This time, Ethan Cole had captured nearly all the core members of the Brotherhood of Mutants in a single operation. Only one person escaped his grasp—Sabretooth, Victor Creed. Although Victor hated Ethan with burning intensity, he understood the harsh truth of their situation. The difference in power between them was simply too large.
Victor had witnessed Ethan's strength firsthand. Against that level of overwhelming power, revenge was nothing more than a fantasy. Once Ethan and his team left the battlefield, Victor chose the only option that made sense for someone who wanted to stay alive—he ran.
Ethan did not bother pursuing him.
At the moment, he had little interest in Sabretooth at all. Letting Victor go had been nothing more than a casual decision made on a whim. In Ethan's eyes, the feral mutant posed no meaningful threat and would not interfere with any of his long-term plans.
After finishing the work in his laboratory, Ethan placed Magneto and the captured members of the Brotherhood into sealed containment. The process was not execution, nor was it simple imprisonment. Instead, he preserved them in a deep suspended state.
Their bodies were locked in a prolonged coma-like condition, their biological functions slowed and stabilized.
Ethan had no intention of killing Magneto for now. In fact, keeping him alive was far more valuable.
Magneto possessed enormous influence among mutant circles. If word spread that he still existed somewhere in the shadows, many mutants would naturally gather around that symbol of resistance. Compared with sending agents across the world to search for mutants one by one, allowing Magneto to remain a living piece on the board would draw them together far more efficiently.
In Ethan's plans, Magneto was a perfect chess piece.
Once everything was arranged, Ethan's life returned to its normal rhythm as if nothing unusual had happened. The destruction of an entire town, the collapse of the Brotherhood, and the capture of one of the most powerful mutants alive—all of it seemed to vanish from his daily routine.
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
Although Ethan controlled a massive business empire, he was not the type of person who buried himself in work. To be precise, the amount of time he personally spent managing business matters rarely exceeded twenty-four hours in an entire month.
Most of his time was devoted to enjoyment.
The rest was spent conducting various experiments in his laboratories.
Ethan firmly believed that if he had been given a second life, then he should live it comfortably. Because of that philosophy, his standards for personal living conditions were extremely high.
Fortunately, his brilliant mind made such a lifestyle possible. Through his own intelligence and decisions, he had built an enormous corporate empire almost entirely on his own. His understanding of economics and technology had given him a foundation that few people in the world could match.
At the same time, Ethan possessed an unusually firm worldview. Many of his ideas and principles had been shaped long ago, and they were not easily influenced by the opinions or behavior of others.
After arriving in this world, there were very few people he genuinely cared about.
Adeline was one of them.
For quite some time, Ethan had deliberately avoided his adoptive mother. Their relationship was technically only nominal, but they had still lived together for several years in the past. That history made her one of the rare individuals who held a certain place in his life.
Early that morning, however, Ethan received a phone call from her.
Adeline's message had been extremely clear.
If he refused to meet her today, she would go to a television station and broadcast a public search advertisement looking for him.
The threat was not a joke.
Adeline was absolutely the type of person who would do something like that.
Ethan was extraordinarily wealthy—far beyond what most people could even imagine. Because of that, he had always been extremely generous toward Adeline. After all, she had once taken care of him, and she was still technically his elder.
Every month, Ethan transferred a large sum of money to her account.
The amount he sent as "living expenses" each month was enough for an ordinary person to live comfortably for decades, perhaps even an entire lifetime.
Thanks to those regular payments, Adeline had gradually accumulated considerable wealth over the years. Since Ethan earned his first major fortune, nearly five or six years had passed. The savings she had built during that time placed her firmly within the ranks of the wealthy.
Even so, Adeline had never shown any interest in joining high society.
She remained a high school teacher, maintaining her own small social circle centered around the school and her colleagues. Her life was relatively simple, though there was one particular issue that often gave Ethan a headache.
Over the past few years, she had changed boyfriends several times.
It was a problem that had caused Ethan more annoyance than he cared to admit.
Not only women could be drawn to wealth—many men were exactly the same. Several of Adeline's previous partners had clearly been attracted to her financial security rather than her personality.
Ethan had dealt with those situations personally.
Three of those men had quietly disappeared from her life after Ethan intervened. Two others had ended up in prison, where their new daily routine involved far less glamorous activities. Only one of the former boyfriends had not been particularly problematic.
Unfortunately, that man had been a mutant.
In order to prevent Adeline from being dragged into the complicated conflicts surrounding mutants, Ethan had used subtle methods to remove the relationship entirely.
Because of those repeated failures in romance, Adeline remained unmarried even now.
Ethan himself had been living independently since he was thirteen years old. Because of that, it was rare for the two of them to see each other in person. From Adeline's perspective, life alone without family or lasting love had gradually become lonely.
For that reason, Ethan had no real excuse to avoid her today.
He had already prepared himself mentally for a long lecture.
Considering his rather chaotic private life, he doubted the conversation would be brief.
There was at least one piece of good news, however.
The regenerative ability he had obtained from Sabretooth had finally stabilized within his body. At last, it had reached a functional balance with the Phoenix Force.
Previously, the immense energy of the Phoenix Force had occasionally caused his physical form to destabilize. Now, those outward symptoms had disappeared. His body no longer showed signs of sudden fractures or uncontrolled energy surges.
Internally, however, the Phoenix Force was still changing him.
At the cellular level, his body was undergoing constant microscopic evolution. Fortunately, the pain that once accompanied those changes had diminished significantly. Now the transformation occurred quietly, almost like a passive observer watching the slow restructuring of each cell.
Early that morning, Ethan woke up, dressed in a simple but elegant suit, and drove into downtown New York.
His destination was the high school where Adeline worked.
She taught chemistry there and was surprisingly popular among the students. Many teenagers admired her energy and confidence, and some of the more daring ones occasionally invited her out for coffee.
Adeline often joked about those invitations whenever she spoke with Ethan.
Parking his car near the school, Ethan stepped out while holding a bouquet of indigo roses in his hand. His appearance immediately drew attention from students passing through the campus courtyard.
His handsome features and calm confidence caused many people to glance back as he walked by. Over the years, his public visibility had grown to the point where he was almost as recognizable as a celebrity.
Many students recognized him instantly.
Several girls covered their mouths in excitement, whispering to each other while staring at him. Meanwhile, some of the boys looked noticeably displeased, clearly unhappy about the sudden appearance of such competition.
Ethan ignored the reactions.
He walked calmly across the campus, following a route he knew extremely well. After all, he had once graduated from this very school himself.
Without hesitation, he headed straight toward the teachers' office building.
.....
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