Logan slowly ventured deeper into the Base. His footsteps echoed in the empty Base, making his nerves tense up. To him, the silence here was almost eerie.
Using his sensitive hearing and sense of smell, he could not detect any sign of life here. It was as if this was not Stryker's military Base, but truly a long-abandoned lake dam.
But his rationality remained; his mind clearly told him that everything he had experienced was real. Whether it was the previous battles, the pursuit of Magneto and his group, or this fight concerning the fate of the Mutants, all of it was undoubtedly real. Something was definitely wrong with this situation.
He cautiously moved his feet, slowing his breathing as much as possible, and carefully explored in the direction of his intuition. He sensed that something was definitely ahead of him.
Darkness, pitch black. The stench of decaying rust assailed his nostrils. Walking through the tunnel, he constantly felt a nauseating stickiness on his skin. Logan knew this was the feeling of spiderwebs clinging to him, but he still did not understand why it was like this.
Someone had clearly walked ahead, so why were these spiderwebs still intact?
He extended his claws, the alloy blades scraping a long trail of sparks across the slick wall. Using this faint light and his sharp eyes, he clearly saw the situation ahead.
The Base, now a ruin, was filled with accumulated dust and spiderwebs, rusty and warped metal everywhere, collapsed cages, and pale white skeletons appearing in patches across his vision. This was a place of true silence, a stillness washed over by the torrent of time.
Looking at this place, confusion began to surface in Logan's eyes. He felt his memory starting to become chaotic; he could not even recall how long this past period had been. Although it had only been a short time traversing the tunnel, it felt as if centuries had passed. Everything had turned into rotten history.
This unreality of temporal shift made his head ache intensely. He began rushing forward blindly, ignoring everything in front of him, only wanting to escape this unimaginable unreality. However, just as he started sprinting, he crashed into a black figure.
Sharp, solid armor, a cloak woven from fine metallic threads reflecting a faint sheen. The prism on the helmet shone with bright blue light. The moment he saw this figure, Logan breathed a sigh of relief. This figure represented the strongest and most trustworthy power; seeing it instilled courage and confidence in Logan's heart.
But the bizarre situation still lingered in his mind, and he impatiently pressed down on the figure's shoulder armor, wanting to tell it everything he had discovered. However, something even harder for him to believe appeared before him.
The armor instantly lost all its supporting weight, and all the components clattered to the ground with a series of bangs.
The formerly bright black color dimmed in the blink of an eye, and disgusting rust grew at a visible rate. And beneath that decaying armor, Logan clearly saw pale white bones.
"Who could possibly kill it?" Logan muttered in disbelief. Having witnessed the god-like power Dawn Knight displayed in Paris, he simply could not believe anyone could kill such an existence.
Extreme doubt and fear assaulted his mind, causing him to subconsciously reach out and touch the armor and bones. However, the coldness and stiffness of the decayed metal, and the feeling of the fragile bones crumbling into powder in his grasp, brought him a terrifying sense of reality.
Watching the ashes flow down from his stiff hands, Logan clenched his fists violently. He began walking forward again. If this was a nightmare, he hoped to wake up from it soon. If this was reality, then he had to figure out what exactly had happened here. He needed to keep going to find the answers.
Continuing forward, he saw a pair of skeletons whose hands were tightly clasped together. Residual red leather and blue-green fabric seemed to confirm their identities: the brother and sister duo with miraculous abilities under Magneto. Although he had mentally prepared himself, Logan still felt a shock in his heart.
Even the person who truly raced against time had not escaped, and his sister, whose strange abilities even Dawn Knight found tricky, was buried here. What exactly was in this place?
Logan continued walking forward. Along the way, he saw skeletons wearing strange helmets and draped in old formal wear, and a corpse with blue scales huddled in the corner. He guessed their identities, but he could no longer muster any other feelings towards them. He was starting to feel numb.
His mind was completely blank. Logan aimlessly wandered through this place submerged in Death and decay, dazed and confused, like a walking corpse. He had completely forgotten the passage of time, merely drifting without an end, yet never stopping.
And at this moment, in the same location, different people had different experiences.
Zhou Yi's figure stood before Logan. The Logan in his eyes was completely different from before. Dark age spots began to appear on his body, and pale hair grew out like mushrooms after rain, replacing his original black hair. His full muscles gradually became slack, and even his eyes turned dull and cloudy.
He completely ignored Zhou Yi standing before him, merely moving his steps slowly. With every step he took, Zhou Yi could feel his vigorous life force weaken by a fraction. This was theoretically impossible, yet it was genuinely happening now. The immortal Wolverine would die from the decay of his own life —the thought was ridiculous and terrifying.
However, it was not just Logan. Everyone deep inside this Base was the same —all the Soldiers, Mutants. Even Mystique and Quicksilver, whom Zhou Yi had brought, had fallen into a bizarre state. They wandered through the Base like roaming corpses, while undergoing terrifying changes on their bodies.
Only three people were exceptions, and only three people noticed the strangeness here: Zhou Yi, Scarlet Witch, and Magneto, who wore a helmet that immunized him against all psychic powers. Regarding everything happening here, aside from knowing it was a psychic attack, they were completely at a loss, and severe disagreements had arisen among them.
"Erik, we must save them. If this continues, they will die very soon." Wanda looked intently at her brother, fear and unease showing in her eyes for the first time.
Beside her, Quicksilver was frozen in a strange running posture, yet he moved as slowly as a crawling snail. And with every tiny movement he made, his body became thinner. His young and vibrant body quickly withered away bit by bit, his skin began to cling tightly to his bones, and his hair became brittle, as if all the water and fat in his body were dissipating.
Wanda desperately channeled her red mist, trying to repair her brother's body. But even though the red mist miraculously restored his body, the next second he would revert to the deteriorated state. Wanda gave her all, but she was completely unable to reverse it.
Watching Wanda repeat the futile action over and over, Magneto first glanced at his most capable subordinate.
Mystique Raven stood rigidly in place, her body convulsing non-stop, as if she were enduring some kind of pain. With every spasm, a new wound appeared on her body. It looked like knife cuts or burns, either bloody skin sloughing off or blood suddenly spurting out. This scene reminded him of very unpleasant things.
Then, struggling to suppress his inner emotions, he said in a low voice.
"I am sorry, Child. We have no time to waste here; we must move forward. We need to stop what is about to happen."
"What?" Wanda's voice suddenly rose, carrying unimaginable fury, and she demanded, "Pietro is your son! You have never fulfilled even a fraction of your paternal responsibility to us. Now, do you intend to abandon his life too?"
"I have no other choice!" Magneto looked directly into his daughter's eyes, his voice firm and unwavering. "Our race is about to face its final destiny, and I cannot gamble away this precious time. Wanda, come with me. If it were Pietro, he would certainly want you to do this."
Looking at Magneto's outstretched hand, Wanda's gaze was icy. She coldly slapped his hand away and spoke in a tone reserved for strangers.
"Let your race die, I am not going anywhere. I will stay right here with my brother."
"Wanda, this is the worst choice you could make!" Magneto exclaimed in frustration, only to be harshly interrupted by her.
"Hoping you could change was the worst choice I ever made. I should have listened to Pietro from the start and stayed as far away from a lunatic like you as possible."
After speaking, she ignored the old man who was solely focused on his race, and wholeheartedly dedicated herself to the task of healing her brother.
Having witnessed her attitude, Magneto turned to Zhou Yi. He had already guessed the answer, but still asked, unwilling to give up.
"What about you, Dawn Knight? What is your choice?"
"My friend is here!" Zhou Yi responded coldly, beginning to look around. But in this place, his super vision seemed to be blocked by something. He was completely unable to see through everything inside this dam.
"Do not forget, your sister is also closely connected to Charles. If we are even one step too slow, she might die right in front of you," Magneto urged, grasping his weakness. He knew Charisse's importance to Zhou Yi, which was one of the key reasons Zhou Yi had come here.
"I believe in the arrangement of fate; it will not disappoint me. Likewise, I trust my intuition, and it has never disappointed me."
Zhou Yi's words struck Magneto as absurd and ridiculous. He did not believe in gods, much less in fate. He only believed in his own power. Having been completely disappointed by these two people, he had lost the will to persuade them further. Even without anyone's help, he would use his own strength to rescue Charles, or make an even worse decision.
Turning away resolutely, Erik had become a lone hero in his own sense. He had to be responsible for his race, not for one or two individual lives. Since he had made his decision, he would never regret it. Moreover, he had long since run out of room for regret.