"Sebastian Shaw, we became enemies the moment you threw me out of the Hellfire Club."
"And I'm not your property."
When Emma Frost saw the Black King, it was truly a meeting between sworn enemies. Although he wasn't the Black King from her universe, it didn't matter. As long as he was that man, that was enough.
Emma Frost unleashed her Omega-level mental power in an instant, catching the mutants who had just survived the aftershocks of Cassandra and Thor's clash in its wake once again.
After all, not everyone was immune to Telepathy and mental control.
Sebastian Shaw stood where he was without moving. Even after sensing Emma Frost's killing intent toward him, his expression remained unchanged.
"Emma, I'm not the man you're talking about, the one who personally threw my queen out of the Hellfire Club."
"Now it's time for us to catch up, without outsiders interrupting. Don't you agree, Emma?"
Sebastian Shaw raised his hand, releasing a terrifying mass of kinetic energy from his palm.
The next moment, a shockwave no less powerful than the one from Cassandra and Thor's clash swept across the entire area once again. Kinetic energy surged forth in wave after wave, bearing down on Betsy, Laura, and the others.
Laura's beast senses were trembling wildly, but to protect her teammates, she still pushed to the very front without hesitation, intending to take the Black King's attack with her own body.
"Children, go deal with the others. Leave this to me."
An old, steady hand rested gently on Laura's shoulder, and an irresistible force pulled her back.
Classic Loki stepped forward slowly, standing up once again to shield everyone by himself.
Sebastian Shaw sneered and unleashed a violent kinetic shockwave. Yellow sand churned, and the blast tore through heaven and earth.
Classic Loki merely raised a hand, and a barrier of Asgardian sorcery shimmering with emerald light quietly unfolded.
Boom-!!!
The Black King's full-powered strike hit the thin film of light without raising so much as a ripple. It vanished without a sound.
Classic Loki lowered his eyes, his voice as calm as a sigh:
"Mortal brute force dares run wild before a god?"
Snap!
A crisp snap rang out. Emerald divine light burst from Classic Loki's palm, and a golden thread so thin it was almost invisible to the naked eye appeared from his hand, quickly attaching itself to the Black King.
Sebastian Shaw frantically directed his power at the golden thread that had appeared out of nowhere in the empty air.
Yet the kinetic shockwaves, which could usually overturn machinery and reinforced concrete with ease, did no damage to the tiny thread. Instead, they passed straight through it.
The mysterious thread only heightened the Black King's wariness and fear of the old man before him. Just as he was preparing to use his power to attack the old man again, he looked up and saw the other man's green-glowing eyes.
Immediately afterward, his mind grew hazy.
When he "opened his eyes" again, he was back at the Hellfire Club's magnificent headquarters, sitting alone on a throne made of solid gold.
A stream of information entered his mind, and Sebastian Shaw quickly understood everything.
He had just conquered all the mutants in the world, including Magneto and Professor X, as well as all the ordinary humans. Now he, the Black King Sebastian Shaw, was the Wong of this world!
The White Queen, Phoenix, Mystique... one shapely, voluptuous woman after another sat around his throne.
Holding a bunch of grapes, Mystique leaned against him, licked her fingers against her lips, and plucked a grape with a seductive expression before placing it in his mouth.
"Shaw, my Wong, it's time to eat."
"Where's my helmet? And wasn't I in Knowhere? Is this an illusion, or...?"
Sebastian Shaw chewed the grape in his mouth as he thought. Everything was too strange. Had he really conquered the whole world just like that?
"Helmet? Shaw, when have you ever worn a helmet?"
"Hm? I mean the helmet that shields my mind, the one that keeps Charles from controlling me."
"But aren't you the strongest mutant in the world? Why would you need that helmet? Charles is no match for you either, is he?"
Mystique's three questions seemed to carry a peculiar temptation, magnifying the pride and self-satisfaction in the Black King Sebastian Shaw's heart.
That was right, wasn't it? Wasn't he, the Black King, the strongest of the Omega mutants in the world?
He was already the strongest, so why would he need a helmet to shield his mind?
There was no one in the entire world who could match him. That was the power of the Black King Sebastian Shaw. He was so powerful, so why would he need help from an external object?
With his thoughts settled, he wrapped an arm around Mystique, who was nestled against him, tilted her chin up, and said imperiously, "Raven, it's time to attend me in bed..."
Before he could continue exploring the true meaning of human life with Mystique, a sharp pain suddenly pierced his mind. A mental power that was both familiar and unfamiliar rushed into his brain without hindrance.
Sebastian Shaw curled up on the floor in agony. Looking up at the White Queen, he gritted his teeth and said, "Emma, was this your doing?"
Crack...
The scene, so real it was dreamlike, rapidly shattered like glass. He was back on the battlefield in Knowhere, holding the helmet he had originally been wearing in both hands. The golden thread attached to him also slowly dissipated.
Sebastian Shaw stared in disbelief at the old man in the gold-and-green cloak a dozen or so steps away. Seemingly aware of his fate, he asked a question in unwillingness before his death:
"Old man, how did you do it? I was clearly wearing a helmet that blocks mental power and Telepathy. How did you get me?"
Classic Loki looked at the Black King Sebastian Shaw, who had fallen to his knees, so full of himself and so very proud, and gave him an answer.
"Because I am Loki Odinson, the God of Mischief."
Without the helmet shielding his mind, Emma Frost took control of the Black King's body with no effort at all.
"Sebastian Shaw, your day has finally come."
Emma Frost walked slowly up to the Black King, who was kneeling on the ground, and looked down at him. There was not a trace of mercy in her eyes, only cold hatred accumulated over countless years.
She didn't kill him immediately. Instead, she turned her Omega-level mental power into countless fine, icy needlepoints and drove them into his brain, bit by bit.
"Didn't you like treating me as your property?"
"Didn't you like controlling everything and calling yourself an emperor?"
"Didn't you think your power could stand above everything?"
Every question was accompanied by the Black King's heart-rending screams.
Emma Frost crushed his pride, his arrogance, and his ridiculous dream of being an emperor, bit by bit.
She wanted him to understand, in the deepest despair and pain-
He had never been a Wong, only a wretch devoured by desire.
"You destroyed my past, enslaved my dignity, and trampled me into the mud of the Hellfire Club to toy with me as you pleased."
"I won't give you an easy death."
"I'm going to make you experience everything I once suffered."
In the mental world, Emma Frost returned all the control, humiliation, and pain the Black King had inflicted on her a hundredfold, a thousandfold.
In just three seconds, the Black King had completely broken down. Tears and snot streamed down his face, and none of his former majesty remained.
Once he had completely lost the will to resist, lost his pride, lost everything-
Emma Frost's eyes turned cold.
"The game is over, Shaw."
A brilliant, icy beam of mental energy pierced the Black King's head.
Sebastian Shaw couldn't even let out one final scream before his body slumped to the ground, completely lifeless.
Emma Frost slowly withdrew her power and looked at the corpse on the ground. Her face was expressionless, showing only a cold sense of relief.
"From this day forward, there is no White Queen in this world, only me, Emma Frost."