He still remembered the first time the Disassembler went through such a major upgrade; back then, it had demanded a specific item.
But this time, there was nothing at all.
It simply declared: Upgrade commencing!
And the instant that notification vanished, Arthur felt his soul begin to stir and roar.
Golden light burst wildly from every limb, every corner of his body. The flowing gold that streamed over his skin moved like liquid.
Yet this process lasted only a heartbeat. When that moment ended, the liquid-like golden energy suddenly became a blinding light. Centered on Arthur, it erupted outward in an explosive wave.
The silent golden brilliance instantly expanded to its maximum. In just a blink, it swallowed the entire surrounding asteroid belt. Without a sound, the asteroids began to break apart and dissolve. Centered on Arthur, the boiling focus of golden light expanded until, within its glow, only Arthur himself remained.
And Arthur's one and only feeling now was-- heat!
Frenzied heat. Savage heat. Boiling heat. Parched, searing heat… Countless kinds of heat flooded his heart when a prompt appeared before his eyes:
[Scanning items present within current Disassembly Space…]
[Would you like to use the Ancient Lonely Battle Soul Crystal as the upgrade item?]
Here it comes!
Even though no prompt had appeared at first, the necessary choice was still there after all.
Arthur answered without the slightest hesitation as he had no other options now: "Yes!"
From within the Disassembly Space, the Ancient Lonely Battle Soul Crystal he had just acquired, still untouched, shot out at once. In the next instant, it descended onto Arthur's head.
It had happened like this last time as well. This time, Arthur even felt a faint sense of familiarity.
But in that very moment, a furious roar erupted deep within his heart:
"Annihilation!!!"
The roar carried an indescribable, desolate emptiness. Arthur's soul nearly collapsed beneath it, and even the golden energy erupting from him took on a grayish tint.
Just as the voice neared the depths of Arthur's soul, ready to obliterate everything, Golden light suddenly burst from deep within his heart.
And at that moment, a colossal Disassembler emerged from between Arthur's brows, soaring into the air and hanging suspended. A beam of light connected it to Arthur.
Though he had no prior knowledge of such things, in that instant Arthur somehow understood: the link between himself and the Disassembler was the purest soul energy, the very essence of his own soul.
When that light enveloped him, the roar vanished without a trace.
At the same time, Arthur's mind began to grow hazy, as if he had fallen into a dense fog where he could no longer tell east from west.
Dread and endless loneliness surged up within him.
His eyes could no longer tell direction.
His feet had no ground to stand on.
He couldn't even feel his own hands…
"Could this be… Ego's perspective from back then?"
The moment that thought arose, a voice sounded at his ear: "This was once mine."
"You?" Arthur started. "Where are you?"
"I'm in the depths of your soul." Ego's voice replied.
Arthur now understood that the very first roar of "Annihilation" had clearly been Ego's, though at this moment Ego's voice no longer carried much anger.
This surprised Arthur. "I thought you'd be dying to kill me outright. Didn't expect there'd even be a chance for… peaceful coexistence."
"Peaceful coexistence?" Ego's voice held a trace of bitterness. "If it were possible, we would never have had any chance of peace. You must understand, every so-called peace rests on unequal strength. Peace is nothing more than the mercy of the superior, the charity of the strong to the weak."
Suddenly, light blazed around him.
Arthur saw his own hands, saw his whole body.
His body was formed entirely of pure radiance, towering so vast it seemed to connect heaven and earth.
And in his chest floated Ego. Judging from Arthur's current sense of proportion… Ego was barely an inch tall.
Arthur was startled. "Didn't think I'd ever get to see such a bizarre version of you."
"A disgusting choice of words," Ego glared at him furiously.
"Don't be angry, leave that aside for now. Tell me first, how did you end up like this?" Arthur glanced around. This place was a world shrouded in light, its ends seemingly nothing but endless brilliance.
Since this was supposed to be Ego's past, he had assumed he'd find himself in some corner of the cosmos, perhaps looking at a gigantic brain drifting in space.
So what was going on here?
The last time the Disassembler underwent such a crucial upgrade, Arthur had walked through the lives of twelve different people, experiencing their transformations. And now?
Was the plan to make him reach some kind of friendly understanding with Ego in this strange place? To turn Ego into his inner old man, nagging from inside his mind?
Weird as that sounded, for a centuries-old being, maybe the label wasn't so off.
But even if Star-Lord was involved, Arthur would never truly do that.
The problem of "seniority" was an unbridgeable chasm.
While his mind churned in chaos, he heard Ego grinding his teeth: "How did I become like this? You used those vile, underhanded methods to drain my strength bit by bit, to wear down my soul. I poured everything I had into preserving even this fragment, leaving it in my Soul Crystal. And yet, even the Soul Crystal you would not spare! You turned it into the purest of power, to carry out your wicked schemes!"
"You villain!!!!"
Ego's roar resounded, but to Arthur, with Ego so tiny, no matter how loud the scream, it simply couldn't do any real harm.
Arthur just grinned and said, "That's a bit rich, don't you think? You, a guy who tried to seed the entire universe and rule it through your offspring, what right do you have to call anyone else a villain?"
Ego glared at him with fury.
And just then, Arthur suddenly looked outward. "Looks like… the world is starting to change."