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*****
"What to call myself?"
Mike was momentarily stunned.
Bald Erik? No, that was terrible.
Onslaught? The name suddenly flashed through Mike's mind. In his memory, that was the name born from the fusion of the dark sides of Charles and Erik. Using it here felt slightly inappropriate, and besides... it felt more like a title or a code name than a proper name.
Then, Mike's eyes lit up as a better idea struck him. "Olivia! Onslaught Olivia!"
"Olivia?"
The group looked perplexed. That was clearly a woman's name.
However, the man Mike had dubbed Olivia—the newly fused entity—broke into a joyful smile. It was the name of both Charles's and Erik's biological mothers; it was the name of his mother.
"I like it very much!"
With a resounding cry, Olivia charged toward Phoenix Jean. Or rather, to be precise, toward the Dark Phoenix.
The Dark Phoenix and Onslaught Olivia were like two arrows piercing the darkness of the void, streaking directly toward one another.
Behind Jean, golden energy billowed out like magnificent phoenix wings. She moved like a burst of light saturated with the scent of ruin, turning everything in her path to ash. She lunged at Onslaught, accompanied by a high-pitched, piercing phoenix cry.
In comparison, Onslaught seemed inconspicuous at first glance. But upon closer inspection, the space behind him was splintering like brittle paper, leaving a trail of jagged spatial fractures in his wake.
In a heartbeat, before the two even physically collided, the terrifying forces originating from both entities slammed into one another.
Shockwaves. Tearing.
Though it was a clash of pure energy, cracks darker than the deepest void appeared at the point of impact. Through these narrow fissures, one could catch fleeting glimpses of another dimension entirely.
"What is that?" Gwen asked, her eyes wide with shock.
Mike's expression grew solemn. "That... I'm afraid that's another world."
He hadn't expected the battle between these two to actually breach the barriers between universes. From the looks of it, the Phoenix Force in their universe was significantly more powerful than the version in Oren's world. It seemed that when the complete Phoenix Force shattered, it hadn't distributed itself evenly across the multiverse.
"It truly is another world," Hela murmured, her eyes filled with astonishment.
What surprised her even more was the sheer power of the fused being. She knew of the Phoenix Force, and because she understood its scale, she was even more shocked that the fusion of Charles and Erik could stand against it.
"Dad, are Erik and Charles... going to be okay?" Clark asked, worry etched on his face.
Given the magnitude of the power they were unleashing, he wondered if there would be lasting side effects. He trusted his father, but this was uncharted territory.
"What's with that look?" Mike asked, exasperated.
Clark gave a sheepish grin.
Mike huffed softly. "Don't worry, there won't be any problems. Once the fusion time limit expires, they'll go back to being themselves."
"Dad!" Gwen clung to Mike's arm, her eyes sparkling. "What exactly are those earrings?"
To be able to fuse two people and amplify their power to such a staggering degree... if she could...
"Don't even think about it!" Mike said, lightly flicking Gwen's forehead.
Gwen pouted, but before she could say more, Mike pointed toward the unfolding battle, effectively ending the conversation.
Gwen watched the two combatants, muttering under her breath, "Does this... count as domestic violence?"
Domestic violence?
If all domestic violence looked like this, the only victim would be the Earth itself. The duel between the Dark Phoenix and Onslaught was systematically dismantling the surrounding space.
Streams of golden fire danced wildly through the cosmos. Under the Dark Phoenix's command, they erupted in front of her like a sudden firestorm. They left scorching trails in the dark vacuum, curving in eerie arcs to strike at Onslaught from every conceivable angle.
Onslaught stood his ground, seemingly at the very center of the golden rain. He watched the incoming strikes with a faint, calm smile on his face.
"Truly beautiful," he couldn't help but praise.
Just as the power—capable of incinerating the hardest substances in existence—was about to hit him, Onslaught's eyes flared. A surge of psychic power flooded out, lashing into the Dark Phoenix's mind.
In the next instant, the attacks flying toward him stopped dead. It was as if a giant "Pause" button had been pressed; every streak of flame frozen in mid-air.
The observers were stunned. Onslaught's telepathic abilities can actually restrain the Dark Phoenix? They were once again shaken by the sheer scale of his power.
"Heh."
Onslaught chuckled softly, and the firestorm surrounding him instantly dissipated into nothingness.
A moment later, a furious phoenix shriek echoed in everyone's minds. The Dark Phoenix, her own psychic power exploding at full tilt, tore free from Onslaught's mental shackles.
Onslaught didn't seem to mind; he even offered a smile to the liberated Phoenix.
"AAAAHH!"
The Dark Phoenix shrieked in rage. Clearly, her already immense fury had reached a new boiling point. Following her cry, a massive shockwave in the shape of a phoenix surged toward Onslaught.
With a thought, Onslaught manifested an invisible force field to protect himself. The Phoenix shockwave collided with the barrier, drowning Onslaught in a sea of golden energy. Just as Clark and the others began to worry...
"I've let you hit me twice now. You can't call it domestic violence anymore—this is self-defense!"
Hearing this, several members of the group couldn't help but let out a low chuckle. The Dark Phoenix seemed to "hear" the remark as well, her rage intensifying further.
Then, Onslaught launched his first proactive attack.
He smiled and held out his hand. A tiny black dot appeared in his palm and began to expand rapidly. The moment that black orb appeared, it commanded the attention of everyone present.
Gwen screamed, "No way! Is that a black hole?"
Clark's mouth twitched.
Mike stroked his chin and nodded. "Not bad."
They watched as Onslaught tossed the black orb upward, as casually as if he were playing with a common ball. In the next heartbeat, the "black hole" expanded, and an endless stream of meteors came pouring out of it, rushing toward the Dark Phoenix like a stampeding river of stone.
What the hell is going on?
The group was baffled. Since when do black holes "spit out" matter? Shouldn't they be sucking everything in?
"Haha!" Mike laughed softly. "That's a wormhole. He's using his magnetism to pull those meteors through from the other side."
Realization dawned on everyone. After the fusion, Erik's ability had been boosted to a terrifying degree.
The meteor swarm hammered toward the Dark Phoenix like the end of days, but she was not to be trifled with. She raised both hands, and the meteors crashing toward her turned into fine powder without warning.
She stared at the distant Onslaught, her eyes literally burning with fire. Golden energy pulsed rapidly within her body, the Phoenix Force overflowing. She turned into a literal streak of light, charging straight into the heart of the meteor swarm.
(End of Chapter)