Chapter Summaries

Dilos told Gabe and Chloe about the Kryptonian conspiracy and persuaded them to leave town, promising Chloe that Clark would not be controlled. He suspected the Kryptonian Machine’s influence was limited, while Dr. Connors completed another round of experiments and prepared Dilos for a second modification.

• Dilos explained the Kryptonian Machine and Clark’s alien identity to Gabe and Chloe, and they agreed to move.
• Chloe refused to break up with Clark, but Gabe worried the Kryptonian Machine could control him.
• Dilos reassured Chloe that Clark would not be controlled and decided to take Clark’s family and the town’s Green Kryptonite-infected superpowered people out of town.
• Dilos concluded that the Kryptonian Machine was restricted and might only be able to influence people within the town.
• At the Isla Sorna base, Dr. Connors finished experiments on test subjects and said Dilos would soon be ready for a second modification.

Qin Jiayin passed Ororo’s combat test and learned she had officially qualified to join the X-Men. After admitting she missed Dilos, she turned and found him waiting for her.

• Qin Jiayin and Ororo fought in the Danger Room until Ororo stopped the test and declared that Qin Jiayin had passed.
• Qin Jiayin celebrated joining the X-Men and asked when she could start going on missions, but Ororo said missions were unlikely for now.
• Ororo teased Qin Jiayin about her feelings for Dilos and threatened to tell him she had someone else in her heart.
• Qin Jiayin admitted she felt disappointed that Dilos had left and had been away so long.
• Ororo told Qin Jiayin to turn around, and Qin Jiayin saw Dilos and called out his name.

Dilos reunited with Qin Jiayin at the X-Mansion, and the two shared their first kiss. Meanwhile, Scott showed Chloe and Clark around the school and told them Dilos taught there.

• Dilos reunited with Qin Jiayin, embraced her, and shared his first kiss with her.
• Ororo left the Danger Room after seeing Dilos and Qin Jiayin together.
• Dilos and Qin Jiayin teased each other and enjoyed their time together.
• Scott explained the X-Mansion’s purpose as he showed Chloe and Clark around.
• Scott told Chloe and Clark that they could attend classes at the school until the crisis in their town was resolved.
• Scott revealed that Dilos was also a teacher, surprising Chloe and Clark.

Dilos confirmed that Clark no longer suffered serious harm from Green Kryptonite and warned him that Smallville had amplified its effects. After worrying about the Flash’s emergence in Central City, Dilos discovered that Dr. Wells was secretly investigating how to escape this universe.

• Dilos tested Clark with Green Kryptonite and alloy steel, confirming that Clark had recovered his strength.
• Dilos told Clark that Smallville had intensified the Kryptonite’s effects and said the alien spaceship was unlikely to be found.
• Clark agreed to repay Lex for the damaged alloy doors, while Chloe teased him about disguising himself and Clark realized she was pranking him.
• Dilos read that the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator accident had killed and injured many people, and wondered whether the Reverse-Flash had appeared.
• At S.T.A.R. Labs, Dr. Wells learned from Gideon that his device could not let him travel through time or leave the universe, and worried that finding another way would take years.

Chloe quickly became popular among the Mutant students because of her connection to Dilos, while Dilos prepared Qin Jiayin to develop her martial arts further. In Manhattan, Tony insisted on personally handling a weapons assignment, unaware that Obadiah distrusted him.

• Mutant students crowded around Chloe to ask about Dilos, and she later threatened to tell Gabe about Dilos’s deeds.
• Dilos learned that Charles had told the students about his past victories, and Qin Jiayin reassured him that Magneto’s remaining followers posed little threat.
• Dilos explained that Qin Jiayin’s constitution could safely absorb Life Potions and help her condense a vital energy vortex, then considered whether to teach Clark Guoshu.
• At Stark Mansion, Obadiah offered to handle a job, but Tony insisted on testing his latest invention himself and ignored the military’s award ceremony.
• Obadiah let Tony take the assignment while privately showing a trace of coldness.

Dilos enjoyed a quiet moment with Qin Jiayin at Xavier School before Dr. Connors called him to collect an eagerly awaited item. Meanwhile, Charles defended his trust in Dilos to Hank McCoy and described him as the future of the next generation of Mutants.

• Dilos and Qin Jiayin discussed the rising crime and disorder in the United States, as well as Tony Stark’s disappearance in Afghanistan.
• Dr. Connors called Dilos and said he had brought the item to a shopping mall in Westchester, so Dilos left the Xavier Institute to meet him.
• Charles noticed Dilos’s departure while speaking with Hank McCoy in the principal’s office.
• Hank questioned Charles’s trust in Dilos, citing his collection of Mutant blood and his motives.
• Charles insisted that Dilos had excellent character and leadership, and said he was placing hope in him for the future of Mutants.

Dilos discovered that his foundation establishment had changed his genes so radically that Dr. Connors's new serum was rejected and destroyed by his cells. After Dr. Connors left to study the discovery, Dilos wondered whether his evolution had granted him abilities he had not yet noticed.

• Dr. Connors explained that his serum combined the genes of Wolverine, Black King, and Corvinus to give Dilos enhanced abilities and an ageless body.
• The blood simulation device repeatedly detected genetic rejection when Dr. Connors tested the serum against Dilos's blood.
• Dilos checked the results and realized that his evolved cells were treating the serum's foreign genes as viruses and destroying them.
• Dilos explained foundation establishment to Dr. Connors, who took blood samples and asked to learn how to extract vital energy and temper the body.
• Dr. Connors left for the base to test his ideas, while Dilos questioned why his evolution had not produced any noticeable special abilities.

After Foundation Establishment, Dilos discovered that concentrating vital energy into one finger made it glow gold and vastly increased its strength and durability, prompting him to investigate the energy’s uses. Qin Jiayin also saw how her transformation had made her extraordinarily beautiful and worried about the attention she would attract.

• Dilos tested his golden finger against Thunder Blade and found that it repelled the high-frequency blade with overwhelming force.
• Dilos concentrated all his vital energy into one finger, discovered it outmatched a finger in limit state while consuming energy slowly, and began researching how to use vital energy more effectively.
• Qin Jiayin examined her changed appearance and realized that her beauty would draw attention from admirers of every gender.
• Qin Jiayin understood why Dilos had been spending so much time in the virtual room and mini laboratory instead of walking around school.

Dilos experimented with containing vital energy using a telekinetic film and briefly raised his strength to one hundred times normal, but the enhancement proved unstable and dangerous. He considered another way to solve his energy problem, then hesitated over what it would require.

• Dilos concluded that vital energy dissipated because it was diffuse and that his inefficient use of it prevented him from maintaining his limit state.
• Dilos used telekinesis as a shell around his body while circulating vital energy, boosting his strength from forty to one hundred times normal.
• Dilos's excitement disrupted the telekinetic film, and his strength fell back to forty times normal.
• Dilos moved while enhanced, crashed into a superalloy wall, and realized the power did not sufficiently improve his reflexes or protect him from strong attacks.
• Dilos considered his energy-intensive hybrid ability and, after thinking of another solution, hesitated.

Dilos used Pym Particles to shrink himself and absorb energy from an enlarged supply of life potion, discovering that the vital energy remained after he returned to normal size. He then submerged himself in the potion and began compressing his vital energy to increase its quality, with his vortex gradually turning liquid.

• Dilos shrank himself to ant size and absorbed all the energy from a cup of life potion, increasing his vital energy more than twentyfold.
• Dilos returned to normal size and confirmed that his increased vital energy remained unchanged after waiting for two hours.
• Dilos contacted Charles to borrow the Danger Room and entered a huge container of life potion while shrunk to ant size.
• Dilos absorbed vital energy until his vortex reached its limit, then compressed the energy to improve its quality.
• Dilos continued absorbing and compressing vital energy as his vortex grew brighter and began changing from a gaseous state into a liquid one.

Dilos became frustrated when his liquefied vital energy grew difficult to compress, and his anger triggered a dangerous transformation and loss of reason. He forced more energy into his body and compressed it by brute force, leaving his cultivation surging as he succumbed to his inner demon.

• Dilos discovered that his vital energy had liquefied but was now extremely difficult to compress, and he resolved to grow strong enough to defeat Magneto.
• Dilos's anger disrupted his control over electricity, causing him to shock himself inside the life potion.
• Dilos's heartbeat accelerated, his eyes and teeth changed, and anger overwhelmed his reason as his body and mental strength grew stronger.
• Dilos used Tiger-Leopard Thunder Sound in the life potion, drawing in enough energy to stretch his dantian and meridians to their limits.
• Dilos crushed the surging origin energy with his mental strength, compressed it into threads, and forced it into his origin-energy vortex.

Dilos compressed his vital energy until it transformed into golden life energy, which healed the severe internal injuries caused by the breakthrough. After surviving the inner demon’s influence, he recognized that his rapid rise in strength had destabilized his state of mind and resolved to let time temper his will.

• While trapped in an inner demon state, Dilos absorbed energy at greatly increased speed and advanced his vital energy from liquid to solid.
• Dilos forced his solid vital energy to compress further, suffering injuries to all five internal organs as golden gaseous energy formed in his dantian.
• The golden energy gathered into a vortex, consumed his ordinary vital energy, and began circulating through his body.
• The injuries expelled Dilos from his inner demon state, and the golden life energy rapidly healed his organs and strengthened them.
• Dilos remembered his reckless actions, traced his inner demon to his rapidly increasing strength, and decided to rely on time to strengthen his will.

Dilos finished absorbing the life potion and named his transformed energy true essence force, while Selene continued her surveillance of Peter Parker. In the Kawatche caves, Kara-Zor-El emerged from a cocoon and set out to fulfill Jor-El’s mission to bring Carl-El back.

• Dilos absorbed all the life potion, discovered that using it had nearly depleted his Pym Particles, and named his crystalline energy true essence force.
• Selene followed Peter Parker to an underground fighting venue, where he entered through a guarded door.
• Several men harassed Selene, and she used phantom images and a dagger to leave them bleeding before continuing after Peter.
• Kryptonian symbols opened a hidden chamber in the Kawatche caves, revealing a spacecraft and a glowing cocoon.
• Kara-Zor-El emerged from the cocoon, heard Jor-El order her to bring Carl-El back, and vanished at great speed.

Dilos remained unconscious with a fever after overtraining, while Qin Jiayin, Chloe, and Clark discussed the Kryptonian threat and prepared defenses against its machines. As Dilos’s cells absorbed Qin Jiayin’s healing power, Kara Zor-El arrived in Colorado and approached her target.

• Chloe, Clark, and Qin Jiayin watched over Dilos, whose readings were slowly improving despite Qin Jiayin’s healing seeming ineffective.
• Clark explained that Dilos had moved people at risk of control into a secure location and equipped meteor-infected individuals and their associates with psychic shielding devices.
• At the academy cafeteria, Ororo reassured Logan about Dilos’s recovery and invited him to share her vodka.
• Qin Jiayin’s healing energy was absorbed by Dilos’s cells and true essence, which grew more vital.
• Kara Zor-El arrived in Colorado and approached a bald, dark-skinned man waiting outside a chocolate shop near a police station.

Clark struggled to decide whether Dilos had been right to kill a dangerous fanatic, but the mutants’ experiences and his own fears gradually led him to understand Dilos’s choices. Before Clark could apologize to his overworked, ill friend, a golden-haired woman seized him and declared that he must fulfill his destined role.

• Clark argued with Dilos over the killing, and Dilos defended using violence to protect his loved ones from dangerous people.
• Clark wavered between Dilos’s arguments and his parents’ teachings, then reconsidered the danger of exposing his identity and endangering his family.
• Bender Kate and other mutant children described the persecution and abuse they had endured, and Bender Kate called Dilos their hero.
• Clark gradually came to agree with Dilos and wanted to apologize, but Dilos fell ill from overwork.
• Clark visited Dilos with Chloe, but before he could apologize, a golden-haired woman seized him and said he had to become the chess piece fate intended.

Dilos remained trapped in a nightmare, and the X-Men could find no safe way to wake or restrain him. As Charles organized the school's defenses after an attack on its energy barrier, Kara fired heat vision at the barrier from outside.

• Charles and Jean failed to reach Dilos telepathically because his golden aura hurled them away.
• Qin Jiayin offered to use her ability, but Jean and Charles warned that Dilos's instincts would repel her power.
• Chloe and Qin Jiayin objected to moving Dilos, fearing the Kryptonian Machine could make him a target; Charles said the Danger Room could contain him.
• An explosion shook the school, and Charles ordered several X-Men to investigate, others to escort students to shelter, and Qin Jiayin to guard Dilos while he used Cerebro.
• Kara and a suited man attacked the school's energy barrier, and Kara struck it with two beams of heat vision.

Kara Zor-El and an unnamed Black man attacked the mutant school, demanding that the X-Men hand over Clark Kent. The X-Men fought back, but their strongest attacks left the two aliens unharmed, and the chapter ended with Kara threatening them.

• Kara destroyed the school’s energy shield, and Scott and the other X-Men arrived to confront her and her companion.
• Kara identified herself as Clark’s fellow Kryptonian and demanded that the school surrender him or face slaughter.
• Scott fired at Kara as the X-Men attacked, while Charles used telekinesis to bind the two aliens and the team unleashed powerful energy attacks.
• Charles warned the X-Men that the aliens were unharmed, and the smoke cleared to reveal their defenses matched by golden-red energy.
• Kara said the X-Men had chosen death.

Charles fought Kara and the mysterious alien across the school grounds while the X-Men took shelter underground. Meanwhile, Dilos remained trapped in a worsening condition, and in his dream Black Dilos urged him to stop running and submit to being devoured.

• Charles ordered the X-Men to retreat underground, then used his enhanced telekinesis to defend the school and battle Kara and the mysterious man.
• The aliens’ clashes with Charles’s telekinetic weapons shook the school, shattered its windows, and forced the remaining X-Men into the shelter.
• Scott and the others discussed how outmatched they were, while Jean worried about Dilos and confirmed that Qin Jiayin was watching over him in the infirmary.
• Qin Jiayin failed to approach Dilos because a golden barrier kept repelling her as he floated inside a protective glow.
• In Dilos’s dream, Black Dilos taunted him for running away and threatened to devour him and take care of everything he cherished.

After entering his spiritual world during a fever, Dilos discovered that his inner demons were independent fragments of his emotions and genes that could grow stronger by absorbing one another. He defeated Black Dilos and gained primary control over his body, leaving him able to experience emotions without being ruled by them.

• Dilos found and absorbed Number Two Dilos, Number Three Dilos, and Number Four Dilos, gaining strength from each.
• Number Five Dilos revealed that he had been absorbing other sins, but Dilos defeated him after a difficult fight and took his power.
• Number Six Dilos, whom Dilos recognized as Black Dilos, attacked him and tried to devour him, but Dilos used his control of the spiritual world to bind him.
• Dilos explained how the inner demons had formed from his memories, genes, and emotions, then exposed Black Dilos's plan to grow stronger and seize his body.
• Dilos pierced Black Dilos's chest and destroyed him, claiming primary control of his body and the ability to control his emotions and bodily responses.

Dilos remained unconscious while using his new authority to gain finer control over his body, as Charles fought two powerful aliens with Cerebro-enhanced telekinesis. Martian Manhunter disabled Cerebro, leaving Charles defeated and unconscious as the aliens broke through his defenses.

• Dilos strengthened his body's protection but stayed focused on controlling its functions and could not contact anyone outside.
• Charles grew exhausted after three hours of fighting and realized the aliens' silver bracelets were sustaining their defensive force fields.
• Martian Manhunter transformed into his armored form while Kara distracted Charles's telekinetic weapons.
• Martian Manhunter activated a device that destroyed Cerebro's ability to amplify brainwaves.
• Charles ordered the X-Men to retreat and tried to hold the aliens back without Cerebro.
• The aliens destroyed Charles's weakened telekinetic weapons, and Charles collapsed unconscious.