Although the temperature in the cave was very high, when Shiller said this, everyone shivered simultaneously. Polaris rubbed her arms and said, "Don't scare me. Who's howling?"
"It's not a person, but a certain kind of spirit body." Shiller took a deep breath and said, "I'm not a mutant, and I don't belong here. So I can't hear it clearly. You must calm down and feel the connection this island has with you..."
Polaris just wanted to complain about how it was impossible to calm down in this situation. But she knew complaining was useless, so she said to Iceman, "Cool me down, I'll give it a try."
Iceman exhaled a cold breath towards her, fearing it wasn't enough, and created a frost shield around her. Polaris took a deep breath. Her powers were restricted, unable to transform into a magnetic field form, so she held her breath and focused her mind.
At this moment, she suddenly felt herself connecting to some vast consciousness. It was a bit like entering Professor X's psychic battlefield, yet different. Because Professor X has a human's primary consciousness, and this did not. It was more like suddenly falling into an empty space.
Here, she heard faint howls. More accurately, it was an emotion of pain. Such emotions continually rushed into Polaris's mind, making her upset as well, but she still forced her mind to stabilize and tried to communicate with this emotion.
After a while, she came out and said, "It's the Clarkian Totem. More accurately, it's the island itself. It doesn't want the volcano to erupt, but it can't control it..."
"Who the hell!" Iceman cursed, "It's not just trying to hurt us, it wants to destroy Clarkia!"
"Clarkia is in a lot of pain right now," Polaris said anxiously, "We need to find a way to soothe it, which might help reduce the earthquake."
"Leave it to me." Shiller sighed, looked at Strange, and said, "Give everyone a psychic barrier."
Strange certainly knew what he was going to do. So, he immediately cast a shield covering everyone, isolating their minds from the outside, ensuring they wouldn't be polluted.
Shiller turned into a state of gray mist. When The Nameless Fog descended over Clarkia Island, all creatures were stilled in their psychic worlds by indescribable horror, including the soul of Clarkia. For a moment, the tectonic activity diminished.
The people underground noticed this first. Those on the surface couldn't escape the deterrence of the Outer God, nearly falling into the volcanic crater. Fortunately, the gray mist quickly withdrew its force. Otherwise, what the volcanic eruption didn't carry away, it would have.
Shiller didn't return underground but went to the crater. At this time, the crater was emitting thick smoke, indicating the volcano had erupted, though the magma hadn't yet surfaced. The smoke alone was unbearable for ordinary people.
"Can you swallow the smoke?" Shiller asked.
"I can. Should I store it or decompose it?" the gray mist asked.
"Store it, it might come in handy later." Shiller once again assumed a misty form, directly covering the entire crater, swallowing all the thick smoke. The sky over Clarkia Island, once filled with smoke, returned to a clear state.
As the tectonic activity diminished, the two Iron Men finally managed to dismantle the engine's casing. The Power Core seemed completely intact. But soon, the local Iron Man found the problem and said, "Someone injected too much energy into it, causing an overload. This thing has become a giant cylinder. No wonder it led to such rhythmic tremors. We need to find a way to release the energy inside."
The local Iron Man thought for a moment, then said, "My mecha can't bear much strength. You need to help. But in this situation, our mecha might explode instantly. Even being exposed to such high temperatures for a moment, we might not..."
He didn't continue, but everyone could imagine that Tony Stark's constitution was that of an ordinary person, with no chance of withstanding such high temperatures, even for a moment. Even with mutants and magicians escorting him, their bodies would still be too fragile. Any slight mishap, and they'd likely meet their end here.
"There's another way." The local Iron Man said, "Absorb the power until the battle armor is completely overloaded; that way, only one person is needed. This is entirely my responsibility, I'll do it."
Upon saying this, he wanted to open the energy pathway on his hand armor to absorb the energy from the engine. But before he could touch the engine, Stark pushed him away. He wanted to say something else, but Stark gave him an impatient look and directly pulled out the Energy Core from the Ark Reactor in his chest.
He pulled out a wire from under the Energy Core and inserted it into the engine. Almost instantly, the engine stopped pulsating, slowly calming down. The frightening impulse waves and tremors stopped as well.
All the energy in the engine was drawn into the Energy Core. The Energy Core remained unchanged, not even lighting up, as Stark reinserted it back into his chest.
But after doing all this, he could no longer stand, falling straight back. Strange quickly caught him. Stark looked sinisterly at the local Iron Man and said, "You better not be the mastermind."
At this moment, Shiller returned, carrying Stark aloft with the gray mist. His current physical condition wasn't suitable for walking through the teleportation portal. Strange opened the teleportation portal, leading the other mutants back to the surface.
Discovering that the volcanic eruption had stopped, the mutants on the ground also descended from the crater. Upon seeing their group, Apocalypse flew over first to ask, "How did it go? Is it resolved?"
"We'll talk when we get back." Strange wasn't in the mood to explain. He kept staring at the local Iron Man, seemingly weighing the possibility of his sabotage. But no matter what, he couldn't be disentangled from it.
The local Iron Man was well aware of this too. He could practically be described as having a face ashen with fear because he realized he might have been deceived. The person responsible had created a perfect trap to frame him, and now he was at a loss for words.
They initiated the design of the water diversion system, they designed it, and they installed it without involving anyone else. So if there was a problem, it had to be their doing.
What's even scarier is that this plan was discussed internally within The Avengers. So just who leaked the information?
The adversary must have obtained the information quickly and accurately to devise such a plan and successfully execute it. This means there are significant internal issues within the mutants and the local Avengers.
Upon returning to the Central Royal Court, the local Iron Man felt a bit shaky. He held onto the armrest of a chair and carefully contemplated where the flaw might have originated. Meanwhile, the returned mutants looked at him with unfriendly eyes. If not for Charles having calmed them down earlier, the local Iron Man might have been mobbed by the mutants.
The impact of this issue is substantial, and the consequences are severe. Although nothing serious happened in the end, almost all the ambassadors from countries other than SWORD and Wakanda began to resign. The spa banquet has just started, and they haven't even discussed the main business yet.
Meanwhile, Clarkia was already under sanctions, and international opinion was unfavorable. After this incident, it will only get worse. Mutants will undoubtedly be criticized, and the goodwill accumulated with the Clarkia Flower is likely to be reset.
Internal mistrust among mutants will also increase, with each faction suspecting others of leaking information. The already fragmented forces among the mutants will now crack even further.
Not to mention, the mutants and the local Avengers might have a complete fallout. At best, they would never interact with each other again, and at worst, it could lead to war. The most optimistic scenario is that mutants would no longer fight for Earth, leaving the ordinary government and S.H.I.E.L.D. to deal with the alien soldiers remaining in the Solar System.
The more everyone thought about it, the more they felt it was truly a poisonous plan, practically killing multiple birds with one stone. The person who came up with this plan is truly wicked and cruel beyond compare.
"This is indeed my responsibility," the local Iron Man said sorrowfully. "No matter what, I didn't expect the engine to have issues. Even if it wasn't intentional, the responsibility falls on me."
The Avengers were silent. They had no argument because there was no way to refute it. Even if it wasn't intentional, failing to oversee it properly was inexcusable. Their original gesture of goodwill had completely backfired, not only harming themselves but also dragging the mutants into it.
"This is not the time to talk about this," Charles suddenly walked in. He hadn't appeared before, seemingly staying in the anti-gravity laboratory doing something. As he walked in, he said, "I am willing to believe you didn't mean it. But you must admit, there's a problem within The Avengers. You need to investigate where the issue arose."
"We also need to self-examine. Without an insider, a plan couldn't be implemented so easily. After all, the ones executing it must be island locals; it's unlikely outsiders were involved."
The mutants were astonished at his words. Wolverine stood up and asked, "Couldn't it have been Iron Man tampering during installation?"
"If he had indeed done it deliberately, he wouldn't have rushed in to save the day. Even if it was for show, the risk was far too high. Moreover, the rescue was successful, preventing any disaster."
Although some mutants were still skeptical, most accepted this explanation. After all, the local Iron Man's actions following the disaster were evident to all. Frankly, for an ordinary person wearing an iron shell, daring to rush into such a place equates to risking one's life.
Not to mention the high temperatures in the cave, the geological structure was filled with randomness. With this intensity of an earthquake, the cave could collapse at any time. Moreover, this cave was over a hundred meters underground, and once collapsed, it would be impossible to escape, crushed under the debris.
Furthermore, volcanic eruptions don't just exit from the volcano's ridge. Nearly all underground structures would be wrecked by rampaging magma. If a crack opens somewhere, and the lava surges towards you, the iron shell will definitely not withstand it.
If the local Iron Man truly could immerse himself to such a degree, the mutants would accept it. But considering common sense, it's highly unlikely. Based on their understanding of the Main Universe Iron Man, this guy doesn't play mind games, he always openly disgusts people with confidence, not one to pull off such a thing.
Hearing what Charles said, The Avengers sighed in relief, the mutants had taken on half of the responsibility themselves, and they wouldn't start a fight immediately.
But the more Charles said this, the more guilty the local Iron Man felt. He tried hard to suppress his emotions and said, "I will find out who is behind this, I promise."
But Charles shook his head and said, "The investigation must be put on hold. We must first resolve the current predicament. The upcoming situation will be more unfavorable for Clarkia Island, we must figure out a way to turn the tide."
"Don't worry," the local Iron Man looked at him resolutely and said, "The Stark Group will help, and The Avengers too. Whatever Washington intends to do, we will stop them."