"Professor X," Elric said, his voice firm but not unkind. "I think the only logical thing to do now is to leave with the people you truly care about. There's nothing that can be done here."
"It is certain," Magneto interrupted from the side, his voice hard and resolute. "I am not dying with these humans anymore."
Even if he really didn't want to live this fucking life anymore, he felt that if he died, his family's memory would also die with him. Die with the universe itself, erased completely from existence.
So he decided to live for now. At least he had to make a grave in a universe which wouldn't be destroyed one day later. A place where his family could be remembered, where their existence would mean something beyond the pain.
So he'd already decided that it didn't matter who else was going or not—he was definitely going. No one was going to stop him.
"Magneto... you..." Charles sighed deeply, his voice heavy with understanding and sadness.
The world really had taken too much from his friend. Far too much. How could Charles tell him to stay here and die, right? He couldn't ask that of Eric, not after everything he'd already lost.
And even if Charles had already decided to stay till the last moment to try to save their world, to do whatever he could until the very end, he didn't ask the same from others. Definitely he didn't even want the same from them. In fact, he was already planning to send his students forcefully, even if they were unwilling to leave him behind. He'd use his telepathy to make them go if he had to. They deserved a chance to live.
But before he could continue their conversation, before he could start outlining his plans, Vision interrupted them.
"It's fine if one or two," Vision said, his voice apologetic. "But if a large number of people started to migrate, it will be impossible."
"What?" Everyone looked at him sharply, confusion evident on their faces.
"What do you mean?" Logan asked, his voice growing dangerous. "I thought it was a noble sacrifice situation, but it turns out it was a forced execution?"
Vision sighed helplessly, his synthetic features showing genuine regret.
"It's like this," he began slowly. "We still don't fully know the exact reason about it, the underlying metaphysical mechanics. But when people from one universe go to another universe in large numbers, it will lead to something called an incursion."
"An incursion?" Jean asked, her voice small.
"Yes," Vision nodded gravely. "Where two universes will be directly collided, crashing into each other and destroying both of them in the process. It's a catastrophic event that threatens not just one reality, but two."
"It's fine if one or two people went," Vision continued, raising a hand. "The dimensional strain is negligible with such small numbers. But if it's a large number of people, if we tried to evacuate thousands or millions, it will be troublesome. Very troublesome. The people there—the natives of whatever universe you flee to—they might directly kill you to avoid the incursion. It would be self-defense on a cosmic scale."
"There's something like this?" Charles murmured in his heart, the little hope that had been flickering in his eyes also dimmed completely. The universe seemed determined to offer no way out.
"But wait," Hank spoke up, his scientific mind trying to find loopholes. "Isn't our universe already being destroyed anyway? So there should not be any problem with an incursion, right? Our universe is already doomed."
"Yeah, you're right," Vision nodded. "Without your original universe existing, there is no problem at all from a technical standpoint. No incursion can occur if one of the universes is already gone."
"But," he continued, and everyone could hear the 'but' coming, "how can you convince the native people there? How do you make them believe you?"
"Just think about it logically," Vision explained, his voice patient like a teacher addressing students. "If a criminal came to me while being chased by the whole world, the entire planet hunting them down, I would naturally not want to get involved in that mess. That's common sense—stay away from trouble."
"And when the criminal says to me, 'Oh, don't worry, the whole world is dead so no one is chasing me anymore,' I will naturally not believe it at all. Not for a second. Why would I? It sounds like exactly what a criminal would say to get me to lower my guard."
"It's like this," Vision concluded. "The situation is analogous. No matter how much you insist your universe is dying, the natives of another universe have no way to verify that claim. To them, you could just be lying to gain entry and bring disaster to their world."
"So if you wanted to go to another universe, especially in large numbers," Vision said slowly, "you have to find people there who could wholeheartedly want to protect you—and also have the strength to do so. Someone powerful enough to vouch for you, to stand between you and any cosmic forces that might object."
Hearing this, everyone's eyes suddenly went toward Elric, turning in unison like sunflowers following the sun.
Looking at the eight pairs of eyes that were now staring at him with hope, expectation, and desperation, Elric felt his hair stand up on the back of his neck.
He quickly shook his head, waving his hands defensively. "No, no. I don't mind protecting you guys, really I don't. But I really don't have the ability to do what you're asking."
His mind raced with the implications. Most of the time, cosmic figures didn't interfere even if a universe was about to be destroyed—they had rules, protocols, non-interference policies. But what if one of them came and just slapped him to death for breaking those rules? What if bringing refugees from a dying universe was some kind of cosmic violation?
It was just asking for trouble without any benefit to him at all.
It was sad to see that all of these people would die here, that this entire universe would be reduced to nothing. But he genuinely didn't have the ability to save them all. He wasn't that powerful, wasn't that important in the cosmic hierarchy.
While he was sighing in his heart, feeling the weight of their disappointment, he suddenly felt a huge energy wave entering Earth's atmosphere. The sensation hit him like a physical blow—a presence so massive it made his soul shiver.
And the majestic feeling it gave off, the sheer power radiating from it—it was definitely not ordinary. Not even close. This was something on a completely different level, something cosmic in nature.
"You guys wait here," Elric said abruptly, standing up so fast his chair scraped against the floor. "Something happened. Something big."
Without explaining much more, without giving them time to ask questions, he directly teleported to the source of the energy, his form blurring and vanishing from the conference room in an instant.
Everyone left behind exchanged confused and worried glances.
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