Scott did not open his eyes.
His eyes were tightly shut, and his eyelashes were trembling, not from fear, but from anger.
That feeling of helplessness—being cornered and realizing you can't do anything—is seeping out from every pore.
He heard Russell's voice, but he didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to look into the man's eyes either, even as a strong sense of suffocation overwhelmed him.
"Russell, what are you doing? Let go of Scott!" Storm Ororo shouted.
Russell remained unmoved; his Telekinesis, like two invisible needles, pierced Scott's eyelid muscles, forcibly separating his upper and lower eyelids.
Under strong control, Scott opened his eyes.
Those eyes, exposed to the air without the protection of glasses, were not blue, not green, but red.
A laser beam shot out from Scott's pupils in an instant. This time it was not a beam, nor a torrent, but more like an explosion—all the energy released by a star in the instant of its collapse.
Russell's purpose was exactly that, so he naturally didn't dodge. He stood in front of Scott, less than half a meter away, their eyes locked, separated by the crimson laser beam that could vaporize steel.
The laser beam entered Russell's eye through the pupil, passed through the lens, the vitreous humor, the retina, the optic nerve, and reached his brain.
The eyes are one of the most vulnerable parts of the human body. Even though his body was constantly strengthened through super self-healing, his eyes were burned out in an instant after coming into contact with the Super Laser Beam.
The cornea is carbonized, the lens is vaporized, the retina is detached, and the optic nerve melts into a charred, still-smoking mass of protein.
His brain was enduring an excruciating pain that was unimaginable to ordinary people, like someone was stabbing a red-hot iron rod into his eyeball and stirring it inside his brain.
Russell was not afraid at all; on the contrary, he was extremely excited. This was exactly what he wanted.
At the same time, the super self-healing mechanism automatically takes effect, repairing damaged tissues within the body.
[Super Self-Healing Experience +1]
[Super Self-Healing Experience +1]
[Mental Defense Experience +1]
Russell's eye grew back in a second. It didn't slowly close from the edge to the center; instead, new tissue grew simultaneously from the severed optic nerve, from the inner wall of the orbit, and from every remaining cell.
The cornea, lens, retina, and optic nerve have all been reconstructed.
However, he was still not satisfied with just that. He used emotional manipulation to make Scott unleash his greatest crisis.
The X-Factor level is also activating at maximum power.
"Not enough, not enough."
Professor X tried to stop him, urging Wolverine to step forward. But Wolverine had only taken one step when Russell used his Telekinesis to force him to stay rooted to the spot, unable to move.
Scott's laser is stronger now.
It wasn't something he actively enhanced; rather, it was an automatic response from the X-Factor within his body under Russell's editing.
That sun-scorching power, suppressed for decades and sealed deep within the Genes, was completely unleashed under Russell's atomic-level control.
It's not disassembling, it's opening.
Like opening a door, like lifting a lid, like releasing a ball that had been pressed to the bottom of the water.
The intensity of the laser is doubling, Russell's ever-enhancing eyes are being destroyed while being rapidly rebuilt. The speed of destruction and the speed of reconstruction are racing, competing, and tearing at each other head-on.
The numbers on the system panel were jumping wildly.
[Super Self-Healing Experience +1]
[Energy Absorption Experience +1]
[Energy Absorption Experience +1]
[Superhuman Healing Experience +1]
Russell's Energy Absorption Ability comes from the Genes copied from Hound 10, which also contains some of Rogue's Genes.
Through Genes experiments on Jim and a deep understanding of the X-Factor, he is now able to convert other people's X-Factor into his own.
However, the specific level of ability strength that can be gained from editing the X-Factor still needs to be tested, and Scott, whom he handled like a chick, is the best test subject.
Therefore, the ability to absorb any form of energy is now operating at maximum power.
Scott's lasers were not only used for training, but he also absorbed them.
Every laser beam that enters his eyes is broken down, absorbed, transformed, and stored by his cells, like a battery that never runs out of power.
Not long after, cracks began to appear on Scott's face as he was forced to turn the power up.
These are not wrinkles on the skin, but deeper, more fundamental cracks, like parched earth.
His body was being overdrawn, his life was burning, his X-Factor was being consumed at an irreversible rate, his fingertips were carbonizing, turning into ashes.
Under the incredulous gazes of the crowd, his fingers disappeared, his arms disappeared, his shoulders disappeared.
Finally, his torso and brain disappeared.
His body was completely reduced to powder.
This is because, after the energy was drained, the body lost the last bit of strength to maintain its structure, and naturally collapsed.
It's like a building whose foundation has been hollowed out, like an old tree whose heartwood has been emptied, like an apple whose moisture has been drained.
Ashes floated in the air of the Training Room, like dandelions scattered by the wind, like the first snow of winter, like the last trace a person leaves in this world.
"Scott ..." Professor X's voice echoed through the Training Room, filled with grief.
[Soul Stone fluctuation detected. Target: Scott Summers. Status: Body dissipated, Soul Stone intact. Retrieve?]
Russell hesitated for a moment, then silently tapped "Yes" in his mind. The light was absorbed into his body.
In the Training Room, the atmosphere suddenly fell silent after the professor's pained voice.
But that kind of quiet isn't peace; it's the kind of silence before a storm, suffocating, like someone sucking the air out of a room—a deathly stillness.
"No!!"
The weakened Jean saw Scott turn to ashes, and her cry seemed to come from every cell in her body, not from her throat.
Her boyfriend Scott, died just like that.
Overwhelmed by grief, the Dark Phoenix, who had been barely stopped by the professor, naturally awoke.
In the ruins of the Training Room, Jean Grey stood up. Her hair was burning, not ordinary fire, but golden flames, like plasma on the surface of the sun.
Her eyes were a pure white, with no visible pupils, and the ground beneath her feet was cracking, spreading outwards like a spider web from her feet in all directions.
"I'm finally out..." An extreme indifference emanated from Qin.
Charles reached out, wanting to soothe Qin again, but his thoughts were instantly banished from her mind.
It wasn't a gentle push-away, but a scorching burn; the moment his spiritual tentacles touched her consciousness, they were burned by a flame capable of incinerating everything.
The Phoenix Force is a powerful and destructive force, both material and spiritual, the kind that even Charles Xavier could not withstand.
"The piano..." Charles's voice trembled.
He had lived for so many years, seen so many Mutants, and dealt with so many out-of-control incidents, but he had never been as afraid as he was now.
The zither is probably completely out of control.
However, she has become stronger than Jean Grey in her normal state.
Russell, his eyes flashing with white light, was eager to fight, adjusting his entire body to its best combat state, ready to face the Dark Phoenix.
The Phoenix Force is hailed as one of the three most primal forces in the Marvel Universe, possessing the power to destroy the world and reshape the universe.
However, he was not afraid, because the Phoenix Force on Qin was incomplete, only a small fragment.
Don't be fooled by Russell's desire to become stronger through the trials of others; he's not stupid. If he had the complete Phoenix Force, he would have turned around and left immediately.
"Bring it on!"
Cyclops, having absorbed Scott, was poised to unleash his power, but the enraged Logan broke free when the control over him weakened.
Stimulated by Scott's death, the Beast instincts that had been suppressed for decades within him erupted.
He charged toward Russell at twice his usual speed, his steel claws drawing six cold white arcs in the air with a whooshing sound, aiming straight for Russell's kidneys.
Russell raised a hand, his fingers slicing lightly in the air, and Logan's steel claws stopped three centimeters from his chest.
An invisible force gripped the tips of the six Adamantium claws, like gripping six needles.
Logan's strength was increasing, his muscles were bulging, and his veins were popping, but his steel claws remained motionless.
"I'm not in the mood to play with you right now."
In Russell's eyes, Wolverine, with his superhuman fighting abilities, was more like a giant toy.
"Get away from me."
He released his grip, Logan was thrown backward by the recoil, slamming hard against the wall. A large amount of broken concrete poured down, burying him deep in the rubble.
Charles pressed his hands to his temples, sweat streaming down his face, too preoccupied to pay any attention to Wolverine.
He was exhausted, and the mental backlash hadn't healed, but he didn't stop.
His consciousness, like a thread, pierced through the ruins, through the dust, through the still-burning flames, and entangled Qin's consciousness, wanting to make one last effort.
"Qin, come back, don't give up, you still have us."
Qin turned her head and looked at him.
Those flame-white eyes held no emotion. Not anger, not sadness, not hatred; they were more like blankness.
That emptiness that comes when someone has been hurt too many times, finally letting go of all emotions, leaving only the purest instincts.
"You... are bald."
Her voice was soft, but Charles's body was lifted from the wheelchair by an irresistible force, suspended in mid-air, like a person lifting a cat, like a person lifting a rag doll.
His wheelchair overturned and, under the influence of a force, slammed violently against the wall of the ruins with a dull thud.
"You've trapped me for decades, but now I'm finally free."
Qin walked up to him, looked up at the white-haired old man suspended in mid-air, the man she had called "Professor" for so many years.
"You said you were protecting me, you said you were helping me control my power, you said you were doing it for my own good."
She tilted her head, a gesture that made her look like a curious child, but there was no curiosity in her eyes.
"How ridiculous! You're clearly afraid of me, afraid of my power, so you deceived me. You deceived everyone."
Charles's eyes reddened. "Jin, I'm sorry!"
"I'm sorry?" Qin's voice remained flat, like a knife without a sharp edge.
When you said sorry, did you ever think about how many years that part of me, locked away by you, had been waiting in the darkness?
"It's too late now."
"Jin, what are you doing? Let go of Charles!"
The Beast Hank charged forward, but his blue fur was instantly ignited by the high-temperature energy field emanating from the instrument, transforming him into a fiery Beast.
Hank seemed completely unafraid, his fists pounding against the Telekinesis barrier of the piano, again and again.
The barrier didn't crack, but his fist did; the sound of bones shattering echoed through the ruins like a broken tree branch.
Then, under the scorching Phoenix Force, his body began to dissipate, both from the outside and from the inside.
His cells were decomposing, his tissues were withering, his hair was drying out, like a fruit placed under the scorching sun, its moisture evaporating, its flesh shrinking, until only a thin layer of skin remained, covering a handful of bones.
Then the skin shattered, and the ashes floated in the air like spilled paint, like a cloud blown away by the wind.
"Hank..." Unable to move, Charles could only watch helplessly as his friend left, tears streaming from the old man's eyes.
Storm saw Hank die in the blink of an eye, and Professor X was also controlled by the out-of-control Jean and was in imminent danger. Without thinking twice, she raised her hands.
The lightning above the shattered dome struck down, not in a single bolt, but in a torrent, like a waterfall, like a downpour, like the sky itself had split open, pouring all its anger and despair onto Qin.
Qin, in her Phoenix form, did not dodge, letting the lightning explode on her body, but her body remained completely still.
She didn't even blink; the electric current wasn't blocked by her, it was absorbed the moment it touched her body.
Just as Russell ate Scott's laser, she ate Storm's lightning.
Jean stretched out her hand towards Storm, her five fingers spread, and Storm's body was gripped by an invisible force. This time it wasn't Telekinesis, but gravity.
Jean Grey was rewriting the Gravitational Field around her, increasing the gravity beneath Storm's feet by hundreds of times. Storm's knees buckled, her thighs trembled, and her bones creaked.
Then, with a snap, her legs broke at the knees—not by being chopped off, but by being crushed by her own weight.
She fell to the ground, blood gushing from her severed limb, spreading into a dark red puddle among the rubble of the ruins.
Ororo's face was covered in sweat, and tears mixed with dust from the corners of her eyes left two clean streaks on her cheeks, but even so, she forced herself not to cry out.
"Piano, stop..." Charles's voice was as hoarse as sandpaper, "Please, stop..."
Qin turned to look at him, her white eyes devoid of any emotion.
"You haven't answered my question yet, Professor. When you locked me in the dark, did you think about how I felt?"