Marvel: I can learn anything

Very quickly, what was once the city of Cairo turned into a massive pit dozens of meters deep.

After stripping away dozens of meters of surface soil, Ian finally discovered something critical: a large number of stones engraved with mysterious runes.

The runes on these stones were identical to those inscribed within the Apocalypse Pyramid. Undoubtedly, this was the site of the Apocalypse Pyramid's ruins.

And Apocalypse was now slumbering beneath these ruins!

Ian stopped his excavation, descending onto the ruins.

The moment he landed on the ruins, Aisha immediately sensed something:

"I can feel it! Beneath the ruins lies an incredibly immense willpower!"

"But this willpower seems to be in a poor state, completely unconscious and unable to actively gather its awareness!" After sensing further, Aisha added.

"I see!" Ian nodded, understanding Apocalypse's state based on Aisha's feedback.

Apocalypse had never truly died. Because the body-snatching ritual was interrupted at a critical moment, it left him unable to consciously gather his awareness, thus forcing him into a perpetual slumber.

Perhaps it couldn't even be entirely called slumber. In this state, Apocalypse's awareness existed in a realm where the concept of time was extremely faint, or perhaps entirely absent.

This state was actually not too bad for Apocalypse. Since he hadn't died, he wouldn't need to be resurrected. Any external stimulation might awaken him.

"Aisha, find a place to hide!" Ian escorted Aisha to the edge of the pit.

"Be careful. If it doesn't work, we'll think of another way!" Aisha cautioned worriedly.

"I've got this!" Ian looked at Aisha with unwavering confidence in his eyes.

Having witnessed Apocalypse's capabilities before, Ian had full confidence in himself. His main concern was still Aisha's safety.

However, to maximize the effectiveness of the psychic shield, Aisha couldn't be too far away.

After all, Apocalypse's psychic attack capabilities were no weaker than those of Professor X, though the range wasn't as extensive. Precaution in this regard was necessary!

The uppermost layer of rubble disintegrated, revealing a delicate pyramidion before Ian's eyes. Though not dazzling in the night, it was slightly smaller than the one he had previously acquired.

This golden pyramidion was the core of the entire pyramid. Even though the rest of the pyramid had crumbled, as long as sunlight struck the pyramidion, it could still partially function and awaken the slumbering Apocalypse!

This was something Ian definitely wouldn't leave for Apocalypse. He immediately disassembled and reclaimed it.

During the disassembly, Ian felt some resistance. However, he didn't stop and instead applied a little more force, breaking through the resistance.

The moment the golden pyramidion was disassembled, Ian immediately sensed a surge of powerful energy from beneath the ruins, brimming with anger.

'Apocalypse is awakening!'

Ian instantly realized what had happened!

At the critical moment of the body-snatching ritual, Apocalypse's consciousness was likely tethered to the entire pyramid's ruins, with the golden pyramidion as its core.

Disassembling the golden pyramidion severely agitated Apocalypse's consciousness, causing it to instinctively sense danger. Consequently, his dispersed awareness reassembled, rapidly waking him up.

Feeling the aura below growing increasingly potent, Ian sighed with slight disappointment: "What a pity. There's no time to take him out before he wakes up!"

While Apocalypse was still asleep, a high-energy particle cannon or even a nuclear strike would have been the best way to deal with him.

But Ian never counted on things going that smoothly. A being like Apocalypse, who had lived for tens of thousands of years, wouldn't be so easily dealt with.

Now that Apocalypse had been prematurely awakened, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Ian didn't need to dig any deeper—who knew how far down Apocalypse was buried? He only needed to wait for Apocalypse to emerge on his own.

Ian flew several hundred meters into the air. With the elemental furnace in hand, he prepared to fire a high-energy particle cannon at any moment.

As the energy from beneath the ruins intensified, the rubble rapidly turned to sand. The former pyramid ruins transformed into a swirling vortex of quicksand, with the vortex's range continuing to expand.

When Apocalypse's aura stabilized, the quicksand stopped expanding, leaving a pit nearly ten kilometers in diameter.

Then, the quicksand suddenly fell silent.

This eerie calm lasted for three seconds.

Then, with a "boom," the center of the quicksand erupted violently!

A figure burst out from the edge of the quicksand pit!

Despite being freshly awakened from a long slumber, Apocalypse remained highly vigilant.

One moment his aura was at the center of the quicksand, and the next, he had emerged from its edge.

This move of Apocalypse's was somewhat unexpected for Ian, but it was ultimately useless against him.

Given the speed of the particle cannon and the mere few kilometers between them, Ian didn't even need to account for attack delay, nor did he need to predict Apocalypse's movements.

The moment Ian saw Apocalypse, he fired the high-energy particle cannon, striking him directly!

"Boom!"

A blinding flash lit up the sky, turning night into day. A massive mushroom cloud rose slowly!

The shockwave swept across the desert, amplifying the already subsiding sandstorm into an even more terrifying force!

Ian held nothing back in this attack. The energy carried by the high-energy particle blast was equivalent to a megaton-class yield!

Compared to nuclear bombs, the high-energy particle cannon released its energy more quickly and focused, resulting in a smaller blast radius but exponentially higher core lethality.

Ian was quite satisfied with the result of this attack:

The core ability of the Elemental Sovereign—atomic manipulation—was more inclined toward creation. For sheer offensive power, he relied on the derivative ability of the Elemental Furnace.

Ian didn't wait for the explosion's aftermath to subside naturally. Instead, he actively dispersed the residual energy.

For a mutant of Apocalypse's caliber, only the particle stream and the momentary extreme heat from the energy burst could cause substantial damage.

The lingering heat after the explosion was meaningless to Apocalypse. On the contrary, the smoke and dust would only obstruct Ian's vision.

Once the smoke cleared, Apocalypse appeared before Ian, fully intact.

He was nearly fully recovered, with only the skin on his arms still regenerating visibly.

The attack hadn't achieved the desired result!

The moment Apocalypse emerged from the quicksand, he instinctively activated a shield and manipulated a large amount of sand to block in front of himself.

The energy shield shattered instantly, but the sand managed to absorb part of the particle stream, preventing Apocalypse from being completely disintegrated.

Although he was reduced to a skeleton, he ultimately survived. While Ian dispersed the residual energy, Apocalypse quickly absorbed the heat to accelerate his recovery.

The fully restored Apocalypse was significantly stronger than the previous weaker projection—not only more durable but also with greatly enhanced regenerative abilities.

Most crucially, his instincts were extraordinarily sharp. Before Ian's attack, he had reflexively initiated his defense.

"Traitor!" Apocalypse stared at Ian, his eyes blazing with fury.

It seemed Apocalypse, still regaining his senses, assumed Ian was the one behind the plot to ambush him and disrupt his ritual.

There are a additional chapters of this novel on Patreon: [patreon.com/Naruto11]. You can also find the link in the novel description if you'd like to copy it.

(End of Chapter)