Gorgon fell silent after hearing Pietro's explanation. His expression turned complicated, as if he were weighing something carefully in his mind. After a long pause, he finally spoke.
"Princess Crystal should be in the palace right now," he said slowly. "The royal family is currently fighting the rebels. If you're looking for her, follow me."
Without waiting for a response, Gorgon turned and began moving away.
"Let's go, hurry up!" Pietro said anxiously as he immediately rushed after him.
Ethan only smiled faintly.
He understood exactly what Gorgon was thinking. Bringing them along was nothing more than borrowing their strength to help deal with the rebellion.
But Ethan didn't care.
Crystal was Pietro's girlfriend, which meant their position was naturally on the side of the royal family led by Black Bolt.
Before long, under Gorgon's guidance, they arrived near the royal palace.
The scene in front of them was not encouraging.
The rebels had already occupied the palace grounds.
Gorgon's expression changed immediately. "This is bad," he muttered. "Maximus has already taken the palace."
He clenched his fists and said quickly, "We need to retreat first. Once we gather enough people, we'll launch an assault to take it back."
"We can't wait!" Pietro protested urgently. "If the palace is occupied, Crystal could be in danger!"
But Gorgon calmly shook his head.
"Don't worry," he said. "Princess Crystal shouldn't be in any danger."
Pietro looked confused. "Why not?"
If the rebels had captured the palace, wouldn't the royal family be the first targets?
Gorgon explained, "Maximus launches a coup every two or three years. Sometimes he even manages to take control of the palace. But no member of the royal family has ever been killed during these incidents."
Hearing that explanation left Pietro completely stunned.
Tony and Wanda were just as speechless.
A coup every few years?
Was this a revolution or some kind of holiday tradition?
Ethan, however, seemed thoughtful.
Attilan was a relatively small city with extremely limited natural resources. Terrigen crystals—the key resource for Inhumans—were especially scarce.
Without strict population control, their resources would quickly run out.
Frequent rebellions, violent conflicts, and casualties could actually function as a brutal form of population control.
Whether Black Bolt and Maximus secretly cooperated with each other was hard to say. But if Maximus repeatedly staged coups without ever killing the king, Ethan simply didn't believe that was coincidence.
After all, anyone capable of ruling a civilization like this was never a simple person.
"So killing these rebels doesn't matter, right?" Ethan asked calmly.
Gorgon was briefly surprised by the question, but then nodded.
"They're rebels," he said. "Killing them doesn't matter."
"Good," Ethan replied.
At that moment, the rebels also noticed the group approaching the palace.
"That's Gorgon!"
"Kill him!"
"Fight for our freedom!"
"Kill them all!"
Dozens of soldiers rushed forward. Some carried advanced weapons, while others activated their Inhuman abilities as they charged toward Ethan's group.
Frequent rebellions were common in Attilan for a reason.
The entire society operated under an extremely rigid caste system. An Inhuman's social status was determined the moment their abilities manifested after exposure to Terrigen Mist.
Once assigned, that rank could never change.
No matter how intelligent or hardworking someone was, they could never rise above the position their power placed them in.
The only way to change the system was to follow Maximus, start a rebellion, fight the royal family, lose, watch Maximus get imprisoned for a couple years, then escape and start the cycle again.
Honestly, the two brothers—Black Bolt and Maximus—had turned rebellion into a bizarre routine.
Watching the rebels rushing toward them, Ethan casually clapped his hands together.
Then he raised one hand.
An invisible wave of telekinetic force erupted from the ground beneath the charging soldiers.
The earth lifted violently, surged forward, and collapsed down on them like a crushing wall.
In an instant, their bodies were smashed into the lunar surface.
Not one of them survived.
Ethan glanced briefly at the system interface in his mind. The soul energy collected from the dead rebels barely moved the summoning progress bar.
"Less than five percent…" he muttered quietly.
The quality of these souls was far too low.
Compared to harvesting powerful enemies from other worlds, the return here was almost negligible.
For a moment, Ethan even considered summoning something purely to harvest souls more efficiently.
But when he glanced at Wanda standing nearby, he dismissed the thought immediately.
Pietro and Tony might survive the shock, but Wanda didn't need to witness something like that.
Tony and the others barely reacted to Ethan's display of power. After the Battle of New York, they had already seen what he was capable of.
But Gorgon was a different story.
He stared at Ethan in complete shock.
He had assumed Ethan and the others were strong, but he had never imagined this level of terrifying power.
In the entire city of Attilan, aside from Black Bolt himself, Gorgon couldn't think of anyone capable of such destructive force.
At that moment, he felt incredibly relieved that he hadn't chosen to attack Ethan earlier.
With the remaining rebels eliminated effortlessly, Ethan led the group directly into the palace.
Compared to the majestic golden architecture of Asgard, Attilan's palace felt strangely ethereal. More than eighty percent of the structure was built from enormous crystalline formations, giving the entire building a surreal glow.
Inside the palace hall, a man wearing a black robe sat calmly on the throne.
Beside him stood a tall muscular figure dressed in a tight combat suit, his face framed by thick black eye shadow.
When Gorgon saw the man on the throne, anger immediately spread across his face.
"Maximus!" he shouted. "Release the king immediately! You have no right to sit on that throne!"
Despite the sudden intrusion, Maximus showed no sign of panic.
Instead, he simply smiled.
"Well, Gorgon," he said calmly, "I didn't expect you to bring new allies with you. I thought those foolish members of the Genetic Council would be the ones coming to rescue you."
His eyes slowly scanned Ethan and the others.
"I've seen what your new helpers can do," he continued thoughtfully. "They seem quite powerful."
Maximus then turned his head slightly toward the man standing beside him.
"In that case… Black Bolt," he said calmly, "why don't you entertain them for a while?"
The man next to him nodded and stepped forward.
Ethan immediately recognized him.
Black Bolt.
The true king of the Inhumans.
"Interesting," Ethan said calmly. "Wanda, open a portal five kilometers away."
Black Bolt's real name was Blackagar Boltagon.
His power was terrifying.
By releasing energy through his voice, he could cause catastrophic destruction. Even a whisper contained enough force to devastate entire areas.
On top of that, his physical strength and durability were far beyond normal levels.
Even among mutants, his power was considered extremely rare.
Wanda didn't hesitate.
She quickly opened a portal leading to a distant area roughly five kilometers away.
Pietro and Tony stepped through immediately.
Gorgon remained nearby but kept his distance.
"Don't hurt the king!" he shouted nervously after them.
Ethan ignored him completely.
Of course, he had no intention of killing Black Bolt.
As Ethan stepped forward, Black Bolt slowly opened his mouth.
An invisible shockwave erupted from his lips.
The devastating energy surged across the battlefield toward Ethan.
Despite being an area attack, the destructive power of the shockwave showed no signs of weakening.
....
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