Reborn with Steve Stand-Chapter 846: Omega-level paralysis with Telepathy as a side effects

“What did you say!?”

On hearing Fang Mo’s words, Apocalypse’s eyes went wide with disbelief. “That…that’s impossible!”

At that moment, he wasn’t the only one stunned—so were the X-Men.

To be honest, an “Omega-level paralysis” was beyond ridiculous. Before, they’d thought that mutants like Toad-Man, Centipede-Woman, and Turtle-Guy already had it bad, but after hearing this, those barely compared. Could a carbon-based lifeform really have dreamt up something this outrageous?

“In a certain mysterious land,” Fang Mo said at last, “there is an old saying: ‘If you wish to wear the crown, you must bear its weight.’

He turned to Apocalypse: “Since you wanted to probe the truth of consciousness and the mind, you must also feel the pain and frailty of mortal flesh…”

“Nonsense!”

Apocalypse’s anger flared even hotter. “This must be one of your filthy schemes!”

“You’re the one spouting nonsense!”

Fang Mo shot back. “Charles being paralyzed wasn’t something that just started yesterday. Since you’ve already learned telepathy, why don’t you read their minds? Then you’ll see if I’m lying.”

“What…”

Apocalypse hesitated. Indeed, he had Charles’s telepathic power. Charles had always been the world’s most powerful telepath, so strong that he couldn’t even stop hearing everyone’s thoughts sometimes. It was a passive skill, not mere memory-reading; if a person’s psychic strength wasn’t at Fang Mo’s absurd level, Charles would instantly pick up their emotions and hazy ideas.

Now that Apocalypse had Charles’s psychic ability, just hearing Fang Mo’s challenge caused it to activate almost reflexively.

At once, he sensed everyone’s subdued thoughts. They all confirmed that Charles had indeed been paralyzed for years.

“How can this be!?”

Follow current novels on ƒreewebηoveℓ.com.

Perceiving the group’s mind-voices, Apocalypse suddenly panicked. Could it be that this Charles fellow really did have paralysis for years?

Apocalypse’s body-hopping was indeed powerful. Over time, he could amass dozens—maybe even hundreds—of abilities, elevating him to godhood. But there was also a drawback:

Apocalypse couldn’t discard any of those powers. Once he absorbed them, he was stuck with them forever. Even if he regretted it one day, it wouldn’t matter.

Sure, if it was plain paralysis, maybe he could suppress it with his advanced healing factor—if it were anything less than Omega-level. He could keep getting paralyzed and instantly regenerating. But now…

It was an Omega-level paralysis.

He felt genuine fear. Enslaving humanity to be a god was one thing, but not if the price was this huge. He’d be fully paralyzed from the neck down—he couldn’t even control basic bodily functions. What joy or purpose would godhood serve then?

“Damn you all for tricking me!”

Realizing this, Apocalypse raged, lying on the altar roaring, “I’ll kill you all!!!”

At his shout, the half-collapsed temple quaked yet again. Clouds of dust whipped around, converging on him like countless tentacles, latching onto his limbs and torso, forcibly dragging him upright from the altar.

“!”

Seeing Apocalypse’s bizarre way of rising, the X-Men tensed. When enraged, Apocalypse’s presence was still terrifying. Everyone assumed a battle stance.

But just as the situation threatened to blow up, an untimely burst of laughter rang out.

“Pff…hahaha!!!”

Fang Mo finally couldn’t hold it in, laughing uproariously.

“What are you laughing at!?”

Apocalypse roared, launching a barrage of sand-forged blades at Fang Mo. A series of dense explosions rang out as they pelted his position, churning up dust and sand. The violent blasts enveloped most of the temple.

“Now that I think about it, I really have to thank you,”

rang Fang Mo’s wryly amused voice from within the smoke. “Because thanks to you, I get to see what an ‘enraged Hawking’ looks like…”

“Not this again…”

Logan pressed a hand over his face in exasperation.

“Wha…?

Apocalypse didn’t fully grasp the insult but sensed mockery.

“I recall you can enhance a mutant’s abilities,”

Fang Mo continued, stepping out of the swirling dust with a cheeky grin. “So if you strengthen Charles’s paralysis even further, you might wind up giving him cerebral palsy too. Wouldn’t want you drooling mid-fight…”

“…”

But, instead of making Apocalypse angrier, Fang Mo’s jab seemingly made him calm down.

“I think I get it now.”

Apocalypse stared at Fang Mo and spoke slowly. “Even though I’ve fallen into your wretched trap, I am still invincible. Perhaps the key to breaking free lies with you. If so, all I must do is eliminate you.”

“You want to body-jack me?”

Fang Mo nearly burst out laughing.

“Afraid?”

Seeing Fang Mo trembling, clearly holding back laughter, Apocalypse mistook it for fear. “Surrender yourself, and maybe I’ll spare your friends…”

“Yes, so very scared. Terrified.”

Fang Mo nodded in fake panic. “Wait, how about a friend of mine named Nya? I could lure him here for you to body-jack—”

“Too late, boy!”

Apocalypse wasn’t fooled. He saw Fang Mo as the main culprit. Raising his hand, he guided the sand-limbs attached to his body.

He looked like a puppet manipulated by countless translucent strands of sand. A rather surreal sight. And as he raised his hand, the entire temple disintegrated into a billowing storm of dust and sand that hurtled at Fang Mo.

All that dust, ash, and grit coalesced into invisible micro-blades spinning around Fang Mo in a roaring vortex—a sand tornado churning so fast it could shred him to pieces.

“!!!”

The X-Men instinctively retreated. Even with mutant powers, they were just flesh and blood. A monstrous attack like that would be fatal to them.

Apocalypse was mildly unnerved that even this devastating move didn’t harm Fang Mo at all. The fine-grain blades slammed into him with a constant crackle, but only scattered sparks; Fang Mo stood there unscathed.

“What…?”

Apocalypse blinked in astonishment.

In the next instant, Fang Mo casually waved his giant degenerate sword. A fierce wave of sword energy tore the tornado asunder, Fang Mo resting the blade across his shoulders.

“…It’s nothing more than a breeze,”

he said blandly.

“…”

Apocalypse’s face darkened. Unwilling to concede, he summoned an even bigger vortex. This time, the scale was immense—half the wrecked temple plus big chunks of the nearby city were caught up in it. Rocks, concrete, rebar, even cars and signage were swept in, whirling down upon Fang Mo, presumably to crush or bury him alive.

“What, is that all you’ve got?”

But Fang Mo still looked utterly unconcerned, even somewhat disappointed. “I keep giving you chances, yet you…eh.”

“You—!”

Apocalypse’s expression was grim.

“Enough, guess I’ll do it myself.”

Fang Mo shook his head. “Super Shinra Tensei…”

“Oh, hell.”

Recognizing that phrase, Logan felt his heart skip a beat. “Pietro! Get us outta here, quick!!”

Just as Logan shouted, Fang Mo unleashed a blast of repulsive force. The ground under him caved in, and a visible sphere of energy expanded outward at breakneck speed, annihilating everything in its path. The debris of the pyramid was pulverized into powder, the vortex scattered, and the dark clouds above were ripped open to the sky. The earth shook violently.

A wave of destructive force radiated from Fang Mo’s position, obliterating everything—Apocalypse included. Despite all his efforts, Apocalypse was battered by that unstoppable blast, forced to shield himself with a barrier and sent flying who-knows-how-far into the distance.

When the dust settled, the pyramid was completely gone, leaving a massive crater that could swallow Cairo itself. By some miracle, thanks to multiple stacked abilities, Apocalypse survived, albeit buried deep in the crust. In time, he struggled free.

When Fang Mo finally found him, Apocalypse looked his way with deep shock and, faintly, dread.

“What’s that look for?”

Fang Mo grinned. “Did you crap yourself already, or do you still have bowel control?”

“You…”

Apocalypse was visibly shaken. “What…are you?!”

“I’m the Soviet Tank Factory,”

Fang Mo hefted the sword, smiling. “…Your dad.”

“…”

Apocalypse froze, momentarily speechless. Finally he blurted, “With such power, why do you let mortals rule the world? Don’t you want to be a god?”

“I’ve zero interest in ruling over idiots.”

Fang Mo shrugged, pulling an Ender Ring from nowhere. “All right, enough talk. Are you ready for me to craft you into a ‘Paralysis Ring?’”

“I am a god!!!”

Enraged, Apocalypse refused to listen, or perhaps sensed an unprecedented threat. He lifted his hand, unleashing the newly acquired telepathy from Charles: “You are the one who must die! Die!!!”

He could boost a mutant’s powers, and his own psychic might surpassed Charles’s. With all these buffs, he now rivaled or exceeded Charles’s mental strength, even as if Charles were still in Cerebro.

The air around Apocalypse’s head warped momentarily, as though his mental force had become physical lances stabbing into Fang Mo’s mind, hoping to eradicate his consciousness in a single blow.

But once those attacks sank into Fang Mo’s head…nothing happened. It was like hurling pebbles into a bottomless well, leaving not even a ripple.

“Hmm?”

Not that it was wholly ineffective—Fang Mo faintly felt something, glancing at Apocalypse. “Did you just attack me?”

“Impossible!”

Apocalypse was shaken to his core. “A person’s mind is their weakest point! How can you be completely unharmed!?”

He prepared to try again, but Fang Mo didn’t give him the chance. He seized Apocalypse’s face with one hand.

Raising his other hand to his own forehead, Fang Mo pulled out a giant black sword seemingly from inside his skull.

Yes—this was the flesh-and-blood sword containing Shoggoth, laced with Emperor’s gold. In essence, it could attack the mind and spirit. To ward off telepathic intrusions, Fang Mo had been keeping it stashed in his own mental space, apparently very effective indeed.

“Look him in the eye, ‘lil brat.”

Without ceremony, Fang Mo slammed Apocalypse’s face against the abyssal blade. The godmetal’s powers activated, and instantly Apocalypse felt his mind go hazy.

“I…this…”

His intellect ebbed away, leaving him dull and vacant.

“See, I warned you not to amplify Charles’s power—now you’re a vegetable.”

Fang Mo chuckled, then forced an Ender Ring into Apocalypse’s chest. A vortex formed, and his body was sucked in like noodles. Fang Mo raised a hand, the ring popped into his palm.

“All done.”