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Kent Star, Kent City.
Blue spatial gates flickered into existence throughout Kent City. To the astonishment of pedestrians, Jean, Hela, Emma, and Erik charged through. Before they could even offer a greeting to the local residents, Charles's voice boomed directly into the minds of everyone in the city.
"Please, evacuate the area immediately. We have an incursion. Combat is imminent."
The warning sent a wave of panic and urgency through the populace. People began to move instantly, guided by the flickering holographic projections of Jor-El, which appeared at every corner to lead them safely away from the landing zone.
Seeing the perimeter being cleared, Erik let out a sigh of relief and looked up toward the sky of Kent City.
Two jagged spatial rifts, looking like intersecting wounds, slashed across the firmament. Two figures, wreathed in flickering solar fire, were descending from the tears in reality.
One wore an elegant, high-collared gown, radiating the presence of a noble queen. The other appeared to be a sleek, metallic construct—a machine.
The moment they appeared, the sky itself seemed to ignite.
Almost simultaneously, both inter-dimensional visitors locked their gazes onto Jean. As their eyes met in mid-air, Erik and the others were jolted by a shock of recognition. They instinctively turned to look at the Emma Frost standing beside them.
The woman who looked like a queen bore a seventy percent resemblance to their Emma.
Emma frowned, her voice low and tense. "A version of me from another world?"
"Can we talk to her?" Jean whispered. If it was another Emma, perhaps there was a chance for diplomacy.
Hela's lips curled into a cold smirk. "I don't think talking is on the menu." She could already taste the faint, sharp scent of killing intent radiating from both newcomers.
Emma hesitated, then said, "Let me try to reach out to my counterpart." She was naturally curious about this alternate self.
However, the moment the words left her mouth, a titanic surge of psychic energy slammed into her. it felt like a tidal wave designed to crush her will and seize total control of her mind.
It was an attack from the White Queen of the other world.
Startled, Emma instantly shifted into her diamond form. Her skin shimmered with a prismatic, multi-colored brilliance, successfully insulating her from the psychic assault.
Seeing this, the hearts of Erik and the others sank.
The alternate Emma, hovering in the sky, let her lips curve into a condescending smile. "As expected of me." Her eyes flickered, shifting her focus back to Jean with a look of deep wariness.
She could sense the tremors of the Phoenix Force within the girl. If the host of this universe was Jean Grey, she would have to be extremely cautious. She had encountered Jean in her own world—a woman who, even without the Phoenix, was a terrifying entity known as the Black Queen.
Just then, the other host—the mechanical entity—let out an unsettling whir of gears and static. It looked between the two Emmas and the Jean on the ground, its logic circuits processing the threat levels.
Two targets. Which one to strike first?
But striking one would inevitably give the third party an opening. The alternate Emma was clearly following the same logic. Since the invaders didn't strike immediately, Erik and his team weren't about to break the fragile stalemate either.
For a moment, the three factions were locked in a tense standoff.
Just as Emma was suppressing her anger over the sneak attack and preparing to speak, two more rifts tore open across the Kent City sky.
Everyone froze.
The faces of the three Phoenix hosts—Jean, the Queen, and the Machine—turned deathly pale. They could sense a presence emerging from one of the new rifts that was vastly more powerful than the three of them combined.
In that instant, all hesitation vanished. The stalemate shattered as they lunged at one another.
Jean streaked toward the mechanical host, identifying it as the weakest of the trio. Simultaneously, Erik, Hela, and Emma launched a synchronized assault on the alternate White Queen.
Phoenix energy surged through the air. Flaming Phoenix bolts clashed with Jean's telekinetic waves, the resulting booms threatening to shatter the very heavens. Hela flung a rain of obsidian swords into the air, which Erik instantly seized with his magnetic fields, accelerating them into supersonic projectiles. Guided by Emma's full-throttle psychic guidance, the weapons screamed toward the alternate Queen like a falling constellation.
This was a battle without reservation. The spatial rifts were multiplying; if they didn't eliminate these two quickly, the situation would spiral into total chaos as more hosts arrived.
Simultaneously, fierce battles had erupted in London and New York. Jagged black scars now marred the face of the entire planet, looking like the onset of the apocalypse.
The world was in upheaval. Fear gripped the hearts of all who watched.
What they didn't know was that the nightmare had only just begun.
Back in Charles's Office...
Jor-El and Mike stood together. While Charles tracked the mental signatures of the arriving hosts, Jor-El utilized Kent Star's technology to monitor the global anomalies.
"Washington, Paris, Venice, Milan..."
Charles called out the names of the cities, his voice trembling noticeably. As he spoke, Jor-El's fingers flew across a holographic interface.
One screen, two screens...
Virtual displays popped up one after another, each representing a new spatial rift. And each rift represented a Phoenix host or some other powerful entity.
As time ticked by, it wasn't just Phoenix hosts who were noticing this universe. Other unknown, ancient powers were turning their sights toward them.
"Our universe is exposed," Jor-El whispered, his expression more somber than Mike had ever seen it. "We are attracting attention like a lighthouse in a storm. This is a disaster."
The recent battle between the Dark Phoenix and Onslaught Olivia had cracked the dimensional barrier, turning their universe into a beacon for every Phoenix hunter in the multiverse. The hosts were already locked in a desperate war for dominance, traveling between worlds to seize more fragments. Now that a set of "coordinates" had been broadcasted, they were swarming to the source.
Enter, seize, move to the next universe.
The chilling reality was that many hosts had come to the same conclusion at the same time. They had reached a silent, unspoken consensus: they would break through the barriers and descend upon this world simultaneously.
Mike's eyes flashed with a cold, dangerous light. "They're trying to turn our planet—our entire universe—into a gladiatorial arena for the Phoenix Force. They won't stop until a final victor emerges."
The final victor—the one who would hold the complete, unified Phoenix Force.
And when that happened, what would be left of their world? Would it even exist?
(End of Chapter)