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*****
"Begin phase two of the plan."
After George stepped into the supersonic jet, he didn't attack anyone. Instead, he glanced at Professor X, and his appearance began to change rapidly. His body shifted from Magneto's form into the likeness of Professor X.
This sudden transformation startled Moira and Nightcrawler—they almost thought George was Mystique in disguise.
With a wave of his hand, George released the real Magneto from the small world.
"Erik, you already know the general situation. Don't blow your cover later."
"You saved my wife and daughter's lives. I'll handle this small task properly," Erik replied with a nod.
George flicked his hand again, and Erik's clothes shifted into the uniform worn by Apocalypse's Four Horsemen.
Magneto grabbed George—now disguised as Professor X—gave a glance to his old friend Professor X, and flew out of the jet, placing George beside Apocalypse before returning to rejoin the battle.
At the same time, Mystique and the others received a telepathic message from Professor X. They began making deliberate mistakes and were quickly captured by Magneto, who trapped them inside a metal cage.
"The one who can teleport got away. The rest are already captured."
Magneto delivered his report to Apocalypse, who had just completed construction of the rebirth pyramid.
Apocalypse nodded, not concerned, and simply ordered:
"Guard the pyramid well. My rebirth ritual must not be interrupted."
Right now, what mattered most to him was completing the ceremony and gaining Professor X's mutant abilities.
With that power, he could control the minds of everyone on Earth. No matter how far that teleporter ran, he could make him come back on his own.
Apocalypse opened a spatial doorway and summoned sand to carry George into the central rebirth platform at the heart of the pyramid.
He fastened George to one side of the platform, then lay down on the opposite side. He activated the mechanism above them, beginning the absorption of solar power to initiate the rebirth.
Once the rebirth pyramid fully ignited, golden threads extended from the platform under Apocalypse and slowly spread toward the one beneath George.
Apocalypse's spirit and soul began flowing along those threads and into George's body.
"After all this effort, you've finally taken the bait."
As he felt Apocalypse's soul invading his body, a wide, brilliant smile appeared on George's face.
Getting Apocalypse to initiate the ritual and enter his body willingly was the most difficult part of his plan.
If Apocalypse sensed anything odd and refused to carry out the rebirth, killing him would be pointless.
But once the ritual began, everything else became much easier.
"All Souls, return!"
Right then, George opened the spiritual link between himself and all of his avatars. The souls from his eight avatar worlds returned to his main body simultaneously, causing his mental power to surge dramatically.
In terms of pure spiritual strength, he believed he had already surpassed the Skyfather level and stepped into a single-universe tier.
If he wanted to wipe out Apocalypse's invading soul at that moment, one stray thought would do it—no effort required.
But he didn't. The rebirth ritual wasn't finished yet, and he hadn't obtained Apocalypse's abilities.
So, within his spiritual world, he created a smaller "false" mental realm—one with roughly the same power level as Professor X's.
He used that smaller realm to block Apocalypse's advance, making Apocalypse believe he was slowly breaking through Professor X's defenses and seizing his body.
Only this way would Apocalypse not abort the ritual.
"Hahaha! Give up—you cannot defeat me. Holding on will only bring you more pain. You should feel honored to be absorbed by me!"
Inside the small spiritual realm George created, Apocalypse's towering spirit form—more than ten meters tall—had the Professor X illusion beneath his foot.
He kept tearing the illusion's spiritual body apart, devouring every fragment to strengthen his soul.
Once he completely consumed it, he could take over the body. Each rebirth worked this way, which was how he grew stronger every time.
"It's done. This body is mine now!"
Swallowing the final fragment of the illusion, Apocalypse felt the ritual reach completion.
Yet just as he prepared to break free of this spiritual world and awaken in the body, he found himself in another, vastly larger mental realm.
"How is this possible?"
Compared to the previous world, this one seemed endless—limitless. He had never encountered anything like it, nor seen any spirit world so enormous.
"What is that?"
Suddenly, he felt a colossal shadow looming over him. When he looked up, at some unknown moment, an immense giant had appeared behind him.
How big was it?
In his current form, he was barely the size of the giant's little finger.
"There can't be such a powerful spiritual entity in this world. Impossible!"
Moments ago, when he fought Professor X, the gap in mental power between them was like that of an adult and a child. Now the difference was like an adult and an ant.
How could he accept that?
"You don't need to accept it—because you're going to die."
George lifted his foot and stomped down. Apocalypse's spirit form exploded on the spot. Then George inhaled, drawing all the scattered soul fragments into his own body.
Binding spirits, double-handed sealing, soul imprisonment, spirit absorption—he had far too many methods to deal with souls.
Even if they had equal mental power, Apocalypse wouldn't be his match, let alone with such a massive gap.
After devouring Apocalypse's spiritual form, George clearly felt his physical body begin to change. The X-gene within him multiplied and strengthened at amazing speed.
A multitude of powers surfaced in his instincts—chaotic, yet instantly understood.
Among them was the ability Apocalypse used to enhance other mutants' genes.
"Done!"
Sitting up from the rebirth platform, George returned the spiritual power of his avatars and turned to look beside him. Apocalypse's body had already crumbled into a heap of black ash and was slowly dispersing.
His own body had not changed into that ugly, blue-skinned, bald form from the rebirth.
His physical life level was already far beyond Apocalypse's—no transformation from the merging could possibly reshape him in Apocalypse's image.
So with this rebirth, he not only absorbed all of Apocalypse's abilities and soul power, but also retained his own appearance—absolute perfection.
Taking to the air, he flew out of the pyramid. He saw that Storm, Angel, and Psylocke had already been subdued.
That was to be expected. Magneto or Quicksilver alone would be enough to take down those three Horsemen.
Honestly, aside from Magneto, the other three Apocalypse had chosen weren't that impressive.
"It's over. Apocalypse is dead!"
Seeing Professor X, Magneto, and the others turn toward him, George smiled and declared their victory.
Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
(End of this chapter)