This time, Tony and the others were utterly trapped in a desperate situation.
Storm and Cyclops were using their powers to the fullest, and Tony Stark was tirelessly circling their small group, firing particle pulse cannons to knock down any demons that tried to break through.
But no matter how many they killed, the number of demons kept increasing, and they grew stronger. It was no longer as efficient as mowing down grass.
Cyclops was still effective, his red beams incinerating any demons they touched, but stronger demons kept filling in. He couldn't clear them all. Storm's powers were strong but lacked the endurance of Cyclops. Over time, her strength waned, making it increasingly difficult for her to use her abilities.
The situation grew more critical. Hank and Wolverine Logan were doing their best to guard the two heavy hitters. Logan was fine, as his Adamantium claws could easily tear through the demons' skin. Beast Hank was less effective; though his strength and speed were many times that of an ordinary human, he still struggled against the extraordinary demons.
In one-on-one fights, Hank had to spend considerable time just to take down a low-level demon. Essentially, Hank was merely a side player.
Jean could feel the enclosing circle. Their lines were being overtaken by the demons, and the situation had become extremely dire. Yet, she was powerless. Her telekinesis had little effect on the demons.
The denser the object, the harder it was for her to control. The smallest demons were four to five meters tall, the larger ones seven to eight meters, and some over ten meters. Controlling even one demon took all her strength, and she could only push them away, not crush them on the spot.
Feeling the impending crisis, a trace of hesitation flashed in Jean's eyes.
She was uncertain whether to release the terrifying personality imprisoned within her. No one, not even Professor Charles, knew that she had recently probed the deepest part of her mind, or rather, had been pulled into it by that entity.
Her inner mind was like a prison, separated by a barrier, where she saw someone who looked exactly like her.
But that Jean was crazy, dark, evil, violent, and full of primal desires. She was desperate to take over Jean's body and imprison the main personality. Jean could feel the terrifying power of this persona, not just its personality but its immense strength.
A power that seemed familiar yet strange to her.
This power could destroy everything, and if she could use it, she could undoubtedly solve the current crisis. But Jean also knew that using this power would release the terrifying persona, and she might be defeated by it and be imprisoned in her own mind.
Jean hesitated but then her eyes became resolute.
A surge of red flashed in her eyes.
Meanwhile, Bi Xiao, who was silently laying traps in the distance, suddenly sensed something and looked towards the densely packed demons. Through them, he saw the X-Men surrounded by demons.
His attention was drawn to Jean.
That kind of cosmic-level power, no less than Chaos Magic, another form of energy.
"The Phoenix Force?"
In this moment of crisis, Jean Grey, the Phoenix, actively used the hidden power. Bi Xiao was not surprised. In life-and-death situations, Jean's outburst was normal. As the host of the Phoenix Force, the force would not let its host die.
Yes, the Phoenix Force is a high-level intelligent life form, presented as a cosmic-level energy.
The Phoenix Force is one of the most feared entities in the multiverse. It can slice through or regenerate entire realities. It embodies the concepts of life and emotion, carrying the power of creation and destruction.
It has the highest level of perception and intuition, allowing it to sense everything.
As the link point of all life's minds in the infinite multiverse, it has immense psychic power, capable of all psychic abilities, like multiverse-level telepathy and telekinesis.
It can freely create, manipulate, and destroy all space and time, such as teleportation, time travel, space freezing, and altering space dimensions and time axes.
It can also easily destroy or create any space-time dimension and travel freely through them.
It has the power to control causality, weave destiny, and manipulate everything, even rewriting history at will.
This multiverse-level power is on par with Chaos Magic.
However, due to certain reasons, the Phoenix Force was dispersed and vanished into the universe. Jean Grey is an incomplete host of the Phoenix Force, but due to her own limitations, she cannot fully control it.
Her childhood experiences prevented her from mastering the Phoenix Force, leading her to cause destruction to those around her and developing an inexplicable fear of this power.
She resisted the Phoenix Force, repressed from a young age, inadvertently creating a dark persona within her, one filled with primal desires and violence.
This persona never resisted the Phoenix Force; instead, she could easily wield it.
Before this persona grew, Professor X detected and found Jean, sensing the dark persona's existence. Unable to eliminate it, he used his strong psychic powers to seal it deep within Jean's mind.
He even erased some of Jean's repressive memories.
Due to some negative emotions from Jean, her dark personality grows stronger.
The idea is good, but unfortunately, no matter how powerful Professor X's psychic abilities are, he cannot forever suppress the growing dark personality.
Thus, the ultimate outcome is inevitably the dark personality taking over the body.
At that time, the first thing the dark personality, imprisoned for over a decade, would do is seek revenge and destruction.
The Phoenix Force is very special, and so is Jean as its host. However, as far as Bi Xiao is concerned, he only pays slight attention to it. After all, an incomplete Phoenix Force is not very powerful. If it were him, he would have a thousand ways to kill Jean or even strip away the incomplete Phoenix Force.
But he is not very interested in this power. The main issue is that the Phoenix Force and Jean Grey herself have become entangled with karma and causality.
This woman is destined to be accepted by the complete Phoenix Force in the future.
Even if he stripped away the Phoenix Force, it would not recognize him and might even become hostile.
If he could analyze the Phoenix Force or kill it to plunder its life essence, he wouldn't mind doing so. However, this is only a part of the complete Phoenix Force, similar to Dormammu's previous descent to Earth. Killing it would not yield life essence.
At most, it would only damage the Phoenix Force itself. The Phoenix Force has a bug: it cannot die. If injured or killed, it returns to the White Hot Room to manipulate cosmic energy into a "giant egg" to heal, until it is reborn.
It's essentially an unkillable cosmic monster, so it's not on Bi Xiao's hunting list at all.
Otherwise, he would have had the ability to kill this incomplete Phoenix Force years ago.
Bi Xiao withdrew his gaze as the Phoenix Jean finally erupted. At the most critical moment, she no longer resisted the Phoenix Force. Her eyes flashed with a red glow, and a brilliant phoenix silhouette, burning with energy flames, appeared behind her.
A phoenix's cry resounded through the heavens, and the vast energy swept across the world.
In an instant, the hundreds of thousands, even millions, of demons in the sky were disintegrated and completely erased without a sound.
This strange scene stunned the X-Men, Tony Stark, and Thor, who were in the middle of battle.
While they were fighting fiercely, the increasing number of demons all suddenly died, leaving Tony's eyes wide in his MK armor. He stood there, glancing at the now-empty surroundings, then at the expressionless Phoenix Jean.
Then, he looked at the energy index marked as unmeasurable by Jarvis on his panel and suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
What's going on?
In this era, are women getting scarier one by one?
Every now and then, they show such terrifying abilities. Wanda is like this, that woman who appeared out of nowhere, riding a Pegasus, covered in scars yet fighting more fiercely. Now this mutant, suddenly going berserk in a desperate situation, clearing the map with a massive move, instantly wiping out hundreds of millions of demon armies.
Tony suddenly felt that losing his abilities for a few years wasn't so bad.
At least he wouldn't accidentally provoke such terrifying women one day.
While he was lost in thought, the other X-Men members were also astonished by Jean's outburst.
"Jean?"
Logan looked at Jean in disbelief. For the woman he had feelings for, he had always been very clear about her abilities. She was a telepath and a telekinetic mutant.
However, her abilities were neither particularly strong nor particularly weak.
Compared to the first-tier mutants, she couldn't compete, and even among the second-tier mutants, she wasn't particularly strong, though she had a very proficient control over her abilities.
But achieving the effect just now was something he had never imagined.
Scott and Storm had similarly bewildered and shocked expressions.
Beast Hank, however, was different from the others. He looked at Jean with a frown. As one of Professor X's earliest companions, he knew some things about Jean very well.
Professor X had even discussed this with him before.
So, when Jean went berserk, Hank immediately realized the reason.
This made him very alert. Jean was undoubtedly an extremely gentle, outwardly soft but inwardly strong woman, very competent, and even fulfilled the mutant academy's external diplomatic duties.
Clear-headed, calm, rational, gentle—the students all liked Jean.
However, he was very clear that beneath this exterior, a terrifying personality was hidden, a dark personality wielding horrific power.
Once this personality took over Jean's body, it would undoubtedly be a huge disaster for the world and the entire mutant academy.
Boom!
Before Hank could speak, a thunderclap rang out, and a lightning bolt pierced the sky, landing in front of the X-Men.
As the lightning dispersed, it revealed none other than Thor.
Then, a green flash appeared, and Loki stood beside Thor. Sif and the Warriors Three descended on their Pegasus, slowly landing. The Asgardians were sizing up the X-Men, or rather, they were mainly observing the expressionless Jean.
"Incredible power. I didn't expect that in Midgard, apart from Wanda, Pietro, and Bella, there would be such excellent warriors like you," Thor praised heartily, introducing himself, "Thor Odinson, from Asgard."
"Loki Odinson."
"Sif."
"Fandral."
"Volstagg. Nice to meet you, mighty warriors."
For the strong, Asgardian warriors have always shown great respect. Clearly, in this recent battle against the demons, the X-Men's performance has earned everyone's respect.
As for Tony, well, he's just a side note. After all, that iron shell of his isn't all that impressive.
The X-Men showed basic vigilance toward Thor and his group, but out of politeness, they introduced themselves, including Jean, who maintained a blank expression.
Jean's expression was mainly due to her effort to balance her resistance to the power she had unleashed within her body.
Jean could feel she needed to stay calm, or else something bad would definitely happen.
However, basic communication wasn't an issue.
"Asgard? The Asgard I know?" Tony Stark suddenly asked.
"I think I've heard of that name." Logan, not well-educated, had heard of it but didn't know much. Scott, standing worriedly by Jean's side, habitually mocked his old rival, "Spend less time chasing women and learn something, Logan. Asgard is the realm of the gods in Norse mythology."
"The ruler of Asgard is Odin, the All-Father."
At this point, Scott also realized, looking in astonishment at Thor and the others, especially Thor's iconic armor, hammer, and his ability to control thunder.
"You're Thor Odinson? The son of Odin? The God of Thunder?"
"Surprising that some humans still remember this. I thought with the passage of time, few would remember us." Thor's answer was a tacit confirmation.
"Damn." Scott cursed under his breath, feeling his worldview being refreshed once again.
It wasn't just him; everyone felt the same.
First demons, and now Asgard, Thor, Loki, Sif, and the Warriors Three, all legendary figures from Norse mythology.
Does this mean that the myths are real?
There was some doubt, but not much.
Primarily because of the power displayed by Thor, Loki, and the others, and the restive Pegasus snorting and pawing the ground before them.
Such a creature seemed unlikely to exist on Earth.
Especially considering that a Pegasus's displayed combat power was far superior to Tony's. What benefit would there be in deceiving them? Besides, if demons could appear, the existence of Thor, Loki, and Odin didn't seem out of place.
Quickly accepting the facts, Hank was the first to ask, "Thor, are those things demons?"
"Yes, they come from Hell. Someone used an ancient artifact to open a portal between Earth and the Hell dimension. This portal is expanding, and if not closed soon, demons will keep pouring out of Hell."
Thor glanced at the vast army of demons spewing from the giant Hell gate in the distance and said gravely.
After speaking, his expression became even more serious as he added, "Moreover, these demons are just low-level demons, cannon fodder. Over time, higher-level, intelligent demons will appear. I don't believe those demons will remain patient for long."
"Hell?"
Listening to Thor's words, everyone gasped, shocked. Tony, his mind racing, pointed out a key question: "Thor, are there demon lords in Hell?"
"Demon lords?" Thor was taken aback, then suddenly understood and said, "You mean the rulers of Hell?"
"Demon rulers?"
"Yes, Hell rulers are the masters of a Hell dimension or kingdom. They possess omnipotent powers. There are indeed many of these demon rulers in Hell, and this portal breaches the ancient contract signed by Earth's gods. Their powers wouldn't be suppressed if they came to Earth."
"So they could also descend to Earth."
This news left everyone speechless, their hearts in turmoil, overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness and despair.
If they struggled so much against just a group of cannon fodder demons, and if the air forces of various countries were quickly annihilated, how could they possibly contend with even more omnipotent demon lords?
How could they possibly fight?
~~~
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— Completed (Chapter 277: Finale)