Blood

Apocalypse’s words left Black Phoenix stunned. "Detonate my Phoenix Force? That would leave me severely injured. Iron Man definitely won’t let me go then."

"Don’t worry. I’ve calculated it all."

Apocalypse replied, "Your Phoenix Force is filled with destructive power. It will blow apart the surrounding space, and then you can take me through the opening and flee into Hell. Hell is an independent space. As long as Original Sin seals Hell off, even Iron Man won’t be able to force his way in."

Black Phoenix’s heart stirred. "In that case, it could work."

"Remember to take me with you. Without me, you can’t defeat Iron Man and Time Imp."

Apocalypse said, "No matter what conflicts we have, Iron Man is our greatest enemy."

"Don’t worry. I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid."

Black Phoenix snorted. Then, she pretended to be unable to hold on any longer. Her body returned to the ground due to Time Rewind, and the blood-red glow in her eyes gradually faded.

At that moment, a force surged from the earth into Black Phoenix’s body. It was Apocalypse’s Explosion Power.

"Explode, Phoenix Force."

Black Phoenix guided the Phoenix Force toward Apocalypse’s power. The moment the two forces collided, they reacted violently and swelled madly.

Black Phoenix immediately released the power. In the next instant, destructive power erupted with a thunderous boom, erasing both the Time Magic formation and the surrounding space.

Wang Bert’s expression changed. He hurriedly used Space Power to transfer Wolverine and the others away.

Black Phoenix seized Apocalypse and fled through the blasted-open Space Channel toward Hell. With Phoenix Force still filling the area, Wang Bert could not pursue them. He could only use Money Power. "Five hundred million dollars to enhance Jean’s Power."

Under the effects of Money Power, Jean’s strength surged, and she fought Black Phoenix desperately for control of the body.

Black Phoenix had suffered severe injuries, and her strength was nowhere near what it had been. She could no longer suppress Jean as easily as before. Sometimes Jean controlled the body, and sometimes Black Phoenix did. It was utter chaos.

In Hell, Apocalypse and Black Phoenix fell onto the barren ground at the same time. Apocalypse was just about to say something when Black Phoenix clutched her head and kept growling like a madwoman.

"Get out! This is my body."

"I’m the true owner of this body. You’re nothing but a worthless personality created by the professor."

"I’m not! You shouldn’t exist at all."

Black Phoenix’s eyes alternated between clarity and blood-red madness, making her look especially eerie. Apocalypse shouted, "Black Phoenix, attack God’s seal now. If we can’t keep Iron Man outside, we’ll all die."

Black Phoenix clutched her head and shouted, "Where’s the seal?"

"The seal is here!"

Original Sin slammed against the seal with all its strength, and a gigantic Light Cross suddenly appeared. Just as Black Phoenix was about to attack, Jean desperately held her back, refusing to let her use the Phoenix Force.

"Get out of my way, you bad woman who slept with Iron Man in your dreams!"

Black Phoenix cursed. Jean was struck dumb, as though she were standing naked in Times Square with everyone seeing every part of her. She had never imagined that someone else would know about her dream.

Taking advantage of Jean’s shame, Black Phoenix gathered Phoenix Force and blasted the seal fiercely. A gap abruptly opened in the seal, and Original Sin, covered in Black Qi, rushed out and immediately sealed off Hell.

"I’m back, Iron Man. Earthlings, I will never let any of you go."

Original Sin laughed loudly. God sighed, but there was nothing He could do. His consciousness gradually sank into darkness. Original Sin was God; once it escaped, God would disappear.

Seeing that the situation was settled, Apocalypse let out a huge sigh of relief. He called to Original Sin, "Original Sin, help me remove the Leech from my body."

Original Sin was somewhat displeased. "Are you ordering me around?"

"I don’t want to play mind games with you right now."

Apocalypse said impatiently, "I don’t need to tell you how strong Iron Man is. None of us can defeat him one-on-one. If we want to deal with him, we have to team up."

Black Phoenix roared through gritted teeth, "I have to kill Iron Man."

"No, I will never let you kill Iron Man."

Jean took control of the body and shouted. The two began fighting again, while Original Sin blinked, somewhat speechless.

"Of the three of us, one is sealed and can only use a little power. Another is not only seriously injured, but mentally split."

Original Sin complained, "The last one is even worse, practically reduced to an ordinary person. This is a proper Losers’ Alliance. Do we really have any hope of defeating Iron Man?"

"It’ll be difficult. Iron Man isn’t just powerful; his schemes are terrifying as well. I thought I could outmaneuver him, but he trapped me completely. If Black Phoenix hadn’t appeared out of nowhere, I’d probably already be dead."

Apocalypse sighed first, then said, "If we want to defeat Iron Man, the three of us must work together wholeheartedly. Otherwise, defeat is certain."

"Just like me back then. He plotted against me so thoroughly that I had no power to resist at all."

Original Sin sighed. "Fine, Apocalypse, I’ll help you. However, your body’s condition is terrible. I’m not confident I can restore you completely. I suggest finding yourself a better body."

"I know. The Leech’s power has seeped into every corner of this body and can’t be completely removed."

Apocalypse sighed. "The problem is that I can’t transfer to another body again anytime soon, so I’ll have to make do with this one for now."

Although Apocalypse could switch bodies, the ability had a cooldown and could not be used continuously.

"I’ll first do my best to purge the Leech’s power from you."

Original Sin shook its head and sent a large amount of Black Qi into Apocalypse’s body. Then it asked, "By the way, did you obtain the professor’s superpower?"

"No. The professor’s power is somewhat special. To obtain it, I have to devour his consciousness."

Apocalypse said, "Iron Man transferred the professor’s consciousness away earlier."

"You’re even unluckier than I am. After all that effort, you got nothing."

Original Sin could not help shaking its head. Then it turned to Black Phoenix and asked, "Crazy Phoenix, do you need me to give you some negative emotions?"

"No need. I can handle Jean myself."

Black Phoenix shouted with a hint of madness. Although Original Sin’s negative emotions would help her, she did not trust Original Sin and would rather go without them.

Original Sin did not force the issue. It asked Apocalypse, "Apocalypse, what do we do next?"

Apocalypse said, "First, recover from our injuries. Then we’ll plan things out slowly. We still have a chance. Iron Man may be strong, but he’s not invincible. Otherwise, he wouldn’t need to play these games of intrigue."

"That makes sense. We’ll heal up first, then take our time playing with Iron Man."

Original Sin nodded. They were the Losers’ Alliance now, but that did not mean they would remain so forever.

"They still got away."

Wang Bert looked at the gradually calming space and said unhappily, "Hell has been sealed off. I can’t get in, so it looks like Original Sin has escaped the seal."

Though he said that, Wang Bert was not too concerned. The outcome was not the best, but it was not bad either.

Franklin asked, "Didn’t you go in once before?"

"That time, I caught Original Sin off guard. With the three of them working together, I can’t break in."

Wang Bert shook his head. "Old God really isn’t reliable. He couldn’t even hold on for a short while."

"God can’t even protect Himself. What can you expect from Him?"

Franklin said, "So, we lost?"

"Lost? How could that be? We won."

Wang Bert said, "Not only did we eliminate Magneto and the others, we also severely wounded Apocalypse and Black Phoenix. With injuries like theirs, they won’t recover in less than a few years."

Franklin said somewhat unwillingly, "That’s true. Sigh, if only Black Phoenix hadn’t appeared."

"Black Phoenix awakening may not be a bad thing. At the very least, we no longer have to guard against her."

Wang Bert smiled. "Also, Franklin, look. What’s this?"

Wang Bert raised his hand. Two drops of blood gleamed in his palm. One was purple, while the other emitted Black Qi, ominous Black Qi that represented destruction.

Franklin’s eyes lit up. "Apocalypse and Black Phoenix’s blood?"

"That’s right. Apocalypse’s original body contained his Mutant Gene. I collected those genes and combined them into this drop of blood. As for Black Phoenix’s blood, it was left behind after she detonated her Phoenix Force."

Wang Bert said, "With these two drops of blood, my control over Mutant Genes will greatly improve, perhaps even approaching one hundred percent. By then, Apocalypse, Original Sin, and Black Phoenix will all be insignificant."

After a pause, Wang Bert thought of something and smiled. "Not to mention, they’ve now become a group of old, weak, sick, and disabled people."

Franklin could not help laughing. "That’s really good news. Enough talk, I’m going back to sleep. This battle drained three months of my energy."

"Go on. I’ll call you again next time there’s a fight."

Wang Bert smiled. Franklin rolled his eyes and vanished through space.

After Franklin left, Wang Bert willed it, and a Doppelganger stepped out of his body. It traveled through space to the outside of Hell and began monitoring Hell’s situation.

This Doppelganger came from Doppelganger’s Mutant Gene.

"Apocalypse, Black Phoenix, Original Sin. Before the Celestial Group arrives, I will definitely deal with all of you."

Wang Bert looked at the yellow sand filling the sky, snorted, and teleported back to the Training Ground of Rebirth Group, where Wolverine and the others were.

It was worth mentioning that Sunspot and Blink were there as well. Wang Bert had casually saved them earlier too. As for Zheng Tu and Bishop, Wang Bert had ignored them. They were already completely dead.

He had saved Sunspot because Sunspot was not a bad person. He had merely been controlled by Apocalypse.

As for saving Blink, the reason was simple: her ability was useful. One could never have too many space ability users, especially ones like Blink and Nightcrawler, who could teleport across the entire Earth.

Wolverine asked with great dissatisfaction, "BOSS, shouldn’t you give us an explanation?"

Hank shouted, "Logan, Bert did nothing wrong."

"Why should I give you an explanation?"

Wang Bert asked, "I didn’t know about your and Sabretooth’s actions. In the entire scheme, aside from going easy on Apocalypse, I did nothing else."

Wolverine was stunned. "Us becoming puppets wasn’t your arrangement?"

"I’m excellent, but don’t think I’m omnipotent."

Wang Bert said irritably, "I didn’t know your ancestors existed beforehand, much less that you would be controlled."

"That makes sense. If you’d known earlier, you definitely would have stopped me from stabbing Cyclops."

Wolverine sighed. Cyclops had suffered terribly this time. Not only had he been stabbed into critical condition, but he had lost his girlfriend too.

"No wonder your plan managed to fool Apocalypse. You never had a plan at all. You were simply playing along."

Hank suddenly understood. Apocalypse was not stupid. If they had carefully plotted things out, there was an eighty percent chance he would have seen through it.

Raven asked from the side, "Iron Man, when can the professor be resurrected?"

"He’s already been resurrected. He’s currently merging with his new body."

Wang Bert smiled. "A new body with hair. He said he wants to show you how handsome he was when he was young."

A wave of jeers rose around them. Aside from Raven and Hank, no one believed the professor had been handsome in his youth.

At that moment, Wolverine asked, "BOSS, what’s going on with Jean exactly? And how is she now?"

"There’s a personality within Jean composed of negative emotions…"

Wang Bert gave a brief explanation, then said, "She’s in Hell right now. Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to destroy Black Phoenix and bring Jean back."

Wolverine said, "Hell? BOSS, remember to take me with you when the time comes."

"Logan, you’re worrying a little too much. Don’t forget, you’re a married man."

Wang Bert patted Wolverine’s shoulder teasingly. Then he pointed at the tied-up Sunspot and Blink and said to Hank, "Hank, they’re yours. Both of them would make fine help."

Hank said happily, "I’ll persuade them to join the Mutant Guardians."

"That depends on your skills."

Wang Bert smiled, then said to everyone, "All right, stay here and rest. I’ll go deal with Manhattan."

"BOSS, need help? I’m furious right now."

Wolverine said, while Sabretooth nodded fiercely. The two of them had become complete jokes because of what happened this time.

"No need. It’s a small matter." Wang Bert smiled faintly and vanished from the room.

In Manhattan, Wade teleported around one after another, knocking Temporary Mutants unconscious. He cursed, "How many more are there? I’m exhausted."

"It really is exhausting. The key is that we can’t hit too hard. We can only knock them out."

Shockwave said unhappily through the earpiece. His shockwaves were too powerful to use, so he could only beat people with a stick. The problem was that the Temporary Mutants were no pushovers. Several times, they had chased him around and beaten him instead.

"Get BOSS to send more Sentinel Robots over. They’re much more efficient than us."

Vomiting Boy said, "That old bastard Magneto is disgusting."

Quicksilver, who was desperately rescuing people, felt somewhat displeased upon hearing that, but he said nothing. After all, what Magneto had done this time was truly disgusting. At this rate, who knew how many people would die?

Manhattan’s population was simply too large. The Mutant Guardians and Security Company were completely insufficient. In fact, the military and police had all been deployed as well, but the results were not very good.

At that moment, Wang Bert appeared in the sky. Looking down at chaotic Manhattan, he clapped his hands forcefully. A powerful energy wave swept across all of Manhattan. Every mutant struck by the wave felt a chill in their hearts, as though ice cubes had been dropped into their blood.

For official mutants, it was merely a momentary discomfort. But for Temporary Mutants, it was completely different. They collapsed to the ground in agony, and the abnormalities on their bodies quickly disappeared.

The Mutant Genes in the Temporary Mutants’ bodies had been reverted to their original state by Wang Bert.

In an instant, a catastrophe vanished. Wang Bert stood in the void like the Mutant God.