Steve, Natasha, Clint, the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and the remaining survivors all watched from afar in silence.
They had just gone through a brutal defensive battle. Now, all they could do was pin their hopes on that seemingly ordinary bald man.
Every punch Saitama threw made their hearts tremble—not just at the sheer terror of that power, but also at the unknown consequences once the core finally collapsed.
At last, Saitama drew back his arm and paused for a moment.
He tilted his head slightly, as if gauging how much more the core could take. Then he took a deep breath—
Even though that action was probably meaningless for someone with his bottomless strength.
His right fist clenched, his arm pulling back. With a plain, straightforward straight punch that nonetheless contained world-ending force, he drove his fist hard into the brightest, most solid point on the core.
"Boom——————crack!!!"
A deafening explosion tore through the air.
The core, the source that carried all of the mushroom-cap main body's life force and evil will, finally shattered completely under Saitama's finishing blow.
Its dazzling purple light collapsed inward in an instant like a punctured balloon, then violently burst outward, forming a brief shockwave that lit up the entire underground space—
And then it all vanished completely, leaving behind nothing but absolute darkness and deathly silence.
Deprived of the core's support, the mountain-sized mushroom-cap main body let out a long, despairing wail.
Its entire structure lost all strength in an instant.
Like a gigantic beast whose bones had been ripped out, it collapsed in one go.
Tens of thousands of tons of organic matter, rock, and metal slammed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris that blotted out the sky. The shockwave was so strong that everyone in the distance was knocked off balance.
As dust filled the air, Saitama's figure slowly walked down from the highest point of the ruins.
He casually patted at the nonexistent dust on his yellow jumpsuit, his face still wearing that same "I missed the supermarket sale again" blank look—
As if all he'd just done was casually swat an annoying fly.
"It's dealt with," he said when he reached the others, using that signature, completely flat tone of his.
"D–Dealt with…?"
Clint lowered the arm he'd been using to shield his face, staring in disbelief at the still-churning wall of dust. The apocalyptic collapse from moments ago was still fresh in his mind.
Steve tightened his grip on his vibranium shield, scanning their surroundings warily.
The shock of the core's destruction hadn't even fully died away when a new, even more unsettling vibration rose from beneath their feet.
This wasn't the lingering aftershock of an explosion.
It was something deeper, heavier—like the slow grinding of the earth's crust itself.
"The ground is moving," Natasha said, having sensed the anomaly immediately.
Her entire body tensed in an instant, slipping back into combat mode.
Sure enough, the tremors grew more intense, like some slumbering giant awakening from the depths.
The ground, already shattered by the main body's collapse, heaved and buckled like waves.
Huge fissures began to split open, spreading like a spiderweb. They yawned downward into bottomless darkness, exhaling the stench of rot and sulfur.
"Roooaaaar———!!!"
"Hissssss———!!!"
"Clatter-clatter-clatter—————!!!"
Chilling howls, hisses, and the grinding of bones echoed up from within those fresh cracks, from the shadows of the surrounding rubble, from the not-yet-fully-collapsed remains of the main body.
An aura even more violent and chaotic than before surged across the entire area like a rising tide.
(End of Chapter)
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