Marvel's master of cosmic magic-Chapter 590

"Phase two begins."

As soon as Rowan Mercer entered the supersonic jet, he made no move to attack. Instead, he glanced at Charles Xavier, and his appearance shifted fluidly. Magneto’s features dissolved, replaced by Xavier’s face and body in a heartbeat.

Moira MacTaggert and Kurt Wagner both froze. For a brief second, they thought Raven had struck again.

With a casual wave of his hand, Rowan released the real Erik Lehnsherr from his private pocket dimension.

"You already know the situation," Rowan said calmly. "Just don’t slip up."

"You saved my wife and daughter," Erik replied without hesitation. "I can handle this much."

Rowan reshaped Erik’s clothes into armor matching the Horsemen’s design. Erik grabbed Rowan, now wearing Xavier’s form, exchanged a single look with the real Charles, and flew out of the jet. He placed Rowan beside Apocalypse before rejoining the battle below.

At the same time, Xavier quietly sent a psychic signal to Raven and the others. Their movements faltered at critical moments. Erik seized the opening, trapping them one by one inside a magnetic cage.

"The teleporter escaped," Erik reported evenly. "The rest are secured."

Apocalypse, having just completed the pyramid, barely reacted.

"Guard the structure," he ordered. "My rebirth must not be interrupted."

Once the ritual was complete and Xavier’s power was his, even a teleporter couldn’t flee his reach.

A portal opened. Sand lifted Rowan and carried him into the heart of the pyramid, depositing him onto the central rebirth platform. Apocalypse lay down opposite him and activated the mechanism above.

The pyramid came alive.

Golden filaments extended from Apocalypse’s platform, connecting to Rowan’s. Sunlight poured through the structure, channeled with terrifying precision. Apocalypse’s consciousness and soul began flowing along the filaments, invading Rowan’s body.

After all this time, Rowan finally smiled.

"So you really walked into it."

This was the hardest part of the plan. If Apocalypse had sensed anything wrong and refused to reincarnate, killing him outright would have gained nothing. Only by letting the ritual proceed could Rowan claim what he wanted.

"Return," Rowan whispered.

Across countless worlds, eight other versions of him answered. Their souls surged back into the core. His mental strength exploded upward, reaching a level that dwarfed anything Apocalypse had ever known.

He could have erased Apocalypse’s soul with a thought.

He didn’t.

Instead, Rowan constructed a smaller inner mental world, fragile enough to resemble Xavier’s psyche. Apocalypse felt resistance. Struggle. Victory.

Exactly as planned.

Within that false inner realm, Apocalypse towered over a shattered image of Xavier, tearing the psychic form apart piece by piece and consuming it.

"Accept it," Apocalypse laughed. "You cannot defeat me. Be proud. Becoming part of me is your highest honor."

When the last fragment vanished, Apocalypse roared in triumph.

"It’s done. This body is mine."

He shattered the false world.

And emerged into something else entirely.

An endless mental domain stretched before him. Vast. Silent. Bottomless.

Apocalypse turned slowly.

Behind him stood a giant so immense that his own form barely reached its fingertip.

"That’s impossible," Apocalypse whispered. "There is no mind like this."

The difference between him and Xavier had once been adult and child.

This was something else entirely.

Rowan’s voice echoed like gravity itself.

"You don’t need to understand."

The giant foot came down.

Apocalypse’s psychic form was annihilated instantly, crushed into fragments that Rowan absorbed in a single breath. Soul-binding, sealing, consumption—Rowan used them all without effort.

When it ended, Apocalypse ceased to exist.

Rowan felt the change immediately. His body surged with power. The X-gene multiplied and evolved at a frightening pace. Abilities flooded in, instinctive and complete, including Apocalypse’s most valuable gift: the power to enhance mutant potential itself.

"Done."

Rowan sat up. The pyramid was silent. Apocalypse’s physical body had already decayed into ash, scattering into nothing.

Rowan remained unchanged. No blue skin. No twisted form. His existence stood on a level Apocalypse could never overwrite.

He rose into the air and exited the pyramid.

Below, Storm, Angel, and Psylocke were already restrained. With Erik or Pietro alone, that outcome had never been in doubt.

Rowan looked at the gathered faces and smiled.

"It’s over," he said simply. "Apocalypse is dead."

The tension drained from the battlefield in a single breath.

...

Read up to 100 Chapters ahead and access exclusive novels by joining my Patreon!

patreon.com/Zyxxar