Aboard the Blackbird.
Just as everyone was drowning in grief, trying to figure out how they could possibly find Fenris and Jean, a dazzling golden-red light suddenly flared up from the water below.
"What is that?"
Through the window, the brilliant radiance gathered deeper and deeper beneath the surface, finally taking on the outline of a giant bird. For an instant, it almost seemed to be giving off a silent cry.
"Oh no."
Jean's presence in Professor X's senses had already grown so faint it was nearly imperceptible, but now it reappeared without warning.
And worse, a chaotic consciousness filled with destruction was violently clashing against her mind, trying to seize control of her body.
...
"The Phoenix?"
"What kind of food does this thing think I am?"
The figure before him clearly had Jean's face, but the terrifying aura radiating from her was enough to make his spine go cold. It was as if she had become an entirely different person.
Under the water, the instant Fenris met those pitch-black eyes, a chill shot up his back. He turned and fled without a second thought, forcibly swallowing back the atomic breath he had already been charging.
"You've got to be kidding. This is the Phoenix..."
The Phoenix had once completely disintegrated Scott, who had traveled all that way to find Jean, as well as Professor X himself.
In the end, only Logan, relying on his absurd healing factor, had managed to kill Jean by striking during the split second when her consciousness was fighting the Phoenix for control.
Fenris was not about to gamble on what state the Phoenix was in right now, or whether Jean's consciousness was even still there.
Godzilla moved even faster in water than on land. In the blink of an eye, Fenris had already swum several hundred meters away and was still fleeing downstream as fast as he could.
"No. Even this is still too slow."
Screeeech!
But in the next instant, a blinding radiance suddenly lit up right in front of his face.
Carrying scorching heat with it, the surrounding lake water instantly began to boil. In the rising white steam, Jean's black eyes appeared in front of Fenris without any warning, the distance between them less than half a meter.
"A life this powerful should belong to eternity."
That emotionless voice seemed to come from every direction at once. An invisible force suddenly descended, and even the churning lake water around them froze in place.
Fenris instinctively tried to turn and escape, but his body had already stopped obeying him. No matter how hard he struggled, he could not move at all.
A strand of glowing red power slowly extended from Jean's body, winding toward him like a venomous snake.
"No. No..."
Fenris knew very well that there was only one result if that power touched him: complete annihilation. As the red light drew closer and closer, his pupils contracted violently with unwilling fury, and the spines on his back struggled to glow with a dim blue light.
With a low, heavy hum, a dark blue beam suddenly burst from his mouth, shattering the invisible restraint locking down his body and slamming head-on into the crimson power rushing toward him.
Boom!
Boom!
Several suppressed shockwaves of energy detonated underwater one after another, and the enormous force spread out in every direction.
Amid deafening thunder, the riverbed began cracking apart inch by inch under the impact, while huge whirlpools formed across the lake's surface above.
Bang!
In the aftermath, the force restraining Fenris finally dispersed. He was blasted backward by the shockwave, and only after several breaths did he manage to stop himself.
Jean, not far away, was clearly not unharmed either. Her clothes had been torn to shreds by the impact, exposing large swaths of pale skin.
For a moment, the two forces were evenly matched.
"How is that possible?"
"I can actually go up against the Phoenix Force?"
Fenris froze for a second, completely stunned by the result.
But when he looked at Jean and saw her clutching her head in agony, the light around her flickering unstably, he understood at once.
Jean was fighting the Phoenix for control of her body, and because of that, the Phoenix could barely bring its full power to bear.
"Fenris!"
He suddenly heard Jean calling out to him with great difficulty.
"Help me!"
"Aah!"
As Jean writhed in pain, overwhelming pressure kept surging and withdrawing across the lakebed.
Watching the blinding light flare and dim again and again, Fenris finally gritted his teeth. The moment the red glow weakened once more, he exploded forward with all his strength and hurled himself at Jean.
His sharp claws were aimed straight at her delicate throat.
"Thank you, Fenris!"
Jean instantly sensed what he was about to do. Not only did she not resist, she actually tilted her head back in complete cooperation, fully exposing her weakest point beneath his claws.
"I am... the Phoenix!"
Just as his claws were about to pierce Jean's throat, her eyes turned pitch black at a speed visible to the naked eye, right in front of Fenris's disbelieving stare.
The instant he realized something was wrong, he spun to flee without hesitation.
But after the standoff had dragged on this long, strands of Phoenix Force had already spread through the entire body of water without him even noticing.
As Jean's consciousness was completely suppressed, the pressure the Phoenix Force exerted on Fenris rose at an unimaginable rate.
Before he could react, countless threads of red light had already sealed off the space around him completely. It even paid special attention to his mouth, making sure he could not unleash another atomic breath.
In an instant, a flood of crimson destruction swept toward Fenris like a dam breaking.
His massive body twisted under the onslaught of that terrifying heat. It washed over him piece by piece, and the strength and durability he had always been proud of were completely powerless before it.
"Aaaah!!"
Intense pain spread through every inch of his body, forcing cry after cry from his throat.
The Phoenix stood quietly on the lakebed, one finger lightly raised. Invisible shackles pinned Fenris hard against the bottom, leaving the torrent of energy free to rampage through him.
As time passed, Fenris's body kept shrinking beneath the force of that power. Since he was already close to his limit, it did not take long before his body went limp and reverted to his original human form.
"Jean..."
Fenris kept calling Jean's name, hoping to wake her consciousness back up.
But the Phoenix, which had been sealed away for decades, had already sunk into a frenzy of violent rage. Fenris's voice had no effect at all.
Looking at Fenris finally restored to human shape, the Phoenix's eyes burned with desire, as if he were the most delicious thing in the world.
With a shrill cry, a massive phantom Phoenix slowly formed behind her in the raging current.
Boom!
In the next instant, the Phoenix herself became a brilliant streak of fire, hurtling toward Fenris like a meteor.
At the same time, the giant Phoenix behind her opened its beak. The surging power exploded in full, swallowing the now helpless Fenris whole.
(End of Chapter)
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