Chapter 233: False Victory, Murmurs from the Abyss of Despair
Apocalypse's arrogant laughter echoed at the top of the Cairo TV Tower.
The charred skeleton was wrapped in interwoven dark red and deep blue energy. Newly grown muscle fibers writhed frantically on the bones, and with a tooth-gritting sound of growth, his body expanded by a whole size.
His left eye burned with crimson flames, while his right was a dark, gloomy blue.
He clenched his fist, and the void in his palm produced a booming sound of air pressure.
"So this is the power of a god..." Apocalypse's raspy voice carried an unprecedented arrogance.
The situation on the battlefield took a sharp turn for the worse.
Logan had just severed Baron's joints, and before he could even catch his breath, he felt a heavy pressure crash down upon him.
Apocalypse merely glanced down casually and pressed his right hand toward the empty air.
At that moment, gravity was magnified a hundredfold.
The reinforced steel platform beneath Logan's feet instantly deformed and collapsed.
He roared, crossing his Adamantium claws in front of his chest in an attempt to resist this invisible force.
However, the magnetic gravitational field, mixed with the residual flames of the Phoenix, was extremely violent, directly blasting Logan from hundreds of meters in the air into the ruins below.
A huge crater several meters deep was smashed into the ground, sending dust and smoke billowing into the sky.
"Damn it..." Logan struggled to stand up amidst the ruins.
Although his bones were protected by Adamantium and did not break, his muscles had suffered massive tearing under the impact of the combined gravity and magnetic forces.
His Healing Factor worked frantically inside him, with wisps of blue smoke rising from his wounds, but the gravity Apocalypse exerted on him was still like a mountain, making his bones creak and rendering him unable to move.
Ororo, controlling the storm clouds in mid-air, saw Loganfall. She clasped her hands together, attempting to summon thousands of lightning bolts to strike Apocalypse.
But Apocalypse only sneered.
He looked up, the light from his left eye, which burned with crimson fire, flaring brilliantly.
The lightning that had originally answered Ororo's call suddenly lost control in mid-air.
The magnetic field was forcibly distorted, and guided by Apocalypse, the lightning transformed into a thick lightning dragon, snapping back toward Ororo.
"What?"
Ororo was greatly shocked.
Before she could even regain control, the lightning slammed heavily into her protective shield.
High-voltage electrical arcs exploded in the air.
Ororo let out a muffled groan and fell from mid-air, crashing heavily onto the platform in the middle section of the TV tower, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of her mouth.
Under the protection of Lin Nuo's Bio-force field, Jean used her telekinesis to pull the unconscious Charles back from the cross.
Charles was charred all over, his breathing weak, having completely lost his ability to fight.
The star wings aircraft slowly drew near, its cabin door opening as Hank struggled to crawl out and drag Charlesinside for emergency treatment.
Inside the cabin, Scott, who was secured by a nano-exoskeleton, watched everything through a large screen.
He watched the injured Ororo, Logan whose fate was unknown, and Apocalypse, who stood in the ruins with an overwhelming aura.
Scott's mental defenses completely collapsed.
He channeled all of his long-accumulated malice, jealousy, and despair into a piercing roar:
"Lin Nuo! Do you see this? This is the price of your self-righteousness!"
"You selfish demon! For your ridiculous desire for control, you forced Jean to open that door! You let that monster obtain the power of the Phoenix!"
"If it weren't for you, the Professor wouldn't have ended up like this, and Logan and Ororo wouldn't have been hurt! You killed everyone!"
Scott's voice echoed in the communication channel, filled with hysterical madness.
He wanted to use this method to regain some say and deal a psychological blow to Lin Nuo.
"You talk too much."
Lin Nuo didn't even turn his head, simply tapping his finger lightly on the armrest.
The next moment, the exoskeleton securing Scott emitted a harsh crackling sound of electricity.
The high-voltage electrical arcs were channeled directly into Scott's spine, forcing his unfinished mockery into a miserable shriek.
Scott's entire body convulsed violently, his eyes rolling back as large mouthfuls of white foam spilled from the corners of his mouth, completely losing his ability to make a sound.
Hank, drenched in sweat, was injecting Charles with a highly concentrated cell activator.
Charles's shriveled body rose and fell with difficulty on the hospital bed, the green line on the ECG monitor nearly flatlining into a straight line.
"Hurry up, faster!"
Hank gritted his teeth, his blue hands trembling slightly from nervousness.
He glanced at Scott, who lay unconscious and foaming at the mouth from the electric shock next to him, his heart filled with desolation.
The once-glorious Mutant leaders had now been reduced, one to a cripple and the other to a prisoner, while the school they had desperately protected had long been completely taken over by the Star Umbrella.
Emma's virtual projection lit up inside the cabin once more. Her voice had lost its usual elegance, carrying a rare sense of urgency: "Master, after Apocalypse absorbed the Phoenix energy, the range of his brainwave radiation expanded tenfold! Right now, the power grids of over thirty major cities worldwide have completely collapsed, and the whispers of Apocalypse are echoing in the minds of hundreds of millions of humans. The Pentagon and The Kremlin are in utter chaos; they think the Apocalypse has truly arrived and are frantically requesting us to activate our defense mechanisms!"
"What's the panic?"
Lin Nuo's expression remained indifferent; he didn't even raise an eyebrow.
"But Master, if this high-frequency mental radiation continues, the brains of ordinary people will completely die within three hours due to neuronal overload."
Emma pulled up a global population thermal imaging map, where many green dots representing signs of life were rapidly turning red.
His takeover of global defense was intended to legally plunder this Planet's resources; saving the world was not within his scope of consideration.
"Let them wait."
Lin Nuo coldly issued the command, "Tell those politicians that if they want to live, they had better obediently sign all the Star Umbrella treaties. Once Apocalypse is dead, I will naturally clean up this mental garbage."
Listening to Scott's roar from earlier and looking at her companions struggling in the ruins, a painful light flashed in Jean's crimson eyes.
The Phoenix Force within her body began to resonate violently due to her emotional fluctuations.
"Lin Nuo..." Jean's voice was slightly unsteady.
She tightly clutched the hem of Lin Nuo's black shirt, her fingertips trembling slightly.
"Was I too greedy? If I hadn't listened to you and opened that door... would Apocalypse not have obtained this power?"
Self-blame and fear began to spread in her heart.
Although the defensive line Charles had instilled in her over the past ten years had been shattered, the subconscious thought of 'I am a monster that brings disaster' still flared up again at this moment.
Apocalypse stood at the top of the tower, his massive body radiating a trembling pressure.
He looked down at Lin Nuo and Jean, his voice falling like rolling thunder:
"Foolish mortals. You think you control power, yet you do not know you are merely sacrificial offerings at the feet of a god."
"Now, submit, or die!"
Faced with Apocalypse's threat, there was still no trace of panic on Lin Nuo's face.
He hadn't even changed his posture, still keeping one hand casually in his suit pants pocket.
Looking down at the slightly shaken Jean in his arms, he reached out with his other hand, gently but firmly pinching her chin, forcing her to look up and meet his gaze.
"Look at me, Jean."
Lin Nuo's voice was deep, carrying a reassuring magnetic quality.
He pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose. The ink-black eyes behind the lenses held no warmth, yet they shone with absolute confidence.
"Do you think he has really become stronger?"
Jean was stunned for a moment, looking at Lin Nuo with some confusion.
Lin Nuo turned his head, his gaze falling upon the insufferably arrogant old god not far away.
Through Lin Nuo's Microscopic Atomic Reorganization and the perception of the Asgardian Divine Factor, the true state inside Apocalypse's body was laid completely bare.
Apocalypse had indeed absorbed the Phoenix's energy, but it was not the source; it was merely the outer residual flames that had escaped due to energy overload when Jean shattered her shackles.
More importantly, although Apocalypse's old god vessel was powerful, his genetic level simply could not accommodate source energy of a single-Universe scale.
At this very moment, on a microscopic level, the gene chains inside Apocalypse's body were collapsing and reorganizing at a frantic speed.
The newly grown gray-blue flesh was being devoured bite by bite by the crimson residual flames.
This was by no means evolution; it was a thorough, slow-motion suicide.
Apocalypse was using his own life to forcibly merge with a power he was simply unworthy of possessing.
"A stitched-up monster whose body is about to burst, and he dares to call himself a god?"
The smile on the corner of Lin Nuo's mouth was extremely wicked.
He had anticipated this step long ago.
Apocalypse's absorption was merely a part of his plan.
Only by letting Apocalypse believe he had won would he expose his most fatal weakness.
Furthermore, the residual Phoenix flames inside Apocalypse could serve as the perfect 'whetstone' for Jean to completely Master the source.
No one else but Lin Nuo knew about this information asymmetry.
To the outside world, this appeared to be nothing more than a 'false victory' and a catastrophic failure caused by Lin Nuo's arrogance.
Lin Nuo ignored the chaos outside.
He held Jean in his arms, his warm palm pressed against her slender waist. The energy of the Asgardian Divine Factor flowed between them like an invisible wall, blocking out all the violent radiation.
"Jean, you feel pain because you are still thinking with the mindset Charles taught you."
Lin Nuo's voice sounded in Jean's ear, carrying a mesmerizing magic.
"Charles told you to restrain yourself because he was afraid of you. Scott blames you because he is incompetent. They claim to do it for your own good, but in reality, they just want to lock you in a cage and keep you as an obedient pet."
"But I am different."
Lin Nuo lowered his head, his ink-black eyes filled with dominance and possessiveness. "I had you push open that door because I know you were always meant to be a Phoenix soaring through the starry sky. And I am the only one who can catch you."
Jean's body trembled slightly.
She looked at Lin Nuo, the wavering and self-blame in her eyes completely replaced at this moment by a wild love and dependence.
Yes, only Lin Nuo understood her.
Only this man did not fear her power and would not attempt to put chains on her.
"I had you release the fire to induce him into swallowing the poison; you only need to watch and wait for the changes."
Lin Nuo's fingers slid across Jean's cheek, his voice low and cold. "When he is completely blown apart by those impurities, that will be the moment you take everything back."
At the top of the tower, Apocalypse felt an unprecedented abundance of power within him, but at the same time, he also noticed Lin Nuo's calmness.
It was a superior, spectator-like calmness.
This calmness made Apocalypse, who considered himself a god, feel an unprecedented humiliation.
"Mortal, put away your arrogant gaze!"
Apocalypse roared in anger, the crimson fire in his left eye and the gloomy blue light in his right eye merging into one, transforming into a terrifying beam of energy that shot straight into the clouds.
The surrounding ruins, steel bars, and even the Cairo city district below—countless pieces of metal, sand, and stone began to levitate under the influence of magnetic force, forming a sky-blotting dark cloud in the heavens.
"I will completely wipe you out, along with this ridiculous ship!"
Looking at the dark cloud in the sky composed of countless pieces of metal and sand, the wicked smile on Lin Nuo's lips did not fade in the slightest.
He gently patted Jean's back, his voice steady without a single ripple.
"The real show is just beginning."
Chapter 234: The Trump Card Revealed, The Countdown for the Trapped Beast
Apocalypse floated in mid-air, his left eye scarlet and his right eye deep blue, the violent mixed energy shredding all the metal debris around him.
He thought he had control of the whole situation, but he didn't notice that under his newborn gray-blue skin, his veins were bulging with an extremely unstable purple-black color.
Lin Nuo had one hand in his pocket, not even bothering to look directly at the old dried corpse who claimed to be a god.
He lowered his head, looking at Jean in his arms, whose eyes were still scarlet.
"What he inhaled wasn't a tonic, it was dynamite."
Lin Nuo's slender fingers ran through Jean's red hair, his tone as steady as if he were reading a financial report.
"That broken shell of a few thousand years can't bear your Fire at all. Now, we just need to help him pull out that life-sustaining IV."
The hesitation in Jean's eyes completely dissipated.
She looked at Lin Nuo's refined yet scummy face, feeling the boundless Qi and blood continuously emanating from him.
This man could always provide the most unreasonable, yet most reassuring answer in a desperate situation.
"What should I do?"
Jean's voice was extremely cold, her gaze locked back onto Apocalypse in mid-air.
"Build up your power. Wait for my signal."
Lin Nuo let go, turned to face the main control direction, his black eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses revealing a tyrant's desire for control.
"Emma. Issue full-spectrum tactical orders."
"Understood, Master."
The White Queen's voice rang out in the channel, still professional and cold.
"Second round, begin."
Lin Nuo tugged at the collar of his black shirt.
"Hank. Stop playing dead. Take Raven and go blow up the base of that broken formation underground for me."
In the ruins of the equipment level, charred metal plates were violently ripped open.
The blue Beast crawled out from the rubble, most of his fur scorched, but his eyes were shockingly bright.
Hank spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and shouldered the high-energy demolition device next to him.
"Officer, the mass-produced anti-matter bombs from Trask Industries, I have finished calibrating them."
Hank grinned, revealing a mouthful of fangs.
Raven emerged from the shadows, her blue scales shimmering in the dim light.
She glanced at the bomb in Hank's hand and sneered.
"Keep up, big guy. Leave the quicksand below to me."
The two turned into two afterimages, rushing straight to the underground energy base along the blown-up pipeline shaft.
In mid-air, Apocalypse looked at the fearless ants below, burning with rage.
"Dying struggle! I will crush you into pulp!"
He raised his hands, violent magnetic force mixed with a gravity field, turning into an invisible meat grinder, pressing down fiercely on the area where Lin Nuo and Jean were.
"Ororo."
Lin Nuo didn't even look up at the world-destroying offensive.
A heavy gasp came from the communicator.
Storm, who had fallen onto the middle platform, struggled to stand up, supporting herself on the steel frame.
Her rain shield had already shattered, blood hanging from the corner of her mouth, but in those azure eyes, lightning more violent than before was jumping.
"I'm here, Officer."
Ororo wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
Lin Nuo's order was cold and precise: "Roll up the Storm. He likes being high and mighty, then let's make him blind."
"Understood!"
Ororo slammed her arms up.
The Omega-level weather control ability was directly overdrawn and erupted.
Not thunder, but the purest, most violent sandstorm.
The yellow sand on the outskirts of Cairo was forcibly rolled up into the sky, forming a tornado that reached the clouds, cutting straight into the airspace where Apocalypsewas.
The high-density gravel flying all over the sky rubbed against each other, not only depriving him of his vision but also generating a strong electrostatic field, cutting the mental waves radiating from Apocalypse into pieces.
"Damn natural elements!"
Apocalypse lost his precise lock on the people below in the sandstorm, and the violent gravity field could only blindly smash onto the open ground, crushing large areas of ruins into powder.
"Logan."
Lin Nuo's gaze swept over the deep pit below.
"If your bones are set, come out and get to work. Go scratch an itch for him."
At the bottom of the deep pit.
A thick, blood-stained arm grabbed the edge.
Logan, like a lone wolf thoroughly enraged, crawled out of the dirt.
The muscle fibers on his body healed rapidly under the effect of the Healing Factor, making a teeth-grinding friction sound.
"I'm going to cut his bones off inch by inch!"
Logan roared, his six Adamantium claws fully extended.
He didn't choose to jump, but exerted force with his legs, like a cannonball out of the chamber, running crazily up along the remaining tilted steel frame of the TV tower, defying the gravity pressure above.
Apocalypse sensed the Beast's aura approaching from below in the sandstorm.
He snorted coldly, waved his giant hand, and the surrounding metal debris turned into hundreds of blades, pouring down like a rainstorm.
Logan didn't dodge at all.
He faced the metal Storm, letting those blades cut through his flesh, revealing his alloy skeleton that flashed with cold light.
He stepped on the flying metal fragments, killed his way out, jumped directly below Apocalypse, crossed his claws, and slashed fiercely at Apocalypse's ankles.
"Get lost, Beast!"
Apocalypse lifted his foot, and the violent energy kicked Logan away.
But Logan forcibly twisted his body in mid-air, leaving six blood grooves deep to the bone on Apocalypse's calves.
Gray-blue blood gushed out, but in the next second, it was burned to ashes by scarlet flame fragments.
Apocalypse frowned; he found that the healing speed of his wounds was agonizingly slow.
The powerful Phoenix Force inside his body was not helping him repair his body, but instead, like a pack of out-of-control mad dogs, was frantically gnawing at his original telomeres.
"This... what is going on?"
A hint of panic flashed in Apocalypse's left eye.
Deep underground, the energy base.
Twelve thick geothermal pipes converged on a huge ancient Egyptian stone disk.
Deep blue energy was continuously being sent upward, maintaining Apocalypse's crumbling reincarnation formation.
Raven moved like lightning, slitting the throats of the last few sand-formed fanatics trying to stop her.
Hank strode forward and jammed the anti-matter bomb firmly into the center of the stone disk.
"Officer! Bomb installed!"
Hank roared into the communication channel, "Ten-second countdown!"
At the top of the TV tower, Lin Nuo heard the report, his mouth curling into an extremely aggressive arc.
He turned his head and looked at Jean beside him.
"Are you ready?"
Lin Nuo held Jean's hand, his Hulk-level muscle density and Asgardian Divine Factor operating fully, turning into the sturdiest physical anchor.
Jean's eyes had completely turned into burning scarlet, and the Phoenix Force within her body, under Lin Nuo's guidance, gathered into a spear capable of piercing the stars.
"Ready at any time."
Apocalypse in mid-air finally noticed something was wrong.
The Phoenix Force fragments he had forcibly fused into his body began to backfire completely because they lost the suppression of geothermal energy.
Large areas of carbonization appeared on his skin surface, and the newborn flesh was peeling off piece by piece.
"What have you done to me!"
Apocalypse shrieked, violent energy raging around his body, trying to forcibly stabilize the collapsing gene chain.
Boom!
A dull, earth-shaking roar came from deep beneath Cairo.
The entire city trembled violently.
The ancient Egyptian reincarnation base that had been maintained for thousands of years was completely turned into nothingness under the power of the anti-matter bomb.
The last bit of geothermal energy supply was ruthlessly cut off.
In mid-air, Apocalypse's massive body stiffened suddenly.
The deep blue light in his right eye went out, and in its place was the total loss of control of the scarlet flame in his left eye.
Those Phoenix Force fragments that had originally been suppressed in his body erupted directly from his seven orifices like a volcanic eruption.
"No! This is the power of a god! I am the god!"
Apocalypse clutched his head in pain, his gene chain having completely collapsed at the microscopic level, and he was like a broken container undergoing nuclear fission inside.
Lin Nuo stood on the edge of the ruins, holding Jean with one hand, and pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose.
He looked at the monster in mid-air heading toward destruction, his tone righteous, revealing the absolute coldness of a capitalist harvesting leeks.
"You are not a god, you are just a low-quality power bank about to explode."
A fierce light flashed in Lin Nuo's eyes.
"Jean, pull the plug."
Jean didn't say a word, and the scarlet spear condensed from the Phoenix Force flew out of her hand.
Apocalypse looked at the firelight that pierced the sky and earth, and let out the last and most desperate question of his life:
"What... exactly are you!"
Chapter 235: A Total Loss, The Death Knell of the Old God
The firelight illuminated Apocalypse's cracked face, making him look like a vengeful ghost.
He watched the spear, forged from pure Phoenix Force, expand infinitely within his pupils; only one extremely absurd thought remained in his mind.
He had lived for thousands of years, plundered the genes of countless Mutants, and prided himself on being a god.
But the man before him, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, had not only crushed him but, in terms of strategy, had torn his prized trump cards to shreds one by one.
Lin Nuo stood with one hand in his pocket, looking down at the collapsing shell of the old god below.
"Go to hell and ask."
Lin Nuo's voice was cold.
Time rewinds to ten seconds before the antimatter bomb detonated.
Deep beneath Cairo, at the energy base.
Hank wedged the bomb into the center of the stone disk, his finger just having pressed the activation button.
The surrounding quicksand suddenly came to life, churning violently upward.
The gravekeeper Salim's massive sandy head emerged from beneath the stone disk, ghostly blue flames flickering in his eye sockets.
His arm, composed of high-density gravel, smashed fiercely toward the counting-down antimatter bomb.
"Get lost!"
Hank roared, trying to block it, but was blown away by the sandstorm.
Just at this critical moment.
A massive, gray-blue figure appeared in front of Salimwithout warning.
That face was unmistakably Apocalypse's.
"Stop. That is my power vessel."
Raven, disguised as Apocalypse, issued the command in an extremely majestic, hoarse voice.
Salim's remaining weak consciousness hesitated for half a second.
He recognized the Master's appearance, and the sandy giant hand about to smash the bomb stopped abruptly in mid-air.
It was this momentary flaw.
Raven curled her lips in a mocking smile, her form instantly reverting to her blue-scaled state.
Holding a high-frequency quantum disruptor, she leaped like a cheetah and shoved the disruptor straight into the core energy source of Salim's sandy body through his wide-open mouth.
The high-frequency pulse exploded.
Salim let out a shrill wail as the magnetic field maintaining his form was completely severed.
His massive body disintegrated within a second, turning into a pile of lifeless ordinary sand.
"Beep!!!"
The countdown hit zero.
Meanwhile, on the middle platform of the TV tower.
Ororo was hovering in mid-air, fully maintaining the violent sandstorm that blocked Apocalypse's vision.
In the ruins below her, the withered bones of Carlos, which had originally been scorched to charcoal by lightning, reignited with ghostly blue flames under the backflow of residual energy from Apocalypse's reincarnation array.
These scorched bones struggled to stand up, and like a mad Beast, carrying high temperatures capable of melting steel plates, it lunged fiercely at Ororo's back in mid-air.
"Watch out!"
Hank's exclamation came through the earpiece.
Ororo didn't even turn her head.
There was not a hint of panic in her azure eyes, only absolute coldness.
That was the confidence Lin Nuo had given her, and the proof that she had completely severed Apocalypse's influence.
"Don't force me to sweep the same trash twice."
Ororo freed her left hand and grasped the empty air behind her.
The surrounding air was forcibly extracted in an instant.
An extremely small but highly dense sphere of absolute vacuum directly engulfed the lunging scorched bones of Carlos.
The flames were extinguished instantly in the absence of oxygen.
Immediately after, Ororo clenched her fingers abruptly.
The terrifying air pressure collapsed inward violently.
Carlos didn't even have time to scream; his entire scorched skeleton was crushed into a dark red, high-density blood bead, which fell onto the charred steel plate with a plop.
At the edge of the tower ruins.
Logan had just left six deep, bone-reaching blood grooves on Apocalypse's calf when he was sent flying by a violent magnetic field, crashing heavily onto the steel frame.
Before he could get up, a massive shadow had already loomed over him.
It was Baron.
This bone-armored monster, whose right arm had been severed by Logan, had completely lost its sanity under the forced stimulation of Apocalypse's mental frequency.
Dragging his broken body, he formed his remaining left hand into a massive bone hammer and smashed it down toward Logan's head with the force of Mount Tai.
Logan spat out a mouthful of blood, his eyes revealing extreme ferocity.
Instead of retreating, he advanced, using his legs to power himself forward like a starving wolf driven into a desperate corner, crashing straight into the bone hammer.
Crack.
The bone hammer smashed into Logan's chest, and his Adamantium skeleton let out a dull thud.
His chest cavity visibly caved in, and blood sprayed wildly from his mouth and nose.
But Logan did not fall.
Leveraging the momentum of that punch, he hung himself directly onto Baron's left arm.
The six steel claws on his right hand thrust upward from below, at an extremely tricky angle, piercing fiercely into the gap of the weakest bone armor on Baron's chin.
Puchi.
The Adamantium pierced through Baron's brain matter without any resistance, emerging from the top of his head.
The massive bone-armored monster stiffened, the madness in his eyes gradually dissipating, and finally, like a piece of deadwood that had lost its life, he collapsed heavily into the ruins.
Logan pulled out his steel claws and kicked Baron's corpse away.
He tilted his head back, watching the false god in mid-air heading toward destruction, and grinned with his blood-filled mouth.
North America, Star Umbrella Manor.
In the underground psychic shielding room.
Anna was wearing a black combat uniform, standing in front of Lydia's body, which was already as shriveled as deadwood.
On the holographic screen, Emma's diamond face reflected a cold luster.
"Anna, she is attempting to self-destruct her cerebral cortex. The encrypted data Apocalypse left in her genes is self-deleting. I need you to cut off her last bit of magnetic response."
Emma spoke rapidly.
Anna did not hesitate at all.
She reached out her pale hand and pressed it directly onto Lydia's forehead.
"No..." Lydia's remaining weak consciousness let out a desperate wail.
Anna remained expressionless, her absorption instinct deep within her Mutant genes running at full power.
The last bit of weak magnetic force in Lydia's body, used to maintain neural activity, was completely drained by Anna, as if unspooling silk from a cocoon.
Lydia's pupils dilated completely, and her brainwaves flattened into a single line.
"Data intercepted successfully."
Emma pressed the enter key, "The core code for the reincarnation has been cracked. Master, we have stripped Apocalypse down to his underwear."
All of this happened within the ten seconds before the antimatter bomb detonated.
Boom.
A dull, massive roar transmitted from deep beneath Cairoto an altitude of ten thousand meters.
The obscure, ghostly blue reincarnation array beneath Apocalypse's feet, like a light bulb whose power had been forcibly cut, flickered twice and then extinguished completely.
The shards of Phoenix fire forcibly fused within him could no longer be suppressed by anything.
"No!!!"
Apocalypse let out a desperate roar.
The scarlet spear thrown by Jean, carrying the destructive aura of a single-Universe level, pierced through Apocalypse's chest without any resistance.
The violent flames swallowed the massive, gray-blue body whole.
Without the support of external pillars, without the worship of believers, and even his prized Four Horsemen having been slaughtered to the last by Lin Nuo's subordinates within a few short minutes.
He had become a complete loner.
Lin Nuo stood at the edge of the ruins, holding Jean in his arms, watching Apocalypse turn into ashes bit by bit in the sea of fire.
"You lost. You lost so thoroughly that not even a scrap is left."
Lin Nuo pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, his tone extremely calm.
Apocalypse's cracked face gradually twisted in the flames.
Just at the moment his head was about to be completely burned into nothingness, his left eye, burning with scarlet fire, stared straight at Lin Nuo.
He did not beg for mercy again, nor did he issue any more of those ridiculous declarations of godhood.
The corners of Apocalypse's mouth curled into an extremely eerie and malicious arc.
"Do you think you have won... Outsider."
Apocalypse's hoarse voice, mixed with some kind of hair-raising electronic noise, exploded directly in Lin Nuo's mind.
"This shell... is merely a jailer guarding a cage..."
"You have smashed the lock... those true monsters... are about to wake up..."
Chapter 236: Physical Destruction, Do You Think You Can Escape?
Lin Nuo took a step forward, his leather shoes making a crisp sound as they trod upon the charred ruins.
He looked at Apocalypse, who was attempting to regain his final shred of dignity with words amidst the sea of fire, and curled his lips into a maliciously wicked arc. "Old thing, you know nothing about true monsters."
Apocalypse stared fixedly at Lin Nuo.
He had lived for thousands of years and had never seen such an arrogant mortal.
The reincarnation array had been destroyed, and the genetic chains within his body were collapsing completely, but the remaining foundation of this old god's shell was still enough for him to launch one final, mutually destructive counterattack.
"Let's go to hell together!"
Apocalypse let out an inhuman roar.
He abandoned all defenses, converting all the remaining energy within his body into the purest molecular restructuring waveband.
The special steel frames at the top of the Cairo TV Tower, the obsidian ruins, and even the dust in the air were all forcibly deconstructed at this moment.
The gray-blue energy storm transformed into a gigantic meat grinder, expanding wildly outward with Apocalypseat its center.
This indiscriminate molecular-level annihilation was enough to completely vaporize all carbon-based life within a radius of one hundred meters.
Lin Nuo did not retreat.
He released his hand from around Jean's waist and stepped forward, facing that World-destroying molecular storm.
His Hulk-level, terrifying muscle density roared within his body.
The dark golden luster of the Asgardian Divine Factorflowed across the surface of his skin, forming the first layer of physical insulation.
His Mutant ability for extreme microscopic atomic restructuring operated at full power.
Those gray-blue energies attempting to deconstruct his physical body were forcibly crushed by a more overbearing power of restructuring the moment they touched his skin.
Bang!
Lin Nuo crashed straight through the core of the molecular storm, his powerful hand, like an iron pincer, gripping Apocalypse's neck tightly.
Apocalypse's massive body was forcibly lifted into mid-air.
He waved his hands frantically, attempting to use gravity fields and magnetic force to twist off Lin Nuo's arm.
But Lin Nuo's arm was like a superalloy cast from a stellar core, unmoving.
"Want to die? You have to play by my rules."
Lin Nuo exerted force with his fingers, his knuckles making Apocalypse's cervical vertebrae crackle.
He turned his head and looked at the red-haired woman standing behind him.
Jean stood where she was.
Without Charles's shackles, without the fear of losing control.
She looked at the man who had helped her shoulder all the damage and held the arrogant old god in his hand like a dead dog, the scarlet fire in her eyes shining to the extreme.
She closed her eyes.
Deep within her spiritual World, behind the bronze door that had been pushed open, the Phoenix let out a clear, resonant cry.
It was no longer a chaotic rampage, but absolute submission and control.
Jean raised her hands, her palms aimed at Apocalypse, who was locked down by Lin Nuo.
Boom!
The purest Phoenix core fire transformed into a dark red beam of light, pouring out without reservation.
This fire had no leaking temperature; all its destructive power was compressed to the extreme, striking precisely at Apocalypse's chest.
"Ah—"
Apocalypse let out the most miserable wail of his life.
That shell, which even nuclear bombs could not shatter, began to carbonize and peel off over a large area under the burning of the Phoenix core fire.
His Healing Factor, which he was so proud of, could not even last a second in the face of this single-Universe-level origin energy.
Inside the Star Umbrella mobile command ship.
Hank looked at the large screen in front of the medical pod, his blue hands gripping the edge tightly.
The lines on the electrocardiogram monitor rose and fell weakly.
Charles, on the hospital bed, twitched his eyelids with difficulty twice.
This heavily comatose Mutant leader, relying on his Omega-level Telepathy, perceived everything happening outside in his subconscious.
Charles saw that sea of Phoenix Fire that was not out of control.
He saw Jean, in a state without shackles or suppression, perfectly controlling that power capable of destroying the World.
And the one who had achieved all this was not he, the painstaking mentor, but that overbearing, lying alien tyrant.
Charles's heart twitched violently.
The philosophy he had insisted on for ten years, the mental cage he had imposed to protect Jean, were proven at this moment to be a complete joke.
In the corner, Scott, paralyzed by high-voltage electric shocks, was also staring fixedly at the screen.
His broken knees were still bleeding, and a strange wheezing sound came from his throat.
He looked at Jean, who was like a god in the sea of fire, and watched her pour her power into that bespectacled man without reservation.
"Jean..." Scott screamed desperately in his heart.
He tried to use their past bond to wake her up, but he sadly discovered that from beginning to end, Jean had not moved her gaze from Lin Nuo for even a second.
That man had become her only light, while he was just a defective product swept into the garbage heap.
At the top of the Cairo TV Tower.
Apocalypse's physical body was disintegrating layer by layer.
The gray-blue flesh was burned to ashes, revealing the thick bones underneath.
But even those bones began to crystallize and shatter under the high-frequency radiation of the Phoenix Fire.
"Emma."
Lin Nuo, gripping Apocalypse's neck, issued an order over the communication channel.
"Here, Master."
Inside the mobile command ship, the White Queen's diamond face refracted a cold luster.
"Block all surrounding spiritual frequency bands. This old thing's physical body cannot be saved, so he is definitely going to play the trick of casting off his shell like a cicada."
Lin Nuo understood the routines of these old monsters who had lived for thousands of years all too well.
"Understood. The Quantum Mainframe has been accessed, and the electromagnetic shielding network is deployed at full power."
Emma's hands flew across the virtual keyboard.
At the center of the sea of fire.
Apocalypse's only remaining hand was gripping Lin Nuo's wrist tightly.
On his face, which had been burned beyond recognition, a look of extreme resentment appeared.
"You destroyed my vessel... You destroyed the arrival of the god..." Apocalypse's vocal cords had already been burned away; this sentence was transmitted directly through spiritual fluctuations.
"God?"
Lin Nuo sneered, raising his right leg violently, his knee slamming hard into Apocalypse's crystallized sternum.
Crack.
Apocalypse's chest cavity collapsed completely.
Lin Nuo let go, letting the broken shell fall backward into the deepest part of the Phoenix Fire.
"On this Planet, apart from me, no one has the qualifications to call themselves a god."
Lin Nuo looked down from above at Apocalypse, who was turning into fly ash in the sea of fire.
His physical body collapsed completely.
Apocalypse's shell, which had lived for thousands of years, finally had not a single cell left under the burning of the Phoenix core fire.
But in the last second of his physical body's demise, an extremely hidden and massive spiritual energy suddenly shot out from the pile of ashes.
Apocalypse's remnant soul.
He abandoned all material forms, compressing the spiritual power accumulated over thousands of years into an extremely tiny point of light.
That was his final origin.
As long as this remnant soul escaped, and he possessed an ordinary person, he could lie dormant for a hundred years and make a comeback.
"Want to run?"
Jean snorted coldly.
Her eyes were scarlet, and her powerful telekinesis transformed into an invisible net, directly covering that fleeing point of light.
But Apocalypse was too cunning.
He did not choose to flee outward, but instead smashed through the barrier between the physical and the spiritual, diving headfirst into the chaotic spiritual magnetic field above Cairo.
"He escaped into the spiritual realm!"
Emma reported urgently over the channel, "Master, he has cut off all physical coordinates; the Quantum Mainframe cannot lock onto him!"
Lin Nuo pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, looking at the fleeting ripple in the void without any surprise in his eyes.
He turned his head and looked at Jean beside him.
"Drag him out."
Lin Nuo's tone was flat.
Jean did not hesitate at all, directly taking Lin Nuo's hand.
Under the connection of the Asgardian Divine Factor, the two of them's consciousnesses instantly broke through the limitations of the physical dimension, descending directly into that vast and boundless spiritual realm.
This was a void space woven from countless subconscious minds and brainwaves.
Apocalypse's remnant soul transformed into a gray-blue phantom, fleeing wildly through this space.
He looked back and discovered that Lin Nuo and Jean had actually followed him in, his illusory face full of fear and resentment.
"Do you really think you can kill me here?"
Apocalypse's remnant soul roared in the spiritual realm.
"This is the abyss of consciousness! Without that powerful physical body, you mortal are nothing here!"
Chapter 237: Consciousness Cage, Crushing the Old God with One Foot!
Apocalypse's remnant soul transformed into a gray-blue storm, surging crazily within the vast, boundless spiritual void.
The obsessions of countless Mutants plundered over thousands of years were all released at this moment.
Those twisted human faces wailed in the storm, attempting to completely strangle Lin Nuo's consciousness with the most primitive spiritual pollution.
Lin Nuo stood in the void.
His spiritual projection was still wearing that high-quality black shirt, with gold-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose.
Facing the overwhelming spiritual storm, he didn't even twitch an eyebrow.
"Living for thousands of years, do you not have any fresh tricks in your head besides these spooky gimmicks?"
Lin Nuo tugged at his collar, his tone filled with righteous mockery.
Apocalypse was furious.
He stopped talking, and the gray-blue storm transformed into a giant hand that blotted out the sky, grabbing directly at Lin Nuo's consciousness.
As long as he devoured this man's spirit and seized that perfect physical vessel, he would still be the true god of this World.
Just as the giant hand was about to close.
In the real World, inside the mobile command ship.
On Emma's diamond face, currently in her secondary mutation state, refracted streams of ghostly blue data light.
Her slender fingers left afterimages on the virtual keyboard.
The Star Umbrella quantum main computer was operating at overload at this moment.
"Mental frequency band locked."
Emma's voice was cold, "Electromagnetic shielding net, closing."
Above Cairo city.
An invisible net composed of high-frequency electromagnetic pulses descended with a roar, centered on the Cairo TV Tower.
The entire Cairo urban network and electronic equipment overloaded and crashed at this moment.
This physical-level electromagnetic barrier directly cut off all medium channels for Apocalypse's remnant soul to escape outward.
Inside the spiritual realm.
Apocalypse suddenly realized his retreat was sealed.
For the first time, substantial panic appeared on his illusory face.
He attempted to split off a wisp of his remnant soul to strike outward, but it was like slamming into a solid, airtight titanium alloy wall.
"Who allowed you to look around?"
A cold female voice rang out in the void.
Jean Grey's spiritual projection appeared beside Lin Nuo.
Her eyes were crimson, and she raised her right hand, pushing forward.
Boom!
Scarlet Phoenix Fire ignited directly within the spiritual realm.
Those flames, composed of pure energy, were not restricted by physical rules at all.
They transformed into a massive spherical cage, trapping Apocalypse's remnant soul tightly in the center.
Every inch the flames contracted, a portion of the spiritual foundation Apocalypse had accumulated over thousands of years was incinerated.
"Traitor! You damned traitor!"
Apocalypse charged left and right in the fire cage, letting out shrill screams.
He finally understood that he had fallen into a desperate situation with no way out.
Externally, there was the electromagnetic shielding net cutting off his retreat, and internally, the Phoenix Fire was closing in step by step.
And that man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, like a cold executioner, was watching him put up his final struggle as a trapped Beast.
"Since no one wants to live, then let's die together!"
Apocalypse fell into complete madness.
He gave up resisting the burning of the Phoenix Fire and compressed all his remaining spiritual power to the extreme.
The gray-blue light transformed into an extremely sharp mental spike, carrying the determination to perish together, and stabbed straight toward the center of Lin Nuo's eyebrows.
He wanted to forcibly rush into the depths of Lin Nuo's consciousness and detonate his origin.
Lin Nuo stood in place, not dodging.
He even actively opened his spiritual barrier, letting that mental spike of Apocalypse pierce into his sea of consciousness.
Apocalypse was ecstatic.
He thought he had grasped his final straw.
However.
When he truly rushed into the depths of Lin Nuo's consciousness, that illusory face froze completely.
There were no fragile memory fragments like those of ordinary people, nor the subconscious that was easily manipulated like that of a Mutant.
What did Apocalypse see?
He saw a piece of absolute void shadow.
In that shadow, a crystal emitting terrifying fluctuations was suspended.
That was the level 3 Reality Manipulation Authoritycrystal that Lin Nuo had obtained from the system through a critical hit.
It was like a beating mechanical heart, ruthlessly suppressing all laws in this space.
Any external spiritual power, the moment it approached this crystal, would be forcibly deconstructed, reorganized, and erased.
"This... what is this thing!"
Apocalypse let out an incredulous scream.
His thousands of years of spiritual foundation, which he prided himself on, was weaker than a soap bubble in front of this authority that transcended reality and illusion.
"Welcome to my World."
Lin Nuo's voice echoed 360 degrees in the sea of consciousness.
His spiritual projection towered infinitely before Apocalypse.
The Hulk-level violent power, the Mutant's microscopic atomic reorganization, and the Reality Manipulation Authority were forcibly fused together by Lin Nuo at this moment, directly bringing physical rules into the spiritual realm.
Lin Nuo raised his right hand, splayed his five fingers, and then pressed down violently.
A terrifying gravity that should not have existed in the spiritual realm acted directly on Apocalypse's remnant soul.
Bang!
Apocalypse's gray-blue ball of light was forcefully pressed flat against the void, and even moving a finger became a luxury.
"Aren't you a god? Get up."
Lin Nuo looked down at this ball of light from above, his tone carrying the absolute coldness of a capitalist tearing up a contract.
Apocalypse struggled desperately.
He attempted to mobilize the Mutant abilities he had assimilated, but all genetic codes failed in this space suppressed by the Reality Manipulation Authority.
He finally felt fear.
An absolute fear of death, something he had never felt in thousands of years.
"Spare me..." Apocalypse's overlapping, hoarse voice finally carried a plea, "I can give you my knowledge... my genetic library... we can rule this World together..."
Lin Nuo listened to this plea, his mouth curling into an extremely malicious arc.
He raised his foot, and his expensive custom-made leather shoe stepped directly on the core position of Apocalypse's remnant soul.
"Old thing, your era ended long ago."
Lin Nuo exerted force under his foot.
The Reality Manipulation Authority operated at full power.
Crack.
A crisp cracking sound rang out in the spiritual realm.
Apocalypse's core, which had compressed thousands of years of life origin, was like a weathered glass bead under Lin Nuo's foot, crushed to pieces.
"Even gods have to follow my rules."
Lin Nuo dropped this sentence and twisted his toe.
The gray-blue light exploded completely, turning into meaningless points of light in the sky, which were then swept away by Jean's Phoenix Fire, burned until not even residue remained.
The false god of the old era met his most thorough end.
...
Real World.
Ruins of the Cairo TV Tower.
The violent sandstorm lost its energy support and began to subside rapidly.
The thick purple-black cloud screen in the sky was torn apart by the sunlight.
On the middle platform.
Ororo knelt on the steel plate, exhausted.
She gasped heavily, her azure eyes looking at the sky that had become clear again above.
The sense of oppression that had always shrouded her heart, the humiliation of being treated like a chess piece and manipulated at will, vanished at this moment.
Logan climbed out of the ruins.
He wiped the blood off his face, looked at the bone-armored monster below whose brain he had pierced with his steel claws, and then looked up at the top of the tower.
His beastly intuition told him that the monster named Apocalypse had been completely erased from this World.
"Nice work, four-eyes."
Logan grinned, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
Inside the mobile command ship.
The indicator light of the rescue capsule jumped back to green.
Charles lay on the hospital bed and slowly opened his eyes.
In his eyes, filled with fatigue and vicissitudes, there was no joy of surviving a disaster, only endless sorrow.
Just a second ago.
Relying on his Omega-level Telepathy, he had clearly captured the entire process of Apocalypse's remnant soul being unilaterally crushed.
He saw Lin Nuo's unreasonable physical suppression in the spiritual realm.
He also saw how Jean perfectly contained the Phoenix's destructive Fire without shackles.
Charles turned his head and glanced at Scott next to him, who was foaming at the mouth from the electric shock and completely ruined.
He knew that the era of the X-Men was over.
His moderate philosophy, which he had insisted on for half his life, was smashed to pieces in front of this man who acted domineeringly and ruthlessly.
"Professor..." Hank stood by the bed, his voice dry.
"We lost, Hank."
Charles closed his eyes, his voice hoarse and unrecognizable, "Completely lost."
Top of the TV Tower.
Lin Nuo slowly opened his eyes.
He still maintained the posture of holding Jean's waist with one hand.
The woman in his arms also opened her eyes at the same time, those originally crimson eyes gradually fading their violent firelight, returning to their original clarity.
Jean raised her head, looking at Lin Nuo's refined yet scoundrel-like face.
There were no extra words.
She directly reached out both hands, wrapped them around Lin Nuo's neck, and pressed her lips onto his.
This was not a superficial touch, but a fanatical catharsis carrying a near-pathological possessiveness and the breaking of shackles.
She gave everything of herself, without reservation, to this man who was the only one capable of catching her.
Lin Nuo did not refuse.
He held the back of Jean's head, responding with extreme aggression.
At this very moment when their lips and teeth were intertwined.
A line of pale blue fluorescent font, which only Lin Nuocould see, jumped rapidly on his retina.
[Ding!]
[Detected that the host has completely reshaped the mental World of the Mutant 'Jean Grey'.]
[Snatching progress reached 100%.]
[Physical anchor established. Achievement 'Master of the Phoenix' achieved.]
[Congratulations to the host for triggering an extreme possessiveness critical hit!]
[Vishanti Law seal unlock progress jumped significantly... Current total unlock progress: 85%.]
[Resonance restriction of the Space Stone origin fragment lifted.]
Chapter 238: Pointing Fingers, Are You Teaching Me How to Do Things?
Lin Nuo felt the resurgence of spatial law fluctuations within his body.
The shackles of the Vishanti were crumbling; with just one more push, he could completely tear through the barrier of this parallel Universe.
"The show is over."
Lin Nuo raised his hand to tuck a lock of red hair behind Jean's ear, his tone steady, "Time to close the net."
Over Cairo.
The thick, purple-black clouds dissipated completely, and sunlight fell once again upon the devastated city.
At the edge of the horizon, dozens of heavy transport ships, emblazoned with the massive logo of the Star Umbrella, broke through the clouds and descended, blotting out the sun.
The armed forces of the Star Umbrella took control of this land, which had just experienced a battle of gods, with an absolutely overbearing posture.
"Master, the global cerebral wave contamination was completely lifted three minutes ago."
Emma's voice sounded in the communication channel, exuding absolute professionalism and calm, "Apocalypse's death severed all psychic frequencies. Those politicians who wet their pants are now frantically calling our dedicated lines."
"Leave them hanging."
Lin Nuo, one hand in his pocket, looked down at the transport ships beginning to airdrop supplies, "Tell the PR department to loop the footage of us intercepting the nuclear missile in Cairo, killing the old god, and saving the World from the global cerebral palsy crisis on the big screens in Times Square twenty-four hours a day."
"Understood. The Star Umbrella is now the savior of all mankind."
The sound of Emma typing on her keyboard was crisp and pleasant.
Crushing with brute force is merely a crude method; the dimensionality reduction strike of capital is the core of harvesting power.
Apocalypse wanted to rule the World using the barbaric methods of thousands of years ago, destined only to become a stepping stone for Lin Nuo to establish his authority.
The ruins of downtown Cairo.
Airdrop pods filled with polymer medical pods and nano-repair agents slammed heavily into the ground.
Fully armed Star Umbrella tactical squads quickly dispersed and set up perimeter lines.
"Send the wounded over here! Medical team, activate the cell activity suppressors!"
Logan bit on a half-smoked unlit cigar, shirtless, revealing his Adamantium skeleton covered in blood and grime.
He roughly pushed aside a concrete slab weighing several tons, pulled out a few shivering civilians from underneath, and tossed them aside to the nearby Star Umbrellamedics.
"The stooges of that four-eyes are certainly quick."
Logan spat out the cigar debris in his mouth. Looking at the orderly rescue scene around him, he had to admit that the efficiency of the Star Umbrella was far higher than the amateurish, playing-house setup of the X-Men.
In mid-air.
Ororo hovered ten meters above the ground.
She no longer summoned thunder, but instead controlled an extremely gentle breeze, blowing the harmful dust and radioactive particles over the city out toward the open sea.
She looked down at the Star Umbrella soldiers in black uniforms below; there was no longer any confusion in her azure eyes.
That man had used the most violent means to shatter the gods, and now he was using the most massive capital to reshape order.
"Ororo, there are three out-of-control Mutants in Zone B. Go handle them. Don't hurt the civilians."
Raven's voice sounded in the channel.
"Received."
Ororo turned and flew toward Zone B, her movements crisp and decisive.
At the edge of the ruins.
A Star Umbrella hovering wheelchair slowly approached.
Charles sat in the wheelchair, draped in a large blanket.
His complexion was as pale as paper, and on his bald head remained the grayish-blue vein traces left behind during Apocalypse's forced assimilation.
Hank pushed the wheelchair, his heavy blue palms tightening slightly.
Behind them, two Star Umbrella combat robots supported a set of nano-exoskeleton armor.
Scott was tightly secured inside, the blood at his shattered knees already congealed.
His vocal cord nerves had been destroyed by high-voltage electric shocks, and he could only stare fixedly ahead with bloodshot eyes.
Charles watched the refugees queuing up to receive supplies from the Star Umbrella, watching those ordinary people who once viewed Mutants as monsters now expressing endless gratitude to the Star Umbrella's Mutant medical corps.
The peaceful coexistence he had insisted on for half his life had been achieved by Lin Nuo in the time it took to eat a meal.
It was just that the price was absolute obedience.
The wheelchair stopped three meters in front of Lin Nuo.
Lin Nuo stood on a charred stone slab, his black shirt fluttering in the breeze.
He didn't even glance at Charles, but instead unhurriedly took off his gold-rimmed glasses and wiped the dust off the lenses with the corner of his shirt.
"Mr. Lin Nuo."
Charles spoke first, his voice hoarse and dry.
"Professor Xavier."
Lin Nuo put his glasses back on, looking down condescendingly at this former leader of the Mutants, "It seems the water in your brain hasn't been drained by Apocalypse yet."
Charles gave a bitter smile.
He glanced at Jean, who was standing at Lin Nuo's side.
Jean was wearing a black tactical vest, her red hair fluttering in the wind.
She did not look at Charles, nor did she look at Scott, who was being held in the back, raging impotently.
Her gaze remained fixed on Lin Nuo; that sense of complete attachment and submission stung Charles's heart more than any words could.
"You won."
Charles lowered his head, his hands gripping the edge of the blanket tightly, "I represent the X-Men, and I represent myself, in thanking you. If it weren't for you, this Worldwould have been destroyed."
"Stop gilding your own face."
Lin Nuo interrupted him mercilessly, his tone righteous, "I killed Apocalypse because he was blocking my path. I saved these civilians because they will be cheap labor for the Star Umbrella in the future. As for your laughable X-Men..."
Lin Nuo sneered, his gaze sweeping over Hank and Scott in the back.
"A bunch of giant babies who can't even control their own abilities, and you deserve to be saved by me? I am sparing your lives just so you can see with your own eyes what true order is."
Scott struggled frantically behind the wheelchair.
The exoskeleton made a harsh metallic grinding sound.
He opened his mouth wide, making a "hissing" broken sound in his throat, attempting to cut Lin Nuo into a thousand pieces with his gaze.
Jean finally turned her head and glanced at Scott.
That glance had no emotional fluctuation whatsoever.
No pity, no guilt, and certainly no past bonds.
It was as if she were looking at a worthless stone on the side of the road.
"Quiet."
Jean spat out the two words coldly.
Telekinesis activated.
The exoskeleton on Scott locked up directly, and even his chin was forcibly closed by an invisible force.
He completely became a statue that could not make a sound.
Charles closed his eyes, and a turbid tear slid from the corner of his eye.
"The school is dissolved."
Charles sighed heavily, "All students and permissions have been handed over to Emma. I only ask one thing of you... don't let them become tools of slaughter."
"The value of a tool depends on the methods of the user."
Lin Nuo brushed off his cuffs, "You treated them like sheep kept in a cage, only to be eaten by wolves in the end. I am teaching them how to be wolves; at least they will be able to live like people."
Charles was speechless.
He knew he had no bargaining chips.
A low roar of rotors came from the distant sky.
Three heavy helicopters painted pure white, escorted by Star Umbrella fighter jets, slowly landed on an open space on the outskirts of the ruins.
On the fuselage of the helicopters, a striking blue emblem was printed.
The cabin doors opened.
Several politicians in suits and leather shoes, with extremely ugly expressions, walked down surrounded by fully armed bodyguards.
They stepped on the ruins covering the ground, their leather shoes covered in dust, yet they had to bite the bullet and walk toward the man standing on the high ground.
Leading them was a middle-aged white man with graying hair.
He looked at the Star Umbrella's armed forces, which were comparable to a regular army, and then glanced at the Mutants being carried away on stretchers, swallowing a mouthful of saliva.
"Mr. Lin Nuo."
The middle-aged white man walked up close, trying hard to maintain the dignity of a representative of a major power.
"I am the Chief Commissioner of the Alliance's Special Crisis Response Team, William Smith."
"I represent the Alliance, and I demand that the Star Umbrella immediately cease its unilateral military operations in Cairo and hand over all research data regarding alien technology and Mutant weapons."
Lin Nuo looked at this brazen politician and laughed out loud.
"Mr. Smith, did you get one thing wrong?"
Lin Nuo took a step forward, his leather shoes making a crisp sound on the stones.
He pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, his tone so calm it made people's hair stand on end.
"Right now, it is you who are begging me to leave you a way to survive, not you teaching me how to do things. Do you understand?"
Chapter 239: Late Night Special Training, Professor, I Am Not Going Back
Smith's face flushed a deep, liver-colored purple.
He was used to bossing people around at international conferences; even when facing warlords from small nations with private armies, he had never suffered such direct humiliation.
"Mr. Lin Nuo, you are openly challenging the bottom line of the Alliance!"
Smith gritted his teeth, his briefcase creaking as he gripped it tightly. "If you refuse to cooperate, the Alliance will be forced to take economic sanctions or even Military..."
"Bottom line?"
Lin Nuo couldn't even be bothered to look at this clown properly, turning his head to nod at Emma.
"Play the recording we intercepted earlier. Let this commissioner hear whether their so-called bottom line fell into the sewer a long time ago."
Emma pressed the micro-controller on her wrist with an expressionless face.
After a burst of static, the Minister of Defense's cracked, roaring voice echoed over the ruins.
"We have lost the signal to all nuclear submarines! Apocalypse has taken control of the launch silos! Contact Star Umbrella quickly! Agree to whatever conditions they want! Just don't let the nuclear missiles land on Washington!"
Smith's expression froze completely on his face.
"Commissioner Smith, step down. You lack the most basic understanding of Mr. Lin Nuo's strength and status."
A calm, cold female voice interrupted the awkward situation.
A middle-aged woman in a grey professional suit stepped down from the helicopter's rear cabin.
She wore her hair in a sharp, capable bob, and her eyes were as sharp as a scalpel.
Margaret Shaw, the real power behind the UN Security Council, and a top-tier politician who had navigated the peaks of capital and power for years.
Margaret stepped over the rubble to stand before Lin Nuo, keeping her posture low, but without Smith's foolish, blustering bravado.
"Mr. Lin Nuo, the wind and sand here are too strong. I think we should find a more suitable place to talk."
Margaret glanced at the Star Umbrella mobile command ship blocking the sky.
Ten minutes later.
Star Umbrella mobile command ship, fully enclosed conference cabin.
Outside the massive curved floor-to-ceiling windows were the ruins of Cairo being rebuilt; inside was a negotiation table that would determine the future of this Planet.
Lin Nuo sat in the main seat, the cuffs of his black shirt rolled up casually, revealing marble-like muscle definition on his forearms.
He didn't speak, just idly played with a pure black fountain pen on the table.
Jean Grey, wearing a tight tactical suit, stood quietly behind Lin Nuo.
Her red hair was particularly striking under the cool-toned lights.
On the left side of the conference table, Margaret Shaw and several politicians sat stiffly.
On the right, Charles sat in his wheelchair, draped in a blanket, his face ashen.
Hank stood behind him, charred traces still visible on his blue fur.
Ororo sat a little further away; as the head of Star Umbrella's Africa division, she now fully represented Lin Nuo's will.
"On behalf of the Alliance, I acknowledge the outstanding contribution Star Umbrella has made in this Apocalypsecrisis."
Margaret broke the silence first, pushing a thick document to the center of the table. "However, the technology left behind by Apocalypse is too dangerous. The remains of those ancient Egyptian reincarnation arrays and the genetic data should be handed over to the International Joint Laboratory for safekeeping. Furthermore, Star Umbrellamust return control of the global nuclear arsenal."
She believed her words were reasonable and well-founded.
No matter how strong Star Umbrella was, it couldn't possibly go to war against all the World's state apparatuses.
The fountain pen in Lin Nuo's hand stopped spinning.
He lifted his eyelids, his black eyes full of undisguised mockery.
"Ms. Margaret, do you have some kind of misunderstanding?"
Lin Nuo threw the fountain pen onto the table with a crisp click. "Apocalypse was killed by me; the technology is my war trophy. As for the control of the nuclear arsenal... your firewalls, which are like pieces of junk, couldn't even withstand a single mental wave from Apocalypse. Hand it back to you? Wait for the next crisis to come and let the World watch another fireworks show?"
"Mr. Lin Nuo, you are depriving various countries of their national defense sovereignty!"
A politician slapped the table and stood up.
"That is exactly what I am doing."
Lin Nuo leaned back in his chair, his tone righteous, revealing the absolute coldness of a capitalist harvesting leeks. "You can't even deal with a corpse that's thousands of years old, being kept like pigs in a mental network, and now you're coming here to talk to me about sovereignty? Does a beggar asking for food have the right to teach me how to do things?"
The politician turned bright red, choked, and couldn't say a word.
Margaret pressed her hand on the politician's shoulder and took a deep breath. "Mr. Lin Nuo, what exactly do you want? To build a Military empire that is not subject to any country?"
"I have no interest in playing house with you people, pretending to fight for World hegemony."
Lin Nuo tapped his fingers on the table. "Emma, send the materials to them."
White Queen Emma walked forward in high heels, distributing black folders with the Star Umbrella logo to everyone present.
"This is the 'Mutant Disaster Emergency Protection Framework'."
Emma's cold voice rang out in the conference cabin, devoid of any emotion. "From today on, all registered Mutants worldwide will no longer be subject to local laws of various countries and will be uniformly under the protection and jurisdiction of Star Umbrella."
Charles jerked his head up, his cloudy eyes staring fixedly at the document.
Emma continued to read the terms: "Star Umbrella will establish Mutant containment and medical centers in thirty-six major cities around the World. We will provide the most advanced genetic stabilizers, psychological intervention, and employment channels. Any Mutantawakening or runaway incident can only be handled by Star Umbrella's armed tactical teams."
"Governments, the Military, and private research institutions have no right to capture, detain, or dissect any Mutant without authorization. Violators will be considered by Star Umbrella as declaring war, and we will take all necessary means of physical destruction."
The conference cabin fell into a deathly silence.
Margaret's hands were shaking as she flipped through the file.
This wasn't a protection framework at all; it was a naked treaty of hegemony.
"Thirty-six containment centers mean you intend to establish Military Bases with absolute extraterritorial rights in the capitals of thirty-six sovereign countries!"
Margaret stared at Lin Nuo. "You are using Mutants as a bargaining chip to forcibly station troops all over the World!"
"You guessed right."
Lin Nuo adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, a malicious curve tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Not only that, the reconstruction project of Cairo will be fully funded by Star Umbrella. In exchange, the ninety-nine-year lease of the Cairo port and absolute control over this airspace belong to me."
"Impossible! The Alliance will never sign such a treaty that humiliates the country and forfeits its sovereignty!"
Smith shrieked hysterically from the side.
"Not signing?"
Lin Nuo stood up, resting his hands on the table, his aggressive gaze sweeping across the politicians opposite. "Emma, cut off the global brainwave suppression network. Release that mental pollution residue Apocalypse left in the satellites again. I'll give them three hours; let's see if their citizens suffer brain death first, or if they tear down their White House first."
"You're crazy! This is a massacre!"
Margaret was horrified.
"I only do business; I don't do charity."
Lin Nuo declared coldly, "Sign, or wait to die. Choose."
Margaret slumped back in her chair.
She knew that from the moment Star Umbrella took over the nuclear arsenal, there was no suspense in this negotiation.
The other party held the knife, and they were just the meat on the chopping block.
"Professor Charles."
Lin Nuo turned his head, his gaze falling on the old man in the wheelchair. "There is a place for you in this framework as well."
Charles opened the last page of the document, his hands trembling uncontrollably.
The terms were written clearly: Xaviers School for Gifted Youngsters is officially demoted to an affiliated educational institution of Star Umbrella Group.
The school is only responsible for basic cultural education and psychological counseling; it no longer possesses any armed authority, law enforcement power, or external action rights.
All school funding will be allocated by Star Umbrella, and all faculty and staff must accept the direct management of Emma Frost.
This was tantamount to completely stripping away Charles's life work and sweeping the name X-Men into the dustbin of history.
"You have turned Mutants into tools for you to expand your power."
Charles's voice was as dry as if it were rubbing against sandpaper.
"I gave them the dignity to survive."
Lin Nuo countered mercilessly, "You taught them to hide in the dark and swallow their pride, and what was the result? Being caught by Stryker for experiments, being used as batteries by Apocalypse. I flipped the table and forced the World to treat them as human beings. That is what protection is."
Charles was speechless.
He saw through Lin Nuo's ambition.
This man used a treaty to not only station troops globally but also completely co-opt all Mutants.
From now on, whether ordinary people or Mutants, everyone could only survive under the rules set by Star Umbrella.
But Charles couldn't refuse.
Because this was indeed the best outcome Mutants could get right now.
No more secret Military captures, no more cold operating tables.
"I agree."
Charles closed his eyes and uttered these three words, as if all his strength had been drained.
Seeing that Charles had compromised, Margaret knew the situation was lost and had to grit her teeth and sign her name on the document.
The agreement was reached.
Star Umbrella officially established its absolute hegemony here.
The politicians left the conference cabin in low spirits.
Charles signaled for Hank to push the wheelchair toward the cabin door.
As they passed Lin Nuo, the wheelchair stopped.
This former leader of the Mutants raised his World-weary eyes to look at the red-haired woman standing silently behind Lin Nuo.
"Jean."
There was a hint of almost pleading hope in Charles's voice. "The school is still there. I have kept your room for you. Come back with me; the children there need you."
Hank also looked at Jean with hope.
As long as Jean could go back, the X-Men would still have a shred of spiritual solace.
Jean stood where she was.
She didn't look at Charles but turned her face slightly, her gaze falling on Lin Nuo's refined and cold profile.
She recalled the cowardice Charles showed when he asked her to close that door in the mental realm, and she recalled the dominance Lin Nuo showed when he put his arm around her waist and told her to burn Apocalypse to ashes.
Who was the shackle, and who was the sky—it was clear at a glance.
Jean reached out and naturally took Lin Nuo's arm, leaning slightly toward him.
This action completely shattered Charles's last fantasy.
"No need, Professor."
Jean's voice was cold and decisive, without a hint of reluctance.
"From today on, I will stay at Star Umbrella for training."
Chapter 240: Fanatical Submission, You Aren't Even Fit to Hold the Blade
Jean's cold and resolute words echoed within the enclosed conference cabin.
She linked her arm with Lin Nuo's with extreme naturalness, her red hair brushing against the man's black shirt, her posture revealing an undisguised attachment.
Charles sat in his wheelchair, his weathered eyes dimming.
He looked at Jean.
This girl, whom he had watched grow up and into whom he had poured countless efforts, was now standing at the side of another man.
The dark gold shackles he had personally forged were gone, replaced by a vibrancy and dangerous aura that Jean had never possessed before.
Hank's fingers tightened on the wheelchair, his blue nails nearly embedding themselves into the rubber handles.
Behind them, Scott, locked tightly by the exoskeleton, had eyes wide with rage.
A hissing sound like a broken bellows escaped his throat, his eyeballs bloodshot from extreme congestion.
He could not accept that Jean had so casually erased all their past bonds, and he could accept even less the near-fanatical submission in Jean's eyes when she looked at Lin Nuo.
Jean did not even spare Scott a glance.
She simply looked at Charles quietly.
There was no hysterical accusation, nor any satisfaction of revenge.
That calm was more suffocating to Charles than the most vicious curses.
"Jean."
Charles took a deep breath, his withered chest rising and falling with difficulty.
He pushed away Hank's hand as he tried to assist him, using all his strength to straighten his back in the wheelchair.
The founder of the Mutant School abandoned all the airs of an elder.
"I was wrong."
Charles's voice was as hoarse as if he were swallowing gravel.
He looked directly into Jean's now-clear eyes, his tone filled with unreserved guilt.
"Ten years ago, I felt the terror of the power within you. I was afraid it would destroy you, and I was afraid it would destroy the little living space Mutants had struggled so hard to win."
Charles clasped his hands over the blanket on his lap, his knuckles white, "So I took it upon myself to use mental shackles to seal your memories and your origin."
"I thought it was protection. But I forgot that I deprived you of the right to choose. I made you live in a lie that could spiral out of control at any moment."
Charles lowered his head, his grey hair appearing exceptionally sparse.
"I am sorry. I was too arrogant, and I was too cowardly."
The conference cabin was very quiet.
There was only the faint humming of the life support system.
This apology was certainly sincere.
Charles maintained his final dignity as an elder, not shirking responsibility, nor using the "big picture" to excuse himself.
Jean looked at the old man in the wheelchair.
The repression, self-doubt, and fear of her power over the past ten years finally found a clear outlet at this moment.
But she did not cry, nor did she rush up to question him.
"I accept your apology, Professor."
Jean's tone was steady, without a ripple.
Charles suddenly looked up, a glimmer of hope flashing in his clouded eyes.
"But we are no longer on the same path."
Jean's next words immediately extinguished that glimmer of hope.
She tilted her head slightly, feeling the astonishing heat coming from Lin Nuo's arm.
It was an absolute mass that could completely support her.
"You fear fire, so you chose to lock me in an ice cellar. I am grateful for your shelter in the past, but that is not the life I want."
Jean's gaze swept over Charles and Hank, "The first lesson Lin Nuo taught me was to face destruction head-on. I do not need a mentor who is afraid of me at any moment; I need someone who can accompany me to burn through this sky."
"So, do not come looking for me again."
Jean's verdict fell.
It completely severed the final bond of the X-Men.
Charles slumped back against his chair.
He knew he had lost this most excellent student forever.
"Professor Charles, you cannot grow a towering tree in a greenhouse."
Lin Nuo finally spoke.
He had one hand in his pocket, pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, and curled his lips into a wicked arc, "Your self-indulgent theory of protection should have been swept into the trash can long ago."
Lin Nuo turned his head to look at the holographic projection device at the end of the conference table.
"Emma. Connect to the Manor."
"Very well, Master."
The White Queen's voice rang out in the cabin.
The holographic projection flickered twice, and the image cut to the underground greenhouse of the North AmericaStar Umbrella Manor.
In the image, Anna Marie was wearing comfortable loungewear, standing before a patch of blooming roses.
The streak of silver-white hair on her forehead was casually tucked back, and she exuded a sense of ease and confidence she had never possessed before.
Most notably, her hands had no covering whatsoever.
Those hands, which once had to wear insulating gloves at all times for fear of draining others' lives, were now exposed to the air.
"Mr. Lin Nuo."
Anna saw the screen light up and immediately turned around.
The fanaticism and reliance bursting from her eyes were several times more intense than Jean's.
"Anna?!"
Charles cried out when he saw the girl on the screen.
Hank also widened his eyes.
They knew all too well how out of control Rogue's power was.
As long as there was skin-to-skin contact, it would indiscriminately drain life force and memories.
When she was at the school, Anna had to wrap herself up tightly even when sleeping.
But in the holographic image, Anna reached out quite naturally, her fingertips gently brushing against a vibrant red rose.
The petals did not wither.
The life force was not forcibly drained.
Anna had perfectly controlled her instinct to drain.
"Professor."
Anna looked at Charles on the screen, her tone very light, "I heard the school has already been taken over by Star Umbrella."
Charles looked at Anna's hands without gloves, his throat seemingly blocked by something: "Your... your power..."
"I can control it now."
Anna held up her hands, showing them to the camera, "Mr. Lin Nuo did not ask me to suppress it. He let me feel it, and take the lead over it."
Anna's gaze passed over Charles and locked firmly onto Lin Nuo.
"When I was at the school, you always told me that my power was dangerous and had to be restrained. You looked at me with pity, treating me like a porcelain doll that could shatter at any moment."
Anna's voice rose gradually, carrying a hint of undisguised mockery, "But Mr. Lin Nuo is different. He held my hand and told me that this power is a weapon used to tear enemies apart."
"He gave me a sense of security. A sense of security you could never give."
Anna looked directly at Charles, "So, Professor, stop trying to define us with your pathetic theories."
These words were like a loud slap, struck fiercely across Charles's face.
Jean's breakthrough could be attributed to the uniqueness of the Phoenix Force, but Anna's change was solid proof that Lin Nuo's theory of "control and release" completely crushed Charles's "restraint and forbearance."
Behind the wheelchair.
Scott looked at Anna on the screen, then at Jean snuggled beside Lin Nuo.
His proud identity as an X-Men, the justice and ideals he once firmly believed in, were stripped bare at this moment.
"Ugh... hhh!"
Scott twisted frantically inside the nano-exoskeleton.
His broken knees split open again due to his violent struggle, and blood dripped down the mechanical joints onto the metal floor.
His bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at Lin Nuo, wishing he could pounce and bite through the other's throat.
"Too noisy."
Lin Nuo frowned slightly, his tone revealing clear impatience.
Two Star Umbrella heavy guards standing outside the cabin door immediately stepped forward, grabbing Scott's exoskeleton from left and right.
"Throw him into the medical bay. Don't let him die on my territory and dirty the floor."
Lin Nuo waved his hand as if shooing away an annoying fly.
Scott was forcibly dragged out of the conference cabin.
His metal boots dragged two glaring streaks of blood down the corridor.
His desperate and resentful gaze remained fixed on Lin Nuo until the very last second before the cabin door closed.
The conference cabin returned to dead silence.
Charles watched the miserable sight of Scott being dragged away, closed his eyes, and let out a long, heavy sigh.
He knew he had no bargaining chips left.
Whether it was force, capital, or ideology, he had lost completely.
"Push me away, Hank."
Charles patted the back of Hank's hand.
The wheelchair turned slowly and drove toward the cabin door.
At the moment he was about to cross the cabin door, Charles signaled Hank to stop.
This Mutant leader who had lost everything did not look back.
He looked at the Mutant tactical squads outside the corridor wearing Star Umbrella uniforms and orderly transporting supplies.
"Lin Nuo."
Charles's voice rang out at the empty cabin door, carrying a weight that was almost pleading.
"You won. All Mutants are now under your control. I only ask one thing of you..."
Charles's fingers clutched tightly onto the armrests of the wheelchair.
"Do not turn them into cold killing tools. They are people, not weapons for you to expand your power."
Lin Nuo stood before the conference table.
He unhurriedly adjusted the cuffs of his black shirt, his black eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses revealing the purest coldness of a capitalist.
"Charles, have you gone senile?"
Lin Nuo turned around, looking down at the hunched back in the wheelchair from a position of superiority.
"Whether they are tools or gods depends on who is holding the blade."
Lin Nuo's voice was righteous and confident, carrying the edge of a dimensional strike, "You don't even dare to hold the blade, what qualification do you have to teach me how to use it?"