"Are you kidding me?!"
Feeling the immense pressure emanating from Lothar, Shafrin's expression darkened beneath his black-and-white striped mask.
"Five Senses—Deprivation!"
Using his most practiced technique once more, Shafrin gathered the eerie energy at his fingertips. But before the power could fully form, Lothar had already appeared at his side.
"The same trick won't work on me twice."
A cold voice whispered into Shafrin's ear. His pupils shrank, and in the next instant, a devastating blow struck his waist. Completely losing his balance, he was sent crashing into the ruins below!
"Cough, cough…"
Shafrin struggled to his feet, shaking off the dust. The golden battle armor, meticulously handcrafted by the master artisans of the Skrull Empire and reputedly strong enough to withstand a planet-destroying cannon, had already cracked under a casual whip-kick from Lothar. Golden fragments lay shattered beneath his feet.
"This… this is impossible…"
"How could your power have increased so much?!"
Shafrin's voice was laced with fury. In the depths of his starry eyes, a blazing wrath burned—rage directed at Astra.
He understood it clearly. Everything happening now was because of his foolish younger brother.
"My father once told me that I evolve faster than light itself."
Lothar caught Shafrin's incoming fist effortlessly, tilting his chin slightly as he gazed down at his opponent with a smirk of disdain.
Then, in an instant, his knee smashed into Shafrin's abdomen. The attack was so fast that even someone as strong as Shafrin couldn't react in time. A searing pain exploded through his nerves!
"Would Thanos ever waste this many words?"
Boom!
Lothar's fist crashed into Shafrin's chest in response.
The once-mighty golden armor disintegrated into fragments, scattering into the muddy ground. Under the force of Lothar's punch, Shafrin's chest visibly caved in!
"You're the one talking too much."
Lothar strode forward, his golden hair flowing without wind. His gleaming silver boots stepped onto Shafrin's struggling form, pressing his head into the rubble, sending dust and debris flying in all directions.
"Your Highness, Lothar! Watch out!"
The voice of his loyal subordinate, The Other, rang out urgently. Lothar didn't even glance back. With a mere flick of his finger, a blinding beam of light shot forth, piercing a distant warship dock.
Under Shafrin's telekinetic control, the warship had just begun to take off when it was instantly obliterated, sinking into the endless ocean.
"A pointless struggle."
Casually kicking aside the debris surrounding Shafrin, Lothar bent down and effortlessly lifted him from the wreckage. With an amused expression, he reached out and ripped away the black-and-white striped mask from Shafrin's face.
"Tch, no wonder you wear a mask."
Without its cover, Shafrin's grotesque face was laid bare—a hideous amalgamation of genetic mutations fused from thousands of Skrull individuals. The sight of it left Astra and The Other visibly stunned.
In all their years, they had never seen anything so utterly indescribable in its repulsiveness.
His eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, even his skin—they looked as if they had been haphazardly assembled from countless different people with no regard for aesthetics.
Astra, still possessing the normal physiology and aesthetics of a Kree, felt his stomach churn. He was on the verge of vomiting but couldn't bring himself to do so.
"No wonder Skrull scum are so distinctive in appearance."
Needing to steady himself, Astra reached into his waist pouch and pulled out a bottle of liquor. The Other, noticing this, also grabbed a bottle from Astra's pouch, much to the latter's shocked expression.
He needed something to calm his nerves too.
In all his years, The Other had never seen such an abhorrent face. Casting a glance at the ever-unfazed Lothar, he could only marvel—as expected of His Highness Lothar.
"Heh…"
Ignoring the discarded mask at his feet, Shafrin glanced up at Astra, who was shaking his head in disgust, before refocusing his gaze on Lothar.
"You're too arrogant, Lothar."
"Perhaps your power truly is overwhelming right now. Perhaps you really are strong enough to kill me. But… you didn't kill me the moment you had the chance."
A grotesque grin spread across Shafrin's mutilated face. He suddenly raised his hands to his chest, forming a near-diamond-shaped space between his fingers.
An immense surge of energy gathered instantly, launching a devastating beam toward Lothar at point-blank range. Lothar raised an eyebrow, released his grip on Shafrin, and countered with a single punch—obliterating both the energy beam and Shafrin's already-collapsed chest in one strike!
"Now, tell me—who's the arrogant one?"
Lothar's voice dripped with amusement as the sound of his silver boots pressing into the dirt rang sharply in Shafrin's ears.
"Look up and answer me—now."
"It's still… you."
Shafrin obeyed, lifting his head. A blinding white light radiated from his gaping mouth.
"Desperate till the end."
Lothar raised his hand, effortlessly blocking the energy blast. His smirk deepened.
"I'll admit, the Mind Stone's amplification of your power exceeds my expectations."
"But if you die here on Skrull's U40 planet, wouldn't that make Thanos all the more heartbroken?"
Faced with Lothar's unshaken dominance, the fury in Shafrin's eyes faded, replaced by eerie calm.
He did not fear death. The real him had died a hundred years ago. The man standing here today had already set the stage—manipulating Lothar into eliminating his enemies and destroying the Skrull Empire's Seventh Army Corps with his own hands.
His vengeance was complete.
Though Lothar's terrifying growth—accelerated by Astra's interference—had derailed his original plan to frame him, he still had a contingency.
"Son of Thanos… have you ever witnessed the power to shatter a star?"
Before his words had even finished, Shafrin's energy surged wildly!
"I have. Back on my homeworld."
Spreading his stance, left hand raised high, right hand clenched into a fist, Shafrin's aura began to boil over. Even as his body reached its absolute limit, he did not stop.
He would burn his life force to ignite the full power of the Mind Stone.
He had used this technique once before. If not for the advanced medical technology of the Skrull Empire, he wouldn't be here now.
Invisible shockwaves tore through the darkened sky, and unspoken lightning crackled behind him.
The heavens roared. The earth trembled.
The very surface of U40 began to crack and shift under the overwhelming force.
Astra, at a loss for words, was about to speak when an unseen power suddenly enveloped him—instantly teleporting him away from U40.
"Prince Lothar!"
The Other, struggling to steady himself, cast Lothar a look of deep concern.
"Interesting."
Ignoring his subordinate's worries, Lothar instead watched the ever-growing power of the man before him, eyes gleaming with anticipation.
"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!"
With a deafening roar, Shafrin's energy pillar soared into the heavens. His golden armor shattered, his skin turned crimson, muscles tightened, and veins bulged grotesquely across his body!
"Come die with me!"
His blood-red figure appeared before Lothar in an instant, his life force ignited to destroy him.
"Lothar!!"
Burning his heart's fire, he would crush his enemy!
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