Leon felt as though his perspective had been completely refreshed.
Watching the sequence of events unfold in front of him had been genuinely astonishing. The precision of humanity's planning, the flawless coordination between multiple forces, and the final result they achieved had all exceeded his expectations.
For the first time in a while, Leon found himself looking at ordinary humans with a new sense of appreciation.
Everything he had just witnessed perfectly demonstrated the hidden potential of mankind.
"Just as expected," Leon said with admiration. "Without overwhelming pressure, human potential never truly awakens."
He watched the distant sky where the crisis had just been resolved and continued speaking thoughtfully.
"The level of coordination they just displayed could easily be called a miracle in human history. An asteroid with a diameter of more than two thousand meters was neutralized with nothing more than coordinated missile strikes and a few nuclear warheads."
He shook his head slowly in disbelief.
"And in the end, the only consequence was a series of earthquakes around magnitude four across the planet. Honestly… that's impressive."
Leon had originally intended to use this event as an opportunity to observe how the world would respond under extreme pressure. Technically speaking, humanity had disrupted the larger chain of events he expected.
Under normal circumstances, that kind of interference might have annoyed him.
But Leon didn't feel angry at all.
On the contrary, he felt pleased.
Because what he had just seen confirmed something important.
Humanity possessed far more resilience than many people believed.
If they could handle pressure like this, then he would be free to push the world even harder in the future.
"Hahaha!"
The thought made Leon laugh loudly, his deep and genuine amusement echoing through the air.
Standing beside him, Lorna looked at him with an odd expression.
"You… you're not losing your mind, are you?" she asked cautiously.
Leon's laughter stopped abruptly as he nearly choked on his breath.
"What's wrong with being happy?" he replied with mild annoyance. "Forget it. You wouldn't understand how men think."
Lorna rolled her eyes but didn't bother responding to the slightly sexist comment.
In truth, she was in a fairly good mood as well.
At the very least, she no longer had to watch the world get destroyed by the man standing beside her. If the planet had actually been wiped out, she knew she would have carried an enormous sense of guilt.
The two of them stood several kilometers away from the site of the nuclear detonation—roughly three to four thousand meters from the epicenter.
While they were talking, the shockwave from the explosion finally arrived.
The air trembled violently as the invisible wall of force raced toward them across the ground. Lorna's expression tightened slightly as she instinctively felt nervous.
Leon simply raised one hand.
A translucent barrier instantly appeared in front of them like a curtain of light, effortlessly blocking the incoming shockwave.
"Boom!"
A thunderous roar filled the sky as the explosion finally reached them.
Despite the overwhelming force, not even the corners of their clothes moved.
Leon lowered his hand slightly and spoke calmly.
"Energy on this scale shouldn't be wasted."
As he spoke, he spread his fingers wide.
An invisible force expanded outward from his body, rippling across the sky like an unseen shockwave.
Far away in the distance, the massive mushroom cloud created by the nuclear detonation suddenly froze in place.
The towering cloud of fire and smoke stopped moving entirely, as if time itself had been locked.
"Ah!"
Lorna gasped in shock.
She immediately realized what was happening.
Leon was manipulating the energy of the nuclear explosion itself.
To her, the idea of controlling nuclear detonation energy like this seemed almost impossible.
"Compress," Leon said calmly.
As his fingers slowly closed, the energy inside the nuclear explosion began collapsing inward.
The blinding heat and light rapidly contracted toward a single point in the sky, as if an invisible black hole had suddenly appeared and was pulling everything toward its center.
Within seconds, the enormous energy produced by tens of millions of tons of TNT equivalent had been compressed into a single dazzling point.
The point of light shone with such intensity that it looked like a newborn star.
High above the scene, aircraft cameras captured everything.
Everyone watching the live feed felt their hearts nearly stop.
Anyone with basic scientific knowledge understood the terrifying implications.
Compressing that much energy into a single point could theoretically create matter with unimaginable density.
If the compression failed or collapsed unpredictably, it could trigger an explosion far more destructive than the original nuclear blast.
Some even feared it could resemble a gamma-ray burst.
Leon, however, simply smiled.
He lifted one hand and beckoned toward the tiny point of light in the distance.
The condensed energy instantly shot across the sky toward him.
Moments later, it landed in the palm of his hand.
From afar, the object looked like a tiny spark.
But up close, it formed a glowing sphere roughly the size of a fist.
The ball radiated light so intense that it surpassed the brightness of the sun itself. Anyone who stared at it directly would be blinded instantly.
Leon had forgotten to warn Lorna.
She instinctively glanced at the brilliant sphere.
"Aah!"
She cried out in pain and covered her eyes as her vision disappeared in a flash of blinding light.
Leon sighed in mild exasperation.
With a casual wave of his hand, he removed the blinding radiance surrounding the sphere.
When the intense glow vanished, the object revealed its true appearance.
Inside Leon's hand floated a beautiful orb filled with swirling streams of colorful light. It shimmered with vibrant energy like a miniature galaxy trapped inside a crystal shell.
A few seconds later, Lorna's vision returned.
Leon had previously enhanced her body with a healing factor, giving her powerful regenerative capabilities. Even though her eyes had been temporarily blinded, they healed within moments.
"Are you okay?" Leon asked.
Lorna snorted softly while rubbing her slightly reddened eyes and shot him an irritated glance.
Leon chuckled and held the glowing sphere out in front of her.
"This," he said casually, "is the compressed energy from the entire nuclear explosion."
Lorna stared at the object with fascination.
"What are you planning to do with it?"
Leon smiled faintly.
"What else would I do?"
He looked directly at her.
"Eat it."
"…Are you serious?" Lorna asked in disbelief.
Leon simply shrugged.
Then he opened his mouth and swallowed the sphere whole.
Yes.
He meant exactly what he said.
For ordinary people, the energy released by a nuclear explosion represented unimaginable destruction.
For Leon, it was nothing more than nourishment.
A powerful energy supplement.
The moment the sphere entered his body, the Phoenix Force inside him absorbed the energy like a starving creature devouring a feast.
From a distance, several surveillance aircraft recorded everything.
Inside one of the command planes hovering high above the battlefield, the military commander watching the footage felt his hands begin to tremble.
He quickly issued an urgent order.
"The mission is complete. Notify all units immediately—retreat!"
If possible, he would have preferred never encountering Leon again.
Even facing a catastrophic asteroid strike had been less terrifying than standing anywhere near that man.
The asteroid might have destroyed the planet.
But Leon?
Leon represented something far worse.
After all, what kind of person casually swallowed the energy of a nuclear explosion?
Leon paid no attention to the aircraft rapidly withdrawing from the area.
Instead, his attention shifted toward a strange structure visible in the distance.
It appeared to be some kind of advanced technological construct made from vibranium.
Based on its design, Leon quickly guessed its origin.
Wakanda.
He hadn't expected that the secretive African nation would reveal its technology during a global crisis like this. Historically, Wakanda had always avoided direct involvement in world affairs.
"That's interesting," Leon murmured.
He reached out and grabbed Lorna's hand.
"Let's go."
The next moment, the three of them vanished from where they stood.
An instant later, they reappeared directly on top of the massive vibranium structure.
.....
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