Assets That Blotted Out the Sky, Utter Panic Inside the Tower
The light disappeared.
It was neither sunset nor dark clouds.
It was a purer, more oppressive darkness.
It was as if a giant hand spanning the sky had descended without warning, instantly dragging the entire daytime scene of Manhattan into the shadows of dusk.
On the top floor of the Baxter Building, in the living room ravaged by the Phoenix Force, the atmosphere suddenly froze.
Gwen Stacy Stacy, who was cleaning up the energy debris with Silk, froze. Her extraordinary senses were the first to detect the anomaly coming from the outside world. It wasn't danger, but an indescribable heaviness that made her chest feel suffocated.
What happened?
She looked up abruptly at the huge floor-to-ceiling window that had just been partially repaired by Nanobots.
Almost simultaneously, Susan Stone, who was manipulating the Force Field to guide the repair work, also stopped. Her face, already pale from having exhausted her life force to resist Jean Grey, now showed an added layer of surprise and doubt.
"Buzz--"
The building's special glass began to emit a low, strained hum.
A powerful, heart-pounding Spatial Fluctuation, like a boulder thrown into a lake, spread out from directly above Manhattan!
"Up there!" Gwen Stacy's Spider-Sense instantly sounded the highest alarm, and every hair on her body stood on end. She rushed to the French windows.
Susan followed closely behind.
Even Jean Grey, who was curled up in the corner like a broken doll, had a flicker of emotion in her empty eyes and involuntarily raised her head.
In the shadows, Natasha's body instantly tensed up like a fully drawn bow.
The next second, when their gazes pierced through the glass and looked up at the sky, every woman present felt her breath catch in her throat!
Sky Dome the Baxter Building, a massive, dark rift, like the mouth of a demon, was brutally tearing through the azure sky!
Immediately afterwards, an unimaginably vast complex of buildings, enveloped in endless Scarlet light, like a divine kingdom descended from another world, was slowly "spit out" from that pitch-black rift!
That familiar Gothic architecture... that expansive lawn and foundation covering several city blocks... that terrifying mass, suspended in mid-air like a mountain uprooted from its roots...
It's... Xavier's School?!
"Boom!"
This thought struck Susan and Gwen Stacy like a heavy blow.
Gwen Stacy's pupils suddenly contracted; the sweet sense of victory and superiority she had gained in front of Lynn the previous night was completely washed away in that instant.
What did she win?
The Right to Be Alone for one night?
And Wanda and Hela... what they brought back was a floating city! An undeniable, overwhelming, enormous... achievement!
A powerful surge of jealousy and a sense of crisis, almost burning away her reason, instantly gripped Gwen Stacy's heart.
But Susan Stone reacted even more strongly than her.
"No..."
Susan's lips lost all color, and her body involuntarily took half a step back, her slender fingers instinctively covering her mouth.
What did she see?
That's not an Academy.
It is a mountain built from "achievements" and "values"!
And she, Susan Stone, is about to be completely buried by this mountain, never to be seen by Lynn again!
Last night, Gwen Stacy stole the spoils.
This morning, Wanda, Hela, and herself extracted intelligence from Charles.
But what about now?
Wanda and Hela brought back the entire Mutants stronghold!
What a masterpiece! What immense value!
This achievement is enough to elevate their status in Lynn's heart to an unshakeable peak! As for her and Gwen Stacy, they will be completely marginalized and reduced to dispensable supporting roles!
No! Absolutely not!
Susan's eyes were instantly filled with a frantic, bloodshot look.
She can't lose!
She absolutely cannot be the first to be eliminated in this fiercely competitive battle!
"They... they're too brutal!" Susan's mind raced in extreme panic. She stared intently at the suspended Academy, her voice trembling with agitation. "The Academy's structure was damaged in the previous battle. They forcibly teleported through a spatial rift; the energy is extremely unstable... Letting it land like this will trigger a secondary collapse! The 'assets' inside will be damaged! Lynn's assets!"
She seemed to be convincing Gwen Stacy, but more like she was convincing herself, searching for an irrefutable reason for her upcoming crazy actions.
"Su?" Gwen Stacy noticed something was wrong with her and reached out her hand worriedly.
But it was too late.
"I must... hold it steady!"
"I must safeguard this asset for Lynn!"
A resolute madness flashed in Susan's eyes. She shoved Gwen Stacy away and, ignoring the internal injuries left by overdrawing her Force Field, forcibly squeezed the potential out of every cell in her body!
"Ah--!"
A piercing scream, suppressed with pain and determination, burst forth from deep within her throat!
The nosebleed that had seeped out earlier from resisting the Dark Phoenix flowed uncontrollably again, dripping onto the clean floor and blooming into a small, dazzling blood flower.
Susan ignored all of this.
She raised her hands high, palms up, pointing them at the colossal object in the sky that blotted out the sun.
Pale blue light gathered wildly in her palm, more dazzling than ever before, and more unstable than ever before!
"Negative Zone Matrix... connect!"
"Force Field, deploy!"
Accompanied by her hysterical roar, a massive, translucent, pale blue energy barrier shot into the sky from the top of the Baxter Building!
It expanded wildly at a visible speed, forming a huge circular Force Field covering several city blocks in the blink of an eye, like a fragile yet firm net, facing the slowly sinking aerial Bastion weighing millions of tons!
This is not a perfect, smooth energy shield.
The edge of that Force Field flickered and twisted violently due to the extreme instability of the energy, and even occasionally burst out with tiny blue arcs of electricity, emitting a "crackling" sound.
Susan is gambling!
He was willing to risk his life for a chance to demonstrate his "management value" to Lynn!
Wanda and Hela are capable of both warfare and plunder!
And she, Susan Stone, can protect! Can integrate! Can manage!
That's where her irreplaceable value lies!
"Boom--Buzz--"
Finally, the massive, jagged rock foundation of Xavier's School made contact with the Force Field Susan had created.
There was no earth-shattering noise.
Only a heavy, continuous buzzing sound, so deep it sent shivers down your spine!
The entire Baxter Building shook violently under this unimaginable pressure, and the cracks in the walls that had just been repaired burst open again!
Susan's body suddenly slumped, her knees buckled uncontrollably, and she almost collapsed to her knees.
"Puff!"
She spat out a jet of blood, her vision blurred instantly, and all she could hear was the frantic pounding of her own heart and the teeth-grinding creaking of her bones as they were crushed under the weight.
It's too heavy...
It was ten times heavier than she had imagined! A hundred times heavier!
"Su!!"
Gwen Stacy rushed forward in horror, trying to support her swaying body.
"Don't touch me!" Susan screamed with all her might, her eyes bloodshot, staring intently at the ceiling as if she could see through the steel and concrete to the sky she held up. "This is... my value... I must... let him see it!"
In the corner, Jean Grey looked at her former home in the sky, then at Susan, who had risked her life for favor. A deeper despair, a mixture of sorrow and absurdity, flashed in her numb eyes.
In the shadows, Natasha watched all this, and for the first time, a hint of emotion and... apprehension surfaced in her ever-calm eyes.
That's insane.
These women have all gone mad for that man.
"Click... click..."
Just then, a crisp sound, like shattering glass, came from somewhere in the Force Field.
Then came the second sound, the third sound...
On the pale blue Force Field, fine cracks, like a spider web, began to spread wildly!
It can't hold on any longer!
Susan's body trembled violently, and the blood flowing from her seven orifices had already stained the front of her clothes red.
She couldn't hold on any longer!
But even in this moment of despair, the dark rift tearing through space in the sky had not yet closed.
Two figures, one in red and one in black, exuding the air of victors and the fervor of boasting, were preparing to step out from the rift.
What they were about to see was that the spoils of war they were offering to the king were being forcibly "snatched" by another woman at the cost of her life!