Nebraska (VI)…

[Inside Reo's Mind]

Reo knew very well that he can't kill that old fool… or the Phoenix Force will make a fuss and Reo didn't have any problem allowing someone else to deal with the stupid bald Dumbledore wannabe…

So, Reo decided to decrease the power of the defenses, he had no idea what would happen to someone if he destroys their consciousness like this. After all, this was the first time someone was able to get past his mental barriers and face his mental defenses.

For whatever reason Charles felt a chill run down his spine… he was standing right in the middle of the ancient temple. While Charles was inside someone's mind he could use his legs. Charles kept looking around carefully and shuddered slightly. Charles knew that he was alone in here but for whatever reason, he felt that someone was watching him.

The interior was nonsensically huge. The whole chamber was shaped like a dome. Charles's eyes suddenly landed on a somewhat slightly logic-defyingly humongous statue… it's throne just as big as the statue. Charles's instincts were screaming at him… it didn't take long for Charles to understand that it was a statue of some kind of God. Charles shuddered once again. Charles wracked his brain but couldn't recognize the God in front of him but he was quite sure that it was a God.

Charles finally tore away his eyes from that humongous statue of the unknown God. Charles decided to check the other statues… the other statues weren't big like the statue on the throne… the other statues were two times taller than normal humans. All the statues stood completely still and all of them were found at a certain distance from one another.

Charles continued to check the statues, some held weapons, there was one carrying a book, some carried musical instruments… some even carried torches. The temple was giving off the feeling of a holy temple…

Charles's eyes suddenly landed on the oddest statue in the room… this statue had a pair of wings on its back. The statue was carrying a stone slate and there were some writings carved on the slate. Charles was immediately interested even though he was scared. Suddenly Charles's head whipped towards the God's statue but didn't find anything that has changed… just a moment ago he felt that he was being watched. But thinking that it must have been a mistake he turned back towards the slate.

"First Law. Worship the God?" Charles read aloud in a confused tone. He had never seen anything like this. Charles figured out this must be some kind of defense mechanism inside Itsuki Reo's mind… 'this must be some kind of challenge' he thought.

"Second Law. Exalt the God?" Charles was still very much confused but he had no idea that by reading the slate he was activating the defenses. Reo watched Charles inside his mind in complete amusement.

"Third Law. Prove your piety. Those who do not keep to these laws shall not leave this place alive" Charles finally finished reading the full slate and the reaction was instantaneous. All the torches inside the room burst up brightly and Charles immediately knew that he had activated something.

Charles's head whipped once again towards the God's statue. This time Charles definitely knew that something was different with the statue. The eyes of the statue were looking directly at Charles. Charles shuddered in fear and the statue's head slowly turned in his direction. The statue kept looking at him and its black eyes started to glow yellow.

"Aarrrgggghhhh!!" Charles screamed loudly and grabbed his head. Charles has never felt pain like this… it was like hot needles were being buried throughout his whole body. But it didn't take long for someone like Charles to find out that the pain was only in his mind… it was quite easy for him after all, he was a strong telepath with strong mental abilities but the pain was still unbearable even when he knew that he was only feeling the pain in his mind.

Unable to hold on for any longer Charles dropped onto his knees and bowed his head on the floor in pain. Only after a second, the pain was completely gone. Charles wanted to stand up when he suddenly remembered the First Law. Worship the God... now, how do you worship a God? By bowing down to it. Charles immediately understood what happened.

As soon as he bowed down the pain stopped meaning he completed the First challenge… his mind immediately darted towards the Second Law, he had remembered that he had read that if anyone wanted to leave this place alive they needed to follow all three laws. He had already followed the first law. Now, he needed to follow the second law. Exalt the God??

Now, how the hell he was going to make a God like this happy? The wasn't any God knew and from traditions, he knew that different Gods liked different methods. Suddenly something clicked in Charles's mind… his eyes darted towards the statues with the musical instruments. Of course, there was no other reason for them to be present here.

The God's statue started to stand up… Charles completely froze up after he saw that. But what happened next scared Charles to his very core… thankfully, he was just a mental projection or he would have lost his bowel control inside Reo's mind. That could have made Reo outright kill the baldie Dumbles.

The statue grinned… the grin wasn't something normal. The grin was completely evil. A thought clicked inside Charles's mind. This God was a Demon God… or Evil God. But before Charles could come out of his stupor the statue started moving in his direction and before he could even cry out the statue stepped on Charles's bowing body.

Reo didn't want to destroy Charles's consciousness or else he would have already killed Charles several times over. "Arrghhhh!!" Charles's screams were once again heard throughout the humongous dome. The statue lifted his foot once again and dropped it down on Charles… no bone-cracking noises were heard, after all, this was a mental projection but Charles's screams were definitely heard. The statue lifted his foot once again and brought it down on Charles but this time the force shattered the mental projection of Charles.

Reo was slightly taken aback because of that… he never thought that something like this would happen. He would have allowed Charles to escape after he would have completed the second challenge as it happened in the original story. He wanted to check if Charles was alive or not but he had more important things to deal with now…

Back in the Xavier Mansion Charles finally returned to his mind and started to scream. He lost control of his bowels and while screaming he went unconscious in his wheelchair. Huge sparks came out of the control panel of the Cerebro… the walls of the Cerebro and the control panel soon caught fire. Because of the fire, alarms started to blare within the mansion and the water sprinkling system activated but Charles remained unmoving on his wheelchair in his own filth…

[POV Reo]

*click* *clink*

Several clinks were heard around me. I was still grinning evilly… what happened with Charles was unfortunate but there was nothing I could have done. I didn't do anything to destroy Charles's consciousness he was just trapped inside there… I think that he had destroyed his consciousness willingly to escape my mindscape… yes, that could be possible. It would certainly prove the shattering effect… after all, I have never thought that mental projections could shatter like that.

I looked around at the soldiers around me who were busy reloading their guns, it was taking them this much time only because they were shaking in fear. Their hands and legs were shaking in fear… obviously, there was a reason for this. They were afraid of me since the beginning and when I stopped their assault without any effort, it added to that effect… I was kind of getting bored though.

"Here, let me help you with them" I said and all the guns were snatched from their hands and pointed in their directions. They immediately raised their hands in the air… only the 50-cals from the helicopters were still shooting at me. I reloaded all the guns and loaded them with my powers and shot the whole team on their knees. All of them screamed in pain and dropped to the ground holding their knees… I didn't kill them. After all, where is the fun in that? They must stay alive to feel the pain.

I gave an annoyed look towards the helicopters and crushed their rotors. That buzzing was getting really annoying. I found a woman on the team and kneeled beside her… she tried to scoot away from me in fear but with magic, I lifted her up.

"What's your name?" I asked her in a simple manner, the woman gulped in fear.

"… Dana Curtis" the woman stuttered out.

"Dana, today is your lucky day… even after you attacked me I am allowing you all to leave… now, don't ever say that I am the bad guy. You were the bad guy, after all, you people attacked me first… now chop chop… leave the roof" I said to Dana, even though I treated her so nicely she was still looking at me with fear and anger. Ungrateful bastards all of them… at least, Dana had some common sense and helped one of her teammates to get up. The others also started to follow her lead and helped their teammates. Since one of their legs had become lame they were unable to walk properly and all of them supported each other.

While they were leaving the roof I had sensed 8 metal objects… big enough to be fighter jets coming in my direction. Another grin appeared on my face with that...