like a fish thrown onto shore.
Her life force was being drained.
"I... I ruled for centuries... I..."
She couldn't finish her sentence.
Her last breath squeezed out of her shrunken, unrecognizable lungs.
"Thud."
She fell forward onto the ground, lifeless.
A generation's hero, one of The Hand's behind-the-scenes masters, thus became a shriveled mummy, as if stored for countless years.
Her death... was utterly undignified.
The entire battlefield once again fell into an eerie silence.
Danny and Luke stared dumbfounded at the scene, completely unable to comprehend the supernatural phenomenon.
Beneath Tony's faceplate, data streams flashed wildly.
"Jarvis, record this. This is more outrageous than any biological weapon I've ever seen."
William slowly retracted the nano-cable still wrapped around Matt's neck.
The cable still carried a trace of warmth.
He glanced at Matt's corpse.
Then at Elektra, not far away, lying in a pool of blood, her breath so faint it was almost imperceptible.
Finally, he looked at the rapidly desiccated corpse of Alexandra.
One night.
Three dead.
Two of them were his clients.
One suicide, one died from severe injuries.
William's heart was bleeding.
How could he calculate this KPI?
"Whoop-whoop—whoop-whoop—whoop-whoop—"
In the distance, the piercing sound of police sirens grew closer and more frequent.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s quinjet had also appeared in the night sky, its searchlight beams sweeping back and forth across the chaotic streets.
The main force was about to enter.
"Damn it."
William cursed.
He couldn't let them see everything here.
A suicidal Daredevil, a woman drained dry, and a female assassin with a pierced abdomen.
This scene was too 'beautiful'; if Fury, that one-eyed man, saw it, he would definitely extort a huge sum from him.
"Tony!"
William's voice was decisive.
"We have to go!"
He quickly walked over to Luke and Danny.
"Do you two want your friends to be treated as Terrorists, their bodies sliced and studied by S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Luke and Danny exchanged glances, both seeing grief and determination in the other's eyes.
"If not, then listen to me."
William pointed at the dying Elektra on the ground.
"Take her."
He then pointed at Matt's corpse.
"And him."
"We have to take them all. Now!"
Tony's armor landed beside them.
"Where to? My tower isn't a morgue."
"To my place!" William said without hesitation, "My office has the most professional 'after-sales service' in all of New York!"
He was referring to Dr. Connors's laboratory.
Just then.
Elektra, lying in the pool of blood, seemed to hear their conversation, and with her last ounce of strength, she slightly moved her fingers.
Her eyes, covered in bloodstains and dark markings, laboriously opened a slit.
Her gaze passed over everyone, falling on Matt's cold corpse.
A drop of liquid, mixed with blood and tears, slid from the corner of her eye.
Then, her head slumped powerlessly.
"Warning. Target 'Elektra' life signal has disappeared. Confirmed dead."
William's fist clenched tightly.
Another one!
Tonight's performance was in the negative!
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right nobut who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/TripleCrown
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"