The sentinel robots did not directly collide with Ian but instead surrounded him from all directions twenty meters away, unleashing columns of fire from every angle.
The ten or so fiery columns illuminated the sky brightly. At the center of the flames, Ian and Aisha were entirely engulfed.
Temperatures of nearly ten thousand degrees scorched the particle shield Ian had deployed, causing the atoms in the high-temperature environment to become extremely active.
Fortunately, these particles were already in their atomic state, so there was no risk of melting. Even at higher temperatures, they remained atoms, fully under Ian's control.
However, while atoms were impervious to high heat, Ian and Aisha's flesh and blood bodies could not endure such extreme temperatures.
With a thought, Ian caused a portion of the particles in the shield to initiate nuclear fusion reactions. The immense heat energy from the flames was swiftly absorbed.
This method was something Ian devised after mastering the ability of the Elemental Furnace, specifically to counter high-energy attacks.
The principle was simple: while nuclear fission reactions release massive amounts of energy, nuclear fusion reactions require equally massive amounts of energy.
It would be challenging to achieve this through pure technology, but Ian's mastery of elemental control made it effortless.
While many mutant abilities seem to defy the law of energy conservation, pure material reactions must still adhere to it.
As the Elemental Master, Ian manipulated the process of atomic reactions rather than directly creating results. Thus, his nuclear fusion reactions required or absorbed energy as dictated by material properties.
For Ian, this was advantageous—after all, the enormous energy needed for time travel came from this process.
Ian refrained from counterattacking, allowing the sentinels to bombard him for dozens of seconds. Unfortunately, the intensity of their flames did not increase further.
This disappointed Ian. "Is this all? Only Level 3 strength?"
As the nuclear fusion reaction intensified, the flames' heat was instantly absorbed, and the temperature within several hundred meters plummeted to below zero.
Even the sentinels began to show signs of freezing. Before their flames could be released, they were already cooled.
The sentinel combat system immediately adjusted. The fiery robots transformed into icy figures, and the flames beneath their feet turned into chilling frost. Their attack mode shifted from fire to freezing.
Half of the sentinels flew directly toward Ian, seemingly aiming for close-range combat.
"Still only Level 3!" Ian shook his head in disappointment. "So that's their limit!"
Losing interest in further testing, Ian casually waved his hand. The sentinels, along with their two aircraft, were instantly disassembled into basic atoms.
While these sentinel robots could simulate many abilities, Ian doubted they could recover from being reduced to atoms and then reassembled.
As expected, once reduced to atoms, the sentinels were swept away by the wind, and their traces of energy disappeared entirely.
After dealing with the sentinels, Ian glanced at Aisha beside him with a questioning look.
"No signs of mutant activity or living humans," Aisha replied.
"This city really is devoid of life," Ian sighed.
After such a loud disturbance, it was impossible for any hidden mutants in the city not to react.
"Were those just now the ultimate form of the sentinel robots?" Aisha asked doubtfully.
She had seen the data on the main world's sentinel robots, which paled in comparison to these.
Ian led Aisha to the roof of a building and nodded affirmatively. "Yes!"
"How were these robots able to perfectly simulate mutant abilities?" Aisha asked curiously.
"Through some technological means, the sentinels can mimic the X-gene of mutants, triggering the laws of the world to produce power."
Though the battle had been brief, it was enough for Ian to deduce the principles behind the sentinel robots:
"This is likely tied to the unique environment of this world. The main world would never be able to achieve this."
During the battle, Ian noticed that the laws of this world were more active than those of the main world. At the same time, this world was much weaker overall.
The first factor led to an abundance of mutants, with even more latent mutants. While this would generally benefit the mutant race, the second factor created a terrifying effect: the ability to manipulate the laws of the world without relying on conscious will.
This resulted in the nearly extinction-level threat to mutants—the sentinel robots!
In the main world, this would be impossible. The strength of the main world's fabric would prevent the X-gene alone from manipulating the laws of the world without a guiding will.
Without the ability to manipulate these laws, the sentinels would pose limited threats even if they could mimic the effects of mutant abilities.
The power of mutants lies not just in the visible manifestations of their abilities but in their direct manipulation of the world's laws.
For example, the flames generated by mutants aren't merely ordinary flames, and their ice isn't simple ice.
Thus, Ian had never worried about the sentinels of the main world.
After witnessing the sentinels of this world, he was no longer concerned about them either.
"What's our next step? Do we search for surviving mutants?" Aisha asked.
"Not for now. Let's find the sentinel headquarters first," Ian replied, shaking his head.
He disassembled the debris on the rooftop, constructing an alloy villa for them to use as a temporary base.
Ian hadn't forgotten that his purpose in traveling to this timeline was to find Apocalypse.
However, Apocalypse didn't exist in this era, and there was likely no trace of his genetic material either.
To locate Apocalypse, Ian would have to travel back in time.
As outsiders, Ian and Aisha were not part of this timeline's destiny, making time travel less resistant for them.
Additionally, the instability of this timeline made it much easier for Ian to travel to the past.
But before that, Ian didn't want to miss out on this timeline's greatest treasure—the X-gene samples!
With more mutants in this world and the sentinels actively capturing and killing them, the sentinel forces must possess an extensive X-gene database, likely containing millions of samples.
With advanced X-gene transplantation technology, a large X-gene database would significantly boost the overall strength of both the Nova Corps and the Mutant Academy.
There was no way Ian would pass up such a treasure.
The only problem was that he didn't yet know the location of the sentinel headquarters.
Having taken over the entire globe, the sentinel headquarters could be anywhere. Ian didn't want to search aimlessly.
The best approach was to wait for the sentinels to come to him.
With two aircraft destroyed here, the sentinel headquarters would undoubtedly dispatch more robots to investigate!
Thick leaden clouds blanketed the sky, obscuring the stars. Not wanting to stay outside, Ian called out to Aisha:
"Let's go inside and rest for a while. Those robots will probably take some time to arrive!"
There is a (41) chapter of this novel available on Patreon: [patreon.com/Naruto11]. You can also find the link in the novel description if you'd like to copy it.