Max touched down near the capital city of the Kuru Kingdom, Hastinapura.
The city stretched out before him in the distance, massive and sprawling. It was enormous, easily capable of holding half a million people within its walls. Towers rose high, palaces gleamed with polished stone, markets sprawled across entire districts, and the Ganges flowed beside it.
In Max's original world, a city like this would not have existed in this era. There would have been nothing but scattered settlements and tribal groups. But this was not his world. This was another universe, where history ran deeper and stranger than anything he had ever known or studied.
In the years he had been here, his archaeological expeditions had uncovered large cities and civilizations dating back twenty thousand years. It made sense, according to the Eternals. The Celestials had come here fifteen thousand years ago and wiped out the Deviant empire and the societies that had risen to dominance. Other cataclysms could have destroyed many more civilizations after that as well. Floods, wars between gods, cosmic incidents.
There was much to be discovered, and he certainly would not get bored uncovering it all.
Max flew around the city stealthily, using construct mirrors around himself to bend light, rendering him completely undetectable to the naked eye.
"A powerful being," Jade said sarcastically. "Some god he is. Couldn't be more specific?"
Max chuckled at Jade's frustration. "Hey, it makes it more of a challenge. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Where is your sense of adventure," Jade mocked.
"I suggest sending out spy drones. I'll collect data about any strange occurrences or mysterious witches or warlocks in the area. Cross-reference any anomalies."
"Good idea," Max agreed.
He created small drones, hundreds of thousands of them, each no larger than a firefly and glowing with soft emerald light. He had become very adept at smaller constructs over the years, learning to maintain vast networks of tiny creations rather than just large, flashy weapons.
The drones dispersed across the city like a swarm of insects, blending in with the actual fireflies.
Max began to fly around aimlessly, observing the city and the people below. Markets closing for the evening, families gathering for meals, guards changing shifts at the palace walls, priests performing evening rituals at riverside temples.
As he floated near the west side of the city, he heard a commotion. Loud noises, shouting, and the thunderous trumpeting of elephants.
"What the fuck?" Max said out loud as he flew toward the disturbance.
He arrived quickly and saw that elephants were escaping from a training compound. Nearly twenty of them, massive war elephants, were charging through a forest trail in a wild stampede. Soldiers scrambled to respond, trying to form lines to stop them, but the beasts were too powerful and too panicked.
To Max's complete surprise, he saw Ghost and Nur riding Tasi, leading the charge.
Tasi the mammoth trumpeted loudly, a sound of defiance, as she led the other her cousins the elephants through the streets, knocking aside barriers and scattering soldiers. Soldiers chased after them, shouting orders, spears raised.
Max flew down quickly and created a massive Godzilla construct behind the soldiers, fifty feet tall and roaring loudly. The soldiers screamed and scattered, forgetting entirely about the elephants as they fled from the "demon."
Max dismissed the construct and flew alongside the running Tasi, matching her pace.
"What are you doing?!" Max shouted over the sound of pounding feet.
"What do you think?" Ghost shouted back, grinning wildly. "We're saving these poor animals!"
Tasi trumpeted in support, her trunk raised high.
"I was bored," Nur added with a shrug, sitting calmly behind Ghost despite the chaotic stampede around them.
They ran for another few minutes until they were well into the forest. The elephants slowed, then stopped, breathing heavily but clearly relieved.
Max landed, and Ghost and Nur dismounted from Tasi.
Tasi trumpeted to the elephants behind her, a long, complex sound that conveyed for them to leave. The elephants responded, then began moving deeper into the forest toward freedom.
Ghost looked at Max, pre-empting his question. "I know you said not to interfere in the war, but this wasn't my decision." She looked pointedly at Tasi, who trumpeted angrily in Max's direction.
Max raised his hands defensively. "Woah, woah, I don't mind! Seriously. Free all the elephants you want."
Tasi trumpeted again, a sound that clearly said, You better not mind.
"What brings you this way?" Nur asked. "Ghost and I were about to leave for the Sanctuary to watch the battle tomorrow."
"Our dear godly friend called me here," Max explained. "Apparently, some powerful being is plotting trouble here, and I'm supposed to find them before they cause problems."
"Who?" Ghost asked.
"That's all he gave me."
"No description? No clues?" Ghost asked incredulously.
"Yep," Max said. "That's it."
Max then looked at Nur seriously. "This person is supposed to be like you and Firehair. A mutant."
Nur straightened immediately, clearly more interested now. "Then let's find this troublemaker."
"Yes, I will—" Ghost started.
Tasi trumpeted loudly, interrupting them; it seemed she wanted to save more of her cousins.
Ghost sighed. "She wants to free more elephants. I'll join you later."
"You do your thing," Max said, looking at Nur. He gestured between himself and the young mutant. "We will look for this mystery mutant."
Ghost jumped back onto Tasi, and the mammoth turned and ran back toward the city.
Nur looked at Max. "Where do we start?"
Max smiled. "Well, I have Jade looking for anomalies. Until then, let's go get something to drink."
Nur considered this, then smiled slightly. "Very well."
=========
"Ten years?" Nur asked incredulously. "Truly?"
"Yes," Max confirmed. "So we have to deal with more and more attacks from Chthon, Dormammu, and other nightmares until he finishes it."
They were talking about Agamotto's barrier project, the mystical shield that would protect Earth from dimensional incursions. He still needed one more artifact to complete it, but for now he was deep in work, weaving spells that would take a decade to fully complete.
"I do not mind fighting them," Nur said, his voice carrying a hint of anticipation. "Each battle only makes me stronger. Combat is evolution made manifest. Those who survive grow. Those who fall well…."
Max looked at his friend seriously. "Just make sure you remember why you're fighting. Strength for its own sake is empty."
"I know," Nur replied quietly.
Max shifted topics. "Actually, I was going to visit you anyway. I found something in the Pacific that I wanted to check out with you. I think it's a sentient island."
Nur raised an eyebrow. "A living island?"
Max nodded. "Could be a mutant of sorts. We'll need to go there and investigate properly. Jade's scans are inconclusive. It's like the island is aware of being observed and is hiding itself."
"I look forward to it," Nur said with genuine interest.
They continued talking, and their conversation turned more serious.
Nur's expression grew more thoughtful, troubled. "I have been thinking about what kind of person I will be to my kind when they appear in the future. I know I do not age. I will live forever unless I perish in battle. But what does that mean for my place in the world? What should I be to those who come after me?"
Max could see the struggle in his friend's eyes, the conflict between the outlook on life Max had taught him, emphasizing protection and guidance, and the one Baal had taught him, emphasizing strength through survival of the fittest and culling the weak.
"That's up to you to figure out," Max said carefully. "Who you are and what you stand for are choices only you can make. You can do nothing and let everything happen naturally, letting evolution take its course without interference. Or you can be a leader to them, a guide, someone who helps mutants reach their potential without unnecessary suffering."
He paused, then muttered lowly so Nur could not hear, "Just don't become a genocidal maniac. That's all."
Nur looked confused. "What did you say?"
"Nothing."
Just then, Jade interrupted in his mind. "I found something."
"Ah, finally," Max said. "Who is our powerful being that we're hunting?"
"I found strange magical structures around the city," Jade reported, her voice carrying notes of concern. "Five miles out, arranged in a perfect circle around the city. They are obsidian obelisks covered in runic inscriptions.
"Also, there are men and women in the city serving a person called the Black Priestess. She appears to be part of a secret cult operating in the shadows. Cross-referencing local rumors and surveillance data, they have been here for years, recruiting from the desperate and disenfranchised, promising power and transformation.
"She claims to be the avatar of the goddess Lakshmi herself."
"This has to be the person we're hunting," Nur said, his expression hardening.
Max nodded. "Let's go check out these obsidian obelisks. Jade, mark the nearest one."
They left immediately, Max flying while Nur floated inside an emerald orb construct that Max controlled beside him.
They landed near the nearest obelisk only seconds later.
The structure was imposing, twelve feet tall and carved from pure black obsidian. Runes covered every surface, glowing faintly with sickly purple energy.
"This is more Agamotto's domain," Nur said, examining the runes carefully without touching them.
"I agree," Max said. He closed his eyes and opened the mental link to Agamotto, reaching across the miles to the Sanctuary.
"Max?" Agamotto's voice came through immediately. "What is it? What did Krishna want?"
"He asked me to hunt down someone," Max explained quickly. "Apparently there is a powerful mutant causing trouble near Hastinapura. We found obsidian obelisks with runes on them, spread out in a circle around the entire city. There is also a secret cult in the city serving someone called the Black Priestess."
There was a pause. Then Agamotto's voice returned, filled with urgency. "I'm coming over. Don't touch anything."
Within seconds, a portal of amber light opened beside them, and Agamotto stepped through, his expression already grave.
He immediately began investigating the obelisk, his hands weaving spells, his eyes glowing as he read the mystical signatures. After several tense minutes, he straightened.
"This is not good," he said flatly.
"What is it?" Nur asked.
Max echoed the question. "What are we looking at?"
Agamotto turned to face them, his expression hard with anger and concern. "Death anchors. Extremely dangerous black magic. They are designed to create a massive sacrificial circle, one that encompasses this entire city." He gestured toward the distant skyline.
"Fuck," both Max and Nur reacted.
"Someone is planning to sacrifice every living soul in the city," Agamotto continued, his voice cold with fury. "Half a million people. Men, women, children. Everyone. And whoever is doing this is not just seeking power. They are seeking ascension. To become a god. And they have chosen this moment deliberately."
"The war," Max said, understanding dawning.
Agamotto nodded grimly. "Yes. That, and more." He pointed to the sky, where stars were just beginning to appear. "We are in a transition of the ages. This cosmic shift only happens once every three thousand years. The barriers between mortal and divine are at their thinnest right now."
He turned back to the obelisk, his voice taking on a lecturing tone as he explained the full horror of what they faced.
"This ritual has been prepared meticulously. These obelisks are only the visible anchors. Beneath the city, ley lines have been corrupted and redirected to feed the ritual. The death energy from the war, where heroes and demigods die by the thousands, is being siphoned and concentrated here. And the timing..." He paused, calculating. "We are on day ten. By day eighteen, when the war concludes and the transition between ages completes, this ritual will have accumulated enough power to succeed."
"Can we just destroy the obelisks?" Max asked, raising his hand, green light already forming to blast it apart.
"No!" Agamotto said sharply, raising a hand of his own. "If you destroy them incorrectly, you could trigger the ritual prematurely. Everyone in the city dies instantly, and whoever set this up still gains the power, just less than they originally planned. These anchors must be dismantled carefully, in the correct sequence, while simultaneously purifying the corrupted ley lines and cutting off the death energy conduits from the battlefield."
"How long will that take?" Nur asked.
"Hours. Perhaps a full day, if the magical defenses are as sophisticated as I suspect," Agamotto admitted, rubbing his chin. "And I will need to focus entirely on this. I cannot be distracted or interrupted for even a moment, or I could make a mistake that kills everyone."
"Which means whoever set this up will come to stop you," Max said.
Agamotto nodded. "Yes. And I can also locate her, the Black Priestess. The obelisks are connected to her. If you defeat her, kill her, then my job becomes significantly easier. The ritual loses its controller, and I can dismantle it more safely and quickly."
"Find her," Max commanded.
Agamotto nodded and floated up into a lotus position, his eyes closed. He could see the connections, the threads of dark magic linking the obelisks to their creator.
His eyes opened, glowing brightly, and he pointed in a specific direction, northeast of their position.
Max looked, and Jade immediately overlaid information onto his vision. "There's a huge grove there, ten miles out. I'm detecting significant human presence, at least three hundred."
"That's her," Max said.
"Go," Agamotto said, already beginning to work on the obelisk, his hands weaving complex counterspells. "I'll start dismantling this. But Max, she will be powerful. Be careful."
Max nodded. He already had an idea of who this was. He quickly enveloped Nur in a construct and flew toward the grove at high speed.
=========
Max and Nur landed at the edge of the grove, their feet touching soft earth covered in fallen leaves.
Max used his mental link, speaking with Ghost. "How far out are you?"
"Be there soon," Ghost replied.
"When you arrive, keep your distance and watch until the fighting begins," Max instructed.
"Understood," Ghost confirmed.
In front of them stood three hundred or more people, men and women, young and old, all motionless and staring at them with blank expressions. Their eyes were glassy and unfocused, their bodies swaying slightly as if moved by an unseen wind.
Max had seen enough mind control to recognize what was happening.
Beneath the largest tree in the grove stood a woman. She had pale skin that seemed to glow faintly in the twilight, and she wore black garments made of feathers and silk. Raven feathers rustled and shifted with every movement. Her hair was long and dark, her features striking.
A woman supposedly a mutant older than Nur, powerful enough to give Krishna a scare. It had to be Selene. Max did not know much about her, only what he had read in passing and the reputation that followed her. Ancient. Powerful. Dangerous.
"Welcome," she said, her voice carrying easily across the distance.
Her eyes were on Nur, and Nur alone, studying him with an intensity that was almost predatory.
"What? No welcome for me?" Max quipped, raising a hand in a mock wave.
She did not even glance at him, continuing to stare at Nur. "Do you know what you are?" she asked, her voice soft but carrying tremendous weight. "How special you are? How special we are?"
"I do," Nur said flatly. "But let us skip the recruitment speech, witch. We know why you are here, and we are going to stop you."
She smiled, cold and beautiful. "Have you not taught the boy manners, Lantern?" She began walking toward them.
"The boy is correct about one thing, Selene," Max said, and she stopped immediately, surprise flashing across her face as she realized he knew her name. "You should stop talking."
Max created a massive construct fist and launched it at her.
Selene reacted instantly, forming a barrier of crimson psionic energy in front of herself. The blow was deflected, but the impact sent ripples through her defenses and pushed her back several feet.
Nur attacked immediately, charging at her with superhuman speed, his body already beginning to shift as he prepared to use his molecular manipulation.
Selene stopped his charge by having her mind-controlled followers step directly into his path. Human shields. Innocent people who would die if he struck them.
Max remedied that instantly. He formed individual construct bubbles around all three hundred followers simultaneously and flew them away from the battlefield, depositing them safely a mile away where they could not be used as weapons.
Nur smiled grimly and continued his charge, unleashing energy blasts from his hands while simultaneously shaping the earth around Selene. Stone rose up to trap her. Soil liquefied into quicksand beneath her feet.
She flew upward, levitating with telekinetic power, and retaliated with a psychic assault on both of them. A wave of mental pressure crashed into their minds, like knives stabbing into their consciousness.
Max and Nur were both affected, stumbling as their vision blurred.
"Deploying countermeasures," Jade said through their link, the AI working to shield Max's mind. "Her mental powers are even stronger than Firehair's and more invasive. She is attempting to rewrite your neural patterns."
Nur was the first to recover. He used matter manipulation directly on Selene herself, trying to destabilize her molecular structure.
She teleported away in a flash of black energy.
"What?" Nur started.
She reappeared directly above him, landing on his shoulders with impossible grace. Her hands clamped onto his face as she activated her life-force absorption.
Nur screamed in pain, his skin aging rapidly where she touched him, his energy being drained directly into her body.
"You could join me," she whispered as she fed on him. "Serve me when I ascend to godhood. Together we could guide this world. We could be immortal rulers, eternal and perfect."
A concentrated beam from Max's ring slammed into her side, blasting her off Nur.
Selene landed safely twenty feet away, already teleporting again.
"Jade, calculate and predict," Max commanded.
"Behind you," Jade replied instantly.
Max spun and created a shield construct just as Selene appeared, her hand reaching for his face. The barrier held for a moment before she shattered it with raw telekinetic force.
The battle escalated rapidly. Max used constructs to attack. Swords, hammers, and spears forced her to dodge or deflect. He created larger constructs to limit her teleportation options, filling the space around her and cutting off escape routes.
Selene teleported repeatedly, appearing and disappearing as she attacked with spells and telekinesis that Max barely countered in time. She hurled trees at him with her mind. Max punched them away. She fired bolts of death magic. Max raised shields to deflect them.
Max shifted tactics, creating smaller constructs. A swarm of thousands of tiny constructs, each tracking her movement independently. This was what finally broke through her defenses.
She could not teleport fast enough to avoid them all. The constructs swarmed her, restricting her movement, binding her limbs, even forcing their way into her mouth.
At the last moment, she teleported directly to Max, appearing inches from his face. Her hand closed around his throat as she began draining his life force while simultaneously attacking his mind, trying to crush his consciousness.
Inside Max's mind, Selene found herself genuinely shocked.
This had never happened before.
She was floating in space, an infinite black void dotted with stars and galaxies.
"What is this?" she whispered, looking around in confusion. This was not a mindscape. This was something else entirely. Something vast and incomprehensible.
Then she saw the green light in front of her, brighter than all the others. It began to shift, to change, forming into a humanoid shape.
She stared at it first in awe, then in horror, as it opened its eyes.
They were blazing with green fire.
It stared directly into her soul.
Selene screamed, a sound of pure terror, as she felt something she had not felt in millennia: fear.
She released Max and teleported away immediately, appearing fifty feet away, clutching her head in pain. Her mental defenses had been shattered by contact with whatever that thing was inside the Lantern's mind.
She looked at Max with new eyes, no longer confident, but wary. Afraid. Very afraid.
"What are you?" she demanded, her voice shaking.
Max stood up slowly, holding his head as his ring glowed brighter. Behind him, Nur had recovered and was already approaching, ready to continue the fight.
"You will pay for that, witch!" Nur screamed as he prepared to finish off the downed Selene.
Suddenly, Ghost appeared, fully transformed and riding a transformed Tasi. She charged in, grabbed Selene as she tried to teleport away, and hurled her aside. Then she unleashed a blast of hellfire from her trunks that struck Selene head-on.
Selene managed to partially counter it with a psionic barrier, but the hellfire still burned through her defenses, scorching her flesh and forcing a scream of agony from her throat.
"What took you so long?" Max called out as he prepared more constructs against Selene.
"I was kind of attacked by mad men and women," Ghost replied.
Max sent another swarm of constructs after Selene, this time made of Uru-vibranium mimicking material, far more durable and capable of cutting through her magical defenses.
Nur had fully recovered and used his matter manipulation to seize the ground beneath Selene. The earth rose up, forming hands that wrapped around her legs and arms, locking her in place.
The swarm descended on her. They entered her body through her mouth and nose, tearing her apart from the inside. Her scream was cut short as her vocal cords were shredded.
"Ghost, use the Penance Stare!" Max commanded.
Ghost dismounted from Tasi and grabbed Selene by the head, forcing the dying woman to look directly into her blazing eyes.
Selene tried to get away, but Ghost held her firmly in place.
"Look into my eyes. Your soul is stained by the blood of the innocent. Feel their pain."
Just as the Penance Stare was about to activate, Selene's astral form tore free from her body. A shimmering black silhouette ripped itself from her dying flesh and shot upward into the sky.
"Fuck!" Max shouted.
Selene's spirit looked down at them with pure hatred. "I will return one day. I always do. You," her gaze fixed on Nur with venomous intensity, "I swear a blood feud against you, En Sabah Nur. You and I are not finished. I will hunt you across lifetimes until one of us falls forever."
What about me? Max thought, a bit offended.
Then her astral form dissipated.
"Well, that went well," Max said sarcastically.
Nur immediately turned and fired concentrated energy blasts at Selene's abandoned body, incinerating it completely until nothing but ash remained. "Now she cannot return. She needs a body to anchor her spirit back to the material plane."
"I do not know," Max said doubtfully. "She seemed very sure of herself."
"You need a body to return from the astral realm, Max," Nur insisted. "That is the law of souls and matter. Agamotto taught me that."
"He is right," Ghost confirmed.
"Well, let's hope so," Max said, still not entirely convinced.
Just then, a flash of light erupted from all directions. Every obelisk around the city glowed bright amber before crumbling into dust.
"Uhhh, Agamotto, did you?" Max asked through their mental link.
"I did it," Agamotto replied happily. "The ritual is dismantled. The ley lines are purified. The city is safe."
"Well, that was easier than expected," Max said.
"Head back to the Sanctuary and rest?"
"Already there," Agamotto replied. "I portaled back the moment I finished. I need sleep. Do not disturb me for at least twelve hours."
The link closed.
Nur looked at Max. "I am more interested in that living island you mentioned."
"Living island?" Ghost asked as his transformation faded and he returned to his normal form, the Spirit of Vengeance receding.
"Sure, let's go there now," Max said with a grin. He created a car construct, a comfortable vehicle with an extended platform in the back for Tasi to stand on safely.
Ghost climbed into the passenger seat while Nur took the back. Tasi trumpeted and stepped onto her platform.
The entire construct lifted into the air and began flying toward the Pacific Ocean.
Another crisis averted.
Probably.
.
.
.
The 20th Century
Charles Xavier walked the corridors of his mentor's mansion, his footsteps echoing softly on the polished floors. He had a lot on his mind, especially the new information he had learned.
He found him soon enough in his office, standing over a broken display case, glass scattered across the floor. The entire room looked ransacked.
What happened here? Charles thought with worry.
En Sabah Nur, or Genesis as he liked to call himself, a naming convention that his friend Erik and many other mutants had adopted, giving themselves mutant names, as Erik liked to remind everyone.
Charles paused in the doorway, noticing something he was not used to seeing on his mentor's face.
Fear.
"Come in, Charles," Genesis said without turning.
Charles entered.
"From what I can read from your emotions," Genesis continued, still not facing him, "you do not have good news for me."
"No," Charles admitted quietly. "I do not. Erik found the source of Trask's new Sentinels."
Larry Trask, Bolivar Trask's son, had unveiled a new model of Sentinels months ago. It was a nightmare Charles had thought was behind them. The Sentinel affair was supposed to have ended with Bolivar himself. Charles still remembered that debate show he had attended with Trask, how the first Sentinel had been unveiled there, and how it had all gone so terribly wrong. Only with the combined power of the Externals had they managed to stop it. Bolivar Trask himself had seen the evil he had unleashed and helped them in the end, dying in the process while trying to shut down his own creations.
But his son had continued the work and improved upon it exponentially. And now they knew how.
"Where?" Genesis turned to face him, his ancient eyes boring into Charles.
"They found something buried in Egypt," Charles said carefully. "Of all places."
Genesis looked shocked, genuinely shocked, and muttered, "Fuck." He pressed a hand to his head, leaning against the desk. "How could I have forgotten?"
"You know what they found?" Charles asked, alarmed.
"Yes," Genesis said, his voice heavy. "I am very familiar with it. I was supposed to take care of it when it appeared again, but of course it must have surfaced when I was..."
There was a moment of silence before he looked back at Charles. "We have another problem as well."
Charles's gaze drifted to the disheveled state of the office, papers scattered, furniture overturned, and the shattered display case.
"Someone stole a gift from a dearest friend of mine," Genesis said quietly.
"What was it?" Charles asked.
"An artifact. The Eye of..." Genesis stopped as he moved toward the window. "It is one of the most powerful mystical artifacts ever created. Of the three, one was given to me, and now it has been stolen."
Charles felt a chill run down his spine. "Who could have..."
"An old enemy of mine," Genesis said, his eyes beginning to glow with barely contained rage. "After all these centuries, she has found a way back."
"Selene."