Chapter 24: Do You Know How Much This Harms the Mutants!
"I can tell you're in a foul mood. Did you lose a lot of people in Alaska?"
Facing Magneto, even if this was their first conversation, Du Wa appeared very calm. He showed no unnecessary emotions like tension or anxiety.
Just by hearing Magneto's hoarse but undisguised voice, filled with fury and indignation, Du Wa already had a good grasp of the situation.
Unlike other major organizations, he couldn't monitor events in real-time via satellite, so he didn't know the specifics of the battle.
But considering Magneto had fully grasped the subtle signal Du Wa sent out and had responded so quickly…
"As far as I know, although the Deviants are strong, they alone shouldn't be enough to crush your Brotherhood," Du Wa said.
"A lot of Eternals also joined the battle, each of them wielding powerful and practical abilities. At any other time, I could have killed all of them by myself! But they fled too quickly!"
Magneto's tone grew slightly heavier.
For someone of Magneto's level and cunning to show such a clear emotional shift, it was obvious the Brotherhood's losses were far greater than Du Wa had initially estimated.
Or was it because Magneto had failed to achieve his goal, damaging his prestige in the process?
"Also, I don't acknowledge those damn things crawling on the ice as Deviants. Kid, no matter what you know or where you got your intelligence from, you'd best reorganize your language!"
At this moment, Magneto finally revealed the discovery that he found most intolerable.
Losing his men would at most make Magneto angry, but this was now beyond mere anger.
"To be attacked by both the Eternals and the Deviants at the same time, any organization on this Earth would inevitably suffer casualties. There's no need to dwell on it."
To make the conversation easier, Du Wa grabbed Mystique by her seemingly slender arm—an arm in which every muscle fiber had been trained to perfection—and forcefully pulled her in front of him.
Mystique remained expressionless. She had seen her fair share of perilous and complex situations and had long since honed her temperament. The various forms of humiliation she was currently suffering at Du Wa's hands were a minor scene; she had already prepared herself for it.
This was something the recently debuted Elektra, standing nearby, could not have managed.
"However, if you're trying to use this to deny any connection between this batch of animal-like Deviants and the Mutants, there's really no need," Du Wa said.
"So you mean to say, these lowly creatures are the ancestors of the Mutants?"
"No, of course not. The Deviants and Mutants are closely related, that much is true. Just not the group of Deviants that attacked you," Du Wa stated.
Magneto was silent for a moment. "There's more than one type of Deviant?"
"There are many types. On Earth alone, two have existed. One is the 'lowly creatures' you speak of, which you've already encountered. The other faced an irresistible force twenty thousand years ago and is now extinct."
Du Wa counted on his fingers. "Beyond Earth, in the vast Universe, there are even more types of Deviants. Some have gone extinct, while others are thriving, having even built powerful civilizations far beyond Earth's level."
"That's a lot of information. I have to suspect you're crazy," Magneto said.
"In this world, only madmen can lead the way. You don't actually believe that people who follow conventions and like to obey the rules become great agents of transformation, do you?" Du Wa opened his hand and then slowly closed it into a fist. "I'll take that as a compliment."
For a moment, Magneto was truly at a loss.
Was it a lie? Or the kind of lie that was ninety percent truth and ten percent falsehood?
"What about the Eternals?" Raven suddenly asked.
"Similarly, for every type of Deviant, there's a type of Eternal. That is an ironclad rule. The Demiurge exists in this world, and It must have a penchant for creating things in pairs," Du Wa said.
"Tell me, what exactly happened twenty thousand years ago? You'd better not lie. Tell me everything you know. I have my ways of verifying whether your information is true or false..." Magneto's voice came through the communication device.
"Interesting. If I'm not mistaken, you're already formulating a plan in your mind on how to crush my forces, capture me, and torture me for intelligence, right? You're probably even thinking about who has telepathy to directly extract the knowledge from my brain, aren't you?" Du Wa let out a low chuckle.
In fact, that was exactly what Magneto was planning to do. With so much at stake, how could he possibly rely solely on Du Wa's words? After all, Du Wa wasn't like Professor X, a long-established figure whose integrity had been tested over time.
S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't protect Du Wa. Magneto was sure of it.
"The moment I find out you're plotting something malicious, you'll get nothing. And don't underestimate my power. I have many means I can use at critical moments. Otherwise, you'll suffer a great loss, just like what happened when the Deviants and Eternals suddenly appeared and attacked you," Du Wa said slowly.
"I've captured a few Deviants. I can give them to you to use as hosts."
"Bingo! I love to talk. This solves the problem, doesn't it? One question for ten Deviants. A fair price," Du Wa clapped his hands.
Magneto couldn't be bothered to haggle over numbers with someone like Du Wa, who was a nobody until recently. Given his personality, if he weren't so uncertain about Du Wa, he would have made his move long ago.
Why use words when a problem could be solved with force?
But until he could confirm Du Wa's true origins and source of intelligence, he could choose to be patient for a short while.
"By the way, among the few Deviants you caught, was the Deviant Leader one of them?" Du Wa had long been eyeing that most cunning and powerful Leader-class Deviant.
"Ten Deviants."
"Five. Take it or leave it."
"If you're talking about the one with the largest body and the greatest strength, then no. If it weren't for him, the Brotherhood wouldn't have suffered such heavy losses. That beast even captured Juggernaut in the end..."
"Pardon me, did you say, Juggernaut? The Deviant Leader captured Juggernaut?" Du Wa, who had been unconcerned, cried out in surprise upon hearing this news. "This Juggernaut of yours, is he an actual Mutant?"
Raven cut in coldly, taunting, "You've been putting on this act for so long, only to ruin your own performance right when you shouldn't have. What, do you have some special feelings for that oaf Juggernaut?"
Miles away, Magneto also showed a look of confusion.
Juggernaut was one of the Brotherhood's pillars and Professor X's brother. He possessed an indestructible body and formidable combat power, though he was a bit stupid. But a mere Juggernaut, was he worth such surprise from Du Wa?
He hadn't had any close contact with Du Wa, so he remained silent for the moment, awaiting Raven's judgment.
But before Raven could speak, Du Wa spoke first.
"Folks, believe it or not, I think if you're unlucky and the Juggernaut in your organization is really what I think he is... you're in big trouble."
Because Juggernaut possessed an extremely vast amount of "reserve energy" that was beyond the imagination of ordinary people and, under most circumstances, would never be activated.
And the source of this Power was also a Multiversal-level heavyweight...
(end of chapter)