After one week,
Russia — Moscow outskirts.
What used to be one of Umbrella's largest underground research facilities was now a charred ruin.
The streets above were cracked open, smoke pouring through the fissures like breath from a dying beast. The once-bustling industrial district above had been reduced to rubble, the ground still glowing faintly red from the heat below.
The entire underground network — laboratories, containment chambers, weapon vaults — had been melted into a single hollow space.
Luke hovered above the devastation, calm as ever, faint arcs of lightning still dancing around his body. The air was heavy with the smell of ozone and burnt metal.
He'd just used Divine Cataclysm — only a miniature version of it — to clear out the facility. Even at that limited scale, the result was staggering.
The moment he activated the spell, the sky lit up with a deep, electric glow. Thunder rolled like artillery fire as lightning surged downward, burrowing straight through the city and into the earth.
The ground split open in an instant, concrete and steel vaporized, molten air rushing upward in a blast of pure white heat.
In less than ten seconds, everything within a three-mile radius was gone.
No viral samples. No experiments. No survivors.
Luke descended slightly, his eyes reflecting the flickering orange glow below.
"Guess another facility's down," he said under his breath, his tone calm, almost bored—like he'd just checked something off a to-do list.
A soft chime vibrated through his wristwatch.
White Queen's voice followed instantly, precise and emotionless as always.
"Confirmed. The Moscow branch has been completely neutralized."
She paused. On the small holographic display above his wrist, her avatar's expression shifted—subtle, analytical—as new streams of data scrolled past.
"Now, only the European branch remains," she continued. "Based on transmission data and command activity, there's a ninety-seven percent probability that Chairman Albert Wesker is located there."
Luke's gaze turned westward, the glow in his eyes dim but sharp. The faint hum of residual lightning still whispered in the air, bending the space around him in tiny distortions.
"So, Europe it is," he thought.
He shifted his stance, the wind stirring his coat as energy gathered beneath his feet—
Then the world detonated.
No warning. No rumble. Just pure annihilation as the Umbrella ruins lab beneath him erupted with a sun-bright flash. A shockwave roared upward with enough force to peel the ground open like paper.
Luke didn't even register the impact.
The blast didn't just throw him — it obliterated everything.
His entire body was ripped apart in an instant, vaporized, shredded, scattered. Flesh, bone, mana armor — gone.
The shockwave hurled what little remained of him across the city, then beyond it, a streak of force that flung him over rooftops, highways, hills—
Until finally, his severed head slammed into the dirt of an empty field miles away, skipping across the ground like a stone before coming to a halt against an overturned truck.
His vision flickered violently.
Static filled his ears.
Somehow, distantly, White Queen's voice reached him from the ruined watch still clamped around what used to be his wrist — now just circuitry tangled in broken metal.
Luke's surviving eye twitched, dust coating his face.
"…fuck— what was that?" he rasped, the words barely forming.
"It seems someone triggered a self-destruction protocol," she said calmly, her tone a brutal contrast to the scene.
His head rolled slightly in the dirt, unable to move anything else.
"If it wasn't for my regeneration and the shield," he said dryly, "I'd be a stain right now."
Around him, the field was quiet, peaceful in a mocking way — as if nothing insane had just happened. Parts of his body were nowhere in sight, blown apart and scattered across a literal stretch of countryside.
He sighed weakly.
"Yeah… definitely not my best look."
The regeneration kicked in almost instantly.
For a moment, Luke's severed head just lay there in the dirt, blinking at the clouds like a confused corpse.
Then, right under his chin, something started to move.
Muscles squirmed out of thin air, twisting like red snakes as bones cracked and snapped into place.
His spine built itself one vertebra at a time, ribs popping out like bubble wrap, and his heart started beating before the chest even finished forming—wet, glossy, and way too enthusiastic about its job.
It was the kind of sight that would traumatize normal people.
Luke, unfortunately, wasn't normal anymore.
"Yeah… that's not creepy at all," Luke muttered, watching from his own head's point of view as how his body regenerated.
A loose tendon slapped against his cheek before connecting to the forming shoulder.
"Ugh—seriously?" he groaned.
Within moments, the broken mess started to resemble a human shape once more. Skin stretched across the new muscle like someone dragging cling wrap over meat. Fingers popped into existence one by one, twitching like confused worms.
"This must be that rat Wesker's plan," Luke muttered, as he stood up naked in ruins. Wesker wasn't stupid — he had to know someone was tearing through his facilities. Setting a trap like this was exactly his style.
A gust of wind passed.
Luke shivered.
"Oh great. Full body horror AND I'm standing here like a budget Terminator."
"Fine. He wants to play it that way?"
A grin tugged at his mouth. "When I find that bastard, I'm shoving a rock pillar straight up his ass."
He snapped open his inventory with a flick of his newly-grown hand. A fresh outfit flickered into reality, and Luke slipped it on before he traumatized any passing wildlife.
Then he found his severed hand lying a few meters away, picked it up, reclaimed the watch, and burned the rest of his scattered body parts with a flick of fire magic.
"I am NOT letting Umbrella clone me." he muttered as smoking chunks of his old self evaporated.
"So White Queen, Europe is our last destination" asked Luke as he looked at the sky.
After Europe, he could get the Anti-Virus and leave this world.
I mean he already stayed here for more than a year, so it's time he returned to Marvel and see what the hell is going on there while he is absent.
*****
A/N: For those who want to read ahead of the Webnovel schedule, you can read up to Chapter 138 on my Patreon.
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