Reborn with Steve Stand-Chapter 821: Fire that Swallows the Whole Earth

"So, you're planning to save the world through time travel?"

After enduring Fang Mo's rambling, Charles rubbed his temples, feeling fatigued. Although a bit overwhelmed, he finally grasped Fang Mo’s idea, which astonishingly aligned with his own. Both intended to use Kitty’s ability to travel back in time and alter the present.

“It’s not saving the world—it’s saving you guys,” Fang Mo corrected. “This world is already beyond saving.”

“This world…” Charles sighed heavily. He would’ve liked to stop Fang Mo’s madness, but if the *Days of Future Past* plan succeeded, the destruction of this world wouldn’t matter, as everything in this timeline would vanish anyway.

“Wait,” the mutant known as Bishop suddenly spoke up from the side. “Are you saying you want to change the past?”

“What else?” Magneto retorted.

“This plan is insane,” Bishop shook his head. “Once the future is rewritten, some of us might cease to exist, as if we were never born. I can’t gamble my life on a future that might not even include us.”

“Then I suggest you convince yourself,” Logan said, casting a glance at Fang Mo. “Because he’s not asking for permission—he’s informing us.”

“Exactly,” Magneto added with a nod. “Especially given your skin color. That’s particularly dangerous.”

“...My skin color?” Bishop was taken aback.

Magneto wasn’t exaggerating. Bishop, an African-American mutant with a distinct dreadlock style, stood out.

“Hey, don’t say that,” Fang Mo suddenly waved his hand. He looked at Bishop with a smile, his gaze carrying an unexpected hint of fondness. “Lately, I’ve been in a good mood, so don’t worry. I’ve already thought about that issue…”

“What issue?” Bishop asked, confused.

“You’re concerned that if the past changes, you’ll cease to exist, right?” Fang Mo waved dismissively. “I’ve already considered that, which is why I came to see Charles.”

“Came to see me?” Charles looked puzzled. “What does this have to do with me?”

“The *Days of Future Past* plan is good, but its flaw is that if history is altered, many of you might lose decades of memories or disappear altogether,” Fang Mo said, rubbing his chin with interest. “But I have a solution.”

“What solution?” The group asked almost in unison.

“I’ve been working on something like a wish-granting machine,” Fang Mo explained. “Using that ability, I should be able to fix the flaws in the *Days of Future Past* plan.”

“A wish-granting machine?” Magneto was intrigued. “The kind that can grant any wish?”

“Theoretically, the finished version could do that,” Fang Mo shrugged. “Unfortunately, I’m only at the beta stage—it’s full of flaws. That’s why I need to consult Charles.”

“So, what do you need from me?” Charles asked, still puzzled.

“I need to ask you about memory, the mind, and consciousness,” Fang Mo explained. “You’re an expert in those fields. If I want to perfect the wish-granting machine, I’ll need to be able to bring everyone’s memories back to the past and overlap them with their younger selves. To do that, I have to master memory manipulation.” RáꞐɵᛒĘȿ

“I see.” Charles nodded, understanding now. “What do you want to ask me?”

Fang Mo looked deep in thought for a moment before finally speaking seriously: “Do you know how to create a hypnosis app?”

“???”

Charles wasn’t the only one left speechless. Everyone in the room froze.

“...What kind of question is that?” Charles sighed, rubbing his temples again. “That’s impossible, and it has nothing to do with the wish machine, does it?”

“Well, what if someone wishes for hypnosis…” Fang Mo began to explain, but suddenly the ship shook violently.

“Professor! Sentinels incoming!” someone shouted.

“What?!”

Those words struck like a nightmare, and everyone felt a chill down their spine. Some anxiously looked out the window, while others turned nervously to Fang Mo. Though their thoughts differed, the fear on their faces was the same.

And just as expected, Fang Mo suddenly slammed the table, rising with an irritated expression.

“Damn it, these bastards never give up, do they?” he cursed, drawing a massive fiery sword from his back, one so large it resembled a door. “Alright, since they’re asking for it…”

As he spoke, the temperature inside the ship rose rapidly. Merely exposing the sword to the air released an overwhelming heat, almost boiling. It felt as if they were standing before a floating star, not a sword.

“How high can this ship fly?” Fang Mo suddenly turned and asked Charles.

“It can travel through space for short periods,” Charles answered instinctively.

“Good.” Fang Mo nodded with satisfaction, then marched toward the cabin door.

“Wait a minute!” Logan suddenly felt a sense of impending doom. He had seen Fang Mo wear that expression during the battles against Sebastian and Jean Grey—he knew what was coming next. “What are you about to do?”

Before Logan could finish his sentence, Fang Mo kicked the cabin door open and jumped out, wielding his enormous sword.

The next second, a fierce gust of wind rushed into the cabin, threatening to blow everyone out.

“Erik!” Charles shouted, gripping the wheels of his wheelchair.

Magneto quickly responded, using his powers to pull the cabin door back and seal it shut with a magnetic field, restoring stability to the ship.

“Phew…” The group collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

“With all due respect, I think the Celestial’s temper isn’t as mild as he claims,” Bishop muttered as he stood up from the floor.

“I don’t know,” Sunspot replied. “At least he’s fighting the Sentinels for us, isn’t he?”

“Don’t get too comfortable,” Logan warned, his anxiety growing. “When this guy gets serious, things go bad quickly. Now that the Sentinels have pissed him off, I have a bad feeling…”

“What do you mean?” Sunspot asked.

Not just Sunspot, but the others looked confused as well. Following Logan’s lead, they approached the window and peered outside.

What they saw caused their pupils to contract in fear.

In the distance, a massive fleet of Sentinel carriers was approaching, blackening the sky. There were so many of them that it seemed impossible to count. The oppressive sight of those looming ships filled everyone with dread.

“Why… are there so many?!” someone exclaimed.

In the past, even just a few carriers had been enough to decimate them. But now, it seemed like an endless swarm, overwhelming in its vastness.

“They’ve never taken us seriously before,” Colossus said, taking a deep breath. “Is this… true despair?”

“Not yet,” Logan said darkly. “The real terror is coming…”

Before anyone could react, a blinding light suddenly illuminated the distant sky, as if the entire cloud layer had been set on fire. The intense brightness cut through the air like a sharp blade.

“Aaaah!!”

Everyone felt searing pain in their eyes. Even though the ship’s glass was specially coated to block such flashes, they were still blinded by the intense white light. Tears streamed uncontrollably from their eyes, and it took a long moment for their vision to recover.

When they finally looked again, they were utterly stunned by the sight before them.

“What… what is that?!”

Far off in the distance, above the cloud layer, hovered an incomprehensibly bright, fiery mass.

It resembled an exaggeratedly large ball of light, almost like a miniature sun suspended in the dark sky. The air around it shimmered with unbearable heat, and clouds swirled around it as if alive, forming a sea of fire.

It truly appeared as though a sun had descended to Earth, lighting up the entire landscape.

All the Sentinel carriers immediately changed direction and flew toward the light.

“The Sentinels… they’ve stopped chasing us,” Blink said in a daze. “Are they going after that… Celestial?”

“They’re heading to their deaths,” Logan said with a grim expression.

Just as he spoke, the blazing orb began its descent toward the ground.

The temperature of that fiery core had surpassed human understanding. As it descended, the surrounding gases were ionized, becoming a glowing plasma, known as the fourth state of matter.

As it fell, millions of plasma orbs accompanied it, creating a devastating force that could consume everything in its path.

“Storm!” Charles shouted, losing all semblance of calm. “Ascend! Now! Faster!”

Storm didn’t need to be told twice. She immediately pulled the ship’s controls, accelerating the ship skyward, fleeing the scene like a bolt of lightning.

Moments later, the fiery sun crashed into the Earth.

Fueled by the eternal fire, the reforged sword Laevateinn unleashed its full potential.

With temperatures exceeding 15 million degrees, it created an explosion akin to countless atomic bombs going off simultaneously. Everything within the impact zone was vaporized, leaving behind a void, with astronomical levels of heat radiation spreading outward.

The scorching heat expanded rapidly, turning air into plasma, disintegrating sand and stone into subatomic particles, and erasing everything in its path.

In that apocalyptic explosion, all of New York was consumed in an endless white light. The red-hot surge of molten earth swept across everything, burning everything to ash.

Within a few hours, this blue planet would no longer exist.

Even the Sentinels, with their advanced polymers, couldn’t withstand the heat. Their molecular structures broke down, and they were reduced to ash, becoming part of the inferno.

Meanwhile, outside the Earth’s atmosphere, aboard the ship, the group stood frozen at the window, watching in horror as the Earth was consumed by the red flames.

“What… what is this…”

Though the Earth had turned into a hellish inferno, the group only felt an icy chill crawling up their spines, as if their very blood was freezing. They didn’t want to believe their eyes; it was easier to think this was a nightmare than to accept the reality before them.

“Am… am I dreaming?” Kitty whispered, her face pale and dazed.

“I think… I think so too,” Blink muttered, just as shocked as she stared at the burning planet below.

Suddenly, Blink raised her hand and opened a portal near the ship, attempting to test the reality of what she saw.

The portal opened, and instantly, molten lava poured through, shaking the entire ship.

“Blink!”

“S-sorry!” Blink quickly closed the portal, cutting off the searing flow of lava.

“…”

The cabin fell into a stunned silence.

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