The Silent Stage of Despair (4F)

[A bit further from the barrier]

As the X-Men approached the edge of the battleground, they were met with a sight that chilled even the most seasoned among them. Cyclops led the team, with Wolverine, Hank McCoy, Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, and Jean close behind. What they saw inside the barrier was carnage — bodies either punctured with acidic spikes or incapacitated with eyes burning red from intense light exposure.

Cyclops spoke first, his voice low and tense. "What the hell happened here?"

Wolverine sniffed the air, his eyes narrowing. "Something nasty. I can smell the blood… and fear." His claws popped out instinctively, as if anticipating a fight.

Hank crouched next to the barrier, running his fingers across its shimmering surface. "This isn't just any energy field. We can't pass through, but we can see inside. Whoever set this up wanted us to watch."

Emma Frost crossed her arms, her expression cold but calculating. "There's something more going on here. I can sense echoes of powerful emotions — pain, anger, desperation. But it's distorted, like it's been… manipulated."

Jean's eyes softened as she gazed through the barrier at the fallen mutants. "We need to get through. Those people are suffering."

Kitty Pryde, always quick on her feet, attempted to phase through the barrier, but was abruptly stopped mid-motion. "I can't... something's stopping me from phasing through!"

Colossus, ever the voice of calm, stepped forward. "Whatever is in there, we need to be ready. This was no ordinary fight."

Before anyone could react further, a figure emerged from the shadows on the other side of the battlefield. His silhouette was dark, but the glowing blue eyes behind a mask immediately drew their attention. Silence stood there, watching them intently, as if studying their every move.

Wolverine's eyes locked onto Silence, growling. "We got company."

Without a word, Silence's lips curled into a strange, innocent smile, almost as if mocking them. His presence was unnerving, his demeanor calm despite the chaos around him.

As they all stood there, attempting to find a way through, Jean's expression became more disturbed. "We can see the physical horror, but there's something deeper… a darkness hanging over this place. It's like all the suffering here is feeding something."

Colossus, standing silently with his massive, steel form, folded his arms. "We need to act fast. Those people in there are still alive… for now."

Jean nodded in agreement. "There's someone inside—a force that's… watching us. Waiting."

Kitty Pryde glanced at her friend, worry etched on her face. "You mean, they know we're here?"

"More than that." Jean's voice grew colder. "They want us to watch."

Cyclops turned to the team, his face grim beneath his visor. "We've got to get through this barrier and stop whoever's responsible before more lives are lost. This isn't just a battle… it's a massacre."

Silence, having guided the last display with such calculated ill-will, turned his attention once more to Pyro. "Move," he commanded with chill in his smile.

Pyro was furious, the spells of the barrier having been taken off him. A deafening roar and wild, dancing flames enveloped him. "Finally! I am going to make you pay for what you have done!

Pyro needed no further provocation and launched himself at Silence, both fists sheathed in fire. Silence retaliated with his characteristic calm, sidestepping the would-be attack in a smooth, liquid-like movement. Pyro's flaming punches whizzed past mark and exploded into the ground. The heat generated by the attack was immense; great waves of fire, bright enough to illuminate the dark battlefield, rippled forwards.

He dodged and weaved through the onslaught as if that was the easiest thing to do, not affronted in the slightest. He smirked as he sidestepped another blazing punch. "Is that all you've got?" he goaded.

The evasion tactics Silence employed only seemed to infuriate Pyro, who pressed the attack even more relentlessly. With his powers, Pyro summoned a wall of fire, creating a blockade in an attempt to keep Silence inside. Still composed and cool, Silence capitalized on Pyro's brief moment of overextension. Lowering his head, he slid under the wave of flames and closed the distance between him and Pyro.

In one swift, calculated movement, Silence drove a firm punch into Pyro's stomach. The impact of that strike, coupled with the heat coming off of Pyro's own flames, sent him reeling back. Enraged, Pyro gritted his teeth and swung a few wild and desperate strikes in Silence's direction, but through his agility, he dodged all of Pyro's attacks with ease.

The X-Men, observing from their position of cover, saw the battle unfold with growing concern. Cyclops narrowed his eyes behind his visor. "That's Pyro! And Azazel's with him. Looks like it's something related to the Brotherhood."

After a few minutes of intensive fight, Silence felt a surge of gratification. Pyro was a good opponent indeed, with his peculiar control over flames and experience in fighting. Silence himself was in great shape, only with some burns and a couple of blackened places on his clothes. The burns on the face and arms gave him no more than minor inconveniences, which said a lot about his own resilience and control.

Silence paused for a moment to catch his breath, cold, amused light gleaming in his eyes as he considered Pyro's condition: his opponent was visibly getting angry, his forehead beginning to drip sweat while he continued unsuccessfully to land a telling blow. Silence enjoyed the challenge and respected his opponent's good skill.

"It's quite an honor to be fighting a veteran like yourself, Pyro. Your flames certainly have a bit of a bite-hot enough to leave a mark, anyway. Must say, the heat of your attacks is something else. If only I could try it out on myself. That would be a real laugh, wouldn't it?"

Pyro snorted furiously, flashing his eyes as he dodged Silence's mocking tone and readied himself for round two. "You think you are so clever. I am not here to play games with you."

Silence replied with an imitation smile, as his cool composure remained unruffled. "Oh, I think you should feel the heat a bit more." He lifted his hand with a gleam of malevolent satisfaction in his voice. "Boil."

Boil." The word of Silence was enough to send Pyro's flames from a tender force of destruction into an uncontrolled spiral. The intense heat, hitherto projected forward, suddenly wrapped itself with vendetta around his body in currents. Temperature this extreme didn't just scald his skin; it was deeper, right to the blood vessels. As Pyro's blood started to boil, the crackling fire sound turned sharper, a grotesque sizzling, as if his very body was a kettle about to burst.

Pyro screamed in agony, the flames now curling inward, forcing his veins to bulge and pop with the pressure of superheated blood. His face contorted in pain, eyes wide and desperate, as the once-mighty flames turned into a brutish force against him.

Silence watched with an amused smirk. "Seems your flames get to taste some of their own medicine," he said. "Hot mess, ain't it?

As Pyro contorted in pain, Silence turned his attention to the mutants fallen. The battlefield-a gruesome display of the pained and perishing-was not yet over. Hardening his expression, he spoke with a cold detachment, "Boil."

The same torment that had been perpetrated on him was now going to be visited upon the other mutants. The flames that had so brutally been turned inward upon Pyro started to envelop the remaining mutants. Their eyes, bloodshot from excessive light, widened to newer levels of horror as the intense heat reached them.

As their already-hard-pressured-by-injuries blood boiled, the sizzling of their bodies became louder. The contorting of their bodies from this new wave of agony, with twitching muscles and blistering skin from the relentless heat, was a sight to see. Sharp, immediate pain-in almost a symphony of suffering. The waves of heat popped and distorted the air around them into wavy lights, making them seem even more surreal.

The veins in his temples bulging, Cyclops clenched his fists, his eyes hidden behind his visor, and struggled desperately not to lose his cool. "What manner of monster are we confronting? " he growled out in frustration.

Emma Frost wore an expression of grim resolution-the constant battering of her mind with all these emotions was really putting her telepathic powers through their paces. "We have to get them out of there," she urged. Jean Grey's normally calm eyes reflected part of the horror and pity as her mind attached itself to the suffering of the mutants.

"We must do something-now!"

Kavita Rao's face went white, her hands shaking slightly, her mind trying to wrap itself around the grim reality before her. "This … this is beyond anything we have faced," she said, her voice barely audible. So, Silence watched the chaos develop around him, enjoying the cursed energy surge in his vicinity. "Such purity in suffering," he told himself.

"This is remarkable. The more they suffer, the more potent the cursed energy. It would appear that the true essence of their pain is a treasure trove of negativity. How delightful. The relished enhanced cursed energy, with Silence, was a surety as emotional and physical draining reached a high in battle. He stood firm, looking into the chaos as he did not miss a single bit of every tormentous moment his doing had caused.

As Silence watched the chaos unfold, he muttered softly, "Move," under his breath. Instantly, Azazel, who had been immobilized, sprang into action with a serious look in his eyes. In a blur of movement, he teleported across the battlefield. His destination was Pyro, who was on the verge of succumbing to the intense internal heat. Azazel's sudden appearance was followed by a swift grab. Without hesitation, he teleported again, carrying Pyro away from the brutal scene.

Silence observed their departure with a faint, amused smile. "Ah, escaping the final act," he murmured, savoring the dramatic twist.

Turning his attention back to the fallen mutants. He increased the output of cursed energy, channeling it with a dark intensity. The effect was immediate and horrific. The remaining mutants, already suffering from the earlier torment, now experienced their blood burning through their veins, erupting in a grotesque display as it forced its way out of their bodies. The agony was swift and brutal, leading to their deaths in a matter of moments. Their bodies convulsed and twisted as their life forces extinguished in a fiery end.

As the last echoes of their suffering faded, Silence's gaze shifted to the fallen leader of the human soldiers, who was now being attended to by a nearby ambulance. The X-Men, stunned by the carnage they had witnessed, were momentarily paralyzed with shock. Silence seized the opportunity. With a sudden burst of speed, he leapt towards the ambulance.

He approached the leader, who was receiving emergency treatment, and with a cold, menacing tone said, "Tell him I will be waiting."

Before the X-Men could react or intervene, Silence vanished into the shadows, leaving behind a scene of death and devastation. The X-Men, still grappling with the enormity of what they had witnessed, could only stand by in stunned silence, their minds racing to understand the full extent of the horror they had just encountered.