Ray was currently lying on the elevator floor while Claire glared at him angrily, her hand hurting from the punch.
"I deserved that."
Hearing Ray say that only made Claire more furious, and she almost punched him again before speaking.
"You deserve far worse than that, you bastard. But out of respect for my nie—"
Claire froze when she noticed Ray's broken nose suddenly beginning to repair itself and regenerate at an absurd speed, something impossible for Ray, whose mutation only turned him into a snake.
Ray rubbed his aching nose before speaking again, this time with far more seriousness.
"I need your help, Claire."
The moment Ray said that, Claire immediately became irritated and started walking back toward her apartment without even listening to him as he followed behind her.
"Wait Claire, it's important, please!"
Trying to get closer, Ray followed Claire until she opened the door to her apartment and entered without even looking at him.
Just as she was about to slam the door in his face, Ray stuck his foot into the gap, stopping her from closing it.
"Please, just let me tell you who needs your help. If you still refuse after that, I'll leave."
Claire hesitated for a few seconds before shoving Ray's foot away and slamming the door shut in his face, making Ray grimace before saying something that made his chest hurt.
"I found a way to bring Beatriz back."
At first, the door didn't move at all, making Ray think he had failed to convince her.
But soon a voice came from behind the door as it slowly opened.
"Get inside. You have five minutes to talk. If you can't catch my attention in five minutes, I'm calling the police."
Ray let out a relieved sigh and entered Claire's apartment, immediately looking for somewhere to sit.
But before he could, Claire interrupted him.
"Your time already started."
Hearing that, Ray almost argued, but instead he began speaking with a serious expression.
"I found a guy who's incredibly strong and genuinely kind. He's building a faction made of humans and mutants to bring down the Institute and the anti-mutant government. But we're still just starting, we barely have enough people to react properly, and we've been recruiting."
Ray paused briefly before continuing.
"The problem is that one of the people we recruited is badly injured, and we need someone to treat her wounds."
When Ray finished speaking, Claire stared at him silently for a few seconds before putting a hand on her face.
"You joined a terrorist group."
"Wait, we're not exactly terrorists!"
Ray couldn't deny that they would absolutely be labeled as terrorists eventually, especially considering they were a group of mutants openly opposing the government.
And on top of that, Alex was probably the strongest being Ray had ever seen, or at least the strongest glimpse of power he had ever witnessed. Until now Alex had never even used his full strength, and that only made Ray increasingly hopeful.
Claire stared at Ray for a while before sighing.
She had known him for years, and the last time she had seen his eyes shining this much was when Beatriz was born.
But now those eyes no longer shined with happiness like before.
Now they burned with something stronger.
Something darker.
"Look, Raymond, I would normally refuse immediately. But if it's for her, I'll accept. Still… I'll never forgive you for what you did. Not even if you try to explain yourself."
Ray went silent, looking at Claire before turning around and walking out of the apartment while gesturing for her to follow him.
But once she was far enough away that she couldn't hear him, Ray quietly muttered to himself.
"I won't forgive myself either."
Alex looked at Ray with widened eyes when he mentioned Claire was his sister-in-law.
He looked genuinely surprised, but stayed quiet and simply grabbed more boxes of medicine before carrying them inside the warehouse without asking further questions.
Once he returned to the doctor, Alex placed the medicine beside her before walking toward his pile of money.
Seeing there was nothing else he could really do, he sat on top of it and started meditating.
Why meditate now?
Because there was nothing Alex could actually do at the moment.
The new members wouldn't listen to him because they were too worried about their companion.
The doctor was busy.
And Ray was exhausted after getting shot and running across the city all day.
Tyon and Elizabeth had already gone to sleep.
Well, Elizabeth had.
Tyon couldn't sleep, so he simply stayed awake watching over her in case someone tried approaching.
With nothing else to do, Alex chose to meditate since he only needed about four hours of sleep per day anyway.
But before he could properly focus, confusion suddenly erupted inside the warehouse.
"Claire?!"
"Matt?!"
Claire and Daredevil shouted at each other the moment they recognized one another.
Or, in Daredevil's case, the moment he heard Claire's voice.
Alex looked confused for a few seconds before roughly understanding what was happening.
Daredevil had either been treated by the doctor before, or they already knew each other from somewhere else.
The important part was that Claire clearly knew his real name.
The confusion between the two passed quickly, and Daredevil pulled Claire closer before the two started whispering to each other.
Which was fairly pointless considering four people inside the warehouse had enhanced senses and could hear every single word anyway.
"Claire, what the hell are you doing here?!"
"ME?! What the hell are YOU doing here?!"
The two started questioning and explaining things to one another, and Alex quickly began getting annoyed.
So he walked over to them and interrupted, startling both of them.
"Look, if you two want privacy, go outside the barrier. Almost everyone here has super senses and can hear your conversation."
The moment Alex said that, both of them looked completely horrified and glanced around.
The others who had clearly been eavesdropping immediately pretended to be busy doing something else.
The only exceptions were Josh and Elizabeth, who genuinely couldn't hear them.
Soon the two stepped outside the warehouse, leaving everyone else behind.
Alex sighed before walking toward the stairs leading underground beneath the warehouse, probably some kind of storage area since it was far smaller than the structure above.
Alex had seen the place before but never cared much about it.
But now that he wanted to create a real organization, he needed space.
A proper base.
Not just an abandoned warehouse.
While thinking about what to do, Alex remembered the underground section.
Without hesitation, he coated his fist in cursed energy and punched one of the walls with his full strength.
The impact was immediate.
The entire ground shook violently, making everyone upstairs panic and wonder what the hell had just happened.
Meanwhile, Alex stared at the massive hole he had created with a single punch.
He had completely destroyed the concrete wall.
Not cracked it.
Not shattered pieces of it.
Completely erased a section of it without leaving even fragments behind.
The hole was large enough to fit an entire head through, which genuinely surprised Alex.
If his normal cursed-energy reinforcement could already do this with only a small amount of output…
Then what would happen if he actually used a lot?
But before he could think further, everyone rushed downstairs to see what had happened.
Everyone except Daredevil and Claire, who were still talking outside the barrier.
"WHAT THE HELL, ALEX?! YOU SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF US!"
Ray said that the moment he realized what had happened.
For someone who had been training under Alex this entire time, Ray had already learned how to notice traces of cursed energy.
And with Alex's residual cursed energy still covering the wall, it didn't take long for him to understand exactly what Alex had done.
"Ah, good, everyone's here then. I had the idea of turning this lower section into the rest of the base while the upper floor becomes just the entrance."
When everyone heard that, they looked confused about why punching the wall with enough force to cause a small earthquake was somehow related to renovations.
But since Alex was basically the strongest person there and the only reason they even had a place to stay, nobody questioned him.
Well… except one person.
"Dammit, Alex, we barely just got new people here and you're already planning expansions. Wait a little, man, we can't do this right now."
Ray immediately questioned him, mostly because he was the person with the clearest understanding of how problematic the group's situation really was.
But Alex ignored him completely and simply nodded to himself before preparing another punch.
Only for everyone to immediately stop him in panic, afraid he might accidentally collapse the entire warehouse.
Seeing there wasn't much he could do anymore, Alex went back upstairs and noticed Claire had returned to treating Kara.
He simply nodded before walking back to his pile of money.
This time, however, he just laid down on top of it, ready to sleep.
Alex would've liked to stay awake longer, but when he remembered how much work he had tomorrow—finding a way to renovate and furnish the warehouse, alongside inspecting the new territory he had acquired from Jack—he decided it was better to rest now.
So without another word, Alex fell asleep, preparing himself for tomorrow's massive problems.
____________________________
In an instant, Alex opened his eyes in confusion.
He found himself sitting on some kind of throne.
It felt strange, yet at the same time… correct.
Looking to the side, Alex saw a massive red giant with white eyes, which made him strangely uncomfortable due to the simple fact that someone was larger than him.
Realizing something was wrong, Alex looked down at his own hands and noticed he had three massive fingers and completely green skin.
Alex didn't need to think any further.
This was a memory.
Not his memory.
It was as though he were reliving someone else's past.
Meruem looked to the side.
A woman with cat ears, white hair, and feline pupils stood there, while beside her was a blond man with ant-like antennae and wings on his back.
An overwhelming boredom filled Meruem's heart.
An extravagant castle stretched endlessly before his vision. Beautiful and ugly works of art were scattered everywhere.
None of it interested him.
There was simply nothing to do.
He had even started considering finding something to entertain himself with when someone entered through the massive doors at the end of the hallway.
A girl with absolutely nothing remarkable about her appearance walked inside.
No beauty.
No elegance.
Nothing special at all.
A girl with thick eyebrows, messy hair, closed eyes, and a constantly runny nose stepped into the room.
And then Meruem remembered.
He had scheduled another match with Komugi today.
Meruem was a king.
He should have been furious that she entered without showing him proper respect.
No bow.
No greeting.
No reverence.
Yet all Meruem could think about… was her.
He couldn't stop admiring her.
To anyone else she was ordinary.
But to him, everything she did was simply extraordinary.
Every movement.
Every word.
Every breath.
"I'm here, King. I brought the board, can we begin?"
The moment she spoke, Meruem's entire world disappeared.
Only she remained.
Nothing in existence could ever make him forget her.
His heart tightened painfully when he remembered he could not stay with her forever.
Every second mattered to him.
Meruem stood from his throne and walked down toward Komugi, who was already arranging the game pieces on the palace floor.
The blond man with antennae quickly brought cushions, and both Meruem and Komugi sat facing each other.
Without another word, the match began.
The first game lasted two hours.
The second lasted just as long.
Their battle became increasingly intense as time passed.
Soon Meruem couldn't focus on anything except the game and her.
The world around them no longer existed.
Only the board and each other remained.
But just as the match reached its peak, a strange arrow suddenly pierced Komugi.
Blood spilled as she collapsed unconscious onto the floor.
Meruem panicked instantly and rushed toward her, pulling her into his arms.
And the moment he held her—
An overwhelming fury consumed him.
'An invasion!'
That was the only thought in his mind.
Normally he would have immediately rushed to slaughter every invader.
But the moment he looked down at Komugi in his arms, all his rage disappeared.
Only sadness and desperation remained.
"PITOU, HEAL HER!"
Without hesitation, the girl with cat ears reacted immediately, taking Komugi into her arms before rushing away.
Meruem then turned around, already sensing two powerful individuals approaching behind him.
Yet when he looked at the two elderly men standing there, he felt no hatred toward them.
Without even listening to what they were saying, he walked past them effortlessly and simply said:
"Follow me."
___________________________
Alex woke up before anything else could happen.
He still remembered perfectly what he had felt and seen while inside Meruem's body.
But what disturbed Alex most was the fact that more memories were beginning to surface inside his mind.
Some of them made him deeply uncomfortable.
He vividly remembered eating human flesh.
He remembered overwhelming boredom.
And the real problem was that instead of feeling disgust…
He felt nothing.
That realization confused him even more.
Alex looked around and saw that everyone was still asleep.
So he quietly decided to resume a routine he hadn't followed in a very long time.
____________________________________
Guys, I've got a problem about one of Meruem's abilities and whether I should give it to Alex, so I wanted to know your opinion. Should I add Meruem's ability to learn the abilities and understanding of the people he eats? Because honestly, I personally don't mind it, but it's kind of weird for a lot of people, so I wanted to know what you all think too.
Now that I stop to think about it, I somehow pick
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As always, if you enjoyed it, feel free to send power stones or rate the story, it really helps a lot.
And if you have any constructive criticism or anything that could help me improve, don't hesitate to say it, I always read everything.
Also, just so you know, I really enjoy reading your messages, it genuinely makes me happy to see people enjoying the story.
Good night.