Mutation

Tashim’s control ability was indeed formidable, but he had still missed more than a dozen. That tiny opening was already enough for Alex.

Teleportation instantly placed him in the gap. Without hesitation, he pressed both hands against Tashim’s shoulders. A familiar current flowed from Tashim’s shoulders into Alex’s body, and the tingling numbness nearly made Alex cry out.

Alex was fast, but Tashim was no slouch either. The moment he realized Alex had gotten close, Tashim stopped fleeing and instead controlled all the Energy Balls to close in, seemingly intending to detonate them and blast Alex to death.

Alex saw through Tashim’s intentions and did not dare linger for even a moment. He used Teleportation again and instantly moved more than a thousand meters away. Judging by past experience, the replication had succeeded, but Alex still could not be sure exactly what ability he had copied. Getting blown to death now would be a real waste.

"What did you just do?" Tashim abruptly stopped, reaching up to rub his shoulder as he turned to glare at Alex with an unfriendly expression.

Alex froze at his words. Replication Ability had always been completely undetectable, so how had Tashim noticed it?

"No matter what you did, you have to die!" Alex’s actions seemed to have enraged Tashim. Energy Balls burst from his palms like machine-gun fire, and in the blink of an eye, the narrow plain at the foot of the mountains was covered in Energy Balls of all sizes.

Alex’s expression changed drastically. He reached out and touched one of the smallest Energy Balls without activating Energy Absorption, wanting to test whether he was immune to their explosions.

The result proved that Alex had copied all of Tashim’s abilities. The Energy Ball’s explosion could not affect him at all, and some of its energy was even actively absorbed by his body. It was not Sebastian Shaw’s Energy Absorption ability, but seemed to be a built-in recovery mechanism within Tashim’s powers. Since the Energy Balls were formed from energy contained within his own body, this energy recovery could greatly reduce the drain on his reserves.

After briefly testing his new ability, Alex no longer had any concerns. Even as the entire plain’s worth of Energy Balls exploded at once, he chose not to leave.

Alex even took the initiative to activate Energy Absorption, freely absorbing the energy from the explosions. Before, absorbing the Energy Balls’ energy had been like snatching chestnuts from a fire; now, Alex seemed to have become one with the flames, making it effortless.

When the smoke and dust cleared, more than half the mountains had been destroyed, while a massive crater had miraculously appeared in the narrow plain. At the bottom of that crater, Alex and Tashim stood completely unharmed.

"How is that possible?" Tashim stared at the unscathed Alex in disbelief, as though he could not trust his own eyes.

A faint smile rested on Alex’s face as he looked at Tashim with an unfathomable expression. "The ability you rely on is useless against me now. I won’t take your life either. Go."

"Who exactly are you?" Tashim panicked, and his expression twisted into something vicious.

Alex frowned slightly and shouted, "If you don’t leave now, I’ll make my move!" As he spoke, he controlled over a hundred steel pellets, sending them dancing through the air as they stood ready to strike Tashim at any moment.

Tashim was terrified and did not dare remain another second. Leaving behind a single sentence, he turned and fled. "I’ll come back for you!"

Watching Tashim gradually vanish from sight, Alex also teleported back to the Floating Temple.

Inside the Floating Temple, Howard and Emma rushed forward with excited expressions. "Alex, you were simply too—"

Howard had only gotten halfway through his sentence when he suddenly saw Alex, who had just displayed such power and driven Tashim away, roll his eyes back and collapse stiffly to the ground.

The sight frightened Emma and Howard badly. They hurried forward, preparing to help Alex up. But the instant their hands touched his body, a tremendous force slammed into them. Caught off guard, they were thrown backward and rolled across the ground several times.

"What happened?" Emma and Howard looked at each other, their eyes filled with shock.

They got back up and wanted to try again, but before they could even approach him, a massive energy shockwave sent them flying once more.

When they climbed to their feet again, they discovered that Alex had become a huge source of energy, continuously releasing powerful Energy Shockwaves. Under those shockwaves, the entire Floating Temple was gradually coming apart.

"Quick, find a way to get him to my laboratory!" Seeing the cracks spreading across the Floating Temple’s walls, Howard’s expression changed drastically. "I have something there that should be able to suppress these Energy Shockwaves!"

Emma suddenly came to her senses and hurried out of the Floating Temple. Before long, she rushed back with quite a few teachers and students who had come from Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters after hearing the news. Seeing the scene inside the Floating Temple, everyone froze just as Emma and Howard had.

Howard immediately shouted, "Don’t get close to him! Use telekinesis, or some other ability." After pausing, Howard shouted again, "No matter what method you use, you have to get him to my laboratory!"

Hearing Howard’s call, everyone was briefly stunned before reacting and using every method they had.

Yet most of them failed. They could not move Alex even an inch, and many were injured by the Energy Shockwaves instead.

Fortunately, after many attempts, several people finally worked together and used repeated impacts to gradually push Alex out of the Floating Temple and little by little toward Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.

Watching the buildings being continually damaged along the way, Emma asked worriedly, "Howard, can that thing of yours be moved?"

Howard gave a bitter smile and shook his head helplessly. "That thing can’t be moved. The moment it is, it becomes useless. We can only bring him there!"

Fortunately, Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters was not too far from the Floating Temple. With everyone working together, they finally got Alex into Howard’s laboratory and placed him inside a device resembling the observation chamber used to imprison Sebastian Shaw and the others.

Sure enough, the thing was quite effective. The moment Alex entered it, the constantly erupting Energy Shockwaves abruptly vanished.

"Howard, what do we do now?" Emma was utterly at a loss, staring blankly at Alex as his form gradually became visible inside.

Howard wiped the sweat from his forehead and let out a long breath. "Let me examine him first and see what’s going on!" With that, Howard left Emma behind and buried himself among his instruments. No sound came from him after that except the hum of electricity.

Emma stood there in a daze for a long while before finally coming back to herself. She glanced at Howard, focused intently on his instruments, then at Alex inside the device. Taking a deep breath, she walked out of Howard’s laboratory. Alex’s mutation had caused unrest on the Floating Island, and Emma had to go calm everyone down.

The moment Emma left the laboratory, Howard suddenly raised his head. He watched her disappearing back, then turned to look at the unconscious Alex before lowering his gaze to the data in his hand. He could not help sighing. "Alex, you have to pull through."