At that moment, Magneto suddenly raised his other hand and thrust it forward.
Behind him, the factory structure groaned violently before collapsing inward. Concrete walls shattered and steel beams twisted apart. From the cloud of dust and debris, countless metal rods, girders, and fragments exploded outward.
They shot forward like artillery shells.
Every piece of steel hurtled straight toward Ethan.
Ethan showed no surprise at all.
He still stood in the same position with one hand extended calmly before him, as though the storm of incoming metal didn't even exist. Hidden behind the mask, the faint smile on his face only grew wider.
A pale crimson glow suddenly appeared in his palm.
The light expanded instantly.
Like a spreading wall of flame, the reddish energy burst outward in front of him. When the incoming metal collided with it, the impact produced no explosion and no violent clash.
Instead, the metal simply sank into the light.
The next moment, the crimson energy wrapped around each piece of metal. Just like before, the steel rods and fragments froze motionless in midair.
"Here," Ethan said calmly. "Take it back."
His voice echoed through the factory.
At once, the suspended metal shot backward.
The speed was even faster than when it had first been launched.
Magneto's expression finally changed.
He slammed both hands outward. A powerful magnetic field expanded instantly around him, forming an invisible barrier.
The flying metal slammed into that barrier one after another before being violently deflected away.
Because of Magneto's magnetic shield, the members of the Brotherhood standing behind him were not harmed. Even so, the violent impacts created an enormous cloud of dust and debris that swallowed the entire area.
With Ethan occupying Magneto directly, the master of magnetism no longer had the freedom to attack the Dark Department operatives.
Meanwhile, the fifteen members of the three assault teams quickly recovered. Without the rain of metal spears piercing them repeatedly, their regenerative abilities restored their bodies within moments.
"Move in," Ethan ordered with a casual wave of his hand.
The fifteen operatives rushed forward immediately.
At the same moment, Magneto burst upward from the swirling smoke and debris. His body rose into the air until he hovered above the shattered factory.
The earlier calm on his face had completely vanished.
Now his expression was solemn.
"Who exactly are you?" Magneto asked again, his voice filled with unmistakable surprise.
"I already told you," Ethan replied leisurely. "You'll know soon enough."
As he finished speaking, Ethan's body also lifted off the ground.
Like Magneto, he rose into the air until they faced one another directly above the ruined factory.
Magneto immediately felt the pressure.
The presence radiating from Ethan was overwhelming. It was a suffocating sense of power that Magneto had never experienced before.
The two men hovered in the air facing one another.
For a moment, the atmosphere between them seemed completely frozen.
Magneto did not dare allow himself even the slightest distraction. Without his protection, the Brotherhood members below would immediately face the full assault of the Dark Department's operatives.
Ethan, on the other hand, appeared completely relaxed.
The contrast between them was obvious.
Magneto remained silent for a brief moment.
Then suddenly he spread his arms wide.
An enormous magnetic field erupted outward.
The invisible force expanded rapidly, spreading across a radius of three kilometers in the blink of an eye. The magnetic domain swallowed most of the surrounding town.
Within that field, every metal object began trembling violently.
"Oh," Ethan murmured softly as he sensed the scope of the power. "Not bad."
He made no attempt to interfere.
It was as though he simply allowed Magneto to display his strength.
"Boom!"
Across the entire three-kilometer radius, every piece of metal ripped itself free from the ground. Cars, steel fences, construction beams, pipes, tools, and fragments of machinery all tore loose and rose into the sky.
The sight was apocalyptic.
Buildings were ripped apart as their internal steel frameworks were dragged into the air. Streetlights twisted free from the pavement. Vehicles lifted off the ground like toys.
In a single moment, the entire town was nearly destroyed.
Mixed within the roaring chaos were countless screams and cries of terror.
Ordinary civilians had no idea what was happening. All they could see was the world around them collapsing as metal objects tore themselves from the earth.
Ethan watched the scene unfold.
He also saw the indifference on Magneto's face.
Magneto had not hesitated for even a moment about the lives of those ordinary people.
Ethan simply shook his head slightly.
Above them, the sky darkened.
All the steel gathered around the two figures until it filled the air in every direction. From a distance, the mass of floating metal resembled a thick iron cloud hanging over the town.
It was an overwhelming sight.
Every piece of metal slowly turned toward Ethan.
Then, with a violent tremor, the entire storm of steel shot forward.
Thousands upon thousands of metal fragments transformed into lethal arrows as they rushed toward him.
Ethan sighed quietly.
"In the end, you're still just a mutant," he said calmly. "You don't even understand how to fight intelligently."
His tone sounded almost disappointed.
"Magnetic energy generates electricity. If you'd studied the technique used by that famous railgun user and developed an electromagnetic cannon, I might actually respect you a little."
He glanced at the approaching storm of steel.
"But simply throwing metal at people like this… it's far too crude."
When the countless metal weapons reached him, Ethan calmly extended both hands outward.
A pale crimson glow erupted from his body.
In an instant, the light spread outward like an enormous wave of flame.
The next moment, the reddish energy wrapped around every piece of incoming metal.
Their terrifying momentum vanished instantly.
The metal objects hung suspended in the air, completely motionless.
Only the violent wind produced by their earlier speed continued roaring across the battlefield.
"The way you use your power is far too shallow," Ethan said calmly.
His hands slowly moved toward each other.
As he did, the countless metal fragments around him began drifting away from Magneto's control.
One by one, they gathered toward the center point between the two men.
There were thousands of pieces of metal.
Their combined weight easily exceeded one hundred thousand tons.
Magneto might have been capable of manipulating such a terrifying mass.
But Ethan could control it just as easily.
The metal slowly condensed together under the influence of the crimson energy.
Gradually, the countless pieces fused into a single gigantic sphere suspended in midair.
Then Ethan clenched his hands tightly.
The enormous metal sphere compressed violently, as if squeezed by an invisible hand.
Just like a snowball being crushed, the sphere rapidly shrank while becoming far denser and more solid.
.....
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