Chapter 138: Apocalypse, Three Horsemen

"Can the few of us really rescue Charles?"

On the plane, after turning on autopilot, Hank returned to the cabin and sat down with a worried expression.

"You just focus on being the pilot. We don’t need you to fight."

Orion Cross gave him no face at all and said it directly.

Beast Hank was basically a weakened version of the Hulk. His mutant ability was completely incomparable to his knowledge and technical skill.

"Then what about your plan? Can you still not tell us?"

Hank still felt deeply uneasy and looked at Orion Cross as he asked.

"It’s not that I can’t tell you. It’s that there’s no need. Only Charles and I need to know."

Orion Cross glanced at the sky outside the plane window. The traces of the "fireworks" from earlier still had not dispersed.

"Apocalypse is simply swollen with arrogance. After being a god for too long, he really thinks he is omnipotent."

"He believes himself to be a god and that the world should belong to him, so he has no interest in slowly gathering resources and biding his time before claiming the throne."

"He used Charles’s ability to broadcast to the entire world and announce his plan. This is the ’twisted amusement’ of a god, watching ordinary people tremble helplessly under heavenly might."

"He disdains any schemes or tricks. He disdains hiding. That is why finding him will be very easy."

"And Apocalypse is also terrible at judging people. He only takes subordinates so that someone can protect him during his consciousness-transfer ritual and witness everything he does."

Orion Cross stated Apocalypse’s mentality and weaknesses, then concluded, "He does not have an invincible ability, but he carries himself with the posture of someone invincible. That is why he is destined to fail."

As everyone knew, in any work, the word "invincible" was usually one of the biggest debuffs.

Whoever was labeled invincible was basically about to get beaten down.

For example, the invincible Galactus had fallen again.

"However."

When Orion Cross reached this point, his tone shifted, and he looked at Diana. "Apocalypse’s straightforward way of doing things, without all those flashy tricks, does indeed make him seem more like a god than certain actual gods."

That was right. Orion Cross was referring to the Olympian gods, whose minds were full of mating and conspiracies.

"We’re almost there, but..."

Hank returned to the cockpit, and the scene ahead left him frozen in place.

"Is that a pyramid?"

Raven looked at the structure ahead that was continuously forming from sand and gravel, then looked at Orion Cross in confusion. "Why does this method look so much like yours?"

In the city directly ahead of the plane, all the buildings had turned into dust and sand, gathering toward the center and forming a pyramid engraved with profound runes.

It was indeed very similar to the method Orion Cross used when raising the Solar Disc.

Moreover, Apocalypse was now turning an entire city into sand and gravel, while Orion Cross had only transformed a few tall buildings at most before.

Of course, that was also because Orion Cross’s magic reserves had not been very large at the time.

"No. There’s metal on top."

Diana pointed at the layer at the top of the pyramid reflecting sunlight and spoke.

That was right. Apocalypse’s ability was not simply turning things into sand, but material conversion.

At the very top, countless grains of sand had actually transformed into metal.

"This isn’t scientific! Reconstructing matter? Could he really be a god?"

Hank followed her gaze and immediately felt his worldview collapse.

The more a scientist believed in science, the more thoroughly this kind of scene shattered their mindset.

"He was originally an ordinary mutant with only one ability. Step by step, he used the consciousness-transfer ritual to seize the abilities of other mutants, and only then did he become the ’god’ he is now."

"And right now, inside that pyramid, he intends to seize Charles’s ability and body."

Orion Cross looked at the completed pyramid and understood Apocalypse’s goal very clearly.

However, Orion Cross did find the principle behind this pyramid rather fascinating.

If a mutant’s ability came from the X-gene in the body, then transferring consciousness should only allow Apocalypse to gain the ability of the vessel. His original abilities should have disappeared.

For now, the only explanation was that the pyramid allowed the X-gene from Apocalypse’s original body to transfer along with his consciousness.

Boom!

The plane landed.

After everyone got off the plane, they realized that when they had been in the air, their vision had been completely drawn to the pyramid.

Now that they had truly arrived here, they finally saw the bodies scattered everywhere among the surrounding ruins.

"Perhaps this is what they mean by one person attaining the Dao and even his chickens and dogs ascending."

Orion Cross looked around. There was not a single living person.

All that could be said was that the people of Cairo had suffered eight lifetimes of bloody misfortune. Apocalypse believed the ancient Egypt he belonged to was the center of the world, so he also wanted to rebuild glory here.

If he had changed his thinking and gone to New York instead, perhaps this would have become the mutant version of the first Avengers.

However, Apocalypse was indeed far stronger than Loki. Loki had wanted to rely on the Chitauri army.

As for Apocalypse, without exaggeration, he alone was an army.

Of course, Orion Cross, whose abilities were similar to Apocalypse’s and even stronger, was likewise an army by himself.

Boom!

A bolt of lightning fell. Storm, with pale hair, descended from the sky and landed in front of everyone.

Following closely behind her was a man with two metallic wings.

His codename was Angel, though he was different from the female Angel who had already died in X-Men: First Class.

"There should be one more."

Orion Cross scanned the surroundings.

Logically speaking, among Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen, since Magneto had not been recruited, aside from Storm and Angel, there should also be the female ninja Psylocke.

Could it be that because Psylocke could not fly, she was still running over?

Slash!

A sound suddenly came from the plane behind Orion Cross and the others.

They turned back and saw a mutant dressed like a female ninja condensing a purple light blade in her hand, directly cutting the plane in half and severing Orion Cross and the others’ escape route.

"Master has ordered that anyone who wishes to disturb him..."

Angel spread his steel wings high in the sky, and countless blades shot toward Orion Cross and the others.

"We’ll hold them back! Hurry and save Charles!"

Hank lunged forward, transforming into a blue beast. He grabbed the wreckage of the plane and blocked it in front of everyone as he shouted at Orion Cross.

"No rush. It isn’t time yet."

Orion Cross sensed Charles’s current condition and calmly shook his head. "We might as well deal with the three of them first."

"Deal with us? Are you joking? You inferior..."

Angel laughed loudly in the air, then glided behind Orion Cross and once again fired a sky full of steel feather blades.

"You remind me of a certain Vastayan. The only difference is that you’re an ugly man."

Orion Cross swung the Blade of Chaos in his right hand and easily blocked all the steel feather blades.

"Ugly? You said I’m ugly?!"

When Angel heard Orion Cross comment on his appearance like that, he immediately felt insulted and charged straight at Orion Cross.

"You’re not only ugly. You’re stupid too."

Orion Cross swung both Blades of Chaos in reverse. Angel was carved into an "X" in midair, and his body instantly split into several pieces, continuing forward with inertia before crashing into the ruins behind Orion Cross.

Just as Orion Cross had said, most mutants hit hard, but they also died fast.