Chapter 56 56: 56 Deadpool and Wolverine 6

[Novelpia – A World Dreamed Through Web Novels – [Playful Life] How Strong Can I Become?]

With preparations finished, everyone got into the vehicles. There weren't enough seats, so we laid cushions in the cargo area and crammed three people in back. When I glanced back, they looked miserable, so I had no choice but to pull a Hummer out of my inventory.

"This is one I'm saving. Can't be helped."

I really need to stock up on more vehicles later. Elektra drove the Wrangler. I drove the Hummer and followed behind.

"Let's head out."

In my Hummer, Deadpool rode shotgun, with Gambit and Blade in the back seat. Wolverine rode in the Wrangler because of Deadpool.

"So, you confident?"

"About Cassandra Nova?"

"Yeah."

"No idea. Honestly, I've never fought anyone who uses telekinesis before."

I didn't know for sure, but gravity and scientific laws should work similarly. We arrived near Cassandra's base and I contacted them on the comms I'd handed out earlier, telling them to stop for a moment. Elektra asked why.

"Why? Why are we stopping?"

"Wait. I'm going to land the first hit."

"How?"

"Watch. I'll teleport in."

We parked the vehicles for a moment. I gave Deadpool the driver's seat and told them to wait.

Cassandra Nova's base was built out of Ant-Man's giant corpse. The inside of the suit had been cleaned out—only bones remained—and he was lying in a Superman pose. His arms served as the fence, his hands as the gates, and his skull in the center was Cassandra's quarters.

I teleported high into the sky above Cassandra's base and looked down. Several people were working or patrolling, and among them I saw the hulking Juggernaut giving orders.

I immediately pulled my staff-sword from my inventory, teleported behind Juggernaut, cut his head off in an instant, stored it in my inventory, then threw five steel marbles—each filled to the limit with mana using my [Energy Bomb] ability—onto the ground.

I teleported back to where the resistance was waiting with the vehicles. All of that took less than a second.

KABOOM~~!!!!

Ding~!

[[You have obtained the (S) Healing Factor, (S) Super Strength, (S) Throwing, (S) Energy Weapon, (A) Telepathy abilities.]]

The massive explosion sent a shockwave that reached us even at a distance.

Judging by the abilities I gained, I definitely took out Bullseye—a Daredevil villain, Psylocke—an X-Men villain, and Juggernaut—another X-Men villain. The [(A) Telepathy] ability was a bit ambiguous. In the lore, Psylocke has it, but I never saw her use it in the movies, so maybe another mutant died and I got it from them.

"Alright, let's go. They'll be disoriented. Huh?"

I turned around to speak, but my side was also stunned, watching Cassandra Nova's base explode.

"Oh~ my god!"

Deadpool held both cheeks and kept gasping in amazement. The others were staring with their mouths open.

"Hey! Snap out of it. Cassandra won't die from this."

When I shouted, the group finally came to their senses and started their vehicles.

"Oh right! This."

I pulled Juggernaut's head out of my inventory and handed it to Deadpool. I'd already finished analyzing the helmet's structure. I could make something similar anytime.

"Ugh... you could've left the head out. Even for R-rated, that's too much."

"I didn't have time."

We got back in the vehicles and drove to Cassandra Nova's base. Looking at the base as we moved, Ant-Man's giant arms that had served as the fence were mostly blown away. Only the head was intact—Cassandra must have blocked it with telekinesis.

We drove right up to the front of the base, parked, and got out. About half of Cassandra's gang had survived. I wasn't sure how they survived that explosion.

The resistance each said a line, psyching themselves up.

Blade drew his sword.

"This should be fun!"

Gambit fiddled with his cards.

"You know how long I've waited for this? Finally get to make a name for myself."

Wolverine seemed surprised that half of them survived.

"Amazing they survived that explosion."

Johnny...

"I already miss ice cream."

Elektra said to me last,

"Jin, Cassandra's yours. We'll clean up here and come help."

"Got it."

With that, the standoff ended and the fight on both sides began. I immediately teleported into the eye of Ant-Man's skull.

"Oh~ a handsome man's here? Was that explosion your doing?"

Cassandra Nova was sitting in a chair, drinking tea. She was quite beautiful, but she was bald and flat-chested, just like Johnny had cursed.

"You said it yourself. Beautiful, but your personality is complete trash."

"Calling me beautiful? Wanna live here with me? The Void is paradise. Living here wouldn't be so bad."

"Thanks for the offer, but I've got people counting on me."

I pointed back with my thumb toward the fighting behind us.

"Too bad, can't be helped. Then you'll have to die."

I activated [Naked Eye], [Observation Haki], [Accelerated Cognition], and [Tremor-Tremor Fruit] all at once. I kept a gravitational field around me at all times so I could sense the direction of her telekinetic force and defend against any incoming attack. Seeing that, Cassandra looked genuinely surprised.

"This is the first strong one in a while. You're handsome too. Really don't want to join me?"

"You come under me, and I'll think about it."

We were just standing there, but an insane battle was unfolding between us. Where our powers clashed, space itself warped. Cassandra, who'd been smiling leisurely, grew serious. My raw power was clearly higher, but Cassandra's technique was exceptional. When I pressed her with powerful gravity, she deflected it with telekinesis.

Neither of us could afford to let our guard down. The exchange continued, and Cassandra was getting used to deflecting my force.

She slowly stepped forward, one step at a time. Her expression grew more relaxed, while I was breaking into a cold sweat, focused entirely on blocking her telekinesis.

"Ngh..."

"You've pushed me this hard. Your power is definitely greater. If I'd met you any later, I surely would've lost."

Now Cassandra Nova was right in front of me. She reached out to touch my head.

"Got you! You're mine."

But Cassandra's hand grabbed nothing but air. The image of me in front of her was an illusion I'd made using [Witch Magic], which I learned from Odin's wife Frigga, Queen of Asgard.

"What the—!"

My real body had been behind her, cloaked. No matter how powerful Cassandra's ability was, was EX-rank. If I decided to hide, no one could find me. I'd planned and prepared this before even entering Cassandra Nova's quarters.[Stealth]

I immediately dropped stealth and cut off Cassandra Nova's head with my sword. Just in case she could regenerate in that brief moment, I grabbed the head and used gravity to crush her separated body, completely blocking regeneration.

Ding~!

[[You have obtained the (S) Telekinesis, (SSS) Control, (S) Mental Intrusion, (SS) Mystic Arts abilities.]]

"Whew... that was a real strong opponent."

I held Cassandra's head in one hand and wiped the cold sweat from my face with the other. It was the first time I'd fought one-on-one this tense. If I'd just charged in without a plan, I really would have died.

Then someone tapped my back. Even if I'd let my guard down, this was enemy territory. I instantly spun around and aimed my sword, but what I saw was Doctor Strange's [Cloak of Levitation].

In the original, Cassandra Nova had faced many challengers in the Void, including a Doctor Strange from another multiverse. That was when she obtained the Cloak, but she couldn't get it to acknowledge her as its master, so she'd been using it as a chair cover.

"Whew... you scared me."

I lowered my sword. Then the [Cloak of Levitation] circled around me once and settled on my back.

"So you acknowledge me as your master. Looking forward to working with you."

An unexpected gain. Wearing the [Cloak of Levitation] let me fly—not fast, but fly—and it had a mind of its own, so it could attack or defend on its own.

I searched Cassandra Nova's corpse and found a [Sling Ring] embedded with the Reality Stone and Time Stone, which I put in my inventory. Then I went outside holding Cassandra's head and shouted,

"Cassandra is dead. Surrender!"

When I came out, the situation was almost cleaned up. Still, her gang hadn't run because of Cassandra—she was that powerful. When I appeared and showed them her severed head, the remaining gang members completely lost their will to fight and dropped their weapons.

Our resistance cheered.

"Woo~!!"

"That's Jin for you!"

"Bald-guy hell!"

But Deadpool ran over to me like a madman and complained.

"You killed Cassandra! Augh~! We're screwed now..."

Deadpool thought we couldn't go back now and grabbed his head and shook it.

"Don't worry. I found something good."

I pulled the [Sling Ring] from my inventory and showed him.

"I also learned Doctor Strange's magic. I'm not called the strongest Avenger for nothing."

I put on the [Sling Ring] and used [Mystic Arts] to open an 'Eldritch Gate' to the universe where Deadpool originally lived.

"Ohhh! Marvel's sparkly circle! You lovely thing! I'll kiss you."

Deadpool was overjoyed and suddenly tried to hug me, but I blocked him. Then, in the distance, dark clouds gathered and Alioth approached. Wolverine saw it and told us,

"Let's go. If we stay here any longer, it won't end well."

"Yeah."

The resistance all went through the gate. Cassandra Nova's gang tried to follow, but Blade aimed his sword and blocked them.

"You're not allowed."

At that, the gang scattered and fled in all directions. I checked if there were any more abilities to gain from the survivors, but there were no more important mutants left. Blade was the last one left, and he asked me,

"Jin! You coming?"

"I've still got business here. I'll follow soon."

"Got it. Stay safe."

With that, Blade went through the gate. I waited until Alioth came closer, then moved both vehicles into my inventory. Luckily, both were fine. I stored both vehicles and teleported far away to avoid Alioth.

"They'll handle the rest."

The reason I stayed was to raise [Healing Factor] to EX. With 100 Deadpools here, killing them should be enough to level it up. I pulled out [Jack Sparrow's Compass], set it to where the Deadpools were, and quickly moved to their hideout. I entered and started slaughtering them while keeping active. Since they were Cassandra Nova's subordinates, I felt less guilty.[Stealth]

After killing about 30 while cloaked, it hit EX. The reason I had to kill so many was that their [Healing Factor] ranks varied from C to S, so I had no choice. Obviously, I didn't touch Nicepool or Dogpool. And honestly, Dogpool was better off with Nicepool than with the irresponsible Deadpool, so I left them alone.

Now that I'd gotten everything, I used [Household Magic] to clean the blood off my clothes and cloak, then crossed over to the original universe.

When I arrived at the TVA temporary headquarters, Paradox was unconscious on the floor and the other members were staring at the screen with worried looks. Deadpool and Wolverine were nowhere to be seen.

"What happened?"

Johnny explained.

"The thing is, when we arrived, we tried to dismantle the Time Ripper, but this guy—Paradox—made it go critical. So Wolverine and Deadpool went down to stop the overload."

"Then why do you all look like that?"

Elektra added,

"To destroy the Time Ripper, you have to short-circuit matter energy and antimatter energy, but anyone caught between them will be annihilated."

"So [Healing Factor] Deadpool and Wolverine went down."

"Yeah. But this time's different. It's matter and antimatter—your body gets disintegrated at the atomic level. [Healing Factor] won't work."

"Then..."

"Yeah... they're sacrificing themselves to save the world."

Unlike the original, it seemed Paradox refused to give up his ambition and caused this.

On the control monitor for the Time Ripper, the timeline status was down to less than 10%. I was ready to put the Time Ripper itself into my inventory if Deadpool and Wolverine failed.

Inside the inventory, time is frozen, so storing it wouldn't cause a major issue. But if I did that, we'd be left with a world that only had 10% of its timeline—this world wouldn't last long and would vanish.

'For now, all I can do is hope they succeed...'

It dropped from 10% to 9%... 8%... It kept falling. I had no choice but to prepare to store the Time Ripper in my inventory, but it stopped at 5% and the numbers started climbing again as the timeline recovered.

We cheered when we saw that. It looked like, just like the original, Deadpool and Wolverine had pulled it off.

Yes~!

The timeline value rose, passed 100%, and the Time Ripper finally couldn't withstand the overload and exploded. The explosion and dust rose from underground.

KABOOM!

We were silent for a while. The explosion meant the world's end had been stopped, but it also meant the heroes who stopped it—Deadpool and Wolverine—were dead. Laura shed tears and quietly said, "Dad."