In Egypt, a massive pyramid suddenly rose out of the ground.
It stood ten thousand ters tall—9,863.5 ters taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest pyramid in the world today.
And yet a structure that enormous had erupted from the desert in only five seconds.
At the very top of the pyramid, Jovian and his four horsen stood high above the clouds like true gods.
"Erik, how’s the machine?"
Jovian stood before a crystal-clear window, looking out over the endless sea of clouds below while lightly swirling the red wine in his glass.
"No issues with the machine. We can activate it whenever you want."
Erik looked at Jovian’s unfathomable back, dropped to one knee, and answered sincerely.
"Then go make the preparations. Use the obelisks beneath the pyramid to broadcast the signal across the world."
Jovian smiled faintly.
Yes, as gigantic as it looked, this pyramid was far more than just a pyramid.
Its real purpose was to serve as an enormous signal transmitter, one that would help Magneto spread his power into every human body on Earth and activate the X-gene sleeping inside them.
"Understood. I’ll make the final preparations."
Erik rose without hesitation and headed for the control room behind Jovian.
Jovian let out a soft hum, then narrowed his eyes.
"Looks like Charles is still as stubborn as ever."
"My horsen, it’s ti to show your strength."
"Go intercept the people trying to stop you."
"Yes, sir!"
At Jovian’s command, the horsen imdiately leapt from the pyramid’s ten-thousand-ter height.
At the sa ti...
Three fighter jets were racing toward the top of the pyramid.
"To create sothing this incredible in an instant..." Beast muttered from the cockpit of one of the jets. "Mr. Apocalypse really is beyond comprehension."
"We know that," Charles said in a low voice from the seat behind Hank. "But even so, we have to stop him. Mr. Apocalypse has gone down the wrong path without realizing it. We have to bring him back."
"I know."
Hank nodded. Of course he understood the responsibility resting on their shoulders.
They had to save everyone on Earth.
Just as Hank was declaring his resolve to Professor X, several tal throwing knives suddenly dropped from the sky and shredded the wing of his jet in an instant.
"Where did those knives co from?" Charles asked, staring at the ruined wing.
"Charles, I’m sorry, but this isn’t the ti for questions. The jet’s about to go down. We have to bail out, and you need to hold on tight."
As he spoke, Hank’s body changed drastically. The calm, scholarly scientist was replaced by a blue-furred beast.
"Bail out? You’re kidding , right?"
Charles’s face stiffened imdiately.
Hank didn’t say a word.
He just smiled.
Then, in the next second—
"Ahhh!"
With one arm wrapped around Charles, Hank jumped out of the plane.
The two of them plumted through the air, then landed against the pyramid’s steep outer wall.
"Ahhh!"
In Beast form, Hank’s limbs were imnsely powerful, and his claws were sharp enough to dig into the stone with ease. Carrying Charles in one arm, he raced up the surface of the pyramid at terrifying speed.
But the attacker in the sky had no intention of letting them continue so easily.
More tal knives rained down, and then Angel descended in front of them, blocking their path with his wings spread.
"If I were you, I wouldn’t try to force my way through here." Angel folded his arms over his chest, wings beating lightly as he floated in place. "In the sky, I’m unbeatable."
"Charles..."
Hank knew perfectly well that he wasn’t a match for Angel. He turned to Charles urgently.
"I know. I’m trying, but..." Charles frowned. "Sothing’s blocking my telepathy. I can’t use mind control on him."
He tried several tis to affect Angel’s mind, but every attempt failed.
"Give it up. Your telepathy isn’t going to work on ." Angel casually flicked the tal ring above his head—the one that looked like a halo. "Did you seriously think this was just decoration? Seriously?"
Charles cursed under his breath.
Damn it.
There used to be only one of those, and it belonged to his good buddy Magneto. Now they were becoming so common it felt like everyone had one. Life was getting harder and harder for telepathic mutants.
"This is bad! The Headmaster’s jet’s been destroyed—I’m going down to help him!"
The shout ca from Nightcrawler in the second fighter jet.
The mont he saw Charles’s plane go down, panic hit him. And now that he saw Charles being blocked by Angel, he was even more unsettled. In the next instant, his body vanished from the fighter jet.
"Hey!"
Mystique, who was piloting the plane, looked back at the suddenly empty space behind her and sighed in exasperation.
She had no choice but to keep flying.
Compared to Charles’s situation, what worried her even more was the machine Erik and Jovian had built above them.
"You should stop right here," Angel said, looking at Charles with utter seriousness. "Charles, I still respect you. You’ve done a lot for mutantkind. But I need to tell you this—you’re wrong. Completely wrong."
"This world has never allowed us to keep retreating. Every ti we retreat, our enemies take another step forward. Then we retreat again, and they keep advancing, until eventually we have nowhere left to go. Instead of waiting for that day, we need to be prepared and strike first."
"Sorry, son, but so things aren’t as simple as you think," Charles said, his brow tightly furrowed. "So things are far more complicated than that."
He tried to persuade Angel to step aside.
Angel shook his head.
"Looks like there’s nothing left to talk about. Then sorry in advance."
He spread his wings and aid himself at Charles and Beast.
Beast let out a growl, muscles tensing, ready to fight at any mont.
Then—
Boom!
A figure suddenly appeared behind Angel and slamd a club into the back of his head.
"Shit!"
Angel’s face changed. He hadn’t expected an ambush.
"Professor, go! Get out of here!"
Nightcrawler, flashing in and out of view as he tangled with Angel, spoke to Charles and Beast in an incredibly gentle voice.
At the sa ti, Mystique’s fighter jet swept up beside them.
"Get in the plane!"
Using the magnetic hover-docking mode Beast had invented, Mystique brought the jet close enough for them to board.
"Raven?!"
"Got it!"
Beast and Charles answered at the sa ti, then climbed into the rear seat together.
Since it was only a small two-person fighter, the single seat felt absurdly cramped with both of them squeezed into it.
"Hold on! We’re moving!"
Mystique slamd the throttle forward and sent the jet roaring into the sky.
As the fighter accelerated violently, both Charles and Beast felt their stomachs lurch and their heads go fuzzy.
For all the jokes, Mystique could really drive.
On the other side...
Jean’s jet had also run into an enemy.
No—more accurately, Jean and Scott’s strike team had encountered the most dangerous opponent of all.
Storm, under Jovian’s control.
Boom!
White-haired Storm floated in the air wrapped in endless lightning. Her terrifying power looked capable of tearing heaven and earth apart, and bolts of electricity kept crashing toward Jean’s plane.
"This won’t work! We can’t get close!"
Faced with Storm’s overwhelming assault, Jean could only circle around her. She didn’t dare move straight in, much less think about counterattacking. Just keeping the jet airborne and not getting shot down was already taking everything she had.
"Jean, open the canopy! We’re going straight through!"
Scott, wearing his visor, knew they couldn’t keep this up. With no better option, he shouted his plan.
"Open the canopy? Are you insane?"
"Trust !"
Scott tried to make Jean believe in him.
Jean glanced at his serious face in the rearview mirror and made her decision.
"Okay!"
She hit the control, and the canopy opened imdiately. A violent rush of air tore into the plane.
Scott endured the punishing airflow and fixed his gaze on Storm, who was wrapped in lightning.
Then—
Red optic blasts fired from Scott’s visor and shot straight toward Storm.
Boom!
But Storm was no joke either. She thrust out both hands, sending lightning crashing forward to et Scott’s beams head-on.
In an instant, the optic blasts and the lightning exploded against each other in midair, releasing wave after wave of violent energy.
"Now, Jean! Bring the plane in!"
Scott shouted over the chaos while holding the attack line.
"Got it!"
Jean didn’t waste the chance. She pushed the fighter to maximum thrust and charged straight toward the pyramid through Storm’s lightning.
As Jean and Scott closed the distance, the pressure on Scott beca more and more intense.
Storm’s lightning was even more terrifying than he had imagined.
He had to give everything he had just to hold her back. He couldn’t afford even the slightest distraction.
Boom!
At last, just as Scott was about to hit his limit, Jean ramd Storm with the fighter jet at full power and blasted her out of the sky.
Even with lightning protecting her, Storm was badly hurt by the impact.
She crashed into the pyramid behind her and lost the ability to keep fighting, at least for the mont.
Jean seized the opening and flew the jet into the pyramid.
At the sa ti, the fighter carrying Charles and Mystique also entered the structure.
Now, aside from the very first aircraft Charles had arrived in—the one that had already been destroyed—the remaining two fighter jets had both made it inside the enormous pyramid.
"Is everyone okay?"
After climbing out of the plane, Jean looked around anxiously.
"We’re all fine," Hank said helplessly as he opened the hatch and carried Charles out of the fighter. "Nightcrawler might take a little longer to get up here, though."
"Let’s deal with what’s right in front of us first."
With Hank’s help, Charles reached the top level of the pyramid and spoke with a grave expression.
Then, while they were talking—
Clap. Clap. Clap.
The sound of applause echoed through the chamber.
Everyone’s nerves tightened instantly.
Jovian, still clapping, began walking toward them with Psylocke at his side as his guard.
"I didn’t expect all of you to make it here after all," Jovian said with a sigh.
"Mr. Apocalypse, stop this. What you’re doing is wrong. If you stop now, there’s still ti."
Charles was still trying to persuade him.
"Wrong?" Jovian let out a cold laugh. "What’s wrong with helping my own people? What’s wrong with helping all of humanity evolve?"
"Mr. Apocalypse, this is reckless forced growth," Charles replied, shaking his head. He simply could not agree.
"See? You don’t agree with , and I don’t agree with you. In the end, all we’re doing is wasting ti talking in circles."
Jovian shrugged.
"If neither side can understand the other, then instead of standing here arguing, we might as well fight."
Jovian absolutely refused to accept Charles’s views, just as Charles would never accept what Jovian was doing.
And honestly, Jovian understood why Charles didn’t understand him.
After all, human beings had never truly been able to understand one another.
"I don’t want to fight you, Mr. Apocalypse. After what I’ve seen, only two kinds of people would still try to challenge you—madn and fools. Thankfully, I’m neither."
Charles looked at Jovian earnestly.
"So if possible... could we sit down and talk this through slowly?"
"Sure," Jovian said with a faint nod, sounding as though he agreed. "Then let’s sit down and talk..."
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