We Walk in Darkness, Killing Darkness

The distorted light from the portal gradually dissipated. Logan staggered to his feet, while Erik hovered in the air. They looked around and found themselves standing atop the spire of an abandoned church, overlooking the entire city bathed in moonlight.

"Sokovia?" Logan frowned, sniffing the air—gunpowder, engine oil, and even a faint, almost imperceptible smell of blood.

"That's right." Vergil sheathed his sword and removed his hood.

Erik's metal cloak fluttered gently in the air. "It's peaceful here..."

"It wasn't always like that," Vergil said calmly, "But we came, and Sokovia became what it is today."

Logan frowned. "You?"

Vergil didn't answer, but turned and walked to the edge of the church, then leaped. Logan and Erik exchanged a glance and followed closely behind.

As they landed, the church doors slowly opened, revealing an Asia man in a black trench coat standing in the doorway, next to a silver-haired, blue-eyed woman holding a strangely shaped long knife.

"Welcome." Chen Tian smiled, his hands in his trench coat pockets. "Erik Lehnsherr, Logan Howlett..."

Logan's muscles tensed instantly. "Who the hell are you?"

"Chen Tian." He nodded slightly, his smile unchanged. "I was the one who sent Vergil to rescue you."

"Vergil?" Erik and Logan looked at Vergil, who was slowly walking towards Chen Tian.

"Why did you save us?" Erik asked.

Chen Tian didn't answer, still smiling, he waved to the two of them and headed into the church. Logan snorted coldly; his sense of smell didn't tell him there was any threat inside the church.

So he followed behind, and Erik slowly floated into the church.

The heavy wooden doors of the church slowly closed behind us, shutting out the moonlight. Candlelight flickered on the old chandeliers, and the long table was laden with roasted lamb legs, fresh bread, fruit, and several bottles of aged whiskey.

Logan grabbed a whole roasted chicken without hesitation, tore off a large chunk of meat, and Grease dripped down his beard. He chewed a few times, squinted to savor the ingredients, and then nodded to Erik: "No poison."

Erik then picked up his Crystal glass, took a sip, and kept his gaze fixed on Chen Tian: "Now, tell me—why did you save us?"

Chen Tian chuckled softly, tapping his fingers lightly on the table. "Because of your value."

"Value?" Logan sneered. "I hate these kinds of Riddler the most."

Chen Tian tapped his fingers lightly on the table, the rhythm slow, as if he were waiting for something.

Logan impatiently tossed the cleanly gnawed chicken bones onto the plate with a clatter. "Hey, kid, stop playing games. You didn't save us just to treat us to a meal, did you?"

Erik's gaze remained cold, but the metal goblet spun slowly between his fingers, clearly awaiting an answer.

Chen Tian smiled slightly, raised his hand and waved it, and the projection in the center of the church suddenly lit up. In the image, members of the World Security Council were sitting around a round table, having a heated debate.

"These are the minutes from a meeting three hours ago," Chen Tian said calmly. "They were discussing whether to repeal the Superhuman Registration Act."

On the projection screen, a senator wearing gold-rimmed glasses slammed his fist on the table and stood up. "The Mutants have gone out of control! Magneto has openly attacked S.H.I.E.L.D.., and the X-Men have disobeyed orders—we can no longer tolerate this threat!"

Another congressman scoffed, "Charles Xavier thinks signing that bill will integrate Mutants into society? Ridiculous. They are, after all, outcasts."

Logan's eyes flashed with malice. "These sons of bitches..."

Erik's expression remained calm, but the metal goblet silently twisted and deformed in his hand.

Chen Tian turned off the projector and glanced at the two men. "See? In the eyes of the United Nations Security Council, Mutants have never been equals. They only care about control—either they obediently become their hounds, or they are branded as criminals."

He stood up. "Are you content with this kind of world?"

"So what do you want to do?" Erik threw the deformed wine glass onto the table.

"I want you to join me."

Logan tilted his head back and gulped down a mouthful of whiskey, the fiery liquid burning down his throat. He grinned, revealing his canines, and sneered, "Join you? Overthrow the World Government? Ha! I've lived all these years and seen too many idealists like you—they either end up getting their heads blown off by government agents or stabbed in the back by their own people."

"No, Logan. I never intended to overthrow any government. The Adjudicator are not heroes, but a group of knights walking in the darkness."

Chen Tian stood up and looked at Erik. "Erik, you know that many Mutants didn't Xavier's Academy face the same problem: being captured and taken away to become test subjects."

Erik didn't speak, he just stared at Chen Tian.

"Should Mutants be prey, or hounds? That's wrong, but what can you do?" Chen Tian spread his hands. "The people hunting Mutants are the World Security Council and S.H.I.E.L.D.., Erik. Can you destroy the whole world?"

"Do you have a solution?" Erik asked softly.

Chen Tian nodded. "I can make Sokovia a home for Mutants, and the Adjudicator will be their protectors."

Logan exhaled a breath of alcohol with disdain. "Ha, easy for you to say. Sanctuary? Homeland? I've lived for over a hundred years, I'm sick of hearing those fancy words." He slammed his glass on the table. "Sokovia is a tiny place, what can it possibly fight against the whole world?"

Erik was also full of distrust. "If that's all there is to it, you can't convince me."

Chen Tian smiled and gestured for 2B to hand the tactical tablet to the two of them. Just as Erik was about to take the tablet...

Chen Tian said, "Erik, Logan, this tablet contains my secrets, so you should consider the consequences before you look at it."

Erik and Logan exchanged a glance, both seeing the hesitation in each other's eyes.

Logan noticed that the two were undecided and cursed, "Damn it, let's see. Maybe there's something in there that can prove this kid's point. I get so angry looking at that kid's smiling face, so full of confidence."

Erik looked at Chen Tian, Chen Tian crossed his arms and looked confident.

Erik took a deep breath, tapped on his tablet, and the icon that popped up was the Red Room logo.

Upon seeing the sign, the two of them abruptly looked up at Chen Tian.

"You're from the Red Room?" Erik asked in shock.

"I knew it! The Red Room? Damn it! This kid's lying. I don't believe any spy organization would be so kind!" Logan stood up abruptly, his wolf claws extending from between his fingers.

Chen Tian smiled and gestured to Logan, "Erik, you're wrong. The Red Room is mine."

"Where is that madman Dreykov now?" Erik demanded. "I don't believe he'd let you take over the Red Room so easily."

"Yes, so he's dead, along with his loyal followers." Chen Tian gestured for Erik to continue looking at the tablet. "There's a lot of stuff on the tablet; you can take a look."

Erik lowered his head and continued watching the tablet.

The tablet displays the crimes Dreykov committed while in charge of the Red Room, such as: training female agents known as "Black Widow," who were all brainwashed and controlled after Dreykov took a liking to their families and caused them tragedies; and the Red Room's cooperation with Hydra, including but not limited to, assisting Hydra in carrying out terrorist attacks and capturing Mutants around the world.

"Where did the Mutants captured by the Red Room go?" Erik raised his head slightly, but his words were already tinged with anger.

"Emm, most of them have been released, and a small number are willing to stay. Now they either become logistics personnel for the Red Room or live in Sokovia." Chen Tian walked to Erik's side, clicked on the tablet, and a dozen or so personnel lists popped up.

These lists contain information on Mutants, men and women, young and old. "Erik, if you're worried I'm deceiving you, I can have these people come here."

Erik stared intently into Chen Tian's eyes, and Chen Tian did not look away.

"No need. I can believe that for now, since it would be easy to spot if it were a lie." Erik tossed the tablet onto the table. "Then what is this 'The Adjudicator' you're talking about? What does 'knight walking in the darkness' mean?"

Chen Tian walked to the steps in front of the church pulpit and plopped down on them.

"Heroes?" Chen Tian chuckled. "Heroes are symbols of light, embodiments of hope—but this world has never been changed by hope alone."

"Heroes abide by the rules, do not kill prisoners, do not harm civilians, and are even willing to give up the pursuit of criminals for the life of a stranger, because they are heroes, and they want to bring light to the people." He raised his head slightly. "But, as you also know, it is precisely this 'benevolence' that allows the enemy to make a comeback time and time again."

Logan scoffed, "So what? You're saying we should be like executioners, killing them one by one?"

"No, Logan." Chen Tian's smile held a slight hint of wickedness. "We are only responsible for hunting down the prey that flees into the darkness."

"You mean we're supposed to be the killers of those so-called 'heroes'? Eliminating the enemies they 'mercifully' released?" Erik frowned and stroked his chin.

"You could say that, or rather, that we could eliminate these enemies in the 'darkness' before they even appear in the open." Chen Tian placed his hands on his knees. "Heroes, by adhering to the bottom line, can become Arbitrators, while we only need to eliminate them to become the Adjudicator."

Erik and Logan were a little confused when Chen Tian spoke the same English, since the Arbitrators and the Adjudicator were pronounced the same in English, both being 'Arbiter'.

"The Arbitrators ..." his voice carried a certain rhythm, "Is the upholder of the rules, the symbol of order." Behind him, stained glass depicted Angel judging humanity, "Standing in the sunlight, measuring good and evil with mercy and tolerance."

"And we, the Adjudicator..." A shattered cross sculpture stands beside the stained glass, bathed in shadow. "We stand in the shadows, executing judgments with bullets and blades." When order and rules cannot reach the dark corners, when morality becomes a shield for criminals—that is the meaning of our existence.

"The Arbitrators dare not openly protect good Mutants who are hunted down for not joining the Superhuman Registration Act, but the Adjudicator do."

"Arbitrators release criminals because of the rules, while we just want them to die in the gutter."

The images of Angel on the church's stained glass windows distorted in the moonlight, and the candlelight flickered in Chen Tian's pupils, stretching his shadow into a twisted shadow of darkness. He slowly stood up, his black trench coat billowing like the night in the air created by his ascent.

"Do you know Daredevil from New York?" Chen Tian suddenly asked, his voice echoing under the dome. "That vigilante who insisted on not killing anyone? And what happened? Kingpin from prison five times, and each time there were mountains of new corpses."

"Look at Hell's Kitchen." Chen Tian's finger traced through the air. "How many crimes have those gangsters and outlaws committed there? Don't those government agencies know? No, they're happy to take bribes from those guys."

Magneto's eyes sharpened. "What exactly are you trying to say?"

Chen Tian turned around, and the tablets in front of Erik and Logan switched to images of Mutants experiments. "Look at your fellow Mutants who have been dissected. S.H.I.E.L.D.. knows, the World Security Council knows, but they choose to turn a blind eye." His voice suddenly rose, "And Professor X is still clinging to his illusion of peaceful coexistence!"

Wolverine slammed his fist on the table. "Enough! Charles, at least—"

"At least what?" Chen Tian slammed the projector down, "At least more Mutants were sent into the lab?" He pointed to Sokovia bathed in moonlight outside the window. "Here, we saved civilians harmed by the outbreak of the Civil War and rebuilt their homes! Ask yourself, do those so-called peace-loving World Security Council care about the civilians who died in the Civil War?"

Chen Tian slowly opened his arms.

The candlelight inside the church suddenly flickered violently, and three figures appeared out of thin air from the shadows.

Dante leaned against a weathered stone pillar, his red trench coat casually draped over his shoulders, an unlit cigar dangling from his lips. He twirled the two pistols in his hands with nonchalant ease; their silver and black-gold blades spoke volumes about their danger.

Madara stood with his arms Rinne Sharingan. He looked down at the crowd, a faint, cold smile playing on his lips, as if none of them were worthy of his attention.

In the darkest corner of the church, a chestnut-haired girl stood silently. Leah —or rather, the Demon King disguised as a girl—observed everything with her scarlet eyes. She looked at Erik and Logan with a playful expression; the smile on her lips seemed innocent, yet it sent chills down their spines, instilling a deep-seated fear.

"We are in the darkness, fearless and uninhibited, solely to eradicate the crimes committed in the darkness."

"Logan, Erik, the Adjudicator need more companions, people willing to walk with us in the darkness."

"So, do you want to join us and wreak havoc on the dark side of the world?"