The chilling sensation throughout their bodies gradually faded, and sunlight seemed to return to them once more.
But Wanda and Pietro's minds were still completely blank.
The suffocating feeling of near-death just now had been real.
And the friendly smile before them now was just as real.
They couldn't tell which one was the real Lyon.
Maybe this was what it meant to be the Superman—one stray thought could send ordinary people plunging from heaven into hell, or rising from hell back into heaven.
Lyon cheerfully patted both of them on the shoulder.
In truth, he hadn't harbored even a trace of killing intent—he had merely released a sliver of his willpower.
And that sliver came from a level of willpower at the peak of galaxy-level standards—just a single glance could cause brain death in someone under planetary rank.
The siblings had merely experienced what it felt like to face death directly, and that was already the result of him extremely restraining his strength.
After all, what he wanted was for them to calm down.
And to carefully consider the consequences before they spoke again.
Judging by now, the result couldn't have been better.
Wanda and Pietro looked at him with both fear and respect, and even—strangely—a faint sense of closeness, almost like a touch of Stockholm syndrome.
"Now that's settled, Jarvis will arrange work for you."
"If there's anything you want to understand or investigate, you can do it all within Stark Industries."
"And also!" Lyon shoved the black card back into Pietro's hand.
"Keep this card safe. The money inside isn't meant to trample on your dignity or the suffering you've endured. It's a sign of respect and reward for your bravery in facing adversity."
"But…?" Wanda still hesitated.
"But what?" Lyon's eyes once again gleamed with a faint red glow.
"Nothing, nothing!" Wanda's inner turmoil instantly settled, and she hurriedly took the black card, standing at attention like a schoolchild.
"Very good. If you need anything in the future, just tell Jarvis online. He'll take care of everything."
Lyon waved his hand. "Now, go home. And in the future, don't talk about revenge unless you're ready. You deserve a better future. Don't let hatred cloud your vision."
Lyon admitted he had some double standards.
When it came to his own revenge, he never hesitated to act, even if it meant killing the wrong person.
But when it came to giving advice, he spoke with such authority.
But that's just how it is—whoever holds the power, has the say.
As for Wanda, she wasn't yet the Scarlet Witch she would become in the future. Her full power hadn't even awakened yet.
If it were the overpowered, fully awakened version of Wanda from the comics—
Lyon might really have had to consider whether to move his entire family to another world, or go into seclusion in the Resident Evil universe for tens of thousands of years before returning.
After all, that chaos magic capable of rewriting reality was just too unreasonable.
The sunlight above was still warm as ever.
But Pietro and Wanda, who had arrived full of fire and fury, were now leaving quietly and obediently.
Though neither side said out loud what would become of this so-called grudge—Everyone knew.
The siblings were people with pride.
Even if their heads weren't always clear.
But the moment they accepted that black card, it meant they probably weren't going to pursue revenge any further.
Besides, this particular grudge hadn't really been directed at Tony in the first place.
Lyon shrugged at Tony and shot him a look: See? I just took care of another huge headache for you.
Tony rolled his eyes so hard they almost flipped over his back: Yeah, thanks a lot.
…
Another two days passed.
And things developed a bit differently than Lyon had expected.
The day after Wanda and Pietro left, they actually did follow Jarvis's arrangement and went to the Avengers to report in.
But they didn't stay there to work.
Word was, Tony had a long talk with the two of them in his office that day.
Lyon didn't know if they buried the hatchet over a laugh or if Tony subtly took back their power over a drink.
Either way, by the end of that day, the siblings had been enrolled into Columbia University by Tony.
Wanda entered the business school that Lyon had just graduated from, and Pietro went into the athletics program.
Lyon couldn't help but suspect, with a hint of malice, that Tony had done this because he thought the two of them were too undereducated and hot-headed.
After all, they hadn't received any formal schooling since the age of ten.
A lot of their thinking carried that raw, unpolished feel—beautiful in its own incomplete way.
But none of that really mattered.
Because today…
It was time for Lyon's Blood Sea Clone to be born!
…
Inner world.
The power of the Space Stone filled every corner of the visible space.
In this world with a diameter of 900,000 kilometers, the sky was blue, and the earth was blue too.
As if endless, deep blue energy was surging wildly toward the crimson giant egg suspended high in the sky.
That egg stood a hundred kilometers tall.
Lyon's consciousness observed the scene.
Soon, he saw cracks begin to appear on the eggshell, gradually spreading wider and wider.
The sound of cracking echoed through the heavens and earth, like the sky itself was being torn open.
The fractures grew larger, denser.
And when they reached a certain threshold, the entire shell suddenly shattered, turning into sand-like fragments that rained down upon the land, engulfing the world like an ocean pouring from the sky.
Within that crimson sea of shards, a giant figure a hundred thousand meters tall rose and stood firm.
At the same time, Lyon's perspective automatically split in two.
In one part of his vision, the towering, unclothed giant gradually took form amidst the storm of blood-red eggshell fragments.
The other part of his perspective came from high above—suspended in the boundless depths of space, overlooking all of existence from the eyes of the giant.
The Blood Sea Clone was born!
Lyon's soul still resided within the original core.
But his consciousness had effortlessly split into two, simultaneously controlling both his true body and the clone.
As if he were born with two perspectives—as if multitasking was simply natural to him.
"What a strange and wonderful feeling."
Lyon raised the giant's hand.
No, it wasn't even control in the usual sense.
This was his own body—his thoughts had barely formed before the arm lifted on its own.
It was a forty-kilometer-long arm.
The skin tone was close to human, flawless like white jade, with faint blood-red veins running beneath the surface, giving it an eerie and mesmerizing beauty.
Lyon touched himself—several kilometers of sculpted abs and chest muscles made him thoroughly satisfied.
If there was anything he could call a regret... It would probably be in that other perspective of his.
This Blood Sea Clone was bald—and completely smooth from head to toe.
It honestly looked like a nude figure model sketched by an artist before any clothes were added.
And—
Lyon reached down and gave a quick check, his expression turning strange.
It made sense that a special lifeform wouldn't reproduce, so lacking secondary sexual characteristics was reasonable.
But the lower part of the clone… was smooth as a mirror.
Alright then—now it really was like a base model made by a 3D artist.
Just the body shape—nothing else.
Still, none of that mattered.
What Lyon truly cared about were the clone's innate abilities.
The Blood Sea Clone's gene multiplier was 300x—slightly higher than his original body.
And it had two innate powers: Sea Transformation and World Creation.
Sea Transformation allowed the clone to shift from giant form into an ocean with a diameter ten times its own height.
Right now, the Blood Sea Clone stood at one hundred kilometers (62.14 miles) tall—so when transformed, the resulting sea would have a diameter of one thousand kilometers (621.4 miles).
World Creation allowed the clone, while in its sea form, to use energy to create life.
The beings created would show absolute obedience to Lyon as their creator.
However, no matter what kind of life he wanted to create, it required Lyon to have a complete understanding of that species' genetic information.
And based on his current level of genetic research—For now, he could only create some low-level lifeforms.
__________
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