The corrupted Apocalypse had gained extraordinary power. After being infused with Void energy, even the suppressive effects of Void powers against mutant abilities had been greatly diminished.
Though Xaku's Void Reverberation attacks were still effective, they could no longer suppress Apocalypse or block his abilities.
After several exchanges, Marcus had a better understanding of what the corrupted Apocalypse could do.
His abilities had been drastically enhanced, and the suppressive effects of Void energy were now almost useless against him.
The only good news was that Apocalypse couldn't actively use Void powers. He couldn't control the Void energy surrounding his body—he could only passively benefit from the enhancement it provided.
The angel-like figure hovering in the air pointed his scepter, and in the turbulent yellow sand below, a massive Sphinx rapidly formed.
In seconds, a colossal beast made entirely of hard stone rose from the sand and let out a deafening roar.
ROARRR!
The sound was so powerful it blasted away the surrounding sand and dust.
The Sphinx spread its stone wings and shook them violently before charging toward Marcus at incredible speed.
"Lost Skill: Deny!"
A Void beam shot from Marcus's hand and swept across the Sphinx. The beam possessed tremendous destructive power—even the hard stone covering the Sphinx's body couldn't withstand it and began breaking apart.
But no matter how quickly Marcus destroyed sections of the beast, the Sphinx repaired itself just as fast. Yellow sand surged over its body like flowing water, instantly filling damaged areas and hardening back into stone.
"Tch, this thing's resilient."
The Void beam was devastating at close range, but it seemed inadequate against a self-repairing sand monster like the Sphinx.
After all, the Sphinx was controlled directly by Apocalypse. To defeat it, Marcus would need to deal with Apocalypse himself.
The stone-bodied Sphinx leaped high into the air and plummeted toward Marcus. Seeing the massive beast falling from above, Marcus tapped his foot and quickly dodged backward.
THUD!
The stone monster slammed into the ground, creating cracks across its entire body. Yet this didn't slow it down.
As it rose again, the cracks rapidly healed, and it continued flapping its wings, pursuing Marcus relentlessly.
This time it attacked more aggressively, raising its stone claws and swiping violently. Several powerful slashes headed straight for Marcus.
Swish!
Facing the incoming attack, Marcus immediately countered, swinging his energy blade to meet the slashes and releasing several blades of energy.
After unleashing another Void beam, the Sphinx's attack was easily shattered, and the beam continued onward to strike the beast.
The Void beam instantly hit the giant creature, destroying the stone scales covering its body.
But the Sphinx wasn't truly alive—its scales were merely decorative. Even when destroyed, they didn't affect its function.
Yellow sand began surging in the Sphinx's mouth. With another roar, the sand transformed into a quicksand cannon that blasted toward Marcus.
BOOM!
The quicksand blast exploded upon impact with the ground, thick dust obscuring Marcus from view.
Just as the Sphinx moved to follow up, a massive I-beam thrust violently into its body, followed immediately by a red energy beam and a powerful storm.
The attacks from Erik and Scott were particularly effective. Their strikes carried extreme heat and tremendous impact. While destroying parts of the Sphinx, they also melted portions of its body into lava.
The ensuing storm enveloped the Sphinx completely, trapping the stone behemoth inside as the mutants' combined assault continuously wore it down.
Seeing the Sphinx besieged by the group, Apocalypse abandoned control of the creature, allowing them to destroy what remained of it.
He had more important matters to attend to. Pointing his scepter at the pyramid, he drew the cyan energy spread across its surface toward himself.
The previous attacks had merely been distractions. His real objective was the energy transformed by the pyramid's spire. This power had more uses beyond helping him complete the transfer ceremony.
As cyan energy continued pouring into him, Apocalypse waved his scepter in the air. The yellow sand on the ground condensed, quickly forming numerous massive humanoid stone statues.
The statues' eyes glowed with cyan energy before firing concentrated beams toward Marcus.
In Apocalypse's assessment, the skeleton-like Marcus posed the greatest threat. The other mutants couldn't even penetrate his shield, but Marcus somehow bypassed it and attacked him directly.
Now in his skeletal form, Marcus was forced to dodge the blue beams fired by the humanoid statues.
These cyan rays were incredibly destructive—comparable to Havok's energy blasts. When they hit the ground, they melted rock into bubbling lava within seconds.
Faced with such an assault, Marcus could only evade while constantly releasing energy blades and Void beams to fight back.
Fortunately, these stone statues lacked the corruption that enhanced Apocalypse. They were ordinary constructs that could emit high-temperature rays but couldn't resist Marcus's attacks.
Under his sustained counterattack, each statue was quickly destroyed. But this created a new problem—upon destruction, each statue exploded violently, sending deadly shrapnel in all directions.
Explosions surrounded Marcus, with shockwaves carrying countless stone fragments everywhere. This forced him to deploy Grasp of the Void.
Tendrils of Void energy extended around him, condensing into numerous Void orbs that fired rays at the statues and incoming debris.
With these additional Void rays, Marcus's combat efficiency improved dramatically. No longer worried about flying debris from the explosions, he focused on destroying the ray-firing statues with concentrated Void beams and energy blades.
Seeing his stone creations being rapidly destroyed, Apocalypse glanced at the pyramid behind him, then waved gently toward it.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The pyramid began to vibrate continuously. Though nothing changed visibly, everyone, including Marcus, grew instantly alert.
Apocalypse's previous actions had summoned many powerful constructs. This new development would surely bring something even more dangerous.
Whether it was the endless army of sand soldiers, the nearly indestructible Sphinx, or these humanoid statues with their devastating energy beams—all possessed impressive strength. The Sphinx and colossal statues had effectively prevented Marcus from directly attacking Apocalypse.
This pyramid vibration must be Apocalypse summoning something even more powerful.
However, while destroying the statues, Marcus noticed subtle changes in Apocalypse's appearance. The golden Void energy surrounding his body seemed to be fading slightly.
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