Brotherhood of Mutants

"This can wait. I’ll go take a look here first!" Alex shook his head, refusing Emma’s suggestion, and pointed at the central plains on the holographic console, where another label read: Brotherhood of Mutants.

Sebastian Shaw, the chief culprit, was not here, but the Brotherhood of Mutants still had quite a few accomplices. Alex did not mind teaching those people a lesson.

A moment later, Alex left the Floating Temple and appeared in a bustling city in an instant. This city was called the City of Brotherhood. It was the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Mutants and, aside from the Floating Giant Island, another city of mutants in the Savage Land. Unfortunately, all the mutants here were Brotherhood members, Sebastian Shaw’s followers, filled with hatred toward humans.

Because the City of Brotherhood was a purely mutant city, with mutants filling every street and alley, Alex’s appearance did not arouse anyone’s suspicion.

Alex wandered the streets of the City of Brotherhood as he pleased, studying everything around him. It was different from what he had imagined. This was not a city of evil. On the contrary, the atmosphere in the City of Brotherhood was even more harmonious than on the Floating Giant Island—so harmonious that Alex suspected it was all an illusion.

After observing for a while, Alex discovered that the harmony truly was only an "illusion." Whenever the subject turned to the status of humans and mutants, the people here became violent and savage. Their bloodshot eyes reminded Alex of wolves in the forest.

The more Alex saw, the more dejected and bitter he became. Every mutant in the city had been brainwashed by Sebastian Shaw’s doctrine of "mutant supremacy." Their hatred for humans had taken root deep in their hearts, while their worship and faith in Sebastian Shaw were even more unshakable than the German Army’s worship of Hitler, impossible to erase.

Looking at these mutants, Alex no longer had any intention of teaching the Brotherhood of Mutants a lesson. The entire city was full of "**"—was he supposed to massacre the whole city? Alex could never do something like that, so he could only give up.

With no more desire to punish the Brotherhood of Mutants, Alex had no reason to remain in the City of Brotherhood. He raced through its streets, wanting only to complete his second task as soon as possible and leave early.

Alex had not come to the City of Brotherhood merely to punish the Brotherhood’s mutants. He had other tasks as well, one of which was to bring Erik back.

Erik, the little boy who had left the concentration camp with Alex all those years ago, the future Magneto, had now grown into a young man. With his powerful Metal Control ability, Erik had become the Brotherhood’s most formidable weapon. His unpredictable steel balls had become the most brutal weapon for harming the X-Men, and countless X-Men had been wounded or killed by his hand.

Hatred for Erik was thus deeply engraved in every X-Man’s memory. From then on, Erik had gained another title: Magneto!

When Alex learned this news from Emma, he froze completely. All that remained in his mind was the little boy who had followed him out of the concentration camp, his face full of excitement; the little boy who had become cold and withdrawn after his father was beaten to death by humans; the child who had remained stubborn no matter how much Alex had tried to persuade him while he was locked in the observation room!

In an instant, regret filled Alex’s heart. If he had been there all these ten years, how could Erik possibly have become like this?

To make up for his mistake, Alex had finally resolved to come to the City of Brotherhood.

Erik was immensely famous in the City of Brotherhood. With only a little inquiry through telepathy, Alex learned Erik’s address. He sprinted there and arrived before a detached villa in less than a minute.

After glancing around, Alex silently slipped into the villa.

To Alex’s surprise, the moment his figure emerged from thin air, a cold voice sounded beside his ear, followed by a sharp pain in his thigh. Looking down, Alex saw a hole had appeared in his thigh out of nowhere, bright red blood gushing from it like a spring.

Suppressing the pain, Alex turned toward the source of the voice. A young man sat expressionlessly on the sofa in the living room, surrounded by streaks of silver light. Alex narrowed his eyes and saw that they were silver-white steel balls. They flew so fast that they appeared as streaks of silver light.

The young man’s features vaguely resembled Erik’s as a boy, especially his eyes, which had barely changed at all—except that they had become even colder.

As he looked, Alex suddenly let out a long sigh. Staring at the young man, he slowly called, "Erik!"

Erik was clearly stunned. Looking at Alex’s face, he stared blankly for a long while before calling out uncertainly, "Alex?"

"I didn’t expect you to still remember me, Erik!" Alex was deeply relieved that Erik still remembered him, and an unconscious smile appeared on his face.

"Please call me Magneto!" Erik’s expression changed abruptly, and his gaze at Alex became even sharper. "And leave this place immediately. Otherwise, don’t blame me for being rude!"

The smile on Alex’s face instantly froze. His raised hand stopped in midair as he stared blankly at Erik several meters away. Alex felt as though an insurmountable chasm lay between them.

After standing there in a daze for a moment, Alex came back to himself. The smile vanished from his face, and with guilt filling his heart, he called softly, "Erik…"

"Get out!" Before Alex could finish, Erik suddenly stood up and roared, cutting him off. The steel balls around him spun even faster, seeming to turn into a curtain of silver light in the blink of an eye, tightly enveloping Erik within.

Alex froze once more. When he recovered a moment later, his expression had vanished, and a trace of coldness appeared in his eyes—colder even than Erik’s. "No matter how much you hate me, today, I have to take you with me!"

As he spoke, Alex instantly appeared beside Erik and reached for his shoulder.

Erik seemed to have anticipated it long ago. One steel ball transformed into an exceedingly thin, razor-sharp blade and slashed downward, as though it intended to cut off Alex’s hand at the wrist.

Alex snorted lightly and ignored it. His hand was cut clean off, but driven by inertia, the severed hand still managed to touch Erik’s shoulder.

Erik froze. Before he could recover, he suddenly discovered that he had lost control of the steel balls. Turning his head, he saw that the hand that had just been severed had somehow returned to Alex’s arm!