Marvel: Summoning Xandar.

~~~Sebastian Shaw, January 1943~~~

~~~Xandar DC~~~

This was beautiful, the air, the wind, and even the sun's rays were different, stronger, and more radiant, feeling the yellow energy hit me with force and majesty.

We had arrived the day before, with Azazel's gift, so moving into the huge city was no problem at all. And Emma was in charge of making us imperceptible to undefended minds.

"This realm, as we already knew, is called Xandar, the continent is called Essos, and they've been hidden for at least seven thousand years, is what I've been able to get out of some people's minds." Speaking of Emma, she walked up to me confidently, she had been using her gift since the first minute we arrived. Which was undoubtedly taking its toll on her, although in her words, it had caused her to learn more about her powers.

That I already knew, and it was amazing, how a place, such a large expanse of land had been able to hide in plain sight, made me curious... And scared.

If they had the technology or something else to do a deed like that for hundreds of years, what else did they have in the dark?

Besides, what other factions were hiding in the world? Kamar Taj had been one of them. Asgard existed, which had certainly created alarms in me, because if Asgard existed, and the gods of their mythology were. Then the other mythologies should be true as well.

"Have you been able to find out what they used to hide for so many years?" I asked Emma, knowing that secret would mean a method of security for the future expanding mutant race.

"Not yet, I have run into a barrier, I don't know exactly what it is, but it prevents me from making them tell me what they know, in doing so, their mind works strongly on avoiding coming to a betrayal of Xandar by telling their secrets." That was worrisome, he was talking about some powerful telepath capable of affecting the minds of millions. Or some unknown technological contraption.

"This is getting more complicated all the time," I said aloud, the few but amazing things we learned so far had sparked a new feeling in me... Fear.

When I discovered my... Gifts, there was nothing else in the world that could affect me, bullets? Even the fifty caliber was just skin discomfort, a missile? I would feel only a prickling and tingling, the human state I had left many years behind, instead, I had become something else, something bigger, stronger.

But the images Emma showed me, made me realize that my power meant nothing in the grand scheme of things, by god, the king of this... Kingdom, had a freaking dragon from mythology as his pet, how powerful would someone have to be to do a feat like that? That was why I took every precaution before coming to this place, and the helmet on my head was proof of that.

"The capital is the city with the same name as the kingdom, there we can find more answers, and maybe understand at all if it is a mutant kingdom or not," Emma suggested, to which I agreed, the place where we were was called Karamirk, and while it was an amazing city, surrounded by vegetation at a level we had not seen in the rest of the world. It would not compare to the amount of information more accurate and important than that gathered in the capital.

"Azazel," I said, just to have a red-skinned, inhuman-looking man materialize beside me, he was one of our colleagues, a demon from hell who had to flee to earth after a war in hell against Mephisto.

"We'll go to Xandar, the capital, we've already lasted too long here," I said, watching as Emma and Riptide touched Azazel's body, and then I did the same.

Moments later, my view changed, we were no longer surrounded by giant buildings with bushes or trees growing from their walls, no. We were now in what looked like a port, a very large one. The place was a harbor on what looked like a lake, almost a sea from how vast it looked. And anchored at the docks were huge boats, with many of them still using sails.

"Emma," I said softly, as I waited for her to get the lowdown on the place we had just arrived at. For me, I amused myself by taking in the view, and sure enough, it was something completely new and fantastic.

Several kilometers away I could see the silhouette of some kind of wall or rampart, and whatever it was it must be gigantic, because it looked huge even from where I was, to the north there was a giant red-colored mountain that seemed to pierce the clouds, with a huge waterfall that released thousands of liters of water every second, with the noise of the waterfall being thunderous.

I could also see what looked like a coliseum, only on gigantic scales, and it was a surprise to see structures of such mammoth size exist. "We are in what they call the Trading Port, located in the Lower Zone, Ischyros, the name of the castle where the king lives, is thirty kilometers from here." Emma once told us that she got what she needed from the minds of the people around us.

When I was about to tell Azazel to take us to the place, Emma stopped us, "Sebastian, I think we are in luck, the king is nearby," she said, her gaze unfocused, and a bit lost, meaning she was reading the minds of the people nearby, "there are people who have seen him flying over near that big red mountain."

So he could fly eh, what other gifts did he possess? What started as a visit to check the waters, turned into a day of fishing, catching evidence and sights I previously thought didn't exist. Without a word, I touched Azazel, he already knew what to do, so without wasting time, he teleported us near the large red stone monolith.

When we appeared, the sound of the waterfall became extremely louder, something that bothered me as I was wearing a helmet, since it amplified within itself the noise or echo from outside. But for the people who lived nearby, that didn't seem to affect them, as they passed by either on horseback or in carriages as normal.

"Sebastian, I found him, but I can't get too close to him, a psychic force is preventing me, I don't know if it's him producing it or something else," Emma told us, showing me where the supposed king of Xandar was.

And just as she said, I could see a person floating hundreds of meters in the air, he seemed to be looking for something, since he stopped, landed on some rock and then took flight again, or at least I thought so, because then, in front of my eyes, materials began to appear magically, fitting and connecting with the others and starting to create a structure on top of the monolith.

The sight was beautiful, almost perfect, for hours I stood in awe watching how the being, like the king of this place, created what looked like a castle in just a dozen hours, that was the power of a mutant, something a random human could not stop, and now there was a whole kingdom of them, the news thrilled me, excited me. It was beautiful.

The castle, or whatever it was, was finished, the man even created a vertical crater in the stone itself with just his hands, so much power, so much majesty, within reach. Soon enough, the man came down to earth, where he was met by several people, some dressed in what appeared to be medieval-style armor, but glowing with faint or bright colors.

"The helmet they wear protects them from my power. I can't enter their minds, and I don't want to alert those who don't wear them by brushing against their heads. " Hahaha, apparently, it wasn't as medieval as it was made out to be. If those glowing helmets could do the same as mine, what a surprise.

But the smile on my face froze when I saw the man... the king... turn and look directly in our direction, which made me frown. They couldn't see us, or at least not yet. We were too far away unless he was a telepath, too.

"Hahaha," a cold and repulsive laugh could be heard. The strange thing about that was that it was heard far away, but for some reason, I could still hear it, as could my compatriots. "But look what we have here, four little ants strayed from their flock." There again, the voice. At this point, we were already alert because we didn't see anyone nearby, and from what I noticed, Emma couldn't sense anyone either.

But I underestimated the power of these people because unexpectedly, we were surrounded by at least eight people, eight women... Wearing the armor worn by those who had been close to the king, and while it took me by surprise that they had come so close to us, without noticing them, it made me feel a little safe to notice that they wanted us alive, or at least to dialogue, if not, perhaps we would already be dead.

"Are you free for a chat, gentlemen... And lady?" one of the women said to us, but beyond a request, it was an order, and while Azazel could get us out of this quickly, I wanted to play along, "by all means, lead the way."