PFC Chapter 4747 X Royal Newcomer (26)
Chapter 4747 X Royal Newcomer (26)
Chapter 4747 X Royal Family: New Life (Twenty-Six)
Although the temperature inside the cave was quite high, Schiller's words sent a chill down everyone's spine. Polaris rubbed his arms and said, "Don't scare me. Who's wailing?"
“Not a person, but some kind of spiritual entity.” Schiller took a deep breath and said, “I’m not a mutant, I don’t belong here. That’s why I can’t hear you clearly. You must calm down and feel the connection between this island and you…”
Polaris was about to complain, but how could she possibly calm down in this situation? She knew complaining was useless, so she could only say to the Iceman, "Try to cool me down."
The Ice Man exhaled a breath of cold air at her, and fearing that the cooling effect wasn't sufficient, he created an icy dome and covered her up. Polaris took a deep breath; her abilities were restricted, preventing her from transforming into a magnetic field form, so she could only hold her breath and concentrate.
At that very moment, she suddenly felt herself connect to some vast consciousness. It was somewhat like accessing Professor X's mental world, but different. Because Professor X possessed a human consciousness, while this one did not. It was more like suddenly falling into an empty space.
She heard faint wails here. To be precise, it was a painful emotion. This emotion kept flooding into Polaris's mind, making her sad as well, but she still managed to calm herself down and try to communicate with this emotion.
After a long pause, she stepped back and said, "It's the Klakja totem. To be precise, it's the island itself. He didn't want the volcano to erupt, but he couldn't control it..."
"Who is it!" the Iceman cursed. "He not only wants to hurt us, he wants to destroy Krakia!"
“Krakya is in a lot of pain right now,” Polaris said anxiously. “We need to find a way to soothe him; that might help reduce the intensity of the earthquake.”
“Leave it to me.” Schiller sighed, looked at Strange, and said, “Give everyone a mental barrier.”
Strange knew exactly what he was going to do. So he simply cast a shield around everyone, simultaneously isolating their minds from the outside world to ensure they wouldn't be contaminated.
As Schiller transformed into a gray mist, and the nameless fog descended upon the island of Krakia, all living beings, including Krakia's soul, were frozen in their mental world by an indescribable terror. In an instant, the earthquake subsided.
Those underground were the first to discover this. The group above ground also couldn't escape the outer god's aura and nearly fell into the volcano's crater. Fortunately, the ash fog immediately subsided. Otherwise, those who hadn't been taken away by the volcanic eruption would have been carried away as well.
Schiller did not return underground but instead went to the crater. Thick smoke was billowing from the crater, indicating that the volcano had already erupted, only the lava hadn't yet reached the surface. The smoke alone was enough to overwhelm most people.
"Can you swallow the smoke?" Schiller asked.
"Okay. Should we store it or decompose it?" Gray Mist asked.
"Store it; it might come in handy later." Schiller transformed back into mist, completely obscuring the crater and swallowing all the thick smoke. The sky above Krakia Island, which had been shrouded in smoke, cleared up again.
As the tremors subsided, the two Iron Men were finally able to remove the engine casing. The power core appeared to be perfectly fine. However, the local Iron Man quickly discovered the problem, saying, "Someone has injected too much energy into it, causing an overload. This thing has become a giant cylinder. No wonder it's causing such regular vibrations. We need to find a way to drain the energy out of here."
The local Iron Man thought for a moment, then said, "My Jaeger can't withstand much power; you have to come with me. But this situation could very well detonate our Jaegers. Even just a moment's exposure to such high temperatures could kill us..."
He didn't continue, but anyone could guess that Tony Stark's physique was that of an ordinary human, making it absolutely impossible for him to withstand such a high-temperature environment, even for just a moment. Even with the protection of mutants and sorcerers, their physical bodies were still too fragile. Even the slightest mishap could have killed them here.
“There’s another way,” the local Iron Man said. “Absorb power until the armor is completely overloaded. That way, only one person is needed. This is entirely my responsibility. I’ll do it.”
After saying that, he was about to open the energy channel on his gauntlet to absorb energy from the engine. But before he could even touch the engine, Stark shoved him aside. Before he could say anything more, Stark gave him an impatient look and pulled the energy core out of the Arc Reactor in his chest.
He pulled a wire from beneath the energy core and inserted it into the engine. Almost instantly, the engine stopped pulsating and slowly calmed down. The terrifying shockwave and tremors also ceased.
All the energy in the engine was drawn into the energy core. The energy core remained completely unchanged, not even flashing, before Stark shoved it back into his chest.
After doing all that, he couldn't stand anymore and fell straight backward. Strange reacted quickly and caught him. Stark looked at the local Iron Man with a sinister gaze and said, "You'd better not be the culprit."
Schiller returned, using the gray mist to carry Stark away. His current physical condition wasn't suitable for using the portal. Strange opened the portal, bringing the other mutants back to Earth.
Upon discovering that the volcanic eruption had stopped and the mutants on the ground had all descended from the crater, Apocalypse flew over first to ask, "How did it go? Was it resolved?"
“We’ll talk about it when we get back.” Strange wasn’t in the mood to explain right now; he kept his eyes fixed on the local Iron Man, seemingly weighing the possibility that he had tampered with things. But no matter what, he was inextricably linked to him.
The local Iron Man, of course, knew this too. He was now practically ashen-faced, realizing he had likely been tricked. The person who orchestrated it had set a perfect trap, leaving him utterly defenseless.
They proposed the water diversion system, designed it, and installed it; no one else was involved in the entire process. Therefore, any problems must be their doing.
What's even more frightening is that this plan was discussed internally within the Avengers. So, from whom did the information leak out?
The other side must have received information very quickly and accurately to formulate such a plan and execute it successfully. This means that there are significant internal problems on both sides, the mutants and the local Avengers.
Back at the Central Court, the local Iron Man was unsteady on his feet. He sat down, gripping the armrest of a chair, and began to ponder carefully where things had gone wrong. The returning mutants were also giving him unfriendly looks. It's fair to say that if Charles hadn't calmed them down earlier, the local Iron Man might already be surrounded and beaten up by the mutants.
The impact of this incident was enormous, and the consequences were severe. Although nothing serious ultimately occurred, ambassadors from almost every country except for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Wakanda began to resign. And the hot spring banquet had only just begun; they hadn't even discussed any serious business yet.
Meanwhile, Clarkia was already under sanctions and facing unfavorable international public opinion. This incident will only make things worse. Mutants will undoubtedly face further condemnation, and the goodwill built up with the Clarkia flower will likely be wiped out in one fell swoop.
Mutants themselves are also suspicious of each other, each believing the other has leaked information. The already strained mutant factions are now on the verge of further division.
Not to mention, mutants and the local Avengers could very well break off relations altogether. A complete severing of ties would be the best-case scenario; war might break out. The best-case scenario is that mutants will no longer fight for Earth, leaving only ordinary governments and S.H.I.E.L.D. to deal with the alien soldiers still in the solar system.
The more everyone thought about it, the more they realized it was a truly wicked plan, a scheme that killed multiple birds with one stone. Whoever came up with such a method was utterly evil and cruel.
“This is indeed my responsibility,” the local Iron Man said, somewhat dejectedly. “No matter what, I didn’t expect the engine to malfunction. Even if I didn’t do it on purpose, the responsibility still lies with me.”
The Avengers fell silent. They had no grounds for argument, no room for denial. Even if it wasn't intentional, failing to keep an eye on things made them culpable. Their attempt at goodwill had been completely ruined, harming not only themselves but also the mutants.
“This isn’t the time to talk about this,” Charles suddenly walked in. He hadn’t shown up until now, seemingly working on something in the anti-gravity lab. He said, “I’m willing to believe you didn’t do it on purpose. But you have to admit, there’s a problem within the Avengers. You need to investigate where that problem lies.”
"We are the same; mutants also need to investigate themselves. Without a mole, even if there was a plan, it couldn't have been implemented so easily. After all, the possibility of an outsider actually carrying it out is very small; it must have been someone on the island."
His words caused an uproar among the mutants. Wolverine stepped forward and asked, "Couldn't it be that Iron Man tampered with the installation?"
"If it was really intentional on his part, there would be no need for him to rush in to rescue people. Even if it was for a performance, the risk was too high. Besides, the rescue was successful and no disaster was caused."
While some mutants still have reservations, most have accepted this view, given the local Iron Man's actions after the disaster. Frankly, for an ordinary person wearing an iron suit to rush into such a place is simply suicidal.
Putting aside the high temperatures inside the cave, the geological structure is highly unpredictable. With this level of earthquake intensity, the cave could collapse at any moment. And this cave is over a hundred meters underground; if it collapses, there's no way anyone could escape—they'd be crushed to death.
Not to mention, volcanic eruptions don't just erupt from the crater. Almost all underground structures are destroyed by the surging lava. If a crack appears somewhere and lava rushes straight at you, your iron shell definitely won't be able to withstand it.
If the local Iron Man were to actually get involved to this extent, the mutants would have no choice but to accept it. But logically speaking, this is unlikely. Based on their understanding of the main universe's Iron Man, this guy doesn't play dirty tricks; he always openly and honestly annoys people, and he does it with a straight face. He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would do something like this.
Hearing Charles say this, the Avengers breathed a sigh of relief. The mutants had taken half the blame, so at least they wouldn't start a fight on the spot.
But the more Charles said that, the more guilty the local Iron Man felt. He tried to control his emotions and then said, "I will definitely find out who's behind this, I promise."
But Charles shook his head and said, "The investigation will probably have to wait. We need to deal with the current predicament first. The situation will become even more unfavorable for Clarkia Island, and we need to find a way to turn things around."
“Don’t worry.” The local Iron Man looked at him firmly and said, “Stark Industries will help, and so will the Avengers. Whatever Washington wants to do, we will stop them.”