## Attack on Xavier Mansion
Their innocence was short-lived. The facade of celebration shattered as they noticed the genuine attacks unfolding at the manor below, and the world's panicked response with its arsenal loose.
We observed as Apocalypse, now flanked by his new acolytes ~ Magneto and Storm ~ entered the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters via teleportation and kidnapped the man in the wheelchair, leaving chaos in their wake.
****
Ziyun turned to me, the reflection of the rising missiles fading from her eyes, replaced by a furrowed brow of genuine concern. "Are we going to do something about those weapons? Can they harm us?"
I didn't answer immediately. Instead, I lifted a finger, pointing past the atmosphere toward the burning, life-giving star at the center of this solar system.
"See that bright star, Ziyun? If we were back within the Draconic Ruins, you could freeze a star like that solid just by channeling the law field of snow and wind you practice. But that star, in a single idle moment, produces a hundred million times more energy than the sum of all these primitive firecrackers."
" This is a lower world?"
I lowered my hand, looking at the ascending trails of smoke.
" Something like that: Comparing our abilities to these weapons... it is simply a difference in the quality of energy. A chasm between realms."
I let the lesson sink in while I extended my will. My consciousness brushed against the cold metal skins of the weapons, verifying their capacities and guidance systems.
ICBMs. Crude. They would only achieve sub-orbit before falling back.
Nearly 60,000 warheads had been released. Without fail - safes, they wouldn't explode, but they would burn up and poison the earth. Negligible in effect though. Only a few had the trajectory to actually enter orbit.
Perfect. I have a use for those.
I began making minor adjustments, marking the ones I needed with invisible spiritual imprints.
"Hmm, what are you doing?" Xiao Ning asked, sensing the spike in my aura as I activated my strength.
"Something..." I murmured, distracted.
When the adjustments were complete, I turned back to them, my expression darkening to match the grim reality of this mortal world.
"Here, together, these weapons can scour millions of lives from the planet. The energy they release carries a lingering poison - a long, slow death for the land and sky. If such a fate were to pass, honestly... immediate death in the blast would be the mercy."
Ning'er released a soft, understanding sigh.
"Ha, I thought they were a threat to us. Well, it is better these people are disarmed. That blue man who came here, the one who made that speech earlier... he must be a good guy, sending these horrors away. Though perhaps a little deluded, proclaiming himself a god?"
She tilted her head, a spark of curiosity returning. "About his words... I recognized he spoke an unknown language, yet I understood him completely in my own. What happened?"
"I did a little trick for that," I began, ready to explain the minor translation charm based on our shared soul corridor.
But Ziyun cut me off, her voice laced with disbelief. "Millions will die? What kind of illogical minds would conceive of such demonic weapons in the first place, when they have no means to defend against their own creation?"
Hearing her words, I looked between them, a smile playing on my lips.
"Demonic weapon," is it?
The irony was rich. Were weapons ever truly meant to be righteous? Placing humans on a pedestal - whether in this reality or any other - always seemed a mistake.
They are savage animals. Sanctimonious, curious, dangerous beasts.
In Glory City, humanity united against demon beasts, yet the Dark Guild still conspired with the enemy. In the Ruins World, sect disciples slaughtered one another while existential crises loomed overhead.
The life of Luo Zheng was proof enough; sure, he was an arrogant asshole, but the universe gave him every reason to be.
Every step of the way, he dealt with egos larger than stars.
And here? In Marvel? Humans certainly didn't reach global dominance through peace talks. And the mutants wanting equality? Their options were binary: erase the humans, or build a nation with nuclear deterrence and an army.
Same story, different script.
I shook the thoughts away and returned to my earlier point.
"Anyway, I wasn't finished. Do not jump to conclusions. In this reality, if left on your own, your formidable law fields would collapse to a few fragile layers clinging to your skin. You could defend, yes - you would survive the initial blast and radiation with little more than minor burns."
I leaned in closer, spreading my hands, my voice dropping an octave. "But you would not survive what comes after. In just few hours, fundamental rules of this existence would strip even that meager control from you. It would distort your very essence and fragment your souls into the cosmos as nothing but degraded energy drifting across time and space."
Seeing my smile - which no doubt seemed incongruous with such a dire warning - they exchanged deadpanned looks before turning their unified, questioning gaze back to me.
Ziyun broke the silence first. "Where are we, exactly? If it is so dangerous and we are so powerless, why are we even here? I thought you said this was a relaxing and easy-going place. Are we confined to the space near your presence for the duration of our stay?"
Before I could answer, my senses flared.
The nuclear missiles in the sky vanished, taken by the blue mutant's power. But simultaneously, a localized catastrophe erupted at the manor.
The mutant Havok had missed his target, unleashing a blast that was currently tearing the mansion apart from the inside out.
I extended my will - not to stop the blast, but to pluck the man at its heart. I wrapped Havok in a barrier and pulled him from the inferno, depositing him, unconscious, into a hidden pocket of safety.
Then, I watched a silver streak - a boy named Quicksilver - moving through the expanding fireball. To him, this was a rescue mission. To my newly formed eyes, the entire event was a frozen tableau of fire and debris.
My divine sense registered the speedster, technically moving in slow motion relative to my perception, streaking through the halls. A part of my mind peeled away to analyze this new specimen, fascinated by his physiology, while the rest of me returned to the conversation.
"See that young man?" I gestured to the empty air where Quicksilver had been a microsecond ago. "He saved most of them. Interesting, is it not? A mechanism of power and ability completely outside our cultivation knowledge."
I led them deeper into the collapsing manor - now cloaked within my domain - to where I had stashed Havok. With a casual wave, I summoned two more unconscious forms from my painting world: Magda and Nina, victims of a different tragedy I had intercepted earlier.
Leaving them safe within my domain, I observed the aftermath on the ground - the arrival of helicopters, the men in uniforms swarming the debris.
I chose not to interfere further watching all as if living the movie I watched.
Xiao Ning, her compassionate nature stirred, asked, "Are they bad people on those flying artifacts in the air? You're not saving any more?"
"No," I replied calmly. "Nature has its course. I will not intervene again until I see the specific phenomenon I wish to observe. For now, we watch."
I turned my full attention to her. "This place is known by many names. The reality is called Marvel by some. The planet is Terra, Gaia, or simply Earth. But where are we, in the grand scheme?"
I paused for effect. "We are outside the main world, beyond even the great three thousand ruins worlds like the Draconic Ruins or Sage Domain. There is no concept of cultivation here. Instead, power is inherited through genetic mutation, achieved through alchemy or as they would like to call: gained by crude scientific methods, to elevate life levels."
I met each of their gazes, my expression serious. "It took me time to decipher the underlying rules of this reality. That is why I did not release you from my protection sooner. And yes, despite the inherent dangers, once we adjust, this is meant to be a short rest from the endless strife of the cultivation world. A change of scenery, however strange."
A subtle shift of my will collapsed our pocket domain from space.
The world around us blurred, the roaring fires and screaming winds replaced instantly by the quiet, tree-lined sidewalk of a small, affluent town.
The air smelled of cut grass and distant car exhaust.
"Do not forget," I finished with a reassuring smile, leading them toward a quaint storefront with a striped awning,
"we can always return home, regardless of time spent here. But first, let's get our bearings. And coffee."
I snapped my fingers.
The three unconscious people - Havok in his scorched X-Men uniform, and Magda with her daughter Nina, looking utterly lost - jerked awake.
"Follow me."
The command wasn't spoken to their ears but etched directly onto their souls. Their eyes glazed over, and they fell into step behind me like placid, well-trained ducklings.
The bell above the door gave a cheerful ting as we entered. It was 1983, and inside this little Westchester bubble, the fact that nuclear armageddon had just been averted was nothing more than a faint, worried murmur from a small television behind the counter. The air was a thick, comforting blanket of roasted coffee beans and buttery pastry.
A few patrons glanced up, their eyes lingering on our bedraggled group - a composed man of color, a man in burnt spandex, and a disoriented mother and child - before returning to their newspapers as if some force compelled them to forget we existed.
We settled into a secluded booth by the window. A waitress with a practiced smile approached, her notepad ready.
"Three black coffees, and a hot chocolate for the child, please," I said with US accent. The mundane names and the transaction felt profoundly novel. Beside me, Ziyun and Ning'er remained invisible to all but me, observing everything with wide-eyed interest.
"Nothing for us?" Ning asked, confused.
Their drinks would turn your divine intestines into a battlefield of cause and effect, I replied mentally. You are not yet adapted to this reality's... culinary gravel.
As the waitress left, I made a subtle gesture. With a faint shimmer, a two more vessels appeared on the table - simple, celadon-glazed cups from which steam rose in a perfectly unbroken, spiraling plume.
It held neither coffee nor tea, but a liquid that shimmered with a faint, internal light, the color of the dawn sky.
"This," I said softly to Ziyun and Ning'er, pushing the cups between them, "is Heart-Soothing Nectar of the Silent Mind. It will ground your spirits in this new reality far better than their bitter bean water."
Across the table, Havok blinked. The haze over his mind was thinning just enough to register the absurdity. He felt his mutant powers suppressed, unable to access the cosmic energy he usually wielded.
He stared at me talking to the empty air, then felt an alluring, unnatural attraction to the glowing cup that had manifested from nothing.
It's all confusing.
"Why am I here?" he asked suddenly, his voice rough. "And who... who are you talking to?"