Deep within the Sahara, the sun baked the sand until it was scorching hot.
Hang stood atop a sand dune. With a clenched right hand, he fused the Laws of Life, Death, and Ti into a single mass, letting it spin lazily in his palm.
Jean knelt ten ters away, her hands pressed against the sand.
She could feel the power inside her stirring—like a beast locked away for too long, eager to tear sothing apart.
Breathe.
Don't fight it head-on, Hang had told her. Talk to it.
The Phoenix's cry echoed in her mind. It no longer sounded harsh—there was even a hint of anticipation.
It was waiting for her.
Hang tossed the sphere of energy into the sky. It exploded into countless motes of light, scattering outward and throwing the laws within several kiloters into chaos.
Any sensitive observer would think a powerful new mutant had just been born here.
Apocalypse would definitely notice.
Sure enough, less than thirty seconds later, a black dot appeared on the horizon. It grew larger as dark clouds surged in from all directions, and the sky dimd instantly.
Jean rose to her feet, looking up at the clouds.
Behind them lurked a powerful energy—amplified, belonging to one of Apocalypse's Horsen.
Thunder rumbled.
A bolt of lightning struck, hitting the sand fifty ters away and instantly fusing it into glass.
A white-haired figure descended from the clouds, eyes glowing white.
Ororo Munroe—Storm, the First Horseman of Apocalypse.
She hovered in the air, looking down at Hang and Jean.
"My master has sensed abnormal energy fluctuations here and has sent to investigate."
Hang tilted his head slightly and said to Jean:
"She's yours."
Jean clenched her fists. Pale golden flas flickered at her fingertips.
The Phoenix Force responded—not with chaotic rage, but with a restrained, eager readiness.
This was the first ti she would truly fight alongside it.
Ororo looked at Jean, a trace of disdain in her eyes. She raised her hand, and the clouds churned violently as dozens of lightning bolts danced within them.
"A re child dares face ?"
As her words fell, three bolts of lightning crashed down.
Jean instinctively raised her hand. The Phoenix Force erupted—golden-red flas surged from her body, forming a blazing shield above her.
The lightning struck the shield with deafening force. Electricity and fire intertwined, blindingly bright.
Jean was pushed back three ters across the sand, leaving deep grooves behind. Her arms trembled, numb from the impact—but the shield held.
The Phoenix Force circulated within her, automatically repairing the damage.
Ororo frowned.
She had expected to end this in one blow—but the girl's power was far greater than anticipated.
"Interesting."
She raised both hands this ti—not just lightning.
Fierce winds converged from all directions, whipping up sand into three massive tornadoes that tore forward with enough force to shred steel.
Jean took a deep breath and stood her ground.
She could hear the Phoenix whispering in her mind—its hunger for battle, its excitent at a worthy opponent.
Instead of suppressing it, she guided it, letting it flow along her will.
Pushing both hands forward, golden-red flas surged like a tide, forming the phantom of a firebird before her.
With a piercing cry, the firebird plunged into the tornadoes. The intense heat lted the sand, and the three storms collapsed, shattering into a rain of glass fragnts.
The disdain in Ororo's eyes vanished.
She could feel it now—the power within Jean was no ordinary mutant ability. It was sothing higher.
Apocalypse's voice echoed in her mind:
"Test her limits."
Ororo pointed skyward, drawing all the energy from the clouds.
A colossal lightning bolt, ten ters wide, crashed down. The desert was illuminated like daylight, the air thick with the acrid sll of ozone.
Jean looked up at the attack—one that could reduce her to ashes. Her heartbeat seed to stop.
Fear crept into her heart—but the Phoenix roared with exhilaration.
She closed her eyes, abandoning thought and relying on instinct.
Her will rged with the Phoenix's. She felt the power within her boiling, burning, yearning to be unleashed.
When she opened her eyes again, her pupils had turned pure gold-red.
Flas burst from every pore, forming a towering, twenty-ter-tall phoenix behind her.
With a resounding cry that carried both creation and destruction, it spread its wings and soared upward, colliding head-on with the lightning.
Boom!
The shockwave flattened sand dunes within five kiloters. Molten glass ford midair, cooling instantly into glittering shards that rained down like crystal.
Jean dropped to one knee, gasping for breath.
The Phoenix Force surged wildly within her. It was too vast—her body was on the verge of collapse.
Fine cracks spread across her skin, glowing with golden-red light as if she might shatter at any mont.
No… I can't lose control.
Gritting her teeth, she recalled Hang's words.
The Phoenix wasn't an enemy—it was part of her. Not suppression, but guidance—like directing a river, not damming it.
She forced herself to relax, letting the raging energy flow along her will instead of rampaging freely.
Slowly, painfully, the flas began to subside, gathering back toward her core.
The cracks healed. Her breathing steadied.
But Ororo gave her no ti to recover.
Storm's glowing eyes intensified. She felt it now—a real threat.
Apocalypse's enhancent had pushed her to pseudo-Skyfather level, yet the essence of Jean's power… subtly surpassed hers.
She had to end this before Jean gained full control.
Ororo crossed her arms. The clouds above began to spin, forming a massive storm eye over a thousand ters wide.
Amid howling winds, hail, lightning, and sandstorms rged into a pillar of divine punishnt, descending from the heavens.
Jean looked up at the attack—one capable of erasing a city.
Her body trembled—not from fear, but from the Phoenix's excitent, urging her to unleash more.
But she knew—if she fully let go again, she might truly lose control.
Just as the pillar was about to strike, a figure appeared in front of her.
Hang raised his right hand. A complex array ford in his palm.
The Laws of Space, Mind, and Ti activated simultaneously, weaving into a transparent barrier above them.
The pillar of destruction crashed into the barrier with a deafening roar, shaking the entire desert.
Yet the seemingly fragile shield did not move an inch. All the force was redirected to the sides, carving two massive trenches hundreds of ters deep into the sand.
Jean froze.
She could tell—Hang hadn't even used his full strength.
"So this is the gap between us?"
Hang glanced back at her, his expression calm.
"Not bad. But not enough. The Phoenix Force isn't a wild flood. You need finesse—not brute release every ti."
Jean bit her lip and nodded.
She could feel the Phoenix calming within her—like a child being guided.
Ororo hovered in the air, a trace of wariness in her eyes.
Apocalypse had warned her: this man's command over laws far exceeded normal limits. He was not to be confronted directly.
"Who are you, to dare interfere with my master's plans?"
"Just a traveler passing by."
As his words fell, Hang vanished.
The next instant, he appeared three ters behind Ororo.
Storm spun around, unleashing a web of lightning.
Hang simply raised a finger. A pinpoint of spatial law ford at its tip.
The mont the lightning touched it, all of it was sucked into a pinhole-sized spatial rift and vanished.
Ororo's pupils shrank.
Her proud control over weather was as fragile as paper before him.
Hang did not attack. He simply gazed into her eyes.
Those eyes held no pupils—only a pure white glow, warped by Apocalypse's mark.
"You were not like this, Ororo Munroe."
She froze. Fragnts of mory surfaced—Cairo slums, a starving, frightened child curled beside garbage.
Then the being who called himself a god appeared, granting her power, dignity—and chains.
"No! My master granted rebirth! I will give everything for him!"
She roared, gathering all her energy. The clouds compressed to their limit, preparing a storm capable of annihilating ten kiloters.
But before she could release it, Hang appeared directly before her—less than ten centiters away.
Close enough for her to see herself reflected in his eyes—deep as the cosmos, filled with incomprehensible laws.
Hang raised his hand and lightly tapped her forehead.
Threads of ntal law entered her consciousness, searching through countless mories until they found a golden imprint radiating ancient divinity.
Apocalypse's control core.
Hang didn't tear it out by force—that would destroy her mind.
Instead, he used the Laws of Life, Ti, and Mind as a precise scalpel, carefully peeling it away.
Ororo's body trembled violently. Blood seeped from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
The pain was unbearable—as if her mind were being torn apart.
Then, suddenly—it stopped.
The white glow faded from her eyes, replaced by their natural deep brown.
She stared at Hang, confusion, fear, and then overwhelming regret flooding her gaze.
"I… what have I done…"
She looked at her hands—hands stained with innocent blood.
The ruins of a Polish town, civilians lost in her storms—scene after scene replayed in her mind.
Hang withdrew his hand.
"You were used. Go back to Xavier's School. Professor Charles will help you."
Ororo collapsed midair, covering her face as silent sobs shook her body.
Hang said nothing more. He left a spatial marker on her, then snapped his fingers.
A spatial rift opened beneath her, swallowing her and transporting her away.
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