American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

Chapter 631 I AM NOT YOUR FATHER

With a soft hum, the pale blue halo suddenly contracted and then repelled her hand.

Aisley stumbled back two steps, looking down in surprise at her fingertips. There were no marks there, but—this wasn't right. It shouldn't be like this. It shouldn't be rejecting her. She was Wolverine's daughter. If Judd could do it, there was no reason why she couldn't!

Aisley refused to believe it and stepped forward again, pushing hard against the portal with both hands. But the barrier was like an impenetrable wall, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't budge it an inch.

"What... what's going on?" Ashley's voice was tinged with panic. She turned to look at Logan, then at Andre, her eyes filled with confusion.

Logan seemed to remember something, but Andrei didn't give him a chance to react.

He immediately walked over and tentatively tested the portal. His outstretched hand easily passed through it, causing Andrei to frown. "Strange—logically, all mutants should be able to pass through this portal, unless you're not—"

"Shut up!" Rune appeared beside him instantly and kicked him into the portal, but Andrei's meaning was already very clear, even though he didn't finish speaking.

The air seemed to freeze instantly. The desert wind whipped up sand that brushed against Asley's ankles, causing a slight stinging sensation. She slowly turned around and looked directly at Logan, her bright eyes filled with disbelief and bewilderment.

Panic washed over her like a tidal wave.

"I—I can't go in, Dad. Am I not a mutant?" Ashley stated this terrible fact. When facing Taskmaster and Crossbones, she was as strong as Captain America, but at this moment, Ashley was as fragile as a little reptile.

A terrifying thought was beginning to surface in Ashley's mind.

Logan stood still, his eyes filled with overwhelming sorrow. His Adam's apple bobbed violently, and his lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but it was as if a stone was pressing on his throat. He swallowed the words that were about to come out, and in the end, he only made a few muffled, hesitant sounds.

He couldn't think of a single word to comfort the girl in front of him.

For the first time, Logan realized his own clumsiness; he couldn't even piece together a complete opening line. The explanations he had rehearsed countless times in his mind had all turned into jumbled fragments.

Regardless of who Ashley's biological father really was, Logan kept repeating in his heart that he would treat her as his own daughter. He kept repeating these words until he eventually came to believe them himself.

"Then I—" Ashley's voice choked, her fists clenched so tightly her nails dug deep into her palms, "I'm not a mutant, so—you're not my dad, right?"

Logan pursed his lips. How he wished he were facing a massive army instead of his daughter.

"Aisley, I never intended to hide anything from you," Logan said, surprised even himself with how rough and hoarse his voice sounded. "I just—I just—wanted to wait for the right moment—"

"The right time?" Ashley's voice suddenly rose, tears finally welling up in her eyes. "Like now?"

She took a few steps back, creating distance between herself and Logan, her eyes filled with hurt and resistance. "For so many years, so many years! I always thought I was Wolverine, that great hero, that mutant who survived so many hardships. I always—thought I was like Judd, one of your family—"

"But now you're telling me I'm not a mutant, nor am I your biological daughter, I'm just—an outsider?"

"No! You're not an outsider, you're my daughter!" Logan strode forward, trying to grab Ashley's shoulder, but Ashley dodged him. The weight of this action made Logan appear several years older.

"Not an outsider?"

Tears fell, landing on the dry earth, instantly spreading into a small, dark stain.

"I don't believe it, Dad—if I can still call you that, then tell me, who are my biological parents? Why did you adopt me? Did you know from the beginning that I could never be a part of you?"

Ashley's emotions had completely collapsed. Her understanding over the years had been completely overturned. All the warm memories of the past ten years had become a knife stabbing into her heart. She felt that she had been deceived and betrayed by the people closest to her.

Absolutely unforgivable!

A barrage of questions rained down on Logan, who remained silent and offered no explanation. He knew that no amount of explanation could heal the wounds in Ashley's heart, because all of this had happened to him.

Both were women, both were hysterical, and both questioned their kinship with the other person.

Logan can still vaguely remember that it was an evening hundreds of years ago, it was raining, and he killed his father while his powers were out of control.

"I don't have a son like you, you monster!"

Logan was thus kicked out of his home and lost his mother—how similar was this scene to what was happening now? Only this time, he didn't want to lose another daughter, so Logan strode forward, trying to forcibly grab Asley.

Seeing this, Asri wiped away her tears, turned and ran behind Rune, grabbed the mage's waist, and murmured, "Take me with you, okay? Let's go together! Let's get away from here—"

Rune looked down at the girl, whose eyes still held a pool of tears, and sighed.

Aisley and he didn't have a deep relationship; it was just a friendship built over two meals. She had indeed tried to do something to win him over as a long-term meal ticket, but the reason she was looking for him now was simply because, among everyone present, only Rune might not be a mutant.

She doesn't want to be around mutants right now, as it makes Ashley feel like an outsider.

As Logan hesitated, a voice suddenly echoed in his mind, "Leave it to me, I will bring Aisley back."

This is... Rune's voice?

Logan looked at Rune with a complicated expression, hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. What else could he do besides trust Rune?

He stood there, watching Asri disappear into the night with Rune. The complex emotions in his eyes were gradually replaced by worry. Asri needed time to understand that blood ties and genes were never the definition of family; love was.

The pale blue glow of the Krako portal continued to flicker, reflecting on Logan's bitter face. The wind on the wasteland grew stronger, blowing Logan's clothes and stirring his emotions.

perhaps----

Perhaps he should have told Ashley the truth long ago, instead of using the guise of "protection" to subject her to such a sudden blow.