"Child, don't let this power deceive you."
Professor X's voice echoed calmly through the space around Ethan Cole, carrying the weight of patient concern. Though the figure standing before Ethan looked perfectly solid, Ethan knew the truth immediately. This wasn't a physical encounter. It was a projection formed entirely from telepathic power, a presence created within Ethan's mind.
"Power like this is never as beautiful as it first appears," Professor X continued gently. "If you aren't careful, it will slowly devour your soul. When that happens, you won't control the power anymore. The power will control you."
His expression was solemn, almost sorrowful.
"And once that day comes," he said, "you'll become nothing more than its servant. It will drive you to commit terrible acts, things you might never have imagined before. And in the end… the world will only see you as a monster."
Ethan listened quietly.
He knew exactly what was happening.
Professor X had entered his mind through pure telepathy. The older mutant himself wasn't standing in the sky over Manhattan. In reality, Professor X couldn't even stand at all. His legs had been crippled long ago, leaving him bound to a wheelchair.
Yet inside Ethan's mind, he appeared perfectly healthy.
Ethan found the situation mildly interesting.
He had never bothered setting up any kind of mental defenses. For someone like Professor X, whose entire ability revolved around psychic manipulation, entering Ethan's mind had probably been effortless.
Getting in was easy.
Getting out, however, was a different story.
Ethan stared quietly at the figure in front of him.
For a brief moment, the two simply looked at each other. Though separated by enormous distances in the real world, their eyes seemed to meet across the invisible boundary between minds. In that instant, both of them could sense the strength of the other's consciousness.
Professor X's mental presence felt like an immense mountain.
Steady. Immovable. Towering.
Ethan's mind, on the other hand, felt like an endless ocean.
Ancient. Vast. Bottomless.
The two forces existed side by side, neither yielding nor overwhelming the other. Their mental worlds were both extraordinarily stable, immune to outside influence and impossible to shake through simple intimidation.
After hearing Professor X's warning, Ethan simply shook his head.
His gaze remained calm and indifferent.
"Everyone knows how to preach morality," he said casually. "You don't need to use your philosophy to try and control me."
His voice carried no anger, only quiet certainty.
"The power is mine," Ethan continued. "How I use it is my business. If you came here today just to lecture me, then you've clearly wasted your time."
His eyes hardened slightly.
"But if you came here as an enemy," he added, "then the only thing waiting for you is failure."
"Child—"
Professor X began to speak again.
"Shut up."
Ethan's voice cut through the space like a blade.
The moment he spoke those words, the environment around them began to tremble. The once-still mental landscape started rippling violently, as if reality itself had been thrown into a storm.
Cracks of distortion spread through the space.
The projection of Professor X flickered repeatedly, his form twisting and stretching as the mental world destabilized. The calm atmosphere they had been standing in moments earlier now felt as though it could shatter at any second.
Ethan watched coldly.
A faint glimmer of icy light passed through his eyes.
Then Professor X's figure exploded.
The projection collapsed instantly, bursting apart into countless fragments of pale fluorescence. The glowing particles drifted through the air for a moment before dissolving completely.
Ethan didn't stop there.
He activated his own telepathic ability and followed the faint traces of psychic energy left behind by the destroyed projection. The scattered fluorescence still carried the subtle fluctuations of Professor X's mind, like invisible threads leading back to their source.
Ethan grasped those threads immediately.
Then he followed them.
Far away from Manhattan, outside the outskirts of New York, there stood a large estate surrounded by a carefully maintained artificial forest. The property resembled an ancient European castle, with towering stone walls and wide courtyards stretching across the grounds.
Inside one of the castle's rooms on the second floor, Professor Charles Xavier sat quietly in his wheelchair.
His eyes were closed.
Moments earlier, his telepathic projection had been forcibly destroyed inside Ethan's mind. The backlash had snapped him out of the connection, and when his eyes opened again, a trace of helplessness appeared in them.
He sighed softly.
But before he could collect his thoughts—
His body suddenly froze.
The world around him seemed to blur.
His pupils lost focus as his consciousness was dragged elsewhere.
Inside Professor X's mind, a new scene suddenly appeared.
It was a vast world of endless sky and water.
Above him stretched a brilliant blue sky, dotted with drifting white clouds that moved lazily across the horizon. Beneath his feet was a perfectly smooth surface of water, clear and reflective like a giant mirror.
The ocean beneath that surface was unimaginably deep.
Dark blue waves extended downward into an abyss without visible bottom, stretching endlessly into the unknown.
This place was his sea of consciousness.
It was the deepest layer of his mind, the core of his thinking and awareness. For ordinary people, such a place existed only as an unconscious abstraction. Most humans would never even realize their minds possessed such a structure.
But Professor X was different.
His telepathic mastery allowed him to perceive and control his subconscious perfectly, giving this inner world a tangible form he could walk through and observe.
And now—
He wasn't alone.
A figure appeared in front of him.
The man wore simple casual clothing, standing tall with a relaxed posture. His expression was calm, his gaze indifferent as he faced Professor X across the mirrored surface of the water.
It was Ethan Cole.
"Hello, Professor X," Ethan said lightly. "Looks like we're meeting again."
He glanced around at the endless ocean beneath their feet.
"A moment ago you visited my world of consciousness," he continued. "So I figured it was only fair to visit yours."
His tone remained calm, but his words carried a quiet edge.
"You don't really have the right to judge the power inside me," Ethan added. "At least not from my perspective."
He took a slow step forward across the water's surface.
"In your mind, a power that benefits mutants and society is good. A power that harms them is evil."
Ethan tilted his head slightly.
"That's how you see things, isn't it?"
Professor X remained silent.
"You don't have to argue with me," Ethan continued casually. "That's just the impression you give off."
Then his expression turned slightly thoughtful.
"Actually, something has always puzzled me."
His eyes locked onto Professor X.
"What about Magneto?"
Ethan's voice sharpened slightly.
"He's committed countless crimes. From your perspective, that should make his power dangerous and harmful, right? If you truly wanted to stop him, it wouldn't be difficult for you."
The calm ocean beneath their feet remained perfectly still as Ethan continued speaking.
"With your telepathy, you could easily control the people around him. Manipulate his followers. Strip away his support."
Ethan shrugged faintly.
"Once that happens, Magneto becomes a tiger without teeth. Your X-Men could defeat him easily."
His gaze sharpened.
"But you never do it."
Ethan's voice lowered slightly.
"And I've always wondered why."
The series of questions hung in the air like pressure building before a storm.
Professor X sighed softly.
He shook his head.
"Eric simply lost his way for a time," he said quietly. "That doesn't mean he's truly evil."
His eyes softened slightly.
"If someone could guide him back onto the right path, his abilities could help countless people."
Professor X looked at Ethan carefully.
"Child," he said gently, "when I look at you, I see something different."
His voice carried quiet sincerity.
"I see someone who might lead mutants better than either Eric or myself."
He paused briefly before finishing.
"So stay away from the darkness," Professor X said softly. "The light is where you truly belong."
.....
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