Chapter 202: Leaving Sakaar
The two no longer hesitated and sprinted all the way.
Hulk was in front, like a battering ram; anything blocking the way was violently smashed aside or sent flying by him.
Thor followed closely behind, gathering useful items as he ran while remaining alert for pursuers that might appear from any corner.
A piercing global alarm finally blared, and red warning lights rotated and flashed throughout the Arena's auxiliary areas.
A frantic voice came over the broadcast: "Lock down all exits! The Champion has escaped! Repeat, the Championand Thunderbolt have escaped! Kill them on sight! There is a heavy reward!"
Everyone on Sakaar boiled with excitement upon hearing the broadcast. People began searching everywhere for Thor and Hank, which also caused great chaos.
However, the chaos became the best cover for Thor and Hulk at that moment.
Taking advantage of the confusion, the two rushed out of the main Arena building area without further incident and reached the junkyard on the outskirts of the port.
The mountains of discarded spaceships and parts here formed a natural labyrinth.
"This way!" Hulk let out a low growl, leading Thor through the iron ruins with Beast-like intuition and blurred memories.
He remembered that a long time ago, he had crashed into this area along with that broken ship.
Finally, at the bottom of a trash mountain formed by ship wreckage, they saw the quinjet.
It was wedged diagonally into a pile of broken metal and cables, its exterior covered in rust and grime, though there was no major structural damage to the outside.
This familiar silhouette caused a light of hope to burst forth in Thor's eyes.
"That's it! Can it still fly?" Thor rushed over, quickly checking the exterior.
"Hulk, get it out!" Hulk didn't waste words; he reached out with both hands, braced them against the bottom of the quinjet's fuselage, and his muscles bulged like mountain ranges, veins popping.
Accompanied by a low growl like grinding rocks and the groan of twisting metal, the quinjet, weighing dozens of tons, was forcibly lifted mostly out of the ruins by him!
Thor took the opportunity to crawl underneath, clearing the jammed landing gear and the main air intakes.
He found the manual hatch switch and pulled it hard. With a hiss, the air pressure released, and the hatch trembled as it opened.
Thor nimbly slipped into the cabin.
The interior was also a mess, with thick dust accumulated on the console and many instrument panels dim, but the main structure seemed intact.
He lunged into the pilot's seat and quickly performed a basic power check. To his surprise, as he pressed several key switches, some indicator lights actually flickered weakly, and the instrument panel responded.
There was still residual backup power!
"System rebooting... Low power... Navigation system offline... Engine status intact..." Thor quickly scanned the self-test information on the screen, feeling very excited; the plane was functional.
"Hulk, get in! We're leaving!"
He shouted back toward the hatch.
However, outside the hatch, Hulk stood in place without moving.
His crimson eyes looked through the hatch at the anxious Thor inside, his gaze flickering intensely, churning with extremely complex emotions.
"Hulk?" Thor sensed something was wrong.
"You, fly," Hulk's voice was unusually low, even carrying a hint of hoarseness. "Hulk... not fly."
"What do you mean? Get in! The pursuers will be here any second!" Thor said urgently.
Hulk didn't explain; he just took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The violent aura surrounding his body began to rapidly recede like a falling tide.
In just a few seconds, that green giant of rage transformed into a thin Bruce Banner, wearing only tattered, oversized boxers.
He slowly raised his head, his forehead covered in cold sweat, his eyes filled with blankness and an unprecedented confusion.
This time, it wasn't him struggling desperately and exhausting his mental strength to seize control back from the cage of Hulk's consciousness.
Instead, Hulk had actively chosen to let him out.
Banner could feel a churning dizziness in his stomach, as well as the emptiness and soreness deep in his muscles after the violent power receded.
But what shocked his mind the most was that this time, Hulk's angry thoughts didn't have to be suppressed by him; they receded on their own like a tide.
This unprecedented feeling left Banner confused and with a hint of indescribable unease. What did Hulk want to do?
"Banner! Welcome back! But there's no time to explain, we have to go!"
The familiar voice pulled Banner back from his chaotic thoughts.
"Thor?" Banner looked up blankly, surveying the massive junkyard filled with rusted metal and twisted pipes, as well as the bizarre, non-Earth-style building silhouettes further away.
"Where... is this? What happened? Hulk, he..."
"No time to explain, Dr.! Get in first!" Thor dashed down the ramp, grabbed Banner's arm without a word, and half-pulled, half-dragged Dr. Banner onto the quinjet.
"Close the hatch!"
The airtight door shut heavily, temporarily sealing out the foul air and the faint clamor of the pursuit from outside.
Thor pushed Banner into the co-pilot's seat and lunged for the main controls, his hands flying across the dusty control panel as he muttered incessantly.
"Start up, start up, old friend, wake up... Power connected... Engine preheating... Navigation... Damn, navigation is completely offline..."
Banner forced himself to focus and looked around. This was indeed an Avengers quinjet; the internal layout was familiar. He instinctively reached out to wipe the dust off a screen in front of him, trying to read the data on it.
"Requires voice activation password for the main control system!" Thor tried a few times, but the red error message on the screen kept flashing.
"Tony's damn security measures... Let me think... Stark is the Most Handsome? No... I am Thor, the God of Thunder? Not that either..."
Seeing several small aircraft that were clearly patrol boats taking off from the port behind them and searching in their direction, the sound of sirens drew closer.
Thor was sweating with anxiety.
"Strongest Avenger." Dr. Banner blurted out instinctively as he watched Thor scratch his head in frustration.
"Voice password confirmed. Welcome back, Dr. Banner. Main control system starting up." A familiar electronic female voice sounded, a large section of indicator lights on the console lit up one by one, and the low roar of the engine became steady and powerful.
Thor suddenly turned to look at Banner, his single eye wide, "You're the strongest? Then what am I?"
Dr. Banner replied expressionlessly, "You're Point Break."
"Point what?"
"Nothing. Can we fly yet?" Banner decisively changed the subject, his fingers already sliding across the auxiliary control panel in the co-pilot's seat, pulling up limited sensor data.
"There are three... no, four pursuit boats behind us, equipped with light Pulse Cannons. There's a large cloud of metal scrap to the front-left we can use as cover.
Our shield energy is almost zero, and engine output is only about forty percent of its rated value."
"We can fly! Let's go!" Thor stopped worrying about the titles, gripped the control stick tightly, and pulled back hard.
The quinjet let out a tooth-aching sound of metal grinding as it struggled to lift its nose from the rubble. The rear thrusters spewed hot air, pushing the scarred fuselage as it soared crookedly into the murky sky of Sakaar.
"Hold on tight!" Thor roared, maneuvering the jet into a thrilling sideslip to dodge two blue pulse beams that grazed the wings, before diving headlong into the mountain of trash.
Chapter 203: Leaving Sakaar (Part 2)
Banner gripped the seat armrest tightly, his fingers still operating rapidly on the auxiliary panel, trying to filter out interference to provide Thor with the clearest possible situational awareness of their surroundings.
"They don't dare follow too closely! This place is a maze for their small ships too!" Thor relied on his excellent flying skills and intuition to fly rapidly through the trash mountains.
Taking advantage of this brief moment of respite, Bannerfinally had the chance to ask the core question.
"Thor, what exactly happened? How did we end up here? Hulk... he seems a bit different?"
While keeping a close eye on the front, Thor used the fastest speech rate to briefly tell Banner about Odin's passing, Hela's return, the hijacking of the Bifrost Bridge, himself and Loki falling to Sakaar, becoming gladiators, meeting and fighting Hulk...
...and finally, under klein's verbal enlightenment and the pressure of reality, how Hulk seemed to begin changing and ultimately chose to step back just now.
It was a bit of an information overload.
Dr. Banner listened in stunned silence; the things Thor said were each more shocking than the last. Especially the final point.
"Hulk did it voluntarily?" Banner murmured, his feelings complicated to the extreme.
For a long time, he had viewed Hulk as a disaster that needed to be strictly controlled, another terrifying personality full of destructive desires.
He evaded, feared, and did his best to suppress him. But he never thought that the green giant might also carry some kind of emotion, might also be struggling, and might even be willing to choose another way.
"Now is not the time for this!" Thor interrupted Banner's thoughts. The fighter jet made a sharp turn, rushing out of the trash mountains and temporarily shaking off the pursuers.
But in the direction of the distant harbor, more and faster pursuit ships were taking off.
"Banner, look there!"
Thor raised his hand and pointed toward the sky of Sakaar, which was forever enveloped by wormholes and space-time turbulence.
Among the countless large and small, bright and dim spatial rifts, there was one most massive and stable giant wormhole.
"Heimdall's eyes are still watching me. He sent me a message. There, that largest passage is the only path that still barely connects to the direction of Asgard! If we pass through it, we can go back!"
Banner looked in the direction Thor pointed. The scientist's brain immediately began analyzing the wormhole's energy readings and instability, and the results made his scalp tingle.
"Thor! That passage is extremely unstable, with violent energy tides. Given the state of this plane, the survival rate for a forced crossing is less than ten percent!"
"And we have no accurate coordinate guidance at all. We could be thrown to any corner of the Universe, or even torn to shreds!"
"There's no choice!" A flame of determination burned in Thor's single eye.
"Hela has already gone back! Every second of delay puts Asgard in more danger! I must go back! This is my responsibility! And I want to take them home!"
"Them?" Banner was puzzled.
"Loki. And Valkyrie, a Valkyrie stranded here." Thor's tone left no room for doubt.
"No matter what Loki has done, he is a Prince of Asgard, my brother. When Asgard is in trouble, he must be present.
And Valkyrie—she was once Asgard's most heroic warrior. She belongs there; she shouldn't rot here. I'm going to bring them back together."
"At a time like this, you're still thinking about rescuing people?" Banner found it almost unbelievable.
"We can't even protect ourselves right now! And Loki? Are you sure he's willing to go back with you instead of stabbing you in the back again and slipping away on his own?"
"I'm sure. Doctor, please, pilot the ship, maneuver as much as possible, and avoid the pursuers. Buy me a little time. I'll be right back."
"What? You're going alone? How?" Banner exclaimed.
Thor didn't answer, but simply let go of the control stick and took a step back under Banner's stunned gaze. He closed his single eye and took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling slightly.
In an instant, fine blue electric lights, like a cluster of waking snakes, began to roam all over his body!
The air was filled with the smell of ozone scorched by lightning. A heart-palpitating pressure slowly spread out.
Although it was far from reaching the power of summoning a lightning storm at his peak, this was indeed the revival of the Power of Thunder!
Part of the seal Hela had placed seemed to have begun to loosen under the impact of life-and-death combat and a strong will of responsibility.
"My power has recovered somewhat," Thor opened his eyes, a flash of lightning seemingly passing through them. "It's enough."
He walked to the hatch and took one last look at Banner. "Watch our ship, Doctor. I'll be back soon. Then, together, we go home!"
Before he finished speaking, Thor smashed his fist into the emergency manual opening valve of the hatch.
Amidst the sound of high-pressure gas spraying, the hatch slammed open. Without hesitation, Thor leaped out, turning into a dazzling bolt of lightning and rushing out of the cabin.
He dived toward the huge Arena below!
Dr. Banner only had time to see that bolt of lightning quickly disappear into the complex of buildings.
He opened his mouth, but in the end, it only turned into a helpless sigh.
"Alright..." He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and gripped the control stick with both hands.
As his gaze swept across the red dots reappearing on the radar screen and circling around, Dr. Banner's eyes became focused.
"Well then, before the Point Break guy gets back... let Dr. Banner play with you all."
The lightning Thor had become was like a reverse meteor, smashing straight into the chaotic streets on the outskirts of the Arena.
He landed in a relatively hidden alleyway. As soon as he landed, he ran into several guards who were in pursuit.
He opened his fingers and quickly dealt with the few soldiers who came upon hearing the news, replenishing a few energy batteries and a still-usable Pulse pistol from them.
He ran toward the tavern that Valkyrie frequently visited.
He pushed open the dilapidated wooden door; the tavern was filled with smoke. Valkyrie was sitting alone in a corner with three empty wine bottles in front of her.
She looked up and saw Thor, then sneered: "What, is the Prince of Asgard here to give a speech?"
"No time for nonsense, Valkyrie." Thor strode forward and said urgently.
"Hela is back, and Asgard is in imminent danger. I need every Asgardian who can fight. Come with me, go home."
Valkyrie gave a disdainful laugh, a strong smell of alcohol wafting onto Thor's face.
"Home? Asgard? That's your home, Your Highness. My home is long gone, buried by your dear sister and your great father together."
She then tilted her head back and took a large gulp of wine.
"Valkyries? They're all dead, only I'm left here lingering on.
Go back? Face Hela once more and die again? No, thanks, I haven't lived enough yet."
Thor's voice lowered. "Don't you want to avenge your sisters?"
"Revenge?" Valkyrie sneered, pain flashing in her eyes. "I'm tired. I just want to live and die in a drunken stupor here."
"But the blood of a Valkyrie still flows in your veins!" Thorgrabbed her wrist. "You are a warrior of Asgard! A Valkyrie! Asgard is burning, and our people are dying."
"Then let them die!" Valkyrie violently threw off his hand. "I can't save everyone! I can't even save myself!"
Thor stared at her for a long time, and finally let go. "You're right, I can't force you."
He turned and walked toward the door, his silhouette appearing resolute under the dim light. "But I must go back. That is my home, and it is my responsibility."
Watching his figure as he pushed the door and left, Valkyrie gripped the wine bottle tightly.
The liquid shook violently in the bottle, reflecting her struggling face. A few seconds later, she smashed the bottle hard onto the ground, the sound of glass shattering exploding in the tavern.
"Dammit!" she cursed, grabbed her twin swords leaning against the wall, and chased after him. "I must have owed you in my past life!"
Chapter 204: Leaving Sakaar (III)
Thor turned back and saw her chasing after him, a smile spreading across his face. "I knew it!"
"Cut the chatter!" Valkyrie glared at him. "Where to next?"
"To rescue Loki and all the warriors imprisoned here." A sharp light flashed in Thor's eyes. "We need an army."
Following Valkyrie's leads, Thor and the others quickly found the special prison where the Grandmaster kept the disobedient gladiators.
The guards here were more heavily armed, but against a Valkyrie and a Thor whose divine power was beginning to awaken, they were still no match.
Thor used his fists and lightning to blast open the control room, releasing all the gladiators held captive there.
These warriors from various Planets and diverse races were initially full of wariness and hostility, but then Thorgave a short and impassioned speech.
Asgard was being invaded by a powerful enemy, and he needed every bit of strength he could get; in return, he would grant them freedom and the chance to leave Sakaar.
After hearing this, many people wavered.
"Stay here, and you'll eventually die in the arena or be disposed of like trash," Valkyrie added coldly, leaning against the doorframe.
"At least fighting alongside this single-minded prince is a battle for yourselves; if you die, you die like warriors, not playthings."
A Kronan warrior was the first to smash his shackles, saying in a muffled voice, "I've had enough of this hellhole! Count me in!"
"Me too!"
"Take us out of this hell!"
Responses echoed one after another. Anger from long-term oppression transformed into fighting spirit as the prisoners picked up the guards' weapons and quickly formed a ragtag army.
Ultimately, over twenty of the most unruly and powerful gladiators decided to follow Thor.
Thor led the group deep into the heart of the prison.
In the deepest part of the prison, in a single cell filled with magic suppressors and physical shackles, they found Loki.
He looked a bit disheveled, his fine clothes dusty and his hair messy, but the cunning and calculation in his green eyes hadn't diminished at all.
"My dear brother," Loki looked up, his tone ingratiating. "Finally remembered you have a brother?"
"Didn't you say you were adopted?"
"How could that be? My brother! We grew up together."
"Tricked me into going to that snake, where I almost got bitten to death?"
"Those were just childhood antics!"
Before Loki could finish his sentence, Thor suddenly stepped forward and landed a solid right hook on Loki's cheek!
The dull thud of fist hitting cheek echoed through the cell.
Loki's head was knocked to the side, a trickle of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth.
A solid feel, a real cry of pain. Thor shook his hand and nodded. "Yeah, it's real." He was fed up with Loki's illusions.
Loki slowly turned his head and spat out some blood, the playfulness in his eyes replaced by a flicker of genuine annoyance, though it was quickly hidden again.
"That's quite a unique way to verify... So, my brother, are you really here to save me?"
"No." Thor stepped forward and personally snapped the magic shackles on him, staring at him with burning eyes.
"I'm here to take you back. Asgard needs every prince, especially when it's about to burn. That is our home, Loki. Father is gone, and it's the only home we have left."
Loki flexed his freed wrists and chuckled upon hearing this, avoiding Thor's gaze. His tone was breezy.
"Home? Who cares. However..." He paused, a complex and unreadable emotion flashing through his eyes.
"There are indeed some of my private collections there. I can't leave them to that madwoman Hela. I have to go back and get them."
Thor looked at his brother's stubborn facade and didn't expose him, only letting the corners of his mouth curl up.
He knew Loki too well, just as Loki knew him.
"Whatever you say." Thor turned and spoke in a deep voice to the gladiators and Valkyrie gathered outside the door.
"Everyone's here. Now, we go take back our ship, and then..."
"Fight our way back to Asgard! Kill that bitch named Hela!" a burly gladiator from a Rock Life Planet growled, finishing the sentence.
Thor nodded heavily, lightning sparking in his eyes again. "Home!"
Thor led the way; Loki and Valkyrie flanked him on both sides.
Behind them, the group of newly liberated gladiators, filled with rage and a desire to survive, burst forth with incredible combat power. Like beasts released from a cage, they charged bravely up the prison's corridors.
The Grandmaster's soldiers tried to suppress Thor and the others with numbers and crossfire.
However, before Thor's awakening lightning power, Loki's unpredictable magic, Valkyrie's battle-hardened skills, and the gladiators who were like beasts breaking out of cages, these obstacles seemed fragile and futile.
They forced a gap in the dense encirclement, stepped over the remains of their enemies, and burst out of the dark prison area, returning to the surface.
On the relatively open, abandoned landing pad outside the prison, the scarred but engine-roaring quinjet hovered at a low altitude like an anxious steel beast, its rear hatch wide open.
Inside the cockpit, Dr. Banner saw Thor and the others charging out and immediately shouted through the external speaker.
"Over here! Get on, quick! I just shook off those flies, but they're catching up again. There's no time! Hurry!"
"Go!" Thor shouted to the people behind him, leaping forward first, grabbing the edge of the hatch, and flipping inside.
Valkyrie and Loki followed closely behind, and the gladiators used all their skills, jumping and climbing, to pour into the cabin as fast as possible.
They filled the entire quinjet to capacity.
"Everyone's in! Close the door! Take off!" Thor roared at the pilot's seat as soon as he entered the cabin, while warily looking back at the pursuing forces.
Dr. Banner didn't need a reminder; just as the last gladiator's heel left the ground, he yanked the control stick.
The quinjet gave an overburdened groan, its nose lifted, and the thrusters spewed a more intense tail flame, charging toward the largest wormhole in the Sakaar sky!
"Hold on tight! We're going into that big guy!" Dr. Banner's voice rang out again as he piloted the craft upstream, heading straight for the only passage of hope in the sky.
Behind them, the Grandmaster's pursuit fleet had already assembled, with dense pulse fire and countless scorching beams all aimed at the quinjet.
Dr. Banner's fingers danced rapidly across the control panel, sweat trickling down his forehead.
The quinjet jolted violently amidst the dense pulse fire, like a small boat in a stormy sea.
He gritted his teeth and stabilized the control stick, performing a thrilling barrel roll and narrowly brushing past two intersecting blue beams.
"Three kilometers to go! Hang in there!" Thor said to the doctor.
Just as they were about to reach the entrance of the wormhole vortex, it was completely obscured by dense black dots.
These crafts were the Grandmaster's interception fleet, with warships lined up in a row, forming a tight barrier of death blocking the quinjet's path.
"Dammit!" Valkyrie spat, looking at the wall of muzzles ahead through the window, despair flashing in her eyes. "We won't make it through!"
Inside the cabin, the gladiators who had just gained their freedom gripped their makeshift weapons tightly, their faces filled with resolve, but also unable to hide a trace of fear.
Loki's expression also became uncharacteristically solemn, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the hilt of his dagger.
Thor stood by the hatch, his single eye staring fixedly ahead, his chest heaving.
He could feel the awakening lightning power roaring within him, but it was still far from its peak; forcing a charge through such a fleet formation was no different from suicide.
Was it really going to end here?
At this critical moment...
Chapter 205: Leaving Sakaar (4)
Two soul-shaking roars tore through the murky skies of Sakaar without warning!
The sheer volume of the sound waves even drowned out the roar of engines and the hiss of gunfire, bringing a momentary silence to the entire airspace.
Everyone looked up in horror.
In the chaotic airspace beneath the wormhole, two giant beast heads made entirely of pure energy suddenly lunged out from the void!
One was red-gold like fire, resembling a legendary Eastern Dragon, with flying scales and claws, its dragon eyes flowing with flames that could burn through time and space.
The other was silver-white like the moon, shaped like a Western Magic Dragon, with hideous bone spikes on its back and surrounded by an extremely cold frost that could freeze the soul.
The size of these two giant beasts was unimaginably massive! As soon as they appeared, a terrifying pressure rolled over the entire field like a physical force.
In the next moment, under the gaze of countless stunned eyes, the two giant beasts moved.
The red-gold fire dragon coiled and twisted, its massive body stretching out, carrying a heat that could incinerate the eight directions as it crashed headlong into the densest area of the intercepting fleet!
Any warship swept by its body, whether shielded or armored, melted away silently like snow under the sun the moment it touched that red-gold energy, leaving not even a scrap of residue behind.
The silver-white ice dragon let out an even higher-pitched dragon roar, its slender neck lunging forward to breathe a sky-spanning ice-blue breath at the cluster of pursuers behind the quinjet that were frantically pouring out firepower!
Wherever the breath passed, space itself was frozen with fine cracks. The pursuing warships seemed to have their pause buttons pressed, instantly covered in thick ice shimmering with an eerie blue light, losing all power and falling stiffly toward the ground.
In just two or three seconds, the intercepting fleet ahead was cleared away by the fire dragon, and the pursuers behind were completely frozen by the ice dragon.
The quinjet's path to the wormhole, as well as the threats behind them, were instantly cleared by these two abruptly appearing giant beasts!
The entrance to the wormhole was no longer obstructed.
"My God..." Dr. Banner's mouth hung open, his hand still frozen on the control stick, his mind a complete blank.
This had completely exceeded the scope of science as he understood it.
"Is it him?!" Thor's single eye suddenly widened as he stared at the two giant beasts that were slowly fading.
This style, this scale... it's klein!
Only that unfathomable Easterner could pull off such an inconceivable trick!
"What are you standing there for! Go!" Loki was the first to react, slapping the back of Dr. Banner's chair. He didn't care whose work it was; escaping was what mattered!
Dr. Banner shuddered and instantly snapped out of it.
He no longer hesitated and pushed the control stick to the limit. The scarred quinjet let out one last roar,
its engines overloading and spraying out dazzling flames as it dove headfirst into the massive, unobstructed wormhole like a meteor flying in reverse!
A moment before the fighter jet vanished into the rainbow energy stream of the wormhole, Thor took one last look back, seemingly trying to find that familiar figure in the dissipating light and shadow of energy,
but in the end, he only saw the barren land of Sakaarrapidly receding from his vision.
The fuselage vibrated violently the moment it entered the wormhole, all instrument panels flashing crazily, and alarms blaring in unison.
Dr. Banner did his best to maintain balance, navigating with difficulty through the violent and chaotic spatial turbulence.
Everyone in the cabin gripped anything nearby that could steady them, their faces pale.
Thor leaned against the cold cabin wall and closed his eyes, thinking to himself,
"klein, I, Thor Odinson, will remember this favor. Once I've settled the trouble in Asgard, I'll pay you back slowly."
Watching Thor's battered quinjet dive headfirst into the swirling rainbow wormhole like a rabbit chased by a dog,
klein finally strolled out from the shadow of the abandoned tower where he had been hiding, dusting off his hands of non-existent dust.
"Whew... finally sent those troublemakers away." He smacked his lips, his tone carrying the relief of having fulfilled Odin's final request.
It was indeed his doing, using energy to simulate the 'Dual Dragons Playing with a Pearl' to clear the flight path.
It wasn't that he suddenly had a surge of saintly compassion; it was simply that he felt Thor, though often lacking a few brain cells, was a decent guy,
and since he had promised Odin to look after him a bit, he couldn't just watch him get riddled with holes by the Grandmaster's fleet of mooks.
It was a casual effort that didn't take much energy.
As for following them to Asgard? klein had no such intention at all.
Ragnarok was something he couldn't change right now. Hela was destined to perish together with the Fire GiantSurtur on the ruins of Asgard.
That was the destined calamity of the Asgardian realm and a part of the cycle of the new and the old.
Given that, what would he go there for? To help demolish the house or just to watch? With that time, he'd rather go find some fun.
Besides, there was no reward for beating up Hela, no motivation for a gacha draw. It was a purely thankless task, and he was too lazy to get involved.
The most important thing for klein right now was to finish the final steps on his hand-built, scrap-metal spaceship and leave the foul cosmic junkyard that was Sakaar.
He hummed an out-of-tune little ditty as he wandered back to his hidden, abandoned Repair Dock.
A few days later, an unremarkable and even somewhat crude small spaceship sat quietly on the takeoff pad.
"Done!" klein circled the ship with satisfaction and patted the thick armor plating.
"Though the looks are a bit lacking, it's enough for running away. Next stop, to find the funniest idiot in Marvel!"
However, just as klein pulled open the hatch and had one foot on the gangway.
An indescribable, massive pressure descended without warning!
It was as if the entire space where Sakaar was located had suddenly been plunged into thick pitch. The light became dim, sound transmission turned sluggish, and even the ubiquitous dust froze in mid-air.
klein's steps on the gangway suddenly stopped, the relaxed smile on his face instantly vanished, and his eyes grew sharp.
This pressure was strong! Very strong! Even stronger than Dormammu! Moreover, this aura was very unfamiliar.
It was different from Dormammu's Dark Dimension aura full of erosion and destructive desire, different from Odin's solemn and grand divine power, and even more different from the Ancient One's deep and peaceful magicfluctuations.
This was a kind of oppressive force he had never encountered before.
"What the hell is this?" klein's entire power instantly entered a semi-activated state, his Chaos Magic ready to strike.
klein's gaze swept toward the direction the pressure was coming from. There, where the spatial turbulence had been boiling like water, a massive dark-gold spatial wormhole was now slowly forming.
As the dark-gold spatial wormhole fully opened!
An illusory giant hand made entirely of dark starlight slowly reached out from the passage, grabbing toward klein above the Repair Dock!
Chapter 206: Grandmaster
When that giant starlight hand, dark enough to blot out the sun and carrying a terrifying pressure capable of freezing time and space and obliterating laws, ruthlessly reached down from the dark gold wormhole, klein already knew exactly who was coming.
"Grandmaster..."
klein pulled back his foot from the boarding ramp and landed steadily on the ground.
He looked up at the giant palm covering the sky, the last trace of cynicism vanishing from his face, replaced by a sense of eagerness to try his strength.
Grandmaster of Sakaar was merely one of the thousands of avatars that Grandmaster, an Elder of the Universe, placed throughout endless dimensions to play among mortals and watch dramas unfold.
After all, this lawless land had endured through countless eons without falling, becoming a sanctuary of entertainment recognized by the entire Universe by default.
A mere Grandmaster was nothing to fear, but with the connection behind him to one of the eternal and immortal Elders of the Universe, Grandmaster, no one dared to speak out of turn!
By interfering and letting the gladiators go, especially by helping Thor, he hadn't just trampled on a Grandmaster's pride; he had touched the absolute authority of an ancient being like Grandmaster.
If such an offender wasn't completely eradicated as a warning to others, how could Grandmaster maintain his transcendent status in the endless dimensions in the future?
Wouldn't any random nobody with a bit of skill think they could run wild in his domain?
Having thought this through, klein did not retreat in the face of that giant starlight hand—which could easily crush an ordinary Skyfather level being—but instead took a step forward!
"Want to use me to establish your authority? Then let's see if you have the teeth for it!"
In a flash of thought, the Chaos Divine Power within his body erupted without reservation!
A roar that seemed to sound from the very beginning of the Universe's creation shattered the stagnant space of Sakaar!
A towering, chaotic phantom whose full form was hard to discern rose from behind klein!
It was neither dragon nor beast, nor was it human-shaped; it was more like a collapsing and expanding Chaos Nebula, with flashes of light that created worlds and darkness that sank all things into the void.
The phantom's face was blurred, with only a pair of eyes seemingly composed of rotating galaxies staring coldly at the reaching starlight hand.
This was the manifestation of klein's own Dao—the Chaos Demon God Manifestation!
Facing Grandmaster's starlight hand, which covered the sky and was composed of pure universal laws and ancient divine power, the Chaos Demon God Manifestation raised its arm and met the pressing hand with a direct punch, neither dodging nor evading!
In the center of the fist print, phantoms of Yin and Yang circulating, the five elements rising and falling, and the vibration of space-time strings flickered faintly.
The moment the fist and palm met, a terrifying ripple composed purely of destructive energy expanded silently and rapidly from the point of collision!
Everywhere the ripple passed—whether it was Grandmaster's patrol fleet, the ruins of buildings on the ground, floating metal junk, or even some unlucky small celestial bodies further away...
The moment they made contact, they were completely erased into nothingness, like pencil marks rubbed away by an eraser.
A hole several thousand kilometers in diameter was torn through Sakaar's atmosphere, directly revealing the distorted and colorful cosmic background behind it.
The dark gold wormhole above the sky vibrated violently. On that giant starlight hand, countless stellar points of light flickered uncertainly, as it was forced to a halt in mid-air by the unadorned punch of the Chaos Demon God Manifestation, unable to descend even a fraction further!
At the core of the collision, where the fist and palm met, the scene was even more bizarre.
Time and space were completely chaotic, entangled, and shattered there!
At times, one could see the dark star vortex on the giant palm annihilating a corner of the fist print;
At other times, the Chaos Dao Patterns on the fist print would light up, forcibly disintegrating the encroaching dark star power.
Two grand forces, representing different cosmic levels and different rule orientations, were engaged in the most fundamental and violent mutual obliteration and conquest!
Even the ground looked as if it had been plowed by a Godwith a giant plow, leaving behind a circular rift valley several thousand meters deep with crystallized edges.
Only the maintenance dock where klein was located, along with the ship behind him that had just been completed, was shrouded in a thin but tough crimson-gold halo, standing firm in the earth-shattering shockwaves like a lonely reef in a raging sea.
From behind the dark gold wormhole came a voice carrying a trace of surprise.
Clearly, Grandmaster's true form had not expected that this fellow, who had casually interfered in his game and seemed to be nothing more than a strong dimensional traveler, could actually erupt with such a level of power.
This had already surpassed ordinary cosmic levels and touched the edge of the peak of a single Universe, and it even contained some energy that made even him feel a slight sense of danger.
"Interesting! Stranger, your power is very interesting." An indifferent thought pierced directly through the spatial barrier and rang out in klein's sea of consciousness.
"However, provoking the majesty of an Elder requires the price of your demise."
As the words fell, the five fingers of the blocked starlight hand suddenly closed!
Each finger transformed into a chain that pierced through universal laws, with countless ancient runes flowing between them, carrying terrifying sealing rules intended to seize the Chaos Demon God Manifestation along with klein at its core into its palm and completely obliterate them!
"A price? That depends on whether you can afford to pay it!"
A sharp glint flashed in klein's eyes, and the Chaos Demon God Manifestation let out a silent roar toward the heavens. Its body suddenly collapsed inward, as if gathering the boundless chaos into a single point, and then...
Chaos Divine Light, billions of times more intense than a supernova, exploded outward with the Fiendgod Aspect as the center!
The law chains condensed by the starlight hand snapped inch by inch under the wash of the Chaos Divine Light. The giant hand itself became unstable, as if it might dissipate at any moment.
"Hmm?" The thought deep within the wormhole fluctuated, seemingly even more surprised.
"Your rules are not the common path of this Universe. I am even more interested in you now."
In the next moment, the dark gold wormhole expanded violently! It was no longer just a palm; a blurred figure slowly descended from the wormhole.
Grandmaster seemed to be sending down a stronger wisp of his will, or even a portion of his true body's power, to truly descend into this realm!
He had changed his mind.
Eradicating an interesting powerhouse with unknown rules might not be as good as capturing him, studying him carefully, and then turning him into a unique masterpiece in his endless collection.
The terrifying sense of oppression surged exponentially. All of Sakaar began to tremble slightly, and cracks appeared in the space-time structure, as if it could not bear the true gaze of this ancient being.
klein felt that gaze locking onto him, looking at him like a novel toy, and anger flared in his heart. But at the same time, an even stronger battle intent was boiling over.
"Want to catch me for research? Keep dreaming your damn dreams!"
A massive symbol, composed entirely of geometric lines of light and unimaginably complex and precise, appeared out of thin air in front of Grandmaster.
"Interesting person, kneel and surrender now, and I shall spare your life!"
"What a joke! It's not yet decided who will win and who will lose!"
Chapter 207: Grandmaster (Part 2)
No sooner had klein's voice faded than the geometric symbol suddenly erupted with billions of rays of light, each ray transforming into a tangible chain of law, weaving into a giant net that covered the sky and descended toward klein!
Wherever this net passed, even the chaotic turbulence of time and space was forcibly smoothed out.
This was Grandmaster's absolute control over rules; he intended to define klein, along with the very space he occupied, as part of his collection.
"Define me? You're not worthy!"
Chaos divine light surged in klein's eyes, and the Chaos Demon God Manifestation behind him abruptly spread its arms, transforming into a rapidly spinning chaos vortex!
At the center of the vortex, it was no longer simple Yin-Yang or the Five Elements, but the surging collision of Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind, with the Pure and Turbid Qisyet to separate, looking like a scene of a world before its creation!
This was the core manifestation of klein's own Path of Chaos, representing the source of all possibilities and the grave of all established orders.
The chaos vortex expanded with a roar, crashing violently against the net of order and laws!
The rays of the law net attempted to define the chaos vortex, while the chaos vortex spun frantically, twisting the rays it touched and reducing them back to the most primitive chaos qi.
At the edge of their contact, space sometimes collapsed into a singularity and sometimes exploded into miniature Universe bubbles; time there reversed, and at other times branched into countless possibilities.
With the point of collision as the center, the sky of Sakaarrippled with visible spatial waves, like a lake surface into which a stone had been cast!
Wherever the ripples passed, everything was distorted.
In the distance, Grandmaster's palace complex, like a sandcastle kneaded by an invisible giant hand, collapsed with a roar, and in the process of collapsing, it was stretched and shattered into a stream of basic particles.
The trash mountains further away were directly erased by the spatial ripples.
"To actually oppose order with chaos? Interesting, how very interesting!" Grandmaster's voice rang out again, and his blurred figure seemed to become a bit more solid, exuding an even more intense interest.
"But chaos shall ultimately return to order; this is the iron law of the Universe!"
He raised a finger and tapped lightly toward the chaos vortex that was locked in a stalemate with the law net.
An invisible, intangible ripple containing supreme authority emanated from his fingertip, instantly crossing the chaotic battlefield and sinking into the chaos vortex.
The vortex formed by the Chaos Demon God Manifestation suddenly stalled!
Its rotation speed slowed abruptly, and the surging Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and the Pure and Turbid Qis within seemed to be forcibly organized by an invisible hand, actually showing a tendency to transform into simple rules!
Grandmaster actually intended to use his authority over the Universe's rules to forcibly bring order to klein's Path of Chaos, reverting it from all possibilities back to a single certainty!
Once successful, klein's Dao Foundation would be fundamentally dismantled, leaving him with no power to resist.
klein let out a muffled groan as a trickle of pale gold blood leaked from the corner of his mouth; it wasn't physical damage, but the backlash from his Dao Foundation being shaken.
But the fighting spirit and defiance in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest; instead, they burned even more fiercely.
"Iron law of the Universe? I'm exactly the one who smashes iron laws!"
He slammed his hands together in front of his chest, and the Chaos Divine Power that had just finished merging within him circulated with unprecedented fury, even drawing upon all the power hidden deep within his soul's origin, burning it all at this moment!
"With my chaos as fuel, ignite the fires of all paths! All laws are void; only I am true! Chaos Heavens-Opening!"
The scene of the unformed world at the core of the vortex formed by the Chaos Demon God Manifestation exploded!
A light of creation, indescribable by any color, slashed out from the center of the explosion!
This light contained the first sharp edge of the creation of heaven and earth, while also carrying the ultimate nirvana that ends everything and returns it to nothingness.
The Light of Creation surged upward, boldly slashing into the Ordering Ripple Grandmaster had tapped out!
The Ordering Ripple trembled violently; the defining authority it carried actually failed to take full effect upon touching the Light of Creation, and was instead shaken by the infinite possibilities it contained!
"What?!" Grandmaster's blurred figure showed obvious fluctuations for the first time, and a sliver of genuine shock finally leaked from his previously indifferent intent.
This ordering finger of his seemed simple, but it was actually a high-dimensional application of his authority over the underlying rules of the Universe as an Elder of the Universe.
Even an ordinary peak Single Universe level being, when faced with this finger, would inevitably have their Dao principles thrown into disarray and be gradually incorporated into his framework of order.
Yet the person before him had, through a resolute method of burning his own Dao Foundation to the point of near self-destruction, unleashed a sliver of power that transcended his current realm!
The status of this power was extremely high; although its quantity was far inferior to his, in terms of quality, it actually showed a faint trend of contending with his defining authority!
The Light of Creation split the Ordering Ripple and continued its momentum; though it had dimmed considerably, it still carried an indomitable resolve as it slashed toward Grandmaster's blurred figure!
"An ant trying to shake a tree—how foolish!" Grandmastersnorted coldly, seemingly truly angered. He extended his blurred figure's hand fully out of the Dark-gold Wormhole.
He made a light grasping motion toward the incoming Light of Creation.
Space-time seemed to freeze under this grasp.
The Light of Creation stopped in the void less than three feet from his palm, unable to advance another inch.
Grandmaster's true body had clearly utilized a more core power.
"To be able to force me to use my true strength, you have reason to be proud," Grandmaster's voice carried a cold killing intent. "But the game ends here. Your chaos and your secrets shall all belong to my collection."
That translucent palm slowly closed, intending to grasp klein along with that patch of space into its palm and seal him away completely.
klein's face was pale now, his aura fluctuating unsteadily; that Chaos Heavens-Opening strike just now had nearly drained his newly broken-through and yet-to-be-stabilized foundation, causing significant backlash.
But as he watched the slowly closing translucent giant palm, a flash of madness and calculation crossed his eyes.
"End? It's still early! Old man, take this final great gift of mine!"
He no longer tried to resist the suppressing force covering him; instead, he poured all the remaining power in his body, including that turbulent Chaos Divine Power, into the core of Sakaar beneath his feet!
He was communicating with the space-time turbulence that permeated the entire core of Sakaar, chaotic to the extreme!
klein roared hoarsely, his hands thrusting violently into the void beneath his feet as if grabbing countless invisible strings, and then, with the last of his strength, he gave a fierce tug!
An indescribable sharp hum instantly spread throughout all of Sakaar and even leaked out of the Planet, echoing in the nearby space of the Universe!
Sakaar, this massive Planet, began to tremble violently!
On the Planet's surface, those large and small wormholes and spatial rifts that already existed suddenly expanded frantically and collided with each other!
Countless streams of space-time turbulence went out of control, like billions of frenzied space-time giant pythons, lunging madly across the Planet's surface and even its interior!
The Dark-gold Wormhole in the sky shook violently, and the hand Grandmaster had extended was also interfered with, its closing speed stalling slightly.
But this was only the beginning.
Centered on klein's position, an indescribable wave of disorder expanded rapidly in a spherical shape!
This energy acted simultaneously on matter, energy, time, space, and even the most basic level of mental information!
Matter lost its stability; the alloy ground beneath his feet was at times as hard as divine iron, at times as soft as mud, and at times directly vaporized.
Energy went completely haywire; free energy particles annihilated each other, producing colorful, irregular, and destructive energy storms.
Time became completely chaotic; in some areas, the flow of time accelerated ten-thousand-fold, causing a piece of metal to rust into ash in an instant;
In some areas, time flowed backward, with broken architectural debris flying back and reassembling, only to shatter again;
In some areas, time stagnated, and everything was frozen in a bizarre instant.
Space was folded and tied into dead knots; up, down, left, and right lost their meaning. One might take a step on level ground and the next step into a shattered Subspace, or be sent to the other side of the Planet by folded space.
The most terrifying part was the disorder at the level of mental information.
Chapter 208: Grandmaster (3)
All living beings, including those soldiers and gladiators still resisting, and even the faint consciousness of the Planet itself, felt their minds completely deranged.
The information received by their senses was completely distorted, severe obstacles appeared in their self-perception, and they even began to doubt the reality of their own existence.
In just a few breaths, the entire Sakaar turned into a massive, insane, and constantly self-destructing time bomb of uncertainty.
This was klein's true killer move and backup plan!
He knew that the odds of winning a head-on confrontation against Grandmaster, who had almost touched the threshold of the Universe, were slim, so from the very beginning, his goal was not to defeat Grandmaster,
but to completely disrupt the space-time structure of this special location, Sakaar, and create a realm of absolute chaos that even Grandmaster could not easily peer into!
"You lunatic! You want to destroy this place!" Shock and anger finally seeped into Grandmaster's consciousness.
Sakaar was one of his important playgrounds, and he had spent much effort maintaining its special space-time structure.
This drastic measure by klein triggered a chain reaction of collapse that even he could not immediately quell, especially the turbulence on the level of mental information, which even caused severe interference with the perception of his form of existence.
In this absolute chaos where all things were collapsing and space-time and spirits were completely in turmoil, an extremely subtle, unstable gap appeared in Grandmaster's suppression of klein's existence.
"Now is the time!"
Sharp light erupted from klein's eyes as he forced himself to gather his last breath of Chaos energy. His figure suddenly blurred and, following the cracks in the rampaging space-time around him, he merged instantly into the crazily turbulent space-time and mental currents like a drop of ink into the vast ocean, disappearing without a trace.
He did not even perform a hyperspace jump directly, as that might leave a trail.
He was like a grain of sand thrown into the eye of a storm, allowing himself to disappear completely into the absolute chaos generated by Sakaar's own collapse, which could cover all perception.
"Bastard!!!"
Grandmaster's roar seemed to make the collapsing Sakaartremble once more.
His crystalline giant palm clamped down fiercely, but it only crushed a void and even more violent fragments of space-time.
His will swept frantically across the entire Sakaar, even tracing time lines, probing spatial folds, and sensing mental residues...
But it was useless!
The space-time, information, and spirits of Sakaar itself were all a jumbled mess, constantly self-annihilating and being reborn.
klein's traces were perfectly covered up.
Grandmaster's true body seemed to want to take further action to continue pursuing klein.
But the collapse of Sakaar had already triggered a chain reaction, beginning to affect the stability of the surrounding star sectors and even touching some more sensitive spatial nodes.
Continuing would likely cause even greater, unpredictable trouble, and might even attract the gaze of other existences in the Universe.
Moreover, Sakaar was one of Grandmaster's faces; he could not abandon this place, otherwise, how could he continue to mix in the Universe!
"...Very well." After a long while, Grandmaster's blurry figure seemed to take one deep look at Sakaar, where space-time and spirits were all in disarray. His consciousness, filled with monstrous rage, swept across this airspace one last time.
"Stranger Chaos Walker... I have remembered your scent. The Universe is vast, but today's humiliation will be repaid a hundredfold in the future. Do not let me find you again; next time, you will not have the chance to disrupt a Planetand escape."
In the end, Grandmaster did not choose to completely abandon Sakaar and let it collapse entirely, turning instead to forcibly search for an opponent who had already vanished.
He began to use his divine power to forcibly smooth out the chaotic order of Sakaar.
Millions of light-years away from Sakaar, in the shadow of a relatively calm meteorite belt.
Space fluctuated slightly, and klein's figure stumbled out.
His face was now pale as paper, his aura was extremely withered, and his newly promoted Chaos Dao foundation was covered in cracks, as if it could shatter at any moment.
Although he had escaped Grandmaster's capture, the final act of detonating the space-time structure of Sakaar and forcibly merging into the chaos to escape had come at a great cost.
But he grinned, revealing teeth stained with golden blood, and laughed.
He laughed heartily, even with a hint of smugness.
"Pah! You old thing, wanting to catch your Grandpa klein? Try again in your next life!"
He barely managed to pull himself together, identified a direction, and headed quickly in a direction he liked.
The small spaceship he had built with his own hands had already been torn into pieces by the space-time turbulence on Sakaar.
"A loss, a total loss. The ship is gone, and all that work was for nothing!" He coughed up blood while flying through the vast sea of stars.
klein immersed his consciousness into a deep state of fetal breathing for recovery.
The Chaos Dao foundation was also slowly healing over time, and the exhausted Chaos divine power was regenerating bit by bit, nourished by the void energy.
His body, pushed by the invisible tides of gravity, drifted aimlessly through the endless Universe.
However, after an unknown amount of time, just as klein was healing, he was suddenly snapped out of his fetal breathing state by a brutal, massive force!
The protective divine light naturally flowing on the surface of klein's body resisted the damage, but his body was like a baseball hit with full force, spinning and smashing fiercely into an irregular meteorite passing by in the distance at a speed countless times faster than his previous drift.
The meteorite shattered upon impact, and klein was embedded in it. "Damn... it... who is it?!"
The sudden interruption forced klein to wake up from his deep healing. He raised his eyelids and, through the cracks in the broken meteorite, caught sight of the culprit.
It was a spaceship with a rather peculiar design.
It was not large, full of a wild, wasteland-punk aesthetic, with unrecognizable symbols and a slightly comical star emblem graffitied on the hull.
At this moment, the spaceship also seemed to have lost some balance due to the collision, hovering crookedly in the distance. The light from its engine exhaust was flickering unsteadily, and several armor plates on the hull were crooked or falling off.
Clearly, the other party had just stumbled out of an unstable short-range space jump, and klein's drifting trajectory happened to be its landing point.
"What the FUCK?! No radar warning! Is the gravity well detector just for show?! How can there be an obstacle in this godforsaken place?"
The person inside the spaceship was still shaken. He quickly checked the images sent back by the spaceship's external sensors.
A piece of broken meteorite, and inside it, a humanoid object that looked tattered and worn.
"Hell, why is there a corpse here? Or the remains of some unlucky space drifter?" The pilot in the cabin muttered. While relieved, he also spat in annoyance,
"Damn it, how unlucky. I jump out and hit this thing; now the nose camouflage plate needs repairs again. Good thing it's not alive, otherwise that would be a big problem."
He skillfully tapped a few keys on the control panel, intending to start the engines and quickly leave this ominous airspace.
He did not want to get into trouble with any space undead or, worse, the interstellar law enforcement team.
Just as the engines were reignited.
The corpse embedded in the meteorite suddenly, extremely slowly, turned its neck.
Then, a pair of black eyes with a hint of bloodshot veins accurately penetrated the spaceship's not-too-thick observation window and looked into the cockpit.
"!!!"
The pilot's fingers froze on the control stick, and a chill instantly shot up his spine. He widened his eyes violently, staring fixedly at the magnified image on the screen.
He hadn't seen it wrong.
That corpse had opened its eyes.
Not only had it opened its eyes, but it was also looking at him.
Chapter 209: Star-Lord
The person inside the spaceship saw klein open his eyes and immediately tried to flee, but he quickly discovered that the man in the meteorite had vanished.
However, in the very next instant, a voice rang out inside the cabin.
"Kid, you fucking... you hit someone and want to run away without even an apology?"
The moment that voice sounded, the hair on Star-Lord's body stood on end.
He hadn't seen how the other person got in at all.
"Also, this ship... belongs to me now."
As the words fell, a series of cold system notification tones rang out deep in klein's mind.
[Ding!]
[Detected Marvel story character: Star-Lord/Peter Quill]
[Identity confirmed: Future leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, son of the Celestial Ego, member of the Raiders]
[Lottery conditions triggered]
[Draw reward?]
"Yes."
klein's mind stirred slightly. The invisible wheel in his sea of consciousness began to spin rapidly, light and shadow intertwining, before finally coming to a slow halt.
[Congratulations Host, this reward is—Causality Overcontrol]
[Ability Description: An ability that touches upon the fundamental rules of the Universe. It allows for small-scale observation, influence, and slight manipulation of the causal links between events, limited modification of established destinies, and limited reshaping of local order.]
[Note: Currently in the primary application stage. Excessive use or interference with major causality will result in a strong backlash and may attract the attention of the Universe's rule correction mechanism.]
[Load?]
"Load."
An indescribable sense of enlightenment flooded into klein's consciousness.
In his eyes, the World seemed to have gained a layer of faint threads. They connected all things, running through everything, representing causality and order.
He felt as if he were holding an invisible key; although he couldn't open all doors yet, he could already glimpse some of the scenery behind them.
If he encountered the Grandmaster again, his Law of Orderwould no longer be able to affect klein.
In the spark of time it took for klein to load his new ability, Star-Lord's combat instincts overrode his fear. After all, he had been raised under Yondu and had extremely fast reactions.
"Fuck you!"
Star-Lord growled, his body rolling backward suddenly. At the same time, his right hand lightning-fast drew an element gun from his thigh holster. Without even looking, he fired a three-round burst at the pilot's seat by feel!
Bang bang bang!
Scorching energy beams tore through the air. However, the next scene made Star-Lord's pupils shrink.
Those three energy bolts, capable of punching holes in spaceship armor, hit an invisible and slippery wall about a foot in front of klein.
They strangely deflected, all three shooting into the adjacent cabin wall, leaving several charred pits.
Deflected? Did my aim get worse? No! It's this guy's doing!
Alarm bells rang in Star-Lord's mind. He no longer hesitated, kicking off the floor and springing up like a leopard.
His left hand silently reached for a Vibranium dagger hidden behind his waist. Combined with the element gunin his right hand, he prepared to launch a close-quarters assault.
This was a vicious move he had learned among the Raiders: harass from a distance first, then strike up close.
But just as he moved, klein seemed to just casually glance at him.
Star-Lord suddenly felt his foot slip, as if he had stepped on some lubricant that shouldn't have been there. His perfectly executed move instantly deformed, and he lost his balance, falling forward.
He tried to brace himself with his hand, but his right wrist inexplicably went weak. The element gun flew out of his hand.
He managed to hold onto the Vibranium dagger in his left hand, but the arc of his stab was ridiculously off, not even touching the corner of klein's clothes.
Star-Lord fell flat on his face, his chin hitting the cold metal floor so hard he saw stars.
He tried to struggle to his feet, but found his limbs weren't quite listening. A strange weakness spread through his muscles, as if he had suddenly caught a heavy cold.
klein walked over to the pilot's seat, sat down with his legs crossed, and looked down at the disheveled Star-Lordon the floor with a playful smile on his face.
"Is this all you've got?"
Star-Lord was both shocked and angry, but mostly he felt aggrieved.
That fall just now was too uncanny. It was as if fate were playing a joke on him; every link that could possibly go wrong had gone wrong at once.
Panting heavily, he looked up and shouted with a show of bluster,
"Who the fuck are you? I'm warning you, I'm with the Raiders! My boss is Yondu!"
"You better release me right now, put my ship back the way it was, and get lost!"
"Otherwise, when Yondu brings the fleet to find me, you'll die a miserable death!"
"Yondu? Wow, I'm so scared! The Raiders, huh? The most vicious space pirates in the Milky Way Galaxy! You're scaring me to death!"
At first, Star-Lord thought the other man was truly intimidated. But the more he listened, the more the tone sounded wrong. It wasn't fear at all, but blatant mockery and playfulness.
Now his heart sank completely. Not only was this guy's strength bizarre, but he also didn't give a damn about the Raiders.
"You..."
"You what?" klein interrupted him, gently kicking Star-Lord's arm with the tip of his toe.
"Kid, now I ask, you answer. If you lie... I'll castrate you!"
Star-Lord grit his teeth. When under someone else's roof, one has to bow their head.
"Name."
"Peter Quill. People on the streets call me Star-Lord." Star-Lord answered honestly, but his eyes darted around as he added,
"I'm an elite among the Raiders. Yondu values me highly, you..."
"Shut up. Next question," klein was too lazy to listen to his boasting. "Where were you planning to go?"
Star-Lord's heart tightened, but he tried to maintain a blank expression. "Huh? Where? I wasn't planning on going anywhere. Just a routine patrol to see if there were any business opportunities."
"Business opportunities?" klein smiled half-heartedly. He suddenly reached out and pressed a hidden slot under the console, popping out a palm-sized metal plate with a scrolling flight log.
"Let me see where your business opportunities are recorded..."
Star-Lord's expression changed instantly.
klein swiped his fingers across the touchpad a few times, pulling up the recently set navigation coordinates.
"Destination: Planet Morag. You're going there... are you planning to get the Cosmic Orb?"
"How do you know that?!" Star-Lord blurted out in shock, his disguise completely collapsing, his face filled with unbelievable horror.
The news of the Cosmic Orb was top-secret information he had paid a fortune for from a dying survivor of an ancient race. How could this guy know?
"How I know isn't important." klein stood up, walked to Star-Lord, and looked down at him.
"What's important is that some things aren't for a little ant of your level to touch. The things inside the Cosmic Orb, the forces involved, and the danger it represents itself are far beyond your imagination."
"You're like a child walking into a gunpowder magazine with a torch, thinking you can make a fortune."
"But what you don't know is that you've already become a puppet and a pawn of certain entities."
Chapter 210: The Cosmic Orb
After hearing klein's words, a storm of shock surged in Star-Lord's heart, and the composure he was trying so hard to maintain almost collapsed.
This guy knows about the Cosmic Orb, and he knows it so clearly?! What exactly is his background? Even Yondudoesn't know the true objective of this mission!
But the vigilance of someone who had spent years in the cosmic black market and the arrogance of a pirate allowed him to suppress his fear. He stiffened his neck and stubbornly retorted,
"You say it can't be touched just because you say so? I'm Star-Lord! I've been in the Milky Way Galaxy for so many years, what kind of treasure haven't I seen? Stop trying to scare me with your alarmist talk!"
"Fine, you're the boss." klein was too lazy to argue with him and slumped into the co-pilot's seat.
"Start the ship, we're going to Planet Morag. Don't pull any tricks, or I wouldn't mind letting you experience what it feels like to drift naked in space."
Star-Lord gritted his teeth and gripped the control stick, but a hint of cunning flashed in his eyes.
Bowing one's head when under someone else's roof? That's an excuse for mediocre people. Star-Lord hadn't gotten this far by bowing his head; he relied on seizing every opportunity and pulling chestnuts out of the fire!
Once they arrived, he'd find a chance to ditch this monster, take the Orb, and run. The Universe is so big, could he really be caught?
After a brief space jump, the ship hovered over a dark and lifeless Planet.
The two landed in front of the ruins of a desolate temple. The towering temple gates were covered in ancient inscriptions and energy circuits; though the temple had long been abandoned, defense mechanisms still remained.
Star-Lord squatted down, pulling a scanner and a multi-functional cracker from his backpack, and began to tinker while muttering to himself.
"This thing needs to be slowly deconstructed using Anti-phase Resonance..."
klein stood by and watched for three seconds before delivering a direct front kick.
The heavy alloy door burst inward like it was made of paper, and fragments mixed with sparks of broken energy splashed all over the ground.
Amidst the dust, klein retracted his leg and glanced sideways at the dumbfounded Star-Lord.
"I kicked open a door that you'd have to squat here and pick at for ages. With this level of skill, you think you're worthy of coveting the Cosmic Orb? You little trash!"
Star-Lord's face turned beet red, and the veins on the back of his hand holding the cracker bulged, yet he couldn't squeeze out a single rebuttal. He could only follow inside, looking dejected.
Deep within the temple, on a stone platform covered in energy circuits, the Cosmic Orb was suspended.
A visible high-energy field swirled around the sphere, and the air was filled with a dangerous ionizing hiss.
Star-Lord swallowed hard, his brain working at high speed. A forced breakthrough definitely wouldn't work, and it might easily trigger a self-destruct device. What if he used resonance frequency neutralization? Or some other method...
Before he could decide on a way to take the Cosmic Orbout, klein had already reached out, his fingers plunging straight into the energy field that was capable of vaporizing steel.
The field let out a sharp wail, and electric light flickered frantically, yet it couldn't corrole that palm in the slightest.
With a gentle grasp, klein plucked the Orb out and weighed it in his hand.
"That's it?"
Star-Lord's eyes went wide, and the last bit of hope in his heart was crushed to pieces. What kind of monster is this?!
But he had no time for shock; dense footsteps and the crisp sound of weapons being loaded came from outside the temple.
A squad of soldiers wearing Kree Empire standard armor filed in, led by an unusually tall Kree Officer with a tactical eyepiece covering his face.
This person was none other than Ronan the Accuser's lieutenant—Korath.
A dozen Pulse Rifles were aimed in unison at the two inside the temple.
"Hand over the Cosmic Orb," Korath's bone-chilling voice came through the mask.
In a flash, Star-Lord made a decision.
He abruptly raised his hands, pretending to be an innocent bystander, and shouted at klein,
"It has nothing to do with me! Officer! It's him! The Orb is in his hands! I'm just a passing archaeologist!"
klein glanced at Star-Lord's shameless face and almost laughed out loud. However, he didn't care about Star-Lord's betrayal.
He spun the Orb in his hand and beckoned Korath with his finger,
"You want it? Come, come over here, I'll give it to you."
Korath's gaze sharpened as he stepped forward, reaching out to snatch it.
Just as his fingertips were about to touch the Orb,
klein's wrist flicked, and the Orb turned into a purple afterimage, smashing into Korath's tactical eyepiece with the speed of a cannonball!
The goggles, along with the head behind them, exploded like a watermelon hit by a heavy hammer, splashing red and white matter everywhere. The headless corpse swayed and then crashed to the ground.
"Officer!!"
The Kree soldiers were filled with shock and rage, pulling their triggers almost simultaneously! Hot pulse beams poured down like a rainstorm!
"Now!"
Star-Lord's pupils constricted. He flicked his right hand, which he had been holding tightly, and the Magnetic Cablehidden in his sleeve shot out, precisely sticking to the Orb rolling on the ground and retracting it instantly!
At the same time, his left hand pressed the detonator on his belt.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The miniature explosives previously attached to the temple's load-bearing pillars detonated simultaneously! Debris poured down and dust billowed up, instantly obscuring all vision!
"Cough, cough... Cover! Find the target!" the Kree soldiers shouted and fired frantically in the dust.
Using the blast wave and the smoke as cover, Star-Lordignited his boot jets and skimmed low to the ground, shooting out from a gap in a collapsed side wall!
The Kree will definitely fight that monster! It would be best if they all killed each other!
Only this thought remained in Star-Lord's head, along with a burning greed for the treasure in his arms.
klein's warning? To hell with it!
Star-Lord had been scrambling in the Universe for so many years relying on being bold, cold-hearted, fast-handed, and a little bit of damn luck!
The Cosmic Orb—one could tell from the name alone that it was a priceless treasure, and the power contained within...
Maybe it would mean he'd never have to look at that old blue-skin Yondu's face again, and he could even build his own power and become the true Lord Star-Lord!
He made several sharp turns in the air, shaking off the stray pulse beams chasing him, and raced toward his ship parked in the distance.
Thrilling, so thrilling! Snatching food from the tiger's mouth, pulling chestnuts out of the fire—this is what Star-Lord should be doing!
The ship was right before him, and the hatch sensed its Master's approach and slid open. Star-Lord dove into the cabin like a homing swallow and slapped the close button with his backhand.
"Whew... whew... I did it! Haha! So what if you're freakishly strong? The final winner is still me!" Star-Lord laughed wildly in his heart, slumped in the pilot's seat, and held up the Cosmic Orb, grinning at Planet Morag outside the viewport.
However, Star-Lord's smile didn't last long before it froze on his face in the next second.
A slow voice drifted from the shadows behind him,
"You run quite fast, you little rascal."
The blood in Star-Lord's entire body froze instantly.
He turned his neck bit by bit, looking toward the co-pilot's seat.
klein was sitting there at some point, legs crossed, chin resting on one hand, looking at him with a half-smile.
In his hand, he held a Cosmic Orb exactly like the one in Star-Lord's arms, flowing with dark purple light.