With enough power, you really could do whatever you wanted

"Stop deceiving yourself. That bald guy is afraid of our power; he's using you. He's just an outsider; we are one. Unleash your power!"

"No, that's not it, that's not my power." Qin's voice trembled, as if she were trying to convince herself.

Russell turned around and looked at the red-haired woman, who was half-crouched on the ground, covering her ears with her hands, like a child trying to shut out a nightmare.

He didn't step forward, didn't reach out, didn't speak; he just watched quietly.

Because he knew that the sound Qin was hearing now was not coming from outside, but from inside.

The other personality that was sealed away, locked deep within Charles Xavier's consciousness for decades— Dark Phoenix —is awakening.

Regarding the resurgence of the Dark Phoenix, Russell was simply bringing forward a predetermined future event.

Qin's body began to tremble.

It wasn't cold, but a more primal shiver, like that of a Beast trapped in a cage scratching at the iron bars with its claws.

Her hair moved on its own even without wind; the red strands floated in the air like seaweed swaying in water.

Her eyes, those once gentle, smiling eyes, began to change color. The green faded, and gold emerged, like magma seeping from cracks in the Planetary Crust's crust.

"Jean! Wake up." Charles's voice, which was constantly on her mind, was transmitted directly into the red-haired woman's brain through Telepathy, and he even led a group of X-Men to the Training Room.

His worst fears came true.

"Professor, what's wrong?" Scott asked, looking at the agitated professor, completely bewildered.

"Qin, something happened to Qin."

"Jin!!" Scott was so worried about his girlfriend's safety that he forgot about Professor X and ran frantically towards the Training Room.

But it was already late.

A massive earthquake struck.

This is not a metaphor; it is a real, devastating earthquake, both physically and mentally, that leaves one feeling utterly unsteady.

The ground within a five-kilometer radius of Xavier Institute began to shake simultaneously. Books on the shelves crashed down, photos on the walls fell to the ground, and glass shattered everywhere.

On the lawn, the children who were running fell down; the teenagers who were walking by the lake fell into the water; and the young man who had just jumped from beyond the three-point line on the basketball court crashed directly onto the backboard.

Everyone felt as if a huge boulder was pressing down on their Mind Stone; the immense pressure made it almost impossible for the weaker Mutants to breathe.

The alarm blared in the basement of the main building, and red emergency lights flashed wildly in the corridor.

"Everyone, evacuate to the playground! Do not approach the main building." Storm's voice echoed throughout the entire campus through the loudspeaker.

She stood in the corridor, her hand on the wall, looking in the direction of the Training Room, her eyes filled with fear.

She had seen earthquakes like this before.

Several years ago, when Qin first lost control, it was the same thing.

That time, all the school buildings collapsed.

This time it seems even worse?

All the X-Men, including Pyro and Iceman, suffered Mind Stone trauma and struggled to move; only a few were able to withstand it.

Professor X is one of them.

He pushed his wheelchair out of the study faster than ever before, his hands pressed against his temples, veins bulging on his forehead, sweat streaming down his face.

Before he even reached the Training Room, his consciousness had already probed into Qin's brain, groping in the sea of consciousness being devoured by black flames, searching for that awakening, sun-like, scorching presence.

The Mind Stone barrier he had previously erected within the zither was already riddled with holes.

"Jin, listen to me." His voice echoed in Jin's mind, gentle yet urgent, "You are not a monster, your power is not a curse, you can control it—"

"She doesn't need to be controlled." Another voice echoed from the depths of her consciousness, carrying a chilling, serpentine quality that sent shivers down her spine.

"She never needed to be controlled. We were one. You locked me up, sealed us off, and made her pretend I didn't exist."

But I'm here, I've always been here.

Dark Phoenix.

Charles's consciousness was ejected from Qin's brain by an irresistible force.

His body jerked backward, the wheelchair sliding several meters before crashing into the wall and coming to a stop. Blood was gushing from his nose, not from an external injury, but from a mental backlash.

Scott was the fastest, was the first to rush into the Training Room, seemingly unaffected by the Mind Stone shock.

His glasses were still on his face, but his eyes were no longer under control, for he saw Qin, saw her kneeling on the ground in agony, her hair floating in the air, and golden flames burning in her eyes.

The surrounding floor was cracking, the ceiling was peeling, and there was an invisible, suffocating sense of oppression in the air.

"Qin!" He rushed over, reaching out to hug her.

Qin looked up and glanced at him.

With just one glance, Scott's body seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand, suspended in mid-air, unable to move.

His glasses shattered in that instant, not by physical force, but by some more primal force that directly acts on the structure of matter.

Fragments of red quartz floated in the air, like a cloud of red snowflakes scattered by the wind.

In an instant, his eyes were exposed to the air.

A crimson laser beam shot out from his pupils, not a torrent, but an explosion, like all the energy released in the instant a Nova collapses.

The laser pierced the ceiling of the Training Room, the roof, and the clouds in the sky, leaving a scorching vacuum trail outside the atmosphere.

But his laser wasn't aimed at the piano.

It's facing the sky.

Because in that instant, Jean deflected his gaze; her Telekinesis, like a gentle hand, lifted Scott's chin, raising his face towards the sky.

"Don't... come any closer," Qin's voice was hoarse like sandpaper, "I'll hurt you."

Scott closed his eyes, and tears streamed down his face.

It wasn't the pain, but rather the understanding he received in that voice: a person in the eye of a storm, desperately protecting someone they didn't want to hurt.

Storm rushed in, glared at Russell who was unaffected, and then focused her attention on Jean Grey.

Her eyes had turned completely white, her hair was dancing wildly in the wind, and the electricity at her fingertips snaked through the air like snakes.

As she raised her hand, a bolt of lightning shot out from Ororo's palm, not towards the piano, but towards the ground around her.

She wanted to use the magnetic field of the electric current to suppress Qin's Telekinesis.

Lightning exploded around Qin, blasting a large hole in the floor and sending rubble and dust flying everywhere.

Qin's body swayed slightly, but she did not fall.

She turned her head and looked at Storm. There was no anger in her golden eyes, only helplessness and guilt.

"Ororo, hurry, take the professor with you." Jean's voice was soft. "I don't want to hurt you."

Wolverine, whose Mind Stone resistance is second only to Professor X, also arrived at the door. He didn't rush in because he knew it would be useless.

His self-healing ability can stop bullets and swords, but it can't pull the out-of-control piano back from the brink of danger.

"Jean," Logan's voice was deep, "Believe in yourself, you can handle it. We all support you."

Qin looked at him, a flicker of emotion in her golden eyes. Perhaps it was the care and concern from her friend and lover that gave her strength, allowing her to gradually stop the disadvantage in the battle against the Dark Phoenix within her body.

In that very instant, Charles seized the opportunity and struck again.

His consciousness shot out like an arrow from the direction of the wheelchair, passing through the psychic Telekinesis emanating from Qin and piercing into Qin's brain.

Finally, he found the crucial crack, the one torn open by the Dark Phoenix and widening, and with all his might, he stuffed a mental barrier into it.

Qin's eyes closed.

The golden flames receded from her pupils, like the tide falling back into the sea.

Her hair fell down, clinging to her cheeks, wet and indistinguishable as to whether it was sweat or tears.

She fell, Scott caught her.

The Training Room fell silent, save for the sound of gravel falling from the ceiling and Scott's suppressed sobs.

Scott knelt on the ground, clutching his violin, trembling all over.

He looked up at the incredibly weak Qin and vented all his hatred on Russell.

"What did you do to her?" His voice was forced out through clenched teeth, each word as sharp as a blade.

Russell took a few steps back, leaned against the wall, put his hands in his pockets, and his expression remained unchanged.

"I didn't do anything, I just said a few words and helped Qin be her true self again."

"Liar! She was perfectly fine before she came to see you!" Scott's voice suddenly rose. "What did you say to her? Did you provoke her? You—"

"So what if I did it?" Russell's voice wasn't loud, but everyone in the Training Room heard him clearly.

He could have explained further, saying that her problem wasn't caused by him, that her problem had always existed, but that they were just pretending not to see it, but Russell didn't.

The weak need explanations; the strong never need them.

Outside the college building, on the lawn, the students who had been evacuated to the playground were still sitting on the ground, still in shock.

Some people were crying quietly, some were trembling, and some were hugging their knees and burying their heads in their arms.

"It's definitely her again." A voice rang out from the crowd, standing out clearly amidst the noise.

"It happened the same way last time; the entire school building collapsed."

"She's a monster."

"Shh, keep your voice down, don't let her hear us, or we'll all be killed by the monster."

"She's a teacher, how could a teacher be a monster?!"

"That's who she was. The professor kept her on because he pitied her—"

Although no consensus could be reached after a period of debate, everyone was thinking about it.

Those thoughts grew wildly among the crowd like weeds, impossible to suppress or eradicate.

Jean Grey is a monster!

The Rogue stood by the lake, next to the Little Girl on the water.

She didn't run, didn't cry, and wasn't even afraid. She just stared at the main building, at the large hole that was still smoking, and clenched her fists.

He assumed that the monster the people talking about were referring to was Russell.

"He's not a monster," she whispered.

The Little Girl on the water turned to look at her, startled. "What?"

"Lord Russell, he is not a monster," the Rogue's voice was firm. "He is the God's Whip."

In the corridor on the second floor of the main building's side wing, Matt Murdock, leaning against the wall, walked step by step toward the Training Room after the Mind Stone pressure had subsided.

With the help of Professor X and Beast Hank, his superhuman senses have recovered considerably, and his physical abilities have improved compared to ordinary people.

Nevertheless, the intense Mind Stone pressure nearly caused him to have an accident.

"Was this Russell's doing?" He grabbed a student who was running past him. "Was it him?"

The student shook off his hand and ran away without looking back. "I don't know, don't ask me!"

Matt stood there, his hand on the wall, his ears perked up.

He heard many sounds—crying, shouting, footsteps, and whispers coming from all directions, low and hushed, like insects crawling in his heart.

Everyone's voice is saying the same thing: that Mutants is a disaster.

He clenched his fists, determined never to bow to evil.

In the woods surrounding Xavier Institute.

Several unmarked black SUVs were parked on the side of the road, their windows tinted dark, and their engines off, but the people inside were still there.

They stared at the still-smoking hole in the main building of the college, their cameras and recording equipment running wildly.

"Russell arrived, and then trouble broke out at Xavier Institute of Business," a man wearing headphones whispered into his earpiece. "This isn't a coincidence; he's definitely up to something at the school."

"Continue monitoring." The voice on the other end of the headset was cold. "Colonel Stryker said any anomalies must be reported, especially the relationship between Professor X and Russell. We need to determine if they've reached a cooperation agreement."

At the other end of the same grove of trees, in another car, a woman in a gray suit was on the phone.

"General Darian, Russell has entered Xavier Institute. The earthquake and lasers just now are suspected to be from a conflict he had with the X-Men. The specifics are still being verified."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

"Keep an eye on him. Report back immediately if he leaves the academy."

"Clear."

At S.H.I.E.L.D.., Nick Fury sat in his leather chair, staring at the still-smoking hole in the Xavier Institute's headquarters on the screen, his expression unchanged.

His phone was on his lap, the screen lit up, displaying an encrypted message.

"Russell has arrived at Xavier Institute Witchcraft and Wizardry. Jean Grey's powers are out of control, and it's suspected that Russell is involved."

He turned his phone over and placed it face down on his knee, then closed his eyes.

"Professor, what are you doing?" he murmured.

The atmosphere in the Training Room not only failed to ease, but instead became tense.

"Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you're powerful. You're not welcome here. Get out!"

Scott remained kneeling on the ground, clutching his violin as if it were a fragile piece of porcelain that might break at any moment.

"Get lost? Heh!"

Russell looked at Scott, at the man with his eyes closed, trembling, holding his lover.

"What she needs is not your tears, but your death. Perhaps only your death can truly unlock the complete form of the piano."

"And power truly allows one to do whatever one wants."

As soon as he finished speaking, Russell flashed in front of Scott and easily grabbed him by the throat.

"Softie, look me in the eyes."