"Quick… take me to Cerebro."
Professor X clutched the armrests of his wheelchair, his face pale, struggling against Shadow King, words squeezed through his teeth.
"Now only I can stop him…"
Beast and the others were fumbling, about to move.
Charles Xavier didn't even have time to finish his last sentence before the scene before him suddenly blurred—
When his consciousness refocused, the cold Cerebro was already pressed against his Sun temples.
Russell grabbed Professor X's wheelchair and brought him to the X-Mansion in a flash.
"Because I wasn't familiar with the layout of your school, it took a little time to find this room, but it shouldn't be too late." He stood aside, surveying the entire Cerebro chamber.
"Thank you, child."
Professor X had no time for more words, hastily activated the Cerebro, and closed his eyes.
In an instant, his consciousness exploded, spreading across thousands of mountains and rivers, reaching every nuclear missile Base on the Globe.
In his mental vision, hundreds of military facilities were entangled by Shadow King's purplish-black psychic tentacles, like flies caught in a spiderweb.
"Disperse!"
Charles's psychic power dispelled the Shadows lurking in the soldiers' minds.
And his mental power transformed into an invisible barrier, blocking the entire military Base like a dam.
Shadow King's psychic tentacles crashed into the barrier, emitting a silent shriek, filled with pure malicious mental energy, a mere wisp of which was enough to instantly shatter any normal person's brain.
Fine beads of sweat seeped from Professor X's forehead.
On the mental plane, he was single-handedly wrestling with Shadow King—hundreds of nuclear missile Bases, each a battlefield.
Shadow King's tentacles were temporarily blocked, and the soldiers' fingers retracted from the launch buttons in alarm.
Boom!
In the Hellfire Club, Shadow King suddenly opened his eyes, his face so gloomy it seemed Water could drip from it, his heart filled with boundless resentment.
"It's You again, Charles Xavier, how long do You think You can resist Me? Overestimating yourself!"
The purplish-black psychic tentacles receded like a tide, but in an instant, they split into billions of fine threads, drilling into the minds of ordinary people in Manhattan.
Amidst anger, fear, hatred, and desire, all dark thoughts were extracted like nutrients, providing him with an unending stream of power.
Charles felt the pressure surge, as Shadow King's mental power ferociously counterattacked.
In the Cerebro chamber, Scarlet Witch and Wolverine arrived shortly after.
"Infinite, Scarlet Witch, Scott. Logan,"
Professor X spoke with difficulty, "He's in Manhattan… the Hellfire Club, underground… I must maintain the barrier, You must go quickly."
"I can't hold him for too long, his mental power seems endless…"
"Professor, I can stay and help You."
Jean said urgently, then she joined Professor X, helping him in the psychic battlefield against Shadow King, giving Professor X a moment to breathe.
"Manhattan? Hellfire Club?"
Russell and Wanda exchanged glances.
"No matter what, we can't let this Shadow King destroy the World," Wanda frowned, speaking softly.
Although her father's Mutant Brotherhood had always had many frictions with the X-Men, on this matter, everyone was on the same front.
"Professor, Jean, hold on."
Cyclops and the others rushed towards the Blackbird supersonic jet.
"We'll go ahead."
Russell stepped back, wrapped an arm around Wanda's waist, and grabbed Juggernaut with the other hand.
At this moment, the World was in peril, no time for more nonsense.
Whoosh!
In a blink, Russell brought the two to the sky above the Hellfire Club in Manhattan, and he threw Juggernaut down.
Juggernaut's massive body crashed like a cannonball in front of the building.
"We have guests."
Black Bishop leaned by the window, holding a wine glass, looking down.
"Let Me meet them."
Riptide looked at the tall figures below the window and the two figures in the sky, a smirk on his lips. He waved his hand, releasing a massive tornado that shattered the window and swept towards Juggernaut, who was charging towards the building.
"Destroy the World?
Did You ask Juggernaut?
No pizza and party days, are You trying to anger Juggernaut?!"
Though Juggernaut wasn't very bright, he knew someone in this building was trying to destroy the World, and he absolutely wouldn't allow it.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The huge tornado, growing as it ascended, pulled cars from the street into its vortex, then surged forward.
Juggernaut charged straight into it, head down. When he ran, he had an unstoppable force, like a nuclear submarine at full speed. Even the fierce wind that could uproot trees along the street couldn't lift him off the ground.
He walked straight through the tornado.
"Found it…" Russell released Scarlet Witch, his eyes activating X-Ray Vision, scanning the entire building, directly ignoring everyone else.
If Shadow King was going to possess someone, he certainly wouldn't occupy the body of a minor character.
In a room on the third basement level, Russell found a man's figure, middle-aged, tall and imposing, with a beard, exuding the aura of a superior, his eyes tightly closed, seemingly battling some invisible force.
Compared to Professor X in New York,
This guy looked completely unstressed.
Sizzle! Sizzle!
Two beams of Heat Vision pierced through reinforced concrete, directly shooting into the third basement level and striking the man's body.
"Infinite, Scarlet Witch… the powerful Mutants of this World?
Heh heh, Mutants again."
The laser that struck his body, a red flash, was absorbed in an instant. Shadow King opened his eyes, which seemed to pierce through the building and the ground, seeing Russell in mid-air.
The countless brains his psychic tentacles had entered were all information databases he could browse at will.
He sneered coldly and raised his palm.
Buzz!
A thick, crimson laser beam pierced the ground, shooting towards Russell.
"Black King, Sebastian Shaw…"
Russell tilted his head, dodging the laser. The scorching laser burned the air, leaving a trace behind.
From his distinctive appearance and abilities, he recognized the opponent.
Black King was a powerful Mutant on par with Professor X and Magneto, capable of absorbing all forms of energy and converting it into his own, which he could then release at will.
His inherent ability was already powerful enough.
Now, with Shadow King occupying his body, he had no weaknesses, neither physical nor psychic.
"Riptide, your tricks don't seem to be working," Black Bishop Harland Leland said, draining his glass as he watched Juggernaut charge through the tornado.
He extended a hand, pointing it at Juggernaut, who was running like an unstoppable tank, about to crash into the building.
Boom!
"No one can suppress Juggernaut!"
Juggernaut's body suddenly sank, as if an invisible hill had pressed down on him, his feet sinking into the mud.
He roared, trying to pull his legs free, but the immense gravity pressing down on him was increasing almost exponentially.
Juggernaut's body was pressed into the earth as if by an invisible giant finger, rapidly sinking towards the Earth's core, out of sight of light.
Black Bishop Harland Leland's ability was to impose gravity on others.
His strength was actually inferior to Juggernaut's, but Juggernaut couldn't fly. Under the immense gravity, the mud beneath Juggernaut's feet became as soft as Water, providing insufficient support, making him unable to exert force.
"Someone is attacking Black King."
Riptide noticed that the two people in the sky seemed to have launched an attack and, wanting to save face, waved his hand to create an even larger tornado, connecting Heaven and Earth, like a hurricane, sweeping towards Russell and Wanda.
But this time he picked the wrong opponent.
"Hmm? Has Shadow King gathered helpers so quickly?"
The hurricane howled, but Wanda waved her hand, and the hurricane vanished into nothingness.
"Riptide, Black Bishop… White Queen isn't here?
With her telepathic abilities, she should have immediately sensed Black King's abnormality. Was she killed or did she run?"
Russell shifted his gaze, noticing the few minor figures he had previously ignored. From their characteristics and abilities, he recognized them as members of the Hellfire Club.
Sizzle!
He casually swept a beam of Heat Vision, cutting through the building.
Like a hot knife through butter, the entire building was sliced open. Riptide, with a chilling pain in his waist, stiffly looked down.
"You… who are You?"
And Black Bishop Harland Leland, who had just pressed Juggernaut into the ground from afar with a single finger, also had a bloodline with burn marks across his waist.
His eyes were wide like a frog's, staring incredulously at the figure in the sky.
As a high-ranking member of the Hellfire Club, the powerful Black Bishop never imagined he would be killed in one encounter, not even knowing his opponent's name.
[Black Bishop template collected]
[Riptide template collected]
[…].
Ignoring the dying struggles of Black Bishop and the others, Russell retracted his gaze and looked underground. This Shadow King, who had occupied 'Black King's' body, was the problem that needed to be solved quickly.
"Whoever You are, dare to stop Me, die here!
I will sit on a throne paved with your bones, quietly admiring the destruction of this World."
Shadow King stomped his foot, and an incredibly terrifying force ripped through the Earth. The entire building was torn apart like soft bread by an invisible giant hand. He walked out from underground step by step, his malicious gaze openly scrutinizing the two.
"Quite the big talk!"
Russell's eyes were cold.