Ethan stepped forward slowly.
He wore a loose sweatshirt with the hood pulled low over his head. Covering his face was the strange white mask—half crying, half laughing—which gave him an unsettling, almost theatrical appearance.
The combination made him look strangely out of place, like someone who had wandered out of a bizarre stage performance.
Yet his movements were calm and completely unhurried.
Scattered around his feet were several members of the Brotherhood of Mutants. They lay sprawled across the ground, already unconscious from the earlier clash.
The operatives of Ethan's Dark Department understood his stance toward mutants very clearly. None of them had killed their opponents.
To Ethan, killing them would be wasteful.
These people were valuable experimental material. Living mutants were infinitely more useful than dead ones.
Inside the factory building ahead, the sounds of battle echoed constantly. Angry roars mixed with the harsh, metallic shriek of steel twisting under immense force.
No one stood in Ethan's path.
So he simply walked inside.
Within the factory, the fight had already escalated into chaos.
The fifteen members of the Dark Department were clearly under pressure. Steel rods and metal fragments flew wildly through the air, repeatedly piercing through their bodies before being yanked back again like deadly spears.
One operative collapsed as a steel rod punched through his chest.
Seconds later, his body repaired itself and he rose back to his feet, charging forward again without hesitation.
Across from them stood more than a dozen figures.
At the center of that group stood Magneto.
The moment Ethan stepped into the building, he immediately felt Magneto's gaze lock onto him.
Magneto wore his iconic helmet and flowing crimson cloak. Though his hair had turned gray with age, his eyes remained sharp and filled with an unyielding will.
From the instant Ethan entered the factory, Magneto had not looked away from him.
Ethan seemed completely unaware of that intense stare.
Instead, he observed the battlefield calmly, watching the performance of his operatives. As he saw the abilities they displayed, he nodded faintly to himself.
The healing factor had integrated perfectly into each of them.
Because of that, every member of the Dark Department now possessed regenerative abilities comparable to Sabretooth. Killing them had become extremely difficult.
After a moment, Ethan turned his attention toward Magneto's group.
There were more than ten of them.
The most striking figures were naturally Magneto and the woman standing beside him—the Witch. Around them stood the core members of the Brotherhood of Mutants.
Among them was the fire manipulator who had once escaped from Professor Xavier. There was also the massive Juggernaut and the grotesque Toad.
None of them had joined the fight yet.
From their perspective, the Dark Department operatives might possess unusual abilities, but with Magneto present, these enemies posed no real threat. There was no need for them to interfere.
Standing slightly behind them was Sabretooth.
Victor's muscles were already tensed, his body prepared to leap into battle at any moment.
On the ground nearby lay Senator Kelly, unconscious and completely helpless.
Magneto himself had not moved.
Yet suddenly, a steel rod lying on the ground near Ethan shot upward into the air. It accelerated forward like a fired arrow, slicing through the air directly toward Ethan's head.
Ethan merely lifted his hand slightly.
An invisible force altered the rod's trajectory. Instead of striking him, the steel rod shot past his head by nearly a meter and embedded itself into a distant wall.
Magneto's brow furrowed faintly.
He slowly raised one hand, spreading his fingers wide.
In the open space between the two men, countless pieces of metal began to vibrate violently. Steel bars, pipes, and iron plates suddenly lifted into the air.
As if pulled by invisible strings, they shot forward toward Ethan like a swarm of arrows.
The air filled with a sharp whistling sound as the metal objects sliced through space.
Behind the strange mask, Ethan's lips curved into a faint smile.
He raised his hand as well.
His palm stretched forward, and a soft crimson glow appeared at its center.
In the next instant, the attacking metal objects froze in midair.
Steel pipes, rods, and iron plates all hung motionless in space, as if time itself had stopped for them. Invisible forces held them suspended between Ethan and Magneto.
The expressions of the Brotherhood members immediately changed.
"Who are you?" Magneto asked at last.
His voice was calm, but the tension in the room had already become palpable.
"You'll find out soon enough," Ethan replied through the mask.
His voice echoed slightly, distorted by the mask's surface.
The moment that voice sounded, Sabretooth's entire body trembled.
A vicious expression instantly appeared on his face.
Even if he died a thousand times, he would never forget that voice. It was the voice of the man who had humiliated him and inflicted unbearable pain upon him.
Yet Ethan didn't even glance at him.
None of the others noticed Sabretooth's reaction.
Magneto spoke again, his tone steady.
"You're a mutant," he said. "I hope you won't choose to make an enemy of me. If you do, the consequences could be very serious."
Ethan shrugged casually.
"What those consequences are," he replied lightly, "is something we'll only know afterward."
Magneto fell silent.
He was the undisputed master of magnetism.
At that moment, he intensified his control over the suspended metal objects.
Everyone present could see the change immediately.
The floating steel pieces began trembling violently, as if they were struggling to break free from some unseen restraint.
Ethan's telekinetic control was naturally more versatile than Magneto's magnetic manipulation.
But at this moment, Ethan had deliberately chosen to compete with him.
He increased his own control as well.
The metal objects suspended between them vibrated harder and harder, caught between two overwhelming forces.
Both Ethan and Magneto understood what was happening.
They were fighting for control.
One second passed.
Then two seconds.
Then three seconds.
In the stunned gaze of the Brotherhood members, the floating metal suddenly began shifting toward Magneto.
At first the movement was slow.
Then it accelerated.
Within just three seconds, the entire mass of steel had moved decisively in Magneto's direction.
The Brotherhood members stared in disbelief.
They immediately understood what this meant.
The mysterious masked man standing before them might possess control over metal that rivaled—or even surpassed—Magneto himself.
Magneto's own expression grew increasingly serious as he felt the change. His brow tightened slowly as the realization settled in.
.....
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