To advance the Sentinel Program, Bolivar had even chosen to abandon his physical body and upload his consciousness into a computer, turning himself into an electronic life-form.
Across those long decades, he had endured a loneliness and isolation ordinary people could never bear. He had devoted himself entirely to research, all for the sake of one day completing the plan he had conceived long ago: the extermination of mutants.
Now, the greatest achievement of his life had become like a beast stripped of its claws and fangs.
Fenris stood before them like an immovable mountain, single-handedly destroying decades of painstaking effort.
"Has it come to this? Is there only one path left?"
Bolivar was not the kind of man to sink into failure and lose himself in it. Moreover, in his current state, it was difficult for him to experience much emotion at all.
This failure had simply been more serious than most. But as long as this headquarters had not been exposed, there would always be a day when he could rise again.
So he quickly adjusted his state of mind. When he thought of the twenty-meter-tall colossus in his laboratory, his gaze became still and emotionless once more.
That was the true pinnacle of his intellect, the strongest single combat unit he had ever created, a being that could easily crush ordinary Sentinels.
"Everyone, the Sentinel Program continues!"
Though he existed in the form of a digital life-form, Bolivar's eyes were now veined with blood. He projected his image onto every screen before everyone at once, his expression dark and sinister.
"Everyone has weaknesses. I refuse to believe that this mutant named Fenris truly has no shortcomings at all."
"Make this mutant the primary subject of our research. Sooner or later, we will find a way to counter him!"
There were no complaints. No despair. With one command from Bolivar, the entire base once again began operating at high speed in silence, as it had for decades.
Watching everyone busily resume their work, Bolivar's consciousness moved from the command room to his laboratory factory in the very next instant.
"Just wait. One day, I will make my return."
He quietly gazed at his most outstanding creation, now completed. His eyes were dark and unreadable.
"No. That day will never come for you."
A voice from nowhere suddenly appeared out of thin air, ringing beside everyone's ears throughout the base in an instant.
"What's going on?"
"That voice just now. Did you hear it?"
The sudden change exceeded everyone's expectations. Panic, uncontrollable and swift, suddenly spread through the base that had originally been running in orderly fashion.
Ding.
With a crisp sound, everyone raised their ears at once.
In the next instant, every screen in the base lit up simultaneously and began playing the same image beyond anyone's control.
Amid a burst of noisy commotion, a white expanse of heaven and earth suddenly appeared on the screens.
"Is this Antarctica?"
A researcher rubbed his eyes.
They had not left the underground for a very long time, so the outside world had become especially unfamiliar to them.
At the same time, a rough electromagnetic signal spread across the entire planet in an instant.
The next moment, in every corner of the world, any display capable of receiving a signal began broadcasting the Antarctic scene in sync.
Soon, a man wearing a cape and a rose-red helmet appeared in the footage.
He stood in midair, with the vast, lonely white wilderness beneath his feet.
Wherever the eye looked, he was the sole focus.
"Magneto!"
The moment the man appeared, as that familiar face entered their vision, countless gazes, from the highest elites to ordinary civilians, gathered on him alone.
The Pentagon.
"What is Magneto trying to do now? Can we cut off this signal?"
"No. Someone else is helping him. Either that, or we can only cut the power."
"Damn it! Find a way!"
The Triskelion.
Nick Fury, who had originally been buried in work, noticed the scene and simply tossed aside the document in his hand. He crossed one leg over the other and leisurely began watching Magneto's performance.
"Director, do you need us to do anything?"
Hill pushed the door open and stepped inside.
"No need. Eight times out of ten, this is that kid's idea. We just watch."
"All right."
Xavier's School.
Wanda and Pietro, who were familiarizing themselves with the academy, suddenly stopped in their tracks. They quickly moved into the living room and watched the television together with everyone else.
For some reason, as she looked at the father on the screen, both familiar and unfamiliar, Wanda abruptly thought of the scene of Magneto and Fenris leaving together just earlier.
"Is he beside Father right now too?"
Wakanda.
T'Chaka was still discussing important affairs as usual. After seeing the huge disturbance Magneto had created, and remembering the man's domineering way of doing things, he could not help pausing the meeting with interest.
"Someone else is about to have a very bad day..."
The Brotherhood.
The surviving mutants began praying for their leader.
Europe, the Americas, Africa...
Countless people cast searching gazes toward Magneto. The hidden mutants were even more stirred, their eyes fixed on the screen without blinking.
At that moment, Magneto happened to turn his gaze toward the camera.
"Many of you have heard of me. You know of me. But you do not understand me."
At this moment, Magneto's calm voice became the most deafening call on this small planet, drifting lightly into the ears of billions.
"Many people say I am a tyrant, a failed leader. But I will tell you this."
"I am merely a warrior. A warrior who fights for the survival and dignity of mutants."
"I will always dedicate everything I have to the interests of my brothers and sisters. But..."
His deeply magnetic voice seemed to contain a unique charm that made everyone fall silent and listen. For a time, the whole world's attention rose and fell with each of Magneto's words.
Halfway through his sentence, Magneto suddenly paused.
Under the eyes of the world, he slowly extended his right hand and raised it high.
The camera in the screen began rising along Magneto's fingertip. Suddenly, a shadow fell.
A meteor more than fifty meters in diameter, glowing with faint blue light, suddenly descended from the clouds, then came to an abrupt stop, quietly floating above Magneto's head.
"Is that... our vibranium?"
In Wakanda, T'Challa recognized the meteor's origin at once.
His eyes stayed fixed on the screen, as though he were afraid of missing even a single frame.
With a light shout, Magneto suddenly swept both hands outward. The next moment, the huge vibranium meteor began vibrating at high frequency.
As broken stone fell away in sheets, the enormous meteor suddenly disintegrated without warning, turning into metal fragments that filled the sky.
"Fall!"
In an instant, vibranium fragments blotted out the sky as they danced through the air. With a casual turn of Magneto's palm, they shot madly toward the earth below.
Boom!
Piercing shrieks came with enormous roars. For a time, it was as though a metal storm had suddenly swept across this ancient frozen plain. The heavy earth was easily pierced by the vibranium.
Ice shards flew. The wind howled.
With a turn of his hand, a terrifying natural disaster covering hundreds of square kilometers took shape.
The next moment, the entire land began trembling violently.
It was as though something was about to burst out from underground. A high, mournful cry rang beside countless ears, making innumerable people cover them.
"To deal with us, these people created weapon after weapon. Why?"
"Because they are afraid. They fear our gifts. They fear us because we are different."
"Because humanity always fears what is different."
"But!"
Magneto's voice suddenly rose.
"Now, I will tell you. I will tell every person in the world!"
"You should fear us. You should revere us!"
"We are the future. We, too, are the rightful heirs of this land!"
"Anyone who tries to defeat us, anyone who tries to destroy us, will meet the same end as this man..."
The next moment, amid Magneto's increasingly impassioned speech, within the violent metallic hurricane, the land beneath his feet suddenly let out a pained wail.
The camera rose at just the right moment.
As Magneto's figure became smaller and smaller in the frame, clear fissures suddenly began spreading and expanding madly across the land like a mountain collapsing and the earth splitting apart.
Icebergs overturned. The earth cracked open.
Boom!
Before anyone could react, a colossus covering hundreds of square kilometers suddenly smashed through the surface.
After being hidden for decades in the most secret corner of the world, this secret base finally revealed its true face beneath the sunlight once more.
(End of Chapter)
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