Hellfire Club, Hellfire Hall.
Dead silent.
The air was a strange mix of million-dollar wine and the smell of blood.
Emma Frost stared at her phone, her proud face muscles tense as stone.
On the screen was a message Lynt had just sent.
"My dearest Emma, here's my first meeting gift to you—a subsidiary company. Do you like it?"
"Don't rush, there's more to come. Of course, if you've changed your mind now, we can sit down and discuss a merger."
"Your company, your people."
"I want it all."
"You have no right to say no."
"Damn it!"
A curse shattered the hall's tranquility.
Elegance?
To hell with elegance!
"Bang!"
The crystal goblet exploded in her hand, shards and red wine splattering everywhere.
A few pieces of glass pierced her flesh, but she felt no pain.
The humiliation and anger in her heart were ten thousand times more painful.
"Sebastian!"
She spun around, like an enraged lioness, roaring at the man on the throne.
"Did you see it, damn it? That bastard is declaring war on all of us! He wants to turn us into his spoils of war!"
"Where's Riptide, whom you sent out? What about your so-called 'solution'? Now they're two piles of rotten flesh lying at the door!"
Sebastian Shaw, the Black King of Hellfire, remained composed. He even had the leisure to meticulously wipe a wine stain from the cuff of his expensive suit with a silk handkerchief.
Magneto's earlier attack had made a bit of a mess.
He lifted his eyes, looking at the nearly frenzied Emma, and instead of getting angry, he smiled.
His laugh was soft, but it made the temperature in the hall drop by several degrees.
"Emma, calm down. Anger solves nothing."
"I don't want to hear your bullshit!"
Emma slapped his outstretched hand away, her voice trembling as she yelled,
"I want you to go now, immediately, and twist that bastard's head off!
Aren't you able to absorb energy? Go! Go blow up New York, wipe him off the map for me!"
"Kill him?" Sebastian shook his head, a hint of tolerance for a child and greed for prey in his eyes.
"Emma, your perspective is still too narrow.
Killing a goose that lays golden eggs? Only a fool would do that."
He leaned close to Emma's ear, his voice like a demon whispering.
"Haven't you figured it out yet? How can an ordinary person make Eric Lehnsherr, that old stubborn man, his thug?
How can Raven, that century-old old fox, be so loyal to him?
And those women around him... haven't you noticed?
Every single one of them is getting stronger, at an abnormal rate."
Sebastian's eyes held undisguised desire.
"He has a secret. A secret more valuable than our Mutant abilities, more valuable than all of Frost International's assets."
"If we kill him, we get nothing. But if... we capture him, pry open his mouth, peel off his skin, and turn all his secrets into ours..."
He spread his arms, as if embracing the entire World.
"By then, what is this little money you've lost?"
Emma's breathing gradually calmed.
Every word Sebastian spoke struck a chord in her heart.
Yes, she was a businesswoman, and a Mutant supremacist. She understood better than anyone what true "value" was.
"Then what do you plan to do?" She calmed down, her voice hoarse.
"Barging in is too foolish. Eric is not easy to deal with, and those Nordic women look troublesome too."
Sebastian sat back on the throne, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest.
"Since he likes to play board games, then we'll flip the table. No, something more clever than flipping the table."
His gaze returned to Emma, with a scrutinizing look like one admiring a work of art.
"Emma, your greatest weapon has never been your beautiful diamond skin, but this mind of yours that can burrow into others' brains."
Emma's breath hitched.
"His defenses are strange, like a hedgehog's shell, impregnable."
"Then don't poke the hedgehog."
Sebastian's lips curved upward,
"Corrode the adhesive that forms this shell. His women, do you really think they're a solid block?
Raven, Lorna... Hmph, I can smell their jealousy from half of New York."
"A woman's heart is the best battlefield."
A single word awakened the dreamer.
Emma slowly closed her eyes.
Yes... how could she have forgotten.
What she excelled at was never direct confrontation.
Her mental power spread silently like mercury. In the ocean of consciousness, she easily "saw" Lynt's sturdy fortress named "Apex Amplification."
She didn't attack the thick walls.
Her gaze locked onto a newly laid, unstable brick.
The mortar joints were full of jealousy, resentment, unwillingness... all cracks.
Emma opened her eyes, a cruel arc curving on her lips, and softly uttered a name.
"Lorna Dane... Heh."
At the same time.
Apex Amplification Company, top floor office.
Lynt, like a boneless salted fish, slumped in a fifty-thousand-U.S.-dollar ergonomic chair.
His feet propped on the desk, he scrolled through funny videos on his phone while idly glancing at the brightly glowing K-line chart on the adjacent secondary screen.
Frost International was still falling.
Sigh, how boring.
Lynt yawned.
Only thirty billion, not even enough to make his heart race.
Making money, sometimes, was just this simple, unpretentious, and tedious.
"Thud."
A document was thrown onto the six-figure walnut office desk in front of Lynt with considerable force.
Raven, in a well-tailored OL suit, her ample and explosive figure straining the suit tightly.
The second button on her shirt was on the verge of popping off at any moment.
She didn't sit, but stood there, looking down at him, her golden vertical pupils fixed on him, as if to say: Praise me.
"Osborn Industries, empty.
The stock price has dropped fifteen points, and the acquisition proposal for the biological laboratory has already been submitted."
She was concise, every word exuding an aura of "I am very capable."
"Also,"
She paused, adding,
"All of Frost International's dirt has been sent to media outlets across New York.
Now those tabloids are betting on how many secrets Queen Emma's closet hides."
Lynt didn't even lift his head, signing his name with a flourish at the end of the document, then with a flick of his wrist, he pulled the executive director, worth hundreds of millions, into his arms.
"Truly capable and capable."
His chin rested on Raven's shoulder as he sniffed the scent of her hair,
"So we'll work overtime tonight; I'll personally give you a bonus."
Raven enjoyed it, and sat on his lap, her arms around his neck, her blue skin looking even more sensual under the light, her voice softening.
"That depends on whether you, my boss, still have the ability."
She exhaled like an orchid,
"With so many clients in the company needing your regular maintenance, I'm afraid you'll be too tired to lift your head."
"Then... when have I ever neglected to maintain my Queen? Hm?"
The atmosphere grew increasingly ambiguous, and the two began to kiss as if no one else was there.