Chapter 217: Shattering Shackles, Withstanding the Phoenix Rampage
Lin Nuo looked at Jean's face, inches from his own, feeling her warm breath against his chin.
In those eyes that were always so restrained, there was now only a madness and determination born of being deceived.
He raised his hand, his rough fingertips brushing against Jean's slightly dry lips.
"As you wish."
The bottom level of the mobile command ship, the high-energy training chamber.
The walls here were coated with polymer heat-insulating material, with two-finger-thick Vibranium mesh embedded in the layers. This was originally a facility used by Star Umbrella to test the extreme stress-bearing data of heavy individual mechs.
Emma sat before the main console. The White Queen had already entered her secondary mutation, the Diamond Form, her crystal-clear skin refracting the eerie blue light from the screens. She needed to use her vast telepathic field to monitor the changes in the mental waves within the chamber in real-time.
Ororo stood on the other side of the control room, her hands pressing against the edge of the console. Her task was to drain the air from the chamber when necessary, creating an absolute vacuum to disrupt energy conduction.
Anna, separated by thick explosion-proof glass, gripped the hem of her clothes with both hands. Watching the redhead standing in the center of the training chamber, she instinctively felt a shudder originating from the depths of her genes. It was a dangerous intuition, like encountering a natural predator.
"Take off your coat." Lin Nuo stood by the chamber door, unbuttoning his white shirt cuffs and rolling the sleeves up to his forearms.
Jean did not hesitate; she tore off the dust-covered nylon trench coat and threw it on the floor, wearing only a tight black tactical vest.
"Close your eyes. Reach out and touch those dark golden chains that Charles left in your mind." Lin Nuo's voice echoed through the loudspeaker in the enclosed space, steady and without any inflection.
Jean took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
She sank her consciousness into that dark abyss. In the past, whenever she got even slightly close to that area, the mental shackles Charles had left behind would release a skull-splitting agony, forcing her to retreat.
But today, she did not retreat.
A scarlet flame ignited in the depths of her sea of consciousness. The monster that had been imprisoned for over a decade felt the summons of its host.
In the external reality, anomalies began to appear.
The temperature inside the training chamber skyrocketed at a speed that defied physical common sense. The air expanded under the heat, creating visible, distorted ripples.
Jean's red hair moved without wind, curling upwards. Eerie, dark red patterns emerged on the surface of her skin.
"The energy threshold has broken through the standard warning line." Emma watched the red numbers jumping wildly on the screen, her tone still elegant. "The surface temperature of the first layer of polymer isolation board has reached its melting point."
Sizzle.
A harsh, metallic liquefying sound rang out. The alloy floor beneath Jean's feet began to turn red and soften. A massive, extreme telekinetic force spilled out uncontrollably in all directions.
Bang!
The surveillance camera installed on the ceiling exploded into a burst of sparks.
Jean opened her eyes. Before her were melted metal and distorted space.
This destructive power awakened the painful memories of her childhood car accident. Charles's words, "Your power will destroy everything," echoed in her mind, forming a highly oppressive inertia.
"Stop..." Jean's breathing became rapid, and cold sweat seeped from her forehead. She tried to rein in the leaking energy. "It's going to lose control! Open the emergency valve!"
Ororo instinctively reached out to press the air extraction button.
A large, bony hand pressed down on Ororo's wrist.
Lin Nuo stood by the console, not even glancing at the red emergency button. He pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose.
"I didn't say stop, no one is allowed to touch it."
Ororo's wrist was squeezed painfully. Watching the increasingly violent red energy in the chamber, her voice tightened: "Officer, the second isolation board has been burned through. If this continues, it will blow up the bottom structure of the entire ship!"
Lin Nuo did not respond. He released Ororo and turned to walk towards the thick explosion-proof door.
In Anna's shocked gaze, Lin Nuo pressed the button to open the chamber door.
A heatwave, mixed with temperatures high enough to roast an ordinary person into charcoal, rushed towards him.
Lin Nuo's leather shoes stepped on the glowing red metal floor, emitting an extremely faint sizzling sound. He hadn't even fully extended his Bio-force field; relying solely on the terrifying density of his Hulk-level physique, he withstood this high-frequency radiation, walking step by step towards Jean, who was at the center of the storm.
"Don't come over!" Seeing Lin Nuo walk into this death zone, extreme panic flashed in Jean's eyes.
She couldn't control the overflowing Phoenix Force at all. The scarlet energy, like a venomous snake with eyes, opened its fangs and lunged at Lin Nuo.
Hiss!
The moment Lin Nuo's high-end white shirt made contact with the red energy, it instantly turned to ash.
Revealing a muscular silhouette with extremely smooth lines, filled with explosive power.
Anna covered her mouth outside the glass.
But the scene that followed subverted everyone's perception.
Those violent energies, capable of melting Vibranium, were forcibly blocked by a dark golden light the moment they touched Lin Nuo's skin. The absolute resistance of the Asgardian Divine Factor, combined with the Mutant's extreme microscopic atomic reconstruction ability, allowed Lin Nuo's body to constantly collapse and reconstruct at a microscopic level.
He didn't retreat a single step, not even frowning.
Lin Nuo walked up to Jean, close enough to feel her trembling body.
He reached out that large hand, suffused with a dark golden luster, and gripped the back of Jean's neck, forcing her to look up.
"Open your eyes and look at me." Lin Nuo's voice cut through the roar of the energy, piercing straight into Jean's ears.
Jean's eyes were red, looking at the shirtless man in front of her who was withstanding the Phoenix Force without a scratch.
"Charles told you this power would kill, so you were afraid." Lin Nuo pressed his thumb against her cervical spine. "Now I'm standing right here, without even activating my defenses. Have you killed me?"
Jean opened her mouth, unable to make a sound.
"You can't hurt me in the slightest." The curve of Lin Nuo's lips revealed absolute arrogance. "Smash that door. Let that monster inside out. If the sky falls, I'll hold it up for you."
These words completely shattered the last shackles in the depths of Jean's heart.
That nightmare that had plagued her for over a decade, that terrifying power that even Charles avoided like a plague, was, in this man's eyes, not worth mentioning.
He really could handle it all.
The scarlet light at the corners of Jean's eyes erupted completely.
A shrill, soul-piercing cry exploded within the training chamber. It was the Phoenix's celebration after breaking free from some of its shackles.
The third isolation board collapsed with a roar.
The entire chamber turned into a sea of red fire.
But in the center of this sea of fire, Lin Nuo stood steadily. He held Jean's waist with one hand, letting the violent energy wash over his body.
Anna, through the explosion-proof glass, watched that tall, straight back in the sea of fire. The fear in her eyes was gradually replaced by a near-pathological worship.
If this man could subdue a monster of that level, what did her own mutation of absorbing life force even matter?
Ororo swallowed hard, completely giving up any thought of resistance.
A full five minutes passed.
The red energy in the chamber began to contract inward, eventually lurking back into Jean's body entirely.
The high temperature receded. The floor was covered in melted metal residue.
Jean's legs went weak, and she collapsed forward from exhaustion.
Lin Nuo caught her steadily.
Jean was soaked in sweat, her tactical vest clinging to her skin. She leaned against Lin Nuo's solid chest, listening to his steady, powerful heartbeat.
For the first time in over a decade, she felt so relaxed. The throbbing pain that had constantly pressed on her nerves in her mind had disappeared.
"How do you feel?" Lin Nuo looked down at the woman in his arms.
Jean looked up, gazing at Lin Nuo's face, which remained as calm as ever. She didn't thank him, but instead reached out her arms, wrapping them tightly around Lin Nuo's neck, and buried her face in the crook of his neck.
At this moment, she had completely chosen her side.
Just as the atmosphere fell into a strange tenderness.
The red alarm in the control room sounded without warning. The sharp electronic buzzing pierced through the brief tranquility.
Emma's slender fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard, a look of gravity appearing on her diamond-transformed face.
She opened the communication channel, her voice transmitting directly into the training chamber.
"Master, there's a situation in Cairo."
Lin Nuo patted Jean on the back, signaling her to stand up. He pulled a black tactical trench coat from a locker nearby and draped it over himself, covering his muscular torso.
"Speak." Lin Nuo walked to the communicator.
"Raven just sent back encrypted intelligence." Emmapushed a high-resolution infrared thermal imaging map onto the screen.
The image showed that the huge altar beneath the old city of Cairo was emitting an extremely terrifying energy peak.
"Apocalypse didn't wait for three days." Emma watched the soaring data. "He has poured all the high-level Mutantgenes collected from around the world into the altar. The ritual... has started early."
Chapter 218: Raven Lost Contact, Does a False God Deserve to Set the Rules?
"Apocalypse has poured all the high-tier Mutant genes collected globally into the altar. The ritual... has started early."
Emma's report echoed through the communication channel.
Lin Nuo pulled the black tactical trench coat draped over his shoulders with one hand and strode to the front of the holographic screen.
On the screen, the infrared thermal imaging sent back by Raven was flashing wildly with deep purple blocks representing extreme danger.
"Raven, report the identity of the fourth Horseman." Lin Nuo issued the order into the microphone.
Extremely heavy panting came from the other end of the communicator, with the harsh sound of stones rubbing against each other mixed into the background noise.
Raven's voice became intermittent, clearly in the middle of high-intensity tactical evasion.
"Master... the situation has changed. The fourth Horseman... is not alive at all... it is..."
Zzzzt!
A high-frequency electromagnetic interference sound pierced the eardrums.
The miniature tactical probe worn by Raven captured the final half-second of footage amidst violent tumbling.
A withered body wrapped in grey, decayed linen squeezed out from the corner of the dark corridor.
That face had long since lost its moisture, and the withered lips were torn to both sides, revealing ghastly white gums.
It was none other than Salim, the tomb keeper who had been killed after Apocalypse forcibly read his memories.
But the current Salim had two clusters of ghostly blue fire jumping in his eye sockets, and half of his body had completely turned into sand, transforming into a deadly quicksand whip that lashed fiercely at Raven's hiding spot.
"Detected... intruder... offer to... the True God..."
The hoarse roar was accompanied by the crisp sound of the probe shattering, and the screen completely dissolved into static.
The control room fell into dead silence.
Emma's slender fingers left afterimages on the virtual keyboard as she attempted to re-establish the psychic connection.
A few seconds later, a rare look of gravity appeared on the White Queen's typically elegant diamond face.
"The physical signal is completely lost. The magnetic field strength beneath Cairo exceeds the monitoring limit of conventional instruments."
Emma looked up, "I tried to use telepathy to anchor her mental coordinates, but there is an extremely ancient and volatile mental barrier there. The good news is that Raven's vital signs are still present; that old monster didn't kill her directly."
Lin Nuo pushed the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose; there was no anxiety in his black eyes behind the lenses, only the extreme displeasure of a tyrant whose territory had been violated.
"Keeping her alive is nothing more than wanting to use her as nourishment for the ritual."
Lin Nuo sneered, bent his index finger, and tapped twice on the metal console, "We agreed on a general offensive in three days, and this old monster couldn't even hold back for twelve hours. Thousands of years of cultivation have all been fed to the lizards in the desert."
He turned around, his gaze sweeping over everyone in the control room.
"Notify the Star Fleet to charge the main guns. All heavy security personnel are to enter Level 1 combat status. We aren't waiting three days; we're going to tear down that broken temple tonight."
"I'm going too."
A cold, clear female voice interrupted Lin Nuo's deployment.
Jean walked out from the passage of the high-energy training chamber.
The originally tight black tactical vest she wore was completely soaked with sweat from the previous high heat, clinging tightly to her proud curves.
Lin Nuo's oversized black tactical trench coat was draped over her shoulders, blocking most of the view, yet adding a touch of suggestive languor and danger.
Her red hair was no longer combed meticulously as it had been in the past, but instead fell somewhat wildly across her collarbones.
Deep within her eyes, scarlet flames flickered faintly.
After removing Charles's mental shackles, Jean radiated an aggressiveness that made people afraid to look directly at her.
"Are you sure?" Lin Nuo looked at her, the corners of his mouth curling into a playful arc.
Jean walked up to Lin Nuo, meeting his highly aggressive gaze without any avoidance.
She raised her hand and naturally straightened Lin Nuo's collar, which had become somewhat dishevelled from resisting the Phoenix Force earlier.
"Apocalypse wants me. If I don't show up, how can he carry out that pathetic ritual of his?"
Jean's voice was slightly husky, her fingertips brushing against Lin Nuo's Adam's apple intentionally or unintentionally, "Besides, didn't you say that if the sky fell, you would hold it up for me?"
Lin Nuo grabbed Jean's wrist with his backhand, rubbed his thumb against her delicate skin twice, and pulled her into his arms.
"Very good. Keep up this momentum of wanting to scatter someone's ashes. This is what befits your current status."
This intimate act, performed as if no one else was around, caused Scott's eyes to instantly bloodshot the moment he walked out of the medical area.
Scott's wrist was still in a polymer splint.
Watching Jean nestled in that capitalist's arms, seeing Jean wearing that man's clothes, an uncontrollable sense of humiliation rushed straight to his head.
"Jean! Are you crazy!"
Scott strode over and blocked the two of them, "You just experienced an energy backlash; your body cannot handle high-intensity combat at all! Besides, that is Apocalypse's lair, even the Professor has been captured; if you go with him, you're just throwing your life away!"
Jean stepped back half a step from Lin Nuo's arms, but did not break free from Lin Nuo's grip on her hand.
She looked at the man she had once loved deeply, her eyes as calm as if she were looking at a complete stranger with whom she had no connection.
"Scott, I am in a better state now than any day in the past fifteen years."
Jean's tone had no fluctuation, "I am no longer that ticking time bomb that needs to be locked in an Underground Room, nor do I need your self-righteous protection."
"You've been brainwashed by him!"
Scott pointed at Lin Nuo, his voice hoarse, "He doesn't care about your life or death at all; he just wants to use your power to deal with Apocalypse!"
"Put away that disgusting face of yours with your victim-blaming theory."
Lin Nuo didn't even give Scott a proper look, simply putting his arm around Jean's waist and leading her toward the cabin door.
"Mr. Summers, your greatest tragedy is that you will never learn to face reality. You think you are caring for her, but in reality, you are just afraid of the Phoenix that is completely beyond your and Charles's control."
Lin Nuo stopped and tilted his head slightly.
"McCoy."
Hank poked his head out from behind the console, his blue fur full of conflict.
"Tie him to a chair. If he dares to leave the medical area again, break his other hand."
Lin Nuo dropped this sentence and walked straight into the elevator with Jean.
Logan exhaled a thick cloud of cigar smoke and flexed his left hand, which had just regrown its Adamantiumskeleton.
Six sharp steel claws popped out into the air, emitting a chilling metallic grinding sound.
"Cyclops, take some advice. Just stay here obediently."
Logan patted Scott's shoulder with enough force to make Scott stagger, "The current battlefield is long past the level where you can get involved."
Ororo, wearing a black tactical suit with faint arcs of electricity circling her body, followed in Logan's footsteps without a word.
...
Two hours later.
Egypt, above the old city of Cairo.
The entire city had completely plunged into darkness.
The magnetic storm released by Apocalypse had paralyzed all power systems, and the sky full of yellow sand obscured the starlight, turning this ancient land into an airtight cage.
The Star Umbrella heavy transport aircraft hovered at the edge of the sandstorm.
The cabin door opened with a roar, and the violent airflow mixed with gravel poured into the cabin.
Lin Nuo stood at the edge of the cabin door, looking down at the ruins below that had completely collapsed.
In the field of view of the thermal imager, a massive amount of energy deep within the ruins was pulsating rhythmically, just like an ancient heart awakening.
"Officer, all entrances on the surface have been sealed by quicksand."
Ororo shouted, the wind pressure blowing her silver hair straight, "Those sands are highly corrosive; conventional blasting methods can't blow open a passage at all!"
"Then don't use conventional methods."
Lin Nuo leaped.
No parachute, no cushioning equipment whatsoever.
Like a black meteorite, he smashed directly toward the center of the churning quicksand.
At the moment before touching the ground, the terrifying density of the Hulk-level was compressed to the extreme in his right arm.
Lin Nuo clenched his fist and smashed it fiercely against the thick mantle below.
Boom!
The air waves cleared the space.
The materialized Bio-force field, mixed with pure physical kinetic energy, completely vaporized the quicksand within a hundred-meter radius.
The hard rock layer was as fragile as a cracker in the face of this monstrous force, and a vertical passage tens of meters deep was smashed open.
Lin Nuo landed steadily on the bluestone slab at the bottom of the passage, his leather shoes crushing a brick engraved with hieroglyphs.
A few seconds later, Jean descended slowly, wrapped in telekinesis.
Logan and Ororo followed closely behind.
The air here was turbid, filled with a pungent smell of mixed embalming spices and blood.
There were no light sources around, only the ghostly blue runes on the walls emitting a faint, cold light.
"The magnetic field here is completely chaotic. My telekinesis can only extend less than ten meters."
Jean leaned against Lin Nuo's side, looking around vigilantly.
Logan sniffed, his brows knitting into a tight knot.
"There's a smell of blood. Very fresh."
Logan popped his steel claws, "Right ahead."
Lin Nuo walked at the very front.
He didn't deliberately lighten his footsteps; his leather shoes echoed in the empty corridor with a sense of immense oppression.
The corridor was not long, but the walls on both sides were surprisingly smooth.
As they went deeper, the ghostly blue runes on the walls gradually became denser, eventually converging into huge and eerie murals.
Those murals were painted with some kind of dark red pigment, and after thousands of years, the colors were still vivid.
Ororo stopped and, using the faint electric arc lighting up at her fingertips, saw the patterns on the wall clearly.
On the picture, four knights clad in heavy armor were riding Beasts of various shapes, trampling countless human heads under their feet.
And in the center of the four knights, a grey-blue giant was sitting on a throne, holding a bright red heart in his hands.
"These are Apocalypse's Four Horsemen..."
Ororo's voice was a bit dry, "Famine, Pestilence, War, Death."
Lin Nuo stopped in front of a mural, his gaze falling on the knight pattern representing "Death."
What that knight was holding was not the traditional scythe, but an extremely familiar metal scepter.
"It seems that what Raven saw before losing contact is far more interesting than a mummy in an hourglass."
Lin Nuo pushed his gold-rimmed glasses and turned his head to look at the huge, half-closed stone door deep in the corridor.
"Logan, you said just now that you smelled blood."
Jean looked at the dark red liquid seeping out from the crack in the stone door.
"It's Mutant blood. And not just one."
A Beast-like low growl came from Logan's throat.
Chapter 219: Violent Dismantling, The Blood-Red Trap of the Old God's Underground Palace
A Beast-like low growl rumbled in Logan's throat.
He strode to the massive, half-ajar stone door. His newly grown Adamantium claws chiseled directly into the gap of the door, and the muscles in his thick arms bulged high. Accompanied by the teeth-grinding sound of friction, the bluestone door, weighing dozens of tons, was forcibly pushed open to create a passage wide enough for a person to pass through.
The scene behind the door was by no means a traditional pharaoh's tomb.
In the vast underground space, dense, translucent, ghostly blue pipelines clung to the rock walls like human blood vessels. Dark red, viscous liquid surged within the pipelines, extending deep into the underground palace. The scent in the air, a mixture of antiseptic spices and fresh blood, was intensely pungent.
Suddenly, a sound of small rocks tumbling down came from overhead.
A descent rope dangled down from a hole dozens of meters above. Scott grabbed the rope with one hand and smashed onto the bluestone floor in an extremely disheveled state. Blood seeped from his wrist, which was wrapped in a polymer splint, and his ruby quartz visor was covered in a thick layer of dust. He gasped for air, staggering as he tried to steady himself.
Logan turned his head, his eyebrows knitted together.
"Cyclops, I told you to stay up there." Logan's tone was filled with irritation.
Scott gritted his teeth, ignoring Logan, and instead cast his gaze toward Lin Nuo, who was walking at the very front.
Lin Nuo stopped. He didn't even have the interest to turn his head to look; he simply raised his hand and very casually helped Jean adjust the black tactical trench coat draped over her shoulders.
"Mr. Summers' bones are a bit harder than I imagined." Lin Nuo's voice was flat, laced with unabashed mockery. "Since you insist on coming down to be an audience member, then please walk at the very back. Don't let your blood dirty my shoes."
Scott's chest heaved violently, and just as he was about to retort, the surrounding rock walls suddenly underwent a bizarre change.
Those ghostly blue pipelines clinging to the walls erupted with blindingly intense light. The bluestone slabs on the ground began to turn to sand on a large scale, and the originally hard floor tiles instantly transformed into a quicksand vortex that devoured living things.
A withered body wrapped in grayish linen squeezed out from the sand waterfall ahead.
It was Salim, the tomb guardian who had been forcibly modified by Apocalypse. Two ghostly blue flames danced in his eye sockets, and his withered lips tore to both sides, emitting a hiss like metal friction.
"Sacrifices... all offered to the True God..."
Following Salim's roar, dozens of similarly sand-ified fanatic believers emerged from the quicksand on the walls on both sides. They held spears condensed from high-density sand particles and lunged at the intruders without feeling any pain.
Logan roared and charged head-on into the crowd of monsters.
His steel claws swung, and severed limbs flew everywhere. However, those severed bodies turned into streams of sand before hitting the ground, rapidly crawling up Logan's lower legs in an attempt to drag him into the underground vortex.
Scott raised his only good hand to press the edge of his visor. A thick beam of red laser light swept out, the high temperature burning several sand-ified believers into glass crystals. But the quicksand behind them poured out continuously, quickly crushing and swallowing those crystals again.
This was a meaningless war of attrition. The entire ecosystem of the underground palace was providing supplies for these monsters.
High-voltage electric arcs lit up in Ororo's hands. Just as she was about to manipulate the air currents to create an underground storm, a large, well-defined hand pressed down on her shoulder.
Lin Nuo stepped past Ororo and walked straight toward the churning quicksand.
"Playing this kind of low-level tower defense game is a waste of time."
Lin Nuo pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose. His gaze didn't linger on those monsters at all; instead, he followed the path of those ghostly blue pipelines on the rock walls and locked directly onto a massive square stone carving in the center of the underground palace's dome.
That was the energy hub and load-bearing node of the entire underground labyrinth.
Quicksilver's limit speed erupted at this moment.
Lin Nuo's figure left an afterimage in place. The air was violently smashed open, creating a white sonic boom cloud. Ignoring the rules of gravity, he sprinted up the vertical rock wall, and the sand-ified believers who tried to block his path along the way were shredded into powder by the gale he brought with him.
Leaping into mid-air, the muscles in Lin Nuo's right arm compressed to the limit. Hulk-level terrifying power, mixed with a dark red Bio-force field, condensed into a high-density energy ball at his fist.
There was no fancy puzzle-solving, no probing whatsoever.
Lin Nuo smashed a fist down onto that core stone carving.
Boom!
A deafening roar echoed through the underground space. That load-bearing hub, which had endured for thousands of years, was pulverized by the violent physical kinetic energy. The raging Bio-force field expanded savagely in all directions along the cracks in the dome, forcibly cutting off the energy transmission of all the ghostly blue pipelines.
Deprived of its energy supply, the churning quicksand vortex on the ground immediately came to a halt.
Those sand-ified believers who had just been fearless of death, like toys with their springs wound out, collapsed one after another into piles of lifeless, ordinary yellow sand. The ghostly fire in Salim's eye sockets flickered twice, and his entire skull dropped to the ground with a thud, shattering into pieces.
Lin Nuo landed steadily. His leather shoes stepped onto the thick sand, and his breathing hadn't even been disrupted in the slightest.
"The path is clear." Lin Nuo adjusted his cuffs.
Logan pulled his legs out of the sand pile, shook the dust off his body, and swallowed hard as he looked at the hole above that was over ten meters in diameter. This completely unreasonable, demolition-style method of breaking the situation made his Beast instincts feel deeply powerless.
Jean walked to Lin Nuo's side. She didn't look at the mess on the ground, but instead covered her forehead, her red hair fluttering slightly in the turbid air.
"What's wrong?" Lin Nuo turned his head.
"Charles is just ahead." Jean's voice was a bit hoarse, with scarlet flames dancing deep in her eyes. "But I feel more than just him. This entire underground palace... is like a giant water pump. The altar is extracting the genes of those Mutants to feed something extremely ancient."
Jean looked up, staring directly into Lin Nuo's eyes.
"The Phoenix inside me... is craving the thing ahead."
A highly aggressive arc curled at the corners of Lin Nuo's mouth. He backhanded his arm around Jean's waist, leading her toward the depths of the passage.
"Then let's go and snatch it. Whether it's Apocalypse's life or the treasure he's hidden."
Passing through the scrapped mechanism area, the team entered a narrow obsidian corridor.
At the end of the corridor, a massive energy barrier blocked the way. High-frequency purple electric arcs leaped across the surface of the barrier, making crackling sounds.
In the center of the energy cage, a weak figure was suspended.
Raven's signature black tuxedo was already in tatters. Her limbs were pierced by alloy chains with barbs, and her blue scales were covered in dried blood. Hearing footsteps, she lifted her head with difficulty.
Lin Nuo walked up to the energy barrier. He didn't look for any control console, but instead grabbed two of the energy pillars flickering with high-voltage arcs with both hands. The insulating properties of the Asgardian Divine Factorwere fully activated, and accompanied by a teeth-grinding tearing sound, he forcibly ripped a large hole in the barrier that was capable of vaporizing steel.
Logan rushed in and swung his steel claws to cut the chains.
Raven collapsed forward from exhaustion, and Lin Nuoreached out to catch her, leaning her against the wall.
"Master..." Raven coughed up a mouthful of bloody saliva, her fingers gripping Lin Nuo's lapels tightly, her azure blue pupils filled with extreme anxiety.
"Save some strength to breathe." Lin Nuo took out a Star Umbrella special-made nano-repair agent and injected it directly into her carotid artery.
Raven, however, pushed the syringe away with force, her gaze passing over Lin Nuo to stare intently at Jean, who was standing behind.
"It's too late... Master." Raven's voice was as hoarse as if rubbing against sandpaper. "Apocalypse never intended to use Charles's body as a vessel. Charles is just a converter used to extract energy."
Raven gasped for air, throwing out the truth that was enough to subvert everyone's understanding.
"That old monster's true target... is the Old God's remains he left behind thousands of years ago. And the only key to awakening those remains... is the Phoenix Fire inside Jean."
Chapter 220: Old God's Heart-Stealing, This Shackle Is Not For You to Break
"The old monster's true target... is the remnant of the Old God he left behind thousands of years ago. And the only key to waking that remnant... is the Phoenix Fire within Jean."
Raven's hoarse voice echoed through the narrow obsidian corridor.
The moment her words fell, the gravity field of the entire underground palace shifted in an extremely bizarre way.
The dim, ghostly blue conduits on the walls erupted without warning into blinding crimson light. The direction of the energy flow was forcibly reversed; instead of being channeled outward, it was being frantically sucked back from the deepest depths of the underground palace.
Jean let out a painful grunt.
She stumbled forward uncontrollably, clutching her temples tightly. The black tactical trench coat draped over her shoulders slid off, revealing a tactical vest soaked in sweat.
Scarlet Phoenix Fire seeped from her pores, manifesting into tangible flames in the air.
"Jean!" Scott rushed forward recklessly, trying to reach out and grab her.
A visible ring of energy Impact exploded from within Jean's body.
Scott didn't even touch the hem of Jean's clothing before he was sent flying by this violent telekinetic force. He slammed heavily into the bluestone pillar behind him, a sickening sound of bone fracturing ringing out. His wrist, set in a polymer splint, was completely deformed, his ruby quartz visor skewed to one side, and he coughed up a large mouthful of blood in a miserable state.
Ororo's hands lit up with high-voltage electric arcs, attempting to create a wind wall to block the Impact, but she was forced back repeatedly by the energy aftershocks.
Logan crossed his arms to protect his chest, his Adamantium skeleton sizzling in the high heat.
Only Lin Nuo stood in place.
The moment the violent Phoenix energy touched his white shirt, it was forcibly split and diverted to both sides by the absolute insulating layer constructed by the Asgardian Divine Factor.
"He is pulling me..." The whites of Jean's eyes were completely swallowed by crimson, her voice overlapping with some extremely ancient screeching, "He is in my head..."
Deep in the underground palace, a low, mechanical grinding sound rumbled.
In the darkness ahead, hundreds of ghostly blue beams lit up. Those beams intertwined in mid-air to form a massive ancient traction matrix, precisely locking onto Jean's consciousness coordinates.
Apocalypse's hoarse voice, carrying a metallic echo, exploded directly in everyone's minds.
"Poor child. You have been locked in a cage by that hypocritical bald man for too long."
Apocalypse's voice carried a highly seductive mental penetrating power, using Charles's telepathic network to drill into the depths of Jean's sea of consciousness without obstruction.
"He tells you your power is a disaster. He makes you live like a defective product."
"Walk to me. Give your hand to me. I will smash that door for you and let you see the true face of the gods. You do not need to suppress yourself anymore, nor do you need to be afraid of hurting those fragile ants."
The traction matrix erupted with intense suction.
Jean's feet gradually left the ground, her body floating uncontrollably toward the Phoenix Traction Chamber deep in the underground palace. The energy within her became increasingly manic, and the surrounding rock walls began to vitrify under the high heat.
"Jean! Don't listen to him!" Scott struggled to crawl up from the ground, pressing his skewed visor with one hand, and a thick red laser beam blasted toward those ghostly blue traction light pillars.
The beam hit the matrix without causing even a ripple; it was simply swallowed by the massive energy field.
Scott's eyes turned red with anxiety, and he screamed hoarsely: "He is using you! Stop! You will destroy yourself! Think of the Professor, think of the children at the school! You have to control that monster!"
These words precisely stepped on the minefield Jean hated the most.
Control. Suppression. Always sacrificing oneself for others.
Jean turned her head in mid-air, those scarlet eyes staring at Scott.
"Shut up..." Jean's voice was hoarse to the extreme. Telekinetic force turned into an invisible giant hand, directly grabbing Scott's neck and lifting him into mid-air.
Scott kicked his legs wildly, his face turning purple, completely unable to break free from this physical crushing force.
Apocalypse's laughter echoed in the corridor, dripping with the arrogance of controlling everything.
"Do you see? This is human love. They only love the obedient pet wearing a collar. Once you bare your fangs, they only feel fear. Come, release it. Burn everything here to ashes."
The metal door of the Traction Chamber opened with a bang.
Blinding red light shone from behind the door. A massive ancient Egyptian altar floated in mid-air. Charles was nailed to a cross pillar in the center of the altar, bleeding from his seven orifices, his skin surface completely covered by gray-blue patterns.
Apocalypse's phantom stood behind Charles, spreading his arms to welcome Jean's arrival.
Just as Jean was about to be completely dragged into the Traction Chamber.
A large, well-defined hand grabbed Jean's ankle without warning.
That traction force, so massive it could distort space, was like an iron stake nailed to the ground in front of this hand, unable to pull Jean even a fraction of an inch further.
Lin Nuo had one hand in his suit pocket, the other holding Jean. He raised his head, and the black eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses revealed extreme indifference.
"Old guy, poaching right in front of me, do you think I have a good temper?"
Apocalypse's phantom looked down at Lin Nuo from above.
"Mortal, your pathetic brute force is not worth mentioning in the face of a god's will." Apocalypse raised his hand, and the power of the traction matrix was cranked to the maximum.
The entire underground palace began to tremble violently.
Lin Nuo tugged at his collar.
Hulk-level terrifying density compressed in his right arm. He didn't play any mental tug-of-war with Apocalypse, nor did he try to soothe Jean's runaway consciousness.
He released Jean's ankle and transformed into a black afterimage, walking straight into the Phoenix Traction Chamber against the sky-filling traction beams.
Quicksilver's limit speed meant he didn't even leave an afterimage.
Braving high-frequency radiation capable of vaporizing steel, he rushed directly under the floating ancient Egyptian altar.
"Like playing with traction, do you?"
Lin Nuo stepped his right leg back half a step, engaged his waist, and his spine emitted a series of crisp sounds like firecrackers.
He raised his right fist, carrying a dark red Bio-force field, and smashed it fiercely into the extremely thick energy transmission main shaft beneath the altar.
Boom!
There was no flashy magic bombardment, only the most savage physical dismantling.
That transmission main shaft, forged from unknown meteorite metal over thousands of years, snapped right in the middle in the face of Lin Nuo's unreasonable brute strength.
The violent Bio-force field poured in along the crack, completely shredding the underlying logic of the matrix.
Those ghostly blue traction beams in mid-air flickered twice and extinguished one after another.
Apocalypse's mental projection let out an angry roar, and as the matrix collapsed, the projection twisted and dissipated in the air.
The traction force vanished.
Jean fell from mid-air.
Lin Nuo turned around and caught her steadily.
Jean's state at this moment was extremely poor. Half of her consciousness was occupied by the Phoenix Fire forcibly awakened by Apocalypse, and the other half was still fighting a life-and-death struggle against the broken shackles left by Charles.
Her whole body was scalding hot, scarlet patterns constantly moving across her skin, and the surrounding air was baked until it twisted and deformed.
Scott fell heavily to the ground, panting heavily. He looked at Jean, who was being held in Lin Nuo's arms, his eyes filled with terror.
"Lin Nuo! She's out of control! Knock her out! Otherwise, we'll all die here!" Scott yelled hoarsely.
Lin Nuo didn't even spare him a glance.
He held Jean's waist with one hand, letting the violent Phoenix energy wash over his body. The Asgardian Divine Factor accepted all the damage, and his adaptive evolution at the microscopic atomic level left him unscathed in this sea of fire.
Lin Nuo lowered his head, looking at the woman struggling painfully in his arms.
He did not try to repair those mental chains like Charles, nor did he ask her to suppress her true nature like Scott.
He reached out with rough fingertips, forcefully wiping away the blood overflowing from the corners of Jean's eyes.
"Listen." Lin Nuo's voice drowned out the roar of the energy, revealing a highly penetrating dominance, "Apocalypse wasn't wrong about one thing just now. You really have been suppressed for too long."
Jean opened her eyes with difficulty, her scarlet pupils reflecting Lin Nuo's calm face.
"But that door is not for that old mummified corpse hiding underground to smash for you."
Lin Nuo held Jean's wrist and pressed her palm against his chest.
"This power is yours. If you want to burn, then burn to your heart's content. If you want to smash, then tear this shitty underground palace apart."
Lin Nuo pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, the curve of his mouth revealing absolute arrogance.
"Aim your power at that altar in front. Wreck Apocalypse's doghouse. If the sky falls, I'll hold it up for you."
These words completely shattered the last shred of hesitation in Jean's heart.
No moral kidnapping. No oppression of the "greater good." Only pure indulgence and absolute sense of security.
The academic theory of "controlling yourself" appeared extremely ridiculous and incompetent in the face of Lin Nuo's "I've got your back" approach.
The struggle in Jean's eyes gradually disappeared.
She didn't suppress the manic monster within her, but instead completely released the restraints on it.
A screech that pierced the soul exploded deep in the underground palace.
The violent telekinetic force turned into a tangible crimson storm, passing over Lin Nuo's shoulder and blasting toward the ruined altar in front with destructive force.
Rock walls collapsed, and bluestone slabs were blown away.
The entire Traction Chamber shook violently in the face of this terrifying power, and the defensive matrix Apocalypsehad laid out on the periphery of the underground palace was torn apart layer by layer.
The storm lasted for a full three minutes.
When the red light dissipated, the passage ahead had been completely leveled. The altar used to extract genes had turned into a pile of charred scrap metal.
Jean's legs went soft, and she leaned limply into Lin Nuo's arms.
She panted heavily, the scarlet patterns on her body gradually fading, and her eyes returned to clarity.
The surroundings were deathly silent.
Logan retracted his steel claws, looking at the ruins that had been plowed into a wide path, and swallowed hard.
Ororo stood at the back, her eyes extremely complex. She finally understood why Jean would choose to stand by this man's side without hesitation.
Lin Nuo patted Jean's back, just about to speak.
But Jean grabbed Lin Nuo's wrist in return.
Her fingertips were still trembling; that was the weakness from energy overdraw, and also the lingering fear after facing her true self.
Jean raised her head, looking into Lin Nuo's eyes, her voice carrying a hint of fragility.
"I just now... almost couldn't control it. I was afraid I would burn everyone here to ashes."
Chapter 221: Temporary Anchor, I Am Your Lock
"So what if you burn into ashes?" Lin Nuo cradled Jean's cheeks with one hand, his rough fingertips unceremoniously wiping away the bloodstains remaining at the corners of her eyes. "Even if you burn through this Planet, I can still fish you out of the ashes. Now, close your eyes and feel my heartbeat."
Jean obediently closed her eyes. Lin Nuo tightened his arms, pressing her entire body into his embrace. The moment their chests touched, the terrifying muscle density of Hulk-level combined with the dark golden luster of the Asgardian Divine Factor constructed an absolute physical insulation layer on the surface of their skin.
The manic Phoenix Force lost its outlet and poured back into Lin Nuo's body through the point of contact between them.
Lin Nuo did not activate any shields, allowing those high-frequency radiations capable of vaporizing steel to rampage through his blood vessels. His Mutant extreme microscopic atomic reconstruction ability ran at full power at this moment, with all destructive cells being forcibly reshaped the second after they collapsed. He did not suppress that Phoenix; instead, he used his own unreasonably tough body to provide an extremely spacious temporary haven for this homeless monster.
"Emma." Lin Nuo pressed his earpiece, his voice so steady that not a ripple could be heard. "Get to work."
A crisp sound of a goblet being placed on a marble tabletop came from the other side of the communicator.
"Master, your patience with your new pet is truly enviable." Emma's voice carried a hint of sour jealousy, but the frequency of her keyboard keystrokes was so fast they left afterimages. "Star Umbrella quantum mainframe connected. Triple psychic isolation network beginning construction. Coordinate anchoring, Jean Grey."
Far away in the mobile command ship in the U.S., Emmaentered her secondary Mutant Diamond Form. A massive telepathic field, following Star Umbrella's exclusive satellite matrix, violently penetrated the chaotic magnetic field beneath Cairo. Three invisible mental barriers quickly formed over the ruins of the traction chamber, tightly wrapping around Jean's crumbling sea of consciousness.
"Anchor established." Emma reported the progress, her tone turning cold. "However, Master, that old monster has no intention of letting go easily."
As soon as she finished speaking, an extremely blinding, deep blue light erupted from beneath the remnants of the altar that had been flattened deep within the ruins.
The hoarse voice of Apocalypse, with the texture of metal grinding, pierced directly through the first layer of the psychic isolation network.
"My vessel... you cannot escape. Your power belongs to the gods!"
Gray-blue psychic tentacles drilled out from the ground, wrapping around Jean's ankles like marrow-eating gangrene. Apocalypse had calculated that Jean had just finished releasing the Phoenix Force and was in the weakest vacuum period, attempting to forcibly seize control during this gap.
Jean's body trembled violently, and the scarlet patterns that had just calmed down spread upwards from her neck again. It was a sense of predatory oppression originating from deep within her genes.
"Go back." Lin Nuo didn't even turn his head. He freed his right hand, splayed his five fingers, and turned his palm downward.
A dark red Bio-force field bombarded the ground in a fan shape. The thick bluestone slabs shattered layer by layer, turning into powder. An absolute crushing force on a purely physical level directly shook those gray-blue tentacles, which had been materialized by psychic power, into a sky full of light rain.
Apocalypse's psychic projection twisted into shape in mid-air, those silver-white eyes without pupils staring at Lin Nuo.
"Mortal, you cannot protect her. That power will eventually devour you all."
"Your understanding of power is as narrow as a frog in a well." Lin Nuo pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, unmasked mockery showing behind the lenses.
Not only did he not retreat, but he actively met Apocalypse's psychic pressure, and along those broken tentacles, he violently poured his own Bio-force field back into the underground crevice.
Boom!
A muffled explosion came from deep within the underground palace. Apocalypse's psychic projection flickered violently twice, nearly disintegrating on the spot.
"This is impossible..." For the first time, a feeling of extreme astonishment appeared in Apocalypse's voice. "How can physical power interfere with the psychic realm..."
"Because your psychic power is too weak." Lin Nuo gave an extremely objective evaluation. The insulating properties of the Asgardian Divine Factor gave him absolute immunity when facing this level of psychic intrusion.
Jean gasped for air in Lin Nuo's arms. She opened her eyes, looking at the psychic storm that Lin Nuo had blocked with his bare hands.
There were no dark golden chains like Charles', no excruciating pain that tore at her skull. For the first time, while completely conscious and not relying on any psychic shackles, she stabilized the Phoenix Force within her. That violent monster, soothed by the physical anchor provided by Lin Nuo, docilely hibernated back into the depths of her consciousness.
"I did it..." Jean looked at her own hands, the scarlet flames that had originally lingered at her fingertips completely extinguished.
She looked up, and in her eyes looking at Lin Nuo, besides reliance, there was more of a near-fanatical sense of belonging. This man had truly achieved what Charles had failed to do in fifteen years. He didn't put a lock on her; instead, he used his own body to become her only lock.
On the edge of the ruins not far away.
Scott leaned against a broken stone pillar. His wrist, which was in a polymer splint, was still oozing blood, and his eyes behind his ruby quartz glasses were bloodshot.
He watched Jean snuggling into Lin Nuo's embrace defenselessly, watching Jean look at that man with that gentle gaze he had never seen before. An indescribable sense of loss and humiliation gnawed away at Scott's remaining sanity.
"Jean..." Scott's voice was hoarse as he stumbled, trying to stand up. "You can't trust him... He's just using you..."
Jean turned her head. When her gaze swept over Scott, it didn't linger for more than half a second. That indifference, as if looking at a stranger, was more lethal than any vicious words.
"Mr. Summers." Lin Nuo straightened his cuffs, which had been ruffled by the wind pressure. "If you let out any more of this loser-like whining, I wouldn't mind letting Logansew your mouth shut."
At the entrance of the passage.
Logan brandished his Adamantium claws, cutting several sand-transformed followers who tried to approach into pieces. He shook the gravel off his steel claws and looked back at Scott.
"Cyclops, shut your mouth. Right now, no one can protect Jean except him." Logan spat out half a cigar, his rugged face full of impatience.
Ororo gathered high-voltage electric arcs in her hands, completely sealing off the passage entrance. She walked to Lin Nuo's side and bowed her head slightly.
"Officer, the number of sand-transformed followers on the perimeter is increasing rapidly. Apocalypse's true body may be right beneath us."
Lin Nuo let go of Jean and walked towards the remnants of the altar that had completely turned into scrap iron.
The energy pulsation deep underground became extremely manic. The crust of the entire old Cairo city area was emitting groans of being unable to bear the burden, and large chunks of rock were peeling off the rock walls.
"Couldn't grab it remotely, so you finally decided to crawl out of your coffin?" Lin Nuo kicked up a piece of rubble with his toe and casually kicked it into the bottomless crevice.
Beneath the crevice, a deep blue light began to rise in a spiral shape.
Apocalypse's hoarse voice was no longer transmitted through telepathy, but exploded directly from physical space.
"Ignorant thief... you destroyed my altar."
"I will use your bones to reshape my throne."
Lin Nuo patted the dust off his hands, turned to look at the crowd standing by, and finally let his gaze linger in the depths of the crevice.
"That line is too cliché." Lin Nuo unbuttoned two buttons at his collar, watching the massive gray-blue body gradually rising from below. "Change to something more original, old man."
Chapter 222: Collapse of Faith, the Impotent Rage of a Loser
Violent tremors spread upward along the obsidian surface.
The roar of Apocalypse was forcibly muffled underground by the thick rock layers.
The heavy anti-air firepower of the Star Umbrella tore open a safe retreat corridor on the ground, with four "star wings" hovering at low altitude amidst the rolling yellow sand, their massive cargo ramps slamming down into the rubble.
A few minutes later, inside the temporarily docked aircraft.
The cold-toned blast doors slowly closed, sealing out the sky-obscuring sandstorm outside.
Jean slumped into the leather seat, her entire frame wrapped tightly in a large black tactical trench coat, revealing only her slightly pale, pretty face.
Lin Nuo stood to the side, leisurely pouring a cup of warm black tea from a metal thermos and handing it to her.
"Master."
Raven leaned against the bulkhead, the nano-repair agents on her body already taking effect, and the wounds pierced by the alloy chains were quickly scabbing over.
She looked at Lin Nuo, her azure eyes filled with deference.
"Although the altar of Apocalypse has been destroyed, he still has Charles in his hands, so the progress of the assimilation ritual will not stop."
Lin Nuo picked up his own teacup, took a sip, and spoke in a calm tone.
"If he is in such a rush to die, then let him be; once he has drained Charles dry, that will be the perfect time to harvest."
"Shut up!"
A hoarse roar broke the silence inside the cabin.
Scott leaned in the corner of the seat, his wrist, encased in a polymer splint, still trembling slightly.
His eyes, obscured by ruby quartz lenses, stared fixedly at Lin Nuo, veins bulging on his forehead.
"Lin Nuo, you lying swindler!"
Scott stood up, gripping the back of the seat, his body swaying due to intense emotional agitation.
"You took advantage of the Professor being captured, taking advantage of the moment when Jean was at her most vulnerable, to control her with your despicable methods!"
He pointed at Jean, who was leaning against Lin Nuo, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"She just experienced an energy overload; instead of helping her suppress it, you induced her to unleash that monster! You are literally pushing her into the abyss!"
Lin Nuo didn't even spare him a glance, merely gently stroking the rim of his blue-and-white porcelain teacup with his slender fingers.
"Mr. Summers, who do you think you are talking to?"
Lin Nuo's voice was low, yet it carried a chill that made one's spine crawl.
"I... I am saving my fiancée!"
Scott took a deep breath, trying to make himself look more confident.
He turned his head and looked at the cold-faced redhead, his eyes reddening.
"Jean, look at me! It's me, Scott!"
"We lived in the Mutant School together for ten years; we promised to face those difficulties together."
"Have you forgotten? How much effort did the Professorput in to protect you? And now you're actually following this capitalist of unknown origin to act as a pawn for a madman?"
Scott stepped forward, attempting to walk toward Jean, but was blocked halfway by a cold-faced Raven.
Jean leaned back against the seat, holding the warm teacup in her hands.
Her long eyelashes fluttered slightly as she looked at the man before her, whose face was written with "justice" and "heartbreak."
In the past, this kind of concern from Scott would have made her feel warm.
But now, having seen through Charles's mental shackles and experienced Lin Nuo's unreserved physical indulgence, Scott's words sounded like a collared house dog barking at a pack of wolves in the wilderness.
"Scott."
Jean finally spoke, her voice somewhat hoarse but devoid of any warmth.
"Do you think that Charles placing three layers of shackles in my mind was to protect me?"
Scott froze, then immediately defended himself eagerly.
"That was to prevent you from hurting others! And to prevent you from hurting yourself! Your power is too dangerous, Jean; an unrestrained Beast only brings destruction!"
"So, I should spend my whole life as a defective product who doesn't even dare to recall her own childhood?"
Jean interrupted him, scarlet flames flashing briefly in the corners of her eyes.
The temperature of the surrounding air rose abruptly by three degrees.
"Lin Nuo is right; you fear me only because you yourselves are weak."
Jean tilted her head, looking at Lin Nuo standing beside her, her eyes filled with a near-paranoid fanaticism.
"He can contain all my loss of control, while you can't even block a tiny ripple of my overflow."
"What makes you think you can be my lock?"
These words were like a red-hot blade, piercing straight into Scott's heart.
He took half a step back, his face deathly pale, devoid of any color.
"Jean... you've really changed..."
Scott muttered to himself, turning instead to look at Logan, who was sitting to the side smoking a cigar.
"Logan! Say something! Are you just going to watch Jean get taken away by this bastard? Aren't you the one who cares most about the Mutant School?"
Logan exhaled a thick cloud of smoke and scratched his messy hair with some irritation.
"Cyclops, save it."
Logan stubbed out his cigar in a metal ashtray, his Adamantium claws making a sharp, crisp sound in the air.
"I only want to dig that old bald guy out from underground right now."
"As for Jean's choice..."
Logan glanced sideways at Scott, his tone carrying a hint of rugged mockery.
"The girl made it pretty clear; you don't even have the qualifications to be a backup anymore, so why are you still playing the savior here?"
"You!"
Scott was completely isolated and helpless.
Ororo stood by the cabin door with her arms crossed over her chest, her azure eyes also devoid of any sympathy.
She had already witnessed Lin Nuo's methods in Africaand had seen his mighty power as he punched through the underground palace.
In this Mutant World that worships power, the wailing of the weak only makes people feel it is laughable.
"Lin Nuo!"
Scott turned around abruptly, staring fixedly at Lin Nuo.
"You destroyed the Mutant School, snatched Jean away, and now you are just going to watch the Professor die!"
"You didn't come to save the Mutants at all; you are a devil even greedier than Apocalypse!"
Lin Nuo placed his teacup on the small table with a crisp, delicate sound.
He adjusted the collar of his black shirt, strode forward with his long legs, and walked step by step in front of Scott.
A terrifying, Hulk-level pressure rushed toward him, making Scott instinctively want to retreat, but he forcibly restrained himself.
"Mr. Summers, there is one thing you have gotten wrong."
Lin Nuo pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, a smug, wicked smile hanging on the corners of his lips.
"I never said I was here to save anyone."
"The survival of the Mutant School, Charles's life, and even the future of this Planet, in my eyes, are not worth mentioning."
Lin Nuo lowered his head slightly and said in a very low voice near Scott's ear.
"I just want my toy, and you just happen to be standing in front of my toy."
"Bastard!"
Scott completely lost his mind.
The humiliation, anger, and jealousy that had been building up for an entire day converged into a violent torrent at this moment.
He raised his good hand abruptly, directly gripping the edge of his ruby quartz glasses.
"Lin Nuo, I want you to die!"
Chapter 223: Bare-handed Refraction, Killing the Man and Crushing His Spirit
Scott's hoarse roar exploded within the enclosed cabin.
He yanked his one good hand upward, ripping the ruby quartz visor off his nose bridge.
The Mutant energy, suppressed for a full decade, transformed into a scarlet torrent capable of piercing an aircraft carrier's armor the moment it lost its physical restraint.
The violent laser beam, carrying high temperatures that warped the air, scorched and softened the floor along its path as it blasted straight toward Lin Nuo's face.
The distance was too close.
In this cramped space of less than five meters, there was simply no possibility of dodging a light-speed attack.
"Damn it! You've lost your mind!"
Logan roared, his Adamantium claws popping out into the air.
But he was too far away and couldn't stop it in time.
Ororo's hands lit up with high-voltage electric arcs, attempting to erect a wind wall between the two, but the high temperature of the laser beam instantly pierced through the airflow.
If this strike landed, not only would Lin Nuo be hit head-on, but the power core of this ship would also be completely pierced.
Everyone on the ship would be buried along with Scott's incompetent rage.
However, standing directly in front of the energy torrent, Lin Nuo didn't even lift an eyelid.
He did not dodge, nor did he retreat.
Lin Nuo simply raised his right hand casually, fingers spread, and pushed his palm forward.
Hum!
A dark red Bio-force field unfolded with a boom half a meter in front of his palm.
The high-density energy constructed a visible, translucent refractive surface in the air.
The violent laser beam slammed hard against the force field.
There was no deafening explosion, no evenly matched stalemate.
The red beam of light, capable of instantly vaporizing even Adamantium, acted as if it had struck an impassable mirror of the gods the moment it touched Lin Nuo's Bio-force field, its physical angle of refraction violently altered.
The blinding red light grazed past Lin Nuo's ear, blasting diagonally upward.
Sshhh!
The impact-resistant cabin roof above the aircraft, half a meter thick, was sliced open by the refracted laser beam, leaving a charred crack over a dozen meters long.
The sandstorm outside swirled in through the gap, and alarms echoed shrilly inside the cabin.
The blood vessels around Scott's eye sockets bulged due to the overload of energy output, and blood flowed down from the corners of his eyes.
He desperately pushed his Mutant genes, attempting to increase the output power.
But he discovered with despair that the man standing in the center of the light didn't even have a corner of his suit scorched.
Lin Nuo, bearing the beam capable of destroying everything, strode forward with long legs, step by step.
His leather shoes stepped onto the glowing red metal floor, emitting steady footsteps.
With every step forward, the refraction angle of the Bio-force field lowered by a fraction.
The destructive power Scott prided himself on was, in front of this man, like a cheap flashlight in a child's hand—aside from providing a bit of blinding light, it posed no threat at all.
After three steps, Lin Nuo walked up to Scott.
The terrifying muscle density of Hulk-level proportions was compressed to the limit in his right arm.
Ignoring the scorching energy radiation, Lin Nuo grabbed Scott by the throat and hoisted his entire body off the ground.
Having lost his balance, Scott struggled wildly in mid-air, the laser light shooting from his eyes carving chaotic, charred marks on the cabin ceiling.
Lin Nuo's voice remained steady amidst the roar of energy, revealing a sense of haughty contempt.
"Mr. Summers."
"Your anger is so cheap it makes one want to laugh."
As his voice fell, Lin Nuo exerted sudden force with his right hand, bringing it down with absolute physical crushing power.
Bang!
Scott's knees slammed heavily onto the hard metal floor.
The crisp sound of bone cracking was masked by the alarms, but his twisted face and shrill screams were clearly heard by everyone.
He was forced to kneel at Lin Nuo's feet in a humiliating posture.
Lin Nuo freed his left hand and snatched the ruby quartz visor that Scott was clutching tightly.
The unrestrained laser light became intermittent due to Scott's intense pain, and eventually extinguished completely as his physical strength was utterly exhausted.
Clutching his shattered knees, Scott knelt in a pool of blood, gasping for air.
His unfocused eyes stared fixedly at the ground, and tears of humiliation mixed with blood dripped onto the metal plate.
Lin Nuo toyed with the visor for a moment before tossing it casually into the pool of blood in front of Scott like trash.
Lin Nuo pulled a clean white silk handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his fingers slowly and methodically.
"Just because you can fire wildly using instincts granted by genetic mutation, you think you can be a savior?"
"You can't even control your own emotions; what will you use to save Charles? And what will you use to negotiate terms with me?"
Standing a few steps away, Logan looked at Scott kneeling on the ground, his rough brow furrowed into a tight knot.
He didn't step forward to help, because he knew very well that if Lin Nuo hadn't blocked that strike, they would all be dead people right now.
The electric arcs around Ororo's body gradually dissipated.
The look of awe in her eyes as she looked at Lin Nuo grew increasingly profound.
This man's power had already completely exceeded the cognitive scope of Mutants.
Scott lifted his head, trembling, and looked toward Jean in the back, his face covered in blood.
He counted on Jean to stand up and stop this tyrant out of the affection of the past decade, even if it was just to say a single word for him.
Jean stood up from the leather seat.
She pulled her black tactical trench coat draped over her shoulders closer, stepped over the wreckage, and walked toward Scott with her long legs.
A faint glimmer of hope ignited in the depths of Scott's bloodshot eyes.
"Jean... do you see? He is a devil..."
Jean did not answer.
She bent down slightly and picked up the mud-stained ruby quartz visor from the pool of blood.
She didn't wipe the blood off, but instead roughly shoved the visor back onto Scott's face.
The cold frame slammed against his nose bridge, completely shattering the last shred of hope in Scott's eyes.
"Jean..."
Scott's voice trembled, and he could hardly believe everything that was happening before his eyes.
Jean's voice was colder than the sandstorm outside, without any inflection, and certainly without any pity.
"Enough, Scott."
"If Lin Nuo hadn't blocked your strike just now, everyone on this ship, including me, would have been buried with you!"
"He is brainwashing you! He is a madman!"
Scott roared hysterically, attempting one last struggle.
Jean straightened up, looking down at the man she had once loved deeply.
"The one who is mad is you."
She stepped back half a step, naturally linked her arm with Lin Nuo's, and leaned her body weight against the man who had just nearly killed Scott.
Jean scanned everyone in the cabin, and finally fixed her gaze firmly on Scott.
"From now on, this operation is under Lin Nuo's full command."
"If you go crazy again, I will personally throw you off the ship to feed those sand monsters in the desert!"
This sentence became the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Scott was struck as if by lightning, his entire body going completely limp on the ground.
The sense of justice he prided himself on, the dignity he guarded so fiercely, were ground into nothingness in the face of Jean's merciless choice of sides.
Lin Nuo patted the back of Jean's hand, a justified and wicked smile curling the corners of his mouth.
He didn't bother with the losing dog on the ground anymore, instead turning his head to look at the console in front.
Lin Nuo loosened the two buttons at his collar, his voice returning to its accustomed rhythm of issuing commands.
"Emma."
On the large screen of the console, the holographic image of the White Queen flickered and came online quickly.
Emma's tone revealed a high level of professionalism, her fingers tapping out a blur of afterimages on the virtual keyboard.
"Master, there is an abnormal fluctuation in the magnetic field of the Cairo urban area."
The aircraft's radar screen was forcibly cut into the main control display.
On the holographic map representing the old city of Cairo, the deep purple energy band that had originally been entrenched underground was moving toward the surface at an astonishing speed.
Raven stepped forward, watching the coordinate data constantly jumping on the screen, her azure pupils contracting suddenly.
Lin Nuo looked at that set of data, a cold, sharp light welling up in the depths of his eyes.
"Apocalypse did not stay underground."
"He has moved the assimilation ritual to the surface."
Logan spat out half a cigar, his steel claws crossing and grinding in the air, sparking a string of embers.
Logan stared at the screen.
"Stop beating around the bush."
"Where is that old monster now?"
Emma hit the enter key, directly projecting the high-resolution footage captured by the Star Umbrella exclusive satellite into the center of the cabin.
"The Cairo Tower."
Chapter 224: Global Announcement, Pay the Protection Money First
Emma's holographic image flickered in the center of the cabin, and an enlarged 3D stereoscopic map rapidly unfolded.
At the top of the Cairo TV tower, that cluster of deep purple energy waves had become so dense it was visible to the naked eye.
Lin Nuo looked at the screen, tugged at his collar, his tone full of righteous mockery.
"Is he acting like the underground wasn't spacious enough, so he ran up to the sky to act as a lightning rod?"
Before the words had even faded, all the screens in the cabin went black without warning.
Immediately after, a massive mental wave carrying an aura of destruction rudely pierced through Star Umbrella's physical shielding layer.
This fluctuation had no direct destructive power, but it carried absolute compulsiveness, like an invisible net, tightly strangling the throat of this Planet.
It wasn't just the electronic equipment in the cabin; at this very moment, all televisions, mobile phones, outdoor billboards globally, and even the giant LED screens in New York Times Square, all lit up with a ghostly blue glow at the same time.
Apocalypse's gray-blue face appeared in the view of the entire World.
Behind him, Charles was tightly bound to the steel frame at the top of the TV tower by several thick energy chains.
This Mutant leader's eyes were rolled back, blood was streaming from his seven orifices, and strange runes crawled all over his skin.
He had been completely transformed into a humanoid signal amplifier, forcibly injecting Apocalypse's will into the minds of every human.
Apocalypse's hoarse voice, carrying a metallic echo, not only came from the speakers but also reverberated directly in the depths of all humanity's consciousness.
"Lost lambs."
"You have built a hypocritical World with steel and gunpowder."
"You use so-called laws to cover up your greed and weakness."
"You pollute the sky, poison the oceans, and leave this Planet riddled with holes."
In the image, Apocalypse slowly spread his arms, looking down at the city of Cairo, which had fallen into darkness.
"I am En Sabah Nur."
"I am the god you have forgotten."
"The old order has rotted, and a new era will be reborn from the ruins."
"Surrender your weapons, abandon your resistance."
"This World will be taken over by the strong!"
Following Apocalypse's declaration, the World fell into unprecedented panic.
In the Oval Office of the White House, the Presidentlooked at the monster on the screen claiming to be a god; the coffee cup in his hand smashed onto the expensive carpet, and coffee splashed everywhere.
The alarm in The Pentagon's combat command center wailed, and the generals watched the out-of-control data stream on the big screen, as anxious as ants on a hot pot.
Inside a Russia underground missile Base, the supreme commander pounded the console frantically, watching as the nuclear missile launch program was forcibly overwritten by lines of ghostly blue code, roaring in despair.
In London's Trafalgar Square, thousands of people watched the big screen, the immense mental pressure causing them to involuntarily kneel on the ground.
Emma's voice suddenly cut off Apocalypse's broadcast, and a rare look of anxiety appeared on the White Queen's diamond face.
"Master!"
"Apocalypse has forcibly invaded the Military networks of the five nuclear-armed nations globally through Charles's brainwaves."
"He is tampering with the underlying code of the nuclear missile silos!"
The cabin fell into dead silence.
Logan's rugged face was filled with horror, and he crushed the metal armrest in his hand.
"Is that old monster crazy?"
"Does he want to drag all of humanity to the grave with him?"
Arcs of electricity danced wildly around Ororo, and her azure eyes were full of terror.
"If the nuclear missiles launch, Earth will be bombed into a wasteland!"
Scott, kneeling in a pool of blood, let out a miserable, cold laugh.
"Do you see it?"
"This is the consequence of you letting him take the Professor away!"
"The World is going to be destroyed!"
"We are all going to die!"
Lin Nuo ignored Scott's wailing.
He had one hand in his suit pocket, and with the other, he picked up that cup of warm black tea and took a small sip.
There wasn't a shred of panic on his face; instead, it revealed the pleasure of a hunter seeing prey jump into a trap on its own.
Lin Nuo put down the teacup and pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose.
"Destroyed?"
"No, Mr. Summers."
"This is simply a perfect public relations crisis."
Jean stood beside Lin Nuo, her red hair fluttering slightly in the cold air.
She looked at the man beside her, not asking any questions, just quietly waiting for his next instruction.
Beside this man, even if the sky were to fall, it would seem to be nothing more than a pastime.
Lin Nuo's slender fingers tapped twice on the metal tabletop, with a steady rhythm.
"Emma."
"How many mainstream media signals globally are still in our hands?"
Emma replied quickly.
"Star Umbrella's quantum communication network is independent, and currently, seventy percent of civilian channels can be forcibly taken over."
Lin Nuo undid the button at his collar, his eyes extremely aggressive.
"Very good."
"Cut Apocalypse's feed for me and replace it with the Star Umbrella logo."
"By the way, send a top-level joint notice to all governments and the Military."
"The content is as follows."
Lin Nuo's voice echoed in the cabin, carrying an unquestionable hegemonic will.
"First, define Apocalypse as an extremist MutantTerrorists."
"Due to Charles Xavier's mismanagement, which led to a large-scale terrorist attack, the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters is hereby banned globally starting immediately."
"Second, Star Umbrella Group will take over the supreme command of this global crisis."
"Any country or armed force that refuses to cooperate will be regarded as an accomplice of Apocalypse, and Star Umbrella has the right to carry out indiscriminate physical elimination against them."
"Third, tell those politicians sitting in their offices shivering to shut their mouths and hand over their defense authority."
"I'm going to wipe their asses, so they have to rewrite the rules of this World according to my wishes!"
As soon as these words came out, both Logan and Ororowere stunned.
At this critical moment concerning the survival of humanity, what Lin Nuo was thinking about wasn't how to be a savior, but how to take advantage of the crisis to legally grasp all global Military forces in his own hands.
Scott lay on the ground, roaring in disbelief.
"You are taking advantage of this crisis!"
"You want to turn the whole World into your private territory!"
Lin Nuo glanced at him condescendingly.
"Otherwise what?"
"Work for you for free?"
"This is called a capital dimensionality reduction strike."
"Once I dismantle that old mummy, the whole World will kneel down and beg me to accept their protection money!"
Emma's execution was extremely fast.
Within just one minute, the Apocalypse feed on all major screens globally was forcibly cut.
Replacing it was Star Umbrella's giant black umbrella logo, along with that disaster prevention statement full of authoritarian color.
The people and politicians of various countries, who had originally fallen into panic, looked at that notice and completely fell into another kind of madness.
The communication channels at The Pentagon exploded.
"What is Star Umbrella?"
"On what grounds are they taking over defense?"
"Officer!"
"Our nuclear missiles have been locked; apart from them, no one can cut off that mental wave!"
"Compromise!"
"Give them authority immediately!"
"As long as we can save Washington, selling the country to them is fine!"
Emma hit the final Enter key.
"Statement sent, Master."
"Over at The Pentagon, three generals have already agreed to hand over regional air defense authority; they have nowhere else to turn under Apocalypse's control."
A righteous smile curled on the corner of Lin Nuo's mouth.
He turned to look at Jean, reaching out to tuck her slightly messy red hair behind her ear.
"Let's go, let's go meet that hero who helped us conquer more than half the Earth."
Just at this moment, the red alarm light in front of Emmaflashed frantically, and a piercing buzzing sound resonated throughout the entire command ship.
Emma suddenly raised her head, her originally elegant tone becoming extremely urgent.
"Master, the situation has changed!"
"Apocalypse has given up on cracking the password; he has directly used physical means to destroy the hydraulic valves of the launch silos!"
A satellite thermal imaging map popped up on the holographic screen, and a red dot located deep in the Nevada desert in North America was expanding rapidly.
Emma stared fixedly at the data jumping on the screen.
"Nevada's seventh strategic nuclear weapons Base, the launch silo has completely opened."
"Countdown thirty seconds, target coordinates, Cairo!"