Necromancer

In the original comics, Shadow King had ultimately died at the hands of an elderly Star-Lord.

Back then, the elderly Star-Lord had personally slain Planet Eater through luck and outstanding combat experience. After settling matters on Earth, he had decided to turn his gaze toward the stars. As the captain of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Star-Lord believed that his battlefield was the entire universe.

But before leaving Earth, Star-Lord had wanted to visit the place where the X-Men had fallen and mourn his former lover, the Guardians of the Galaxy’s previous member, Shadowcat Kitty.

What Star-Lord had not expected was that when he arrived with flowers, what awaited him was not peace of mind, but an illusion laid in ambush by Shadow King.

In a sense, the elderly Star-Lord and Zhang Ye had shared similar "experiences," because the first illusion both of them had seen here was Shadowcat Kitty.

The difference was that Star-Lord had seen the Shadowcat from his memories, the one brutally killed by Wolverine. Zhang Ye, meanwhile, had seen Kitty from the Ruined Universe—the one imprisoned in Mutant Prison and ultimately killed by Zhang Ye himself.

"I didn’t come here to talk to you." Zhang Ye stared coldly at Kitty across from him before speaking evenly. "I’ll give you a chance. If you give up resisting, I’ll make it quick."

"…"

Kitty froze slightly, surprise flickering through her gaze as she watched Zhang Ye. But she quickly recovered and chuckled. "Pathetic wizard, you actually dare set your sights on me. Don’t you know who I am?"

As he sensed the psychic energy around him beginning to surge, Zhang Ye removed the Black Umbrella from his back.

"…It seems you don’t intend to seize this opportunity."

The moment his words fell, Zhang Ye darted sharply to the side. In the next instant, a cyclops beam shot out of the darkness. Its terrifying destructive force tore through the earth, leaving a fissure that stretched from inside the house to the outside.

Zhang Ye steadied himself in a half-crouch and looked up. Several figures slowly emerged from the darkness. The leader’s face shone with a blinding red light, glaringly obvious in the dark surroundings.

"You’re the one who failed to seize your chance." At that moment, Shadowcat Kitty smiled. She had already changed into an X-Men uniform, and she now looked completely different from the Kitty Zhang Ye remembered.

"Do you know how long I’ve been waiting here? That damned Red Skull! He killed nearly everyone with psychic talent. I was forgotten for over forty years, but thankfully, my luck was good enough for me to encounter an uninvited rat like you."

All right.

Zhang Ye shook his head slightly. It seemed Shadow King had more or less the same idea as he did.

Zhang Ye needed to devour the Abstract Magic within Shadow King that corresponded to the astral realm, while Shadow King apparently had his eye on Zhang Ye’s body, which possessed exceptional magical talent. They had come running toward each other, so to speak.

"Taking possession of my body won’t be easy." Zhang Ye rose with a cold smile, the tip of his umbrella aimed directly at Kitty. "My bones are hard. You’d better be careful not to break your teeth."

"…You can only be arrogant now."

Kitty’s face twisted grotesquely. Her eyes flickered with an eerie red light, and the corners of her mouth stretched all the way to her ears. Amid a chilling laugh, figures behind her revealed their true forms one after another.

Zhang Ye looked over and saw one familiar face after another appear before him.

Behind Kitty, Cyclops, the leader of the X-Men, and Storm approached slowly alongside Beast, Nightcrawler, and Colossus.

These people could no longer be called "human." They retained the appearances they had worn at death, and most bore three distinct claw marks across their bodies. Clearly, they were all Wolverine’s handiwork.

"What, are you surprised to see us?" Cyclops’s visor had shattered, exposing one of his eyes, which radiated destructive crimson light. "Don’t forget, this is our home ground."

Zhang Ye swept his gaze across the X-Men. With a wave of his right hand, ghostly green flames instantly ignited from the gaps in his clothes. The Abstract Magic surrounding him was burned by the flames, and like a drop of water falling into boiling oil, it swiftly exploded amid the warped air.

Opening the Wizard’s Eye, Zhang Ye clenched the Black Umbrella tightly when he saw the scene before him.

He had originally assumed these X-Men were merely illusions created by Shadow King. As long as he destroyed the psychic energy, they should have disappeared. Yet what surprised Zhang Ye was that the X-Men before him were the genuine article!

No, calling them genuine was not quite right.

They were now merely congregations of soul energy. Though they temporarily possessed physical forms, they were no longer truly themselves. Or rather, they were already dead. What remained here were only fragments of their memories or residual images.

Another devastating laser blast came at him. Zhang Ye raised a hand and fired a bolt of ghostly green energy, blocking it directly.

"I’d nearly forgotten. You used to be a famous necromancer!"

Dodging Nightcrawler’s teleporting strike, Zhang Ye’s shadow suddenly writhed. In the next moment, a massive tentacle extended from beneath his trench coat and lashed Nightcrawler away. It then changed targets and wrapped around Colossus, who had been preparing to charge.

"Tell me, Shadow King, I’m really curious. After all those Magic Dimensions were expelled, what power did you rely on to keep hold of so many X-Men souls? And how much combat power can these weakened versions really exert?"

"There’s more than just them." Kitty tilted her head.

Zhang Ye narrowed his eyes slightly. Sure enough, in the next instant, he sensed two streams of energy erupt from behind him one after another. Tangled up with the X-Men, he could not get away in time, so he chose to take them head-on.

He stomped his right foot down hard, and a massive polygonal magic circle instantly unfolded beneath him. Ghostly green flames surged toward the sky, rapidly forming a barrier that blocked both attacks.

At the same time, the spreading flames forced back the X-Men. Colossus, who had failed to retreat in time, was engulfed by the fire. Like the magic Zhang Ye had used to modify the Ghost Rider Gang’s motorcycles, this was magic specifically designed to "restore."

Colossus, formed from Abstract Magic, could not even struggle against magic that broke down the essence of energy. He immediately dissolved into a twisted, nightmarish mass of abstract energy and was burned into ashes by the green flames.

Only after finishing all this did Zhang Ye silently turn his gaze toward the direction the attacks had come from.

Not far behind him, two figures in Iron Suits stood at the doorway like gods of slaughter, blocking Zhang Ye’s only escape route.

"Surrender your weapons, wizard!"