Ch.262 Catacombs

Everything was going according to plan. After the three women agreed to join the competition, Su Ming asked Cable to create portable recording devices for them.

Though Cable looked large and rough, and resembled Thanos in some ways, he was actually a meticulous man. Without hesitation, he pulled out a toolkit and quickly assembled three sets of equipment.

Recording devices were nothing for Cable, who came from the 39th century and was a master craftsman. Though he had many superpowers, he rarely used them. He much preferred tinkering in workshops and crafting small inventions.

"Great, the contestants are ready, but we can't leave them without backup. After all, this is an enemy-occupied zone, and rescue might be needed at any time. Cable, take your team and provide support when necessary," Su Ming instructed, giving him a knowing look that conveyed the need to placate these women. The real work would still fall to Su Ming himself.

Cable's cybernetic eye flickered with a hint of sadness, but it was clear this was the best option. At least the in-fighting had only cost them one team member and not caused more serious damage.

The air in the sewer was thick and murky, with constant rustling sounds echoing from all directions. This place was only temporarily safe. The Germans would soon figure out their location and begin tracking them.

Especially since they had sorcerers on their side, they would undoubtedly close in soon.

Su Ming turned to the two remaining X-Force members—Mandy and Weasel. One was an ordinary person, and the other was useless in combat. Keeping them with the main group would only cause trouble, so Su Ming handed them the task of looking after Wade's skin sack. He instructed them to leave the city and find a safe place to lay low.

After all, Wade was the prize for the grand competition. Losing him wasn't an option.

Once the team members had dispersed into different parts of the sewer, Su Ming turned his attention to the X-Men.

"Alright, you all stick with me. No more solo actions," Su Ming said, leading them through the sewer as he calculated the positioning of the underground tunnels based on his mental map of the streets above. "Why didn't you stop the fighting earlier? Tempus could've handled that, right?"

The black-haired girl played with her hair, looking down and saying nothing.

Rogue leaped to Su Ming's side. "That's because Tempus hasn't mastered her powers yet. She can throw out energy orbs to freeze time, but she can't pull it back. If she had interfered, the three of them would've been sitting ducks."

"And you?" Su Ming glanced at her. She could've easily used her powers to break up the fight without any issues.

Rogue stuck out her tongue, scratching her head awkwardly. "I still can't control my powers well. Once I absorb someone's powers, it's hard to stop."

"Sigh... don't tell me you stole uniforms and snuck out?" Su Ming's eyes sharpened, scrutinizing Rogue from head to toe. "Your powers aren't developed enough to be on the battlefield."

Rogue jumped up. "No way! Why don't you ask Magik? She could've easily stopped the fight too."

Hearing this, Su Ming turned his gaze to Magik. But the girl just snorted, turning her head away with a coy stomp of her high-heeled boots on the ground. She seemed to be in a surprisingly good mood.

In the end, the X-Men girls were just spectators, enjoying the chaos of their personal soap opera.

Su Ming found Magik's attitude strange. It wasn't coldness, but more like she was playfully teasing him.

Could it be that he would become close with Colossus in the future? His sister was certainly peculiar. Perhaps it was part of her spellcasting costs. After all, the Ancient One could be quirky at times too.

"Alright, moving forward, you all follow my lead. I don't want anyone dying in World War II. That would create a temporal paradox and turn everything into a mess."

Su Ming decided to drop the subject, instead emphasizing discipline. Now that they were on the battlefield, they needed to act like a proper military unit.

The X-Men were never known for their discipline, especially since their mentors weren't exactly role models for order and restraint.

Cyclops and Storm were ticking time bombs with short tempers, Jean Grey was dealing with split personalities, and Wolverine had anger management issues.

The only dependable one was Colossus, but he was stuck in the future, babysitting two young mutant girls in a "lesbian" love triangle.

If you wanted to see real discipline, you'd have to look at Magneto's forces or the Hellfire Club. Though their members weren't always the strongest, they were obedient and followed orders.

"Don't worry!" Rogue pounded her chest confidently, skipping alongside. "The Professor always says—"

Su Ming shot her a sideways glance and said nothing more. Promises from the X-Men weren't exactly reassuring.

Now that everyone else had been sent off to create distractions, Su Ming's group needed a concealed location where they could monitor the airships' movements from the sky.

After calculating for a moment, Su Ming pulled out the Godslayer sword. After walking a few dozen meters and turning down another tunnel, he began furiously digging into the walls.

He needed to create a tunnel connecting to another underground system in Paris.

"What are you doing?" Magik awkwardly walked over, drawing her own sword. But for some reason, she spoke to Su Ming in Russian.

Su Ming turned his head to glance at her. She was absentmindedly fiddling with her black, horn-like headpiece and had no particular expression, her eyes looking off to the side.

"Paris has a grand underground structure, which will become a famous tourist attraction in the future. Can you guess what it is?" Su Ming replied in Russian as well. Being fluent in global languages had its perks.

"I know—it's the Catacombs, right?" she said, walking up to Su Ming's side and starting to dig with her sword. But the Godslayer was a versatile weapon, transforming from drill to pickaxe, while her blade was much less useful.

Su Ming gestured for her to step back and let him handle it. Using her soul-bound sword for such menial tasks would be overkill.

Normally, Monarch's magic would've been ideal for this, but he was currently in a daze, fighting invisible opponents as if trapped in his own sorrow. The fact that he could still walk with the group was good enough; asking him to cast spells was out of the question.

The Paris Catacombs were built in 1786. Before that, they had served as a quarry, supplying stone for structures like Notre-Dame and the Louvre.

In 1786, however, Paris was struck by a double blow: the plague and a smallpox epidemic. In just a few months, six million people died, and the city's cemeteries were overwhelmed. Everyone wanted to be buried near the church in their neighborhood, but there simply wasn't enough space.

As people kept digging deeper, they had to stack coffins layer upon layer. But the deeper they went, the longer it took, and many bodies began to rot while awaiting their turn, turning Paris into a city built on death.

It was no longer the romantic "City of Light"—instead, it became a city of corpse water.

To combat this problem, the mayor of Paris made a decision: exhume all the bodies from the cemeteries and transfer them into the city's abandoned quarries beneath the ground.

The process changed. First, bodies were given shallow burials for a month, allowing them to decompose into skeletons. Then, priests would dig them up and relocate them underground.

This work continued until 1821, by which time the Paris Catacombs, located 20 meters underground, stretched over 300 kilometers beneath the city, winding like a web across Paris.