Breaking Free

"Give up, Emma. I'll end your pain. Trust me."

Zhang Ye looked seriously at the woman before him, lucky enough to awaken telepathy yet unfortunate enough to be tortured beyond recognition by it.

"End my pain? With what?"

"With this." Zhang Ye pulled out a pistol, the same model he had used to kill Nick Fury. "Of course, you'll have to undo your diamond form first. Otherwise, the bullets can't get through."

"Dream on!" Before Zhang Ye could finish, Emma shrieked and cut him off. Then, snarling, she lunged at him on all fours like a raging beast—or a bloodthirsty demon.

Zhang Ye raised his left hand, and the Particle Beam instantly began to gather.

He had been ready for Emma's move at any moment. The instant she acted, Zhang Ye's Particle Beam had already finished charging, waiting only to be fired.

Pong!

A flash of golden light halted Emma halfway through her charge. The next moment, a tremendous repulsive force blasted her backward, faster than she had rushed forward, and she crashed heavily onto the ground once more.

"Stop resisting. This thing can't hurt you, but it has a powerful knockback effect. You won't be able to get close." Zhang Ye waved a hand, exposing the Iron Suit hidden in his sleeve.

"Is that so?" Emma lay on the ground and gave a savage smile. "Then try blocking them."

As Emma's words fell, a soft, ethereal laugh like that of a young child suddenly echoed through the passage. Then pale mist spread out from the darkness.

At the sight, Zhang Ye could not help taking half a step back. But he quickly steadied himself and moved his foot back to its original position.

"So this was what Pietro saw earlier. It really was terrifying—like watching Ju-on or It through VR." Licking his dry lips, Zhang Ye stared intently at the thickening fog.

As a wave of dizziness hit him, Zhang Ye decisively fired several shots at the vague figures within the mist. Flames burst from the muzzle, and the figures in the fog shuddered before being scattered by the bullets.

But before Zhang Ye could recover, the dispersed phantoms gathered again amid the churning mist, reforming into human shapes. At the same time, eerie laughter continued to ring out all around him, as if mocking his overconfidence.

"It's useless. This power is made entirely of psychic energy. Ever since you entered my territory, it has already been inside their bodies. They are everywhere. Physical attacks cannot destroy them."

Emma hid within the mist. Since she was currently in her diamond form, the psychic energy around her had no effect on her at all.

Hearing that, Zhang Ye did not react much, but the beads of sweat on his forehead showed that he knew his situation was far from good.

This mist was not a manifestation of telepathic power. That meant Emma's human experiments had failed. If these children truly had awakened telepathic abilities, then he, without any protection against such powers, would have been controlled in an instant, unable even to resist.

But in a sense, Emma's experiment had not entirely failed either. These tragic children had long since died. Their souls and resentment had fused with the faint psychic energy Emma had awakened, and as more and more people died, this power had grown stronger and stronger.

They usually lurked beneath the Orphanage, but once someone entered this place, that person became their "prey."

Emma did not fear this psychic energy because of her diamond form and helmet, but Zhang Ye was just an ordinary person. Faced with this bizarre power, he could not help feeling tense.

Zhang Ye fired at several more spectral phantoms. Though he knew it was futile, he had no other choice. He could not attack with the Repulsor Ray's Particle Beam, because he did not know whether it could harm these strange things.

Moreover, Emma was watching him like a tiger from the mist nearby. The Repulsor Ray could not fire repeatedly; after one shot, it needed several seconds to recharge. Those few seconds would be enough for Emma to rush over and tear him apart.

Zhang Ye understood that this was exactly the moment Emma had been waiting for.

So he quickly gave up on using the Particle Beam. With the charging Repulsor Ray, he guarded against Emma's possible attack while firing back into the mist, trying to stop the psychic energy from eating away at his thoughts.

Fortunately, although this power was immense, its method of attacking people was exceedingly simple.

Like boiling a frog in warm water, it trapped its prey within its "body," steadily draining the victim's stamina and mental strength over time. Once the prey could no longer endure, it would assault their mental world and turn them into a mindless walking corpse.

Zhang Ye rapidly calculated the speed at which the power was eroding him. The approaching shadows and whispering voices made him increasingly restless, but he quickly calmed himself down.

In fact, Zhang Ye had followed close behind Pietro when he entered this place. Logically, they had been affected for about the same amount of time, yet Pietro had clearly suffered far more than he had.

At first, Zhang Ye thought it was because Pietro was a mutant while he was an ordinary person, so the power had focused mainly on Pietro, leaving him safe after Pietro absorbed most of the attack.

But now that he thought about it, that did not seem right. Though Zhang Ye had no memories of dealing with supernatural forces, by the most basic logic, as long as neither of them had protection, these forces should have invaded them equally.

So...

Zhang Ye's eyes lit up as the answer suddenly came to him—speed!

The greatest difference between him and Pietro was undoubtedly speed. Pietro was a speedster. His movements and thoughts were both incredibly fast, and his brain gathered and processed information much faster than Zhang Ye's. Accordingly, his consumption was greater as well.

So that was the truth behind these powers' attack. Zhang Ye's lips curled slightly. "I already know how to deal with these things. As long as I empty my mind, stop thinking about pointless nonsense, and reduce my mental drain to the minimum, they can't do anything to me."

Emma froze upon hearing that. Her face was filled with disbelief. It was the first time Zhang Ye had seen that expression on her face.

"I know what you're planning, but it's useless. I only need to keep my full attention on you. You can't break through to reach me." Zhang Ye spoke warily to Emma.

"I have to admit, you really surprise me. You're very smart, Zhang. I'm almost falling in love with your brain." Emma gave Zhang Ye a long look and revealed a stiff smile. "But do you think you've won?"

Emma spread her arms wide, and the shadows in the mist seemed drawn to her as they gathered around her.

"So what if you slow down the drain? You're already trapped here. How long can you hold out? One minute? Ten minutes? Half an hour? In the end, you'll still die. Oh, no—you won't die. You'll stay here and join our family."

"It won't take that long." Zhang Ye tilted his head and smiled. "My last train has already arrived."

Before his words had even faded.

A figure suddenly appeared beside Zhang Ye. The instant the figure emerged, the mist behind him exploded a beat later, as though a silver bolt of lightning had torn a gap through it with overwhelming brute force. In the blink of an eye, the fog was split apart, leaving a path straight into the darkness.

"What!?" Emma's eyes widened as if she had realized something.

"Your timing is perfect, Pietro." Zhang Ye knew who stood behind him without even turning around. Only then did the tension in his heart finally ease.

Pietro did not answer immediately. Instead, he walked straight to Zhang Ye's side and tapped the helmet on his head with a finger. It had been made from metal that blocked telepathy, and it was precisely because of this helmet that Pietro could use his abilities here without obstruction.

"I got it. Let's get out of here. I don't want to stay another second."

"As you wish."

Without another word, Zhang Ye jumped onto Pietro's back. Their exchange lasted only a few seconds. By the time Emma recovered from her shock, Zhang Ye was already clinging to Pietro's back and even blew her a kiss from afar.

"No—"

Emma reached out, seemingly trying to grab something or stop Zhang Ye and Pietro. But unfortunately, the moment she raised her hand, the two figures vanished within a single breath. It was a speed the naked eye could never follow.

Panting with her mouth open, Emma shed two trails of bloody tears. She stared into the empty darkness. There was no trace of Zhang Ye left anywhere, as if everything had been nothing but an illusion.

"No!!!!"