"Hey, it's not that I don't believe you. It's just that what you're saying is a little too crazy…"
The man who looked uncannily like Jon Snow faced the graceful woman in front of him and the little girl at her side, helplessness written across his face. He really did want to understand what was in this woman's heart, but unfortunately, he could feel it. The two of them were wrapped in secrets, and they were quietly resisting him.
He wasn't afraid of working hard to earn what he wanted. As long as he could get the woman before him to truly open up to him, he wouldn't mind trying twice as hard. What he feared was this: no matter how much effort he put in, she might never lower her guard around him. That was what truly scared him.
Then the sound of rushing water suddenly came from the river behind him, as if some massive creature had just climbed out.
"Dane…"
The graceful woman and the little girl beside her stared past him at whatever had broken the surface, their faces filling with alarm and caution.
"Huh?!"
The man named Dane, whose face looked almost exactly like Jon Snow's, saw their terrified expressions and heard the sound behind him, and a very bad feeling slowly rose in his mind.
He took a sharp breath and turned around.
Behind him stood a gigantic alien-looking monster covered in countless tentacles, baring its teeth at him.
"What the fuck?! Is this one of those Deviants from your story? Weren't all of them wiped out by you Eternals?"
The moment he saw the monster, Dane instantly believed everything the little girl had told him.
"Run!"
Before Dane could recover from the shock, the graceful woman had already rushed to his side, grabbed his arm, and dragged him back the way they had come.
"Sersi, this is nothing like what Sprite told me. What the hell is going on?"
Dane ran with Sersi, panic all over his face as he shouted the question.
"I don't know what's happening either," Sersi answered as she kept running beside him. "But if these creatures have appeared again, then it means we didn't wipe the Deviants out completely back then!"
"Sersi! I can't hold it back! It's going after you!"
Just as Sersi was explaining, Sprite, who had been swatted away by the monster earlier, sprawled on the ground and shouted toward her.
Sersi turned her head. The tentacled monster had ripped a parked car off the street and was hurling it at her like a weapon.
"No!"
Dane stared at the car tearing through the air, his eyes trembling. If that thing hit him, his flesh-and-blood body would be flattened on the spot.
A golden glow flared around Sersi as she pulled the despairing Dane behind her and stepped in front of him.
The instant the car touched her, it transformed into countless flowers that drifted down from the sky.
"Magic! So you really are a wizard, just like Doctor Strange?!"
Dane stared at Sersi, his eyes wide as she turned a flying car into a storm of petals. He knew it. His girlfriend really was some kind of wizard.
"To be precise, it isn't magic…"
Sersi didn't quite know how to explain it to Dane. In truth, what she used wasn't magic at all. If she had to choose a proper word for it, she thought divine power fit best—the power inherited from the great Celestials.
The Deviant roared and charged straight at her.
Sersi was never one of the combat-focused Eternals, and the sight of the monster rushing at her made her face go pale.
"Sersi!"
Dane, who had been hiding behind her just moments ago, suddenly stepped in front of her, as if he meant to use his fragile human body to stop a terrifying monster with a body harder than steel.
"Dane?! No!"
As Sersi watched him stand in front of her without the slightest hesitation, even against a creature that could smash steel and could never be stopped by ordinary human strength, her heart warmed—and at the same time, regret flooded in.
She regretted not telling him the truth sooner. She regretted dragging him into the fate that bound the Eternals and the Deviants.
Just as the monster leaped into the air and was about to come crashing down and tear Dane apart, golden light suddenly descended from the sky.
In an instant, the creature was blasted away.
A man with a handsome face, knitted brows, and a shadow of sorrow in his expression slowly floated down. Dressed in a black coat, he looked almost exactly like Robb Stark at a glance.
"Ikaris!"
The moment he appeared, Sprite cried out excitedly from where she had fallen.
Ikaris gave a slight nod when he heard her and immediately flew back toward the monster.
"So that's the ex-boyfriend you broke up with a hundred years ago?"
After letting out a breath of relief, Dane turned and asked Sersi.
"Yeah…"
Sersi hesitated, then nodded.
"It's fine. I'm not jealous…"
Dane said he wasn't jealous, but he kept comparing himself to that handsome man who could fly freely and shoot golden beams from his eyes. The more he compared, the harder he got hit inside. Putting himself next to a guy like that felt like comparing a total loser to a literal dream man.
There was no comparison at all.
All of a sudden, Dane felt an overwhelming amount of pressure.
"Dane, you're the one I love now."
Seeing the storm of emotions on his face, Sersi reached out and wrapped both hands around his slightly trembling one.
Dane felt the warmth of her hands, and the stiffness in his face melted away like ice under sunlight.
"I know. Don't worry."
He looked at the woman in front of him, who seemed unbearably adorable in his eyes, and smiled.
Meanwhile, Ikaris dodged the Deviant's tentacle strikes while golden light flashed continuously from his eyes, hammering the creature over and over.
The Deviant roared as it was driven back again and again by Ikaris's eye beams. Against two or three average Eternals at once, it might still have held the advantage, but against someone like Ikaris—one of the very best among the combat-oriented Eternals—it simply wasn't enough.
In strength, speed, and power, the Deviant was completely outclassed.
And yet the interesting part was that although Ikaris kept attacking, none of his hits were fatal. He always avoided the creature's vital spots.
Because of that, despite the enormous difference between them, the fight somehow gave off the illusion of being evenly matched. The two kept testing each other, neither seeming able to finish the other off, while the surrounding streets were wrecked beyond recognition.
"Shouldn't we go help him? That monster looks really strong…"
Dane hesitated for a moment as he watched the fierce battle in the street, then asked Sersi beside him, "Can your… ex-boyfriend really win?"
"Don't worry, Dane," the little girl-shaped Sprite said as she patted his arm. She gazed up at Ikaris in the sky with stars practically shining in her eyes, clearly placing absolute trust in him. "Ikaris is the strongest out of all of us."
"Like Sprite said, we should leave this to Ikaris."
Sersi looked at Ikaris with a complicated expression, sighed softly, and shook her head.
Just then, the battle finally reached a turning point.
The Deviant's countless tentacles wrapped around Ikaris, binding him and dragging him close as if it meant to devour him whole.
But in the very next second, golden light flared from Ikaris's eyes. His body erupted with power, ripping the Deviant's tentacles into countless pieces before he blasted the creature away with a full-force beam.
The Deviant crashed near the riverbank. Dragging its mangled body, it tumbled into the water, seemingly trying to escape.
Ikaris watched it disappear into the river and let out a quiet sigh before floating back down to Sersi and the others.
"Ikaris!"
The moment he landed, Sprite rushed into his arms.
"Sprite… and Sersi…"
Ikaris looked down at Sprite with a hint of tenderness in his eyes, then lifted a complicated gaze toward Sersi. As for Dane, who was standing right beside her, Ikaris ignored him completely.
Dane gave an awkward cough, stepped in front of Sersi, and offered his hand.
"My name is Dane. Dane Whitman. I'm Ms. Sersi's current boyfriend."
He emphasized the word current.
Ikaris looked at him, gave a small nod, and briefly shook his hand. That was apparently enough of an introduction for him.
"Sersi, I need your help. The Deviants have returned…"
Ikaris turned back to Sersi and began explaining the situation.
"I know. I saw it."
Sersi nodded, standing firmly at Dane's side.
Dane glanced at Sersi, then at Ikaris, and felt unbearably awkward. Still, he didn't leave. He already had a feeling that from here on out, he wouldn't be able to get a word in—but he also knew this wasn't the time to walk away.
"Sersi, Ajak is dead. A Deviant killed her. I was too late—I couldn't save her. Before she died, she said that after her, you would take over and continue leading the Eternals."
Ikaris finally laid out the biggest problem facing their kind.
"What?!"
Sersi's eyes shook. She could hardly believe what she had just heard.
"Ajak is dead?"
Even Sprite was so shocked she nearly lost her voice.
"Sersi, come back and help me. I need you. The Eternals need you."
Ikaris looked at her with tightly furrowed brows and spoke in a deep voice.
For some reason, Dane suddenly had the awful feeling that he was getting cucked right in front of his own face.
"Ajak is dead… and now the Eternals need me?"
Sersi murmured to herself as her thoughts raced. To be honest, she didn't want to get tangled up in the Eternals' affairs again.
But after Ajak's death, the responsibility of leading the Eternals had fallen onto her shoulders. If she didn't step up now, then no one would be left to lead them forward.
"Dane, I'm sorry. I may have to leave you for a while."
Sersi held Dane's hand and apologized softly.
"It's okay. I'll wait for you."
Dane had expected something like this. He knew that if you truly loved someone, you had to stand firmly behind them. He knew the woman he loved was special—different from anyone else—so he had already been prepared for a moment like this.
And he wanted to be the one standing behind her, protecting her quietly.
"Thank you."
Sersi held his hand, her eyes overflowing with tenderness.
Just as Sersi and Dane were gazing at each other, a slow, rhythmic round of applause reached their ears.
All four of them—Sersi, Dane, Sprite, and Ikaris—froze for a second, then turned toward the source of the sound.
A man in a black-and-white battle suit stood there, smiling at them.
"That was touching. Now that's what you call a simp."
That man was naturally Jovian. He had watched the whole drama play out from the sky before finally descending to clean up the field.
"Who are you?"
Ikaris looked at Jovian and immediately felt a trace of irritation rising inside him, so he spoke first.
"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is who you are."
Jovian smiled at them. In the next second, an invisible force settled over Ikaris, Sersi, and Sprite.
All three felt that unseen power wrap around their bodies, and they immediately struggled, trying to break free.
"It's useless…"
"You three are way too weak."
Before they could react, Jovian's mocking voice drifted into their ears. Then three streams of golden power were ripped from the bodies of Ikaris, Sersi, and Sprite and pulled toward Jovian.
And that wasn't the end of it.
With the sound of water breaking, the Deviant that had escaped into the river was dragged back by another invisible force. Then golden light was torn from its body as well, and this fourth stream of energy also flowed into Jovian.
At that moment, the Eternals on Earth were wiped out in one sweep.
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