You can read ahead up to 70 chapters on my patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GGS6395
As soon as Arthur finished speaking, he clearly felt Mantis, who had just begun to relax, suddenly tense up all over, shivering as if struck by a chill.
Then came a long silence. Neither of them spoke.
After a while, Mantis finally summoned the courage to lift her head and look at Arthur. "Why?"
"You don't know?" Arthur countered.
Mantis hesitated, then fell silent again.
Arthur smiled. "If you can see through me, then you should know that my hostility has never been aimed at you."
"You won't succeed," Mantis shook her head. "He's unbeatable!"
Arthur chuckled. "Maybe. But how would I know unless I tried?"
Mantis tilted her head, studying Arthur. After a moment of thought, she suddenly stood up. "I'm leaving."
Arthur didn't stop her. Mantis tried walking toward the door. Just as she was about to reach it, Arthur spoke again: "Can we come to an understanding?"
"An understanding?" Mantis paused at the door and turned back to look at him.
"Mm. You could call it… an agreement," Arthur said with a smile. "Let's make a gentleman's pact."
"What's a gentleman?"
"A gentleman…" Arthur raised his brows. "I'll explain that later. To put it simply, they're a bunch of silly, lovable, naïve, and terrifying people."
"Sounds complicated?"
"Not really…" Arthur thought about it, then realized the topic had drifted too far. He returned to the point. "So, how about it? Let's sign a gentleman's pact."
"Alright."
"Good. Then here's the deal: whatever I'm planning to do, you cannot tell anyone about it," Arthur said.
"Mm!!" Mantis nodded firmly. "And then?"
"That's it," Arthur said. "Simple, right?"
"That's really simple!!" Mantis beamed with delight. "Then… I'll go?"
"Go on," Arthur said. "Sweet dreams."
"You truly are… a very kind Destroyer," Mantis said softly before leaving the room.
Arthur scratched his head. "That doesn't count as lying, right? After all, I stated my condition clearly. She never asked for anything in return…"
And judging by her innocence, he was almost certain she wouldn't tell anyone about his plans.
After thinking it over, Arthur took out his communicator.
From his drinking session with Star-Lord earlier that day, he'd learned a lot, about the Sovereign, about how they'd stolen the Anulax batteries… and how they were later hunted across the stars, with no escape until Ego saved them.
As for why they had split from Rocket and the others, one reason was that Star-Lord, suddenly meeting his biological father, had to confirm things for himself. The other was that during the chase, their spaceship had taken severe damage. So Rocket stayed behind with Groot to repair it.
That was what Star-Lord told Arthur. But what Star-Lord didn't mention, though Arthur knew from the story, was that during this time, the Sovereign had hired Yondu to capture Star-Lord. However, when Yondu arrived, he ended up capturing Rocket and Groot instead.
In the movie, Nebula was also with Rocket during this sequence. But now, it seemed Nebula had come along with Star-Lord's group to Ego's planet.
To confirm Rocket's situation, Arthur decided to try contacting him.
Three minutes later, Arthur lowered the communicator, frowning. The signal to Rocket's device went through, but no one answered.
That was not a good sign.
"Looks like the betrayal may have happened after all."
Arthur paced inside his room, finally deciding he couldn't wait any longer. He had to use the cover of night to search for Ego's core!
…
…
A night passed. As sunlight streamed through the window, Arthur opened his eyes.
Arthur's expression, however, wasn't very pleasant. Underground, there was nothing. According to the movie, there should have been an enormous hollow beneath the surface, so why couldn't he find it?
Although there were indeed some underground caverns and cavities, none of them were anywhere near the colossal scale described in the film.
"Unless… the depth of the underground hollow far exceeds the range the Eye of Horus can reach…"
If that were the case, Arthur could do nothing about it.
Even though the Eye of Horus could already extend to quite a far distance, its radius still didn't exceed one kilometer.
"If I can't locate the underground hollow with the Eye of Horus, then Ego's core plan won't work. In that case, I'll have to find the corpses of the children he killed."
By this time, daylight had broken. Arthur stepped outside and walked over to T'Challa's door, knocking lightly.
In less than thirty seconds, T'Challa opened the door, impeccably dressed.
"Always ready?" Arthur smiled.
"After all, I never know if something unexpected might happen the very next second," T'Challa said. "This place… doesn't give me a good feeling."
"Relax a bit," Arthur replied. "How about we take a walk outside?"
"Of course."
The two of them followed the path they had taken before, leaving through the main doors of the building. The scene before them was filled with birdsong and fragrant flowers, like a paradise on earth.
But T'Challa looked at all of it and couldn't help frowning. "Even though it's beautiful… why do I still feel such deep unease?"
"Maybe… because all of this beauty is built upon immense malice," Arthur said thoughtfully, raising his head to glance at the sky. Then he added, "Last night, two acquaintances of mine never returned."
"Gamora and Nebula?" T'Challa asked. "Looks like you didn't rest well last night."
"Come on, let's go find them," Arthur said.
T'Challa nodded in agreement. Since he had already followed Arthur this far, onto this pirate ship, so to speak, he might as well keep following his lead.
Arthur released the Eye of Horus, letting it soar into the sky.
From high above, it quickly spotted something. Arthur led T'Challa in that direction.
Less than half an hour later, the birdsong and blossoms had all vanished, replaced by barren wilderness stretching out before them. On the horizon, a green-skinned woman was supporting a blue-skinned bald woman, both stumbling forward unsteadily toward them.
When the two women saw Arthur, their expressions were very different.
Gamora looked a bit surprised and somewhat delighted, while the blue-skinned bald woman's face darkened ominously…
(End of chapter)