The flickering light in the Ancient One's eyes had long faded into something deeper—disbelief.
She stared intently at Joseph, her voice slightly trembling as she asked, "You're telling me… that Mutant powers are actually a form of… magic?"
Joseph met her eyes with ease.
"Isn't it obvious?" he said calmly.
With a flick of his hand, a shimmering light curtain materialized before them, casting moving images into the air like a mystical hologram.
It displayed a familiar figure mid-battle: Jean Grey, her eyes glowing as she soared across the war-torn sky, wreaking havoc upon the Chitauri invaders.
"Jean Grey," Joseph said, gesturing toward the screen. "An Omega-class Mutant. Or—by your standards—a magician."
The Ancient One squinted at the screen. "Her power is vast. I sensed it the moment she awakened—destructive enough to shatter continents."
Joseph nodded. "She would've been considered Omega in the old classification system. But we've moved on."
He folded his arms and added, "At the new Xavier's School, we've implemented a new ranking. By that measure, Jean is merely a level four Mutant."
The Ancient One raised a brow. "Merely level four?"
"She's just cleared the threshold to graduate," Joseph clarified, "but her growth hasn't stopped."
He tapped the light curtain, zooming in on Jean as her psychokinetic aura shimmered in waves.
"You see powerful psychokinesis," he said. "And yes, you might assume it's a finite gift—something locked by genetic code, destined to plateau, even corrode her from within."
"She was fated to be consumed by the Phoenix Force… or so the world believed."
"But I saw something else."
He paused.
"In my eyes, Jean Grey possessed not just telekinesis and psychic gifts—she held potential in the mind, reality, and life systems of magic."
"So over time… I taught her magic."
The Ancient One blinked, trying to keep up.
"You taught her… spiritual magic?"
Joseph nodded. "And reality magic. And eventually, life magic—the Phoenix system itself."
"What's extraordinary is that her Mutant ability didn't resist this. It adapted. It evolved."
"And now?"
He turned his palm upward. "She has begun to absorb the Phoenix Force, bit by bit—not as a host… but as a magician."
"Today, Jean Grey is no longer an Omega-class Mutant."
"She's a level six magician, cultivating all three systems in tandem."
The Ancient One turned her gaze back to the light curtain.
In the footage, Jean's eyes burned golden as she floated above the battlefield. With a single gesture, she conjured arrows of light—pure spiritual energy—that pierced the heads of Chitauri warriors, instantly severing their psychic links to their mothership.
"They drop like puppets with cut strings," Joseph explained. "Because I taught her how to weaponize soul essence. Not merely to attack minds, but to shatter astral tethers."
As the video continued, Jean raised her hand again. Crimson light burst from her fingers and burrowed into the fallen Chitauri corpses.
They rose.
But this time, they were under her control—wielding their weapons against their own kind.
"She reanimated them?" the Ancient One asked, barely above a whisper.
"No. She reignited their biological shells using life force resonance," Joseph said. "A twist on necromancy. And the technique is hers alone."
Then, the screen shifted again—showing Jean using psychokinesis to rip a Leviathan apart midair.
"Mind. Life. Reality," the Ancient One muttered. "You weren't exaggerating…"
But Joseph wasn't finished.
Another gesture—and the screen changed.
Storm appeared next.
"Orolo Munroe," Joseph said, "Weather control. But more than that—elemental affinity. She's a textbook elemental magician."
The footage showed her conjuring cyclones, controlling massive storm fronts, summoning bolts of lightning with graceful precision.
"She's not a vessel. She's a conductor," Joseph continued. "She doesn't rely on rituals or relics. She communes with nature's raw forces. I'd place her at level five, heading toward six."
The Ancient One studied the screen as Joseph waved again.
The next face appeared: Bobby Drake—The Iceman.
"Pure elemental class—ice affinity. Currently between fourth and fifth ring potential."
Then came Polaris, a magnetic magician.
Then Clarice, a space-affinity magician.
One after another, Joseph introduced them.
"Every Mutant excels at manipulating a specific force," he explained. "That makes them specialists. In the magical world, that would be a blessing."
"Kamar-Taj trains generalists. But my students? They're specialized. They don't need to master everything."
"They just need to master one thing to perfection."
At last, he turned to the Ancient One.
"Tell me… does a magician need to know every school of sorcery to be great?"
She didn't respond.
She didn't have to.
Because she already knew the answer.
---
Now visibly shaken, the Ancient One whispered the truth aloud:
"Magic classification… specialization of magicians…"
"You're trying to introduce magical civilization into the Mutant world."
Joseph smiled. "Not just the Mutants."
He snapped his fingers.
The light curtain dissolved.
In its place floated a single object—a sleek black bracelet—hovering before her.
"You know of Oasis, don't you?"
She narrowed her eyes. "The virtual world you created."
"I prefer to call it our new frontier," Joseph replied.
Without hesitation, she took the bracelet.
Unlike ordinary users, she didn't need to activate it. As Sorcerer Supreme, she entered Oasis instantly through sheer force of will.
But instead of appearing in Twisting City, she found herself at the central vortex hub—the back-end foundation of the Oasis world.
Bubbles floated in every direction, each containing different players exploring magical challenges.
Joseph appeared beside her.
"This is the control nexus," he explained. "Outside these gates, millions of players are immersing in a world of spells and runes. But I want to show you just one…"
He pointed at a glowing bubble on the right.
Inside it: Wanda Maximoff.
"One of our early access testers," he said. "In this world, she has discovered her latent magical affinity."
The Ancient One tilted her head.
"In the real world, she has no power. At least… not yet. But in Oasis, she has awakened it. And she's been learning—absorbing spells, exploring runes."
A few moments passed.
Then, Wanda logged out.
And her real self appeared in the bubble.
Still in her room.
Still alone.
Joseph said nothing.
Then, suddenly—
Wanda raised her hand.
And whispered the spell she had just learned in the game.
A fireball burst into life in her palm.
The Ancient One gasped audibly.
"She… she cast a real spell…"
Joseph nodded.
"The Oasis bracelet is bound to the user's soul. Magic learned in the game... carries over."
The Ancient One looked at him in shock. "You're using a virtual game… to teach the world magic?!"
Joseph didn't flinch.
"If magic were purely genetic, this wouldn't work," he said. "But magic is knowledge. If a person has the potential—even a spark—they can learn it."
"When Oasis goes public… with six billion users…"
"There will be millions—millions—of new magicians across the planet."
---
The Ancient One was frozen.
She understood now.
Joseph wasn't just creating a school.
He wasn't just reforming Mutants.
He was rebuilding civilization.
A worldwide magical renaissance.
---
"And it won't stop there," Joseph added. "Magic and science must walk together. That is the true direction of human progress."
He met her eyes.
"For centuries, you've protected this world from magical threats. But times have changed."
"The cosmos has noticed Earth. Interstellar empires are watching. Dimensional entities like Mephista are creeping closer."
"We can't rely on passive defense anymore."
"It's time Earth stopped cowering in the corner."
He pointed toward the sky.
"Why can't we take to the stars?"
"Why can't we march into those dimensions and show them what humans are capable of?"
---
The Ancient One was stunned.
She tried to argue—"But Mutants are few. So are magical inheritors—"
"Wrong," Joseph interrupted softly.
"Ninety percent of humanity carries the X-gene."
Her lips parted.
"If we can awaken that," Joseph whispered, "the entire Earth becomes a world of magicians."
She swallowed. "Can you… do that?"
"Not yet."
He smiled.
"But maybe… someday soon…"
He snapped his fingers.
A soft click echoed through the vortex chamber.
"When that day comes… I will."
---
The Ancient One didn't answer.
She couldn't.
She had spent centuries studying time.
She had seen empires rise and fall.
But never—not once—had she foreseen this.
Not a conqueror.
Not a destroyer.
But a Mutant magician, smiling with serene ambition...
...and daring to change the fate of Earth itself.
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