Marvel: Death Knight

"Jack! Jack, are you okay?"

Before running far, a soldier noticed his comrade stumble and collapse. Panicking, he knelt to check on him, only to feel a wave of dizziness himself.

This scene repeated itself among the soldiers, one after another.

Stryker sat in the vehicle, frowning as he watched soldier after soldier collapse around him. From the distance, the sound of artillery fire grew faint and eventually vanished.

Had the rearguard been wiped out so quickly?

"Aah!"

Not long after, agonized screams erupted from behind. The undead army had caught up.

Stryker observed with dismay that the undead moved far faster than before. One by one, they agilely overtook the soldiers, climbing onto vehicles without regard for the bullets riddling their bodies. Two or three ghouls could easily tear a soldier apart.

Seeing this, Stryker knew there was no escape this time.

Oddly, despite the carnage, the undead—and the mysterious warrior leading them—ignored him directly. Stryker suspected they intended to extract information from him.

As the number of soldiers dwindled, Stryker realized his time was running out. Yet, he couldn't muster the resolve to take his own life. Instead, he futilely fired his weapon at the approaching enemies.

After the soldiers were dispatched, Stryker was yanked from his vehicle by a Death Grip spell cast by Garus.

Garus asked, "You're Stryker?"

Startled that the figure knew his name, Stryker tried to bluff, "I'm a general of the United States military. You should think carefully about your actions. What you're doing is declaring war on an entire nation."

Ignoring him, Garus pressed on, "Who ordered the attack on the academy?"

"It was Senator Kelly. He persuaded the President to approve this operation. But you already killed him," Stryker replied bitterly.

Garus found the answer believable but was frustrated by the dead end.

"Then you can die now." Frostmourne pierced Stryker's chest, silencing him with a scream as the blade consumed his soul.

After eliminating the invading forces, Garus drove Frostmourne into the ground. Death energy surged, drawing the nearby souls not yet sent to the Nether into the blade.

Returning to the ruins of X Academy, Garus discovered that all the souls there had already vanished. Frustrated, he gave up the search.

Wanda, who had been watching Garus summon the undead and absorb souls, found his actions terrifying. Childhood stories had left her sleepless before, and now she was living something far worse.

"Let's go find the students first," Garus said, "and then we'll locate a safe place to settle."

Initially, he wanted to retrieve a spatial anchor stone from the ruins, but the chaotic debris convinced him otherwise.

Pietro led them to a narrow passageway. "Garus, the students and I escaped through this tunnel at the time, but it's long. I don't know where it leads."

Seeing the cramped tunnel, Garus, tall as he was, doubted he could fit comfortably.

He stopped Pietro from entering. "Never mind. I'll send gargoyles to scout. They shouldn't have gone far; we'll wait here."

Watching the dark gargoyles take to the skies, Garus had a thought. "Why is it that Hydra always finds you?"

Wanda and Pietro were equally puzzled. Ever since escaping Hydra's base, they had been pursued multiple times. This time, they'd even used a Death Gate to teleport thousands of miles, making tracking seemingly impossible.

Garus briefly considered the possibility that Wanda might be staging an elaborate ruse. However, given the circumstances, if it were a trap, none of the students would have escaped.

"Wait!" Wanda exclaimed suddenly. She extended her palm, using chaos magic to extract a tiny speck from her hand.

"This is a Hydra key, granting access to various labs in their base. It must be how they've been tracking us," she realized.

"Wanda, do the same for me," Pietro urged, suspecting he had one too.

At the base, only Zemo used iris scans for authentication; everyone else had implants like this. These weren't just keys but tracking devices.

After extracting two keys, Wanda prepared to destroy them, but Garus stopped her.

"Give them to me. I have a use for these," he said.

"But won't Zemo be able to track you?" Wanda asked.

"Don't worry. I'll handle it."

When Garus placed the devices into his spatial pouch, Hydra's trackers lost Wanda and Pietro's signals.

"Found them," Garus announced, seeing through his gargoyle's eyes that the mutant students were being interrogated by a group of police officers. Ordinary teachers and staff surrounded the students, speaking incoherently but shielding them tightly.

Garus summoned his mech and prepared to leave. Remembering Wanda, Pietro, and an unconscious Logan, he opened a Death Gate.

"You return first. I'll bring the students back soon."

[System quest initiated: Difficulty A. Eliminate Hydra leader Baron Zemo and temporarily neutralize government threats against mutants. Reward: 50,000 exchange points.]

Once again, Zemo was the target. Garus resolved to end him this time. Although Hydra's operations were clandestine, he suspected their previous base had been abandoned.

Thinking of the Hydra keys, Garus decided he might need Tony Stark's help. Perhaps J.A.R.V.I.S. could use the devices to locate Zemo.

Time was of the essence. Garus piloted the mech skyward. The students, now powerless, were effectively children—easy prey if taken to the police station. It would undoubtedly cause further complications.

In no time, Garus arrived overhead. His gargoyle's observations confirmed that the X-Academy's ordinary teachers and staff had reported the mutants, fearing them.

Garus' icy blue eyes flared with anger. He despised opportunistic backstabbers, especially when he'd paid them well.

"Boom!"

Garus descended from the sky, crushing a police car and the officers inside.

"What?!"

After a moment of stunned silence, the remaining officers drew their weapons and opened fire.

Swatting them like flies, Garus swiftly dealt with the threat.

Exiting the mech, he was immediately surrounded by ecstatic students.

"Headmaster! You're finally back. This is great!"

Their noisy chatter gave him a headache.

"Brother Garus, it was those teachers who called the police. They wanted to have us arrested, but the officers didn't believe them," a student explained.

Seeing the guilty teachers trying to sneak away, Garus froze them in icy blocks, absorbing their souls as well. The mutant children, accustomed to witnessing horrors, felt no fear but rather satisfaction.

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