A former leader's sick submission, a faith utterly shattered
The crisp the Snap the fingers still lingered.
Lynn's emotionless call, like an invisible decree, pierced through the void of Negative Zone and was precisely imprinted on the eardrums of every surviving Mutants.
"The zither."
"Come over."
"Your fellow countrymen need a 'manager'."
The moment the words left his lips, the twisted doorway connecting to the Baxter Building shone brightly.
A disheveled red figure practically tumbled and crawled out of the door.
It is not an arrival, not a manifestation, but a rush.
Like a hunting dog that has been abandoned by its owner for too long and has finally heard a call, it has an almost frantic, desperate urgency.
Her red hair was disheveled and dull, with a few strands clinging to her pale cheeks due to sweat and blood. Her once magnificent Phoenix Costume was now covered in scorch marks and tears, revealing the skin scalded by energy beneath. Her breathing was rapid and hot, her chest heaving violently. In her emerald green eyes, there was no longer the wisdom and gentleness of the past, nor the tyranny and destruction of the Dark Phoenix, only a... a kind of almost humble, burned-out, instinctive fanaticism and desire.
She came out.
Jean Grey.
The moment he saw her appear, a faint, almost invisible light miraculously ignited in Scott Summers Summers's lifeless eyes.
Is it a hallucination?
Or... hope?
"Qin..." His chapped lips moved, squeezing out a hoarse, almost indistinguishable syllable from deep in his throat.
She's here.
She must have been imprisoned by this demon, and now she has finally broken free! She must have come to save them!
Yes, that must be it!
As long as Jean Grey is still alive, as long as the Phoenix Force is still alive, they still have a chance! The X-Men still have a future!
This sudden, illusory hope, like a shot of adrenaline, pierced Scott Summers's already fragile nerves. With his last ounce of strength, he struggled to lift his head, wanting to cry out for help to the woman he had loved all his life.
"Qin! It's us! Save us..."
His voice caught in his throat.
Because, from beginning to end, Jean Grey never once looked at him.
She didn't even glance at any of her former companions lying on the ground.
From the moment she rushed out of that door, her entire world, her entire vision, focused on only one thing—the man who stood quietly in the center of the ruins, looking down on everything like Deity.
Lynn.
Scott Summers's shouts were to her as nothing more than the annoying buzzing of a fly in her ear.
Her brow furrowed slightly with impatience at the noise that had disturbed her journey to the Deity.
Then, in Scott Summers's frozen, shattered gaze, and under the incredulous stares of all the surviving Mutants, Jean Grey made a move that utterly shattered their souls.
Her knees buckled, and she collapsed to her knees.
No, it's not just about kneeling.
She abandoned all dignity as a human being, a strong person, and a woman, and using all four limbs, like the humblest reptile, crawled towards Lynn in a disheveled yet incredibly devout manner.
The cold floor in the Negative Zone cut her palms and knees, but she felt no pain.
In her eyes, there was only him.
In her heart, there was only the supreme Throne Brand that Lynn had personally carved into her mind.
That mark was her faith, her principle, and the entire meaning of her existence.
Time seemed to stretch out infinitely at this moment.
Each crawl felt like a heavy hammer blow to Scott Summers's heart.
He watched helplessly as the woman who had fought alongside him, the woman he cherished like a treasure; the woman who had gently taught her students in the classroom, the woman revered as a leader by all Mutants; the woman who had unleashed the Phoenix Force, causing even the universe to tremble...
At this moment, he was crawling humbly and humiliatingly at the feet of another man in a posture he could not even imagine in his most insane nightmares.
"No..."
"No... it shouldn't be like this..."
Scott Summers's pupils contracted violently at the sight of this extreme, incomprehensible absurdity.
He felt as if his brain was a piece of glass that had been immersed in Liquid Nitrogen, freezing and cracking inch by inch.
finally.
Jean Grey crawled up to Lynn.
She stopped, raised her face, which was covered in dust and blood, and looked up at Lynn's cold, emotionless eyes with an almost pilgrimage-like, fanatical, and morbid gaze.
A satisfied and joyful whimper, like that of a small animal, escaped her throat.
Then, she slowly lowered her head.
In Scott Summers's utterly shattered vision, in the instantaneous, suffocating silence of all the Mutants.
Jean Grey, with utmost reverence and care, gently licked the tips of Lynn's military boots, which were stained with the dust of ruins.
Boom--!!!!
Scott Summers's brain completely exploded.
The world before him disintegrated into billions of scattered, meaningless fragments.
All sounds, all colors, all thoughts were completely stripped away in that instant.
Only that one image remains.
A scene that utterly crushes his life's love, faith, pride, and hope into mincemeat.
That scene was a billion times more cruel than killing him, being slowly sliced to death, or grinding the entire Xavier's School to dust!
"Ah--!!!!!!!!!"
A heart-wrenching, inhuman scream erupted from Scott Summers's chest!
There was no anger, no hatred in that voice, only a pure, desperate collapse, the kind that comes after the soul has been completely emptied.
His body arched backward suddenly, like a shrimp with a broken spine, and blood mixed with shattered internal organs gushed from his mouth.
His faith... died.
His soul... at this moment, was executed by Lynn in the most cruel way, right before his eyes.
Despite witnessing this, Lynn's face remained expressionless.
He simply lowered his head indifferently, glanced at Jean Grey who was humbly lying at his feet, gently rubbing her cheek against his trouser leg like a pet, and then shifted his gaze to Scott Summers, who had completely collapsed and was like a living corpse.
He slowly and clearly uttered a few words.
Like a final, cold conclusion to this meticulously crafted drama.
"Did you see that?"
"The 'god' you worship..."
Lynn gently lifted her foot, using the tip of her shoe to lift Jean Grey's chin, forcing her to meet those dull, empty, and desperate gazes.
"... Her true owner has been found."
This verdict, like the last straw, completely crushed the Mental World of all the surviving Mutants.
Thump, thump...
One by one, those Mutants who were still barely conscious rolled their eyes back and lost consciousness completely.
This prison has finally returned to its deserved stillness.
Scott Summers's heart-wrenching screams gradually subsided, leaving only intermittent, desperate sobs. He stared intently at Qin, his bloodshot eyes, which had already stopped crying, filled with heart-wrenching questions and bewilderment.
"Qin... why... how could you..."
His voice was broken and weak, like a candle flickering in the wind.
Upon hearing this annoying noise, Jean Grey's expression, which had been filled with the supreme joy of being touched by her master, instantly turned cold.
She slowly turned her head, and for the first time, her emerald green eyes, cold and devoid of any human emotion, looked directly at her former lover.
That look was like looking at a pile of unsightly, filthy garbage.