Lord of Cinder in American Comics

"Melina!"

Alexei woke up at some point. His enhanced body had a strong resistance to anesthetics, and he was only unconscious for a very short time.

Melina glanced back at Alexei and said, "We have one minute left before we land."

Alexei, feeling the extreme weightlessness in his body, asked, "Then why do we still need to fly upwards?"

Looking through the observation window of the cockpit at the distant lights, Melina said, "You'll soon find out why Drekoff has been able to stay out of everyone's sight all these years!"

The red building is built on an aerial platform powered by a massive turbine engine, around which several runways extend outwards. Its overall shape resembles an inverted tail fin stabilizer.

Alexei was re-injected with the drug and fell into a deep sleep, while Melina, led by others, went to report to Drekoff.

As Melina walked down the corridor, she saw the Black Widows training. Upon seeing Melina standing at the window, the Black Widows lowered their weapons and awaited her commands.

However, upon seeing this, Melina turned and left.

After repeated notifications, Drekoff's office door finally opened, and he was standing in front of the wall-to-wall display screen, looking at his masterpiece.

Seeing Melina walk in, Drekoff lit the cigar between his fingers and asked, "Melina, how was the family gathering?"

"This is terrible, everything is all jumbled up, and I have to go back to take care of my little pig..."

Drekoff pulled Melina close, held her head in his hand, and forced her to look at the information about Natasha on the screen.

"Natasha Romanov, she's a traitor! She betrayed her people in her very blood! I gave her a home, and she doesn't even know how to be grateful!"

Drekoff walked past Melina, stood in front of her, bent down, and held Melina's hands, saying, "Use your experiments on her, turn her into your pig! This will be a great step for the Red Room, letting Natasha infiltrate Dragon Academy. Can you imagine what kind of impact I can have on Dragon Academy through her?"

Suppressing her anger, Melina said to Drekoff, "Don't you want to tell her to her face?"

“When you look into the eyes of someone raising a child, no mask can hide their affirmation.”

Drekoff reached out and touched Melina's temple, gently pressing it, and removed a mask from Melina's face.

"Welcome back, Natasha!"

Upon seeing Natasha beneath the mask, the Taskmaster, who had been standing in the room like a stone statue, raised his gun and aimed it at Natasha.

"Wait, don't kill her! Don't break my new toy!"

Faced with such a threat, Natasha felt even more relaxed. She shrank back into the sofa and looked at the blue smoke behind Drekoff, saying, "Actually, if you want to join the Dragon Academy, you'd better talk to them in person!"

Drekoff looked at Natasha with disdain and said, "I'm not joining. I'll use you and these new Black Widows to make the Dragon Academy serve me!"

"She means, she wants you to come and talk to me!"

Constantine's voice came from behind Derekov, trembling. Derekov turned around and saw Constantine sitting in his seat, looking at them.

"It's all a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!"

As Derekov tried to move away, he glanced at the master of imitation standing next to Constantine.

Raising his finger, the tip shimmering with a pink glow, Constantine said, "Don't even think about it. When it comes to controlling people, you're miles behind me."

Drekoff's biggest asset is his daughter, who has been transformed into a copycat, and now he has nowhere left to retreat.

Suddenly, Drekoff rushed to the control panel, grabbed the phone on the table, and broadcast, "Under attack! Everyone move towards me!"

To be fair, Drekoff was smart; he didn't say anything foolish about killing the enemy. He simply moved everyone over there to create trouble for Constantine, giving him a chance to escape.

However, the pink shimmering at Constantine's fingertip still pointed towards Drekoff.

As soon as he was pointed at, Drekoff straightened up instantly, his large belly slamming into the table and knocking it off its original position.

Under Constantine's control, Drekoff picked up the phone again and sent out different commands.

"Alarm malfunction, Drekoff, cipher 514 restarted. Everyone back to your posts, bring Alexei and Melina to me!"

After sending the command, Drekoff regained his senses, moved away from the table, and took a few steps back in disbelief.

"You...you...I...how could I possibly possess such magic!"

Drekoff instantly felt that all his years of research and planning had been a joke. But he was still unwilling to give up and charged towards Natasha.

Drekoff possesses a special chemical shield; anyone who tries to approach him will be chemically affected and unable to harm him.

Drekoff didn't have the courage to face Constantine, so he chose Natasha, intending to control her and negotiate with Constantine.

Under Melina's guidance, Natasha understood Drekoff's backup plan. She kicked the sofa she was sitting on toward Drekoff, preparing to break her own nasal bone with her hand to block her sense of smell.

However, just as Natasha was about to make her move, Taskmaster appeared behind her without her noticing, grabbing Natasha's neck with one hand and stopping her hand from striking his nose with the other.

"Well done! My Antonia, just like that!"

Upon hearing this name, Natasha looked in disbelief at the master of imitation behind her. This was actually Drekoff's daughter, whom she hadn't killed before.

"You've turned your daughter into this too!"

"So what? Isn't it only right for you to serve your father?"

At this moment, Drekoff still thought that Constantine's control was time-limited, just like he had returned to normal after making the phone call, and that his daughter had seized this crucial opportunity.

However, he was met with the legs of both the Imitation Master and Natasha.

Two long legs kicked Drekoff simultaneously, one in front and one behind.

"This is impossible, absolutely impossible! How could you possibly attack me!"

Kicked twice and rolled over several times, Drekoff lay on the ground, uttering nonsense in disbelief.

At that moment, Taskmaster released Natasha and stood quietly behind her.

Relieved, Natasha looked at Constantine, who was sitting and smoking. In that short time, Constantine had completely filled the ashtray on the table with cigarette butts.

Since she was no longer under Drekoff's control, it was undoubtedly Constantine's doing. Before she could even thank him, Natasha removed the mask from behind her, the mask that had been covering the Master of Imitation's face.

Looking at her face, half of which was covered in burn scars, Natasha could no longer control her emotions. She cried as she stroked her scarred face.

"Antonia, I'm sorry, please forgive me!"

At that moment, the office's blast door seemed to have suffered a huge blow. Multiple bulges appeared with a thud, and finally, the latch gave way, allowing the entire blast door to be smashed open from the outside and fly in.

"Natasha! Your father has arrived!"

Alexei charged in first, ready to throw a punch.

However, upon seeing only three people remaining in the office, Alexei paused for a moment and asked Melina, who was behind him, "What happened? I've never seen such a bizarre battlefield!"

Melina rolled her eyes at Alexei, then looked at Constantine sitting behind his desk, nudged him with her elbow, and said, "Of course, it's the help your daughter brought that's so useful..."

"I thought he had run away; I didn't see him on the plane!"

Although Alexei was reckless, he knew that the most troublesome person in this house was Constantine. Despite complaining a few times, he remained ready to fight.

He prepared to pick up the blast door that had been smashed in and put it back in its original position to buy some time for the others.

However, when he saw the blast door, he stopped and said to Derekov, who was standing at his feet, "I'm sorry, Derekov, I didn't see you. You must be in a lot of pain from being hit like that. Let me help you..."

As he spoke, Alexei picked up the blast door, only to find that Drekov had been smashed in two by it. After lifting the blast door, Alexei let out a painful groan.

"Oh~ Oh~ I'm sorry, I didn't see it, I'm so sorry!"

After saying that, Alexei gently placed the blast door on Derekov's body.

Chapter 205: The Teddy Bear

The mysterious death of Drekov left Alexei wanting more.

Alexei repeatedly lifted the blast door to check if Drekov was dead. After confirming that he had vital signs, Alexei lowered the blast door again amidst Drekov's barely audible breathing.

The farce finally came to an end with Melina's annoyed shouts.

Melina took the ring from Drekoff's dead hand and placed it on the desk in front of Constantine.

"This is the controller for the Red Room. With it, you can control all the Black Widows."

However, Constantine showed no interest in the controller whatsoever and continued smoking.

Seeing that Constantine remained unmoved, Melina continued, "Drekov has already sent Black Widow to control some of the smaller countries. With her, these countries will all be under your control..."

This additional explanation only earned Melina a disdainful look from Constantine.

"Don't you have even the slightest interest in this fortune?"

Unable to resist this kind of probing, and finding it troublesome, Constantine reached out and flicked the ring on the table into Natasha's hand, saying, "Explain to her, don't use such low-level temptations!"

Although Melina knew that Constantine was a mage, she only had a vague understanding of his background and strength.

On the other side of the office, Melina and Natasha were discussing something in hushed tones.

"Does he really have absolutely no interest in this fortune?"

"In fact, he bought a portion of Stark Industries' assets without even negotiating a price, and the dimension where Dragon Academy is located is also said to belong to him."

Melina looked at Natasha in disbelief, stroking Natasha's face as she said, "And what about you? He's not interested in you either?"

"Uh... actually, there are many more powerful and beautiful women around him, some of whom I would fall for at first glance..."

Natasha recalled meeting Julia, Kacharus, and the witch Karula who occasionally showed affection for Constantine at the Dragon Academy, and explained Constantine's situation to Melina.

"But you're by his side now, aren't you? The woman who appears by a man's side the most is the one who attracts him the most. Just like Alexei and me, we were just a couple brought together, but those three years together have made Alexei still think about me to this day..."

Melina, with the air of someone who had been through it all, tirelessly taught Natasha.

However, Natasha shook her head, recalling Constantine's earlier words, and had no confidence whatsoever.

"Forget it, you'd better not say anything later, just watch my eyes and do what I say..."

Melina walked to the control panel, downloaded all the data, and then went to Constantine's side.

"We have to leave, this place is about to explode!"

"Explosion? Why? Wasn't it already under control?"

Constantine tossed the cigarette butt into the ashtray and stared incredulously at Melina across from him.

Constantine, maintaining his basic humanity, didn't bother to eavesdrop on Melina and her daughter's conversation. It was disdain and confidence in his own abilities that led him to limit his senses, experiencing life as an ordinary person.

Melina pointed to Derekov's daughter, the master of imitation Antonia, and said, "Black Widows like her have no cure or will only stagnate unless you can control everyone until I develop the cure."

Constantine, with his feet on the desk and reclining in his chair, blew smoke overhead and asked, "How long?"

"Five to ten years."

Constantine, who had been nonchalant, nearly fell off his chair upon hearing the time, exclaiming incredulously, "Ahem, how long did you say?"