American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

Chapter 642 Charles and the Secret Guest

Rune immediately snapped his fingers, freezing Qin's nightmare in time.

The Phoenix Force is quite mystical. If this nightmare is allowed to continue, the lyre in front of us might actually turn from a white phoenix into a black phoenix. That would be quite interesting.

It's impossible to expect the Dark Phoenix to defeat Lord Doom, but destroying most of the Krakow Islands would be a piece of cake.

With the White Queen and other mutants who were already dissatisfied with the passage of the Second Generation Mutant Act, Rune's act of killing Black King and Proteus wouldn't make enemies of all mutants; some would risk their lives to protect themselves.

But if Jean were to truly become the Dark Phoenix, then Rune would truly become the enemy of this group of overpowered characters.

"You—" Upon seeing Rune, Jean immediately understood what was happening and questioned, "Is this a dream, or some kind of virtual space?"

"It's a dream," Rune explained, and two chairs appeared out of thin air at his will. "Sit?"

Jean looked at her other self with some fear, then nodded. This dream was clearly being controlled by the other person. Rather than fighting him here and getting beaten to a pulp, it was better to wait for the other mutants to come to her rescue.

However, she still had many questions before that.

"How is Sebastian?"

Recalling the Black Emperor's dream before he arrived—Rune shrugged. "He's probably dead, and probably died a horrible death. But he deserved to die."

Why?

Rune raised an eyebrow at Qin, her gaze intensely fixed.

"You want to ask me why I'm targeting the Black Emperor, right?" the mage asked calmly, looking at Qin and nodding. He smiled, "You've spent more time with him, so you should know the reason better than I do."

"I admit, at first I just wanted to kill Proteus outright. He hurt my old friend." A hint of nostalgia flashed in Rune's eyes. "You may not know, but he and I—or rather, his counterpart—are old friends."

He held up three fingers and waved them in front of Qin's eyes. "I've met him three times, but I have to say, this wolf I encountered this time was the most pathetic, and I was quite disappointed in him at one point."

When she heard Rune mention someone she knew, Jean pursed her lips. Her feelings for Logan were complicated. Although she loved Cyclops, Wolverine's wildness and his contrasting gentleness made it hard for her to let go.

"What happened to him?" Qin couldn't help but ask.

"Many years ago, he was controlled. I don't know which telepath was behind it, but the result was that Logan launched a charge. He did it beautifully, as unstoppable as you remember," Rune said, then sighed softly.

"The only problem is that the location where he launched his attack is called Xavier's Academy of Geniuses."

Qin froze instantly, her pupils contracted, and the phoenix power within her body fluctuated unconsciously.

She knew Logan too well. This man was not only a warrior who charged ahead on the battlefield and was invincible, but he would also quietly cover the young mutants in the academy with blankets late at night; he would complain about how the kids didn't respect history when he was drinking, but in the end he would still carefully correct their homework and never say a harsh word.

Thinking of how haggard he looked back then, Qin couldn't even imagine what kind of life Logan was living now.

"He spent many years in exhaustion and remorse, living a life of idleness and waiting for death," Rune continued. "During this time, he watched his children and comrades die at the hands of Red Skull, and was stripped of most of his superpowers by God-King Doom—"

"So it was him—" Qin gritted her teeth. She had heard about the wolf's offense against the God, but she never expected that there was such a tragic history behind it.

"So I was very disappointed in him at one point. In my mind, Wolverine was a man who never gave up and would never compromise with reality, but the Logan I saw was a coward."

"However, not long ago, this wolf woke up again, right before my eyes!" Rune said with a smile, and even Jean could feel his pure joy.

But the joy quickly turned into anger.

"He almost got killed not long after arriving here. I want to ask, is this what they call the land of mutants?"

Jean couldn't deny it; she wasn't that kind of person. Logan had indeed broken into the lab without permission, but Krakow had also passed an inhumane law.

"I'm not some kind of sadistic killer," Rune leaned back in his chair, then adjusted to a more comfortable position. "If it were just Logan who was injured, killing one Proteus would have been enough."

"The guy in the main universe wasn't a good person to begin with, and I believe the one I killed wasn't a good person either, right?"

Qin hesitated for a moment before nodding.

Given Logan's superpowers at the time, Proteus could have easily killed the beast, but he chose to toy with his prey, allowing Wolverine to escape.

Judging from this point alone, this guy is no good. This beast clearly treats the pain and screams of his prey as a form of entertainment for himself.

"See, I'm pretty good at judging people." Rune smiled, making no mention of his passive ability to sense the emotions of those around him. "But when I heard that someone had actually created some kind of second-generation mutant, I couldn't help myself."

He stood up and looked down at Phoenix.

"Jean, I always thought that you mutants, who have already suffered discrimination and persecution, should have some empathy for the plight of these second-generation mutants. So tell me now, why were you able to pass this bill?"

"Of course I don't want this bill passed—" Qin's voice became noticeably weak as she spoke, "None of us want it to—"

"Nobody wants to?" Rune sneered, "If you didn't want to, how did this bill pass? Don't tell me Professor X made the decision! Even the Black Emperor couldn't—"

"it's me."

A voice came from not far away. Rune and Jean both looked at the figure that walked out of the void—"walked out" is not quite accurate. He was actually being pushed into this dream while sitting in a wheelchair.

The person pushing the wheelchair was a blonde woman wearing a black leather jacket and carrying a large sword.

"I passed," the person in the wheelchair repeated.

Rune raised an eyebrow; the feature was too obvious—he didn't even need to ask to verify his guess; Jean stood up in surprise and exclaimed, "Professor X! And—Ghost!"

Charles nodded to Jean as a greeting, then looked at Rune and said, "That's right, it was I who passed the Second Generation Mutant Act, or more precisely—it was my other counterpart who passed this act."