"An evil and dangerous Mutant, who will seek out powerful Mutants to possess their bodies?"
Russell's eyebrows twitched. He was searching his mind, wondering who this was.
Apocalypse?
No, Apocalypse hadn't appeared in this World's Mutant's view yet.
"Professor, are you talking about Shadow King—Shadow King, he's free?
Why didn't you tell me?"
Storm, who had always been mature and calm, had just been advising Rogue not to mess around, but hearing what Professor X said, she suddenly lost her composure. Her face filled with horror, and she retreated, turning pale.
"No, he can't appear."
Her lips trembled, and she shook her head, behaving abnormally, as if she had suffered a great shock and was desperately trying to deny a reality that had already happened.
"Ororo, are you okay?" Cyclops and the others asked worriedly.
The few of them were surprised, even frightened; they had never seen Storm like this.
"I didn't tell you precisely because I feared you would react this way."
Professor X sighed.
"Who is Shadow King?"
Wanda was also surprised. Despite several antagonisms, she had always admired the elegant and mature Storm. No matter what, she always seemed like a trustworthy Captain.
But now Storm seemed to have suddenly triggered PTSD. The name Shadow King filled her with fear, disgust, anger, and various other complex emotions.
"Shadow King?"
Russell's eyelids twitched as he remembered.
A mental entity with extremely terrifying abilities.
"That was many years ago. I was young then, and I could still walk..."
Professor X then recounted how he, Storm, and Shadow King came to know each other.
When he was young, he traveled to Egypt. In Cairo, his wallet was stolen by a little White-haired girl on the street—that was Storm as a child.
After chasing the little girl and getting his wallet back, Professor X was subjected to a wave of psychic attack. However, due to Professor X's immensely powerful psychic abilities, the attack caused him no significant harm.
Moreover, he keenly sensed the source of the attack. After going to a tavern, he discovered a group of children similar to Storm.
They were like unconscious puppets, controlled by a man named Amahl Farouk.
That man called himself Shadow King, controlling a group of children to steal on the streets, while also absorbing the darkness within the children's hearts to nourish his own powers, thus becoming a tyrant in Cairo.
However, everything seemed to be just a game for that man.
"Shadow King admired my abilities and wanted to invite me to join him. That was the first time I met such an evil Mutant, and I sensed his hidden malice towards me; he even seemed to want to possess my body.
I refused his disgusting request and engaged him in a psychic battle.
Finally, I managed to seal him in the Starlight plane outside of reality."
Professor X recalled that man. Many years had passed, yet he still involuntarily frowned, as if he had never seen such a repulsive and evil individual.
Unlike ordinary people, Professor X could sense a person's spirit and see the ugliness and goodness within a person's heart more clearly.
"That man... I even doubt if he was human, or some kind of demon.
Although what he did was only to control Ororo and a group of children to steal for the time being, I could feel that those were just games while he was still accumulating power.
The dense darkness and evil in his heart, if poured out, would be enough to drown the entire World."
Professor X recounted with disgust in his tone. His students were also surprised; they had never seen Professor X show such strong animosity towards anyone.
They even suspected that Professor X only sealed Shadow King because he didn't have the chance to kill him, otherwise he would have undoubtedly erased him from the real World.
Russell frowned slightly.
Professor X's keen perception was correct. Shadow King was indeed not merely human; it was more of a multiversal energy entity, born from the dark side of multiversal human consciousness.
It was merely a tendril of a vast main body attached to the person Amahl Farouk.
The Shadow King's displayed psychic power was weaker than Professor X's only because its tendril hadn't been in this reality long enough and hadn't absorbed enough dark emotions.
Otherwise, the power it could display would be far greater than that, and even an Omega-level psychic Mutant might not be able to defeat it.
"...Not long ago, I felt a powerful and evil psychic fluctuation flash across Earth. I had a sense of familiarity at the time. Afterwards, I used Cerebro to go to the Starlight plane in Cairo to confirm.
Shadow King has indeed broken free."
At the end, Professor X said gravely.
"Professor, why didn't you tell us about this sooner?" Jean exclaimed in shock.
Such a big matter...
They only found out about it together with Infinitoid and Scarlet Witch, two members of the Mutant Brotherhood.
"I apologize. I tried to use Cerebro to capture it and confine it back to the Astral plane, so I wouldn't have to alarm you, especially Ororo, and make her recall that painful and dark childhood."
Professor X apologized to his students with deep regret.
"But... I failed.
Shadow King has likely already taken over someone's body."
Russell was not at all surprised by Professor X's behavior.
Professor X's personality was like this: as the most powerful psychic on Earth, he always kept things to himself, bearing the burden alone. Many things would only be known if they couldn't be hidden, or if a problem exploded.
Such as the emergence of the Dark Phoenix.
One could only say his intentions were good.
"Shadow King..."
Russell looked thoughtful. This was a formidable threat.
"Heh, psychic..."
Everyone else was worried, but Juggernaut was unconcerned, tapping the steel helmet on his head.
The helmet he wore was the same as Magneto's and Russell's, a psychic-shielding material, rendering even the most powerful psychics useless against him.
Russell wasn't worried about Shadow King targeting him.
But as a psychic energy entity born from the dark side of humanity, Shadow King's goal was to bring destruction and Death to the entire World.
If he were to grow stronger, let alone establishing a Mutant nation, this Universe would be ruined.