Complaints, worries, joy, anger, sadness, love, hatred... the good, the bad, light and darkness... At this moment, the superficial consciousness of billions across the world converged, breaking through the barriers of language, race, and region, fusing into the grandest, most chaotic, and most realistic... spiritual symphony!
This storm of consciousness surged toward Charles' brain like a galactic dam breaking!
"Ah—"
Charles let out a stifled, agonized groan! He felt as if his self was a lone boat in the storm—at any moment, he could be swallowed and assimilated by that sea of minds, erased completely!
He was terrified!
With the last dregs of his formidable willpower, he forcibly cut off the connection to the amplification device!
He yanked off the helmet, which clattered weakly to the floor. His whole body was drenched in cold sweat as if he'd been fished from a river, and he gasped for breath.
His eyes were full of lifelong dread, a terror as if gazing up at gods... and Lucci's endless, unfathomable fear!
"You... what on earth are you...? What just happened?"
He looked up at Lucci with the gaze one might use for monsters, gods, or creators, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"What did I do?"
Lucci calmly looked at Charles' despairing face.
"I reconstructed the device's fundamental logic."
"The original logic was based on a narrow physical concept of genetic resonance to filter and amplify a single signal."
He continued, "But I gave it a new core logic: the Flame of Wisdom."
"If they are intelligent beings capable of independent thought, their spiritual world would naturally emit a fundamental fluctuation—what we call the Flame of Wisdom."
"What I did was allow this device to indiscriminately capture and connect with all the Flames of Wisdom across the entire planet."
Lucci's explanation was simple and direct.
But to Charles and Hank, it was no different from a creator god explaining the laws of the universe!
Reconstructing the laws? The Flame of Wisdom?
This was completely beyond their scientific understanding!
Charles' heart surged with a greater tide than even the previous storm of billions of minds!
His lips trembled, and a thought that once would have seemed ridiculous now felt all too plausible.
He stared at Lucci, almost whispering,
"Could it be... you... you're a god?"
Hank was frightened by Charles' bold guess, but a corner of his mind agreed: only this explanation could account for everything happening before them!
Lucci's face remained calm, with a distant, indifferent expression. He shook his head, then nodded.
"But I'm not a truly omnipotent god."
"However, I am indeed the crown prince of Asgard, the divine realm, and the future guardian of the Nine Worlds."
Boom—
This sentence shattered Charles and Hank's worldview like the last drop breaking the dam!
Asgard... it's real?
Does the divine realm of Norse myth actually exist?
And this man before them—is the crown prince of the gods?
The two were once again thrown into stunned terror, their minds blank. For a moment, Charles Xavier—one of the brightest minds on Earth—could barely recover his ability to think.
He looked at Lucci again, feeling the breath from his body—restrained, but his soul quivered before the majesty of the cosmos.
Suddenly!
He caught a faint, familiar sensation from that aura!
It was identical to the mysterious, vast net he'd "seen" with the Cerebro amplifier!
A bold speculation flashed through his mind!
"You..."
Professor Charles' pupils contracted sharply. Unconsciously, he asked,
"Where exactly are you from... Did you come from the Himalayas?"
Hank, standing aside, was shocked!
What? From the Himalayas?
He recalled the Professor's previous words:
"Professor! You mean, like you said before, the giant net that caused that global phenomenon... was that... was he the cause?"
Lucci nodded.
"Yes. The magical net you saw was woven by my hand."
He then briefly explained to Charles and Hank his grand idea: to build a global demon-defending formation monitoring and defending against all unknown threats from beyond Earth.
When Lucci finished, the looks on their faces could no longer be described as "shocked".
It was a complex mixture of shame, respect, and profound helplessness.
All day, what were they thinking?
How to ensure the survival of the mutant race under human suspicion and exclusion. How to deal with internal conflicts like Magneto, how to handle governments threatening mutants.
Their vision was always confined... to Earth.
Limited to the two species: humans and mutants.
But what about the man before them?
The crown prince of the divine realm, thinking about how to protect the whole world!
How to respond to unknown threats from deep space!
One worries about the survival of his people;
The other is already planning for the future of the entire planet.
Their perspectives, patterns, and thinking... completely... not even on the same level!
At this moment, Charles and Hank finally understood what Lucci meant when he said, "Your vision is too small."
After brief shame and self-reflection, Charles—spiritual leader of the mutant—took the initiative to recover from his mental gap. He sincerely bowed to Lucci.
"Sir Lucci, I am deeply moved by your efforts to protect the whole Earth."
His tone was genuine, followed by a deep, bitter smile and a sense of heroic twilight.
"But... as you can see, I have exhausted all my energy just for the survival of mutants."
"Human fear toward us grows by the day, and our internal strife never ends."
"I... I want to fight for my kind, for a peaceful place for them to live."
"As for the greater goal of protecting Earth, I regret... I am already too weak, a shadow of myself."
Charles' words were full of exhaustion, and they were true.
He was like a great parent, pained by his "disobedient" children, unable to spare a thought for distant matters.
But as soon as Lucci heard him, a meaningful, indifferent smile appeared.
"Charles, I know you've given everything for the mutants."
His gaze seemed to pierce through the mist of time, directly seeing the fate of the future.
"So, do you want to know... what the future holds for mutants, after you've given your all?"
"What?"
Charles and Hank looked up in shock!
"Mutants... the future?"
"How could you know... how could anyone know?"
Charles hesitated, then asked.
In their view, the future is unpredictable! That's a law of the universe!
"There's nothing impossible for me."
Lucci spoke lightly and extended his right hand.
In his palm, a bright green gem appeared—radiating the charm of time.
The Time Stone!
Buzz—
Without chanting, Lucci willed it, and a veil of emerald light—imbued with the laws of time—shot out to envelop Charles and Beast!
The next moment!
Their pupils dilated to the max!
Their consciousness was dragged helplessly into the endless river of time!
They "saw"!
They saw the future!
A bleak, desperate future!
The skies were filled with countless cold, metallic "Sentinel" robots!
These robots could analyze and replicate all mutant abilities instantly—a nightmare for all mutants!
They saw once-great mutant cities reduced to ruins.
They saw countless once-powerful mutants mercilessly slaughtered by the Sentinels!
They saw their old selves, the surviving Wolverine, Storm...
Living like rats in the dark corners underground!
They saw the entire mutant race being hunted down, step by step...
Toward extinction!
"No—!"
Charles screamed in agony—his soul nearly collapsing at the sight!
"How could this happen? How could it be like this?"
Hank wept in despair.
Lucci withdrew the power of time, the veil of light disappeared, and both Charles and Beast stood frozen, as if all their strength had been drained.
"What you saw is only one of countless possible futures,"
Lucci's indifferent voice pulled them back to reality.
"Of course, in that timeline, you were lucky."
"You survive... in the end, you rely on Katherine Pryde's ability to send Wolverine's consciousness back to the past, gambling everything to successfully stop the birth of the Sentinel Project. So..."
Lucci's tone was cold and calm.
"But, Charles, do you really think that's victory?"
"Without Sentinel Mark I, will there not be a Sentinel Mark II, Mark III, Mark IV in the future? Do you want to keep spinning the fate of mutants on such heavenly luck?"
Lucci's words stabbed Charles' heart like the sharpest blade!
"Can we... really... what can we do?"
Charles asked bitterly, his voice full of endless confusion.
Lucci looked at him confidently.
"When a threat comes, dodging it by luck is what the weak do."
"The truly strong face the threat head-on and crush it completely!"
"Grasp your fate with your own hands! Only by making yourself strong enough can you deal with all threats, known or unknown—that is the only true path!"
"And I..."
Lucci's body exuded a mighty aura.
"I can give you the right path!"
His words shone like the light of creation, immediately illuminating Charles' dark mind shrouded in despair!
Suddenly, Charles looked up at the Cerebro amplifier Lucci had casually modified.
That's right! Why hesitate? Why wait?
Isn't the new path, the hopeful road to true power, right in front of you?
A light returned to Charles' eyes, brighter and more resolute than ever!
He and Hank exchanged glances, seeing the same determination in each other's eyes!
The next moment!
Charles Xavier, lifelong proud leader of the mutants, stepped forward and bowed deeply before Lucci!
Hank was even more direct, dropping to one knee!
"Sir Lucci!"
The two intoned solemnly,
"We... will lead Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, and all X-Men, to fight for you! To serve you!"
"Please, help us protect our kin... and forge a new future for the mutant race!"
Lucci looked at the two kneeling before him and nodded slightly. He helped Charles and Hank up.
"Very good."
"I accept your request."
"In the future, you will be grateful for this decision!"
Upon hearing this, Charles and Hank felt a sense of unprecedented relief and reassurance, as if the heavy burden of the mutant race's future had finally found a solid pillar to lean on.
At that moment, Beast suddenly remembered something and smacked his head.
"Ah, right! Logan, and the others!"
He said anxiously,
"Wolverine, Storm, and Cyclops have already been sent by the Blackbird jet to the Himalayas!"
Charles immediately reacted, glancing at Lucci with a trace of embarrassment.
He'd sent people to investigate the "anomaly," only for the source to appear before him and become his new 'boss'.
"They left not long ago, they shouldn't be far."
Charles estimated the time.
"Let's have them return."
Lucci spoke lightly.
"Yes, Sir Lucci," Charles replied immediately, closing his eyes.
This time, he didn't use the "Gaia Consciousness Terminal" but relied purely on his own psychic power.
After witnessing Lucci's boundless spiritual world, his own understanding had reached a new level.
His mind instantly spanned thousands of kilometers, precisely connecting to Wolverine, Storm, and Cyclops in the Blackbird's cockpit.
...
"What's going on, Professor? Why are we flying to the Himalayas again?"
In the Blackbird's cockpit, Wolverine grumbled with a cigar in his mouth.
"Logan, quiet. The Professor must have his reasons."
Cyclops, Scott Summers, piloted the jet seriously.
Storm, Ororo Munroe, gazed worriedly out the window at the passing clouds.
At that moment, all three heard the familiar, gentle voice of Professor Xavier in their minds.
"Logan, Ororo, Scott, the mission is canceled. Return to the school immediately."
The three were stunned.
"Professor?"
Logan asked in confusion,
"What happened? Why are we being called back? Did the situation in the Himalayas change?"
…