226

Absolute Loyalty

A room in the Third Sanctuary.

"Knock knock." There was a knock on the door.

The door opened for a moment, and the owl looked at the person knocking on the door, stunned: "Soransen?"

It was Soransen who knocked. The owl wasn't familiar with him, and it took him a while to remember his name: "It's so late. Do you need something?"

Soransen smiled: "Come inside. I have something good to show you."

The owl didn't suspect anything, so he let Soransen in. Once inside, Soransen closed the door with his backhand.

"Boom!"

With the sound of the door closing, the atmosphere in the room suddenly became strange.

The owl was very vigilant: "What are you going to do?"

The corners of Soransen's mouth twitched, and he raised his hand to release a gray mist.

The gray fog poured onto the owl's face, and his expression changed greatly. Then, he returned to normal in a blink of an eye and even became extremely submissive: "What is this…"

"It doesn't matter. From now on, I'm your master, right?" Soransen said.

The owl nodded: "That's right."

"Tell me, where are the other Inhumans? As far as I know, the ones here are the most powerful and sober?" Soransen said.

"Yes. Come with me, master. I'll take you to them," said the owl.

The two then left the room and walked along the aisle in the sanctuary.

Walking on the road, the owl said nervously: "I never thought there is such a sacred and wonderful thing in the world—to be your servant. I think everyone should enjoy this honor."

"That's what I meant," Soransen said.

They turned a corner, and Forseti suddenly appeared in front of them.

Forseti leaned against the wall and looked at them: "It's so late. Where are you going?"

Soransen: "Uh, we…"

Forseti looked at him lightly.

He had left a lot of holy light in Soransen earlier, and Soransen wandering around in the middle of the night naturally caught his attention.

And when the owl appeared with him, Forseti already had a general guess in his heart.

Forseti stepped forward a few steps, then suddenly grabbed the hilt of the sword at his waist.

"Schuck-"

The sword of Rivendell was half-sheathed, and the cold light shone in all directions.

The owl stood in front of Soransen without hesitation, with a posture of defending to the death, which made Forseti smile instead.

"Sure enough, it's you, Hive." Forseti looked at Soransen behind the owl.

The owl and Soransen had only met a few times. Clearly, the owl was now controlled by Soransen—no, by Hive.

Forseti had fallen into a misunderstanding before. When he thought Hive was the source of Hydra, he subconsciously believed Hive should be full of evil, so he was puzzled when the pointer of the Holy Light did not respond.

Now, thinking about it, Hive had just been created and had only the blood of enemy Kree. He had not killed any innocents, so naturally, it couldn't cause the reaction of the holy deed.

"Call—"

Seeing his identity exposed, Hive didn't waste time. He opened his mouth and spewed out a gray mist that poured onto Forseti's face.

As soon as the gray fog came, Forseti felt dizzy, his eyes flashed gold stars.

Immediately, a fine pain spread rapidly from his head to his whole body, as if countless ants had drilled into his body and gnawed.

Parasites!

From what he knew about Hive, this gray fog should be composed of extremely tiny parasites.

He hurriedly lit up his whole body, activating the flame divine power. His body temperature soared to three or four thousand degrees, and the ground under his feet showed a molten state.

Under the scorching of the super-high temperature of the flame power, the parasites that invaded Forseti's body quickly disappeared, and the pain and dizziness also dissipated.

Forseti shook his head and looked at Hive coldly.

"Stop him!"

Hive ordered the owl, turning and running at the same time.

Although the owl knew he was no match for Forseti, under Hive's control, he still rushed forward without hesitation.

Forseti squeezed the owl's neck and pointed his other hand at him.

"Holy Shock!"

Hive, who was rushing away, opened his eyes in horror. His footsteps stopped abruptly, and golden light surged all over his body.

"Boom!"

The holy light in his body was detonated, and he was blown to ashes, leaving no bones behind.

Forseti took a few steps forward, his brows furrowed.

There were only ashes from the sacred shock. If it were an ordinary person, they would be dead. But could Hive really be killed like this?

Agamotto hurried over: "What happened?"

Forseti explained the situation.

"Hive!" Agamotto said in surprise.

"As far as I know, Hive can manipulate Inhumans and parasitize corpses. Soransen was dead when he appeared in front of us yesterday. Hive was occupying his body," Forseti said.

"Then did you just kill Hive?"

"I don't know." Forseti shook his head and frowned.

The owl was still struggling, trying to attack him.

Forseti thought about it and put a cleansing technique on him, but it didn't work.

He infused some holy light and then released the cleansing technique, but still couldn't get the owl out of Hive's control, which made it difficult for him.

Hive seemed to be manipulating Inhumans by throwing parasites. The divine flame could burn the parasite to death, but the parasite was in the owl's body. The divine flame couldn't burn inside his body.

"Agamotto, why don't you try? See if you can dispel the control Hive exerted on the owl." Forseti had to say.

"It's useless," said the owl. "I have absolute loyalty to the master!"

"Absolute loyalty?"

"Yes, just as you are loyal to yourself, I am loyal to the master." The owl said, "You will not betray yourself, and I will not betray the master."

Forseti: "Hive controls you."

Owl: "Even if it is, so what?"

Forseti and Agamotto looked at each other, both surprised and shocked.

Such thorough control was beyond their imagination. It wasn't so much that the owl had been deceived. It was more like his core of reason had been replaced.

The core rationality of normal people is to protect their own interests. At this time, the rationality followed by owls was to maintain Hive as the core.

He was still sober, rational, and still a rational person, but all his considerations were based on Hive's interests, maintaining Hive as firmly as a normal person maintains himself.

"I'll give it a try…" Agamotto said confidently.

Immediately he left with the owl.

The next day, Forseti found Agamotto and asked, "How is the owl?"

"The control is lifted, but…" Agamotto sighed, pointing behind him.

Forseti looked and saw that the owl was lying on the ground in a daze, his eyes blank and his face empty.