The Ultimate Evolution

It was no wonder that Toad was furious. He had a lot of trust in Reef because the previous time, Reef had chosen to rescue him despite having no obligation to do so, much to everyone’s surprise.

So this time, Toad went all out with his assault because he was really confident that Reef would save him again, and yet….he was betrayed!

It was like someone found a million dollars and returned it to the original owner, but then borrowed 100,000 dollars and did not pay it back.

Toad was likely not angry because he was hurt; he was probably angry because he finally found someone he could trust but ended up having his trust betrayed. How painful that must feel!

The fight was almost over by now. The Hulk was blinded in both eyes and had jumped into the sea, his fate unknown. Grimm of the Fantastic Four was captured and would probably become an ordinary man. Mister Fantastic had his hands full dealing with the two Vampire Counts.

The Vampire Counts had gotten very cautious, having learned a lesson from the death of their companion. They were very conservative in their fight against Mister Fantastic, making sure they did not make mistakes rather than going in for the kill. Meanwhile, the fearless blood slaves had been bombarding the opponents with various weapons all this time. The situation was perilous for the enemies.

One of the Vampire Counts was especially remarkable. He seemed to be an extremely experienced fighter. With the ‘Corrupt Communion Knife’ in his hand, he would always aim at the opponent’s little fingers, heels and back whenever he struck, only making shallow cuts. The curse damages accumulated on Mister Fantastic’s skin like psoriasis and vitiligo, totaling into a surprising figure.

Party Ace was naturally paying attention to this powerful ‘Corrupt Communion Knife’, but after some probing, they found that the knife could only be used by vampires, or by devout holy knights after undergoing a strong purification. No one from Party Ace could even touch the requirements; they could only let go of their greed.

Mister Fantastic seemed doomed, but they had evidently underestimated the ability of the leader of the Fantastic Four. After leaving behind a bloody rubber arm, Mister Fantastic screamed and fled into the submarine. He then detonated a bomb before anyone could get to him.

There was no way he had done all that just to kill himself. He must have a way to survive the explosion. Looking at the dark, surging sea though, no one dared to jump into the water to search for him.

A Vampire Count was killed and Toad was heavily injured in the battle, so their morale was somewhat low. But after they returned to the base, they found that the casualties sustained by their group were actually quite low in comparison.

The group led by Magneto had suffered the most serious casualties. Seven mutants had died, including Professor X’s two beloved students, Pyro and Iceman.

Pyro and Iceman were still teenagers, so by right, they shouldn’t have been deployed for battle, but Magneto decided to bring them along because he was very appreciative of their qualities. However, they ran into the Human Torch from Fantastic Four, who had even stronger control over fire than Pyro! In the end, the Human Torch burned Pyro to ashes with his superior fire.

When Iceman saw Pyro being killed, his eyes turned red and he rushed at the enemies. He ended up becoming cannon fodder.

Magneto appreciated them and brought them along, but they ended up dying because of that! That naturally made the old man furious. He was ready to go berserk and cause some mass destruction among the enemies to vent his anger, but the person he was facing was no weaker than him at all – it was Black Bolt!

Magneto’s battle prowess was highly dependent on the environment. In places like a car dumpsite, he was a god. But in places where there was no metal or where there was little metal, he would become a nobody. The battlefield they were in this time was not to his advantage, so not only did their group sustain the most serious casualties, they had also failed their mission.

The third team, lead by the other superboss that was Prince Dracula, completed their mission, but at the cost of three Vampire Counts dying. The opponents they faced included Spawn, Blade and Ghost Rider. Both sides were heavily injured.

***

After this round of fights, all of them could feel a really heavy pressure pressing down on their shoulders.

Professor Xavier closed his eyes with a painful expression after he learned the list of casualties. After a long time, he declared resolutely, “This can’t go on. We should negotiate with them. Aren’t we going to build a number of airships? Why can’t we cooperate with them?”

“That’s a good idea, professor, but unfortunately, it’s not practical,” replied Prince Dracula.

“Why not?” Professor Xavier asked, stupefied.

Prince Dracula sighed. “To tell you the truth, I’ve already heard rumours about the end of the world as early as two years ago. Some of the people abandoned by the governments in Europe have formed an organisation called Survival, and they’ve begun to take measures to deal with the apocalypse since then.”

“So why didn’t you join them?” Professor Xavier enquired with a frown.

“I would have joined them with my descendants if I could, but unfortunately, the Survival organisation is under the control of Countess Elizabeth Bathory. She has….a lot of unique ideas, such as bathing in the blood of young virgin girls and making Iron Virgins,” said Prince Dracula.

(Author’s note: The Iron Virgin is a very bloody and violent object. It’s a cage molded like a woman with fitted hollow iron thorns inside. After the victim is pushed inside, the door would close. The hollow iron thorns would pierce the victim’s body, and blood would flow out through the holes in the iron thorns.)

(TL: More on Countess Bathory and the Iron Virgin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Báthory , https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/elizabeth-bathory/ )

He continued, “If my descendants and I wish to join them, we’ll need to change our way of living among the humans and not harming human lives. We would have to kill for fun and become their slaves! That’s absolutely unacceptable. Even death can’t make us submit to them!”

Professor X frowned. “We can just eliminate the Survival organisation from our list of collaborators.”

Dr. Octopus and Magneto sighed and shook their heads at the same time.

“Cooperation is close to impossible, Charles. Think about it. The other organisations have most likely been preparing for the coming apocalypse for a long time. How can we possibly use our hasty plan to convince them to abandon their plans which they’ve carefully worked on for months, maybe even years? Even if we manage to persuade their leaders, the others in the organisations will just think that their minds are under your control.”

Professor X was shocked.

“Why do you think our plan is superior to theirs, Professor?” asked Sheyan.

Professor X gave it some thought before answering, “That’s because we have the information you provided. We know the specific details of the disasters that will occur in the 2012 apocalypse, so we can make specific plans to deal with those disasters.”

“Correct,” Sheyan looked into Professor X’s eyes and said, “You believe me, Professor, because you have tangible proof – you’ve read my mind! Magneto believes your words because he trusts your character. Dr. Octopus believes your words because he…has no choice. Oh, just kidding, he believes in you because he’s as righteous as you are… Dr. Dracula (this is one of Dracula’s eccentricities, he likes to be called a doctor) believes my words, because there are also people in the Cullen family who can read minds, such as Mr. Edward Cullen, someone who has infinite potential.” (Of course the main character wouldn’t have low potential.)

“But why would other people believe me? Every ark being constructed by other forces right now carries the hope of thousands of people, and to some extent, they’ll determine the distribution of power after the apocalypse!”

“Professor, if you go forward to persuade other forces to cooperate with us at this critical moment of life and death, you’ll only put yourself under suspicion. They’ll just use you and your unique superpower to seize power and resources for themselves before discarding you. They’ll never sincerely cooperate with us.”

Professor X covered his face with his hands, and in the end, he sighed with pain and exhaustion.

“Okay, I understand. You’re right.”

Sheyan nodded and told Professor X solemnly, “Professor Charles Francis Xavier, within two kilometres of this conference room are various powerless human beings who can put up no resistance. The may be worthless to other people, but they’re our family, our friends, our loved ones. They’re the greatest driving force behind our struggle to survive in this world.”

“And around these people are the factories that we’re using to build the tools to escape the end of the world! Now, both of these precious things are your responsibilities! The war has already begun, and the enemy’s revenge is likely to come at any moment. Any shred of mercy you show may cause the death of us and our family!”

Professor X took a deep breath. He could feel all the eyes in the room staring at him. Those gazes contained enough pressure to cause a normal person to collapse. However, Professor X could not run away from the pressure because his loved ones and his children were here too!

“I understand.” Professor X’s eyes suddenly became cold.

Jean was shocked to discover that the professor had hypnotized himself into his second personality, a ruthless personality which had abandoned all mercy and grief.

Worth mentioning was that it was this second personality that had killed Professor X’s own twin brother and forced the twin to flee in the form of a spirit while they were still in their mother’s belly!

Professor X remarked ruthlessly, “There’s a 45% chance that Workshop 3 workers Mark, Sanders, Victor and Castley are spies. I recommend execution. Huck, Bobby and Tony of workshop 6 have tried to steal confidential information. For the sake of confidentiality, I suggest execution as well.”

Next, Professor X turned to Prince Dracula. “Dr. Octopus has requested for the scientists on this list. Please send some people to kidnap them here. After that, bring them to my room. I’ll brainwash them. If there are no other questions, this meeting is adjourned.”