At this moment, it was still noon in the Void.
Russell looked around and noticed that the little wolf girl wasn't in the renovated underground cave.
However, in this Loki-controlled region, no one dared to touch her—so there was no immediate danger.
Seeing this, Russell didn't leave right away.
Although only a few hours had passed in the Void, three full days had gone by on the Sacred Timeline.
And since he might have to leave again soon for his next plan, he decided to get in a few more sparring matches before he left.
He also intended to leave a mental imprint on Mjolnir as a protection measure for the little wolf girl. Otherwise, if he were away too long, he would worry.
Nightfall.
The little wolf girl still hadn't returned, but Old Loki arrived in a panic, looking anxious.
Russell's expression darkened slightly. Something was clearly wrong.
Sure enough, the moment Old Loki opened his mouth, he apologized:
"I'm sorry, Thor. I shouldn't have agreed to the little wolf girl's request without asking you first."
Russell had told him many times that his name was Russell, but Old Loki stubbornly insisted he was just a variant of Thor—and refused to call him otherwise.
Russell understood. This old man probably saw him as family, so he didn't have the heart to break his illusion.
"What happened?"
Russell asked quickly, suppressing the anxiety rising in his chest.
Old Loki didn't hide anything and gave a full account.
It turned out the little wolf girl had left that morning, saying she wanted to visit the Mutant Base to find an old friend. She asked Old Loki to teleport her there and to come back in the evening to pick her up.
He did as she asked. But after sending her, he didn't return immediately. Instead, he waited outside the base.
But as night fell, she never came out.
He tried to enter, but the mutants at the base told him this was "internal business" and that he wasn't welcome.
Old Loki immediately realized something was wrong and rushed back to inform Russell.
Russell didn't blame him. The old man had a kind heart. The problem clearly lay with those mutants.
Old Loki cautiously asked, "What do we do now, Thor? Do you want me to gather the Lokis?"
Russell—still disguised as Loki for safety reasons to avoid TVA detection—shook his head slowly, his expression cold.
"I never intended to act against them," he said. "But it seems... they don't deserve mercy."
Old Loki's pupils contracted slightly, as if he were reliving the days of Thor's fury.
Mutant Base – Void Region
This base was nestled in a collapsed valley.
Compared to Cassandra's base, which was constructed from a giant Ant-Man corpse, the mutants here had something more familiar—a battered, severed version of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters that had somehow been cut into the Void.
Its upper structure was in ruins, overgrown with vines. Only a few intact sections remained.
Below ground, the space had been repurposed for the activity of time-displaced mutants.
Where there was once the X-Lab, there now stood a grim confinement facility.
Inside a reinforced cell stood a blue-furred, wolf-like man with fierce eyes.
He wasn't Beast—this was Wolfsbane, a mutant with feral traits.
Standing beside him was a smug-looking man twirling a butterfly knife—Agent Zero.
He spun the blade theatrically while grinning at the young woman locked in a magnetic restraint chamber.
"Laura... it's been years, and you're still so naïve."
"Polaris is the power core of this entire base. Did you think I'd just hand her over to you?"
Laura—X-23—glared at him, her expression fierce.
"You're despicable!"
"If Professor Xavier knew what you've done to Magneto's daughter, he'd regret ever trusting you."
Wolfsbane sneered. "How long's Xavier been dead now? I heard Cassandra even preserved his head in formaldehyde."
"It's a shame we never recovered it after she died. Would've made a great classroom specimen."
Laura's voice trembled with restrained rage. "You used to hide your evil better... now you don't even bother."
"This is Xavier's School... and you don't deserve to be here."
When she returned, she found the once-great team devastated:
Cyclops—dead.
Moonstar, Dazzler, Gambit—gone.
Darwin had been mutated into a lizard and impaled on a flagpole.
Colossus had melted into a pool of molten iron, and Toad was flattened against the castle wall like a grotesque painting.
Polaris, daughter of Magneto and wielder of magnetic power, had been imprisoned deep underground and used as a living energy source.
The current leader here was Stryfe—a corrupted clone of Cable. A vicious, strategic tyrant.
It was he who had tricked Laura and locked her in a magnetic field generator.
Agent Zero leaned in, smiling wickedly.
"The Deadpool Corps is offering a nice price for you."
"I was wondering how to find you... and then you came right to our doorstep."
"But you know our school—always so fair. You've had a day in this cell. Maybe you've had time to reconsider?"
He wanted to sell X-23 off, but Stryfe wouldn't allow it—at least, not yet.
As the loyal follower of Evil Cable, Wolfsbane understood the reason:
The Techno-Organic Virus.
Stryfe wanted to infect her with it—especially due to the Adamantium inside her.
But it would take time—reprogramming, slow assimilation.
So for now, they had to play nice.
"Join us, Laura," Wolfsbane said gently, spreading his clawed hand, the tips gleaming. "If you really want to save Polaris, this is your best chance."
"If you're sold to Deadpool's gang, you'll be dissected for your Adamantium. And that... would be the end."
Laura fell silent.
She knew Polaris had suffered even before she left.
Now she was being tortured to power this ruined base.
Polaris had always been one of the kindest people to her.
Last night, she had thought of no one else.
She knew Russell was traveling the timeline... but she didn't know when—or if—he would return.
Maybe the only way was to pretend to give in.
She just didn't want Mr. Loki—kind as he was—to do anything rash and get hurt.
Because these people? They were monsters.
And their cybernetic eyes could see through invisibility and illusion.
Just like now.
Elsewhere in the base, in what used to be the Cerebro Chamber, Evil Cable stood, his single red eye glowing.
His left cyber-arm suddenly shifted—morphing into a plasma pulse cannon—and aimed at a seemingly empty patch of space.
With a grin, he said to the air:
"I knew that loser Loki would come back with backup... but I didn't expect it to be you."
"I was hoping for more... but hey, this'll do."
A green glow shimmered as a calm figure appeared.
Russell.
Cable scoffed at Russell's composed expression, mockery all over his face.
"Still so calm, even when you're about to die."
"Well, that frost giant body of yours is perfect for experimentation."
He sneered—and his mechanical eye lit up, scanning Russell from head to toe...
Russell stood calmly with his arms spread wide, making no attempt to defend himself.
A moment later, as he observed the completely stunned Evil Cable, he smiled and asked:
"How is it? Did you manage to scan any useful data?"
Evil Cable stood frozen. His mechanical eye flickered wildly, displaying endless streams of numbers—an unthinkably high energy reading.
He had never witnessed such an absurd level of energy radiating from a human body.
Then, the thermal vision in his eye suddenly lit up—the silhouette in front of him appeared as a human-shaped sun.
"…You're not a Jotun!"
Evil Cable suddenly gasped as a horrifying realization struck him. His face turned pale.
"Damn it! You're the one who killed Cassandra—just like the Red Devil said!"
"Correct," Russell replied with a smirk. "But unfortunately, there's no reward."
Without hesitation, he clenched his fist.
With a crunch, Evil Cable's cybernetic arm—transformed into a pulse weapon—was crushed into a heap of scrap and torn cleanly from his shoulder.
Evil Cable howled in pain and, in desperation, fired a laser blast from his mechanical eye. At the same time, he activated his psychic powers—an inheritance from being a clone of Jean Grey's son—trying to lock Russell in place.
But the moment his mind made contact…
It was like a canoe colliding with an iceberg.
He caught just a glimpse of the depth and vastness below—and it nearly shattered his consciousness.
His scream tore through the room as the laser beam veered wildly and scorched a hole in the dome of the Cerebro chamber.
A base-wide alarm blared.
In the lab—
Wolfsbane and Agent Zero exchanged confused, wary glances.
"Who the hell dares attack a mutant base in this hellhole?" Zero muttered. "They must have a death wish."
The little wolf girl—Laura—didn't speak. She merely stared at the two of them with a calm, chilling gaze.
She looked at them the same way one might look at a corpse.
Agent Zero and Wolfsbane both picked up on it—and didn't like what it implied.
The former snorted in disdain, while Wolfsbane sneered:
"Stupid little wolf. You really think someone came to rescue you?"
"You're more naïve than I thought."
His eyes shimmered with an oily green glow as he spoke cruelly:
"In three minutes, I'll bring you his head."
With that, he kicked the door open and stormed out.
Agent Zero laughed mockingly. "Better hurry, you dumb mutt. Don't let the others steal your kill."
Meanwhile, in the Cerebro chamber—
Evil Cable's head had been yanked off his body, spine and all, suspended midair by invisible force.
But he still wasn't dead.
His twitching face suddenly stiffened. His mechanical eye began blinking rapidly.
Then a robotic, glitching voice emerged:
"...Information trigger... Quantum... 2020.22.2222… reverse timeline… gems… I匚…"
BOOM!
Cable's head exploded in a burst of light and fragments.
Russell frowned.
That was bizarre.
A Cable variant, cut from the timeline, hiding a strange embedded message in his neural network?
Did the Ancient One plant that? Was it a warning? A setup? Or was it just Cable's final act of spite?
The real mystery was—how did Cable know about the Ancient One?
Russell decided to ignore it for now.
Whether it was truth or trap—power was still the most important thing.
Without sparing Cable's remains another glance, he calmly exited the Cerebro chamber.
At the end of a corridor—
Two mutants appeared.
"Intruder spotted!" one of them shouted, launching his bone blades with a flick of his arms.
But before the projectiles traveled halfway, they reversed course in midair—impaling the head of the other mutant beside him before he could even activate his powers.
Russell grimaced in disgust.
"What kind of useless ability is that? You could've just used a pistol. And it must hurt like hell."
The bone-launching mutant—Marrow—froze, stunned. Then realization dawned.
Telekinesis...!
He immediately stopped his ranged attack. Instead, bone armor spread across his body, and jagged bone spurs extended like Wolverine's claws.
Confident in his enhanced durability, he charged forward with a battle cry.
His bones were stronger than steel.
But as he approached, a sharp cracking sound echoed through the air—like ice shattering.
But this was underground... where was the ice?
Marrow glanced down.
Hairline fractures had formed across his bone armor.
His eyes widened in horror.
"Wha—T–"
He never finished.
In an instant, his body twisted and shattered into pieces—his reinforced bones crushed along with him.
Another mutant turned the corner and saw everything.
His cocky grin froze.
Then he screamed in terror and turned to flee—only to find the invader, who should've been behind him, suddenly standing directly in front of him.
The man was stunned.
The stranger didn't even acknowledge him. He just kept walking past.
But the mutant wasn't dead yet.
Snarling, he conjured a ball of purple smoke in his hand, preparing to attack.
Just as he raised his arm—he froze.
A bone blade had pierced clean through his heart.
Still alive thanks to his mutant durability, he gasped and turned, wanting to see who had stabbed him.
His eyes widened in horror.
It was a corpse—the body of Marrow, face destroyed, now animated by some unknown force and holding the same bone blade that had once belonged to him.
Two corpses collapsed with a dull thud.
Back in the lab—
Agent Zero grew increasingly uneasy.
He could hear the distant screams. Getting closer.
Suddenly, something round rolled into the lab from the hallway.
He instinctively stepped on it—then immediately recoiled with a horrified scream.
It was Wolfsbane's head.
Even in death, the fear on his face was frozen in place.
Agent Zero didn't hesitate. He leapt back, landing beside the electromagnetic generator, and pressed his butterfly knife to Laura's throat.
In that moment, he completely forgot about her healing factor.
Footsteps echoed from the corridor. Calm, deliberate... getting closer.
Each step seemed to land directly on his chest.
He was drenched in cold sweat. His heartbeat thundered. Nausea rose in his throat.
He could smell death getting closer.
Then—the footsteps stopped.
So did his breathing.
Or rather—he couldn't breathe at all.
Agent Zero collapsed to his knees, face red, hands clutching at his throat.
It felt like something had blocked his windpipe—but there was nothing there.
He couldn't even scream.
Psychokinesis. The trachea connection had been sealed by force.
He gasped soundlessly. Then the footsteps resumed.
The figure finally appeared in the doorway.
Zero looked up, wide-eyed, and reached out—begging silently.
But the man said nothing.
At that moment, the electromagnetic generator sparked and shorted out.
Laura dropped to the ground.
Without even glancing at the dying mutant, she ran forward and leapt into Russell's arms.
The two vanished into the shadows beyond the door.
Agent Zero collapsed, helpless.
He never heard a single word from the one who killed him.
Like a worthless weed, he died unnoticed.
He didn't even deserve scorn.
That night—
27 mutants and 18 timeline criminals perished like extras in a horror movie.
Not a single one had the power to resist.
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You can visit my Patreon page:
Patreon.com/PhoeniXcel
I upload 2 chapters daily on Patreon!
There are 70+ advanced chapters available for you to read.
Your support would be greatly appreciated.