The Comprehensive Evolution of American Comics

"Where am I?"

Magneto dazedly opened his eyes. The salty and humid sea breeze not only ruffled his hair but also invaded his nostrils. Magneto frowned slightly as a fishy and foul odor, carried by the sea breeze, assaulted his nose.

It smelled like a slaughterhouse. After a few seconds, his vision gradually cleared, and he could finally see his surroundings clearly, but the first sight gave him a great shock.

Standing in front of Magneto was an unfamiliar young man with curly hair, a high nose bridge, and deep eye sockets, looking like an Indian. The man's expression was blank, his eyes were unfocused, and his skin was pale, hardly resembling a living person.

Magneto instinctively wanted to raise his hand, but he realized that his hand had never been lowered because it was currently plunged into the young man's chest. It was also because of his hand providing support that the corpse in front of him hadn't fallen.

Magneto felt a wave of dizziness and staggered backward. The right hand plunged into the corpse's chest was pulled out with a disgusting 'spludge' sound.

The corpse, losing its support, fell forward, but just as it tilted forward, it fell backward even faster, hitting the ground with a thud.

In his staggering, Magneto reached back with his right hand, eventually touching something cold and hard. Weakly, he bent his knees and sat directly on the cold object.

It was a throne made entirely of metal. The main body of the throne was intact, appearing natural and as if it had always been there. However, the emblem on the back of the throne was tattered—an 'X' composed of countless metal fragments of varying sizes, rhythmically orbiting like rings around a celestial body.

His blood-soaked right hand drooped weakly. Magneto covered his head with his left hand and asked again.

"Where am I?"

"Boom!"

A shocking bolt of lightning struck down from the sky, landing not far from Magneto. This startled him awake, and Magneto subconsciously looked up, the scene he saw causing his expression to change drastically.

It could only be described as a field of corpses. Dozens of bodies lay like a road, stretching from the end of the island to the throne he was sitting on.

"Did… I do this?" Magneto's voice trembled, almost squeezed out of his throat.

'We did this.'

A familiar voice suddenly sounded, stunning Magneto. This voice was far more jarring than the thunder just now because the owner of the voice was someone who should have been dead long ago.

Magneto mechanically turned his head, and his eyes were met with that conspicuous bald head. It was his long-missed friend, Professor X, Charles Francis Xavier, whom he had personally killed.

"Charles?" Magneto exclaimed in shock. "Why? You should be dead already?"

'Yes, physiologically, I am indeed dead as can be.' Professor X raised his right hand, extending his index finger and drawing a line across his chest from left to right, then mimicking the action by drawing a line from right to left, forming a large 'X'.

'You used the hood of my favorite car to sever my body. Such morbid humor, Max. To be honest, my heart and body hurt equally at that moment.'

"Then how did you come back to life? I clearly watched you being buried?"

Magneto couldn't believe what he was seeing. Not only was Magneto killed by his own hand, but he was also buried by his own hand, in the center of the floating island. He went to see him almost every month; it was impossible for someone to have exhumed his body without him knowing.

'That's because I haven't truly 'come back to life' in the real sense, Max.' Professor X spread his hands. 'Haven't you noticed anything different about me now compared to the past?'

Hearing Professor X say this, Magneto could only suppress the shock in his heart and carefully examined his old friend. Almost immediately, he found the key point.

"You're standing up?" Magneto's eyes widened.

'That's right.' Professor X chuckled. 'Now that I'm just a spiritual body, I naturally don't have to be constrained by my physical body. However, I can only reside in your mind.'

"My mind…" Magneto looked around blankly. In his 'perspective,' Professor X was indeed standing in front of him, but in reality, there were only a few seagulls standing on a corpse, devouring it.

'At the same time you killed me, my spirit, facing the great threat of death, used a mental attack on you.' Professor X slowly walked towards Magneto.

'Originally, I wanted to shut down your brain before you killed me, but you struck too hard. The immense pain, coupled with excessive blood loss, made it impossible to use that level of mental attack.'

Professor X waved his hand, and the small island in the center of the sea disappeared. When Magneto came back to his senses, he was in a small town, the very town where he had killed Professor X.

Following Professor X's guidance, Magneto saw a scene he would never forget in his life, the very scene of him killing Professor X.

The usually kind and amiable Professor X was now looking ferocious, sitting on a sedan chair made of living corpses. Some of these living corpses replaced his originally immobile legs, while others surged like waves, as Magneto floated in the air like a god.

'Of course, I couldn't have done it without the help of my good student, Jean.' Professor X pointed to a red-haired girl on the original battlefield. That was Jean at the time. If it weren't for Jean, Magneto wouldn't have even been able to get close to Professor X.

Magneto covered his forehead. He remembered that his brain had indeed received a heavy blow before Professor X died, but he hadn't paid much attention to it afterward because nothing had happened. It seemed that was when Professor X had infiltrated his mind.

'It's just as you think.' Professor X clapped his hands in Magneto's surprised expression. 'Don't be so surprised. I told you, I'm in your mind now. We can even be said to be one person, so I naturally know what you're thinking.'

"What exactly do you want, Charles?" Magneto lowered his left hand, stood up, and walked towards Professor X, his expression becoming firm once again. "Why did you manipulate me to kill these people?"

'Manipulate you?' Professor X seemed to have heard the funniest joke and burst out laughing, his twisted expression completely unlike the person Magneto knew.

"Haven't you realized it yet, Max?" Professor X wiped his moist eyes, wiping away the tears that were produced, whether from laughter or some other emotion.

In Magneto's puzzled gaze, Charles slowly pronounced his judgment.

'We are already dead, Max.'

'What?'

At the same time as he questioned, Magneto subconsciously turned his head and found that sitting on the throne he had left was a person wearing armor made of red and purple. The left hand of the suit, with gauntlets like claws, was supporting his head as he sat lazily on the throne.

Another breeze blew by, and Magneto and Professor X disappeared like a mirage…