"Not good! He's going for mutual destruction! The device is about to self-destruct!" Strange shouted. He immediately cast spells to stabilize the energy, but the dark energy and white magic clashed violently—only accelerating its instability instead.
"Let me try!" Wanda stepped forward. Chaos magic surged from her hands as she tried to envelop and neutralize the raging energy core. But the instant her power made contact, it was violently repelled by the dark energy inside—energy packed with a will to destroy. The red light flashed hard once, and it felt like the explosion countdown sped up even faster!
"It refuses to be controlled by magic!" Wanda staggered back a step from the backlash, her face turning slightly pale.
The entire device was glowing red-hot now. Its buzzing grew sharper and more ear-splitting, on the verge of reaching the critical point!
That was when Saitama walked over.
He looked at the dangerously glowing core—something that had left two powerful sorcerers at a loss—then glanced at the tense faces around him.
"So… this'll do it, right?"
His tone was flat, like he was confirming something ridiculously simple. Then he reached out and placed both hands directly against the violently trembling core device—radiating heat and destructive energy—one palm on each side.
No magical aura. No energy clash.
The moment his hands closed and he applied just a little pressure—
"Pff…"
A tiny sound, like someone crushing a brittle cookie.
The self-destruct core—something Strange and Wanda had been bracing against with everything they had, something that could have triggered a massive disaster—was effortlessly, completely crushed between Saitama's hands. The restless energy, the blinding red glow, the shrieking hum—everything stopped dead in that instant.
With the device physically pulverized, the remaining energy inside lost its structure and carrier. It couldn't maintain an explosive form anymore. Instead, it scattered into a soft, harmless flurry of white light motes, like fireflies drifting through the dark tunnel. They flickered a few times… and vanished into nothing.
The tunnel fell into brief silence. Only distant sirens and the steady drip of water remained.
The crisis was over.
Near the tunnel entrance, the sunset's glow poured through the gaps, forming beams of light in the dusty air—driving away the long-held darkness and chill.
The group walked out of the tunnel and breathed in the air of New York's streets again. It was still tainted with smoke and the stench of monsters, but at least the greatest threat had been eliminated.
Strange watched the city gradually regain order—though the destruction was still everywhere. His expression didn't relax. "This crisis is temporarily resolved, but the remnants manipulating dark energy clearly aren't limited to just this one. Beneath the calm… there are probably undercurrents still moving that we haven't noticed."
Saitama blinked, looking at the busy rescue teams and the monster remains being cleared away. "Oh. So that means there'll be a lot more stuff like this later?"
No one could give him a definite answer. But everyone understood one thing—this fight to protect the world seemed like it would never truly end.
Afternoon sunlight spilled lazily through the window onto the tatami.
Saitama sat cross-legged, holding the latest Hero Association Weekly, reading with great interest. It had a review column praising different heroes' performances in last week's New York incident—though the part about him was only a vague line: "An unnamed hero played a key role."
On the low table beside him sat a cup of steaming barley tea.
(End of Chapter)
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